Civil War – Page 6 – The Kaintuckeean

NoDestination: Somerset’s Fountain Square & John Sherman Cooper

Fountain Square, the center of Somerset, was restored in 1963 by Senator John Sherman Cooper and his wife, Lorraine. At that time, Cooper was serving his third stint (1946-49, 1952-55 and 1956-73) as a United States Senator from Kentucky. The Senator was a liberal Republican who also served in the Army, in diplomatic posts to the U.N., East Germany and India as well as a member of the Warren Commission.

Cooper voted for the Civil Rights Act, was one of the first senators to stand up to McCarthyism and was instrumental in barring U.S. military operations in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Born in Somerset in 1901, Cooper died in 1991 in Washington. He never forgot his Kentucky roots; from his obituary in the NY Times:

Mr. Cooper worked quietly, avoiding histrionics. He left behind no ringing calls to action, perhaps because he was, by his own admission, “a truly terrible public speaker.” On the rare occasions when he did take the Senate floor, he was often inaudible. He mumbled and swallowed his words, and apparently made no effort to avoid use of Kentucky dialect in which “great” sounded like “grett,” “government” became “guv-ment,” and “revenue” was pronounced “rev-noo.”

He was, however, a man of principle. A man who was elected to serve his constituents and not party leaders. He frequently bucked party leadership to vote his conscience.

Fountain Square is the focal point of Somerset; its center where the Martin Luther King march began and where Somernites car show gathers each summer month. The land is owned by Pulaski County, a determination made following a court order prohibiting the city of Somerset from building a road through the square [cite]. According to the local Commonwealth-Journal, Fountain Square will soon undergo a $1 million renovation complete with improved pedestrian access and a “grand fountain” [cite and cite]. Along with the new Pulaski County Courthouse, it will bring even more activity to this city center.

NoDestination: Ward Hall

Just west of downtown Georgetown on U.S. 460 lies Ward Hall. This 75’x75′ mansion was constructed in 1853 by Junius Ward. Ward, a Mississippi plantation owner, had Kentucky roots and utilized Ward Hall as his summer home. Not surprisingly, the Civil War and the end of slavery destroyed Ward’s fortune and he was forced to sell his estate in 1867.

For a time in the 1880s, the General Assembly contemplated an offer whereby it would take Ward Hall and the surrounding 250 acres as a new state capitol.

Ward Hall is an impressive structure and is described as Kentucky’s best example of Greek Revival architecture. The Ward Hall Preservation Foundation, Inc. describes some of the lavish detail:

Built on the Corinthian order, its two-story tetra-style portico has columns forty feet high that support a deep, pedimented entablature. Pilasters with Corinthian capitals ornament all four sides of the house, which is seventy-five feet square. The interior carries out the attention to detail with plaster cornices rich with decorations of egg-and-dart and bead-and-reel patterns and anthemion blossoms. The woodwork is rubbed walnut, and a gracious winding staircase ascends to the third floor.

Interestingly, Ward Hall originally had two roofs. The sub-roof was of slate, the top roof was of copper and all of the rainwater was channeled to a copper cistern. All of the copper was removed and sold during World War I.

walkLEX: Henry Clay’s Law Office

At 176 North Mill Street sits a one-story structure erected by Henry Clay in 1803 as his office. From this office, Clay practiced law until 1810. During this period, Clay was twice elected to the state senate and from that office was selected to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate.

Henry Clay, the “Great Compromiser,” delayed the inevitable Civil War through his Compromise of 1820 and his role in pacifying the Nullication Crisis (when South Carolina thought it could nullify acts by the federal government). He was several times the Whig’s candidate for President.

His law office is one of Lexington’s few remaining early professional buildings. Although it was enlarged in 1830, these additions were removed as the building was reconfigured to its 1803 design by the Commonwealth in 1969. Soon after, a renovation followed. The building is now nestled within First Presbyterian Church’s property and is the home of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship.

NoDestination: I75, Exit 154

Driving north to Pittsburgh, Pa., I found myself needing to refuel. I was not anticipating my fuel stop a possibility for NoDestination, but as I stood putting 87-octane into my car I noticed a historic marker in the lawn between the Shell station and the KY-36. I suppose the moral of this story is that you never know when you might see something worthy of visiting and that you should always take the opportunity to inquire.

Marker #725 “A Civil War Reprisal” tells the tale of an Aug. 1864 execution of three Confederates in retaliation for the guerilla murder of two Union sympathizers. Interestingly, the three were held in Lexington prior to their execution but were brought to the Owen/Grant County area (home of their victims) to be executed. According to E. Polk Johnson’s 1912 A History of Kentucky, the executions were performed by firing squad.

No Destination: Middle Creek Battlefield

I traveled down the Mountain Parkway to a court hearing in Pikeville. The trip took me through Pike, Floyd, Magoffin, Wolfe and Morgan counties – counties unvisited on No Destination. Still, I had to get where I was going and had work to deal with when I returned to Lexington, so a leisurely drive was not possible.

Notwithstanding, I did pull off the road in Floyd County when I spotted a Civil War battlefield. Dressed in a suit, I couldn’t venture down either the Union or the Confederate Trail, but the small Middle Creek National Battlefield was a worthy visit. Admittedly, I had never before heard of the Battle of Middle Creek, but according to the signage (and a little Googling) it was relatively significant.

President Lincoln believed that keeping Kentucky in Union hands was an important task and the outnumbered Union troops pushed the Rebels back into Virginia during the January 1862 battle. The Union troops were led by Col. James A. Garfield. Garfield, who later became our twentieth President, was promoted to brigadier general as a result of the victory at Middle Fork.

Encompassing 450 acres, the Battlefield officially opened in 2004. The land was donated by the family on whose land the battle was fought (they have owned the land since 1798). Though only signage and trails now exist, plans are in the work for additional facilities. A great step for historic (and battlefield) preservation!

No Destination: Mount Sterling

When Nate visited the Montgomery County courthouse, he was underwhelmed by the courthouse but very impressed with the “painstakingly restored” buildings in Mount Sterling. I couldn’t agree more. The historical preservation and adaptive reuse in this community.

One building, with markings of “Engine House,” “City Court,” and “Library” now has a banner in front noting the new home of the Montgomery County Historical Museum. The old city jail, “The Bell House,” was constructed in 1815 and restored around 1990 by the local historical society.

Mount Sterling was a regular scene of Civil War activity. Possession of the city changed a dozen times during the War; the courthouse was burned by Confederate forces in December of 1863; the Battle of Mount Sterling (March 22, 1863) resulted in only 12 deaths, but resulted in the capture of 438 prisoners and significant Union supplies; and in June 1864, Gen. Morgan and his horsemen took the vault key from the cashier of Farmer’s Bank and left town with over $60,000.

One of Morgan’s men (Lt. Witherspoon) was tried in a civil action in 1866, but the judgment against Witherspoon was reversed on appeal because robbery was not unlawful under the laws of war.

No Destination: Millersburg

The hardest thing about driving with No Destination is having a Destination, mainly because I must pass by some cities and towns that I otherwise would love to visit. This was the case with Paris. Paris: I will return.

Traveling on, I approached Millersburg – a town in northern Bourbon county which was founded in 1798.

Millersburg native Mae Street Kidd served in Kentucky’s General Assembly from 1968-1985. Kidd was instrumental in Kentucky’s symbolic ratification of the Civil War Amendments (Constitutional Amendments 13, 14 and 15) – 112 years after the Amendments went into effect. She was also instrumental in Kentucky’s adoption of fair housing laws and other civil rights efforts.

Pictured above is Miller’s Block – which based on its name I can only guess that it relates back to the family for which the town is named (albeit 1885 is 87 years after the town was founded). Any Bourbon Countians or Millersburgites care to offer some background on Miller’s Block?

walkLEX: Statue of Gen. J. H. Morgan

Statue of Gen. John Hunt Morgan – Lexington, Ky.

In front of the old Fayette County Courthouse (now the Lexington History Museum) stands a statute of General John Hunt Morgan, the “thunderbolt of the Confederacy.” He is mounted upon his noble steed, Black Bess. Sculpted by Pompeo Coppini in 1911, the statue is the only monument in Kentucky of the Civil War with a soldier on horseback.

As the story is told, Coppini arrived from New York for the great unveiling of his work. With dignitaries present, it was exclaimed upon the falling of the curtain that “Black Bess got balls!”

You see, Black Bess was a mare but Coppini had thought it undignified. “No hero should bestride a mare,” he had explained. An anonymous poet later wrote:

So darkness comes to Bluegrass men —
Like darkness o’er them falls —
For well we know gentlemen should show
Respect for a lady’s balls

No Destination: London

I intended to go to Powell County and to Stanton before returning home. But rather then turning in Livingston, I went straight. Oops. I discovered my mistake upon seeing the “Laurel County” sign.

The drive into London on US-25(S) is beautiful as you drive through the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains. I called a friend who now lives in London, hoping to stop in for a visit. As a result of my ill-timed phone call, I missed Camp Wildcat (which was the site of an 1861 Civil War skirmish). But that was OK as the plum tart was well worth it!

I will leave London to Nate and to the Kentucky 120 Project as the town was built around its Courthouses. The county courthouse looks older than it is. Even so, a new courthouse is under construction. There is an old federal courthouse, as well as a new one (pictured). Quite a judicial metropolis for a town of only 6,000 inhabitants.

I hope to visit Laurel County again to visit its non-London areas: the Cumberland Gap, the original KFC and the annual World Chicken Festival (which I missed by only two weeks!).

No Destination: Preachersville

When I saw this little town on the map, I wanted to drive through and see a church called “Preachersville [Blank] Church.” Special thanks to the United Methodists for fulfilling my photographic curiosity.

Preachersville, Kentucky is a quiet farming community in Lincoln County between Lancaster (Garrard) and Crab Orchard (Lincoln). Near the Dix River, it was unsurprisingly named because – there were a lot of preachers who lived in the area. Apparently, the concentration of ministers was more dense in this area then in any other region of the country as Preachersville is the only community in the United States to hold this unique name.

Today, it is the home of two churches. The Drakes Creek Baptist Church (c. 1860, but the building burned and the new church was built in the 1960s) and the Preachersville United Methodist Church. The Methodist Church, pictured above, was established and built in 1891.

This area of Lincoln County is beautiful. The foothills of the Appalachians lie on the horizon and the rolling hills are fertile. I made this trip a couple weeks ago and on that Sunday, the weather was perfect: the grass greener and the skies bluer.

Before leaving Lincoln County, I travelled through another small community: Crab Orchard. Near the end of the Logan Trace of the Wilderness Trail, Crab Orchard was famed for its mineral springs. Apparently, it was not uncommon for 400-500 guests to visit the springs each day through the 1920s. Crab Orchard also had at least one curiosity: the water tower evidences the divide experienced by families in this area during the Civil War. The water tower reads “Crab Orchard: Embracing our Past” with the American and Confederate flags painted on either side.