Kentucky history – Page 2 – that Kentucky girl

RESOURCE: Headwaters, Appalshop on KET

Justice in the Coal Fields

I access TV using a digital antenna because it is free on a relatively reliable signal. The upside is that KET offers a special variety of choices. BBC World News, Kentucky Edition and PBS NewHour is my preferred cocktail for evening media. Occasionally I stumble upon gold in my channel surfing and the series Headwaters by Appalshop is often the source.

This afternoon, I was able to catch some of “Justice in the Coal Fields” a 1995 documentary by Anne Lewis about the 1988 United Mine Workers (Virginia) strike against the Pittston Coal Company that explores a number of themes resonating for Kentucky, as well, including civil disobedience, right-to-work states, justice and the law. And, Appalachian history and culture.

Although dated in all aspects, the film’s interviews and images hit home for me. I do not know of any coal miners in our family, at least not yet in my research. It is more from the spirit and personalities of the people. The character and characters of the community, their sense of community – that is what I remember from my youth. I cannot yet articulate fully how but I am reminded of my family.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/387521543?h=250b58fad8″ width=”640″ height=”480″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

preview of Justice in the Coal Fields

I am grateful there are resources featuring the history, both distant and recent, of the people of Appalachia and beyond. As I am working to create the threads of narrative about my ancestors, I appreciate how these stories are captured. Perhaps even one person will discover someday a missing piece of their own genealogical pursuits in what Appalshop has made available. And, you can stream and purchase episodes of the Headwaters series from KET Passport and from Appalshop.org.

Help with restoration of these treasures

Historic flooding in late July 2022 brought catastrophic damage to the resources held by Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY. Efforts are underway to recover as much as can be saved. Learn more and consider sending contributions to: Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY 41858

January 20, 2023

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A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

RESOURCE: General Index to Deeds, Jessamine County, Ky

I am so lucky to have learned about the land office loot for researching geek outs.

In the earliest of legal records, you will find a certain style of handwritten accounts when transactions became legally binding. Surprisingly few scribbled errors to which I give mad respect, particularly imagining a quill and ink well as the tools. Esoteric terms and colloquialisms in cursive on big pages can be overwhelming at first. Thankfully, at some point, there was a transition to typewritten records, as you see in the photo above, when later those earliest records were indexed.

Make a list using indexes

Here are some things I learned as I fumbled my way through my first visit to a county clerk land office. It happened to be Jessamine County County Clerk’s land records office located in the courthouse, downtown Nicholasville, KY. We arrived on a day when a wonderfully helpful fellow researcher offered up tips. She was in the office for title research and could tell I was without a clue. Soon, I got the basics and took off, as did Dad who wanted to walk around the town a bit. We were both happily engaged in our pursuits so it was a win, win.

First, I learned these indexes are listed alphabetically by surname groups. I started with my parents’ names and opened the Grantee records index first. From these indexes, I was able to note the names of the parties, the year recorded, a Volume and Page reference and a brief description. Usually, this was an acreage notation in the index, if a land record.

After jotting down my list of those references, next I turned to the bound records index of the Grantors – a different set of books. The two sets of lists served as my road map for moving forward in the research. I learned a great deal by trial and error.

Ledger volumes

In essence, you work backwards from the Indexes by compiling a listing of name/volume/page references. Next, to locate the full language of the record, you go pull out the respective volume. The deed records themselves were handwritten on tabloid-size paper and bound into large, heavy volumes. Records were captured chronologically within these oversize ledgers.

In each of the counties I have visited to research, the ledger volumes are stored on open shelving. Some storage space is limited and the older records are not as accessible or prominent. Because I could not possibly stay the length of time it would take to transcribe these resources, I needed to make copies.

Be prepared for a self-service situation in both reaching shelves and copying pages. The preservationist in me was especially careful in handling what was at times a delicate situation with pages showing wear and tear from the years.

My personal preference is to have actual size copies but it is more common to get reduced size pages. Take cash with you for any copies you make. At this time, capturing cellphone images is against Kentucky law so don’t try. This is precisely why I do not have an image to share of the impressive shelving of resources. You just need to go check it out yourself, in person.

One thing I find interesting is how the records have evolved. This county began with Book A~Book Z, then numeral 1 and forward. When you see these listings and references in research, it is safe to assume the oldest records are in volumes at the beginning of the alphabet. It may be helpful to find out what year the county was founded. The evolution of Kentucky’s current 120 counties from the original 3 counties can make this aspect of research a bit daunting. Stick with it, I say.

January 15, 2023

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A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

CEMETERY: Maple Grove (Jessamine Co, KY)

Cutters photographed at her parents’ headstone

Many family members are interred in the Nicholasville cemetery, now known as Maple Grove Cemetery. I have been visiting Maple Grove since the 1970s on special occasions, funerals and otherwise. When I was very young, I could see the cemetery from the porch of Cutters & Granddaddy’s home on Richmond Ave. They lived in this house when they moved to town from Sugar Creek Pike. My grandmother (shown above) could see her own parents’ headstone from that porch. There is something sweet about that to me.

My cousin and I sitting on the porch together of Richmond Avenue home. If the photographer panned right, there you would see Maple Grove.

Maple Grove Cemetery was formed in May 1849 near downtown Nicholasville. The first person to be buried there is named Brown. He had a role in the formation of the cemetery, as well, prior to his death. The original entrance to the cemetery was from Richmond Avenue, known then as Union Mill Road. Very close to that entrance is where my paternal grandmother, a widow, and my maternal grandparents lived as neighbors for a time when my parents met.

*Present-day view from the Fayne headstone looking back at the homes on Richmond Avenue, Nicholasville, Jessamine Co, KY*

I captured images as I walked around the 20+acre grounds on a recent visit to Nicholasville, KY. Most visits, we follow a memorized route from Main Street to Cutters’ & Granddaddy’s headstone. Near there, we can walk to a few other family sites. More recently, I found there are many more ancestors than I’ve ever known buried there, including Cooks, Cormans, Mathews, McQuerrys, and more.

The condition of Brown’s grave fascinates me with its partially destroyed cover stone, the bright flowers and modern marker which was dedicated in 2007 by the Jessamine County Historical Society. I learned the style of stone that covers the entire grave is a full ledger marker. I wonder: were there words on that stone at some point?

Our regular family trips to Nicholasville ceased when Cutters passed in 2014 but I like to stop by Maple Grove whenever I am in the area. With the intention of honoring every single body that now forever rest at Maple Grove – including my ancestors.

Each step on this journey reveals excitement in discoveries but always with a bittersweet tinge for what is lost by never being recorded. The more I learn, the more I realize there is much I can never learn. That is inherent in the work of genealogy.

OBITUARY 1940: John Shanon Mathews (Jessamine Co)

Mayme Cook Mathews & John Shanon Mathews with grandson John Shepherd Mathews taken at the Jessamine County homeplace circa 1929-1930. They were married 53 years and died 37 days apart. Images captured from a family photo album and I believe the handwriting belongs to my grandmother.

MATHEWS

John S. Mathews, 76, died at 8:30 o’clock Wednesday night at the Good Samaritan hospital, Lexington.

Mr. Mathews, a Jessamine county farmer, is survived by two sons, Pleas and Johnny Mathews of Jessamine county; two brothers, the Rev. Joe Mathews, Anderson county and Dr. W. H. Mathews, Nicholasville, and three sisters; Mrs. Celia King, Indianapolis, Mrs. M. P. Land, Lexington and Mrs. Anna Bryant, Danville.

The body has been removed to the Guyn & Kurtz funeral home, wheres services were held at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon, with the Rev. Madison Combs, officiating. Burial was in Maple Grove cemetery.
The Nicholasville News, Wednesday, May 29, 1940

January 11, 2023

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A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

SAR Marker: Kentucky Academy, Pisgah Presbyterian, Woodford Co, KY

On this site stood Kentucky Academy one of the two first institutions of higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains organized by the Presbytery of Transylvania in 1794 by donations received from George Washington, John Adams, John Jay and others. It was preceded by a school established in 1785.

Marker placed 4th July 1949 by Kentucky Society, Sons of the Revolution
Photo credit: C. Mathews, 2022

And there is more to this story. Pisgah Academy, Kentucky Academy – there are more than a few names used in reference to this institution of learning that ultimately joined with an early Transylvania University. Another nearby marker at the corner of Pisgah Pike (KY-1967) and Lexington Road (US-60) states:

Pisgah Church

3/4 Mile —->

Pioneer Presbyterian Church

Organized in 1784

Here Kentucky Academy opened

in 1797. The school united with

Transylvania University in 1798.
Pisgah Church Marker

My 3rd-great grandparents, John Mathews and Sarah Mathews Price, are buried in this church cemetery. I suspect their homestead settlement was somewhere in the vicinity of the church and am working to identify the specific location. The deed references South Elkhorn Creek and both Woodford and Fayette counties.

The three children of John & Sarah – my 2nd-great grandfather William and his two brothers – attended this school (in some iteration) around the 1820s. Would it be safe to assume the family attended this church? Was this the place John Mathews’ mourners gathered in 1814?

A paternal cousin I never knew was married at this church. Apparently a distant McDowell relation served as a minister at this church in the early 1900s. There are many more lines of inquiry to pursue here and I look forward to uncovering more.

Chalk it up to whatever, but for the many years of traveling to and from family visits in the Bluegrass, I have felt something when passing along US-60 where the Kentucky Castle prominently sits at that intersection. When very young, I would light up at seeing my birth year on the highway signage and there is no denying the impact of a castle on the hill. Beyond what is shiny, so to speak, the feeling is something I cannot explain. I have a connection to this area that my conscious mind has yet to identify but my soul already knows. Have you ever experienced this?

January 8, 2023

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A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

PHOTOS: Corman and Bogie (Jessamine County, KY)

Here’s what I learned: These photos are all related and appear to be around the 1920s-1930s. Firstly, my grandmother Fanny Dean is in each one and she is approximately the same age in each. Also, three different members of the Bogie family are featured.

A quick check in ancestry.com & Google search located Betty Dean Bogie, mother of Rella, who lived in Nicholasville, KY the same time as my grandmother and who is buried in Maple Grove cemetery, as are many of my family members, including my grandmother.

My 28yo grandmother was a school teacher early in her career when in November 1930, she married a 36yo widower with a 5yo son. I do not know how they met or reconnected when she returned to Jessamine County from Missouri. Historically, rural one-room schoolhouses served concurrently varying ages of students from the adjacent communities. In those years teaching, Fanny Dean would board with families in a particular area where she taught. This period aligns with the timeline of her life as I understand it. Maybe she resided with the Bogie family during one of those stints. That is one theory.

Another is that Fanny “Dean” and Betty “Dean” may have been relations of some kind. Whether family or patrons, this family was significant to my grandmother. I did not find any references to Hughie in Fanny Dean’s writings but he is also the child of Betty according to some quick ancestry.com searching for connections.

*Rella Bogie with Fanny Dean Corman (Jessamine County, KY)*

*Fanny Dean Corman with Mrs. Betty Bogie (Jessamine County, KY)*

*Fanny Dean Corman with Hughie Bogie (Jessamine County, KY)*

December 30, 2022

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A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

PHOTO: Ring, the farm dog

Love of animals can be inherited, right? I did not have the experience of farm living as most of my extended family did. I did not get to know reliance on other creatures for living as on a farm. I speak from a place of recognition and honor of my own ignorance. I have enjoyed, though, many pets in my life.

My own first pet was a turtle. We got Toby, a Cock-a-Poo (cocker spaniel+poodle) for our family dog in the mid-1970s and numerous pets came and went thereafter. Often, my parents “hosted” – a somewhat reluctant state, if memory serves. An iconic black cat named Puddy Tat lived with me – and a few other kind souls – from new born kitten when I was in college until the birth of my second baby – a good long life of sixteen years. Then, I have a series of stories about the puppy tales from my years mothering my own young ones, but that is a different blog.

Looking at these old photos of family, some featuring the animals of the farm, I wonder about their natures – what manner of beasts. Of course they had personalities, and they had relationships with their humans. Dad has told us stories, like the one about his younger self (not more than 10yo) milking cows at 4am, running into a bull in the dark one morning, and the reaction they both had being startled. Some stories are poignant lessons of surviving on the farm, most are funny as to hear a Mathews tell it. Some are heartbreaking.

*From the family photo album circa 1930*

Take Ring, for example, featured in images from when Mr. and Mrs. John S. Mathews lived in the “big” house, as my Dad recalls first knowing it. Mr. & Mrs. Mathews – they were my Dad’s grandparents, who both died within a month of each other in 1940 when Dad was barely five. They lived to 76yo and 71yo, respectively. Ring served their farm and according to other photos in the family archive, there were possibly two other collie-type dogs well-loved on the farm after Ring.

I doubt Ring was an inside dog. I gather from my father that was NOT a thing back then and ESPECIALLY no where near any kitchen. So, likely Ring slept in the barn or some other cover when it was cold. Ring looks most like a border collie and herding IS a farm job. I imagine I would feel very affectionate for the dogs guarding the homeplace and alerting to visitors, dangers and otherwise. In my memory, there was a long drive from Harrodsburg Road back to the house and included more than one fence gate and crossing a bridge at the creek. In other words, some ground to cover as a runner, whether four or two feet.

Here’s my question: Why is Ring posed solo in a portrait? It suggests to me Ring wasn’t considered just an old farm dog to whomever took the photo. It looks like Ring is smart, eager to please, has something in the mouth and is wearing a collar with a tag. Maybe Ring knew a few tricks, too. “Sit” being a good bet.

Cut to modern days. Now we dress our pets for special occasions, the stores are filled with varying gourmet feed, toy and treat options. I do not leave my pup outside in the cold. He’s always been an inside dog and I have the traveling tumbleweeds of hair and dander to prove no matter how often I run the vacuum. He, too, is a smart dog and I have pictures and video on my phone as evidence. I am certain he would love to run himself out in farm living, as would I.

December 30, 2022

that.Kentucky.girl

A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

PHOTO: The Dauntless Four

*Ira Malcolm Corman, 2nd from right, my granduncle, died 1930 of typhoid fever at 26yo*.

On reverse, the inscription reads:

This is the “Dauntless Four” as all the students call us. We all occupy the same room in the dorm. Reading from left to right we are as follows: Silas Mullen, Otis Marshall, Ira M. Corman and George E. Wilson.
Circa early 1920s. Likely Manhattan, Kansas where Ira attended Bible college.

December 30, 2022

that.Kentucky.girl

A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

HEADSTONE: CORMAN, Eliza Murphy 1872-1896

*Headstone for Eliza Jane Murphy Corman, located at Corman Cemetery, Bethel Pike.*

ELIZA

WIFE OF

SURBER CORMAN

BORN

APRIL 2 1872

DIED

JULY 16 1896

This is a sad kind of realization. If this woman, Eliza Jane Murphy Corman, had not died prematurely, tragically – I would not be here (at least not as I am in this form). In being a mother and protecting the life of her child, she died. She sacrificed by instinct is my guess.

Eliza Jane Murphy was born 1872 in Pleasant Hill, Mercer County, KY. She was 16yo when she married 21yo Surber Corman in Wilmore, KY, January 1889. Their first child, Minnie Pearl, was born March 31, 1890, followed by Roy Sidney in January 1893.

*Surber Harden Corman with first wife Eliza Jane Murphy*

The story goes that 3yo Roy fell into Jessamine Creek, that ran across their family farm, and in attempting to retrieve him, Eliza – who was pregnant with their third child – fell in but saved Roy. She died in July 1896, as did the unborn child, from complications caused by the accident. After only 7 years of marriage, Surber was a widower at 28yo with two young children.

At 34yo, Surber married his second wife, 20yo Martha Jane Bradshaw, in 1901. These were my great-grandparents.

December 27, 2022

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Prescience was it, Pleasant?

Assembling the “ol’ homeplace”

My paternal 2nd great-grandfather was named Pleasant Cook. Not a name I think I’ve ever heard before until researching. But, pleasant. Is it possible to live up to it, though?

He was born at home in 1832 at the Cook Family Home, Harrodsburg Road on the border of Woodford and Jessamine Counties. His mother, Nancy Easley, died when he was 8yo and his father remarried to Pauline Bryant in 1841.

*inscription on back: “farm with Pleas Cook in front of house” circa 1910-1917*

Pleasant worked for 21 years as a carpenter following an apprenticeship to Woodford County carpenter Barry Holloway that began in 1847 when he was 16yo. In 1850, he was employed by Holman R. Crow as a carpenter along with Aaron Crow, George Crow, William Trisler and Neal Wilson.

Two years later, when he was 21, he went out on his own professionally and married Mary Chowning in October, 1852. Over the next 17 years, they had four children: John, Melvin, James, Charles and Mayme (my great grandmother). They farmed 230 acres at this homeplace he assembled over time in the same area as his in-laws.

*My great-great grandparents, Mary Ann Chowning and Pleasant Cook. The image, therefore, appears to be a middle-aged period based. Best guess: circa 1880-1890.*
*If you ask me, his hands suit his vocation. And, it may have been something for mother to hold a handkerchief, book or something – can’t distinguish.*

Pleasant outlived Mary by 8 years after she died in 1909 at 75yo. His wife’s obituary includes a reference to the Cook family as “one of the oldest families of the county.” Pleasant lived to be 86yo and died in August 1917. Grandson Pleas had just registered for the US draft in June 1917.

*The “ol’ homeplace” on Jessamine Creek in Jessamine County, Kentucky*
*at the time of my grandparents raising their children, including my father* *circa late 1940s*

With confidence in research validations, I know Pleasant Cook and Mary Chowning to be my great-great grandparents. From Pleasant, I am working my way further along his tree including his father named Thomas Cook, mother Nancy Easley (surname also found in my maternal grandmother’s tree) and possibly three siblings or more. From the family artifacts collection, there is a handwritten listing of Chowning family and their respective birth, death and marriage dates which will come in handy when I get to that stage of research. The Chownings, along with the Singletons, were early settlers of the area and presumably purchased from surveyor and settler James Douglass. *Research topic for later

According to Jessamine County land records, Pleasant Cook, at 37 yo, was first recorded in 1868 as a grantee of 10 acres for $1,000 by William Singleton. From that date, there are six entries in which Pleasant was a grantee. By tallying the descriptions in those deed records, he acquired more than 222 acres in the 34 years between 1868-1902.

He worked with his hands, creating things of utility and beauty both in the fields and in the workshop. I have been fortunate to have been gifted several pieces that belonged to “the Cooks” as Dad says he was told. Perhaps Pleasant made one of them himself . . .?

I wonder: Did Pleasant have his eye on this particular land for his assemblage into a farm for his family and subsequent generations? Was it the realization of his goals and dreams?

December 24, 2022

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