Local Communities and Their Names

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 • Select was suggested by the Post Office Department in Washington after community residents wrote and asked what they should name the local post office. Washington had answered by saying, “Select a name…” so the residents had no trouble.

• Equality was centered around an old log cabin church building, a good sized community where each family was a large one; all the people made a living of about the same, none were rich, none were poor and the church going people were all “equal.” A railroad station later built in the community was called Kronos by the railroad and since there was another Kronos post office in Kentucky a different name had to be selected for the post office, which was located directly across from the railroad station. The residents who had been attending Equality Church decided on Equality post office and the same community had two names.

• Centertown was first called Rowe Town for the many families by the name of Rowe who settled there. Also because Ceralvo, Point Pleasant, and Hartford were about the same distance from Rowe Town the community was named Centerville, which later became Centertown.

• Dundee was first Hine’s Mill, so called because a man named Hines had a mill there on the Rough River. When a post office was designated for the community, they named it Dundee because of the famous goat weathervane was made in Dundee, Scotland.

• The Post Office in Matanzas was established during the Spanish-American War that was being fought in Cuba. The state of Matanzas in Cuba was often featured in the news.

• McHenry was named for Colonel Henry D. McHenry, successful businessman and congressman, and leader in getting the construction of the Elizabethtown and Paducah railroad (which later became a part of the Illinois Central’s Kentucky Division) through Ohio County in 1871.

• Rosine was the second railroad station above Beaver Dam, so christened in honor of Col. McHenry’s wife, Jennie Taylor, who wrote poems under the nom de plume, Rosine.

• Hartford is believed to have been “Hart’s Ford” or deer crossing of the Rough River near the bluff where the Fort was built in 1782.

Update:  Cromwell was named for Oliver Cromwell Porter in 1852, who built the first home there in about 1835. Originally called Porter's Landing, it had a post office established in 1846 with Felix J. King named as Postmaster.  Cromwell was a thriving river town and one of the most important Green River towns until the new railroad, built in 1871, took trade away from the river community.

Source: Ohio County Historical Society