Appalachian Community Histories – Clarence, Pulaski County: The Post Office That Moved Twelve Miles and the Community It Served
In the northern countryside of Pulaski County, Kentucky, the small community of Clarence developed around a rural post office established in 1892. Although it never became a major town, Clarence maintained a recognizable identity for decades, appearing on early twentieth-century maps and in the community columns of The Somerset Journal. Its surviving history includes an unusual naming story, a substantial relocation of its post office, and newspaper accounts that preserve the experiences of families living there during the early twentieth century.
The community takes its name from Clarence McQueary, a local schoolteacher whose name was selected after the proposed postal name of Osceola proved unavailable. Its post office operated from 1892 until 1942, a fifty-year period during which northern Pulaski County experienced considerable changes in transportation, communication, education, and rural life. The surviving evidence is especially valuable because Clarence’s history can be reconstructed through more than postal records alone. Newspaper reports from 1920 and 1921 identify residents, record deaths and illnesses, document visits between neighboring communities, and reveal the relationships connecting local families to the surrounding countryside.
The Establishment of Clarence and the Story Behind Its Name
Clarence’s documented postal history began on January 25, 1892, when Jasper Newton Thompson established a post office in northern Pulaski County. According to Kentucky place-name historian Robert M. Rennick’s research, Thompson initially proposed calling the office Osceola, but that name was unavailable within the postal system. Instead, he selected Clarence in honor of a local schoolteacher, Clarence McQueary.
Rennick’s account preserves the connection between the community’s early postal development and a person associated with local education. In rural Kentucky during the nineteenth century, many settlements acquired their official names through the establishment of post offices, which frequently operated from country stores, private residences, or other buildings maintained by the appointed postmaster. A name submitted to the federal government could become the identity of an entire neighborhood, eventually appearing on maps, in newspapers, and in the addresses used by generations of local families.
Thompson’s establishment of the office marked the beginning of Clarence’s formal place in the federal postal network, although the surrounding settlement may have existed before 1892. The available evidence does not establish when the first families settled in the immediate neighborhood or when its earliest schools and churches were organized.
The selection of McQueary’s name also raises questions about Clarence’s educational history. While Rennick identifies him as a schoolteacher, additional school records would be necessary to establish where he taught, how long he served, and whether he maintained any further connection with the community that received his name. His place in Clarence’s history remains significant because the settlement’s identity preserves the name of a local educator rather than that of a prominent politician, a railroad official, or a major landowner.
Clarence on the Historical Map of Pulaski County
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Clarence had become sufficiently established to appear on published maps of Kentucky. A 1911 Rand McNally map of Pulaski County identifies Clarence in the northern part of the county, among a collection of small rural settlements that included Bandy, Woodstock, Bee Lick, and Eubank.
The map provides an important contemporary reference for understanding the geographical relationships between these communities. Rather than existing as isolated settlements, they formed part of a wider rural landscape connected by roads, farms, churches, local businesses, and postal facilities. Somerset served as the county’s principal commercial and administrative center, while smaller settlements maintained their own identities in the surrounding countryside.
However, the geographical history of Clarence contains an important complication. Rennick’s postal research documents a substantial relocation of its post office in 1913, meaning that a nineteenth-century reference to Clarence may not identify the same precise location as a record created after that date.
The distinction is particularly important when interpreting historical maps. The 1911 Rand McNally map predates the relocation, so its identification of Clarence should not automatically be treated as the location of the post office in the 1920s or 1930s. The movement of a postal facility did not necessarily mean that an entire community relocated, since postal names could follow an office even when the surrounding families, farms, and older neighborhood boundaries remained unchanged.
The National Archives preserves the United States Post Office Department’s reports of site locations, including records for Pulaski County on microfilm roll 231. Those original reports offer an avenue for establishing the precise locations associated with Clarence’s postal history and determining the geographical extent of the 1913 relocation. Until the relevant reports and property records are examined together, the precise boundaries of Clarence during its different periods of postal operation should be treated with caution.
Clarence and the Community Correspondents of The Somerset Journal
While postal records establish the administrative history of Clarence, the surviving newspapers provide a much closer view of the people who lived there. During the early twentieth century, The Somerset Journal published reports submitted by correspondents representing settlements throughout Pulaski County, preserving information about families and neighborhoods that received relatively little attention in formal county histories.
One of Clarence’s correspondents was M. E. Colson, whose work connected the community with readers throughout the county. In its March 26, 1920, issue, the newspaper identified Colson as its correspondent at Clarence and reported that he had visited Somerset earlier that week. The newspaper also described him favorably as a progressive county resident, indicating that he was personally known to its editors.
Colson’s presence in the historical record is particularly useful because the Clarence columns from this period preserve the names of numerous residents whose activities might otherwise have gone unrecorded. Their reports concerned ordinary events, including visits between neighbors, trips to other towns, family illnesses, business journeys, and deaths.
These brief accounts collectively reveal a community whose social relationships extended beyond its immediate geographical boundaries. Families associated with Clarence regularly traveled to surrounding settlements, maintained connections with relatives elsewhere in Kentucky, and participated in the religious and commercial activities of neighboring communities.
The newspaper’s identification of Colson also provides a starting point for understanding how Clarence’s residents represented their own community. Rather than relying entirely on outside observers, its surviving newspaper history includes information supplied by someone directly associated with the settlement.
Illness, Death, and Community Life in the Winter of 1920
One of the most revealing accounts of Clarence appeared in the January 30, 1920, edition of The Somerset Journal. The newspaper reported the death of Leonard Osborne’s four-year-old son on January 24, identifying the cause as what was then called brain fever. The child was buried in Good Hope Cemetery, while two other children in the Osborne household were also reportedly suffering from the same illness.
The report reveals the difficulties faced by rural families during a period when serious childhood illnesses could spread rapidly through households and communities. The historical term brain fever did not represent a single, consistently defined modern diagnosis, so the precise medical cause of the child’s death cannot be established from the newspaper account alone.
The same Clarence column reported that Ezra Todd was recovering from an illness and that John Acton, who had also been seriously ill, was improving. Freeldon Osborne was identified as another resident experiencing significant health problems. The concentration of illness within a single community report illustrates the importance of local newspapers as sources for understanding the everyday hardships experienced by rural families.
The following week’s newspaper offered further information about Clarence’s residents. In its February 6 edition, The Somerset Journal reported that Freeldon Osborne was recovering from measles and that Leonard Osborne’s surviving children were improving, although their recovery was proceeding slowly.
Other residents were experiencing their own difficulties. Albert Todd’s young daughter was reportedly seriously ill with typhoid fever, while additional entries recorded visits between the Acton, Long, Singleton, Abbott, and Osborne families. These accounts show how illness, recovery, and ordinary social activities occurred alongside one another within the same rural neighborhood.
The newspaper columns also document movement beyond the immediate community. Corbin Acton had returned from Kansas, Willey Acton had departed for Richmond, and Mrs. F. Sandidge and her children had left for Stearns. Their movements demonstrate that Clarence’s residents maintained relationships and pursued opportunities beyond northern Pulaski County, even while retaining close connections with their home community.
The Families and Social Connections of Clarence
The surviving newspaper reports identify several families associated with Clarence during the early twentieth century, including the Osbornes, Actons, Todds, Longs, Abbotts, Sandidges, and Stringers. Their names appear repeatedly in accounts of family visits, illness, travel, and ordinary neighborhood activities, providing evidence of the relationships that helped sustain the settlement.
An April 9, 1920, report described visits involving E. B. Herrin, G. H. Osborne, Hiram Abbott, and members of the Acton and Sandidge families. It also recorded Mrs. Mary Hamm’s departure for Cincinnati with her young daughter and mentioned a doctor named Acton who was visiting relatives from Indiana.
These details are important because they place Clarence within the wider pattern of movement between rural Kentucky and other parts of the United States. Family visits and relocations connected its residents with communities in Indiana, Ohio, and elsewhere, while Somerset remained an important destination for business and personal matters. The surviving evidence documents individual journeys, although it does not establish how many Clarence families permanently left the area during this period.
The June 4, 1920, edition of The Somerset Journal provides further evidence of Clarence’s connections with the surrounding countryside. Its community column reported that several residents had attended church at Woodstock, while J. B. Abbott, A. J. Hamm, M. Colson, and Esquire Todd had traveled to Somerset on business.
Other entries described visits between the Osborne, Abbott, Acton, and McWilliams families, along with the social activities of young women such as Esta Abbott, Lucy Osborne, Sula Sandidge, and Retna Todd. Together, these reports reveal an interconnected community in which churches, business trips, family gatherings, and informal visits formed an important part of rural life.
The reference to church attendance at Woodstock is especially useful for reconstructing Clarence’s religious geography. It demonstrates that at least some residents participated in religious services outside Clarence itself, although it does not establish the absence or presence of a separate congregation within the community. Further church membership records and local religious histories may help clarify these relationships.
Clarence During the Early 1920s
The newspaper record continued to document Clarence’s families in 1921, preserving another series of accounts that reveal the settlement’s social connections.
A January report named several residents, including members of the Britain, Osborne, Stringer, Abbott, Ray, Long, and Acton families. It also recorded the death of Alonzo Wheeldon on January 10 and reported that his burial had taken place in Olive Cemetery. Like the earlier account of the Osborne child’s burial at Good Hope Cemetery, this notice preserves a specific connection between a local resident and a burial ground associated with the wider countryside.
The March 18, 1921, edition of The Somerset Journal provides another substantial Clarence column. It reported that Lucy Acton and her family had visited G. H. Osborne, while Mollie Barren had visited the Proctor household. Obey Estes was reportedly recovering from an illness, and Shelby Long and his wife had visited Henry Long.
The same report followed Esta Abbott’s visit to her sister, Grace Woodson, at Quinton, while John Ray and his wife had visited George Sandidge. Other entries recorded visits involving Rachel Long, Anna Osborne, and Cynthia Osborne, as well as a business trip to Eubank undertaken by Leff Brook and Berry Bentley.
The repeated appearance of these families across successive newspaper issues is evidence of Clarence’s continuing identity as a recognizable rural neighborhood. Its residents were not simply names associated with a postal designation, but members of a community connected through kinship, religious activities, local commerce, and frequent personal visits.
The Closing of Clarence’s Post Office in 1942
Clarence’s post office remained part of Pulaski County’s postal system until 1942, approximately fifty years after its establishment. Its closure ended the community’s independent postal designation, although the available published evidence does not establish the specific administrative or economic circumstances behind that decision.
During the first half of the twentieth century, changes in transportation and rural postal delivery altered the role of many small post offices across Kentucky. Improved roads and the expansion of mail routes made it increasingly practical to serve scattered rural households from larger postal facilities, reducing the necessity for some independently operated offices.
Clarence’s closure should be understood within this broader transformation, but it would be speculative to attribute the decision to any particular development without examining the original postal correspondence. The available records establish the operating period, while the exact circumstances of the office’s closure require additional documentation.
The end of postal service did not necessarily mean the disappearance of Clarence as a community. Its name continued to appear in geographical reference sources, preserving the identity of a settlement whose history had already extended across several generations. Modern geographical references retain Clarence as a recognized locality in Pulaski County, even though its independent post office has long since disappeared.
Preserving the History of Clarence
Clarence’s surviving history demonstrates how the experiences of a small Appalachian community can be reconstructed through records that were originally created for entirely different purposes. Postal documents preserve the establishment, naming, relocation, and eventual closure of its post office, while historical maps identify its place within northern Pulaski County’s rural landscape.
The most personal evidence, however, survives in the community columns of The Somerset Journal. Those reports document the death of a young child, the recovery of seriously ill neighbors, family visits, religious attendance, business journeys, and relationships that connected Clarence with settlements across Kentucky and beyond.
The community’s unusual naming history also preserves the memory of Clarence McQueary, a local schoolteacher whose name became a lasting part of Pulaski County’s geography. Further research into school records, federal postal site reports, census schedules, and family property documents may reveal more about McQueary, Jasper Newton Thompson, and the families who helped establish the settlement.
Clarence’s history is ultimately more than the story of a post office that opened in 1892 and closed in 1942. It is the history of the people who lived within the community, maintained relationships with their neighbors, traveled to nearby towns, attended local churches, and preserved their connections to a rural neighborhood whose name survives more than a century after its establishment.
Sources & Further Reading
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky, Part 2.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38, no. 4 (August–September 2007): 58–67. See especially page 60 for Clarence’s establishment, naming, relocation, and closure. https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-4.pdf.
Rennick, Robert M. “Pulaski County: Post Offices.” County Histories of Kentucky, no. 388. Morehead State University, 2000. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/388/.
Rennick, Robert M. “Pulaski County: Place Names.” Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection, no. 123. Morehead State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/123/.
Works Progress Administration and Robert M. Rennick. “Pulaski County: Post Offices & Place Names.” County Histories of Kentucky, no. 284. Morehead State University. Cataloged as 1939. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/284/.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” January 30, 1920. Contemporary reports of the Osborne family, deaths, illnesses, and neighborhood activities. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1_30_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” February 6, 1920. Reports concerning the Osborne, Acton, Todd, Abbott, and other families. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_6_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. Reference to M. E. Colson, Clarence community correspondent. March 26, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/3_26_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” April 9, 1920. Community correspondence concerning family visits, travel, and local residents. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_9_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” June 4, 1920. Reports of church attendance, family gatherings, and travel to Somerset. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_4_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” January 21, 1921. Contemporary community reports concerning the Osborne, Stringer, Acton, Abbott, and Wheeldon families. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1_1921/1_21_1921_2.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” February 18, 1921. Reports concerning local families, Liberty Church, and Esta Abbott’s teaching at Thompson. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_21/2_18_1921_3.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Clarence.” March 18, 1921. Community correspondence documenting the Acton, Osborne, Long, Abbott, and Sandidge families. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/3_21/3_18_1921_2.htm.
Rand McNally & Company. Kentucky. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1911. Pulaski County detail reproduced by My Genealogy Hound. https://thegenealogyhound.com/maps/kentucky-maps/KY-Pulaski-County-Kentucky-1911-Rand-McNally-map-Somerset-Burnside-Science-Hill.html.
United States Post Office Department. Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1950. Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M1126, roll 231. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html.
United States Postal Service. “Postmaster Finder.” Postal history database. Washington, DC: United States Postal Service. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/postmaster-finder/.
United States Geological Survey. Historical Topographic Maps of the United States. topoView digital map collection. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/topoview.
United States Bureau of the Census. Historical Population Schedules. Pulaski County, Kentucky. Record Group 29. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/census.
Pulaski County Public Library. Digital Archives of the Pulaski County Public Library. Somerset, KY. Digitized historical newspapers, census records, deeds, and other county records. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/.
Author Note: Clarence’s story shows how much of Appalachia’s history survives in the ordinary records of its schools, post offices, newspapers, and families. I hope readers with connections to this Pulaski County community will share their photographs, documents, and memories to help preserve its history for future generations.