Several years ago while slogging about in some historic documents that were digitized by Google, I discovered an act of the Kentucky Legislature approved 3 Feb 1874 incorporating the new Kentucky city of “Geigerville”.1874 KY Acts, p 212 This legislation is shown below after this introduction.
Geigerville is currently considered a subcommunity of Rush KY. Note that neither Rush or Geigerville are incorporated. They are just rural communities with somewhat ambiguous and fluid boundaries existing in both Boyd and Carter County KY. What is now considered Geigerville is around the intersection of KY SR 854 and KY SR 1654, then due west about ¾ of a mile along KY SR 1654 and Williams Creek to the mouth of Meadow Branch (now called Carter County Road, “Meadow Road”). A one room, wooden, 8 grade elementary school, that was part of the Carter County KY School Board, and called Geigerville School, existed here and was used until the spring of 1958. There is also a short road running from the mouth of Meadow Branch to a few houses located beside Williams Creek called “Geiger Lane”. This road was given this official name by Carter County just a few years ago.
This community was named for William Lewis “W L” Geiger (1819 – 1897), a very active businessman that had a presence in all sorts of enterprises in Boyd, Carter, and Greenup Counties. Geiger ran a prominent store likely located near the current intersection of KY SR 854 and KY SR 1654 in Rush, and was the postmaster at Geigerville in the later 1880’s. This store burned. W L Geiger was also instrumental in establishing the congregation of the large white wooden church still standing beside Rush Creek near this same KY SR 854 / SR 1654 intersection. W L Geiger and his wife Esther conveyed the land and the church structure to 7 trustees for this Methodist Episcopal Church – South congregation in 1891. W L was one of these trustees.BoydDeedBook17,p423 Later this congregation changed affiliations to become a more fundamental Pilgrim Holiness congregation. This church currently does not have an active congregation.
Click on this link to see a recent Google Maps image of this church building in Geigerville (Rush) KY.
Throughout my life I have heard snippets of gossip, almost like folklore, regarding the existence of a formal city-like bureaucracy at Rush including a jail, policemen, etc. But, I was never able to get any formal verification; it was just chit chat which I knew might or might not have some factual underpinning.
After I discovered the existence of Geigerville, a Kentucky incorporated city, it seems reasonable this might be the underpinnings of these gossip like snippets about a jail, police, etc. So over these last few years I tried to find more concrete information on this somewhat mysterious incorporated city of Geigerville. I mostly found nothing.
Today, I have likely determined why there was so little factual info about the city of Geigerville. Geigerville (aka Geigersville) did not endure. On 9 Feb 1876 the Kentucky Legislature repealed the Feb 1874 act that had created Geigerville.1876 KY Acts, p 269 So, at best the city existed for only 2 years. This 1876 repeal legislation is shown below. I do not know for certain why the legislative charter that created Geigerville was repealed. There were several requirements in the resolution that established Geigerville; such as elections of representatives for a city Board of Trustees, a marshal, and a police judge, etc; possibly these were not accommodated and the KY Legislature rescinded the Geigerville City Charter.
Geigerville Creation Legislation in 1874 – Chapter 178 – Click on this line to see this legislation.
Geigerville Creation Rescinded in 1876 – Chapter 135 – Click on this line to see this legislation.
A big thanks to Sue Gillum Thomas for sharing her nice image of Geigerville Elementary School.
Enjoy! Lon
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