By JENNIFER MOONSONG
Glasgow News 1
Many of the map dot communities, tributaries, hills and other geographical features of Barren County have little imagination to their names. For example, names like Bear Wallow, Rocky Hill and Slick Rock are self explanatory. One exception, however, is Temple Hill.
According to the written history of the county by Cecil Goode, Temple Hill is “situated on one of the most impressive and beautiful eminences in the county,” and could “not be better named if it was named for a person or family named Temple.”
Interestingly, one such theory is that the community was named for someone called Temple, but it is not clear whether that’s fact or conjecture. There was a man who lived in the vicinity of modern day Temple Hill who was named Temple Tunstall. He was the son of Joseph Tunsall who was a prominent earlier settler in the Nobob community, but little is now known of either.
One legend of the naming of Temple Hill goes like this:
A wanderer without refuge slept in an old log church in the area. The next morning when he awoke, he supposedly carved the words “Temple Hill” on a roughly hewn church door before he left.
None of the legends can be verified.
Regardless, one thing is known of Temple Hill for certain; it was not the community’s first name. The first name was Skaggs Creek, and the Skaggs Creek post office was established in 1839. The post office changed its name when the settlement did in 1858. To this day, Temple Hill remains unincorporated.
Ritter’s Mill on Skaggs Creek is one of the most well known features of Temple Hill and responsible for much of the early commerce the community.
It was built in 1821.
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