By David M. Cross

CARTWRIGHT, KY. –

The auction sign says the big white house and 1.03 acres is being sold for Terry Lynn Baum. That gives no hint as to the history of the home, or of the community.

The house is known by some in the neighborhood as the “Doctor Cartwright” house.

It is located on the Cartwright Loop, just up and across the road from Stony Point Baptist Church and not far from the various historical locations of the Cartwright Post Office. It’s just down the hill from the Cartwright Cemetery. It’s about a mile from the Cartwright Spring.

Everybody in Clinton County generally knows where Cartwright is. In fact, it has expanded somewhat over the years.

Years ago it was inquired of Virgil “Brig” Vitatoe, who was raised in Cartwright, if he lived at Cartwright or Upchurch, Ky., which had a post office from 1908-1940, which would have been closer to the new house he had built on KY 90. Brig quickly declared “CARTWRIGHT.”

Brig was about as official a source as you could get. That being said, we can recognize that Doug Irwin, Kendrick Patton, and Latham Tire are all now located in Cartwright.

So who was Dr. Cartwright and how did his name end up as the name of the community?

Walker Fry Cartwright (1851-1934) was a native of Russell County. He was a medical doctor who started his practice at what would soon be known as Cartwright in 1878.

Before it was called Cartwright, the area was known as “Wade’s Gap” or “John Wade’s,” the latter being a prominent citizen of the area who served two terms as sheriff prior to the Civil War. The actual Wades Gap is on the Old Monticello Road (KY 350) and separates Cartwright from the Guinn Valley, a name that has pretty much been lost in history, but was called that because the Guinns owned what is now the Maupin Farm and other lands in the area.

In 1817, many years before the post office was established, Preston Leslie was born one mile northwest of Cartwright, according to S.V. Brents, who was the leading historian of Clinton County for many years. Leslie, who was Albany’s first Postmaster, went on to be elected Governor of Kentucky in 1871. He later was appointed Governor of Montana Territory.

There is a cemetery at Cartwright. Although now called the Cartwright Cemetery, it was for many years known as the Long Graveyard. Up the hill is the Dr. Owens Graveyard. That’s near where Artemecia Owens is buried, and near where her husband, the son of Dr. Owens, killed her with an axe while she was sleeping in bed, then attempted suicide by cutting his own throat. There was quite a bit of violence around Cartwright in bygone days.

The Longs were a dominant family in the community for many years. What was known as the Pearl Long house was just east of the present Stony Point Church. It was razed after the church bought the property.

Cartwright during the late nineteenth century was a prosperous village where there resided coal miners, loggers and sawmill workers.

It also had two doctors (Owens and Long) prior to Dr. Cartwright. What it didn’t have until 1880 was a post office. Dr. Cartwright apparently had some influence and helped obtain the P.O. in 1880.

He soon left the community, however, and moved to Albany in 1881, where he resided in south Albany across Peolia Road from what is now Upchurch’s Service Station. He lived there until 1904, when he moved to Adair County to practice medicine.

The first postmaster at Cartwright was John W. Long, whose family had saw mills, coal mines, and were merchants in the community. His father was Dr. William Travis Long, community physician. He was the grandfather of Russell and Charlie Long, among others.

Succeeding Long was W.O.P. (William Oliver Perry) McWhorter, who lived in the Cartwright house for many years. His daughter Minnie McWhorter, lived there long enough for many in the community to refer to the home as the Minnie McWhorter house.

Bobby Jack Dalton, W.O.P.’s great-grandson, was born in the house, but he won’t tell us when. Perry McWhorter held the Postmaster position until 1899. He also operated a government licensed still and had a store. McWhorter also co-owned the Albany Hotel for several years.

McWhorter’s successor as postmaster (1899-1912) was Reverend T.A. (Tom) Catron, who was also a Baptist preacher, storekeeper, magistrate, and had many descendants who are too numerous to mention.

Uncle Tom (1864-1966) lived to be 101 years old. His store near the creek was once washed away in a flood. He was a brother to John W. Catron, who was a very prominent citizen of Clinton County, serving in both houses of the Legislature and, with his brother-in-law Lewis Perkins, bought the Bank of Albany in 1906.

This bank was consolidated with the Citizens Bank in 1917 to become Citizens Bank of Albany. Bennett Wade, of Cartwright, later ran the bank with T.H. Dyer.

John Pedigo, a brother-in-law to the Warinner family, who had the store and P.O. at Seventy-Six, was postmaster from 1912-13. J.W. Long returned to the office in 1913 and kept it until 1918, when he was succeeded by Lewis Vitatoe, who kept the office for 30 years.

Lewis’ store was across the road from the Cartwright house. Lewis’ son, Haskel “Hack” Vitatoe, had the post office at nearby Nora; his daughter, Edna Pierce, was postmaster at Watauga, located several miles to the north in Piney Woods.

Hack traded the Nora store and P.O. to Bill Upchurch in 1943 for Bill’s store at Narvel, Kentucky. For some reason Hack didn’t get the Postmaster job at Narvel, which went to Otha Marcum; Bill maintained the Nora P.O. until it was discontinued in 1957.

Hack moved to Monticello where he and Lisle Dalton operated an implement dealership on the Albany Road for many years.

When Lewis’ health declined, his wife, Bertha, kept the office for the next five years; then Vertie (Mrs. O.D.) Sidwell served until the office was discontinued in 1958. Her store was in front of the house that is owned by the Woodrow Gibson family, most of whom still live around Cartwright.

Vertie Sidwell’s brother-in-law, Harrison Sidwell, kept a store at Cartwright at the site of the Tom Catron store until he moved to Monticello where his family was prominent in Wayne County affairs.

Audrey Burchett, who just recently passed away, had stores at three different Cartwright locations: originally on what is now Old KY 90 near the Cartwright Cemetery; then she built a new store on “New 90” which she operated until Larry Ferguson took over its operation; and finally the Hilltop Grocery, at the junction of KY 90 and KY 2063.

The Cartwright School was a three-room school, once one of the largest rural schools in the county. The school closed in 1964 and the building, long converted to a house, still stands next to Stewart’s Saw Mill, which has been in existence as a saw mill since 1944 and in its present location since 1955.

The Stewart mill was originally on the site of the Stony Point Church property. Ben Hancock, grandfather of Marguerite Bertram, had both a corn mill and saw mill just below the Cartwright Cemetery. Johnny Brown was the last community blacksmith.

A true landmark in the community is the Cartwright Spring. It was once referred to locally as the “Joe D. Garrett” Spring. For many years, the main road from Albany to Monticello passed by the spring, and thirsty travelers would partake of its cold waters.

And it’s a wonder that farmers needing water for their tobacco crops and other needs didn’t run the spring dry, in the days before city water was accessible in the county.

Cartwright has quite a history. We don’t know who will buy the Dr. Cartwright House, but we hope it’s someone who appreciates its history and cares for it accordingly. It’s a piece of our county’s history that should be preserved.

Many thanks to Dallas Sidwell and Bobby Jack Dalton for their help on this article.

David M. Cross