Beechville

About four miles east of Knob Lick and two miles north of Beechville on the South Fork of the Little Barren River stood the village of Rockland Mills. The first post office was established there in 1893, with Sampson Jones as postmaster. A rather prosperous village arose at that site. Businesses included a general store, blacksmith shop, whiskey and drug store, vineyard, and winery. Prior to the Civil War there was a slave market.

Some years prior to the Civil War, a cut was made through a limestone cliff along the Little Barren River with the work being done by slave labor. The purpose of “the cut,” as it is known today, was to divert water from the river into the bottom on the opposite side of the cliff during flooding. At one time a covered bridge expanded over “the cut” but was later burned in the Civil War by John Hunt Morgan’s men.