Poole lies at the junction of US 41A and
KY 56 and 145, 8 miles north of Dixon.
The brothers, John
H. and James Poole, first cousins to Sam Houston of Texas
fame, arrived here from Nelson County KY in 1826 to settle
on a 2400-acres military grant.
John (1776-1862), a millwright,
built a horse-powered gristmill and brick factory.
The
town was first called Poole's Mill, as was the post office
established on January 29, 1855, with John's son William
W. as postmaster.
The town was later called Pooleville;
it and the post office were renamed Poole in 1894.
Source:
Robert M. Rennick's Kentucky Place Names
copyright 1984 University Press of Kentucky
Read more about the beginnings of
Poole at Betty Sellers' web page The Legend of Poole
Poole, Ky - 1895
Its population, natural advantages, etc.
Editor Bee:
"Poole's Mill," the former name of this enterprising village
was dubbed "Poole" by the reform element in the present administration.
This, however, is not the only thing that has been "cut short," the
last year or so.
Poole is on the Madisonville and Henderson road, ten miles north of Dixon, fourteen
south of Henderson, and eight miles west of Sebree; and has a population of,
perhaps, three hundred.
For the size of the place, and the amount of business transacted, there can not
be found in Kentucky, a village where there is less gossip, less bickering. "Every
one a business, and every one to his business" seems to be a kind of unwritten
law here adhered to by all.
Messrs. Dickey Bros., and D.F. Melton, our dry goods and grocery merchants, do
an immense business in their lines, and when you walk into their business houses,
you think of the "Dry Goods Emporium" advertisements sometimes seen in newspapers.
John LISMAN, whom we will pit against the U.S.A. as a laugher, does the leading
business in the drug and grocery line, he has, however, in R.D. Cates, our P.M.
a keen rival. Matt Abbott, the leading blacksmith, is held down by G.W. Thornberry,
who does a grocery business in connection with his shop work.
Dutch Thornberry and Lige Melton are the tobacconists of the place, each having
purchased about 200,000 pound of tobacco this season.
The Poole's Mill Patent Roller Mill, a product of "Wheeler enthusiasm," and the
pride of this section of the country, has an immense local custom, and does a
fair foreign business.
But we do not live by bread alone. The mutual growth of our young is in charge
of Prof. I.G. NANCE, Principal of Poole's Mill Academy. One of the Academy's
most successful terms closed last Friday. This is one of the few schools in Kentucky
that has a Republican Faculty.
Drs. Thornberry and Boone look after the needs of the sick and register the births,
deaths, etc.
We have two churches occupied by four denominations (no friction here, either),
namely, the General Baptist, preacher in charge, Wm. Stone; Missionary Baptist,
Elder Sisk; Methodist South, Rev. Duvall; Christian, Elder Jefferies.
There has been quite an emmigration from here to Livingston County recently.
Two weeks ago, Will Allen and family moved there. Last week, Frank Stephens and
family moved, and Lynn Allen has bought a farm over there but will not move there
until fall. Cheap land is inducement, Mr. Stephens having bought 195 acres of
good land for $1,800.
This place, Bro. Black, is the Gibraltar of Webster county Republicanism.
This was the home, it will be remembered, of Col. James M. Poole, who was assassinated
in Henderson in 1864. We love our country, that is why we cling to Republican
principles, and in the coming contest we are for President, Benjamin HARRISON,
for Governor of Kentucky, William O. Bradley; and for Representative in the next
Legislature any Republican who wants the honor of being a member from Webster
county of the first Republican Legislature in Kentucky since the "war."
There was a real, live Democrat in this place some time ago. He looked awful
lonesome. His kind are so few, of late. He was a candidate for the Democratic
nomination for the Democratic nomination for Representative, and was interviewing
Democrats along that line, when he could find any. MUCK
(Source: Earlington Bee, Thur., May 9, 1895)
Earlington Bee's 1895 article about Poole, transcribed by Phil
Brown
