An interview with Brown Tucker of Murray, Kentucky by Robert M. Rennick on August 4, 1977, on the origin and history of the community names of Calloway County, Kentucky.
Part 4 of 6
Tucker:
There’s something there, kind of like Kerksey, you see. A nice big shop or a water trough for horses or something. Seems more than likely.
Rennick:
I mean, with that name, Brown’s Grove.
Tucker:
Yeah, that’s right. And then there was a Brown there, and it had a grove of trees, and that old post out there they pointed out to me, a big old … field out there…
Rennick:
And when did the Brown’s first come into that area?
Tucker:
I have no idea. Well, that’s easy to find you take this man’s name and go to the County Court Clerk, and they’ll look into the deed of this man’s property and more likely you’ll find it.
Rennick:
What’s there now, the…
Tucker:
The two or three old shops that’s kind of discontinued. There’s one general store and there’s one going out of business…
Rennick:
What’s his name?
Tucker
J. B. Jordan.
Rennick:
J. B. Jordan?
Tucker:
Yeah…Wiswell. I don’t know who settled out there, but that’s been an old settlement, out there for years and years. Post office is gone now. They did have a store out there, and it’s closed up. I don’t think there’s anything out in Wiswell now. Maybe… there’s a popcorn plant out there, and a new elementary school is going in there.
Rennick:
How did that get its name?
Tucker:
I have no idea.
Rennick:
Now these are some other old post offices you’ve mentioned to me before…
Tucker:
Hold on, Withe and Storey’s Ferry are the same. Jonathan is an area near Aurora in Calloway County.
Rennick:
Is that named for the stream in there?
Tucker:
Yeah, I would … or the man’s name there. It was on Jonathan Creek. Jonathan Creek has a main stem in two points.
Rennick:
Now, who or what was Storey?
Tucker:
Storey’s were … was a businessman over there on the Tennessee River back in… That’s one of the first ones established, too.
Rennick:
And they had a ferry there?
Tucker:
Yeah. About the same as Calvert City had an industrial complex there.
Rennick:
Oh, and this was in Marshall, right?
Tucker:
In Calloway County. It originated in 1840.
Rennick:
Yeah, I mean, it’s now in Marshall.
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
This Story’s Ferry is now in Marshall.
Tucker:
Yeah, about where Calvert City is. Okay. The postmaster that established it was Gideon A. Haydock. Established 1833, then it came back there. Name changed to Whithe. And then the Hardin Irvin and a whole mess of postmasters … and began in August of 1839.
Rennick:
So, it’s now in Marshall County, the site is now in Marshall County.
Tucker:
Right, okay. Jonathan is in Marshall County.
Rennick:
That also, okay. How about this…
Tucker:
Chittenden is in the vicinity of Hazel.
Rennick:
Who was that Chittenden name for you, you know?
Tucker:
Chittenden was a… Chittenden married… [Almorin H.] Williford married into my family. Now, he first established Chittenden in Lyon County over in Birmingham on the Tennessee River. And then he’d come over here and establish that post office there in the vicinity of Hazel. Of course, that Chittenden, again, is D-E-N is another thing like birdseed. This is an affix that’s been added on to something. D-E-N means a special room or a special place. And when it was … someone in his name had a part of his name, see, they didn’t want their full name in there or some of them were a little bit shy, then it was an aberration of the original state. Chittenden, established April 29, 1834, Almorin H. Williford, was postmaster. Then he was succeeded by Willis Williford, discontinued in 1835. Now this Williford, again, like I say, he was over there and got that from Chittenden County [Vermont]. That took me off on my research. And it was a little while getting that one straightened out. But it was on the … is in the vicinity of Hazel.
Rennick:
Do we know his first name?
Tucker:
No, I don’t know where he got that from, see. Like I say, this Chittenden, that’s D-E-N, the thing is put on as an affix like Birdseed. Now, where he got this other, I don’t know. I have no idea.
Rennick:
How about number…
Tucker:
Bellgrade was an old post office stop between Wadesboro and a place called [Big] Sandy up in Tennessee. It was about equal distant, about halfway between Wadesboro and Humility or New Concord. It’s a site that’s now northeast of Murray.
Rennick:
Anything there now?
Tucker:
Now, Fountain then…
Rennick:
How did that get its name, Bellgrade?
Tucker:
I don’t know unless it’s named after a member of the family. And then it may have been a hill there, a grave. May have had a wife named Bell, and his long slope was up and he called it Bellgrade. That’s a possibility. A lot of this stuff has to have, most of it can be solved, believe it or not. But this is an endless operation. And Fountain Inn, of course, is a Marshall County site.
Rennick:
Where in Marshall County?
Tucker:
Marshall County, I would say it’s north of Brewers … now or Bremo, which is also a Marshall County town. I don’t know just where it was at down there. I never did run it down.
Rennick:
What was that … Was that actually an inn?
Tucker:
I don’t know. I also thought it might be Hale Springs. That was a stagecoach stop and watering place between Wadesboro and Columbus. And that big spring is still down there, just [cush’s fork]. There’s some of them springs in there. That’d be hard… Of course, you’d go to the postmaster there. Fountain Inn, I’ve got him there. And you’d go to the landing over Marshall County, you’d pick him up, see? And you’d get his location, see where he had his post office. That’s the way to do that. Remo, all over, Fountain Inn, established 1838 with James Clark. So, I say, you know, James Clark, the postmaster, succeeded by Josiah Ealy either in ’39 and just continue in ’42. You take this James C. Clark, find out where his property was, and the range, township, and so forth, and then you probably locate where a Fountain Inn was. See, where he more likely had to deed to his property. Not in every case, but 99% of them had to have a deed to it. Locust Grove, of course … Van Buren was seven miles southwest of Wadesboro on the special road that I talked to you about … it went southwest of Wadesboro and Mills Point down to Hickman.
Rennick:
Who was that named, or what?
Tucker:
That’s a historical name, in my opinion, named after a member of the family of the President. Van Buren might have been President when it was in the family. I don’t know that. Van Buren was ’40? No, I don’t think Van Buren has anything. Willie Walker was only … ran the operation four years.
Rennick:
What’s there now?
Tucker:
Nothing, except it was in the vicinity, not far from where our later post office was established. It was named by the Wetzel’s people down on what we call Rockhouse Creek.
Rennick:
Tell me about Wetzel there.
Tucker:
You’ve got it there, have you?
Rennick:
Yeah.
Tucker:
Whitzel was a post office over there in the vicinity of where Van Duren was. It was on the opposite side of the creek. And it was named after the middle name of the first establishing postmaster, Lewis Wetzel Ross.
Rennick:
Lewis Wetzel Ross. And so, Van Buren was its predecessor.
Tucker:
No, it was in the vicinity. It might have been a half a mile or… Van Buren was on the north side of Rockhouse and Wooden Crossing and another little crossing down there, all that… not… there were two crossings in there. And he was on that other crossing, as we call it. It wasn’t a quarter of a mile down there either, on the other side of the creek.
Rennick:
Did they have three daughters somewhere? I’ve heard they have three daughters.
Tucker:
No, Louis, Mr. Ross. I had a number, I suppose, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about this daughter. Locust Grove is out there, you might say just southeast of on Cherry Corner. There’s a crossroads out there and the church, and the post office was established there in 1841 by Abe Thompson. And of course, like I say, there was an alternate stop to pick up passengers and mail on this fork of the road that actually run from Reynoldsburg down in Humphreys County, Tennessee, to Wadesboro. But there was a fork down here at Puryear, right on the other side of Hazel, Kentucky. It went out through Concord, Locust Grove, Cherry Corner, from New Concord and on to Hico… I mean to [Shiloh], and then on [Humility]. Mm-hmm. It’s part of the Ridge there.
Rennick:
Ridge. Mm-hmm. There’s locust trees…
Tucker:
I don’t know. They might have been out below. Clarks River is the one that’s down here at Backusburg, forerunner to Backusburg, going to Wadesboro to Clarks River. Wadesboro to Clarks River.
Rennick:
So now you mentioned Cook’s Valley.
Tucker:
Cook’s Valley is in the vicinity of Harris Grove.
Rennick:
Now Flint’s Spring.
Tucker:
Flint Springs. Yeah, I should have a Flint there, too. Flint Springs and the Flint, too.
Rennick:
And Flint.
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
Right. Flint.
Tucker:
That is out there on the port of Rockhouse Creek north of Murray, about five or six miles. Church out there, and there was, there used to be a post office out there, and a store, I believe.
Rennick:
You said Flint, too.
Tucker:
Flint and Flint Springs, two of them. Flint Springs was established by John B. Wilson in 1868, discontinued in ’69. Now, Flint will come in later. Flint Springs is a forerunner. Flint…
Rennick:
Are they the same place?
Tucker:
In the same location, that’s right. I don’t say exact, but this is right in that vicinity. And, of course, Flint was established by William Rose in 1884. And continued on for some time and there’s a church out there now called Flint Springs Church and there’s a cemetery out there too. Oakley is the forerunner of Oak Grove, it’s about five miles northwest of Wadesboro. And later, I answered, no … Oak Grove … I didn’t get this from… It’s, it’s, Oakton was the original post line, O-A-K-T-O-N.
Rennick:
Oh, this is Oakley.
Tucker:
Oakley, it’s Oakley, it succeeded, or followed Oakton, O-A-K-T-O-N.
Rennick:
Now, that is also in Callaway County.
Tucker:
Yeah, just barely, the back door made in Marshall County, the front door is in Calloway.
Rennick:
Now, is that all named for oak trees?
Tucker:
That’s an oak grove, I think. That’s right. A lot of those trees down in that flat country.
Rennick:
How do they call that Oakley from Oakton? Why didn’t they keep it?
Tucker:
I don’t know. Oakton was the first one. They call it Oak Grove now. I don’t think there’s any oak there connected with that.
Rennick:
When was that set up?
Tucker:
I don’t know.
Rennick:
I’ll have to look that up.
Tucker:
Okay. That’s on that old stagecoach road around back about 1850. Okay, William M. Stark, 1866… 1860.
Rennick:
And this continued in 1860.
Tucker:
Now, Oakton come in before that, see. I don’t know where Oakton is, but give me a little static there. Either Oakton succeeded Oakley. Oakley is the same as Oak Grove. Maybe that’s it. It’s now Oak Grove. There’s a church there, and there used to be an old store there, an old store may still be standing.
Rennick:
So, Oakley became Oak Grove.
Tucker:
That’s right. Oakley, the same as Oak Grove. Oakton is somewhere off there. That’s another place, I think.
Rennick:
Okay, number 13.
Tucker:
Radford is the forerunner of Kirksey.
Rennick:
Who or what was Radford?
Tucker:
Radford was named after Rolly W. Radford. I believe it was Radford. No, there was a Radford over there. That’s an early post office that started that thing, I believe, in Radford. Joseph N. Radford. Joe Nick Radford.
Rennick:
Joe Nick Radford.
Tucker:
In 1857, named after Joe Nick Radford. I think you could have named that in Radford’s family. It just about disappeared.
Rennick:
Who was the first in that family?
Tucker:
First postmaster.
Rennick:
I mean the first person in the family that came in.
Tucker:
I don’t know whether Joseph … there was or Rolly. There was two of them there about the same age.
Rennick:
Rolly Radford.
Tucker:
Yes, but as it stands with the post office … been staying in operation for about three years. They established, according to my information, my research, they established the Kirksey Post Office in the same building that the Radford Post Office was. It was about three quarters of a mile northwest of where Kirksey is now. Stayed down there maybe a year or two and then they just picked the whole thing up and moved it up there and crossed over. Well, that fellow Kirksey sold it to him as a favor, and he had the store and post all this, and he’s the one that piled him up on naming Kirksey. They had a great controversy, that Kirksey. They had … the people had meetings, they were mad at each other, and they had two names on them. They had Rosedale and Reedville. Reedville was an old family there. That was one of those old shops. Well, when they brought it up for a vote, the Rosedale’s won by one vote. And we think that Kirksey was the one vote, old man Stephen Franklin Kirksey, was the one vote that gave it to Rosedale. So, he just apparently, when he sent in the name of the post office, he just put his own name. Boy, that threw them up again. And that’s why Kirksey finally had to leave … the Kirksey family had to move out of there. Old man Jesse Wrather, he got enough of it. He wanted to build the town, and he just went down there and bought Kirksey out. This old lady told me that her grandmother told her mother … told her that shop was took off the wagon down there and they placed it on rails, which was only about 12 by 16 or 18. And I put it on a log rail and moved the business…
Rennick:
And it remained Kirksey?
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
I mean, where it moved to, that name. So did the place … where it left, did that get a post office of its own?
Tucker:
No, that place disappeared. It went down there and got Wrather’s store and the post office went from the post office and moved it up there to a lot that the old man Jesse Wrather brought there around the square and down and things around.
Rennick:
Is it Jesse Radford?
Tucker:
Jesse Wrather.
Rennick:
Wrather?
Tucker:
It’d be W-R-A-T-H-E-R.
Rennick:
I see.
Tucker:
Wrather succeeded Kirksey as postmaster, and when he went down there and just bought the whole [cheese] out and took it overseas. Well, nothing in it anyway, you see.
Rennick:
So, I mean, did Kirksey himself move the post office?
Tucker:
No, Kirksey didn’t move it. Old man Wrather bought him out lock, stock and barrel and moved it to the French site.
Rennick:
And he moved it so that Kirksey was gone before it moved? I mean, Mr. Kirksey…
Tucker:
Yes, I would say that whenever he sold out down there, that’s all he had and that was it. He had the store rented, you see. He didn’t own the store, as far as I know. He had the storehouse rented and he set up a post office there.
Rennick:
So, he moved away before the post office was changed to his present site.
Tucker:
I would think so because he sold out. Snow Hill. That’s named after another topographical situation. That’s on 94 East of Murray out there. Gardner was the postmaster, I believe. And Snow Hill was … long, an old timer told me about that. I wrote a little sketch on that. That post office was named after a long slope out there and went it snowed it gave the wagoners trouble in getting up on top of it. It wasn’t steep but it was a long way and the only thing left out there now is the top of that hill and the family living on each side of a barn and the old Gardner graveyard that he established. I would say that’s about five or six miles east of Murray on 94.
Rennick:
Now this 16, here.
Tucker:
Calloway Town.
Rennick:
No, 16.
Tucker:
Itrey, Murray’s Landing. That’s the same as Murray’s Landing. That’s spelled it wrong. E-T-R-Y.
Rennick:
E-T-R-Y. Yeah. E-T-R-Y.
Tucker:
Yes. The reason I know that it’s spelled Itrey, my record shows that. Here you are, right here.
Rennick:
Oh, I-T-R-Y. I-T-R-Y. Oh, I-T-R-Y. Yeah.
Tucker:
Murray’s Landing, of course, come in out of there later. The story of where that got its name, that’s another, that was a famous saying. They had an old Dutch steamboat captain out there and he’d come into there, there was a tie plant there, see a tie factory, had these really little ties on the old steamboat. And they had, of course, the man on the ground, you know, and he’d try to wave this old captain in. And he, I think, maybe drank a little bit and kind of bullheaded and so whenever this fellow on the shore, this guy came in, he’d tell him, Mr. So-and-So, you’re going to have to go out and come back in. You’re not going to make it, see. If you’re not lined up right on the bank, see. And he’d say, “I try, I try, I try,” see. He did it like a Dutchman, see? And so that saying there caused that post office to be named that.
Rennick:
So how did they change the pronunciation?
Tucker:
Itrey. See, they put the two words together. I try. I-T-R-Y.
Rennick:
Oh, so that’s how it’s pronounced? Yeah, Eee-tree.
Tucker:
Yeah, or Eee-tree. I-try, actually. Here it is. E-T-R-Y. I try. I try. Put two words together, see.
Rennick:
I mean, but do they pronounce it I or E? Or E.
Tucker:
It-ry. They call it it-ry.
Rennick:
They call it it-ry.
Tucker:
Yeah. I-T-R-Y, see? I try, see, but when you put the two, the I and the tri together, you get it-ry out of it.
Rennick:
I see.
Tucker:
Now that’s the local thing there that’s built up there. Murray’s Landing, same thing. New Buffalo…
Rennick:
And how did that get to change its name to Murray’s Landing?
Tucker:
I don’t know, they discontinued that post for New Buffalo.
Rennick:
When we came back to this, I mean, it’s no longer Itrey.
Tucker:
No.
Rennick:
It’s now Murray’s Landing.
Tucker:
No, it’s neither one out there, nothing out there. Right on it was, actually what it was, a loading, tie loading place on the rivers. You know, all these landing spots had a little store, maybe a saloon, a livery stable or something. That’s another thing in all these little towns and early towns, livery stables. New Buffalo is nearly in the same place, I think. New Buffalo, Richard Kelly, let’s see… history… until they discontinued it in 1880. See, in September now, it must be a little bit different. Right in that same area there, I think.
Rennick:
That New Buffalo. How’d that get its name?
Tucker:
I don’t know.
Rennick:
Is there anything in there, now?
Tucker:
No. There’s another one of those river towns. It’s a landing spot, a road that went down to the landing. They picked up [high flax], things like that back in the steamboat days.
Rennick:
18.
Tucker:
Ada was, uh… Let’s see, Ada was… I don’t know which word that is for a minute. It opened up in 1880, and switched in 1881, staying in the same… it came to James C. Hart he was the first one…
Rennick:
Who was Ada?
Tucker:
Ada was probably another one of those female names, you see. First name or one of the daughters of the post office master. Mr. Hart, I probably had a wife, part of her name with Ada or one of the daughters, like Hazel and uh, others.
Rennick:
How about 19?
Tucker:
It’s Spoon. That’s called Spoon Grove. Uh, I believe the post office is officially Spoon though. That was set up in 1872, you know. ’72, Spoon Grove. He makes it ’77. Spoon. That’s what’s up … somewhere yet. If I can find it. Murray’s Landing later changed to Itrey, see?
Rennick:
Oh, it started off as Murray’s Landing.
Tucker:
Yes.
Rennick:
And then became the Itrey. I see.
Tucker:
Spoon established in ’83. I know that girl that got that wrong. I believe that girl that worked on that column on Spoon Grove not ’73, but ’83. She may have … she read my article. Called the name of Miller followed it and it discontinued in ’89. Now that thing was founded out there about ’72, I think, or three, and called Spoon.
Rennick:
So, it was founded in ’73, but the post office was founded…
Tucker:
’72, I believe, in the first. I wrote an article, a historical sketch of that, and Spoon Grove and this Moffin girl, she copied my article a lot. Let’s see, I imagine that’s Spoon Grove, and this is in some of these other… See, I had a column, and then I had–
Rennick:
When did that appear?
Tucker:
About fifty-five around there.
Rennick:
The Ledger?
Tucker:
It was in the Murray Democrat. Well, let’s see. There’s a sketch on Hamlin or New Concord. It comes from Phoenix, Arizona. I don’t think that’s in another… Let’s see it’s another doggone book. Spoon Grove. Spoon Grove. Well, I don’t see another book. I’ve got all my articles. Spoon Grove, of course. You read Maupin’s article, didn’t you?
Rennick:
No, I have it. I just got it today.
Tucker:
Spoon Grove, of course, was named. That’s essentially correct. You don’t have to add anything to that, except the post office. I think she made an error there. There’s Lafayette W. Holland, and it’s June 1, 1883, and I believe she’s got ’73. I could have made a mistake here too, see. It could have been ’73, but I don’t know where she got that information that she didn’t copy. Let me see what, let’s see. Let me see what I did over here. That’s in ’83, let’s see what I did over here on that. Let’s see, ’83, and that’s ’83 … June 1, 1883. Now, I suddenly assume in my eyes it’s correct. I believe she said ’73, but I’ll give her credit that the town started about 1872. Of course, all that information there was essentially correct. She got in there about the James boy stopping there and tearing up the town. This is in practice. Flint, there, that Flint, you had Flint Springs. That’s the same as Flint. Right. Laxton, that’s out on, uh, uh, Tilman C. Coleman. There was a post office back there in 1888. I believe Laxton’s gonna come back in over here. Seemed like to be there was a Lax out there.
Rennick:
Yeah, I have an old post office called Lax, too.
Tucker:
Oh, that’s right it is.
Rennick:
Is that the same place?
Tucker:
Yeah. That’s out there on one of those creeks out there southeast of Murray.
Rennick:
And Laxton and Lax are the same place.
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
Why did they change that?
Tucker:
I don’t know. My record here says the record got there are not complete on that. I don’t know why. There’s something left out, so we couldn’t… We couldn’t get it there. Edgehill, that’s back out here south … southwest of Murray. In the Protemus neighborhood was… There’d be a school out there. Cedar Grove, North of …
Rennick:
That’s at the … in the Protemus neighborhood.
Tucker:
Yes.
Rennick:
How’d that get its name?
Tucker:
Edgehill, I don’t know.
Rennick:
Or Protemus…
Tucker:
It had a school out there, Edgehill. In that vicinity. I believe there’s a church out there now called Edgehill Methodist Church or something out there, Cedar Grove…
Rennick:
How did Protemus get its name?
Tucker:
I don’t know anything about Protemus … Cedar Grove over north of Murray there and it was named again when the topographic all their landscape situation after groves of cedars there in the yard where this land had its store and post office.
Rennick:
Okay, now this New Buffalo again, is that also Moody?
Tucker:
Yeah, that’s the same thing over there, Moody and New Buffalo.
Rennick:
Is that the same New Buffalo?
Tucker:
I believe so. I don’t know what period that was, but Edgehill, ’98, see. Cedar Grove, ’89, Ray Martin L. Coke. That was named after a family around there, Ray’s family, in the neighborhood. My grandfather was the last postmaster down there, Ray, right in the northwest part of Calloway County. … established in ’89 and later then in ’95… Model, Manning, Daisy, Boatwright, Hymon, Wiswell… Lax. William P. Lacks, eh? Boatwright is two miles east of Concord on the Concord-Buffalo Road.
Rennick:
Mm-hmm. That’s Lax.
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
Now, what about Laxton?
Tucker:
You mean Laxton or Faxon? You got them both.
Rennick:
Yeah, there’s a Laxton and a Faxon.
Tucker:
I don’t know where that Laxton came in. We had it back there, though. Lax, there it’s mentioned again. Hamlin, Murray, Coldwater, Wetzel, Dexter… Let’s see, we were looking for what?
Rennick:
Laxton.
Tucker:
Looking for Laxton. I don’t know that I had that there, some of it. Laxton, I thought it back there somewhere else. Snow Hill. Here’s an anecdote on Snow Hill. The faraway Draftonville will come to a word from Douglas C. [Milk] former resident telling us the location of the Snow Hill Post Office. This is the last city … post office, one mile east of…
Rennick:
Read that. You need to take them…
Tucker:
Snow Hill Post Office. From faraway Draftonville in Marshall County comes a word from Mr. Douglas C. [Milk]. A former resident of Callaway County telling us the location of the Snow Hill Post Office. This office was established on August 23, 1856, with Francis M. Gardner as postmaster…