Category: History
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Poynterville: Winchester’s First Subdivision
Following the Civil War, ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865 abolished slavery in the United States. Free blacks would experience difficult times in post-war Clark County. The majority of men worked for wages as farm laborers, the women in domestic service, and most families lived in extreme poverty. Comparing the 1860 and 1870…
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The Parking Lots of Winchester, part three
Another Winchester icon was lost when Hickman Street School at the corner of Highland was razed after more than 80 years of service. The school stood on the site of the county’s first educational institution, the Winchester Academy, incorporated in 1798. The old building was replaced by the six-room Hickman Street School in 1890. Ten…
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McMillan’s Spring
McMillan’s Spring is located near the bridge on Old Boonesboro Road a little south of Heather Lane. On the east side of the bridge, a small stream flows into Lower Howard’s Creek through a handsome water gap with two stone posts. The spring lies a short distance up that small stream. Kentucky’s pioneer settlers were…
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The Parking Lots of Winchester, part two
The building (with the arrow pointing to it) at the northwest corner of Wall and Cleveland was erected before 1886. City directories indicate that the Central Kentucky Natural Gas Company occupied this building from 1907 through 1958. The company, incorporated in 1905, serviced customers in Central Kentucky from their natural gas fields in Menifee and…
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Black Hoof
Indian Old Fields is one of the most historic places in Clark County. Geographically situated in the extreme eastern end of the county, it is a 3,500-acre plain of fertile soils perched between Lulbegrud Creek and Upper Howard’s Creek. The area can be reached from Winchester by Highway 15 or the Mountain Parkway. Native Americans…
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The Parking Lots of Winchester, part one
The building that caused the greatest uproar in Winchester when it was razed was the old railroad station on Depot Street. The depot was built in 1907 as a joint passenger station for the C&O and L&N railroads. The Kentucky Heritage Commission declared that the station “is one of the richest and most authentic in…
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John Robert Shaw, Well-Digger
I have a special fondness for authors who make me laugh. Among my favorites are P. G. Wodehouse, Gerald Durrell (brother of more famous Lawrence), David Sedaris, and Bill Bryson. Bryson’s Walk in the Woods led me to a whole series of his autobiographical comedies. He introduced the misfit Katz, with whom he later hiked…
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Living Long in Antebellum Clark County
I’ve spent a lot of time searching for and examining information about Clark County people. An excellent source available online is the U.S. Census. While trying to generate all the names from the 1850 Clark County census, lo and behold, the names popped up in the order of their age, with the eldest people at…
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The First Town in Clark County
On December 6, 1792 the Kentucky legislature divided parts of Fayette and Bourbon County to form the new county of Clark, named after the famous Revolutionary War hero, George Rogers Clark. Eleven days later, the legislature approved an act establishing the town of Mount Sterling. It may come as a surprise to some, but Winchester,…
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J. R. Buckwalter, Lumberman
Sometimes, when looking into the history of an interesting house, one happens to find an owner with a fascinating story. So it was with the Buckwalter House at 457 South Maple Street. The so-called “Blue Book”—Survey of Historic Sites in Kentucky: Clark County —provides a description of the two-and-a-half-story brick residence: “The house was built…