Murphysville
Murphysville is today a small collection of homes nine miles southwest of Maysville, along U.S. 62 where it crosses the North
Fork of the Licking River in Mason Co. A prosperous community existed there in the mid-19th century. The town was named either for an early settler, William Murphy, or for the first person who dammed the North Fork and built a mill there. A post office was established in 1830, and in 1867 a large woolen mill with a 120-foot-long dam was established in the town. The pool created by the dam was used by residents for fishing and swimming. The mill, a substantial enterprise, was described in the June 29, 1867, edition of the Maysville Republican as “one of the best in the United States.” It was highly mechanized. The newspaper article described the process, from sorting the wool to the seven looms that produced the finished plain and plaid cloth. The 1876 Mason Co. atlas indicates that the Murphysville precinct had 786 people. An 1877 newspaper reported that the town had two doctors, the woolen mill, a flour mill, businesses, a lawyer, and “several loafers.” The local chapter of the International Organization of Good Templars was noted for its excellence and for its successful effort to have liquor banned “forever” in
Murphysville by the Kentucky legislature. The flour mill produced so much flour that a group of nearby houses was nicknamed “the white row” because they often were covered with flour. The town’s location on the North Fork made it subject to frequent flooding and was the major reason for its decline. The post office closed in 1906, and the large woolen mill was torn down in 1921. “High water at Murphysville” was local shorthand for flooding that repeatedly closed U.S. 68 until a new bridge and roadway were built in the 1990s.
Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. The Towns of Mason County: Their Past in Pictures. Maysville, Ky:
Maysville and Mason Co. Library Historical and Scientific Association, 1986.
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky Press, 1984.
John Klee