Appalachian Community Histories – Stacy and Rowdy, Perry County: Post Offices, Noble Branch, and Mountain Memory
Stacy, Perry County, Kentucky, is one of those Appalachian places whose history is easiest to miss if a researcher searches only one name. On modern county lists, Stacy and Rowdy both appear as Perry County communities, while older maps and local records show the names tied closely together near Noble Branch, Rowdy Branch, Troublesome Creek, and Kentucky 476. Perry County’s official community list includes both Rowdy and Stacy, confirming that both names remain part of the county’s local geography.
The Stacy covered here is best understood as the Stacy, Rowdy, and Noble Branch community. It should not be confused with Stacy Branch near Vicco and Allock, another Perry County place name with its own coal and railroad history. Kentucky Atlas describes Vicco as beginning around 1920 as a railroad station for the Virginia Iron Coal and Coke Company near the mouth of Stacy Branch, which places that Stacy Branch story closer to Carr Fork and Vicco rather than the Rowdy and Noble Branch community.
A Post Office Name That Preserved a Community
The post office record is the strongest starting point for Stacy’s written history. The National Archives explains that the Record of Appointment of Postmasters includes post office establishment and discontinuance dates, post office name changes, postmaster names, and appointment dates. Those records for 1832 to 1971 were reproduced as National Archives Microfilm Publication M841.
A compiled Perry County post office history gives the most direct local summary. It says Rowdy was also known as Stacy because of local Stacy families, and that the Stacy post office was named on June 30, 1890, with Ira Allen as postmaster. The same source places Rowdy along Kentucky 476 north from its junction with 267, near the mouth of Rowdy Branch of Troublesome Creek, about eight and a half miles north of Hazard. It also preserves the local explanation that Rowdy took its name from the “wild character” of residents in the area.
That kind of naming story is common in mountain communities. A post office might carry one name, a branch or creek might carry another, and families might continue using an older name long after official records changed. In Stacy’s case, the paper trail suggests a community remembered through all three: the Stacy family name, the Rowdy post office and branch name, and Noble Branch as a geographic anchor.
Stacy on the Map
The 1954 USGS Noble, Kentucky, 7.5 minute quadrangle is one of the clearest map sources for Stacy. The map places “Stacy” beside the notation for “Rowdy PO,” showing the two names occupying the same local space on the Noble quadrangle. It also shows the surrounding creek valleys, roads, schools, cemeteries, and branch names that shaped the settlement pattern.
TopoZone’s USGS based entry for Stacy places it on the Noble topographic map at approximately 37.4031496 north latitude and 83.2101739 west longitude, with an elevation of about 830 feet. That location fits the Rowdy and Noble Branch setting rather than the separate Stacy Branch near Vicco.
The county’s modern road index helps connect the old map evidence with present day routes. It lists Rowdy Low Gap Road and describes it as ending at mile 20.20 on Kentucky 476. The same county road index includes several Stacy named roads, but those entries should be used carefully because not every Stacy road name necessarily belongs to the old Stacy and Rowdy community.
Noble Branch and the Coal Measures
Stacy’s history also sits inside the larger coal geology of Troublesome Creek and the North Fork Kentucky River basin. In 1918, James M. Hodge’s Kentucky Geological Survey report, Coals of the North Fork of Kentucky River in Perry and Portions of Breathitt and Knott Counties, included detailed notes on Noble Branch, Steve Branch, and Rowdy Branch. The report identified Noble Branch on the right side of the creek, about 17 miles up, with the mouth at an altitude of about 800 feet.
Hodge’s report gives the kind of ground level detail that turns a place name into a landscape. It records Anderson Hays with an unfinished prospect into the Haddix coal at Noble Branch, notes a 33 inch Haddix coal exposure farther up the branch, and describes Mary Allen’s eight yard entry on the left fork. It also records cannel coal on Noble Branch and an outcrop sample obtained by Charles Hendrie.
Nearby Rowdy Branch appears in the same survey. Hodge placed Rowdy Branch on the right, about 17 and a half miles up the creek, with the mouth at about 805 feet. The report noted a twelve yard entry associated with Andrew and Samuel Noble about one fourth mile up the branch, as well as later coal measurements and entries connected with the Campbell heirs.
This does not mean Stacy began as a company town in the way places like Vicco or some larger coal camps did. The evidence points instead to a rural creek and branch community whose written record was shaped by post offices, family names, schools, cemeteries, roads, and coal prospects. Coal mattered, but it was layered over an older settlement geography.
Schools, Families, and Daily Life
The school record adds another piece to the Stacy story. KYGenWeb school listings include Old Stacy School at Rowdy in 1928 and another Old Stacy School image from the 1940s. These school photo listings are not a complete institutional history, but they are valuable local evidence that the Stacy name continued in community use even when Rowdy became the more visible post office name.
A 1964 issue of The Hazard Herald shows Stacy School still appearing in Perry County school finance notices. The newspaper’s public listing includes “Stacy School” for lunch and milk reimbursement, along with several Stacy surname entries connected to school maintenance and work.
That notice is small, but it matters. It shows Stacy not only as an old map name, but as a school community remembered in the middle of the twentieth century. In rural Appalachia, schools often served as neighborhood markers. Even after consolidation changed where children attended classes, the old school names remained a way of saying where people were from.
Cemeteries and the Memory of the Name
Cemetery records also preserve Stacy’s older identity. The Noble Cemetery listing in Perry County describes the cemetery as located at Rowdy, formerly known as Stacy, Kentucky. Another Noble Cemetery page gives the same local identification, placing it at Rowdy, formerly Stacy, near the post office on Kentucky 476.
Find a Grave also lists Napier Cemetery in Stacy, Perry County, and describes it in the Rowdy community. Like many cemetery databases, it should be treated as a lead rather than final proof for every burial, but it is useful for seeing how the Stacy name remained attached to family cemeteries and local memory.
Together, these cemetery references show how place names survive. A post office can change. A school can close. A road can be renamed. But cemetery locations often keep the older community language alive because families continue to describe where their people are buried.
Stacy, Rowdy, and a Layered Appalachian Landscape
The story of Stacy is not a single dramatic event. It is a layered community history built from small records. A post office appointment preserves the name Stacy in 1890. A later map shows Stacy beside Rowdy Post Office. A coal survey records Noble Branch and Rowdy Branch in the working landscape of the early twentieth century. School records keep Old Stacy School visible into the 1920s, 1940s, and public notices of the 1960s. Cemetery records remember Rowdy as formerly Stacy.
That is why Stacy is best read as a community name, not just a dot on a map. It belonged to families, mail routes, schoolchildren, coal prospects, creek roads, and burial grounds. Its history is tied to the way mountain settlements often carried more than one name at the same time, depending on whether a person was speaking from a post office ledger, a topographic map, a school record, or family memory.
In that sense, Stacy and Rowdy tell a larger Appalachian story. Many communities in the mountains were never incorporated towns, yet they were deeply real to the people who lived there. They had schools, cemeteries, post offices, roads, branches, neighbors, and names that changed slowly across generations. Stacy survives in those records as one of Perry County’s small but traceable places, held between Noble Branch, Rowdy Branch, Troublesome Creek, and the memory of families who gave the name meaning.
Sources & Further Reading
U.S. Post Office Department. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–1971. National Archives Record Group 28, Microfilm Publication M841. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Perry County, Kentucky.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 34, no. 2. https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP34-2.pdf
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Perry County, Kentucky. Part II.” La Posta: A Journal of American Postal History 34, no. 3. https://www.lapostapub.com/Backissues/LP34-3.pdf
Rennick, Robert M. “Perry County: Place Names.” Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection. Morehead State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/121/
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. https://books.google.com/books?id=azPttlmsv24C
Genealogy Trails. “Post Offices in Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://genealogytrails.com/ken/perry/post_offices.html
United States Geological Survey. Noble, Kentucky, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1954. https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/HistoricalTopo/PDF/KY/24000/KY_Noble_803829_1954_24000_geo.pdf
United States Geological Survey. Troublesome, Kentucky, 15 Minute Topographic Quadrangle. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1914. https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/HistoricalTopo/PDF/KY/62500/KY_Troublesome_804323_1914_62500_geo.pdf
United States Geological Survey. “Historical Topographic Maps: Preserving the Past.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past
United States Geological Survey. “topoView.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/
Rand McNally and Company. “Perry County, Kentucky, 1911 Map.” Reproduced by My Genealogy Hound. https://www.mygenealogyhound.com/maps/kentucky-maps/KY-Perry-County-Kentucky-1911-Rand-McNally-map-Hazard-Yerkes-Chavies.html
Hodge, James M. Coals of the North Fork of Kentucky River in Perry and Portions of Breathitt and Knott Counties. Frankfort, KY: State Journal Company, 1918. https://archive.org/details/coalsofnorthfork00hodgrich
Ashley, George H. Cannel Coal in the United States. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 659. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1918. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b659
Williamson, A. D. Coal Beds of the Troublesome Quadrangle, Breathitt, Knott, and Perry Counties, Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey Coal Map 18. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1953. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/coal18
Hinrichs, E. Neal. Geologic Map of the Noble Quadrangle, Eastern Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-1476. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1978. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/geologic-map-noble-quadrangle-eastern-kentucky
Kentucky Geological Survey. Generalized Geologic Map for Land-Use Planning: Perry County, Kentucky. Series XII. Lexington: Kentucky Geological Survey, 2007. https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/mc164_12.pdf
Perry County, Kentucky. “Communities.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/things-to-do/Pages/Communities.aspx
Perry County, Kentucky. “Road Index.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perrycounty.ky.gov/Pages/Road-Index.aspx
Perry County Clerk. “Records Center.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perry.countyclerk.us/records-center/
Perry County Clerk. “Online Land Records.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://perry.countyclerk.us/records-center/online-land-records/
eCCLIX. “County Clerk’s Office.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://ecclix.com/
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “Research Guides.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Pages/Research-Guides.aspx
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. County Deeds, Tax Assessment Books, Wills, Land Warrants, and Other Land Records Inventory. Frankfort: Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Documents/Inventory_Land_Records.pdf
FamilySearch. “Perry County, Kentucky Genealogy.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Perry_County,_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch. “Land Records, 1821–1964, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/190103
KYGenWeb Schools. “Perry County School Photos and Yearbooks.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/kyschools/perry.html
KYGenWeb Schools. “Old Stacy School, Rowdy, 1928.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/schools/perry/perry.co.ky.old.stacy.school.1928.html
RootsWeb. “Stacy School, Rowdy, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~kyperry3/stacyschoolatrowdyky.html
Noble Cemetery. KYGenWeb, Perry County, Kentucky. Accessed May 18, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/perry/cemetery/noble_rowdy_mdh.htm
USGenNet. “Noble Cemetery, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://usgennet.org/usa/ky/county/perry/cemeteries/noble.html
USGenNet. “Noble Cemetery, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://usgennet.org/usa/ky/county/perry/cemeteries/noble2.html
KYGenWeb. “Sam Noble Cemetery.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/perry/cemetery/noble_samuel.htm
Find a Grave. “Noble Cemetery.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/75318/noble-cemetery
Find a Grave. “Napier Cemetery.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/75272/napier-cemetery
USGenNet. “Napier Cemetery, Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://usgennet.org/usa/ky/county/perry/cemeteries/napier.html
The Hazard Herald. “Stacy School Milk Reimbursement Notice.” July 16, 1964. https://archive.org/download/kd9gq6qz2b2r/kd9gq6qz2b2r_text.pdf
The Hazard Herald. September 25, 1958. https://archive.org/download/kd9qr4nk3k66/kd9qr4nk3k66_text.pdf
TopoZone. “Stacy Topo Map in Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.topozone.com/kentucky/perry-ky/city/stacy-4/
Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer. “Vicco, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.kyatlas.com/ky-vicco.html
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Perry County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/states_counties/perry/
Author Note: Small Appalachian communities are often easiest to understand through the records they left behind, not through a single founding story. Stacy and Rowdy are a good example of how post offices, schools, cemeteries, branch names, and family memory can preserve a place long after its name becomes harder to trace.