Florence, a northeastern Boone county city, the largest in the county, was settled around the start of the nineteenth century and was known as Cross Roads. A town called Maddentown, for Thomas Madden, a local land owner, was founded on the site in 1821. It was renamed Connersville for Jacob Conner in 1828 and finally incorporated as Florence in 1830, named for Conner's wife. The post office opened in the 1820s as Connersville, switching to Florence in 1830. The population in 1990 was 18,624.