Engle, Ky., and Pre-War Eastern
Dublin Core
Title
Engle, Ky., and Pre-War Eastern
Description
I recently asked Jasper Castle about a place called Engle, Ky., in Estill County. Here is his answer.
“One mystery solved. In sorting through some of Mother’s stuff, I found a map showing Engle across the Kentucky River from College Hill [See map with this column]. Another mystery. The map shows Engle and the Forks section of Estill County as being in Madison County. Current maps suggest that Engle would have been on the Harris Ferry Road.
This map shows the R. N. & B. Railroad, so it must have been done around or after 1900. Was there ever a boundary dispute between Madison County and Estill County? [FAE: As one of the older counties in Kentucky, Madison County has been divided several times since its original organization in 1786.] In a book on Kentucky place names, Engle is cited as a post office in the Palmer quadrangle of USG maps, which includes The Forks. The 1880 census has a couple of Engle families living in The Forks area.”
This is an excellent map of Madison County, showing the location of Engle in Estill County. Also shown are several villages in Madison County, a number of these villages I do not recognize. The date of this map is around 1900. Thanks again to Jasper Castle for this interesting information. Like most good historical information, it raises as many issues as it resolves.
Part two of this column gives some gleanings from the Eastern Milestone of 1940. This provides a pre war look at the much smaller school of some 70 years ago. Wyatt “Spider” Thurman was Mr. Popularity. He also played football and basketball. William E. Adams was Captain of Battery “A” in the school’s R.O.T.C. program.
In football, the Maroons (not yet the Colonels) went 6 and 3 in 1939, with losses to Morehead (by a heartbreaking final score of 7 to 6) and to Western (a far more convincing 26-0). It was the 1940 Maroon football team, to be reported in the 1941 Milestone, that would go undefeated. A creditable season, but the glory days were yet to come.
In basketball, Eastern defeated Morehead twice in the regular season, then lost to them 44-30 in the finals of the K.I.A.C. tournament. Virgil McWhorter was captain of the team. Fox DeMoisey, Chuck Schuster and Fred Darling played on this squad. Darling was a three-letter man at Eastern, lettering in football, basketball and track. To round out the school spirit, in 1940, we find evidence of a large and active men’s Glee Club.
To close the book on 1940, in the Baptist Student Union (B.S.U.) photo we find Dr. Fred Engle (my father) as a B.S.U. sponsor and Dr. Edwin Hewlett, then pastor at the First Baptist Church on Main Street. I recognized him immediately, as Brother Hewlett baptized me, along with Harold Edward Richardson and Edwin Carter, in 1938.
Historical place names and personal memories from a Madison County of very long ago — but still a part of Madison’s heritage.
Keep the map handy. You never know when you might have to go to Frederick, Cottonburgh or Perkins, Ky.
“One mystery solved. In sorting through some of Mother’s stuff, I found a map showing Engle across the Kentucky River from College Hill [See map with this column]. Another mystery. The map shows Engle and the Forks section of Estill County as being in Madison County. Current maps suggest that Engle would have been on the Harris Ferry Road.
This map shows the R. N. & B. Railroad, so it must have been done around or after 1900. Was there ever a boundary dispute between Madison County and Estill County? [FAE: As one of the older counties in Kentucky, Madison County has been divided several times since its original organization in 1786.] In a book on Kentucky place names, Engle is cited as a post office in the Palmer quadrangle of USG maps, which includes The Forks. The 1880 census has a couple of Engle families living in The Forks area.”
This is an excellent map of Madison County, showing the location of Engle in Estill County. Also shown are several villages in Madison County, a number of these villages I do not recognize. The date of this map is around 1900. Thanks again to Jasper Castle for this interesting information. Like most good historical information, it raises as many issues as it resolves.
Part two of this column gives some gleanings from the Eastern Milestone of 1940. This provides a pre war look at the much smaller school of some 70 years ago. Wyatt “Spider” Thurman was Mr. Popularity. He also played football and basketball. William E. Adams was Captain of Battery “A” in the school’s R.O.T.C. program.
In football, the Maroons (not yet the Colonels) went 6 and 3 in 1939, with losses to Morehead (by a heartbreaking final score of 7 to 6) and to Western (a far more convincing 26-0). It was the 1940 Maroon football team, to be reported in the 1941 Milestone, that would go undefeated. A creditable season, but the glory days were yet to come.
In basketball, Eastern defeated Morehead twice in the regular season, then lost to them 44-30 in the finals of the K.I.A.C. tournament. Virgil McWhorter was captain of the team. Fox DeMoisey, Chuck Schuster and Fred Darling played on this squad. Darling was a three-letter man at Eastern, lettering in football, basketball and track. To round out the school spirit, in 1940, we find evidence of a large and active men’s Glee Club.
To close the book on 1940, in the Baptist Student Union (B.S.U.) photo we find Dr. Fred Engle (my father) as a B.S.U. sponsor and Dr. Edwin Hewlett, then pastor at the First Baptist Church on Main Street. I recognized him immediately, as Brother Hewlett baptized me, along with Harold Edward Richardson and Edwin Carter, in 1938.
Historical place names and personal memories from a Madison County of very long ago — but still a part of Madison’s heritage.
Keep the map handy. You never know when you might have to go to Frederick, Cottonburgh or Perkins, Ky.
Creator
Dr. Fred Engle
Date
11/30/2010
Rights
Content may be freely copied for personal and educational purposes with appropriate citation. Permission is required to reprint.
Collection
Citation
Dr. Fred Engle, “Engle, Ky., and Pre-War Eastern,” Madison's Heritage Online, accessed May 30, 2023, https://madisonsheritage.eku.edu/items/show/1799.