When: Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.
Where: Wrather West Kentucky Museum, North 16th Street and University Drive, Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky.
Presentation: Author Judy Shearer will be talking about her book All Bones Be White, a creative nonfiction narrative, a biography, of Cassy, a woman who was a slave in Kentucky and who was tried for murder in 1833.
Additional Attraction: Kate Reeves announces Wrather Museum has “Journey Stories,” a traveling Smithsonian exhibit sponsored by the Kentucky Humanities Council, January 28 through March 10.
Reminders: Dues for the 2011-2012 year can be paid at this meeting. The 2011 Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal will also be available.
For more information: Contact Gil Mathis by email gil.mathis@murraystate.edu or mdowning27@charter.net.
Jackson Purchase Historical Society will meet on Saturday, November 5, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. in the Weldon Public Library in downtown Martin, Tennessee. University of Tennessee at Martin Geology Professor Stan Dunagan will be speaking about “The New Madrid Seismic Zone: Then (1811-1812) and Now.” Dr. Dunigan grew up in Martin and attended public schools and the University of Tennessee at Martin. For many years his father Nick Dunagan held several administrative posts at University of Tennessee at Martin before becoming campus Chancellor. Dr. Dunagan graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1993 and later earned his Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1998. In 2002, he was hired as a Geology Professor at U. T. Martin where he has taught both online and regular classroom courses, including multidisciplinary and non-traditional approaches. He has also written several scholarly articles, chapters in books and presented papers at professional meetings on extinct ecosystems. For directions to Weldon Public Library please contact Marvin Downing at mdowning37@charter.net.
A presentation by Kadie Engstrom, Education Coordinator Belle of Louisville, will be given at the McCracken County Public Library on Thursday, September 15th at 7:00 p.m. The presentation will be part of the ‘Evenings Upstairs @ Your Library’ and sponsored by the McCracken County Public Library & The Friends of the Library. Ms. Engstrom’s presentation is in conjunction with the 2011 National Steamboat Bicentennial Celebration and will include information about the Ohio River and will highlight the rich history of the first steamboats on the Ohio River. She will also target the historic steamboat, Belle of Louisville which first sailed on the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was built by James Rees & Sons Company for the West Memphis Packet Company in 1914. Her original name was the Idlewild. During the 1920′s, the Idlewild shipped the Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri River systems. The program is free and open to the public in the upstairs community room of the McCracken County Public Library. For additional information contact Bobbie Wrinkle 270-442-2510 X 119 or bwrinkle@mclib.net.
Call to Order: President Marion Claybrook called the meeting to order at the Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky with approximately 20 members and guests in attendance.
Business: Secretary Melissa Earnest and Treasurer Marvin Downing had prepared the minutes and treasurer’s report and distributed copies to those in attendance. Bob Lochte moved to accept the minutes as presented with Lonnie Maness seconding the motion. The motion carried. John Robertson moved to accept the treasurer’s report as presented with Bob Lochte seconding the motion. The motion carried. Membership dues have remained the same and are payable to Downing for the 11-12 membership year. Earnest, the Journal editor, thanked Ann Adams and the personnel at the University of Tennessee Martin printing department for another wonderful printing of the Journal. Earnest noted this year’s edition was truly a page-turner! Cecelia Edwards showed the progress she has made on the quilt. It basically needs the border and the quilting completed to be finished. In new business, Claybrook presented the following slate of officers for 11-12: President – Gil Mathis; Vice-President – Bob Lochte; Secretary – Cecelia Edwards; Treasurer – Marvin Downing and Member-at-Large – Melissa Earnest. John Robertson and Bob Lochte moved to accept the slate of officers by acclamation. The motions carried for each office.
Program: Claybrook introduced John Robertson as the guest speaker. Robertson has lived in Paducah for more than 50 years, researching its history for many of those years. Robertson added Vonnie Shelton of the McCracken County Public Library had been assisting him in transcribing the letters of Jennie Fyfe. Fyfe arrived in Cairo, Illinois, on her way to Paducah, Kentucky to work as a nurse during the Civil War era. The letters she wrote to her family provide an eyewitness account of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s arrival in Paducah. Fyfe wrote about the Paducah raid while she was in hospital #2 where she could see the rebels arriving. Fyfe eventually began a new part of her life in the spring of 1865 after the Civil War ended. She started working as a teacher and supported the recently freed African Americans in their quest for education. Fyfe was part of the movement devoted to the advancement of freed blacks, especially in Louisiana. She was an accomplished woman in her own right and died from complications of cataract surgery. Fyfe’s grave is in Lansing, Michigan and her letters belong to the University of Michigan, but Robertson and Shelton obtained permission to transcribe them and to have the information presented at the JPHS meeting.
Adjournment: The fall meeting will be held in November in Martin, Tennessee, in conjunction with the West Tennessee Historical Society. Dr. Stan Dunagan will present a program on the New Madrid earthquake. Members and guests were encouraged to take advantage of the half-price admission to the Quilt Museum after the meeting was adjourned.
This summer’s meeting will be held at the American Quilters Museum at 215 Jefferson Street in Paducah on July 30th. The speaker will be John Robertson, a longtime Jackson Purchase Historical Society member and author of numerous publications on Kentucky history, with a specialized emphasis on persons and events in Paducah. His topic will be on the letters of Jennie Fyfe who came to Paducah in early 1864 to work at the Marine Hospital. She was an eye witness to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s raid and the “Reign of Terror” under General E. A. Paine. The Fyfe family correspondence is located at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. Photocopies of the letters can also found at the McCracken County Public Library. The director of the American Quilters Museum will provide half-priced guided tours to all members that attend.
The Spring Meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at the Paducah Railroad Museum began with a brief discussion on the minutes from the Winter Meeting and a treasurer’s report from Marvin Downing. It was also announced that the Summer Meeting would be held at the Quilt Museum in Paducah sometime in late July. The speaker was Bob Johnston, the President of the Paducah Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. His presentation was on ”Railroading in Paducah: Then and Now”. The story of the railroad at Paducah dates back to the early 1850s with Lloyd Tilghman, former West Point graduate and later Confederate general, who came to Paducah to lay out the northern branch of the New Orleans & Ohio Railway. The first depot in Paducah was constructed at the corner of 5th and Court Street and the first locomotive arrived by boat in 1855. For the first few decades, James Campbell and Lawrence Trimble managed the railroads at Paducah. Trimble would serve as president of the New Orleans & Ohio Railroad Company from 1860 to 1869. During the Civil War, North and South fought over control of the railway causing damage to the tracks and numerous breaks in service. Following the war, the rail line was completed from Paducah to Union City and from there to New Orleans. The first direct trip from Paducah to New Orleans occurred in 1868. As the United States became more industrialized, the number of rail lines entering Paducah increased dramatically. The later part of the 19th century and early half of the 20th century saw amazing growth in railroads and the number of railroad companies in Paducah. However, the automobile and the trucking industry overtook the railroad industry and by the early 1950s passenger trains ceased to operate in Paducah. In 1960, the last steam locomotive constructed in Paducah left the train yard. The early hay days of the railroads may have past, but Mr. Johnston reminded his audience that railroads still provide a major service to Paducah and Jackson Purchase. The meeting was adjourned with a reminder that office elections are coming up and that anyone interested in running for an office should contact one of the present officers.
Make plans now to attend the spring meeting, which will be held at the Paducah Railroad Museum on Saturday, April 30th beginning at 10:30 a.m. Bob Johnston, President of the Paducah Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society will be the speaker. Johnston’s topic is “Railroading in Paducah: Now and Then”.
Following the presentation, attendees will be able to tour the museum at no cost, but donations will be accepted. The normal admission price for an adult is $3.00. The museum is located at 200 Washington Street, Paducah, across the street from the Luther Carson Four Rivers Center.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Dr. Bill Mulligan, Professor of History, Murray State University
Rescheduling the Winter Meeting because of bad weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of the JPHS. Approximately 30 members and guests attended the meeting Saturday, February 26, 2011 to hear Dr. Bill Mulligan on the topic of the Civil War in West Kentucky and West Tennessee from 1860 to 1863. At the beginning, Dr. Mulligan stated that he had modified his topic somewhat because his research has carried him beyond the 1863 point. Dr. Mulligan believes that the Civil War was won along the rivers of western Kentucky and Tennessee and was decided in the Jackson Purchase. One salient point, forgotten by most people, is that one big difference between West Kentucky and West Tennessee was that Kentucky remained in the union and therefore its citizens were still U.S. citizens whereas Tennessee had seceded and its citizens were declared in rebellion. After the his presentation, Dr. Mulligan answered questions from the audience and signed copies of his recent book, Badger Boy in Blue: The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke which were available for sale.
Normal business was also conducted as both the Secretary’s minutes and the Treasurer’s report were submitted to the membership. Announcement was made that the Spring Meeting would be held in Paducah, April 30, 2011, at the Railroad Museum. The guest speaker will be Bob Johnston, President of the Paducah Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. His topic will be “Railroading in paducah: Then & Now”. A tour of the museum will be offered afterward. The meeting was adjourned.
The JPHS holds quarterly meetings only; won’t you make your plans now to attend our Spring Meeting, April 30th?
Our Winter Meeting will kickoff our Civil War Sesquicentennial observation activities. We begin with an excellent speaker, Dr. Bill Mulligan, Professor of History at Murray State University (MSU) and 2009 Fulbright Scholar in History at University College Cork, Ireland. His topic will be “The Civil War in Western Kentucky and West Tennessee, 1860-1863″. Attendees will be allowed to ask questions of Dr. Mulligan at the conclusion of his presentation.
Dr. Mulligan has been teaching at MSU since 1993 and has performed extensive research on the Civil War in western Kentucky. He has written several works about the Civil War period. He is the editor of Badger Boy in Blue: The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke. Dr. Mulligan has also been involved in a number of Civil War related public history projects. Most recently he was the Project Director for the Ohio River Civil War Heritage Corridor which included 32 outdoor interpretative signs and a brochure, completed in 2003-2005. Local historical societies know Dr. Mulligan well as he is supportive of their efforts and has been very willing to share his knowledge of the Jackson Purchase area.
Our Winter Meeting will be held January 22, 2011 in the auditorium of Wrather Museum on the campus of Murray State University. It begins at 10:30 a.m. The public is always welcome at our meetings.
Our kickoff will include a special “prize” to a lucky attendee. Upcoming celebrations events will also be presented. Won’t you come and join us!
Our Adopt-A-Student project continues! If you are, or know of, a student at any level (elementary to graduate school) who would like to attend one of our meetings but need transportation assistance, contact Marvin Downing, JPHS Treasurer, at mdowning37@charter.net to apply.
Marvin Downing
Our Fall Meeting was a joint one with the West Tennessee Historical Society. A short business meeting involved a reminder that the artwork for the New Madrid postal cancellation project is due to Cecelia Edwards by December 31, 2010 and a request for ideas for the JPHS Civil War celebration activities.
At the conclusion of the business meeting, Marvin Downing, PhD, spoke on the subject of Christmasville, Tennessee. He began by showing a 6 minute DVD segment of Tennessee Crossroads about Christmasville; Downing served as a consultant on this program. After the segment, he distributed a handout containing a current map of west Tennessee counties and a detailed map of the same area in 1864 showing the location of Christmasville on the south fork of the Obion River in Caroll (now Carroll) County, pictures of John C. McLemore and his wife, Elizabeth Donelson McLemore, and a sketch by Thomas F. Moore, a native of Christmasville, showing the area circa 1865. It was on land owned by McLemore that Christmasville was built and incorporated in 1823. Downing spoke eloquently about the area which is no longer a viable community, but still remembered as attested to by a recent newspaper article concerning a hunting accident in which it was mentioned that one of the young men involved was from the “Christmasville area”. After the program, Dr. Downing was applauded for all the research and work he had done on this topic.
The next JPHS meeting will be January 22, 2011 in the auditorium of the Wrather Museum on the campus of Murray State University. The meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. Our speaker will be Dr. Bill Mulligan, Professor of History at Murray State.
Marvin Downing
Downing and meeting attendees