LOOKING BACK Goreville History
By Dixie Terry
With Goreville officially turning 125 years old in 2025, we will be sharing some historical information from the book , “Remembering When”, compiled by Dixie Terry in 2000, after the village celebrated its centennial. Some of the information came from a book writtten by Bill Hubbard in 1969.
In the late 1800s, the village of Goreville had not yet been incorporated, an act that was legally and officially done in a small ceremony on July 5, 1900.
However, Goreville was in existence, with the nucleus of the town settled in the south end of what is now South Fly Avenue, a section of town, known for decades as “Old Town.”
In 1899, there were only three businesses, including Hudgens and Bradley General Merchandise, a two-story frame building, with the Bradley family living upstairs. The post office was also located in the store, with mail being delivered twice a week by a horse-pulled cart on a rutted wagon road, from Tunnel Hill, where a railroad had already been built.
The second business was a blacksmith shop, owned by Willis Gower, an uncle of Bill Hubbard (1888-1972), who was the grandfather of Shelby Hubbard Bailey, who has shared her grandfather’s publication of 1969, for use in this book.
The third business was that of Dr. Thomas Morgan, whose office was in his home. Dr. Morgan would later build a two-story residence in new Goreville, as well as his office and a drug store, in a separate building.
Said Hubbard, in his book, “There are not any streets in old Goreville, just wagon roads on a line from the Ellis Hudson home, south. We, in old Goreville, still live out in the country,”
Village lots, in what would be present-day Goreville, were laid out in 1898, including three additions, east and west of what is now Goreville Concrete Inc. They were named Jones, Nipper and Hubbard additions, after the property owners, Sigel Hubbard owned all of the property, north of Goreville Concrete to a line where the Len and Pauline Vaughn farm is presently located.
In 1898, Martin Nipper deeded the village an 80 feet wide street from his residence to the Hubbard addition. “I doubt very much if the (present) village board knows this.” said Hubbard. This road, known now as Goreville Road, is the blacktop that connects State Route 37 with I-57.
Wheat was a major crop around Goreville, and the land owners apparently wanted to get one more harvest in, before new homes were built in the additions. in 1898, when the wheat was harvested, Hubbard told of his Uncle Joe Hubbard, who drove the binder, drawn by three horses. Sigel and Jack Hubbard pulled up the property stakes in front of the binder and then set them back in place after the binder had passed.
Most of what is now Goreville was enomous wheat fields, surrounded by dense woods.
Hubbard shared, “I followed the binder, trying to catch little rabbits. I was thirteen at the time. The good old days have gone, but I still remember them as yesterday, ” he said in 1969.
Citizens who had built homes or businesses in Goreville before 1899 were remembered by Hubbard as: William Terry, Wes Gore, (for whose family Goreville was named ), Thomas Morgan, M.D., Thomas McCormick, Will Newlin, Franklin Parrish, Scott Rendleman, Mark Stanley, William Threet, James Jones, Jake Treece, and Nora Downing. The latter residnce had to be moved to make room for the right-of-way of State Route 37, which was constructed in the late1930s.”
( The book, “Remembering When” can be purchased at “Countree Peddler Antiques and Collectibles,” in Goreville.)