Carthage
Built on a ridge above the Ohio River, Carthage was settled at the intersection of Carthage Road, Kentucky 1996, and Washington Trace Road. Washington Trace gets its name from a path that led to the old community of Washington in Mason County.
Carthage had a post office as early as 1823, but it was discontinued in 1907 when mail service was shifted to California. An 1877 account said Carthage had 90 residents, several stores, a blacksmith, attorneys and a female physician, and enough culture to have the people "classed in the social herd book according to the cut of their clothes."
The community hub is the Carthage Methodist Church. Organized as the Mt. Gilead Methodist Church in the mid 1800s, the second building was erected in 1900. That was next to the old cemetery where the church parking lot is located. It is now the Carthage United Methodist Church.
Mt. Gilead Methodist Church Cemetery
Mt Gilead
Methodist Church History
Carthage Elementary-presently
used as a house, was in use as early as 1875. The one story frame building
closed in 1938, during the consolidation of all small schools.