History of Sorgho, Kentucky

The community of Sorgho has a rich history highlighted by a brief enterprise to manufacture sugar from sorghum cane. First Lieutenant George Calhoun had served in the Revolutionary War alongside George Rogers Clark in the campaign against the British. Around 1812, he moved his family to the sand ridge stretching westward from Owensboro. The fertile soil attracted other settlers, who planted corn and tobacco. In the winter of 1868, the Daviess County Sugar Company was formed with a little sorghum sugar plant on the edge of John Balee’s farm, near the present day site of St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery. While the sugar company collapsed, the village name endured as Sorghotown and eventually just Sorgho. Historian Grady Ebelhar recalls much of the history, with Sorgho located on the Calhoun Road connecting Owensboro with a ferry on the Green River. Some downtown landmarks included Coots Garage, George Head’s Grocery Store, Barker’s/Spencer’s Garage, the Woodmen Hall, Mary Ruth Medley’s Grocery, the George Merrett Tavern, and the Steele Grocery/Whitaker’s Grocery which became Red’s Fish House of the South. Longtime residents of Sorgho remember the simplicity of those early days along with periods of great change, such as the construction of the Audubon Parkway and the building of new subdivisions. The video also highlights the modern revival of Sorgho with important contributions by The Cottage and the Airport Sorgho Fire Department. #DaviessCounty #Sorgho #Kentucky #LocalHistory