Mallie, Kentucky

The Forks of Troublesome, more simply The Forks, are the Left Fork and Right Fork tributaries of Troublesome Creek in what is now Knott County, Kentucky.
This was the name of the place where they met until the city of Hindman was established as the county seat in April 1884, and the name used in the Act of the Kentucky General Assembly that established Knott County.
At the time, The Forks was in Letcher County, Kentucky.

Left Fork is long, amd Right Fork is long.

Early settlers in the area were Samuel Cornett who had a home and a watermill on Left Fork, followed by the families of Peyton M. Duke and Anderson Hays.

Tributaries and other locations

What is now Hindman is upstream along Troublesome Creek from its mouth, at an altitude (measured at the town courthouse steps) of

* Upstream, the major tributaries are:
** Right Fork at an altitude of
*** Baker Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Perkins Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Cave Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Parks Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Trace Fork upstream at an altitude of
**** Right Fork upstream at an altitude of
**** Left Fork upstream at an altitude of
*** Saw Pit Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Calhoun Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Cy Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Sams Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Reynolds Fork (or Runnells Fork) upstream at an altitude of
** Left Fork at an altitude of
*** Owens Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Possum Trot Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Mill Creek upstream at an altitude of
*** Jones Fork upstream at an altitude of
*** Nealy Branch upstream at an altitude of
*** Alum Cave Branch (now partly Watts Creek) upstream at an altitude of

before Knotts County

The Cornett's Valley post office was established on 1854-10-12 by postmaster Samuel Cornett, and was the first post office in the area.
Peyton M. Duke took over as postmaster in February 1861, with the new name Cornett's Mill.
It closed in October 1863.
Duke reëstablished it on 1874-02-17 as McPherson, to serve Cornett's mill, several families, and a general merchanise store owned by Lewis Hays.
Lewis Hays was also one of its postmasters.

It is not certain where the name McPherson came from.
Two possibilities are that it was named after James Birdseye McPherson and (as suggested by local Kentucky historian R. Lee Stewart) that it was named for a USPS department official.

At the foundation of Hindman, it became Hindman post office, after the city, on 1884-10-07 with postmaster Franklin Pierce "Chick" Allen.

in Knotts County

The Brinkley post office was established on 1892-09-29 by postmaster Randolph Adams.
It was originally at the head of Trace Branch, but in 1913 moved downstream and proceeded to be located at several places in the vicinity.
It closed in June 1993.

The Ivis post office was established in 1902-03-21 by postmaster Laura A. Hammons.
It was originally located at the mouth of Trace Fork; moved east in 1912, placing it roughly midway between Hindman and Mallie; and then in 1933 moved further east to the mouth of Calhoun Branch.
It closed in 1956.

In 1918, Joseph Childress had a mine at Right Fork, upstream.
Henry Magyard had a mine at Perkins Branch, upstream, as did Daniel Hays, upstream, and Albert Madden, upstream.
Jack Sturgill's mine was on a minor fork of Perkins, upstream, and Benjamin Everidge's on another Perkins minor fork, upstream.

Jasper Baker's mine was on Baker Branch, and Wiley Parks's mine was on a minor fork of Parks Branch, upstream.

On Cave Branch, John Fugate had a mine upstream, and Joseph Parley one upstream.

Wesley Hays's mine was upstream on Right Fork itself.
Joseph Pigmans's was on a minor branch of Right Fork, upstream.
N. Craft's mine was also on Right Fork, upstream.

Along Trace Fork, Grant Smith had a mine upstream and A. J. Smith a mine upstream; with Shade Stacy's mine being on a minor fork of Trace upstream, and William Mullins's mine on another minor fork upstream.
Randolph Adams's mine was upstream on the Right Fork of Trace Fork.

Trace Fork is the route of Kentucky Route 160, over a gap (altitude ) leading to Irishman Creek.

E. H. Hammond had a mine on Saw Pit Branch, upstream; and J. Jones on Calhoun Branch, upstream.
On two minor forks of Sams branch, J. M. Pigman had a mine upstream, and E. Short had one upstream.

William Hodge's mine was on a minor branch of Reynolds Fork, upstream, with W. T. Campbell's mine on another minor branch, upstream.
W. Reynolds's mine was upstream on Reynolds itself.

W. H. Pratt's mine was upstream on Possum Trot Branch.
I. Thacker's was on a minor fork of Mill Creek, upstream; R. B. Tate's was on another minor fork of Mill, upstream; and William Cox's mine was upstream on Mill itself.

George Tuft had a mine on Jones Fork, upstream.

G. C. Childress's mine was on a minor branch of Left Fork, upstream.
Silas Watts's mine was upstream on Left Fork itself, and Squire Watts's mine upstream.

Mallie

The Mallie post office was established on 1895-04-24 by postmaster Thomas J. Craft.
Although it has been suggested that it was named after Craft's daughter, she was not born until 1897.
It was, and still is, located at the head of Right Fork, and has over the years been at several sites in the vicinity.

Leburn

The Leburn post office was established on 1908-07-26 by postmaster Minta Pratt.
It was at the mouth of Mill Creek.
It moved west some time before 1911, to the mouth of Possumtrot Branch, where it still exists today.

Garner

The Garner post office was established in 1936 by postmaster Mollie Gayhart.
She had wanted either of the names Mollie or Farley.
It was named after John Nance Garner.
It was, and still is, at the mouth of what used to be Alum Cave Branch, but whose downstream end is now Watts Creek.

Early settlers

Samuel Cornett was the son of Revolutionary soldier William Cornett and Mary Everidge Cornett.
His wife Polly Adams came from the Adams settlement at the headwaters of the Kentucky River.
It's not known exactly when he arrived at The Forks of Troublesome; but when he did he built the aforementioned watermill and two-storey log house.

Solomon Everidge, nicknamed "The Granddaddy of Troublesome", was a later settler, along with Peyton Duke from North Carolina.

The Hays family comprised Captain Anderson Hays, his wife Rachel Sizemore Hays, and Lewis Hays, their son.
Anderson Hays was born in Lackey, and had been a Confederate soldier.
He settled on what was then known as Hays Creek, upstream from The Forks, building a watermill.
Lewis was later to marry Solomon's daughter Margaret.

By the time of the establishment of Knotts County, there were also a few farmers and businessmen, including Franklin Pierce "Chick" Allen and Robert Bates.
Allen married Bates's daughter Mary.
Bates himself had large landholdings at The Forks and was one of the principal people responsible for the creation of Knott County, earning him the nickname "The Father of Knott County".
He planned Hindman alongside attorneys T. Y. Fitzpatrick of Whitesburg and Fielding Johnson of Carrs Fork and was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

On 1885-07-08 the Louisville ''Commercial'' characterized The Forks as "nothing hellip;but two or three log houses not grouped together with any view of making a beginning for a town" with "vast forests exist ngin every direction".
"A road extends to Whitesburg hellip;", it continued, "another to Hazard hellip; a third to Jackson hellip;and one going to Prestonburg".

See also

*List of rivers of Kentucky

Cross-reference

Sources

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Further reading

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Rivers of Knott County, Kentucky
Rivers of Kentucky
Coal towns in Kentucky