My friends - I have recently been addressing some of the questions that I receive from time to time from subscribers and others about the JP region, its history and people. One question that I receive about a dozen times each year is, "What happened to Calloway Town?". There is a plat map of Calloway Town available on the JP Images website. Calloway Town was born in the middle 1830's. It was the brainchild primarily of Isaac Wells, and a few other men, to serve what was then the central part of far eastern Calloway County. Its location today would be in the northeastern corner of Calloway County. It was to be built adjacent to the Tennessee River, and the plat map shows a ferry landing and the River itself. The plat indicates that the town would be approximate 50 miles upriver from Paducah(therefore, southeast of Paducah, since the Tennessee River flows northward). By 1839, the community was viable and conducting commerce via the river primarily, although residents in the eastern part of central Calloway County also used Calloway Town as a trading point. Calloway Town prospered for a few years. When Marshall County was cut from Calloway County, however, in 1842, the fortunes of Calloway Town began to decline. Ferries sprang up somewhat north from Calloway Town, and some communities, such as Birmingham, began to gain prominence. Several of the "leading lights" of Calloway Town died - some, such as Isaac Wells, who died in 1841, having died at a relatively young age. The community began to dwindle, much as Wadesboro did after its status as county seat was superceded by Murray, and, by about 1865, Calloway Town was, for all practical purposes, a ghost town. One of the unsolved mysteries connected with Calloway Town is where the community cemetery was located. There is little doubt that one existed, and some of the residents of Calloway Town, and the area close by, were buried there. However, these deaths occurred in the 1830's and 1840's, primarily, and, as we know, the grave markers in those days were composed of a sandstone/limestone combination that did not stand up well to the humidity of the region. By the time of the TVA Kentucky Dam project in the late 1930's, all traces of the community - and the cemetery - were gone. There were a number of families in the area(such as the Wells, Skaggs, Norsworthy, Hale, Scott, Hardy, Rowlett, Brandon and others)who very likely had burials in the area of Calloway Town. Most of those burials are now lost, and Calloway Town is under the waters of the Kentucky Lake. -B ====================================================================