List members, In 1991, members of the Jessamine County Historical Society began the process of putting together a book of Jessamine County History, the first of it's kind to be written since the publication of Bennett Young's "A History of Jessamine County from it's Earliest Settlement to 1898". A call went out to the citizens of Jessamine County, encouraging them to submit their family histories and photos and the response was overwhelming, with 457 family stories being submitted and 177 subject histories. The result of this work is "Jessamine County, Kentucky, 1798-1993" as written by it's citizens and has been the backbone of my own search, providing me with so many links to those early families, most of whom still have descendants in Jessamine County and is a "must have", in order to really understand why our own ancestors loved the area and chose it for their home. Over the course of the last couple of years, I have tried to share some of the stories included in the book, just enough to entice you to purchase the book from the Historical Society. The sharing of those small bits from the book, hopefully, was instrumental in bringing many of you to Jessamine County last year for the first Heritage Fest. For those of you who are planning to attend this year and those of you who will not be able to be with us, I would like to again share a bit of the history of the county and it's pioneers. I would like to concentrate on the various communities in Jessamine County, perhaps bringing your attention to areas that your own ancestors may have settled or inhabitated, giving you a starting point for those of you not familiar with the area. As is the case with so many small towns and counties, the descendents of the founders of these communities still reside in many of them and are a gold mine of information. You may even find a few "cuzzins" in many of them. Again, I hope that the information that I am sharing with you will only whet your appetite for more and will encourage you to visit Jessamine County, perhaps purchasing your own copy and helping to support the Historical Society in it's endeavor to provide us with as much resource material as possible. The first two communities that I want to share with you are Bethel and Brooklyn. Some of the articles are fairly lengthy, so I will have to do this in a serial form, offering perhaps only one or two at a time. If you like what you see, stay tuned for more! Shelia Bruner-Ramos BETHEL (as submitted by Charles M. Bowman and Mildred Corman Hammond) The Bethel community at one time had a school-now a residence- a voting house, a small store, and a church. The school and store are gone today. The church was built in 1873 as a community church. The building is at the corner of Bethel Road and Phillips Lane. The present pastor is Tom Mefford. My father, Charles Leonard Bowman, attended Bethel School in 1901. At that time N. D. Thompson was teacher. Both my wife, the former Dorothy Anderson, and I attended the school. I started in 1932 when Miss Grace Duncan was the teacher. In 1937 Mrs. Bess Corman began teaching there and a second room had to be added. Later the school was discontinued, and the children were sent to Wilmore Elementary. There are two family cemeteries in the area, Corman and Rhorer. Bethel area is a combination of several roads and lanes: Phillips Lane, Corman Lane, Frankfort Ford Pike, Glass Mill Road and Bethel Road. Many of the families in the Bethel area were: Reid, Overstreet, Corman, Young, Rhorer, House, Baker, Payne, Johns, Baugh, White, Jacobs, Alcorn, Megee, Shanklin, Hagedorn, Duncan, Moody, Yates, Thompson, Bowman, Day, Clark, Hicks, Meads, Humphrey, Sears, Peel, Myers, Guy, Brooks, Fields, Gribbins, Sexton, Powell and others. BROOKLYN (as submitted by Era Wilder Peniston, Beulah Poor Braden, June Poor Lowry and William Edward Lowry) Todds Ferry was an early crossing of the Kentucky river where the pumping station for Wilmore waterworks is presently located. There was a house on the Mercer side of the river where the passengers would stay during the flood stage of the river. The stagecoach came up the Shanty Hill Lane and used the Harve Goforth house as a stopover in those days. It passed by the R.M. Poor property and changed horses at Pekin near the tollgate house on Highway 33 across from Pekin School. The new road from Jewell's corner to the Kentucky river was constructed in Jessamine County in 1927 by the Moynahan Construction Company. A tunnel had been drilled and blown out of rock near the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was built and completed in 1927. This wooden bridge was in operation until 1952, when it fell. A laundry truck was crossing the river near the Mercer side; however, no one lost his life. When the State Road Department built a new concrete bridge, it ordered the tunnel on the Jessamine side closed to traffic. The road was straightened so that traffic could move directly onto the new bridge. In 1925, Robert Mahin Peniston purchased the river bottom and some cliffs on the Mercer County side of the Kentucky River. The survey included the small cottage on the lower side of the river at the end of the bridge where Alphus and Annie Goforth lived, and continued up the river approximately two miles to the big curve on Highway 68. Penistons built a restaurant on the Mercer side of the river about 1/8 miles from the bridge. When the new road was opened, they were ready for business. Robert and his parents, Ernie and Price Peniston, ran the restaurant for many years. Scott Coghill owned a hill farm on the road leading to Shakertown, the historic settlement of Shakers in Mercer County. He was faithful in reporting each day for work at the restaurant during the Peniston years, 1926-1952. Other owners have been George and Jenny Ashcraft, Lexington Trailer Company, Murphy's at the River, and the present ownership by Chelsey's Landing. The old tollgate house on the Jessamine side had been occupied by Bill Grimes. Whe he died, Alphus and Annie Goforth moved from the Mercer side. Other fishermen who lived near the river were Tom and Virgie Houp, Noble Horn, Clay Horn, and Switzer brothers, Albert, Asa, George and Johnnie. During the flood of 1937, high water covered the floor in the main part of the Peniston Restaurant to the top of the counters. In the many times that high water was a problem, this was the highest up to that time. The Chinn Restaurant which was a hole in the cliff wall across the highway from the Peniston Park was also involved in the flooding experience. River water covered the highway there several feet, which made a congested situation in the traffic on highway 68. Also the supplies in the Chinn Restaurant were at risk.. George Chinn who lived above the top of the cliff on the Mercer side was the owner. He was involved in politics and spent his last years in Frankfort in the Firearms Department. The Palisades Development Corp. was founded in 1966. Approximately 50 lots were sold. R. M. Peniston was deceased in 1976. Era Wilder Peniston owns the top of cliff acreage. Galye and Carolyn Peniston Lawrence own nine lots in the Palisades. The waterworks of the Kentucky River, supplying water to the city of Wilmore and surrounding areas, passes through the William Reynolds. Heirs of the Reynolds farm on the Shanty Hill Road were J.P., Virginia, and Murray Price Reynolds, Ruth and Asa Switzer, Grace and Hansle Poor, and Rosaline and Henry Jackson.