Longhunter, Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society Newsletter Volume 22, Number 1 Kentucky Library Research Collections Western Kentucky University, [email protected]
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Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Longhunter, Southern Kentucky Genealogical Kentucky Library - Serials Society Newsletter Winter 1999 Longhunter, Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society Newsletter Volume 22, Number 1 Kentucky Library Research Collections Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/longhunter_sokygsn Part of the Genealogy Commons, Public History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Kentucky Library Research Collections, "Longhunter, Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society Newsletter Volume 22, Number 1" (1999). Longhunter, Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society Newsletter. Paper 98. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/longhunter_sokygsn/98 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Longhunter, Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society Newsletter by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society + Volume XXlI - Issue 1 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY P. O. Box 1782 Bowling Green, KY 42102-1 782 http://members.aol .com/kygen/skgs/skgs.htm 1999 Officers President Mark Lowe, 505 Josephine St, Springfield, TN Vice President Ray Thomas, 2036 Quail Run Dr, Bowling Green, KY 42104 Corresponding Secretary Judy Davenport, 516 Ashmore, Bowling Green, KY 4210 I Treasurer Rebecca Shipley, 702 Eastwood, Bowling Green, KY 42103 Chaplain A. Ray Douglas, 43 9 Douglas Lane, Bowling Green, KY 42101 Longhunter Editor Gail Miller, 425 Midcrest Dr, Bowling Green, KY 42101 Membership Membership in the Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society is open to all persons, especially those wbo are interested in research in Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Logan, Simpson, and Warren Counties in Kentucky. Membership is by the year, I January through 31 December. Dues for individual or family membership are $20.00 per year and include a subscription to tbe quarterly publication THE LONGHUNTER. Meetings The SOUTHERN KENTUCKY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY meets regularly on the third Monday of each month at the WKU Exposition Center, Elrod Road: just off31-W south at 6:30 pm. A cordial welcome is extended to all visitors and prospective new members. Announcements of date, time, and place of all meetings will be displayed on the Community Bulletin Board, Channel 6, and in the AROUND TOWN column in the Park City Daily News. Queries Members may submit an unJimited number of queries. These should be limited to 80 words per query and should contain at least one date and place. Send queries directly to the editor. Book Reviews Send books for review to the editor with pricing and ordering information. After review, all donated books are placed in the Special Collection at the Kentucky Library at Western Kentucky University. Back Issues Current and back issues of The Longhunler from 1978 are available for $5 .00 eacb, post paid. Orders should be placed at the society's address. The Longhunter Volume XXI] - Issue 1 February, 1999 Table of Contents Message from the Editor 2 Court Day in Kentucky 3 Kentucky Historical References to Some Stations of Old Kentucky 7 Edmonson County, KY Post Route Map, 1911 18 Edmonson County, KY Post Offices 19 The John Moran Family Bible 21 52nd Kentucky Mounted Infantry 23 DOs and DON'Ts for Query Letters 30 Warren County, KY Marriages, 1797-1900 31 Queries 40 Logan County, KY Mortality Schedule, 1870 41 Index 45 Member Publications 52 Books and Publications by the Society The Longhunter Ancestor Index, Vol I., 8 y, x I I , sft bd, ndxe, over 10,000 ancestors and spouses of members, 246 pages, $24.00 plus $2.50 shipping. The Longhunter Ancestor Index, Vol. 2, 8 'h x II , hard-bound, ndxe, 8400 ancestors and spouse of98 SKGS members, most since 1990 when Vol. I was published, 191 pages, $27.50 plus $2.50 shipping. 1810 Warren County, KY Census, 8 y, x II , 82 pages, soft-bound, full name index, $17.50 pp . THE LONGBUNTER, VOLUME xxn, ISSUE 1 Message from the Editor: This issue of The LOllghllnler marks my first official work as editor. It will be difficult following after Dave and Sue Evan ~ as editors. They did a wonderful job and I hope that eventually I will be able to measure to their standards. 1 have a goal as editor which 1 did not quite measure to with this issue. 1 want to include articles on every one of our service counties in every issue. In addition, 1 want to make available Bible records and rare documents that have not been accessible in the past. Please help by submitting unpublished letters or diaries of historical or genealogical interest, unpublished Bibles, articles on your family, cemetery transcriptions, articles which illuminate the social history of the past, or articles on the history of our area or its pioneers. We can get this information into print and make it accessible to our members and others. In addition, by sharing we can all keep our precious records safe from destruction and loss. The recent tornadoes in Tennessee and particularly those which wiped out the downtown area of Clarksville should make us realize that nothing kept in a single place is safe. Even though the older records in that courthouse were not destroyed, the fTagile nature of original documents and their safety was brought to mind. Please get your original materials and compiled records out of your closets and from under your beds and make copies and share them. That is the only way to keep them safe. Gail Miller February I, 1999 We now have the capacity to include old photographs in The LOllghlllller. Laser copies scan nicely. Perhaps you have older group or school shots which would be of general interest. Identify tftose that you can; perhaps others can help with unidentified individuals. 2 THE LONG HUNTER, VOLUME XXII, ISSUE I Court Day in Kentucky From Pattie French Witherspoon, "Court Day in Kentucky," in Through Two Administrations, Character Sketches of Kentucky (Chicago, T. B. Arnold, Publisher, 1897), pp. 60-70. Often your genealogical research on an ancestor will include dates ofparti cular land transactions or service on a jury. When these do not include genealogical information, they are often ignored because of the seeming lack of information on the ancestor that is provided However, many of these business or legal transactions probably occurred on County COllrt Day. An understanding of the importance of COI!."t Day as a social occasion might give life to these seemingly dry dates Court day is a great event in a small Kentucky town, and stands third on the calender of social epochs, giving precedence only to circus and election days. It is a great commercial rally and the men are truly on 'change all day. On Court day the Kentuckian is willing to exchange, or swap, everything he owns from his bluegrass farm to his jack-knife. One can trade extensively on court day without having a cent of money; the only currency he need have is a young filly or a foxhound . Dogs are legal tender in Kentucky. The story is told of a clever young countryman who, without a penny started to town early one morning on court day, walking and leading by a string a pair of well-matched foxhounds. Late in the evening he returned home in state, riding a frisky "two-year-old," with sugar and coffee in the saddlebags for his family. In explaining the situation to his admiring neighbors, he exclaimed, "Yer see its all er-Iong uv my bein ' sich er dog-gored good jedge uv er anermule." This expression was intentionally comprehensive, and doubtless had reference to certain weak specimens of the human fam il y that had fallen into the clutches of the wily trader. Early in the morning "bunches" of fat cattle come in on all the roads leading to the village, walking slowly and with becoming dignity, as if they were conscious of the favoritism extended to them by their masters. The proud Roman, who reviewed the trophies and victims of his late conquests as he passed beneath the triumphal arches erected in his honor, was not more elated than is out Kentucky Cincinnatus, when he drives up court day his herd of one hundred sleek, fat thoroughbreds. Following the cattle come droves of fat hogs that toi l laboriously over the stones, burdened by the weight of their great flesh . The dissonant ringing of cracked bells announces the approach of a flock of sheep. They hasten to do the bidding of an imperious shepherd dog, that trots by the ranks with sedate dignity, like a commanding officer reviewing his troops. Now and then they 3 THE LONGHUNTER, VOLUME XXII, ISSUE 1 bleat piteously for the green meadow and shadowed brook they have left behind forever. Last of all come herds of men and dogs; the faithful animals follow their masters' lead dutifully, eager to catch the gossip about the last fox hunt, and equally eager to scent out the probable date of the next one. It is considered not quite proper for women to appear on the crowded thoroughfares court day. The streets are often very muddy from the unusual trampling and splashing made by the stock in their recent importation, and besides that, the men and horses claim the honor of representing the State for the day. Occasionally a country housewife is smuggled through the ranks in a closed vehicle to exchange her butter and eggs for coal-oil and prints. She usually has an eye, if not a hand, on "pa" all day, and often keeps that gentleman from intemperate measures. In the afternoon she has the melancholy satisfaction of driving "pa" home in a state of only semi intoxication, whereas she looks about her and sees poor Mary Ellen's husband reeling, and riding with his face toward his horse' s tail, and the poor thing congratulates herselftbat her "pa ain 't tbat bad off" Court day affords a fine circulating me.dium for candidates, quack doctors and other humanitarians.