Introduction

Carter County, Kentucky was blessed with an abundance of diverse natural resources, including timber, iron ore, coal, and limestone. During the Industrial Revolution one of its towns, Olive Hill, became the center of a 600 square mile hotbed of fireclay, a unique heat-resistant clay used to make firebricks.

Historical Significance

For decades, thousands of hard-working Olive Hillians dug, moulded, and fired that uncommon clay into hundreds of thousands of firebricks per day to line open hearth steel furnaces, locomotive fireboxes, and steamship boilers. Without the steel, there would be no skyscrapers and no rail lines. Without the trains and ships, there would be no movement to expedite a growing nation. Olive Hill firebricks helped make this possible.

Community and Legacy

Olive Hill and its people gave all that it had in a time it was most needed until a time it was needed no more. More people need to know the Olive Hill story. More people need to know more American History.

The Book

Olive Hill the book is a historical fiction novel that follows the Reed family from May of 1800 thru June of 1959. It tells the Olive Hill story as I see it.