There’s not much that can beat a drive through verdant Kentucky countryside on a summer day. A few years ago, I was on my way back from somewhere (the location often isn’t as important as the trip along the way) when I decided to meander down a road adjacent to the Kentucky River in Estill County, to “see what I could see.” I discovered two small rural communities by the names of Pryse and Texola; names on a topo map that hinted at an interesting story for this bottomland situated along the river and the railroad.
A section of the USGS topographic map showing Texola and Pryse.
According to Robert Rennick, he of the invaluable Kentucky Place Names, the hamlet known as Pryse was named for a Welsh native, David Pryse. He settled in the area and purchased several hundred acres of bottomland along the Kentucky River. Pryse built a brick house, ” one of the first in the county,” and though I don’t claim to know the veracity of this claim, I did see a brick house in my wanderings.
The façade of the house that may or may not be related to the Pryse family.
Inexplicably, though the one gable end I could see from the road was brick, the second story of the facade is clad in wood shingles. The five bay wide dwelling is two stories, with a central cross gable and side gable roof. There doesn’t appear to be any previous documentation of the house in historic survey files.
A possible former store.
In 1904, Pryse established a post office at Pryse, but the bottomland’s claim to fame came after World War I, when a Texas Oil refinery located in Pryse.
Texas Company operated the refinery until shortly after World War II, when it was sold to Ashland Oil. The refinery closed permanently in 1947. Some local families who live at Pryse-Texola were the Durbins, Kellys, Hamiltons, Fikes, Dixons, Arthurs, Stewarts, Metcalfs, Pendergrasses, Pryses, Wallaces.*
An old and forgotten commercial enterprise (a store).
Remnants of the refinery are still visible on the landscape, but my willingness to explore (and trespass) on industrial sites is non-existent. You can see photos of the former refinery on the Abandoned website.
Sadly, no cold drinks were available.
Beyond the refinery and the occasional glimpses of the railroad, the road through the former hamlets of Pryse and Texola was quiet. Dense vegetation obscured much of my view.
An old weather-beaten and forlorn frame house.
A drive-through log corncrib. (That bottom land would be good for corn, as long as it didn’t flood too often…)
I saw a few more houses and a corncrib, but no trace of the former Pryse School, and no hint that this lazy corner of the world was once a bustling industrial corridor that provided employment and security to many Estill County families.
*https://www.kykinfolk.org/estill/comm/pryse.htm
Query —
Third paragraph: “clad in gables” ??
Your Mom called me yeserday.
She sounded good and we visited and laughed
GOOD TO HEAR FROM HER
Phyllis
You refer to Robert Renick’s book of Kentucky towns. Have you ever seen Dr. Niel Plummer’s 1949 Guide to the Pronunciation of Kentucky Towns and Cities?
Dr. Plummer was my advisor and favorite professor at UK’s School of Journalism back in the ’60s. He gave me a copy of the third edition in 1980, which I still have. There are hundreds of listings, but no Texola. The pronunciation of Pryse is given as PREYEC, which sounds unlikely to me, but Dr. Plummer had no patience for errors. (Yes, his first name was spelled Niel but pronounced Neil, so that isn’t a mistake.)
I am not familiar with that publication, but it sounds fascinating. I don’t imagine the Welsh (for that sounds like it would be where that came from) pronunciation survived in Estill County, but I could be wrong!
I wondered if it might be the Welsh pronunciation, since David Pryse was Welsh. Since mine is the third edition of his book, surely Dr. Plummer would have corrected any errors. Wonder if there is anyone still living in the surrounding countryside who has the answer?
The Texas Company (“Texaco”) refinery there intrigues me, as it would’ve been established in Texola around Spindletop time in southeast Texas. I LOVE industrial sites, operating or abandoned, and may have to make a detour there some time. It would be contaminated, of course.