Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Local History: D
Dunmor Once a Bustling Town
Even though they misspelled his name, there's no doubt that Lord Dunmore would have been proud that they named the town for him.
Perhaps they wanted it to sound dignified but not too British, so they dropped the “e” and it was forever after to be called DUNMOR, the only town in the whole world so named.
The name came from the Scottish peer John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore and the last British colonial governor of Virginia. He was also known as Governor Dunmore or Lord Dunmore.
In the early 1800's money was scarce in the Dunmor area. Tobacco, pork and whiskey were used as barter items with the few merchants.
One old record shows that land in that early date sold for twenty cents per acre in many instances.
In fact it not only sold for twenty cents an acre but by law a settler could purchase up to 400 acres from the state at that price ($80) and pay for it in nine annual installments. They could even purchase another 400 acres at the same rate, as soon as the first acreage had been paid off. That law was passed due to the widespread belief that land in that area was “barren, poor land, with only 10 per cent fit for cultivation” plus the scarcity of money in circulation at that time.
Some of the landowners continued to owe the money up until 1850.
One man wrote that he lived plentifully but had to live within his own means. He pointed out that although the land wasn't the richest, it would allow a man to produce wheat, corn and meat without any struggle.
To obtain cash for their farm products, many of the pioneer farmers took rafts loaded with produce down the Mud, Green, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the New Orleans Market. Such commercial ventures brought in most of the currency in circulation at that time.
In an old journal account it was stressed that a man living in that section could easily provide bread and meat even for a large family but when it came to clothing he had better consider making his own.
As a matter of record, some of the land in the Dunmor area was settled by Revolutionary War soldiers who were allowed land grants: such as: a soldier, 200 acres; a noncommissioned officer, 400 acres; a lower ranked officer, 2,666 and 2/3 acres and a major general 15,000 acres.
Immediately following the completion of the Owensboro to Russellville railroad (later the L & N) in 1882, Dunmor (there were only a few houses) took on a village atmosphere. The railroad depot became a shipping and receiving point for a rural section within a radius of five miles or so [and the area around the depot] became a small trade center, with two tobacco “factories” where the leaf was stored for shipment in hogsheads to the eastern markets, a sawmill, grist mill, livery stable, jail and a whiskey distillery. Two trains passed through daily.
On May 14, 1884, a post office was established in Dunmor with James W. Clarke as postmaster. Later that same year Joseph W. McPherson took over that office.
In 1888, a newspaper, the Dunmor Progress, was located in the town. It was managed by Will Armstrong, L.C. Newman Sr., H.C. Lewis and A.C. Briggs. The latter was editor of the paper, which ceased publication after only a few months.
In 1892, Thomas J. Beasley became the town's third postmaster. Dr. Thomas G. Turner, a physician, was the local doctor. Coal trains passed through daily on their way to Russellville and connections to the Louisville and Nashville railroad, a main line.
John Strother DePoyster became Dunmor's fourth postmaster in January 1895.
Business had begun to pick up in Dunmor as the century closed out. New mines were being added to the railroad trackage and the volume of coal slowly increased. In early 1899, the town got another - it's fifth - postmaster in Thomas H. Gilstrap.
Shortly after the turn of the century a new spur track was built for the ten or so miles from Penrod to Mud River Mines as the coal market improved. Around that time, two more trains daily were added to the town's railroad schedule. One leaving Russellville early each morning for Owensboro, to return to Russellville in the evening and another train left Owensboro each morning to make the round trip to Russellville and back again that evening. It was a great arrangement for travelers and shippers.
In 1904, the newly formed Beech Creek Coal Company opened a new mine at Beech Creek. The operation had employees who lived in Dunmor and rode the train down each morning to Beech Creek Junction (the nearest stop), walked the two miles to the mine, worked all day, retraced their steps and caught the evening train back to Dunmor late in the evening. Even the Kirkpatricks who owned the mine and lived in Russelville, rode the morning and evening trains to and from work each day.
At the time everything from block ice to dry goods and coffee and coffins had to be shipped in by rail. Outbound shipments included chickens, eggs, cured meats and farm produce, with tobacco leading the list during the fall and winter months. Dunmor had become a railhead.
When the town needed a hotel, John Strother Depoyster built one and later he added a drug store that handled some general merchandise. A bank was established, with H. Brent McClary as manager. Charles King ran the new flour mill and Ben Craycroft was the very busy depot agent.
In 1905, Mary T. Turner took over as the sixth postmaster. She would remain on the job until March 1914, when another DePoyster, Carl R., was installed in that office.
Between 1913 and 1919, Dunmor reached its zenith as a business community and commerce center. Charles Tunstill had a small hotel and a small store; Claude Rust ran a hardware store; a section of DePoyster's drug store later became the post-office; A.L. Wagoner had a grocery store, as did Ed Mahoney. The Graysons, Roy, Oscar and George and their brother-in-law Will King ran a large general merchandise store; Dallas Rector had a general store; David Strader operated the town's blacksmith shop and Raymond Hope repaired clocks.
Drs. Henry C. Kinneefy and Thomas C. Turner were the local doctors; Thomas H. Gilatrap, the former postmaster was a traveling salesman (drummer) Amy Goodall was the town's dressmaker; Pink Wood ran a blacksmith shop; and George W. Milam was a preacher.
Dunmor even had gas lights. In 1917 a gas pipeline was laid the four miles from a well in Diamond Springs owned by John Fitzhugh. The arrangement lasted for several years until the gas supply was depleted. An exception was the DePoyster Hotel which was lighted by large commercial hanging lights powered by carbide.
The Adlers and later Owen Heltsley operated the Dunmor private telephone exchange. Myrtle Baugh was the operator for years. The facility went out of business in 1956.
During the 1913-1919 period of prosperity, Dunmor had both a legal distillery and a town jail although nothing derogatory was recorded or remembered of either of them.
As if to reflect on her days of glory, the town's streets were named College, Main, Main Cross, Greenville Road, Railroad Si1ver and Gold.
In the 1910 U.S. Census, Dunmor had 37 houses and a population of 136 persons and practically all of them employed, at least all those that wanted jobs.
Family names over the years have included: Whitaker, Tucker, Rust, King, Hope, Baugh, Kinnerly, Stagner, DePoyster, Forsythe, Hankins, Robertson, Allen, Whitney, DeArmond, Hughes, Harris, Ferrell, Sullivan, Prichett, Desper, Hardison. McClary. Gilstrap, Turner, Hunt, Wood, Audas, Short, Milam, Mallory, Craycroft, Brown, Carter, Tunstill, Wagoner, Strader, Rector, Mahoney, Given, Silvey, McPherson and Travis.
On April 6, 1922 Rena King became the seventh postmaster. In December, 1925, W.P. Wood inherited the office as acting postmaster and then on March 10, 1926, Thomas W. Fitzhugh became the postmaster.
In May 1933, Bessie DePoyster Givens took what was to be a 40-year job when she became the town's tenth postmaster. She retired from the job in 1973. Now (1983) the once thriving town has it's eleventh postmaster Barbara Porter - as it eases into it's one hundredth birthday.
It's all gone now - the railroad, depot, hotels, blacksmith shops, tobacco factories, the flour and grist mills, livery stable, jail, distillery and the twenty cents an acre land has been replaced with $500 an acre land. The only busy part of town is US 431 that runs north and south through the sleepy community. The one significant building that is left bears a proud sign honoring a Virginia governor and a man who once had his own war (and it was named for him - Lord Dunmore's War). A sign identifies it as the “DUNMOR, Kentucky, Post Office.”
Source: Camplin, Paul. “Dunmor Once a Bustling Town.” Leader-News [Greenville, KY], 6 July 1983.
Contributed by Robert C. Grayson
Updated July 14, 2022