Chapter E of the Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky

Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky in partnership with NKY.com Introduction | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z | Index

E

Provided/Kenton County Public Library

EILERMAN & SONS, MEN’S CLOTHIERS. Herman J. Eilermann

(original German spelling of name) (1830– 1913), a native of Schapen, Germany, name) (1830– 1913), a native of Schapen, Germany, opened his first store in 1886 at 610 Monmouth St... (cont’d on pg. 296)

The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky Contents Introduction, Foreword, Acknowledgments and Guide for Readers Chapters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z Index, Bibliography, Illustration Credits

Edited by Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Republished for the World Wide Web by NKY.com and Enquirer Media

A Project of the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, Inc. Mark A. Neikirk, President Sherry Jelsma, Vice President

Dave Adkisson, Treasurer Melanie J. Kilpatrick, Secretary

Thomas R. Brumley, Immediate Past President Michael J. Hammons, Past President

Dave Adkisson, Frankfort Jane Beshear, Frankfort Thomas R. Brumley, Lexington John S. Carroll, Lexington Sara W. Combs, Stanton

Board of Directors Michael J. Hammons, Park Hills Sherry Jelsma, Shelbyville Martha C. Johnson, Melbourne Mark A. Neikirk, Highland Heights Alice Stevens Sparks, Crescent Springs

Robert Ted Steinbock, Louisville Mrya Leigh Tobin, New York City James M. Wiseman, Erlanger

Editorial Staff Editors in Chief: Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool Associate Editors: David Hatter, John Schlipp, David E. Schroeder, Robert Stevie, Michael R. Sweeney, John W. Thieret (deceased), Thomas S. Ward, Jack Wessling Topical Editors: Agriculture: Lynn David & James Wallace; Art: Rebecca Bilbo; Biography: Michael R. Sweeney; Business & Commerce: John Boh; Counties & Towns: David E. Schroeder; Ethnology: Theodore H. H. Harris; Government, Law, & Politics: John Schlipp; Literature: Danny Miller (Deceased); Medicine: Dennis B. Worthen; Military: James A. Ramage; Music, Media, & Entertainment: John Schlipp; Religion: Thomas S. Ward & Alex Hyrcza; Sports & Recreation: James C. Claypool; Transportation Joseph F. Gastright (Deceased); Women: Karen Mcdaniel.

Maps: Jeff Levy at the Gyula Pauer Center for Cartography & GIS, University of Kentucky.

Copyright © 2009 by The University Press of Kentucky, 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, KY 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com.

Print editions: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Encyclopedia of northern Kentucky / edited by Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool. p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8131-2565-7 (hardcover : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-0-8131-2585-5 (limited leather edition) 1. Kentucky, Northern— Encyclopedias. 2. Kentucky— Encyclopedias. I. Tenkotte, Paul A. II. Claypool, James C. F451.E55 2009 976.9'3003—dc22 2009027969

EAGLE BANK. Grant Co.’s first bank originated April 6, 1880, when it was chartered by the Kentucky legislature. The bank, initially named the Bank of Williamstown, opened its doors for business on July 6, 1880, with capital of $50,000. The incorporators were T. L. Clark, W. G. Frank, Tim Needham, E. H. Smith, and John H. Webb.

The main office of the Bank of Williamstown was on Main St. in Williamstown; however, over the years the bank has been housed in four separate buildings. After banks were given permission to establish countywide branches, additional branch banks were constructed in Corinth, Crittenden, Dry Ridge, and Williamstown. These branch locations continue a pattern of progressive participation by Eagle Bank in Grant Co.’s significant growth during the past two decades.

Throughout 126 years, only seven presidents have headed the bank. The first president was E. H. Smith, and he was followed by A. G. DeJarnette, James W. Webb, James L. Webb, Kenneth M. Juett, William C. Wilson, and Dennis W. Rich, the current president. With capital now in excess of $20 million and total assets exceeding $150 million, the bank is a conservative, progressive, wellcapitalized, locally owned financial institution meeting the needs of the community. The fact that the bank has paid dividends to its shareholders continuously since 1884 indicates the soundness of the bank.

The bank’s name was changed from the Bank of Williamstown to Eagle Bank in 1994, after a bank holding company, Eagle Fidelity Inc., was incorporated on January 4, 1988, to become Eagle Bank’s sole stockholder. All the owners of the stock of the original bank became owners of stock in the holding company, with the same management of the newly formed organization. The name change reflects the bank’s declaration that, through its various branch locations, it serves all of Grant Co. and the adjacent counties, not just the citizens of Williamstown.

Eagle Bank is overseen by a board of directors.

Current board members are James J. Hale, Kenneth M. Juett, Dennis W. Rich, William K. Rich, William M. Stanley, William F. Threlkeld, William C. Wilson, and Rick W. Wood.

is four miles from Glencoe in Gallatin Co. and four miles from Poplar Grove. The very active Pleasant Home Baptist Church is in Eagle Hill, and for many years there was only one occupied home in the immediate area. Lonnie Poland, who lived nearby, used to drive the mail from Glencoe to Jonesville in Owen Co. and on to Folsom in Grant Co., and even sometimes to Napoleon in Gallatin Co. Poland was better known for his famous sorghum and molasses, which he made at home. He was only able to produce a few gallons each day, as it was a slow process. People came from miles around for his product.

An Atlas of Owen County, Kentucky. Philadelphia: Lake, 1883.

Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

EAGLE PLOW WORKS. The city of Maysville had several companies that manufactured farm equipment; however, none of these were as successful as the company known as the Eagle Plow Works. This company was formed in January 1878, under the name of the James H. Hall Plow Works Inc., but it was commonly called the Eagle Plow Works. The principals of the firm were James H. Hall Sr., James H. Hall Jr., John H. Hall, Samuel Hall, and Robert F. Means. The firm’s large brick factory building was located in Maysville on the south side of E. Second St., between Lexington and Walnut Sts. The company manufactured a number of different lines of plows, marketed as the Limestone, the Star, the Champion, the Copper, the Cotton, and the Lone Star; the first two types were the most successful. The plows sold extremely well in the southern United States and in Central and South America.

Calvert, Jean. Maysville Kentucky—From Past to Present in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Mason Co. Museum, 1983.

EAGLES. See Civic Associations.

EAGLE STATION. See Jordan Baptist Church.

EAGLE TAVERN. This structure in Maysville,

EAGLE HILL. Located in the northeastern cor-

built around 1800, was both a tavern and a hotel and was later known as the Goddard House. One of the earliest hotels in the city, it was located on the southeast corner of Market and Front Sts., opposite the city’s steamboat landing. It was operated for many years by Col. Maurice Langhorne and his son John T. Langhorne, who died during the cholera epidemic of 1833. In 1825 the hotel was host to a dinner for Gen. Marquis de Lafayette and his son.

It was also a frequent stopping point for Henry Clay. In the late 1830s, Judith Goddard, the former operator of Maysville’s Washington Hotel, purchased the Eagle Tavern and renamed it the Goddard House. During the flood of 1937, the old hotel collapsed.

ner of Owen Co., near Eagle Creek and in Poplar Grove Precinct, the hamlet of Eagle Hill was home to one of the county’s one-room schools. Eagle Hill

Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. Maysville Kentucky— From Past to Present in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Mason Co. Museum, 1983.

Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.

Williamstown Courier, May 30, 1901.

William Michael Stanley

Clift, G. Glenn. History of Maysville and Mason County. Lexington, Ky.: Transylvania, 1936.

“Eagle Tavern,” Western Globe, August 16, 1839, 4.

“The Goddard House, Maysville,” Weekly Kentucky Flag, October 27, 1852, 3.

Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, vertical fi les, Maysville, Ky.

EARLE, JAMES T. (b. August 27, 1868, Berry, Ky.; d. April 3, 1943, Cincinnati, Ohio). James Thomas Earle, a banker and the mayor of Latonia, was the 6th of 13 children born to Jonathan R. and Araminta King Earle. By age 15, he was working as a railroad telegraph operator in Falmouth. A quick learner, Earle soon became both an agent and an operator at Falmouth and Berry, for the old Kentucky Central Railroad (now CSX). In 1885, armed with high recommendations from several rail executives, Earle moved to Texas and worked in various positions for the railroad in Galveston.

By 1889 he had been promoted to secretary to the receiver of the International and Great Northern Railroad at Palestine, Tex. In August 1889 he married his childhood sweetheart, Katherine “Katie” Good. J. T. and Katie Earle settled in Covington in 1890, so that Katie could be closer to her family and J. T. could accept a better opportunity as secretary to the joint agent of the Big Four and Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) railroads. Earle became freight agent for the C&O Railroad at Cincinnati and served in that position for 53 years, through several railroad mergers and dissolutions, until his retirement.

In 1897 the family purchased property and built a spacious home in a newly developing section of Milldale known as Dinmore Park. A small portion of Milldale had been incorporated in 1884 as a sixth-class city, South Covington. Latonia became the town’s vernacular name. J. T. Earle quickly became involved in the town’s politics and business, becoming president of both the Latonia Board of Education and the Latonia Commercial Club. A lifelong Republican, he was appointed by the governor of Kentucky in 1901 to the Kenton Co. Election Commission, representing the Republican Party.

Earle’s friendships with wealthy and influential Northern Kentuckians enabled him to become a partner in the establishment of the First National Bank of Latonia, where he became president in 1902. He supervised the building of the bank’s new headquarters in 1903, at Ritte’s Corner in Latonia.

The second floor served as the town hall and post office, and Earle also served as the unpaid postmaster of the growing community.

In 1905 Earle was elected mayor of Latonia, and by February 1906 he was embroiled in an annexation fight with the Latonia Racecourse.

Even though half of the track was brought into the city limits, no city fees or taxes appear to have been levied on the track. Earle was a holder of temperance and antigambling convictions, which brought him into several conflicts with the racetrack and saloon interests in the town. His attempts to enforce local blue (morality) laws prompted heated arguments in council chambers.

EARTHQUAKES 289

Latonia’s indebtedness for its infrastructure caused a financial crisis of sorts among the city fathers. Seeing that the small town could not provide the street improvements and other ser vices demanded by the growing number of residents, the council petitioned for annexation to Covington in return for the assumption of Latonia’s public debt.

After much negotiation, Latonia was annexed into the City of Covington officially on July 22, 1909.

Earle ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner after his Latonia mayor’s job was eliminated through the annexation.

Meanwhile, Earle’s bank was prospering, showing nothing but secure growth through the years until 1914, when a surprise visit from a federal bank examiner ordered it closed because of loan irregularities. The examiner felt that the bank’s officers themselves were borrowing too much of the bank’s assets. The bank was closed for about a month while it was reorganized. When it reopened in June 1914, only three of the former officers remained, and Earle was not among them. Earle may have borrowed excessively from his bank to finance his real estate development in Latonia. In 1914 he had begun building homes in Latonia; however, with the start of World War I, it was virtually impossible to obtain carpenters to finish the homes under construction. Earle’s financial situation became quite tenuous, and in February 1918 he declared bankruptcy. The Earles sold their elegant home in Latonia and moved to Linwood Rd. in Cincinnati. J. T. Earle died there in 1943, two days after retiring as a Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad freight agent, and was buried in Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

Claypool, James C. The Tradition Continues: The Story of Old Latonia, Latonia, and Turfway Racecourses. Fort Mitchell, Ky.: T. I. Hayes, 1997.

“Earle, James T.” KP, April 5, 1943, 4.

Lietzenmayer, Karl J. “James T. Earle: The Last Mayor of Latonia, Kentucky,” NKH 2, no. 1 (Fall–Winter 1994): 42–55.

Karl Lietzenmayer

EARTHQUAKES. Although Northern Kentucky is not located near any of the major faults separating the earth’s surface into a dozen or so large, moving tectonic plates, it is subject to earthquakes. Unlike California, with its earthquakeactive San Andreas Fault (where the Pacific and North American plates are sliding past each other), Northern Kentucky lies above one immense, strong and relatively stable continental plate, the North American plate. But major tectonic activity has occurred within the North American plate as recently as 60 to 90 million years ago, causing faults throughout the Midwest and the Southeast that occasionally rock the area with earthquakes today.

Faults in the bedrock of the North American plate are, relative to the very stable crust around them, areas of weakness. Many lie buried deep beneath the sediments of the Mississippi and Wabash River valleys; therefore, unlike the San Andreas Fault, they are generally not visible, or “expressed” at the ground surface. Their existence is basically

known and mapped from the occurrence of earthquakes in these fault zones, from surface deformations caused by seismic activity, from oil and gas exploration, and from more recent geologic mapping efforts and methods. Also in contrast to the San Andreas Fault, the faulting regionally is not between plates but is contained deep within the North American plate itself; hence earthquakes here are called intraplate earthquakes.

The faults of the North American plate, themselves, are not completely responsible for earthquakes in the region. The earthquakes are also related to activity in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are diverging, that is, moving apart.

In the process, the North American plate is slowly being compressed westward. This compression, coupled with the weaknesses of ancient faults, causes earthquakes that occasionally shake Northern Kentucky and the surrounding region. Earthquakes felt in Northern Kentucky usually result from fault movement within one of three zones: the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, and the Cincinnati Arch.

The magnitude of earthquakes, a measure of energy they release, is calculated by the Richter Scale, developed by Charles F. Richter in 1935 for use in evaluating earthquake activity in specific fault zones in the state of California. The Richter Scale is logarithmic, meaning that each increase of one point on the scale represents an earthquake ten times greater. Hence, a 6.0 earthquake is 10 times greater than a 5.0 quake, and a 7.0 one is 10 times greater than a 6.0 (or 100 times greater than a 5.0). The intensity of earthquakes, however, including levels of damage, is measured by the Modified Mercalli Scale. Preferred by professional seismologists, the Mercalli Scale uses 12 levels designated

by Roman numerals, with XII designating earthquakes that cause the greatest destruction.

Near where the states of Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee intersect along the Mississippi River is the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), named for the historic town of New Madrid, Mo. The Reelfoot Scarp, a graben or subsided area, is the centerpiece of this seismic area; nearby is Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee (and partly in Kentucky). Deep ancient faults that crisscross the area have been the epicenters of some of its major earthquakes. More than 200 earthquakes occur in the NMSZ each year, but only about 10 are large enough to be felt (3.0 or more on the Richter Scale). Scientists estimate that an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 to 7.0 can be expected along the NMSZ about every 75 years; the last one of this magnitude occurred in 1895.

By 1811 New Madrid, Mo., a Mississippi River city founded in 1783, was the second-largest city in its state. Unknown to its residents, it lay atop the NMSZ. In the winter of 1811–1812, the zone was the center of what remains to this day the longest sequence of major earthquakes and aftershocks in the United States. Occurring before the Richter Scale was invented, the tectonic activity was nevertheless reported in detail by numerous eyewitnesses. On December 16, 1811, the first major

earthquake occurred. It was felt throughout Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati and as far away as the eastern seaboard and Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Daniel Drake of Cincinnati recorded the occurrence in his journal. Modern geologists estimate that this earthquake was probably in the range of 7.2 to 8.1 in magnitude, although numerous studies have not led to any consensus on this matter among scientists. Actually, the issue of magnitude, though important, pales by comparison to the sheer number of tremors in 1811–1812.

Jared Brooks, a Louisville resident at the time, listed more than 600 quakes that occurred between December 26, 1811, and January 23, 1812, alone; over a three-month period, he listed a total of 1,874 distinct tremors. On the morning of January 23, 1812, the second major New Madrid earthquake struck, followed by more than 200 aftershocks in the weeks following. Then, on February 7, 1812, the most powerful of the New Madrid earthquakes hit. Drake observed in Cincinnati that the tremor “threw down the tops of more chimnies [sic], made wider fissures in the brick walls, and produced vertigo and nausea in a greater number of people, than the earthquakes of either the 16th of December or the 23rd of January.” Eyewitness accounts and geologic evidence demonstrate that the New Madrid earthquakes and aftershocks of 1811–1812 were so powerful as to cause liquefaction. In other words, sandy soil underground was so severely shaken that it lost its solidity and turned to liquid.

In these instances, the overlying ground can subside, partially explaining events like the expansion of Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee. In other cases, the sand, under great pressure, was violently expelled through the clay surface in “sand blows.” Furthermore, at least 221 landslides occurred along the Mississippi River’s bluffs. Recent work of paleoseismologists, based upon paleoliquefaction sites, suggests that earthquakes of similar intensity to those of 1811–1812 have occurred in the NMSZ in about a.d. 900 and in the period a.d. 1400–1500. A NMSZ earthquake, with its epicenter at Charleston, Mo., struck on October 31, 1895. The largest in that area since 1811–1812, it was estimated at 6.6 magnitude and an intensity of VIII. It shook 1 million square miles, causing damage to the Odd Fellows Hall in Ludlow and knocking down chimneys in Covington.

The Wabash Valley seismic zone is the second epicenter of earthquakes felt in Northern Kentucky. A 5.4 magnitude earthquake of intensity VII, with its epicenter near Dale, Ill., occurred on November 9, 1968, shaking 580,000 square miles, including Northern Kentucky. On June 10, 1987, a 5.1 earthquake, centered near Olney, Ill., struck the region, ringing a church bell at Mother of God Catholic Church in Covington and shaking the 150-foot-tall scaffolding within the church itself.

On April 18, 2008, a 5.2 quake (epicenter near West Salem, Ill., with a 4.6 aftershock occurring later that day) awoke Northern Kentuckians as beds knocked against walls and windows rattled. The shaking was preceded by a rumbling noise.

The Cincinnati Arch, of which Northern and Central Kentucky are part, is the third center of

290 EAST BEND tectonic activity in the region. Stretching from Tennessee into Ontario, this geologic arch began to form during the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era, about 470 million years ago (see Geology). It was uplifted as a result of continental collisions and was named by geologists for Cincinnati, which lies at the crest of the fold. Significant Cincinnati Arch quakes with epicenters in Kentucky affected Northern Kentucky on February 20, 1869 (Lexington, estimated intensity III–IV); October 23, 1909 (Staffordsburg [Kenton Co.], estimated intensity III); and May 28, 1933 (near Maysville, intensity V). Other quakes, whose epicenters are not specifically known but which were felt intensely in Northern Kentucky, occurred in 1779 (Northern Kentucky); April or May 1791 or 1792 (Northern and Eastern Kentucky); and November 20, 1834 (Northern Kentucky, estimated intensity V). The 1834 quake lasted 30 to 40 seconds, cracked plaster, and roared like thunder.

The strongest historical earthquake ever to originate within Kentucky itself and the secondlargest North American quake to occur east of the Continental Divide in a twenty-year period preceding its occurrence, was that of Sharpsburg, Ky., July 27, 1980. This 5.1–5.3-magnitude, intensity VII quake had its epicenter near Sharpsburg (Bath Co., part of the Cincinnati Arch) and struck along a previously unknown intraplate fault. It shook 15 states and Ontario, Canada, and caused damage in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. The worst losses occurred in Maysville, about 31 miles from the epicenter; there more than 300 buildings were damaged. The quake was also felt in Cincinnati, where a stone ornament atop Cincinnati’s City Hall crashed to the front steps below.

Cities of Ohio, especially Anna, Jackson Center, Lima, and Sidney, all part of the Cincinnati Arch, have been epicenters of many earthquakes felt in the Northern Kentucky region. Major ones have occurred on June 18, 1875 (Urbana-Sidney, estimated intensity VII); September 20, 1931 (Anna, estimated intensity VII); and March 2 and 8, 1937 (Anna, both intensity VII [the latter was felt throughout an area of 200,000 square miles]).

Earthquakes of lesser intensity with epicenters in the Cincinnati Arch have included those of April 22, 1873 (Dayton, Ohio); June 1876 (Anna); August 29, 1881 (Hillsboro, Ohio); September 19, 1884 (Lima); December 23, 1884 (Anna); September 1889 (Anna); summer 1892 (Anna); March 15, 1896 (Sidney); March 26, 1925 (southwestern Ohio); April 4, 1925 (Cincinnati); October 1925 (Anna); March 8, 1929 (Bellefontaine, Ohio); June 26 and 27, 1930 (Sidney and Lima); July 10, 1930 (Marion, Ohio); September 20, 29, and 30, 1930 (Anna); October 1930 (Anna); March 21 and 31, 1931 (Sidney and Jackson Center); October 8, 1931 (Anna); February 22, 1933 (Sidney); October 8, 1936 (Cincinnati-Middletown); December 25, 1936 (Cincinnati); April 23 and 27, 1937 (Anna); May 2, 1937 (Anna); October 16, 1937 (Cincinnati); March 18, 1939 (Jackson Center); June 17, 1939 (Anna); July 9, 1939 (Anna); November 13, 1944 (Anna); January 27, 1956 (Anna, Sidney, and Lima); and July 23, 1957 (Ripley, Ohio).

Central United States Earthquake Consortium. www .cusec.org/ (accessed July 17, 2008).

Coff man, Jerry L., and Carl A. von Hake, eds. Earthquake History of the United States. Publication 41-1, rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1973.

Collins, Richard H. History of Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Collins, 1882.

Docekal, Jerry. “Earthquakes of the Stable Interior, with Emphasis on the Midcontinent,” PhD diss., Univ. of Nebraska, 1970.

“Earthquake Damages Homes in Maysville,” KE, July 28, 1980, 1.

“5.2 Magnitude Quake Jolts Midwest, Shaking Buildings but Injuring Few,” NYT, April 19, 2008, A10.

Hanson, Robert D., et al. Reconnaissance Report: Northern Kentucky Earthquake, July 27, 1980.

Berkeley, Calif.: Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, September 1980.

Herrmann, Robert B., Charles A. Langston, and James E. Zollweg. “The Sharpsburg, Kentucky, Earthquake of 27 July 1980,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 72, no. 4 (August 1982): 1219–39.

Hough, Susan Elizabeth. Earthshaking Science: What We Know (and Don’t Know) about Earthquakes. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 2002.

Minsch, J. H., C. W. Stover, B. G. Reagor, and P. K. Smith. Earthquakes in the United States, July– September 1980. Circular 853-C. Alexandria, Va.: U.S. Geological Survey, 1981.

Nuttli, Otto W. The Effects of Earthquakes on the Central United States. 3rd ed. Marble Hill, Mo.: Gutenberg-Richter, 1995.

Stover, C. W., B. G. Reagor, and S. T. Algermissen.

Seismicity Map of the State of Kentucky. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 1987.

Street, R. “Ground Motion Values Obtained for the 27 July 1980 Sharpsburg, Kentucky, Earthquake,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 72, no. 4 (August 1982): 1295–1307.

U.S. Geological Ser vice. “Kentucky Earthquake Information.” http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/ index.php?regionID=17 (accessed July 17, 2008).

Paul A. Tenkotte and Nancy J. Tretter

EAST BEND. The great East Bend of the Ohio River commences at mile marker 508.4 (measured from Pittsburgh). As the name implies, the river veers off its southwesterly course at this spot, about 2.5 miles southwest of Rabbit Hash, Ky., and flows east for about six miles until it resumes a southerly direction at Hamilton. Along the Kentucky bank at the bend is East Bend Bottoms, through which drain the watersheds of Lick Creek, Gunpowder Creek, and Landing Creek (also known as Little Gunpowder Creek); the creeks enter the Ohio River at miles 512, 513.6, and 514.6. This six-mile stretch in western Boone Co. is known simply as the neighborhood or community of East Bend. The site was occupied by American Indians during the Archaic and Woodland periods.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, some prestigious names were associated with the East Bend neighborhood. In 1782 Kentucky statesmanhistorian Humphrey Marshall came to the area as

the official Fayette Co. surveyor. (Present-day Boone Co. was, until 1798, a part of that county.)

Marshall had a land grant for 4,000 acres, which he used to acquire property at East Bend. Raised and educated in Virginia, Marshall was a cousin of John Marshall, who became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Humphrey Marshall eventually owned more land in Kentucky than any other contemporary Kentuckian, as he continued to purchase land warrants and military grants from others. He is most remembered as the man who wrote The History of Kentucky (1812), a controversial polemic supporting the doctrines of the Federalist political party, and as the man who challenged Henry Clay, leader of the Whig Party in Kentucky, to a duel.

In 1808 Humphrey Marshall sold his East Bend property to Thomas Carneal. Carneal’s son Thomas D. Carneal eventually sold these holdings to Robert Piatt, who built Winfield Cottage and Piatt Landing and operated a ferry. The ferry was near where the East Bend Power Generating Station now stands. Winfield Cottage, the home of the Piatt family, was a unique river-oriented villa, with fancy architecture that was most unusual for the area. It continued to be a well-known landmark on the Ohio River long into the 20th century. Robert Piatt was part of a family originally from New Jersey, whose patriarch brothers had served as officers in the Revolutionary War and who later used their land grants to acquire lands in Ohio and in Northern Kentucky. In time, the Piatts became a very influential family in the mercantile, banking, and law sectors in Cincinnati.

Dr. Israel T. Canby established himself in Boone Co. about the same time as Robert Piatt.

The two became neighbors and their families intermingled. Canby and Elizabeth Piatt (a daughter of Robert) married. Their son Edward Richard Sprigg Canby (see Edward Canby) became a military hero. He graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1839 at age 22 and subsequently served in the Florida Indian Wars, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. He also commanded troops on the frontier in the future states of Utah and New Mexico. In 1873, during peace talks on the frontier with leaders of a band of renegade Modoc Indians, he was attacked by one of their chiefs and murdered.

East Bend has always depended on agriculture and river commerce for its subsistence. Piatt’s Landing, Piatt’s Ferry across the river to North’s Landing, and Kirtly Landing, at the mouth of Lick Creek, were all charted steamboat landings on early river charts and maps of the Ohio River. To this day, the rich bottomlands of Upper and Lower East Bend Bottoms produce some of the highestquality agricultural products of Boone Co. And except for the East Bend Power Generating Station, this area remains solely agricultural, still farmed by many families with names such as Boh, Ogden, Schwenke, and Stephens, dating from generations past.

East Bend had no commercial center or general stores because of its proximity to the commercial enterprises at Rabbit Hash, Normansville,

EAST NEWPORT NATIONAL HISTORIC DISTRICT 291

Hamilton, and Big Bone. But it did have two churches with sizable congregations, the East Bend Baptist Church, established in 1819, and the East Bend Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1860. The East Bend Baptist Church is active. The East Bend Methodist Church dissolved its congregation, but the building remains and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is jointly maintained by the East Bend Cemetery Board and the Rabbit Hash Historical Society.

Schaffer, James F. Piatt’s Landing East Bend. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Gas and Electric, 1978.

Don Clare

EAST BEND BOTTOMS PLANE CRASH. On Friday, August 11, 1944, Reuben Kirtley, a farmer at East Bend Bottoms in Boone Co., was working in his fields on his tractor when suddenly an odd, eerie noise overpowered the sound of his tractor’s motor. Looking up, he saw a U.S. military C-47 aircraft (DC-3, “Gooney Bird”) overhead about to crash land in the middle of his wheat field.

After some expert maneuvering by the pi lot, the plane finally came to rest; an abrupt 90-degree turn prevented it from going into either the Ohio River or nearby Lick Creek where it joins the river at mile marker 512. Kirtley stopped his tractor and watched as two uniformed men climbed out of the wreck, neither of whom was hurt. Both propellers were missing from the aircraft, one of them having punctured the plane’s fuselage. It is not known where the plane was headed, or what its mission was. The mission was top secret and the crew members refused to provide any information. The accident, however, could not be kept secret; the crash scene drew many spectators over the next few days.

An unidentified local newspaper clipping reported that there were three men aboard, a pi lot, a copi lot, and a navigator. Armed with pistols, the occupants of the plane remained at the scene and carefully guarded the wreckage. It turned out that inside the nose cone of this aircraft was an experimental, newly developed, and very sophisticated radar device. Armed military guards soon arrived and guarded the scene while the plane’s crew slept in the fuselage.

A five-man salvage team was deployed to the East Bend Bottoms site from Louisville’s Bowman Field. They were there to dismantle and retrieve the plane and all its parts and haul everything back to Louisville. To accomplish their mission, the salvagers had to remove the aircraft’s wings and put the plane, the wings, and all other component parts on trucks, after pumping out the remaining aviation fuel into barrels.

One member of the recovery crew was Roland Rogers, who now resides in California. He clearly remembers the recovery mission. He and the four other men drove the 100 miles from Bowman Field in a truck with a 60-foot trailer, a crane, and a jeep.

They were supplied with all the necessary tools and equipment to complete the task. Rogers operated the jeep to knock down trees and other obstructions in their path. They brought provisions to last

five to seven days, and they were ordered also to sleep in the fuselage of the plane with its crew.

Norman Schwenke, a neighboring East Bend farmer, also remembered the event vividly. He said that the armed guards, after completing a day’s work, would drive to Elsmere and join the locals for beer and food while the aircraft’s crew remained in the wreckage.

When the plane was loaded and ready to go, the recovery team cleared the roads of all trees, telephone poles, and mailboxes. Because the width of the loaded truck and trailer was 24 feet, and the roads were no more than 18 feet wide, the salvagers had to return to Louisville by a roundabout route through Frankfort. The task of replacing mailboxes and telephone poles was left to the locals; the military never returned.

To this day, Betty Kirtley, farmer Kirtley’s wife, wonders why the plane was not loaded onto a barge and floated downriver. If handled that way, the salvage operation would have been easier on the utilities and infrastructure of East Bend Bottoms.

Don Clare

EAST BEND METHODIST CHURCH. “The red church” is how locals refer to the East Bend Methodist Church, in northwestern Boone Co. Close by is the East Bend Baptist Church, known locally as “the white church.” Both in former years and today, one church is red on the outside, and the other is white. The East Bend Methodist Church, established in 1860, held regular Sunday ser vices for more than 100 years. The congregation met in a building that was erected on land donated by John McConnell, a local landowner and farmer. Originally, it was a two-story brick structure, and on the second floor was a lodge hall that had its own entrance at the rear. A tornado in the early 1890s took off the church’s roof and damaged the walls. It was rebuilt as a single-story structure with gable ends and high ceilings.

There are not many extant records from the East Bend Methodist Church, and only one surviving church register. The last entry, dated March 1, 1971, refers to a member’s transfer to the Burlington Methodist Church. The absence of subsequent records agrees with the local perception that the East Bend Methodist Church closed “sometime in the early 1970s.” Although the church itself is no longer active, the Methodist cemetery is still in use, governed by a separate administrative board, and this cemetery is the preferred fi nal resting place for the inhabitants of the East Bend–Rabbit Hash community.

When the church closed, a four-member cemetery board was created and endowed for the operation and upkeep of the cemetery. This board is now in its second generation of overseers. Until 1997 the cemetery board also maintained the church building; then the Rabbit Hash Historical Society assumed the stewardship of and management responsibilities for the building, which was listed on the National Register on February 6, 1989, by the Department of the Interior. The Cinergy–East Bend Power Station donated to the

East Bend Cemetery Board two acres of land contiguous to the current cemetery, ensuring its continued use.

“Keeping the Faith in Rabbit Hash,” KP, June 25, 1998, 1B. “Resurrecting a Church,” KP, November 4, 1997, 12A. “Wanted: Best Mayor That Money Can Buy,” KE, June 16, 1998, A1.

Don Clare

EAST NEWPORT NATIONAL HISTORIC DISTRICT. First listed in 1983 on the National Register of Historic Places, the East Newport National Historic District (or East Row as it is commonly known) is the second-largest federally sanctioned historic preservation area in the state.

Containing some 1,070 homes, the district is bounded by Sixth St. on the north and 11th St. on the south, Saratoga St. on the west and Oak St. on the east. East Row reflects the late-19th-century Victorian ambience in which it was developed, with Italianate, American Four Square, and Queen Anne architectural home styles.

The East Row Historic District began as a suburban bedroom commuter community. It was once home to grocery store giant Barney Kroger, brewer George Wiedemann, and other successful merchants and wealthy families. This is where even today Pompilio’s Restaurant continues to offer its Italian cuisine in a classic neighborhood setting to thousands of customers each year. Distiller Peter O’Shaughnessy invested in land in the district and developed many of its homes in the 1890s.

Green Line streetcars (route 11) transported riders to and from jobs, school, and shopping in downtown Cincinnati. This streetcar line ran along Washington Ave. and E. 10th St. The St. Stephen Catholic Church (see Holy Spirit Catholic Church), along Washington Ave. near Ninth St., tended to the needs of its parishioners, while several Protestant churches (the First Presbyterian Church, St. John’s United Church of Christ, and the St. Mark Lutheran Church) served other residents. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad ran down the middle of Saratoga St., on the western edge of the district, and slow freight trains often cut the city of Newport in two for a half hour at a time. The Park Ave. School, once one of the finest schools of the Newport Independent Schools system, provided quality primary education at Seventh and Park Sts. East Row was only a short walk to all that was happening, both good and bad, along Monmouth St. to the west.

Industry in the district included the Dueber Watch Case Company at the southeastern corner of Sixth and Washington Sts. and its successor in that building, the Hyde Park Clothes Company.

The Penn family’s Newport Ice Company was located at the end of E. Ninth St., near Oak St. and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad; and the Alhambra Tile Company had kilns at 10th and Monroe Sts. for many years. The Dreier Tool & Die Company operated on the east side of Saratoga near 11th St., and the City of Newport’s stable (later garage) was along the north side of 11th St. between Washington and Saratoga Sts. for a long time.

292 EASTSIDE COVINGTON After World War II families started moving south to the suburbs, such as Fort Thomas. Beautiful two- and three-story homes became rental property. Then, beginning in the early 1980s, East Newport was rediscovered. Revitalization set in, and new residents showed off their work with home and garden tours. Property values began to rise as homeowners replaced renters. The once proud East Row of Newport regained its former elegance and continues to renew itself.

Dube, Allen G., and Margaret Warminski. “East Newport Historic District,” National Register nomination, 1983, available at Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort, Ky. “Historic Newport Area,” KP, September 14, 1983, 2K. “Tristate Sketchbook—East Row Historic District,” CE, June 21, 1988, B3.

EASTSIDE COVINGTON. The Eastside of Covington is bounded by 15th St. (see Austinburg) on the south, Eighth St. (see LickingRiverside) on the north, Madison Ave. (the central business district) on the west, and the Licking River on the east. For many years it was known as “the East End.” By the early 20th century, the neighborhood was racially mixed and economical ly diverse; there were churches, a synagogue, schools, playgrounds, and many small businesses.

The ethnic and racial makeup of the East End included Irish and German immigrants and African Americans. It was a religious mix of Protestants, Jews, and Catholics. In 1880 small numbers of African Americans began to concentrate in the area around Washington St. and the railroad and in homes along the alleys between Fift h and Sixth Sts. east of Madison Ave. Between 1880 and 1910, there was a population surge among the African Americans, and larger groups of blacks began living between Eighth and 11th Sts. near Greenup St. In 1880 the streets in this area were only partially completed, and the inhabitants were a mixture of African Americans, whites and German and Irish immigrants. In 1890 African Americans began to cluster on Washington St. and also settled in large numbers between Fift h and Sixth Sts. near Scott St. and Madison Ave. in the central business district.

The Germans and the Irish had established an athletic club, the Democratic Club, and a welfare association that by October 1916 was meeting regularly at the Sixth District School on Maryland Ave. These organizations sought to improve their communities. African Americans, who at the time resided on the fringes along 16th and Water Sts. (in the Austinburg neighborhood) and on Ninth and Scott Sts., did not belong to these groups.

In the 1920s the German-Irish organizations became influential in shaping events in the area.

They had a city park at 15th St. and Eastern Ave., where football teams such as the semipro East-End Merchants played their games. The African American William Grant High School football team used that field to practice from 1927 to 1932, despite resistance from the German-Irish organizations. Symptomatic of the racial issues festering in the area was an attempt in 1929, by the German-

Irish controlled East-End Property Owners’ Development Association, to stop the construction of the African American Lincoln- Grant School at Ninth and Greenup Sts. During the 1920s the East End was the center of Covington’s African American community. About 90 percent of the African American churches were located in this area and served as stabilizing factors in the black community. Among them were the First Baptist Church (the oldest black church in town), the Ninth St. United Methodist Church, and the St. James A.M.E. Church Moreover, population shift ing occurred as more African Americans migrated from the Deep South. A few businesses owned by African Americans moved away from the Fift h St. and Scott St. area, and some African American doctors from this neighborhood followed suit. Schoolteachers and other professionals continued to live on Russell St. and on the Westside of Covington. In the late 1930s, the Covington Housing Authority completed the Jacob Price Homes, a housing project built for black residents. Ever since, streets in the East End have been generally segregated, except for a few individual ones (Bush, Kendall, Pleasant, and Robbins Sts.).

Before the 1930s, African Americans were widely dispersed throughout the city of Covington. However, once they became concentrated in the city’s East End, the neighborhood was transformed into a bedroom community; residents worked in other parts of Covington or in Cincinnati. Entertainment for resident African Americans was available in nearby taverns or in night spots they frequented in Newport. But the liveliest times were found in Cincinnati, where the big bands often appeared playing music popu lar with African Americans.

In 1921 Villa Madonna College was established as part of the St. Walburg Monastery at 116 E. 12th St. in the East End. In 1954 the college purchased land for a new campus in Crestview Hills.

But in 1958, before moving to its new quarters, the college integrated its student body. On February 21, 1968, Villa Madonna College, fully integrated, left Covington’s East End, moved to Crestview Hills, and became Thomas More College.

The St. Joseph Catholic Church, located on the corner of 12th and Greenup Sts. in Covington, was established in November 1853 to serve the German population of the East End. Like many urban churches, St. Joseph witnessed an exodus of members to the suburbs during the 1950s. After the church closed on July 5, 1970, its associated St. Joseph School was merged with the St. Mary School at the Cathedral Basilica in the East End to form the Bishop Howard School, which was closed in 1988.

In the 1930s the Jewish congregation moved from its synagogue at Seventh and Scott Sts. to make room for the new U.S. Post Office and the new courthouse. In 1938 the cornerstone for the new Temple of Israel was laid at Lynn and Scott Sts. This structure was used by the Jewish group until 1973, when the building was sold to the Church of God. In that same year, the nearby Covington Li-

brary (see Kenton Co. Public Library) moved from Robbins and Scott Sts. farther north to the corner of Fift h and Scott Sts. The war years of the 1940s witnessed a major change in Covington social and economic demographics, especially in its East-End neighborhood.

With men off to war, households were being maintained by women, who often took jobs outside the home. In the East End, new homes were not being built, and therefore returning ser vicemen and ser vicewomen who had grown up in this neighborhood had to find other places to live. Moreover, an increasing number of graduates of the William Grant High School were going to college and not returning to live in the neighborhood. As many of these younger African Americans moved away permanently, and as their parents grew older or died, economical ly deprived newcomers from the South moved into Covington’s Eastside and fi lled up the only available housing, at the government housing project known as the Jacob Price Homes.

Adding to this mix socially was the fact that many living in the government-built homes were on public assistance, which had not been so common in Covington’s East End earlier.

In 1943 the Diocese of Covington formed the first Roman Catholic African American church in Northern Kentucky, as a mission of its cathedral in Covington. The Our Savior Catholic Church, located just east of the cathedral, became the only Roman Catholic parish for African Americans in the diocese. At one time this African American church and parish had both a grade school and a high school. The church’s members were primarily from Covington and Newport.

For over three decades, African American leaders in the community operated businesses on Covington’s Eastside. Charles L. Deal operated the Mutual Fire Insurance Company office at 804 Greenup St. Gene Lacey owned and operated a grocery store at 205 E. Robbins St. The E. B. Delaney and Son Funeral Home was on the southwest corner of Ninth and Greenup Sts. Jacob Crittenden’s dry cleaning and tailor shop was across the street, on the southeast corner. Alberta Ellis’s beauty salon was at 226 E. Robbins St. In 1972 the Jones & Simpson Funeral Home moved to 1129 Garrard St., where it remains today. (See Funeral Homes.)

These firms were anchors of the black community, while others, including restaurants, barbershops, a record shop, and other funeral homes, came and went.

The Civil Rights era of the 1950s through the 1970s brought a change of focus in the neighborhood. The East End came to be known as the Eastside, and streets and homes once banned from African American occupancy became available to them. One of the changes during this period, however, was that a group of dwellings were demolished when the floodwall for the Ohio and Licking rivers was created in the 1950s. The homes, dating from the 1930s, were in an area called “the subdivision,” abutted by Prospect St. (north- and southbound) and on two streets, 11th and Bush Sts. (east- and westbound), extending to the Licking River. Also in connection with the floodwall, the

ECKSTEIN, FREDERICK 293

only African American neighborhood playground and swimming pool, at 13th St. and Maryland Ave., was demolished and reestablished at 12th and Wheeler Sts. In the early 1970s, the City of Covington passed an open-housing law, finally permitting African Americans to live anywhere in the city.

The two largest employers on the Eastside, the Blue Bird Laundry and the Hatfield Coal Company (see James Tobias Hatfield), did not employ African Americans. This period also saw a decrease in the number of African American businesses and doctors. In addition, the pastors of some of the leading churches had died, without sufficient replacements. A new type of community leadership was taking hold. Blacks who had been active in the political arena (such as in the Voters’ League) began seeking elected office. The Lincoln-Grant School remained, for many, an icon.

With the addition of the L. B. Fouse Civic Center (see Elizabeth House) on Bush St., African Americans now had a place to gather. This center housed meetings for the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the civil rights freedom riders. Dances for teenagers were also held there.

Federal programs during the 1960s, such as the Urban Renewal and Model Cities programs, designed to provide housing and other infrastructure for the Eastside, were generally limited in their impact. Those programs provided only two new houses on E. 13th St., the first new homes constructed on the Eastside in nearly three decades.

The Model Cities program funded Randolph Park, a multipurpose facility, including a deep-water swimming pool, surrounded by Eighth, Saratoga, and Greenup Sts. and named in honor of longtime East-End physician Dr. James E. Randolph. It replaced the outdated pool at 12th and Prospect Sts. In the 1970s, the Northern Kentucky Community Council was formed. Later, the council formed the Northern Kentucky Community Center (NKCC), which purchased the former LincolnGrant school building. The NKCC operated various community-based social programs and served as a neighborhood center, replacing the L. B. Fouse Civic Center as the community meeting place.

In the 1980s a watchdog organization was formed, called the Coalition of Black Organizations and Churches, which helped create two housing organizations, the Citizen Housing Action Program and the Eastside Neighborhood Development Corporation. These organizations sought to improve neighborhood living standards. With the guidance of the city, a neighborhood housing construction and rehabilitation effort was established under a federal Urban Development Action Grant and a Community Development Block Grant. A number of houses were rehabilitated, and new homes were built in the Dickie Beal Subdivision, named in honor of an area college basketball star. In 1988 growth continued as the Eastside Neighborhood Association was formed. Its goal was to continue the block-watch program, generate youth activities, stimulate economic development, and abolish substandard education.

After 2000 the diversity that marked the early years of the East End began to return. Young pro-

fessionals began purchasing and remodeling the stately homes along the major streets of Scott, Garrard, and Greenup. The Frank Duveneck Arts and Cultural Center (see Duveneck House), adjacent to the former Klingenberg’s Hardware on Greenup St., was purchased and opened as a center for community artists and youths. During that same period, the Eastside witnessed another shift in migration of African Americans, as blacks from the west end of Cincinnati began arriving.

In 2003, following years of inactivity, the neighborhood association was reestablished. The newly formed association targeted the NKCC building, which had been closed. The association is focusing on new community challenges while it also works to utilize community resources and to engender a new spirit of community involvement.

One of its main concerns is that many of the community social ser vices and youth activities once provided have been lost and need to be restored.

The association has also questioned the decision to demolish and replace the more-than-60-year-old Jacob Price Homes. As an interim measure, until something is decided about reopening the NKCC, the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center (housed in the former Covington Library) has been revitalized and now serves as a multipurpose facility and meeting place for the Eastside community.

Calhoun, Jim. “Covington Homes Revive ‘Dream,’ ” KE, September 29, 1985, 1B–2B. Collins, Michael. “Group Sees New Hope around Corner in Eastside,” KP, April 21, 1988, 5K. “East End Democrats,” KP, February 25, 1903, 5.

“East End Merchants,” KP, September 10, 1931, 2.

“Housing Boss Says Eastside Can Depend Only on Itself,” KP, September 22, 1981, 2K. Reis, Jim. “St. Joseph Church, Suburban Exodus Sealed Fate of Covington Landmark,” KP, December 11, 1995, 4K. ———. “Temple Israel Served Covington Jews until ’73,” KP, December 10, 2001, 4K. Weiss, Edwin T., Jr. “The Evolution of Covington’s Black Residential Pattern, 1860–1980,” Northern Kentucky Univ.

Theodore H. H. Harris

ECKLER, GARNER LEE “POP” (b. October 17, 1905, Dry Ridge, Ky.; d. March 20, 1970, Covington, Ky.). Garner Lee “Pop” Eckler, a country and western performer, bandleader, and composer, was the son of Samuel H. and Clara M. Eckler. Beginning in the late 1920s, after being laid off from his Louisville and Nashville Railroad job, he became a fairly well-known musician (see Country Music). He played the violin and the guitar and wrote several songs. In 1931, after appearances in the Dry Ridge and Grant Co. area, his group, the Grant County Entertainers, so impressed L. B. Wilson of WCKY in Covington that they were booked to sing over the station’s airwaves on Saturday nights. The Pop Eckler’s Barn Dance lasted two years. Locally, Eckler and his group also played at the Liberty Theater and the Broadway Theater (see Movie Theaters), both in Covington, and their act included the use of the mandolin, the Hawaiian guitar, and the Jew’s harp. From there, Eckler’s career

moved to WLW radio in Cincinnati; WSB in Atlanta, where his group was billed as Pop Eckler and All the Young’uns on the station’s Cross Road Follies show; and other places in the South and along the East Coast, where the country and western style of music was popu lar.

Eckler was involved in the formation of several groups, beginning with the Grant County Entertainers; others were the Mountain Rangers, the Yodeling Twins, and the Pine Ridge Boys. He had country radio programs in various cities: Pop Eckler’s Jamboree performed on a station in Rome, Ga.; at WLW in Cincinnati his show was called Happy Days in Dixie; and at station WKRC in Cincinnati, he was the Mountain Ranger broadcasting from the Hotel Alms in the Cincinnati suburb of Walnut Hills. Eckler received literally tons of fan mail. His association with the Pine Ridge Boys led to the classic “You Are My Sunshine” in the early 1940s. His most popu lar written piece was “Money, Marbles, and Chalk,” brought to the music hit charts in 1949 by singer Patti Page.

He also wrote some bluegrass and pop songs. After his performing tours, Eckler returned to work on the railroad and resettled in Grant Co. Eckler lived most of his life in Dry Ridge, but his last years were spent in Covington. In March 1970 a drunken driver struck and killed him in Covington at 16th and Scott Sts. as he crossed the street. He was buried in the Broad Ridge Cemetery in his native Grant Co. In 1988 entertainer Pop Eckler was inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.

Answers.com. “Pop Eckler.” www.answers.com (accessed November 1, 2006).

Eid, Mike. “Car Kills Former Music Man,” KP, March 21, 1970, 1.

Hillbilly-Music.com. “Pop Eckler and All the Young’uns.” www.hillbilly-music.com (accessed November 1, 2006).

“Old-Time Fiddlers Booked at Second Local Theater,” KP, January 4, 1931, 11.

Michael R. Sweeney

ECKSTEIN, FREDERICK (b. 1776, Berlin, Germany; d. February 10, 1852, Cincinnati, Ohio).

Frederick John Eckstein, scholar, painter, and sculptor, was the son of Johann Eckstein, who served as painter and sculptor to Frederick the Great of Prussia. Frederick Eckstein studied art under Johann Gottfried Shadow at the Berlin Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1794 Johann Eckstein brought his family to the United States, and they settled in Philadelphia. There, he and his son helped to establish the short-lived Columbianum Society, a forerunner of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Later, when Frederick Eckstein moved to Cincinnati in 1823, he proposed the concept of a fine arts academy that would help educate and support artists.

Frederick Eckstein married Jane Bailey, and the couple had five children, Frederick Jr., Mary, Eleanor, Frances, and Frank. In the early years of their marriage, Frederick started a number of small businesses in Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pa., all financed by his father-in-law. Eckstein proved to

294 EDEN SHALE FARM be a poor businessman, and all his businesses eventually failed, so he decided to return to teaching. He moved his family to Cincinnati, where he established the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts in 1826, on a corner lot on Fourth St. near Gen. William Lytle’s land. About that same time, a group of prominent citizens started the Ohio Mechanics Institute (OMI). The following year, the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts merged with OMI. Eckstein has often been called the father of Cincinnati art, because he was instrumental in convincing Cincinnatians of the need for an art school. Two of Eckstein’s most famous pupils were sculptors Shubael Clevenger and Hiram Powers.

Eckstein always appeared to be searching for the ideal teaching position but never seemed to be happy with his choices. He and his family moved numerous times, as he sought various teaching positions. He taught at more than a dozen schools and in five states. Eckstein always had grandiose ideas; however, he apparently lacked the discipline and perseverance to make them successful. He was an accomplished sculptor and in the 1820s made plaster busts of a number of famous people, including Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison, Gen. Andrew Jackson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines.

Eckstein’s wife, Jane, died of cholera in July 1833. After her death, Eckstein took a teaching position at Augusta College in Augusta, where he taught until 1838. In his fi nal years, he lived in Cincinnati with his widowed daughter, Mary Eckstein Kinmont, on Walnut St. just below Ninth St. He died while living there, at age 76, and was buried in Cincinnati’s Presbyterian Cemetery; later he was re-interred at Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery.

Rankins, Walter H. Augusta College, Augusta, Kentucky: First Established Methodist College, 1822– 1849. Frankfort, Ky.: Roberts, 1957.

Smith, Ophia D. “Frederick Eckstein, the Father of Cincinnati Art,” BCHS 9, no. 4 (October 1951): 266–82.

———. “A Survey of Artists in Cincinnati, 1789–1830,” BCHS 25, no. 1 (January 1967): 2–20.

Vitz, Robert. The Queen and the Arts. Kent, Ohio: Kent State Univ. Press, 1989.

Wilson, John. “Cincinnati Artists and the Lure of Germany in the Nineteenth Century,” QCH 57, no.

4 (Winter 1999): 3– 6.

EDEN SHALE FARM. The Eden Shale Farm, in Owen Co., Ky., conducts research to aid farmers in the northern part of Kentucky, who have long felt that they encountered unique problems in tilling their land. Eden Shale itself is a soil formation that is predominantly found in 33 counties in the northern part of the commonwealth of Kentucky.

Geologically, it is the second-oldest soil stratum in the state; the oldest is the stratum in the central bluegrass region (see Geology).

Steep slopes characterize Eden Shale terrain, the incline average being 27 percent. It has relatively high potash content, is low in organic matter, and has an underlying layer that prevents the proper storage of groundwater, causing the soil to

dry quickly in the summer. Because of the lack of organic matter, during periods of drought the soil develops large cracks to a depth of 18 to 24 inches, which add to its dryness.

In 1953 a citizens’ committee from the Eden Shale counties was formed to acquire a test demonstration (experimental) farm. It was to be operated by the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture for the primary purpose of studying problems peculiar to this region. Until then, little research had been done on the problems associated with Eden Shale farming. Farmers and their friends donated money for this venture, and by July 1955 the committee was ready to purchase a farm that would be deeded over to the UK. That same year, approval was given by the UK to purchase Kepple Roland’s 660-acre farm, about four miles north of Owenton, between Owenton and Dry Ridge, along Ky. Rt. 22. Later, adjacent properties were added to the Eden Shale Farm.

Work was started on the Eden Shale Farm, which eventually encompassed 950 acres, in spring 1956. After completion of a plan specifying what tests and projects were needed, a rather intensive renovation program and a thorough study of the topography, the soils, the physical plant, and the water facilities were conducted. O. D. Hawkins, a former U.S. military officer in China and chairman of the fundraising and site-selection committee, became the farm’s first manager and worked in that position for 23 years. In 1979 Joe Wyles became manager.

Over the years, research has focused on many phases of farming common to Eden Shale conditions. Because of the steepness of the land, row crops that require cultivation were not considered practical. Only level land can be cultivated successfully, and on many Eden Shale farms, level land makes up a small percentage of total acreage.

Grasses and legumes grow and produce well in the region, require no cultivation, and are adaptable to the steep terrain. Work in agronomy has been an important aspect of the Eden Shale Farm’s history.

Approximately 600 acres were put into pastureland and meadows. Apples, strawberries, raspberries, and tomatoes proved to be profitable cash crops. These high-density crops can be grown profitably on a small acreage. Dwarf apple trees, which will grow on steep land, proved to be highly successful. Greenhouse work proved that tomatoes, lettuce, and potted plants could be produced successfully. Forestry studies, though a minor part of the farm’s purpose, have utilized the many small tracts of timber scattered throughout its land. Research in woodlot management has been carried out, and Christmas tree production was pioneered, since the soil is adaptable to the growth of Scotch pine trees. Work on the farm has concentrated on small-acreage cash crops and on the development of pastures and meadows that can support a profitable livestock system.

Lakes have been created at the farm to supply water during any season. New barns and a new house have been built, along with a water-treatment plant and farm roads. Test-crop plots are planted throughout the farm. The farm’s experimental re-

search facilities have been of untold benefit to farmers of the Northern Kentucky region as well as the rest of the surrounding Eden Shale area. In 2005 the Eden Shale Farm celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“Eden Shale Farm Fund Is Growing,” KP, January 6, 1955, 1.

“Eden Shale Project Supported in Boone County,” KP, January 21, 1955, 1.

“Five ‘Eden Shale’ Farms Are Studied,” KP, January 21, 1955, 1.

Houchens, Marian Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

“Owen County Chosen for Test Farm Site,” KTS, May 11, 1955, 3A.

Doris Riley

EDGEWOOD. The history of the city of Edgewood in Kenton Co. begins with the Sanford family. B. F. Sanford lived along Madison Pk. (Ky. Rt. 17), at the bottom of Florer Hill (now Dudley Pk.).

He was one of the first settlers in this area, and as his estate grew, the location became known as Sanfordtown. Other settlers arrived throughout the late 1700s and early 1800s , attracted to the advantages of this location near the Licking River and the high-quality timber covering the land. Many of these families were the recipients of land grants.

Thomas Buckner, with the help of a grant of several thousand acres, purchased 55 acres in the area where Edgewood sits today. He and his wife, Mildred Washington, built the Beechwood House, which stands today in Edgewood’s Twelve Trees subdivision. This founding family of Edgewood had a military connection to the Civil War. A relative and a Confederate general named Simon Bolivar Buckner surrendered Fort Donelson, Tenn., to Union general U. S. Grant. There are accounts of many other soldiers from early Edgewood families serving during this war as well.

Among the important farms in the area of Edgewood was that of the Foltz family. Carl and Marie Foltz raised 10 children in Northern Kentucky and, in the late 1920s, founded the Foltz Dairy (see Dairies). Later, they purchased a 30acre farm along Dudley Pk. Carl Foltz sold some of his land to allow the creation of Summit Hills Golf and Country Club and the Sunoco gas station, both of which are located today at the corner of Dudley Pk. and Turkeyfoot Rd. Because the Foltz family wanted to give back to their community, they purchased a shrine from Italy for the new St. Pius X Catholic Church in Edgewood. Carl and Marie died in the 1970s, survived by their children and 52 grandchildren.

By the 1920s, Edgewood was being developed into subdivisions. In 1927 the Kentucky Post, the Peoples Saving Bank and Trust Company, the Liberty National Bank, and the Liberty Theater funded a contest. The media devoted much attention to the grand prize, a newly built house in the area now commonly referred to as Old Edgewood.

The Kentucky Post held a house-naming contest, in which the winning name was the “Dream-a-Way” house, suggested by Myrtle Flick. The newspaper

EGBERT, HARRY, BRIGADIER GENERAL 295

carried a floor-by-floor description of the house, and it was opened for touring by the general public. Readers voted on the person they wanted to win the house. At the start of the contest, most people voted for themselves or family members.

Soon, however, only a top few people among the vote-getters were left in the race, and on September 18, 1927, it was announced that Mrs. George Ficke had won the “Dream-a-Way” house, located at 2 Lyndale Rd. The Fickes had 12 children and lived in the house until Mr. Ficke’s death in 1944.

A few years after the house contest, on May 4, 1930, Lionel Flying Field opened in Edgewood on an 11-acre tract of land along Dudley Pk. The field derived its name from Lionel Stephenson, a professional in aviation and aeronautics. Expectations were that this airport would be the largest in Northern Kentucky, owing to its proximity to Summit Hills Golf Course. The flying field played an important role in community celebrations and was used as an attraction to lure people into the city of Edgewood to live.

In 1948 Judge Rodney G. Bryson, Kenton Circuit Court, signed an order to create the new sixthclass City of Edgewood. About 375 people resided in Edgewood, an area of about one-half square mile, situated along Dudley Pk. Soon the Edgewood Police Department was created, mainly to help handle growing traffic problems. The Sanfordtown and Community Volunteer Fire Department was created in 1955. The original location of the station was on present-day Horsebranch Rd., but as the community grew, a new location was discussed for the station. On May 13, 1959, a new station opened on the top of Dudley Hill, on land that Carl Foltz donated. The name of the fire department was changed in 1961 to the Southern Hills Volunteer Fire Department, and a life squad division was added in 1970. A new addition was built in 1977, which allowed for the closure of the original Sanfordtown branch.

In 1962 Covington, a neighboring Kenton Co. city, proposed the annexation of Edgewood.

Two other cities, Summit Hills Heights and Pius Heights, bordered the Edgewood area. To combat Covington’s annexation attempt, the cities of Edgewood, Summit Hills Heights, and Pius Heights voted to merge into one city. In 1968 the new fourth-class City of Edgewood was formed through the merger of the three communities. However, Covington continued the battle for annexation.

Finally, the annexation law of Kentucky was changed. The new law allowed the people to be affected by a proposed annexation to vote on the issue. In order to defeat an annexation, 75 percent of the voters would have to object to the proposal.

When the Edgewood votes were counted, 89 percent of the voters opposed the annexation. Thus, after more than 17 years, the threat of annexation was put to rest. A park located off Timber Ridge Rd. in Edgewood still carries the name Victory Park, to celebrate the victory over Covington’s annexation attempt.

As Edgewood’s population increased, the citizens began to address community needs. Neighborhood watch programs against crime were es-

tablished, and the potential for commercial development was explored. Edgewood wanted to make a land exchange with the City of Fort Wright: Edgewood would acquire from Fort Wright an area consisting of 40 homes in the Winding Trails Subdivision that were accessible only through Edgewood, and Edgewood would release territory along Old Horsebranch Rd. to Fort Wright. The swap was made. In 1981 plans were approved to address the needs for the expansion of the police force, better city maintenance, and a new city building. A new two-story city building was constructed adjacent to the Southern Hills Fire Department and contained the council chambers and the offices of the city administrator, the city clerk, the mayor, and the police department.

In October 1989 Edgewood residents were concerned about the proposed development of a new 20-acre city park that was going to be located along Dudley Pk. Their concerns related to increased traffic in the city and to the rear entrance to the park, near Poke Away Ln. Although the city tried to address the concerns, the park property was purchased for $900,000. Today, the park, known as President’s Park, displays information about the presidents of the United States. Brief histories of the presidents line the walkway into the park. The shelters are named after U.S. presidents, and the smaller of the baseball fields is named Lincoln. The larger field was to be named Washington, but, as the mayor of the city explained, “a gentleman who lived in the city, Robert E. Snow, came to us and said that he would donate some money so that his grandchildren would have a place to play baseball, so we named it after him, Snow Field.” The Millennium Clock at the park’s entrance has become a landmark for the city.

The first school in the Edgewood area was started in Sanfordtown in 1843. As the Edgewood community grew, there was a need for more schools.

Today, there are two public elementary schools, a public middle school, a public vocational school, a public high school, and a technical college in Edgewood. In addition, the St. Pius X Catholic Church parish campus along Dudley Pk. contains an elementary school, along with a convent, a rectory, and church buildings. The modern St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood, a fullservice hospital, offers many ser vices in both inpatient and outpatient care. As the Edgewood community continued to grow, the city realized it needed a new city building and a new firehouse. On May 20, 2006, the city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and offered public tours of the new facilities.

As of the 2000 census, Edgewood had 9,400 residents.

City of Edgewood. www.edgewoodky.gov (accessed June 17, 2006).

“Died,” LVR, June 22, 1844, 2.

“Mrs. George Ficke Winner of Dream-a-Way Home,” KP, September 18, 1927, 1.

“New Buildings to Open for Inspection,” KP, August 27, 1937, 2.

“Pius Heights 27th City in Kenton,” KP, July 31, 1965, 6K.

Reis, Jim. “City Talks May Change Borders,” KP, March 14, 1981, 4K. ———. “Promotion Was a Dream,” KP, May 29, 1995, 4K. U.S. Census Bureau. “American Fact Finder. Data Set. Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF1) 100-Percent Data. Custom Table.” www.census.gov (accessed June 17, 2006).

Weakley, Mrs. Calvin S. “A Drive out Madison Pike.”

Papers of the Christopher Gist Historical Society (1953–1954): 49–56.

Workum, Bert. “Annex Decision End of Beginning,” KP, May 19, 1979, 1.

Steven D. Jaeger

EDWARDS, TRACEY DENISE (b. 1965).

Singer and television host Tracey Edwards is the adopted daughter of Wilson Edwards, a Boone Co. jailer who lived with his family beneath the county jail. The family, including two girls and a boy, helped to cook for the inmates and clean at the jail.

When Wilson was killed in an automobile accident in 1979, his wife, Ruth, became Boone Co.’s first female jailer. Tracey Edwards says her colorful personality is a direct result of her unconventional upbringing. She sang to the prisoners, calling them a captive audience. She liked the attention she received and moved into a television and singing career. A 1982 Conner High School graduate, Edwards attended Northern Kentucky University at Highland Heights, where she received a scholarship for her acting and singing abilities.

Edwards appeared regularly on cable television’s Home Shopping Network’s America store from 1998 to 2004. She also hosted on two other shopping networks’ shows. She has performed in the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival sponsored by HBO and was a guest show host for Pure Country on the Oxygen Network. Edwards produced and was a cohost of The Hunt USA, which combined traveling and shopping, and co-hosted Daytime, a morning talk show on a Tampa, Fla., NBC affi liate. She also has released a Christmas compact disk and a disk entitled Songs I Like to Sing.

Warner, Jennifer S. Boone County: From Mastodons to the Millennium. Burlington, Ky.: Boone Co. Bicentennial Book Committee, 1998.

Nancy J. Tretter

EGBERT, HARRY, BRIGADIER GENERAL (b. 1839, Philadelphia, Pa.; d. March 26, 1899, Malinta, Philippines). As a lieutenant colonel during the Spanish-American War (see National Guard, Spanish-American War), Harry Egbert commanded the 6th Infantry Regiment, which was based at Fort Thomas. On the south face of the Fort Thomas Military Reservation water tower, there is a bronze plaque honoring him.

In 1861 Egbert was commissioned a 1st lieutenant in the 12th Infantry Regiment. He served with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War; he was wounded twice and ended the war with the rank of captain. After the war, he served in South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and on the American western frontier. Between 1870 and 1890, he took part in the Indian wars of the West

296 EGELSTON, CHARLES conducted against the Apaches, the Nez Percés, the Bannocks, and the Sioux. In 1890 he was promoted to major and assigned to the 17th Infantry Regiment. In 1893 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to the 6th Infantry Regiment as its executive officer. When the 6th Infantry Regiment was mobilized for the Spanish-American War in 1898, he took command of the regiment after Col. Melville Cochran, the commander at Fort Thomas, was hospitalized. While leading the 6th Infantry up San Juan Hill in Santiago, Cuba, Egbert was shot in the chest and left for dead on the battlefield. Found alive that night, he was returned to the United States for hospitalization.

For his ser vice in the Cuban Campaign, Egbert was promoted to full colonel, given command of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, and made a brigadier general of the Volunteers, without assignment. At the end of the Spanish-American War, Egbert’s rank reverted to colonel in the regular army.

In early 1899 Colonel Egbert and his 22nd Infantry were ordered to the Philippines to take part in the army’s efforts to pacify the islands. On March 26, 1899, while leading an attack against the Philippine Insurrection Army at Malinta, north of Manila, Egbert was shot and killed. His body was returned to the United States and buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A plaque, commissioned by the citizens of Northern Kentucky to honor Egbert, was placed on the Fort Thomas water tower, and the U.S. Army renamed a Signal Corps post in Alaska Fort Egbert.

Bogart, Charles H. “Harry Egbert, 1840 to 1899,” Fort Thomas Historical Society, Fort Thomas, Ky. “Egbert Memorial Will Likely Be Placed on Ft. Thomas Water Tower,” CE, April 25, 1898, 5.

“Egbert—Sixth Infantry Officer Made Brigadier General,” KP, October 10, 1899, 1.

“Harry Egbert Military Record File,” Campbell Co. Historical Society, Alexandria, Ky. Reis, Jim. “ ’98 Vets Few but Proud,” KP, May 26, 1997, 4K.

Charles H. Bogart

EGELSTON, CHARLES (b. 1886, Covington, Ky.; d. October 31, 1958, New York City). Actor Charles P. Egelston was the son of Charles R. L. and Anna Havlin Egelston. The family lived along Scott St. in Covington. An uncle, John Havlin, was a Covington and Cincinnati theatrical agent and the owner of the Havlin Hotel in Cincinnati, and Charles Egelston grew up in an acting environment. In 1899 he appeared at the Odd Fellows Hall in Covington in a grand minstrel performance. By 1911 he was working for his uncle John Havlin in New York City, arranging acts for the Greater Cincinnati area. Egelston was part of the National Players group in Cincinnati. He eventually became a staff actor at WLW radio in Cincinnati, where he and Virginia Payne had roles on the daytime epic radio soap opera Ma Perkins. For 26 years (1933– 1960), Egelston played Shuffle Shober in the drama.

Ma Perkins quickly advanced from WLW to Chicago and the national network market. Egelston was also the first person to portray Scrooge in Dickens’s Christmas Carol, which became an all-

time radio classic. In the 1950s he made some early television appearances, such as on The Hallmark Hall of Fame: he appeared on August 3, 1952, in episode 31, “The World on a Wire,” about Samuel Morse and his telegraph; and on April 19, 1953, in episode 65, Rod Serling’s “The Carlson Legend.”

He died at age 72 at New York City’s Park East Hospital in 1958. He was survived by his actress wife, Aileen Poe. “Charles Egelston Dies,” NYT, November 1, 1958, 19.

“Covington-Home Minstrel Company,” CE, January 22, 1899, 3.

“Covington’s Charlie Egelston to Pay Visit,” CP, March 14, 1952, 2.

“Kentucky Deaths,” CP, November 1, 1958, 5.

Michael R. Sweeney

EILERMAN, YVONNE “BONNIE,” CAPTAIN (b. September 7, 1913, Foster, Ky.; d. June 6, 1976, Covington, Ky.). Yvonne D. Looney, a dancer and a model, was born in Bracken Co. to Michael F. and Hilda Jett Looney. She studied ballet at the Schuster-Martin School in Cincinnati and eventually danced with the famous Roxy Ballet at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. She returned home to become one of the area’s first highfashion models. She married Richard D. Eilerman, a co-owner of the men’s store Eilerman & Sons, Men’s Clothiers. Yvonne Eilerman modeled for Mabley & Carew in Cincinnati, for other department stores, and for New York fur dealers; she modeled her last show at age 58 in 1971. She was a captain in the Kentucky state militia during World War II. She conducted charm classes for young teens at Pogue’s (H. & S. Pogue Company) and later worked in fashion coordination. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at St. Elizabeth Hospital in 1976 at age 62 and was buried at St. Mary Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

“Yvonne Eilerman Dies at 62,” KP, June 8, 1976, 5.

EILERMAN & SONS, MEN’S CLOTHIERS. Herman J. Eilermann (original German spelling of name) (1830–1913), a native of Schapen, Germany, opened his first store in 1886 at 610 Monmouth St. in Newport, and a replacement store was built there in 1889. His business expanded to Covington in 1892, and a four-story flagship store at the northeast corner of Pike and Madison (Eilerman’s Corner) was built for the business in 1896. The Covington store, designed by architect Daniel Seger, featured a corner bay window that culminated in a tower and spire. Its 500-light electric sign was the first electric sign in the city. The third and final Newport location was built in 1898 at 808 Monmouth. Additional stores were opened in Xenia and Lima, Ohio; Milwaukee; and Minneapolis.

By the turn of the century, the company’s proprietors called themselves “the Most Liberal and Progressive Retailers in the World.” For many years their advertisements referred to the locations in Covington and Newport as the “Twin Cities.”

In 1921 a fire devastated the Covington store, causing $80,000 in damages. The store was rebuilt but without its distinctive tower. The Eilermans

were major stockholders of the Henry Geiershofer Clothing Company of Cincinnati. The 1923 Northern Kentucky Review stated that some 1,500 local tailors were employed in the making of Eilerman Celebrated Clothes.

The Kentucky stores eventually adopted the slogan “Kentucky’s Best” and featured extravagant promotions, exterior displays, lavish windows, and musical entertainment. They were active in the community, promoting the downtown areas and acting as a lead sponsor of the Devou Park Summer Concerts in Covington.

Beyond their comprehensive men’s and boys’ offerings, the stores were noted for extensive hat and shoe departments, golf and tennis apparel, and fine tailoring. The Covington and Newport stores also featured complete selections of Boy Scout outfits and supplies. The Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota stores had closed by the late 1930s. The Newport store closed in 1964; the Covington store, in 1973.

“Clothiers Celebrate 42nd Anniversary,” KP, April 27, 1928, 1.

“Eilerman Store Swept by Flames,” KP, October 6, 1921, 1.

“Five Hundred Electric Lamps in Eilerman & Sons Great Sign,” KP, April 20, 1896, 8.

“Modern Throughout—Will Be New Building of Eilermans at a Cost of $60,000,” KP, January 22, 1896, 5.

“Personals—Eilerman Store in Minneapolis,” Covington Courier, September 20, 1902, 4.

Reis, Jim. “Devou Magic: Summer Concerts in the Park Attracted Thousands Weekly,” KP, June 10, 1985, 4K.

Chuck Eilerman

EILERMAN FAMILY. The Eilerman family, who helped shape Northern Kentucky, prospered during the growth of mass production and merchandising in the United States and eventually became contributors to many areas of Kentucky civic life.

Herman Eilermann, a young immigrant from near Hanover, Germany, married Maria Anna “Mary” Barg, from Hamburg, Germany, at Old St. Mary’s Church in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district in 1861. The couple established a household on Dayton St. in Newport and had 13 children.

Herman was a clothing salesman who opened his first clothing store in Newport in 1886 and was successful from the outset (see Eilerman & Sons, Men’s Clothiers). He twice moved his store to larger quarters and in 1892 began a second store in Covington. It also prospered, and additional stores followed in Lima and Xenia, Ohio; in Milwaukee, Wis.; and, briefly, in Minneapolis, Minn. Eilerman (he had dropped the final n from the family name) made substantial investments in local clothingmanufacturing firms, which provided merchandise under the Eilerman brand name.

Herman and Mary’s oldest son, George Herman, moved to San Diego, Calif., where he pursued his own business interests. The next son, Henry John, moved to Lima and ran a large clothing store until 1931. The children most active in

ELKINS, BOB 297

the local stores were sons August, Benjamin, Herman J., and Edward. August succeeded his father as president of the company and was also president of the Newport Merchants Association. Benjamin and his sons Bernard, Robert, Arthur, and Richard acquired control of the business in September 1931.

The success of the stores enabled family members to branch out into other ventures. Benjamin and his son Robert established a real estate company and a construction firm in 1925 and were early builders in the Coral Gables community near Miami, Fla. August’s son August Jr. was an owner of Atlas Cleaners in Newport and a banker, serving as the president of the American National Bank. Arthur was an original investor in the development of Crestview Hills. Leaving the family firm, he started radio station WZIP in Covington in 1947.

Benjamin participated during the early 1900s in the development of the White Villa resort community in southern Kenton Co. His family joined those of other leading businessmen, including the Coppins (see Coppin’s Department Store), the Stevies, the Hugenbergs, and the Luhns. Benjamin Eilerman led the establishment of St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church Mission across the Three-L Highway to serve the summer residents at White Villa.

Eilerman family members were involved in many civic projects and organizations throughout the 20th century. August Jr. was chairman of the board of the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Fort Thomas and a trustee of the local St. Luke Hospital. He provided leadership in the construction of the hospital’s campus on Grand Ave. in Fort Thomas. Bernard helped establish the Northern Kentucky Industrial Foundation, developer of the Northern Kentucky Industrial Park. He was an original member of the Kenton Co. Airport Board (see Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport), serving as both chairman and finance chair. He was also a trustee of Villa Madonna College (now Thomas More College). He was elected president of the Covington Chamber of Commerce in 1940 (see Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce) and was elected twice, in 1936 and 1955, as president of the Kentucky Merchants Association. On both occasions, he used his statewide prominence to support the gubernatorial campaigns of A. B. “Happy” Chandler (in 1935 and 1955). Arthur was active in business groups and in the Kiwanis Club. He was elected president of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association in 1956 and was the only Northern Kentuckian ever to hold the post. Arthur was particularly devoted to the Boy Scouts and served for years as a scoutmaster and as a commissioner of the Northern Kentucky Boy Scout Council. He was awarded the Silver Beaver Medal, scouting’s highest honor.

Eilerman women were also active in local civic projects. Bernard’s wife, Alma, was a founder of the Seminary Guild, which helped support St. Pius X Seminary. Arthur’s wife, Carmen, was a pioneer woman radio broadcaster who had two popu lar programs on WZIP. She was an organizer of

the Six-Twenty Woman’s Club, supporting the Baker-Hunt Foundation, and was a founder of the Northern Kentucky Association for Retarded Children. Richard’s wife, Yvonne “Bonnie” Eilerman, was an accomplished dancer; she performed with the Roxy Corps de Ballet at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and with national touring companies. Returning home, she operated a dance studio at Covington’s Odd Fellows Hall (see Independent Order of Odd Fellows) and was a leading fashion model in Cincinnati.

Devou Park was a par ticu lar interest of the family. Bernard Eilerman helped establish the Covington Tennis Club, the Devou Fields Golf Course, and the local Park Hills Riding Club.

WZIP broadcast music from the concert bowl at the park. Arthur organized large scout jamborees in its meadows, and Carmen led Girl Scout and Boys Club outings there. The Eilerman stores were also organizers and long-term sponsors of the Community Sing programs.

“Clothiers Celebrate 42nd Anniversary,” KP, April 27, 1928, 1.

“Eilerman Store Was Pioneer,” KP, November 8, 1925, 2.

“Eilerman Succumbs—Manager of Lima, Oh. Store, Was One of Founders of Concern,” KP, January 27, 1931, 1.

“New Council for Retarded Children Planned: WZIP Series Will Assist,” KTS, July 17, 1952, 1.

“President Elected President of Kentucky Broadcasters Association,” KTS, October 12, 1956, 8A. “Radio Grant Proposed for Airways Group, Is FCC Announcement,” KE, April 11, 1947, 1K. “To Open Course: Director of Devou Park Links to Lead Ceremonies,” KP, May 22, 1928, 1.

“Veteran Store Head Resigns—Merchandise Firm Passes to Younger Members,” KP, September 10, 1931, 1.

Chuck Eilerman

ELIZABETHVILLE. Elizabethville is west and a little north of Falmouth in Pendleton Co. along Ky. Rt. 22. At one time this little community had a school in addition to the Turner Ridge Baptist Church and Cemetery. It was named Elizabethville because there were so many women in the area named Elizabeth. Locally, the community was known as Modoc. It is reported that the first postmaster of Elizabethville spent so much of his time mowing dock that hardly a weed grew in the area. He decided to call the place Modoc and it remains so, informally, to this day. In 1950 the present Turner Ridge Baptist Church was dedicated in Elizabethville.

Belew, Mildred Boden. The First 200 Years of Pendleton County. Falmouth, Ky.: M. B. Belew, n.d. [ca.

1994].

Mildred Belew

ELK LAKE SHORES. Elk Lake Shores in Owen Co. is one of the many new combination housing and recreational developments that have appeared in Northern Kentucky since the 1960s. Elk Lake, which has 200 acres of water and 14 miles of shoreline, is located four miles southeast of Owenton,

east of the Georgetown Rd. (once U.S. 227, the William Howard Taft Highway, now just Ky. Rt. 227) and west of Lusby’s Mill. The American Realty Service Corporation developed Elk Lake Shores. In the beginning, the project was heavily advertised in the three television markets of Cincinnati, Louisville, and Lexington as vacation homesites with year-round-living potential. The development was heavily promoted. With the completion of I-75 and I-71, some Elk Lake residents commute to locations as far away as Cincinnati. There are more than 250 living units at the lake. There is a boating marina and a swimming beach, fishing is good, and security is provided. Given the topography of Owen Co., and the lack of an industrial base, Elk Lake Shores was welcomed by local residents.

Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

ELKINS, BOB (b. 1932, Mount Hope, W.Va.).

Character actor Robert Grant Elkins was the son of a hard-working coal miner, George W. Elkins, and his wife Ellie. When Bob was five years old, the family moved to Muncie, Ind., where his father took a job with a lawnmower company. When Bob was 12 years old, his family moved to Covington, Ky., and shortly thereafter his father deserted the family. To support the family, Bob’s mother took a job as a maid and his two sisters took part-time jobs. Bob continued his education and graduated from Holmes High School in 1950.

At the age of 18, Elkins enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he was given an aptitude test and found to be quite intelligent but suffering from dyslexia.

One of his best friends in the Navy, gunnery officer Lt. Jack Russell, worked with Elkins and helped him to read more effectively. The navy made a college education available to him, but he graciously declined the offer. However, he did take several courses taught by navy personnel and achieved the rank of petty officer. Elkins spent four years in the navy and said that the experience completely changed the course of his life.

After returning to Covington, Elkins studied acting at the Eyer Theater School. He won a small part as a navy shore patrol officer in a stage production of Mr. Roberts, and a year later was given the lead role. He acted in dozens of plays and television commercials, but with a family to feed, he took a job with the Magnus Chemical Company, where he had a more stable income. He worked his way up to the position of division assistant vice president of the company.

Elkins resigned from his position at Magnus when he was chosen to play the part of a disc jockey in the 1980 motion picture Coal Miner’s Daughter, with Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones. That same year, Elkins and his wife of 23 years divorced.

After his four children were grown, Elkins moved to Los Angeles, where he attended an acting seminar given by Jason Alexander (George on Seinfeld). He also acted in several plays and in a movie called The Big Day, with Sandra Seacat. However, he found the sporadic income from Hollywood

298 ELKS projects difficult to exist on, so he returned to Northern Kentucky.

In Greater Cincinnati, Elkins fared much better, appearing in several plays and movies, including This Train, with Soupy Sales, and Tattered Angel, with Lynda Carter. He also played the part of a bar owner in the 2001 independent fi lm April’s Fool. Much of that fi lm’s action was shot in the former Trixie’s Delight lounge at Ninth and Monmouth Sts. in Newport. Also shown in April’s Fool were the John A. Roebling Bridge and various street scenes from Newport and Cincinnati. Elkins then appeared as the German admiral Günther Lütjens in the 2002 docudrama James Cameron’s Expedition: Bismarck, on the Discovery Channel.

One of his most recent acting roles was as the father of a trapped miner in the 2002 ABC Television movie Pennsylvania Miner’s Story.

The Kentucky House of Representatives honored Bob Elkins in 2002 “for his many and significant achievements throughout nearly 50 years in the performing arts.” Elkins also won the Best Actor Award at the Dublin Film and Music Festival in Ireland, for his portrayal of a homeless man in the 2003 movie Homefree. He now lives in West Chester, Ohio, and serves as an acting coach at the Cincinnati Actors Studio in the Essex Art Center, Walnut Hills.

“Bob Elkins: Hiding in the Spotlight.” http://bobel kinsactor.com (accessed February 12, 2007).

Elkins, Bob. Telephone interview by Jack Wessling, February 12, 2007.

The Enquirer. “A Minute with Bob Elkins.” Cincinnati.com. http://news.enquirer.com (accessed February 9, 2007.

Wikipedia. “Bob Elkins.” http://en.wikipedia.org (accessed February 12, 2007).

ELKS. See Civic Associations.

ELLIS, ALSTON (b. January 26, 1847, Kenton Co., Ky.; d. November 14, 1920, Athens, Ohio). Alston Ellis, who became a college president, was born on a farm in Kenton Co. to Absalom and Mary Ellis Ellis (his father had married his first cousin, who had the same surname). In 1863 the family moved to Covington. Alston Ellis attended a private school in Covington operated by the noted teacher S. Mead. Ellis taught school for a short time near Carrollton and then enrolled at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1867 and an MA in 1872 from Miami University. Ellis served as a principal of schools in both Covington and Newport before taking a position with the Hamilton, Ohio, city schools. In 1879 he served with the Ohio state board of school examiners. From 1880 until 1887 he was superintendent of the Sandusky, Ohio, schools and afterward returned to his former job in Hamilton. From there Ellis went west in 1891 to become the president of the State Agricultural College of Colorado (which later became Colorado State University) in Fort Collins. As president there, Ellis doubled the enrollment of the school, added several new buildings, and added new departments. His strong personal and moral

convictions often clashed with the academic and local communities, however, and in 1899 the board of trustees in Colorado terminated his contract at the end of that school year. In 1901 Ellis became the 10th president of Ohio University (OU) in Athens, Ohio, where he remained until his death. He brought many of the same kinds of improvements to the OU campus. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1920 at his home in Athens, survived by his wife of 53 years, Katherine Ann Cox Ellis. He was awarded honorary PhD and LLD degrees by Wooster College and Ohio State University, for his accomplishments in the field of education.

“Alston Ellis.” http://lib.colostate.edu/archives/presi dents/ (accessed June 20, 2007).

“Alston Ellis.” www.memoriallibrary.com/CO/ 1898DenverPB (accessed June 20, 2007).

Ohio Death Certificate # 67483, for the year 1920.

Michael R. Sweeney

ELLIS, JAMES TANDY (b. June 9, 1868, Ghent, Ky.; d. December 9, 1942, Ghent, Ky.). James Tandy Ellis, newspaper columnist, poet, humorist, entertainer, raconteur, and Kentucky adjutant general, was the son of Dr. Peter Clarkson and Drusilla Tandy Ellis. He took classes locally and at Ghent College until he was 18 and then attended classes at the Agricultural and Mechanical College (University of Kentucky) in Lexington, which included military training. Ellis had just published his first notable poem, “Back in Old Kentucky.” He studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, returning to Ghent in 1889 to be a companion for his wealthy grandfather James Bledsoe Tandy, who died in 1895.

In 1898 a Louisville newspaper published Ellis’s defense of a former Lexington girlfriend, Harriet Richardson, who was then in national headlines as Temperance forces assailed her for wanting to use Kentucky bourbon to christen the new U.S. battleship Kentucky. He had just published Poems

by Ellis, and the romantic reunion and subsequent marriage of the defamed heroine and the young poet was reported throughout the country. Two children were born to this union; both died young.

In 1900 Ellis joined the Kentucky Infantry, serving two years at Owensboro and attaining the rank of major. He returned to Owensboro in 1904 as manager for an embattled water company, placating the locals by writing and performing in local entertainments. He produced another book of poems, Sprigs o’ Mint, in 1906. In 1908 Ellis was secretary for the Lexington Burley Society and published Awhile in the Mountain. He released Kentucky Stories in 1909 and Shawn of Skarrow in 1911.

Ellis entered the Kentucky Adjutant General’s Office as a colonel in 1912, becoming adjutant general in 1914 and serving throughout World War I as Kentucky’s highest-ranking officer. After the war, he made a career of traveling and performing, often as a banjo-playing blackface character, Uncle Rambo. In 1923 he published two songs and a novel, Sycamore Bend, and began his syndicated

newspaper column, Tang of the South. Tang of the South Stories, the first of two anthologies of his columns, appeared in 1924 and was followed by a work called Colonel Torkey Shabb in 1925. Ellis, who fancied himself an authority on “camp cooking,” published a booklet on the subject in 1923; he was known for his burgoo recipe, which can still be found in cookbooks.

Ellis’s written evocation of the Kentucky dialect, of which he was considered a master, is somewhat dated and difficult for moderns to read, and a condescending view of “colored” citizens is expressed in his works. Further clouding the issue concerning race is the fact that Ellis went largely unpunished for shooting and maiming a disrespectful black servant in 1893, when he was 25 years of age.

At the height of Ellis’s popularity, dramatizations of his columns were broadcast over WHAS radio in Louisville. Flash of the Flintlock, a movie of an Ellis story slated to be fi lmed in Somerset, however, was never made. In 1932 declining health compelled Ellis to end his touring. He settled into a home in Ghent and wrote his newspaper columns there until his death in 1942 from a heart ailment.

His wife, Harriet Richardson Ellis, committed suicide 46 days later and was buried beside her husband in the Ghent Cemetery.

Jillson, Willard Rouse. Rambo Flats: A Sketch of the Life, Military Service, and Literary Achievements of James Tandy Ellis (1868–1942). Frankfort, Ky.: Perry, 1957.

Kentucky Death Certificate No. 25877, for the year 1942.

Noe, J. T. Cotton, ed. A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry: Selections of Poetry Written by NinetyThree Persons Closely Identified with Kentucky, Most of Them Native Born. Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky Department of Extension, 1936.

Bill Davis

ELLISTON. Elliston in northwestern Grant Co., located along Ky. Rt. 1942, was first known as Eagle Mills (not the same as New Eagle Mills). Benjamin Elliston settled there on Ten Mile Creek in 1813. His descendants owned much of the land when the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington Railroad, the Short Line, later a part of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, was opened after the Civil War, and the train station was named Elliston. Just west of town, along the railroad, is the site of the former Eagle Tunnel, more than 600 feet long, which took the track westward into the Eagle Creek valley. After one-third of the tunnel collapsed in January 2005, the tunnel was “daylighted” by the railroad; that is, it no longer exists.

There were taverns and a general store in Elliston even before the railroad came, but with the opening of a rail line through town, commercial activity soon increased. Farmers were shipping livestock by rail to market, a tobacco warehouse was built, several stores and blacksmith shops were opened, a physician moved to town, and a drug store and hotel appeared. The railroad built company homes for its section hands, who were em-

ELMWOOD HALL, LUDLOW 299

ployed to maintain the railroad. A post office was established in 1870 but discontinued in 1976. Today, Elliston no longer depends on the railroad for goods and ser vices. Trucks and cars have taken the railroad’s place for Elliston residents.

Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.

John B. Conrad

ELLISTON, GEORGE (b. 1883, Mount Sterling, Ky.; d. October 7, 1946, Cincinnati, Ohio). George Elliston, a poet and journalist, was a fourthgeneration Kentuckian, daughter of Joseph Lillard and Ida Givens Elliston. When she was a child, the family moved to Covington. She was educated at the old Covington High School (see Covington Independent Schools), and while a student there, she began writing for the Kentucky Times-Star newspaper. As a young woman, Elliston wrote on cooking and weddings. In 1907 she married Augustus T. Coleman, a newspaper artist from St. Louis. In 1909 she became the society editor at the Kentucky Times-Star. Although she moved to St. Louis with her husband, Elliston returned to the Cincinnati area shortly afterward and bought real estate that eventually netted her a small fortune. She was considered a “brilliant” newspaper writer who “blazed new trails for women in journalism.” Her writing career included work as a hard-news reporter for the former CincinnatiTimes Star (now Cincinnati Post), where she covered breaking news, including murders and other crimes. She was also the editor of the Gypsy, a poetry magazine.

Elliston was a well-known and highly regarded writer who traveled across the country and to Europe to report the news firsthand. She was also a poet who authored several volumes of poetry, including Changing Moods, Through Many Windows, Bright World, and Cinderella Cargoes: Poems for Poets and for Those Who Love Poetry.

At one point in her career, Elliston had a twiceweekly radio broadcast on Cincinnati’s WSAI, where she also recited her poetry. She was a member of the League of Amateur Poets, the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association, the Ohio Valley Poetry Club, and the Cincinnati MacDowell Society. In the 1926 edition of Who’s Who in America, Elliston was cited for her literary achievements and contributions, one of eight Northern Kentuckians (and the only woman of the group) to be so honored.

Elliston bought a century-old log cabin at Morrow, Ohio, and lived there almost until her death.

She bequeathed the bulk of her estate to the University of Cincinnati for the creation of the George Elliston Poetry Trust Fund. Its purpose was to “establish, as far as practicable, a chair of poetry to encourage and promote the study and composition of poetry.” Today the George Elliston Poetry Foundation sponsors a yearly poet-in-residence and organizes programs to further the study and practice of poetry. In the Langsam Library at the university is the Elliston Poetry Room, which contains writings on poetry and a collection of 20th-

century English-language poetry. In recalling Elliston’s career, her former employer the Times-Star called her death “the passing of a great esteemed member of the family.” Her funeral was held at her downtown Cincinnati home, along Broadway at Arch St., the former home of the Cincinnati Natural History Museum. She was cremated.

“Funeral Home Wins Trade Award,” KE, November 8, 2003, B4.

Stanley, Frances Clinkscales. Interview by William Michael Stanley, June 24, 2006, Williamstown, Ky. Williamstown Courier, May 30, 1901.

“Eight Northern Kentuckians in 1926 Edition of Who’s Who,” KP, October 8, 1926, 5.

Elliston, George. Cinderella Cargoes: Poems for Poets and for Those Who Love Poetry. New York: George Sully, 1929.

“George Elliston Times Star Writer and Poet Dies after Long Illness,” CE, October 8, 1946, 16.

Noe, J. T. C. A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry.

Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky, Department of Univ.

Extension, 1936.

Reis, Jim. “Noteworthy Lives,” KP, November 29, 1993, 4K. The University Libraries Newsletter. “A Poet’s Legacy.”

University Libraries, University of Cincinnati. www .libraries .uc .edu/source/ volthree/elliston2 .html (accessed February 25, 2007).

ELMER DAVIS LAKE. On February 1, 1960,

Kathryn Witt

ELLISTON-STANLEY FUNERAL HOME. The Elliston-Stanley Funeral Home of Williamstown is the second-oldest continuously operated business in Grant Co. The firm, established in 1881

by R. H. Elliston, his brother O. P. Elliston, and their father, Hiram Elliston, was organized as a lumber and hardware business with the mortician work as a sideline. Early in the 20th century, the mortician business became the major portion of the firm’s business, under the direction of O. P. Elliston.

Beuford E. Stanley, a native of Grant Co., purchased the business in 1937 after returning to Williamstown the year before to become an employee of Elliston as a funeral director and embalmer. At that time much of the work, including embalming, visitations, and funerals, was accomplished in the homes of those they served. Stanley operated the funeral business with his wife, Frances Clinkscales Stanley, also a native of Williamstown, whom he married in 1937. She became a licensed funeral director in 1943, and they worked together in the business until his death in 1995 at age 81.

The business included invalid and emergency ambulance ser vice for area residents until 1973. In 1955 the Stanleys moved their storefront business to a residential neighborhood where they had purchased and remodeled a former residence into a modern funeral home. Their ser vice was expanded with the purchase of the Hamilton Funeral Home in Verona in 1982 and the addition of a branch facility in Crittenden in 1998.

Now in its 125th year of ser vice to Northern Kentucky, the business continues to be owned and operated by Frances Stanley and her two sons, William Michael Stanley and Dennis E. Stanley, along with the assistance of her two grandsons, Patrick M. Stanley and Douglas R. Stanley, all of whom are licensed funeral directors and embalmers.

“Centennial Club,” KE, November 8, 1996, B1C. Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County.

Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.

William Michael Stanley

when the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) in Frankfort announced that the new Elmer Davis Lake near Owenton was available for fishing, it was a milestone for the Owen Co. Sportsman’s Club. For years, Owen Countians had been planning for a suitable lake for fishing and boating, since there was no large lake in the county. Having been stocked with black bass, black crappie, bluegill, channel catfish, largemouth bass, long-ear sunfish, shell-crackers, walleye, warmouth, and white crappie, the new lake became a fisherman’s dream come true.

The sportsman’s club, which began in 1952, had built a modern brick lodge and in 1953 purchased the adjacent 110-acre Dunavent farm some three miles west of Owenton on the Dunavent Ridge (Lake Rd.). Elmer Davis Lake was built in 1958 by the KDFWR on land purchased from the Owen Co. Sportsman’s Club. It has approximately 149 surface acres, 5.6 miles of shoreline, and a maximum depth of 59 feet and surrounds three sides of the club’s property. Along with the boating and fishing, visitors can also enjoy a swimming pool and the club’s beach. Homes for weekend living as well as for permanent living have been constructed along the shoreline.

The namesake of the lake, Elmer Davis, was a longtime area automobile dealer and the commissioner of the KDFWR under Kentucky governors Keen Johnson (1939–1943) and A. B. Chandler (1935–1939 and 1955–1959).

Owen Co. Historical Society Files, Owen Co. Library, Owenton, Ky.

Doris Riley

ELMWOOD HALL, LUDLOW. Thomas Davis Carneal, a local businessman, had by 1820 accumulated an estate he called Elmwood, which comprised more than 1,000 acres in Northern Kentucky along the Ohio River, across and slightly west (downriver) from Cincinnati, on what eventually became the site of the city of Ludlow. Carneal was a speculator, builder, and amateur architect. He and his partners, the brothers John S. Gano and Richard M. Gano, laid out Covington in 1815 (and John S. Gano built the Federal-style dwelling there, now known as the Gano-Southgate House, for Aaron Gano). Thomas Carneal served in the Kentucky legislature but also had business interests in Ohio and built several town houses in Cincinnati. The Elmwood estate stretched for two and a half miles along the river and was virtually self-supporting, with picturesquely landscaped grounds, orchards, vineyards, ornamental and vegetable gardens, a coach house, an icehouse, a dairy, barns, and a sawmill. Although Carneal proposed a bill for the gradual eradication of

300 ELSMERE

Elmwood Hall, Ludlow, ca. 1908.

slavery from Kentucky, Elmwood included houses for his own enslaved African American artisans and servants.

Between 1818 and 1820, Carneal and his wife Sarah Stanley Carneal, a renowned hostess, designed and built for themselves a villa—also called Elmwood—on the estate. They situated it on a gentle rise 150 yards from the river; although altered, it survives at 244 Forest Ave. in Ludlow. A square, one-story, neoclassical pavilion on a raised basement, it has a hipped roof capped by an observation deck. The deck is surrounded by a railing and is accessible via an interior corkscrew stair.

The house originally had an elliptical-arched and fan-lighted entrance (later turned into a window) facing the river on the north front, with twin recessed porches screened by slender Tuscan columns on its east and west sides. An ell wing containing a kitchen protruded asymmetrically from the rear, or south facade. Except for the ell, the plan was perfectly symmetrical, consisting of eight square rooms arranged in an offset grid, with three rooms each across the north and south fronts and two large parlors at the center of the plan opening through jib-windows onto the recessed porches at the sides. The overall scheme resembles certain villas designed by 16th-century Italian architects Palladio and Scamozzi, whose published treatises the Carneals may have known and consulted. The ceilings of the house are 14 feet high, and the most elaborate room is the entrance hall, in the center of the north front. It has corner columns supporting curving plaster pendentives that form a circular disk ceiling with a recessed central panel, creating the effect of a flattened dome and oculus. Pilasters flank the symmetrical doorways, and a continuous frieze of ornamental leaves encircles the room above the columns and door heads, acting as a datum line for the springing of the pendentives. The composition of this room recalls spaces created by Federal-period architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820); he was briefly in Cincinnati in 1820 when Elmwood

was nearing completion, and the Carneals may have consulted him for this room, or they may have known his designs through other sources. In the later 1820s, the second owner of the house likely enriched the room by adding cast plaster shells and rosettes. It is perhaps the most sophisticated Federal-period interior surviving in Kentucky. The other spaces of the house exhibit none of the same sculptural or ornamental character, being simple cubic volumes articulated only by carved mantelpieces and door and window frames in an elaborate but provincial Federal style.

In 1828 the Carneals sold the estate to Englishman William Bullock (founder of the renowned Egyptian Hall museum in London), who made plans to build an elaborate speculative town on the site, to be called Hygeia. While Bullock and his wife resided at Elmwood, English author Frances Trollope (1779–1863) visited them and left a description of the house in her book The Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832). She had little good to say about Cincinnati (or America, for that matter) but commented on the “exquisite beauty” of the Elmwood estate—though deploring its remoteness—and said of the Bullocks’ house that “there is more taste and art lavished on one of their beautiful saloons, than all Western America can shew elsewhere” and that “the gems of art [Bullock] has brought with him, shew as strangely there, as would a bower of roses in Siberia.” Bullock’s art collection at Elmwood perhaps included furniture and sculpture by his brother George Bullock (d. 1818), one of the foremost cabinetmakers of Regency England.

Bullock’s proposed town came to naught, and in two sales, of 1831 and 1836, he disposed of the estate to Israel Ludlow Jr. (son of Israel Ludlow Sr., who laid out Cincinnati in 1788). Ludlow and his heirs, along with their relatives the Kenners, gradually sold parcels of the estate and developed the town of Ludlow. Incorporated in 1864, the bucolic village became a booming industrial town after the 1877 completion of the Cincinnati Southern

Railroad and the construction of its shops in Ludlow. Th is development hastened the subdivision of the Elmwood estate, the laying out of streets, and the building of hundreds of middleand working-class Victorian houses. In the 1880s the Webster family, who then owned Elmwood, subdivided the fi nal 40 acres around the villa and partitioned it into a double house, or duplex. They demolished its rear kitchen wing to accommodate the laying out of Forest Ave. and created a new street front on the south with Victorian hoodmolds over the doors and windows. The original riverfront on the north of the house became its rear facade.

In 1920 Elmwood became the factory for the Mrs. Thomas’ Candies Company. The owners, Eda and Albert Thomas, hired local architect Chester H. Disque to do a partial restoration (contemporary with that of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and echoing some of its forms). Known throughout the 20th century as Elmwood Hall, the house gained a mythic local status and accumulated legends. It was said, for example, that Elmwood was a site on the Underground Railroad with a secret tunnel to the river. Contradicting that story was the rumor that the basement contained a “slave whipping post.” Neither was true. The house was, however, recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936 and entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Artists had their studios in Elmwood Hall during the 1970s–1990s, and the house is now gradually being restored as a residence.

Archive of miscellaneous notes, records, clippings, etc., collected by past owners. Elmwood Hall, Ludlow, Ky. Bullock, William. Sketch of a Journey through the Western States of North America. London, 1827.

Reprinted in Early Western Travels, 1748–1846, ed. Ruben G. Thwaites (Cleveland, 1905).

Costeloe, Michael P. William Bullock, Connoisseur and Virtuoso of the Egyptian Hall: Piccadilly to Mexico (1773–1849). Bristol, UK: Univ. of Bristol, 2008.

———. “William Bullock and the Mexican Connection,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 22 (Summer 2006): 275–309.

Fazio, Michael, and Patrick Snadon. The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2006.

Lancaster, Clay. Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1991.

Langsam, Walter E. Great Houses of the Queen City: Two Hundred Years of Historic and Contemporary Architecture and Interiors in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1997.

Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

Patrick Snadon

ELSMERE. The city of Elsmere is located on land originally granted by the commonwealth of Virginia to John D. Watkins and Robert Johnson in 1785. The Watkins-Johnson property was located on the Dry Ridge Trace, a natural high point

EMANCIPATIONISTS 301

that runs from near the Ohio River to Central Kentucky. The tract was divided by a buffalo trail used in 1793 to build the Georgetown Rd., which became the primary route to Central Kentucky.

Th is road ran near the western boundary of today’s city of Elsmere.

According to legend, the first settlers arrived at the site that became Elsmere about 1820. The first house was built near present-day Shaw Ave. In 1834 the Commonwealth of Kentucky legislated improvements to the Georgetown Rd. by chartering the Covington and Lexington Turnpike and requiring the use of stone, gravel, wood, and other materials in its construction. By 1839 the first 10 miles of the turnpike from Covington were finished, including the section that passes through present-day Elsmere. At a cost of $ 7,800 per mile, it was the most expensive highway built in Kentucky up to that time. Toll booths situated every five miles charged 10 cents for a horse and cart.

The end of the Civil War initiated an economic revitalization for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. As the urban areas grew, traffic on the turnpike increased. A railroad from Cincinnati into the South was needed to give the developing industries better access to agricultural products.

In 1874 the City of Ludlow outbid Covington and Newport for the railroad bridge from Cincinnati.

With the bridge at Ludlow, the most direct route to the South went through what later became Erlanger and Elsmere. To encourage selection of this route, property owners contributed funds and property for the railroad right-of-way. Laying of track began in 1876, and the first train rolled down the tracks on April 20, 1877, reaching Lexington in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Passenger ser vice was inaugurated on July 23, 1877. A station was established south of Erlanger and named Woodside Station. With the opening of the railroad, a trip from that station to Covington or Cincinnati that took hours on the turnpike could be made in minutes on the train. Developers worked with the railroad company to hold Sunday excursions stopping at Woodside Park, in order to introduce potential residents to the area. Lots were sold by the Woodside Land Syndicate with such enticements as railroad passes.

Additional development in this area occurred rapidly during the 1890s. The first church, St. Henry Catholic Church, was built in 1890, and a volunteer fire department was organized. On May 11, 1896, the area that had become known as South Erlanger was incorporated as the city of Elsmere.

The city was named by developer Lou Nolan for a street in Norwood, Ohio; the name was said to mean “by the lake.” Less than a year later, on January 25, 1897, the neighboring city of Erlanger was also chartered. Elsmere’s first government included a town marshal and a jail, built in 1903 at the corner of Garvey and Ash Aves. Elsmere built its first school in 1899 on Central Row. One aspect of the growth that occurred during this period was the migration of black families to the area. By 1900 at least 17 black families had settled in Elsmere, and they had established Dunbar

School for the education of their children. Although this school burned, the black families rebuilt; they continued to maintain the new school until the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools built Wilkins Heights Elementary School in 1951 on Capital St. Black residents also established the A.M.E. Church in Elsmere about 1905.

As usage of the railroad waned and automobiles became more prevalent, highway improvements assisted in the development of Elsmere. In 1913 Kenton Co. condemned and purchased the Covington-Lexington Turnpike so that tolls could be discontinued. Begun in 1915 and completed in 1921, the Dixie Highway was created by covering the old turnpike with concrete. The new highway encouraged development of the old farms around the cities, which resulted in a building boom in the Erlanger-Elsmere area in the 1920s. More than 400 homes were constructed in Erlanger and Elsmere in 1927 alone, and the population of both cities doubled. The Erlanger and Elsmere school systems were consolidated, and a new high school was completed in 1928. The first sewers in Elsmere were constructed in 1930; most of the work on the sewers was completed by the WPA in the late 1930s.

The city’s fire department was orga nized and a fire chief appointed. The center of the business district was Dixie Highway at Garvey Ave. This intersection became known as Shankers Corner, named for a dry-goods store there. Also located on Garvey was a movie house that doubled as a basketball floor. The Joyland Corner Building on Garvey hosted parties. For a time, the Erlanger-Elsmere Library was also located on Garvey near Dixie Highway.

In 1952 Elsmere had grown enough that it was declared a fourth-class city by the Kentucky legislature. The old board of trustees became the town council. Construction of I-75 nearby in 1961 changed traffic patterns. Most travelers now bypassed Elsmere; however, the new highway provided more opportunities for suburban growth, because it made Elsmere more convenient to residents of the larger cities.

In the 1970s, discussion of a merger between Erlanger and Elsmere resulted in a ballot initiative to merge the neighboring cities. The measure was soundly defeated in both cities. Following this decision, Elsmere undertook a major rebuilding of streets from 1971 to 1978 at a cost of $1 million. In the 1980s, under the leadership of longtime mayor Al Wermeling, Elsmere annexed land for industrial development and residential expansion, enabling development of an identity separate from that of Erlanger. Elsmere has benefited substantially from industrial development in the 1980s and 1990s.

Building on its tradition of diversity, Elsmere elected Billy Bradford, longtime councilman, as mayor in 1998. Mayor Bradford was the first African American to hold such a position in Northern Kentucky.

With its advantageous location, the excellent transportation to other cities, the availability of industrial land, a strong tax base, and the potential

for residential expansion, Elsmere is in an excellent position for future growth. In 2000 Elsmere had a population of 8,139.

Blincoe, Caden. “Small Community Enjoys ‘Mainstream of Progress,’ ” CE, February 5, 1979, 2K. City of Elsmere Centennial Celebration, 1896– 1996. Elsmere, Ky.: Centennial Committee of 1996, 1996.

Kathman, Janice. “Elsmere: A Tale of Two Cities,” Erlanger Dixie News, May 5, 1988, 21.

Newman, Mary. The Bicentennial Story of Elsmere, Kentucky, 1776–1976. Elsmere, Ky.: Elsmere Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, 1976.

Wayne Onkst

EMANCIPATIONISTS. Northern Kentucky contributed to and took part in the two quite different concepts of how to abolish slavery that developed between 1790 and 1850: constitutional emancipation and gradual emancipation. During the first decades of Kentucky statehood, constitutional emancipation formed the conceptual basis for emancipationists’ antislavery political actions.

These early antislavery proponents tried to prevent Kentucky from becoming a slave state, and once the 1799 state constitution legalized slavery, they attempted to repeal that part of it. This movement was most closely identified with Rev. David Rice and several other Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian preachers and churchmen.

Constitutional emancipation was the path that Northern states chose for eliminating slavery. In some New England states, the abolition of slavery took place as outright bans. Vermont (1777), Massachusetts (1780), and New Hampshire (1784) followed this course. Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and eventually New Jersey, codified gradual emancipation in their state constitutions. The major unresolved issues in the North were the legal status of a slave who moved into a Northern state or fled from a slave state into a free state, and whether or not to grant full citizenship to free people of color. As settlers from New England and Pennsylvania flooded into Northern Kentucky, they brought their experience in states that had enacted constitutional emancipation.

In Southern states, where slavery had become embedded as an institution, and where slaves had the status of private property, emancipation took place through a legal process called manumission: the individual slave owner could free slaves from bondage through a will or through a declaration in a local court. The counties that were formed in Kentucky during the state’s early years tended to enshrine the principle of private ownership of slaves. Many Kentucky counties required that, in the event of manumission, a slaveholder or the administrator of an estate post a bond or provide sufficient financial resources, such as land or money, to avoid making a freed black a pauper dependent on the county. The Quakers, some Presbyterians, and the Separate Baptists were active in North Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of Georgia in creating manumission societies dedicated to promoting manumission; these

302 EMANCIPATIONISTS groups also purchased families of slaves in order to free them from bondage. As settlers from these regions came into and through Kentucky, a small number of such manumission societies were established.

Some slaveholders in Kentucky believed slavery to be evil but also regarded their slaves as prized private property. Generally, these slaveholders applauded the economic benefits of emancipation accruing to white landowners but also feared that emancipation might produce large numbers of freedmen living in Kentucky. Gradual emancipationists believed that slavery would be eliminated over time as slave owners of their own volition freed existing slaves through legal manumission. One form of gradual emancipation, publicized by James G. Birney and Cassius Clay, emphasized that slavery impeded economic development in Kentucky. They contrasted the booming economies of Ohio and Indiana with that of Kentucky to prove their point. These arguments were meant to persuade slave owners to emancipate their slaves. In any case, gradual emancipationists tended to believe that slaveholders should be compensated for the loss of their property if, at some point, slaves were freed by action of the state.

Abolitionists, by contrast, advocated eliminating the institution of slavery without compensation to slave owners. In early Kentucky, both constitutional and gradual emancipationists used the term abolition when advocating an end to slavery; however by 1850 abolition referred only to immediate emancipation in the South.

Slavery and emancipation proved difficult topics for a number of Christian denominations. For the Baptists in 1803–1806, the issue came to a head at Mount Sterling, Ky., in the person of David Barrow, a minister in the Separate Baptist tradition who served Goshen, Lulbegrud, and Mount Sterling churches. Through political pressure from the Regular Baptists of the Elkhorn Baptist Association and their fledgling Bracken Baptist Association, David Barrow was expelled from the North District Baptist Association in 1806 for advocating the gradual emancipation of slaves and the eventual abolition of slavery. Barrow not only preached continuously against slavery, but he published British Baptist Thomas Clarkson’s Essay on Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, a 1785 treatise that greatly influenced U.S. abolitionists.

Barrow himself wrote Involuntary, Unmerited, Perpetual, Absolute, Hereditary Slavery Examined on the Principles of Nature, Reason, Justice, Policy, and Scripture, which was printed in 1808 by John Bradford at Lexington. That same year, Barrow joined Carter Tarrant and founded the Baptized Licking-Locust Association, Friends of Humanity, also known as the Emancipation Baptists.

The Baptized Licking-Locust Association, Friends of Humanity, included Bracken, Gilgal, and Licking-Locust Baptist churches from the Bracken Baptist Association; Lawrence Creek Baptist Church from Mason Co.; Bethel and Mount Sterling Baptist churches from the North District

Baptist Association; New Hope Baptist Church from Woodford Co., with members from the original Clear Creek and Hillsboro Baptist churches; and Bullskin Baptist Church from Shelby Co. The Emancipation Baptists acted chiefly in the traditional method of other Baptist associations, with messengers, queries, reports, and periodic meetings and preaching. They were not a political party. However, these same Kentuckians were influenced by the creation in 1814 of the Tennessee Manumission Society, which had Charles Osborn and John Rankin as charter members, and the creation of the American Emancipation Society. The Kentucky antislavery people began to think about political action to repeal the slavery clause in their constitution and moral-ethical action by individual slave owners to emancipate their slaves in their wills.

In 1821 Carter Tarrant and David Barrow formed the Kentucky Abolition Society. At that time, Tarrant was living in Carrollton. The Kentucky Abolition Society included the Baptist churches from the Emancipationist Baptists that Tarrant had helped to form and a few preachers and elders from the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations. Three of these were the Reverends Alexander, Moses Edwards, and John Mahan; 21 ordained members also belonged to the Kentucky Abolition Society. At its peak, however, the statewide organization never claimed more than 200 members.

The Maysville Abolition Society, led by Amos Corwine Jr., was active during this period. A small group was located at Shelbyville, and another at Frankfort hosted the statewide organizing meeting.

Although there was clearly an antislavery group at Louisville, led chiefly by Presbyterian and Unitarian ministers, there is no indication that they were part of the Kentucky Abolition Society.

Lucien Rule cited Lyman Beecher, Gideon Blackburn, John Dickey, Henry Little, Samuel Shannon, and Parson John Todd as early influential antislavery Presbyterian preachers in Northern Kentucky and southern Indiana. The Scots Convenanter, Seceder, and Associate Reformed Presbyterians led by John Anderson, Andrew Fulton, and George Shannon settled on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, north and west of Madison. These Scots congregations began early to provide aid to fugitive slaves all along the Ohio River and up into central Indiana.

John Finley Crowe, a student at Transylvania University in Lexington, was asked to edit a flagship newspaper, the Abolition and Intelligence Messenger, for the Kentucky Abolition Society.

Crowe began the publication in Lexington. He then moved to Shelbyville, where for a few months he published his paper advocating the repeal of Kentucky’s slave laws. Crowe then proceeded to seminary and ordination, and in 1825 he began his first church assignment at Vernon, Ind. He later achieved prominence as the first president of Hanover College at Madison, Ind., and as head of the Indiana Old School Presbyterian Colonization Society.

The enthusiasm for emancipation of slaves soon began to spread through the mid-South. In

1823 Tennessee reported 25 manumission societies, mostly in the eastern part of the state. In the same year, North Carolina declared 50 societies active at the national Emancipation Society Meeting at Philadelphia. Between 1823 and 1828, representatives from Baltimore, New England, and Philadelphia met annually. The eastern Tennessee groups usually sent delegates, but there is no evidence that Kentucky was represented at the national level.

A number of slave owners manumitted their slaves. However, in the entire period from 1799 to 1868, slaveholders in Bracken Co., for instance, fi led only 156 emancipation records in the courthouse. Fourteen of them were fi led by Arthur Thome of Augusta in 1834–1836. In 1847, in Owen Co., Ky., Susan Herndon Rogers freed the 10 slaves of the Locust family and gave them 403 acres known as Free Station, or Mountain Island. Susan’s brother James Herndon in 1853 executed a bond for $21,000 in order to have his 22 slaves manumitted. His manumitted slaves, the Carroll, Smith, and Vinegar families, divided 125 acres at Mountain Island. Yet, actions such as these hardly made a dent in the huge numbers of slaves pouring into Kentucky from the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia. By 1827 the emancipation movement had run out of steam as the leaders had died or moved away, and the impact of moral persuasion proved anemic.

Speaking into this intellectual vacuum, the faculty of the Danville Presbyterian Seminary, led

by Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge, with the aid of his brother William J. Breckinridge, an influential Louisville minister, steered the antislavery movement toward a conservative approach that linked gradual emancipation with the concept of colonization, sending freed blacks to Africa. The American Colonization Society, founded in 1810, was developed chiefly as a method of ridding the nation of its free people of color and was not originally conceived as a tactic to eliminate slavery from the South. In fact, it was the opposite. The manumission movement, adopted by many Presbyterians and Methodists in the early years of Kentucky statehood, had been all too productive: hundreds of free blacks now populated Southern cities and Northern rural communities. To the slave owner, a free black living in a community where there were slaves caused an unnecessary tension, a temptation for slaves to become dissatisfied with their bondage. The Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831 in Virginia exacerbated fears of a slaveholding minority controlling the daily movements of millions of black slaves. One result was the immediate imposition of harsh laws against free people of color throughout the South and the Ohio River Valley. Another result was that the antislavery leaders of the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and many forms of Baptists vigorously adopted the tenets and the tactics of the colonization movement. Sending free blacks to Africa was considered the ultimate solution.

Colonizationists, with Kentucky statesman Henry Clay as their leader and the federal government and wealthy individuals backing the movement, purchased large tracts of land on the coast of Af-

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rica, lined up ships to transport former slaves to Liberia, and persuaded some slave owners to follow their precepts in educating slaves to Christianize their new African homelands. By 1849, however, it became evident that free people of color did not want to go to Africa. Fewer than 650 former Kentucky slaves ever went to Liberia, and some of them later returned. The colonizationemancipationists were faced with 250,000 Kentucky slaves who intended to stay in the United States.

As the October 1849 Kentucky Constitutional Convention approached, the antislavery forces in the state made a determined assault on slavery. A statewide emancipation convention was scheduled for April 1849 in Frankfort. Leading up to this meeting, the abolitionists in Kentucky, led by John G. Fee from Lewis and Bracken counties, demanded nonimportation of slaves and called upon the Kentucky legislature to emancipate slaves and grant them status as free citizens. The colonizationists, led by Robert J. Breckinridge, William Breckinridge, Henry Clay, and John R. Young, backed a gradual-emancipation plan by which slave owners would pay the transportation costs to send freed slaves to Africa instead of paying county and state taxes on their slave property. The April showdown was a disaster. The abolitionist forces championed

by Fee and the colonization forces championed by the Breckinridges could not find common ground, and a weakened plank highlighting gradual emancipation with immediate colonization of freed blacks was finally hammered out, to no one’s satisfaction. Meanwhile the proslavery leaders John Breckinridge and Robert Wycliffe and others were courting delegates to the October convention and labeling all antislavery people as radical abolitionists. They reminded voters of the August 1848 Doyle armed slave revolt affecting Lexington and Bracken Co. in Kentucky and other slave revolts in the South. The scare tactics worked to perfection, and the antislavery people were routed badly. Statewide, only in Campbell Co., with the election of Ira Root, and in Knox and Harlan counties, with Silas Woodson’s election, were emancipationists successful in electing delegates to the constitutional convention.

Emboldened by the political disarray among antislavery parties, the Kentucky legislature moved quickly to repeal the nonimportation-of-slaves act of 1833, and the 1850 Kentucky constitution squeezed the economic noose around free people of color and constricted emancipation requirements, demanding that any freed slave immediately leave the state, thereby clearly delineating Kentucky’s status as a slave state.

During the early 1840s at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, John G. Fee not only turned his back on his father’s slaveholdings and his Bracken Co. neighbors’ approval of the peculiar institution; he moved all the way to embrace the concept of the immediate abolition of slavery. Fee spent the next few years searching for a method to challenge slavery on Southern soil. At first he worked within the New School Presbyterians, founding churches in Lewis and Bracken counties; but the New School

Synod disciplined him for his virulent antislavery activities. Fee had already moved toward an anticaste, antislavery position, and he gradually moved beyond any attachment to a denomination. In fact, he influenced the Bracken and Lewis Co. churches to become part of the Free Church movement.

Fee worked with Simeon S. Jocelyn, Amos Phelps, Lewis Tappan, and George Whipple of the American Missionary Association to develop a colporteur system, bringing Northern antislavery preachers and dedicated lay people to distribute Bibles, antislavery literature, and anticaste congregation development into the mid-South, particularly into Madison Co., Ky. Greatly influenced by Eli Thayer and John C. Underwood’s concepts of northern emigrant communities in the upper South, Fee decided in 1858 to create a model egalitarian community at Berea, Ky., on lands donated

by Cassius M. Clay. Fee recruited religious leaders and educators but never had the economic managerial expertise of the similar Ceredo community formed in West Virginia. Both as an educator and as a symbol, Fee stands alone in Kentucky’s antislavery history.

Most historians acclaim Fee’s courage at Berea, where former slaves and white men could form a community, and his work in educating men, women, and children at Camp Nelson in Garrard Co. and at Berea. But most historians also find Fee irrelevant to the attitudes and actions taken by the overwhelming numbers of Kentuckians during the 1860s. Fee, the last emancipationist, neither persuaded slave owners to give up their slaves nor persuaded yeomen to embrace blacks as fellow citizens. Consequently, Kentucky moved into and through the Civil War as a slave state.

Barrow, David. Involuntary, Unmerited, Perpetual, Absolute, Hereditary Slavery Examined on the Principles of Nature, Reason, Justice, Policy, and Scripture. Lexington, Ky.: Bradford, 1808.

Dumond, Dwight Lowell. Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1961.

Howard, Victor B. The Evangelical War against Slavery and Caste: The Life and Times of John G. Fee. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna Univ. Press, 1996.

Martin, Asa Earl. “Pioneer Antislavery Press,” Missouri Valley Historical Review 2 (March 1916): 510–28.

Miller, Carolyn R., comp. African American Bracken County Kentucky, 1797–1999. Brooksville, Ky.: Bracken Co. Historical Society, 1999.

———. Slavery in Newsprint: Central Ohio River Borderlands, 1840–1859. Brooksville, Ky.: Bracken Co. Historical Society, 2003.

Tallant, Harold D. Evil Necessity: Slavery and Political Culture in Antebellum Kentucky. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2003.

Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

Turner, Wallace B. “Abolitionism in Kentucky,” RKHS 69 (October 1971): 319–38.

Diane Perrine Coon

ENAMELING. Enameled objects have been produced in Northern Kentucky since the mid-20th

century; in addition, the region now has a museum devoted to enameling.

Enameling is fusing glass on metal by firing.

Many commonly used metals can be utilized for enameling; especially popu lar are aluminum, copper, gold, silver, and steel. Enameling has industrial and functional applications in the manufacture of appliances, electric parts, pots, and sinks, and it is also used for artistic and craft purposes, as in jewelry, painting, and large wall sculptures. There are many types of artistic enameling, for instance, champlevé, cloisonné, grisaille, impasto, and plique-à-jour. Enameling has a long history, dating as far back as the 13th century b.c. in Cyprus.

Throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, Northern Kentucky’s demand for enameled objects, such as appliances, chalices, and jewelry, was met by imports. Some examples include Msgr. Edward G. Klosterman’s chalice at Mother of God Catholic Church and religious items in the collection of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, both in Covington. Regarding the latter collection, Sr. Ernestine Ott, C.D.P., recollected, “I designed some of these religious objects for Bishop Mulloy, but the objects had to be sent abroad to be executed, including the enamel work.

Some items were sent to Maria Laach Abbey in Germany.”

The history of enameling production in Northern Kentucky began with Woodrow Carpenter, who was born in Snyder, Ill., September 11, 1915.

His uncles raised him in West Union, Ill., because his mother died when he was 11 months old and his father was serving in World War I. Carpenter considered aviation as a career until the Illinois Clay Works Association offered him a scholarship to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

It was there that he decided to major in material science and engineering. He graduated in 1938 and settled in Frankfort, Ind., where he conducted research in the manufacture of vitreous enamel and founded the Woodrow W. Carpenter Company in 1950. The company produced art enamels and became a competitor of the Thomas C. Thompson Company in Chicago. In 1954 Carpenter moved his company to the basement of the Rookwood Company’s facility in Cincinnati. In 1958 he founded the Ceramic Coating Company (CCC) at 1080 Waterworks Rd. in Newport.

Also in 1958, Woodrow met his future wife, Irmgard Toberg, originally of Krefeld, Germany.

She had immigrated to Cincinnati with the help of her uncle, who worked with ceramic pigments at Shepherd Chemical in Norwood, Ohio. The couple married on September 3, 1960, in Cincinnati. In 1960 Woodrow Carpenter decided to merge his art enamel company in Cincinnati with CCC; he then moved CCC to Wilder by 1962. One of CCC’s early customers was Tandy Leather, a division of American Handicraft.

The Ceramic Coating Company purchased its largest competitor, the 100-year-old enameling business of the Thomas C. Thompson Company of Chicago, on January 30, 1981, and made it the artistic enameling arm of CCC. The Thompson Company traced its enameling roots back to an

304 EN GLISH EN GLISH STATION ancestor, William Marlow, who enameled watches and clocks in Coventry, England, and immigrated to Illinois in 1882, at the urging of the Elgin Watch Company. The newly purchased division was moved to Kentucky in 1982. Art enamelists from all around the world order enamels from Thompson, because the company has streamlined the processes for students and teachers to examine and purchase enamels for artistic applications. Consequently, enameling has now become synonymous with the name of Woodrow Carpenter, at first in Northern Kentucky, then later in the United States, and finally in other parts of the world. The spread of Carpenter’s reputation was assisted by the closing of other enamel companies, such as Schauer in Vienna, Austria. Since about 1985, Thompson Enamel has been the only manufacturer of jewelry enamel in the Western Hemisphere. It has become the driving force sparking many enameling activities in the Cincinnati–Northern Kentucky region, including numerous workshops and classes at its offices.

In 1982 the Ceramic Coating Company, in conjunction with the Thompson Enamel division, began publishing Glass on Metal, the enamelist’s newsletter. By volume 6, number 6, the newsletter had grown into a 24-page magazine with color photos. This publication, one of the first of its kind, has made a monumental contribution to the education of enamelists. It has also played a significant role in promoting the science involved in the enameling process and in providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to the process of enameling.

In 1986–1987, Thompson Enamel organized the Enamelist Society, which has grown to a membership of 900. “After a one-shot conference on enameling in Seattle, I wanted to start a society,” Carpenter stated. “I thought there might be an opportunity to get people together on a regular basis.”

The Enamelist Society began with a conference, an invitational, a juried exhibition, and workshops in August 1987 in Cincinnati. Of the 10 conferences held thus far, the second and the third were in Covington at the Quality Hotel and the Carnegie Arts Center. Thompson Enamel, Glass on Metal, and the Enamelist Society and its conferences now serve an international population of artists. One of the most famous international enamelists, Valeri Timofeev of Russia, briefly took up residence in the Northern Kentucky region as a result of these conferences. The Enamelist Society eventually separated from Thompson Enameling.

The Baker-Hunt Foundation in Covington has sponsored additional enameling events in Northern Kentucky since at least 1970, when Tricia Kramer Noe of Northern Kentucky began teaching students there in the many techniques and styles of enameling. Her classes at the foundation continue, and her enameling students exhibit their artworks at Baker-Hunt shows and at Enamelist Society biennial conferences. According to Noe, some of the best enamellists in Northern Kentucky are Woodrow and Irmgard Carpenter, Charles Cleves of Cleves and Lonnemann Jewelers (Bellevue), Thompson artists-in-residence Tom

Ellis and Harold Bill Helwig, and Rick Sacksteder.

Bill Helwig is both a prolific artist and an extremely knowledgeable scientist regarding the physics of enameling.

On December 31, 1996, the Maehren family, relatives of Woodrow Carpenter, assumed control of the Thompson Enamel division of CCC, incorporating it as Thompson Enamel Inc. on January 2, 1997. Manufacturing was moved to nearby Bellevue, where the company has a current workforce of 22 employees. Research and development is a major focus. Thompson made a major advancement when it developed unleaded enamels, dropping its original line of enamels containing lead, for the safety of both employees and artists. In addition to art enamels, Thompson also sells many accessory products used by enamellists, such as furnaces, tools, and equipment. Highly valued for their durability and longevity, Thompson’s enamels are used by manufacturers of badges, military insignia, and pins, as well as by producers of automotive emblems for trucks, special edition cars, and motorcycles such as Harley-Davidsons. For at least 10 years, Thompson enamel was used in Purple Heart medals.

In August 1991 Woodrow and Irmgard Carpenter established a small museum on their property along Winters Lane in Campbell Co. It exhibited enamels both historical, dating from as long ago as the third century, and contemporary. In 2004 the Bellevue City Council approved plans for the new W. W. Carpenter Enamel Foundation and Museum, located next to the Thompson plant. On Tuesday, September 19, 2006, the new museum opened to an international crowd of between 300 and 400. Participants were able to view an extensive permanent collection from the original museum, as well as a temporary exhibit of 98 enamels created by artists from seven nations.

Bates, Kenneth F. “The Enamelist Society Juried Exhibition,” Glass on Metal, August 1989, 75–106.

Carpenter, Woodrow W. Interview by Rick Sacksteder, June 23, 2005, Bellevue, Ky.; telephone interview, December 29, 2006.

———. “Metals Suitable for Enameling,” Glass on Metal, December 1986, 81–87, 96.

———. “Publisher’s Column,” Glass on Metal, December 2006, 99–101.

Eisman, Howard. “A Brief History of Enameling.” www.archenamels.com (accessed December 27, 2006).

Friedenberg, Mary. “Made in Kentucky: Coating Hearts, Steel Ceramic Products Cover Medals, Pipes, Jewelry,” KP, May 26, 1992, 10K. Helwig, Harold Bill. Interview by Rick Sacksteder, June 23, 2005, Bellevue, Ky. Noe, Tricia Kramer. Telephone interview by Rick Sacksteder, December 21, 2006.

Ott, Mary Ernestine, C.D.P. Telephone interview by Rick Sacksteder, December 31, 2006.

Stein, Jerry. “Carnegie Show Is a Rare Look at Enamel Art,” CP, August 10, 1991, 1C. Thompson Enamel. www.thompsonenamel.com (accessed December 27, 2006).

Wartman, Scott. “Museum Focuses on Art’s Tiny Details,” CE, September 15, 2006, 1B.

Richard M. Sacksteder

ENGLISH (ENGLISH STATION). English is six miles southwest of Carrollton in Carroll Co. The town was named for Capt. James Wharton English, who owned most of the land there. Captain English married Betsey DeMint, daughter of an early settler, and they lived in a log cabin along Mill Creek. The town of English grew somewhat after the completion of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington Railroad in 1867, connecting LaGrange with Newport. A tiny hamlet surrounding an early gristmill predated the railroad, and one of the earliest businesses there was the Green Brothers Country Store. The growth of English Station was due to the rail tracks that came through the center of the village. The station and siding served as a shipping point for the Mill Creek valley and large sections of the Kentucky River and the Little Kentucky River in Carroll, Trimble, and Henry counties.

Carroll Co.’s common schools were not organized comprehensively until 1867. At that time, English Station School was designated as District 15. Other early schools near English Station included Tomtown, District 17, on the West Fork of Mill Creek; and Malin’s Branch, District 23, on the road to Cove Hill Union Church. These were oneroom log buildings, generally about 20 by 30 feet in size. The rural schools were in session only during the three winter months. In 1903 land for a new graded schoolhouse in English was negotiated with M. A. Green. A large brick school building was built on that site and was used until 1943, when the local Board of Education consolidated all county pupils and transported them to the U.S. 42 school in Carrollton. The two-year high school at English (see English High School) served the community from 1915 until consolidation into Carrollton High School in 1938. In that year there were 225 pupils in the English School, 42 of whom were high school students being sent to the Carrollton High School. By 1959 the school at English was down to 183 students, and plans were being made to consolidate all county elementary schools into the new facility east of Carrollton that became the U.S. 42 Elementary School and later the Cartmell Elementary School.

The Baptist Church at English dates back to December 16, 1882, when delegates from several Baptist Churches in Carroll Co. gathered to constitute a new congregation. The congregation of English Baptist Church grew, and on September 29, 1907, a new house of worship was dedicated. The frame building seated 350 and was heated by a state-of-the-art furnace.

The Christian Church at English was founded in 1890 as the successor to a much older log church built on land donated in 1856 by T. C. Chilton along East Mill Creek. The log church gave way to a newer frame church that was known as the Old Mill Creek Christian Church. The decision to move the congregation to English was determined by whether more young people would attend at English than at the Old Mill Creek location, since the only method of transportation was horseback or walking. The Old Mill Creek Christian Church’s building was torn down and moved

ENTERPRISE ZONES 305

to Worthville and used in the newly orga nized Christian Church there. The homemade benches from the Old Mill Creek Christian Church were also given to the Worthville Christian Church. The Old Mill Creek Christian Church’s congregation split; some members went to Turners and some to English. Lafayette Hartman and several other members built the English Christian Church. The last ser vice in the old church, a homecoming, was held on July 5, 1959; a large crowd turned out for the gathering. The next morning, workmen began tearing down the building. When the new brick church building was completed, the first ser vice was held on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1960, with Rev. Thomas Mefford serving as pastor. Two of the chairs from the original 1890 church building remain in use.

A disastrous fire wiped out most of the section of English near the railroad tracks, and the buildings were never replaced. The population has declined slowly, and in 1984 English had only 300 people.

Bogardus, Carl R., Sr. The Story of Gallatin County.

Ed. James C. Claypool. Cincinnati: John S. Swift, 2003.

Campbell, Justine Tandy. “History of the Carroll County Schools,” 1976, Carroll Co. Public Library, Carrollton, Ky. Gentry, Mary Ann. A History of Carroll County.

Madison, Ind.: Coleman, 1984.

Diane Perrine Coon

ENGLISH BAPTIST CHURCH. The English Baptist Church, in Carroll Co. along Ky. Rt. 389, was constituted December 16, 1882, with 40 members.

At this time they adopted a church covenant and articles of faith, and the church’s rules of decorum were read and adopted. The naming of the church was postponed. It is unknown where the first house of worship was located, since the records of the English Baptist Church up to 1904 were destroyed.

In 1900 the English Baptist Church and seven other churches withdrew from the Concord Baptist Association to form the White’s Run Baptist Association. These eight churches were joined by three churches from the Sulphur Fork Association for the organizational meeting at the Carrollton church. The English Baptist Church grew, and on September 29, 1907, a new house of worship was dedicated. The building was constructed of the best wooden material and had a seating capacity of 350. Churches in the White’s Run Baptist Association donated $166 to help with the expense of the new building. Until at least 1915, the English Baptist Church held ser vices only on the first Sunday of the month. By 1920 the church was gathering for worship twice a month, and on May 8, 1937, they decided to have ser vices each week. In 1938 the church added classrooms for Sunday school. A mobile home was purchased in 1970 to serve as the parsonage. In 1979 the church built a fellowship hall. The construction of a new parsonage was started in 1988 by Kentucky Baptist Builders from the First Baptist Church of Richmond. Church members and people from other churches in the association assisted. Rev. Thomas Campbell moved

into the new parsonage January 1989. A special relationship has existed between the English Baptist Church and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. By 2005 membership of the church was 293, and 193 of the members lived close enough to attend regularly.

English Baptist Church Minutes, English Baptist Church, English, Ky.

Ken Massey

ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL. Through a series of consolidations in Carroll Co. at the beginning of the 20th century, the one-room rural schools of the Mill Creek valley were closed, and students were transported into English. In 1903, when Margaret Schirmer was principal at the county’s grade school at English, land for a new schoolhouse was acquired from M. A. Green. A large frame schoolhouse was built on that site.

In 1915 the local school district began planning a two-year high school. One room of the large two-story schoolhouse at English was assigned to the high school, and one full-time teacher was hired. In 1927 the English High School became part of the county school system in Carroll Co. John S. Forsee was the lone high school teacher, and 13 students attended the high school eightmonth term that year. The next year J. L. Wilkington, a graduate of Kenyon College of Ohio with 25 years of teaching experience, was the teacher at the high school; while there, he tendered a report detailing the rundown condition of its frame building. It was also noted that the library contained only 10 books when he arrived. During his tenure at the high school at English, Wilkington added 150 books to the library, boosted the enrollment to 17 students, and expanded the school year to 155 days of instruction.

The townspeople raised $18,000 and erected a new brick school building for the grade and high school in 1929, and Woodford Davis, a graduate of Georgetown College in Kentucky, became the first teacher at the new high school. Davis soon had 19 students enrolled in the two-year high school.

While Davis was the teacher, $100 worth of musical instruments were added to support the high school’s music curriculum. In 1930 W. G. Lusby became principal at the high school, and Miss Lou Tandy taught the students. The following year, Roy McGee became principal, and he and Tandy built the high school enrollment to its peak of 25 students in 1933 .

The community of English struggled with insufficient school funding and small numbers of students during the Great Depression. By 1938 English had closed its high school, and the school’s upper-level pupils were transferred to the city high school at Carrollton.

Bevarly, R. W. “History of Education in Carroll County,” master’s thesis, Univ. of Kentucky, 1936.

Campbell, Justine Tandy. “History of the Carroll County Schools,” 1976, Carroll Co. Public Library, Carrollton, Ky. Carrollton News-Democrat, September 8, 1938.

Diane Perrine Coon

ENTERPRISE ZONES. The Kentucky Enterprise Zone Authority (KEZA), under which Campbell Co. and the City of Covington were named enterprise zones, was established in 1982 by the Kentucky legislature under Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 154.45-90. Modeled on a program begun in England, the enterprise zone concept was designed to renew economic vitality in economical ly depressed areas by concentrating governmental efforts through the use of incentives, for a dedicated period of time, that would attract private investment.

Ideally, zone designation would stimulate investment, thus creating jobs for “targeted” Kentucky residents who lived in the zone, who were unemployed for 90 days before being hired by an employer in the zone, or who had received public assistance for 90 days before being hired. Those businesses that were considered eligible to receive the benefits of the enterprise zone had to have at least 50 percent of their employees working in the zone.

Through KEZA 10 enterprise zones were created, each with a 20-year life span. The areas of the state receiving this designation (and dates) were Louisville (1983), Hickman (1983), Ashland (1984), Covington (1984), Owensboro (1985), Lexington (1985), Knox Co. (1986), Campbell Co. (1986), Paducah (1986), and Hopkinsville (1987).

Incentives for businesses associated with KEZA included exemption from state sales or use taxes for building materials utilized in remodeling, rehabilitation, or new construction of facilities located in the zone and for the purchasing or leasing of equipment; exemption from motor vehicle usage taxes for commercial vehicles purchased for the business; and exemption from taxes on the first $20,000 of the retail price of a noncommercial vehicle. Changes in the program instigated in the 1990s included granting businesses up to a $1,500 credit against local payroll taxes levied on “targeted” employees. Local governments were expected to add their own tax incentives to the program, thus creating an attractive tax incentive package to induce private investment.

The Kentucky Enterprise Zone Authority, under the state’s Economic Development Cabinet, administered the program. Businesses wanting to take advantage of a zone’s incentives were required to apply through a local zone administrator designated in each of the enterprise zones by local government. To be eligible to receive the program incentives, businesses had to meet specific thresholds associated with whether the business was considered “new” to the zone or “pre-existing,” with different hiring and capital investment requirements associated with each. The Authority reviewed applications in league with an appointed board that then determined approval. Annual monitoring was meant to ensure that designated businesses stayed in compliance with zone requirements.

Northern Kentucky was approved to have two enterprise zones: Covington and Campbell Co. In Covington, approximately 90 businesses were participating in the enterprise zone program in its 20th year. Local incentives added to the KEZA

306 ENTERPRISE ZONES program included an exemption for up to three years from the city’s business license fee, a 40 percent rebate for up to five years on new payroll taxes collected by the city, a reduction of the Kenton Co. property tax up to .01 percent of every $1,000 of finished good inventory, and a five-year freeze on city property taxes collected on buildings rehabilitated by the business that were at least 25 years old.

Covington Enterprise Zone officials took the lead in pushing for the payroll tax credit to be added to the program. As originally designed, incentives were oriented toward attracting businesses that greatly benefited from property tax or sales tax incentives but may have employed only a few workers, such as warehouse operations. For urban areas, with a dependency upon increasing their payroll tax revenues, and with a limited availability of industrial acreage, the goal was to attract businesses that maximized the number of employees introduced to the community.

Payroll tax rebates provided the necessary stimulus to create opportunities for investments by companies that hired large numbers of employees. One such company was Fidelity Investments (a financial ser vices company), which initially created more than 500 jobs with over $18 million in capital investment. Subsequent expansions of the company in Covington brought employment up over 2,500. Other companies that took advantage of the zone included Packaging Unlimited (a contract packaging and corrugated sheet plant), which was located on a vacant inner-city industrial property at the site of the former Ortner railroad freight car manufacturing facility. Several companies built new plants in the Pioneer Industrial Park, including White Castle (a food processor) and Atkins & Pearce (a manufacturer of braided hoses).

Covington’s zone also attracted new housing, such as Towne Properties’ Roebling Row development, located in the city’s riverfront area, which greatly benefited from the construction-material savings.

The Campbell Co. zone was unusual in that it originally covered a number of governmental units, including the cities of Bellevue, Dayton, Highland Heights, Newport, and Southgate, as well as county acreage. The Campbell Co. zone is credited for helping 190 businesses since its inception, 70 of which were still operating in 2006. Newport’s riverfront development was stimulated when Newport-onthe-Levee developers took advantage of the program to create a major regional retail and tourist attraction that included the Newport Aquarium (which also took advantage of zone benefits). Development in the Levee project helped to bring other businesses to Newport, such as the world-famous Hofbrauhaus Restaurant.

Manufacturing in Campbell Co. also benefited from the program. Newport Steel, the last recipient of an Urban Development Action Grant given by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development when it became employee-owned in the 1980s, won zone investment incentives. In the late 1990s, Campbell Co. received authorization to expand its zone south along the Ohio River to the city of Silver Grove as an inducement for the location of LaFarge, the largest wallboard manufac-

turer in the United States at the time of its development. Although no summary data exist for the 20 years of its program life, 2005 figures for the Campbell Co. zone show $4 million in new investment and the creation of 25 new jobs.

How well KEZA performed is an important question. Despite lobbying by state legislators and local government officials representing areas covered by KEZA, the program was not extended beyond its 20-year lifetime. Legislation submitted in 2003 and 2004 that would have extended the program failed to gain sufficient legislative support.

Criticism of the program appears to have been primarily based upon its limitations; other parts of the state also were suffering from relatively high unemployment and low private investment and were not receiving the same level of state incentives. Essentially, KEZA covered only a small area of the state. Interest in expanding state incentives contributed to the impetus to replace KEZA with a program having a wider orientation.

Another criticism of the program was that it needed better oversight. For example, there are no summary figures for the years before 1997 to indicate how the enterprise zone program assisted in creating private investment or new jobs.

Further, local enterprise zone coordinators were responsible for sending all paperwork to the state in order for companies to receive incentives, meaning that local pressure to assist development could result in exaggerations in the reporting of “targeted employee” hiring and other investment information, including what constituted a “business” vehicle.

In 2005 the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act (KEIA) was adopted by the Kentucky legislature as a replacement for KEZA. This program offers many of the same tax incentives; however, its emphasis is on manufacturing, ser vice, or technology firms and tourism attraction projects. Under KEZA, a more diverse set of private investments was supported, including housing and small retail establishments. KEIA also differs from KEZA in that companies make application directly to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority and receive reimbursements for expenditures from the Revenue Cabinet, not from local points-ofpurchase. The new legislation gave preference (until January 2008) to companies locating in existing enterprise zones (referred to as “preference zones” under KEIA) that were willing to invest at least $100,000, while investment outside of those zones was at least $500,000. Once the last of the enterprise zones expire, KEIA legislation “preference zones” will no longer apply. KEIA was adopted under KRS 154.20-200 through 154.20-216.

While some analysis indicates that enterprise zones make a meaningful contribution to private investment, employment, and business growth, other research indicates that the zones do little to create “new” investment. In a U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) study of eight enterprise zones located throughout the United States, Susan A. Jones, Allen Marshall, and Glenn Weisbrod found that the zones provided a great diversity in economic focus, strategies, and incentives.

Although total business activity increased in the zones, the authors found that half of them declined in overall employment, a result that may be attributable to a change in business concentration away from manufacturing.

Several other studies indicated that, owing to the variability found in measuring investment, job creation, and retention, it is difficult to measure how successful enterprise zones have been; as an analysis of California’s legislation to extend the lifespan of its enterprise zones illustrated, much of the investment in the zones likely would have occurred in the state anyway. Perhaps the most widely referenced study is that of Alan Peters and Peter Fisher, who found that most enterprise incentives are too small to greatly affect the investment and location decisions of most firms, that jobs in zones are often taken by nondisadvantaged individuals living far from the zone, and that employee tax rebates are usually not sufficient to significantly offset the cost of wages. Peters and Fisher concluded that most investments in the zones would have occurred in the state anyway, and while the zone may make a modest contribution to the local community, the incentive program becomes costly at the state level.

In another HUD study, 10 sites were examined, with findings indicating that the marketing associated with an enterprise zone may have been more important than the incentives offered in attracting new business. Northern Kentucky officials spoke of the zone as a “marketing angle” playing off of a national trend. KEZA was one in an array of incentives that local governments took advantage of to attract private investment. As one local official related, a community that had zone incentives had a better chance to attract investment.

Despite criticism of the enterprise zone program, local Kentucky communities saw the program as beneficial to attracting new investment and stimulating existing firms to expand. KEIA appears to acknowledge the desire to have such incentive programs and to address some of the issues raised by those in the state without access to the program and those concerned about greater programmatic oversight. In general KEIA appears to take into consideration the findings of Peters and Fisher and others as to the statewide costs associated with earmarking incentives only to limited areas of the state.

Adams, Brett. “Bill Would Replace State’s Enterprise Zone Program,” Business First of Louisville, January 21, 2005.

Bruning, Phyllis. Telephone interview by J. T. Spence, June 12, 2006.

Donovan, Kevin. Telephone interview by J. T. Spence, June 20, 2006.

Geisler, Bonnie. Telephone interview by J. T. Spence, June 19, 2006.

Jones, Susan A., Allen Marshall, and Glenn Weisbrod.

“Business Impacts of Enterprise Zones, ACCN4579,” 1985, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C. Kinney, Courtney. “Covington Faces Zone’s Demise,” KP, November 11, 2004, 1K. “Officials Make Pitch for Enterprise Zones,” KP, October 30, 2002, 1K.

ERLANGER 307 Peters, Alan, and Peter Fisher. State Enterprise Zone Programs: Have They Worked? Kalamazoo, Mich.: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2002.

“State Designated Enterprise Zones: Ten Case Studies, ACCN-4570,” 1985, Office of the Assistant for Community Planning and Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C.

J. T. Spence

EP. A little settlement west of Hesler and near today’s community of Greenup in Owen Co. was known as Ep. This community no longer exists except on old maps, but residents of Greenup still center their activities on the Baptist church located where Ep was. Ep has the distinction of being named after a woman, Penelope Wingate Sullivan, who was born February 9, 1832. She was the 12th of 14 children of Cyrus Wingate and his wife Emily Milly Spicer. Penelope married John Sullivan, and they were the parents of two daughters as well as rearing seven orphans. Because Penelope was a hard-to-pronounce name, everyone called her Ep for short. Along with her household work, Ep became well known for her knowledge of farming, especially the crop of tobacco. People stated that she had outstanding pioneer qualities for everyday living. When residents decided to name the community, the name that was suggested more than any other was Ep. A prominent resident of the community was Lewis Henry Salin. Today, a large number of descendants of Ep residents live where the community used to be.

Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

Doris Riley

EPISCOPALIANS. In this country, Episcopalians are members of the Episcopal Church of the United States, which has approximately 2 million members and is represented in Northern Kentucky by five congregations. The church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, with more than 80 million members, making it the second-largest Christian denomination in the world. Episcopalians are also sometimes called Anglicans to denote the spiritual traditions and bonds shared with overseas Anglican churches. The American Episcopal Church grew out of the Church of England, which became part of the Protestant movement in the 16th century when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church over his desire to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon. In the ensuing centuries, the Church of England spread throughout the British Empire, including the original 13 American colonies.

The Book of Common Prayer is the prayer book used in all Episcopal and Anglican churches.

Thus, worship ser vices in an Episcopal church in California will be identical in important aspects to worship ser vices in an Episcopal church in Kentucky, as well as in overseas Anglican churches.

Long regarded as one of the major works of English literature, the Book of Common Prayer traces its

origins to the 16th century when the Protestant Church of England became the official church of England. The prayer book has been revised several times since, but the current version, adopted in 1979, retains some of the majestic cadences, phrases, and prayers of the original prayer book.

Episcopalians believe in the doctrine of apostolic succession, which holds that all members of the clergy—priests, deacons, and bishops—receive their spiritual orders and authority by the “laying on of hands,” which continues an unbroken line of succession that reaches back to the Apostles.

Organizationally, the Episcopal Church is divided into dioceses, which generally are drawn within the geographic boundaries of a state. In Kentucky there are two Episcopal dioceses: the Diocese of Lexington, headquartered in Lexington and consisting of the counties in the eastern part of the state, and the Diocese of Kentucky, headquartered in Louisville, made up of the counties in the remainder of the state. Dioceses of the Episcopal Church are headed by bishops, selected by the church members within the dioceses and ordained by the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

There are presently 110 Episcopal dioceses in the United States.

Episcopalians meet every three years in the General Convention, where matters of governance, doctrine, and statements of the faith are debated and enacted. The convention is divided into the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, composed of laity and clergy, which consider and report on matters to the convention as a whole.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Thomas, Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newport, Grace Episcopal Church in Florence, and the Church of the Nativity in Maysville represent the Episcopal Church in Northern Kentucky. The St. John the Evangelist Anglican Catholic Church in Dayton, Ky., which began as a mission of St. Paul’s in Newport, was a member of this group until severing its ties with the Episcopal Church in 1978. An additional church, the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the Latonia neighborhood of Covington, closed in 2005 after 95 years of ser vice.

Swinford, Francis Keller, and Rebecca Smith Lee. Great Elm Tree: Heritage of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington. Lexington, Ky.: Faith House Press, 1969.

John West

ERLANGER. The city of Erlanger in Kenton Co. was created in 1785 on 2,200 acres of land granted by the Commonwealth of Virginia to John D. Watkins and Robert Johnson. The Watkins-Johnson property was located on the Dry Ridge, a natural high point that runs from near the Ohio River into Central Kentucky. Huge herds of buffalo seeking salt licks in the area instinctively traveled the highest points to avoid climbing hills, and their use of the Dry Ridge Trace created an ancient highway that was used by the earliest travelers through the area. The Johnson-Watkins tract of land was divided by a buffalo trail that in 1793 served as the

basis of the Georgetown Rd., which ran from the Ohio River to Georgetown and became the primary route to Central Kentucky.

Settlement began shortly after 1800, when Bartlett Graves and John Stansifer moved their families to the area and established plantations. William Thornton Timberlake, a major in the War of 1812, purchased Stansifer’s property and in about 1826 built a home, which still stands in Erlanger (see Timberlake House). The George M. Bedinger and Thomas Buckner families joined these settlers during the 1820s. William and George Longmoor purchased property in the area in the 1830s, and David Riggs obtained property on the western side of later Erlanger.

These settlers saw increased traffic along the Georgetown Rd. as the Cincinnati meatpacking industry developed and as the stagecoach route was established in 1818, offering a 34-hour trip between Cincinnati and Lexington. In 1834 the Commonwealth of Kentucky legislated improvements to the road by chartering the Covington and Lexington Turnpike and providing for the construction of the turnpike; stone, gravel, wood, and other materials were used to build it. By 1839 the first 10 miles of the turnpike from Covington were fi nished, including the section through what became Erlanger. At a cost of $7,800 per mile, it was the most expensive highway built in Kentucky up to that time. Tollbooths, located every five miles, charged a toll of 10 cents for a horse and cart. When the road was fi nally fi nished in the 1850s, the travel time to Lexington was cut to 12 hours.

Settlers in the area were actively involved in development of the turnpike as well as other political affairs. Timberlake and Graves were leaders in the efforts to create Kenton Co. during the late 1830s.

The farmers in the area were primarily slaveholders, and they were increasingly plagued by the loss of slaves who escaped across the nearby Ohio River. Buckner and Timberlake formed an organization to help prevent the escape of slaves, and Timberlake even led an expedition to Michigan, attempting, unsuccessfully, to recover escaped slaves from the area (see Adam Crosswhite).

During the early 1850s, Caleb Stone Manley purchased property in the growing community.

Manley used bricks made by slaves on his property to build a mansion that fronted on the turnpike (see Caleb Manley House). He introduced many plants from the Deep South to adorn the property, which has served as a showplace for more than 150 years and now provides the fi nal resting place for community residents as Forest Lawn Cemetery.

An agrarian economy continued to develop in the area, which by the 1850s was known as Timberlake in recognition of Timberlake’s leadership.

Many of the farms were large, were organized in plantation fashion, had large homes typical of those in the South, and were worked by slaves. Most of the settlers came from southern states. There was considerable sympathy with the South during the Civil War, and sons of the area fought primarily with the Confederate Army. In September 1862, when the Confederate Army made its only foray

308 ERLANGER

Dixie Highway, Erlanger, showing the Erlanger Hardware store (right) and the Dempsey Motor Car Company, ca. 1920.

into Northern Kentucky, its soldiers marched up the turnpike through Timberlake before retreating after a few days.

The end of the Civil War initiated an economic revitalization for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. As the urban areas grew, traffic on the turnpike increased in Timberlake. The need for a railroad from Cincinnati into the South became apparent, since the developing industries needed better access to agricultural products. The State of Ohio approved the building of a railroad by the City of Cincinnati with Chattanooga, Tenn., as the terminus, but interests from Louisville blocked the plan until 1872, when the railroad was approved by a one-vote margin in the Kentucky Senate. In 1874 the City of Ludlow outbid Covington and Newport for the railroad bridge from Cincinnati. With the bridge located in Ludlow, the most direct route to the South went through Timberlake. To encourage selection of this route, property owners contributed funds and gave property for the railroad right-of-way. Building the railroad on this route required a six-mile climb up the hills surrounding Northern Kentucky. Steam engines that powered the trains required large amounts of water to climb the grade, and by the time the trains reached the top at Timberlake, additional water was needed. The location for a refi lling station to meet this need was selected at the intersection of the railroad with the turnpike, where a depot could also be constructed for the loading of passengers and freight. This depot became the heart of the future city of Erlanger.

Laying of railroad track was begun in 1876, and the depot was built in 1877, along with a large reservoir, a wooden water tower, and stock pens, at a total cost of $3,879. The name Greenwood was chosen for the depot, in honor of Miles Greenwood, president of the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. The lake soon became known as Silver Lake. The first train rolled

down the tracks on April 20, 1877, and reached Lexington in two hours and 45 minutes. Passenger ser vice was inaugurated on July 23, 1877.

With the opening of the railroad, the residents of Timberlake were much closer to the city. A trip to Covington or Cincinnati that could take hours on the turnpike was now possible in minutes on the train. Within a few years, new businesses including a saloon, an icehouse, a store, a hotel, a blacksmith, and a lumber company opened near the depot. Additional residents arrived also, and the need for a post office was felt by the early 1880s.

The U.S. government rejected the name Greenwood because the name was so common. Proposed as an alternative was the name Erlanger, in honor of Baron Fréderick Émile d’Erlanger, whose banking firm owned the majority of the company holding the lease for the railroad. Erlanger was approved, and the post office was established on May 20, 1882, in George Bedinger’s store, with Bedinger as the postmaster.

Developers soon recognized the value of the property around the depot. In 1887 a syndicate led

by Cincinnati businessmen James P. Garvey and Charles P. Judkins persuaded others to join them in creating the Erlanger Land Syndicate, which laid out the streets of Erlanger basically as they exist today, constructing Commonwealth Ave. and improving Erlanger Rd. and removing its toll. The first sale of lots was conducted on June 18, 1887.

Special excursions brought train carloads of prospective buyers to town; attractive financing options were offered, such as one-third down and $1 per week at 6 percent interest, along with free rail transportation for one year. The first home was completed in September 1887. The syndicate also provided lots for a Catholic church where St. Henry Catholic Church now stands and a Protestant church where the Erlanger United Methodist Church now stands. The Protestant church, known as the Erlanger Union Church, was built in

1888 and became the Erlanger Methodist Church, South, in 1889. The Erlanger Baptist Church was built in 1890, also on a lot donated by the Erlanger Land Syndicate.

As this development was taking place, Dr. Charles R. Slater collected $100 from residents to pay the fee to tap into the telephone line to Florence, Ky. The first telephone was installed in Slater’s office in 1890. The first financial institution in Erlanger, the Erlanger Perpetual Building and Loan Association, was organized in 1890, and the first full-service bank, the Erlanger Deposit Bank, was established in 1892. Also in 1892, on the northwest corner of Commonwealth Ave. and the Lexington Turnpike, Robert J. Scott built a three-story building that became the center of activity in Erlanger and was known as the Town Hall.

Additional development occurred rapidly during the 1890s. In May 1896 the area that had been known as South Erlanger incorporated as the City of Elsmere. Less than a year later, on January 25, 1897, the City of Erlanger was incorporated. For the first 57 years, a board of trustees governed Erlanger. The city had its own court, presided over by a police judge; law enforcement was handled by the town marshal. The first town officers of Erlanger were Louis Morrelli, police judge; A. I. Wyss, town marshal; and George C. Bloss, Isadore Hagan, Matthew Huerkamp, Henry Mussman, and Larry Nusbaum, trustees.

The first federal census that included Erlanger as a city, conducted in 1900, reported that Erlanger had 453 residents along with three grocery stores, two livery stables, and a variety of other businesses.

Because the dirt roads became quagmires after rains, the city began macadamizing, grading, curbing, and guttering the roads and also constructed concrete sidewalks. The first firefighting equipment was obtained in 1904, and the volunteer fire department was established with Andy Scheben Sr. as chief.

Always an issue, transportation again became a concern during the early 1900s. Just as the first automobile rolled down the turnpike, the railroad eliminated commuter ser vice in 1907, greatly limiting options for Erlanger’s residents. City leaders unsuccessfully lobbied the Green Line to extend ser vice to Erlanger. As the city’s population increased by 54 percent to 700 by 1910, only Kenton Co. and neighboring Boone Co. continued charging tolls on the turnpike. In 1913 Kenton Co. condemned and purchased the turnpike so that tolls could be discontinued. Beginning in 1915, the old turnpike was covered by concrete; the process was completed to the Boone Co. line in 1921. The Dixie Highway was the result.

Entertainment in Erlanger during this period was provided in several venues. The Erlanger Fairgrounds, located on 32 acres where the Lloyd Memorial High School now stands, offered horse and harness racing, fairs, circuses, and carnivals, as well as other attractions. A large theater opened, which used the icehouse located next door for air conditioning. Col. Thomas Cody operated a restaurant and various recreational activities at the mansion built by Caleb Manley and the surrounding

ERLANGER ELSMERE SCHOOLS 309

farm that is now Forest Lawn Cemetery. The Erlanger Woman’s Club opened the Erlanger Elsmere Library in 1914, in the Citizen’s Bank Building on Dixie Highway. The first radio came to Erlanger in 1917 and could be heard at Dahlenberg’s Drug Store, where residents could always find current baseball scores written on the sidewalk in front of the store.

With the completion of Dixie Highway and the installation of a public water system, development of the old farms around the city resulted in a building boom in Erlanger during the 1920s. More than 400 homes were constructed in Erlanger and Elsmere in 1927 alone, and the population of both cities doubled. There was so much growth that the city had difficulty constructing and maintaining the streets needed for development. To meet the educational needs of the city, the Erlanger and Elsmere school systems were consolidated (see Erlanger-Elsmere Schools), and a new high school was completed in 1929. Erlanger annexed additional territory in 1927 and 1929, extending the city’s boundaries to the north and the west. According to the 1930 census, the population was 1,853, an increase of 260 percent in the previous 10 years.

Although the Great Depression resulted in the failure of the city’s bank, improvements in the city continued, with the construction of a sewage system and the construction of the railroad underpass on Dixie Highway in 1936. The city’s growth during the 1930s continued, as the 1940 census reported a population increase of 30 percent. City leaders adopted one of the first planning and zoning ordinances in Northern Kentucky in 1943, heralding a period of expansion. From 1946 until 1962, the city adopted 10 annexations.

One of the major factors in this development was the creation of the Greater Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Although the site was in Boone Co., Erlanger was the nearest town and provided much of the support for the construction and for transportation to the airport. To manage the ever-increasing population and need for city ser vices, the government of Erlanger was changed in 1949 from the board-oftrustees system to a mayor-council system. Frank Dehner was elected Erlanger’s first mayor. John Domaschko was employed to organize the city’s finances in 1950; O. K. Price was elected as Erlanger’s second mayor in 1953; and Mayo Taylor was chosen as the city’s first coordinator in 1954.

Clyde Rouse succeeded Taylor in 1958, as Erlanger moved up to third-class-city status and the city council increased to 12 members.

The 1950s were a golden era for dining and nightspots in Erlanger. All along Dixie Highway were establishments that attracted local residents along with famous out-of-towners who enjoyed the Gourmet Strip.

The city’s population in 1960 was 7,072, which represented a 91 percent increase over 1950. This was also the year when the city’s first McDonald’s opened. In 1961 Erlanger joined the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission and elected a new mayor, Ray E. Price Jr. A new city building was constructed in 1962, consolidating city offices

in one building. Another major improvement in transportation occurred in 1962, when I-75 was completed through Erlanger. The opening of I-275 in 1977 made the intersection of I-75 and I-275 in the city the center of transportation in the area once again.

Because of the rapid growth, the city government, recognizing the need for additional land for development, annexed land to the east of the city along Turkeyfoot Rd. This expansion was followed by another major annexation on Turkeyfoot and Narrows Rds. in 1972. The 1970 census counted 12,903 residents in Erlanger, an increase of 82 percent over the previous 10 years. The city acted to preserve its history by purchasing the old railroad property including the depot and Silver Lake. Silver Lake was drained and the area converted to Silver Lake Park. The old depot was moved away from the railroad tracks to be used as a museum of the city’s history. It also serves as the centerpiece of Railroad Park. During the 1970s, mayors Austin Mann, James E. Ellis, and Orville Sorrell served Erlanger. The first woman council member, Carol Lainhart, was also elected.

Growth in the last quarter of the 20th century was seen in the 12 percent population increase reported in the 1980 census and the additional 10 percent increase in the 1990 census. Fred Thomas served as the city’s mayor for 12 years and was succeeded by Mark Otto in 1993. Since the land for future residential expansion was located on the east side of the city, infrastructure including a fire station was built on Narrows Rd. The city successfully recruited major firms to its industrial parks on the west side of the city near the airport.

In 1997 Erlanger celebrated its centennial as a city with a yearlong schedule of events, including an ecumenical religious ser vice and gala. In 2000 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Erlanger had a population of 16,676.

Childress, Henry F. “The History of Erlanger,” KP, February 16, 1924, 5.

Onkst, Wayne, ed. From Buffalo Trails to the TwentyFirst Century: A Centennial History of Erlanger, Kentucky. Erlanger, Ky.: Erlanger Historical Society, 1996.

Records of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati.

Wayne Onkst

ERLANGER BAPTIST CHURCH. The North Bend Association of Baptists established the first Erlanger Baptist Church in fall 1890 as a mission.

On October 17, 1889, the Erlanger Land Syndicate had donated land along Commonwealth Ave. for the church, and the Erlanger Baptist Church met in an already-existing building there, which was set amid modest homes. The building could hold 350 people, and it included a baptistery and a dressing room. At the dedication of the new church, Sunday, November 30, 1890, Rev. W. H. Felix, DD, of Lexington, delivered the sermon. The charter members, according to church records, were Mrs. Robert Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Julius L. Bristow, Col. and Mrs. Hubbard T. Buckner, Miss Sophia Buckner, Miss Sativa B. Childress, and Mr. and Mrs.

Ephraim E. Utz. A report of the executive board stated that the membership had increased to 19 by September 9, 1891. At the time, Erlanger and Elsmere had a combined population of 300.

On January 10, 1892, Oscar M. Huey was called to serve as pastor. In July 1892 the first church bell was purchased. In May 1900 the congregation decided to replace the coal oil lamps with gasoline lamps and to install a hot air furnace. In June 1926 a Sunday school annex was built, and by 1948 the Sunday school enrollment was 424. A new church building was dedicated on March 1, 1953. The church purchased a home in 1956 at 125 Erlanger Rd. for use as a parsonage. In May 1962 the congregation dedicated a new three-story educational building. In 1964 a kindergarten was opened, and Mrs. Pearl Silcox and Mrs. E. B. Yelton were hired as teachers. The kindergarten continued until 1978.

In 1969 a radio ministry on Erlanger radio station WHKK was initiated. During the 1970s, several pieces of adjacent property were purchased, enlarging the complex to the size of a full city block and providing space for the ever-increasing needs of the growing church.

Dr. William E. Crosby Jr. became pastor in June 1983. “Brother Bill” served the church for 20 years and was also an active member of the Erlanger Rotary Club. In 1985 the church’s choir, under the direction of Dr. Philip Quinn, gave the first performance of the “Living Christmas Tree,” now an annual community holiday event. In January 1989 a multipurpose building with new offices, educational and fellowship halls, and recreational space was built. The Life Center, completed in 1997, included a day care center, a preschool, basketball and racquetball courts, an indoor track, and an exercise room with showers and lockers.

In June 2003 Crosby gave up his ministry, and Dr. Daniel Francis was elected pastor. The current membership of Erlanger Baptist Church is 1,500.

The church now conducts a deaf ministry, dual Sunday schools, and a Saturday night worship service.

Bradshaw, Ortie E. Erlanger Baptist Church, 1890– 1990: “A Century of Ministry.” Erlanger, Ky.: Erlanger Baptist Church, 1990.

Erlanger Baptist Church records, Erlanger Baptist Church, Erlanger, Ky. Kenton Co. Deed Book 64, p. 488.

Onkst, Wayne, ed. From Buffalo Trials to the TwentyFirst Century: A Centennial History of Erlanger, Kentucky. Erlanger, Ky.: Erlanger Historical Society, 1996.

Patricia A. Hahn

ERLANGER-ELSMERE SCHOOLS. The first school in Erlanger and Elsmere, which began during the late 1860s, was in an old cabin behind Dr. John Stevenson’s house. The teacher was a college graduate and was paid by the citizens from the two towns who sent their children to the school. When the cabin could no longer be used, a drive was held to raise funds for a new school building, which was built in Elsmere opposite the Graves Pond in a locust grove at the corner of Dixie Highway and Erlanger St. (the current location of Dusing Brothers

310 ERLANGER UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Ice). The school was called the Locust Grove Academy. From 1871 to 1884, there were no schools in Erlanger or Elsmere. Students probably attended the nearby Florence or Turkeyfoot Rd. schools. For several years afterward, members of the Erlanger and Elsmere communities started many small private schools.

The Erlanger public school system began in a one-room frame building at what is today 46 Erlanger Rd. A state charter for the school district was obtained in 1888, and the school’s first building was erected in 1889. The district served all the local children, including those from Elsmere and some from the surrounding areas. Only enough money was available to operate the school for five months a year, but parents could pay fees to keep the school open for an extra two to three months. It was then referred to as a pay school.

Around 1891, the first school for African American children in the area was built in North Erlanger along the Covington and Lexington Turnpike, far from where the black population of the two communities lived. Thomas Greene from Virginia led a group of citizens who raised money for this school. When the school burned, the same group renewed their efforts and purchased a lot on Spring St. that was located in the African American section of South Erlanger.

In 1896 South Erlanger was incorporated as Elsmere, and three years later, the city received its own school charter. A brick school was built at Central Row and Buckner Sts. (the present site of Dorothy Howell Elementary School) in 1903. In Erlanger, the Locust St. School was erected in 1907 and high school classes were started at that time.

The first high school graduates received their diplomas in 1912.

During the late 1920s, it was decided to consolidate the Erlanger and Elsmere schools. However, Kentucky law at the time dictated that no new independent school districts could be formed. A group of citizens led by former U.S. congressman A. B. Rouse and J. C. Mills, a member of the state department of education, were able to get a rider attached to a bill that was certain to pass in the Kentucky legislature. The rider provided that a new district could be formed if it represented a community the size of the total population of Erlanger and Elsmere (about 5,000). The Erlanger-Elsmere Independent School System was then formed. The African American school in Elsmere, which had been operating independently, became part of the new school district, but the schools remained segregated.

Foeman A. Rudd, superintendent at the Locust St. School, was named the first superintendent of the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools. Edgar Arnett, the Elsmere school’s superintendent, was named the principal of the high school. The new school board decided that a new high school was needed. About five acres of land near the Erlanger fairgrounds were purchased, and bonds were sold for the construction of the school, which was named Lloyd Memorial High School after John Uri Lloyd, a well-known local resident and author.

The first graduating class celebrated commence-

ment in the auditorium of the new high school in May 1929.

Foeman Rudd left the school district in 1929, and Edgar Arnett was named the second superintendent of the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools. In September 1945, black students held a strike because after the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools had announced plans to build two schools, one for white and one for black children, only the school for white children had been built. The school for black children was finally built on Capital Ave. in Elsmere in 1948 and was named the Wilkins Heights School after the Wilkins family, a prominent black family who owned the land on which the school was built.

In 1955 Rosella French Porterfield, the head teacher at the Wilkins Heights School, approached Superintendent Arnett about integrating the schools. She formulated a plan that would integrate a few grades at a time. The school district began implementing this plan in 1956, and the integration proceeded so smoothly that the school district was included in an article in the September 17, 1956, issue of Life magazine highlighting integration efforts across the country.

In late 1956 a new high school building was completed on the site of the old Erlanger Fairgrounds. The old high school building was converted to an elementary school and renamed Erlanger Elementary School. An addition was added to this elementary school in 1957, nearly doubling the classroom space for the growing population.

In 1965 Edgar Arnett retired after a long, successful career in the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools. His visionary leadership had helped form the new school district. James I. Tichenor, the high school principal, was named as his successor. In the late 1960s, the high school again became too small to accommodate the number of students enrolled.

Seventh- and eighth-grade students were sent to the old Locust St. School until an addition could be added to Lloyd Memorial High School. The new expansion featured classrooms and a modern library, allowing the Locust St. School to be closed permanently. Growth in the district also created the need for a new elementary school, and Arnett Elementary (named after Edgar Arnett) opened in 1967. The school was already too small when it opened, however, and some students who were to attend the new school were sent to the Erlanger Elementary School instead.

In 1971 Superintendent James I. Tichenor retired after a long career in the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools. The school board changed the name of the Erlanger Elementary School to James I. Tichenor Elementary (later Middle) School. They also voted to change the name of Elsmere Elementary School to Dorothy Howell Elementary School to honor Dorothy Howell, who had been a teacher and the principal at that school for more than 30 years.

John W. Miles was named as Tichenor’s successor.

Miles, a Lloyd Memorial High School alumnus, had been principal of Erlanger Elementary School.

He was the youngest school superintendent in Kentucky at the time.

The rapid growth of the school district prompted the building of two new elementary schools, Sun-

set Elementary School and A. J. Lindeman Elementary School, in 1971. A. J. Lindeman was a longtime board member and supporter of education. A new cafeteria and a band room were added to Lloyd Memorial High School in 1971, and metal and wood shops, science laboratories, and a lecture room were added in 1973. Sunset Elementary School was renamed the John W. Miles Elementary School in 1975.

In 1979 the William J. Scheben Gymnasium was erected between the Tichenor Middle School and Lloyd Memorial High School. Scheben played basketball and football at Lloyd Memorial High School and was a great supporter of his alma mater.

John W. Miles resigned as superintendent in October 1982 and was succeeded by assistant superintendent Harold Ensor, who continued in the position until 1994. Because the school district was in a financial deficit, Ensor immediately had to draft a plan for the state detailing how the district would solve its money difficulties. During his tenure, sports facilities were upgraded, a maintenance building was completed, and computer labs were added at all schools in the Erlanger-Elsmere district. The schools continued their academic success and the district was once again operating in the black. James E. Molley was chosen to succeed Ensor as superintendent.

The Fred Dietz Jr. Auditorium, which seats 500 and is located inside the Scheben Gymnasium facility, was dedicated in 1996. It was named for board member Fred Dietz, at the time one of only two school board members in Kentucky with more than 25 years of continuous ser vice. In 1999 a new wing was added to Tichenor Middle School. The old section of the building (the original high school building) was then renamed Ensor Educational Annex. The annex houses a meeting room, a teacher resource center, and offices.

James Molley retired in 2002 and was replaced

by Michael D. Sander, who became the seventh superintendent of the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools. The gymnasium at Tichenor Middle School was renamed the James E. Molley Gymnasium. Today, the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools rank among the top schools in Kentucky. The district has been awarded the What Parents Want distinction. Newsweek magazine named Lloyd Memorial High School one of the nation’s most innovative high schools in May 2006.

Archives of the Erlanger-Elsmere Independent Schools, Erlanger, Ky. “Merger Is Urged: Consolidation of High Schools Is Suggested,” KP, February 11, 1928, 1.

Onkst, Wayne, ed. From Buffalo Trails to the TwentyFirst Century: A Centennial History of Erlanger, Kentucky. Erlanger, Ky.: Erlanger Historical Society, 1996.

Deborah Onkst

ERLANGER UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. The United Methodist Church is Erlanger’s oldest church. The Erlanger Land Syndicate donated lots for a church to be called the Erlanger Union Church and to be shared by all Protestant

ERNST, WILLIAM 311

denominations. It was located on the present site of the Erlanger United Methodist Church on Commonwealth Ave. By common consent the church became Erlanger Methodist Church South in 1889.

Several Erlanger community ser vices got their start in the Methodist Church. The original Erlanger Library was begun in the Erlanger Deposit Bank in 1914, but shortly afterward it moved to the Methodist Church and remained there until 1928.

The Erlanger Elsmere United Ministries was located in a one-room office on the first floor of the Erlanger United Methodist Church in 1981 (see United Ministries of Northern Kentucky).

Methodist minister Merriman of Petersburg, Ky., came to Erlanger to hold ser vices in 1894–1895.

He had a pony and a light two-wheeled cart that he drove to Erlanger on Saturday evening; he spent the night at R. J. Cody’s residence, then preached on Sunday morning. In 1897 the average attendance at the church was 47.

Just before daylight on January 4, 1948, a fire destroyed the Methodist Church building. The building was so damaged that it had to be demolished. However, the original pump organ, the pulpit, the pulpit Bible, and the altar were saved. A picture of Christ at Gethsemane painted by Mrs. Hayes Ketchum was destroyed, but Mrs. Ketchum repainted the picture, and it hangs in the sanctuary today. On December 18, 1955, the new building was dedicated.

On January 21, 1958, a house and lot on the corner of Commonwealth and Home Sts. were purchased, and the house was used for Sunday school. Property at 22 Graves Ave. was purchased on June 3, 1963, for a parsonage. In 1967 the property at 25 Commonwealth was acquired for additional Sunday school space, and additional property on Commonwealth and Home Sts. was purchased during the 1970s. Because this land was to be used for parking, the structures at 21 and 25 Commonwealth Ave. and 3509 and 3511 Home St. were torn down. The church now owned all the property along Home St. between Graves Ave. and Commonwealth Ave. except for one plot, so in 1981 the church bought the remaining parcel of land, 3513 Home St. In 1988 a large centennial celebration was held. Membership of the Erlanger United Methodist Church in 2005 was 397.

“Erlanger United Methodist Names Pastor,” KP, June 20, 1992, 11K. Reis, Jim. “Fire Raged in ’47–’48,” KP, April 28, 1997, 4K. “Woman, 91, Leads Campaign to Rebuild Church,” KTS, April 5, 1955, 2A.

Patricia A. Hahn

ERNST, JAMES C. (b. 1855, Covington, Ky.; d.

September 20, 1917, Ashville, N.C.). Transportation executive James C. Ernst was one of five children of William and Sarah Butler Ernst. An outstanding student and athlete, Ernst graduated from Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., in 1873.

He was named the best baseball player in the Ivy League and turned down a number of offers from professional baseball teams; instead, he returned to Covington. He accepted a position as head cashier with the Northern Bank of Kentucky and

held that position until he was named the local general passenger agent of the Kentucky Central Railroad. He returned to banking thereafter as president of the German National Bank of Covington, a post he held for some 21 years.

Ernst also continued his interest in baseball and played for a number of local semiprofessional teams. In 1876 he formed a semiprofessional team, the Covington Stars, and eventually raised enough capital to purchase a parcel of property at Madison Ave. and Seventh St. in downtown Covington and erect a modest baseball park on the site.

In 1896 a group of local investors, which included his brother Richard P. Ernst, purchased the Cincinnati, Newport, and Covington Railway Company (CN&C, the Green Line) and its wholly owned subsidiary, the Rosedale Electric Company.

The new owners installed James Ernst as president of both companies on January 11, 1897. Over the next five years, Ernst promoted the sale of excess electricity generated by the CN&C’s Newport powerhouse on Lowell St. to local business and residential customers in Newport and Covington.

He also introduced natural gas for use as a heating fuel. So successful was Ernst in promoting these enterprises that, by the turn of the century, a new subsidiary of the CN&C Railway Company was formed, the Union Light, Heat, and Power Company (ULH&P), and Ernst became its president.

During the late 1890s, Ernst also oversaw expansion of the CN&C’s electric streetcar line along Covington’s 12th St. to Park Hills and out Holman Ave. to what was then the independent city of Central Covington.

In 1902 the CN&C and the ULH&P were sold to the Northern American Company, a large midwestern transit and energy company based in Milwaukee, Wis. Ernst was asked by the North American Company to remain as the chief executive of both local companies, a testament to his successful management of these companies under the former owners. In 1907 the North American Company sold both the CN&C Railway Co. and its subsidiary, the Union Light, Heat, and Power Company, to the Columbia Gas and Electric Company, another energy-producing conglomerate. The Columbia Gas and Electric Company’s board of directors also asked Ernst to remain in charge of both of the companies they had purchased. During the period from 1907 to 1914, ULH&P became the dominant supplier of natural gas and electricity in Kenton, Campbell, and Boone counties and became more profitable than the Columbia Gas and Electric Company’s multiple gas and electric holdings in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Also, Ernst presided over the last expansions of the Green Line Company’s electric streetcar line to southern Bellevue in 1904 and to South Fort Mitchell in 1910.

Poor health forced Ernst into retirement in October 1914. Subsequently, he and his wife, the former Jennie Stites Early, moved to Asheville, N.C. There, on September 20, 1917, Ernst died of a chronic heart and respiratory disease. During the funeral ser vices held in Covington, all the Green Line Company motormen stopped their electric

streetcars for one minute in memory of their longtime president. James Ernst was buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

“Ernst Dies in South, Funeral to Be Saturday,” KP, September 21, 1917, 1.

Lehmann, Terry W., and Earl W. Clark. The Green Line. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2000.

Terry W. Lehmann

ERNST, RICHARD P., HOME. See Richard P. Ernst Home.

ERNST, RICHARD PRETLOW (b. February 28, 1858, Covington, Ky.; d. April 13, 1934, Baltimore, Md.). Lawyer and politician Richard Pretlow Ernst was a son of William Ernst and Sarah Butler Ernst. His early education was in Covington public schools, and he attended the Chickering Academy in Cincinnati. Ernst graduated from Centre College at Danville, Ky., in 1878 and received his JD degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1880. He married Susan Brent on September 28, 1886, and they had two children, William Ernst and Sarah Ernst Darnell. The family lived at 405 Garrard St., in Covington (see Richard P. Ernst Home). Richard Ernst practiced corporate law in both Cincinnati and Covington. He entered politics in 1920 and was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1927. When he ran for reelection, he was defeated by future U.S. vice president Alben W. Barkley. After the defeat, Ernst returned to his legal practice in Covington. There he served on the Covington City Council, was president of the Liberty National Bank, and served as a trustee of the University of Kentucky, Centre College, and Western College for Women. He was also an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Covington (see Community of Faith Presbyterian Church). Ernst was a strong supporter of the YMCA and personally donated large sums to the organization while he was living; he also bequeathed a considerable amount to the YMCA. Ernst died at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore at age 76 and was buried in the Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Ky. Bodley, Temple. History of Kentucky: The Blue Grass State. Vol. 4. Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1928.

“Death Closes Long Career of Senator Richard P. Ernst,” KP, April 13, 1934, 1.

Kleber, John E., ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia.

Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.

Lewin, H., ed. The Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky. Chicago: Lewis, 1897.

“R.P. Ernst Is Eulogized in Ser vices,” KP, May 14, 1934, 1.

St. Mary, Franklin J., and James W. Brown, comps.

Covington Centennial: Official Book and Program. Covington, Ky.: Semple and Schram, 1914.

ERNST, WILLIAM (b. December 9, 1813, Bucks Co., Pa.; d. October 9, 1895, Covington, Ky.). Banker and politician William Ernst was born on a farm in Bucks Co., Pa. His parents were John C. and Amelia Steinman Ernst. At age 16 William took a job as a clerk at a store in Pottsville, Pa. In 1833 he

312 ERPENBECK SCANDAL moved to Lexington, Ky., where he was again employed as a clerk. In 1836 he took a position as a teller at the Lexington branch of the Northern Bank of Kentucky. Two years later he was transferred to the Covington branch of the bank. In 1839 he married Lydia A. Bush, who was an officer of the bank in Lexington. The couple had one daughter before Lydia Ernst died in 1841. Two years later, Ernst married a second time, to Sarah A. Butler, and they had nine children.

William Ernst worked as a teller until 1849, when he was made a junior officer of the bank. In 1867 he was promoted to president of the Covington branch of the Northern Bank of Kentucky.

When he retired in 1888, his son John P. Ernst replaced him as the bank’s president. At various times during his career, William also served as president of the Covington City Council, president of the Covington and Lexington Turnpike Company, and treasurer of the Kentucky Central Railroad. He was a founder of the First Presbyterian Church of Covington (see Community of Faith Presbyterian), where he served as an elder for more than 50 years. One of his sons was Richard Pretlow Ernst, who became a distinguished Covington lawyer and a U.S. senator; another son, James C. Ernst, besides being a wellknown local baseball enthusiast, became president locally of both the Green Line Company and the Union Light, Heat, and Power Company. William Ernst died at age 81 at his Garrard St. home in Covington and was buried in the Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

“Death Notice Peacefully,” KP, October 10, 1895, 8.

“Passing of Pioneer,” KP, October 10, 1895, 4.

Rootsweb. “William Ernst.” www.rootsweb.com (accessed December 31, 2005).

“Spirit of Past Invoked by Covingtonian,” KP, August 24, 1914, 2.

ERPENBECK SCANDAL. Nearly 300 home purchasers in Northern Kentucky were victimized in this scheme. In 1924 Anthony Erpenbeck started the Erpenbeck Construction Company, and over the years many Erpenbeck family members worked for this respected home-building business in Northern Kentucky. In 1993 grandson Bill Erpenbeck incorporated his own enterprise, the Erpenbeck Company, as a separate entity to build homes; the original Erpenbeck Construction Company was no longer doing home construction.

In 2000 Bill Erpenbeck’s construction company, based in Edgewood, had sales of $100 million and 75 employees. The company was known to take its employees on all-expense-paid Caribbean cruises and to offer other extraordinary benefits.

When the facts came out, it was learned that the Erpenbeck Company had developed a cozy relationship with the local Peoples Bank of Kentucky.

Checks that were tendered at Erpenbeck home closings made out to other parties involved in the transactions, which often took place at the bank itself, were deposited not into the proper account but into the Erpenbeck Company’s account. Effectively, some $34 million was siphoned off into Erpenbeck coffers. Bill Erpenbeck and employees

and friends at the bank were indicted in federal court in Cincinnati, after a 13-month investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors.

In the end, after guilty pleas had been made, U.S. District Court judge S. Arthur Spiegel sentenced A. William “Bill” Erpenbeck, age 43, to 30 years in a federal facility at Coleman, Fla., for being the leader of the bank fraud scandal. He could be released in 2030; in 2006 an appeal to reduce his sentence time was unsuccessful. Bill’s father, Tony Erpenbeck, age 70, was convicted of attempting to obstruct justice—conspiring with Bill to get Bill’s sister, Lori Erpenbeck, to take the blame for the fraud scandal. It was also revealed that Tony Erpenbeck had attempted to hire a hit man to kill his daughter after she refused to help in the cover-up and had agreed to turn “state’s evidence” for a reduced sentence. Tony Erpenbeck received a sentence of 10 years and 10 months, to be served at the Lexington Federal Medical Center. He is due for release in March 2009 and is appealing the sentence. Lori Erpenbeck, age 41, received a sentence of 1 year and 1 day at a Nashville, Tenn., federal lockup; she was released on June 15, 2005. Michelle Marksberry, age 35, the company’s closing agent, received 2 years at Lexington for participating in the scandal. Her release date was April 28, 2006.

Two bankers were also given federal sentences.

John Finnan, founder of the Peoples Bank of Kentucky, received 5 years and 3 months, for hiding $4 million in overdrafts, withholding information about the Erpenbeck Company’s financial condition, and overstating the prices the bank paid for some 25 homes purchased from Bill Erpenbeck.

These activities were designed to keep the Erpenbeck Company afloat. Finnan’s associate at the Peoples Bank of Kentucky, Marc Menne, received 4 years and 6 months for his part.

Local attorney Brandon Voelker represented some 211 homeowners who had been harmed in the scandal, although almost 300 were affected in one way or another. Bill Erpenbeck lost his luxurious 19-room home in Crestview Hills, Ky. The Peoples Bank of Kentucky no longer exists. Liens on the homes were removed, and Erpenbeck homebuyers were made whole. A result of the Erpenbeck scandal was that in February 2003 Kentucky House Bill 251 was passed: proposed by local representative Jon Draud, it offered protection to home buyers and subcontractors by requiring that developers or builders show evidence that all debts have been paid at closing. The legislation died in the Kentucky Senate after passing in the Kentucky House.

Driehaus, Bob. “Erpenbeck Sentence Appealed: Tony Awaiting Trip to Permanent Jail,” KP, July 15, 2004, 2K. ———. “Erpenbecks to Plead Guilty,” KP, March 25, 2004, 1K. ———. “Tearful Erpenbeck Sentenced Thirty Years,” KP, April 2, 2004, 1K. “House Vote on Draud’s Erpenbeck Bill: 93-2,” KP, February 22, 2003, 7K.

ESTES, MARGARET (b. January 1908, Burnside, Ky.). Newport poet Margaret Estes, the daugh-

ter of George McCormick and Viva Jefferson Estes, was born in southern Kentucky, but by 1920 she was living with her family in Clifton (today South Newport). The family eventually moved to the east side of Newport along Monroe St. In 1926 Estes was residing at home and working as a stenographer. She attended the University of Kentucky, where she became a member of Phi Beta Kappa, graduating in 1938. Afterward she was an elementary teacher in the Newport school system. Her poems are often religious in tone, such as those titled “The Last Supper” and “Call to Worship,” or they have themes drawn from nature, including birds and plants. Estes was raised as a Methodist and was the chairman of the local Methodist Epworth League in 1933. In September 1945, while living in Covington, she married Jennings Bryan Arvin, a farmer from Christian Co., at the Grace United Methodist Church in Newport, and she moved with her husband to Pembroke in that southern Kentucky county. She and her husband had no children of their own, but they reared a foster son, James Moss. Her husband died in June 1982. Margaret lives in an assisted-living retirement facility in Hopkinsville, and across the hall resides her sister Carolyn, also somewhat of a poet.

Campbell Co. Marriage Licenses, book 184, 1945, p.

846.

Christian Co. Genealogical Society. Christian County, Kentucky. Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1986.

“League Union—to Hear Discussion,” KE, January 7, 1933, 1.

Noe, J. T.C., ed. A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry. Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky Extension Department, 1936.

ETHRIDGE. The Gallatin Co. community of Ethridge, located on the Ohio River west of Craig’s Creek and east of Stephen’s Creek, began in the early 19th century as North’s Landing. Then the relatively narrow valley and surrounding lands became known as as Krutz’s Landing, after Edward Krutz of Pennsylvania, who built a general store there. When a post office was established in town in 1886, it was named for Thomas B. Ethridge, the first postmaster. He was a merchant and stonemason who came to the community from Ohio around 1860. The town’s name was then changed to Ethridge. The second postmaster at Ethridge was Augustus Bladen, and there were two other postmasters who served there before the town’s post office closed on May 31, 1911. Most of the score of houses, the few businesses, a one-room school, a church, and a Masonic Home in Ethridge were located on the river side of the road that ran between Warsaw and Ghent along the Ohio River.

Across the road, the land quickly rises to a steep hillside, through which one narrow, winding road runs up to Gridley Hill.

The community was narrowed even more in size when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Markland Dam at the mouth of Stephens Creek to improve Ohio River navigation. When the dam was opened for operation, the Ohio River’s pool stage above the dam went from 420 to 455 feet, flooding all of the bottomland of Ethridge and

EWING, CARROLL MERLIN “HOP” 313

creating Craig’s Creek Lake on the community’s eastern border. The graves in the local cemetery were relocated to the Warsaw Cemetery, and several newcomers to Ethridge built riverside homes to enjoy the recreation provided on the deeper, widened river. The Pink House Restaurant, overlooking the dam at Ethridge, was a local landmark for several years. It closed as the river’s erosion was causing homes and outbuildings to be perched even closer to the river’s edge. US 42 is also subject to the effects of this erosion, since it runs 1.7 miles, the length of Ethridge, from the Craig’s Creek Bridge to the bridge over Markland Dam. The community of Ethridge is now totally residential.

Bogardus, Carl R., Sr. The Story of Gallatin County.

Ed. James C. Claypool. Cincinnati: John S. Swift, 2003.

Gray, Gypsy M. History of Gallatin County, Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Self-published, 1968.

Jacquelene P. Mylor

EVERGREEN CEMETERY. The Evergreen Cemetery, founded as the Newport Cemetery in 1847, was one of many cemeteries in the United States established in the years following 1831. Earlier burials in the United States took place in church or family cemeteries, or people’s remains were interred in a convenient plot with little or no thought of visiting the grave site. In 1831 Mount Auburn Cemetery opened at Cambridge, Mass.; it was the first of the privately owned garden cemeteries founded to provide burial in rural settings and to make profits for their owners. Mount Auburn Cemetery was imitated throughout the United States. The first garden cemetery in Kentucky was the Frankfort Cemetery, which was established in 1844. Before long the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati (1845), the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington (1847), and the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville (1850) were begun, in addition to the Evergreen Cemetery.

When the Evergreen Cemetery was founded, it consisted of 17 acres; today it covers some 300 acres. In 1847 it was on the extreme fringe of both Newport and Bellevue. Located four miles south of Newport’s courthouse, on the Alexandria Pk. (U.S. 27), in what is now Southgate, the cemetery was not served by public transportation for many decades and therefore was initially difficult to reach.

In 1862, Evergreen Cemetery played a role in the Civil War when a military defensive work, known as the Shaler (artillery) Battery, was built there. Named for the family who owned the farm where the original cemetery had been established, this battery was constructed by the federal government as part of the defense line erected to withstand the advance of Confederate forces under generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith against Cincinnati. The battery was part of a line of fortifications that stretched from Ludlow to Fort Thomas. The remnants of the Shaler Battery remain in the cemetery, and the site is now crowned by a bandstand. The cemetery was also used for interment of Union soldiers, in a section of the cem-

etery now surrounded by a stone fence and guarded by four cannons. The cannons were placed there in 1883, through the efforts of the Nelson Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post and of local congressman John G. Carlisle.

In 1894 a streetcar line known as Route 15 was established, with its terminus at Electric Ave. and Retreat St., and visits to Evergreen Cemetery became possible for all. Because there were no public parks for citizens to stroll and socialize in on holidays and Sundays, the cemetery became the place to visit, to take a walk in a rural setting, and to ponder the mortality of humans. Families began to have large memorial stones erected at their family members’ grave sites, to affirm the family’s wealth and prestige within the community. The use of the cemetery as a public park faded away after the streetcar line was discontinued in 1936. Even today, however, Evergreen Cemetery remains one of the few open spaces in northern Campbell Co. in which one can take a leisurely walk in a rural setting.

With the establishment of the Fort Thomas Military Reservation during the 1890s, a new military section was opened at Evergreen Cemetery. One person buried in the military section is Nicholas Pablo, of the 30th Company Philippine Scouts, who died in 1905 while on his way to Washington, D.C., with his unit to take part in the inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt. At the beginning of the 20th century, the cemetery’s acreage was increased, and a series of landmark buildings were constructed: a gatehouse, a chapel, and an annex. Other notable features in the cemetery are a sundial erected by the Dayton (Ky.) Woman’s Relief Corps of the GAR, a monument to the World War II dead of Newport, and the Taylor and the Southgate family monuments.

Among other notables buried at Evergreen Cemetery are two holders of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Newport native William Horsfall, who won the medal at the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War, and Thomas M. Doherty, who was awarded the medal for his heroic combat actions at San Juan Hill during the SpanishAmerican War. Also buried there are James Taylor Jr. and Keturah Moss Leitch Taylor, the founders of Newport; George Baird Hodge, a Civil War general and member of the Kentucky Confederate House of Representatives; and Kentucky congressmen Brent Spence, Richard Southgate, and George Wiedemann, along with Wiedemann’s son Charles, who ran the Wiedemann Brewing Company.

National Park Ser vice. Mount Auburn Cemetery— A New American Landscape—A Study Guide.

Washington, D.C.: National Park Ser vice, 2000.

Charles H. Bogart

EWING, CARROLL MERLIN “HOP” (b.

March 31, 1925, Lacey, Ky.; d. May 23, 2006, Florence, Ky.). The popular longtime mayor of Florence, Ky., Carroll Merlin Ewing, was born in Henry Co., Ky., one of six children of Christopher L. and Goldie Bird Ewing. He was educated in Henry Co.

Carroll “Hop’’ Ewing, 2005.

and graduated from Milton High School. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and then was recalled to military ser vice with the marines during the Korean War. Ewing attended the University of Kentucky (UK), where he earned a degree in education. In 1947 he married Sue Ann Houston, a fellow student at UK. After graduation, the couple settled in Erlanger, where Sue Ann had been raised. They had six children, Alan, Carol, Diane, Elizabeth, Emily, and Rebecca. In 1954 the family moved to a home in Boone Co., at the corner of U.S. 42 and New Uri Rd. Later, they also purchased and operated a 50acre cattle and tobacco farm at Big Bone Lick, in rural Boone Co. Hop Ewing served as a principal and a teacher in schools in Trimble Co. and as a teacher and basketball coach in Boone Co. at Walton-Verona High School and later at Ockermann and R. A. Jones junior high schools.

Ewing was elected mayor of Florence in 1961, a position he held for 20 years. At the beginning of his tenure, Florence was a small rural town, but under his leadership it became Northern Kentucky’s fastest-growing and most vibrant city. In the mid1960s, Ewing and Florence councilman Ted Bushelman cohosted a locally popu lar talk radio show each morning, from the Burns Brothers Truck Stop in Florence. Ewing was a member of the Florence Volunteer Fire Department and also a strong supporter of the Florence Police Department. He was instrumental in bringing many commercial and industrial firms to the area, with the opening of the Northern Kentucky Industrial Park (see Northern Kentucky Industrial Foundation).

Through his efforts the Florence Mall was built near the city’s most recognizable landmark, the water tower. The name Florence Mall was painted on the tower before the construction of the mall.

314 EXPRESSWAYS The Commonwealth of Kentucky notified Florence officials that the name would have to be removed, because it advertised a business. In an effort to find an inexpensive solution to the problem, Ewing conceived the idea of changing the word “Mall” to “Y’all,” a term that he said he often used.

Of the myriad decisions he made during his years as mayor, none brought more fame to himself and his city than the changing of that one letter. The Florence Mall opened in 1976, and the now famous water tower still stands proudly along I-75–I-71.

Mayor Ewing was also instrumental in the relocation of the Booth Memorial Hospital (later St. Luke Hospital, West) from Covington to Florence. He was proud of the street-paving program instituted during his tenure, which provided curbing and gutters on city streets. During Ewing’s long and colorful career, he worked as a salesman and adjuster for the Jefferson National Insurance Company and owned a home repair business that specialized in the installation of continuous gutters, lawn mowing, and snow removal. His daughter Diane Ewing Whalen followed in her father’s footsteps, being elected Florence mayor in 1999.

Ewing’s wife Sue Ann died in February 1986, and in August 1987 he married Ruth Carroll. Ewing was an avid bowler, and his home contained many trophies that he had won. He was a member of the Florence Optimist Club and the Toastmasters, was the charter president of the Boone Co. Jaycees, and served on the County Planning and Zoning Commission. He was also a devout member of the Florence United Methodist Church, where he served for many years as a trustee, a teacher, and the Sunday school superintendent. At Christmas time he would purchase apples and oranges and personally pass them out to each child in attendance. He also brought candy every Sunday for the church’s children and their parents.

On Monday, May 22, 2006, Ewing suffered a cardiac event during the night and was rushed to St. Luke Hospital West, where he died. His funeral, held at the Florence United Methodist Church, was attended by more than 500 of his relatives, friends, and fellow citizens. He was buried next to his first wife, Sue Ann, in the Hopeful Lutheran Cemetery in Florence.

“Florence’s ‘Y’all’ Mayor Dies,” KE, May 24, 2006, 1. “ ‘Hop’ Ewing Put ‘Y’all’ in ‘Mall,’ ” KP, May 24, 2006, 1A. Whalen, Diane, Ewing’s daughter. Telephone interview by Jack Wessling, May 31, 2006.

EXPRESSWAYS. The modern divided, limitedaccess highway of at least four lanes changed the face of Northern Kentucky in the last half of the 20th century. Population, housing, employment location, educational sites, and shopping have relocated as a result of these expressways. New federal expressways constructed since the early 1960s have made possible the recent growth of Cold Spring and Alexandria in Campbell Co. and of Crittenden and northern Grant Co., as well as other areas; the new subdivisions such as Triple Crown in Boone Co.; the industrial parks in Florence, Ky., and around the Cincinnati/Northern

Construction of I-75 through Covington, looking north to Cincinnati and the Brent Spence Bridge, ca. 1962.

Kentucky International Airport (CVG); and the emergence of the Florence Mall. It must be recognized that the presence of these transportation arteries in Northern Kentucky, much like the arrival of the railroads in the 19th century, is a function of that larger population base to the north, Hamilton Co., Ohio (Cincinnati). The local expressways are descendants of the 1950s Eisenhower administration’s cold war initiative, the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, a $78 billion nationwide project.

As early as 1946, there was talk of building a limited-access highway from Florence to Covington, known as the Florence-Covington Highway.

Although a bond issue was passed to fund the initial planning for the road, it never materialized as a local project. It was, instead, subsumed in a much greater project on the federal level and became the linchpin of the local expressway network. Designated I-75 and finished in 1962, it was the first portion of the system completed in Northern Kentucky. Its connecting bridge, the double-decked, multilane Brent Spence Bridge, which opened to traffic in November 1963, is now obsolete. I-75 carries traffic through Northern Kentucky from as far away as northern Michigan and southern Florida, while also accommodating local commuter traffic.

A replacement for the Brent Spence Bridge is being planned. The bridge also carries into Northern Kentucky I-71, which comes from central and northeastern Ohio and continues south and west after traversing the region. Within Northern Kentucky, I-75 runs roughly 55 miles from Corinth in southern Grant Co. to the Ohio River at Covington on the north. Since its inception, at least four interchanges have been added to I-75 in Northern Kentucky: in 1985 the Turfway Rd. connection in Florence; in 1990 the Mall Road interchange in Florence; in 1994 the Pike St.–12th St. interchange in Covington; and in 2005 the Barnes Rd. connector in Grant Co. At least one off-ramp has been removed, the dangerously bent Jefferson Ave. northbound

exit at the bottom of “Death Hill” in Covington (in 1982); the Jefferson Ave. entrance ramp to the south has also been eliminated. “Death Hill,” the steep grade between Covington and Fort Wright, has been reconstructed several times over the years; it has been the scene of many accidents, often involving truck traffic. The same is true of the Fort Mitchell interchange with U.S. 25 and U.S. 42, where the roadbed was straightened. The multilevel intersection with I-275 in Erlanger, the likes of which is seldom seen outside of Los Angeles or Dallas, is an engineering marvel at the bottom of the circle freeway, the vehicular heart of Northern Kentucky. In many respects, I-75 is the spine of Northern Kentucky, running north-south roughly down the middle of the region, dividing it almost evenly.

I-71 is routed over I-75 from the Ohio River to Walton, where it branches off on its own to the southwest toward Louisville. I-71 has facilitated access to southern Boone, Owen, Gallatin, and Carroll counties and made these areas integral parts of Northern Kentucky. The portion of I-71 that serves these counties was ready for use in the late 1960s and was the second interstate to be completed. The opening of I-71 all the way to Louisville was delayed as a result of the deep pilings that had to be driven for its bridge over the Kentucky River near Frankfort—bedrock was found much deeper there than anticipated. That bridge is not far from Gallatin and Owen counties.

In February 1968, I-71 opened from I-75 near Walton to U.S. 227 south of Carrollton; in July 1969, I-71 opened from U.S. 227 to Louisville. Both I-75 and I-71 have turned U.S. 25 and U.S. 42 into local traffic corridors.

I-471 is the shortest of the interstates in Northern Kentucky. It runs for only 3.5 miles southward from I-71 on the near east side of downtown Cincinnati, across the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge into Northern Kentucky, through Taylor’s Bottoms between Newport and Bellevue in Campbell Co., and up the hill through Fort Thomas and

EXPRESSWAYS 315

Southgate, connecting with I-275. I-471 fades into U.S. 27 in front of the NKU campus. Completed in late 1981, I-471 eliminated many of the nicer homes in Newport’s East End and along Loraine Ct. and Grand Ave. farther south in the city. I-471 made access to the St. Luke Hospital in Fort Thomas much easier and quicker and has certainly eased commuting for the residents of eastern Hamilton and Clermont counties in Ohio to downtown Cincinnati via its connection with I-275. I-471 was talked about as early as 1957. Delays in the completion of the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge and homeowners’ fighting eminent domain along Grand Ave. in Newport delayed the highway. This interstate was opened in late 1981, costing $85 million for the highway and the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, and today its average use is a little more than 100,000 vehicles each day. The ramps at Ky. Rt. 8 are later additions to the highway. The road effectively destroyed the Newport neighborhood of Cote Brilliante, which subsequently lost some 90 homes to the bulldozer in preparation for the Newport Pavilion project—big box shopping and restaurants next to I-471 and to its west, between Memorial Pkwy. and Grand Ave. I-275 is part of the Donald C. Rolf circle freeway (loop) around Greater Cincinnati, which goes through six counties in three states. Rolf was a major player in creating the highway project; construction on it began in Ohio in September 1958.

In Northern Kentucky I-275 runs for 41 miles from

the Combs-Hehl Bridge on the east at Brent in Campbell Co. to Petersburg in western Boone Co., where the road crosses the Carroll C. Cropper Bridge into southeastern Indiana. With a substantial bridge across the Licking River at Wilder (later named Alvin C. Poweleit Memorial Bridge), I-275 approached completion in December 1979, as the Combs-Hehl Bridge opened. I-275 made access to Northern Kentucky University (NKU), Thomas More College, and CVG easier, while uniting Northern Kentucky itself. No long were Northern Kentuckians required to pass through the urban areas of Covington and Newport to arrive at the airport or these colleges, or the Florence Mall. Convenience is one of the reasons why some 4,000 students from the east side of Hamilton Co., Ohio, attend NKU. A new interchange was added to I-275 at Mineola Pk. in Boone Co.; and on- and off-ramps were added at Three Mile Rd. in Highland Heights in Campbell Co., to ease access to and from NKU. There have been several suggestions regarding what should be done, if anything, in future developments of the Northern Kentucky expressway system. The widening of I-75 to a minimum of three lanes all the way to Lexington is in progress. The continuation of I-471 south of the NKU campus and to the southwest, joining I-75 and I-71 where they split in Walton, has been proposed; the idea involves rerouting I-71 across the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge and over I-471 and changing the

name of the present I-471 to I-71. An additional proposal calls for another outer loop, south of the existing I-275, through Northern Kentucky. Such a route would pass through Falmouth in Pendleton Co., Williamstown in Grant Co., and Owenton in Owen Co., turning north to perhaps Warsaw in Gallatin Co. or Carrollton in Carroll Co. Farther out in the region, there has been long discussion of a new interstate that would connect Lexington with Columbus, Ohio, cutting across the southeastern section of the Northern Kentucky region. The citizens of Robertson Co. would appreciate such a route, since they have been without good transportation links from the county’s inception. Both Bracken and western Mason counties would also benefit. Such a road would cross the Ohio River over the new William H. Harsha Bridge just downriver from Maysville, en route to Columbus.

Cincinnati-Transit.net. “Local Expressways.” www .cincinnati-transit.net (accessed November 13, 2006).

Dady, Jim. “Ready to Roll,” KP, August 29, 1981, 1K. Dias, Monica. “Gerald Lach Has a Dream,” KP, April 5, 1997, 1.

“Florence-Covington Highway Issue Approved,” KP, August 8, 1955, 1.

Gutsell, Jeff. “Interstate-471: More Than a Shortcut,” KE, September 6, 1981, B1.

Johnson, John. “Circle Freeway Celebrates Milestone,” CE, December 19, 1994, 1.

Lapides, Leslie. “Death Hill,” KP, June 27, 1983, 1.