 Relative of the Rowan family , Stephen Collins Foster , occasionally visited Federal Hill according to letters penned by Stephen 's brother Morrison Foster . Stephen was inspired by the imagery witnessed at Federal Hill and by Harriet Beecher Stowe 's anti @-@ slavery novel Uncle Tom 's Cabin to write his ballad My Old Kentucky Home . The mansion remained in the possession of Rowan 's family until 1922 , when his granddaughter , Madge ( Rowan ) Frost , sold it to the state of Kentucky to be preserved as a state shrine . Today , it is a part of My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown . In 1856 , the Kentucky General Assembly created a new county from parts of Fleming and Morgan counties and named it Rowan County in Rowan 's honor . 
