On a January day in 1817 three men rode from South Union, Kentucky to a place in nearby Warren County called "the point." From the bluff above the creek, they could see the meandering waterway, fertile bottomlands, abundant timber, and the promise of a prosperous new enterprise. Seventeen days later they purchased the site and 300 surrounding acres. They represented the religious society known as the Shakers. With the Drakes Creek procurement, the main community’s South Union leaders planned to establish an outlying farm and operate a gristmill and a sawmill in Warren County.