(There's several other articles that will be added as time allows.  If you can elaborate on any of these below, email me, Brenda Daniels, under the Contacts button.)

Postmasters -
            24 July 1878, Tunnell Mill, (Dwarf),  Joseph Hall
 
February 1904.  Dwarf, Perry co.,  Feb. 13.  Rachel Owens, who has been teaching at Dwarf, is attending Williams College.     Robert Lee Owens, who has been traveling for his health for some time, is seriously ill at a Louisville hospital. 
   Miss Nannie Cornett and H.C. Combs are attending Williamsburg Academy this winter.
   The boys are busy filling the icehouse here.
   Mr. and Mrs. Austin Godsey recently had a child who was left at home alone, seriously burned.
   Miss Cadwell, of Williamsburg, is teaching at Hazard now. 
   J.G. Combs has gone into the goods business at Hazard and now resideds there.
   Miss Sarah Richie is in school at Hazard.
   Elijah Holliday, of Ball, has moved to the Trace fork.
   G.W. and Ervin Richie have cleared 14 1/2 acres of land for H. Owens.
   The writer had a letter from Miss Petch, at Chicago, saying she would be here in March.
   Miss Samantha Cornett visited friends at H. Owens' recently.
   S.M. Ritchie is continuing his studies at the Louisville Medical College this winter.
   D.B. Patrick is attending the Bowling Green Business College this winter.
   Born to Mr. and Mrs. Mellin Miller, a baby girl.
   The Richie brothers are partners in the goods business at the mouth of Clear Creek.
 
Nov. 3, 1904
Dwarf, Rev. J.G. Parsons of Hindman is here holding a series of meetings in the intereste of the little church at this place.  Bro. Parsons is pastor of the Hindman Baptist Church.  HE and his lilttle flock are building an elegant church house at that place in connection with a Masonic Hall which will be over the Church.  We bid him God speed in his work and shall always be glad to welcome him into our homes.
         Farmers are beginning to harvest corn around here and the yields is reported very high.
         People are compelled to water stock from their wells and these will soon fail unless relieved by rain.  It is the driest time within the memory of the oldest inhabitants at this place.  Sorrel Top. 

6 January 1905.  Dwarf - Hindman. "Anderson Young, son of John Young, died at his home December 23d, as the result of a gunshot wound accidentally inflicted by his father while trying to shoot a robber the preceding Thursday night.  Mr. Young and his family were rudely awakened by some one at the door, when a masked man sprang into the house and began shooting and demanding Mr. Young's money.  Young went for him with an ax and he retreated through the door.  The boy had in the meantime gone around the house to the kitchen door to procure a gun.  His father sprang into the kitchen by another door, and thinking his son was the robber, seized the gun and fired through the door, killing his son.  The robber, whose name is Moore, escaped but was arrested next day and is now in the Hindman jail.  The people are incensed and a lynching is anticipated."
 
7 April 1905 - "Though neither fired a shot, two burglars have just been indicted at Hindman on a chrage of willful murder in the shooting of Anderson Young, who was accidentally killed by his father, John Young, residing near Dwarf, last December, an account of which was published in The News at the time.
   "John Kelly and John Sexton broke into the Young residence a few nights before last Christmas for the purpose of robbery.  The noise they made awoke John Young, who grasped an ax and went for the robbers, who retreated through the door.  In the meantime Anderson Young had gone around the house to the kitchen door to procure a gun.  His father sprang into the kitchen by another door, and thinking his son was one of the robbers, seized the gun and fired, only to find he had killed his son.
   "Kelly and Sexton, the two robbers made their escape in the darkness, but were arrested the next day and lodged in jail at Hindman, and held to answer to the Knott county grand jury, which, instead of indicting them for the crime they actually did commit, indicted them for the respsonsibility of the murder of the boy.  Apparently the jurors reasoned that had the men not broken into the house the son would not have been mistaken by his father for one of them, and thus lost his life." 
 
11 July 1908. (Saturday)  Hindman.  Miss Lizzie Cody made a flying trip to Dwarf Saturday. [Today].
 
7 March 1910.
          [26] At a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the town of Hindman, Kentucky, held in the office of Baker & Craft on Monday evening March 7th, 1910 present S.J. Kilgore, Wm. Sturgill, K.J. Day, J.E. Sturdivent.
          The following business was transacted.  This day appeared A.M. Taylor, Ex-Marshal of Hindman and in settlement produced receipt of J.E. Sturdivent, Treasurer, for amounts collected on list of License Tax for the year 1910.  For the following amounts collected
          Francis Day & Co.                                                $10.00
          J.W. Duke                                                                7.00
          Smith & Combs                                                      10.00
          Bank of Hindman                                                    10.00
          Wm. Sturgill & Co.                                                 10.00
          J.E. Sturdivent                                                          2.00
          D. Madden & Co.                                                  10.00
          Dwarf Telephone Co.                                               2.00
          Sarah Pigman                                                         _3.00
                                                                                      $69.00
                    By Treasurer Receipt                                  $64.02
                    By Commissions          ___.          ___2.07
                                                            _69.00  __ 66.09
                   To Bal. Due                                         $2.91
                    By Treasurer’s Receipt 2-28-1910               $2.91                                 $2.91
          Ordered that said Board adjourn until the next meeting.
          S.J. Kilgore, Chairman
          Wm. Sturgill, Trustee
          J.E. Sturdivent, Trustee

    5 August 1915.            
            Rambler’s Notes, written by The Rambler.  Daddy Goes A Visiting. 
            “A recent trip to Dwarf, Ky., was sure an eye opener to me,” is what the Rambler said as he stepped in to see the boys of the Hazard Herald.  When asked to e\explain himself he began by saying, “The town of Dwarf is, as you know, only eight miles from the court house, which ought to be reached inside of not over 2 hours, but it takes three hours and halfs time (sic) to cover.  I started on the fast mail line at seven in the morning, and after passing the mud holes and ruts in the city limits, going along the river side down to Second creek, I found the bridge gone with nothing, not even a chalk line, across the road to indicate any danger ahead.  This bridge, I understand, went down when the elephant tried to cross on its way from Hazard.  The presumption is that when the elephant comes back this way he will have to put it back, unless the overseer calls attention of the Fiscal Court to the fact that it’s gone — the bridge I mean.
            “One goes up Lots creek, climbing one hill, then down another and yet again other hills; coming at last to the divide be come to the head of Combs branch, and on down to Troublesome Creek.  Right there on both sides of the creek and branch is a town containing about twenty homes, 150 to 200 people, one main country store, a small grocery store, a post office and last, but not least by any means, the Church and Public school building, and the Tunnel Grist Mill.
            STRANGE BUT TRUE.  “During the four days stay, meeting with most of the men and women and all of the children that were of school age, I did not hear a single oath, by young or old, nor was there said in my hearing anything that smacked of the vulgar.  This was one of the eye openers.
            THE TUNNEL GRIST MILL.  “Some many years ago some one started a grist mill a little above the Point.  Instead of building a dam to get a flow of water, a tunnel some two hundred feet long was made through the solid rock, the waste water going into Troublesome creek about one and a half miles around the point, the lower side being some eight or more feet lower than the bed of the river where the mill was built.  This was also an eye-opener as one thought of the fact that at the time of building, dynamite was an unknown quantity.
            THE PUBLIC SCHOOL.  “A little over one hundred bright boys and girls will be found in the school rooms, presided over by Miss Amy Smith as principal and her sister, Miss Prudence.  Miss Amy has had thirteen years experience in teaching, three of which have been at Dwarf.  Miss Prue is in her first year.  Both of these young ladies are graduates of the Richmond  State Normal and are greatly beloved by the pupils.  One is not with the principal more than a few minutes before he learns that this young lady has her heart in her work.  Across a hall-way some eight feet wide there is another good sized building, capable of seating at least one hundred and fifty people \comfortably.  This part of the double building is used on week days as the place to hold chapel service, while on Sunday it is used as a church.  Rev. S.B. Richie preaching at least three or four times during the month, and where weekly prayer meetings and other religious services are held.  On Sundays the two school rooms are used as class rooms for the children, while the grown-up people use the church room.  The Rambler had the pleasure of meeting with the people in the church services, and with the children in the Sunday school and public school, where he was made to feel at home and more than pleased at the good attention give on each occasion.
            THE BIG ORCHARD.  “The Big Orchard, containing nearly seven thousand trees, planted by Captain Rhinehart, is another sight worth seeing.  The Captain is sparing no expenses in his effort to demonstrate the fact that this is a great fruit producing section.  He is using the latest and most improved methods, getting the experience of the very best fruit producers, and from the looks of the orchard, so healthy looking and promising, it will not be more than a year or two before a rich harvest will be reaped, not only by the Captain, who we hope may live many years, but also by this whole section as they follow in his steps along the fruit line.  Rhinehart’s name will be remembered long after both himself and the Rambler have gone hence.  For the pleasure of the visit and the ‘made to be at home’ while there.  ‘Old Daddy’ will not soon forget Mr. and Mrs. S.B. Richie and their interesting family, and all others with whom he came in contact. 
            SOME ENCOURAGEMENT.  “Before leaving there a promise was made by one of its citizens that an effort would be made to increase the Herald list of readers and drop a line or two from that section.  It is hoped that the promise will be made good and that a good list of names will be added shortly to the Herald family.  HH1508050202-03t;
            DWARF.  Ep Gibson, of Ritchie, was found dead in a cornfield near his home last Friday.  He had gone out hunting with his gun and when found that fun was lying by him with an empty shell in it.  It is thought that he shot himself.
            Several cattle and sheep buyers have been busy in this vicinity recently, and the good prices they are paying have taken most of the surplus from the neighborhood.
            The primary election is the chief topic of conversation every where now.  We hope that this is prompted by a sincere desire on the part of the voters to learn who are the most worthy of all the candidates for the various offices, and then vote accordingly.  For why should we use our votes merely to punish an enemy or reward a friend, when they should be used to elect good officers regardless of who they may be.
            Mrs. Martha Cornett, who has been on the sick list for the past few days, is out again.
            Rev. S.B. Richie went to Bush Branch to church last Saturday and returned Sunday.
            H. Owens is preparing to build another house on his property here and A.L. Engle is rushing to completion the one he began last spring.  These buildings will be occupied as soon as completed by parties who wish to give their children the advantage of the excellent work being done in our Graded School. 
 
12 August 1915.          
            Dwarf.  Deputy Collector James Cornett and W.G. McFarland, with Deputy Marshal Sizemore and posse, made a fine haul on Clear Creek, in Knott county, last week, securing two complete moonshine outfits and the four men who were operating them at the time.  They destroyed a large quantity of beer and about forty galons of singlings.  This was said by Collector McFarland to be one of the luckiest jobs ever put over on teh ‘shiners and in this vicinity.  Another raid was made by the same officers on Friday night, but this time they only secured a lot of beer.
            Funeral services were conducted at the Trace Branch graveyard Tuesday and Wednesday of last week over Mrs. Rosanna Combs.  Rev. Robt. Combs conducted teh services, preaching v very interesting sermons to large congreations both days.
            Wm. and Ben Richie have taken the contract to build an eight-room hotel for Harve Owens.  This is quite an improvement to our little village and is very much needed.    
 
5 October 1956. 
            District Scouting Gets Boost Fund Drive Launched Here.  Membership in Area Shows Big Increase.    Troops and Packs Listed.  Excerpts follow.
Troop 92, Harveyton, Ky., Presbyterian Church, Lamar Williamson, Jr.
Troop 94, Jeff, Ky., Ira Combs Memorial Baptist Church, Mervin K. Combs
Troop 102, Hardburly, Ky., U.M.W. Local 5941 & Old King Mining Company, James Stacy.
Troop 111, Hindman, Ky., Methodist Church, John Ledford.
Troop 115 Hyden, Ky., Presbyterian Church, Eugene W. Howard.
Troop 127 Ary, Ky., E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund, Homeplace, Samuel Combs.
Pack 112, Dwarf, Ky., Dwarf Baptist Church, Willis Strong  


From History of Perry County, D.A.R. - © Eunice Tolbert Johnson (editor)
DWARF. 
            Dwarf, altitude 834 feet, a small village of about 300 people, is located north of Hazard at the intersection of Highways 15 and 80.  The chief occupation is mining, although there are no mines in the vicinity.  It has 46 families, four stores, one church (Baptist), two garages and one graded school.
            Dwarf is the site of Old Tunnel Mill, on Troublesome Creek, near the horseshoe bend.  The tunnel was built by Sam and Felix Combs, sons of Lydia and Moses Combs, and grandsons of George Combs, one of the eight Combs brothers.
            Jason Combs, Sam Combs’ son, owns half interest in the old mill and lives across from it on the old farm.  The other half is owned by the heirs of his brother, Jordan Combs, Jason Combs is now 76 years old, and he says that the mill was built before he was born and that grinding started during the “hard summer.”  Old timers say that it was built in the early 1770’s.
            It took the Combs brothers four years to tunnel through the mountains to make a space large enough that the force of the water would be sufficient to run the mill.  They built a saw mill, a carding mill and a grist mill but only the grist mill remains.  It has five to seven foot fall in the water.  They charged $1.00 for sawing 100 feet of lumber, one inch thick, and $2.00 for 100 feet two inches thick.  Corn was ground fro a toll of one gallon to the bushel.  They had three machines for cotton, one picked it, one made the bats and the third made it into rolls.  The grist mill was in use for grinding corn until 1945, the start of World War II, when it closed for lack of help to run it. It is badly in need of repair, and unless the foundation is fixed, it will soon collapse.  It is the only mill of this kind in Perry County.  The tunnel is 172 feet long and the opening is 4 feet square.  It is cut through solid rock; hand-operated drills and gunpowder were used in making it.  The tunnel is still in good condition.
            The first post office was established at Dwarf on July 24, 1878, and was then called Tunnel Mill.  Joseph Hall was appointed the first postmaster.  The second appointment was Newton Smith in 1880.  Tunnel Mill post office was discontinued July 22, 1881.
            On July 13, 1883, a post office was re-established there with Thomas W. Gibson as postmaster.  It was named Dwarf for “Short Jerry” Combs, an early settler.  Around 1,500 people in a radius of four square miles receive their mail at Dwarf.  The Engles, Combs, Fugates, Ritchies and Owens were among the first settlers on that part of Troublesome Creek. — Jason Combs, J.B. Campbell, J.D. Smith; Eunice Tolbert Johnson .

The Little I Knew
Alta Williams' Pass On Tales, pp. 48-52.© 1987.

     I cannot remember when I first learned this little man.  That is just what he was and even his name was, Little Cornett.  You see, I grew up here among the hills of Eastern Kentucky on a small tributary of the the (sic) Kentucky River and Troublesome Creek known as Bear Branch, just below Dwarf, or Tunnel Town, as lots of folks called it because of the tunnel which had been cut into the isthmus to let water run through to give water power to run a grist mill.  There, for a peck of corn, the farmers could get a whole bushel of shelled corn ground into meal.  I walked two miles each way to grade school during the time when the road known as KY 15 was in its infancy.  I saw the steamshovels, tar surfacing machines and other strange-looking machines, as well as T-Models, poke their noses around the curves for the first time.  I personally knew and attended school with the first victim of a highway accident in this area.  He was Zackie Fugate, who was killed while coming to school one day.
     That was back in the days when the teachers would hear that the doctor and nurse were coming and lock the schoolhouse door so the children could not get out and run to the hills screaming bloody murder.  None of the children knew  what shots were for, maybe just another form of punishment.  Many of the children would get whipped by their parents for taking shots, and by the teachers for not taking them.  My own father (God rest his soul) would go miles to get a doctor for a sick horse or hog and tell his children not to take shots given by the public health officers.  In those days head lice and stomach worms were a constant threat to all children in our part of the hills.  I walked two or more miles to Tunnel Town (now Dwarf on the map) for four years of grade school and two years of high school.
     I just suppose on one of my first trips around tunnel point and across the creek in a boat to school I first saw Little.  I do no know.  I do know I never was afraid of him as so many of the children were at that time.  I do not know why.  Perhaps I felt a sense of pity for him.  He was around five feet tall.  His legs were bowed and too far apart.  His arms were the most natural shaped parts of his visible body.  His head was a good two-thirds larger than normal and one side much larger than the other, even.  His speech was a slow, drawn-out drawl.  That ( if nothing else ) would have made him the victim of the school boys' pranks and jokes.
     Then there was his sled!  Everywhere he went he pulled his little homemade sled.  It was sometimes empty, sometimes filled with worthless junk, and sometimes good items, but always his sled.  The boys who hung around the stores hid it from him many times, but they always gave it back and I doubt if they would have slept very much if they had not.  Just as a child collects things they fancy, so he gathered his bottles, sticks, cans, jars, wagon wheels, doll heads, shoes, handbags, and such, but mostly dogs and cats.  If anybody had too large a litter, he would tote off two or three to trade farther down the road.  Some said he took things outside without asking, but I never knew it to be true.  He always asked for any old thing he wanted along our place.
     Little was not the tidiest person I have known, and many places where he asked to stay all night would send him on to a neighbor whom they thought to be more in line with his health habits.  That was their shortcoming, not his.  He always chewed Brown Mule plug tobacco and often let the juice run down and off  his chin.  Many other men did the same thing.  His tobacco was another thing the local boys stole from him, but unlike his sled, it was far from being whole when returned to him.  Every person who came to Dwarf for the first time was asked to buy Little a plug of Brown Mule to get to see him dance.  He would move around in his own clumbsy (sic), stumbly way for a couple of minutes for anyone for a plug of Brown Mule chewing tobacco.  Another untidy habit he had around the stores was pouring the remains of several pops into one bottle and drinking it.  He must have liked the taste because when anyone bought him a pop often he would refuse it and if he did accept it he never seemed to enjoy it like he did his own mixture.  Sometimes he hauled a half-filled bottle in his sled for miles.
     His relation to the girls in school was like this:  Boys being BOYS and Little being himself and single, the boys in school had no end of fun with the girls about him.  Usually one of the prettiest girls in school would be the target.  It usually went something like this:  The boys would see Little going up or down the road pulling his sled, and one of them would scribble a note on paper and sign some girl's name on it.  Another boy would be excused and give Little the note.  As sure as this happened, Little would be on the schoolground the next noon hour or recess to see the girl he thought had written him the note.  The boys would tell her that Little wanted to give her a ride in his sled, walk her home, or some such.  Naturally she would try to hide, either get next to the teacher or into the girls' rest room.  But that did not always work either.  Boys run so much faster than girls and there is just no way of keeping up with a bunch of teenage boys.  Crying was usually the best remedy for this kind of harrassment.  But in a few days the same thing would be gone through again.  Little went about the community telling how many girls he had crazy over him just on the strength of these "dates."  The boys always kept his list away up there by adding to it as they heard hem tell it.  Not being among the pretty girls, I never had this kind of problem myself.  Maybe sometimes homeliness is a blessing in disquise.  Strange is fate, for now some of these boys are married to the same girls they tried so hard to pawn off on Little.  But just who understands a lively young buck or a sapling swaying in the spring breeze?
     I think I still grade the hearts of men back then by the attitude they took toward Little.  These people who would pretend to be gone to keep him from stopping by their house out of a snowstorm or just out of a cold night where should I put them?  Little was one of a kind and left his mental mark on everyone who ever saw him, for without ever knowing him personally one could be made to feel humble compassion just by passing  him on the highway.  He really belonged to nobody but the road.  Sure he had a family, and a good one, but like a child he wanted to be free to go-go-go-go-go-go-slowly but always going.  As the birds are free, so was he.  Once I recall he came up into the very head of Bear Branch to spend the night with my brother-in-law and during the night there came a big snow.  It took some tall talking and conniving on their part to get him to spend the day and another night with them.  At last they persuaded him and he stayed until the snow abated, playing children's games a lot and such things as hide and seek and fox and geese.
     My own little boys and girls watched him pull his wagon up and down the road here at Fisty after we moved here in 1941.  I think the highlight of his life was reached when at Christmas time one year the men around Smith's Store made up a hat collection and bought him a red wagon from the store.  He was not as young as he once had been, and a wagon was much easier for him to handle than a sled.  My first five children always ran to meet him and gave him anything they had loose to dance for them.  They never laughed at him.  They always laughed with him.  They played with every stray cat and dog he ever brought this way.  It was not a strange thing for me to see ten or twelve children from this community run down the road to meet Little.  Ivis Jones, our local storekeeper, liked him a lot also.
     Then one winter morning one of our boys went to Ivis' store and was told that Little had frozen to death over on the mountain between Buckhorn and Ball Creek.  We never learned all of the details.  I can't tell you how old he was when he died, but he seemed to have aged less than anyone else I knew in the time I had known him.  Now his body is confined to a grave, but I'm sure his spirit is still free to roam the roads as always.
     His funeral is one I will never forget.  I shall always wonder about it also.  There was no obituary read at all.  No eulogy of any kind.  Why for the salvation of lost mankind did not this man who had been asked to fill the puplit use this subject matter which God had so bountifully supplied him?  Instead, he stood up there and talked about doctrines of his church and let pass forever the best sermon matter he will ever be provided.  This subject had so many of the qualities of Chirst; faith, love, meekness, humbleness, kindness, rejection and honesty, along with others.  I never see a boy with a sled without thinking of Little and in my own mind I wonder how my life would stand up if someday someboyd tried to compare my qualities with those of Christ.  - The End.

Photo and Painting Credits - The photo taken of Little Cornett by Larry Fugate is probably one of the few in existence.  In the photo, Little was dancing for Larry, who bought him a "pop."  The painting above of Dwarf Bus Station and Gus & Pearl's Restaurant, depicts Little Dancing holding onto his wagon - a performance for the coal miner, Doug Ritchie.  Autographed prints of these paintings can be ordered from Larry Fugate or the Knott Historical Society - the gallery of which will appear under the Cultural Arts button on the main page.

Little Cornett was born 14 February 1941, son of Ida Hale Cornett, he is buried in a crypt beside his mother at Dwarf
 
Collected and Collated by David R. Smith, Pres. Knott Historical Society.