Appalachian Community Histories – Norwood, Pulaski County: The Railroad Community Named for an Ohio Hometown
Approximately two miles south of Science Hill, along the railroad that connected northern Pulaski County with Somerset and Cincinnati, a small Kentucky community took shape during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Known as Norwood, the settlement developed around the Cincinnati Southern Railway, a transportation corridor that gave rural communities access to distant markets, employment opportunities, and a more dependable means of communication. Although Norwood never became a major town, its railroad station, post office, stores, surrounding farms, and religious gatherings made it an identifiable community in northern Pulaski County.
Norwood’s history survives in an unusually revealing collection of documents. Nineteenth-century business directories establish its early existence, railroad maps preserve its location, federal surveying records describe its station, and newspaper correspondence provides glimpses of the families who lived there. Taken together, these records reveal a community whose history extended beyond its railroad and postal functions into the everyday experiences of rural Kentuckians during a period of considerable economic and social change.
James M. Clark and the Establishment of Norwood
Norwood’s recorded beginnings are closely associated with James M. Clark, a sawmill operator who had come to Pulaski County from Norwood, Ohio, a community northeast of Cincinnati. According to Kentucky postal historian Robert M. Rennick, Clark established the Norwood post office on February 24, 1880, naming the new Kentucky settlement after his former hometown. Rennick described the location as a growing village along the railroad, suggesting that the establishment of postal service accompanied an existing period of local development rather than marking the arrival of the area’s first settlers.
Clark’s involvement in the sawmill business places Norwood’s beginnings within the broader relationship between timber production and railroad expansion in nineteenth-century Kentucky. Rail transportation gave communities along its route access to commercial markets that were difficult to reach through the region’s older network of roads. For a sawmill operator, proximity to a railroad offered practical advantages in transporting lumber and obtaining supplies, although the surviving account does not establish the size of Clark’s business or the destinations of its products.
The establishment of Norwood’s post office received confirmation in one of the earliest surviving published descriptions of the community. R. L. Polk & Company’s Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1881 and 1882 identified Norwood as a recently established Pulaski County post office located two miles from Science Hill on the Cincinnati Southern Railway. The entry was brief, but its appearance so soon after the recorded establishment of the post office demonstrates how quickly Norwood acquired a recognizable identity within Kentucky’s commercial and postal directories.
The community appeared again in Williams’ Covington and Newport Directory for 1882 and 1883, which included Norwood in its list of Kentucky post offices. By that point, a settlement named for an Ohio hometown had become an established part of Pulaski County’s postal network.
The Railroad Station and Norwood’s Place on the Map
The railroad remained central to Norwood’s identity throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An 1895 Rand McNally business atlas, as identified in a later historical reference index, listed Norwood as having both a post office and a railroad station. The two facilities placed the community within overlapping transportation and communication networks, allowing residents to maintain connections with Somerset and other settlements along the railway.
By January 1910, Rand McNally’s Bankers’ Directory associated Norwood with Somerset in its list of towns accessible to banking points. The listing provides evidence of Norwood’s commercial relationship with the Pulaski County seat, where residents and local merchants could obtain banking services unavailable in many smaller rural communities.
A 1911 Rand McNally county map offers another record of the settlement’s existence. Norwood appears southwest of Science Hill, near other communities that developed along the county’s transportation routes. Although the map provides little information about the settlement’s size or the number of buildings that stood there, it confirms that Norwood remained sufficiently established to appear on a commercially published map more than thirty years after the opening of its post office.
Federal surveying records provide an especially specific description of the railroad infrastructure near Norwood. In 1914, the United States Geological Survey published Robert Bradford Marshall’s Results of Spirit Leveling in Kentucky, 1898 to 1913, which recorded a benchmark approximately one mile south of Norwood’s station. The benchmark was located on an arched stone culvert beside the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway, with an elevation of 1,072.671 feet. Its precise description offers a surviving documentary reference to the physical infrastructure associated with Norwood’s railroad corridor.
Together, these records show that Norwood was more than a name appearing in a postal directory. It possessed a railroad station, maintained connections with Somerset, and occupied a recognizable place within the transportation geography of northern Pulaski County.
Farms, Businesses, and Families in Norwood
While early directories and railroad maps establish Norwood’s location and commercial connections, contemporary newspapers offer a more personal account of the settlement. One of the earliest identified reports appeared in The Somerset Paragon on April 2, 1896, when the newspaper recorded the death of John Lay, an elderly Norwood resident who had died the preceding Saturday night. The notice offered few additional details about his life, but it preserved the name of a resident from the community’s nineteenth-century history.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Norwood was home to families whose lives were regularly documented in the local press. The Somerset Journal, particularly its community correspondence during 1919 and 1920, recorded property transactions, store ownership, household visits, illness, religious services, and the movements of residents to and from other states.
An issue published on February 6, 1920, reported that Johnson Brothers had sold the Robert Copenhover farm at Norwood to a man from Virginia for $5,000. The newspaper’s account stated that the property had changed hands four times during the preceding three years, suggesting considerable activity surrounding at least one of the community’s agricultural properties. Although the notice does not explain the circumstances behind those repeated transactions, it provides evidence of land values and property ownership during the period.
The same newspaper issue documented a change in Norwood’s commercial life. Ezra Hall had purchased J. W. Hood’s store, an establishment whose transfer of ownership was sufficiently important to appear in the community’s weekly news. General stores were important gathering places in rural Kentucky, supplying everyday necessities while providing residents with opportunities to exchange news and conduct business. The newspaper does not identify every service offered by Hood’s establishment, but the transaction establishes the presence of a local retail business in Norwood by the beginning of 1920.
Other entries from the February issue recorded the ordinary movements of local families. Lee Harden and Maude Sweeney had returned from Williamsburg, Grace and Nettie Moore of New Hope were visiting Mrs. J. W. Hood, and Mrs. W. W. Reid was preparing to move into a new house. These seemingly minor details help reconstruct a community in which family relationships extended across northern Pulaski County and beyond.
Religious Life, Sunday Schools, and Community Gatherings
Religion occupied an important place in Norwood’s surviving newspaper history. The community maintained connections with nearby congregations while also hosting its own religious gatherings, Sunday school activities, and musical events. The December 26, 1919, edition of The Somerset Journal reported that several Norwood residents had attended a revival at the Nazarene church in Science Hill, demonstrating the close relationship between the neighboring communities.
The same account mentioned Ellis Starnes returning home from school for the holidays, Edith Keith spending Sunday with Stella Burge, and Lee Sweeney returning from Ohio to visit his family. Religious activities, educational opportunities, and seasonal homecomings appeared together in the newspaper’s account of community life.
By the spring of 1920, Norwood’s religious activities were receiving regular attention. On May 14, the Somerset Journal reported that the community’s Sunday school was progressing well and that a man identified as Brother Crow planned to conduct singing every Sunday afternoon. Several residents had recently attended church at Camp Ground, while a religious meeting planned by Sister Bruner had been postponed because of her mother’s illness.
The May correspondence also described a gathering hosted by A. R. Dungan in honor of visitors from Pulaski and Freedom. The occasion brought friends and relatives together, reflecting the importance of social gatherings among families who lived in separate but closely connected rural communities. The same account recorded the birth of a son to Mrs. Will Baker and visits among the Sweeney, Girdler, and other local families.
Religious activity continued into the following weeks. On May 21, the newspaper reported that a revival had begun in Norwood on the preceding Tuesday night. The correspondence appeared alongside reports of local residents traveling for employment and visiting relatives in other communities, illustrating how religious life remained part of Norwood’s ordinary weekly routine.
In June, Norwood residents participated in religious events outside their immediate community. The June 18 issue reported that several people had attended the dedication at Wilson’s Chapel and that children’s religious exercises were planned for the following Sunday. These occasions reveal a network of congregations and religious gatherings extending across the surrounding countryside, with Norwood residents participating in the activities of neighboring communities while maintaining their own local traditions.
Illness, Education, and the Changing Lives of Norwood’s Residents
The surviving newspapers also preserve evidence of the hardships experienced by Norwood families during the early twentieth century. In March 1920, the community was confronting influenza, part of the wider epidemic that had affected the United States and much of the world during the preceding years.
The March 5 edition of The Somerset Journal reported several cases of influenza in Norwood and recorded the death of Dillard Eastham, whose father, William Eastham, had formerly lived in the community before moving to Berea. Dillard had died of pneumonia during the preceding week. The newspaper offered little information about the family’s circumstances, but its report demonstrates how illness and death remained closely connected to communities even after families had moved elsewhere.
The same issue reported that Leonard Dungan had returned from Virginia, while Mrs. Lawrence Dungan had left Norwood to join her husband in Toledo, Ohio, where the couple intended to establish their home. Harry Keith had returned to Cincinnati, and other residents were traveling to Somerset or visiting family members in nearby settlements.
Such movements illustrate the connections that existed between northern Pulaski County and industrial cities in Ohio and neighboring states. The railroad offered a transportation link between the region and larger employment centers, although the surviving newspaper accounts do not establish which individual journeys were made by rail. Economic opportunities outside Kentucky were becoming part of the lives of many families whose relatives continued to reside in rural communities.
The May 21 newspaper correspondence reported that Luther Burge and Lee Sweeney were among several Norwood men who had gone to Indiana. Their departure provides another example of the movement of residents beyond Kentucky, whether for temporary employment or longer periods away from home.
Education also connected Norwood with other communities. In the March 5 issue, the Science Hill correspondence reported that Louisa Ballou, who had recently moved from Berea to Norwood, had entered high school in Science Hill. Her experience provides direct evidence of a Norwood resident pursuing secondary education in a neighboring town.
Another connection appeared in September 1920, when the Somerset Journal reported that Lena Keith had returned to her teaching position in Burnside. The same account described visits involving the Dungan family, John Hood’s return home following hospital treatment, and several residents attending a Nazarene assembly in Lexington. Taken together, these entries demonstrate the extent to which Norwood families maintained relationships beyond the boundaries of their immediate settlement.
The People Behind the Newspaper Columns
Norwood’s community correspondence is particularly valuable because it preserves the names and activities of residents who might otherwise have disappeared from the historical record. The reports rarely offer complete biographies, but their accumulated details make it possible to recognize recurring families and reconstruct some of their relationships.
The Hood family appears frequently in the surviving accounts. John Hood and his relatives were mentioned in holiday visits, commercial transactions, periods of illness, and gatherings involving neighboring families. The June 18, 1920, issue reported that Hood was ill, while the September 24 edition recorded his return home after receiving hospital treatment. These notices connect an individual family’s experiences with both the commercial and domestic history of the community.
The Dungan, Sweeney, Keith, Burge, Baker, and Hall families also appeared repeatedly in the newspaper. Their movements can be traced through visits to relatives, travel for employment, attendance at religious gatherings, and participation in local social events.
The newspaper columns were not comprehensive records of Norwood’s population, and the families they mentioned cannot be assumed to represent every household in the settlement. Nevertheless, they preserve a considerable body of evidence about the people whose lives gave the community its character.
A Christmas Poem from Norwood
One of the more unusual surviving records of Norwood’s cultural and religious life appeared in the Somerset Journal on December 24, 1920. In its Christmas edition, the newspaper published a poem titled “The Approach of Christmas” by the Reverend Wagner A. Reese, explicitly identifying him as a resident of Norwood, Kentucky.
Reese’s poem reflected on the different ways people celebrated the Christmas season. He described children anticipating gifts, young people enjoying courtship, businessmen preparing for holiday trade, and older family members remembering earlier years. The poem then turned toward its religious message, encouraging readers to remember the Christian meaning of Christmas amid the excitement of the holiday.
The publication offers more than another reference to Norwood’s religious activities. It preserves a piece of writing produced by a named resident and provides evidence that the community’s participation in regional life extended beyond agriculture, commerce, and church attendance. Through the pages of a Somerset newspaper, Reese’s reflections reached readers throughout Pulaski County and potentially well beyond his immediate congregation.
The Closing of Norwood’s Post Office
Norwood’s post office continued operating for more than fifty years after its establishment. According to Robert M. Rennick’s research, the office closed in 1933, ending the postal institution that James M. Clark had established on February 24, 1880. The closure marked the end of an important chapter in the settlement’s recorded history, although the surviving evidence does not establish precisely how the community’s population or commercial activity changed afterward.
The closure of a rural post office did not necessarily mean that the surrounding community had been abandoned. Across Kentucky, settlement names often survived changes in postal service, transportation patterns, and local commerce. Norwood’s history illustrates the importance of distinguishing between the existence of an official post office and the continued presence of families living in the surrounding area.
Later historical maps, federal geographic records, and the surviving newspaper collections provide opportunities to investigate Norwood’s development beyond the closing of its post office. Pulaski County’s land records and federal census schedules may also help identify the families who remained in the area, the occupations they pursued, and the ownership of property near the former railroad station.
Remembering Norwood’s Place in Pulaski County History
Norwood’s story is closely connected to the larger history of railroad development and rural community life in southern Kentucky. Its establishment during the early years of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, its naming by a sawmill operator from Ohio, and its appearance in contemporary commercial directories demonstrate how new transportation routes influenced the growth and identity of small settlements.
Yet the surviving newspapers reveal that Norwood’s history cannot be understood through railroads and postal records alone. The community was sustained by the families who operated its businesses, cultivated its farms, attended religious gatherings, educated their children, and maintained relationships across county and state lines.
The historical record does not establish every stage of Norwood’s development or provide a complete account of what happened after its post office closed in 1933. What survives, however, is sufficient to recover a meaningful portion of the community’s past. Through railroad maps, postal histories, surveying reports, and the names preserved in century-old newspapers, Norwood remains part of the documented history of Pulaski County.
Sources & Further Reading
R. L. Polk & Co. Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1881–1882. Vol. 3, pt. 2. Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1881. https://ldsgenealogy.com/KY/books/Kentucky-state-gazetteer-and-business-directory-1881-1882-Vol-III-pt-2-part-3.htm
Williams Directory Company. Williams’ Covington and Newport Directory, 1882–1883. Cincinnati: Williams Directory Company, 1882. Cincinnati Public Library. https://apps.cincinnatilibrary.org/citydirectory/WilliamsCovingtonNewportDirectory_1882-83.pdf
Rand McNally & Co. Kentucky: Indexed County and Railroad Pocket Map and Shippers’ Guide. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1892. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/79691679/
Rand McNally & Co. Rand, McNally & Co.’s Enlarged Business Atlas and Shippers’ Guide. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1895. WorldCat. https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/62623263
Somerset Paragon (Somerset, KY). April 2, 1896. Contemporary newspaper account of the death of Norwood resident John Lay. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/1896_Para/4_2_96_2.htm
Rand McNally & Co. Bankers’ Directory: List of Towns Accessible to Banking Points in the United States and Canada. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., January 1910. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRASER. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/rmbd/rmbd_191001_15_towns.pdf
Rand McNally & Co. Pulaski County, Kentucky. Map, 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
Marshall, Robert Bradford. Results of Spirit Leveling in Kentucky, 1898 to 1913, Inclusive. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 554. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1914. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b554
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). December 26, 1919. Community correspondence documenting Norwood residents and religious activities in neighboring Science Hill. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_26_1919.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). February 6, 1920. Norwood community correspondence concerning land transactions, Ezra Hall’s purchase of J. W. Hood’s store, and local families. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_6_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). February 20, 1920. Contemporary newspaper reports concerning residents of Norwood and Pulaski County. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/2_20_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). March 5, 1920. Norwood community correspondence documenting influenza, migration, employment, and education. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/3_5_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). May 14, 1920. Norwood community correspondence concerning Sunday school, religious gatherings, births, and local families. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/5_14_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). May 21, 1920. Contemporary reports of religious revival meetings and Norwood residents traveling to Indiana. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/5_21_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). June 4, 1920. Community news concerning Norwood and its connections with neighboring settlements. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_4_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). June 18, 1920. Community correspondence documenting religious activities, illness, family visits, and the dedication of Wilson’s Chapel. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/6_18_1920.htm
Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY). September 24, 1920. Norwood correspondence recording family visits, medical treatment, education, and religious gatherings. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/9_24_1920.htm
Reese, Wagner A. “The Approach of Christmas.” Somerset Journal (Somerset, KY), December 24, 1920. Transcribed by Pulaski County KYGenWeb. https://kygenweb.net/pulaski/news/12_24_1920.htm
United States Geological Survey. Somerset, Kentucky. Topographic map, 1935. Robert M. Rennick Topographical Maps Collection, Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_maps_all/934/
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/
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.” 2000. County Histories of Kentucky, no. 388. Morehead State University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/388/
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Pulaski County, Kentucky, Part I.” 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 II.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 38, no. 4 (September 2007). https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP38-4.pdf
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/
Blevins, Cameron, and Richard W. Helbock. US Post Offices. Historical dataset. Harvard Dataverse, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/NUKCNA
National Archives and Records Administration. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–September 30, 1971. Microfilm Publication M841. Record Group 28, Records of the Post Office Department. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971.html
National Archives and Records Administration. Post Office Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1950. Microfilm Publication M1126, roll 231, Kentucky, Powell and Pulaski Counties. Record Group 28. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html
National Archives and Records Administration. Census Records. Federal population census schedules, 1880–1930. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/census
Pulaski County Public Library. Digital Archives of the Pulaski County Public Library. Somerset, KY. Historical newspapers, census records, and other local historical materials. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/
Morehead State University. Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection. Special Collections and Archives. Morehead, KY. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/
United States Geological Survey. Historical Topographic Maps. topoView. Reston, VA: United States Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/topoview
United States Geological Survey. Geographic Names Information System. Reston, VA: United States Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/geographic-names-information-system-gnis
Author Note: Norwood’s history survives through postal records, railroad maps, and newspaper accounts that preserve the names and experiences of its residents. If your family has connections to this Pulaski County community, I welcome additional photographs, documents, and personal accounts that can help preserve its story.