Hensley Settlement facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Hensley Settlement
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Brush Mountain School House
Hensley Settlement |
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 Hensley Settlement, Kentucky
Location in Kentucky
Hensley Settlement, Kentucky
Location in the United States
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| Location | Bell County, Kentucky |
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| NRHP reference No. | 80000367 |
| Added to NRHP | January 8, 1980 |
Hensley Settlement is a special place in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, United States. It's like a "living history museum" on Brush Mountain. This means you can visit and see how people lived a long time ago.
The settlement is part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. It has twelve old log cabins, a one-room school, and a blacksmith shop. There's also a restored spring house that was used to keep food cool.
The Hensley Settlement started in 1903. Two families, the Hensleys and the Gibbons, moved there. They built their homes and lived without modern things like electricity or cars. The last person to live there was Sherman Hensley, who left in 1951. Later, in the 1960s, the settlement was fixed up by a group called the Job Corps. They made it look like it did when people lived there.
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How the Settlement Began
The land where Hensley Settlement is located has a long history. Back in 1845, the governor of Kentucky, William Owsley, gave away 500 acres of land on Brush Mountain. Two brothers, C. and R.M. Bales, received this land.
They later leased it to John Nichols and Jim Nelson. These men mostly used the land for their animals. They cleared some of the land and built simple log cabins with roofs made of wooden shakes.
The Hensley Family Moves In
In 1903, a man named Burton Hensley Sr. bought all the land. He divided it into sixteen smaller pieces for his large family. His daughter, Nicey Ann, and her husband, Sherman Hensley, moved into one of the existing log cabins. They were hog farmers.
The next year, Nicey's niece, Nancy, and her husband, Willy Gibbons, also moved to the settlement. Most of the people living there were from the Hensley or Gibbons families.
Life Without Modern Conveniences
Life at Hensley Settlement was very different from today. The people there had no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and no modern roads. They grew their own food, raised animals, and made almost everything they needed by hand.
People traveled by walking or riding horses. They used a spring house to store food, which helped keep it fresh without a refrigerator.
The One-Room School House
Education was important at Hensley Settlement. In 1908, Bell County provided a teacher for the children. A simple one-room school house was built. At first, it was just a small shelter. This was so the county school superintendent would agree to send a teacher.
The school taught students up to the 8th grade. Over the years, four different buildings served as the Brush Mountain school. The last school building was a log cabin. It was heated by a cast-iron stove that burned wood and coal. Just like the homes, the school had no indoor plumbing or electricity. The students sat at wooden desks with cast-iron frames. The school closed its doors in 1947.
Later Years and Restoration
The Hensley Settlement was busiest around 1925, with about 100 people living there. However, during World War II, many residents started to leave. They either joined the military or found jobs in coal mines.
Nicey Ann Hensley passed away in 1937. The number of people living in the settlement slowly became smaller. By 1949, Sherman Hensley was the only person left. When he finally moved away in 1951, the settlement became empty and started to fall apart.
Hensley Settlement Today
On July 4, 1959, Hensley Settlement became part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Starting in 1965, the National Park Service and the Job Corps began working to restore the settlement. They fixed up about forty-five buildings and the surrounding farmland. Their goal was to make it look just like it did during its busiest time.
Today, the National Park Service manages Hensley Settlement as a living history museum. You can take tours of the old buildings and learn about how people lived there. These tours are usually offered from May through October.
