Hammond Hollow – Rush, KY

A few years back my friend Raymond Whitley (1930 – 2013) kindly indulged me with his delightful company. We spent several hours running around to numerous locations on or near Rush Creek. Raymond knew that I had a focused interest in that area and the somewhat larger “Williams Creek Basin” which includes Rush Creek. Raymond and I had discussed local history a few times and he had an unusually clear and precise memory of Rush. Other than a few years in the US Army, spent mostly in Germany, Raymond lived in Rush for his entire life. Raymond also hunted extensively in the area and was aware of very precise area location names that only a few remembered or still used.

Some of the places that Raymond identified by name were familiar to me and likely to other older residents of Rush, but many were not. One of the many places that Raymond identified that was totally new for me was a very small hollow in Rush called “Hammond Hollow”. My incorrect assumption was this was a colloquial name only used by Rush locals.

My assumption was incorrect because I just discovered a Boyd County Property Tax Receipt from 1995 that lists the location of a property, located at Hammond Hollow, as “RUSH CR HAMMOND HOLLOW”. This property was owned by my younger Brother, James “Gordy” “Big Frank” Coleman (1957 – 2017), who died in mid 2017. I have been going through my Brother’s personal possessions and this receipt was part of the mix. So this “Hammond Hollow” name was something more than a local colloquialism (as I had incorrectly assumed), it is part of much wider and more bureaucratic / formal area vernacular.   Here is a scan of that receipt, just click on the image for a much larger view.

More recent tax documents no longer use this traditional “Hammond Hollow” to describe the location of this property, they now use the utilitarian and pedestrian route # (State Route 854) and the house number.

It is very likely that some point in time a family of “Hammond’s” either lived and / or owned the land at or near this small hollow. If additional research produces knowledge supporting or dispelling this assumption I will update this article.

Click on the link below to see a Google Maps aerial view showing the exact location of the mouth of Hammond Hollow in Rush, KY (location is at the red teardrop icon).

Link to Google Maps aerial view of Hammond Hollow

There are scores of other hollows in the “Williams Creek Basin” with unique names like “Hammond Hollow”. Hammond Hollow is included, along with about 150 other places, in the “Williams Creek Basin Interactive Map”. You can click on the various places (hollows, grave yards, mining locations, iron furnaces, community attractions, etc) marked with icons on this map and see a short narrative about that particular place. Many places on this map include photographs. Click on a link below for a short article about the “Williams Creek Basin Interactive Map” and how to efficiently use, access, and understand this map.

The Williams Creek Basin Interactive Map

Previous article – Jet Crash at the Head of Rush, KY – 14 June 1954

Next article – Wedding at Coalton, KY on 10 Sep 1908

Enjoy!   Lon