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History · Slaughters

Slaughters’ post office opened in 1915, and 20% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1870.

1915first post office
0on the National Register
20%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Slaughters began

When was Slaughters founded?

1915

The Slaughters post office opened in 1915, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Slaughterville (1856), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 130 in 18702020 census: 190111 years
Founding year: the first Slaughters post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Slaughters’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Slaughters are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 664 in 1920; 190 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Slaughters’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Slaughters’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Slaughters, census by census

010020030040050060070018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 664

Peaked at 664 in 1920; 190 people lived here in 2020.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Slaughters’ Wikipedia page.

The story

How Slaughters came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Slaughters.

Read it all →

According to local tradition, it was named for Gustavus Slaughter who won the right to name the town and post office after winning a game of cards in 1855.

The post office was established as Slaughtersville on January 29, 1856, with Henry A. Prater, postmaster. Slaughter himself served as postmaster from 1860 to 1865 and was succeeded by Stiman.

Though the post office was renamed Slaughters in 1915, the town remained Slaughtersville from its incorporation in 1861 until 1967 when the Board on Geographic Names reversed an earlier decision and conformed to common usage and the present name of the post office.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Slaughters, 1856 to 1954

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1856Post officeThe Slaughterville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1915Post officeThe Slaughterville post office closes
  5. 1915Post officeThe Slaughters post office opens
  6. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 664
  7. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Slaughters, decade by decade

Today1 recent
KYMap-doton-Slaughters2004KYMap-doton-Slaughters
On the map

Slaughters on the map, 1954 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Slaughters. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Slaughters on the 1954 USGS mapSlaughters on the 1983 USGS map1954Slaughtersville sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Slaughters.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Slaughters’s post office has been open since 1915. Another post office, Slaughterville, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Slaughterville
1856–1915
Slaughters
1915–today
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Slaughters’ history

What year was Slaughters founded?

The Slaughters post office opened in 1915, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.