Appalachian Community Histories – Limeville, Greenup County: The Lime Works, Ohio River Trade, and a Changing Kentucky Community
Along the Ohio River in Greenup County, Kentucky, the small community of Limeville developed around an industry that once connected the surrounding hills to markets hundreds of miles away. During the nineteenth century, limestone quarried from the nearby hills was burned in kilns, processed into lime, and shipped by river to cities such as Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The settlement that grew around this industry became known by several names, including Duvalls Landing, Greenup Lime Works, Limeville, and Tongs, each reflecting a different period of its development.
By 1881, Greenup Lime Works was an established industrial settlement with approximately sixty residents, daily mail service, a general store, and several lime manufacturers. Its proximity to the Ohio River provided access to markets beyond northeastern Kentucky, while its limestone deposits supplied the raw material upon which the community depended. Although Limeville never became a large town, its history illustrates how small Appalachian communities could develop around a single natural resource and remain connected to a much larger regional economy.
William Tong and the Beginnings of Greenup Lime Works
The early development of Limeville is closely associated with William Wilson Tong, whose arrival in Greenup County during the 1840s helped establish the community’s industrial identity. According to Nina Mitchell Biggs and Mabel Lee Mackoy’s 1951 History of Greenup County, Kentucky, Tong was born in 1797 and moved from Adams County, Ohio, to Mason County, Kentucky, in 1842 before eventually settling near the future site of Limeville. There, he established a lime kiln and operated a business known as Greenup Lime Works. The county historians also recorded that Tong maintained a blacksmith shop on property later occupied by the community’s schoolhouse.
The Duvall family also played an important role in the settlement’s early development. Later local histories associate the family with the lime industry during the 1840s, while the community’s original postal identity, Duvalls Landing, preserved its connection to the family. Although surviving accounts differ about the precise relationship between the earliest Duvall operations and Tong’s establishment, original federal records confirm that both names were associated with substantial lime manufacturing businesses by 1870.
Limeville’s location provided two important advantages. The hills contained deposits of limestone suitable for commercial production, while the Ohio River offered a transportation route to growing industrial centers. Instead of relying entirely on difficult overland roads, local manufacturers could send their finished products directly to river markets, allowing a relatively small community to participate in commerce extending well beyond Greenup County.
Inside the Lime Kilns of Greenup County
The scale of Limeville’s nineteenth-century industry becomes clearer through the federal manufacturing census of 1870. Archaeologist Charles D. Hockensmith examined the original census schedules for his study of Kentucky’s historic lime industry, identifying two particularly substantial manufacturers in Greenup County, William Tong and John S. Duvall.
Tong reported an investment of $12,000 in his manufacturing operation, which employed seven men over an eight-month working season. During that period, the business produced approximately 14,400 barrels of lime, with a reported annual product value of $12,240. The operation spent $3,600 on limestone, $675 on coal, $2,240 on labor, and $2,880 on barrels needed to package its finished product.
Duvall’s operation was smaller in capital investment but nevertheless represented a substantial industrial enterprise. The 1870 manufacturing census recorded $4,000 invested in his business, which also employed seven men over eight months. His kilns produced approximately 12,000 barrels of lime, valued at $13,500, while expenditures included limestone, coal, wages, and the barrels necessary to transport the product. Together, the two businesses reported production of approximately 26,400 barrels of lime, demonstrating the scale of Greenup County’s industry during this period.
Producing lime required more than simply gathering loose stone from the hillsides. Limestone had to be extracted from the surrounding deposits, transported to the kilns, and exposed to sustained high temperatures that transformed it into quicklime. Workers then handled and packaged the finished material for shipment. The process required a dependable supply of fuel, quarry labor, kiln workers, and transportation, making lime manufacturing an important source of employment and commercial activity.
The geological conditions that made this industry possible attracted the attention of the Kentucky Geological Survey. In his 1884 report on Greenup and surrounding counties, geologist Albert R. Crandall described significant limestone deposits behind the Greenup lime kilns, observing that the formation reached a thickness of approximately thirty-five feet in one location before diminishing across the surrounding countryside. His observations help explain why the industry developed in this particular section of the Ohio River valley rather than being distributed evenly throughout the county.
The Workers Who Made Limeville an Industrial Community
The 1870 population census also provides insight into the men employed in Greenup County’s lime industry. Hockensmith identified fifteen individuals whose recorded occupations connected them to lime manufacturing, including Tong and Duvall. The remaining thirteen were listed as laborers at lime kilns, offering a glimpse into the workforce supporting the county’s industrial operations.
The workers came from a surprisingly broad geographical area. Of the fifteen men identified, only two were born in Kentucky, while others came from Ohio, West Virginia, New York, eastern Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ireland. Their ages ranged from seventeen to fifty, apart from the seventy-year-old Tong. Most resided in the same Greenup County census precinct, indicating how closely the county’s lime-making workforce was concentrated.
These census entries reveal a community that drew workers from outside its immediate surroundings. Although the surviving occupational records provide much more information about manufacturers and male laborers than about women, children, and domestic life, the growth of the lime works would have affected the entire settlement through its demands for housing, goods, transportation, and local services.
The Ohio River and the Growth of a Trading Community
Throughout the nineteenth century, the Ohio River served as Limeville’s principal connection to markets outside Greenup County. The lime works could take advantage of river transportation to reach Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and other communities where lime was used in construction, agriculture, and manufacturing. Later county histories recalled packet boats carrying the community’s lime to these larger markets.
The importance of the river is confirmed by the Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory published in 1881 and 1882. Its entry for Greenup Lime Works placed the settlement approximately ten miles from Greenup, the county seat, and specifically identified the Ohio River as the route for shipping its goods. With a population estimated at sixty and daily mail service, the community possessed the essential commercial connections of a small industrial settlement.
The directory identified Cyrus Cartwright, J. H. Merrill, J. T. Molder, and W. R. Tong among the community’s lime manufacturers, while Merrill also operated a general store and served as postmaster. Although Limeville’s population was modest, the directory demonstrates that manufacturing remained an active part of the settlement’s identity in the early 1880s.
The Merrill Family and the Changing Lime Industry
As the nineteenth century progressed, additional families became closely associated with Greenup County’s limestone industry. Among them were the Merrills, whose involvement extended from quarrying to manufacturing and local commerce.
The 1870 manufacturing census recorded Josiah G. Merrill operating a limestone quarry with approximately $6,000 invested in the business. Working nine months of the year, the quarry employed four men and produced approximately 2,000 tons of limestone valued at $2,800. The operation’s expenses included explosives, steel, and fuses, materials consistent with the demanding work of extracting limestone from the surrounding hills. Although the quarry may have supplied local lime manufacturers, the precise relationship between Merrill’s quarry and individual kilns remains uncertain.
By the following decade, J. H. Merrill appeared in commercial directories as both a lime manufacturer and general store operator at Greenup Lime Works. Hockensmith identified him as likely John Hayward Merrill, a member of the family described in the 1951 county history. His activities illustrate how local entrepreneurs could participate in several related businesses, supplying the settlement’s residents while remaining involved in the industry upon which the community had developed.
Cyrus Cartwright became another important figure in Limeville’s later nineteenth-century history. Born in Hanging Rock, Ohio, in 1844, Cartwright operated the lime works for several years following William Tong’s death in 1879, according to Biggs and Mackoy. He subsequently established a general store near his home in the area associated with Tongs Post Office and continued in the merchandise business until his death in 1915.
From Duvalls Landing to Limeville and Tongs
Few aspects of Limeville’s history illustrate its changing identity more clearly than the succession of names associated with the settlement and its post office. Local historian Robert M. Rennick’s research, preserved by Morehead State University, traces the community through its years as Duvalls Landing, Greenup Lime Works, Limeville, and Tongs. The names reflect the influence of prominent families, the local industry, and the arrival of railroad transportation.
According to Rennick’s chronology, as reported in later local histories, William Cameron established the Duvalls Landing post office in 1871. Its name was changed to Greenup Lime Works on September 23, 1879, recognizing the industry that had become central to the surrounding settlement. On August 2, 1888, the office became Limeville, adopting the name associated with the nearby Maysville and Big Sandy Railroad station.
The arrival of railroad transportation added another dimension to Limeville’s existing river connections. The railroad station’s name also helped establish Limeville as an identity separate from Greenup Lime Works, even though manufacturing remained closely associated with the community.
Another change followed on June 20, 1894, when the post office was renamed Tongs. The name preserved the connection to the family whose business had helped shape the settlement during the preceding decades. For much of the twentieth century, the community retained the Limeville name locally while its postal service operated under the name Tongs.
The Tongs post office closed in January 1958, but the community’s naming history did not conclude there. In 1968, the United States Board on Geographic Names formally recognized Limeville as the community’s name, reflecting continued local use and the established identities of its railroad station and Methodist church.
Schools and Community Life in Limeville
Although industrial records provide the most detailed evidence of Limeville’s nineteenth-century economy, the settlement also developed the institutions necessary to sustain a residential community. Schools, religious congregations, stores, and the post office provided places where residents could gather and maintain connections beyond the lime works.
According to local histories summarized by Sherman Cahal, Limeville’s first school occupied a one-room log building in Limeville Hollow. A later log schoolhouse at Mount Ebo served area children before another school building was constructed closer to the Ohio River in 1909. These successive buildings reflected the changing needs and location of the community’s educational facilities as the settlement developed.
The Methodist church also contributed to Limeville’s enduring identity. Its continued use of the community’s name became particularly significant during the twentieth century, when the official post-office designation differed from the name familiar to local residents.
The surviving buildings provide another connection to this part of Limeville’s past. In December 2020, Sherman Cahal photographed an old one-room schoolhouse and a residence in the community, documenting elements of its historic landscape. While the lime industry had once supplied the economic foundation of the settlement, such buildings preserve evidence of the families and institutions that continued to define Limeville beyond its industrial beginnings.
The Decline of the Lime Industry and Limeville’s Later Years
Greenup County’s lime industry remained active through the closing decades of the nineteenth century, although its commercial organization changed as individual manufacturers retired, died, or moved into other businesses. The surviving directories demonstrate this transition, with the names associated with the lime works changing between the 1870s and 1880s.
Hockensmith’s broader research places Greenup County’s documented lime production primarily between approximately 1860 and 1900. By the twentieth century, industrial production elsewhere increasingly relied on larger facilities, improved transportation, and more centralized manufacturing. Small settlements whose economies had developed around local kilns faced a changing industrial landscape.
For Limeville, the disappearance of its earlier industrial prominence did not mean the immediate disappearance of the community itself. Its post office continued operating under the name Tongs into the 1950s, while the school, church, and surrounding homes provided evidence of a settlement that had developed an identity beyond the industry that first brought it recognition.
Historical maps and later geographical records continued to preserve the community’s location along the Ohio River. A Kentucky Geological Survey map published in 2007 identifies Limeville and Limeville Branch near South Shore, demonstrating the survival of the name in the county’s geographical landscape.
Remembering Limeville’s Place in Greenup County History
Limeville’s history offers an important example of the relationship between Appalachian natural resources, industrial enterprise, and the Ohio River’s commercial networks. During the nineteenth century, its limestone deposits supported substantial manufacturing operations, while its riverfront location allowed finished products to reach distant markets. The census records, commercial directories, geological reports, and postal histories collectively document a community whose economic activities were considerably more extensive than its small population might suggest.
The story is also one of changing identities. From the industrial associations of Greenup Lime Works to the family connections preserved by Tongs Post Office, the community’s names reflect different chapters of its history. The eventual restoration of Limeville as its recognized geographical name acknowledged a local identity that had survived changes in industry, transportation, and postal service.
Today, Limeville’s historical importance rests not on its size but on its place within the broader development of northeastern Kentucky. Its kilns and quarries contributed to the nineteenth-century building economy, its river landing connected local manufacturers to distant cities, and its schools, stores, and religious institutions sustained the families who called the settlement home. The surviving historical record ensures that Limeville can be remembered as more than a name on a map: it was once an active industrial community whose development was inseparable from the limestone beneath its hills and the Ohio River flowing past them.
Sources & Further Reading
Biggs, Nina Mitchell, and Mabel Lee Mackoy. History of Greenup County, Kentucky. 1951. Reprint, Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 2025. https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_Greenup_County_Kentucky.html?id=qH8Z0QEACAAJ
Cahal, Sherman. “A White Christmas at Limeville.” Abandoned, December 26, 2020. Updated February 2024. https://abandonedonline.net/a-white-christmas-at-limeville/
Crandall, Albert R. “Report on the Geology of Greenup, Carter, Boyd, and a Part of Lawrence Counties.” In Reports of Special Subjects: C. Eastern Coal Field. Frankfort: Kentucky Geological Survey, 1884. https://books.google.com/books/about/Reports_of_Special_Subjects_C_Eastern_co.html?id=aBC8AAAAIAAJ
Hockensmith, Charles D. “An Overview of Kentucky’s Historic Lime Industry.” In Current Archaeological Research in Kentucky, vol. 7, edited by Charles D. Hockensmith and Kenneth C. Carstens, 159–228. Frankfort: Kentucky Heritage Council, 2004. https://heritage.ky.gov/Documents/Current%20Archaeological%20Research%20in%20Kentucky%20Vol%207.pdf
Jackson, Evelyn, and Mildred Dupry. “Greenup County: Place Names.” 1960. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 202. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/202/
Kentucky Historical Society. Greenup County Court Records, 1780–1887. MSS 239. Collection finding aid. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/api/collection/LIB/id/2196/download
Polk, R. L., and A. C. Danser. Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1881–1882. Vol. 3, pt. 1, 196–197. Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1881. https://archive.org/details/kentuckystategaz31rlpo
Polk, R. L., and A. C. Danser. Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1881–1882. Vol. 3, pt. 2. Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1881. https://archive.org/details/kentuckystategaz32rlpo
Rand McNally. “Greenup County, Kentucky.” Map. 1911. Reproduced by My Genealogy Hound. https://www.mygenealogyhound.com/maps/kentucky-maps/KY-Greenup-County-Kentucky-1911-Rand-McNally-map-Rusell-South-Portsmouth-Danleyton.html
Rennick, Robert M. “Greenup County: Place Names.” Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection, no. 71. Morehead State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/71/
Rennick, Robert M. “Greenup County: Post Offices.” 2000. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 201. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/201/
Rennick, Robert M. “Northeastern Kentucky Post Offices.” 1998. Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection, no. 160. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/160/
Russell Times. “Greenup County: Historic Souvenir Edition.” September 15, 1974. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 102. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/102/
Schenk, Carl, and W. C. Mitchell. Map of the Counties of Greenup, Carter and Boyd and a Part of Lawrence. Map. Kentucky Geological Survey, 1876. Kentucky Historical Society Digital Collections. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/Maps/id/200/
United States Bureau of the Census. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870: Population Schedules, Greenup County, Kentucky. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Office, 1870. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1870
United States Bureau of the Census. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870: Manufacturing Schedules, Greenup County, Kentucky. National Archives Microfilm Publication M1528. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/nonpopulation
United States Post Office Department. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–September 30, 1971. National Archives Microfilm Publication M841. National Archives and Records Administration. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/postmaster-finder/postmaster-finder-faq.htm
Works Progress Administration. “Greenup County: General History.” 1939. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 331. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/331/
Author Note: Limeville’s history reveals how a small Ohio River community became part of Kentucky’s nineteenth-century industrial economy through its limestone deposits, kilns, and river trade. I hope this article helps preserve the stories of the families, workers, and local institutions that shaped Limeville long after its lime works faded from prominence.