At Hurricane Island, the Ohio struck the Kentucky bank a little above what is now called Hurricane Creek. The creek added more swift water to the river's flow. It was just below the mouth of Hurricane Creek that a Revolutionary War pensioner of Virginia, Robert Kirk, set up a flatboat dock on his land grant.
The site was very near today's equipment transfer point from the Tolu landing to Hurricane Island. It became known as Kirksville and it was the only dock marked in what is now Crittenden County on the early Ohio River navigational charts.
Equipment transfer point not for from the town of Tolu. Hurricane Island is seen in the background. This would be near where Kirksville was first established about 1816. Picture made 2010.
After the Native American tribes deserted the area, the earliest settlement at this location on the Ohio River was named Kirksville. The village was started about 1800 with a population of approximately 25 people.
In the year 1830 the small village was completely destroyed by a hurricane.
Afterward, when the village was rebuilt, it was moved farther back from the bank of the river and it became known as" Hurricane Landing."
In 1884 Mother Nature once again took its toll on the village when floods washed away homes and the post office. At this time the post office was located on a boat. Residents once again moved and rebuilt the town farther from the river.
In February 1890 when their new post office was rebuilt, and they needed a name for it, they named the town Tolu. The name came from a tonic that was sold at one of the local stores. It was described as an amazing medicine, good for man or beast. It consisted of pure whiskey to which an extract of Tolu (made from the wood of the South American Tolu tree) had been added. The name Tolu was suggested by 'Doc” Daniel Stone.
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