Museum Newsletter - 3 Mar 2006

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum
E-Newsletter
March 3, 2006 (Volume 2, Number 4)

Dear Friends,

Museum Activity.

>>This newsletter has received an award!!!

I am very proud to report that this e-newsletter has been awarded a statewide commendation from the Kentucky Historical Society for outstanding newsletter or journal publication worthy of being used as a model by other organizations. My wife and I will be going to a dinner in Frankfort Saturday to accept the award.

Do you hear my buttons popping from my swelled chest??

>>Surprise visit of 20 from Little Flock school.

I am happy to say that we had yet another group of school children visit the museum. This very young group of twenty was a surprise so we were not quite ready for them as we like to be. But everyone got through it and seemed to enjoy the experience.

A nice group of Cub Scouts is scheduled for Thursday.

More and more groups are seeing the value of our museum.

>>Log Cabin Saved.

Last time I told you of the Rouse/Hall log cabin off Ridge Road that needed to be torn down. We documented the cabin as built at least 1871, if not before. The huge old cabin logs were in the best condition of any I have ever seen. Well, though I am sorry to see anything leave its original place, I am happy to report that the cabin has been saved. A buyer has numbered and dismantled the logs and moved the cabin to another property. I do not know where, but I praise Carl Hall for making the effort to preserve the cabin rather than just destroying it as has happened to too many others around the county.

>> Ft. Knox Changes are Coming and we will be part of it

I told you last time about the big changes coming to Ft. Knox. Knox will lose armor training but pick up a much larger assortment of several command groups such as ROTC headquarters, Accessions, and Human Resources.

I have been asked to be part of a group that will travel to some of the bases from which these transfers will come. We will be telling them about Bullitt County as they consider where will be their new home. It looks like I will be going to Ft. Monroe, Virginia, March 14-16 on one of those trips, so I will be looking for volunteers to cover the museum on those days. By the way, we have prepared 2500 leaflets about our museum and Bullitt County history to give out at those meetings.

The trip and related expenses have been picked up by a sponsor, so there is no cost to the museum.

>>Cemetery Restoration Progress

The Old Shepherdsville Cemetery restoration work is proceeding. A nice fence is partially installed and a very nice arched gateway should be installed over the next few weeks. Grass seeding should happen any day now, and I am trying to complete a design for a historic marker that will be installed. We are hoping for a rededication ceremony date of early May with perhaps a special ceremony on Memorial Day.

Consensus seems to have been reached to label the cemetery "The Old Shepherdsville Graveyard". I am not personally fond of using the term "graveyard" but several people say that my preferred word, "cemetery", was not really in common use at the time, so is not historically accurate. Either way is better than what it has been called for many decades: The Old Shepherdsville Abandoned Cemetery". The marker will explain the historical context, as well as listing all of the people known to have been buried there, and a short history of the "graveyard", along with a pre-restoration photo. The cemetery is going to look really nice and is already being praised by those who see it.

With the help of researchers such as Jim McClure, Betty Darnel, Edith Blissett, and Doris Owen, we are discovering some really fascinating stories about some of those buried there. I will be telling you those stories occasionally in future newsletters.

>> Mike Crenshaw, of the local Red Cross, brought a nice addition to our Red Cross history display. We now have an automatic computerized slide show showing modern-day Bullitt County Red Cross volunteers at work at such places as Hurricane Katrina damage sites.

For Your Information:

>> Research at the cemetery has pointed out the limited knowledge some of us have about words used just a few generations ago. For example, the word "Consort" is used on some monuments. Today that word can be assumed to be bad. But in the 1800's consort was an honorable term for wife, meaning "honorable companion". It was a term used for when the woman predeceased her husband. That is not to be confused with "Concubine", meaning "a woman who lives with a man to whom she is not married".

Words that I have not seen on tombstones but might be found in wills, etc., are "Grass Widow", meaning "a woman whose husband had deserted her", or "a woman who has illegitimate children, or a discarded common-law wife".

Thanks to "Webster' Wagon Wheel, Webster County Historical/Genealogical Society" for these definitions.

Great Resources

>> I am unhappy that there is so little mention of Bullitt County in these web pages, but if you are curious about the changes at Ft. Knox, you might want to check out these web sites: www.oneknox.com & www.knoxhills.com. For more on Bullitt County, try www.bullittcounty.org.

>> The Bullitt County Genealogical Society exchanges newsletters with a large number of other organizations. These newsletters can be a treasure trove of information and they are all kept at the museum. Some of these are:

• "The Bulletin", by the West-Central Kentucky Family Research Association.
• "Marion County Historical Society"
• "Ancestral News", from Ancestral Trails Historical Society covering Hardin, Meade, and Bullitt Counties.
• "Lines & By Lines", by the Louisville Genealogical Society.
• "Bits & Pieces", from Hardin County Historical Society.
• "Back Trails", from Spencer County Historical and Genealogical Society.
• "Central Illinois News", from the Decatur Illinois Genealogical Society.
• "The Nelson County Genealogist", from the Nelson County Genealogical Society.
• "The Webster's Wagon Wheel", from the Webster County Historical and Genealogical Society.
• "Olde Towne Ledger", from the Harrodsburg Historical Society.
• "The Commerce Historical & Genealogy Society Newsletter", out of Commerce, Missouri.

And of course our very own "Wilderness Road", from the Bullitt County Genealogical Society.

Finally...

Well, the tree frogs are chirping in the forest. Pigeons are nesting on the courthouse roof.

Winter is nearly gone. Spring must not be far away.

I encourage you to get out and enjoy the new life of a new season wherever you are, whenever you can.

This newsletter goes out to Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum all over the state and all over the country.

So I know seasons and weather might be different where you are, but history is common to all. Time is common to all. I view us as a true band of friends, bound by related interests and related pasts. Holding to the past together, yet looking hopefully to the future.

Winter has passed here in Kentucky. Spring is coming on strong. We will remember our winter but look forward to the Spring. May your Spring be as pleasant as your fondest memories.

Thank you for being a Friend of Bullitt County History!

David Strange
Bullitt County History Museum
Executive Director
Museum Phone: 502-921-0161
E-Mail address: David.Strange@BullittCountyHistory.org