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Title
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Rabbit Hash Ferry Landing (Rabbit Hash, Ky.)
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Description
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Historic Status: National Register of Historic Places--Rabbit Hash District
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A ferry service connected Rabbit Hash, Kentucky with Rising Sun, Indiana for over a century. James Alexander Wilson, first proprietor of the Rabbit Hash General Store, then known as “the storehouse,” “the store,” or “Wilson's store,” was also the first operator of the ferry. He operated the ferry from about 1842 until 1849 when it was then taken over by James Calvert and James Carlton.
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Ferry Keeper's Bonds and Court Order Books at the Boone County Courthouse in Burlington, Kentucky, provide an accurate record of the subsequent Rising Sun Ferry Owners. They are as follows:
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James Carlton and James Calvert, 1849
John Quincy Adams Stephens, 1852
Pembroke Ryle, 1855
Thaddeus Constantine Sobieski Ryle and William Rice, 1856
William P. Ryle, 1858
Leonard Clore, 1859
James Calvert, 1861
James Perkins, 1867
Richard S. Ryle, 1874
Robert Piatt, 1872
John J. Huey, 1888
Thomas Lumpkins, 1890
Benjamin Wilson (son of James A.), 1899
Josie R. Piatt, Katie Piatt Bottorf and C. M. Bottorf, Susie Piatt Greenup and George H. Greenup, 1899
Benjamin Wilson, 1906
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No other ferry keeper's bonds were recorded in the Boone County Courthouse after 1906. A handwritten note from William J. Stephens in the possession of the Rabbit Hash Historical Society details the following owners and operators of the ferry. Stephens stated that for as long as he could remember, the ferry was operated by Ben Wilson but owned by Josie Piatt. She lived in Rising Sun and eventually sold the ferry franchise to J.W. Whitlock of Rising Sun. Clarence “Windy” Bedgood and Ben Harris both operated the ferry for Whitlock for many years. Then, Windy's brother Raymond took over until “the ice finally got her [the ferry],” in 1945.
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'The Rising Sun and Ohio County Sesquicentennial' booklet from 1964 concurs that the last ferryboat to operate between Rising Sun, Indiana and Rabbit Hash, Kentucky was the Mildred, built in 1922 by Whitlock. Operators, according to the booklet, included Ben Harris, Frank Cunningham, Clarence Bedgood, Stewart Whitlock, and, finally, Raymond Bedgood, who took over the business from Whitlock in 1937 until 1945, when he quit the business, dismantled the boat and sold the hull to a boat club in Carrollton, Kentucky. Unfortunately, the hull sank and eventually washed ashore at Rising Sun before it reached Carrollton (Rabbit Hash, Kentucky: River Born, Kentucky Bred by Donald Clare).
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Has beginning
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Construction Date: 1813
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Identifier
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Kentucky Historic Resources Inventory designation: BE 1402
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Full address
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Lower River Road
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Latitude
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38.92682467
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Longitude
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-84.63346055
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Target coordinates
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705146.113 m
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4311319.147 m
Rabbit Hash (Ky.)
Rabbit Hash Historic District (Ky.)
