USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 19
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Granite Memorial for the Union and Confederate dead on the Battlefield of Richmond, U.S. 25, south of Richmond.
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BATTLE OF RICHMOND. KY. August 29~30, 1862.
Confederates: 12.000 Infantry, 4.000 Cavalry Federals: 1000 Infantry GENERALS Confederate, E. Kirby Smith Federal. William Acison. M. D. Manson LOSSES Confederate. 75' killed. 200 wounded Federal, 206 killed, 844 wounded . 4.303 prisoners (many mon escaped) y pieces of artillery : 10.000 stands of small arms large quantity of supplies.
Historical Marker, on the Battlefield of Richmond, U.S. 25, south of Richmond.
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borough. About two years ago the Madison County Fiscal Court had a tablet placed on the David R. Francis pioneer monument on the southeast corner of the courthouse square, giving the important achievement of that native Kentuckian.
The Madison County Fiscal Court provided recently (late in May, 1955) for three historical markers in the County. They had been recommended for some time by the senior author and a com- mittee appointed earlier to consider an offer by the Sewah Studios of Marietta, Ohio, which has already one marker ready for the site on Route 25 south of town, where the granite memorial marker mentioned above stands. The marker which is shown in this volume will give information about the Battle of Richmond. On the reverse side of this and two other markers approved by the Fiscal Court for the County is a historical map of Madison County, which appears in the senior author's A Glimpse of Historic Madison County and Richmond, Kentucky, and in this volume.
Another Fiscal Court marker to be placed on the much marked place south of Richmond will indicate the site of Fort Estill, which was also near Route 25. These five marks (stone and metal) will make this spot south of Richmond one of the most (if not the most) historically marked places in Kentucky. Fortunately the markers are on a long, wide space along U. S. 25, where many cars can park at one time.
Another historical marker sponsored by the Madison County Fiscal Court and made by the Sewah Studios will be placed this summer on the Richmond-Lancaster pike to indicate the site of Milford. This first county seat of Madison was about a mile off the present pike and four miles from Richmond.
IN THE FUTURE
A marker should be placed on the Richmond-Lexington pike to indicate the home of General Green Clay and his distinguished son, Cassius Marcellus. A tablet should be placed on University Hall on Eastern's campus giving information about Central University. The birthplace of Samuel Freeman Miller, the most able member of the United States Supreme Court from 1862-90 should also be marked. The site of Milford should receive a stone just as the site of Twetty's Fort was marked by the Boonesborough Chapter of the D.A.R. in the 1930's.
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There are historic places in and near Berea that deserve such consideration and doubtless will be marked in the near future. The Clay's Ferry bridge across the Kentucky River on the Richmond- Lexington pike is historical enough to be thus indicated. The sites of some of the old academies and churches might well be marked and certainly the places in the Richmond Cemetery where Union and Confederate soldiers were buried after the Battle of Richmond should receive appropriate stones. There is much of this kind of historical appreciation that the citizens of Madison County and the County's Fiscal Court should express in some concrete form.
CHAPTER XVII
Museums
EASTERN'S MEMORIAL
In such historical environment as Madison County museums are likely to be found. This condition is becoming more noticeable every- where, and their educational value is generally recognized. Three hundred museums were established in the United States between World Wars I and II. The Memorial Museum on the Campus in Richmond was probably not counted in this number, though it had its beginning in October, 1926, when the senior author of this volume spoke on the subject of the Educational Value of a Museum to the students and faculty of Eastern in the auditorium of historic University Hall-a most fitting place for such a pronouncement.
There was a museum in Richmond, however, in the time of Central University (1874-1901). Its development began with the growth of the University in 1874-75. The number of exhibits in- creased during the life of the school in Richmond and space was sometimes given to it in the catalogs of the University.
The Memorial Museum in Richmond was housed for a time in the wide corridor on the top floor of the Administration Building of the College. In the autumn of 1953 it was moved to a large room (25 by 63 feet ) on the ground floor of the new Science Building, where it has grown considerably with the acquisition of many new cases and exhibits to fill them. Adjacent space will also be occupied when needed.
The mention of a few exhibits will indicate the College's appreci- ation of the educational value of preserving and exhibiting items of historical significance in Kentucky's history and from the world at large. Among the valuable books on exhibition is a copy of the third edition (1652; the first was in 1614) of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, bound in human skin. In a case with it is William Penn's Treatise on Oaths published (1675) in a futile effort to cause Parliament to relieve the English from the necessity of swear- ing in the name of God when they testified in court and took oaths on other occasions. The same case holds a Bible printed, in 1615, by Robert Barker, who had printed the King James Version in 1611.
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Near this Bible is Doctor Samuel Johnson's Taxation No Tyranny, published (1775) in the defense of Lord North's American colonial policy which precipitated the Revolutionary War. Not far away is a copy of Belgarde's Voyages (1708), a French work with a map showing California as a large island, and the Mississippi River rising much too far north and flowing into the Gulf of Mexico where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf. In another case is a copy of Father Jerome's Bible, prepared in the thirteenth century (the 1200's ), long before the invention of printing (about 1450). Its leaves are vellum and bound with boards. These are only a very few of the many rare, old volumes which enhance the visitor's in- terest in the Museum.
There are many manuscripts of historical value in the Museum. Perhaps the most interesting is a large parchment concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, with the wax seal of Pope John XXII attached to it. It was written in August, 1319. A few inches away is an incunabulum (a book printed before 1501) con- taining 500 letters of Pope Pius II (1458-64), published (July, 1486) in Nuremberg, Germany. They were written before the clergyman was elected Pope. Another valuable manuscript is the pardon of a Kentucky Confederate signed by President Andrew Johnson, late in 1865. It is a loan by Attorney John Muir of Bardstown. A business transaction in Louisiana of several large pages, signed by persons (with wax seals attached) in 1817, is an unusually interesting docu- ment.
The Museum has many photocopies of valuable, original, historic papers. The Mayflower Compact (1620, really from William Bradford's manuscript History of Plymouth Colony), the Funda- mental Orders of Connecticut (1639), Connecticut's Charter of 1662, Washington's only commission (June 19, 1775) as commander- in-chief of the armies of the United Colonies and (later after July 4, 1776) the armies of the United States during the Revolution, various documents pertaining to the Revolution, papers relating to the restoration of the Confederates to their rights and privileges during and after the Civil War, the Lincoln Cathedral Copy (1215) of the Magna Carta, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and many other important manuscripts are very instructive.
Exhibits of more enduring substances are numerous. A helmet worn by a Saracen crusader was received the day this item was
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written. It was obtained in England by Colonel Frank H. Wilcox, Eastern graduate and (1955) commander of the Rescue Air Post at Sembach, Germany. Ireland has furnished a Spanish-Morrocan, flintlock musket, used in the rebellion against England in 1798. Returning veterans from World War II have deposited trophies in the Museum. There are also trophies from World War I. Mrs. Clark Kellogg of Richmond has recently (1954) donated a drum made in 1789 and carried with General Green Clay's army as it marched from Lexington to the Maumee River Valley, in 1813, to avenge the "Massacre of the Raisin." The two-edged knife with which Cassius M. Clay mortally wounded Cyrus Turner during the cam- paign to elect delegates to the State constitutional convention of 1849 has historical significance; while a cinder from the crater of Japanese Mount Fujiama directs attention to the Orient. Many other exhibits of Japanese origin also intrigue the interest of visitors. A four-shelved, glass case contains twenty-two beautiful, hand-painted, old apothecary jars from many lands, contributed by Mr. Fred Kluth of the apothecary shop in the Brown Hotel, Louis- ville. Another case is filled with items pertaining to Boonesborough and Daniel Boone. Mexican and American Indian artifacts increase the value of the Museum. Two Babylonian tablets, antedating the Birth of Christ some 2,000 years, and a piece of papyrus (600 BC) from Egypt indicate remote regions from which exhibits are being received. A boomerang from Australia and a water buffalo's horns from the Philippines give proof that American soldiers have been in those parts of the world.
Perhaps the most valuable and rarest item in the Museum is a Revolutionary soldier's uniform, worn by Captain John Boggs of the Delaware Militia. It was contributed by Mrs. Jerre B. Noland of Madison County, a great-granddaughter of Captain Boggs. Even the Director of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington claimed (1954) that such an exhibit was not in that National Museum. Two rare bed covers, made in 1787 and 1845, respectively, and a piece of another bed cover made by Mrs. John Proctor, whose "expectancy" kept her from being executed for witchcraft, in 1691, at Salem, Massachusetts, show the handicraft of women at different times. But an elaborate dress worn by Mrs. Cassius M. Clay when she and her husband were introduced to the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, at St. Petersburg in 1862, attracts nearly every visitor. It was probably
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made by Queen Victoria's tailor while the Clays were in London on the way to Russia. Mrs. Frank Clay, a granddaughter of the Clays gave it to the Museum.
All these exhibits and hundreds of others-Civil War trophies, beautiful shells, stones of geological importance, wood carvings, pictures of historic places and persons, etc .-- with items in the Berea College Museum described below, enhance the otherwise historical aspects of Madison County.
BEREA COLLEGE GEOLOGY MUSEUM
Berea College Geology Museum surpasses in its beauty and edu- cational value the majority of college and university museums in the United States. It is the result of thirty-five years of painstaking work by Dr. Wilbur Greeley Burroughs, Head of the Geology De- partment of Berea College, aided by Mrs. Mavis R. Burroughs.
The museum occupies a large and prettily decorated tile-floored room in the southwest corner, main floor of the Science Building. Windows on two sides of the room and numerous electric lights fur- nished ample illumination. Exhibition cases extend along two sides, double cases with aisles between occupy the main section. An open exhibition shelf beneath the windows along the entire west side, holds rock specimens too large to be placed in the cases.
On exhibition are all of the common rocks, minerals, ores, fossils, and precious and semi-precious stones. Ripple-marks and sun- cracks in sandstones formed hundreds of millions of years ago, geodes, concretions, petrified woods are on the open shelf. Among the fossils are fossil-fish from Africa, dinosaur tracks, gastrolith from a dinosaur, petrified coral from Madison County proving that at one time this section of Kentucky was covered by a warm, tropical sea. Nearby are modern coral from the South Pacific to compare with the ancient petrified forms of the Berea Region. There are car- bonized ferns and imprints and casts of trees of the Carboniferous Period. From formations near the Indian Fort are cephaloids en- closed in concretions. There are models to scale of dinosaurs in clay and carved in wood, small bronze figures of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, Indian relics, and carved in limestone during colonial days, the names of two Kentucky pioneers. Framed geologic maps in color of the states from which most of the college students come are on the walls. Also there are photographs of re-
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constructions of dinosaurs, Mesozoic amphibians, scenes of the Berea Region and other subjects. Under glass are scale models of Indian Fort Mountain and Basin Mountain. Another model shows a cross-section of the Berea strata and topography through West Pinnacle to East Pinnacle.
THE BEREA CENTENNIAL MUSEUM
As a fitting part of the Centennial Celebration of Berea College, a museum of pioneer and early Kentucky items and curios has been assembled by that institution during the spring of 1955, under the direction of Miss Bess Gilbert, College Librarian.
Basically centered around a nucleus of items amassed by Dr. Silas Cheever Mason, an early Berea College extension worker, the collection was stored in various attics and unused rooms of college buildings until the time of Dr. James Watt Raine, who became curator of the College. On the year of his retirement Dr. Raine with Miss Gilbert removed the items from their places of storage and centered them in the vault of the College Library.
At the beginning of the Centennial Year the Centennial Com- mittee of the college approved the special display of these items in a special museum to be established on the main floor of the library building. It is to be included in the itinerary of a general tour of the college campus, planned for tourists and guests during the summer months of 1955.
As of the preparation of this article, there was not yet a full catalogue of exhibits, but a partial list will include a bull-tongue plow, a reaping cradle, a broad-axe, a saddler's vice, a froe (used to split shingles ) several handmade planes and other carpenter's tools, several skein-winders, old cooking utensils, such as trivets and spoders, an old waffle-iron, and many others.
The museum possesses a very old bear-trap, a grease lamp, a size- able collection of old model guns and cartridges, and related items.
Of chief rarity and value is the dress sword of General Cassius M. Clay, presented to him after his return from the Mexican War, and several extremely rare books: a Venegar Bible, printed 1770, an edition of Johnson's Dictionary in two volumes, 1755, and a copy of Beaumont and Fletcher's "Comedies and Tragedies" dated 1647.
For the Centennial Display the collection has been augmented
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
by valuable gifts from Dr. E. E. Curry of Winchester, and from the possessions of Furgesson Moore, an early trustee, given by Mrs. Etta Moore Washburn. Loans have also been made by the relatives of the late Elizabeth Lee Harrison, of possessions of Elisha Harrison, also an early trustee of the college.
CHAPTER XVIII
Lodges
MASONRY IN MADISON COUNTY
In the year 1800, five Masonic Lodges in central Kentucky owing allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Virginia, Free and Accepted Masons, petitioned and received from that Grand Lodge a charter to form the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, F. & A. M.
During the next twelve years Freemasonry, despite the rigors of frontier life, the handicap of the worst of travel facilities and many other things, blossomed and burst into full bloom in the central part of the new commonwealth, even with a heavy toll exacted by the War of 1812 in which many Kentucky Masons were killed. It should be noted that a great number of the charter members of the Madison County Masonic Lodges were themselves veterans of this war between the United States and England.
By the summer of 1812, twenty-four lodges had been chartered by the Grand Lodge whose office was in Lexington, and on August 27, 1812 nine men from the small settlement of Richmond petitioned the Grand Lodge for a Charter U.D. (Under Dispensation). The Dispensation was granted, naming Dr. Anthony W. Rollins, Master; Thomas C. Howard, Senior Warden and David Christopher Irvine, Junior Warden. Robert R. Burnman in his book History of Masonry in Madison County 1812-1913 says this, "As Dr. Rollins was chosen Master he must have been the moving spirit in the organization. His interest was no doubt stimulated by the possession of an old Masonic Demit granted to his Uncle James Rollins by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1768 just before his departure for America."
Because of the limited travel facilities it is evident that it was necessary for the new Richmond Lodge to work a full year under dispensation before its charter could be granted, therefore, it was not until August 27, 1813 that the lodge was set to work before the Grand Lodge of Kentucky by Grand Master Anthony Butler. Thomas C. Howard was installed the Master. During its year under dispensation eleven new names had been added to the roster.
It is not known where the Lodge met during the first few years of its existence, but after the organization of the First Presbyterian
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Church in 1827 the lodge met in the second story of that building.
During the early days of Freemasonry in Kentucky it was the custom to hold election of officers twice a year. Among American Freemasons there are two festivals in the Masonic year. On June 24th the Feast of St. John the Baptist is celebrated and on December 27th that of Saint John, the Evangelist, and it was on these occasions that new officers were elected and installed. Because of this custom, many of the charter members became officers and presided over the lodge in the short space of a few years.
All was not well within the body of the lodge, for in the year 1821, just eight years after Richmond Lodge No. 25 was put to work, a number of its members withdrew and petitioned the Grand Lodge for a Charter U.D. to form another lodge in Richmond. It is not recorded just what happened, but it is to be noted that when the petition was granted, the first Master designated was a John Tribble who first appeared on the rolls of Richmond Lodge No. 25 in the annual return to the Grand Lodge of 1815-1816. In the annual re- turn of 1818-1819 he is shown as the Junior Warden of No. 25. In 1821 he, along with others withdrew from No. 25 to form the new lodge. Among this group was David C. Irvine a Past Master of No. 25. It is of special interest that the new lodge was to bear his name.
Both lodges in a village of only 300 under ordinary circumstances would have a most difficult time, but these were not ordinary times. During the year 1814 Pope Pius VII issued his now famous anti-masonic "bull." The war between England and the United States was just over. Ten years later 1824-1826 the paralyzing effect of the deplorable Morgan affair began its subtle penetration of the central part of the nation. The anti-masonic spirit became so venomous that an anti-masonic political party was formed and in 1832 nominated a William Wirt of Maryland as its candidate for President of the United States. Without question, all of this outside disturbance along with internal strife within the body of both lodges caused both to lose their charters the same year, 1834.
In 1839 Richmond Lodge No. 25 was reorganized and given its old number. From that date until now it has never ceased to work.
Because this space is limited, no effort will be made to list all of the great personages who have been members of our Madison County lodges, but it seems essential to tell something of Madison County's first Masonic Grand Master.
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John Speed Smith was a charter member of Richmond Lodge No. 25, having been initiated June 5, 1813. He served as its 3rd Master in 1814. Robert R. Burnam, himself a Past Grand Master says this: "John Speed Smith was probably one of the most distinguished members of Richmond Lodge." He was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, July 31, 1772, received his education in the schools of that county and graduated from Transylvania College in Lexington. At an early age he moved to Richmond where he entered the prac- tice of law. When word came to Richmond that the United States had again been forced to go to war with England, he entered the service of his country, and eventually served on the staff of General Harrison as a Colonel. After the war he entered politics and was elected to the General Assembly ten times from Madison County. He was speaker of the lower house in 1827. He entered national politics with his election to congress during the Monroe administra- tion. In 1824 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, F.&A.M.
Since the election of John Speed Smith in 1824, Madison County has been continuous in its service to the Grand Bodies of Free- masonry in Kentucky, having furnished the Grand Lodge with seven Grand Masters, the Grand Chapter with six Grand High Priests and the present Grand Secretary, the Grand Council with the present Grand Recorder and Grand Captain of the Guard, the Grand Commandry with four Grand Commanders, a Grand Treas- urer and the present Grand Warden Of these, three have served in more than one grand body. Robert R. Burnam served as Grand High Priest in 1903, as Grand Commander in 1904 and as Grand Master in 1910. John Speed Smith, Jr., served as Grand Master in 1892 and as Grand High Priest in 1899. Charles A. Keith served as Grand Master in 1940 and as Grand High Priest in 1951.
Again, time and space alloted will allow only brief notes as to the various Masonic organizations that have been formed at various times in Madison County during the last century. The Grand Lodge comprises: Richmond Lodge No. 25, Chartered 1813, 1st Master, Thomas C. Howard; Irvine Lodge No. 69, Chartered 1821, 1st Mas- ter, John Tribble; Madison Lodge No. 183, Chartered 1840, 1st Mas- ter, Allen R. Patterson; Moss Lodge No. 254, Chartered 1853, Ist Master, John Kinnard; Kingston Lodge No. 315, Chartered 1855, 1st Master, John W. Parks; Waco Lodge No. 338, Chartered 1856,
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GLIMPSES OF HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
1st Master, General Green Clay Smith; Daniel Boone Lodge No. 454, Chartered 1867, Ist Master Ben T. Gentry; J. D. Hamilton Lodge No. 578, Chartered 1867, Ist Master, Webber H. Sale; Berea Lodge No. 617, Chartered 1882, Ist Master, N. D. Wilmot; Pilot Lodge No. 779, Chartered 1906, 1st Master, Thomas J. McKeehan; Valley View Lodge No. 792, Chartered 1906, Ist Master, John W. Moore.
Of these eleven Madison County Masonic Lodges, only Richmond No. 25, Madison 183, Kingston 315, Waco 338, J. D. Hamilton 578, and Berea 617 still work. All others are victims of changing times.
At the present time, in the city of Richmond, a Master Mason may fulfill his desire to become a full York Rite Mason, since every degree and order of the Rite is holden there. Richmond Chapter No. 16, Royal Arch Masons.
On December 4, 1822, just nine years after the first charter was issued to Richmond Lodge No. 25, a necessary number of Master Masons petitioned the newly organized Grand Chapter of Kentucky, Royal Arch Masons, to form a Royal Arch Chapter in Richmond. The petition was granted and a Mark Lodge of Masons was put to work. This lodge of Mark Masons continued to work until 1834, the year both Richmond Blue Lodges lost their charters. In 1841, through the effort of Daniel Breck, a Past Master of Richmond Lodge No. 25 and a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, the Chapter was revived and given the number 16. Again, during the War between the states the Chapter ran into difficulty and for several years failed to make its annual return to the Grand Chapter, however, on Monday, October 16, 1865 W. M. Stone of Richmond presented himself before the Grand Chapter which was meeting in Louisville, as a proxy for J. W. Bourne, High Priest of Richmond Chapter No. 16, R.A.M. From that date until this, Richmond Chap- ter No. 16 has never ceased to work. Richmond Council No. 71, Chartered October 22, 1908, 1st Illustrious Master, Robert C. Stock- ton.
This Council was actually set to work on July 24, by M.I. Grand Master John T. Kincaid of Lexington. His report to the Grand Council in October says this in part about the newly organized Richmond Council. "On July 24th, I visited Richmond Council, U.D. in company with Past T.I.M.'s Cramer and Eastin, of Wash- ington Council No. 1 (Lexington), conferred the degrees on a large
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