History of Mook
From 1864 to 2010
Forty years ago, I was a student of history. Coming home from the Vietnam War, I returned to Mook to continue my family’s farming tradition. For thirty years, I specialized in growing the highest quality pigs to feed American families. Now I maintain a lodge and invite you to join me for a truly special vacation in the heartland of Kentucky.
Despite my new role as a host, I still consider myself a farmer. As such, I see history as more than facts in a textbook. It is the story of our quest for perfection: the perfect pig, the perfect farm, the vacation spot.
The history of Mook is the story of my family’s quest.
From Normandy to Kentucky
As I like to tell it, we were Norsemen in the tenth century. Independent men from the tiny village of La Pyle in Normandy. In the 17th Century, my sixth great grandfather Richard Pile emigrated to the new world to become a tobacco planter in Maryland.
My cousins and I still talk of Richard’s great, great grandson William (my great, great grandfather) who enlisted in the Virginia Riflemen, where he and his squadron of kinsmen—all over six feet tall—were reviewed by General Washington himself. Captured at the Battle of Fort Washington, William later escaped from the British prison ships when the guard—William’s Tory cousin—turned a blind eye.
William was the first Pile to settle in Kentucky. After marrying Lucretia Keys in Virginia, he received a land grant at Buras in Breckinridge County, Kentucky.
The Founding of Mook
My grandfather Christopher and his brother John sold their interests in their father’s farm, and on the day in 1864 that General Sherman scorched Atlanta, they bought two adjoining farms, with my grandfather purchasing his land from the Scotsman Edinburgh Smith, a staunch abolitionist who provided a safe-haven for runaway slaves heading for freedom across the Ohio River. (Some one hundred yards from my house, which Christopher built, are the graves of two children who died while traveling the Underground Railroad.)
Sixteen years after buying their farms, brothers Christopher and John established a post office in their general store, and named the town Mook, in honor of a traveling candy drummer, Charles Mook.
From the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis to the Great Depression
One year after my Uncle Wade built the general store (the one that I have renovated into a lodge), my Uncle Victor took my father Ova “Bill” Pile to the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis. Impressed with the state-of-the-art agricultural machinery on display, the brothers vowed to become innovative farmers for the new age.
When the farming depression hit in the 1920s, the brothers nearly saw their dreams come crashing down. But thanks to my father’s renowned business acumen, Mook survived to become a bustling tobacco and trade center. When he was thirty-six, Bill married my mother Ora “Janie” Armes and started raising a family.
In 1948, Bill died suddenly. Even though I was only three when he passed away, I&rsquolve come to know him from the stories I’ve been told: Mr. Bill Pile, a local folk hero, famous for his generosity.
A New Era of Innovation
In 1970, I came into possession of Mook Farm. I built a pig operation and for thirty years, I specialized in fine pork, planted row crops and tobacco, and raised my own family on the land.
In recent years, my sons, daughter, and I have turned the farm into a vacation getaway, and I have devoted myself to providing the kind of solitude and adventure I would want from a farm vacation.
Mook is my home; it is a part of me. Four generations of Piles have toiled here, and the land has provided for us. This is the story of Mook, the story of my family.
This is my story.
Gary Pile
March 2010
Timeline of Piles at Mook
- 1864: Christopher and John Pile sell their father's farm and buy adjoining farms in Breckinridge County, Kentucky
- 1880: Christopher and John establish a post office, naming the town for Charles Mook
- 1903: Wade Pile builds a general store in Mook
- 1904: Victor and Bill Pile attend the World's Fair in St. Louis and vow to become innovative farmers
- 1945: Gary Pile is born in Mook
- 1948: The general store closes
- 1957: Mook's post office closes
- 1971: Gary begins his farming career at Mook
- 2009: Gary renovates the general store into a lodge
