The Moseley Family Literally Put Moseleyville on the Kentucky Map
Isaac
Fletcher Moseley: 1828-1908 (Maternal Third Great-Granduncle)
Jesse B. Moseley:
1810-1874 (Maternal First Cousin 5x Removed)
Basil
Curtis Moseley: 1837-1880
Presley
Thompson Moseley: 1836-1912
Families
like to pass down heirlooms that preserve a bit of family history. But the
Moseley family had something unique to pass down: a place on the Kentucky map
bearing their name.
So what do
we know about Moseleyville, Kentucky? Here is the description provided by the
History of Owensboro wiki (see citation below):
“Settlement
came slowly to the lower Panther Creek bottoms of Daviess County, but there
were enough farmers working the rich lands of the area to justify a mill.
Sometime about 1830, Johnathan Barnett built a water-powered grist mill on the
creek near a spot called Narrows. Around 1860, the mill was fully equipped to
grind wheat into flour and to saw lumber. The mill was later bought by the
Vanover family and was afterward known as Vanover’s Mill. The mill was
destroyed by fire in 1900, but by then a little settlement had grown up around
the site. It was first called Narrowville and a post office was established
there in 1842. The office was discontinued in 1845, then re-established as
Narrows in 1850. In 1852 the office was again closed, reopening as Narrows
Bridge in 1867. It closed again in 1870, and reopened as Moseleyville in 1886.
Postal service ended in 1909, but the name remained. At various times Jesse B.
Moseley, Presley T. Moseley and John P. Moseley all served as postmasters. The
Clark Manufacturing Company built a factory in Moseleyville in 1895 to
manufacture field drainage tiles, bricks, and blocks. Products were shipped by
barge down Panther Creek to Green River and on to markets as far away as
Illinois. The facility was torn down in 1973. Coal seams were found in the
hillsides and by 1902 there were seven mines operating within a mile of the
town. Among the mines were the Bramer, English, Nation, Rafferty, Wood,
Vanover, Miller, Vowels and Church. The tile plant and coal mines meant jobs, and
as the population grew, there came the need for a school. About 1900 the first
school was built in the home of Jack Moseley, with “about” thirty-five
students. The modern school building was built in 1927…”
This entire area lay in the Vanover Precinct of Owensboro, seen in the 1876 map below.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post about Isaac Fletcher Moseley,
Isaac was the Democratic party precinct committeeman for Vanover, and lived in
the area. The map shows his land, as well as the land of other Moseley family
members, including S. Moseley, R.W. Moseley, M.C. Moseley, JB Moseley, Jesse
Moseley and B.C. Moseley. Their properties were clustered in the central and
bottom section of the precinct; this is the area that became known as Moseleyville.
 |
| Portions of the 1876 Vanover Precinct Map Enlarged with Moseley properties highlighted. |
So which
Moseley families made this unincorporated community home? The families shown on
the map came from two related Moseley family groups.
First,
there were two sons of Presley William Moseley: Isaac Fletcher Moseley and
Basil Curtis Moseley (B.C. on the map). Both are third great granduncles,
brother to my husband’s third-great-grandfather, Robert Cartwright Moseley. In
addition, a third brother, Presley Thompson Moseley, was listed as one of the
Moseleyville postmasters, so he lived in the area as well.
Next were descendants
of John Peake Moseley, my husband’s fourth great-granduncle, including John
Peake’s son, Jesse B. Moseley, who had recently died so his properties are
listed as “J.B.Moseley Estate”, and his grandsons Merit Chapman (M.C.) Moseley and Samuel M. W. (S.) Moseley (both sons of
John Tarleton Moseley).
There is
one additional Moseley on the map, R.W. Moseley, who I have not yet identified.
I hypothesize that the “R” is a misprint, and was meant to read P. W. Moseley. Presley William Moseley was the father of Isaac, Basil and Presley Thomas; as the tract in question abuts that of son Isaac, it makes sense that it had belonged to Isaac's father.
Most of
these men had numerous children. Merit Chapman Moseley had six children, Jesse
B. Moseley had eleven children, Basil Curtis Moseley had nine children, Presley
Thompson Moseley had eight children, and of course Isaac Fletcher had ten
children. Given all the Moseley youngsters running around the area, it is easy
to see how people would have started to refer to it as Moseleyville.
As the
Owensboro History wiki story mentioned, at least three Moseley men served as
postmasters for the area. Below is the record of Jesse Moseley’s appointment as
postmaster when Moseleyville was still called Narrowville around 1845.
A paper by
R M Rennick (see citation below) tracing the history of Daviess County post
offices describes the establishment of the actual Moseleyville post office:
“Less than: mile east of the Narrows Bridge Post Office site was the post office of Moseleyville. It was established on July 16, 1886 by Presley T. Moseley and named for the large number of local Moseley descendants of Virginia- born pioneer Robert Moseley. A hamlet by this name, strung out for half a mile along new Ky. 81, survives the closing of the post office in Dec. 1909”.
This
shows that Presley T. Moseley was the first postmaster of the Moseleyville community.
His appointment record is below. The record also shows John T. Moseley served as
the second postmaster in 1888.
As
noted in the Rennick paper, Moseleyville still exists along a half-mile stretch
of Highway 81. The sign for the community appears below. As of the 2020 census,
there are 470 residents in the unincorporated community, which covers a 1.07
square mile area.
I
don’t know if any descendants of the Moseley families of the late 1800s still live
in Moseleyville. Even if they don’t, the family name is preserved on the map of
Kentucky. Moseleyville’s continued existence is a reminder that generations of
Moseleys lived in the bottomland along Panther Creek, Kentucky, establishing
farms, families and the community of Moseleyville.
 |
| Photo of Panther Creek area in 1960s, giving an idea of what the land looked like before it was cleared and farmed by families like the Moseleys. |
Sources:
History of
Owensboro.com Moseleyville page. https://wiki.historyofowensboro.com/index.php/Moseleyville,_Kentucky
History
of Daviess County, Kentucky, together with sketches of its cities, villages,
and townships, educational religious, civil military, and political history,
portraits of prominent persons, biographies of representative citizens, and an
outline history of Kentucky.
1883. Chicago : Inter-state Pub. Co., Evansville, Ind., Reproduction by
Unigraphic. Pgs. 844-45, 546 and 650. https://archive.org/details/cu31924028845787/page/848/mode/2up
https://www.historicpictoric.com/products/historic-map-1876-vanover-precinct-no-8-daviess-county
“The Post
Offices of Daviess County, Kentucky” by R. M. Rennick. 2000. Morehead State
University. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1179&context=kentucky_county_histories
Panther
Creek bridge photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VIEW_OF_GENERAL_ELEVATION,_LOOKING_WEST_-_Kentucky_Route_762_Bridge,_Spanning_South_Fork_of_Panther_Creek,_Owensboro,_Daviess_County,_KY_HAER_KY,30-OWENB.V,1-4.tif
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