Gollyville

Do you know where Gollyville is in Lawrence County?

Correspondents used to write about the news (and gossip) from various neighborhoods for the local newspapers. One such column was called “Gollyville.” The Daily Record published an article on November 2, 1971 describing the area.

“The Gollyville area is situated in the northwest corner of Russell Township. Mrs. Gene Burbank, the Daily Record correspondent for Gollyville, described recently a little of the history of that area of the county. Gollyville is actually not a unified town but rather a “small, farming community” as Mrs. Burbank described it. She estimates that some 50 to75 persons live on the farms of northwest Russell Township.

The name of the area is related to one of the early Lawrence County families, the Pinkstaff’s. John Pinkstaff’s nickname was Golly John. (John would always say “by golly” when he would tell someone something.) From this nickname came Gollyville as the term for the area around the Pinkstaff home, which was about three miles east and two miles north of Pinkstaff, according to Mrs. Burbank.