Jackson Purchase Historical Society

“John Thomas Scopes, according to Berry Craig, landed a teaching job in Dayton, TN.  He told his sister, “I’m going there because it’s a small town with a small school where I won’t get in any deep water.”  The skinny, freckle-faced Paducahan made headlines worldwide in 1925 when he was convicted of teaching evolution.  “Brother didn’t think there was all that much to what he had done,” said sister Lela Scopes.   (Paducahans, Famous and Not So Famous, by Allan Rhodes, Sr. & John E. L. Robertson, Sr., pages 40-42)

The famous Scopes Monkey Trial was held in Dayton, TN and ended with the conviction of Scopes and the  imposition of a fine of $100.  The decision was appealed and overturned by the higher court because of a technicality (fine imposed by judge instead of jury).  Scopes wrote Center of the Storm, a book about the trial, but said little else publicly about it.

After the trial, Scopes did graduate study in geology at the University of Chicago and did geological field work in Venezuela for Gulf Oil of South America.  In 1930 he did further graduate study and later took a position as a geologist with the United Gas Company studying oil reserves.  He worked in Houston, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana until retirement in 1963.

Scopes was born in Paducah on August 3, 1900 and died there in 1970.  He and his wife, Mildred, are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Paducah, KY, where his tombstone carries the epitaph, A MAN OF COURAGE.

John’s older sister, Lela V. Scopes, was a teacher, in 1925, in Paducah.  When she returned after the trial, Miss Lela learned that she was no longer employed as a teacher.  She didn’t like to talk about it, but felt the trial also cost  her her teaching job in Paducah. Miss Lela was born in 1987 and died in 1989.

(This posting created from the following resources:  Paducahans, Famous and Not so Famous by Allan Rhodes, Sr. & John E. L. Robertson, Sr.; Internet at www.findagrave.com and Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_T._Scopes)

Dr. Dennis Henry Anderson

Dennis Henry Anderson was born in West Tennessee, near Jackson, in 1866.   He graduated from Lane College, Jackson, Tennessee, in 1893 and became a Methodist minister and teacher.   He married Artelia Harris, a native of Virginia, on July 14, 1897 while they were teachers in the Fulton, Kentucky public schools. Anderson believed that education and job training were vital for change for African Americans.

He opened schools in Fulton and Graves counties, raising the funds for the building of the first high school in Fulton County in 1905.  On December 9, 1909, the 43 year old Anderson began work on the foundation of the first building of what would be called the West Kentucky Industrial College (a predecessor of today’s West Kentucky Community & Technical College).  He and his wife worked on the foundation in the evening by candlelight, constructing the school “out of logs and faith.”   He went door-to-door, requesting funds for the school.  The cornerstones were laid in 1911, and Anderson began a 7 year struggle to get state support for his college.

In 1918, a bill creating the state supported West Kentucky Industrial College was signed by Governor A. O. Stanley “for the mental, moral and physical development of the colored people after the manner of the Booker Washington School of Alabama” by operating a “training school for colored teachers, boys and girls”.  The school grew to be, at one time, the second largest black junior college in the United States.  In 1938, the teacher-training program at the college was transferred to Frankfort, and the college closed and reopened as West Kentucky Vocational School.

Anderson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lane College in 1934.  He died at the age of 86 in 1952.  To read more about Dr. Anderson, see The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians, by A. A. Dunnigan; Fifty Years of Segregation: Black Higher Education in Kentucky, 1904-1954 by J. A. Hardin, and My West Kentucky, A History of West Kentucky Technical College 1909-1999 by J. M. Blythe.

(This posting created using the following resources:  Paducahans, Famous and Not So Famous, by Allan Rhodes, Sr. and John E. L. Robertson, Sr.; the Internet website of the University of Kentucky Libraries, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database at www.uky.edu/Libraries/NKAA and the Internet website of West Kentucky Community and Technical College at www.legacy.westkentucky.kctcs.edu/aboutus from which the image of Dr. Anderson used above was obtained.)

“Alice “Dolly” McNutt

June 22, 1917 – January 11, 1989

“Madam Eloquent” was a title bestowed on Alice “Dolly” McNutt by those who heard her speak.  She was the first woman to become the mayor of a second-class city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in 1971. Dolly carried 22 of the 28 precincts and tied for another.  During her tenure in office the city enjoyed many federal funds that went for improvement of the infrastructure such as improved sewers and sewage treatment facilities.  Also, new water, power, and sewer lines went out to what is now Kentucky Oaks Mall and out Coleman Road.  Locally, she fully funded the pension funds for both fire and police departments.  Hueblein opened a plant in Paducah to produce vodka.  Bill Bartleman and Berry Craig summed up the career of Mrs. Houston McNutt in the Paducah Sun on January 13, 1989.  Their article reported Judge J. William Howerton saying, “She didn’t count votes before she took a position on an issue.  She decided what was best and worked to accomplish that, without concern about how it was going to affect her politically.”  Former Governor Julian Carroll felt Mrs. McNutt was one of the rare people who not only was intelligent, but also had the ability to communicate.  “We very rarely see anyone that has both of those abilities and because of it, she had a tremendous influence in her leadership in the General Assembly and as mayor.”" (This excerpt from Paducahans, Famous and Not so Famous by Allan Rhodes, Sr. and John E. L. Robertson, Sr.; used by permission)

Dolly McNutt served in the Kentucky State House of Representatives from 1976 to 1986.  An outdoor civic plaza in Paducah is named in her honor.  Alice “Dolly” Hite McNutt died of cancer on January 11, 1989 and is buried beside her husband, Samuel Houston McNutt, in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Paducah, KY.

(This posting also created using Internet sources:  www.findagrave.com; www.politicalgraveyard.com; and city of Paducah website.)

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.  It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” (www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.html)

Controversy surrounds the question of who first proposed such a holiday but it is a fact that the first Labor Day celebrated in the United States was on September 5, 1882 in New York City.  Slowly gaining recognition, the first law for a Labor Day holiday was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887, followed by Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania.  During 1894, 23 more states passed similar laws and finally Congress enacted legislation, June 28, 1894, making the first Monday in September a national Labor Day holiday.

The first proposal for the holiday contained language that outlined the  celebration form to be a street parade followed by a festival for the workers and their families.  The significance of the parade was to show a public display of the strength and spirit of the trade and labor organizations.   This parade/festival format has been the main framework of celebrations since 1894.  Speeches by prominent people have been added to the celebratory tradition as have picnics, barbecues, and fireworks.

The American Federation of Labor convention of 1909 adopted the Sunday preceding this holiday to be Labor Sunday and it was dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

Around the world, similar Labor Day holidays are celebrated at different times of the year  in Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, to name a few.  All Labor Day holidays were created to celebrate the social and economic achievements of workers and all had their origins in the labor union movement which gave workers, among other things, the 8 hour work day (8 hours for work, 8 hours for recreation, 8 hours for rest.)

(This posting created from the Internet sources at www.dol.gov; en.wikipedia.org)