Owingsville - MTSU Center for Historic Preservation

Owingsville:
Kentucky’s Gateway to the Bluegrass and Appalachia
The high hill where Owingsville stands symbolizes the
town’s place in Kentucky history. As a gateway between
the Bluegrass and Appalachian regions, Owingsville’s
history touches a variety of themes, including
transportation, industry, war, and agriculture.
“Owingsville, the seat of Justice,
is the only town of any magnitude.
Its situation is elevated and
handsome, affording a beautiful
view of the surrounding country.”
Organized in 1811, Bath County’s seat of government is
Owingsville. The present courthouse dates to 1866, with
changes made to the appearance in 1903-1904.
–John Slavens, “A Sketch of the Medical Topography
of Bath County,” (Transylvania University thesis, 1821)
Bourbon Iron Works
Jacob Meyers founded the Bourbon Iron
Works in March 1791. By 1795, John C.
Owings controlled the company. He asked
his son, Thomas Deye Owings, to manage the
furnace. Owings secured a contract with the
U.S. government in 1807 to provide the Navy
with cannonballs. He operated the furnace
until 1822, and the last blast of the furnace
took place in August 1838.
This 1818 map of Kentucky, by cartographer Luke Munsell,
shows Owingsville as an early transportation crossroads.
Image courtesy Library of Congress.
Col. Thomas Owings
and His Home
Col. Thomas Deye Owings was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, in 1776. The son of John
Cockey Owings and Colgate Deye, Thomas
came to Owingsville to manage the Bourbon
Furnace. After his father died in 1810, he
inherited the Bourbon Furnace outright.
Copy of A View of Col. Owens Furnace, Image courtesy the
Owingsville Banking Company.
During the War of 1812, Owings served as
colonel of the 28th Kentucky Infantry, and his
regiment saw action at the naval battle of Lake
Erie. During the war, Owings also built his
grand home in Owingsville. One of the earliest
mansions in the region, the home’s design has
been attributed to the stylistic influence of
famous early American architect Benjamin
H. Latrobe.
Although Owings found early prosperity in
Bath County, by the 1820s his fortunes took a
downturn, forcing him to declare bankruptcy.
He left the state in 1836 for Texas, hoping to
join in the Texas Revolution. One of his sons,
Robert, died at the Goliad Massacre during
the Texas Revolution. Col. Owings died in
Brenham, Texas, in 1853.
T.D. Owings by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de
Saint-Mémin. Image courtesy National Portrait Gallery.
The spiral staircase is the most notable interior feature of the house.
Built between 1811 and 1814, subsequent owners of the
Owings House altered the building for other uses over
the years. The house has served as a bank since the
1890s. It is now home to Owingsville Banking Company.
This exhibit was created by the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle
Tennessee State University. Special thanks to Mayor Gary Hunt and the
community of Owingsville. Images courtesy the Owingsville Banking Company, the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, Transylvania
University, University of Kentucky Special Collections, and the Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet.”
Turnpikes and Railroads:
Transportation in Bath County
Good roads have long been important to the prosperity of
Owingsville and Bath County. The county’s transportation
history includes some fascinating developments, including
unrest over toll roads and uncertainty over a railroad line.
Owingsville and turnpikes, 1839. Source: Map of
Kentucky and Tennessee by David H. Burr. Image
courtesy Library of Congress.
By the end of the 1800s, Bath County
had 156 miles of turnpike roads. To
use the roads, travelers had to pay
at tollgates. By the 1890s, farmers in
Bath County and in the region were
unhappy with the system of toll roads.
Deepening financial woes, due in part
to the Panic of 1893, led some farmers
to take up arms and revolt against the
turnpikes. During the “Tollgate War”
of the late 1890s, farmers led raids
against tollgates across the region.
The unrest reached Bath County, as
people took sides in the debates over
free roads.
Turnpikes, such as the Owingsville and Big Sandy and the
Owingsville and Mt. Sterling, passed through Owingsville in the
mid-1800s. The Owingsville and Big Sandy Turnpike Company
was chartered in 1835, and the first paved (or macadamized)
road in the county opened in 1849. Another early road was the
Iron Works Road, which started at Owingsville and connected
the town to the state capital at Frankfort.
“Turnpike roads are numerous in the
richer soiled portion of the county,
and give easy overland access to the
Kentucky River and the railroads in
adjoining counties.”
– Winston J. Davie, Commissioner of the State Bureau of
Agriculture, Horticulture, and Statistics, 1878
The Railroads
The railroad did not come to Bath County until
1880, when the Elizabethton, Lexington & Big Sandy
Railroad was extended east from Mt. Sterling into
Bath County.
This is an example of a tollhouse in Kentucky during
the 1890s. Image courtesy Transylvania University.
The Midland Trail/
US Route 60
U.S. Route 60 runs 2,760 miles from
Virginia to Arizona and passes
through Owingsville. The portion that
runs through Bath County is known
as the Midland Trail, conceived as a
national east-west highway in the early
20th century. When highway officials
changed the route of the proposed
national highway in 1925, which
would have left Kentucky off the route
entirely, Kentucky Governor William
J. Fields and others lobbied furiously.
They prevailed, and U.S. Route 60, a
designated national highway, came
through Kentucky and Owingsville.
Proposed route for the Lexington & Big Sandy Rail Road;
this portion of the railroad was never built. Map of the
Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad showing the connections,
1853. Image courtesy Library of Congress.
The shortest-lived railroad in Kentucky may have
been the Owingsville & Olympia Railroad, a six mile
narrow gauge railroad that connected Owingsville to
the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. The company was
chartered in 1913, and the line opened in 1915. An
accident in 1915 in which a train jumped the track left
the public unwilling to ride on the line, and by 1916,
there was no traffic on the railroad. It was listed as
abandoned by 1918.
Locomotive and train. Louis Edward Nollau F Series Photographic Print Collection, University of Kentucky Special
Collections Research Center.
This 1929 Kentucky highway map shows U.S. Route 60
passing through Owingsville and Bath County. Image
courtesy Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
This exhibit was created by the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle
Tennessee State University. Special thanks to Mayor Gary Hunt and the
community of Owingsville. Images courtesy the Owingsville Banking Company, the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, Transylvania
University, University of Kentucky Special Collections, and the Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet.”