Appalachian Community Histories – Delmer, Pulaski County: The Burton Family, Nazarene Revivals, and a Changing Community
Southwest of Somerset, along the rural roads connecting Nancy and Trimble in Pulaski County, Kentucky, lies Delmer, a small community whose history stretches back well before its name appeared on twentieth-century maps. Like many settlements in southern Kentucky, Delmer developed around the families, churches, farms, and country businesses that sustained life in the surrounding countryside. Its most unusual historical distinction, however, is the origin of its name, which came not from an early landowner, a geographical feature, or an important public official, but from the infant son of its first postmaster.
Delmer’s documented postal history began on June 23, 1903, when William Sherman Burton established a post office serving a settlement previously known as Vola. The office would operate for nearly six decades, moving between several locations along what became Kentucky Route 235 before closing in 1962. During those years, Delmer appeared on county maps, maintained its own newspaper correspondence, supported local churches, and became part of a changing Pulaski County landscape that would eventually be transformed by the construction of Lake Cumberland.
Before Delmer: The Community of Vola
The history of Delmer begins with a settlement whose earlier identity has largely disappeared from modern maps. Robert M. Rennick, the Kentucky place-name historian who extensively researched the state’s former post offices, identified Vola as the village originally served by the Delmer post office. In his three-part study of Pulaski County’s postal history, published in La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History in 2007, Rennick placed the original post office approximately two and one-quarter miles south of Nancy and four and one-quarter miles north of Trimble, along the road that eventually became Kentucky Route 235.
Vola’s existence before the establishment of the Delmer post office demonstrates that the surrounding neighborhood had already developed a recognizable local identity. Its precise founding date, however, remains uncertain, and surviving postal histories provide considerably more information about its twentieth-century development than about its earliest settlers.
The countryside surrounding Vola belonged to a wider network of rural Pulaski County communities, including Nancy, Trimble, Burnetta, and Cains Store. The roads connecting these settlements provided access to country stores, churches, neighboring farms, and the larger commercial center at Somerset.
Historical county court records, tax lists, and deed indexes preserved by the Pulaski County Public Library offer opportunities to trace the families who occupied the area during the nineteenth century. These records extend back to the county’s earliest years, although identifying the families who lived specifically around Vola requires connecting individual property records with the settlement’s historical location.
William Sherman Burton and the Establishment of Delmer in 1903
On June 23, 1903, William Sherman Burton became the first postmaster of the newly established Delmer post office. According to Rennick’s research, Burton named the office for his one-year-old son, Delmer, giving the community the name by which it would become known throughout the following century.
The choice illustrates how personal and family connections frequently shaped the names of rural Kentucky communities. Unlike incorporated towns, whose names might be established through municipal government, small settlements often acquired their recognized identities through the post offices that served them. As the federal government approved new offices, a postmaster’s selected name could gradually become the name used by neighboring families, merchants, newspapers, and mapmakers.
For the residents of Delmer, the post office provided a connection to the wider world at a time when travel over rural roads could be difficult. Letters from relatives, newspapers, business correspondence, and government communications could be collected locally instead of requiring a longer journey to Nancy or Somerset.
The federal records of postmaster appointments and postal site reports are particularly important for reconstructing this period. The National Archives preserves records that document the establishment of post offices, the appointment of postmasters, and changes in their physical locations. Original site reports sometimes include descriptions of neighboring roads, waterways, and post offices, making them useful for identifying rural communities whose buildings have since disappeared.
Rennick’s research indicates that Delmer’s post office occupied several different locations during its existence. Consequently, the site associated with the office in 1903 should not automatically be treated as the same location that served residents during its final years.
Delmer on the Map: A Recognized Community by 1911
Delmer had become sufficiently established to appear on Rand McNally’s 1911 map of Pulaski County. The map identified the community southwest of Somerset, near Nancy and other rural settlements that developed along the county’s network of roads and streams.
Its appearance provides contemporary evidence that the name Delmer had entered the county’s recognized geography within eight years of the post office’s establishment. The 1911 map also shows how closely Delmer was connected to neighboring communities, particularly Nancy, Burnetta, and Trimble, rather than developing as an isolated settlement.
During the early twentieth century, Delmer’s identity continued to grow through local institutions and family relationships. Although the surviving historical record does not establish that the community ever developed a substantial commercial district, contemporary newspapers document small businesses, religious congregations, teachers, and numerous families whose activities connected Delmer to the surrounding county.
Among the family names appearing in early newspaper correspondence were Burton, Floyd, Fitzgerald, Muse, Hislope, Barker, Brown, Todd, and Weaver. Their presence in the surviving record provides an opportunity to reconstruct the community’s history through the ordinary activities of its residents, rather than relying exclusively on postal dates and historical maps.
Country Businesses and Everyday Life in the Early Twentieth Century
One of the richest surviving sources for Delmer’s early history is The Somerset Journal, whose community correspondence preserved remarkably detailed accounts of everyday life during the years following the First World War.
The newspaper’s October 3, 1919, edition reported several events involving Delmer families. Reverend C. C. Burton was conducting a religious revival at nearby Naomi, while Inez Hislope and Stella Hislope were reported ill. The same correspondence recorded visits between the Fitzgerald, Jasper, Sharp, and Burton families, along with the marriage of Elkas Floyd and Rosa Clifton.
Such reports reveal a community connected through marriage, extended families, religious activity, and frequent visits between neighboring settlements. They also show the importance of the local newspaper correspondent, whose accounts preserved details that would otherwise have been unlikely to enter the historical record.
By February 1920, Delmer’s correspondence provided additional evidence of its small-scale commercial activity. The February 13 edition of The Somerset Journal reported that Charles Brown had erected his mill and was prepared to begin grinding. While the account does not establish the mill’s exact location or the length of time it operated, it identifies a local enterprise serving an important need in an agricultural community.
That same edition reported the marriage of William Sharp and Flora Floyd on January 28, along with visits between the Floyd, Todd, Fitzgerald, Owens, and Weaver families. These seemingly ordinary notices provide evidence of the relationships and businesses that sustained Delmer during its early years.
Another glimpse of local commerce appeared in the April 9, 1920, edition, which reported that Mrs. C. M. Brown had a full selection of spring hats available. Her announcement reveals an additional business activity within Delmer, demonstrating that local residents could purchase at least some manufactured goods and personal necessities without traveling directly to Somerset.
The same issue recorded a visit to Somerset by P. R. Burton and John A. Burton of Delmer, illustrating the continued importance of the county seat as a commercial and social destination.
Churches, Revivals, and the Religious Life of Delmer
Religion occupied an important place in Delmer’s community life, with surviving newspaper accounts documenting both Nazarene and Baptist congregations in the surrounding area.
By January 1920, Delmer had an active Nazarene congregation. The January 30 edition of The Somerset Journal reported the death of Eva Muse, describing her as a devoted member of the Nazarene church and a Sunday school teacher whose unexpected death had deeply affected the community.
Later that year, the newspaper recorded additional Nazarene activity. In October 1920, Reverend W. W. Stone preached at Delmer’s Nazarene church, attracting a large congregation. Reverend C. C. Burton was also continuing his religious work, with plans to conduct meetings outside the community.
The Baptist congregation at nearby Okalona provides an even more detailed example of Delmer’s religious history. On February 11, 1921, The Somerset Journal published an account of a two-week revival at Okalona Baptist Church, conducted by Reverend W. F. Meece of Bobtown with assistance from Reverend J. M. P. Floyd of Delmer.
According to the newspaper’s local correspondent, approximately 600 people attended the concluding Sunday service, with 54 people accepting Christianity during the revival. Mrs. Cleo Baker of Boswell, Indiana, led the singing, while the congregation collected $54 for Reverend Meece.
The account demonstrates the considerable influence of rural churches and their ability to draw participants from a wide geographical area. Families traveled from surrounding neighborhoods, attended services together, and visited relatives or neighbors afterward.
Among those attending the Okalona meeting were members of the Barker, Fitzgerald, and Brown families. Visitors from Wayne County and Somerset were also present, showing how the congregation’s religious and social connections extended beyond Delmer itself.
Okalona Church continued to appear on historical maps during the following decades. Its presence on the 1961 and 1973 United States Geological Survey maps demonstrates the continuing geographical importance of the church long after the 1921 revival.
Education, Illness, and Family Life in Delmer
Delmer’s newspaper correspondence also provides evidence of the educational opportunities available to its residents. The January 30, 1920, edition of The Somerset Journal identified Flora Floyd of Delmer as a teacher who had traveled to Somerset to attend an examination.
Her appearance in the county newspaper places Delmer within the larger system of rural education, where teachers regularly traveled to the county seat for examinations, certification, and other professional requirements.
Historical USGS maps provide additional evidence of educational institutions in the surrounding countryside. The 1954 Delmer quadrangle identified several schools across the wider mapped area, including Okalona School, Oak Hill School, Cundiff School, and Saline School. These were not necessarily all located within Delmer itself, but they demonstrate the network of rural educational institutions serving nearby families during the middle of the twentieth century.
Alongside education and religious activity, newspaper correspondence repeatedly documented the illnesses and deaths that affected local households. In February 1920, The Somerset Journal reported that J. A. Burton and his family were suffering from influenza, while Lucy Burton was recovering from illness. Another report recorded cases of measles within the Hudson family.
These accounts place Delmer within the wider experience of the influenza outbreaks and other infectious diseases that affected Kentucky communities during the early twentieth century. The newspaper also documented neighbors visiting sick relatives and sharing news about the recovery of local residents, preserving evidence of the community’s close social connections.
In June 1920, the Delmer correspondent reported the death of Lillie Dobkins, wife of J. Dobkins, following several months of illness. She left behind her husband and two children. Her death appeared alongside reports of other illnesses and visits between the Muse, Fitzgerald, Clifton, and Taylor families.
For a small community like Delmer, such newspaper notices now provide some of the clearest surviving evidence of its residents’ individual lives.
Lake Cumberland and the Changing Landscape of the 1950s
The middle of the twentieth century brought substantial changes to southwestern Pulaski County as the federal government constructed Wolf Creek Dam and created Lake Cumberland.
The project was authorized through federal legislation in 1938 and 1946, with construction beginning in August 1941. Following delays caused by the Second World War, the dam began flood-control operations in 1950 and was completed for full beneficial use in August 1952. Its completion created an extensive reservoir system that transformed the Cumberland River and numerous surrounding valleys.
The USGS Delmer quadrangle, surveyed in 1954 and published in 1955, provides a particularly important historical record of the landscape shortly after the reservoir’s completion. The map identifies Delmer alongside Nancy, Oil Center, Shafter, and other established settlements, while documenting the new waters of Lake Cumberland and Fishing Creek.
The map also identifies Delmer Church, as well as numerous schools, churches, and family cemeteries throughout the wider region. These details make it possible to examine the community within the network of roads, ridges, and waterways that shaped rural life during the 1950s.
A later USGS survey from 1961 illustrates further changes in the region, including the established reservoir shoreline, surrounding transportation routes, and nearby religious institutions. The map continued to identify Delmer as a distinct settlement and marked Okalona Church, whose congregation had appeared in newspaper accounts four decades earlier.
Comparing the historical maps reveals how Delmer and its neighboring communities existed within a substantially altered landscape. The reservoir changed the region’s geography and transportation possibilities, although the maps alone do not establish precisely which Delmer households or businesses, if any, were relocated because of its construction.
The Closure of the Delmer Post Office in 1962
After nearly 59 years of operation, the Delmer post office closed in 1962. By its final years, it had moved from its original location serving Vola to a site near Okalona Church, approximately half a mile south of Timmy Branch of Clifty Creek, according to Rennick’s postal research.
Its closure ended the federal postal institution that had originally given Delmer its modern name, although it did not mark the disappearance of the community itself.
The wider countryside continued to develop during the following decade. The 1973 USGS Delmer quadrangle, published in 1974, still identified Delmer alongside Nancy, Trimble, Shafter, and neighboring settlements. It also recorded the Cumberland Parkway, Lake Cumberland, and established churches, including Okalona and Saline.
The survival of Delmer’s name on maps after the closure of its post office demonstrates how firmly the settlement had become part of Pulaski County’s geographical identity.
Preserving the History of Delmer
Delmer’s history illustrates the importance of looking beyond major towns and well-known historical events when reconstructing the past of southern Kentucky. Its story began before the establishment of its post office, acquired a new identity through William Sherman Burton and his infant son, and continued through the activities of families whose lives were preserved in local newspaper correspondence.
The records reveal a community sustained by small businesses, schools, religious congregations, and close relationships between neighboring households. They also document the changes brought by illness, migration, improvements in transportation, and the creation of Lake Cumberland.
The historical record remains incomplete, particularly concerning Vola’s earliest settlers, the precise locations occupied by Delmer’s post office, and the histories of its individual churches and schools. Nevertheless, the surviving postal histories, contemporary newspapers, original maps, and county archives provide an unusually detailed foundation for studying a rural community that might otherwise receive little attention beyond its name on a map.
Delmer’s story is ultimately the history of the people who gave the community its identity. From the Burton family and the first post office in 1903 to the congregations gathering at Okalona and the households reporting their news to The Somerset Journal, the community’s past survives through the records of ordinary lives that shaped Pulaski County across generations.
Sources & Further Reading
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky, Part 3.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38, no. 5 (October–November 2007): 64. https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-5.pdf.
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813101798/kentucky-place-names/.
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/.
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/.
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/.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” October 3, 1919. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_3_1919.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” October 10, 1919. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_10_1919.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” January 30, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1_30_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” February 13, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_13_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” February 20, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_20_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” April 9, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_9_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” June 18, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_18_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” October 22, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_22_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” October 29, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_29_1920.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” February 4, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_21/2_4_1921_3.htm.
The Somerset Journal. “Delmer.” February 11, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_21/2_11_1921_4.htm.
Herald of Holiness. “Pastoral Arrangements: Kentucky District.” Vol. 16, no. 30 (October 19, 1927). Nazarene Publishing House. Nazarene Research Services. https://research.whdl.org/en/browse/resources/21734.
Herald of Holiness. January 11, 1928. Vol. 16, no. 42. Nazarene Publishing House. Wesleyan-Holiness Digital Library. https://whdl.org/en/browse/resources/21750.
Rand McNally & Company. Map of Pulaski County, Kentucky. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1911. Reproduced by My Genealogy Hound. https://mygenealogyhound.com/maps/kentucky-maps/KY-Pulaski-County-Kentucky-1911-Rand-McNally-map-Somerset-Burnside-Science-Hill.html.
United States Geological Survey. Delmer, Kentucky. Historical topographic quadrangle maps, surveyed in 1954, 1961, and 1973. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/topoview.
Lewis, Richard Quintin. Geologic Map of the Delmer Quadrangle, Pulaski County, Kentucky. Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-909. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1971. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/geologic-map-delmer-quadrangle-pulaski-county-kentucky.
Ciszak, E. A. Spatial Database of the Delmer Quadrangle, Pulaski County, Kentucky. Map and Chart Series 12. Kentucky Geological Survey, 2006. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_78087.htm.
National Archives and Records Administration. “Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–September 30, 1971.” Record Group 28, Records of the Post Office Department. Microfilm Publication M841. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971.html.
National Archives and Records Administration. “Post Office Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1950.” Record Group 28, Records of the Post Office Department. Microfilm Publication M1126. 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, court records, tax lists, and other local materials. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/.
Morehead State University. Robert M. Rennick Topographical Maps Collection. Camden-Carroll Library, Morehead, KY. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_maps_all/.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Wolf Creek Dam.” Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, January 11, 2024. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Article/3642683/wolf-creek-dam/.
Author Note: Delmer’s history reminds us that even the smallest Appalachian communities contain stories worth preserving, particularly those found in old newspapers, postal records, and the memories of local families. I hope this article encourages readers with connections to Delmer to explore their own family histories and help preserve more of this Pulaski County community’s past.