The Fancy Post Office

Thanks to recent conversations David Strange had with Rita Jones, Laura Underhill, Betty Darnell, and others we know more about a Bullitt County post office that was once located along Cedar Grove Road, east of Deatsville Road and pretty close to where Pine Creek Trail joins Cedar Grove Road.

On 8 Nov 1897, Edward Henry Graves completed an application to the U.S. Post Office Department for a new post office to serve 64 families in a rural part of Bullitt County. The community was known by the name Fancy.

According to this application, the new post office would be a "special office" supplied from the Salt River office. The nearest post offices to it included Solitude, 4.5 miles in an easterly direction; Cane Spring, about 4 miles in a southeasterly direction; and Smithville 5 miles in a northeast direction.

According to an 1894 postal delivery map, Solitude was serviced from Deatsville (a railroad stop) three times a week; Smithville was located on the Louisville-Bardstown Turnpike stage route and serviced almost daily; and Cane Spring was on the Bardstown Branch of the railroad and received daily service.

But the folks at Fancy likely had to travel to the county seat to collect their mail, or best likely received it once a week.

Shown on this roughly-drawn 1897 map, the Fancy Post Office apparently faded away in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, and is nearly forgotten. In those early rural days, many small communities existed that often were little more than a small general store that a farmer would set up on his property which also served as a local post office and visiting spot for the local farmers. Such spots would sometimes come and go along with the store and its owner.

Indeed, the curiously-named Fancy had a post office first operated by Katie and Edward Henry Graves, who lived on the property there along with the Hibbs family. David said he was not yet sure of the family details.

This post office operated between March 17, 1898 and mid November 1904 (Reference Kentucky’s Salt River Valley, A Survey of Post Offices by Robert M Rennick, 1997, pg 77); and is mentioned in another place as perhaps still a post office as late as 1907.

Below is an image of the original application for the new post office.

Below is an image insert from Google showing the approximate location of this Bullitt County post office. If this map does not work for you, you may be using an outdated browser that is no longer supported by Google.

---

If you, the reader, have an interest in any particular part of our county history, and wish to contribute to this effort, use the form on our Contact Us page to send us your comments about this, or any Bullitt County History page. We welcome your comments and suggestions. If you feel that we have misspoken at any point, please feel free to point this out to us.