Delia
The Delia community is centered on Clark's Creek at the junction of the Baton Rouge Road and the Dry Ridge-Downingsville Road. This road today is better known as KY 22, the Dry Ridge to Owenton Road. In the 1820s when Grant County was formed, a water powered grist mill on Clark's Creek was located a few hundred feet upstream from Delia and a few hundred feet downstream from the juncture of Clay Lick with Clark's Creek. The mill was first known as Ruddle's Mill, but its operators are unknown. By 1832, the name of the mill was given as Baton Rouge Mill and the road leading to it from the Covington-Lexington Turnpike was referred to in County Court orders as the Baton Rouge Road.
Reference to the mill is not found in any deed until January 15, 1839 when James O'Hara and William C. Johnson, who may have owned 3,000 acres at the time, conveyed 300 acres to George Williams. In May 1840, George Williams and Rhoda, his wife, conveyed a tract of land called "Batten Rouge mill tract", described as the same 300 acres to John A. D. Burrows and James C. Hall. One of the two, Burrows was the acting manager of the mill. One of his employees, J. F. Flege, a young German emigrant, found his first job here. In later years, Flege became a prosperous farmer and landowner in the Stewartsville community.
Burrows is believed to have built a substantial two-story frame house on the Dry Ridge-Downingsville Road north of the mill. At that time, there was an access road on the west side of the Burrows Farm between the mill and the Dry Ridge-Downingsville Road. This access road has since been abandoned and closed. It is not known when the mill closed, but most such mills ceased operating in the late 1800s.
Delia survived the closing of the mill with a general store operated by Frank and Lowe and a smithy operated by Red Brush Will Carter. Delia is said to have had three doctors located there in the 1880-1890s, but only one, Dr. A. V. Menefee, can be identified today.
The extent of the Delia community could be measured by the distance traveled in each direction by John W. Gardner in his two-horse huckster wagon. He carried staples to be sold to householders on his routes for cash or in exchange for eggs, poultry or other produce. Gardner later bought the Frank and Lowe store which he operated until 1913. At that time he sold his property in Delia to Albert Clemons and moved to Dry Ridge where he operated a store which was continued by his son for many years.
There were neither churches nor schools in the immediate vicinity of Delia. The first school in the area was Smoky Road, District 49, organized by School Commissioner B. N. Carter in 1868. The second was Mann School, District 43, organized by Commissioner H. D. Stratton in 1876.
A U. S. Post Office was established at Delia in 1890 with John Johnson as postmaster. He was succeeded by William C. Carter in 1894; he in turn was succeeded by John W. Gardner in 1901. The post office was discontinued in 1905 with mail going through the Dry Ridge Post Office.
History of Grant County, John B. Conrad,
Editor
Published by The Grant County Historical
Society
Williamstown, Kentucky
Article by John B. Conrad, Editor.