Churches in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, 1874

Services and schedules

First Presbyterian Church, Hopkinsville, KY
Built in 1848. Wikimedia image.

According to a directory published in the August 7, 1874, Kentucky New Era, these churches were meeting in post-Civil-War Hopkinsville.

Christian Church
Nashville Street
Eld. T. A. Crenshaw, Pastor.
Regular service every Sabbath morning, at which the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is uniformly administered, and at night, 7-1/2 o'clock.
Sunday School every Sabbath morning.
Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening.

M. E. Church [Methodist Episcopal], South
Nashville Street
Rev. Thos. Bottomly, Pastor.
Service every Sabbath morning and evening.
Sunday School every Sabbath morning.
Prayer-meeting every Wednesday evening.

Old School Presbyterian Church Southern Assembly
Nashville Street
Rev. J. Tate, Pastor.
Services 3d and 4th Sabbaths in each month.
Sunday school every Sabbath morning.
Prayer meeting every Thursday evening.

Old School Presbyterian Church
Nashville Street
Rev. A. W. Colver
Services 1st and 2nd Sabbaths in every month.
Sunday School every Sabbath morning.
Prayer meeting every Thursday evening.

Grace Church
Virginia Street
Rev. R. M. Baker, Pastor
Service every Sunday morning at the usual hour, and in the evening at 3 o'clock. Sunday School every Sabbath morning

Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Russellville Street
Rev. R. J. Beard, Pastor.
Service every Sabbath morning and evening.
Sunday School every Sabbath afternoon.
Prayer meeting every Tuesday evening.

Colored Baptist Church
Virginia Street
Rev. S. Watt, Pastor.
Service every Sabbath afternoon at 2-1/2 o'clock and evening at 8 o'clock.
Sunday School every Sabbath morning.
Prayer meeting every Thursday evening.

Source: Kentucky New Era, August 7, 1874

Panthers and Wolves in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

A big mountain lion remembered

The following passage is quoted from A History of Muhlenberg County (pp 114-116), written by Otto Arthur Rothert and published in Louisville, KY, by J. P. Morton in  1913. I've divided the paragraphs and added some punctuation and words in brackets to make the passage easier to read on the screen. The Mud River, mentioned in the cougar story, forms the eastern boundary line of Muhlenberg County today.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Speaking to me of the old days, Judge David J. Fleming said :

I have often heard my father, Samuel C. Fleming, tell of an incident that took place about the year 1815, or shortly after my grandparents settled in the Mud River country.

Ammunition was scarce in those days, but game was plentiful and easily caught. My grandfather, David L. Fleming,had cleared a small field, in which he built a turkey-pen for the purpose of trapping wild turkeys. One day at dinner my grandfather told my father, then a boy of about ten, to go over to the turkey-pen after dinner and see whether any turkeys were in it.

Shortly before supper, [my] father walked over to the pen, but found no turkeys nor any signs. On his return he followed a path through a strip of dense woods. Soon after entering the woods, he heard a noise like a crying child. He glanced around, and seeing nothing, rushed home and told his father, who was then in the blacksmith's shop at work. [My grandfather]... remarked that he had often heard a "child" crying in the woods at night, but never before so early in the evening.

Grandfather picked up his gun and followed the path leading to the turkey-pen. He entered the woods, looked and listened, and after hearing the expected cry, hid himself behind a tree and from there mimicked the slowly approaching beast. When it came within safe shooting distance, he blazed away and killed one of the largest 'Tom' panthers ever seen in Muhlenberg County. The animal measured eleven feet from the end of his nose to the tip of his tail. Although I was not born until about eighteen years later, I remember using this old panther skin for a pallet [a flat bed on the floor].

No panthers have been seen in Muhlenberg since about the close of the Civil War, notwithstanding that even to this day, reports are occasionally circulated that one had been seen, or rather heard, in the Clifty Creek country.

Wolves, too, have long ago disappeared. The desire to exterminate wolves, and incidentally to receive the bounty paid for their scalps, resulted in a war on wolves that lasted as long as there were any to be killed. Anyone producing the head of a wolf before a justice of the peace, stating under oath when and where he killed the animal, was granted a certificate to that effect. These certificates, upon presentation to the sheriff, were paid for at the rate of two dollars and a half for wolves over six months of age and one dollar for those under that age.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Quoted from A History of Muhlenberg County (pp 114-116), written by Otto Arthur Rothert and published in Louisville, KY, by J. P. Morton in 1913.

An 1808 wolf-kill certificate, reproduced in A History of Muhlenberg County

Idlewild, Historic Home Near Trenton, KY

The Colonel E. G. Sebree house

"Do you know anything about that big old house along Highway 41, east of Trenton?" a blog reader asked one day. I had to say "No," because honestly, I couldn't think what house she was talking about. Then one day, as I passed the home in the photo below, I realized that of course she was talking about this big old house.

The Colonel E. G. Sebree house near Trenton, Kentucky

This large antebellum brick mansion is near the highway, but in the summer, it's almost completely hidden by foliage and deep shade. In the fall and winter, a passing motorist can catch a glimpse of it, facing southwest behind the trees. Last week, I paused on the highway to take these photos, with one eye on the camera viewfinder and the other eye on the rear-view mirror.

This house was built about 1830, and its official name is Idlewild. One of its owners was Colonel Elijah Garth Sebree,  a prominent landowner, tobacco and cotton trader, coal mine owner, and railroad builder. Col. Sebree purchased Idlewild in the 1840s, around the time of his marriage. He and his wife lived at Idlewild for the rest of their lives, and when they died,  their daughter Georgia Sebree Banks inherited the home. It remained with the Banks family until 1983, when it was purchased by Dr. Robert Haley of Nashville and his wife Joy, a Todd County native. I don't know who owns the home currently.

Idlewild was nominated for the National Historic Register by Miss Dolly Banks in 1980. Some architectural features mentioned in the application can be seen in the photo at right -- Corinthian columns (added sometime around 1900), stone lintels above all openings in the house, stone sills at the windows, and flush chimneys at the ends of the house.

The original kitchen was a separate brick room connected to the house by a "dogtrot" (breezeway.) When the Haleys purchased the home, they enclosed a back porch and made it into a kitchen, installed some indoor bathrooms and modernized the electrical wiring.

Read more at these links:

• The Sebree family in Todd County, KY, Family History
• Nomination of Idlewild to the National Historical Register
• Kentucky New Era article about Idlewild, published in 1991 (second part of the article)
• Slave deaths on the Sebree farm

A Visit to Agenda, Kansas

Ghost town? I don't think so.

Agenda, Kansas, is an important place name in my family tree. During the 1880s, my great-great-grandfathers, Ashbel Mapes and Almus Hill had neighboring farms just a few miles from this prairie village. Their children married, and to make a long story short, here I am today!

I took these photos when we visited Agenda in July, 2012. The business district has only a couple of stores that are open. One of them is a little ice cream shop where you can get a cold soda and a plate lunch, as well as a scoop of ice cream. As I recall, it's in the building at right in the photo above.

The photo below looks down Agenda's main street from one end. The building with the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer sign appears at left in the photo above and at left in the photo below.

Agenda has a population of less than 100 people. Huge grain bins tower above everything else in town.  The streets are not paved, but there's a pretty good sidewalk along the front of the business district.

The ice cream shop is delightfully old-fashioned with a long wooden counter and a pressed metal ceiling. A friendly lady was tending the shop. After we ate our ice cream, she took us down to the small museum/library at the end of the street and let us inside. She also told us to be sure to walk outside through the back door of the ice cream shop.

Willoughby Cemetery: Homesteader's Rest

An old settlers graveyard in Republic County, Kansas

Willoughby Cemetery, near Agenda, Kansas

One hot day last July, my brother, my sister, and I drove up to Republic County, Kansas, and found Willoughby Cemetery. It's named for W. H. Willoughby, the man who donated one corner of his homestead to be a community burying ground.

W. H. Willoughby (my great-great-granduncle-by-marriage) was a preacher and one of the first settlers of Elk Creek Township in Republic County.  He homesteaded on Elk Creek in the late 1860s, along with a small group of brothers, cousins, and  "in-laws." This group of original settlers included  my great-great-grandfather Ashbel Mapes. Ashbel and W. H. Willoughby were brother-in-laws: Ashbel was a brother of  W. H.'s wife Rachel Mapes Willoughby.

My gr-grandfather's Charles Leslie Hill's original gravestone.
There's also a new stone for Charles and Lilly Hill  (at right.)

My family has several graves in Willoughby Cemetery. Great-great-grandmother, Martha Vining Mapes (wife of Ashbel Mapes), is said to be there, but we didn't see her grave.  I don't know if it is unmarked, or marked with a uninscribed stone, or the words on her tombstone have weathered away. Or maybe her stone is hidden by a clump of bushes or flowers.

Great-grandfather Charles Leslie Hill is buried there, beside his first wife, Lillie Mapes, who was a daughter of Ashbel and Martha Mapes. When Lillie died of "catarrhal fever" leaving three little children without a mother, Charles married her younger sister Lana Mapes, my great grandmother.

My gr -gr -grandaunt, Rachel Ann Mapes,
She was W. H. Willoughby's wife.

Several other Mapes family members are buried in Willoughby Cemetery, including  Rachel Mapes Willoughby,  and several of Ashbel and Martha Vining Mapes's ten children: James Mapes, Nellie Mapes Boyer, Lillie Mapes Hill (as already mentioned), and probably Lucy Artimus Mapes Wharton (very likely, but not yet proven.)

Also, little Clarence Hill, a great-uncle who died at the age of 3 years and a few days, is buried there. His grave is probably at the foot of his mother's Lillie Mapes Hill's grave, where a small, uninscribed stone stands.

 While we were there, I tried to photograph all of the gravestones in the cemetery that were legible or at least partly so. I planned to post them to Find-A-Grave when I got back home.

When I began editing the photos and researching the names in Willoughby cemetery, I learned that a surprising number of people there were related to my relatives in one way or another.

All of them, related or not, were from neighbor families and many were homesteaders. Some came to Kansas from New York, Ohio, Indiana, and other states, and others were immigrants from foreign countries.Their life stories were just as interesting as my own family's. (And I don't mean that they were all saints! One of them even served time for stealing chickens.)

Intrigued by their histories, I decided that I would include at least a few sentences about the life of each person in Willoughby Cemetery in his or her Find A Grave memorial. Achieving that goal has been an interesting, engrossing project. I've found obituaries for many of them in the old Republic County newspapers. For others, I've constructed a short biography from census data and other sources.

While searching the old newspapers for the names on the stones, I've found about twenty obituaries for people who were buried in Willoughby, but do not seem to have grave markers (or their grave markers are illegible.) So, I created Find-A-Grave memorials for them with their obituaries, so their stories can be retold and remembered, too.

Willoughby Cemetery in Republic County
near Agenda, Kansas

I have done about 40 memorials so far, and I still have about 25 more photographs and a few more obituaries to work through. Some of the stones in the remaining photos are badly weathered, but maybe I can figure them out with the help of Ancestry.com, Family Search, and the old Republic County newspapers.

A shopkeeper in Agenda, a little village a few miles away, told us that W. H. Willoughby gave the cemetery land with one condition -- that no one would ever have to pay to be buried there. No burial plots in Willoughby Cemetery were ever to be sold. The community still honors that promise, she added.

The first burial in Willoughby Cemetery (that I know of)
was little Margaret Miller who died in 1871.

These Willoughby children were a nephew and a niece of
W.H. Willoughby, who founded Willoughby cemetery to
serve the needs of the Elk Creek homesteader community.
Rest in peace, little ones.

Five-year-old Fruit Cake and Other Delicacies

Dinner Party Menu, 1892

On January 4, 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Sam E. Stegar of Trenton, Kentucky, had a Leap Year dinner party, Fifteen unmarried couples and a few extra guys attended the event. The party was such a social success that it even made the news in Hopkinsville, a few train stops west of Trenton.

The entire four-course menu of the Stegar's party was included in the article that appeared in the Hopkinsville Kentuckian. It was interesting. I've presented it below with some links to recipes and other background information from the period.

First Course

Florida Oranges
Bananas
Figs
Pears
Malaga, Concord, and Catawba Grapes

Second Course

Turkey and Ham
Sauce
Roast Mallard Ducks
Oyster, Egg and Chicken Salad
Oysters
Salmon
Sardines

A careless typesetter may have changed "Oyster, Egg and Chicken Salads" to "Oyster, Egg and Chicken Salad." The salmon, sardines, and oysters could have been fresh, brought by refrigerated railroad car to Trenton.

Celery (a palate cleanser after the meat course)


Third Course

Cream
Vanilla Sherbert
Lemon Pudding
Bisque
Fruit Cake, 5 years old and layered  with lemon icing. One layer was citron with vanilla, another layer was chocolate. (This fruit cake was the most interesting thing in the entire menu!)

Fourth Course

Cheese
Doughnuts
Pretzelettes Chocolata (Menier and Van Houten's Cocoa)
Coffee

After this feast, the guests "engaged in original wit and humor and all the latest games of fascination, until the late hour of 1 o'clock, when the weather becoming very inclement, the party adjourned." Since it was a Leap Year party, the young ladies escorted the young gentlemen safely to their homes, before heading for home themselves.

Source: Hopkinsville Kentuckian, January 1, 1892, page 2.

The Whistle Stop

And the old freight depot

Whistle Stop Donuts in Hopkinsville (KY) now has two buildings, near each other and (of course) near the train tracks. (In this photo, you can't see the original little Whistle Stop that's right next to the tracks, but it's marked by the yellow sign.). I don't know if they're going to move everything to the building on the left which has a larger parking lot, or if they're going to keep both locations.

On the other side of the train that's whizzing through town, you can see some scaffolding on the old freight depot. The exterior of the building is being restored to its original appearance. Jim Coursey, a local architect and historian, recently wrote in  the Kentucky New Era that the depot is still structurally sound -- in fact, as solid as when it was first built. The metal roof on the building dates back to its construction in 1905, and it still doesn't leak. The Hopkinsville water department owns the property.

Missing Confederate Graves at Hopkinsville's Riverside Cemetery

A chance to set the record straight

I've written several times in the past about Camp Alcorn in Hopkinsville, KY, where about 300 Confederate soldiers died of disease and exposure during the Civil War. If this topic interests you, you'll enjoy the well-researched article at the link below:

  Confederate Tragedy at Hopkinsville and the Missing Graves

This link leads to a Rootsweb military page about the Camp Alcorn burials in a potters field in Riverside Cemetery, and the later re-burial of  "unknown" Confederate soldiers.

The author of this paper is William Meacham, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He lives in Hong Kong, as you might imagine, but he has family ties to Christian County, KY.  Mr. Meacham's research indicates that 72 or more Confederate soldiers are still lying in unmarked graves in Riverside Cemetery.

I am a "damyankee" transplanted in Christian County about 20 years ago, and most (though not all!) of my ancestors fought on the Union side of the Civil War. But, despite my own leanings, I think that we in Christian County should locate and mark the graves of these Confederate soldiers if we can. It is the decent thing to do, especially considering the mishandling of important records and the mistakes made with the Camp Alcorn graves in the past.

L&N Passenger Depot at Hopkinsville, KY

The depot's floor plan

I found the following description of the L&N passenger depot in Hopkinsville, KY, in Buildings and Structures of American Railroads by Warren Gilman Berg. It was published in 1893, just one year after the Hopkinsville depot was built. Many details mentioned by Berg can still be observed today, but the stucco on the building's exterior seems to have been added since then.

I believe the floor plan of the depot was accidentally reversed in the book, so I changed it (image appears below) to what I think the building is in real life. Readers from Hopkinsville, please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, I altered some of the original punctuation of this passage, and I divided some of the paragraphs to make them easier to read on a screen.  

Tower at the corner of
the ladies waiting room

The passenger depot of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Hopkinsville, Ky. is a single-story frame building, roofed with slate.

The main feature of the exterior is the tower at the corner of the ladies' waiting-room and the large circular bay-window projection of the agent's office at the centre of the building, which, combined with the cupola on the corner tower, the ridge-cresting and ornamental gable fronts, together with the general finish of the building, causes it to present a very handsome appearance.

The "circular bay-window projection"
of the agent's office next to tracks

The ground-floor is divided into:

• a ladies' waiting-room, 17 ft. X 20 ft., with an octagonal alcove inside the tower at the corner of the room;
• a ladies' toilet-room, 5 ft. X 8 ft. 6 in.;
• an agent's office, 14 ft. X 17 ft., with ticket-windows leading into the ladies' waiting-room, the general waiting-room, and the colored waiting-room;
• a colored waiting-room, 14 ft. X 14 ft.; 
• a general waiting-room, 20 ft. X 24 ft.; and 
• a baggage-room, 16 ft. X 18 ft. 

Note: The platform and train tracks were on the east side of the building.
"Colored" people had to walk around the bulding to reach the boarding area.

The exterior of the building is sheathed with horizontal and upright ornamental boarding, in panels, ornamental shingles and square panelling frieze-work and gable fronts. The doors leading into the ladies' waiting-room and the general waiting-room are double doors, 5 ft. X 7 ft. 6 in., with transom overhead. The lower sash of the windows have one large pane of glass, while the upper sash are surrounded with a border of small stained-glass lights.

Double doors with transom in the baggage room

Ticket office window seen from ladies' waiting room

These photographs have appeared on Prairie Bluestem previously. See related posts:
Seen at Hopkinsville's L&N Depot
Hopkinsville's Railroad

Salubria Springs

History of a Christian County health spa

Like most roads with interesting names, Salubria Springs Road (just west of Pembroke, Kentucky) has a story.

Salubria was once a small settlement in Christian County, located near a natural spring (or springs.)  In the early 1800s, one of Christian County's first churches was built at Salubria. William Henry Perrin included Salubria in a list of minor settlements in his 1884 history of Christian County, stressing that all of them were much smaller than Pembroke.

The spa envisioned

The name "Salubria Springs" referred to the healthful (salubrious) effects of the spring water. It had a significant sulfur content. (Mineral water of this flavor isn't valued nearly as much today as it once was!)

In the day of horse-drawn transportation, city dwellers who could afford it spent summers in the country. Cities smelled bad in the heat, partly because of all the horse manure. Hotels at mineral springs were popular vacation spots. Cerulean Springs (about 15 miles northwest of Hopkinsville) had a successful hotel by the mid-1800s, and Dawson Springs (about 25 miles north of Hopkinsville) drilled a mineral-water well and entered the health-spa scene around 1900.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Dawson Springs, turn-of-the-century entrepreneur Doug Lander saw potential in the sulfur water of Salubria Springs. He and two other investors from Pembroke purchased the site and implemented an optimistic plan. Wells were drilled to supplement the spring water, and in 1907, the Forbes Manufacturing Company (a well-respected and prolific local builder) was given the contract to build a large hotel.

The Salubria Springs hotel was a long (170 foot), two-story building. For promenading in the fresh, country air, it had a full-length porch on the ground floor and a full-length balcony on the second floor. There were 40 rooms, including two dining rooms, and an enclosed stairwell at each end. The larger dining room doubled as a ballroom. Two outhouses were located behind the hotel.

The hotel years

Salubria Springs Hotel opened in the summer of 1908. A grid of streets was laid out, and lots around the hotel were offered for sale. But business was slow, and profits did not meet the expectations of the investors. By 1910, the hotel had a new owner and new management.

The Kentucky New Era described the Salubria Springs opening ball of 1910 in glowing terms:

The big hotel never before entertained such a crowd and never was there a more delightful event given under its hospitable roof. People came from every direction and from long distances. They came in automobiles, horseback, in buggies, wagons, surreys and every kind of vehicle, on the trains and some even walked. Hopkinsville and Pembroke turned out almost en masse, but Fairview, Elkton, Trenton, Guthrie, Clarksville, Madisonville, Princeton, Henderson, Evansville and many other towns sent large delegations. The crowd was even beyond expectations, but they were hospitably cared for by Mr. and Mrs. F. G. Petre, the lessees of the hotel.  (Source: "Opening Ball at Salubria," Kentucky New Era, June 24, 1910)

There was no train station at Salubria Springs, but apparently the train stopped somewhere in the area and let off the passengers who wanted to visit the hotel.

By 1912, the hotel had sold to Guy Dority. He produced a brochure that advertised a month's stay at the Salubria (including three meals a day) for just $40. A two week stay cost $24. And, the brochure claimed, a stay at the Salubria improved a body: "The waters have proven to be especially beneficial in diseases of stomach, liver and kidneys. Good for the tired feeling. The run-down go home wound-up and ready for a fresh start. The very best place to rest and build up." (As quoted from the brochure by Joe Dorris in "Watching the Parade,"  Kentucky New Era, April 1, 1989.)

Other uses of the building

1912 seems to have been the last season that the hotel was kept open. A well-to-do lady named Mrs. A. O. Daugherty owned the property later. I do not know if she was connected in any way to the Guy Dority who owned it in 1912, but their names certainly sound similar. Mrs. Daugherty lived at Salubria Springs in the summer and in California in the winter. She employed Mr. Browder Dossett and family as caretakers, and they lived in the hotel year-round. ("Watching the Parade," Kentucky New Era, Sept. 24, 1976.)

Dances and other occasional events were held at the ballroom during Mrs Daugherty's years of ownership, and bottled water from the springs was sold by mail-order. I'm not sure when her era at the hotel ended, but an advertisement in the Kentucky New Era on August 1, 1929 (image at left)  hints that an attempt was made that year to put the hotel back into operation.

In 1931, the property was purchased by Christian County. The old poor farm north of Hopkinsville was closed, and Salubria Springs Hotel became the new Christian County Benevolent Home. It was used for this purpose through the late 1950s. The county sold the property at auction in 1958.

The hotel then became the Salubria Springs Home for the Aged. As a nursing home, it had at least two different owners, before fire safety regulations finally forced it to close for good in 1970. Ironically, fire destroyed the building in December, 1976. In 1977, the Fiscal Court was petitioned by landowners to formally close eight avenues in the area.

Salubria Springs now

When I drove down Salubria Springs Road last week, I could detect no sign of the hotel. I crossed a bridge over a small creek that may be fed by the springs. I saw several large, modern tobacco barns in a field near the road, and I saw the industrial park nearby. The road circles an overgrown clump of trees, which may be the old hotel site. I didn't see anyone there to ask, so I am only guessing about that.


--------------

See an image of the old hotel building in this 1965 advertisement for the sale of the Salubria Springs nursing home.

A photograph of Salubria Springs Hotel, taken in 1933, appears in William Turner and Ladonna Dixon Anderson's book, Cerulean Springs and The Springs of Western Kentucky.

Black Residents of the West Fork Community

Barker's Mill area of southeastern Christian County, KY

 I wrote this about 2 years ago, when I was exploring the history of the Barker's Mill area of Christian County, KY. I'm not sure why I didn't post it at the time. Maybe I thought my readers were getting bored with Barkers Mill. Anyway, I came across it last night, and I thought it was sort of interesting.  For background, see these posts:

 Barker's Mill in Christian County, KY
Old Homes Around Barkers Mill
Exploring the Barkers Mill Community 
Chapel Hill Church in Christian County, KY

Originally, much of the labor on the large farms in the area of Barker's Mill was provided by slaves. After the Civil War, many black people continued to work and live on the farms where they had been slaves. This happened in many areas of Christian County, and indeed, throughout the entire South.

Farm laborers are plentiful in [Christian] county, largely furnished by the colored population, of which there are about fifteen thousand in the county, and I must say to their credit, they make the best every-day farm laborers we are able to get. The average price of farm labor per month with house and board is, for men, $11 to $12.50; without board, $15.

Source: The 1908 Handbook of Kentucky

In the 20th century, some black workers become sharecroppers, which was a step up from being farm hands. There were many white sharecroppers as well. Sharecroppers owned their own farm machinery, tools, and draft animals, and they were considered self-employed.

Tobacco was often grown on "the share plan", as it is called in period writings. The landowner provided a house, a garden spot, and grass for the sharecropper's animals. The sharecropper typically worked about ten acres of tobacco and a field of corn. At harvest, the crop was divided evenly with the landowner. With good soil and favorable weather, the sharecropper might make a modest profit.

In 1900, a school was established for black children near the Barker Mill, and it operated through 1952. A store served the farm workers of the area. It is interesting to read the history of the Barker's Mill (West Fork) Community, knowing that the area was populated by many black families as well as white families.

Death of a Hermit

A man "who lived inside himself"

I came across a rather sad story in a hundred-year-old issue of the Kentucky New Era:

HOWELL HERMIT DEAD

One of the County's Most Eccentric Characters

SHUNNED NEIGHBORS
Strange Boyd Griffey, of South Christian, Succumbs to Pneumonia


Boyd Griffey, a very eccentric character of near Howell, Ky., died a day or two ago. He was Southern Kentucky's hermit, says the Clarksville Chronicle.

He lived on a small farm within three miles of Howell, on the Clarksville and Princeton branch of the Louisville and Nashville, R.R., but there are persons of Howell who, it is said, have never seen this strange individual. Griffey never visited in the neighborhood in which he was so long a resident, and never allowed himself to be observed. Possibly this was the main cause of his death.

On November 3rd hard-working Democrats were making an endeavor to get all the voters to the polls possible, and the name of the old hermit, Griffey, was suggested. He was sent for and finally prevailed upon to come to the voting place and cast his ballot. But no one deemed it would be the last time he would ever venture from his humble home.

He contracted cold, which developed into pneumonia, and he died alone at his farm-house.

His age, nor anything connected with his life, except that he lived within himself, could be learned regarding this strange man.

Source: Weekly Kentucky New Era, page 3 of the November 27, 1896, edition.

I ran Boyd Griffey's name through the search engine on Ancestry.com and found that he had lived in Christian County, KY, for over 65 years. His family tree shows that he had family all over this general area. It strikes me as untrue that "nothing could be learned regarding this strange man." Surely at least one of his many relatives remembered his existence? I think the newspaper writer was striving for dramatic effect.


George Griffey Sr. (Boyd's father) is listed on the 1840 census for Christian County, KY. In that census, only the name of the head of household was recorded, so we must use our powers of reason a little. The Griffey household included 9 white people and 7 slaves. The summary for the Griffey family included:
Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 14: 1
Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19: 2
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29: 4
Free White Persons - Males - 50 thru 59: 1
Free White Persons - Females - 50 thru 59: 1

Working from the birthdates given in the family tree, it's safe to say that Boyd Griffey was the "Free White Person - Male - 10 thru 14." The female between 50 and 59 years of age was certainly his mother, and most or all of the other six young men in the household were surely his brothers.

In 1850, the first census on which Boyd Griffey's name appears, he was 21 years old. The household was much smaller than in the previous census-- now only Boyd, his father (George Griffey, age 63) and his brother (George Griffey, age 26) were in the home. Boyd's mother had passed away. George Sr.'s occupation was reported as "Farmer", George Jr.'s occupation was "Overseer", and Boyd's occupation was "Schoolteacher."

Ten years later (1860 Federal census), Boyd and his brother George are listed as separate farmers, but side by side on the page, as if living in the same house. Both are still bachelors, and George Sr. has passed away. Between Boyd and George, they own 15 slaves.

An 1861 marriage record shows that George D. Griffey (age 38) married Catherine. A. Rives (age 23). A Rives family is in the neighborhood with the Griffeys on several of the census pages, so his bride may have been a neighbor girl. 

In the 1870 census, Boyd Griffey has several black people listed as members of his household -- Thomas Wall (age 62, farm worker), Ellen Griffey (age 12, domestic servant), Jack Griffey (age 10, farm worker), Anderson Griffey (age 17, farm worker), and Ben Griffey (age 7).  Kentucky was in a period of upheaval and transition following the Civil War, and child labor was common across the nation, but still, does this group of children strike you as unusual? I wonder what the circumstances were.

Following the listing for Boyd's household, Brother George was listed as the next household. He was the only member of his household -- no wife recorded. Information for several black families follows George's name. They were probably working on the Griffey farms.

In 1880, Boyd Griffey was alone in the Garretsburg township of Christian County. His fondness for solitude may have been deepening. The next two households on the page (his nearest neighbors) were families of black people who were probably living and working on his farm. Clearly, Boyd and his brother George had parted ways. George was listed in District 11 of the Garretsburg township, but Boyd was in District 16. This census notes that George was divorced and Boyd was widowed. I wonder if the latter was accurate.

 All but a few pages of the nation's 1890 census records were lost in a Treasury Department fire, so nothing is available for that year. By then, Boyd may have avoided the census taker anyway, if the newspaper article about his self-imposed isolation is to be believed.

It is a curious and sad thing how a young man capable of teaching school became a recluse as he aged.  Maybe he suffered from depression or a more severe form of mental illness. And it's ironic that his desire for solitude moved me to draw attention to him.

I now withdraw the spotlight. Rest in peace, Boyd Griffey.

"Solitude" by Louis Rémy Mignot (1831–1870)

In 1907, a Commissioner's Sale was announced for a property along the Palmyra Road that was "known as the Boyd Griffey farm." The sale settled an estate between members of the Thweatt family. Apparently, the Thweatts bought the Griffey farm after Boyd Griffey's death.

Polling Place of the Past

An old precinct building in Christian County, KY

This little concrete-block building stands at the intersection of Pilot Rock Road and Laytonville Road in Christian County, KY. It was once the voting place for citizens of the surrounding rural area. Several local residents have told me that they remember voting in this building, years ago.

I believe this little block voting building served the Pilot Rock precinct. If I'm correct about that, then this is the building reported vandalized in the following news report from November 1976:

[Christian County Court Clerk Thomas E. Morris] explained that the only irregularities occurred at Precinct 27 at Consolation and at Precinct 30 at Pilot Rock where vandals launched an overnight attack on voting machines and buildings.

Damage to fuses and fuse boxes were reported at both locations, forcing officials to do emergency electrical repair work so that automatic machines would operate. There also was profanity scribbled on the walls [of] at least one of the voting sites.

Source: "Area Vote Total Said To Be Light" by Mike Herndon, Kentucky New Era, May 25, 1976, page 1

The Consolation precinct building, mentioned in the quoted report above, was located somewhere near the junction of Dawson Springs Road and Highway 800 in northwestern Christian County. A proposal for its construction was heard by the Christian Fiscal Court in 1973, so it was still quite new when the above incident occurred. I don't know if it is still in use or not.

Log Cabins at Wheatland, MO

Old-time log houses

On the public square at the center of Wheatland, Missouri, a miniature village of genuine log houses awaits tourists. I call them "genuine log houses" because local residents of earlier times built and used them. The cabins were collected from Hickory County, Missouri, and the surrounding area.

My sister Charlotte has lived in the Wheatland area for over 35 years. I took these photos when we visited there a couple of years ago. Charlotte said that the original plan was to rent the log houses as shops for artists and craftspeople. That hasn't worked out as well as the town's leaders hoped, but the log cabins are interesting, nonetheless.

Charlotte said the fellow sitting on the porch at right is a retired fellow who volunteers at the log village on most summer Saturdays. He told us how the cabins were torn down and reassembled, Each log was numbered so the cabins were put back together as originally constructed. In the interest of weather-tightness, concrete chinking was used, and metal roofs and new windows were installed.


The photo at right above shows a "double pen" log house. The two log rooms were individual structures, connected only by the roof that covered them both.

The log structure in the photo above was the Butterfield Overland Relay Station along the Butterfield Trail in Hickory County. The Butterfield Trail ran from Missouri to San Francisco, and was named for John Butterfield who founded the Butterfield Overland Mail Company. Behind the station is a barn with round, unchinked logs.


The logs of most of the structures were shaped with axes and other hand-tools. The building of log houses -- or any log structures! -- required a tremendous investment of hard labor.

This house had a sign that said "1850s Museum". We went inside to take a look.

Feather tick and an old image

I don't know if either of the stoves above are of 1850s vintage, but they are oldies for sure. Apparently the legs of the big cookstove were bad, so it is sitting on some blocks of wood.

The Royal Princess stove at right would have had a stovepipe connected at the raised hole at the back of the top. In front of the stove pipe, you could set a tea-kettle on the flat area. The stove could be loaded through either the front door or the side door. I think maybe the shelf at right was where you set the bucket or pan when you were shoveling out the ashes. That would have made dangerous spills of hot coals onto the wood floor less likely.

Wheatland is a very small town in southwest Missouri, about 50 miles north of Springfield. Its largest industry is the Lucas Oil Speedway which brings quite a few people to town during race season and makes a lot of noise on race nights. If the logs in these old houses could talk, they'd probably say that they're amazed, simply amazed, at the modern-day happenings in Wheatland.

Merchants of Ainsworth, Nebraska, 1912

Seen in old plat book of Brown County, Nebraska

Recently, I came across a 1912 plat book of Brown County, Nebraska. The original copy is held by the Library of Congress, and Ancestry.com has images of the pages.

Brown County, NE, Wikipedia image

In it, I found the locations of land that belonged to three sets of my ancestors (see endnote). They were all neighbors to each other in southwestern Brown County's Lakeland and Moon Lake precincts.

I recognized the names of many of their neighbors as people my dad knew. And I realized that I knew at least two of the 1912 landholders myself -- my great grandfather Charles Clark (who lived until 1972) and Jess McDaniel (whom I remember as an old man with white hair in the mid-1950s.)

My father, born in the Moon Lake area in 1923, had boyhood memories of going to Johnstown and Wood Lake with the wagon for supplies. These small villages west of Ainsworth were the closest settlements, and I think that's where my Mapes grand-uncle and my Hill, Fisher, and Clark grandparents would have gone for most supplies in 1912. Still, I am sure that they visited Ainsworth sometimes for legal matters, because Ainsworth was the county seat of Brown County.

Ainsworth probably seemed a large town to homesteaders. The platbook's images of Ainsworth show two-story commercial buildings and white frame houses with porches -- presumably the showiest structures in town.  (Scroll down about 2/3 of the way on this Brown County genealogy page for links to similar photos of Ainsworth in that era.)

As my ancestors drove down the dirt streets of Ainsworth in a horse-drawn wagon (prepared to haul home a load of supplies), they might have seen some of the following firms that advertised in the 1912 plat book:

Hotel and restaurant:
The Osborne House: "We have our own dairy, poultry and garden, and serve the best of everything. In winter, this is the warmest house in the northwest. Steam heat throughout. Meals are ready one hour before all trains. A large, well lighted sample room free. We want your business and will do our best to deserve it. Sportsmen's goods are cared for while you hunt or fish, without extra charge. If you can't stay all night, eat with us -- 'Every Little Bit Helps.'" Philip Mensinger, Prop.

Supplies for riding and driving horses
Sam Schneider & Son: "Harness, Saddlery Blankets, Robes, Whips, and other Horse Clothing and Leather Goods"

Three places to rent or board a horse:
Fisk Livery Feed & Sale Stable
Fry Bros. Livery and Feed Barn
S. B. Turner Proprietor, Livery, Feed, and Sale Barn. "Driver Furnished if desired."

Metal and Wheel Work
Henry Coad, Blacksmith and Wheelwright:  "Repairing a specialty"

Two dentists (I shudder to think!)
G.D. Shipherd, Dentist
Dr. J. M. Jessen, Dentist

Two newspapers
The Brown County Democrat: "A country newspaper, published where the corn and potatoes grow, in the heart of a rich agricultural district."
The Star Journal

Produce dealer
Ross Smith: "Buyer of Cream, Poultry, and Country Produce"

Two banks
Citizen's State Bank,
National Bank

Two auctioneers
Col J. H. Hart: "Many years of practical service in his line have demonstrated his ability. See him if you are thinking of having a sale."
Claude E. Smith: "Have you sold or rented your farm? That's your business. Are you going to have a sale? That's everybody's business. Do you need a good auctioneer? That's MY business."

Four Real Estate Agents
(It was not uncommon for people to homestead, gain title to their land after five years, and then sell it.)
Richardson & Suell, Real Estate & Insurance Agents
Geo. P. Reynolds, The Land Man
McSweeney Land Company
Northwestern Land Company

Wells
 (I notice that this fellow doesn't dig wells. He drills them.)
Thos. S. Bower, Well Drilling and Boring, Tanks, Pumps, and Supplies

Lawyers
A. W. Scattergood, Attorney at Law
Wm. M. Ely, Attorney at Law 

Modern technology
Ainsworth Telephone Company
Reeves & Bailey Automobiles

Two lumber yards and coal dealers
Krotter & Hall Lumber Co.: "Dealers in Building Materials, Coal, Hardware, Grain and Implement, Yards at Long Pine, Johnstown, Crookston, Georgia, and Merriman." (These little towns were east and west of Ainsworth on the railroad.)
Excelsior Lumber Co.: "Lumber, Coal, Flour, Feed, Grain, Agricultural Implements, Buggies, and Farm Wagons. Roller Mill and Elevators."

Building contractors and subcontractors:
W. E. Moseley, Building Contractor
L. P. Barnes Concrete: "Sidewalks, Porches, Doors, Door and Window Caps and Sills, Foundations"

Shopping:
Munson & Howe General Merchandise
Baldwin Brothers: "Hardware, Paints, Oils, Furniture, Carpets, Rugs"
H. House & Son: "Fine Furniture"
Suell & House Clothing
Larson & Son: "Merchant Tailors"

Note:
I usually say that my ancestors had ranches in southwestern Brown County, because the Sandhill land was much better for grazing, than it was for farming. One of them is officially listed as a "stockman" in the back of the 1912 plat book. However, if my ancestors homesteaded under the original Homestead Act, they were required to farm (to plow and plant) a portion of the land. I have found the homestead papers for the Clark and Hill grandparents and the Mapes great-uncle, but not the Fisher grandparents. I have not researched what homestead requirements any of them had to meet.

An 1886 Visit to Fairview, KY

Fairview, birthplace of Jefferson Davis

The following passage is transcribed from the Kentucky New Era, July 23, 1886 (page 3). I have preserved the original punctuation, but divided the long paragraphs to make them easier to read. Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), mentioned in the article, was elected the President of the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861, and served until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Saturday morning two NEW ERA men hired a buggy and went to the speaking at Fairview. The drive was delightful amid the sloping hills and rich fields of grain. The country never looked more beautiful and the magnificent crops give promise of a bright and prosperous future for the planters.

We arrived at the pretty little village just in time to partake of a good dinner at the hospitable board of Esquire Richard Vaughan.

After dinner Mr. G. S. Brown very kindly assumed the duty of showing us the town. He conducted us to the spot where the great Jefferson Davis was born. The old house with its many memories has been torn away and over the historic spot is being erected a Baptist church.

The church when completed will be one of the handsomest in the county. Rev. E. N. Dicken who served the old Bethel church so long, is the pastor. He is one of the best pastors in the land and as a preacher is second to none. He lives in the parsonage half a mile east of the church. The church will probably be dedicated in October and Mr. Davis will be present on that occasion.

Fairview lies in two counties. The county line runs through the store of Mr. W. B. Brewer, who can stand behind his counter in Todd, and sell goods to his friends in Christian.

About 2 o'clock the candidates began the oratorical contest. Judge Winfree led off and the other fellows said their pieces in order. The boys gave the Todd county candidates some of their time. Col. Milt. Brown made a short address and Mr. D. S. Watson was shaking hands with the boys who do their voting in Todd.

Fairview is a thrifty village. The residences are handsome and the stores are well kept. Mr. John Yancey will soon build a fine brick store house at a cost of $2000.

Jefferson Davis in 1853

We were presented with a walking cane, made out of the flooring of the room in which Mr. Davis was born, by Mr. Brewer. Most of the candidates got one of these sticks to hobble through the campaign on.

The New Era representatives were kindly treated by the generous citizens of Fairview and after half a day of pleasant commingling with these good people, they turned their faces toward Hopkinsville. The drive home through the moonlight was delightful and the pleasure of a day at Fairview will be the chief object of interest in our minds for many days.

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Check the Prairie Bluestem posts tagged "Fairview KY" for some modern-day images of Fairview.

Camp Alcorn Memorials in Hopkinsville, KY

Graves of Confederate soldiers in Riverside Cemetery

Cemetery and census records at the Christian County library

Recently, I received an email from a gentleman with Christian County (KY) roots who works at a Hong Kong university. He asked some questions about the Camp Alcorn Confederate graves in Hopkinsville, which he is researching. I didn't know the answers, but I looked up some things at the Christian County library and sent him the information that I was able to find.

Two memorials to Confederate soldiers

While finding the information this gentleman wanted and corresponding with him, I learned more about the two Confederate memorials at Riverside Cemetery. Those memorials are:
   1) The Latham Confederate Monument to unknown Confederate soldiers, erected during the 1880s by John C. Latham, a wealthy New York banker and Hopkinsville native, and
   2)The Camp Alcorn Cemetery, where 293 Confederate soldiers are memorialized with individual gravestones.

Latham Confederate Monument imagined and realized

The Latham Confederate Monument has an interesting history. Mr. John C. Latham was a Hopkinsville boy who went to New York and became wealthy but never forgot his hometown. He gave many donations of land and money to make Hopkinsville a better place, even though he no longer lived here.

The booklet, The Story of a Monument: Memorial of the Unveiling of the Monument to the Unknown Confederate Dead, May 19, 1887, at Hopkinsville, Ky, tells the story of the Latham Confederate Monument. In 1886, John C. Latham visited his father's grave at Riverside Cemetery. A friend pointed out an overgrown area in the old part of the cemetery where the Camp Alcorn soldiers were buried.  Mr. Latham, a Confederate Army veteran and a good-hearted man, was troubled that their graves were unmarked and untended.

The Latham Confederate Monument

With an admirable spirit of reconciliation, Latham proposed to donate a monument honoring all unknown Civil War soldiers buried at Riverside Cemetery. However, the unknown Union soldiers had already been moved to the military cemetery at Fort Donelson. Thus, Latham dedicated the monument to unknown Confederate soldiers.

Latham bought a large triangular site, on a high spot in the new part of the cemetery. The graves of the Camp Alcorn soldiers were opened, and such remains as could be found were moved to the new site. A large granite monument with four bronze plaques was made in Maine and shipped to Hopkinsville. It was dedicated and presented to the City of Hopkinsville on May, 19, 1887.

Discovery of the notebook

Another decade went by. Then, in 1899, Mr. Harry C. Gant, president of the Bank of Hopkinsville, was going through an old desk at the bank. In it, he discovered a notebook that had belonged to George K. Anderson, a Confederate soldier from Cotton Gin, Texas. It contained 213 deceased soldiers' names, and for each, the location in the cemetery where he was buried. Also, the record included 15 unnamed soldiers of Camp Alcorn and their final resting places. Apparently when Anderson's unit left Hopkinsville, the notebook was placed at the bank for safekeeping -- and there it stayed, forgotten for almost 40 years.

Of course, by the time the notebook was found in 1899, the remains of the soldiers had already been moved from their original graves. They had been reburied together in a circle around the Latham Confederate Monument, making it impossible to assign a name to any gravesite or set of bones.

Tombstones erected by Sons of Confederate Veterans

John C. Latham's goal of giving these fallen soldiers the dignity that they deserve was completed by the Camp Alcorn Cemetery memorial, erected by a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It honors 293 Confederate soldiers who died at Camp Alcorn with individual markers that give their names, military information, and dates of death if known.

Gravestones at the Camp Alcorn cemetery memorial

I don't know all of the sources the Sons of Confederate Veterans used in ascertaining the names of the 293 soldiers. (According to a newspaper report at the time of the discovery of the notebook, it revealed the identities of 101 men. This report seems to be in error because the notebook actually contained the names and burial sites of 227 men.) I also don't know if the tombstones were erected on the site of the original cemetery.

When I looked through the Camp Alcorn information in the Riverside Cemetery book. I was saddened to see that many of the dead Kentucky soldiers had enlisted in Hopkinsville. I suppose they were local fellows who came to town and signed up with the Confederate Army. They moved into the camp, and soon thereafter, fell ill and died from one of the several deadly diseases that were circulating through the troops that winter.

Note: On 3/15/2011, corrections were made, regarding the number of names in the notebook.

----------------------

If you're interested in Camp Alcorn, you might want to look back at these Prairie Bluestem posts:

• Camp Alcorn in Hopkinsville, Kentucky looks at some of the Civil War correspondence sent to, from, and about Camp Alcorn.
• Civil War Graves at Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville, Kentucky has photos of the memorials at Riverside Cemetery for Confederate soldiers  buried there.
• The First Presbyterian Church in Hopkinsville and other Hopkinsville churches were used as hospitals for the Confederate soldiers who fell ill at camp.
• More About Riverside Cemetery takes a closer look at the John C. Latham memorial to the unknown Confederate soldiers who are buried in Riverside.
• A Walk in Riverside Cemetery describes the first time I saw the Camp Alcorn memorials in Riverside Cemetery.

Christmas Festivities Reported, 1875

Holiday happenings in Garrettsburg, Pleasant Grove, Bennettstown, and Montgomery

On January 15, 1875, the Kentucky New Era of Hopkinsville, KY, published a "Garrettsburg Letter" on its front page. The letter was written by a correspondent from Garrettsburg who signed himself simply as "P." It was dated 136 years ago, today -- January 9, 1875. The following is an excerpt:

The Christmas Holidays in our city passed off tolerably pleasant and without any serious accidents which is to be wondered at considering the amount of spirits floating around loose and the number of pugnacious young gentlemen upon their muscle.

The quality and not the quantity of our whisky is to blame, for you take a drink of it upon the first dawning of Christmas day, and the effects thereof depart not, until the close of the day upon which the dying year tells its last tale. This must be so, for I saw a young man on Thursday evening who told me he had not tasted a drop of the "Creetar" since Friday morning, and lo! he was then three sheets in the wind. One more drink of the same sort, taken straight, will carry him to harvest time.

But Christmas is gone and "Our Boys" have quit their frolicsome ways, washed the dirt from their faces, bathed their swollen eyes, and with healing plaster sticking all over their battered noses, have gone to work in earnest swearing they "will never get drunk any more." Until next Christmas.

Source: January 15, 1875, Kentucky New Era, page 1.

Garrettsburg was a hamlet in southern Christian County, about halfway between present-day Oak Grove and Lafayette.

I wonder if the whiskey at Garrettsburg was bought by the bottle or made by the jug. In plainer words, was it legal whiskey or was it locally-produced moonshine? The Federal government imposed a national excise tax on whiskey in 1862, but small-scale Kentucky distillers widely ignored it.



The Kentucky New Era's front page also includes a "Pleasant Grove Letter" from correspondent "Hiram". He described a wild Christmas celebration in that community.

Christmas came along about the 25th of December, bringing with it the usual supply of fire crackers, egg-nog &c, and went -- well, we were not in a condition much of the time to tell exactly how it did go. We know this much, that the night air was made hideous by the neighing of studs, peals of laughter, and the endless pop, pop of guns. All Pondriverans know how to shoot a gun accurately. In fact, the man who lives 'mid these hills and does not own a yellow dog and a gun is hardly respectable.

Source: January 15, 1875, Kentucky New Era, page 1.

Based on Hiram's comment about "Pondriverans", I looked for Pleasant Grove along the various forks of the Pond River of northern Christian and adjacent counties, but I wasn't able to locate it. I did find a Pleasant Grove Road in Christian County southwest of Crofton, but it's a significant distance from there to any fork of the Pond River. I may be seeking a clue where none exists -- perhaps when Hiram wrote about the "endless pop, pop of guns", it reminded him that Pond River folk were good shots, so he wrote that too.



Bennettstown was a small village, just a few miles northeast of present-day Lafayette in Christian County, KY. If holiday festivities in that community were rowdy, it was not reported by correspondent "Tacitus" who wrote the "Bennettstown Letter".

Christmas has come and gone with about its usual festivities. We had a great many parties, which were attended by the many beaux and belles of our city and vicinity, and if you have any doubts Mr. Editor, of the asserition in my last letter, "that we could beat the world for pretty girls," just by way of variety drop in some time when you are in our section at Capt. Cooper's or Squire McKenzie's or any where else around (we mean upon business) and see if we are not correct.

Source: January 15, 1875, Kentucky New Era, page 2.

Montgomery was located in Trigg County, just west of the present-day intersection of Highway 68/80 and Interstate 24. Correspondent "Jim Jay" described an orderly Christmas celebration in his "Montgomery Items".

We of this little town ushered in the Christmas holidays on Christmas eve by a nice Christmas tree... [unreadable]... with all kinds of fruit in the dry goods and notion line; on which occasion your humble correspondent was remembered by a liberal supply of gifts. In connection therewith we had a concert which is something new in this village. All were pleased, feeling that Montgomery can do what she undertakes and that well. We propose to get up a "Thespian society" and "Minstrel performance" to give monthly entertainments.

Source: January 15, 1875, Kentucky New Era, page 2.

A regularly-performing theater group sounds like a great way to keep the guys busy, out of trouble, and away from the whisky and guns!

Moonshine still at the McCreary County Museum
in Stearns, Kentucky.

I have taken the liberty of breaking a long single paragraph in the "Garrettsburg Letter" into three shorter paragraphs.

Photo credits: Moonshine still by Brian Stansberry (Own work). CC-BY-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
19th-century whisky bottle by National Park Service.