Nashville, Kentucky that is! Dr. Wesler is wanting to locate the site of this Nashville for a possible future field research dig. And we, the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, have offered to help!
An 1825 map of the Kentucky portion of the Jackson Purchase shows a town called Nashville sitting on the western bank of the Clarks River almost due east from Fort Jefferson on the banks of the Mississippi. Its approximate location appears to be at 36.55 degrees latitude, 88.20 degrees longitude. This map can be viewed by going to www.davidrumsey.com (click on directory, click on the “K” on the upper left side of the site, then scroll down to the Kentucky and Tennessee map by Henry S. Tanner, 1825). Once on the map, you can enlarge it and get a close up of Nashville.
If you have any knowledge of this Nashville, please send it to us either by email or regular mail. Because of his busy schedule, Dr. Wesler has asked the JPHS to act as a gathering point. There is no time limit for sending us your information. We will check out each submission, do further research, and present what facts we uncover to Dr. Wesler.
“An even more fundamental problem, one that occurs in all areas of the country and not just Kentucky, is that historians, geographers, and archaeologists, have not talked among themselves enough to direct fruitful studies.” Dr. Wesler, JOURNAL 1982 article, pg. 62
We have begun such a dialogue with Dr. Wesler.
I have found three references to Nashville, KY in newspapers dated in the early 1900′s. Two in The Citizen published in Berea, Madison County, KY and one in the Paducah Sun. The Citizen article reports on a local farmer, Noeb Richardson shipping turkeys to firm in Portsmouth, N.H. in Aug. 1905. I will follow up on this info.
I think this Nashville would now be located in north Graves County. I have an 1880 map that shows that bend in Clarks River to be in far north Graves County. I’m doing some checking on this; maybe we can get our info together and come up with its location!