The JollyStation Bed and Barn Story…

The Jolly family is of French Huguenot origin with the French Coat of Arms having the name “jolie” engraved on it.  They escaped persecution in France in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries to England, Scottland, Ireland, Holland and Germany.  The name Jolly is listed on the registers of the churches the Huguenots founded in Ireland.  Samuel Jolly(b~1715) was an emigrant from Londonderry, Ireland of Scottish-Irish lineage and settled in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  His son, Nelson Jolly Sr(b1741) migrated to Breckinridge County, Kentucky around 1800.  His son Samuel Jolly(b1779) had a son Nelson Jolly Jr(b1820) and this is where the story gets interesting.  Nelson Jolly Jr., in 1863, purchased a farm about one-quarter mile from present day McQuady, KY.   One of Nelson Jolly Jr’s sons William Alfred Jolly(b1846) who was my great-great grandfather lived and farmed about 1mile west of present day McQuady.  He had a son John Rhodes(JR) “Jack” Jolly(b1877) who was my great grandfather and continued to extend the Jolly reach around McQuady and purchased the land ~1895 where the JollyStation Bed and Barn farmhouse is currently located.  JR Jolly lived in a log cabin about 0.5 miles up the road from the current farmhouse. 

The farmhouse is set on ~150 acres about 0.75 miles back on Jolly Farm Lane in Breckinridge County, Kentucky.  The closest town near the farmhouse, about 1.75 miles, is present day called McQuady, which back in the ole days(~1888)  was called “Jolly Station” named after Nelson Jolly Jr.  It was a stop on the rail line of the Louisville, Hardinsburg and Western Railroad.  In 1891, the McQuady post office came into the community and was located on James McQuady’s farm about a mile from Jolly Station.  In later years, the post office was moved to McQuady which was named after James McQuady and the name Jolly Station faded into history.  The railroad was dismantled in ~1943. 

The 1900 sqft Jolly farmhouse was built in 1940 by my grandfather Byron Jolly and his brothers.  Byron and Mildred Jolly lived there with their 7 children that included my father Jack Jolly who still lives on the farm about 1 mile from the farmhouse.  The farm has always had a living presence of livestock, wildlife, wilderness and a lot of grandkids running around.  The barns around the farmhouse were for the beef and dairy cows years ago but still remain as a symbol of perseverance and hard work. 

The farmhouse has been updated with unique pieces from the Jolly farm.  For example, the ceiling beams in the kitchen were made from the log cabin(~1860) that my great grandfather(JR Jolly) lived in just up the road where my brother Kevin Jolly built his house and lives today.  The barn wood on the east wall of the kitchen came from a Jolly tobacco barn that fell down on the farm after many years of housing tobacco.  The gun rack in the upper east bedroom, my uncle Jim Jolly built when he was a kid.  Sometimes, just for a sec, the aroma of chicken and dumplings and apple fritters my grandmother used to cook on her wood burning stove on Saturdays stops me in my tracks as I walk through the house. 

The farmhouse will bring back those special connections to friends and family through a unique connection with architecture and nature.  Smores around the chiminea, star gazing with no lights for miles allows you to almost hear the sky talking back to you..  Sitting around the kitchen table playing board games and watching fireflies float effortlessly in the wind will take your mind off just about anything.  It is a perfect place for adults, kids, friends and families to connect.  Some even throw a tent in the back by the new orchard or up on the hill to take a further step in disconnecting.  

I hope you enjoy the JollyStation Bed and Barn and challenge you to make your own “real” unique experiences there.   

Eric Jolly