USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 18
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Mrs. Wyker served as president of the Ohio Women's organiza- tion of her own denomination and in 1948 represented her church, the Disciples of Christ, at the Constituting Assembly of the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam, Holland. Later she became president of the Ohio Council of church women and in 1952 represented the American church women at a meeting of the Commission on the Life and Work of Women in the Churches at Oxford, England. The same year she was awarded an honorary D.D. degree by Transylvania College.
At present she is vice-president of the World Council of Churches and president of the World' Council of Church Women. Only recently she returned from a world tour as a member of a fellow- ship team to carry the love and hopes of church women for peace to the women around the world and to invite them to the World Assembly of United Church Women at Cleveland in November, 1955.
Now she and Mr. Wyker are pleasantly situated on their 120 acre Knox County farm in northern Ohio where in spite of their many outside interests and responsibilities they enjoy counting their sheep, occasionally seeing their new grandson at Berea and keeping in touch with the activities of their son, Jerry, who is now serving in the army.
1. National.
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NOTABLES
NOT NATIVES
Milton K. Barlow (1818-1891), a native of Fleming County, was an inventor of note. He and his father constructed the first planetarium which received high recognition at the Paris Inter- national Exhibition in 1867. He invented the first rifle cannon breech loading gun in 1856 and it was adopted for government use. He, after serving as Capt. of Ordnance under Gen. J. H. Morgan during the war, moved to Richmond, built a flouring mill on East Main and Collins Streets and a large brick residence up on Collins Street. It is known today as the Allman residence.
Lindsey Hugh Blanton (1832-1914) was a native of Virginia. He graduated from college, then studied theology at Union Theological Seminary. He was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Versailles, Kentucky, but resigned in 1861 to return to his native state and later become a chaplain in the army of Virginia under John C. Breckin- ridge. He returned to Kentucky and in 1880 became Chancellor of Central University in Richmond and continued in that capacity until the University united with Centre College in 1901.
Daniel Breck (1788-1871), a graduate of Dartmouth, came from Vermont to Kentucky in 1814 and in 1819 married Jane Todd, an aunt of Mary Todd Lincoln. He served in the State Legislature in 1825-27 and '34; was a presidential elector in 1841; a Col. in the militia; Judge of the Court of Appeals in 1843; and a member of Congress 1841-1851. He stood with Clay and Crittenden on the Compromise measures. Transylvania College conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1843. In 1832 he built as his home, the fine old red brick house seen today on Lancaster Avenue.
Daniel Boone (1734-1821). (See chapter II. )
Carlos Bonaparte Brittain (1867-1920) was a native of Bell County, Kentucky but regarded Richmond as his home after his marriage to Miss Mary Baldwin. He was a rear admiral in the United States Navy and the author of books on naval affairs.
Thomas Jackson Coates (1867-1928) was a native of Pikeville, Kentucky. He was superintendent of the Richmond city schools and state superintendent of rural schools of Kentucky. He pre- pared A History of Education in Kentucky, while in the latter posi- tion. He became president of Eastern Kentucky State Teacher's College in 1916 and continued in that position until his death in 1928.
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
John Grant Crabbe (1865-1924) was a native of Ohio; state superintendent of schools in Kentucky (1908-1910); president of the Eastern Kentucky State Normal School (now State College) at Richmond 1910-1924; president of the Teachers College at Greeley, Colorado until his death; and was the author of books on education.
Herman Lee Donovan (1887- ) is a native of Mason County, Kentucky. He attended Western Kentucky State Normal School at Bowling Green, received his A.B. from the University of Kentucky, his M.A. from Columbia University and his PH.D. from George Peabody College. He was dean of Eastern Kentucky State Normal, 1921-1923; Professor of elementary education at Peabody, 1925-1928; president of the American Association of Teachers Colleges, 1934- 1935, president of Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, 1928- 1941; he became president of the University of Kentucky in 1941 and is still serving in that capacity.
Edward Henry Fairchild (1815-1889) was born in Connecticut. He and his brother constituted the first freshman class at Oberlin College. At the age of sixteen he was an ardent anti-slavery worker. He soon found these sentiments unpopular and as a result he was driven from the building where he was speaking in Columbus, Pennsylvania. For a time he was principal of the preparatory De- partment at Oberlin and there had experience at raising money which was helpful when he came to Berea as president in 1869 and continued in that position until his death. Berea enjoyed con- siderable growth in every respect during his administration.
John G. Fee (1816-1901). (See chapter XI.)
William Goodell Frost (1854-1938) was a highly trained and broad minded teacher and leader. He was educated at Oberlin, Harvard, and had a year's study in Europe. He came to Berea as president in 1892. He soon turned to the mountains as a source of students with the hope that they might return to their native haunts and educate their own people. He and Mrs. Frost, a wonder- ful helpmate, traveled through the mountains seeking students then later besieged friends in Eastern cities seeking funds for the further development of the whole institution. They were unbelieve- ably successful in both efforts. Mrs. Frost was an influence for good among the student body and was no less successful in securing funds for the institution.
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NOTABLES
Francis S. Hutchins (1902- ) was born in Massachusetts; re- ceived his A.B. degree at Oberlin College in 1923 and his A.M. at Yale in 1933. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Lake Forest College in 1935 and again from the University of Kentucky in 1944. He was at Yale-in-China, 1925-27; Shantung Christian University 1927-28; and represented American Trustees of Yale-in-China Association 1928-39, when he was called home to Berea to take up the responsibilities of president about to be laid aside by the retirement of his father, Dr. William J. Hutchins.
William J. Hutchins (1871- is a native of Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Hutchins was educated at Oberlin, Yale, and Union Theological Seminary. He was a professor at the Oberlin Graduate School of Theology for 13 years before coming to Berea College as President in 1920. During his twenty-three years as president of Berea the plant was expanded and took on a finished touch. He and Mrs. Hutchins, his worthy companion, are the parents of three sons, each of whom has been head of a private academy, college, or university. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins are now living in retirement in Berea, Kentucky.
David Gass (1732-1806) started to Kentucky with Boone and his party in 1773 from North Carolina, but after a surprise attack by the Indians in which Boone's son was killed, the party turned back to the home of the Gass family at the most western point of civilization. There the Boone family lived in the cabin with the Gass family for two years, or until Boone and his thirty axemen left to cut a path through to the mouth of Otter Creek on the Kentucky River for Richard Henderson and his party in 1773. However, Gass had come with Boone and others to Kentucky during the period of waiting for more settled conditions. Gass and his family lived in Fort Boonesborough three years. There the women molded bullets and carried water during the siege, before moving in 1781 to Estill's Station where they lived five years.
Little Jennie Gass had a strange dream in the early morning of March 20, 1782. She dreamed that God had placed a ladder on which she might climb to heaven. Her dream was so real to her that she ran before breakfast to the cabins of all within the fort to tell them about it. Later in the morning she, with Monk, the Estill slave, and another man, went outside the fort to start a fire for making maple syrup when suddenly they were fallen upon
Dr. T. J. Coates, President E.K.S.C., 1916-1928
Dr. H. L. Donovan, President E.K.S.C., 1928-1941; President University of Kentucky, 1941-
Hon. Keen Johnson, Governor of Kentucky, 1938-1943; First Assistant Secretary of Labor, 1946.
Dr. W. F. O'Donnell, President E.K.S.C., 1941-
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NOTABLES
by Indians. The one man out ran them and got within the stockade, but Monk was captured and Jennie was scalped and killed. The Battle of Little Mountain followed this act.
By 1786 Gass had moved to the first county seat at Milford; the first court met in his home in 1786 and continued to meet there until a courthouse was provided. David Gass was appointed one of the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions by Patrick Henry. Gass died in 1806 leaving two daughters, Mary and Sarah, each of whom married a son of James Black, Sr., a Revolutionary soldier.
John Duncan Goodloe (1908- ) was born near Richmond; graduated from Harvard; admitted to the bar in 1931; councillor with various federal agencies till he became chairman of the Board of the R.F.C., 1932-48; Vice-President of the Coca-Cola Co. since 1948; and trustee of Berea College since 1953.
Keen Johnson (1896- ) was born in a Methodist parsonage in Western Kentucky. His college life was interrupted by his service in World War I. He attended Central College, Fayette, Missouri, and later received his A.B. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1922. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from his alma mater in 1940. He was editor of the Elizabethtown Mirror in 1921; the Lawrenceville News, 1922-25; and The Richmond Daily Regis- ter, 1925-1938.
Mr. Johnson was elected Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky in 1935 but the office of Governor was vacated by A. B. Chandler in 1938 and he automatically became Governor. He was elected in 1939 in his own right and served until December 1943. Soon after retiring from office he became an official in the Reynolds Metal Company at Louisville and has continued with the company to the present except time taken out in 1946 to serve as Under Secretary of Labor.
He and Mrs. Johnson make their home in Richmond, Kentucky. William F. O'Donnell (1890- ), a native of Texas, was edu- cated at Transylvania College and Columbia University. After graduation in 1912 he became superintendent of schools at Carrol- ton, then at Richmond, from which latter position he went to the presidency of Eastern Kentucky State Teacher's College in 1941. Transylvania College conferred upon him the honorary LL.D. degree in 1943. Under his administration the plant has been greatly expanded and the enrollment has increased proportionately.
Ruric Nevel Roark (1859-1909) was a native of Greenville, Ken-
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
tucky. He was educated at Greenville Academy, National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and Clark University. In 1889 he became dean of the Normal Department of State College at Lexing- ton, which position he held for seventeen years. He became the first president of Eastern Kentucky State Normal School with its establishment in 1906. It was his task to recommend and determine policies and to perfect the organization. Evidently he took this responsibility so seriously that his life was cut short with only three years of service to Eastern.
John A. R. Rogers (1827-1906) was a native of Connecticut; became principal of the anti-slavery school at Berea in 1858; was chairman of the committee which formed a constitution for Berea in 1859; was driven from Berea in 1859 because of his opposition to slavery; returned and helped reopen the school in 1865 and soon obtained a charter for Berea College; and was a member of Berea's board of trustees until his death.
John Speed Smith (1792-1854) was a native of Jessamine County, Kentucky. He came early to Madison County and married a daughter of Green Clay; was a member of the Kentucky House and Senate; was a representative in Congress; was secretary United States Legation to the Pan-American Congress, 1821-1823; was on General William Henry Harrison's staff in 1813; was Grandmaster, Grand Lodge F. & A. M. of Kentucky; prepared the following in- scription on Kentucky's stone in Washington's Monument: "Ken- tucky, the first-born of the Union, by the patriotism of her sons and the guidance of a good providence, would be the last to give it up."
John White (1792-1845) was a native of Tennessee. He was ad- mitted to the Richmond bar in 1823; was a member of Congress from the Richmond district, 1835-1845; was speaker of the House in the twenty-seventh Congress; and was an able parliamentarian and a personal friend of Henry Clay. John Quincy Adams said of him: "White is a man of fine talents and an able debater, but his articulation is so rapid that it becomes altogether indistinct." In 1845 he became the Judge of the 19th Judicial District and the same year met his tragic death at his own hand in his own home in Richmond.
Mrs. Elizabeth Sinclair Peck (1883- ) was born in Toronto, Ontario, but came with her parents to Port Huron Michigan in 1892: Dr. Peck received the A.B., A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the
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NOTABLES
University of Michigan. She began her teaching at Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio in 1906 and has taught almost continu- ously until her recent retirement. In 1914 she married John N. Peck, who was a teacher of mathematics in the Foundation School at Berea, 1910-1948.
Mrs. Peck came to the Foundation school in 1914 where she was especially interested in teachers' training. Only in recent years did she transfer to the College department. Since her retire- ment in 1954 she has done the research and brought forth Bered's First Century in honor of the Centennial Celebration.
Among her other publications are: Study of the Greek Priestesses by the University of Chicago Press; American Frontier, 1937; and Tibb's Flooders, 1940.
Mrs. Peck's daughter, Mrs. Henry V. S. Ogden, a faculty wife at the University of Michigan, is the associate editor of Middle English Dictionary of Chaucer's Time.
Willis Duke Weatherford (1875- ) a native of Tennessee, graduated from Vanderbilt 1895 and received his Ph.D. in 1907. He was Jr. National Secretary of Y.M.C.A. for eighteen years; president of the Y.M.C.A. Graduate school sixteen years; founder of Blue Ridge College 1904; president of the Blue Ridge College Inc., 1936-44; head of the department of religion at Fisk University 1936-44; chairman of Berea College Board since 1914; a member of the Cast Iron Pipe Company of Birmingham, 1926 -; and head of the training school for Army and Navy Y. Secretaries at home and overseas during World War I. He is the author of numerous books, a part of which are as follows: Race Relations, (co-author with E. S. Johnson); Introducing Man to Christ; Christian Life a Normal Ex- perience; Negro Life in the South; and Fundamental Religious Principles in Browning.
Dr. Weatherford was the originator of the Wilderness Road drama idea for celebrating the Centennial of the founding of Berea College and has been the motivating force in its development. Al- though he has never made his home in the county, he has given so much of himself toward the development of Berea in the past forty-one years that he deserves the distincition of a non-native son.
Wilbur Greeley Burroughs, geologist, was born, Shortsville, N.Y .; son Joseph B. and Emma Greeley Burroughs; Oberlin College, A.B. 1909 (Phi Beta Kappa); A.M. 1911; Cornell University Ph.D.
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
1932; married Mavis M. Reynolds 1922; geologist Ohio Geological Survey, 1912-14. Founded Dept. of Geology and Geography, Berea College, 1920, professor holding Shaler Chair. Also Professor Chau- tauqua, N.Y., Summer Schools, 1912-35; geologist Ky. Geol. Surv. 1922-32, 1942-48; consulting geologist for Cleveland, Ohio, 1921, companies and individuals. Located first oil wells of Rose Hill, Va., Oil Field 1922. Discovered and mapped Basin Moun- tain stronghold, mapped Indian Fort Mountain, unearthed copper armor from mound, Madison Co. Author of numerous books and maps for the Ky. Geol. Survey such as Geography of the Kentucky Knobs, Geography of the Western Coal Field, Geology of the Berea Region. Co-author of State Geol. maps of Ohio and Ky., and others. Author of geographical articles in New International Encyclopaedia, 1917; geology text for General Science (Berea), and more than 100 articles in scientific journals.
He is a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society, England; Kentucky Colonel; member of Ky. Academy of Science ( vice-president, 1925, president, 1926), Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Gamma Epsilon, geological, geographical and humane societies.
CHAPTER XVI
Historical Markers and Tablets
THE D. A. R. FORT BOONESBOROUGH MARKER
There are often persons who wish to know the names of settlers on the D.A.R. marker at the site of Fort Boonesborough. This list, however, is hardly inclusive of all who deserved mention. The name of Major William Bailey Smith, who was in command during the siege of September, 1778, is omitted. The D.A.R. committee placing this stone marker on the site of the old Fort has engraved the names of those who were regarded as worthy of the distinction of being among the first settlers of Boonesborough.
On the top of the stone is the following: "Site of Fort Boones- borough, 1775-1783." On the side next to the entrance is this in- scription: "In Memory of the Pioneers of Kentucky. Erected by the Boonesborough Chapter D.A.R., 1907." Then passing around the stone counter clock-wise appear the names of the following: "Bartlett Searcy, Robert Rodes, Pemberton Rollins, Michael Stoner, Peter Taylor, Thomas Tribble, Col. Isaac Shelby, Lt. Jared Williams, Capt. Archibald Woods, Rev. Jas. Quisenberry, Christopher Harris, Richard Gentry, Galen White, Enoch Smith, James McMillan, Sr., Daniel Boone, Rebecca Boone, Jemima Boone, Squire Boone, Wil- liam Bentley, Col. Richard Callaway, Betsy Callaway, Frances Callaway, Adam Caperton, Gen. Green Clay, Capt. John Holder, Col. John Snoddy, Capt. John Kennedy, Capt. William Bush, David Crews, William Cradlebaugh, William Chenault, Elizabeth Mullins Chenault, Capt. James Estill, Samuel Estill, Col. Ezekial Field, Col. Nathaniel Hart, Col. Richard Henderson, Dr. Hines, Richard Hogan, Capt. David Gass, Col. William Irvine, Abraham Newland, Jesse Oldham, Yelverton Peyton, Anne Cuffey Peyton, Thomas Phelps, Josiah Phelps, George Phelps, Lucy Phelps, John Phelps, Joseph Proctor."
THE TRANSYLVANIA BOONESBOROUGH MARKER
The Transylvania monument on the site of the great elm at Boonesborough, beginning with the tablet facing the river and the stone enclosure and going clockwise around the monument, the
193
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
information is as follows: Tablet I
"In honor of men of courage, faith and vision: Investors in a glorious dream of winning the wilderness for the white man · cap- tions of industry . pioneers and colonizers · advance guard of enlightened civilization in the west · state and town builders · founders of the commonwealth of Transylvania . of Boones- borough and Henderson, Kentucky and of Nashville, Tennessee:
"The co-partners of the Transylvania Company organized at Hillsborough, North Carolina, Janauary 6, 1775
Richard Henderson: President
John Williams
Thomas Hart
John Luttrell
James Hogg
Nathaniel Hart William Johnston Leonard H. Bullock
David Hart
Isaac Shelby: Surveyor
Erected by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, Under the Auspices of the Transylvanians, Henderson, Kentucky.
1935"
Tablet II
At the top of this tablet is a reproduction of the well-known painting of Judge Richard Henderson addressing the convention of delegates from the four settlements in May, 1775, called to make a constitution for the Transylvania Colony and enact laws for the same. Then follows the information:
"This tablet is dedicated to the courage, wisdom and genius of the pioneer state architects and law givers of the west.
"The Legislature of Transylvania
"The Commonwealth which ultimately evolved into the state of Kentucky.
"This the first legislative assemblage of free Americans on the continent west of Cumberland Gap was convened by Judge Richard Henderson 'the political father of Kentucky' on this spot beneath a giant elm
May 23, 1775
Proprietors of Transylvania
Richard Henderson
Nathaniel Hart
John Luttrell
C
Upper: The Transylvania Tablets, 1935. Lower: The D.A.R. Boonesborough Stone, 1907.
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Representatives for
Boonesborough
Squire Boone
Daniel Boone
Harrodsburg Thomas Slaughter John Lythe Valentine Harmon
William Cocke
Samuel Henderson
James Douglass
William Moore Richard Callaway
Boiling Spring
James Harrod
Nathan Hammond
Isaac Hite
Alexander Spotswood Dandridge John Floyd Samuel Wood
Robert McAfee, Sergeant at Arms Matthew Jouett, Clerk
Erected by popular subscription Under the Auspices of the Transyl- vanians Henderson, Kentucky 1935"
Tablet III
"In testimony of the gratitude of posterity for the historic service of cutting for the Transylvania Company. The Transylvanic Trail, the first great pathway to the West, March-April 1775 from the Long Island of Holston River Tennessee to Otter Creek Kentucky by that gallant band of Axemen Pioneers and Indian fighters who at the risk and loss of life opened the doors of destiny to the white race in Kentucky and the West.
Daniel Boone Rebeccah Boone Hays Bartlett Searcy
Squire Boone
William Hicks Michael Stoner
Edward Bradley Edmund Jennings Samuel Tate
Thomas Johnson Samuel Tate, Jr.
James Bridges William Bush John Kennedy
William Twetty
Richard Callaway John King
John Wardeman Felix Walker
Samuel Coburn Thomas McDowell
Jeremiah McPheeters A Negro Man
Jacob Crabtree Benjamin Culbirth
William Miller
A Negro Woman
William Moore
David Gass John Hart James Noll
William Hays
James Peeke
Azariah Davis
St. Asaph's John Todd
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HISTORICAL MARKERS AND TABLETS
Erected By The Daughters of the American Revolution of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, Under the Auspices of the Transylvanians of Henderson, Kentucky, 1935"
Tablet IV
"In pious and eternal commemoration of the first Christian Service in Kentucky attended by the pioneer founders of Transylvania and conducted by the Reverend John Lythe of the Church of England on this Hallowed spot May 28, 1775.
Erected by popular subscription under the auspices of The Transylvanians, Henderson, Kentucky 1935."
ON HIGHWAYS NEAR RICHMOND
About two miles south of Richmond on Route 25 there are (June, 1955) three historical markers. The first in time of placement is a stone close to the highway erected by the state D.A.R. on the Boone Trail and near Fort Estill.
On the request of the senior author, in 1950, the Oglesby Granite Company of Elberton, Georgia, donated a granite stone to be placed on the Battlefield of Richmond in memory of the dead and mortally wounded in that engagement. The Paris Granite Works engraved the words on the stone and put it in place without any charge. On the recommendation of the State Markers Committee in 1951, the State Highway Commission placed a metal marker near this Granite marker to indicate the site of Twetty's Fort about three fourths of a mile west of the highway.
The State Highway Commission acting again for the State Markers Committee placed a metal marker on the Tates Creek pike in 1952 to indicate the site of the birthplace (1809) of Christopher (Kit) Carson. Some years earlier Dr. James Carson of Calhoun, Georgia, had a monument erected on the site of his grandfather's birthplace, which was on a hill near the intersection of Tates Creek and Goggins Lane.
In 1951 the National Society of the Colonial Dames in the Commonwealth of Kentucky placed a metal marker on the Richmond-Lancaster pike, a short distance west of Richmond, to mark the site of Hancock Taylor's grave (1774).
The Boone Trail is appropriately marked in the County court- yard with a stone and metal tablet. A similar one is at the inter- section of the upper and lower Boonesborough roads near Boones-
THIS MEMORIAL STANDS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF RICHMOND In MEMORY OF THE FALLEN UNION AND CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.AUG.29,30.1862- AFTER BURIAL FOR NEARLY SIX YEARS IN THE RICHMOND CEMETERY, THE 241 ONION DEAD WERE BEMOVED TO CAMP NELSON NATIONAL CEMETERY, JESSAMINE CO. KENTUCKY, THE SMALLER NUMBER OF SOUTHERN DEAD REMAIN IN THE RICHMOND CEMETERY. "LOVE AND TEARS FOR THE BLUE, TEARS AND LOVE FOR THE GRAY" SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN LEGION OF KENTUCKY. JESSE M. DYKES POST 12. RICHMOND. 1950.
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