Henderson County, Kentucky Community


ANTHOSTON

In the early 1880s the village, now known as Anthoston, was officially called Bloomington. It had a first-class general store, a medical doctor, a Negro church, a school and a saloon. In 1884, when the community applied for a post office, it learned that Kentucky already had a town called Bloomington.

Dr. H. H. FARMER, a resident, was a Greek scholar, so he translated the "Blooming" into Greek getting "anthos" and produced "Anthoston", poetically translated "city of flowers."

Dr. FARMER was Anthoston's most colorful citizen. He held a degree in medicine and had practiced in Henderson for several years, but could not stand to watch suffering or death, so quit is practice and moved to his farm.

He served the county as magistrate, assessor, and county school supervisor and, in 1891, was the county's representative at the state's last Constitutional Convention.

He had a cousin, also a Greek scholar, who visited the FARMER household frequently. The two men irritated their women folk by conversing in Greek at the dinner table!

In 1882, Dr. FARMER deeded a plot of land to the community for a church. The building was erected a short time later and for some seven years was non-denominational and served preachers of various faiths.

In 1889, the Bellfield Baptist Church was organized and continued to use the original building until the 1940s when a new building was erected. The origin of the name "Bellfield" is vague, but is probably due to the existence of an old "Bell Cemetery" and a spring called by that name.

Following the pattern of other villages, Anthoston has lost its stores, doctor and post office, but its church continues to grow. With a membership of about 300, it has built a new sanctuary, a parsonage, and sponsored a mission at Mason's Landing which has grown into a self-supporting church.

 

History of Henderson County, Kentucky by Dannheiser & Hazelwood


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Contributed by Lisa Hallmark Pounders, HCH&GS
Copyright 1996 HCH&GS