Balls Landing, Kentucky, 1908 The location known today as Perry Park was originally known as “Lick Skillet,”  (supposedly as a result of food being in such short supply that they had to . . .).  Afterwards, it was known as “Cleveland,” probably after the US president of that name.  It became Ball's Landing around 1887, and was changed to Perry Park in 1933.  The boat in the picture is the Falls City - more on her here.	Captain of the Falls City, Noble Nash Hundley Sr., whose sketch was drawn by a hobo bumming a ride on the steamer. Thanks to Kitty Cammack for the sketch.	James Ball.  More about him in the article below
Here's a little history on Owen's Lick Skillet.
Evidently there were several Lick Skillets (pdf) in Kentucky.
“The new Methodist church at Cleveland [a one time name of Lick Skillet] will be dedicated the fifth Sunday in July.” Boone County Recorder, July 26, 1899
A story from Mrs. Ira L. Arnold of Squiresville, in Owen County: “An enormous dead whale as brought to Ball's Landing [Perry Park] on a big fat kind of flat boat and anyone wanting to see this huge whale was welcome. I believe the fee was 25 cents. Our teacher made arrangements for all the pupils to go from the Squiresville school. We were allowed to go into the big mouth that was propped open. I remember it quite well. There was a giant chair in the mouth, but no one wanted to sit down.” Could it have been made of papier-mache? “Certainly not. The smell was all we needed to know it was real.”

 

Elmer Davis, for whom the lake is named	Owen County School Bus On Elmer Davis Road	Elk Lake Shores, near Owenton

 

Lowdenback's Store  in Pleasant Home In 1888, Pleasant Home incorporated as an actual town.	Natlee, c. 1910	Owen County log cabin.

 

Road Crew in Owen County with knapping hammers. “I have one of those hammers in my tool box. It was my Dad's tool. I asked how he drove nails with it. I got The Look.” Donald Thomas, commenting on Facebook

 

County Truck, taken, for some unknown reason, in front of the Louisville Public Library. There's a possibility that it's for Owen Co., Indiana.

 

Mrs. Ozela Neal's store in Hesler, 1985
From a Facebook post by Jane Fitzgerald Wright

 

Hesler
From a Facebook post by Jenni Duncan

John S. Forsee's history of Hesler from 1939 is here (pdf).

Hesler was established on land once owned by Jacob Hesler and named Heslerville. The name Joppa may have been used to refer to the community as well. Hesler was the original seat of the county, from 1819 until 1821, when it was moved to Owenton.

Owenton Bank acquires Hesler Bank, 1927.

 

On the Kentucky, 1920
Somewhere south of Lock #3 at Monterey

Sites on the Owenton Carrollton Road, c. 1925

 

Sweet Owen, from Casa Bianca, 1931	Between Perry Park and Gratz, c. 1923

 

Sweet Owen General Store
From a Facebook post by the Owen County Historical Society

“The people at Eagle Station and throughout that section, and adjacent Owen county are jubilant over the prospect of a bridge over Eagle creek opposite Eagle Station. The bridge will be of great profit to Eagle Station, and furnish a long needed outlet for the people of Dallasburg [Wheatley] section of Owen to reach the railroad with their farm produce.” Owen County Democrat, January 24, 1888

 

Tobacco in Owen County, 1907	In 1931, Kentucky Progress Magazine named George W. Davis one of it's few Kentucky Master Farmers.	At the Owen County Fair, 1931

Kentucky Progress features Owenton sheep farming, 1931.

These three Owen County sheep farming images are all from the
Kentucky Agricultural Extension Service, and are, from left to right,
from 1932, 1937, and 1927.

 

Poplar Grove Baptist Church

A description of Poplar Grove from 1880 is here. 

 

The Poplar Grove to Glencoe Turnpike was authorized in 1875. This image is 1930's.

 

Mussel Shoals Church, a painting by Ron Wainscott
From a Facebook post by Jim Mason

A few words on the background of Muscle Shoals Church

Pleasant Ridge Baptist

These are all from A History of Owen County Baptist Association and Its Churches . All are pdf's.		Beech Grove Baptist	Cedar Hill Baptist
		Concord Baptist	Dallasburg Baptist
Elk Creek Baptist	Greenup Forks Baptist	Harmony Baptist	Long Ridge Baptist
Moxley Baptist	Mt. Hebron Baptist	Mt. Pleasant Baptist	Mt. Zion Baptist
Mussel Shoals Baptist	New Columbus Baptist	Old Cedar Baptist	Pleasant Ridge Baptist
Richland Baptist	Salem Baptist	Southfork Baptist	Squiresville Baptist

Harmony Baptist was once incorporated by the Kentucky Legislature

 

Old Cedar Baptist is on the National Register of Historic Places. Read their application here.

The New Liberty Baptist Church traces its ancestry back to the Church of the Twinns (not a typo), which was originally located near the mouth of the Twins Creeks, which flow into the Kentucky River near Perry Park.  We're talking 1801 here, folks. How far back is 1801? The list of charter members is here.

Natlee Covered Bridge

A little background on the Natlee covered bridge is here.

 

White Burley, Owen County, Kentucky

 

Long Ridge Store, c. 1910

Beechwood School	New Columbus Elementary School

Remember when Perry Park had it's own post office?

Eagle Creek declared navigable. !?!?	Eagle Creek Bridge collapses, 1887
“CHURCH FOR SALE: I will offer at public sale on Saturday, Sept. 24, at 3 o'clock P. M. the church building, benches, chandeliers, pulpit, chairs, and all content of the M. E. Church at Sweet Owen. - J. W. Bentley”  from the Owenton News-Herald of September 19, 1907.	Charles Johnson reminisces about the boats that used to ply  the Kentucky River, and other Kentucky River memories, here.
“'The celebrated living, moving, automatic, self-adjusting, non-digesting, anti-troublesome, self-manipulating, trans-migratory, perfect-acting walnut huller,' in the shape of a cow, owned by M. G. Waldrop, , at this place [Sweet Owen]. The living curiosity has a morbid appetite for the walnut, which she satiates by swallowing them to her heart's content.  Afterward she belches them up, chews off, and swallows the hull, giving her keeper the walnut to crack.” Owen County Democrat, November 26, 1886
Steam mill explodes in Caney precinct; kills two.  Story here.	Mill Explodes in Sweet Owen, story here.
Kentucky Legislature declares Long Ridge dry in 1884.	Ep, west of Hesler, is said to have been named for a woman named Penelope, whose family simply called her Ep.
New Columbus officially created in 1874.	The Ohio River, Owenton, and Lexington Railroad authorized by the legislature in 1873.
Kentucky Legislature revises the New Columbus prohibition law.	Owen County prohibition law gets a do-over, 1888.
“The boiler of the steam mills of Kennedy, Bovin & Co., at Pleasant Home, Owen county, exploded last week. Fortunately no one was hurt” Courier-Journal, October 21, 1869	Harmony is incorporated as a city in 1867. Harmony incorporation repealed in 1886.
An Act to incorporate a toll road from Sanders to Dallasburg (Wheatley) is here.	“The Carrollton Democrat says the Concord Association of Baptists met in the woods on the farm of Josephus Vanderen, about a mile southeast of Dallasburg, on Tuesday last, and after being in session three days adjourned, Thursday evening, to meet again at Muscle Shoals, Owen County,in August, 1872. There was an immense attendance, mostly from Owen, Carroll, Henry and Gallatin counties. The business part of the proceedings was transacted harmoniously, and a number of able sermons were delivered.” Courier-Journal, August 15, 1871
A history of Perry Park is here. (pdf)
Hessler's past detailed here.
Wheatley's Sturgeon Riley gives an account of his education at the Michigan State Auto School, here.
C. F. Pryor writes on the road between Sweet Owen and Long Ridge, since 1883.
“Marion, a landing on the Kentucky River in this county, known to the mailing public as Moxley, named in honor of a much esteemed and good citizen, A. Moxley Riggs, has improved so in the last two years that the place is now familiarly spoken of as a  'town,' and honored as a hamlet.  A. D. Daniel & Co. began selling goods there in the early part of '84, at which time no other business was carried on and only two dwelling houses stood in the vicinity.  Now the place has all the accommodations of a village.  Besides general merchandise, blacksmithing, shoe-making and saddlering are among its accommodations.”  Owen County Democrat, Dec. 10, 1886	“Cincinnati, O., July 28 - A band of Ku-Klux made a raid on the farm of Mrs. Mason Brown, the mother of J. Gratz Brown, in Owen County, Ky., on Friday night, killed Louis Wilson (colored), burned his house down, and damaged other farm property.  The farm contained large growing crops of corn and tobacco, which it will be difficult to harvest in the3 absence of labor driven off by the Ku-Klux.  Other farms were visited by them, and the owners were warned against employing negroes as workmen.  It is said that the Ku-Klux came from Henry County.” Chicago, Tribune, July 29, 1871
A far-fetched tale from Pleasant Home, here.	“About ten days ago a mad dog, in the upper end, tore the dress from a little child of Devon Smith's. His wife washed the dress, her hands being chapped at the time, and in the washing, the saliva was inoculated in her hands, causing great pain. She went to a mad-stone, which stuck for about twelve hours. She then came home, thinking the poison was all out, but had a severe spell on the following night. She started again for the stone this morning.” Courier-Journal, November 4, 1876
“Last Saturday morning, a little three-year-old daughter of J. S. Head, of Owen county, was bitten by a dog supposed to be rabid. A madstone was applied, and the child is said to be doing well.” Courier-Journal, May 16, 1873
And if you need more background on what a madstone is, by all means, brush up on this fascinating but arcane piece of folklore at this site.
News and politics in 1908 from High View Farm, near Sweet Owen, here.	The History of the Squiresville Baptist Church is here. (pdf)

 

Chicago Packer, July 24, 1909	Chicago Packer, April 30, 1910
Chicago Packer, July 23, 1910	Chicago Packer, May 27, 1911
Chicago Packer, August 5, 1911	Chicago Packer, May 27, 1911

 

San Francisco Call, July 29, 1894

Col. William Breckenridge (Wikipedia) comes to Moxley.

 

Wheatley's Compound
 that Great Vegetable Remedy for the cure of Colds and Fevers
( . . . and probably at least 40 proof.)

"Dallasburg – Will McNeel is the most hospitable merchant in town, he keeps
 a bucket of gratuitous lemonade.”   From the Carrollton Democrat, February 4, 1882

“Fletcher Murphy and ‘Yellow Bill Smith’ residents of Dallasburg precinct, in Owen
county, enjoyed a neighborly exchange of shots on Monday last. Smith was well peppered
with shot and Murphy got a rifle ball through the thigh.” Courier-Journal, October 24, 1870.

The Dallasburg Seminary was established in 1851.

 

Courier-Journal, February 1, 1896

Greetings from Wheatley “To Miss Ocie Bilb, Balls Landing, Owen Co. Ky  I am just fine and dandy.  I haven't studied  much since school was out.  Clarence B.”	Greetings from Moxley