USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Aunt Millie and Jake are represented as expressing the slaves' satisfaction with their bondage, believing that Providence had relieved them of providing for their existence by placing them in a condition where superior beings would take care of them, until they were called to Heaven. If in the first account of Old Cane Springs the narrator, Attorney John Cabell Chenault, who lived in that part of Madison County as a youth during the Civil War, in- terpreted correctly the sentiment of some slaves, he neglected to relate the dissatisfaction of other slaves who desired freedom. Nevertheless, emancipation was not far off, for it came as a con- comitant and aftermath of the War between the States. Though all the problems that came with freeing the slaves have not yet been solved, the condition of the Negro today and the prosperity of the Southland are far more satisfactory than they were when some 4,000,000 Negroes were in bondage.
161
SONGS OF FREEDOM
HENRY ALLEN LAINE
The Negro of Madison County who probably best exemplifies and expresses in his own life the improved condition of his race since emancipation is Henry Allen Laine. Born in the Old Cane Springs community of Madison County, in 1870, of parents who had been slaves, he lived at a time and in a community where the blessings of freedom were utilized and appreciated. Madison was indeed a very different County during his lifetime from the Madison during the youth of his parents.
In 1947 Mr. Laine granted the request of the senior author that he write an autobiography of his life. The following statements are from that account. He first attended a two months subscription school taught by an illiterate black man. The only text was Web- ster's blueback spelling book. In 1880 he attended a state supported school for five months, held in an old slave cabin with split log benches and legs with uneven lengths. By the time the lad was eighteen he had completed the eighth grade. Loving books he soon became a good reader. The Cincinnati Weekly Gazette and an old dictionary increased his knowledge of the English language.
When Henry was twenty years old his father hired him out for the spring and fall and thus made enough money to pay the balance due on the family home. In 1891 he made enough money working at a saw mill near Clay City to pay his expenses at Berea College during the winter and spring terms supplemented with funds received as janitor. In June of 1892 he received a teacher's certificate in Clark County and there taught a colored school for three years, attending Berea the winter and spring terms of those years. While at Berea College Henry was persuaded by Rev. Fee to become a Christian and to join Union Church.
In 1895 Mr. Laine received a first class certificate to teach in Madison County, where he taught for twenty-one years. He be- came chairman of the colored teachers association of Madison, in 1895, continuing in that capacity for twenty years. He was also secretary of the County Teachers Institute for twenty years.
On a June court day, in 1915, he organized in the Richmond courthouse a county farmers club consisting of fifty Negro charter members with himself as president. That year the club studied soil protection from erosion, the value of fertilizers, winter cover
162
GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
crops, etc. Many white speakers were on the programs of the club.
In 1916 Mr. Laine, Miss Belle H. Bennett, Superintendent of Schools, H. H. Brock, and others organized a county-Institute chau- tauqua for Negroes. The sessions were held in the ball park on Big Hill Avenue. The chautauqua was a great success. Among the prominent speakers were Dr. George Washington Carver of Tuske- gee, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois (later of Harvard University) of New York City, and other distinguished educators. Dr. Carver left the most lasting impression on those in attendance.
On the recommendation of Superintendent Brock, early in 1917, Dr. F. C. Button, State Supervisor of Negro Education at Frank- fort, appointed Mr. Laine Industrial Supervisor of Madison County colored schools. His duties took him to the Negro schools where he organized all sorts of farmers' and homemakers' clubs for his people. In all 200 boys and men were organized in twenty clubs, and 400 girls and women in ten clubs. The work was very popular from the start, and much was accomplished during the year. The report of the achievements of these clubs caused the State agricultural agent to appoint Mr. Laine county agent for colored people in Madison County.
But opposition to this educational and agricultural program for Negroes developed in the County. The fiscal court at first withdrew its support of its annual appropriation of $400. When the colored people began to collect a fund to insure the continuation of the program the fiscal court rescinded its action and renewed the appropriation. Nevertheless, Mr. Brock was defeated in his effort to be re-elected county superintendent of schools and the fiscal court stopped its appropriation of money to support the agricultural and industrial program (canning fruits, etc.) for Negroes.
In 1919, at the annual meeting of state and county industrial agents in the Board of Trade Building in Louisville, Mr. Laine responded to an invitation to recite some of his original poems. Two of them so exemplify the spirit of freedom which he, the son of ex-slaves enjoyed, that they are given here. His volume of poems, Footprints, of 144 pages has been printed three times.
Justice Samuel Freeman Miller U.S. Supreme Court 1862-90
Dr. W. D. Weatherford President Board of Trustees, Berea College; Originator of the drama, "Wilderness Road"
H. H. Brock Educator and Poet
Henry Allen Laine Educator and Poet
163
GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY THIRTY YEARS OF PEACE
(Recited at Berea College, Decoration Day, 1895)
Time rapidly rolls. To many here, It seems but yesterday, Since horrid war's grim crash and roar, The very mountains sway- When sunny South with scattered wreck Was strewn from shore to shore, And blackened chimneys marked the sites Where cities stood before.
When Negro slaves (by Christian men ) Were landed on our shore, Peace fled and base contentions rose, Increasing more and more,- Like subterranean fires, that For years unheed burn, When suddenly in wrath burst forth And mountains overturn!
So the fierce fires of smothered hate Grew more and more intense, Until the South rose up in arms To fight for the defense Of that the greatest of all sins, The sale of blood and tears; Their failure freed the Southern slaves And answered prayers of years.
God bless our heroes all today! Who through Death's valley rode, And on the flaming battle field Their love of country showed. Who bade farewell to home and friends To rescue Uncle Sam, When Lincoln called they answered back "Ay, Father Abraham!"
164
SONGS OF FREEDOM
From every mountain hill and dale, In eager haste they pour, And many a fireside plunged in gloom, Was brightened nevermore. All honor heroes great and small Who bravely wore the blue! Our country's peace, and strength, and hope, We owe it all to you!
As time rolls on and I look back And see what has been done, In thirty years to reunite And make our people one, My heart in gratitude goes out, As I look 'round and see, Where once the vilest hatred reigned, Now peace and harmony.
All honor to our unknown dead Who fell amid the fray,- Whose bodies lie beneath some plain, Or hillside far away. On bloody fields they face no more The blazing cannon's mouth, But from their ranks celestial watch, The progress of the South.
O'er forty-five progressive states These honored colors wave, The North and South united firm, And not a single slave! The slaver's whip, the clanking chain Have long since passed away, And white or black no matter now, A man's a man today!
MY SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM
Here of late, about the Negro, There's a great deal being said
165
GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
By our so-called "Negro leaders," Many of whom need to be led! Here's the plan I would adopt, And success would surely follow, So much talking I would stop- Educate and save the dollar!
Trust no longer party ties, Think no more of emigration; Trust yourself if you would rise, God, and wealth, and education. Train your head, your heart and hand, Hoped-for times will surely follow; These three things complete the man: Love, refinement and the dollar.
Idleness shun, with rum and strife, Live for things that bring men glory; Show the world a man's a man, Proving true the old, old story! Then race-hate will pass away, Poverty and mob law 'Il follow;
For the world respects the man With refinement and the dollar!
Mr. Laine's repetition of the line "A man's a man" suggests his familiarity with the Scottish Bard's poem "A man's a man for a' that, and a' that." Furthermore, the inclusion of a chapter in this volume to these faithful servants, Mr. Laine and Mr. Brock, of Madison County is in compliance with Burn's role as a champion of freedom and democracy when he declares
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 'An honest man's the noblest work of God;' And certes, in fair Virtue's heavenly road, The cottage leaves the palace far behind.
Near the close of Mr. Laine's volume is a poem by Mr. Brock in response to a Christmas greeting from his old Negro friend and partner in the educational program for colored people. Its stanzas are:
166
SONGS OF FREEDOM
Sir: I received your Christmas card,
A kindly friendship token.
It speaks more potently to me, Than any language spoken.
It points out clear a better day, Some bright and cloudless morning,
When man to man shall brothers be, That even now is dawning.
The thunder of war's angry guns, Shall die away. No longer, Shall might be stronger than the right,
For love shall prove the stronger. We saw it coming, you and I; We heard the Future speaking: No more shall warplanes rule the sky,
But planes of Peace go streaking, Ambassadors of man's good will,
The Earth shall grow much smaller. And planes, now messengers of death, Be each, a friendly caller. No little you and no big me, Shall govern "Race Relations;"
For hypocrite and Pharisee Shall vanish from the nations.
What John, on ancient Patmos, saw, Shall in fulfillment be: Saw a "New Heaven," and "New Earth," "And there was no more sea."
Mr. Brock also published a small volume of his own poems with the title, Lines To Kith and Kin.
YESTERDAY AND TODAY
There were 6,034 slaves and 148 freedmen in Madison County in 1860, according to the census of the United States. Since there were only 11,025 whites in the County, there was more than one
167
GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Negro for every two whites in Madison, and 35.8 per cent of the County's population was colored.
The colored population of the County in 1870, a few years after emancipation, was 6272, or only 92 more than in 1860. Furthermore, the Negroes were distributed over the County as they were in 1860, at the outbreak of the Civil War. The ten magisterial districts of Madison and their colored population were as follows: Elliston, 624; Foxtown, 739; Glades, 548; Kirksville, 839; Million, 403; Poosey, 118; Richmond, 1509 (town of Richmond, 749); Union, 714; Yates, 778.
Since the 1870's the colored people have left the farms where slaves had been numerous. There are now (1955) large areas in the County (and this is the condition in other counties of Ken- tucky) where no Negroes are living. The descendents of the slaves of the early 1860's may be found (1955) in segregated small groups of houses called Brassfield, Concord, Million, Farristown, Bybeetown, Green's Chapel, Peytontown, Burnamtown, and a few other places.
In reality, each of these communities has only a few Negroes. Richmond had 1,654 Negroes in a population of 10,268 (1950 census ).
According to some Negro authorities in Madison (Rev. John Cobb is one) the colored population of the County increased after the Civil War, to about 9,000 by the time of World War I ( 1917-20). Since that time there has been a gradual decrease, until now the estimate is from 4,000 to 6,000 in a total population of 31,000 (1950 census), and these colored people are distributed as stated above.
Freedom and economic and social conditions have caused the Negro population of the County to decrease. Since the beginning of World War I, in 1917, many have moved to places, usually cities, north of the Ohio. Mr. Laine, now eighty-four, lives with a prosperous son-in-law in Richmond, Indiana. He returned to Richmond, Kentucky, recently (1955) to witness the gradua- tion of two of his grandchildren from high school. His parents were slaves a hundred years ago, with no chance to obtain an education. Now their great-grandchildren attend a good high school (except for the building and equipment, when compared with the high schools for whites in the County). The teachers of the colored high school are pretty well prepared, some of them
168
SONGS OF FREEDOM
having the master's degree. Moreover, colored young men and women are attending some of the best higher institutions of learning in Kentucky.
In reality, Negroes have made such social, educational, economic, and political progress in Madison County and elsewhere in the United States (even in the Deep South) that another Booker T. Washington should rise to produce a second volume of Up From Slavery.
Curtis F. Burnam, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury
James W. Caperton, A Friend of Lincoln
Dr. Lindsay Hughes Blanton, Chancellor of Central University, 1880-1901
General John Miller, Mortally wounded in the Battle of Richmond
CHAPTER XIV Burnams and Capertons
THE BURNAMS
The careers of the Burnams and Capertons began to merge in 1862 and may therefore be considered under one heading. The Burnams came from England, where the name is usually spelled Burnham. Shakespeare mentions a "Burnham wood" in Macbeth. Curtis Field Burnam (1820-1909) graduated from Yale in 1840, was admitted to the Richmond, Kentucky, bar in 1842, and served in the Kentucky legislature in 1851-53 and 1859-63 (Senate). He was a delegate to the convention which nominated John Bell for the presidency in 1860 and helped carry the State for the American Party. As a strong Union man he did much to cause the legislature to refuse repeatedly to call a convention to consider the proposi- tion of secession.
In 1863 General John H. Morgan captured Mr. Burnam in the historic Phoenix Hotel, of Lexington, Kentucky, but offered him his freedom if he would take the oath of allegiance to the Con- federacy. He refused and expected to be sent to a Southern prison, when General Morgan told him that he could have his liberty if he would effect the release of General Morgan's younger brother, who was a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Burnam accepted the offer and immediately went to Washington and effected the exchange.
President Lincoln appreciated Mr. Burnam's services for the Union in Kentucky and received him in his office several times on his numerous trips to Washington. On one of these visits to the White House, according to the late Miss Lucia Burnam, one of his daughters (born 1854), Mr. Burnam had his son, Thompson S. (born 1852) with him. During the interview Mr. Lincoln took an apple from a supply near at hand and ate it without even offering one to the boy, who never forgot the incident and often related it thereafter.
Mr. Burnam secured pardons for persons in Kentucky during and especially after the war. His daughter, Miss Lucia also stated that he had a part in securing the pardon of Othniel and
169
170
GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Thomas Oldham of Old Cane Springs, who were about to be executed as spies in 1863 (see the senior author's Old Cane Springs, pp. 98ff., 110-115). Miss Burnam related having heard a Con- federate sympathizer's wife, Mrs. Jonathan Estill of Madison County, say: "It is a good thing we have Mr. Burnam, who can get pardons for us."
Mr. Burnam was held in high esteem by Kentucky Confederates after the war. He was the author of the law establishing the Confederate Home at Pewee Valley. Another service as legislator was his support in 1906 of the bill creating two state schools for the training of teachers in Kentucky, one of which was located in Richmond. Perhaps the most important recognition of his ability was his appointment as First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1875, in which position he served until Secretary Bristow resigned in June, 1876. Mr. Burnam enjoyed other honors including the presidency of the Kentucky Bar Association. He was also a member of Kentucky's fourth convention which made the State's present constitution .- See Robert Burnam, In Memoriam Curtis Field Burnam.
Anthony Rollins Burnam (1846-1919), the eldest son of Curtis Field Burnam, graduated from DePauw and soon began (1869) the practice of law with his distinguished father. On President Har- rison's appointing him (early 1890's) collector of internal revenue, this partnership was dissolved. In 1896 the Republicans elected him to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, where he served eight years, the last two as Chief Justice. As a member of the State Senate in 1907 and later, he helped enact legislation of beneficial character, especially in the field of higher education,
Mr. Burnam frequently represented his party in both state and national conventions. In 1908 he helped nominate William Howard Taft for the presidency. He had also been a member of the conventions which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes (1876) and William Mckinley (1896, 1900) for that high office. He was a member of the national committee of the Republican Party during Taft's incumbency at Washington. For many years he was a director and president of the Madison National Bank (now defunct ) and later president of the Southern National Bank, both of Richmond. It is significant, indeed, that he lies in the plot of the Richmond cemetery where many Union soldiers were buried after
171
BURNAMS AND CAPERTONS
the Battle of Richmond in August, 1862, before their bodies were removed to Camp Nelson in 1868. His monument, therefore, prop- erly represents both his party and the Union cause which the Burnams supported so loyally during the 1860's and later.
A dormitory, Burnam Hall, on Eastern Kentucky State College's campus, was named for Anthony Rollins Burnam.
Another son of Curtis Field Burnam, Robert, was also a noted citizen of Madison County. He was a graduate of Yale, who devoted his ability to banking and the Masonic Lodge, becoming Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. He published a history of Masonry in Madison County. After his father's death, he also published In Memoriam, Curtis Field Burnam. He con- cluded the volume with many appreciative letters which he and his brother, Anthony Rollins, received after their father's passing.
A son of Anthony Rollins Burnam, Paul, married Miss Jamie Caperton, the daughter of James W. Caperton. Thus a law partner- ship in 1862 as told presently, was followed by a closer union of the Burnams and Capertons more than half a century later. The two sons of this union, Caperton and Anthony Rollins Burnam are graduates of Yale, being the fourth generation of Burnams to graduate from that great institution of learning. John Burnam, a nephew of Curtis Field, who was a professor at the University of Cincinnati, was also a graduate of Yale. The late Sam Parkes Burnam was a third generation Burnam to graduate from Yale.
THE CAPERTONS
The first Caperton to come to Madison County from Virginia was Adam, whose name appears on the marker at the site of Fort Boonesborough. He was killed in the Battle of Little Mountain (Estill's Defeat) on March 22, 1782.
William Caperton, a brother of Adam, came to Kentucky at a later date, but he with his family soon moved on to Tennessee where his son, William H. (1798-1862), though very young, par- ticipated in campaigns with Andrew Jackson against the Indians and British. While on one of these campaigns his life was saved by an Indian, who applied herbs when he was bitten by a rattle snake. He was at the surrender of Pensacola on November 7, 1814.
After the campaigns with Jackson, William H. returned to Kentucky, studied law with his uncle, Archibald Woods, and was
172
GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
admitted to the bar in 1818. He served in the legislature in 1828 and practiced law with much success, due largely to his eloquence in pleading. He was moderator in the noted debate between Alexander Campbell and Nathan L. Rice on baptism at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1841. He served as a United States District Attorney (1853-1857). His successful career caused him to associate with many distinguished Kentuckians of his day, in- cluding Henry Clay, who was his intimate friend.
Colonel James W. Caperton (1824-1909) was the son of William H. Caperton. He attended Centre College and then graduated in law at Transylvania, having studied under the able legalists Chief Justice Robertson and Thomas A. Marshall. Soon after graduation he formed a law partnership with his father, whose boon companion he was until the father's death on July 4, 1862.
The Capertons supported Lincoln for the presidency in 1860 and spoke in behalf of the Republican candidate. Since Kentucky cast only 1,364 votes for Lincoln in this election out of a total of 146,216, such support in Madison County by two eminent lawyers and slave owners was appreciated, and consequently James W. and Curtis F. Burnam, his law partner after his father's death, found Lincoln very considerate of their requests during the war.
Colonel Caperton worked heroically with his father to assuage the cholera epidemic in 1849. It has been said that he always took the side of the defense in a lawsuit. Notwithstanding the fact that his business (he was president of the Richmond National Bank for twenty years) and law interests kept him out of politics, he was a delegate to the Republican conventions which nominated Grant (1872), Hayes (1876), Garfield (1880), and Mckinley (1896) for the presidency.
At a meeting of the Madison County Bar on April 20, 1909, to honor Colonel Caperton, who had just passed away, United States Senator James B. McCreary said of him: "His life was full of good illustrations and he came fully up to Blackstone's aphorism, 'act honestly, live honorably, and render to every man his due.' He was universally conceded to be an able lawyer."
On Monday morning, October 29, 1919, handsome oil portraits of W. H. Caperton and his son, James W., were placed in the Madison County Circuit Court room by Mrs. James W. Caperton and her daughter, Mrs. Paul Burnam. "The presentation speech
173
BURNAMS AND CAPERTONS
was made by Attorney A. R. Burnam; Hon. W. B. Smith responding on behalf of the bar; and Judge W. R. Shackelford accepted the handsome portraits on behalf of the court."-A memory and scrap- book belonging to the late Mrs. James W. Caperton containing clippings from the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald; also the Richmond Daily Register, October 27, 1919.
RELEASING CONFEDERATE PRISONERS
It was natural for persons in the South who had relatives and friends in northern military prisons to try to secure their release, when an early exchange seemed unlikely, as was often the case in 1864-65. There is positive evidence that such releases were actually effected by the law firm of Burnam and Caperton.
In "Family Records" (three typed volumes), by Mrs. James W. Caperton, Vol. I, p. 42, Mrs. Caperton has recorded the following account by her husband: Some time in 1864 Colonel Caperton was engaged to go to Washington to get the President to release a number of prisoners from Camp Douglas. Mr. Lincoln received Mr. Caperton cordially and, after learning his visitor's mission, said, "Caperton, when Seward sees this list he will think I am recruiting for the Southern army." He allowed the request, and Mr. Caperton went to Chicago and secured the release of the prisoners on his list.
Two incidents connected with this mission of Colonel Caperton's are worth relating. While he was waiting outside the President's office, he noticed a man in distress farther down the line. On in- quiry he learned that the man's "son was to be shot the next morning as a spy, unless he could secure a pardon from Mr. Lincoln." Colonel Caperton at once gave the anxious father his place and in a little while the man came out of the President's office beaming with joy, for his petition had been granted and his son was saved.
The other instant is of similar import. Colonel Caperton took his group of released prisoners from Camp Douglas to an eating place nearby, where he discovered that there were fifteen men instead of the fourteen on his list. It happened that there was a man by the name of Kavanaugh who was to be released. When his name was called by the officer at the gate another man from Arkansas by the same name also responded. When Colonel Caper-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.