Tomahawk, Kentucky

Tomahawk is an unincorporated community that stretches along Kentucky Route 40 in Martin County, Kentucky, United States, in the eastern part of the state near the West Virginia border. It is located on Rockhouse Fork of Rockcastle Creek, about six miles (9.6 km) west of Inez, the county seat.

Establishment

The post office was established as Wells on August 20, 1886, and named for its first postmaster, Richard M. Wells, according to "Kentucky Place Names" by Richard M. Rennick. It was closed in 1894, but reopened on November 4, 1898 as Tomahawk for "The Tomahawk News", a newspaper then being published in Inez. It now has an estimated population of 1,000, based on voter registration in the Tomahawk precinct. The post office (41262) survived in 1975 when the Postal Service closed nearby offices in Milo and Davisport.

Facilities

The community still contains a volunteer fire department, a grocery, a convenience store, a mining supply company, an antique/musical instrument store, a car wash, a used car lot, a Jabez Ministries outlet, three churches, a Columbia Gas Co. pumping station and a large furniture store located in the old stone WPA-era Tomahawk Grade School, which was closed and sold in 2002 after the school was consolidated with Grassy Grade School into Eden Elementary School at Inez, Kentucky. Tomahawk has produced several locally prominent educators, journalists and business leaders, the best-known of whom was Russell Williamson, a banker, educator and high school basketball coach. Williamson was president of the Inez Deposit Bank, president of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, the acknowledged first graduate of Morehead State University and the principal and basketball coach at Inez High School, which won two state championships during his tenure.

Notoriety

Tomahawk became briefly notorious on Feb. 8, 1933 after a local family ritually murdered their mother after a church revival under the mistaken belief they could bring her back to life in three days. Law enforcement officers found the oldest son, kneeling in bed on his mother's breasts, with her head turned face-down into a pillow. Two daughters were dancing on a nearby table while another son stood at the foot of the bed, reading the Bible. Reports of this incident and subsequent trial were published nationally and internationally, according to a February 2002 article in The Floyd County, Ky., Times.