Scott – Page 2 – The Kaintuckeean

No Destination: Choctaw Indian Academy

Choctaw Indian Academy, Scott County, Ky.

I’m realizing that photographs of historic markers probably aren’t as enjoyable for you as pictures of buildings, landscapes, etc. So I tried to make this one a little more artistic. And if I for a minute actually thought that the old academy still existed, I would have trekked the two miles to find it. That said, I figured it was long gone. I may be mistaken as I was able to find pictures at www.thepeopleofthehuntingground.com.

The History of Scott County, Kentucky provides an account of the indian school:

Lafayette in his tour of the country in that year, (1825) visited it at Blue Springs, and a great feast was prepared for him by the neighborhood, the ladies making a cheese for the occasion weighing 500 pounds. In 1831 the school was removed from Blue Springs to White Sulphur Springs, which was also on a farm owned by Col. Johnson . . . There were generally from two to three hundred Indian boys in attendance, and it brought a considerable revenue to Col. Johnson’s exchequer. Some of the boys afterward filled prominent positions in the country—several became preachers of the Gospel.

Several other of the indian boys would becomes chiefs of their respective tribes. The Col. Johnson mentioned above was Col. Richard Mentor Johnson who would serve as Vice President from 1837-1841 during the administration of President Martin Van Buren. There is some controversy surrounding Johnson’s establishment of the school and his intentions; it seems that he was quite good as securing government contracts, including the establishment of the school.

An 1838 student log shows students from several tribes: Choctaw, Potawatomi, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Prarieduchien, Chicaga, Miami, and Quapaw. The school ultimately closed when financial support from the tribes dried up (they were being forced west into Oklahoma). The OSU Digital Library is a tremendous source of information about the Academy.

My flickr for Choctaw.

No Destination: Georgetown

Downtown Georgetown, Kentucky

I’ve already mentioned a number of locations in and around Georgetown – the College, the Japanese Garden, Ward Hall – but I haven’t discussed Georgetown itself. Originally named Lebanon, the town was renamed after George Washington in 1790 (present day Lebanon, Ky. wasn’t named until 1815).

Although founded by Rev. Elijah Craig and his fellow Baptists, its modern history goes back a little further. In 1774, John Floyd led the first whites into the area during a surveying expedition. Floyd and his men discovered the Royal Spring (which was Georgetown’s primary water source for years). Although Floyd claimed the surrounding 1,000 acres, he never settled the land. John McClelland began establishing a fort in April 1775, but the site was abandoned after an Indian attack in 1776. The white man did not return until Elijah Craig came in 1782.

The community remained a sleepy neighbor to nearby Lexington for many years. Georgetown, however, grew drastically when Toyota located its North American manufacturing facility here. Most notably, all Toyota Camry’s are manufactured in Georgetown. The town is also the home of the Cincinnati Bengals’ summer training camp.

Pictured is the downtown business district, called the Oxford Historic District. It is known for its beautiful examples of late Victorian and Greek Revival architecture. Check out all of my pictures of Georgetown on flickr.

No Destination: Georgetown College

Giddings Hall at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Ky.

Georgetown College, the first Baptist college west of the Alleghenies, was charted in 1829. The Baptists originally considered adding their college to the Transylvania University in Lexington, but locals persuaded the Baptists to locate the college in Georgetown through the use of $20,000 and a transfer of the assets and absorption of the Rittenhouse Academy. Rittenhouse was a land-grant institution founded by Baptist minister Rev. Elijah Craig (also renowned as a bourbon distiller). Everything almost failed when a Campbellite (Rev. Barton Stone) moved to Georgetown to run the Academy (the Baptists weren’t fond of the Campbellites).

Obviously, the squabbles were put to rest and GC remains. Today, it has nearly 2,000 students (combination of graduate, undergraduate bodies).

Update: @KyHistSoc reminds me of the legend of Bourbon at the above-pictured Giddings Hall: Bluegrass Note: Rev. Elijah Craig also founded Georgetown College. Legend has it that a quart of bourbon reposes under each of the six Ionic columns of the portico of the oldest building on campus, Giddings Hall, built in 1839.

No Destination: Yuko-En on the Elkhorn

The Arched Bridge at Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, Georgetown, Ky.

The Official Kentucky-Japan Friendship Garden, Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, is located on the north fork of the Elkhorn Creek in Georgetown, Ky. It is a beautiful garden with a large koi pond, a rock zen garden, a Tokugawa entrance gate and stone gardens. Pictured above is the Arched Bridge, painted Japanese red, which crosses a dry rock stream and symbolizes streams flowing down Japan’s volcanic peaks. It is one of the largest Japanese gardens in the United States.

Fourteen hundred truckloads of dirt was unloaded onto the site during construction in 2000, converting the former pasture (and site of an 1898 monastery) into the garden. It was declared the Kentucky’s “Official” Japanese garden in 2000 by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly; funding was provided by many local businesses, including (not surprisingly) Toyota. A second phase, not completed, will include a bonsai house, a maple grove and a tea garden.

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.

Scott County Courthouse – Georgetown, Ky.

I was feeling a little sleepy today, so my trip to Georgetown was my only stop. This was not the first time I’ve seen the Scott County Courthouse, and its still pretty amazing. I like how much the courthouse is clearly built to be viewed from the front. With the statute of justice and the way in which the tower is pushed towards the front makes it pretty unique, I think. According to Wikipedia, this is the fourth courthouse on this spot, the land for which was first donated by Elijah Craig. The style is apparently “Second Empire” – named after the Second French Empire, most notable for the mansard roof style that is so apparent here on the courthouse up by lady justice. The total cost of this beautiful building back in 1877? – $34,600,

No Destinations – May 27, 2009

On May 27, we started in Fayette County and drove through Woodford, Franklin and Scott counties. It was a fun drive with an in-depth exploration of downtown Frankfort – the state’s capital. Learned:

Bibb lettuce was developed in Kentucky
Kentucky has an “official” covered bridge; it is the Switzer covered bridge in Franklin County
Justice John M. Harlan, the lone dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson (the case established the “separate but equal” doctrine, which was repudiated in Brown v. Board of Education; ) , lived for a time in Frankfort. In his famous dissent, Harlan wrote: “But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”