Jackson Purchase Historical Society

In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past – recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This third voice is that of a historian, James W. Hammack, Jr.   Dr. Hammack was on the Department of History faculty of Murray State University (MSU) for 30 years, 10 years of which he served as Department Chair.   Following his death,  a Scholarship Banquet has been held, for the past 8 years, at which the Dr. James W. Hammack, Jr. graduate scholarship is awarded.

Dr. Hammack was the author of a book entitled, Kentucky and the Second American Revolution:  The War of 1812. This recorded speech was given December 5, 1975.

Dr. Hammack’s speech explores the various battles of the War of 1812, including the Battle of the Thames and the Battle of New Orleans, and how the valor and skill of the fighting men from Kentucky gave birth to the term “Kentucky Rifleman” .

This recording is the exclusive property of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. It is made available for your personal use only and may not be used for any other commercial or non-commercial purposes, including any public performance, broadcasting, or copying of this recording. If you have any questions about how this recording may be used, please contact the President of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at info@jacksonpurchasehistory.org

In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past – recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This second voice is that of a writer, Robert Drake, talking about his hometown, Ripley, Tennessee, and the origin of his characters.  “What I Write About:  Death and Old Women” is the title of one of his works, and his answer when anyone asks about what he writes.

This was recorded on June 1973 in Fulton, KY and here for the Society he discusses his early life which was populated with old maids and women sipping their tea while gossiping, whom he loved and immortalized in his fiction.

Dr. Drake was a professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Martin from 1973-99, University of Tennessee, 1965-73, University of Texas, Austin 1961-65.  A collection of his works, “For the Record: A Robert Drake Reader”, published at the time of his death in June 2001, is still available from online booksellers.  Earlier works include a collection of short stories, Amazing Grace (1965), and other collections, The Single Heart (1971), the Burning Bush (1975), The Home Place (1980), Survivors and Others (1987), My Sweetheart’s House (1993) and What Will You do for an Encore? (1996)

In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past – recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This first voice is a musical one, that of Jimmy Driftwood on July 28, 1975.   Records of the Society do not reveal the name of the building at whose dedication Driftwood is speaking.

Jimmy Driftwood was a school teacher who was also a songwriter.  His most famous song was “Battle of New Orleans” and sings it during this speech.  He also sings and discusses old ballads.  For those of you who are not Southerners, when Driftwood speaks of “ambeer” he is talking about tobacco juice.

Driftwood (born James Corbitt Morris, 1907-1998) was one of the original members of the Grand Ole Opry and was instrumental in establishing the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas which preserves Ozark Mountain culture.  The Center has since been absorbed by the Arkansas State Park System.

When the “Battle” was recorded by Johnny Horton it stayed 21 weeks on top of the pop and country charts and was awarded a Grammy for the Song of the Year in 1960.   He received Grammy awards for others of his songs such as “Wilderness Road”, “Tennessee Stud”, and “Songs of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb.”

This recording is the exclusive property of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. It is made available for your personal use only and may not be used for any other commercial or non-commercial purposes, including any public performance, broadcasting, or copying of this recording. If you have any questions about how this recording may be used, please contact the President of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at info@jacksonpurchasehistory.org.

Cotham Dare was a horse that could fox trot!  No, not a trick horse but one of the first of a new breed – the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed.   But he was born in the Jackson Purchase!

He was bred by N. D. Cotham of Mayfield, Kentucky and was born on May 9, 1941.  Although he was a registered American Saddle Bred stallion, a breed created by horsemen in Kentucky, when he was taken to Missouri, he was also registered in the Fox Trot association on conformation and gaits in 1948.  His registration papers shows he was the great-great-great-grandson of the immortal Black Squirrel, an American Saddle Bred stallion.

Fox Trotters have an “extra” gait,  like the Tennessee Walking Horse and the American Saddle Bred, called a “fox trot”.  This specific “fox trot” is a four beat gait in which the front end of the horse appears to be walking and the back end trotting.  Because at least one foot of the horse is on the ground at all times during the gait, it produces a smooth ride without any bouncing of the rider.

A dark red sorrel with a very faint star (“had the prettiest head”) and two white hind feet, small – a little over 15 hands, short back, lean neck, slanting shoulders, Cotham Dare “took the eyes of many people wherever he went.”  Well mannered, strong and with a cool head, he was ridden easily by women in parades and shows.

Bred to local mares, he was a potent stud and became one of the foundation sires of the Fox Trotting Breed.  The Dare line was known for its conformation, good disposition, beauty and natural fox trot.    Cotham Dare’s fox trot was also described in those days as “cap tracing”.   Cap tracking is when the horse’s back hooves disfigure (step in) their front track whenever they foxtrotted giving the rider a very smooth ride.

His owner of 7 years described him thus:  “His disposition, I could talk from now until doomsday and I couldn’t tell you how good his disposition was and how smart he was.  We had him in a five or six acre patch and I would put him up every night.  One night he started to the pond and he stopped to look at me. I saw he had started to get a drink, so I said, “Okey, go ahead and get a drink then come on”.  That’s exactly what he did.  It made you think he understood exactly what you said to him.”

Cotham Dare died in 1954 in Missouri.  His picture and story are in the Museum of the Missouri Fox Trotting Breed Association in Ava, Missouri and on the Internet.

(Information for this posting taken from the official registration papers of Cotham Dare of both the American Saddle Horse Breeders’ Association and the Missouri Fox Trotting Breed Association, from the book, Fox Trot Trackings, by Nadine I. Moeller (Light Graphics, June 1986), Internet at www.allbreedpedigree.com/cotham+dare and www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Fox_Trotter)