November 2007 61
Some 32 miles west of Somerset, on what would be One of Kentucky’s many coined names Shepola was
Ky 80, was the Saline locality, a name applied to the applied to a post office one fourth of a mile south of
local school and church. Though this name was the the later rerouted Ky 80, 7 ½ miles southwest of
first proposed for the local post office it was estab- Somerset. To serve what was then the Crackers Neck
lished, on April 5, 1906, as Ernst. It was named for locality, local storekeeper Edd Shepperd’s nickname
Richard Pretlow Ernst (1858-1934), a Covington law- “Shep” was submitted for the post office along with
yer and later (1921-1927) U.S. Senator from Ken- those of Ola Burton and several other residents. Postal
tucky, a close friend of Pulaski judge John Sherman authorities are said to have combined “Shep” and
Cooper, Sr. Until it closed in April 1911 George Leroy “Ola” to form the name and appointed Shep’s wife
Johnson was its only postmaster. On May 18, 1922, Grace (nee Barker) as the first postmaster. The office
with DeForest N. Young, postmaster, it was reestab- operated between February 10, 1926 and 1951.
lished at a site one mile east and would have been
given that locality’
Other Ky 80 post offices already described in this
s name West Somerset but was
called
survey are Waterloo, Cains Store, Lincoln-Stab,
Ernst instead. In May 1924 the post office be-
Shopville, Mark, and Squib.
came West Somerset. By 1939 it was on Ky 80, less
than one mile west of Sinking Creek and 1.7 miles Post Offices on or just off KY 39 (The Crab
west of downtown Somerset (just east of its junction Orchard Road)
with the present Rte. 3263 and just south of the present
Cumberland Parkway). When it closed in 1972 the
The once incorporated (January 17, 1866) mill town
office was at the western edge of Somerset.
of Woodstock is centered at the junction of Ky 39
and 934, 14 ½ miles nnw of Somerset. This vicinity
On Ky 80, just south of the 1400 foot high Sugar Hill
Knob and four miles northeast of Somerset, was the
Sugar Hill post office. Hepsa E. Barnes and Mrs. Ira
Sears operated it between December 24, 1924 and
1933.
On what’s shown on contemporary maps as East
Somerset, at the northeast edge of that city, at the
junction of Ky 80 and the Corbin Road (now Ky 192),
Hoy McClure established the Woodmont post office
on October 6, 1925. This was 1.3 miles nne of
Somerset and three miles southwest of Sugar Hill. The
name is said to have been chosen by McClure’s wife
Zena (nee Reid) for the local trees. It closed in 1934.
may have been settled around 1820 by a Mr. Griffin
who, by the end of the decade, had sold his holdings
to a Mr. Freancy of Lexington, the local
storekeeper. No one seems to know when
the Woodstock name was first applied and
there’s little agreement about its source.
Some say the place was named for an En-
glish town whence an early settler had
come; others contend it was for the seat of
Shenandoah County, Virginia, the former
home of another resident, which had been
named for the English town; still others
have opted for a stone house in the vicin-
ity, also named for the town in England;
and others for John F. Woods (1777-1857),
an early settler from Virginia who is said
to have stocked many useful goods in his
A very early post card from Woodmont (PMCC Collection)
local store. It may also have been named
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