Appalachian Community Histories – Science Hill, Pulaski County: A History of Railroads, Farming, and Community Life
A few miles north of Somerset, in Pulaski County, Kentucky, lies Science Hill, a community whose history stretches from nineteenth-century farming and country stores to the arrival of the railroad, the establishment of an independent school, and the development of a small but enduring town. Unlike many Appalachian communities that developed around coal mines or timber operations, Science Hill grew as an agricultural trading center before the railroad connected its residents to larger markets throughout Kentucky and the South.
The town’s unusual name has inspired several explanations, most involving a man named Bobbitt who reportedly visited the area to study its rocks. By the time Science Hill was incorporated in 1882, the community already had a post office and an established commercial identity, while the railroad was beginning to transform transportation and trade in northern Pulaski County.
Much of Science Hill’s history remains visible in photographs, family recollections, government records, and the railroad tracks that still run through the community. Its story is one of changing transportation, local education, religious life, and the generations of residents who turned a rural settlement into an incorporated Kentucky town.
Before Science Hill: The Early Settlement
The land around Science Hill was settled and cultivated before the community acquired its present name. During the nineteenth century, farms in northern Pulaski County produced grain and livestock, and rural stores and mills provided essential services to families who otherwise had to travel considerable distances to reach larger commercial centers.
Historian Robert M. Rennick, writing in his study The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky, established that the Science Hill area already contained a flour mill and served as an agricultural trading center when its post office opened in 1874. This suggests that the community’s commercial foundations preceded both its municipal incorporation and the completion of the railroad that would later become one of its defining features.
There is also an intriguing possibility that Science Hill was connected to an earlier community known as Dobbsville. Rennick documented a Dobbsville post office that operated from January 2, 1855, until April 15, 1859, and was named for its first postmaster, William F. Dobbs. Some accounts have suggested that Dobbsville preceded the Science Hill post office, although Rennick could not establish its exact location. Without additional evidence from early postal records, deeds, or contemporary maps, Dobbsville cannot confidently be identified as the original name of Science Hill.
Nevertheless, the earlier post office provides evidence of the postal network developing across Pulaski County during the decades before the Civil War. Small offices frequently operated from country stores or private homes, connecting scattered agricultural communities to county seats and distant markets.
Science Hill would eventually become one of the communities that retained its postal identity as roads, railroads, and commercial activity changed the geography of the county.
William Bobbitt, William Gragg, and the Naming of Science Hill
The most familiar explanation for the name Science Hill involves William J. Bobbitt, a man described in local histories as a scientist or geologist who spent time in the area collecting and examining rocks. According to this tradition, Bobbitt’s interest in the natural sciences inspired the name of the settlement.
The City of Science Hill’s historical account credits William J. Bobbitt with naming the community and identifies William B. Gragg as the individual associated with establishing its post office in 1874. Rennick’s postal research likewise attributes the establishment of the Science Hill office to Gragg and supplies a precise opening date of June 19, 1874.
The Science Hill Independent School District preserves a somewhat different version of the story. Its official history identifies Willie Bobbitt as the person who established the post office in 1874 and explains that he selected the name because he enjoyed studying science. While the different accounts agree on the importance of Bobbitt to the town’s naming, they do not agree on his precise role in the establishment of the post office.
A locally preserved family history adds another detail, recalling that the post office originally operated inside a mercantile store owned by Gragg before moving to another store operated by W. J. Goodwin. The same account describes mail traveling by stagecoach from Somerset through Science Hill toward Stanford, illustrating how rural postal service connected the community to surrounding towns before rail transportation became firmly established. These details are preserved through family recollection rather than confirmed nineteenth-century postal registers.
The original federal appointment registers preserved by the National Archives offer a means of investigating these competing accounts. Until the relevant entries are examined, the distinction between the person credited with naming Science Hill and the person officially appointed to operate its post office should be maintained.
Whatever the exact circumstances of its naming, Science Hill had acquired an identity of its own by the early 1880s. On April 8, 1882, the settlement was officially incorporated, giving municipal recognition to a community that had developed around its stores, agricultural trade, and growing transportation network.
The Cincinnati Southern Railroad and the Growth of Science Hill
The arrival of the railroad was one of the most significant developments in Science Hill’s history. During the 1870s, construction of the Cincinnati Southern Railway began transforming the transportation network of south-central Kentucky, providing a direct connection between Cincinnati and the rapidly developing markets of the South.
Construction and operations advanced along completed portions of the railway during 1877. The entire route between Cincinnati and Chattanooga was completed sufficiently for the first through freight train to make its journey on February 21, 1880, followed by the first through passenger train on March 8. The line connected communities in Pulaski County to a transportation system that reached far beyond the traditional wagon roads of the region.
For Science Hill, the railroad offered a means of transporting agricultural products and receiving manufactured goods while creating employment associated with construction, maintenance, and rail operations. The settlement’s location on the line encouraged further commercial development and strengthened its relationship with Somerset to the south and other railroad communities to the north.
A local family history recalls residents cutting timber for the railroad and describes a quarry at nearby Holtzclaw Knob, where Walter Lay operated a rock quarry that supplied railroad ballast. According to that account, a rail spur connected the quarry to the Science Hill depot, allowing stone to be transported for railway use. Although the precise dates of the quarry’s operations require further documentation, the recollection preserves an example of how railroad construction and maintenance could generate local employment.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Science Hill had become an established railroad community. Rennick’s postal history reproduces a historical image identified as Science Hill in 1898, offering a glimpse of the settlement during the period when railroad transportation was reshaping the county’s economy.
The importance of the railroad continued well into the twentieth century. A photograph preserved in the Pulaski County Public Library’s Jim Slaughter Photography Collection documents the Southern Railroad depot at Science Hill in 1967, providing a visual record of the station and its surroundings nearly ninety years after the railway’s completion.
The railroad would remain one of the town’s most recognizable features, influencing the location of its businesses, streets, and residential neighborhoods for generations.
Agriculture, Mills, and the Business District
Although the railroad brought new commercial opportunities to Science Hill, agriculture remained central to the economy of the surrounding countryside. Local family recollections describe farmers cultivating wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat, crops that could support household consumption as well as commercial milling and trade.
The same account identifies the Science Hill Milling Company, a blacksmith shop on Stanford Street, and a local hotel among the businesses associated with the town. Together with its general stores and post office, these establishments made Science Hill a service center for nearby farming families.
The flour mill documented in Rennick’s history indicates that agricultural processing was already established by the time the post office opened in 1874. The later construction of the railroad created additional opportunities for farmers and merchants by linking them to regional markets.
Over time, agricultural practices changed. Local recollections describe a gradual transition from grain production toward tobacco cultivation and livestock raising, particularly beef and dairy cattle. These developments reflected the changing agricultural economy of Pulaski County, where traditional farming continued alongside the growth of nearby Somerset and its expanding employment opportunities.
The commercial landscape of Science Hill also changed as automobiles and improved highways increasingly replaced the railroad as the primary means of local travel. Businesses developed beyond the original railroad-centered settlement, and residents gained easier access to employment, shopping, and services in Somerset.
Nevertheless, the town’s history as a trading center remained part of its identity. Its early growth had been shaped by the needs of surrounding farms, the movement of agricultural products, and the small businesses that served generations of local families.
The Founding of Science Hill School
Education became another defining institution in Science Hill during the closing years of the nineteenth century. The Science Hill Independent School District traces its beginnings to 1894, when classes reportedly met in a small, one-room log building situated in a field just outside the town limits.
According to the district’s historical account, the original classroom was furnished with benches made from split logs, reflecting the modest resources available to the community’s earliest documented school. The school began in an era when rural Kentucky communities often relied on small local buildings and limited educational funding to provide instruction for their children.
There is a minor discrepancy concerning the institution’s founding date. While the school district identifies 1894 as the beginning of its operations, the City of Science Hill’s historical account gives 1895. Both accounts establish that the school developed during the final decade of the nineteenth century, although the surviving institutional histories do not fully explain the difference.
A locally preserved history also describes an early school building on Stanford Street and recalls the expansion of educational facilities in 1895, allowing instruction to extend through the first two years of high school. These recollections illustrate the community’s efforts to provide educational opportunities beyond elementary instruction as Science Hill developed.
By the early twentieth century, the school had become a prominent part of community life. A historical photograph preserved by the Pulaski County Historical Society shows Science Hill High School in 1923, documenting the institution during a period when the town had already developed a long-standing educational tradition.
Another photograph from the same collection depicts a Science Hill basketball team in 1917. Together, the images preserve evidence of school life beyond the classroom and illustrate the place of organized athletics in the community during the early decades of the twentieth century.
Science Hill’s educational tradition continued through its independent school district, which developed into a public institution serving children from preschool through the eighth grade. The district remains an important part of the town’s identity, maintaining a local educational institution whose origins stretch back more than a century.
Churches and Religious Life in Science Hill
Churches were also central to the development of Science Hill and the surrounding countryside, providing places of worship, social gatherings, and community organization for families living in northern Pulaski County.
One of the area’s historical religious institutions was Bethlehem United Baptist Church. A locally produced history titled A Brief History of the Bethlehem United Baptist Church, Science Hill, Ky., 1839–1982 preserves a record of the congregation’s past. Its publication is an important resource for investigating the religious history of the community, although the complete text would need to be consulted to establish particular events and organizational dates.
Another important institution was the Science Hill Church of the Nazarene. A family history preserved by descendants of the Lay family recalls that the congregation was organized in 1916 through the union of worshippers associated with a tabernacle in Norwood and another on Stanford Street.
The account describes construction beginning around 1915, with local residents contributing labor and resources to establish a permanent place of worship. One particularly memorable recollection involves roof shingles being transported by a wagon pulled by a goat and the sale of mayapple roots to help finance construction. Such details, preserved through family memory, offer a glimpse of the methods through which rural congregations gathered resources for their churches.
According to the same account, the congregation constructed a new brick building in 1958 and reused pews from its earlier church. The preservation of those furnishings connected the newer building to the congregation’s original place of worship and the families who had helped establish it.
Other denominations were also represented in the community. A photograph taken by Jim Slaughter in 1977 documents the Science Hill Methodist Church, preserving an image of another local religious institution during the later twentieth century.
The histories of these churches provide another means of understanding Science Hill beyond its railroad and commercial development. Their records, photographs, and family recollections help preserve the relationships between the generations who lived, worshipped, and raised families in the community.
Science Hill in the Twentieth Century
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Science Hill had developed into an established incorporated community, although its population remained relatively small.
The federal census recorded 311 residents in 1900, followed by 257 in 1910 and 331 in 1920. The increase between 1910 and 1920 suggests that the town experienced renewed population growth during the second decade of the century, even as its economy remained closely connected to the surrounding agricultural region.
During the following decades, the town continued to develop new businesses and services while maintaining its established institutions. Local family recollections describe a telephone exchange that originally operated from a private residence, using party lines and combinations of long and short rings to connect subscribers. According to this account, the exchange moved between several homes before closing during the 1960s, reflecting the transition from locally operated telephone systems to more modern communications infrastructure.
Historical photographs preserved by the Pulaski County Public Library provide additional evidence of commercial development during the later twentieth century. On December 10, 1970, photographer Jim Slaughter documented the Valley View Shopping Center in Science Hill, preserving an image of the town’s changing retail environment.
Another photograph taken on February 18, 1971, documents USS Fertilizer, a local business whose presence reflected the continuing importance of agriculture to the surrounding area. These images reveal a community that was adapting to automobile-oriented commerce while retaining its relationship with the farms and families of northern Pulaski County.
The town’s postal facilities also changed during this period. A family history recalls the construction of a brick post office in 1976, replacing the earlier arrangement in which postal services had been provided through local mercantile establishments.
By 2000, Science Hill’s population had reached 634 residents, while the 2010 census recorded 693. The 2020 United States Census counted 657 residents and 304 housing units within the incorporated city, demonstrating the town’s continued presence as a small residential community north of Somerset.
The Railroad That Still Divides the Town
Although the railroad helped establish Science Hill as a commercial community during the nineteenth century, its physical presence eventually created new challenges as the town developed around the tracks.
The railway runs through the community, separating portions of Science Hill on its eastern and western sides. As automobiles became the dominant form of local transportation, railroad crossings increasingly influenced traffic movement, emergency access, and the daily routines of residents.
A Kentucky Transportation Cabinet study prepared around 2018 examined these challenges, identifying the railroad as a barrier to reliable transportation between the two sides of town. At the time of the study, approximately sixty trains used the route each day, with individual trains capable of blocking local crossings for as long as twelve minutes. These delays affected school buses, emergency responders, and other motorists who relied on the crossings to travel through Science Hill.
The study considered several possible alternatives for improving access across the tracks, illustrating how the transportation system that had once encouraged the town’s growth continued to shape its development more than a century later.
Few features of Science Hill’s landscape demonstrate the relationship between its past and present as clearly as the railroad. The same transportation corridor that helped establish its commercial identity in the nineteenth century remained central to local planning and everyday life in the twenty-first.
Preserving the History of Science Hill
Much of Science Hill’s history survives through documents and photographs preserved by local families, the Pulaski County Historical Society, and the Pulaski County Public Library. The library’s extensive digital archives contain historical newspapers, census records, deeds, court records, wills, tax lists, and other materials that can help reconstruct the development of the town and the lives of its residents.
The historical photographs are particularly valuable. Images of the 1917 basketball team, the 1923 high school, the Southern Railroad depot in 1967, and businesses photographed during the 1970s preserve scenes from different generations of community life. They provide visual evidence of buildings, institutions, and commercial activities that might otherwise survive only through written descriptions.
Additional records held by the National Archives, the Kentucky Historical Society, and Morehead State University offer opportunities to investigate unanswered questions about the community’s early history. The original postmaster appointment registers could clarify the roles of William B. Gragg and William J. Bobbitt, while early county deeds and maps may help establish the precise locations of the first mills, stores, and post offices.
These records are especially important for distinguishing between documented events and the family traditions that have preserved much of Science Hill’s early history.
The Legacy of Science Hill
Science Hill’s history demonstrates how a relatively small Appalachian community could develop around agriculture, local commerce, education, and transportation without becoming a major industrial center. Its earliest documented commercial activity involved a flour mill and agricultural trade, while the establishment of its post office and the arrival of the railroad helped connect the settlement to the wider world.
The incorporation of Science Hill in 1882 gave the community a municipal identity, while its school and churches became institutions through which residents organized much of their social and religious lives. As the twentieth century progressed, the town adapted to changing agricultural practices, improved highways, new businesses, and the growing influence of nearby Somerset.
Today, the railroad, historical photographs, surviving community institutions, and records of early local families continue to connect Science Hill to its past. The town’s unusual name remains a reminder of its nineteenth-century beginnings, while its history illustrates the importance of the small trading communities that helped shape Pulaski County.
Science Hill was never among Kentucky’s largest towns, but its history belongs to a much broader story of rural communities whose identities were formed through the combined influence of farms, railroads, schools, churches, and the people who sustained them.
Sources & Further Reading
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky.” Part I. La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38 (June–July 2007). https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-3.pdf.
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky.” Part II. La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38 (August–September 2007). https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-4.pdf.
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x1s3p.
Science Hill Independent School District. “About Us.” Accessed September 25, 2026. https://www.sciencehill.kyschools.us/aboutus.
City of Science Hill. “Our City History.” Accessed September 25, 2026. https://citysciencehill.com/commissioners.html.
Pulaski County Public Library. Pulaski County Public Library Digital Archives. Accessed September 25, 2026. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/.
Pulaski County Public Library. “Science Hill High School, 1923.” Pulaski County Historical Society Photograph Collection. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/53395502644.
Pulaski County Public Library. “Science Hill Basketball Team, 1917.” Pulaski County Historical Society Photograph Collection. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/53366423969.
Pulaski County Public Library. “Science Hill Railroad Depot, 1967.” Historical photograph. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/35958683370.
Pulaski County Public Library. “Southern Railroad Wreck at Science Hill.” Jim Slaughter Photography Collection. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/53250599101.
Pulaski County Public Library. “Science Hill Methodist Church, 1977.” Historical photograph. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/52961413442/.
Pulaski County Public Library. “Valley View Shopping Center, December 10, 1970.” Jim Slaughter Photography Collection. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/30156553475.
Pulaski County Public Library. “USS Fertilizer, February 18, 1971.” Jim Slaughter Photography Collection. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcplphotos/31847681674.
United States Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920. Population: Kentucky. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1921. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1920/bulletins/demographics/population-ky-number-of-inhabitants.pdf.
United States Census Bureau. “Kentucky Incorporated Places, 2020.” TIGERweb Geographic Data. https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerwebmain/Files/acs26/tigerweb_acs26_incplace_2020_tab20_ky.html.
United States Geological Survey. Science Hill, Kentucky. 7.5-Minute Topographic Quadrangle. 1954. https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/HistoricalTopo/PDF/KY/24000/KY_Science%20Hill_709710_1954_24000_geo.pdf.
Rand McNally and Company. Pulaski County, Kentucky. Map. 1911. https://thegenealogyhound.com/maps/kentucky-maps/KY-Pulaski-County-Kentucky-1911-Rand-McNally-map-Somerset-Burnside-Science-Hill.html.
National Archives and Records Administration. “Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–1971.” Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M841. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971.html.
National Archives and Records Administration. “Post Office Records.” Record Group 28. Includes post office site location reports, 1837–1950. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices.
Morehead State University. “Pulaski County: Post Offices & Place Names.” County Histories of Kentucky. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/284/.
Morehead State University. “Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection.” ScholarWorks at Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/.
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky’s Independent School Districts: A Primer. Research Report No. 415. Frankfort: Legislative Research Commission, 2015. https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/lrc/publications/ResearchReports/RR415.pdf.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “Science Hill Railroad Crossing Study.” District Eight. https://transportation.ky.gov/DistrictEight/Pages/Science-Hill-Railroad-Crossing-Study.aspx.
Cincinnati Southern Railway Trust. “History.” Accessed September 25, 2026. https://thecsrt.org/history/.
“Science Hill History.” Lay family history and recollections. Accessed September 25, 2026. https://mattfedder.com/mirror/LooneyCuckoo/family/lay-sciencehillhistory.html.
Kentucky Heritage Council. “Historic Resource Survey: Inventory and Data Requests.” Accessed September 25, 2026. https://heritage.ky.gov/historic-places/resources-survey/Pages/Inventory-and-Data-Requests.aspx.
Kentucky Historical Society. “Digital Collections.” Accessed September 25, 2026. https://kyhistory.com/digital/about.
Library of Congress. “Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.” https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/.
United States Geological Survey. “Historical Topographic Map Explorer.” https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/.
Author Note: Science Hill’s history reminds us that Appalachia was shaped not only by its coalfields and larger cities, but also by the small agricultural and railroad communities that connected generations of families. If you have photographs, family records, school memories, or additional information about Science Hill, I encourage you to share them so that more of this community’s history can be preserved.