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Million, MadisonCoKY

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History of
Million, Madison County, KY

In the 1780s and 1790s, five Million men came from Virginia to Madison Co. Ky. There were two sets of brothers who were probably first cousins. They settled along Tates Creek between what is now Richmond and Valley View, and nearly all had large families. Perhaps because they were the most numerous family in that area, a little community about six miles from Richmond became known as Million sometime in the early 1800s. Because of the terrain (steep hills and a narrow creek bottom – and periodic flooding) there could never have been more than a couple of stores, a church or two, a one-room school and maybe 15 or 20 houses within a half mile in any direction. About 1950, when I can first remember, there was only one store (which had once been a post office) and maybe a half dozen houses nearby. Now there are only a few houses. There was (and is) a bridge across the creek there that connects to the road going south to the little community of Newby. Down the road about a quarter mile down the creek is another road going north toward Foxtown. So Million was a crossroads of a sort.

Census listings from the early 1800s up to 1860 show several of the Millions owning slaves, usually one or two. (The Millions owned slaves in Virginia and probably brought some to Kentucky). All are listed in the Census as farmers or farmhands. From histories of Madison County and Kentucky, and from Madison County estate sale records from the early 1800s, farmers typically grew tobacco, corn, hemp, cattle and hogs. And horses, of course. Some also had sheep to produce wool for making blankets and clothing. (My grandmother remembered helping her grandmother -- around 1900 -- card wool, which she converted to thread on her spinning wheel and blankets on her loom. I have a shuttle from the loom and two wool blankets she made.) Some Millions made whiskey from their corn.

Until the mid- to late 1800s they would have built their own log cabins (usually one or two rooms) and lived in them. Sometime after the Civil War, they would have begun building frame houses, or adding framed rooms to their log cabins. Only the wealthiest families built brick or stone homes. In fact, I can’t think of a single brick home anywhere in the Million/Newby/Valley View/Tates Creek area that would have been built before the 1950s. A few of those old part-log, part-frame houses still stand.

The Millions of Madison County were true pioneers and frontiersmen who helped settle “the west” of that time. All, or nearly all owned land, hill land that did not lend itself to efficient commercial agriculture. Some, mostly the ones who were distillers or country merchants, owned fairly substantial amounts of land, but most were relatively prosperous subsistence farmers. As soon as the “territories” opened up, the younger generations began migrating to the “new west” – to Illinois and Missouri first, then to other new territories, in search of land and opportunity.

Submitted by Robert J. (Jim) Parks jparks99@fewpb.net

Come with me and take a journey back into history. Help me discover my MAK-roots, and how they shaped the person I am today... If perchance, we are related, click on Email MAK and let me know... I will be happy to include your line and share information on mine.

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