Appalachian Community Histories – Norfleet, Pulaski County: The Norfleet Family, a Country Post Office, and Life on White Oak Creek
In the rural countryside of western Pulaski County, between the communities of Naomi and Burnetta, Norfleet developed around the farms, family businesses, schools, and churches that sustained much of Kentucky’s countryside during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its history reaches back to the Norfleet family’s ownership of land along White Oak and Faubush creeks, although the community did not receive its own post office until 1906. By then, the family whose name it carried had already established connections to the surrounding countryside through agriculture, commerce, and education.
The community was named for Dr. Wyatt Norfleet, a physician whose family operated a local store and who donated land for a neighborhood school. Historian Robert M. Rennick documented these connections in his study of Pulaski County’s post offices, recording how the establishment of the Norfleet post office gave an existing rural settlement an official place in Kentucky’s postal system. That post office remained in operation until 1962, although its location changed several times during its existence.
Unlike larger towns whose histories were recorded through municipal governments and commercial directories, much of Norfleet’s surviving history appears in newspaper community columns, family records, cemetery listings, and federal documents. These sources reveal a settlement whose residents maintained close relationships with neighboring communities while participating in an agricultural economy that extended well beyond their immediate surroundings.
The Norfleet Family and the Early Settlement of White Oak Creek
The history of Norfleet begins well before the establishment of its post office. During the first half of the nineteenth century, members of the Norfleet family were already living in Pulaski County, where land along White Oak and Faubush creeks eventually became associated with their name.
The 1840 federal census surname index for Pulaski County identifies three individuals whose names were transcribed as John Narflet, Madison Norfleet, and Henry Norflet. Although the inconsistent spelling requires consultation of the original census schedules before individual identities can be established with certainty, the entries demonstrate that the surname was present in the county decades before Norfleet became an officially recognized postal community.
Robert M. Rennick traced Wyatt Norfleet’s ancestry to John Norfleet, who acquired land along White Oak and Faubush creeks during the 1840s and 1850s. These purchases placed the family within the countryside where the later community developed, although additional deed research would be necessary to determine the precise boundaries of those early holdings and the locations of the family’s original residences.
The surrounding landscape was characterized by a network of creeks, country roads, and agricultural settlements. White Oak Creek and Faubush Creek provided geographical reference points for local property descriptions, while nearby Naomi, Faubush, and Burnetta developed their own community institutions and connections to the wider county.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Norfleet family’s longstanding presence had become significant enough that its surname was attached not only to individual properties but also to the community that would receive a federal post office.
Dr. Wyatt Norfleet and the Establishment of a Community Name
Dr. Wyatt Norfleet, who lived from 1836 to 1906, became the individual most closely associated with the community’s name. Rennick identified him as a descendant of the earlier landowning family and recorded that his relatives operated a local store, an important establishment in a neighborhood where residents depended upon small businesses for goods and services.
The family also contributed to local education. According to Rennick, Wyatt Norfleet donated the land on which the community’s school was established, providing a permanent location for an institution that would serve children in the surrounding agricultural district. The original deed documenting the donation would provide additional information about its date and the school’s earliest development.
Country schools occupied an important position in rural Kentucky during this period because they were often among the few public buildings available to a dispersed population. Beyond educating children, they could accommodate religious gatherings and other community activities, and Norfleet’s surviving newspaper records demonstrate that its schoolhouse eventually fulfilled these additional purposes.
The relationship between the Norfleet family, its store, and the school helps explain why the community acquired the family’s name. These institutions formed an identifiable center for an otherwise scattered settlement of farms and households.
The Establishment of the Norfleet Post Office in 1906
On August 1, 1906, Rufus Tarter established the Norfleet post office somewhere west of White Oak Creek, naming it in honor of Dr. Wyatt Norfleet. The establishment of the office gave the community a recognized postal identity and provided residents with a more convenient connection to the correspondence, commercial transactions, and government services that increasingly depended upon regular mail delivery.
Rennick’s research places the original office west of the creek but does not identify its precise first location. During the following decades, the office moved several times before reaching a site along what he identified as Kentucky Route 1664, approximately two miles north of Naomi and two and a half miles south of Burnetta.
Such relocations were particularly significant in rural communities because the location of a post office could determine where residents collected their mail and conducted everyday business. The Norfleet office’s changing location also creates difficulties for historical research, since a postal address does not necessarily establish the precise location of a family’s residence.
Nevertheless, the office remained an important part of the surrounding community for more than half a century. Federal postmaster appointment registers and post office site reports offer opportunities to reconstruct its individual relocations and identify the people responsible for operating it during different periods.
Farming, Land Transactions, and Community Life in 1919
One of the most detailed surviving descriptions of everyday life in Norfleet appeared in the October 10, 1919, edition of The Somerset Journal. Its community column recorded the agricultural work, property transactions, family visits, and religious activities that occupied residents during the opening weeks of autumn.
Farmers were preparing their land and sowing wheat, while several substantial property transactions demonstrated the value of agricultural land in the surrounding countryside. Luke Burton purchased Dan Tartar’s farm near Faubush from Ouzlie Vaugh for $4,000, while John Jones bought another farm from S. M. Durham for $1,800. The newspaper also reported that C. Cundiff had purchased the Norfleet farm from E. Pierce for $3,000, although additional deed research would be necessary to establish the property’s boundaries and its precise relationship to the earlier Norfleet family holdings.
These transactions reveal an active local land market in which farms changed hands among families connected to Norfleet and neighboring settlements. The same newspaper column documented the birth of children in the Gilmore Floyd and Galen Weddle households, visits among relatives and friends, and attendance at Sunday school in Norfleet.
Taken together, these records portray a community whose economic and social life depended upon agriculture but extended beyond the boundaries of individual farms. Residents maintained connections with Faubush, Nancy, Oil Center, and other surrounding settlements, while family visits and religious activities brought households together throughout the year.
The community’s activities were not unusual for rural Pulaski County, but their preservation in contemporary newspapers provides an unusually detailed view of the people who lived there.
A Birthday Dinner That Brought Together 250 People
An especially revealing account of Norfleet’s social life appeared in The Somerset Journal on May 14, 1920. The newspaper reported that approximately 250 people had gathered on Sunday, May 9, to surprise Mrs. Miller Norfleet with a birthday dinner celebrating her fifty-first birthday.
The event attracted a crowd large enough that the newspaper remarked upon the abundance of food, reporting that the gathering had prepared enough dinner for approximately 500 people. Its account described the celebration as an enjoyable occasion and emphasized the affection that friends and neighbors held for the woman they called Aunt Miller.
The same community column reported that farmers were planting corn and that local families continued their customary weekend visits, including gatherings among members of the Taylor, Ard, Buchanan, and Woods families.
The birthday dinner provides more than an interesting detail about one family’s celebration. Its reported attendance demonstrates the extent of the social networks connecting Norfleet with the surrounding countryside, where large gatherings could bring together relatives, neighbors, and friends from several nearby settlements.
It also preserves a glimpse of the communal relationships that were rarely documented in official records, providing evidence of how residents marked important occasions and maintained personal connections.
Country Stores and the Agricultural Economy
By the autumn of 1920, contemporary newspapers continued to document the relationship between Norfleet’s farms and its small businesses. The October 15 edition of The Somerset Journal reported that local farmers had nearly completed their corn cutting, an activity that occupied much of the agricultural community during the harvest season.
The same column recorded an important business transaction when Sam Muse and Bazzel Naulton purchased C. W. Trimble’s stock of merchandise. Although the report does not identify the precise location of Trimble’s establishment, its inclusion in the Norfleet community column provides direct evidence of the commercial activity associated with the neighborhood.
The purchase also illustrates the continued importance of country stores during the period when Norfleet maintained its own post office. For families living several miles from larger commercial centers, local merchants provided access to merchandise and helped connect agricultural households with the wider economy.
Norfleet’s commercial history had begun before the establishment of its post office, when Wyatt Norfleet’s family operated a store in the community. The 1920 transaction demonstrates that small-scale merchandising remained part of the area’s economic life after his death, even as ownership and individual businesses changed.
The agricultural calendar continued to shape local activities. By October 22, 1920, farmers were sowing wheat for the following year, demonstrating the seasonal cycle of planting and harvesting that appears repeatedly in Norfleet’s surviving newspaper reports.
Schools, Churches, and the Community’s Gathering Places
Education and religion formed important parts of Norfleet’s community life. The school associated with Wyatt Norfleet’s land donation was one of the neighborhood’s principal institutions, while nearby churches and smaller schoolhouses provided additional locations where residents could gather.
Religious activities appear frequently in the surviving newspaper columns. In September 1920, The Somerset Journal reported a revival meeting at Naomi Baptist Church, conducted by the Reverend C. C. Trimble and the Reverend Merricks. Its inclusion in the Norfleet community column demonstrates the close connections between the two neighboring settlements and their religious institutions.
The schoolhouses also hosted community events. On October 22, 1920, the newspaper reported that a pie supper had taken place at Simpson School, where eight pies brought approximately $16. Such gatherings combined social activities with local fundraising, providing opportunities for residents to support their neighborhood institutions while spending time together.
The Norfleet schoolhouse itself was being used for religious services by the following spring. On April 1, 1921, The Somerset Journal reported that the Reverend Beasley had preached there the previous Sunday evening, while the Reverend Montgomery was conducting a revival at the Nazarene church. The newspaper described strong attendance at the revival and noted that several members of the Norfleet family had participated in the meeting at the schoolhouse.
These reports confirm that Norfleet’s educational and religious activities were closely connected. The community’s schoolhouse functioned as more than an instructional building, accommodating meetings that brought together families from throughout the surrounding countryside.
The newspapers also preserve an important distinction between Norfleet’s school and other nearby educational institutions. Simpson School and the Norfleet schoolhouse were separately named, while the revival at Naomi Baptist Church demonstrates how residents participated in religious life across neighboring communities rather than remaining within the boundaries of a single settlement.
Migration and the Connections Between Kentucky and Illinois
Although farming and local institutions remained central to Norfleet, the community was not isolated from the population movements affecting Kentucky during the early twentieth century. Its newspaper columns contain repeated references to residents traveling to Illinois, returning to visit relatives, or relocating their households to establish new lives outside the state.
In September 1920, the newspaper reported that L. Norfleet had driven from Illinois in a new automobile, while Beecher Muse had returned from that state and Columbus Roberts, another Illinois resident, was visiting friends in the area.
The following month, Mrs. Dewey Norfleet and her children returned home from Hoopeston, Illinois, while the October 22 newspaper reported that B. Norfleet had held a sale before leaving for Illinois with his family and mother. The same column mentioned Jim and L. Norfleet experiencing automobile trouble, demonstrating the growing presence of motor vehicles in a community whose older transportation connections had depended upon country roads and traditional farm travel.
These accounts reveal continuing connections between Norfleet and families who had moved elsewhere. Some residents left Kentucky permanently, while others maintained regular visits and correspondence with relatives who remained in Pulaski County.
The newspaper reports do not establish the individual reasons behind every departure, but they document a pattern of movement that connected this small agricultural settlement with communities hundreds of miles away.
Norfleet’s Place on the Historical Map
The geographical history of Norfleet is preserved not only in postal records but also in the official descriptions of Pulaski County’s local boundaries. On September 24, 1920, The Somerset Journal published precinct boundary descriptions identifying several properties and landmarks associated with the Norfleet family.
The Nancy precinct description included Dan Norfleet’s property along Woods Creek, while the Harrison precinct boundary followed Woods Creek to Dr. Norfleet Road before continuing toward Robertsport Road and John O. Norfleet’s property. The description then followed a branch originating at Norfleet’s spring toward Faubush Creek. These references provide evidence of the family’s continued geographical presence and identify historical roads, waterways, and residences that can be investigated through county land records.
A further indication of the family’s wider association with the region appears in Rennick’s research into nearby post offices. On February 3, 1931, Lucy Morris Norfleet, identified as the wife of Brent Norfleet, established a post office called Uma for the Cooks Chapel locality, approximately two and a half miles southwest of Faubush. She named it for her young daughter, although the office operated for only about two years.
The existence of the separate Uma post office illustrates how family names continued to shape the postal geography of rural Pulaski County well into the twentieth century.
Norfleet itself remained sufficiently recognizable that the federal government continued using its name in official geographical descriptions. The 1950 United States Census identified enumeration district 100-25 partly through a road running by way of Norfleet and Naomi, preserving the community’s position within the county’s transportation network. The census also provides original population schedules through which researchers can investigate the households living in the surrounding district during the middle of the century.
Norfleet Cemetery and the Preservation of Family History
The burial grounds associated with Norfleet preserve another important part of the community’s history. Cemetery directories identify Norfleet Cemetery at Naomi and distinguish it from Norfleet Floyd Cemetery at Faubush, two separately listed burial grounds that should not be confused when researching the families of the region.
A particularly useful historical record survives in the transcribed Kentucky death certificate of Clifford Keith McGahan, an infant who was born in Naomi on December 27, 1931, and died on January 7, 1932. The certificate identifies his burial place as Norfleet Cemetery and names Henry Daulton of Norfleet as the undertaker. This document connects the community with nearby Naomi while providing a precise historical reference to its cemetery and local funeral services.
Other contemporary reports demonstrate that local burial customs and family connections extended beyond the community’s immediate boundaries. In June 1920, The Somerset Journal reported the death of George D. Gregory of Norfleet following a short illness with pneumonia. Gregory was buried at Jugernot, illustrating the relationships between Norfleet and neighboring burial grounds.
These records provide opportunities for reconstructing family relationships and tracing the history of the settlement through births, deaths, marriages, and changes in residence. They are particularly important because many rural communities left relatively few institutional records beyond their schools, churches, and postal establishments.
The Closure of the Norfleet Post Office in 1962
Norfleet’s post office remained in operation until 1962, when federal postal service under the community’s name was discontinued. By that time, the office had occupied several locations, eventually operating along the road between Naomi and Burnetta.
Its closure marked the end of an institution that had formally identified the community since August 1906. Rennick’s research preserves the establishment date, the origin of the name, and the office’s final geographical position, providing an essential framework for reconstructing its history.
The disappearance of an independent post office did not necessarily mean that a rural community ceased to exist. Postal service could be reorganized while families continued living on their established farms, maintaining the same roads, churches, cemeteries, and neighborhood relationships that had existed for generations.
In Norfleet’s case, its name remained attached to local geography and historical records, including the cemetery and the surviving documentation of the families who had lived in the surrounding countryside.
Norfleet’s Place in Pulaski County History
The history of Norfleet illustrates how a relatively small agricultural settlement could develop a lasting identity through the institutions and relationships of the families who lived there. The Norfleet family’s nineteenth-century landownership along White Oak and Faubush creeks provided the foundation for the community’s name, while Wyatt Norfleet’s connection to the local store and school helped establish the neighborhood institutions that supported its development.
The arrival of a post office in 1906 placed Norfleet within the federal postal system, but the surviving newspapers demonstrate that the community’s identity extended well beyond its postal designation. Agricultural work, land transactions, country stores, religious meetings, school gatherings, family celebrations, and migration connected its residents with one another and with the wider region.
The remarkable birthday gathering of May 1920, the property transactions of 1919, the revival meetings at the schoolhouse, and the recurring reports of families traveling between Kentucky and Illinois provide glimpses of a community that would otherwise be difficult to reconstruct from official records alone.
Although the Norfleet post office closed in 1962, the community’s history remains preserved through the original newspaper reports, federal census records, land documents, cemetery records, and the research of Robert M. Rennick. Together, these sources demonstrate how the history of one small Pulaski County settlement can illuminate the agricultural, commercial, educational, and social networks that sustained rural Kentucky across generations.
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. 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
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky, Part 3.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38, no. 5 (2007). https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-5.pdf
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x1s3p
The Somerset Journal. “Norfleet.” October 10, 1919. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_10_1919.htm
The Somerset Journal. “Norfleet.” May 14, 1920. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/5_14_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal. Death notice for George D. Gregory of Norfleet. June 18, 1920. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_18_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal. “Norfleet.” September 3, 1920. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/9_3_1920_2.htm
The Somerset Journal. Pulaski County precinct boundary descriptions and election officer appointments. September 24, 1920. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/9_24_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal. “Norfleet.” October 15, 1920. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_15_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal. “Norfleet.” October 22, 1920. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/10_22_1920.htm
The Somerset Journal. “Norfleet.” April 1, 1921. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/4_1_1921_2.htm
The Somerset Journal. “Nancy.” February 18, 1921. Community report mentioning a family’s move from Norfleet. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_21/2_18_1921_3.htm
United States Bureau of the Census. Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. Pulaski County, Kentucky. Surname index. USGenWeb Archives. https://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/pulaski/census/1840/1840index.html
United States Bureau of the Census. Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950. Kentucky, Pulaski County, enumeration district 100-25. National Archives and Records Administration. https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?county=Pulaski&page=1&state=KY
Commonwealth of Kentucky. Death certificate no. 2239, Clifford Keith McGahan, January 7, 1932. Transcribed by KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/death/mcgahanclifford.html
Kentucky Court of Appeals. Commonwealth ex rel. Meredith v. Norfleet, 272 Ky. 800, 115 S.W.2d 353. March 25, 1938. https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/commonwealth-ex-rel-meredith-902330882
Johnson, Carl B., contributor. “Free Union School, 1918.” Historical pupil list. KYGenWeb, Pulaski County. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/school/freeunio.html
KYGenWeb. “Pulaski County, Kentucky: School Daze.” Historical school photographs, pupil lists, and local educational records. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/school/
KYGenWeb. “Pulaski County, Kentucky: Cemeteries.” County cemetery directory, including Norfleet Cemetery. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/cemetery/cemeteries.html
Genealogy Trails. “Cemeteries of Pulaski County, Kentucky.” Directory identifying Norfleet Cemetery at Naomi and Norfleet Floyd Cemetery at Faubush. https://genealogytrails.com/ken/pulaski/cemeteries.html
National Archives and Records Administration. Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–September 30, 1971. Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M841, roll 49, Kentucky. 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, Microfilm Publication M1126. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html
Works Progress Administration and Robert M. Rennick. “Pulaski County: Post Offices & Place Names.” 1939. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 284. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/284/
Morehead State University. Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection. Kentucky place-name research cards, typescripts, and unpublished materials. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/
Morehead State University. Robert M. Rennick Topographical Maps Collection. Historical topographical maps annotated during Rennick’s Kentucky place-name research. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_maps_all/
Pulaski County Public Library. Digital Archives of the Pulaski County Public Library. Historical newspapers, census schedules, court records, deeds, tax lists, and other county documents. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/
Pulaski County Clerk. “Land Records.” Historical deed and property records for Pulaski County, Kentucky. https://pulaski.kycountyclerk.us/land-records/
Kentucky Historical Society. Kentucky Newspapers on Microfilm: Counties Nelson–Robertson. Pulaski County newspaper holdings, including scattered issues of The Somerset Journal, 1900–1922, reel 98-0038. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/api/collection/LIB/id/1469/download
Kentucky Historical Society. Digital Collections. Historical newspapers, manuscript collections, photographs, maps, and other archival materials. https://kyhistory.com/digital/
Kentucky Secretary of State. “Kentucky Land Office: Land Records Name Search.” Historical land grants and patent records. https://web.sos.ky.gov/land/namesearch.aspx
United States Geological Survey. topoView: Historical Topographic Map Collection. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Appalachian Counties Served by ARC.” Official county designation directory. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-counties-served-by-arc/
Author Note: The surviving history of Norfleet reminds us how much of Appalachia’s past can be found in family records, country schools, small businesses, and the communities that grew around them. If your family has connections to Norfleet or western Pulaski County, I hope this article encourages you to preserve the photographs, documents, and memories that can help tell the rest of its story.