Mary Nunnelley’s hidden role in Clark County history

Richmond Madison “Doc” Nunnelley (1829−1904) was born and raised in Somerset, grad­u­at­ed from the University of Louisville Medical School in 1855, and prac­ticed med­i­cine in Madison County before mov­ing to Clark County where he took up farm­ing in 1860.

Dr. Nunnelley mar­ried Mary Calmes in 1867.  Mary was a daugh­ter of Henry Waller Calmes.  Henry had come to Clark County about 1806 and acquired a large tract of land.  On his estate he built a hand­some brick home that still stands today on Marquis Court near Calmes Boulevard.

It appears that Mary was the land deal­er, as all of the couple’s deeds (except for a bur­ial plot in Winchester Cemetery) were in her name.  She bought and sold a num­ber of farms in the area of Lower Howard’s Creek.  A peti­tion to the Clark Circuit Court empow­ered and autho­rized Mary “to use and enjoy and sell and con­vey for her own ben­e­fit any prop­er­ty she now owns or may acquire free from the debts of her hus­band.”  Mary enjoyed a large inher­i­tance from her father and did not want to lose her invest­ments if her hus­band should fall into bankruptcy.

R. M. (lots of the men in those days sim­ply went by the ini­tials of their giv­en names) tend­ed to the farm­ing, rais­ing cat­tle, sheep and hogs along with corn, wheat and tobac­co.  The farm and home­place, locat­ed in the Forest Grove area and bor­der­ing on Lower Howard’s Creek, was owned by his wife Mary.  She pur­chased the land from R. M.’s broth­er, Philip P. Nunnelley.

One source list­ed Dr. R. M. Nunnelley as one of the “Solid Muldoons” of Clark County.  The list­ing was based on the amount of assessed prop­er­ty.  The source neglect­ed to men­tion that the own­er of that prop­er­ty was his wife Mary.

In 1902 Mary sold the farm at Forest Grove to Henry G. Bush, and the cou­ple moved to town.  They rent­ed the old Ballard Place on Maple Street, while they built a house of their own.

Before they moved in, Dr. Nunnelley suf­fered a stroke from which he did not recov­er.  Ten months lat­er, he passed away at their new house.

Mary con­tin­ued liv­ing there.  She dis­posed of some of her oth­er prop­er­ties, sell­ing a house in South Park, a large farm on Lower Howard’s Creek, and a small tract to the Winchester Water Works.  She had fre­quent overnight guests and enter­tained reg­u­lar­ly.  Four of her chil­dren were mar­ried at the house, a son and three daugh­ters, includ­ing Anna who mar­ried A. J. Earp, Winchester’s not­ed photographer.

Mary suf­fered a minor stroke in 1906, then was laid low by anoth­er stroke in 1913.  Mary passed away the fol­low­ing year and her funer­al was held at the res­i­dence.  She was interred beside her hus­band in Winchester Cemetery.

The loca­tion of today’s mys­tery house will be revealed in next week’s article.