Appalachian Community Histories – Ingle, Pulaski County: Rev. James W. Ingle, Cedar Point, and the History of a Rural Community
In western Pulaski County, Kentucky, along the ridges and farmland surrounding Kentucky Route 837, lies Ingle, a rural community whose history can be reconstructed through postal records, contemporary newspapers, historical maps, and the lives of the families who called it home. Although Ingle never developed into a large town, its surviving records reveal a community with its own post office, churches, schools, farms, and connections extending across Kentucky and into other states.
The community’s documented history reaches back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when Rev. James W. Ingle established a post office bearing his name. By the 1920s, Ingle appeared regularly in The Somerset Journal, whose community correspondents recorded everything from tobacco harvests and livestock sales to religious revivals, school entertainments, illness, and the movement of families between neighboring communities. Together, these accounts preserve a detailed picture of everyday life in a part of Pulaski County whose history might otherwise be difficult to recover.
The Establishment of Ingle and Its Post Office
The origins of Ingle’s name can be traced directly to Rev. James W. Ingle, a local minister who established the community’s post office on August 4, 1905. Kentucky place-name historian Robert M. Rennick documented the office’s establishment in his 2007 study of Pulaski County postal history, drawing on original United States Post Office Department records to identify its founder and early location.
According to the original site-location report cited by Rennick, the proposed post office stood approximately one mile west of Wolf Creek, four miles southwest of Cains Store, and nearly four miles northwest of Faubush. These distances placed Ingle within the network of small agricultural communities that occupied western Pulaski County, where rural roads, creeks, and individual farms helped define the boundaries of settlements that seldom possessed formal municipal limits.
Rev. Ingle’s involvement in the local postal system extended beyond the community that carried his name. After leaving the Ingle post office in 1907, he established another office approximately three miles northwest. He initially proposed the name Viola, but because another Kentucky post office already used that name, he selected Reno instead. The new Reno post office opened on April 21, 1908, illustrating how individual residents could influence the names and locations of the small postal communities scattered throughout the county.
The establishment of the Ingle post office in 1905 should not, however, be mistaken for the beginning of settlement in the surrounding countryside. Families were already occupying farms and maintaining connections with nearby communities, while the creation of a postal address provided an official name that would subsequently appear in maps, newspapers, and government records.
Farming, Tobacco, and the Rural Economy
By the fall of 1920, Ingle had become a recognizable community in the pages of The Somerset Journal. Its local correspondent documented a countryside in which agriculture dominated everyday life, with the seasonal demands of planting, harvesting, and preparing crops for market shaping the activities of local families.
The September 24, 1920, issue reported that residents were occupied with gathering corn and making molasses, although recent hail and heavy rain had caused considerable damage to tobacco and corn crops. The same column recorded visits between the Lane, Dause, and Kissee families and a community singing hosted by A. T. Roy, showing how agricultural work and social gatherings existed alongside one another.
As autumn progressed, the newspaper continued to document the agricultural calendar. Farmers were preparing and sowing wheat by late October, while December brought corn gathering, tobacco stripping, firewood collection, and livestock trading. On December 10, the Ingle correspondent described an unusual transaction involving Arch Davenport, John Eads, half an acre of tobacco, and a Plymouth Rock rooster. The same report noted that Henry Gilpin was buying hogs and that Sid Beasley had gathered help to put a covering on his new house.
These reports also demonstrate that Ingle’s agricultural economy extended well beyond its immediate neighborhood. Henry Dick regularly traveled on business, including a trip to Danville with a load of apples, while other residents conducted transactions in Russell Springs, Somerset, and neighboring counties. Livestock and agricultural products moved between communities through a combination of local trading, personal relationships, and journeys to larger markets.
The January 21, 1921, issue offers particularly useful evidence of the value of local property and the importance of tobacco. Aaron Brown reportedly sold a farm for approximately $1,800, while C. Gossett sold another property to Oscar Brown for around $2,000. Otha Coffey and Arch Davenport shipped tobacco to Lexington for sale, as did G. A. Tarter, A. T. Roy, and J. A. Roy. By February, the newspaper reported another substantial property transaction when Henry Dick sold a farm to J. W. Dick for $4,500.
Sawmills also formed part of Ingle’s working landscape. In October 1920, W. M. Ragle purchased a sawmill from Cooper and Tarter, and the following month’s newspaper reported that Herbert Schoolcraft had injured his finger while working at Ragle’s mill. J. W. Kissee operated another sawmill, which the newspaper mentioned in December. These small enterprises supported local construction and timber production while exposing workers to the occupational dangers associated with rural industry.
Cedar Point Church, Liberty Church, and Religious Life
Churches occupied an important place in Ingle’s social and religious life during the early twentieth century. Contemporary newspaper accounts identify both Cedar Point Church and Liberty Church as centers of worship, revivals, and community gatherings, with visiting ministers and local congregations maintaining connections across western Pulaski County.
The October 15, 1920, edition of The Somerset Journal reported that Rev. Frank Beasley had fulfilled his regular preaching appointment at Cedar Point. Two weeks later, the Ingle correspondent announced that a revival had begun at Liberty Church under the direction of Rev. Frank Breeding and Rev. Billy Wilson. The same report encouraged residents to attend Sunday school at Cedar Point, where weekly gatherings provided another opportunity for neighbors and families to maintain their religious and social connections.
By November 5, the revival at Liberty had concluded, while another revival had begun at Cedar Point. Religious activity continued throughout the following winter, with Milton Pitman preaching at Cedar Point in December and Rev. Beasley returning for his regular appointments during the spring of 1921.
These churches were more than places for scheduled religious services. They provided gathering spaces for families living across a dispersed agricultural community, hosted visiting ministers from neighboring settlements, and served as important locations for funerals and other events that brought residents together.
Cedar Point’s connection with local families extended across generations. Records from the early twentieth century identify the church as an established place of worship, while later biographical evidence confirms that it remained important to residents born in Ingle decades after the original newspaper accounts appeared.
Liberty School and Cedar Point School
Education was another important part of community life in Ingle, with contemporary newspapers documenting the activities of both Liberty School and Cedar Point School during the 1920s. Like many rural Appalachian communities, Ingle relied on neighborhood schools that brought children together from farms and households spread across the surrounding countryside.
On October 29, 1920, The Somerset Journal reported that Liberty School had recently hosted a pie supper to raise money for a school fair. Such gatherings combined entertainment, fundraising, and community participation, allowing residents to support local education while enjoying an evening with neighbors. The report indicates that the event had been successful, although it does not provide a specific amount raised.
Cedar Point School also served as a gathering place beyond the ordinary school day. The December 24, 1920, issue announced that the school would hold a Christmas Eve entertainment, an event eagerly anticipated by the local community. The announcement appeared alongside news of family visits, the return of residents from other states, and preparations for the winter season, placing the school celebration within the larger pattern of holiday activities in Ingle.
Although the surviving newspaper reports do not establish the founding dates, enrollment figures, or eventual closure dates of these schools, they demonstrate that both institutions were active during the early twentieth century. Their histories remain closely connected with the families who attended them and the churches and neighborhoods that supported their activities.
Families, Migration, and Connections Beyond Pulaski County
The newspaper columns from Ingle preserve a remarkable amount of information about the families who lived in the community and their connections with surrounding areas. Names such as Kissee, Dick, Roy, Lane, Tarter, Schoolcraft, Pitman, and Dause appear repeatedly, often in accounts of agricultural work, property transactions, church attendance, and visits between relatives.
These reports also document the movement of residents into and out of the community. In November 1920, John Meaders moved from Hickory Nut to Ingle and purchased a farm from G. C. Gossett. He also traveled to Russell Springs, where he acquired a pair of mules, providing an example of how relocating families could establish themselves within the local agricultural economy.
The movement of residents was not limited to nearby Kentucky communities. Newspaper accounts mention people returning from or traveling to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. In December 1920, Edgar Roy returned from Detroit to spend the winter at the home of his father, A. T. Roy, while other families maintained connections with relatives in Casey County and neighboring parts of Kentucky.
These movements illustrate the broader migration patterns that affected rural Kentucky during the early twentieth century. Although the surviving Ingle columns do not establish why every individual left or returned, they reveal a community connected to distant cities through employment, family relationships, and seasonal travel.
The continued movement of families also shaped Ingle’s relationships with neighboring communities. Residents regularly traveled between Ingle, Faubush, Gilpin, Nancy, Russell Springs, and Somerset, visiting relatives, conducting business, attending religious services, and obtaining medical care. Such connections made Ingle part of a much wider social landscape, even as its own identity remained closely associated with its post office and local institutions.
Illness, Loss, and the Fire in the Flat Woods
The surviving newspaper accounts also reveal the hardships faced by families in Ingle during the early twentieth century. Illness appeared repeatedly in the community columns, often reported over several consecutive weeks as residents and their neighbors awaited news of recovery.
During the final months of 1920, the newspaper regularly mentioned the poor health of Elizabeth Allen, Floy Kissee, and Dick Kissee. Local physicians, including Dr. Brent Weddle of Nancy and Dr. H. C. Dye of Mintonville, traveled into the area to attend sick residents, demonstrating the importance of medical professionals who served multiple rural communities across western Pulaski County.
The illness of Floy Kissee continued into the following spring. On March 18, 1921, The Somerset Journal reported that she had died after an extended period of poor health. Funeral services were conducted at Cedar Point Church by Rev. C. C. Trimble, and she was buried in the Tarter Cemetery.
The same issue recorded another hardship when a fire swept through the Flat Woods area. According to the Ingle correspondent, the fire began on March 5 and continued until rain extinguished it the following Wednesday, burning much of the land owned by Napier Adams. The newspaper also reported that J. W. Kissee had suffered the loss of a mule after its leg was broken during logging work.
Together, these accounts reveal how vulnerable rural families could be to illness, agricultural losses, fire, and workplace accidents. They also demonstrate the importance of churches, physicians, relatives, and neighbors in responding to the difficulties of everyday life.
Ingle During the Mid-Twentieth Century
Although the detailed newspaper columns from 1920 and 1921 provide an especially vivid picture of Ingle’s early history, later government records establish that the community continued to maintain its identity throughout the twentieth century.
The 1950 United States Census provides one of the most important federal references to Ingle during this period. Enumeration District 100-23 in Pulaski County explicitly identified the community in its geographic description, covering a portion of Magisterial District 3 west of the Dorena and Fine Thicket School Road through Ingle and west of House Fork. This description confirms the community’s continued recognition as a geographic landmark, although it was not enumerated as a separately incorporated town.
The United States Geological Survey’s 1954 Faubush quadrangle provides another valuable record of the surrounding landscape. Preserved in Robert M. Rennick’s annotated map collection at Morehead State University, the map documents western Pulaski County’s roads, ridges, waterways, and rural geography during the middle of the twentieth century. Together with later editions, such maps provide evidence for examining the community’s development and its connections with neighboring settlements.
Later property records also preserve important details about Ingle and its residents. On May 19, 1972, Cleo and Leatra Whittle conveyed approximately 0.23 acre along Highway 837 for the Ingle Substation. An official East Kentucky Power Cooperative property record, reproduced in a Kentucky Public Service Commission filing, identifies the site as approximately 7.4 miles southwest of Nancy and cites the original transaction in Pulaski County Deed Book 325, page 455.
The Whittle family provides a particularly useful connection between the community’s earlier agricultural history and its later generations. Filene Whittle, born in Ingle on December 10, 1936, was the daughter of Cleo and Leatra Ashbrook Whittle. Her obituary records that she worked in farming and had been a member of Cedar Point Baptist Church. She died in Somerset on May 18, 2020, and was buried in Cedar Point Cemetery, providing evidence of the church’s continued importance to families with deep roots in Ingle.
The Suspension of the Ingle Post Office and the Community’s Legacy
Ingle’s postal history eventually came to an end after nearly eighty-five years of service. According to Robert M. Rennick, the post office was suspended on June 1, 1990. By that time, it stood along Tick Ridge and Kentucky Route 837, just north of the Cumberland Parkway and approximately seventeen miles west of Somerset.
The suspension of the post office marked the end of an institution that had provided the community with its official name in 1905, but it did not necessarily mark the disappearance of the settlement or the families who remained connected to it. Like many small Appalachian communities, Ingle’s history survived through its landscape, churches, burial grounds, property records, and the memories of people whose families had lived there for generations.
Much of Ingle’s documented past survives in records that were created for entirely different purposes. Postal officials recorded distances between creeks and neighboring offices, newspaper correspondents described ordinary family visits and farm transactions, census enumerators identified local roads, and land deeds documented the transfer of small parcels of property. Read together, these sources provide a surprisingly detailed record of a community that otherwise received little attention in broader histories of Kentucky.
The story of Ingle is therefore more than the history of a post office established by a local minister. It is also the story of families who worked the land, raised children, supported their schools and churches, traveled to distant states, and maintained relationships across the hills and valleys of western Pulaski County. Their experiences, preserved in scattered historical records, form an important part of the county’s rural and Appalachian heritage.
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 (2007). https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-4.pdf
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky, Part 1.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38, no. 3 (2007). https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-3.pdf
United States Post Office Department. Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1950. Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M1126, roll 231. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html
United States Post Office Department. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–1971. Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M841, roll 49. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971.html
United States Bureau of the Census. Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950. Pulaski County, Kentucky, Enumeration Districts 100-23 and 100-24. National Archives and Records Administration. https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?county=Pulaski&state=KY
United States Geological Survey. Faubush, Kentucky. 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle, 1954. Robert M. Rennick Topographical Maps Collection, Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_maps_all/241/
United States Geological Survey. Faubush, Kentucky. 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle, 1954. Digitized historical map. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KY_Faubush_708647_1954_24000_geo.pdf
United States Geological Survey. Historical Topographic Map Collection. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/topographic-maps
Thaden, Robert E., and Richard Q. Lewis Sr. Preliminary Structure Map of the Faubush Quadrangle, South-Central Kentucky. Open-File Report 69-277. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1969. https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1969/0277/plate-1.pdf
Thaden, Robert E., and Richard Q. Lewis. Geologic Map of the Faubush Quadrangle, Pulaski and Russell Counties, Kentucky. Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-802. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1969. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/gq802
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Historical County Highway Maps. Frankfort: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/Pages/Historical-Maps.aspx
Pulaski County Clerk. Land Records. Somerset, KY: Pulaski County Clerk. https://pulaski.kycountyclerk.us/land-records/
East Kentucky Power Cooperative. Application and Supporting Property Records, Including the Ingle Substation Property. Kentucky Public Service Commission, Case No. 2007-00462, 2007. https://psc.ky.gov/pscscf/2007%20cases/2007-00462/ekpc_application_102607.pdf
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). February 13, 1920. Contemporary community reporting mentioning residents of Ingle. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_13_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” September 24, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/9_24_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” October 15, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_15_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” October 29, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_29_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” November 5, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/11_5_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” December 3, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_3_20_3.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” December 10, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_10_1920_3.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” December 17, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_17_1920_3.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” December 24, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_24_1920_2.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” January 7, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1_1921/1_7_1921_3.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” January 21, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1_1921/1_21_1921_2.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” February 11, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_21/2_11_1921_4.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” March 18, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/3_21/3_18_1921_2.htm
The Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). “Ingle.” April 15, 1921. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_21/4_15_1921_2.htm
“Pulaski County: Post Offices & Place Names.” Cataloged 1939. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 284. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/284/
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. https://books.google.com/books/about/Kentucky_place_names.html?id=ivUTAAAAYAAJ
Morehead State University. Robert M. Rennick Kentucky Place Name Collection. Morehead, KY: Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/robert_rennick_collection/
Pulaski County Public Library. Digital Archives of the Pulaski County Public Library. Somerset, KY: Pulaski County Public Library. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/
University of Kentucky Libraries. Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program. Lexington: University of Kentucky Libraries. https://kentuckynewspapers.org/program/
Pulaski County KYGenWeb. Pulaski County Historical Newspapers and Genealogical Records. KYGenWeb Project. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/
Pulaski County KYGenWeb. Kentucky Death Certificate Transcriptions. Includes the transcription of William Kissee’s death certificate, February 24, 1917. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/obits/death.htm
Pulaski Funeral Home. “Filene Whittle.” Obituary, May 18, 2020. https://www.pulaskifuneralhome.com/obituaries/filene-whittle
United States Geological Survey. Geographic Names Information System. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/geographic-names-information-system-gnis
Blevins, Cameron, and Richard Helbock. U.S. Post Offices. Historical geographic dataset. Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/NUKCNA
Genealogy Trails. Pulaski County, Kentucky, Cemetery Records. https://genealogytrails.com/ken/pulaski/cemeteries.html
LDSGenealogy. Pulaski County, Kentucky, Cemetery Records. Includes research links for Cedar Point Cemetery. https://ldsgenealogy.com/KY/Pulaski-County-Cemetery-Records.htm
Author Note: The history of Ingle survives in the stories of its farming families, churches, schools, and the records of a post office that served the community for nearly eighty-five years. I hope readers with connections to Ingle and western Pulaski County will share their family photographs, documents, and memories to help preserve more of this community’s history.