Museum Newsletter - 14 June 2009

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum E-Newsletter
June 14, 2009 (Volume 5, Number 8)

Dear Friends,

Announcements...

>>Reminder. Next Genealogical Society Meeting to Visit a Salt Lick June 20.

If you are interested in the rare opportunity of exploring a site of our pioneer-era Salt Making (check out our web site about that history), you don't want to miss the next Genealogical Society meeting. Genealogical Society President Barbara Bailey has arranged for us to visit a site of one of our pioneer salt works. On Saturday, June 20, at 10:00 a.m., we will be meeting at our regular place, Ridgway Memorial Library in Shepherdsville. After the business meeting, weather and other factors permitting, we will take a field trip over to western Bullitt County to tour at least one historic salt making site.

It will be through fields and probably tall grass and rough fields, so be sure to dress appropriately (solid shoes, rough clothes, tick and chigger repellent). A bug repellent with "Deet" is supposed to be the most effective.

Activity...

>>St. Catherine's Church, New Haven, Nelson County Marriages, Baptisms & Mortuary Register 1843-57.

Museum Friend Lola Fischer donated a copy of this listing, and we have it shelved with our Nelson County information.

>> Books at Ridgway. It's all good.

There was a concern brought to us last week that some genealogical research books had been discarded at Ridgway Library. It's all good news. Tracy, who covers the library research room, had actually bought new copies of the books, and was simply discarding the old worn copies. In fact, Tracy has added a few books, including a couple of volumes about Eastern Cemetery in Jefferson County. That's the cemetery in Jefferson County, if I recall correctly, that has had so much trouble over the past years. So, no problems. In fact, we now have the old discard copies at our museum library.

>>More Cemeteries documented.

The cemetery documentation team continues to do its good work, documenting several more cemeteries in the past couple of weeks with photos and GPS readings. Check our web site for the latest listings

>>Web Site Additions.

New additions to our web site this time, besides the cemetery work, is a listing put together by Daniel Buxton and Betty Darnell, of Bullitt County's newspapers over the years, and where copies of them might be found. The web site also now offers an interesting photo album of a selection of photos that are at the museum.

>>Summer Interns.

The museum has two new volunteer interns for the summer. Erika Mendez and Chevelle Cox will be working with us a couple of days a week until school starts again in the Fall. The plan is for them to help scan photos and documents, and do some typing and research for us. Welcome ladies!

>>Barrall Family Visit.

The Barrall family name is an old one in Bullitt County, coming mostly from the Barralltown area of Knob Creek. We have the pleasure this week of hosting several members of that family from almost all corners of the country.

Ed Barrall, who has been away from Bullitt County some 49 years, has brought his family to revisit his old home county for a couple of days. Because of their tight schedule, we opened the museum especially for them today, Sunday, for the special visit. Ed and his wife, Mary Ann, came to visit from their longtime home in San Jose' California. Son Ted Barrall came from Houston, Texas, with his daughters Lorna and Emma. Jeoff Barrall came from San Diego. And Jennifer, Spencer, Andrea and Katie Peterson came from Annapolis, Maryland.

Quite a wide-spread family! And an engaging one too. It was a pleasure meeting them face to face. Ed is a regular respondent to this newsletter and now an even better friend.

They plan to visit some old home places and cemeteries Monday, and tour around the county a bit. Ken and Barbara Bailey, who are related to the Barralls, will be guiding them for the day.

Welcome to Bullitt County Barrall family! May you have a safe and enjoyable visit.

>>New Brooks Family project.

Seems like we can barely get one project done before another great one pops up. But that's a good thing! Just as volunteers were closing, for now, their work on the Memorial Day listing of our Bullitt Countians who died while in military service, a member of the old-line Brooks family came in with what should be another worthwhile project.

That family, which has been in north Bullitt County since the earliest pioneer days, still has, we are told, boxes of old documents dating back to the 1780's. We are now working with them to digitize and analyze/organize the documents and photos, as well as consult with them about some creative plans they are working on for the old Brooks home place. A small group of us toured the house and grounds, with its intact spring house, slave house, and smoke house, just this week, as we begin to plan what we can do. It's so exciting to see such a family not only so interested in preserving history, but willing to commit time, energy and funds to get it done.

>>Speaking of commitment, let me say a few words about Volunteer Lynn Eddington.

Lynn serves as Treasurer for the genealogical society, but she does much much more. Lynn is a faithful field worker with the cemetery documentation team, among numerous other projects. She spends hours each week researching many different topics and people from our local history. And she serves as a fountain of local genealogical and historical knowledge that we tap quite often. She is one of the first I usually contact whenever I have a historical question about something. If she doesn't know, she'll do her best to find out.

So, thank you, Lynn, for all you do for us at the museum and for the county.

For Your Information...

>> While visiting Lebanon Junction in southern Bullitt County recently for its spring festival, friends pointed me to a treasure of a shop. THE IRON GATE HOME FURNISHINGS & GIFT SHOP was hosting its first showing of “Art on the Patio”. It was a wonderful event and owner Jeryl Presley says there was such a great turn-out of support that she hopes to make it an annual event. If you have ever been to Glendale's shops south of Elizabethtown, this shop is similar in style and class to the best of those. Jeryl's goal is to provide beautiful, unique and interesting merchandise to her customers at an affordable price; to promote local KY artists, and to make the shop and grounds a fun and enjoyable place for everyone to shop. She says there will be several events throughout the year. The Iron Gate is located at 185 Thompson Avenue in Lebanon Junction. Call 502-833-3291 or 502-409-3260 for operating hours and information. Very nice!

>> Oh, and last time I wrote about a history quote that I like, "Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it", and I made a challenge for someone to tell me the author. Well Bridgette Branham and Pat Settle got it right. The quote is from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Finally...

A note of announcement, my Friends: I will mention this only briefly in this forum, and only this one time, to try to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest for the museum.

I have filed to run for office in Bullitt County, for County Judge/Executive. For those of you not familiar with our local form of government, that is sort of the CEO of county government. I tell you this here, simply to explain why future museum newsletters might be less regular than usual, or a bit more faulty than usual, and why I might not be at the museum as much for a while. Thank goodness for good Volunteers! You can imagine that I will be busier than ever for the next several months, so please forgive any of my shortcomings at the museum. This all can benefit the museum over time, but politics can get nasty, and I don't want the museum to suffer because of my activities. So, that's the last said here on this subject. This newsletter, and museum activities, are about Bullitt County history, not politics. I will endeavor to keep the two separate.

Thank you for being a Friend of Bullitt County History.

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