University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 2003 Thomas D. Clark of Kentucky: An Uncommon Life in the Commonwealth John E. Kleber Morehead State University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Kleber, John E., "Thomas D. Clark of Kentucky: An Uncommon Life in the Commonwealth" (2003). United States History. 105. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/105 Thomas D. Clark of Kentucky ."•"& 1 1 :""»•--* THOMAS D. CLARK OF KENTUCKY An Uncommon Life in the Commonwealth EDITED BY JOHN E. KLEBER THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2003 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508 4008 Frontispiece: Dr. Thomas D. Clark in Estill County, October 23, 2002. Photo by Charles Bertram/Lexington Herald-Leader. 08 07 06 05 04 03 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomas D. Clark of Kentucky : a uncommon life in the commonwealth / edited by John Kleber. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-2297-X (alk. paper) 1. Clark, Thomas Dionysius, 1903- 2. Historians—Kentucky—Biography. 3. Kentucky—Biography. 4. Kentucky—Historiography. I. Kleber, John E., 1941- E175.5.C56K46 2003 976.9'007'202—dc21 2003007144 Member of the Association of American University Presses Contents Photo credits vi Foreword CARL N. DEGLER vii Preface JOHN E. KLEBER xi PART I. THE LIFE Biography WALTER A. BAKER 3 PART II. THE HISTORIAN Kentucky Historian JAMES C. KLOTTER 11 Local Historian NANCY DISHER BAIRD AND CAROL CROWE CARRACO 31 Southern Historian CHARLES P. ROLAND 53 PART III. THE ADVOCATE Agrarian WILLIAM E. ELLIS 71 Education Advocate ROBERT E SEXTON 79 Kentuckian JOHN ED PEARCE 97 Preservationist WILLIAM MARSHALL 103 Publisher WM. JEROME CROUCH 127 PART IV. THE FRIEND Colleague MARY WILMA HARGREAVES 145 Southern Writer WADE HALL 159 Friend LEONARD P. CURRY 179 Inspirer JAMES DUANE BOLIN 187 Mentor EDWARD M. COFFMAN 203 PART V. THE WORKS Bibliographic Essay LOWELL H. HARRISON 219 Contributor 237 Index 243 Section photo credits THE LIFE (page 1) Thomas D. Clark, circa 1930 THE HISTORIAN (page 9) Thomas D. Clark in his office at the University of Kentucky, circa 1955. THE ADVOCATE (page 69) Thomas D. Clark (foreground) at the Dedication of his papers to the University of Kentucky Library, Oct. 30, 1992. Bill Marshall (background), UK Special Collections. THE FRIEND (page 143) Joking after a group photo in front of Ashland. Left to right, Congressman Ernie Fletcher, Scotty Baesler, Thomas D. Clark, Larry Hopkins, and William R Curlin Jr. November 12, 2002. Photo by Charles Bertram/Lexington Herald-Leader. 217) THE WORKS (page Dr. Thomas D. Clark looks over the outline for the large terrazzo map of Kentucky in the main lobby of the Kentucky History Center, under construction in February 1999. Photo by Lexington Herald-Leader. Foreword CARL N. DEGLER When I was a beginning assistant professor at Vassar College on the banks of the Hudson River in New York, I tried as often as I could to visit historical conventions. There I could observe and occasionally meet the great names of the profession whose books or articles I had been reading and admiring. (I was bookish in those days.) I was es- pecially excited at meetings of the Southern Historical Association, for the South was just gaining my attention as a region of the United States; it would soon become a long-term interest of mine. At those meetings I might try to gain the attention of one of the Greats in or- der to compliment his work. (At that time there were almost no women historians at those conventions, North or South.) The usual response from the author in question was pleasant and appreciative but little more. I was pleased at the encounter, nonetheless. That is how I came to know Tom Clark. Instead, it was Tom, striding along a corridor at the convention hotel and seeing my name- tag who came right up to me in his vigorous way, saying, "I am glad to see you" as he warmly shook my hand. "Sarah Blanding told me a lot about you. You know," he continued, "she and I used to teach at Kentucky. She is a great gal." At that time Sarah Blanding was not only a native Kentuckian but the president of Vassar College, and Sarah's friendship with Tom was already helping me to obtain some travel money for the meetings of the Southern Historical Association. Vll Foreword (Of course, only much later could I call her, "Sarah.") Tom was one of those Greats, but I did not know that then. He was already a past president of the Southern Historical Association and also of the larger Organization of American Historians. When I first met him I had not yet read what became one of his characteristic studies of the rural South, his Pills, Petticoats, and Plows: The Southern Country Store. Only later as I moved more deeply into southern history did I draw upon his three-volume bibliography, Travels in the Old South. To understand my friendship with Tom Clark you have to know that I was born and reared in New Jersey—in northern New Jersey, in fact. Some historians who have been born and reared in the South require some time to adjust to us northerners as we dig into the south- ern past. That was never true with Tom, partly, I suppose, because of my connection with Sarah Blanding, but more likely because he was not simply a regionalist. That identity was evident in his lecturing, studying and writing about aspects of the United States beyond the South. Southern rural history was undoubtedly Tom's first love, but he also spread that deep interest into the rural Middle West and the thinly populated frontier. Given his outlook and reputation beyond the South, it was hardly surprising that upon his retirement from Kentucky, Tom took up a prestigious visiting professorship at Indiana University, out of which emerged his three-volume history of that in- novative educational institution, and which was published when he was only seventy-four. Tom has a wonderful, strong voice and energetic manner that can be recognized from a distance. I never heard him lecture, I regret to say, but his public lectures at prestigious universities in the North and the South tell us much about his delivery and his professional reputa- tion in the course of his century-long career. He was, as I say, a histo- rian of rural America, yet despite that apparendy limited interest, Eu- ropean universities at Vienna and Athens invited him to lecture. Vttl CARL N. DEGLER It would be a mistake to push too hard on Tom's undeniable ru- ral outlook, for again and again in the essays contained in this Festschrift you will find not only details of his works but also some- thing of the variety of historical subjects he has discovered and pushed into the course of his century. He has continually spread his wings into new as well as old topics. Early on, for instance, he started writ- ing economic history, detailing the history of an early southern rail- road and, at another time, explaining the history of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States. He also delved into the history of journalism at one point, only to turn at another time to the native humor of frontier life. More recently he put together a study of Ken- tucky historical cartography. Somewhat later, in 1983, he dug into environmental history in a book he called The Greening of the South. Most of that range of works and activities I simply did not know about when we used to chat from convention to convention. One of the reasons for my lack of information was that Tom never felt it nec- essary to talk about his latest book, article, or project, though they poured from the presses regularly. Our conversation usually confined itself to inquiries about what I was doing, and then maybe a remark about how Sarah Blanding was making out at Vassar, usually accom- panied by an old story from Sarah's colorful life in their old days in Kentucky. With it always came that Tom Clark warmth and chuckle, and the twinkle in the eye. What a century his life has been for all of us. Not only for Tom's surviving a centennial of such achievement and recognition, but es- pecially for recognizing that new accomplishments and marks of rec- ognition are still emerging from him. Or, put another way, it is good to be providing some measure of recognition of those achievements by and remembrances about Tom, for today he is able to read these remarks and remember us. So, dear reader, take a look below at these achievements and memories and enjoy.