Combs Ferry

Combs Ferry has had sev­er­al dif­fer­ent con­no­ta­tions in Clark County. First, and most obvi­ous­ly, it was once a fer­ry on the Kentucky River. Later, Combs Ferry Road and, final­ly, a com­mu­ni­ty called Combs Ferry were estab­lished. Each has played a role in Clark County’s history.

The Ferry

In the 1790s, at the mouth of Lower Howard’s Creek, Col. John Holder oper­at­ed a ware­house where tobac­co and flour bar­rels were inspect­ed and stored, a boat­yard where he built flat­boats for car­ry­ing coun­ty pro­duce down­riv­er to New Orleans, and a Kentucky River fer­ry that pro­vid­ed access to goods from Madison County. His enter­pris­es were on the west side of the creek, across from Hall’s Restaurant.

After his death, his son-in-law, Samuel R. Combs, acquired Holder’s busi­ness­es, which he con­tin­ued to oper­ate as Combs Warehouse, Combs Boatyard, and Combs Ferry.

After Combs’ death, James T. Woodward pur­chased the fer­ry. In 1858, Woodward received per­mis­sion from the coun­ty court to re-estab­lish the fer­ry about three-quar­ters of a mile down­stream, to the end of present-day Amster Grove Road. Daniel Bentley ran the fer­ry for Woodward, and in 1869, he pur­chased the fer­ry from Woodward’s heirs.

Combs Ferry remained in oper­a­tion under a series of own­ers until the mid-twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. The fer­ry land­ing is still vis­i­ble on both sides of the river¾on Amster Grove Road on the Clark County side and on the Col. David J. Williams Firing Range on the Madison side.

The Road

Combs Ferry Road was orig­i­nal­ly named Holder’s Road, which ran from the fer­ry land­ing to the Bourbon County line; from there it went on to Paris by way of present-day Clintonville. The road’s name was changed after Combs acquired the fer­ry. At that time, it was an essen­tial link in the road from Paris to Richmond.

In 1857, the Combs Ferry Turnpike Company com­plet­ed a macadamized road from Becknerville to the Kentucky River. Combs Ferry Turnpike pro­vid­ed access to the new fer­ry land­ing. It was soon renamed the Kentucky River Turnpike. On the descent to the riv­er, the turn­pike was at a slight­ly high­er ele­va­tion than the cur­rent Amster Grove Road. There is still a Combs Ferry Road on the Madison County side that con­nects the old fer­ry land­ing at the police fir­ing range with the road to Richmond (KY 627).

Today, Combs Ferry Road begins at a fork in Athens-Boonesboro Road and pro­ceeds north to Becknerville, where it turns west and runs about 5 miles to Lexington Road (US 60).

The Community

The com­mu­ni­ty of Combs Ferry was estab­lished when a road was extend­ed to the new fer­ry land­ing and soon became a live­ly neigh­bor­hood. In addi­tion to the fer­ry, the river­front area had sev­er­al stores and homes, a dis­tillery, a steam-pow­ered saw and grist mill, and a post office.

In the 1920s, long­time Combs Ferry res­i­dent and store­keep­er Zol Amster acquired 22 acres of land between the fer­ry land­ing and the mouth of Lower Howard’s Creek and divid­ed it into 76 build­ing lots for homes and riv­er camps. The new Amster Grove Road and Amster Grove Court pro­vid­ed access to the lots (present-day Amster Grove Court and Hidden Grove Lane were orig­i­nal­ly one road). The area, rechris­tened Amster Grove, was soon ful­ly devel­oped and became a fre­quent site of riv­er par­ties, fam­i­ly reunions, and club meet­ings. Then as now, peri­od­ic Kentucky River floods wreaked hav­oc on river­front properties.

Subsequent arti­cles will flesh out more details of Combs Ferry and Amster Grove.