Following the Civil War roving bands of thieves plundered the section for food. Mrs. Turner Proffitt fed many returning hungry Confederate soldiers---and also some of the armed robbers. One day a band of thieves appeared and demanded food at gun point. "Gentlemen, there isn't anything here to cook", she told them, "You have licked the skillet clean." The story was told and retold and in time the road to Mrs. Proffitt's house became known as Lickskillet.