Fred A. Engle
When the U.S. government bought land in Madison County and established the Bluegrass Ordnance Depot, several old mansions were torn down. One of these was Castlewood.
Located on Big Hill Road, James Estill built it in 1825. He was a nephew of Capt. James Estill. The captain was killed by Indians in the fight at Little Mountain in 1772. Our adjacent county was named for the Estill family.
Castlewood was considered a most beautiful home. A picture of Castlewood may be seen in Dr. J.T. Dorris’ book, “Glimpses of Historic Madison County, Kentucky.” Another prospect of the lost mansion is found in “Madison County Rediscovered,” by Lavinia Kubiak. Two other mansions near Castlewood, Cumberland View and Woodstock, also are sadly no longer in existence.
The house may have been named for the southwestern Virginia settlement of Castle Woods. This village was, for many years after 1769, the last outpost of civilization before the wilderness of Kentucky and Tennessee. It was the county seat of Russell County. It is located on the Clinch River. Like Madison County, there was no Indian settlement there, but both the Cherokee and Shawnee nations used it as hunting grounds.
The first white man settling in this area was Jacob Castle, hence the origin of the name. A man named Clinch was killed by Indians in the area when he became separated from his fellow travelers. They named the river in his honor. Dr. Thomas Walker, the first white man to build a house in Kentucky (in what is now Knox County), mentions this as the reason for this river’s name. Castle — like Daniel Boone — was one of the “Long Hunters” who went west across the Cumberland Gap into the wilderness for months at a time in order to hunt game and collect furs and skins.
Thanks to local historian Jasper Castle for information of the town of Castle Woods.
