60th Wedding Anniversary Celebrated

A nice event at our church

Wilbert ("Hap") and Marion Heilman, were married in 1947. The image above (my snapshot of their photograph) shows them on their wedding day.

The Heilman's celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary today. Their four children had a small reception for them this afternoon at our church.

Mrs. Heilman told me she weighted 115 pounds the day she was married, and her mother made her wedding dress. They were married in a Lutheran church, in or around Evansville, Indiana.

They made their home in the Evansville area, and over the years, four children were born. As it happened, they had some neighbors whose name was Roeder. In the mid-1960s, the Roeders opened a John Deere implement in Hopkinsville, KY. They invited Hap to work in the repair shop, and Hap accepted the offer.

The Heilmans moved to Hopkinsville, and they've been here ever since. I think the implement had been open a few years already, before they moved here, 35 years ago or so. The three daughters all stayed around Evansville, but their son (the youngest of the family) moved to Hopkinsville with them. He still lives in Christian County.

Hap has retired now, and he and Marion live on a small farm near St. Elmo, in southeastern Christian County. They don't get out much anymore, due to their health. I know that this was quite a day for them.

All of their children were at the reception, and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren were present also. Hap and Marion raised a nice family. I enjoyed seeing them together today.

Passenger Pigeons in Christian County, KY

Extinct birds credited with creating a farm's rich soil

Passenger Pigeon

In Judge W. T. Fowler's little book, Christian County, Kentucky, written in 1915, he makes some interesting comments about Mr. R. F. Rives and his farm:

Mr. R. F. Rives is one of the largest wheat growers and tobacco growers in Kentucky. He has in ten years produced 250,000 bushels of wheat on his farm. He is Christian county's largest farmer taxpayer, and is second largest in the county, Forbes Mfg. Co. being the first.

His farm is in the heart of what is known as the "Pigeon Rooset [sic]" section. The wild pigeons in Audubon's day had for their roosting place a forest in Christian county which covered thousands of acres. This is the most productive land in the county. Its yields of wheat, corn, tobacco, clover and alfalfa are marvelous...

[This splendid farm] is a model for stately buildings and neat arrangement. Its master is one of Christian county's sages in agriculture and a man who has mastered the problems of system and management as few have.

The R. F. Rives farm was surely located somewhere in the fine farmlands of southern Christian County. Perhaps it was in the vicinity of today's John Rives Road, a few miles southeast of Hopkinsville, where the Rock Bridge Branch meanders through the fields.

At any rate, it's interesting that the soil had been enriched by passenger pigeon droppings.

Mr. R. F. Rives

Huge flocks of passenger pigeons gathered in Kentucky in the fall to feast on acorns and beech nuts. When he mentions "Audubon's day", he's referring to the observations of the incredibly large passenger pigeon flocks that Audubon recorded.

Nowadays, we'd be worried about histoplasmosis in a place with concentrated bird droppings. Health officials would test for the fungus, and if present, they would place the area under quarantine.

In fact, Hopkinsville spent several hundred thousand dollars just a couple of years ago to replace soil contaminated heavily by bird droppings in a park where big flocks of birds roosted.

A century ago, R. F. Rives just plowed the bird manure into the soil and made the most of his good luck. Ignorance was bliss -- and a whole lot simpler and cheaper.

An Evening at the Kentuckiana Digital Library

Historical documents, images, and more

A few minutes ago, I had to pull myself away from the Kentuckiana Digital Library (KDL) so I can write in my blog and go to bed!

The KDL is just one section of The Kentucky Virtual Library, an immense resource for research in and about Kentucky. I don't pretend to know everything that can be found in and through the Kentucky Virtual Library. I do know that you can search, get the name of a book and its library, and have your local library arrange an interlibrary-loan.

The KDL has a lot of old photographs, books, and newspapers online. For example, I found a little book from 1915 that gives a proud overview of Christian County, Kentucky (where I live.) The entire text of William Henry Perrin's histories of Christian and Trigg Counties is also available there.

I learned a bit about the WPA work done around here in the Depression from some of the images of Christian County. Besides building roads and bridges, they operated a stone quarry that provided the materials. The images also include views of the coal mines in the northern part of the county in the early years of the century, a few farming photos from that era, and a number of photos of the long-gone Bethel College in Hopkinsville.

Since we live on the east side of Christian County with the Jefferson Davis Monument in the greater circles of our neighborhood, I was interested in the 1929 images of the newly completed monument. The one that shows a vintage automobile approaching Fairview is my favorite.

The Todd County photos (next county to the east) raised a question in my mind that will now have to be answered. What has become of the Gray and Blue State Park that appears in over a dozen photographs?

A hotel, lodge, traveler's rest hall, and more are shown in the photos of the Gray and Blue State Park. The park was transferred in 1936 to the National Park Service according to one of the captions. The only modern-day evidence I can find of the park's existence is the address of a church: "2273 Blue and Gray Park Road." I'm planning a drive down that road to see what I can see.

If you appreciate old-time photographs, newspapers, books, etc., there are wonders to behold at this website. I hope you'll pay a visit.

An Election Worker's Day

Providing a fair and honest election to my precinct

Yesterday, I was an election worker in Kentucky's General Election. My day began when the alarm rang at 4:15 AM. I left the house at 5:15 AM and drove a couple of miles to the local church that is the polling place for our precinct. Other workers arrived at about the same time, and we got the voting machines ready to go, tables arranged, sample ballots posted, and "Vote Here" signs installed outside.

At 6:00 a.m., we had our first voters. The next 12 hours went by fairly quickly, with a steady stream of people passing through. Usually, we had only one or two voters at a time, but at times, we had up to a dozen people waiting to vote. In all, about 1/3 of the registered voters in our precinct cast a ballot.

Due to a shortage of election workers, we had a three-person crew. We are supposed to have four workers -- clerk, Republican judge, Democrat judge, and sheriff. Since we didn't have a sheriff, we had to share that job between us.

Voter registration irregularities

We did have a few registration irregularities. We had several people who had moved from the precinct but had not changed their registration to their new precinct. It's illegal for them to vote in a precinct where they don't live, so we had to fill out paperwork for them and send them to their proper polling place.

In another case, a wife was listed as a legal voter in the book, but the husband was not listed, even though he had voted and resided in the precinct for years, just as his wife has. The county clerk allowed him to vote, but it required some phone calls and paperwork. The man was irritated and I understand why, but it certainly wasn't our fault.

In another case, a voter was incorrectly listed so we couldn't find his name. After a phone call to the County Clerk's office, we learned that he was listed with his middle name as his last name and his last name as his first name. He was able to vote under his incorrectly-listed name, and he filled out a new voter registration card to change his name so it will be correct next time (we hope.)

Problems with voting

An elderly gentleman requested the old voting machine. He couldn't hear very well. When he came out of the booth, we election workers didn't think that we had heard the bell on his machine ring (indicating that his vote was cast.) He asserted that he wouldn't have heard the bell if it did ring, but he had certainly pushed the "Vote" button. We commented that the lights next to the names on the screen were still flashing which indicated his vote was not complete. He insisted again that he had voted (!) so we didn't press the issue further. However, we don't think that his vote was recorded.

Workers aren't allowed to enter the booth with the voter, so it's hard to determine exactly what the problem is in some cases. One of the last voters of the day used the new voting machine and somehow managed to press buttons in a sequence that looped him back through the ballot several times. We tried to talk him through it from outside the booth. When the ballot has been successfully cast and the votes recorded, a success message and the American flag are displayed on the screen. He finally got that screen, but he was not satisfied that his vote had been counted.

Each of these incidents had to be recorded on the Sheriff's report, and some of them happened while we were pretty busy with voters, so it would have been good to have that fourth worker. Our precinct was one of several that did not have a full crew. I don't know why they can't find enough election workers. Is it the long day?

Following correct election procedures

Some voters seemed a bit miffed that they had to show an ID, but that's the rule unless an election worker will sign that he/she personally knows the person's identity.

I felt that all the election workers at our precinct were following regulations and procedures as best we could. We were going by the book. No one was trying to stretch or bend the rules or influence the voters. We were doing our best to provide a fair and honest election to the residents of our precinct.

After the polls were closed at 6:00 p.m., it took us about half an hour to print out the tapes on the machines, close them and shut them down, and pack up all the election materials. Then the other judge and I had to take the tapes, the memory units from the machines, and the voter books and other papers to the County Clerk's office.

One thing I learned is that it might be a good idea to check your voter registration at the courthouse once in a while, even if you've been voting regularly and haven't made any changes of address.

It was a long and tiring day, but it was good to participate in the exercise of democracy. I enjoyed it.

Related:
KY Poll Worker Charged With Assault -- Wow!
Fun, Civic Duty Cited as Reasons to Work the Polls -- Local election worker has served for 25 years.
Sheriff Called In to Solve Oak Grove Poll Problem -- Election workers coped with an inhospitable polling place elsewhere in my county. Check out the mayor's statement in the last paragraph. What an idiot. I hope the voters realize that he's messing with their voting rights, not just with the election workers who happened to be assigned there.

Safe and Secure from All Alarms

Skittles and her can

Skittles is such an intense little cat. When she decides she likes some particular place to sleep, she sleeps there fervently and often. Some of the places she favors are a little odd. For example, she's always been fond of sleeping in the trash can.

Recently, she took a liking to the little rug in front of the kitchen range. That didn't work out too well because people stepped on her all the time. One night, as I tried to stop stepping on her and she screeched in protest, I almost fell into a pot of hot soup.

Something had to be done. I had a big, empty, popcorn tin so I put an old towel in the bottom of it and set it in front of the range. She jumped right in, curled up, and took a long nap. I guess it reminded her of the trash can.

Since then, Skittles has been spending a lot of time sleeping in her popcorn can. She loves it, and it amuses me to have her there now that I don't have to worry about stepping on her.

Today, after I broke a glass in the kitchen, I vacuumed to clean up any splinters I might have missed with the broom. Usually, Skittles would have to leave the room while the vacuum was running. She's always very careful not to get caught in close quarters with that noisy monster.

But today, she felt so secure in her popcorn can that she didn't have to leave, not even when I vacuumed her rug. After several minutes of noisy vacuuming, I passed her can again, and she was half-asleep.

As I put up the vacuum cleaner, words from an old hymn came to mind -- "Safe and secure from all alarms." That's a phrase from the chorus of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," a hymn we sang in the country churches I attended as a child. If you're not familiar with it, you can read and hear it at Cyberhymnal.

Related:
Another midi of this hymn
And a piano midi version
And one more version