Rivals is a small unincorporated rural community on the banks of

Brashear's Creek Brashear's Creek is a USGSbr>classified streamflowing through Shelby and Spencer Counties in Kentucky. It begins at the confluence of Bullskin and Clear Creeks in Shelby County, approximately 2 miles east-northeast of Finchville, Kentucky. It f ...

(near the confluence of Buck Creek and Brashears) in Spencer County,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. At one time it had a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

started by Matthias Carland's family who settled the land beginning in 1796. Also a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

, started by Peter Van Dyke and his sons, which began operating in 1789. These businesses have been gone for many years, though the building that served as the store and post office still stands as a storage building for a home. It is located approximately 5 miles north-northeast of Taylorsville. Rivals received its name in an unusual fashion in August 1900. The story goes that when the application to open a post office there was filled out, a second name choice was required in case the first choice had already been taken. The store owner, George W. Sloan, needing this second choice, looked upon his shelves and saw a box of ammunition with the brand name New Rival. The first choice was already in use elsewhere, so Rivals became the official post office name, and consequentially became the community name. The Van Dykes were early settlers of the area, owning at least one grist mill and also farming the area. The road into Rivals from Highway 55 is still known as Van Dyke Mill Road. Early newspaper reports refer to the area as "Van Dyke Mills". A letter to the editor of one of these early papers refers to more than one mill, a wool carding factory, and several other business interests. The area is still largely farmland, producing

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source o ...

s, sod,

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

, and goats. Over the past 25 years, however, a number of farms have been subdivided into residential areas and "mini-farms"—properties with zoning to allow a small number of animals and/or growing of crops, but not large enough to actually be considered a for-profit farm. In spite of the changes and growth of recent decades, Rivals and other nearby communities such as

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

are still home to a number of families who have lived there for multiple generations, such as the Allgeier, Harp, Jeffiers, Jeffries, Prewitt, Travis, Yates and Wills families.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Spencer County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky Louisville metropolitan area