Lyon County, KY History of the Bend of the River

Kentucky Genealogy and History

Bend of The Rivers

Submitted by Jo Ann Scott - 2008

The Bend-of-the-River, encompassing the area from the city limits of Kuttawa, Kentucky, to the Cumberland River railroad trestle of the Illinois Central Railroad, was settled mainly by the Herring family, the Vied family, the Brummitte family, and the Chandler family.

The Herring and the other families owned property between Mt. Zion Church and the new Barkley Dam. The land from the Kuttawa city limits to what is now know as Poplar Creek was owned by the Doom family. The land between there and what will soon be the new Kentucky Asphalt Co. was owned by Mr. T. W. Sanders, and the land from there to Mt. Zion Church was owned by Mrs. N. O. Gray.

Some of the other early families in the Bend-of-the-River were the Knoths, the Hunters, a colored family known as the Harry Corks, the Joneses, the Martins, the Robertsons.

There were three elementary schools in this area: McPhail, Enterprise, and Chestnut Oak.

Later two churches, Chestnut Oak and Mt. Zion, were built.

This community was agricultural with corn, tobacco, and wheat being the main crops. These crops were raised on the fertile bottom land of the Cumberland River. The corn and the wheat were marketed in Kuttawa; the tobacco in Hopkinsville.

The people in the Bend-of-the-River, as did most people at that time, lived in log cabins. The two main rooms of these cabins were separated by a long porch. Most of the travel was done by way of steamboats, which could be boarded from most any point on the Cumberland.

The discovery in Lyon County of iron ore that could be converted into steel brought about a new era in the Bend-of-the-River. Much of Lyon County's iron ore came from a part of the bend referred to by many people as the Coalins. At that time many spur tracks led from the coalins to the main railway line. At about the turn of the century, the mines in Lyon County closed for the last time. Since a better ore had been discovered in Minnesota, the ore workers left Lyon County and went to Minnesota for employment.

The limestone used in the concrete in building lock "F" at Eddyville, Kentucky, came from a part of the Bend-in-the-River known as the Money Cliff or the Bluff, a limestone bluff facing the Cumberland River.

In 1957 Congress passed a bill to build Barkley Dam. This meant that almost all the people living in the bend would have to move to make way for the Barkley Lake Reservoir. Most of the people moved to other farm lands in surrounding counties, and some of the farmers retired.