Features

Local historians believe Mount Sherman was named after Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the Union’s military leaders during the Civil War.

No one seems to be certain, however, just why the small town opted to recognize one of the most notorious generals of the war.

Sherman was promoted to brigadier general after the Battle of First Manassas and sent to Kentucky. President Abraham Lincoln thought Sherman could keep the state from seceding. Sherman made a statement that the war would not end quickly and was replaced by Don Carlos Buell.

In LaRue County’s history, there have been few entrepreneurs to match Edward Stanton Ferrill.

Ferrill, the grandfather of Linda Back of Hodgenville, turned a small drugstore in Buffalo into a booming wholesale business during a time when almost every other business was struggling or going belly-up.

The secret to his success? He never went into a new venture until he had the cash saved to start it.

“E.S.” as he was known, was born Feb. 19, 1862, to Henry and Mary Jane Ray Ferrill. He was raised on a farm on the Rolling Fork River.

The Buffalo Elementary School’s gym has a history that reaches back to the 1800s when it was built not as a gymnasium, but as an academic wing of East Lynn College, which longtime Buffalo resident John T. Meers said originally opened in 1860.


“The original structure was T-shaped and what is now the gym contained classrooms which the college used,” Meers said. “When they separated the two buildings, they moved a section that became a lunchroom on the bottom floor and Masonic and Eastern Star lodge above, and the other part became a gym.”


As far as local historians can tell, Buffalo started with the first house built by James Creal in 1848. In 1854, a gristmill was built on the creek, and the next year the Rev. John Duncan and W. L. Creal built a general merchandise store.
One day in the Duncan-Creal store, someone brought in a large animal bone. It was agreed that it was the rib of a Buffalo since there were buffalo wallows along the creek. Someone suggested they should name their town “Buffalo Wallow.”

Fortunately, “Wallow” was dropped in following years.

Jodi Johnson gives riding lessons at Wayne Ridge Farm outside Upton.

Johnson, who says horses have the ability to “speak to you and heal you,” has the responsibility of helping children and horses communicate when human interaction is particularly difficult.

She oversees a therapeutic program for autistic children, where kids with the disorder come to ride horses, improve their motor skills and increase their communication ability.

Gold, silver, leather and glass have all been used to create pieces that have adorned the fingers, necks, arms, ears and heads of women and men since the reign of man began.

Sarah Nunn, of Upton has found that for her pieces of jewelry – regular materials will not do. She uses horsehair and the hair from other livestock such as cattle in her designs.

Damascus Creations, a home-based jewelry operation, was established by Nunn in August 2012.