History of Calloway County

ff History Of Calloway County Kentucky 1931 Together With Sketches of Its Prominent Citizens, Past and Present Compiled and Published by The Ledger U Tfmes V We Are Keeping Pace... with the progress being made by Murray and Calloway County by furnishing the same kind of modern and comprehensive insurance service available in the larger offices in the larger cities, maintaining facilities for the handling of any kind of insurance or bonding prop- osition anywhere in the United States and its possessions. PROPERTY AUTOMOBILE Fire Hail Windstorm Fire Explosion Earthquake Theft Parcel Post Windstorm Registered Mail Collision Tourists Baggage Truck Cargo Sprinkler Leakage Liability for Property Damage Riot and Civil Commotion Liability for Personal Injuries CASUALTY BONDING Personal Accident Fidelity Personal Health Court Permanent Disability Contract Hold Up Guardian Burglary Public Official Plate Glass Check Forgery Boiler and Machinery Bankers' Blanket Public Liability Internal Revenue Workmen's Compensation Executors and Administrators All modern forms of life, endowment and annuities, in- cluding corporation and business life insurance. Representing "The Old Reliable" MUTUAL BENEFIT LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Frazee, Berryed& Melugin 141.11ST FLOOR GATLIN BUILDING TELEPHONE 331 MURRAY, KENTUCKY "IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHO WRITES YOUR INSURANCE" HISTORY OF CALLOWAY COUNTY-1931 Galloway County in the Making The subject of this sketch, our County. But long before its actual frontiersmen of our state. Also to own Calloway County, is situated in birth there was an influx of set- Mrs. Wade's descendants it may be the southwestern part of Kentucky tlers into the country now known said that Calloway is justly indebt- in that particular section known as as Calloway from Virginia and the ed for their part in its growth and the Purchase. Her nothern boun- Carolinas. These settlers located progress. dary is Marshall County and to her in the nothern part of the country About the time Mr. Wade settled west lies Graves, while sloping because of the fact that there they on West Fork Samuel Watson set- gently northward on its east is the had in rich abundance both water tled in the same vicinity. Soon came beautiful and peaceful Tennessee and timber. It was not until a William Smith and William Derring- River and her southern line is much later period that . the prairie ton who also settled on farms near flanked entirely by the grand old of the county was settled. West Fork. Among the early set- state of Tennessee. Calloway is In 1876 Colonel Richard Callo- tlers of the northern part of the almost a perfect rectangle in shape way moved his family to Kentucky County was the Duncan family. and covers an area of 395 miles or and he soon became an efficient and William Chester was an early set- 252,800 acres. active man in the affairs of the tler on the creek which bears his Topographically Calloway's sur- early settlements, and it was in his name and opened one of the largest face features are quite varied. The honor that our subject was named distilleries ever operated in the country bordering the Tennessee Calloway. In 1777 he and John county. About 1822 came Williams River is broken and hilly, with rich Todd were elected the first burgesses Sutherland with his family and Wil- valleys lying between, while the to the General Assembly of Virginia liam Jones with his. Mr. Jones was central and western portions are and in the spring of the same year the first school teacher in the coun- he was appointed justice of the comparatively level, and are char- ty. In 1821 John Harp settled in acterized by a light gray soil, well peace. The historian, Collins, tells the county and in 1822 there settled adapted to general farming. The us that in 1779 Colonel Calloway on Duncan's Creek, among others, with others, under an act of the northwest corner of the county is the families of John Swift and broken in places and considerably Virginia Legislature, was appointed Luke Langston. cut up by ravines, which renders a trustee to lay off the town of Boonesborough and that the trustees Wadesboro's first settlers were the the farmer's occupation not an easy Jones, Stewart, Sperry and Wade one. declined to act and others were appointed. families, while the Taylor family The northern and eastern parts settled in southeastern Calloway and of the county were once heavily Colonel Calloway is noted as one the Wyatts in northwest Calloway. timbered having had in abundance of the lawgivers and defenders of The early settlers of the interior of such forest growths as a variety of the frontier and his career, though Calloway, near Murray, were Charles oaks, maple, beech, sweet gum, shortened by an early death in the Linn, a Mr. Crow, who made some hickory, ash, cypress, birch and defense of that frontier, is one of improvements on an island in swamp willow. The timber of the which we as Callowayans have an Clark's River, a Mr. Ferror and a barrens consisted of hickory, post honest right to be proud. Mr. Saunders. A little later there oak, white oak, red oak and other We are further grateful to His- were the Pools, Meltons, Boggesses, hard- woods. However, most of this torian Collins for the information Wickers, Merrimans, Baileys, Gar- valuable timber has been cut away that James Steward and David retts, Dunns, Skaggs and others, all during the past several years, and Jones were the first white men to of whom located within a radius while lumbering is still an important locate within what is known now as of six miles. occupation along the Tennessee Calloway County. He tells us that In addition to the settlers enumer- River, it is not the profitable one it they came here as early as 1818 ated, the following persons were once was. from Caldwell County and opened residents of the county prior to The principal streams of the coun- farms about one mile east of the 1830: Joab Lassiter, Vincent A. ty are the east and, west forks of town of Wadesboro. Mr. Steward Wade, Lewis Wells, James Ingram, Clark's River and Blood River. East died while yet a young man but left James Clayton, Luke Dees, William foid heads in the southwestern part a number of descendants whose McElrath, Jacob Saunders, Harrison of the county, and flows a north- lives have meant much in the his- Walston, William Curd, Spencer easterly course through a well cul- tory of our county. Very little is Milliken. Dennison Dees, William tivated district. It is a stream of known of Mr. Jones' life but it is Edwards, John Keys, Moza Grisham, considerable importance, and re- said that he was a true type of the Bailey Anderson, Edmund Taylor, ceives a number of small tributaries, pioneer and a man of excellent John Hodge, David Shelton, Charles all of which play an important part character. Curd, John Allen, Bins Derrington, in the drainage of the county. West In 181.9 or 1820 we are told that Reuben Nelson, William McWade, Fork rises about twelve miles west a number of hunters and trappers James Bell, John McGrew, George of Murray, flows a northerly direc- came to the county and settled for Goodwin, Chapman Miller, Gibson tion through a rather flat and very a time to hunt the game with which Gray, William Easley, Robert Whit- heavily timbered region. Blood the country at that time abounded. nell, A. D. Jackson, John Hodges River, in the eastern part of the However, their stay was of short and others. Among the non-resi- county, is a very sluggish stream. It duration and they made no footsteps dents who purchased government receives several small tributaries, in our county's history. lands in Calloway between the years flows an easterly course and empties Banester Wade, who first visited 1825 and 1830 were John Eaker, into the Tennessee River. the county as an adventurer in Nathan G. Hale, John Strow, John The seventy-second child of Ken- 1818 made a permanent settlement Elliott, John M. Gardner, Lewis tucky in order of formation, Callo- in 1820 on West Fork. He was Wells, William Anderson, William way, was born in 1822, being created known as a daring hunter and a Clayton, George Owings, John Bryne under the jurisdiction of Hickman noble specimen of the early and James Witherspoon. ItISTORY Or CALLOWAY COUNTY-1931 Rainey T. Wells, president of Mur- four physicians, one newspaper and ceipt which was given his grand- ray State College, who presided at one school, the Murray Institute. father, James Yarbrough, in 1869 the debate. The English debaters The business section of the town for 156% pounds of coffee. The were named A. E. Holdsworth and on the north and east side of the price was $38.73. N. C. Oatridge. No decision was court house, was destroyed by fire That commodity prices have de- given at the request of the English- during the Civil war, but was clined sharply in the past few men. The question debated was soon rebuilt. The people of the months is shown by a comparison "Resolved that the emergence of county were intensely southern in of every day quotations with prices woman from the home is a re- their feelings, about 500 men en- of provisions in 1901, as quoted in grettable feature of modern life". listing in the Confederate ranks a bill of groceries bought by Mr. Murray represented the negative. and about 200 in the Federal army. Yarbrough's father, C. C. Yar- During the same year Pogue and The county was the scene of several brough, when he moved to Stam- Copeland lost only one debate out of encounters between small parties ford, Texas, in 1901.

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