Museum Newsletter - 18 Mar 2009

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum E-Newsletter
March 18, 2009 (Volume 5, Number 4)

Dear Friends,

Announcements...

>>With this edition of the newsletter, I have enlarged the format one more size for easier reading.

>>Genealogical Meeting this Saturday, March 21. The Bullitt County Genealogical Society will hold its regular monthly meeting Saturday, March 21 at 10 a.m. at Ridgway Memorial Library in Shepherdsville on the corner of Walnut and Second Streets (usual time and place). Bob Cline will be the featured speaker, showing us his new database on family names. Bob has put in countless hours on this work and it is remarkable, listing thousands of local names and information about them, complete with references. A computer and projector will be set up so everyone can see and learn how to use it. The database is normally accessible only at the Bullitt County History Museum research room.

Activity...

>>AWARDS AWARDS AWARDS! For the third year in a row, our little museum and its parent genealogical society have won statewide acclaim for our efforts! The Kentucky Historical Society has recognized us in three categories this year. The awards were given out recently at a special awards banquet in Frankfort.

Bullitt County Genealogical Society editor Betty Darnell won a certificate of recognition for her work producing our society quarterly, The Wilderness Road.

Charles Hartley was awarded a certificate of merit for his books on the 1917 Train Wreck.

And our fantastic Cemetery Documentation Team, was recognized as Volunteer Group. That group, by the way, consists of Chairman Daniel Buxton, Secretary Lynn Eddington, Barbara and Ken Bailey, Jimmy Cash, Judy Richardson, Bob Cline, and advisers Betty Darnell and David Strange. Each member of the team was given framed copies of the award, and copies of all three awards will be proudly displayed on our museum office wall.

That wall is beginning to get a bit crowded by the way. We won three awards last year as well. Those were for this E-Newsletter, for our Web Site, and for our Museum Staff Volunteers.

And we won one award the year before that, that one also for this E-Newsletter.

So be proud Friends! We are doing great things! Stay with us and we can do more. We always have a "hundred-item list" of new ideas and projects to pursue!

>>Books donated. Lynn Eddington has donated her set of booklets of the Kentucky portion of the 1787 Census of Virginia, which consists of Bourbon County, Fayette County, Jefferson County, Lincoln County, Madison County, Mercer County, and Nelson County. This is before there was a Bullitt, and they are already proving useful. A researcher found some information just today!

>>Military Veteran Research Work. I have asked Jose' Rosario to take on the task of creating a good and detailed listing of military veterans from Bullitt County in all wars.

And he has taken on that challenge with gusto!

My main goal is three simple categories: Bullitt Countians who were Killed (or otherwise died) in service; those Missing In Action; and Veterans who served and survived. We started our focus on Vietnam and Korea, but hope to eventually end up with a listing all the way from the Revolutionary War to today.

The goal is to have this done by Memorial Day. Jose' is taking this project farther, trying to collect information about as many of the MIAs/KIAs as possible. Our hope is to at least have this on our web, but maybe even some form of a wall of remembrance at the museum.

I had hoped to have a special permanent display honoring Korean and Vietnam Veterans by this Memorial Day, but that does not seem to be coming together this year. But I do expect, with the help of others, to have some special remembrance of those good people at Memorial Day ceremonies around the county.

Thanks to Jose', as well as Volunteer Judy Richardson and others, for their work on this important project.

>>Web Site Time Line. Along with several other updates and additions to our web site, we have recently added the beginnings of a time line. I am personally excited about this. The time line page will compare Bullitt County events with what was going on in the world and nation. In so many ways, it will give a whole new way of looking at our history. Plus, when we have something significant on our web site about a particular event, the time line can link you to that page.

We have only started this page, and there is much yet to be added. Give it a "look see" and feel free to suggest additions! I look forward to this page being chocked full of information "over time".

Web Master Charles Hartley is also working on adding a rotating series of photos. Drawn from our archives, the web site's front page will feature a different photo each day. He might even put in a "mystery photo" from time to time, asking for input about it.

For Your Information...

This computer suggestion might save a few trees and save you a lot of wasted paper and ink: Use "Print Preview" on Internet sites and computer data bases before actually printing a page. You might think you are about to print just one page, but the entire web site might be about to print. Or, speaking from experience, in the case of a database at the museum, you might think you are about to print only a couple of pages of information, but it is actually over four hundred pages! (We caught it before it ran the entire thing.).

For OUR Information...

This is not a normal segment of this newsletter, but this time I ask you for information. In this case, it is about the very nice city of Mt. Washington. Not long ago, we discovered a handwritten note on a 1910 census form of Bullitt County that said, next to the Mt. Washington data section, that said "lost charter in 1909". This got our attention, and with a bit of research, we found this text in one of our history books: "Town incorporated in 1822. On November 20, 1955 the town was incorporated with J.D. Jasper, J.E. Fisher, M.R. Porter, R.A. Finsley, and L.M. Wiggington as trustees."

Hmmm. So it looks to me like maybe Mt. Washington was first chartered in 1822, lost its charter in 1909, and was rechartered/incorporated in 1955?

I have no idea if this is correct. It's just conjecture using the info that I have. If you can clarify the record, please let me know and we'll set the record straight next time.

Finally...

This is something I wrote November, 2007 (some things have changed, even since then):

"The Last Great Tree of Shepherdsville"

Though a lover of history, or perhaps because of it, I also appreciate wise change and modernization. I am also enough of a pragmatist to realize that, appreciated or not, change will come.

I have been noticing the beauty of Bullitt County recently, with its rolling hills covered with trees. Leaves painted in their bright fall colors.

Without thinking one day, I was expressing my wonder at the vast beauty around us to a friend and got a bit carried away. I swept my arms out in a broad stroke so as to point out the obvious splendor surrounding us.

That is when I noticed.

There was hardly a tree to be seen. I was standing in the parking lot of a large shopping center.

A shopping center, mind you, that I am very glad to have in town. Nevertheless, nearly all trees throughout the area had been cleared away for development, or died off from age, so far that one could no longer see the forests. That was the first time that I recall seeing that in Bullitt County.

Later in the week I noticed a large tree being cut down on Buckman Street in Shepherdsville, and noticed it was about the last great tree remaining on a street that once was so thick with trees that you could hardly see the buildings. Only one of the great old trees still remains, that at 193 South Buckman, of the hundreds that once filled the heart of town.

Change has come, like it or not.

And mostly I like change. I am excited to see the growth and prosperity rising in our county. I love the new confidence in what we can do. At nearly every kind of meeting I go to, people are doing things and making realistic plans for the future that are far above what would have been considered just a few years ago.

Just allow the historian in me to be a bit nostalgic from time to time. To respect the beauty of Nature, while loving the convenience of modern life.

Time moves on. In the 1840’s there were hardly any trees in town either, having all been cleared for the town and for the salt & iron furnaces. But new trees were planted and grew. And eventually those long-ago trees grew old and again were cut down.

So.... Maybe one day someone will again comment about all the big trees in town, having grown from the few new ones that have been planted. I like to think so anyway.

Buckman Street looking north from bridge circa 1912. Note hill in background, hanging stop sign for one-way Salt River bridge.

Buckman Street November 2007. Same location. Note the last great tree at center, hill in background.

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