An interview with Brown Tucker of Murray, Kentucky by Robert M. Rennick on August 4, 1977, on the origin and history of community names of Calloway County, Kentucky.
Transcript of Part 1 of 6
Rennick:
Next interview is with Mr. Brown Tucker of Rural Route 2, Murray, Kentucky and it’s Thursday, August 4th, 1977. I’m going to be asking him about the place names of Calloway County.
Tucker:
Now, let me get my written file here, all right? That sounds like an oral history deal.
Rennick:
I was looking at a copy of Mrs. Trevathan’s interview with you that appeared, I guess it was a year or so ago, in the Journal of the Jackson County Historical Society.
Tucker:
Jackson Purchase Historical Society. I’ve frequently contributed to that little magazine. It’s a scholarly job. Because I’m a reader, I haven’t got too much business in it. I generally make it.
Rennick:
Do you have any reprints of that?
Tucker:
Not that’s in the first issue. That’s a rare volume or number. I don’t think there’s any volume to it. I think it’s called a whole number. I don’t know where you get one unless you see Dr. [William Ray] Mofield at the college. He might have something. I know somebody had an extra copy. Now I’ve got them all, but I’ve only got one of the original. I don’t know which questions all that ought to have. I don’t know if she made the copy. She, one of her girls pulled that off the tape and then I edited the thing. And then when we redone it, I’d redone it and then gave it to the editor in the journal. Well, I’m ready to go with you.
Rennick:
Okay. You can keep the list there, so…
Tucker:
You’ve got a lot of information down already.
Rennick:
Well, just mostly questions. I do have some information from a variety of sources. And if you could read off, you know, in order, and that way pronounce the names.
Tucker:
All right. Are you ready to begin?
Rennick:
Uh-huh.
Tucker:
First name is Murray.
Rennick:
Okay, now was there anything at the site of Murray before 1842?
Tucker:
Yes, contingent to the city limits as they were established in 1842 and was a town by the name of Williston. Williston, the best I remember, became a post office about 1830, or possibly earlier. I have the exact date here in my file if you want it.
Rennick:
Yes, I’m not sure what I have is the exact date. It’s a little bit late. Who was the first postmaster?
Tucker:
James Willis was the first postmaster at Williston. He apparently founded the town, and the post office, of course, was named after his current name, I guess you’d call it.
Rennick:
So, it was named for him in particular.
Tucker:
Yes, it was named after him was the Willis family. Now let me see here. This research material was a painting in Washington at the Post Office Library, I believe they called it, some 35 or 40 years ago. And I don’t know whether this information could even be found if someone must go down there again.
Rennick:
Well, they’re now at the National Archives, that information.
Tucker:
They’ve turned it over to them. I hope that’s right. Williston Post Office was established on May 28, 1830, with James Willis as postmaster, and he was succeeded on July 22, 1831, by Robert W. P. Poole. Williston was changed to Murray in 1843. I might add that this man, Willis, after selling out to Mr. Poole, went about four miles south of town and founded another post office which he named Willisville. This was established on March 26, 1831, with James Willis as postmaster, and it closed on June 14, 1831. We are not sure why the post office was in operation for such a short time, but apparently the post office department didn’t see fit to have another post office in your vicinity by the name of Willis.
Rennick:
Okay, now Williston, the post office, the first post office that Willis established. Where exactly? Now was that just a post office or was there a community by that name, too?
Tucker:
There was a community by that name and it stayed on the map, most maps, till about 1875.
Rennick:
Where exactly was that from?
Tucker:
Post office was located according to information given to me by elder residents whose parents were at Williston, that the post office was established in a store right at the southwest corner of Sycamore and the 4th Street. It’s where the Root beer stand is right now, if you’re familiar with that part of town in Murray.
Rennick:
And then the community was around.
Tucker:
The community was around there?
Tucker:
The community extended in all directions. And of course, the old stagecoach stop and the tannery and the tie factory and other carriage factory and so forth were in that vicinity. And the Rosemary Branch, which is probably a quarter of a mile north of that, had a very fine stream of water. And of course, this was the conducive to the operation of the cannery and the watering of the horses and taking care of the stock and so forth.
Rennick:
So now when … that Williston post office was shifted to Murray, did Williston as a community cease to be and become Murray?
Tucker:
Well, I would say, according to my information, a part of it. The community itself stayed there and the tobacco factory and the tannery and other carriage shops and so forth for a long time was in that vicinity and stayed there until about 1875. I think one of our researchers has said that Williston was on the map and I may have some that shows Williston still as a community as late as 1875. Regardless of what you might say about it, the area certainly was a part of what is now Murray or the other area was continued to that view.
Rennick:
Okay now, Charles Curd was postmaster at Williston and then the first postmaster at Murray.
Tucker:
Let’s see now let me go over here …. let’s see here. Robert Poole, Robert W. P. Poole was succeeded by Charles Curd on April 23rd, 1842. Now the name was changed to Murray, May 23rd, 1843, and Charles Curd remained as postmaster. And in my opinion, the post office stayed in the same place as Williston. I talked to the grandson or son of Mr. Charles Curd who gave me that information and who also pointed out where this first post office was. The southwest corner of the junction of Sycamore and Fourth Street in Murray.
Rennick:
Do we know who laid out the town of Murray and on whose land it was?
Tucker:
Yes, before I have that, but I want to think, and I’ll make the stand corrected on that, that Murray was laid out by appointed surveyors of the county or State, and it was on land owned by this Charles Curd, I believe who it was, postmaster. They grabbed all this land around there. I don’t know what they had in mind, but they apparently owned the Curd family, owned the 80 acres there that centered around the courthouse where it is now.
Rennick:
And it was laid out that year, was it, too?
Tucker:
I wouldn’t, I would think it was laid out possibly sometime during 1842. That’s my … that’s a personal opinion of mine, and of course I think it was detailed research that could be uncovered, but I want to think that it was probably done in 1842.
Rennick:
Okay. Let’s see, let’s move on to a second…
Tucker:
Wadesboro, of course, is the county seat of Calloway County, which included at the time Marshall County. And it’s had two different spellings officially, but it’s pronounced the same way, Wadesboro, W-A-D-E-S-B-O-R-O, and W-A-D-E-S-B-O-U-R-G-H. And that was visually recorded in the records of the Post Office Department.
Rennick:
The first, to mean the second spelling, the longer spelling.
Tucker:
That’s right. Why they did that, I don’t know. I didn’t go into it that deep. Now, according to my information, and I’ve written a lot of history on the county, this Wadesboro was named after a member of the Wade’s family … Wade family. Now, we’re not sure that whether it’s named after Bannister Wade, and some claim but we are sure most of us are in agreement with his name after the Wade family.
Rennick:
I’ve seen several different spellings for Bannister. What’s the proper spelling?
Tucker:
B-A-N, let me see. I believe that’s spelled B-A-N-I-S, B-A-N-N-I-S-T-E-R.
Rennick:
Two N’s and an I.
Tucker:
I believe one, possibly. I probably got that somewhere here, but I hope I run across it and do it correctly. I have some other information. Just hold that just a minute and let me go get another document that I wrote the details on the county. You want to put that up on the chair or anything?
Rennick:
No, this is fine here. Yeah, I have a copy of this. This is very good.
Tucker:
Here, I can’t remember. I probably was right about it… The wrong way here I sure did I want the wrong way You’re writing, I don’t know what pages are. I’ve got more sick articles in, I think. One kind of a mess. I spell a B-A-N-N-I-S-T-E-R.
Rennick:
Way that two ‘N’s and a ‘I’.
Tucker:
Right now, whether it had that or not I’m not sure but that apparently I got that from somewhere. I wouldn’t say that’s right, that might need to be clarified at the … but that … Of course, it’d be hard to do … the tomb rock is right down the road here but I believe it just had the initial on it,
Rennick:
Now, was he the first settler?
Tucker:
Not necessarily. No, I think that…
Rennick:
I mean, of that particular community…
Tucker:
He was one of the first. I believe that there were two other names. There was Smith and someone else that had come in there about the same time. I want to think that … David Jones and James Stewart. Scratch that, Smith. I say probably the first permanent white settler to come to the county entered about 1818. Samuel Watson was over at Wadesboro, but he didn’t stay at all, or he had some official capacity. I believe he was just a county surveyor or something. He settled right down the road here on West Fork of Clark’s River. And of course, James Stewart settled over there, too, in one of the earlier settlers. I believe there’s a cemetery over there, they called it Stewart Cemetery, pretty close to it.
Rennick:
Okay, that’s number…
Tucker:
Now, Wadesboro, let’s see, was the first post office in Calloway County, and that includes the area known as Marshall County, established March 12th, 1824, with James W. Calloway, his postmaster. And then, of course, there was a number of postmasters that followed him. Now, the second post office in Calloway County was Rowletts, R-O-W-L-E-T-T-S, established on February 12th, 1827, with Chauncey Miller as postmaster, and later the name was changed to Colon. My research leads me to believe that Colon is an aberration of the first name of the wife of the postmaster, Colonia Miller, see? And, of course, this man, after was changed to Colon on July 21st, 1828, Chauncey Miller was remaining a postmaster until he was exceeded by Chapman Miller on March 12, 1829. Now that’s some of the earlier post offices that you don’t hear much about. Now let’s see..
Rennick:
What’s there at Colon now?
Tucker:
Eggners Ferry Bridge in that area.
Rennick:
It’s still in this county?
Tucker:
Well, it was in the county at that time. Now, that … we don’t know exactly where the post office was a store or at the ferry or in someone’s home. But the county line that now that divides Marshall and Calloway, is in the close vicinity of where Colon and Rowletts were originally established. My information is that both of them were originally established in what is now Calloway County, according to the maps. Now then, New Concord. New Concord, of course, is old site in Calloway County, and of course, previous to the name of Concord, it was known as Humility. Humility was an early post office established as a special post office March 2nd, 1836, with William B. Lawson as postmaster. And of course, it was closed a number of times and was finally named Concord. Let’s see when that happens. Well, it didn’t become, what is this, 1860? That might be wrong. There might be another post office in there. It was closed a number of times. I guess that’s fair to say, you know, New Concord, let’s see … where Humility is, you’ve got to be back to pick up Humility. The name was changed to New Concord on June 16th, 1841, with the same William B. Lawson remaining as postmaster. Now, this must be remembered, and we must remember, we assumed in postal history, that this was not the United States Post Office was what they called a special post office. In other words, it was [conservient] to some other office.
Rennick:
How did it get the name Humility?
Tucker:
Well, there’s a couple of novels around that, maybe one or four or two by writers. Generally speaking, my research has led me to believe and I’ve proven most of it that the postmasters named the post offices after the name of their wife or one of their daughters. It’s entirely possible that Mr. Lawson had a name, had a daughter by the name of the Humility. It could be wrong, but that’s generally the rule in this area. Wife or his daughter. Coldwater…
Rennick:
Now let’s get this thing back with New Concord, do you know when and by whom was that settled that vicinity.
Tucker:
I don’t have it.
Rennick:
Now, was this a change in name or was the post office shifted the site?
Tucker:
Another change in the … this was a change in the … in the community that’s what it was.
Rennick:
Change in location?
Tucker:
No, not a location community Humility remained the same but change of name.
Rennick:
Change the name?
Tucker:
Yeah.
Rennick:
Why did they change the name?
Tucker:
Well, that’s a good question. Possibly they didn’t like the name of the post office that they had. And remember that it went out of business maybe possibly before New Concord was established. I think it did once. And that’s a historical name, New Concord. And whether it was named after people who come here from Concord or Concord, Massachusetts or Concord in some other state or in England or wherever it was, apparently they saw fit to change.
Rennick:
Now was that ever known as just plain Concord?
Tucker:
I think so. I think it’s noted in one place as Concord. Let me see here. Go back over here. I think that that’s right. I think there was a time in which they just called it Concord, but I’m not sure how that came about. It’s out of my … I don’t have the information on it, that’s just what I’m trying to say.
Rennick:
Now what’s there now at that site?
Tucker:
Well, of course, there in New Concord at one time was one of the main trading centers in the county, and it had a college or a female institute or a male institute. It’s always been a school center. It was a stagecoach stop on one of the early lines. They had carriage factories and tobacco factories there, and of course the blacksmith shops and regular, you know, retail merchants, trade and so forth. But it was the site of a county high school which was consolidated, and all consolidated here sometime in the 1950s, about 1956. And recently the elementary school had been consolidated. And another school that’s not there any longer. Of course, several churches there and there has been a number of businesses there, but I think there’s just one business left there, the old schoolhouse and a church or two. And it is one of the early settlements in Calloway County. It was close to the river there and the water and can’t take it not too far off. And I think the remaining of this one store, possibly two out there.
Rennick:
Okay, Coldwater.
Tucker:
Coldwater, my people were at Coldwater when we established … I mean, way back we went on this road here. Coldwater originally was right down this road in which we live on, about a mile and a third. Just after you turned over 121 and come around that curve on the left, little brown brick house. Right there was the original side of Coldwater. And Coldwater, of course, was named after a cold spring, which the water in the spring which is right north of where the original town was set up for our community. And people got into a controversy about the water that spring and they had a committee. There were two springs, one down the road about a mile and one right north, just a few hundred yards from where the original site was, had a committee to test this water. And this water in this spring up here proved to be, the committee ruled that it was the coldest, and so they named their little village Coldwater.
Rennick:
Now is that one word or two?
Tucker:
That’s one word.
Rennick:
One word.
Tucker:
It used to have an Interesting anecdote. I wrote a historical sketch or two on that release back when I was 25 years ago. They had a saloon there at Coldwater and they had a high front porch. And you’d ride up on your horse and the saloon keeper would bring you a drink out. You had a sign on the porch of this saloon, “We serve hot and cold water,” see. Coldwater, let’s see now, is a later post office. There’s a number of post offices in there and we’ll get to those if you want to go back and review those. Coldwater, let’s see. About 1850… Established on December 9th, 1856. With Asa B. Scarborough as postmaster. Now this post office is located in the old Coldwater site at the junction of Potts and the old Mayfield Road. Known to most of our readers is the Lee Brooks Farm site. That’s a little brick, a brown brick that I’m talking to you … telling you about down the road.
Rennick:
You say the Lee Brooks?
Tucker:
Lee Brooks Farms.
Rennick:
L-E-E …
Tucker:
B-R-O-O-K-S. Now, Coldwater made a move before it located at the site where it’s at now. It moved about a mile down the road to the river, where the old Vapier Road crosses to the West Fork of Clark’s River at the Iron Bridge site, the old covered bridge site. They had a facility there at this site. They had a one general store that I know of, and they had a big blacksmith shop, and they had a water mill. And later on, they moved, began to move the businesses out of the bottom down there, right on the bank of the river, and moved it up to where the present side of Coldwater is now.
Rennick:
So of course there’s no longer any community there.
Tucker:
Oh, that’s a flourishing community that’s growing. One of the two communities in the county that’s growing, a rural community. It doesn’t have a post office. It’s… closed up the post office way back several years ago.
Rennick:
Is there a store there?
Tucker:
Yes, there’s a supermarket there, two gas stations with an antique business, and has been a garage and some other establishments there. But some of them are folded up, but as far as the residential part of the community, it’s growing. And I want to say this, and it applies to every community in Calloway County, and if you can tell me why, I’d like to write a special article. If a school stays in a little community, the town goes dead. As soon as they get rid of the schoolhouse, it goes to building. That’s why that’s countywide. It don’t seem, that don’t seem right. But apparently, people are paradoxically binded. You know, some author wrote a paper article in the magazine. Kentuckians are paradoxically binded people, see. They think one way and act another, see. And whether that’s true with regard to schoolhouse in these little communities, I don’t know. But every one of them, with not a single exception, if the schoolhouse stays there, it’s often the last building to be torn down. Any more on Coldwater?
Rennick:
I guess that’s it. Now, is it the rest of the community is further up that 121 road.
Tucker:
Yes, it’s moved twice. It started right down here at the junction of the Old Mayfield Road and what we know as Potts Road, this is the one right in front of my house. Then, later on, it moved about three-quarters of a mile west to the river and they established a number of businesses there back in the frontier days, whatever they needed. And then later on, about Civil War days or after, they moved it to where it’s at now and most of these businesses closed up. There was an old man who kept a store at the original site for years and years, but when he died, the store wasn’t dead. He’d been dead about 10 years. I wrote an article also on this old store, and Mr. Cook, who operated there for a number of years, that’s basically it. I’ll bet the university, has a transcript in one of my articles. I don’t know where they have my files, or whether they find it or not.
Rennick:
Okay, and number five?
Tucker:
New Providence is a town that I don’t know too much about I don’t know when it was first settled. I never did make inquiry as to what went on with Providence … let’s see New Providence and the post office was established July 3rd 1866 with William D. Lee his postmaster and it was discontinued September 15th, 1867. I think they brought that post office back in a little bit later.
Rennick:
Now, how did that get its name?
Tucker:
New Providence, I have no idea. Possibly some of those people over there in that community, the old Brittons run a store there, they have one store there now, and the church or two right there in New Providence, might shed some light on that, and I never did… Write any article or do any to write an article or do any research on New Providence.
Rennick:
Did that ever have another name?
Tucker:
I’m not sure.