Taylor – The Kaintuckeean

Elias Barbee, the father of the Kentucky School for the Deaf

Historic Marker for Brig. Gen. Elias Barbee – Campbellsville, Ky.

On the courthouse lawn in Campbellsville is the historic marker to honor Brigadier General Elias Barbee. Barbee, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, also served as a state senator in Kentucky.

Roadside Historic Marker #1536 reads:

Born 1763. Died 1843. Served in Rev. War from Culpeper Co., Va. His five brothers, Daniel, John, Joshua, Thomas and William, also served in Revolution. Elias Barbee came early to what is now Taylor County. Lived eight miles N.W. of Campbellsville. He was appointed Major in 1792, Colonel in 1797, and Brig. General, in 1799, in Ky. Militia, 16th Regt., Green Co., Ky.

(Reverse) Brig. Gen. Elias Barbee – Represented Green Co. in Kentucky Senate. In 1822, Senator Barbee introduced a bill in the Senate calling for establishment of the present Kentucky School for the Deaf at Danville, Ky. Bill drawn up by Judge John Rowan, passed by Legislature and signed by Gov. Adair, establishing on April 10, 1823, first state-supported school for the deaf in the United States.

The matter of aide to the deaf was of particular interest to then-Sen. Barbee as his own daughter was deaf. Barbee’s attention put Kentucky in a leadership track nationally with regard to the hearing impaired as we became the first state to support and fund a school for the deaf.

Those in love with Kentucky’s history will immediately recognize the name of the man who aided Barbee in drafting the legislation: John Rowan. Rowan’s home, Federal Hill, is better known as My Old Kentucky Home.

No Destination: Campbellsville

Centrally located Campbellsville – Taylor County’s seat – is eighty miles from Lexington, Louisville and Bowling Green. Established in 1817, the town’s history is quintissentially Kentucky. Began as a grist mill, grew in population as a stop on a stagecoach route and later a rail line, and the target of Civil War raids by the infamous Gen. John Hunt Morgan. Today, Campbellsville’s Main Street (pictured, above) remains active with a number of businesses due at least in part to the presence of Cumberland University.

What is now Campbellsville was on the Cumberland Trace – that route through the Cumberland Gap that would serve as the early route for western settlers; ultimately those who passed through what would become Taylor County continued past the Cumberland River to what is now Nashville, Tenn.

Taylor County was separated from Green County in 1848 (named for General Zachary Taylor in the same year that he would become President) and Campbellsville at that time was selected to be the seat of the new county. The first courthouse was erected soon thereafter and was destroyed during an 1864 raid by Confederate forces. The next courthouse was built and survived until 1965 when it was razed in favor of a “contemporary” brick design. This is another instance in which, architecturally speaking, the courthouse project currently underway in Kentucky is “a good thing” as the new Taylor County Courthouse has that “modern take at an old building” quality that at least returns a bell tower to the courthouse square. All historic markers, however, remain at the site of the 1965 courthouse.

Nate, on his courthouse visits, loves the feel of coming over the hill into a town to see the tallest building in town – his immediate indicator of the courthouse’s prominence and central role for a community. Not in Campbellsville: the tallest spire will lead you up a hill to the Campbellsville Baptist Church (pictured, right). The congregation began as early as 1791, but the name of the church was not adopted until 1852. Following a 1962 fire, the present church was constructed. It replaced a 1916 sanctuary that consisted of “a domed ceiling and four walls of stained glass.”

No Destination: Campbellsville University

Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University (“CU”) was founded by the Russell Creek Baptist Association. Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Church, CU enrolls of about 3,000 students of various faith backgrounds.

Regular readers may recall from last week that another community (Glens Fork) courted the Baptist association in the late 1800s before Campbellsville was selected as the home of the institution.

Originally the institution was not a college – it began as the Russell Creek Baptist Academy which was a private elementary and high school. It was in 1923 that the General Association of Kentucky Baptists met and gave authority for a junior college to be opened. By the late 1930s, both the elementary and high schools were gone leaving only Cumberland College (renamed to CU in the 2000s). In 1960, the college gave out its first four-year degrees.

Notable alumni of CU include former Kentucky Governor Wallace Wilkinson (1987-1991) and the current head basketball coach of Mississippi State University (Rick Stansbury). Wilkinson, however, did not graduate from CU – he later transferred to UK, but never graduated. Stansbury did graduate from CU and led the school’s basketball team to the NAIA tournament.

No Destination: Green River Lake

Situated between Adair and Taylor counties, Green River Lake is a man-made lake that encompasses 8,210 acres. Created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the 1969 impoundment of the Green River, the project cost approximately $33.4 million.

Despite this seemingly high cost, the Corps points out the economic benefits of the dam: annual tourism of $34.75million and savings from prevented floods over the impoundment’s first forty years (through 2009) of $129.997million.

Visiting in the winter, I saw the waters at their lower levels. This also allowed for repairs to be made to the dam. It was an interesting moment: look to the right and feel like a kid, enjoying the big trucks move dirt; look to the right and be an old man appreciating the glory of nature.

As an aside, the Green River, at 370 miles, is the longest river to flow completely within the boundaries of Kentucky. [cite] Its fount is in Lincoln County and it flows into the Ohio River in Henderson County