Only in Old Kentucky:: Historic True Tales of Cultural Ingenuity

by Marshall Myers

Overview

Tracing Kentucky's unusual history through its early days as the rough-and-tumble frontier and its settling down and growing up in dozens of directions, Only in Old Kentucky" offers a series of novel and fascinating stories of bygone days from Cadiz to Versailles. Kentucky's saltpeter reserves take a backseat to coal mining today but played a critical role in the military engagements of yesteryear. Devil John Wright morphed from a Civil War soldier to a circus performer to a legend. Dueling so shaped the early commonwealth that to this day, officials must take an oath promising to refrain from doing so. Join historian and professor Marshall Myers as he tracks down Kentucky's hidden oddities and curiosities, reviving and celebrating the most bizarre and captivating stories Kentucky history has to offer."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626194182
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	03/18/2014
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	1,115,447
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Marshall Myers is a retired rhetoric and literature professor at Eastern Kentucky University. He is president of the Madison County Civil War Roundtable and served on the Kentucky Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. Myers is a member of the Kentucky Historical Society and the Madison County Historical Society. He has published over 250 articles, poems, short stories and scholarly pieces.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 11

Introduction 13

1 Battletown to Berea to Black Gnat: Where Kentuckians Are From 15

2 Company Towns or Coal Camps: What Loretta Lynn and Tennessee Ernie Ford Sang About 21

3 To Teach and to Learn: Settlement Schools in Eastern Kentucky 29

4 The Low Dutch Settlements in Kentucky: Stories of Brave and Determined People 36

5 When Rowan County Was at War with Itself 43

6 Kentucky Goes to War: Saltpeter Works at Mammoth Gave 51

7 Nails, Kettles and Plows: A Brief History of Iron Smelting in Early Kentucky 58

8 Henry Clay: Great Kentucky Senator, Great Friend of Horses 65

9 Fescue: The Wonder Grass 72

10 The Days the Earth Rumbled and Roared: The New Madrid Earthquakes 78

11 Spas in Old Kentucky: Was It Really in the Water? 84

12 Salt Making in Kentucky 94

13 The Legend of "Devil" John Wright 102

14 A Short History of Hemp in Kentucky: From Cash Crop to Agricultural Pariah 111

15 Dueling Kentucky Style: The Development of the Caste System in Kentucky and the South 117

16 A Salute to Country Ham 128

Bibliography 135

About the Author 141