Tag: Bath

The Owings House – Owingsville, Ky.

The lore surrounding the Owings House in downtown Owingsville is epic.

In 1795, Colonel Thomas Dye Owings was sent from Maryland to Kentucky by his father to operate some of the first iron furnaces in the region. Within fifteen years, Owings had amassed a good deal of wealth and land. Along with Colonel Richard H. Menefee, Owings would found the community that took his name, Owingsville.

Owings and Menefee each owned significant parcels of land in what would become Owingsville. To select whose name the community would take, the two men wagered that the man who built the finer home the quickest would be the namesake of the town. For the sum of $60,000, Owings won the contest. (Menefee, a good politician and acclaimed orator – the “Patrick Henry of the West” – died a pauper, his greatest legacy being a Kentucky county which bears his misspelled name).

Although there is no concrete evidence, it is widely believed that the Maryland native retained Washington, D.C. architect Benjamin Latrobe to design the Owings House. Some features of the property remind the writer of Latrobe’s work, including the Palladian window over the front door and the spiral staircase inside. In fact, the staircase was constructed in Baltimore and was carried overland by oxen before it was assembled and installed. The staircase alone was $10,000! The Owings House was completed in 1814 and soon was one of the destinations for Kentucky’s political elite.

Another guest of the house, from July 17, 1814 through July 22, 1815, was the exiled Louis Philippe of France (King from 1830 – 1848). This, too, is disputed as some believe that the houseguest was an imposter posing as the young Frenchman. It is true, however, that Louis Philippe was in Kentucky decades earlier when he lodged at Bardstown’s Talbott Tavern.

During the War of 1812, Owings raised a Kentucky regiment and was commissioned a colonel in the 28th U.S. Infantry. He also served in politics, as sheriff and as a judge. Ultimately, Owings’ business success faltered and he declared bankruptcy before leaving for Texas where he would serve first for Stephen Austin in Texas’ War of Independence before serving the U.S. in the Mexican War. Colonel Owings died and is buried in Texas.

In 1905, the east third of the Owings House was modified and adapted for use as a bank, the Owingsville Banking Company, which remains in operation today. All five bays pictured were part of Owings’ original home which bested Menefee in competition.

Bibliography
Bath County Tourism
National Register of Historic Places.
“Thomas Dye Owings” by W. T. Block

Old Bath County Jail – Owingsville, Ky.

This is an update to a prior post dated April 11, 2011, on the Old Bath County Jail in which I could not confirm that the pictured structure was in fact the old Bath County Jail. In doing research on an upcoming post, I found information confirming that this beautiful structure was Bath County’s jail.
From the National Register (Owingsville Commercial District and Courthouse Square):

The  late-19th-century Bath County Jail  (see photos  6,7  and  site 5)  reverberates, in a  sense,  the massing of  the  courthouse.  This  two-story,  hip-rolled building is also  of brick construction,  and  its  centered square tower has  a pyramidal roof  each side being broken by a pedimented dormer.  The boxed  cornices  of  the building and  tower are  supported by modillions.  Windows of  the  first  floor have pedimented hoodmolds while  those of  the  second are  flat.  To  the  south  is  a  one-story polygonal addition,  and  at  the  rear  is  a  two-story,  shed-roofed appendage.

Bath County’s current jailer, Palmer “Jaybird” Crouch, has held the position since 1973. For the first two years, inmates were still held in this old jail (today, inmates are housed in the Montgomery County Jail). Crouch and his wife resided in the jailer’s quarters attached to the old jail and Crouch’s wife would prepare meals for the inmates until the state determined that the structure was unfit as a jail. [*]

Old Bath County Jail, Owingsville, Ky.

OK. So this place doesn’t look like a jail, but I was told by the local historian on my visit to Owingsville that this was in fact the old Bath County Jail. And Google marks the location as the current “Bath County Jail.”

After a little internet searching, I can’t seem to find much on the building. A challenge to you all!? Help me find out more about this building, which looks like it was designed with (or to mirror) the Bath County Courthouse.

Jack Jouett Historic Marker, Owingsville, Ky.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s immortal poem begins, “Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” His words “one if by land, two if by sea” captured forever Paul Revere into America’s folklore. He is believed a great father of American independence.

But what of the other hero who made a similar ride? In early June 1781, Jack Jouett – asleep in Cuckoo, Louisa County, Virginia – heard British troops and quickly determined their destination: Charlottesville. Jouett took to his horse and rode the 40 miles to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson and the legislature (which had been convened in Charlottesville due to Benedict Arnold’s taking of Richmond).

Arriving hours before the British, Jouett first rode to Jefferson’s home, Monticello, where he successfully warned the Governor and those legislators staying there. Jouett then rode the additional two miles to Charlottesville and warned the balance of the legislature. All but seven legislators successfully escaped thanks to Jouett’s heroics. (Jefferson leisurely stayed at Monticello and escaped himself by horseback with only second to spare, but Jouett definitely warned him!)

Soon after, Jouett moved to Kentucky County. Passing a cabin on his way through the Wilderness Pass, Jouett hears a woman scream. He broke into the cabin only to find her being beaten by her husband and began to separate the two, but the woman defended her husband by taking a cast iron skillet to Jouett’s head. Fortunately, the skillet was of low grade and the bottom fell through, but Jouett rode on until he could find a blacksmith to release the remainder of the pan from his head. [*]

Settling first in what is now Mercer County, Jouett ultimately moved to Woodford County. He served in both the Virginia and Kentucky legislatures on behalf of Kentuckians and he aided in Kentucky’s first constitutional convention. He died while visiting his daughter in what-is-now Bath County and was buried in an unmarked grave at the “Peeled Oak” farm.