Appalachian Community Histories – Slemp, Perry County: Owens Branch, Coal Land, and a Community in the Records
Slemp is one of those Perry County communities whose history is best found by following the practical records of a place: the post office, the creek, the road, the coal deeds, the mine records, the census schedules, and the families who lived there. It does not appear to have left behind a single long town history. Instead, Slemp comes into view through a chain of smaller but strong sources that place it on KY 699, at the mouth of Owens Branch on Leatherwood Creek, in the southeastern part of Perry County. Robert M. Rennick’s Perry County post office research, preserved through Morehead State University’s ScholarWorks and a reproduced Perry County post office listing, identifies Slemp’s post office as established June 26, 1905, with Henry Singleton as postmaster, and says the office was named for C. Bascom Slemp of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, described there as an early coal buyer.
A post office name on Leatherwood Creek
The post office is the clearest starting point for Slemp because it fixes both the name and the location. The reproduced Rennick entry places the Slemp post office “on Ky. 699 at the mouth of Owens Branch on Leatherwood Creek.” That kind of postal source matters in Appalachian community history because many small places were first recognized publicly through their mail office rather than through incorporation, newspapers, or town plats. Slemp’s post office gave a name to a creekside settlement that otherwise might have been described only by family names, branch names, or the larger Leatherwood area.
The modern postal record keeps that old location meaningful. The U.S. Postal Service lists the Slemp Post Office at 45 Owens Branch Road, Slemp, Kentucky 41763. The address is not just a modern convenience. It preserves the same geography that appears in the older post office record: Owens Branch, Leatherwood Creek, KY 699, and the name Slemp still tied together in one place.
Perry County’s official community list also includes Slemp among its named communities, placing it in the same county landscape as Leatherwood, Daisy, Delphia, Cornettsville, Viper, Tilford, and other nearby places. That matters because Slemp is not simply a postal label or a map point. It remains part of Perry County’s recognized community geography.
The man behind the name
The name Slemp points across the state line into southwest Virginia. C. Bascom Slemp, whose full name was Campbell Bascom Slemp, was born in Lee County, Virginia, studied at Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, practiced law in Big Stone Gap, served in Congress from Virginia, and later became secretary to President Calvin Coolidge. The U.S. House of Representatives’ official biography records his long public career, including his service in Congress from 1907 to 1923 and his White House service from 1923 to 1925.
But the reason his name appears in Perry County is not mainly political. It is tied to coal land. Kentucky River Properties’ corporate history says C. Bascom Slemp of Big Stone Gap began buying land in the name of Kentucky Coal Land Company and that the name later changed to Slemp Coal Company. The same history explains that these and other landholding efforts were folded into the creation of Kentucky River Coal Corporation in 1915.
That larger corporate story is important for Slemp because it shows how a small Perry County place could carry the name of a Virginia lawyer, politician, and coal investor. The place name was not random. It came from the period when outside capital, mineral buyers, land agents, and local landowners were reshaping eastern Kentucky’s coalfield landscape.
A place fixed by roads, branches, and maps
The land around Slemp is mountain country, and the maps help explain why the community formed where it did. The 1954 USGS Tilford, Kentucky topographic quadrangle shows Slemp in the Leatherwood Creek drainage, with nearby branch roads, schools, cemeteries, and neighboring communities spread through narrow valleys and steep ridges. The map visually confirms the kind of settlement pattern common in Perry County: homes and community points following creek bottoms, while ridges rise quickly above them.
USGS historical maps are especially useful for small communities because they preserve place names, schools, roads, streams, and terrain that may not appear in narrative histories. The U.S. Geological Survey explains that its Historical Topographic Map Collection contains USGS maps published from 1884 to 2006, while the University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Map Collection notes that its Kentucky historical topographic maps were published by the USGS and are public domain.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Perry County map gives the modern road frame. Its 2025 Perry County State Primary Road System map identifies the official road network and notes that road centerlines were collected with GPS technology. For Slemp, that modern mapping matters because KY 699 remains the key road corridor connecting the community to the wider Leatherwood and Cornettsville area.
Coal land and the Slemp Coal Company trail
Slemp’s name cannot be separated from the coal land business. Kentucky River Properties’ history describes several companies buying mineral and land rights in eastern Kentucky before the creation of Kentucky River Coal Corporation. In that story, Slemp’s Kentucky Coal Land Company became Slemp Coal Company, and those holdings became part of the larger corporate consolidation that helped define the Hazard coalfield.
A National Register nomination for the Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park gives another strong secondary source for C. Bascom Slemp’s coal business background. It states that Slemp was speculating in Kentucky coal lands as early as 1892, formed Kentucky Coal Land Company in 1902, and that the Kentucky River Coal Corporation became a dominant landholding company in the Hazard coalfield of Perry and Letcher counties.
Court records also show how Slemp Coal Company appears in the mineral-title trail. In Kentucky River Coal Corp. v. Grigsby, decided in 1954, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky described a Lotts Creek boundary dispute and noted that on February 19, 1906, B. F. Grigsby Jr. conveyed to Slemp Coal Company the minerals under a tract of about 100 acres. That case was not about the Slemp community itself, but it shows the kind of early twentieth-century mineral conveyance that made Slemp Coal Company part of Perry County’s land record.
For a full Slemp history, the Perry County deed books and mineral deed records would be essential. Names to follow include Slemp Coal Company, Kentucky Coal Land Company, Kentucky River Coal Corporation, C. Bascom Slemp, Henry Singleton, Leatherwood Creek, Owens Branch, Beech Fork, and KY 699. The online sources make the outline visible, but the courthouse records would likely hold the most detailed story.
Family life in the Slemp and Leatherwood area
The best small window into everyday life connected directly to Slemp comes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School archives. The student record for Margie Sturgill says she was born in Slemp, Perry County, Kentucky, on January 1, 1924. Her 1939 application places her in a family of nine children and connects her life to nearby Delphia, farming, coal loading, lumber work, local schools, household chores, and rural education.
The details in that record are valuable because they show what a place like Slemp meant beyond coal companies and maps. Margie’s father, Riley Sturgill, worked on a rented farm and also as a coal loader and lumber company employee. The family lived in a three-bedroom log house heated by a fireplace and lit by kerosene lamps, with water from a well. Margie’s home responsibilities included cleaning, cooking, and caring for children. Those details make Slemp part of a broader Perry County pattern where families often lived between farm labor, coal labor, timber work, and schooling.
Census schedules are another important route into this community history. The National Archives and Census Bureau explain that historical census records are released after 72 years and that the 1950 census includes names, ages, relationships, birthplaces, and employment information. For Slemp and the surrounding Leatherwood area, the 1930, 1940, and 1950 schedules can help reconstruct households, occupations, school attendance, and the way residents identified nearby places.
Later mining around Slemp
Slemp’s coal story did not end with early land purchases. Later official mining records continue to place coal operations near the community. The Kentucky Mine Mapping Information System lists Mine No. 75, State File Number 18208, with Blue Diamond Mining LLC as the company, Slemp as the nearest town, Perry County as the county, Hazard No. 4 as the seam, Federal ID 15-17478, permit number 897-5078, and inactive status.
Federal Register records also show Blue Diamond Coal Company using a Slemp mailing address in connection with Mine No. 75 and other mine-safety modification petitions. A 2010 Federal Register entry lists Blue Diamond Coal Company at P.O. Box 47, Slemp, Kentucky 41763, and identifies Mine No. 75, MSHA ID 15-17478, as located in Perry County.
The most sobering later source is a federal mine accident report. MSHA’s report for January 21, 2000, states that a fatal machinery accident occurred at Leeco Inc.’s No. 74 mine near Slemp, Perry County, Kentucky. Eddie Harris, a forty-four-year-old continuous mining machine operator with twenty-five years of experience, was killed after contact with the rotating cutter head of a continuous mining machine. MSHA’s report identified the No. 74 mine as located in Slemp, operated by Leeco Inc., a subsidiary of James River Coal Company, and opened into the Hazard No. 4 seam.
That report is difficult but important. It places Slemp in the human history of modern mining, not only in the corporate history of coal land. It reminds the reader that coalfield communities are not just made of mineral titles, company names, and permit numbers. They are also made of work, risk, memory, and loss.
Cemeteries and community memory
Cemetery records are not always primary sources by themselves, but they are useful guides for locating family clusters and community memory. Find a Grave lists Beechfork Cemetery in Slemp and Ison Cemetery in Slemp, while a Perry County cemetery listing also identifies several Slemp cemetery records, including Beechfork, Cornett family, Ed Shepherd, Griffith, Ison, John M. Cornett, and Johnson Cemetery entries. These leads should be checked against death certificates, funeral home records, obituaries, and cemetery surveys whenever possible.
Cemeteries matter for Slemp because they are often the most durable records of a small Appalachian place. Post offices close, mines change names, companies merge, and roads are renumbered, but family cemeteries keep the local names on the ground.
Why Slemp still matters
Slemp’s history is a good example of how Appalachian community history often has to be reconstructed. The story does not come from one source. It comes from a post office listing, a federal map, a county road map, a student application, corporate land histories, mine reports, court cases, cemetery leads, and census records. Put together, those sources show Slemp as a real Perry County place shaped by Leatherwood Creek geography, early twentieth-century coal investment, family labor, rural schooling, and later mining operations.
The name may have come from C. Bascom Slemp, but the community’s history belongs to the people who lived along Owens Branch, Leatherwood Creek, Beech Fork, and the roads around KY 699. Its record is scattered, but not lost.
Sources & Further Reading
Rennick, Robert M. “Perry County: Post Offices.” Morehead State University ScholarWorks, 2000. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/273/
Genealogy Trails. “Post Offices, Perry County, KY.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://genealogytrails.com/ken/perry/post_offices.html
United States Postal Service. “Slemp Post Office.” USPS Locations. Accessed May 18, 2026. https://tools.usps.com/locations/details/1381828
United States Geological Survey. Tilford, Kentucky, 7.5-Minute Topographic Quadrangle. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, 1954. https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/HistoricalTopo/PDF/KY/24000/KY_Tilford_804030_1954_24000_geo.pdf
United States Geological Survey. “Historical Topographic Maps: Preserving the Past.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Perry County State Primary Road System Map. Revised February 2025. https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/SPRS%20Maps/Perry.pdf
Perry County, Kentucky. “Communities.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/things-to-do/Pages/Communities.aspx
Perry County, Kentucky. “About Perry County.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/Pages/about.aspx
Perry County, Kentucky. “About Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perrycountyky.gov/about-perry-county/
United States House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. “Slemp, Campbell Bascom.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/21745
Kentucky River Properties. “History.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://krpky.com/company/history/
Virginia Department of Historic Resources. “Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park, National Register of Historic Places Nomination.” 2002. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/101-0002_SW_VA_Museum_Historical_State_Park_2002_NRHP_nomination.pdf
Stephens, Bruce. Kentucky River Coal Corporation: An Eastern Kentucky Land Company. Lexington, KY: JIL Office Systems, 1998. https://books.google.com/books/about/Kentucky_River_Coal_Corporation.html?id=9tAdAQAAMAAJ
Kentucky River Coal Corp. v. Grigsby, 263 S.W.2d 926. Kentucky Court of Appeals, 1954. https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/59149fc2add7b0493466ebc9
Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections. “Margie Sturgill Student.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://pinemountainsettlement.net/biography-a-z/margie-sturgill-2/
National Archives and Records Administration. “1950 Census Records.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950
United States Census Bureau. “National Archives Releases 1950 Census Records.” April 1, 2022. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/04/national-archives-releases-1950-census-records.html
FamilySearch. “Perry County, Kentucky Genealogy.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Perry_County%2C_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch Catalog. “Land Records, 1821–1964, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/190103
KYGenWeb. “Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/perry/
KYGenWeb. “Perry County Census.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/perry/census/
Perry County Historical Society. “Perry County History.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perrycountyhistoricalsociety.com/index/archives-2/perry-county-history/
Kentucky Mine Mapping Information System. “Mine Report, State File Number 18208, Mine No. 75.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://minemaps.ky.gov/maps/minereport?sfn=18208
Kentucky Mine Mapping Information System. “Mine/Map Search.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.minemaps.ky.gov/Maps/MineSearch
Mine Safety and Health Administration. “Coal Mine Fatal Accident Report for Coal Fatal #1, 2000: No. 74 Mine, Leeco, Inc., Slemp, Perry County, Kentucky.” January 21, 2000. https://arlweb.msha.gov/FATALS/2000/FTL00c01.htm
Federal Register. “Petitions for Modification.” March 17, 2010. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2010/03/17/2010-5786/petitions-for-modification
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. “2000 Annual Report.” October 12, 2001. https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Mining/Mine-Safety/safety-inspections-and-licensing/Archived_Annual_Reports/2000%20Annual%20Report.pdf
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. “Annual Reports.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Mining/Mine-Safety/safety-inspections-and-licensing/Pages/annual-reports.aspx
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. “Archived Annual Reports.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Mining/Mine-Safety/safety-inspections-and-licensing/Pages/Archived_Annual_Reports.aspx
Johnston, J. E., P. T. Stafford, and S. W. Welch. Preliminary Coal Map of the Cornettsville Quadrangle, Perry, Knott, Letcher, Harlan, and Leslie Counties, Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey Coal Map 22, 1955. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/coal22
Stafford, P. T., and K. Englund. Principal Coal Beds in the Buckhorn Quadrangle, Breathitt, Leslie, and Perry Counties, Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey Coal Map 15, 1953. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/coal15
Hower, James C., et al. “Geochemistry of the Leatherwood Coal in Eastern Kentucky.” U.S. Geological Survey Data Release, March 13, 2023. https://www.usgs.gov/data/geochemistry-leatherwood-coal-eastern-kentucky
Kentucky Geological Survey. Perry County, Kentucky. Map and Chart Series. Lexington: University of Kentucky, Kentucky Geological Survey. https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/mc164_12.pdf
Kentucky Geological Survey. Mineral and Fuel Resources Map of Kentucky. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1998. https://www.uky.edu/KGS/gis/minmap.pdf
United States Geological Survey. “Monitoring Location Leatherwood Creek at Daisy, KY, USGS 03277400.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03277400/
Water Quality Portal. “Leatherwood Creek at Cornettsville, KY, USGS 03277410.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.waterqualitydata.us/provider/NWIS/USGS-KY/USGS-03277410/
Find a Grave. “Beechfork Cemetery, Slemp, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2520398/beechfork-cemetery
La Posta Publications. “A Journal of American Postal History.” La Posta 34, no. 3. https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP34-3.pdf
Author Note: Slemp is one of those Perry County places whose history survives in pieces, through post office records, maps, coal deeds, mine reports, and family records. I wanted to pull those pieces together because small communities like Slemp often explain the larger Appalachian coalfield better than a big city ever could.