Appalachian Community Histories – Shafter, Pulaski County: A Country Post Office, Religious Revivals, and Life in the Early 1900s
In the early twentieth century, Shafter was a small farming community in southern Pulaski County, Kentucky, where churches, family gatherings, and agricultural work shaped the rhythm of everyday life. Its residents traveled between neighboring settlements, worked their farms, attended religious revivals, and sometimes journeyed hundreds of miles to find seasonal employment. Although Shafter never developed into a major town, its history survives in an unusually rich collection of newspaper reports, early maps, postal records, and firsthand accounts written by local ministers.
The Somerset Journal regularly published news from Shafter during the years following World War I, recording everything from weddings and property transactions to serious illnesses and the arrival of returning workers. Meanwhile, the Herald of Holiness, the official publication of the Church of the Nazarene, documented the construction of a church in 1915 and the congregation’s subsequent struggles and revivals. Together, these sources preserve the history of a rural community whose residents maintained connections across Pulaski County and well beyond Kentucky.
Shafter and the Early Settlement of Southern Pulaski County
The history of Shafter is closely connected to the development of the farming communities surrounding Somerset, Delmer, Faubush, Nancy, and Burnside. By the beginning of the twentieth century, these settlements formed an interconnected rural landscape in which families traveled between churches, exchanged agricultural products, and maintained relationships across the southern portion of Pulaski County.
One of the clearest early geographical records of Shafter appears on Rand McNally’s 1911 map of Pulaski County. The map identifies Shafter southwest of Somerset, east of Delmer, and north of Burnside. Nearby communities such as Bourbon, Faubush, Trimble, and Nancy also appear, establishing Shafter’s place within the county’s network of rural settlements.
Shafter appears on Rand McNally’s 1911 map of Pulaski County, southwest of Somerset and east of Delmer.
Shafter also possessed its own post office. A historical postal compilation referenced by RoadsideThoughts places its establishment in 1899 and discontinuance in 1917, suggesting that the settlement had developed sufficient local identity to receive a separate postal designation by the closing years of the nineteenth century. The exact dates, original postmasters, and circumstances surrounding its discontinuance still require confirmation against the surviving federal appointment records.
The National Archives maintains the Post Office Department’s appointment records, which document the establishment and discontinuance of post offices, changes in personnel, and other administrative information. Additional federal site-location reports can sometimes establish the geographical relationships between a rural post office and surrounding roads, waterways, and neighboring settlements.
Although the discontinuance of Shafter’s post office marked an administrative change, it did not signal the end of the community. The newspaper reports that followed describe an active rural neighborhood with several congregations, numerous farming families, and social connections stretching across southern Kentucky and into the industrial and agricultural regions of the Midwest.
Building the Nazarene Church in 1915
One of the earliest detailed firsthand accounts of Shafter comes from the Reverend F. V. Tyler, a minister serving the community through the Church of the Nazarene. Writing from Delmer in the April 7, 1915, edition of the Herald of Holiness, Tyler reported that the congregation’s new church building at Shafter was nearly finished and that its dedication was expected soon.
Tyler’s report followed a visit from district superintendent W. W. Hankes, whose preaching had encouraged the local congregation. The minister expressed satisfaction that the community would have a permanent place where Nazarene teachings could be preached and where residents could gather for worship. His account provides direct evidence of organized religious activity in Shafter before the outbreak of World War I and identifies a building project that local church members considered an important achievement.
The construction of a church also reflected the broader importance of religion in southern Pulaski County. Rural congregations often served families scattered across several neighboring communities, and ministers frequently traveled between churches rather than remaining exclusively with one congregation. Religious services, Sunday schools, revival meetings, and gatherings at church members’ homes provided opportunities for social interaction as well as worship.
The Shafter Nazarene congregation was part of this wider network. Later denominational records place it alongside churches in Delmer, Faubush, Naomi, and Nancy, showing that the community’s religious life extended beyond its immediate geographical boundaries.
Farming, Family Gatherings, and Life in 1919
By 1919, the Somerset Journal was publishing regular reports under the heading of Shafter, creating a detailed record of ordinary life in the community. These columns reveal the importance of farming and family relationships while documenting how residents moved between neighboring counties and more distant states.
The August 22, 1919, edition reported that a revival had begun at the local Nazarene church. The same column announced the marriage of Roxie Lester and Arthur Pierce and recorded a Sunday gathering at the home of Fred Prather, attended by members of the Leese, Hardgrove, and Prather families. Such notices illustrate how religious activities and family celebrations occupied a central place in the community’s social calendar.
A particularly revealing column appeared on December 26, 1919, when the newspaper reported that Robert Mills had hosted a corn-shucking gathering. For farming families, corn shucking was both necessary agricultural labor and an occasion for neighbors to work together. These gatherings brought households into closer contact while helping farmers prepare their crops for storage and use during the winter.
The same December report noted that Joe Mills and Orville Daulton had returned from Indiana, accompanied by Russell Prather. Their return illustrates the developing relationship between rural Pulaski County and agricultural employment elsewhere in the country. Families could remain rooted in Shafter while individual members traveled considerable distances to supplement their income.
Other news from that week reflected the ordinary transactions that sustained rural life. Sam Decker had purchased the Sam Barnett farm, while Cecil Butler had traveled to Wayne County. Rev. J. S. Abbott and his wife were visiting her father, Miles Gregory, demonstrating how the community maintained personal connections with neighboring counties.
These brief newspaper notices are valuable precisely because they were not intended to become major historical documents. They preserve the names of residents whose lives would otherwise appear only in census schedules, property records, or cemetery inscriptions.
Churches, Sunday Schools, and Community Connections in 1920
The newspaper columns published throughout 1920 reveal that Shafter’s religious life extended beyond the Nazarene congregation established before the war. Baptist and Methodist activities also appear in the surviving reports, suggesting a community in which several congregations served overlapping networks of families.
On April 9, 1920, the Somerset Journal reported that Rev. Andrews had conducted services before a substantial congregation. The same column announced the reorganization of the Methodist Sunday school at New Bethel, with classes scheduled to meet every Sunday morning. The revival of the Sunday school demonstrated the importance placed on religious education and the involvement of local families in maintaining their congregations.
By July, the local Baptist Sunday school was also attracting attention. The July 23 edition described the school as progressing well and reported that Rev. J. S. Abbott had filled his regular preaching appointment over the weekend. Another minister, Rev. Mills, had preached on Saturday evening, reflecting the recurring religious gatherings that brought residents together.
The same report offered glimpses of life beyond the church. Ed and Velasco Girdler had returned from Cincinnati, while traveling salesman Coleman Jones was spending time at home. Several families exchanged visits, and the community followed news of illnesses and accidents, including an incident in which Coy Abbott was thrown from a wagon without suffering serious injury.
Connections with surrounding communities remained equally important. In February 1920, Marvin Keeney and his wife traveled from Trimble to visit relatives in Shafter, while Rev. Ashbrook preached at nearby Slate Branch. Newspaper notices from June recorded visits involving families from Delmer, Faubush, Oak Hill, Nancy, and Burnside.
These movements demonstrate that Shafter was not an isolated settlement. Its residents participated in a network of rural churches, family farms, and neighboring communities that shared ministers, family connections, and agricultural labor.
Seasonal Migration and the Changing Rural Economy
The movement of Shafter residents to Indiana and Ohio appears repeatedly in the contemporary newspaper record. Although families continued to maintain agricultural households in Pulaski County, temporary employment elsewhere provided an important connection to the changing American economy of the early twentieth century.
The December 10, 1920, edition of the Somerset Journal reported that Ewell Taylor had returned from Indiana, where he had been husking corn. Ernest Jones had also returned after spending several weeks doing similar agricultural work. These accounts suggest that at least some residents supplemented their income through seasonal employment while retaining family and property connections in Shafter.
The same column described several agricultural transactions closer to home. Dan Smith purchased hogs from Lola White, and John Andy Girdler sold a tract of land to Aaron Abbott of Nancy. Such reports reveal how livestock ownership, land sales, and family labor continued to shape the local economy.
The introduction of automobiles also appears in the local record, although not always under fortunate circumstances. In December 1920, Coleman Jones was injured when the automobile he was driving plunged over an embankment and pinned him beneath it. The newspaper reported that his injuries were painful but not serious.
Alongside returning workers and agricultural transactions, these reports capture a community experiencing the gradual arrival of modern transportation while continuing to depend on traditional farming practices.
Family Life, Land Sales, and Community News in 1921
The newspaper reports from 1921 provide further insight into the families who sustained Shafter’s agricultural economy. The names Cundiff, Girdler, Gossett, Jones, Prather, and Brewster recur throughout the community columns, frequently in connection with farm work, family visits, illnesses, and property transactions.
In February, the Somerset Journal reported that Fred Prather and his wife had traveled to Pleasant Hill to visit relatives, leaving his mother, Mattie Prather, and his half brothers, Willie and Clarence Beasley, to tend their livestock. The arrangement illustrates the important role of extended family members in maintaining a working farm, particularly when household members needed to travel.
That same month, Logan New and his family moved into Lola Cundiff’s home to care for her, while relatives and neighbors continued visiting members of the Brewster, Girdler, and Cundiff families. These accounts preserve evidence of the informal networks of care that helped rural households manage illness and other difficulties.
The February 18 column also contained a small example of rural commerce when it reported that Sam Griffith had sold five rat dogs for ten dollars apiece. The correspondent remarked that dogs appeared to be selling better than hogs, offering a glimpse of the humor occasionally found in otherwise routine reports of farming activity.
Land transactions remained a prominent subject. On April 1, 1921, the newspaper reported that S. H. Jones had sold his farm to John Muney for $1,700. Such transactions offer valuable starting points for tracing individual properties through the surviving Pulaski County deed books, potentially connecting modern landholdings with the families who occupied them more than a century earlier.
Marriage announcements provide another view of the community’s social history. The April 15, 1921, edition reported that John A. Girdler and Bernetta Brewster had traveled to Tennessee to marry, while Willie Claunch and Mable Daulton had also married that week. The newspaper correspondent described the marriages as surprising news for local residents and offered the couples congratulations.
Together, these accounts show a community in which family obligations, farming, and marriage remained closely intertwined. They also reveal how the local newspaper helped residents maintain awareness of the events taking place in their neighbors’ lives.
The Death of James Cundiff and Family Connections Across America
One of the most detailed personal records associated with Shafter concerns the death of James M. Cundiff, commonly known as Uncle Jimmie Cundiff, in October 1920.
The October 29 edition of the Somerset Journal reported that Cundiff had died at his Shafter home at the age of eighty-two. A more extensive account in the Slate Branch community column identified October 24 as the date of his death and described him as a son of David Cundiff.
According to the newspaper, Cundiff had eight children whose residences illustrate the remarkable geographical reach of a single Pulaski County family. Silas Cundiff lived in Pine Village, Indiana, while Sim Cundiff resided in Fremont, Iowa. Other children had settled in North Dakota and Indianapolis, while family members remained in Kentucky.
Several children traveled considerable distances in response to their father’s death. His funeral was conducted by Rev. Hunter at Oak Hill Church, after which he was buried in the Oak Hill graveyard.
Cundiff’s obituary reveals a pattern visible in many Appalachian families during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although older generations remained associated with their home communities, children increasingly settled in distant states in search of employment and new opportunities. Family relationships nevertheless continued to connect those who had departed with the places where they had grown up.
For Shafter, the Cundiff family provides one example of how a rural settlement could maintain meaningful connections across several regions of the United States.
The Nazarene Church and the Delmer Circuit in the Late 1920s
Although Shafter’s post office had reportedly closed in 1917, the community’s religious institutions continued to operate into the following decade. Denominational records from 1927 and 1928 provide especially useful firsthand evidence of the challenges faced by ministers serving the area’s scattered congregations.
The October 19, 1927, edition of the Herald of Holiness identified Rev. H. C. Watson as pastor of several churches in southern Pulaski County. His appointments included Delmer, Faubush, Naomi, Nancy, and Shafter, placing the community within a circuit that required regular travel between rural congregations.
In a report published on January 11, 1928, Watson described his first three months on the Delmer Circuit and the revival meetings he had conducted at several churches. After preaching at Naomi and Delmer, he traveled to Shafter to conduct another series of religious services.
Watson’s account provides an unusually direct description of the practical difficulties associated with maintaining a rural congregation. He reported that cold weather and muddy roads had limited attendance, preventing some residents from reaching the church. Although the revival produced no conversions that he could report, he believed that the services had encouraged the members who managed to attend.
His account also demonstrates the connection between transportation and religious participation in southern Pulaski County. Before improved roads became widespread, poor weather could interfere with church attendance and the ability of ministers to travel between congregations. The geographical distance between communities was therefore only one of several obstacles faced by rural churches.
The Revival of 1929 and a Church Rebuilt
The most detailed surviving account of Shafter’s Nazarene congregation appeared in the February 26, 1930, edition of the Herald of Holiness. Written by an unnamed member of the Shafter church, the report described the difficulties experienced by the congregation during the preceding years and a revival that had renewed its membership and activities.
According to the writer, the church had endured two or three years of struggle with very few members and limited encouragement. Outside assistance had been necessary to sustain the congregation, and its future had apparently become uncertain.
In November 1929, Rev. Fred Corby of Louisville arrived to conduct a revival. Although unfavorable weather initially affected the meetings, the congregation continued holding services, assisted by its pastor and his wife, identified as Brother and Sister Mills, along with Christian residents of the surrounding neighborhood.
The writer reported approximately forty appearances at the altar, eighteen professions of faith, and eight new members joining the church. These figures represent the congregation’s own account of the revival rather than independently verified membership statistics, but they demonstrate how important the event was to those who participated.
One particularly memorable incident occurred when Corby sang the hymn What Are They Doing in Heaven Today? before delivering a sermon. A woman in the congregation stood to give her testimony, and the service developed into an extended period of prayer and singing. The writer reported that eight people experienced conversions that evening without the evangelist delivering his planned sermon.
Beyond the religious experiences described in the article, the report documents the reestablishment of the Shafter Sunday school. The congregation had enrolled new participants and attracted young people, suggesting that the revival had renewed interest in the church’s educational and community activities.
The church member closed the report by expressing gratitude for the work of Mills and Corby and requesting continued prayers for the congregation. More than fourteen years after Tyler’s announcement that the original church building was nearly complete, Shafter’s Nazarene congregation was still recording its activities in the denomination’s national publication.
Cemeteries, Family Records, and the Preservation of Shafter’s History
The history of Shafter extends beyond the churches and newspaper reports that provide its most detailed surviving accounts. Local cemeteries, federal census schedules, historical maps, and property records preserve additional information about the families who occupied the community.
Burial grounds associated with the Shafter area include Buchanan Cemetery, Gossett Cemetery, Mincey Cemetery, Prather Cemetery, and Jones Shafter Cemetery. Nearby cemeteries associated with Slate Branch and Oak Hill provide further opportunities to trace the families identified in the newspaper columns.
These burial records can be compared with the federal population censuses of 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 to reconstruct family relationships, occupations, household composition, and the movement of residents between communities. The Pulaski County Public Library’s digital archives provide access to historical census schedules, court records, tax lists, and early property documents, making it possible to investigate the area’s history beyond the surviving newspaper accounts.
The newspaper columns themselves remain valuable resources for genealogical research. Residents identified only briefly in marriage announcements or reports of family visits may also appear in census schedules, death certificates, deeds, or cemetery inscriptions. Read together, these scattered records can help reconstruct the lives of people who left few other written accounts.
There are still important unanswered questions about Shafter’s earliest development, including the precise origins of its name, the identities of its first postmasters, and the longer history of its churches. The surviving records establish its place on the early twentieth-century map of Pulaski County, but a complete account of the settlement’s earlier years would require further examination of nineteenth-century land, tax, and postal records.
Remembering Shafter, Kentucky
Shafter’s history is a reminder that many Appalachian communities left their most detailed records in documents that were never intended to preserve an entire town’s story. A newspaper report about a corn-shucking gathering, a notice announcing a marriage, or a minister’s account of muddy roads can reveal the relationships and daily experiences that shaped a settlement.
The historical record portrays Shafter as a farming community sustained by closely connected families, active churches, and regular movement between southern Pulaski County and more distant places. Its residents raised livestock, purchased and sold farms, maintained extended family relationships, and traveled to other states for employment while retaining connections to their Kentucky homes.
By 1930, the community’s Nazarene congregation had endured periods of declining membership and renewed activity, while earlier newspaper reports preserved the names and experiences of numerous families who had shaped Shafter during the preceding decade.
Although much remains to be discovered about the settlement’s earliest history and subsequent development, the surviving sources provide an account of a rural community whose story might otherwise have been reduced to a name on an old map. In Shafter, as in many small Appalachian settlements, the lives of farmers, ministers, traveling workers, and their families form an important part of the region’s historical record.
Sources & Further Reading
Tyler, F. V. “Delmer, Ky.” Herald of Holiness 3, no. 52 (April 7, 1915): 15. https://www.whdl.org/en/browse/resources/16522
Herald of Holiness. “District News.” Vol. 4, no. 1 (April 14, 1915): 9. https://www.whdl.org/en/browse/resources/16541
Herald of Holiness. “Pastoral Arrangements: Kentucky District.” Vol. 16, no. 30 (October 19, 1927): 31. https://research.whdl.org/en/browse/resources/21734
Watson, H. C. Report from the Delmer Circuit, Kentucky. Herald of Holiness 16, no. 42 (January 11, 1928): 27. https://whdl.org/en/browse/resources/21750
“A Member.” Report from Shafter, Kentucky. Herald of Holiness 18, no. 49 (February 26, 1930): 25–26. https://whdl.org/en/browse/resources/22047
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” August 22, 1919. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/8_22_1919.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” December 26, 1919. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_26_1919.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” January 30, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1_30_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” February 7, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_7_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” April 9, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_9_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” June 4, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_4_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” June 11, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_11_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” June 18, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_18_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” July 23, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/7_23_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” October 22, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_22_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Slate Branch.” October 29, 1920. Includes the death and family history of James M. Cundiff of Shafter. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_29_1920.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” December 10, 1920. Community News, part 3. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_10_1920_3.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” February 18, 1921. Community News, part 3. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_21/2_18_1921_3.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” April 1, 1921. Community News, part 2. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_1_1921_2.htm
Somerset Journal. “Shafter.” April 15, 1921. Community News, part 2. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_21/4_15_1921_2.htm
Rand McNally & Company. Pulaski County, Kentucky. Map. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1911. Reproduced by My Genealogy Hound. https://www.mygenealogyhound.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. Microfilm Publication M841. Record Group 28, Records of the Post Office Department. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices
National Archives and Records Administration. Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1950. Microfilm Publication M1126. Record Group 28, Records of the Post Office Department. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html
Pulaski County Public Library. Digital Archives of the Pulaski County Public Library. Somerset, KY. Historical newspapers, census records, deeds, tax records, and local historical materials. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/
U.S. Geological Survey. “topoView.” Historical Topographic Map Collection. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/topoview
Genealogy Trails. “Pulaski County, Kentucky Cemeteries.” Kentucky Genealogy Trails. https://genealogytrails.com/ken/pulaski/cemeteries.html
Blevins, Cameron. “US Post Offices Data Biography.” US Post Offices, March 31, 2021. https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/
RoadsideThoughts. “Shafter (Pulaski County, KY).” Historical gazetteer and postal-history reference. https://roadsidethoughts.com/ky/shafter-xx-pulaski-profile.htm
Author Note: The history of Shafter survives through church records, old newspaper columns, and the names of families who built their lives in southern Pulaski County. If your family has connections to the community or you have photographs, documents, or memories of Shafter, I would welcome the opportunity to help preserve them.