By Melody Moorehouse
Over 100 different settlements have been situated at one point or another in Grant County from the early 1800s to mid 1950s. Many of the early settlements developed around post offices, schools and creeks. Some took their names from the government post office or nearby body of water while others took their identity from a local family in the area. Elwin Goolsby, director of the Grant County Museum, which is located on Shackleford Road in Sheridan, noted many of the early communities are now gone but several survive today. Some of the many Grant County communities include:
MACEDONIA was a name for a community about 5 miles southeast of Grapevine on Derrieusseaux Creek and a name for a Baptist church once located east of Junet near the Grant and Jefferson county line.
MARLOW was once located about 6 miles north of Sheridan on present Hwy. 167. The community grew up around a school and a church that no longer exist at that site. Marlow School consolidated with Sheridan in 1928 and the church relocated in the Cane Creek Community about 1938.
MARVIN'S CHAPEL was an old community whose center frequently changed as the church was moved. it is generally described as being in Franklin Township north of Sheridan between Ico and New Belfast.
MILL TOWN was a name given to a collection of structures built around the J.W. Williams Sawmill in Sheridan during the 1920s. As that mill shut down operations, the name assigned to the area fell into disuse.
MILLERSVILLE, named for a timber company boss, grew around Bluff City Lumber Company operations just prior to World War I and is located about 10 miles south of Sheridan on Hwy. 167. At that time it had several stores, a school and a post office, Millersville has also been known as Rhodesville, Bodark and Erin, and earlier during the 1840s and 1850s as Hungary and Hurricane Creek.
MOCCASIN CORNER is a neighborhood extending about 2 miles south and west of Shiloh. Goolsby noted residents included the Allens, Sneads and Williams, among others. There are different opinions as to the extent of the area included in Moccasin Corner.
MOONEYVILLE referred to a community that developed about 1 mile west of Cross Roads south of Sheridan prior to 1870.
NEW PROSPECT Community existed before the Civil War and was once located in the vicinity of the present town of Leola. It later became better known as Sandy Springs.
NYDIA was settled by former slaves and their descendants after the Civil War. Here was once a school, a church and as many as 30 dwellings. The only visible sign of the community today is a cemetery. Nydia was located between Fenter and the Saline County line along Hwy. 229. Local people pronounce this Nider or Nyda. Families of Nydia included: Pumphrey, Poe, Nall, Henson, Kinny, Hawkins, Allison, Smith, McElroy, Jones, Anderson, Wilson, Odom, Summers, Brown and Franklin.
OAK GROVE has changed its boundaries over the years. Today it is about 6 miles east of Sheridan along Hwy. 270 between Hurricane Creek and Junet. Center Grove is also within this area and maintains an identity of its own, although its boundaries are also difficult to define.
OBIN Post Office, which also gave its name to a community, moved frequently and was once located north of Hwy. 46 in the Providence settlement between Walnut Ridge and Hurricane Creek. In 1878 the Obin Post Office was between George and Cane creeks about 1.5 miles south of present County Road 58.
OKAY was another name for Bookman.
ORION is a community built around a church as early as 1860 in northeast Grant County. The Orion Community is about 7 miles east of Ico and north of Walnut Ridge.
OXNER was a black community located about 2 miles north of the junction of highways 35 and 190. It was located along and near the Lee Mill Road east of Hurricane Creek and had a school in the early 1900s.
PAGEVILLE was an old community which developed around a post office in north central Grant County as early as 1872. It was about 4 miles south of the Jamestown Post Office.
PALESTINE Community first developed around a church and school and is on Hwy. 35 about 7 miles northwest of Sheridan.
PAXTON is an old community, also referred to as Turin and Lost Creek, once boasting a school and a post office that dates back to 1846. Today the area along Hwy. 190 is composed of widely scattered dwellings just east of Philadelphia Cemetery.
PHILADELPHIA is located in the vicinity of Philadelphia Church and cemetery on Hwy. 190 southeast of Prattsville. This old settlement is just west of the region known as the Paxton Community. It dates from the 1840s or earlier.
PINE RIDGE is situated around the Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church and has been referred to as the Lowman settlement. It is located along County Road 14, east of Hwy. 35, between Ain Baptist Church and Grapevine.
POE Post Office, established in 1887, was about 2 miles southeast of New Belfast. The settlement was created before the Civil War and was named after William Poe.
PROVIDENCE is an old community located between Walnut Ridge and Hurricane Creek. Its church was established in 1886.
RECTOR TOWN is a part of Sheridan named after Claro L. Rector, who built and rented a number of small frame houses located in southeast Sheridan near the railroad tracks.
RED QUARTERS was the location of black employees houses at J.L. Williams Mill in Sheridan. These houses were east of the railroad tracks on the south side of Hwy. 270. Another group of houses for blacks was located north of Hwy. 270 at the mill a short distance behind the 1913 Sheridan High School campus. This was called the Upper Quarters, Goolsby said. Construction of these dwellings began in the early 1920s but was abandoned beginning in the late 1950s as the structures were moved or dismantled.
RURAL was a post office community once found about 9 miles northwest of Cedar Branch and just east of Hurricane Creek. Early maps indicated that this place was on the present Lee Mill Road. Rural was also known as the Ray Creek Community in 1882.
SANDY RIDGE received its identity from a little school. It encompassed an area several miles northwest of Ico in the vicinity of the school, which joined the Sheridan system in 1941.
SCHULER was a black community east of Sheridan Hill. SHERIDAN HILL was on Hwy. 35 south of Ain and about 1 mile northeast of Hedden Chapel. The Grapevine Church of God in Christ was located there.
SHILOH is an early community established during the 1840s in Calvert Township about 2 miles west of Millersville. The Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church has served as the center of the area.
SLAB TOWN is located about 2 miles south of Sheridan on Hwy. 167 and was first known as Boar's Ridge. It was later renamed for the number of houses constructed of split poles called slabs. These houses were built during the 1930s and 1940s, using wood from a sawmill set up in that area. Some of these houses are still occupied.
SOUTH PARK is a residential community which developed during the 1970s along Hwy. 167 about 1 mile below Cross Roads.
SPRINGHILL Community, existing before 1853, was said to be about 4 miles southeast of Grapevine.
STOUDAMIRE had a logging camp and schools, once located about 1.5 miles east of the Pine Ridge Community. One school was for blacks, one for whites, Goolsby noted.
STUCKEY was built around a school once situated about 1 mile east of Slab Town on Hwy. 167 south of Sheridan. The school consolidated with Sheridan in 1929.
SWEET HOME is a name given to a populated area around the Sweet Home Baptist Church north of Prattsville. It developed in the 1890s and still retains its identity.
TABOR was a school located just west of Hurricane Creek near the Saline County line in Franklin Township.
THIEL, also called Arthur, was a settlement on the Rock Island Railroad about 6 miles north of Leola during the early 1900s. According to Cloy E. Bud Harris of Sheridan, it contained a sawmill, post office and two stores. Leon Mathews operated the post office and sawmill. A man named Sullivan owned one of the stores.
TULIP, prior to 1869, was just west of Hurricane Creek on the present Lee Mill Road.
TURIN was another name for the Paxton Community.
VICKS was a location on a spur of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in the early 1900s about 2 miles southeast of Prague.
WALNUT GROVE was a name given to a school and community about 1.5 miles west of Grapevine. The name was also given to a school in Fenter.
WALNUT RIDGE is an old community just west of the Grant and Jefferson county line between Providence and Orion. It was also referred to as Amber. It had a school, post office and a Masonic Lodge in the 1890s.
WATSON was a school in the Cane Creek Community.
WELSH was a location on the Anderson and Saline River logging railroad in 1919 about 2 miles southeast of Grapevine.
WEST Community was north of Shady Grove Cemetery southeast of Grapevine.
WILDCAT was a community with a school once located about 3 miles northwest of Leola and was also called the Page settlement.
WILLMON is located near the Grant and Saline county line on Hwy. 35 about 3 miles northwest of Palestine.
WILSON was west of Cross Roads near the Wilson Cemetery and school.
WINSTON settlement was between Ain and Hedden Chapel and is often described as being in the vicinity of Sheridan Hill, the location of several black churches on Hwy. 35.