USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 26
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As time passed an obstacle arose to retard efforts to purchase the property desired at Boonesborough. In 1939 Congress enacted a law to construct a dam near the mouth of Jessamine Creek where
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that stream empties into the Kentucky River. This construction would flood the Boonesborough area and also destroy the scenic beauty of the river from Lock No. 10 to the proposed Jessamine Creek Dam. Opposition to the construction of this dam reached considerable proportions by 1954. At present Congress is expected to appropriate money to defray the expense of another survey of the Kentucky River in the interests of flood control and naviga- tion. The price of land, therefore, and other conditions delay the purchase of Boonesborough and two other Boone properties to be developed into a Pioneer National Monument. The Association has funds in excess of $80,000, which should be supplemented by the State or Congress (or both) in order to mature plans made by the Daniel Boone Bicentennial Commission in May and June, 1934.
The personnel of the Pioneer National Monument Association has changed greatly since 1934. There have been many deaths and some resignations. The senior author of this volume suc- ceeded Judge Wilson as President soon after his death in 1946. Only one other active member remains-Col. Lucien Beckner. The membership, however, now exceeds twenty men and women of standing and ability equal to the Boone Commissioners who organized the PNMA. The Trust and Savings Bank of Lexington is custodian of the funds of the Association. Mr. Salem Wallace of that bank is Treasurer and Dr. Hambleton Tapp, Assistant to the President of the University of Kentucky, is Secretary .- Report of the Daniel Boone Bicentennial Commission Frankfort, 1936; Mss. of the Pioneer National Monument Association.
THE TRANSYLVANIA CELEBRATION
In 1935, the year following the Boone Bicentennial, the Tran- sylvanians commemorated the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Judge Richard Henderson. The year was also the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the Tran- sylvania Colony. Dr. Archibald Henderson of the University of North Carolina, a great-grandson of Judge Henderson, was the leader in planning and directing the celebration, which was held on October 12, 1935. The weather was very favorable, but the attendance was small compared with that of the Boone Bicenten- nial. The Kentucky Press did give space to the plans of the
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committee and the summer number of the Kentucky Progress Magazine was a "Transylvania Memorial Edition," with a fine likeness of Richard Henderson on the cover, appropriately char- acterizing him fittingly as "The Political Father of Kentucky."
Dr. Henderson and Hon. Tom Wallace of the Louisville Times were the main speakers of the occasion. There was an unfortunate clash of heritary interests in the respective merits of Daniel Boone and Richard Henderson in the responsibility for the settlement of Boonesborough and the founding of the Transylvania Colony. The argument occurred on the platform during the speaking. It was also exhibited later on the grounds and came to reverberate for sometime far beyond the boundary of Kentucky. The intellec- tual joust of these fine gentlemen was most interesting to the spectators, who were hardly competent to judge the merits of the argument. Dr. Henderson, of course, was the champion of the Henderson claims and Mr. Wallace spoke for the Boones, Callaways and their companions, claiming credit for them in settling Boonesborough.
Perhaps Mr. Green Clay, purporting to speak for the Madison County Historical Society, expressed the equal merits of the claim- ants in a letter to the editor of the Richmond Daily Register soon after the celebration. He wrote:
"At Boonesborough, in Madison county, Kentucky, 160 years ago, Daniel Boone and his companions erected a fort. In the same year Richard Henderson and Company established at Boones- borough the beginning of an empire, the birth of Kentucky and the great northwest.
"The Madison County Historical Society takes no position in the controversy which is attracting nation wide attention as to the relative merits of Boone and Henderson in this great adventure. The achievements of both are worthy of the highest commenda- tion. Both were masters at the task each undertook. Boone the explorer. Henderson the empire builder.
"As civilization steadily moved westward from the unknown bowels of ancient Asia the one who plans and provides and the one who ventures into the unknown with banner held high have moved hand in hand. Each indispensable to the other.
"Columbus must needs have a Ferdinand and Isabelle. Wash- ington a Continental Army. The gold miner a 'Grub-Stake' backer.
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Boone a Henderson. It has always been thus.
"Here on the south bank of the Kentucky river the accomplish- ments of Boone and Henderson reached its climax. If there followed failure in the ideals and dreams of either, the failure is attributable to causes over which neither had control.
"That Daniel Boone's activities were picturesque and appealing can not be denied. That Richard Henderson's accomplishments were valuable is self evident. The age old controversy between him who provides and him who accomplishes may be laid here at Boonesborough. Both ventured and both accomplished.
"It is fitting and proper that Boone and Henderson and the brave souls who made up each party, be properly honored at this shrine where the great meadow became the land of the white man because of the activities of Boone and his companions and Hender- son and his companions. It is important that they should be so recognized by all who dwell in the confines of the United States. Boone's and Henderson's feats of daring and accomplishment carved out the present status of this nation in great part. To them is due the credit of advancing civilization westward on this con- tinent.
"At Boonesborough, in 1775, was established a government, in a wilderness, a hostile territory. It opened up a vast fertile land for the use of white men. It blossomed and bloomed and bore fruit which we of later generations enjoy. We should be dearly thankful. We should sincerely honor those brave men who carved out this haven of refuge and hope a realization for use. .. . " See "The Daniel Boone Myth," by Clarence W. Alvord, Journal of the Illinois Historical Society, Vol. XIX, No. 1.
GREEN CLAY
The most lasting contribution of the Transylvanians to the an- niversary on the birth of Richard Henderson and the founding of the Transylvania Colony was a monument placed where the Great Elm sheltered the first legislature and constitution making body in Kentucky. Under this Elm was held the first recorded religious service ever held in Kentucky (May 28, 1775). The four large, bronze tablets on the monument (see illustration page 16) relate the four most important events at Boonesborough during the few years after the arrival of the Transylvanians in April, 1775. (See Chapter XVII.)
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The Transylvanians also celebrated at Henderson, Kentucky, in 1935. Many bronze tablets in public places give information re- lating to the achievements of the pioneers there. In this con- nection, it should also be related that Virginia and North Carolina so appreciated the service of the Transylvania Company in open- ing up the West to settlement that the Old Dominion gave the Company 200,000 acres of land on the Ohio, and the Tar Heel State gave the members an equal area on the Cumberland where Nashville soon developed.
THE MADISON SESQUI-CENTENNIAL
As the sesqui-centennial of the organization of Madison County approached (1786-1936) plans to commemorate the County's history were expressed. Rather late in 1933 a Madison County Historical Society was organized, one objective being the en- couragement of a county celebration in 1936. Futile efforts were made early in 1936 for such an event. The President of the Society did publish, late in the year, a considerable volume, Old Cane Springs: A Story of the War between the States in Madison County, in commemoration of the County's eventful history.
Conditions were more favorable for a celebration in 1937. A Madison County Sesqui-Centennial Committee with twenty-two sub-committees was organized and an elaborate program planned. Mr. B. E. Willis was made General Chairman, Dr. W. J. Moore became President of the Historical Society and the senior author of this book was recognized as the general historian of the oc- casion. The eighteen page, nine by twelve inch program contains the names of more than 200 persons on the many sub-committees. The John B. Rogers Producing Company was engaged to direct and state "The Progress of the Years" on October 13, 14, 15 as the main event of the celebration. This late date was selected so that College students and band could be enlisted.
The committee chosen to aid the Rogers Producing Company were:
Pageant Master John W. Hutchins
Community Chorus Drector Thomas Stone
E. K. S. C. Band James E. Van Peursem
Historian
J. T. Dorris
Narrator
Rev. Frank N. Tinder
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Community Chorus Accompanist Miss Brown E. Telford
Rehearsal Accompanist Mrs. Frank Barnett
Grounds Superintendent W. A. Ault
Chief Electrician
Pat Allen
Sound Engineer G. M. Brock
Master of Riding Horses Lem Rowlette, J. A. Arbuckle
Master of Rolling Stock Oscar Harrison, Bob Bruce
Stage Technician Dr. D. W. Rumbold
Military Commander Major Charles W. Gallaher
Costumes Miss Louise Rutledge
Secretary Mrs. Alex Herrington
Besides the twenty-two sub-committees there were scores of persons actually engaged in the action of the drama. Miss Margaret Steele Zaring (now Mrs. William McMillan) was chosen Queen of the County, and Miss Allie Frances Wilson (now Mrs. Curtis Burnam), Miss Columbia. Eight other young ladies were Maids of honor in the impressive parade of floats that passed from the College campus to Main Street and returned. Forty-eight ladies represented the States of the Union. Miss Beatrice Todd was "Creation Ballet" with forty "Creation Girls."
Then there were three "Indian Chiefs"-and nine "Braves." Space does not permit the inclusion of the names of all the many persons who impersonated characters of the past represented in the pageant-pioneer men and women, and nearly 100 Negroes whose spiritual melodies in Episode VII were thrilling and uplifting.
Appropriate religious exercises were observed on the Sabbath closing the celebration, the Richmond Daily Register printed an illustrated number describing the events, historical exhibits were in store windows downtown, and in other respects the history of the County was emphasized. The great drama by the Rogers Produc- ing Company was the main feature of the celebration.
"The Progress of the Years," staged for three nights, began with scenes portraying the "Dawn of History," a symbolic episode in- terpreting nature at play. The second episode illustrated the hunting ground of the Indians and the advent of the white man who determines to settle the region. Episode III portrayed the arrival of Daniel Boone, his axemen, and other settlers in April, 1775, the meeting of the first legislative assembly in Kentucky, the capture of the Callaway girls and Jemima Boone and the
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rescue of the girls, the wedding of Betsy Callaway and Samuel Henderson, a member of the rescue party. Episode IV gave the siege and successful defense of Fort Boonesborough in September, 1778. Episode V described the organization of the County in August, 1786, and the removal of the county-seat from Milford to Richmond in 1798. The next Episode (VI) portrayed the leaving of a company of cavalry in 1846 with James C. Stone in command to participate in the Mexican War. The Negroes played well their part in the drama (Episode VII) when they appeared from three positions singing such songs as they sang during the moonlight corn- huskings described in Old Cane Springs, a second edition of which was published in 1937 as a part of the celebration.
Madison County's beginning in higher education was given in Episode VIII, with the founding of Berea College. Central Uni- versity was described in the printed program but omitted in the drama. Episode IX was devoted to the founding of the Eastern Kentucky State College. The Battle of Richmond (which should have been given earlier ) was dramatized in Episode X. The boom- ing of cannon and the firing of rifles from two approaching posi- tions in the distance had a terrifying effect on the audience as the noise suggested the scenes of the sanguinary battle of August 30, 1862. Four companies of Eastern's Reserve Officers Training Corps participated in this sham battle.
Madison County has long witnessed fox hunting. In 1927 the National Fox Hunt was held here. Episode XI, therefore, was given to this sport. Martha and Rifle were the names of the first fox hounds in the County. They were obtained by Jason Walker of Madison from the kennels of the Duke of Buccleuch, England, in 1853. Their progency may still be found in the County.
Eastern's Reserve Officers Training Corps gave drill exercises in Episode XII, to commemorate the County's part in World War I. Episode XIII illustrated America as the "Melting Pot of the World," where peoples from all nations have been uniting to bring forth a nation committed to the solution of the many problems of mankind.
The finale of the drama was called "The Wheel of Life." It was a gigantic closing spectacle in which a living wheel of persons was formed to emphasize the slogan of Progress: "May Forward be our Watchword; our goal, Perfection."
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The historian closed his long account of the "episodes" in the program with these words: "The history of Madison County is still in the making, and the next few years are to witness im- portant events in the history of the County. The time has come when there is an urgent need for expansion and new industries, and this desirable condition will be brought about as soon as the people become conscious of the great possibilities for progress in their community."
Every evening's program closed with the singing of The Star- Spangled Banner to music played by the Eastern Kentucky State College band.
BEREA'S CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
In December 1951, Dr. W. D. Weatherford proposed to Presi- dent Hutchins that the central element in Berea's Centennial Cele- bration should be a great outdoor drama setting forth the wonder- ful character and ability of the Southern Appalachian Mountain people. There was much heart burning and hesitation over this project, for it was so large and demanded so much effort that many feared to undertake it.
It involved the building of an outdoor theater costing one hundred thousand dollars. It involved getting a great writer, who knew the mountain people and also Berea College and who believed intensely in both. Paul Green is that person. It involved assembling a company of one hundred teachers, alumni and na- tive students, who not only had some dramatic training and ability, but who were willing to dedicate an entire summer to this big task.
Dr. Weatherford set forth the three great purposes of such a drama.
1. There was a desire to make all America aware of the wonder- ful qualities of the "Appalachian People." These people have been hidden away in these mountain fastnesses for nearly three hundred years, and few Americans know of their sterling character. Many stories have played up their eccentricities, and their peculiar customs. Berea colleges has helped educate thousands of them and they are believed to be as fine as America holds. The hardness of mountain life has toughened their bodies, and the granite of the hills has entered into their souls. Berea's Drama, Wilderness Road, attempts to set all this forth.
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Indian Fort Theatre: designed by John C. Lippard; constructed by McCord and Todd, Richmond; for Paul Green's "Wilderness Road"; directed by Samuel Seldon; T. E. Cronk, general manager; with Dr. W. D. Weatherford, originator and promoter. Photograph by Matson Studio, Berea.
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2. Berea knows what a struggle it often is for a mountain boy or girl to get away to college and get an education. The needs of the mountain home, and sometimes the atmosphere of the com- munity with regard to advanced education, make going to col- lege a real adventure for thousands of young people.
Berea believes that if these young people can be awakened to the richness of their heritage, and shown what education can really do for them they will make the fight to get an education. This, Wilderness Road hopes to do. In so doing it is thought that Berea will be cooperating with every college in the mountains which is striving to inspire mountain youth, and kindle their desire for education.
It is hoped that thousands of boys and girls after seeing this play, will determine that cost what it may-they must go to college.
3. For a hundred years, Berea has been educating fifteen hundred students annually without any tuition fees. But there are thousands who have applied whom Berea could not accept. These boys and girls cannot go to expensive colleges, and the independent moun- tain colleges must have help if they are to survive. If sixty-thousand Americans can see the Wilderness Road drama each year for the next ten years, it is believed these Americans will do something about meeting this need. Most people in America would be in- terested if they could see Berea's wonderful students in action.
To prove the case, six volumes on mountain life have been published setting forth in historical form the culture of the peo- ple. A number of other volumes including this one, have been inspired by this drama, all of which set forth the worth and the need of the highland people.
CHAPTER XXIII Old Homes
INTRODUCTION
The material of this chapter is largely a condensation of a manuscript entitled OLD HOMES OF MADISON COUNTY, KEN- TUCKY, prepared by the late Mrs. James W. Caperton of Rich- mond, and presented by her as an address to the Boonesborough Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in January, 1930. The selections included have been used by permission of Mrs. Paul Burnam, the daughter of Mrs. Caperton.
Some changes have been made in the material taken from the manuscript, but as far as seemed practicable it has been left in the language and style in which Mrs. Caperton wrote it. A. small amount of material from other sources has been included. Where such is used it is blended with the larger text without separate identification, since in all such instances the spirit and purpose of the two parts were essentially the same. The reader may consider in general, then, that the chapter is largely the author of the old manuscript speaking.
A problem in editing the chapter has been the element of time as a point of reference. Mrs. Caperton, writing in 1930, quite naturally wrote of places and people as they were or had been with reference to that date. Inevitably, however, some of the conditions of houses and ownership described by her as existing in 1930 have been superseded by other conditions in 1955. The editor has been faced with the dilemma of bringing such references up to date or of leaving the reader to make his own corrections. In some instances of this kind the text has been modernized by parenthetical statements. In others the reader may need to remem- ber that he is reading history as it appeared twenty-five years ago, not necessarily as it is today, and to adjust his understanding ac- cordingly.
In his book entitled A GLIMPSE AT HISTORIC MADISON COUNTY AND RICHMOND, KENTUCKY, published in 1934, Dr. Jonathan Truman Dorris, the author and compiler of this volume, makes the statement that "'My Old Kentucky Home' might
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just as well be sung about numerous old homes in Madison County, for many stately mansions, built more than a hundred years ago, still stand to intrigue the imagination and stir the emotions." Readers of this chapter-and even more, chance readers of its more detailed and leisurely parent manuscript-will become in- creasingly aware that there are indeed, and have been, many Madison County homes that are the objects of a romantic senti- ment and nostalgia as intense as that which gathers around the Bardstown home of Foster's inspiration or its mythical counterpart within the song itself.
Of many of the earliest pioneer homes of the hewn-log era, one may sing not only "My Old Kentucky Home," but "My Old Ken- tucky Home, good night. for they have vanished utterly, gone with the winds of time, with often not so much as a stone or a grass- grown site to mark where they stood. Others among them, as Mrs. Caperton frequently notes, were incorporated within more elaborate buildings of later times, and have thus continued a sort of dim existence within the newer walls, their identity largely lost, however, except to inquiring historians. Fortunately, how- ever, some of the old log houses remain intact and serviceable in the presence of the more pretentious homes that succeeded and replaced them, camouflaged with weather-boarding and ells, but with their characteristic two-story outlines and massive stone chimneys still attesting their honored antiquity.
As for those more ambitious structures of brick and stone that rose on the ground where the simple log houses had stood, some of these also have fallen victims to the vicissitudes of change-of progress, perhaps. They have been converted to other uses or torn away to make room for smaller residences, public buildings, hos- pitals, churches, or business places on a busy street. Of those that remain, a few stand withdrawn and apart from the life of the present -- isolated and lonely-neglected in the midst of their former great estates or at the end of a street that was once a private drive- way leading from a main street or turnpike up through spacious grounds to a portico topped with Doric or Ionic columns.
But, like many of the older pioneer structures, some of these later homes, more than a century old sometimes, still stand in stately dignity, their grandeur kept undimmed either by friends of their former greatness, or by newcomers whose feeling for the way of
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life enshrined within these houses has prompted strangers to pur- chase and furnish them again in keeping with their proud tradition.
Mrs. Caperton's manuscript, as edited, abridged, and supple- mented with some additional related material, makes up the re- maining pages of this chapter.
THE LOG HOUSE ERA
The homes of Madison County have been built and sustained by that splendid race of people who crossed the Alleghenies in the decades following the building of Fort Boonesborough in 1775, to found new homes in the wilderness of Kentucky for themselves and their descendants.
The pioneers to Kentucky were a representative people, con- versant with the culture and development of the Atlantic seaboard. They had known and enjoyed the mansions of Virginia built be- fore the Revolutionary War on the Potomac, the James, and the Rappahannock rivers, and the Maryland beyond the Potomac.
Even before the danger of the Indians had ceased, those at Fort Boonesborough began to build homes for themselves of the ma- terial at hand-logs for the walls, and stone for the rough stone chimneys. Colonel Nathaniel Hart, president of the Transylvania Company, when killed by the Indians, had been living in his own house near the fort, and had already selected a site for a larger home where the village of Red House now stands. He had an- nounced that he would call his new home Red House in honor of his ancestral mansion beyond the mountains. He and his wife now sleep in graves marked only by field stones, in the old Lisle burial ground across the pike from the old Lisle home.
Very soon the pioneers began to build double log houses of hewn logs. At first the space between the two great square log rooms was left open and called a "dog-trot." Then the ends were inclosed to make a hall. Usually an inclosed stairway led up from each room to the room above. Then the time came when a stairway was placed in the hall, and the hewn logs were weather-boarded. The windows had small panes of glass; and in the family room there was cut a small square window beside the open fireplace, called a "knitting window."
Fortunately, a great many of these houses have been preserved through the century or more that has elapsed since their building.
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They have made delightful homes-warm in winter and cool in summer. They have been surrounded by beautiful trees, shrubbery, honeysuckle, and roses. The pioneers were lavish planters, and every old homestead had its flower garden, as well as vegetable garden with its bed of herbs. Stepping stones also went with these pioneer homes, and lilac hedges bordered the walks. Each home had its own burial ground, usually approached through the flower garden.
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