Have you ever wondered how some of our local communities were named? Here are a few to get you going, but there are a lot of communities not on this list. Please leave a comment if you know of any these naming stories; we would love to hear from you!
• Select was suggested by the Post Office Department in Washington after community residents wrote and asked what they should name the local post office. Washington had answered by saying, “Select a name…” so the residents had no trouble.
• Equality was centered around an old log cabin church building, a good sized community where each family was a large one; all the people made a living of about the same, none were rich, none were poor and the church going people were all “equal.” A railroad station later built in the community was called Kronos by the railroad and since there was another Kronos post office in Kentucky a different name had to be selected for the post office, which was located directly across from the railroad station. The residents who had been attending Equality Church decided on Equality post office and the same community had two names.
• Centertown was first called Rowe Town for the many families by the name of Rowe who settled there. Also because Ceralvo, Point Pleasant, and Hartford were about the same distance from Rowe Town the community was named Centerville, which later became Centertown.
• Dundee was first Hine’s Mill, so called because a man named Hines had a mill there on the Rough River. When a post office was designated for the community, they named it Dundee because of the famous goat weathervane was made in Dundee, Scotland.
• The Post Office in Matanzas was established during the Spanish-American War that was being fought in Cuba. The state of Matanzas in Cuba was often featured in the news.
• McHenry was named for Colonel Henry D. McHenry, successful businessman and congressman, and leader in getting the construction of the Elizabethtown and Paducah railroad (which later became a part of the Illinois Central’s Kentucky Division) through Ohio County in 1871.
• Rosine was the second railroad station above Beaver Dam, so christened in honor of Col. McHenry’s wife, Jennie Taylor, who wrote poems under the nom de plume, Rosine.
• Hartford is believed to have been “Hart’s Ford” or deer crossing of the Rough River near the bluff where the Fort was built in 1782.
Could you please put me in touch with Helen McKeown who I’m told is Ohio County Historian. The email address I was given was returned. I’m hoping she might put me in touch with Beverly Sue (Durham) Ward, Widow of Alan Keith Ward, to see if I might use the photo of our common ancestor, Edward “Neddie” Ward’s tombstone in my ‘Ward Book.” I didn’t find an e-mail address on your web site, so hope this reaches you! Thank you!
I live in Seattle, but visited that grave site in 1983 and do have my own photo, but less clear! Thanks to someone for cleaning up and resetting the stones! Carolyn Fix Blount, descended from Neddie Ward via his son, Jesse.
My name is Jason Ward may I respectfully request to speak with you I live in ohio county ky and Edward Nettie browning Ward is 8generations above me and I would love to know more and who his father was plz help me
P.s. I just ordered your book
And I live very close to Nettie’s grave and can take a pic for u
My great grandfather was Chester Everett Rowe son of Willis Rowe and Mary Smith. He was a resident of Centertown and was a farmer and the postal man on the train that ran through there. I only have a picture of him and his wife Berta Mae Ashby but I would love to get more information on him and Berta Mae and the Rowe family. My grandmother was their daughter Mary Frances Rowe who married Reverend John William Thomas Siler who was born in 1904 Silerton TN.