Appalachian Community Histories – Saul, Perry County: A Leatherwood Community Kept in the Record
Saul is one of those Appalachian communities whose history does not sit in one finished county history or one easy local landmark. It has to be followed through place names, post office records, school stories, cemetery ground, family names, creek roads, maps, and memory. The official trail begins simply enough. Perry County lists Saul among its communities, and the U.S. Geological Survey explains that the Geographic Names Information System is the federal repository for official domestic place names.
That is the clean public answer. Saul is a Perry County community. The harder historical answer is richer. Saul belongs to the Leatherwood country of western Perry County, near Buckhorn, Lower Leatherwood, Mudlick, Couchtown, and the creeks and hollows that held family settlements together long before a modern reader would know where to place them on a map.
A Community in the Leatherwood Country
Perry County was formed in 1821 from parts of Clay and Floyd counties, with Hazard as the county seat. The county’s own modern history page places Perry in the heart of Eastern Kentucky and ties the county name and seat to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.
Saul’s local world is smaller than the county story. It is best understood through Leatherwood Creek, Little Leatherwood, Mudlick, Couchtown, Buckhorn, and the roads that move toward KY 28, KY 2022, KY 484, and the Buckhorn Lake area. Modern road and recreation records still show how important that geography is. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife lists the Leatherwood Ramp on Buckhorn Lake in Perry County, with directions from Hazard to Buckhorn, then toward KY 2022 and KY 484.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers describes Buckhorn Lake as lying in Leslie and Perry counties on the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. The Corps also describes the surrounding Cumberland Plateau as a rugged landscape of narrow valleys, steep watersheds, and branching streams. That description fits the country around Saul, where a place can be close in miles but still separated by ridges, creeks, and old road patterns.
Saul on the Map
Maps are one of the best ways to understand why Saul’s history can be hard to collect. It was not a courthouse town or a large mining camp with a single civic center. It was a named place in a landscape of creeks, family cemeteries, church ground, postal service, schools, and road connections.
The USGS TopoView project explains that USGS topographic mapping began in 1879 and that historic maps show repeated versions of the same areas over time. Saul appears in the Buckhorn mapping world, and the 1979 Buckhorn 7.5-minute quadrangle is one of the most useful map sources for tying the name Saul to Leatherwood, Buckhorn, roads, and surrounding features.
The map record matters because old Appalachian communities often appear under more than one nearby name. A birth record, death certificate, obituary, land record, or newspaper item might say Saul, Leatherwood, Lower Leatherwood, Mudlick, Couchtown, Buckhorn, or simply Perry County. The community is not lost because the name shifts. It is hidden in the way local people identified places by creek, hollow, church, school, post office, cemetery, and road.
The Post Office Trail
The strongest paper trail for Saul may be postal. A post office gave a community a daily public identity. It turned a rural settlement into an address. It also left behind federal paperwork.
The U.S. Postal Service’s Postmaster Finder explains that its database includes many postmasters appointed after 1971 and some earlier offices, with county searches sometimes giving establishment and discontinuance dates when research has been completed. The National Archives also explains that postmaster appointment records from 1832 to 1971 were reproduced as Microfilm Publication M841, arranged by state, county, and post office name.
For Saul, the key modern postal record is the United States Postal Service’s Postal Bulletin 22132, issued July 8, 2004. In the post office changes table, Saul appears as a Perry County post office with ZIP Code 40981. The bulletin says the Saul Post Office was discontinued on June 1, 2001, the ZIP Code was retained, and Saul was established as a place name. It also shows Oneida as the administrative office and says to continue using Saul KY 40981 as the last line of the address.
That entry is small, but it says a great deal. Saul did not disappear when the post office closed. Postal operations changed, but the name Saul remained usable. For a rural community, that distinction matters. A post office can close, but the place can still live in addresses, cemeteries, churches, family names, and memory.
Owen Napier and a Photograph of the Post Office
One of the strongest surviving visual records of Saul is a 1977 photograph by Ted Wathen in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection. The photograph is titled “Postmaster, Owen Napier, Son and Grandsons, Saul, Perry County, Kentucky.” The Smithsonian identifies it as a gelatin silver print made in 1977 and records the subject as a post office exterior, a family portrait, and a portrait of Owens Napier.
That photograph gives Saul something many small communities do not have in a nationally held collection: a named postmaster, a family group, a year, and a place. It places Owen Napier and his family outside the post office in 1977, during the period when the Saul Post Office still served as one of the community’s most visible public institutions.
The image is not just a picture of a building. It is evidence of a community system. The postmaster knew the roads, the mail routes, the families, the changes of address, and the daily movement of news. In a place like Saul, the post office was part government office, part message center, and part neighborhood landmark.
Lower Leatherwood School
Another major clue to Saul’s history comes from Lower Leatherwood Elementary School. In 1989, Associated Press coverage described Lower Leatherwood Elementary School at Saul as Kentucky’s last public one-room school. The article placed the school beside Lower Leatherwood Creek, downstream from a swinging bridge, and described it as a small red concrete school building still serving children in a rugged mountain setting.
That story gives Saul an education-history anchor. The one-room school was not a nostalgic museum piece in the article. It was still functioning as a public school in the late twentieth century, serving children in a place where geography and community ties shaped education.
The Lower Leatherwood story also helps explain why Saul’s past should not be measured only by population size or by whether it had a large business district. A school, a post office, and a church can define a rural Appalachian community just as strongly as a courthouse square defines a town.
Churches, Funerals, and Cemetery Ground
Local obituaries and cemetery records show Saul through family networks and church life. They should be used carefully, but they are valuable for names, community identity, churches, and burial places.
Mount Paran Baptist Church appears repeatedly in Saul-area obituary records. One obituary for Billy Ray Baker, described as a lifelong resident of Saul, says funeral services were held at Mount Paran Baptist Church at Saul, with burial following at Government Cemetery at Saul.
Cemetery records around Saul show a dense landscape of family burial grounds. Find a Grave lists cemeteries associated with Saul, including Abraham Barger Cemetery, Arie Rice Cemetery, Clara Barger Cemetery, Collins Family Cemetery, Grandville Rice Cemetery, Granville Barger Cemetery, Ira Rice Family Cemetery, and others. These records should be checked against death certificates, obituaries, and marker photographs, but they show the old family names that help trace the community.
The names repeat across the Saul and Leatherwood record trail: Bowling, Barger, Couch, Napier, Rice, Begley, Davidson, and others. In a rural settlement, those names are not just genealogy. They are geography. They mark cemeteries, hollows, road turns, church benches, school memories, and the social map of the place.
Saul in the Newspaper Record
The Hazard Herald is one of the most important local newspaper trails for Saul. Digitized issues show Saul appearing in tax lists, community notices, names, and local references. A 1964 Hazard Herald issue, for example, includes “Barger, Minter, Saul, Ky.” in a published list, showing how the community name appeared in the everyday public record.
Those small appearances matter because they show Saul as a lived address, not only as a map label. A person listed at Saul in a tax notice or local item helps connect the name to families, land, and public life. The same kind of search should be repeated for related terms such as Lower Leatherwood, Leatherwood Creek, Mudlick, Couchtown, Buckhorn, Wentz, Bowling, Barger, Couch, Rice, and Napier.
American Hollow and the Bowling Family
For many people outside Perry County, Saul may be best known through the 1999 documentary American Hollow. IDFA identifies the film as a Rory Kennedy documentary from 1999 and says Kennedy lived for one year with the Appalachian Bowling family in Saul, Kentucky while filming. Full Frame Documentary Film Festival describes the film as a portrait of Iree Bowling, a 68-year-old mother of thirteen living in Mudlick Hollow in Eastern Kentucky.
American Hollow is an important source, but it has to be handled carefully. It is not a county history, a land record, or a neutral government document. It is a filmed portrait shaped by a director, an audience, and a late twentieth-century national fascination with Appalachian poverty. Still, it preserves voices, faces, homes, roads, and family relationships connected to Saul and Mudlick Hollow.
The documentary should not be treated as the whole story of Saul. It should be treated as one doorway into the community’s more recent memory. The fuller history also includes postal workers, schoolchildren, church members, landowners, cemetery caretakers, creek families, and the everyday people who never became documentary subjects.
Buckhorn Lake and the Changing Landscape
The creation and management of Buckhorn Lake reshaped the wider landscape around Saul, Buckhorn, and Leatherwood. The Corps of Engineers states that Buckhorn Lake was authorized under the Flood Control Act of 1938 and built to reduce downstream flood damage. The Corps also notes that the lake provides water supply, water quality support during low-flow conditions, and recreation.
For Saul, Buckhorn Lake is part of the surrounding historical setting rather than the entire story. It helps explain modern recreation access, changed roads, nearby ramps, and the broader relationship between creek communities and federal flood-control projects. USGS water data also maintains a monitoring location for Buckhorn Lake at Buckhorn, operated in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District.
The old community identity of Saul is older and more intimate than lake recreation. It belongs to Leatherwood, postal service, school life, church gatherings, cemetery ground, and family settlement. But the lake is part of the modern map that helps locate Saul for readers who know Buckhorn better than they know the older hollow names.
Why Saul Matters
Saul’s history is not loud. It does not announce itself through a courthouse, a major battlefield, or a famous industrial company. It survives in quieter forms. A post office discontinuance notice. A Smithsonian photograph of a postmaster. A one-room school article. A church funeral. A cemetery list. A documentary family portrait. A road index. A topographic map.
That is why Saul is worth preserving. Many Appalachian communities are remembered this way, not through one official history, but through fragments that have to be gathered and respected. The story of Saul is the story of how a small Perry County place remained visible through service, family, geography, and memory.
A post office closed, but the place name stayed. A school stood beside Lower Leatherwood Creek. Families buried their dead in Saul ground. A filmmaker brought one family’s hollow to a national audience. Maps kept the name where readers could find it. Together, those records show that Saul was never just a dot on a map. It was a community held together by roads, creeks, kinship, mail, school, church, and the long memory of Leatherwood.
Sources & Further Reading
U.S. Geological Survey. “Saul, Kentucky.” Geographic Names Information System. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names
U.S. Geological Survey. “Saul Post Office, Historical.” Geographic Names Information System. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names
U.S. Geological Survey. Buckhorn, Kentucky, 7.5-Minute Topographic Quadrangle. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, 1979. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/KY_Buckhorn_708265_1979_24000_geo.pdf
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Buckhorn Quadrangle, Kentucky USC and GS Control Data Sheets. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://transportation.ky.gov/Highway-Design/Kentucky%20USC%20and%20GS%20Control%20Data%20Sheets/BK%2088-BUCKHORN.pdf
United States Postal Service. Postal Bulletin 22132. Washington, DC: United States Postal Service, July 8, 2004. https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2004/pb22132.pdf
United States Postal Service. “Postmaster Finder.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/postmaster-finder/
United States Postal Service. Sources of Historical Information on Post Offices, Postal Employees, Mail Routes, and Mail Contractors. Washington, DC: United States Postal Service. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/sources-of-historical-information.pdf
National Archives and Records Administration. “Appointment of Postmasters, 1832 to September 30, 1971.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971.html
National Archives and Records Administration. “Post Office Reports of Site Locations, 1837 to 1950.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html
National Archives and Records Administration. Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, 1837 to 1950. Microfilm Publication M1126. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1986. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/post-offices/m1126.pdf
Rennick, Robert M. “Perry County: Post Offices.” County Histories of Kentucky. Morehead, KY: Morehead State University, 2000. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/273/
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Perry County, Kentucky.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 34, no. 3. https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP34-3.pdf
Randolph, Helen F. Perry County: General History. Morehead, KY: Morehead State University ScholarWorks. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=kentucky_county_histories
Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Postmaster, Owen Napier, Son and Grandsons, Saul, Perry County, Kentucky.” Ted Wathen, 1977. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/owens-napier-his-son-and-grandsons-26822
Perry County, Kentucky. “Perry County Communities.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/things-to-do/Pages/Communities.aspx
Perry County, Kentucky. “About Perry County.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/Pages/about.aspx
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “Kentucky County Formation Chart.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Pages/Kentucky-County-Formation-Chart.aspx
Kentucky Historical Society. “Perry County, 1821.” Historical Marker Database. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://history.ky.gov/markers/perry-county-1821
Perry County Clerk. “Records Center.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perry.countyclerk.us/records-center/
Perry County Clerk. “Online Land Records.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perry.countyclerk.us/records-center/online-land-records/
Perry County Property Valuation Administrator. “Perry County PVA.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perrycountypva.com/
Perry County Sheriff’s Office. “Tax Collection.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.perrysheriff.org/taxbills.html
Kentucky Court of Justice. “Perry.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://kycourts.gov/Courts/County-Information/Pages/Perry.aspx
Kentucky Court of Justice. “Request Court Records.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://kycourts.gov/Pages/Request-Court-Records.aspx
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “Requesting Records from the Archives.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Pages/Records-Requests.aspx
FamilySearch. “Perry County, Kentucky Genealogy.” Updated February 1, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Perry_County%2C_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch Catalog. “Land Records, 1821 to 1964.” Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/190103
FamilySearch Catalog. “Marriage Records, 1821 to 1963.” Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/189956
FamilySearch Catalog. “Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1852 to 1859.” Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/223417
Perry County Public Library. “Genealogy.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perrycountypl.org/genealogy/
The Hazard Herald. “The Hazard Herald, 1958-06-09.” Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program, University of Kentucky Libraries, via Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/kd9cn6xw4g1h
The Hazard Herald. “The Hazard Herald, 1964-10-01.” Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program, University of Kentucky Libraries, via Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/kd9b56d21z1m
Library of Congress. “The Hazard Herald, Hazard, Ky., 1911 to 1975.” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85052003/
Newspapers.com. “The Hazard Herald Archive.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-hazard-herald/39867/
Perry County, Kentucky. “Road Index.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/Pages/Road-Index.aspx
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. State Primary Road System: Perry County. July 1, 2025. https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/State%20Primary%20Road%20System%20Lists/Perry.pdf
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District. “Buckhorn Lake.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Display/Article/3641099/buckhorn-lake/
Corps Lakes Gateway. “Buckhorn Lake, Kentucky.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/projects.cfm?ID=H202130
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Buckhorn Lake: Leatherwood Ramp Buckhorn.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://app.fw.ky.gov/fisheries/accesssitedetail.aspx?asid=490
U.S. Geological Survey. “Monitoring Location 03280800, Buckhorn Lake at Buckhorn, KY.” National Water Information System. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03280800/
Illinois Natural History Survey. “INHS Collections Data: Fish Collection Records for Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://biocoll.inhs.illinois.edu/portal/collections/list.php?comingFrom=harvestparams&country=United+States%3B+USA%3B+U.S.A.%3B+United+States+of+America&county=Perry&db=45&page=3&state=Kentucky
Illinois Natural History Survey. “Illinois Natural History Survey Fish Collection.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://fish.inhs.illinois.edu/
Find a Grave. “Cemeteries in Saul, Kentucky.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery-browse/USA/Kentucky/Perry-County/Saul?id=city_53209
Find a Grave. “Ira Rice Family Cemetery.” Saul, Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2381379/ira-rice-family-cemetery
Find a Grave. “Granville Barger Cemetery.” Saul, Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2339992/granville-barger-cemetery
Find a Grave. “Abraham Barger Cemetery.” Saul, Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2148972/abraham-barger-cemetery
USGenWeb Archives. “Rice Family Cemetery, Saul, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/perry/cemeteries/r2000001.txt
Wolfe and Sons Funeral Home. “Billy Ray Baker Obituary.” November 15, 2014. https://www.wolfeandsonsfh.com/obituaries/billy-baker
Walker Funeral Homes. “Luther Kent Barger Obituary.” April 23, 2025. https://www.walkerfuneralhomesllc.com/obituaries/luther-barger
Kennedy, Rory, dir. American Hollow. HBO, 1999. Paley Center for Media catalog record. https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item?item=T%3A59758
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. “American Hollow.” IDFA Archive. Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/7c82e6de-ffad-425c-907c-03a939d32833/american-hollow
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. “American Hollow.” Accessed May 15, 2026. https://www.fullframefest.org/film/american-hollow-2/
Kennedy, Rory, and Mark Bailey. American Hollow. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1999.
Author Note: Saul is the kind of place that reminds me how much Appalachian history survives in small records rather than big monuments. I hope this article helps readers see the value in post offices, schoolhouses, cemeteries, creek roads, and family memory as real historical evidence.