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 5 of 6
Tucker:
… County telling us the location of Snow Hill’s post office. This office was established on August 23, 1856, with Francis M. Gardner’s postmaster. Location about one mile east of Elm Grove Church and near the Gardner Cemetery. Mr. Miller informed us that during the Civil War, Union forces broke into Mr. Gardner’s store, taking all his stock and merchandise as provisions. Also taking Mr. Gardner prisoner and causing him to be removed to another locality. Snow Hill’s post office was officially discontinued June 18, 1867. But the Snow Hill thing, according to my information, was because the wagons had trouble when there was snow on the hill and getting to the top of it, and they therefore dubbed it the Snow Hill and something like that. Now, Laxton is something else. I had it back over here now. New Concord, Blood …. See, I’ve carried this over because it’s been in another period… what is going on, Laxton… Lynn Grove… Here it is …
Rennick:
There it is Laxton … Tilman C. Coleman, 1888.
Tucker:
’88, and I’ll say the record there is discontinued.
Rennick:
It doesn’t show when it was discontinued.
Tucker:
No.
Rennick:
I guess… We can go onto … We talked about Rhea in the next one. How about Van Cleave?
Tucker:
Van Cleave is over northeast of Murray. It isn’t over four miles northeast of Murray. I believe. There used to be some businesses there. Before I knew there was nothing there. It used to be a school.
Rennick:
Who was that named for?
Tucker:
I have no idea.
Rennick:
It’s number 28.
Tucker:
Manning, and that was in the vicinity of Cedar Grove. It was north of Murray, and I think that took its name from the postmaster whose name was Manning. Let me see here.
Rennick:
Any relation with Manning Stewart?
Tucker:
No, no, the Manning family next to … over there right near Almo.
Rennick:
Okay, just … Edgar W.
Tucker:
Edgar W. Manning.
Rennick:
Edgar W. Manning.
Tucker:
See, the papers may of went to Flint in 1897. That’s in that vicinity, see, north of Murray. Pretty close to where Cedar Grove was. Knight, that’s a, that’s one on the Tennessee River in ’96. Leonis Moody. Knight and Moody, I think the same place, about the same thing.
Rennick:
Knight and Moody.
Tucker:
I think that’s about the same thing.
Rennick:
Is that Moody or…
Tucker:
M-double O-D-Y. Isn’t there Moody post over there somewhere?
Rennick:
Let me check.
Tucker:
Wait a minute. Moody was a postmaster then. Ed Leon and then Moody. I guess that’s it.
Rennick:
At, uh, Knight. Who was Knight? Oh, that John Knight.
Tucker:
John R. Knight.
Rennick:
And how about, uh…
Tucker:
Model … that’s Robert A. Fakes.
Rennick:
Isn’t that in Tennessee?
Tucker:
No. There is the Model in Tennessee,
Rennick:
It’s a different place.
Tucker:
No, this is Model, it’s in Calloway County. It’s in the vicinity of Faxon, close to Faxon, close to the post office. Because the mail … they had orders to send the mail to Faxon. That’s where it’s coming out of.
Rennick:
So, the Model in Tennessee is a different place then.
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
It’s in the Land-between-the-Lakes then. So, who or what was that name for?
Tucker:
I don’t know. Blakely, and I don’t have anything on Blakely. I don’t know where you’ve got that. Pleasant Hill, I don’t have any, I don’t think, let’s see, do I have anything on Pleasant Hill? What, you don’t know when that was established?
Rennick:
No, I don’t think it ever was a post office.
Tucker:
No, that’s a community.
Rennick:
Yeah.
Tucker:
Blakely community is between Wadesboro and Hardin over there in Marshall County.
Rennick:
Oh, then Blakely is in Marshall.
Tucker:
No, Blakely is in Calloway, but right on the line. Pleasant Hill is a community which … that’s … I don’t know where you got that over some old map, but that’s the forerunner of Murray. They tried to name it Pleasant Hill. And Lone Oak is, I don’t know where you got that, I don’t know of it. There’s a Lone Oak Church back out there somewhere on the other side of the county. I don’t know anything about it. Palestine is a community. That’s in the vicinity of Colon and Raleigh post office over there around Callaway.
Rennick:
Do you see anything there now?
Tucker:
I think there’s a Methodist Church there, maybe a cemetery, right there close.
Rennick:
How did that get its name?
Tucker:
I don’t know.
Rennick:
I mean, why did they choose that name?
Tucker:
I don’t know. Five Points is a crossroad just up there at the Colon and Murray. [Fultimus] is a community back out in the north-south southwest part of the country. Craigtown is named after a postmaster I think out there in the name of Craig. That also probably has another name. That’s Craig. When was he was postmaster? I don’t know. Craig, he established a number of post offices.
Rennick:
Yeah, James Craig had Buena.
Tucker:
Buena … Almo, yeah, Almo.
Rennick:
Yeah.
Tucker:
He established another post office too. You might have that confused. I think Craig had another post office. I don’t know just where it was at. He came back to … He was the architect of another post office.
Rennick:
So, Craigtown was named for him.
Tucker:
Yeah, I imagine the Craig’s family. I wonder whether it was Almo or another Craig. Now that’s [Scample]. That [Scample] was out in another vicinity. See, they moved around and bought these stores, then they come in and straight down and become postmaster and so on. I don’t know which way he was out. It seemed like to be here … postmaster more in one place. I was down there in the other place. Fort Heiman is in the southeast part of the county, and that’s an old Confederate fort that was captured by Grant’s forces. It’s still out there. It’s on the National Historical Registry. It used to be [Callaway] and they had a representative out there.
Rennick:
Now, is there a community there, or is that just the fort?
Tucker:
No, that’s the old fort. There’s nothing out there except the man that has a cabin out there. I mean, he’s got a caretaker. He was a doctor in Paris and that. And the old fort, the trench and things, there is still the old road. It’s on a high bluff overlooking the Tennessee. The Christians that’s a … that’s a schoolhouse in the Christian family. I don’t know just where that is, there’s … a store … I don’t know that … I don’t know about that … Maker’s Crossroad that’s another I don’t know about that but … they … see the post on it’s a … V-E-L-O-N-A.
Rennick:
Huh, Velona … one L.
Tucker:
Yeah, one in my record I believe that’s Velona … E and…
Rennick:
Uh yeah, how did that get his name Velona.
Tucker:
I don’t know. I think it’s a female name in my opinion.
Rennick:
And Daisy.
Tucker:
Daisy’s another one.
Rennick:
You don’t know who Daisy was?
Tucker:
I don’t know who Daisy was. I got to get into some good research. I’ve got the information on the Daisy post office. Let’s see. I don’t know who it was. Let’s see. All right, well, Daisy. That is raised at May 23, 1899. Southwest part of the county. Mail for this office was directed in the Harrington post pffice. Daisy … Bon A. Allen became a post office, post after that on May 23, 1899, discontinued in 1901.
Rennick:
Bun Outland, B-U-N.
Tucker:
Bun A. Outland. It’s one of the old families here in Calloway County. There’s a school named after them. They owned something in the back country. Velona, established April 27, 1900, by John S. Wilson as postmaster.
Rennick:
Located at what was known as Wilson’s Store near Cole’s Campground Church.
Tucker:
That’s right. That’s about two miles north of the college up there at Kirksey. I mean Murray. Boatwright, you got that in there anywhere?
Rennick:
Yeah, yeah.
Tucker:
Boatwright was established in 1901, and Boatwright is another one that was over on the east side of the county somewhere. I don’t know just where.
Rennick:
Joel F. Boatwright was postmaster.
Tucker:
Yeah, named after Mr. Boatwright. Penny was established on December 14, 1901, by Leander W. Boyd. That’s about three miles northwest of Murray. The community there now is a church, general store, and there was a garage there at one time, and maybe there was two stores there at one time.
Rennick:
How’d that get its name?
Tucker:
I don’t know. I think there’s something on that, uh, in some of my writing … some of whatever. I’ll just see where that’s at. I think, I think the name is … here in 1953.
Rennick:
Let’s see what you have about Bellegrade.
Tucker:
Bellegrade, Nathan Butler was the only postman and all his operations were between February 8, 1837 and ’45, four miles northeast of Murray. This site would be about midway between Wadesboro and the Raleigh-Colon-Redden Post Office. Redden is another one over there on Callaway. Mr. Nathan Butler owns the land in this area during that time and his neighbor and friends are associates of Mr. Isaac Wells, postmaster … Hopefully the same as Oak Grove.
Rennick:
Same location as Oak Grove. Office and operation between July 25, 1856, and July 6, 1860.
Tucker:
Knight, Murray, Kirksey, Flint, Almo, then there’s Chittendon. And that Chittendon is the thing that I didn’t wright down … That’s the last one that I wrote. See, I wrote that in the early ’50s. Anything that come in. Now, you’ve got something there. Chester is in the northern part of the county. One of the early settlers in the county, about 1826 was a Chester. They still live down there, their descendants. Ratterre is another one. Copeland is another community. Normal is another one. Redden is a post office. Lassiter is a post office. Outland is a post office. Hamlin is a post office, and Penny had a post office.
Rennick:
Now, what about these places? How did they get their names?
Tucker:
Well, that’s something I don’t know … where I’m going to work on that now.
Rennick:
Like Ratterre, for instance.
Tucker:
Ratterre. The Ratterre family here. Let’s see now. Brandon, Dexter, Hazel, 23 to 33, 24 years now. Redden … and Redden. Alright, alright, goes by Hymon.
Rennick:
Is that spelled right with an E-N?
Tucker:
O-N.
Rennick:
O-N. H-Y-M-O-N.
Tucker:
I don’t know where Hymon was. Is that the same way as Fort Heiman is spelled, isn’t it? Well, H-I-E-L-E-M. Now, they were out there in the area around Blood River and Brandon post office, back in that section. Tobacco also had a post office. You won’t have that one, I don’t believe.
Rennick:
Tobacco, yeah.
Tucker:
Yeah, we got that. That’s right. Now, Lassiter … Lassiter post office is about the same thing as Redden, I believe. Lassiter, Holland was postmaster, and the Redden postmaster. Redden is out there about the same place, I think, is, uh… Redden is, uh … where is that Redden now? Holland … the Lassiter … and then in Lassiter. Mr. Nathan, the postmaster … he didn’t have the Holland. I don’t know if you … but may have been Redden. That is when Albert N. Holland was the postmaster. Same as Redden down at the same post office. The post office was located three miles east of the Callaway post office. Lassiter was three miles east of the Callaway post office and was near the old side of Callaway on the Tennessee River.
Rennick:
Redden is three miles east of the Lassiter post office.
Tucker:
And was near the old side of Callaway on the…
Rennick:
The Tennessee River.
Tucker:
You got anything else there?
Rennick:
See, now Normal.
Tucker:
Normal, I don’t know anything about that.
Rennick:
But that’d have been where the university is now, when it used to be a normal school.
Tucker:
Yeah. Copeland, I don’t know where that could be, and Copeland Graveyard down there close to Oak Grove or Oakland. I don’t know. Outland, I believe there’s an Outland schoolhouse out east of Murray there, and of course, I don’t think there’s any other things there with it.
Rennick:
Yeah, yes, there was. There was one of the later ones, I think, out near the post office. How much later?
Tucker:
I don’t know. I didn’t have anything in writing. I believe there were two other sections. Chittenden, now this is located in the east central part of Marshall County. That was wrong. I’ll collect for you that later. There was Chittenden in Lyon County. Oakley, Bellegrade, and … Willisville. That’s what I wrote… I wrote an article about Willisville. I mind as well as report on it tomorrow. I remember that…
Rennick:
Would your articles be available in the library?
Tucker:
I believe at the university, I believe copied they all that thing. I’m not sure. I’m about to go back over here and see about Outland. I don’t know where Outland was before it was called that or not. Outland Schoolhouse was about… Outland, yeah. Everette Outland, 1902. Mailed to Murray. Discontinued in 1904. That Outland lived out there near that Outland schoolhouse. There’s Outland Schoolhouse Road out east of Murray. Maybe two or three miles from the city north, back down the north. That’s where that was at.
Rennick:
So, there was an Outland family.
Tucker:
Yeah, a well-known Outland family, a bunch of Outlands was still out there. A lot of them finally moved to Murray. But one of these Outlands also was a postmaster out in southeast of Murray, and I forget which one it was. It wasn’t …
Rennick:
I’d have to take a look back at the big …
Tucker:
Olive. I don’t know where Olive is, there is a church named Mount Olive. I don’t know if … but you may have the wrong county.
Rennick:
Yeah, I have some Marshall County.
Tucker:
Well, let’s see. You had … for that, didn’t you? Mm-hmm. I had, Bellegrade. Do you have Bellegrade?
Rennick:
Yeah. I noticed you have Fair Dealing there, too. How did Fair Dealing do?
Tucker:
I don’t know. Somebody wrote something about Fairdealing. I believe I read it in one of the papers. Fairdealing was in Marshall, still over there.
Rennick:
You don’t remember who wrote that?
Tucker:
No, I don’t. I would believe somebody at the Benton Library, the Marshall Courier or at the historical society. I’ll tell you what, that boy down there, they researched a lot … I would assume that [the Society] might know something about it. Friday was an old post office in the old town. And they had some stuff in there about, up there around the rural and kind of called… They’ve been excluded a lot before. I’ve done a lot of detailed research because I had that motivation for doing that. I was collecting these old letters from the old post offices in Western Kentucky from the Confederates, you know. I had to know where the postmaster was, where the postmaster was, where the post office was, see, by the name. See, Jack Smith, Kentucky, I don’t know whether that is in Floyd County or in Calloway County. So that’s the reason I did this research on Calloway. I know there’s a book printed by a fellow around in Cincinnati or something called Post Marked Kentucky. Have you seen that? That’s the biggest mess I ever saw. I feel for it.
Rennick:
Yeah, I tried to correct it, but he didn’t appreciate it.
Tucker:
He listed about four or five places in Calloway County. I think I listed right close to 100. The name changes … Now what was he looking for? Uh, Fairdealing. That’s a Marshall County site. That’ll be from 18 to 40. That’ll come over here. I may not have it here. It may come in later over there. I’m gonna have to at least stock up with you, so. What’d you see, Rennick? Over there in my note.
Rennick:
I think it was in your text… in Collins. Oh, yeah.
Tucker:
Well, it’d have to be before 1840.
Rennick:
It’s either your first column or your second.
Tucker:
- I could go to school with the… It’s 3 to 63 or before that.
Rennick:
There it is.
Tucker:
Fairdealing, 1838. Thomas D. Travis. Travis was postmaster. That was a Marshall County site. Discontinued in 1843, but it was listed in Marshall County. Fairdealing discontinued October 13, 1842, then was in Marshall County, see?
Rennick:
Now, should that be one word or two?
Tucker:
Two words.
Rennick:
Two words, Fairdealing.
Tucker:
That’s an early devil. That’s way back over there in the beginning, ’38? It ought to be right in here on this next page. There it is, right there. Thomas R. Travis. And in ’42, when it was in Marshall County. Bremo was one we didn’t get. That’s famous … That’s in Marshall County.
Rennick:
Right. How do you pronounce that now?
Tucker:
Bremo.
Rennick:
Bremo.
Tucker:
B-R-E-M-O. And the same as Brewer. Pretty close to Fountain Inn down in there somewhere. A Fountain Inn could have been on what we call the Middle Fork to Clark River. That’s where some of that very first work in connection with Jackson Purchase Treaty and organizing a new county held down there on Middle Fork Creek, Four Mile Creek, it’s called, I believe. And there’s a lot of postcodes that you missed, but that’s all right. You missed… You had read those. And that’s the most points on the river. Well, here’s your latest. Jonathan, you had that. Chittendon, you had that. There’s a map that’s piled up over there in the archive in Washington. It’s got a Nashville in Calloway County, and there’s a transposition hub there. Calloway as shown were where part of Marshall and McCracken is, and McCracken showed where Calloway is. I don’t know how in the devil they got that thing piled up. I’ve got a copy of it.
Rennick:
And also a map was done in the ’40s, I think, that shifts, Floyd County and Pike County.
Tucker:
You must have had some bad photography back in the market then. Radford, you’ve got that. You’ve got them all except Willisville. Willisville is the ones you don’t have.
Rennick:
That’s right.
Tucker:
And glad you have that … we finally found that. I don’t know whether that’s the same as before. I don’t know. That, that, that’s one of the ones for that. C-I-C-O.
Rennick:
Could that have been…
Tucker:
Same as Hico, I think. We could have made a mistake with that, but I’ll tell you what, we… You’ve got nearly all in there, haven’t you? I don’t know how many, how many you’ve been… How many did you miss? Just Willisville. Willisville? Let’s see what I was saying about Willisville if you want to get it on the page. So, here’s my comments on Willisville. It began on March 26, 1831, with James C. Willis as postmaster. And it closed on June 14, 1831. Now some of my later research leads me to believe that Willisville, which was founded by this man Willis, was in the vicinity of Tobacco. I don’t know just what I base that information on but we’ve got it all, but that’s it. Well, I guess we’ve got them all. I don’t know.
Rennick:
And this series appeared in the [Murray] Democrat.
Tucker:
Murray Democrat from about 1955 or ‘6. It run, it run about, it must have been 14 or 15 articles. You know, a paper or somewhere or another. And there’s Kirksey, Kentucky, the 21st, May 21, 1957.
Rennick:
That’s the article, the letter you wrote on Lynn Grove.
Tucker:
Yeah. Well, they changed it up there, see, they didn’t think much of me or what I was talking about when I corrected it. And this is Wadesboro. Wadesboro. Now, they’re there in 1866 and carried in Wadesboro. Now, I picked… I picked that up back over years ago, in 1866. And it says officially obtained on that. 1866 on that Wadesboro. Wadesboro. Lays in Marshall County. Now, that’s wrong. That’s — it wasn’t ever in Marshall County. Wadesboro. I had to say it is Wadesboro. Now, I don’t see…
Rennick:
O-R-O-U-G-H.
Tucker:
See, you run into that. All right. See, Wadesboro … I don’t see when it changed there … but there’s a James H. Curry, see. And James H. Curry was living up there in Murray. He’s got the chain that’s laid out in Murray, see. I wrote a long article on him. 1951… Well, I’ve done some comment and other research on Wadesboro back when we were there when they came to that. I remember Wadesboro. The Wadesboro post office, I don’t know just when I made that comment in my text. I just don’t know where that I heard… About this time Wadesboro for a while seemed to have changed its spelling to Wadesboro. I don’t know just when they did that. I don’t know … there’s a big deal up there well and whatever.
Rennick:
That’s about it.
Tucker:
You know what time it is, a quarter after 10. You had that tape running all that time.
Rennick:
I sure do appreciate you giving me the time.
Tucker:
Any other questions you want to ask me or anything that you picked up?
Rennick:
That’s about it.
Tucker:
Well, I’ve got a Coca-Cola in the icebox there if you want to drink one if you’re a little thirsty.
Rennick:
I think I’d better get back to town.
Tucker:
There’s a lot of people that have all of my articles. I don’t know how many volumes they are, but of course …
Rennick:
Yeah, I’d like to get to.
Tucker:
Now, I want to think that either the Filson Club or the University of Kentucky or both, they had a spotter on me, and I’ve always had it when I was writing. I don’t write much now for the papers, because I generally want to get paid for it, see, and that sweetheart is going to come up with it. So, I do mostly work for the historical journal and for publications like this, and who else? Well, that’s about all I have time for. I write special … I sometimes write war stories. I’m the author of a book on the Tucker family also. It’s not available to the public. I had it published it and it had a hundred copies of the names that I could remember … the family picked up that way, and I booked the contract out with the copy that we set up.
Rennick:
You say that the Filson Club might have copies.
Tucker:
I believe the Filson Club wrote me something about my articles. A University of Kentucky folks, I believe they have people … they have some people here that follow these local writers on … and one thing, and then six and seven and six months or ago. Every time you work in the country, now, you’re just talking to him from the leading representative.
Rennick:
How about the Kentucky Historical Society?
Tucker:
I never could get along with that guy up there. I had a good friend who was president, a good [friendship] I started, Dr. [Charles F.] Hinds, a good friend of mine. He was in the Sons of American Revolution and that’s before he came back. He was the State Librarian. I believe he was out now in some department…
Rennick:
I’ve met him when he was doing graduate work at UK. Well, I sure do appreciate your time.
Tucker:
Well, you want to consolidate all this and put it into the University Press as a project or Bicentennial or something?
Rennick:
Well, it’d be a little late for the Bicentennial. It’d be out about 1979 and 1980, I don’t know how long.
Tucker:
You’re going over the whole State.
Rennick:
About 2,000 places.
Tucker:
You’re not taking the whole state around?
Rennick:
Really…
Tucker:
Not just in the county, unless you’ve done a lot of research, if you’ve got them all. Now, you talk about Postmarked Kentucky, that fella’s book, that’s a joke. You’ll find that out because I don’t know what he based his research on, maybe just the covers that he could discover or something like that, but he got his facts all wrong. I know more about the early mail routes of the stagecoach line and carrying the mail. Another thing that they used to do here, and I should have written up in some of the articles, and it slipped my mind, they carried this mail at night, see, by horseback, see. In other words, I had the contract to call to read Wadesboro at 1:30 in the morning.