Henderson County, Kentucky Communities


LOST CITIES OF SCUFFLETOWN, MCDONALD LANDING AND ALZEY


From 1800 to 1804, Jonathan Stott kept a tavern at a good landing place on the Ohio River, above the mouth of Green. Since he kept a good supply of liquor, it became a rendezvous for flatboatmen and others on the river. Often a general fight developed after several hours of drinking and the place received the name of Scuffletown.

In 1809, Eneas McCallister, Jr. settled a few miles below the town and in 1817, employed Jonathan Bunn to teach a neighborhood school. The first church was built by the Christian demonination in 1830 at the Vanada farm. William Shelby, Jr. and his uncle, John S. McCormick, built a tobacco stemmery in 1860 and shipped 400 to 450 hogsheads per year to Europe. A steam gristmill and blacksmith shop soon followed. In addition to crops of tobacco and corn, common to other parts of the county, this section was noted for its large number of pecan trees.

It was a few miles below Scuffletown that Col. Johnson set up his pseudo-cannon in the taking of Newburgh. During the war, in 1868, Scuffletown got a post office and it remained in operation until after the 1913 flood, closing in January 1914. A second and greater flood in 1937 completed the destruction of the town.

Two towns below Henderson on the Ohio River were also lost as a direct result of the 1937 flood. McDonald Landing received a post office in 1888, which operated until 1909. In the meantime it built stores and a school, but was almost completely washed away in 1937. Alzey was not on the riverbank, but in the flood plain. It was severely damaged in the 1937 flood and many of the residents left so that he store was forced to close. Its post office existed from 1878 to 1929, except for a two-year period, 1892-94 when mail went to McDonald Landing.


from The Annals and Scandals of Henderson County, Ky.
By Maralea Arnett



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Contributed by Leigh Ann Boucher, HCH&GS
Copyright 2002 HCH&GS