Tom Stephens - True Bluegrass Stories: History from the Heart of Kentucky

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2008 by Tom Stephens

All rights reserved

Cover: painting by Paul Sawyier. Courtesy of Paul Sawyier Art Gallery, Frankfort, KY.

www.paulsawyierartgallery.com

First published 2008

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States.

ISBN 978.1.62584.352.4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stephens, Tom (Thomas E.)

True Bluegrass stories: history from the heart of Kentucky / Tom Stephens.

p. cm.

print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-545-2

1. Bluegrass Region (Ky.)--History--Anecdotes. 2. Bluegrass Region (Ky.)--Social life and customs--Anecdotes. 3. Bluegrass Region (Ky.)--Biography--Anecdotes. 4. Kentucky--History--Anecdotes. 5. Kentucky--Social life and customs--Anecdotes. 6. Kentucky--Biography--Anecdotes. I. Title.

F457.B6S74 2008

976.93--dc22

2008025947

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Gene and Leslie

Contents

Foreword

Kentucky Monthly is a contemporary magazine about the Kentucky of today, but no one can have a full understanding of the way things are without knowing the background, the history behind the traditions that make the commonwealth unique.

Few people have the wealth of knowledge and also the storytelling ability of Tom Stephens, who has written Kentucky Monthlys Looking Back section since its inception in September 1998. His stories span a broad breadth of interest and people, and Tom is equally at ease discussing the days following the American Revolution as he is the 1970s, the interesting era when we, then junior-high students, first met.

Several of the stories featured in this collection have garnered state and regional awards, and all have been praised by Kentucky Monthlys loyal readers, who often call the magazines Frankfort offices asking for more.

If this is your first opportunity to read Toms stories, youre in for a real treat. If you are, like us, revisiting these opportunities to look back, I can assure you that we at Kentucky Monthly are looking forward to the stories yet to come.

Stephen M. Vest

Editor and Publisher

Kentucky Monthly

The Bluegrass

A Preface

The place we call the Bluegrass is a lush, green land of farms, picturesque streams and rivers, a few cities and a lot of small towns. Its roads, some of which began as buffalo trails or even warriors paths, are shaded by towering hardwood trees, and its people are friendly and hospitable, as they have been since many of their ancestors arrived in Kentucky more than two centuries ago.

There also is a timeless quality to the Bluegrass, something in the atmosphere that speaks of memory and tradition. It has always been this way.

Daniel Boone, upon seeing the region for the first time on June 7, 1769, wrote, From the top of an eminence, we saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucke. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of every sort, through this vast forest. The buffalo were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains.

Early English topographer Gilbert Imlay, who had explored much of the Bluegrass while trying his hand as a land speculator after the Revolutionary War, wrote in 1792 that it was the finest and most luxuriant country, perhaps, on earth.

The Bluegrass, also known as the Outer Bluegrass, is actually a geological region of land on an arched limestone foundation encompassing about eight thousand square miles, forty present-day counties and one-fifth of the state, bounded by the sandstone Mississippian plateaus of south central Kentucky to the south, the mountainous Cumberland Escarpment to the east and the Ohio River to the north and east.

The Inner Bluegrass, the land surrounding Lexington, is made up of gently rolling hills and slowly meandering streams, separated from the Bluegrass by a series of higher hills. It encompasses all or parts of twelve to fifteen counties, including Fayette, Woodford, Franklin, Anderson, Jessamine, Mercer, Washington, Harrison, Bourbon, Clark and Madison.

BLUEGRASS

By definition, the grass growing in the Inner and Outer Bluegrass is blue-green in color. Etymologically, it is a pasture and meadow grass with the scientific name Poa pratensis that actually originated in Asia, but was naturalized in America at some early date.

Bluegrass absorbs the calcium and phosphate of the limestone upon which it rests, creating a perfect pasture land for livestock of all kinds, but especially Thoroughbred horses. Phosphate, in particular, is well suited for growing tobacco, as well as alfalfa, hay and, in earlier times, hemp.

The Bluegrass contains the states finest and most expensive agricultural land, and is one of the reasons Kentucky induced pioneers to get here in any way they could, from floating down the Ohio River to the appropriately named town of Limestone (todays Maysville), to walking for hundreds of miles through the Cumberland Gap and along the Warriors Path or Wilderness Road.

What a Buzzel is amongst People about Kentuck, a Virginia preacher of the time wrote. To hear people speak of it one Would think it was a new found Paradise.

As many people who live there today will tell you, it hasnt changed a bit.

Acknowledgements

Every once in a while, someone will ask me, Why are you always writing about history? My usual answer is, I have to.

Its true; I really dont have a choice. Whenever I hear a new twist on an old story or run across an old newspaper article telling about an interesting person who lived here long ago, I feel absolutely compelled to learn more about it and, in turn, tell others.

I love Kentucky and have spent at least the last thirty years reading about our state and its history. It is endlessly interesting to me and I think it would be equally interesting to any Kentuckian who could easily find the stories.

Along the way Ive met many kindred spirits who also are compelled to preserve, research and interpret Kentucky history, and have made my efforts much easier in many ways. Many of them also have become good friends. Thanks to the following:

Dr. Thomas H. Appleton Jr. has been a friend and mentor ever since he helped hire me at the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) in April 1995. He has helped in myriad ways over the years, but perhaps mostly in giving me the confidence to realize that I have an ability to interpret history in an interesting way.

Dr. Melba Porter Hay, my division manager at KHS, has helped support my efforts in good times and bad, for which Im profoundly grateful. is based on her research.

Annie Denny and the late Carol McGurk, personifications of Kentucky hospitality, have helped instill a love for the past in untold numbers of museum visitors over the years.

John Trowbridge, a born researcher. Over the last decade or so, John has found and secured the gravesites of countless Kentuckians who served in the nations wars, from African American Union soldiers whose graves were being compromised by a road-widening project to War of 1812 veterans graves mistakenly paved over at the State Mound Memorial in Frankfort Cemetery. is based on his research.