Breckinridge County, Kentucky
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| BRECKINRIDGE COUNTY, KENTUCKY |
| AREA COMMUNTIES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT |
| *** BEWLEYVILLE *** |
The physical features of the landscape in the area from old
Bewleyville to Irvington on the east side of Sinking Creek is a
thing of natural beauty.
In traveling east on Highway 60, after going down Sinking Creek
hill, one runs abruptly out of the “Dixon-Baxter” type
soil which covers much of the western coal field. East of
Sinking Creek the soil is of the “Hagerstown Fredrick”
type. This is the same type soil that is found in the
Nashville Basin and runs through the Pennyroyal Region south of
the Dripping Springs Escarpment and on into the Blue Grass
region. In this region is found some of the best farms in
Kentucky and the soil is second only to that of the “Maury-Hagerstown”
found in the inner Blue Grass.
This section of our county, from Webster to Bewleyville is a
series of ridges and valleys with an occasional miniature
mountain standing off to itself for no apparent reason. These
ridges and hills are gently rolling and rarely are they too steep
to cultivate.
One such hill around which is centered some of the early history
of our county is Summer Seat. This is not the same Summer
Seat that belonged to Richard Stevens and upon which was erected
the light tower for directing wayfarers between Hardin’s
Fort and Hines Fort. This Summer Seat lies about four miles
west of Irvington, on the old Edgar Bennett farm. In the
Basin Springs area, this hill or knob rises about one hundred
fifty feet above Sinking Creek and the fields of the valley east
of it. This hill is now covered with cedar trees and is
sometimes referred to as Cedar Hill. This hill overlooks
the valley east and south, Sinking Creek to the north, and east
of the valley rises Pilots Ridge.
Some time before the Civil War, Mr. Edgar Bennett bought the farm
and opened up a rock quarry on Summer Seat. Mr. Bennett was
one of the best stone masons in Kentucky and for a number of
years he shipped stone to many different places. It was he
who quarried out the stone for the foundation of the old
courthouse in Hardinsburg. He also built the jail at
Hartford and the one at Calhoun, and in 1860, he built the old
stone dam across Rough Creek at the Falls of Rough which is as
sturdy today as it was the day it was built. Many of the
bridges in this part of the state were the product of his work.
The old Dents Bridge over Sinking Creek on the old
Hardinsburg-Bewleyville Road was built by Mose Bennett in 1856.
In the early days of the Whitemans History of Breckinridge County
there were several covered bridges, but like everything else they
have all fallen to the sickle of Father Time. Dents Bridge
was the last of these to go that way. And indeed it was a
pity that it was not preserved. At the time that it was
torn down, however, it seemed that everything and everybody was
dead bent to progress, and the Korean War created so much worry
in the minds of the people of the United States that one was
hardly responsible for making such a mistake. At any rate
the last of these representatives of that bygone age was
destroyed. If this old bridge could rehearse the ales of
its history it would be much more interesting reading that this
compilation. There would be stories of joy and sadness and
of the Civil War days when armed soldiers used it to cross the
waters of Sinking Creek. Many of the county’s most
noted citizens passed through this bridge. The Moormans,
Deans and Owens went over this old bridge to Bewleyville from
Planters Hall and Long Lick. Edgar Bennett crossed it going
to Rock Lick to court Miss Kate Lewis. Dave Moorman came
this way from Long Lick courting Miss Della Hardaway. Jess
Moorman and Eli Dean must have used this old bridge going to and
from Mr. John Fishers. The Hardaways, Stiths, Washingtons,
Chicks, Jordans, Bewleys, Bandys, Footes, Hendersons, and many
others traveled over it on their way to the county seat. The
stage from Hardinsburg to Muldraugh dashed through it and John
Wallace’s Circus came to old Bewleyville by way of this old
bridge in the early 70’s. Tons of tobacco were hauled
over it enroute to Stephensport or Cloversport to be shipped to
market.
Wedding parties and honeymooners crossed here in the moonlight,
and funeral processions wound their way up the hill to the old
Dowell Cemetery. These were sad journeys and the old bridge
could tell of many such ones. Perhaps in the stillness of
the night the tired country doctors rode through here on their
missions of mercy. The old Circuit riders used this bridge
to keep a preaching appointment and often times to say some
comforting words over the grave of one who died and was
necessarily buried before a minister could be had. These
old bridges made a place for picnics on Sunday afternoons and a
refuge for travelers when caught in a thundershower or where one
could elude the heat of the noon-day sun. It seems a shame
that just one could not have been preserved, but old bridges,
like old men, must go.
In later years Mr. Edgar Bennett went into business in
Bewleyville. He and his brother, Alonzo, bought and dried
annually about 300,000 lbs. of burley tobacco. This was a
lot of tobacco considering the fact that there were no railroads
or trucks to haul it to market. It had to be transported to
Stephensport and loaded on boats to be shipped to market. Mr.
Bennett married Miss Kate Lewis of Glen Dean. Before his
death, Mr. Bennett hewed his tomb out of stone in his quarry on
Summer Seat and requested that he be buried there. At death
he was put to rest in his own tomb, the spot that he loved best.
In recent years, however, his descendants removed him to the
Irvington Cemetery.
Garard Foote, at the present time, owns the Basin Springs farm
just north of Summer Seat. Garard is the grandson of
Ludwell Foote, who was known as the Sage of Pilots Ridge, for
many years. Ludwell Foote, was the cousin of Governor Foote
of Mississippi, who defeated Jefferson Davis for governor of that
state just before the Civil War. The Fote Family has played
a leading part in the religious and civic affairs of the
Bewleyville community since its beginning. Bewleyville is a
beautiful little community lying in the eastern end of our
county. It is about seven miles south east of Irvington,
near the Meade County line.
Sinking Creek runs through the edge of this community and it is
about three miles from the post office that the old Dents Bridge
stood.
The soil is all fertile and rolling. To those of the flat
level plains or those who are accustomed to the river bottoms
might refer to certain places as being hilly. There are no
swampy places even in the swags, and the soil yields it’s
fertility readily.
The first settlers to come to the Bewleyville community a little
before the turn of the 19th century were the Stiths,
Bewleys, Sanders, Jordans, Hardaways, Blanfords, Jollys, Chicks,
Bandys, and Washingtons.
Like all other frontier communities, Bewleyville’s early
industry was strictly agriculture. Being completely
isolated, all of life’s necessities had to be derived from
the soil or gathered from the forest. A few old spinning
wheels and hand looms may still be found as mute evidence to the
way these pioneer women provided for their families.
Like all the rest of the settlements on the frontier, they saw
the necessity of a church in which they could worship God as they
chose and about which they could centralize the spirit and needs
of the community.
In 1804, Mr. Thomas and Rhoda Stith, William and Nancy Stith,
Richard and Betty Stith, Matthew Sanders, Mrs. Jordan and her two
daughters, Lucy and Katy, Little Dick Stith and his wife and
Betsy Hardaway met at the home of Thomas and Rhoda Stith and laid
the plans for the first Methodist Church ever to be built on
Breckinridge County soil. The Rev. Jesse Walker, a
Methodist Circuit Rider from the Hartford Circuit met with them
and helped them to establish the church. This first old
church was built of logs and stood about four miles south of the
present one. By 1835, this old church had become inadequate
and a new and larger one had been built. This was a frame
building and was moved to within about a quarter of a mile of the
present one. The name was also changed to the “Old
Liberty Church” and it lived up to it’s name, as any
other denomination was permitted to worship there too.
The pastor of this church from 1834 to 1850, Rev. James Taylor,
was truly a great man. He pastured this church,
administered to the spiritual the sixteen years there, he married
eight hundred and twenty four (824) couples. In the minutes
of the church kept by G. A. Foote it is said of him, “He
followed the Lord through the forests of Breckinridge County like
Moses followed the pillars of faire through the wilderness.”
Mr. James Stith and G. A. Foote kept an accurate record of the
happenings in this church since it was first formed in 1804,
until after the turn of the century. A Mr. A. H. Payne now
is continuing the records. I don’t suppose the church
door has ever been opened but what an entry was made in the
records.
Brother Taylor must have found a great deal of satisfaction in
just doing a good job. Other than this inner-self
satisfaction, he received for his services for performing these
824 weddings, anything from a ham, bushel of sweet potatoes, a
frying chicken, to, on one occasion, a red bandana hankerschief
wrapped full of pretty red apples. These early circuit
riders and preachers played more than one role in the community
in which they served. Many times they performed medical
service in the absence of the doctor. They were also a
constant source of information, and carried messages from one
community to the other-indeed it would be difficult to try and
describe the faithfulness and service of these circuit riders and
early frontier pastors.
The fissure that was dividing the North and the South and
eventually led to the Civil War was ever widening. In the
election of 1844, the piercing influence of politics and the
arguments over slavery and states rights penetrated even the
Bewleyville Methodist Church. The congregation was split
into two factions. There was a Mr. Duncan who moved into
the community and joined the church. He was a zealous
church worker and an ardent Yankee. By 1850, he had
succeeded in splitting the church a little less than half in two
and, with the smaller segment of the congregation, started a
church of his own and affiliated with the Baptist. For many
years following the Baptist in that community were referred to as
Duncanites.
The old parent Methodist Church affiliated with the Methodist
Church South. Soon after the Civil War was over and before
the bitterness had completely subsided, the church burned down,
but the general opinion among the members was that it was no
accident. This was in 1870.
Again the members rose to meet the occasion and in 1871, a new
church was erected. It stands today as a symbol of the
devotion of its present and past members, from 1804, until, and
including the present.
The Bewleyville Masonic Lodge was chartered in 1851. The
lodge hall was upstairs over the Baptist Church.
The first Master of the lodge was a Brother John Gaston. Since
that time the lodge has been served by the following Masters.
Past Masters of the Bewleyville Lodge
