August 2020 | Kentucky Monthly Magazine

AUGUST 2020

breathe in KENTUCKY’S TREES P LU S

History of Berea College Back to School During a Pandemic

Display until 09/08/2020

Woodford Feed Co. The Hatfield + McCoy Feud, Part III

www.kentuckymonthly.com

ON THE COVER Tree bathing, old-forest growth and more; photo by Abby Laub; story on page 14.

in this issue DEPARTMENTS 2 Kentucky Kwiz 3 Readers Write 4 Mag on the Move 8 Across Kentucky 10 Cooking 40 Off the Shelf 41 Gardening 42 Field Notes 44 Past Tense/ Present Tense

46 Calendar 48 Vested Interest PICTURING KENTUCKY In the spring, we invited our Facebook followers to participate in a photo contest with images illustrating their quarantine activities.

Congratulations to winner Anne T. Campbell of Lexington, who told us she is not a professional photographer but really enjoys taking photos. “I took my picture in April at Lake Cumberland, at Safe Harbor Grider Hill Marina,” Anne said. “There had been hard rains overnight, and a beautiful waterfall appeared at the back of a cove the next morning. As I was taking pictures of it, a Great Blue Heron flew in and “posed’ for me to get this shot. It was actually still raining some, as you can see the water drops on the lake.”

q Like many during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kentucky Monthly staff has been cooking more at home. This

10

AUGUST 14 Healing and History Kentucky’s

featured

30 More Than a Store Woodford Feed

forests offer a moment of peace and a glimpse into the Commonwealth’s distant past

has endured through 80 years of changes with expertise, relationships and quality service

20 Celebrating Our Common Kinship

36 Blood for Blood

month, a few of us got together to prepare and share some of our families’ favorite old-school summertime salads.

Established by 19th-century abolitionists, Berea College continues to uphold its founders’ principles

In the final installment of the Hatfield-McCoy series, a Hatfield relative assumes responsibility for crimes he didn’t commit, bringing the famous feud to a close, but its legacy lingers today

26 Back to School 2020: A New Normal Kentucky schools plan for reopening in the midst of a pandemic k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 1

kentucky kwiz 1. Of Daniel Boone’s numerous Kentucky homes, his last Kentucky address was in which current Kentucky county?

6. Which Estill County-born actor was the best man at Jack Nicholson’s 1962 marriage to actress Sandra Knight?

A. Bourbon

A. Harry Dean Stanton

B. Nicholas

B. Jim Varney

C. Mason

C. Lee Majors

2. In addition to a copy of the Oct. 20, 1936, issue of The State Journal, what else was discovered in the pedestal of the Jefferson Davis statue when it was removed from the Capitol Rotunda in June?

7. Odessa Grady Clay, the mother of Muhammad Ali, was the granddaughter of Abe O’Grady, who immigrated to Hopkins County from which country?

A. An autographed copy of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government B. A bottle of Glenmore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey C. A neatly folded Confederate battle flag 3. When Charles Carroll, the namesake of Carrollton and Carroll County, died in 1832, he had the distinction of being: A. The last living signer of the Declaration of Independence B. The only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence C. The wealthiest of all the signers of the Declaration of Independence D. All of the above

A. Wales B. Scotland C. Ireland 8. Kentucky Jam Cake is a traditional dessert made with jams and spices mixed in a batter and decorated with what kind of icing?

A. White B. Chocolate C. Caramel 9. Which Louisville high school is named in honor of “The Gentleman Saint,” who was proclaimed in 1923

by Pope Pius XI the patron saint of writers and journalists?

A. St. Pius Elementary B. DeSales High School

A. 1876

10. Traveling from east to west, from Kentucky’s highest point, Black Mountain, to its lowest, the Mississippi River in Fulton County, is a descent of how many feet?

B. 1926

A. 3,882

C. 1976

B. 2,142 C. 1,900

5. Which Kentuckian has been inducted into 14 business and sports Halls of Fame, including the University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame?

© 2020, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty Three, Issue 6, August 2020

Stephen M. Vest Publisher + Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Patricia Ranft Associate Editor Rebecca Redding Creative Director Deborah Kohl Kremer Assistant Editor Ted Sloan Contributing Editor

C. Noe Middle School 4. Passed near the end of the Civil War and taking effect Dec. 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment, which freed slaves and abolished slavery, was not ratified in Kentucky until:

Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth

Cait A. Smith Copy Editor

Senior Kentributors Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley, Bill Ellis, Steve Flairty, Gary Garth, Rachael Guadagni, Jesse Hendrix-Inman, Kristy Robinson Horine, Kim Kobersmith, Abby Laub, Brent Owen, Walt Reichert, Ken Snyder, Joel Sams, Gary P. West

Business and Circulation Barbara Kay Vest Business Manager Jocelyn Roper Circulation Specialist

Advertising Lindsey Collins Account Executive and Coordinator For advertising information, call 888.329.0053 or 502.227.0053

KENTUCKY MONTHLY (ISSN 1542-0507) is published 10 times per year (monthly with combined December/January and June/July issues) for $20 per year by Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601.

Periodicals Postage Paid at Frankfort, KY and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KENTUCKY MONTHLY, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559. Vested Interest Publications: Stephen M. Vest, president; Patricia Ranft, vice president; Barbara Kay Vest, secretary/treasurer. Board of directors: James W. Adams Jr., Dr. Gene Burch, Gregory N. Carnes, Barbara and Pete Chiericozzi, Kellee Dicks, Maj. Jack E. Dixon, Bruce and Peggy Dungan, Mary and Michael Embry, Wayne Gaunce, Frank Martin, Thomas L. Hall, Judy M. Harris, Greg and Carrie Hawkins, Jan and John Higginbotham, Dr. A. Bennett Jenson, Bill Noel, Walter B. Norris, Kasia Pater, Dr. Mary Jo Ratliff, Barry A. Royalty, Randy and Rebecca Sandell, Marie Shake, Kendall Carr Shelton and Ted M. Sloan.

Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned.

A. Cawood Ledford B. A.B. “Happy” Chandler C. Jim Host

2 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

kentuckymonthly.com

readers write HORSESHOE HORSE

2020 GIFT GUIDE

I love the magazine and always read Steve Vest’s article on the last page.

I’ll soon be 96 and live at Highland Ridge Assisted Living in Glasgow.

Franklin, Kentucky, has a horse made out of horseshoes. I only saw it on TV once or twice. Wish you would put a picture of it and an article in your Kentucky Monthly. I’m of the old school—I don’t have .com, Facebook and all that stuff.

Margie Edmonds Kinslow, Glasgow

featuring ky made products

NEW FANGLED CLOTHING Melvin the Magnificent, dressed in scrubs and a mask as a tribute to health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about Melvin in “Vested Interest” on page 48. Photo courtesy of Kentucky Travels.

SEAL STORY Enjoyed the April edition of Kentucky Monthly … as always. As Steve Vest will forever be my favorite writer, I read his column first.

I learned the history of our state seal from none other than (Hazard’s) Nan Gorman (designer of the state seal). She was part of a small tour group I was leading at the Capitol one day several years ago. I have repeated her first-hand account many times.

Russell Kennedy, Frankfort

We Love to Hear from You!

newfangledclothing.com Designing and producing adorable, handmade kids’ clothing is the goal of New Fangled Clothing. Owner Cheryl Muncy of Richmond creates colorful pieces that are practical, comfortable and stylish, and loved by both parents and children. Sizes are 3 months to 4T for boys, and 3 months to 16 for girls.

Find more of our favorite products in our gift guide at kentuckymonthly.com.

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY. C O M

UN I TI N G K EN TUC KI A N S EV ERY W H ER E .

Kentucky Monthly welcomes letters from all readers. Email us your comments at editor@kentuckymonthly.com, send a letter through our website at kentuckymonthly.com, or message us on Facebook. Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

Featured in this issue Did you miss a past issue? Visit us online for articles, blogs, recipes, events and more!

F O L LOW U S.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 3

travel

MAG ON THE MOVE

Take a copy of the magazine with you and get snapping! Send your highresolution photos (usually 1 MB or higher) to editor@kentuckymonthly. com or visit kentuckymonthly.com to submit your photo.

Even when you’re far away, you can take the spirit of your Kentucky home with you. And when you do, we want to see it!

1 Mexican Burgers?

PUERTO VALLARTA Janice Brown of Henderson in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with expat Walter Thomas, an Elizabethtown native, at Thomas’ Derby City Burgers.

4 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

Marilyn Walters and Frank Glowczewskie

Grayson R. Wilhoite

ST. THOMAS

A native of Frankfort, Grayson visited the Mariner Museum at Newport News, Virginia. In the background is the figurehead of the frigate USS Lancaster.

Former Mount Sterling resident Marilyn and her husband, Frank, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on St. Thomas Island.

VIRGINIA

ention Commission Corbin Tourism & Conv @corbinkytourism

Corbin ...where your adventure awaits!

606.528.8860 CORBINKYTOURISM.COM

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 5

Book your overnight stay or event today!

travel

BED & BREAKFAST AND RETREAT CENTER

the Historic Headquarters of Frontier Nursing Service in Wendover, KY, original log cabin home of Pioneer Nurse-Midwife Mary Breckinridge.

(859) 899-2707 | frontier.edu/wendover Designated a National Historic Landmark

S O C I A L D I S TA N C E + R E L A X

Harmony House and Goose House Inn

Roseann Julian and Margaret Butcher NORTH CAROLINA Margaret, right, formerly of West Liberty, and friend Roseann traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, to the Omni Grove Park Inn and enjoyed seeing the Biltmore Estate’s impressive Christmas decorations.

HAZARD, KY | 606.435.2079 WWW.HARMONYHOUSEBNB.COM

Horticulture Meets Humor

Get ready for gardening season with this down-home collection of practical advice and personal anecdotes from Kentucky Monthly’s gardening columnist, Walt Reichert. Organized by the seasons, each chapter offers color photography and straightforward tips for everything from combating critters to pairing plants.

The Bluegrass State’s green thumbs have proliferated, thanks to Walt’s encouraging and down-to-earth morsels of gardening wisdom.

Tommy and Patty Case

shopkentuckymonthly.com 888-329-0053

WW_fullpg.indd 51

Horticulture meets humor in gardening columnist Walt Reichert’s collection. o o o o o

To order: kentuckymonthly.com 1-888-329-0053

6

K ENT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

CUBA The Georgetown couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking a cruise to the island. They are pictured here on a classic car tour.

1/9/15 10:40 AM

major in YOUR PASSION. Whether you’re passionate about science or Shakespeare, Morehead State will help support your plan for a successful career.

MSU offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in engineering that will prepare you for a variety of technology-driven, STEM-based careers ideal for the 21st century. www.moreheadstate.edu/secs

Major in you. www.moreheadstate.edu MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity, educational institution.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 7

across kentucky

BI R T H DAYS 5 Wendell Berry (1934), Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame poet, essayist, novelist and environmental activist from Henry County 7 Michael Shannon (1974), Tony Award-winning actor from Lexington 7 Silas House (1971), novelist from Laurel County, best known for his novels Clay’s Quilt and Southernmost 9 Clark Janell Davis (1997), Miss Kentucky 2015 from Lexington

GETTING THE VOTE W

ith an active pandemic and civil unrest at the forefront this year, it can be easy to lose sight of a significant anniversary for the United States.

Congress ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on Aug. 18, 1920, granting women the right to vote. Louisville’s Frazier History Museum is celebrating that milestone with What Is a Vote Worth? Suffrage Then and Now. The exhibit examines the women’s suffrage movement nationwide, with a focus on the movement in Kentucky and prominent women suffragists in the state. It was set to open March 19 with a ribbon cutting, which—along with other public events—was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The museum then was temporarily shuttered.

In response, the Frazier adopted a new strategy and has been creating virtual events around What Is a Vote Worth? along with the museum’s other exhibits. “We’re like everybody else following CDC guidelines and have not held many of our scheduled programs,” said President and CEO Andy Treinen.

The Frazier welcomed the return of visitors on June 11. “We are open four days a week [Thursday-Sunday] and are getting active engagement,” Treinen said. “Regional travelers are out and about, and we’re glad that they’re making a stop here.”

Visitors can view What Is a Vote Worth? installations and artifacts, and there are numerous events—including live performances by suffragist re-enactors— scheduled. Please visit fraziermuseum.org for event updates.

Enterprising Kentuckians While the news has been filled with stories of businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, at least two Kentucky enterprises have taken advantage of the down time to launch or expand.

Scout & Scholar, Bardstown’s first craft brewery, is under construction and will open this fall—hopefully in October. Named after the city’s founders— William (the scout) and David (the scholar) Bard—the brewery’s founders are Donald Blincoe and David Dones.

Beth Richardson opened Spotz Gelato in late June on Main Street in Shelbyville, expanding her emerging empire that includes shops in Georgetown and Versailles. Richardson and her husband, Philip Enlow, initially sold the small-batch gelato from brightly colored food trucks, which will return when events resume. Spotz offers 10 flavors, the crowd favorite being cookies and cream.

8 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

10 Kenny Perry (1960), professional golfer from Franklin 11 John Conlee (1946), Grand Ole Opry star from Versailles 15 Emmy Buckner (1990), Louisville-born film/television actress, best known for the Disney Channel’s Liv and Maddie 15 Jennifer Lawrence (1990), Academy Award-winning actress from Louisville, best known for the Hunger Games series 17 Steve Gorman (1965), Hopkinsville-raised and Western Kentucky University-educated drummer for The Black Crowes 19 Franklin Story Musgrave (1935), retired astronaut from Lexington 20 Rich Brooks (1941), former University of Kentucky football coach 21 Jackie DeShannon (1941), Hazel-born singer/songwriter 22 Eli Capilouto (1949), president of the University of Kentucky 22 Mila Mason (1963), country music singer/songwriter from Dawson Springs 23 Lee Roy Reams (1942), Tony Award-nominated actor and singer from Covington 25 Billy Ray Cyrus (1961), singer/ actor from Flatwoods 27 Mitch Barnhart (1959), University of Kentucky athletics director 28 Matt Jones (1978), author and host of Kentucky Sports Radio 29 Jamour Chames (1989), Covington-born contemporary artist

New Leadership at Rival Schools K

entucky’s oldest colleges— Transylvania and Centre—are ushering in eras with new presidents taking the respective helms July 1.

Brien Lewis Brien Lewis is Transy’s 27th president, and Milton C. Moreland is Centre’s 21st.

Lewis, 52, came to Lexington from Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He had served for eight years, overseeing an increased undergraduate enrollment and leading two highly successful capital campaigns.

The strength of Transy’s existing culture, priorities and willingness to innovate drew Lewis to the 240-yearold institution. “Transylvania should build on its enduring strengths: a highly personalized learning environment infused with its core commitment to academic excellence and a powerful sense of community,” Lewis said.

Lewis and his wife, Laura, have two children: Josh, a law school student, and Anna Louise, a college sophomore.

Moreland arrives in Danville after 17 years at Rhodes

College in Memphis, where he rose from assistant professor to vice president to provost.

“Dina and I look forward to building on our Milton C. Moreland collaborative regional initiatives, as both Centre and Rhodes reach new heights as liberal arts colleges that aspire to change our world for good,” Moreland said.

Moreland and his wife, Dina, a former national champion racquetball player who competed for Team USA, have two grown sons: Marcus, a Rhodes graduate, and Micah, who graduates from Rhodes next spring, as well as Blue, a rescue dog.

“Milton Moreland is the right person to lead Centre College at the right time,” said Crit Luallen, board secretary. “He is deeply rooted in the liberal arts tradition, yet he is realistic about the challenges facing institutions like Centre and brings creative, visionary ideas that will help Centre adapt to a changing world while protecting all that is best about our past.”

cooking

Photos by Rebecca Redding

classic summer salads They’re the staples that have long made appearances at church potlucks, picnics and family dinners—dishes for which you may not have had a taste when you were a kid but grew to appreciate when your palate matured and expanded. They are flavorful memories that are making a comeback or, possibly, never left the menu. These classic salads will have you reminiscing about something delicious or trying something new.

10 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

Family recipes provided and prepared by Kay Vest, Mona Redding and Patricia Ranft.

Orange Fluff Salad Serves 8-10 1 12-ounce container whipped topping, thawed 1 cup small-curd cottage cheese 1 3-ounce package orange Jell-O 2 11-ounce cans mandarin oranges, drained (reserve a few wedges for garnish) 1 15.25-ounce can pineapple tidbits, drained

1. In a large bowl, combine whipped topping with cottage cheese. Sprinkle orange Jell-O powder a bit at a time over the mixture, stirring after each addition until powder has been absorbed.

2. Gently fold oranges and pineapple into the creamy mixture, stirring until well combined.

3. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving.

Garnish with mandarin orange wedges.

7 Up Salad Serves 12-15

Creamy Topping

1 6-ounce package lime Jell-O

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 cups boiling water

½ cup sugar

2 cups 7 Up soda

1 cup reserved pineapple juice

1 15.25-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained (reserve juice) 1 cup small marshmallows 2-3 bananas, sliced Creamy topping (recipe on right) Chopped pecans for garnish

1. Combine Jell-O powder with boiling water.

Add 7 Up and let cool slightly.

2. Stir in pineapple, marshmallows and bananas. Pour into a 9- by 13-inch dish and refrigerate to set.

3. Spread creamy topping over set Jell-O and top with chopped pecans.

2 tablespoons flour 1 beaten egg 1 cup whipping cream 1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together butter, sugar, pineapple juice, flour and egg. Cook over low heat until thickened. Let cool completely.

2. Beat whipping cream until thick, then fold into cooled mixture. k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 11

cooking

Waldorf Salad ½ cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons sugar

1 cup pretzels, crushed 1 cup pecans, chopped ½ cup butter, melted 2 tablespoons sugar Filling 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

Pretzel Salad SERVES 12-15

1 cup powdered sugar 1 8-ounce container whipped topping, thawed; reserve some for serving Topping 1 6-ounce package strawberry Jell-O 2 cups boiling water 1 16-ounce package frozen strawberries Fresh strawberries for serving (optional)

12 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine pretzels, pecans, butter and sugar.

Press into bottom of a 9by 13-inch pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool completely.

2. For filling, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in whipped topping, combining well, and spread over crust.

Cover and refrigerate until cold.

3. In a small bowl, dissolve Jell-O in boiling water.

Let cool slightly. Add strawberries and stir until mixture starts to thicken.

Pour over cream cheese layer. Cover and refrigerate until firm, 2-4 hours.

4. Cut into squares. If desired, serve with strawberries and additional whipped topping.

2 medium-sized unpeeled apples, cored and chopped (we used Fuji apples, but any sweet apple will work well) 1 cup seedless grapes, halved ¾ cup celery, sliced ½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped Bibb lettuce leaves, for serving

1. In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, lemon juice and sugar.

Add apples, grapes, celery and walnuts, stirring well after each addition.

2. Serve salad on a bed of lettuce.

SERVES 6-8

Macaroni Salad 2 cups uncooked macaroni 1 cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper ½ cup bell pepper, diced ½ cup celery, chopped ½ cup carrot, grated ¼ cup onion, diced 1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and diced 1. Prepare macaroni according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water until pasta is cool.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper until well combined.

3. In a large bowl, combine bell pepper, celery, carrot, onion, egg and cooled macaroni. Add mayonnaise mixture and stir gently to thoroughly coat ingredients.

4. Refrigerate at least two hours or overnight before serving.

Three-Bean Salad 1 cup vinegar 1 cup sugar 1 cup oil 1 cup onion, diced 1 cup green pepper, diced 1 cup celery, sliced 1 14.5-ounce can red beans, drained and rinsed 1 14.5-ounce can green beans, drained 1 14.5-ounce can wax beans, drained

Seven-Layer Salad 1 head lettuce, broken into small pieces ½ cup celery, chopped ½ cup onion, chopped ½ cup green pepper, chopped 1 12-ounce package frozen peas, thawed 1 cup sour cream 1 cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons sugar 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1. In a large bowl, combine vinegar, sugar and oil. Stir in onion, green pepper and celery.

1 pound bacon, fried, drained and chopped

2. Add red beans, green beans and wax beans, stirring after each addition.

1. In a salad bowl or trifle bowl, layer the lettuce, celery, onion, green pepper and peas.

3. Refrigerate overnight and stir well before serving.

Variation with Mixed Vegetables Combine the first six ingredients as listed above, but instead of the three cans of beans, use:

1 14.5-ounce can white corn, drained 1 14.5-ounce can early small peas 1 carrot, sliced 1 head cauliflower, chopped

SERVES 8-10 SERVES 8-10

2. In a medium bowl, stir together sour cream, mayonnaise and sugar until well combined. Spread mixture over the layer of peas, covering the entire surface.

3. Sprinkle cheese over top of dressing mixture. Top salad with chopped bacon.

4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The lettuce will be crisp, and the dressing flavors will permeate the salad.

SERVES 6-8

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 13

Healing and History Kentucky’s forests offer a moment of peace and a glimpse into the Commonwealth’s distant past

14 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

Text + Photos By Abby Laub

B

efore Jennifer Owens led me into the woods at The Parklands of Floyds Fork in Louisville for my “forest bathing” session, I was skeptical.

Visions of hugging trees and swatting mosquitoes filled my mind, which had simultaneously scurried off to the deadlines awaiting me while I went off to relax with the trees.

Owens led our little group to a peaceful spot near a creek. “Great,” I thought. I grew up playing in the forests of upstate New York and could practically touch tree leaves from my bedroom window. But I was sure that this one time in the forest “to relax” would be the time I’d be bitten by a copperhead. I was eager for Owens, the co-founder and wellness director at Louisville’s Bridge Counseling and Wellness, to demonstrate her tree methods and for my stress to melt away.

For urbanites like me, getting (back) to the forest is important. We lead stressed lives illuminated by artificial light, and we rely on measly backyards to feed our body’s need for nature. For Owens, the forest is a preferred antidote to modern life’s ailments.

Research reveals she’s on to something, and some progressive doctors prescribe nature for common complaints. Owens has a background in holistic health, including massage therapy, and is one of Kentucky’s few trained ecotherapists.

She’s also a licensed clinical social worker.

Owens was raised a nature lover but didn’t immediately realize that forest bathing, which gets its name from the Japanese translation of shinrin-yoku, could be one tool in her belt to help her patients. When she worked as a licensed massage therapist, she saw people riddled with trauma and anxiety, and often, that anxiety was stored in the body. She got a master’s degree in social work to offer more help, but eventually, her own mental health issues crept in.

“I started suffering from severe panic attacks about 10 years ago, and it was severe enough where I had to quit my job,” Owens said. “It ruled my life.”

Ecotherapist Jennifer Owens uses the flute as a communication tool for parts of a forest bathing session.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 15

Owens begins a forest bathing session at Louisville’s Cherokee Park in June.

She tried everything to overcome it and eventually decided she needed to go back to what she knew was good for her—back to the forest. “I decided to adopt a part of Cherokee Park in Louisville and was going to pick up trash in the creek,” she said. “After some time of doing that, I started to realize [that] I’m not caring for the land; it’s caring for me. I realized I didn’t have anxiety or panic attacks anymore.”

Owens then embarked on months of study and came across shinrin-yoku. She obtained certification through a school in Canada and now leads forest bathing sessions.

The practice is gaining popularity but isn’t yet clinically mainstream.

I wasn’t sick when I ventured with Owens into the woods. I simply needed to unwind, and she made this happen in a short period of time. After about 30 minutes following her gentle cues to look at this, smell that, notice this, feel that, I walked out of the forest feeling as though I had gotten a massage. I didn’t get any bug bites, and I still haven’t seen a copperhead.

16 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

“The only negative part is the anticipation of the experience,” Owens said. “I’ll never forget, early on I had someone whose friend dragged her along, and she said, ‘I hate this.’ So I eased her in … and midway through, she was lying on the forest floor. She didn’t know she needed it. For other people, they’ve gone hiking, and it’s hot, and bugs are getting them. But forest bathing is slower, more gentle. I’ve never had one person give negative feedback.”

My brain slowed down, and I felt refreshed and peaceful. I had the phytoncides to thank. Phytoncide emanates from certain plants and trees, and is also known as the “aroma” of the forest. Owens said phytoncides help plants and trees protect themselves from harmful insects and germs; they are comparable to an immune system.

Phytoncides also seem to help humans’ immune systems.

They are free medicine, which I suspect is why “go to the woods” isn’t commonly scribbled on prescription pads.

“It boosts our immune system, reduces blood pressure and improves sleep,” Owens said of phytoncide. “In Japan, they’ve been doing research on this for at least 25 years.

Most people who go on guided trips get their vitals taken before and after. They found that, with two hours in the forest, the phytoncides boost immune system cells for up to a week.”

If forest bathing in a newgrowth forest area close to major urban centers can offer health benefits, then it’s worth looking at some of Kentucky’s oldest trees. Off the beaten path in eastern Kentucky sit the majestic giants of the state’s largest old-growth forest, Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve.

Greg Abernathy, executive director of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, said there are two categories of oldgrowth forest: those that have never been logged (primary forests) and second-growth forests with limited disturbance for at least a century. Some experts suggest 150-200 years as a minimum age indicator of old growth and that eventually, with limited disturbance, secondgrowth forests will become old-growth forests. Over time, forests inevitably experience compositional changes.

“I so enjoy the symphony of the forest—the birds calling, the streams bubbling, and the leaves rustling,” Abernathy said of Harlan County’s Blanton Forest. “For me, wildlands offer solace and inspiration, a grounding and reset, an opportunity to be reminded of what is important and to strive toward balance in my life. And time in wild places is essential for both mental and physical health.”

KNLT works to protect the wildlands all along the entire 125 miles of the Pine Mountain ridgeway, where Blanton Forest is located.

“The story of protecting Blanton is a great piece of Kentucky’s history,” he said. “It was spearheaded by KNLT in partnership with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Blanton Forest remains the largest tract of oldgrowth forest in Kentucky. It is 2,000-plus acres of old growth within a 3,510-acre state nature preserve buffered by another 3,000-plus acres protected by KNLT. There are other smaller patches of old growth around the state.”

Abernathy has heard Blanton referenced as the 13th-largest tract of old growth in the eastern United States. He likes to imagine the native peoples who were present before European colonization and how they stewarded this lush Appalachian landscape. Trees that tower 100 feet above the forest floor are the same ones the settlers saw as they came through the Cumberland Gap and moved westward into Kentucky in the 1700s. This forest showcases a union of past and present and is one of the rare places in Kentucky where nature has gone unchallenged. A walk or session with Owens here could be named “full forest submersion” rather than bathing.

Several distinct natural communities are found in Blanton Forest, most notably the mixed mesophytic forest, one of the most diverse temperate zone forests in the world. This forest typically includes a variety of canopy trees such as sugar maple, beech, tulip poplar, basswood, hemlock and several species of oak and magnolia. In the larger ravines, or hollows, the forest is dominated by hemlock and rhododendron. Drier sites on ridges support chestnut oak-dominated forests as well as oak-pine forests. Small open seeps, often called bogs or mires, contain sphagnum moss, cinnamon ferns and wildflowers.

“Another factor that greatly influences biodiversity is the human history of a region,” Abernathy said. “Kentucky has a nearly 12,000-year documented human history, with the most significant impacts to biodiversity occurring over the last 200 years since European-American settlement.

Eastern Kentucky has a history of extensive resource extraction, and although the region was nearly completely k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 17

Courtesy of Boone Creek Outdoors

Formerly home to a truck stop, the Boone Creek Outdoors property had an abandoned underground tank seeping gasoline into the ground and the creek below. It is now is preserved and hosts outdoor adventures, including ziplining.

logged, these forests are incredibly resilient and today are extremely important to sustaining the biodiversity and local communities throughout the region.”

Kentuckians can gain a deeper appreciation of the state’s heritage in its old-growth forests. “Greater awareness of the importance of old growth and biodiversity are essential to preservation,” Abernathy said.

In Lexington, Burgess Carey hopes to build that awareness. He founded Boone Creek Outdoors nearly 20 years ago as a companion to the Boone Creek Angler’s Club on property just off Interstate 75. He hopes the land on Old Richmond Road, which used to house tourist shops, boat works, hemp mills and maybe even part of the Native American Buffalo Trace, will become a model for preservation-minded recreation and adventure tourism in central Kentucky.

The palisades gorge, limestone cliffs, creek, waterfalls, 18 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

ferns, wildflowers and a largely preserved hardwood forest previously were overrun by invasive species such as wintercreeper and bush honeysuckle. Carey and his team worked to restore the native ecosystem, including an oldgrowth tree on the property dubbed “Chief.”

“Our iconic 300-plus-year-old white oak Chief is as healthy and robust as it is because it is located on property that was never agricultural,” Carey said. “Chief’s roots were allowed to grow in uncompacted soil, while on the other side of the fence, livestock compacted the soil over the past 200 years, killing the trees just a few feet away.”

Hardwood trees on cliffs were spared from logging because of the steep terrain. Still, there are tree problems to fix, as there are in so many forests around the state, such as the emerald ash borer.

“We have motivation and incentive to treat the ash trees in and around our tour, which we do using medicine injected into the trees by our consulting arborist, and to try to control the wintercreeper and honeysuckle,” Carey said, adding that chestnut trees

Greg Abernathy photo

Courtesy of Boone Creek Outdoors

Trees in Kentucky

Blanton Forest is located on Pine Mountain in Harlan County and is the largest old-growth forest known in Kentucky.

once prevalent in Kentucky are now gone because of blight.

For its treetop canopy tours, Boone Creek Outdoors uses platforms that don’t restrict the trees’ growth and movement. Tours include ziplines, sky bridges, a spiral staircase, a rappel and a floating staircase, all suspended from the trees 250 feet over Boone Creek Gorge. It is an engaging experience that includes the thrill of flying over the creek on 1,400-foot lines. Guests pass through blue and green ash, red and white oak, cedar, poplar and cherry trees.

Carey likes to point out how the region shaped the signature brands of central Kentucky such as bourbon and Thoroughbred horses.

“We have a small corner of Fayette County that more closely resembles what it looked like before it was settled,” he said. “We are about having fun on tour but also exposing people to things that might connect them to the past and how the geology and limestone shaped all of it.”

It’s also a chance for rejuvenation.

“It’s a significantly proven fact that being in the woods and forest can lower stress levels and improve energy,” Carey said. “You drop down into this palisades region for only an hour or two, but you feel like you’ve gone on vacation.”

For adventure, health or history, Kentucky’s trees are calling. Q

When most people think of Kentucky, forests typically are not at the top of their list. But trees are an integral part of the state’s history, and the forests here today are only a glimpse of what they once were.

“Kentucky was 85 to 90 percent forested, with vast prairies and wetlands making up the remainder of what is now Kentucky,” Greg Abernathy, executive director of Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, said about Kentucky before European colonization here. “Today, the forest has been reduced to 50 percent of the state and is highly fragmented due to urbanization … Less than 8 percent of the state is currently comprised of interior tracts of forests of 1,000 acres or more in size.”

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 19

OVER THE YEARS 1853 1855 1859 1866 Cassius Clay deeds Rev. John G. Fee a 10-acre plot in the center of what is now Berea. Fee gathers a community and founds Union Church.

The educational mission begins as a one-room, interracial school for basic education.

20 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

The Fees and other founders are driven from Madison County by pro-slavery residents.

Fee focuses his efforts on raising funds for the Berea project.

The founders return to Berea after the Civil War ends.

Established by 19th-century abolitionists, Berea College continues to

BY KIM KOBERSMITH

uphold its

Celebrating

founders’ principles

OUR COMMON KINSHIP

R

everend John G. and Matilda Fee had strong convictions and undaunted courage. They needed both to establish Berea College in 1855.

Matilda’s family operated an Underground Railroad station in their home while she was growing up. As an adult during the Civil War, she hid her family’s belongings and faced a band of Confederate troops as a known abolitionist.

John wrote about being yanked from the pulpit mid-sermon for his beliefs by an armed posse. One of his church members was whipped with a switch before Fee narrowly escaped the same fate. This was not the only time.

Landowner and emancipationist Cassius Clay met the Fees and offered them a plot of 10 acres to establish a community. The vision of Berea—a church, school and town founded on human equality and interracial relationships—was not a popular notion for a lot of folks in Madison County before the Civil War. But from it came an educational institution with a utopian beginning, a rich

1868 Howard Hall, the first interracial dorm in the South, opens.

1869 Berea College is established. Black and white students are enrolled in nearly equal numbers for the first couple of decades.

history, and a deep commitment to offering hope and opportunity to those most in need.

Berea College holds fast to what it refers to as its eight Great Commitments—some established by those first dreamers—which weave throughout its history and guide its present growth. Four of those are the kinship of all people, serving Appalachia, educational opportunity and the dignity of labor.

THE KINSHIP OF ALL PEOPLE

Reverend Fee had a dramatic and complete conversion to abolitionism as a young man. He wrote, “ ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ That single sentence made me an abolitionist … I saw that it was the truth of God, and I must embrace it, or lose my soul.” For the rest of his life, he fervently preached the gospel of impartial love.

Many abolitionists of the mid-1800s opposed slavery but were not egalitarian.

Fee envisioned Berea as an interracial utopian experiment, a chance to prove that Blacks and Whites could live and learn

>>>>>> 1870 1892 Julia Britton becomes the first Black teacher.

Berea College President William Goodell Frost eliminates tuition for students.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 21

students and encouraged gave substantial funds to establish a together in relative harmony. Acts participation, one of Mitchell’s Black school, the Lincoln Institute, 17:26 is a foundational scripture for professors scheduled a required test near Louisville. the school: “God has made of one for that day. She received a zero on it.

When the Day Law was amended blood all peoples of the earth.”

The school is intentionally growing in 1950, Berea College began a long The founders had established a its non-White population to once process of reintegration. Its church and a small school when plans again be a place for interracial interracial history did not protect it were cut short by cataclysmic community and study. In 2010, worldfrom the effects of the turbulent civil political forces. Because of death renowned scholar and native rights era. Students pushed to hold threats, the Berea project went on Kentuckian bell hooks established the Berea accountable to its founding hiatus during the Civil War. But the bell hooks Institute at founders later returned, Berea College. The reestablishing their institute offers critical work of social justice. dialogue about The experiment was understanding systems successful and became a of oppression and demonstration of exploitation around race, community. By the gender and class. At 1870s, the school’s present, people of color enrollment was half comprise almost 40 Black and half White percent of the college’s students, the student body. community was a patchwork of families of different races, and the SERVING APPALACHIA school leadership Appalachian residents included both races. experienced some of the There are records of same challenges Black families moving to accessing education as Berea for educational Blacks: financial opportunities for their hardships and the lack of children. Many Berea College students and faculty march in Montgomery, Alabama. a college-going culture. graduates went on to Photos courtesy of Berea College Special Collections and Archives Especially after the teach at the burgeoning enactment of the Day Law, through sit-ins and demonstrations, African-American schools.

Appalachia became a rich ground for imploring the school to hire The demonstration of community White student recruitment. additional Black faculty and teach came to an end when the Kentucky As the focus of the school shifted Black culture and history.

General Assembly passed the Day to the southern mountains, cultural The school itself seemed Law in 1904. Targeted at Berea, it elements became part of its fabric. conflicted. Sharyn Mitchell segregated higher education and The Student Craft department remembers the awe of marching with made the school’s founding principle cherishes and preserves traditional Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie illegal. The college fought the state all craft forms like weaving, woodwork Robinson in 1964 in Frankfort while the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and broom craft. The Loyal Jones she was a student at Berea. Though and lost. In the wake of that decision, Appalachian Center maintains the school sponsored buses for Berea became an all-White school and extensive archives documenting craft,

1893 The Student Crafts program is established.

1897 Extension activities take educational opportunities to rural Appalachian areas.

22 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

1904 1904 Phelps Stokes Chapel is constructed completely with student labor.

The Day Law passes in Kentucky, prohibiting interracial education. It is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908.

foodways and music.

Classes on regional literature, music and history infuse the academic curriculum. Underlying the instruction is a clear understanding that students can’t build a brighter future for Appalachia without grasping the complexities of its issues. Professors such as writer Silas House insist on examining the stereotypes and complicating the narratives.

There has long been a focus on serving the region. Many Berea College graduates return to their home communities to serve as teachers, nurses and farmers. Early Extension services brought lectures, libraries and recreational opportunities to rural areas. Now, the Partners for Education initiative reaches into communities throughout eastern Kentucky to help ensure educational success for all students.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Berea College’s mission is to serve students of limited means, and enrollees have had difficulty affording college. Early students often took eight years to complete a four-year degree, interspersing their semesters of study with semesters of working.

In a bold move, the school formally abolished tuition in 1892 and began relying on donations. This tuitionfree promise continues today and has made all the difference for thousands of promising students. The college’s current ability to offer a rigorous and quality education relies on a decision made in 1920. Investing all undesignated bequests directly to the endowment fund has put the college

on firm financial footing, and that foresight created a fund that today finances 74 percent of the school’s operating budget.

The average family income of Berea students is less than $30,000. There is a vast income disparity in college graduation rates nationally. The bottom income quintile has an 11-12 percent college graduation rate. The top quintile has a 90 percent graduation rate. Berea College, which serves students in the bottom quintile, has a 65-70 percent graduation rate.

Administrators have realized throughout the school’s history that there are other barriers to college access for these students. In 1866, only five of the 307 students accepted were ready for college-level work. In early mixed-age classes, students advanced at their own pace, and Berea had a variety of tracks to meet student needs. Through the years, these included an academy grade school, a foundation high school, a normal school to prepare teachers, and a vocational school.

DIGNITY OF LABOR

The founders of Berea College enshrined in the first constitution the need for manual labor as a complement to mental labor. There were financial, practical and philosophical reasons for the emphasis. Manual labor was an equalizer for the interracial community and an important element of the founders’ Christian faith.

Part of John Fee’s vision was selfsufficiency. Student labor offered

>>>>>> 1920 1921 1950

The Berea College Board of Trustees begins investing all unrestricted bequests in the school’s endowment.

School leaders formally organize the Student Labor Program.

The Day Law is amended to allow colleges to integrate. Berea College is the first school in Kentucky to welcome both Black and white students.

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federally recognized work colleges in the country, along with Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes. The Berea Labor Program requires students to work 10-15 hours per week. Current students are employed across the campus, from facilities, student crafts and the service learning center to the president’s office.

Students are paid for their work and can use the funds toward their expected family contribution for room and board. When students graduate, they receive a work transcript in

employment for low-income students and saved money for the fledgling institution. Early work at the dairy, farm and forest provided goods for the school community. Students helped cook and clean.

Phelps Stokes Chapel, a brick meeting structure completed in 1904, was a manual labor project. It was constructed entirely by students who quarried the limestone, felled the trees, formed the bricks, and crafted the furniture.

Now, Berea is one of the nine

>>>>>> 1968 1970 Berea College becomes solely a school for undergraduates.

Previously, an array of schools had prepared students for the rigors of college and offered vocational training.

The Appalachian Center organizes on campus to study, preserve and celebrate the regional culture.

addition to their academic transcript, giving them a competitive advantage.

From its beginnings as a utopian dream of interracial harmony, Berea College has a habit of setting aspirational goals of justice for itself.

It has been a beacon of hope and advancement for marginalized students for more than 150 years. It has met John Fee’s humble goal of “giving an education to all colors, classes, cheap and thorough.” Q

1984 2010 The Black Cultural Center opens, and the Interracial Education Program begins on campus.

The bell hooks Institute opens in Berea.

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k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 25

By Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley

: 0 2 0 2 l o o Back to Sch

...a new normal

I

t was early March 2020.

COVID-19 had made its way into the United States, but Kentucky so far was untouched. Then, on March 6, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed the worst: The Commonwealth had seen its first COVID-19 case. A state of emergency immediately was declared.

With back-to-school season drawing near, much attention has become focused on Kentucky’s educational institutions.

What will college campuses look like? Will our children be able to return to their schools? What is being done to secure the health and safety of our Commonwealth’s future?

While the situation surrounding the pandemic is constantly changing, Kentucky’s colleges, universities and K-12 school districts have been developing plans to deal with the uncertainties.

Kentucky Monthly talked to three universities and the Kentucky Department of Education in June to see how they plan to open their classroom doors at minimum risk to students, faculty and staff.

26 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

Kentucky schools plan for reopening in the midst of a pandemic Kentucky Department of Education Just 10 days after a state of emergency was declared, Kevin Brown, the interim education commissioner at that time, created the KDE’s Education Continuation Task Force composed of more than 36 representatives of various educational organizations from across the Commonwealth. Its mission is to provide the latest information, research and resources to Kentucky’s school districts.

“It’s really important that our communication flow is constant as we continue to learn new and different things and receive new and different guidance,” said KDE Associate Commissioner Robin Kinney. “It’s a very fluid conversation, so we understand the importance of communicating with our local school districts and empowering them with the most recent information as soon as possible.”

Kinney said they have been working closely with the Kentucky Department for Public Health in crafting their plans.

“We have developed a close relationship with them because it’s

really important that we seek their guidance and direction on the general parameters that they’re asking all Kentuckians to follow and how it relates to local school districts,” she said.

Since then, the task force has issued more than a dozen guidance documents, including a joint document with the state health department titled Healthy at School.

The initiative asks district superintendents to consider five aspects when re-opening their schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic: social distancing, cloth face coverings, screening and temperature checks, hand and surface hygiene, and contact tracing.

Supporting documents provide information on staggering bell times, bus transportation, desk spacing and more. KDE also is providing 12,500 no-touch thermometers and advises districts to seek reimbursement for COVID-19-related costs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Superintendents are being asked to share their reopening plans with fellow districts and stay in constant contact with their local health departments to better respond to this

The collaboration between the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Department for Public Health has resulted in the following considerations when reopening schools: social distancing, cloth face coverings, screening and temperature checks, hand and surface hygiene, and contact tracing.

dynamic situation.

“We’ve asked districts to really work in close partnership with their local health department because every circumstance may be a little bit different,” Kinney said. “The local health departments will have a broader view than just that school environment. They’ll have an understanding from a community perspective.”

While the situation is constantly changing, KDE officials say the best way to stay up to date is to frequently check its COVID-19 webpage at education.ky.gov.

University of Kentucky Many eyes were on the University of Kentucky, the Commonwealth’s largest university, as it worked to reshape its plans for the fall semester.

Those plans have culminated in a

nearly 200-page document titled UK’s Playbook for Reinvented Operations.

UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said the university’s goal is twofold: maintain the Lexington campus experience and keep the campus healthy and safe. “We wanted to return to campus for that full residential campus experience that we provide students,” Blanton said. “We think that kind of education—that kind of experience—is going to be even more important in the future than it is today.”

But the other priority is to provide that experience amid a highly contagious virus that has sickened millions and killed hundreds of thousands globally. To that end, there will be a mask requirement, constant health assessments, social distancing enforcement, and enhanced sanitation. Students will be issued a kit with information and personal protective equipment.

The university is starting classes a week earlier than planned, on Aug. 17;

holding classes on Labor Day; canceling the fall break; and ending in-person instruction at Thanksgiving.

All finals and projects then will be conducted online following Thanksgiving break.

“Once students come to campus, we want them to stay on campus,” Blanton said. “We want to maximize that time they’re on campus; minimize the time off campus. And we’re doing that by condensing that semester a bit.”

However, Blanton added, many classrooms will be upgraded with enhanced technology in what he calls a “hybrid approach,” where some classes will be online and some will be a combination of both online and in-person instruction.

“That will be a benefit to not only a student who might be immunocompromised, but also a faculty member who might be in those higher risk categories,” he said.

But nothing is set in stone.

The Playbook concedes that COVIDk e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 27

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19 could once again spike, causing federal and state quarantines. If that happens, UK has a backup plan for fully online or remote learning. But the focus currently is keeping the campus up and running.

“We know there will be incidents.

That’s true everywhere in the country right now and many places around the world,” Blanton said.

“We’ll be monitoring that. We’ve got precautions that we will be taking and measures we’ll be taking to protect folks on our campus and ensure their health, safety and wellbeing, and we’ll make decisions as we need to.”

The Playbook can be accessed online at uky.edu/coronavirus.

Murray State University

Proud to call Kentucky home.

28 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

When Murray State University students were sent home in March 2020, many wondered when, or even if, they would be able to return to their west Kentucky campus. While the students were away, the university created the Racer Restart Committee to make sure campus life could return, albeit to a “new normal.”

Over the following months, subcommittees composed of faculty,

staff, students and healthcare professionals developed the MSU Racer Restart Plan. The plan centers on 12 guidelines to keep the campus safe and healthy while continuing to provide on-campus education.

“Those guidelines include anything from wearing a facemask, practicing social distancing, utilizing our on-campus health resources, and checking temperatures daily,” said Shawn Touney, MSU’s director of communications. “Those are key as part of the restart.”

Touney called it an “evolving plan” based on input from health officials and local and federal governments.

“It is very much a moving plan, evolving. It’ll be changed and altered [as the data comes in],” Touney said.

“Approximately 200 students, faculty, staff and health care officials continue to meet regularly with lots of items to talk through and collaborate on.”

Classes will start on Aug. 17 and end on Nov. 20, with no fall break.

When they arrive on campus, students will receive a Racer Safe and Healthy kit of a thermometer, face masks and hand sanitizer.

Touney said there also will be changes to the academic side.

“We’re going to try our best to maintain a new normal, traditional on-campus experience,” he said.

However, the university will use a

“HyFlex” model that combines in-person instruction and online learning.

The Racer Restart plan requires faculty, staff and students to participate in mandatory COVID-19 education training “highlighting the risks of personal infection, the consequences of spreading the virus to others, proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing guidance, and other items,” according to Touney.

Like other higher education institutions across the country, MSU has contingency plans in place to adapt to different pandemic scenarios.

Touney said the best way to keep track of the changes is to frequently check the Racer Restart website at murraystate.edu/racerrestart.

University of Pikeville University of Pikeville students will be back on campus this month, living

with social distancing, masks and heavy sanitization. But the university’s president said the eastern Kentucky campus is ready for anything.

“We are planning to be open faceto-face in the fall, have students back in the residence halls, to be participating in intercollegiate athletics … to do all the normal things that we do. But we are also planning to be disrupted at any moment,” President Burton J. Webb said.

The shape of those courses has changed. UPike’s typical 16-week semester has been divided into two eight-week blocks. Faculty members have been asked to tailor their classes to be both in-person and online in what Webb calls a “hyperflex” program.

“The thing about hyperflex that makes it great for this particular situation is to be able to spin on a moment’s notice. We’re building our courses to end face-to-face at any time,” he said. “[Additionally,] a student who is concerned about coming back or has parents who are

concerned, they can stay home and take courses online. Same with staff and faculty. They can choose to do their job from a distance.”

To help guide the university in a rapidly changing environment, Webb said they’ve adopted a four-phase model where Phase 1 is no cases of COVID-19 in Pike County and Phase 4 is an active outbreak.

“We have built our approach around those four different scenarios and four different ways we will behave based on those scenarios,” Webb said.

In addition to masks and social distancing, the new normal on campus initially includes sanitizing wipes placed outside each classroom for students to pick up on their way into the room to wipe down their desks before class begins.

UPike’s website, upike.edu, will have the latest information for campus updates. Q

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MORE THAN A STORE Woodford Feed has endured through 80 years of changes with expertise, relationships and quality service Text by Joel Sams Photos by Rebecca Sams

30 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 31

“COMING FROM A BIG CITY, HE HADN’T BEEN TREATED LIKE THAT BEFORE.” Smells are what I remember most about visiting Woodford Feed as a kid: the molasses richness of feed for Grandpa’s horse; the fragrance of leather halters and work gloves; the clean rubber, plastic and steel scent of hardware.

In one corner of the Versailles store, papery onion sets and seed packets waited out the winter. In the center aisle, a dusty display of Case knives piqued my 10-year-old interest. When it came time to leave with a feed sack or a new pair of muck boots, I already wanted to come back again.

As I recollect it, the store sounds like it could be the childhood memory of someone much older than I am. But somehow, despite the odds, Woodford

independently owned farm stores have closed their doors, the continued success of Woodford Feed is a testament to relationships and expertise. The folks at the store know their products; they know their community; and if you visit more than once or twice, they’ll know you.

What are the conditions under which local knowledge and entrepreneurship can thrive?

In The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian

Bob Mac Cleveland >>

Feed is very much alive in the present.

Family-owned and -operated since 1940 and billing itself as “your most complete farm store,” Woodford Feed Co. Inc. is a competitively priced resource for farmers, gardeners, hobbyists and homeowners.

Today, the store is run by Bob Mac Cleveland, whose father, Robert Cleveland, was one of two original partners. In a time when many other 32 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

Writings, Kentucky author Wendell Berry reflects on the number and diversity of small businesses that served his hometown of New Castle during the 1940s. Advertising itself as a destination for goods and services, the town placed an ad in the Henry County Local on Sept. 27, 1946, promoting “55 stores, shops, trades, and services,” including a seed store, two dealers who sold both coal and

livestock feed, four grocery stores, two blacksmith shops and many more.

Berry’s point is this: “Virtually all of [the town’s] varied and thriving economic life in 1946 rested upon the farms and farm households that surrounded it.”

Across the Commonwealth, a changing economy shifted the foundations that once supported 55 independently owned businesses in New Castle. Today, the town’s website advertises six businesses, none of them farm-related.

Versailles has not been exempted from economic change, but Woodford Feed continues to thrive, thanks to a combination of luck, persistence, adaptability and attention to detail.

Originally housed downtown in the space now occupied by The American Legion, the store primarily served tobacco farmers. In 1948, partners Robert Cleveland and Robert McConnell moved the store to its current location, which was part of McConnell’s family farm at the time.

They couldn’t have known it then, but the move placed them at what would become one of the region’s busiest intersections—the Versailles bypass and Lexington Road.

“A lot of customers told them it was sure to fail because they were too far off the road,” Bob Mac Cleveland recalled with a laugh. “In hindsight, that wasn’t anywhere close to being correct.”

The store has been part of Cleveland’s life for as long as he can remember. When he was a child, his mother sometimes dropped him off there for his father to babysit. In seventh grade, he began working on Saturdays, and he worked in the store through high school and

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 33

college. He began working there full time in 1978, after majoring in agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky.

“There’s been a lot of changes,” Cleveland said. “The biggest change was the demise of the tobacco program and the decrease in tobacco acres and everything. Tobacco actually made this store. It made it profitable and made it grow.”

Another change for the store has been a shift in grass seed production.

During the 1950s and ’60s, grass seed was a major staple, both harvested and sold in Kentucky. Today, Cleveland said, Kentucky’s signature bluegrass is produced almost entirely in the West.

A third change—this one in a positive direction—has been demand from the equine industry.

On the whole, the agricultural environment remains challenging for family farms, no matter their size.

Cleveland said that, in most cases, family farms derive income from at least one off-the-farm job, due to both the slim profits of farming and the high costs of health insurance.

For Cleveland, this reality has required a strategic approach to products and services.

34 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

“The biggest thing is diversity,” he said. “We don’t rely on one thing. In the winter, it’s a peak period for feed that starts in the fall and runs through the first of May. As feed is declining, seed and fertilizer are increasing. Then in summer, when those decline, we are back to hay and straw and shavings for show horse people. Then start back into fall with seed and fertilizer and some building supplies. It’s diversity that has allowed us to stay in business.

We couldn’t make it for what we do just selling one or two products.”

It’s not just diversity that has kept Woodford Feed’s doors open.

Customers also point to the wealth of knowledge, the quality of service, and the family atmosphere.

In my own family, two greatgreat-uncles, B.R. Hippe and Raymond Hippe, were tobacco farmers who relied on Woodford Feed for many years. B.R.’s daughter, Vivian Hippe, still shops there, not only for the products, but also for the staff’s expertise.

“They used to tell me, ‘Call Bob Mac, and he’ll have it ready for you when you go in there to pick it up,’ ”

recalled Vivian, who became her father’s delivery service the day she got her driver’s license. Today, she lives on the family farm with her husband, Paul Gonnelli, and she still relies on the know-how at Woodford Feed. They don’t just have the fertilizer she needs; they’re also familiar with the 18-acre hayfield she wants it on.

“It’s the personal one-on-one,” Hippe says. “They didn’t just know my daddy. They knew his brothers, his parents, his background, his kids.

Paul, being a real newcomer, loves Woodford Feed. As soon as he walked in there and they knew who he was, they treated him just like they treat all of us. Coming from a big city, he hadn’t been treated like that before.”

Hippe attributes the store’s ongoing success to the way its people prioritize relationships.

“They’ve made it because of reputation, supply and demand, and how they’ve handled themselves and treated the farmers,” she said.

Gonnelli also appreciates the local nature of Woodford Feed and the accumulated knowledge the staff offers. He said the store usually offers the best price—and that even if they didn’t he’d “rather pay more

for their wisdom.”

“They know what you need and can answer your questions,” he said.

“They’re all farmers.”

Part of the genius of Woodford Feed, however, is that the store doesn’t cater just to farmers; there is something for just about everyone. Its five big products are feed, seed, fertilizer and agricultural chemicals, animal-care supplies and hardware.

The store also carries a wide range of other items such as shovels, brooms, rakes, plants and supplies for homeowners.

“The next generation has grown up shopping at the big stores that are self-service, and our biggest challenge is to get them to stop here and see what we have and ask us questions and see what we can do for them,” Cleveland said. “Instead of going to a superstore to buy plants and weed killer, it’s just trying to get them to stop in town, local, and see what we can offer.”

One of the few positives of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cleveland said, has been renewed attention to local sources.

“It has made a lot of people who had never really thought about where their food comes from stop and think about that, and the advantage of dealing with someone on a local level,” he said.

As important as diversification and competitive prices are, Cleveland said relationships and expertise have an even greater pull.

Looking to the future, Cleveland has high hopes for the store. As a second-generation owner, he’s excited that his son is getting involved in the store.

“I’m 65, but I hope that with his involvement, the store will continue after my time is past,” he said.

Whatever the next 80 years may hold for Woodford Feed, its reputation for personable service and expertise is assured for customers like Hippe.

“My earliest memory of Woodford Feed is the tin buckets of seed and the rawhide bones in the big wooden barrel,” she said. “And there was always someone hollering in the back, ‘Bob Mac, B.R. is in here waiting for you!’ ” Q

The outdoors are calling The beautiful outdoors of Hopkins County are the perfect summer getaway for a week or even just a weekend.

Explore. Relax. Refresh.

Return with memories that will last a lifetime.

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k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 35

part three

BLOOD for BLO OD B Y R O N S O O DA LT E R

SUMMARY OF PART II

The late 1880s saw the years-old bitterness between the Hatfields and McCoys grow in scope and violence.

By 1888, Devil Anse Hatfield realized that he had less to fear from Old Ran’l McCoy than from the courts. The sixyear-old murder warrants and indictments for the slaying of three of Ran’l’s sons had been revitalized through the efforts of McCoy’s in-law and attorney, Perry Cline, who was pursuing retribution for a land swindle Devil Anse had perpetrated on him years before.

Cline had used his influence with 36 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

the governor of Kentucky to empower gun-for-hire Franklin “Bad Frank” Phillips to cross the Tug River and return the indicted Hatfields for trial.

Meanwhile, nine members of the Hatfield clan staged a late-night raid that resulted in the burning of Ran’l McCoy’s cabin, the deaths of two more of his children, and a grave injury to his wife and cousin, Sarah “Sally” McCoy. Bad Frank and his posse repeatedly crossed the Tug, arresting several suspects. Frank also killed Anse’s uncle, “Crazy Jim” Vance, the

man who had led the raid on the McCoy cabin. On his third foray, Bad Frank and nearly 40 posse members engaged a dozen or so Hatfields in a firefight on Grapevine Creek. The only fatality was special deputy William Dempsey, whom Bad Frank brutally slew.

By now, the nation’s newspapers had blown up the feud to epic proportions. Ultimately, the law would take a hand in settling accounts in an effective effort to put an end to the bloody affair.

A Hatfield relative assumes responsibility for crimes he didn’t commit, bringing the famous feud to a close, but its legacy lingers today SECOND THOUGHTS

By this time, neither Devil Anse Hatfield nor Ran’l McCoy was anxious to continue the conflict.

McCoy once told a journalist of the sensation-hungry Northern reporters who swarmed to the region. “I used to be on very friendly terms with the Hatfields,” he said. “I hope no more of us will have to die. I’ll be glad when it’s all over.” He seemed, noted the journalist, “like a man who had been bent and almost broken by the weight of his afflictions and grief”—understandable, considering he had already lost five children to the violence.

For his part, Devil Anse was finding that his section of West Virginia was growing too hot for him and his family. To distance themselves from Kentucky posse men and bounty hunters, Anse and his family left their home on the Tug Fork and moved deeper into the woods, where he built a bullet-resistant, windowless fortress out of huge logs. Over the hearth of his now-empty house on the Tug hung a lithograph with the bland homily, “There Is No Place Like Home,” a sentiment on which some wag later penciled, “Leastwise, not this side of hell!”

Anse had to sell off much of his land to out-of-state coal companies for less than it was worth—and considerably below what its value would soon be to the railroads. This included the property that he had taken from Perry Cline years before.

Anse’s son, Cap, who had almost certainly slain Alifair McCoy during the infamous New Year’s raid, caught a train for Texas, while Johnse Hatfield beelined for Colorado. By this time, all three Hatfields, father and sons, had significant Kentucky bounties on their heads.

Meanwhile, West Virginia law was focusing on Bad Frank and his minions. The constable who had accompanied Officer Bill Dempsey and knew the details of his murder swore out a complaint, and a local justice issued murder warrants for Frank Phillips and 27 members of his posse, including Perry Cline’s son and nine McCoys, Old Ran’l among them.

Arrests were made, but the trial took place in a venue sympathetic to Phillips, who by now had become something of a local hero. As a result, the judge dismissed all charges.

TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT

In an effort to secure the release of the nine Hatfields and supporters taken by Phillips’ posse, West Virginia’s governor had brought suit against the Commonwealth of Kentucky, asserting that they had not been lawfully arrested but rather forcibly abducted across state lines.

In April 1888, the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices decided that Kentucky could indeed bring the men to trial. In late August, the defendants were marched into a Pikeville courtroom to face multiple murder charges.

The prosecution’s best hope of a general conviction lay with the mentally challenged Ellison “Cotton Top” Mounts, Devil Anse’s illegitimate albino grandson. Cotton Top had participated in the execution of the three McCoy brothers as well as the New Year’s raid on Ran’l’s cabin, and, with little prompting, he chronicled both events in great detail.

He also confessed to killing Alifair McCoy—an act of which he almost certainly was blameless. As she lay dying, she had clearly identified Cap

Hatfield as her slayer. According to some members of the McCoy family, Cotton Top had openly admitted that Cap had paid him to take the blame.

Cotton Top was only one among more than 20 witnesses. After hearing the evidence, the jury found all nine defendants guilty, and the judge sentenced eight to terms of life imprisonment. While some would serve sentences of varying lengths before obtaining early release, Devil Anse’s brother Wall died after only two years behind bars. For him, it truly proved to be a life sentence.

If Cotton Top was under the impression that his testimony would buy him leniency, he was mistaken.

Based on the strength of his confession, Ellison “Cotton Top” Mounts—the simple-minded son of Big Ellison Hatfield, whose murder six years before had precipitated so much violence—was sentenced to hang on Feb. 18, 1890.

Pike County had not hosted a hanging in four decades, and now that one had been mandated by the court, the authorities were resolved not to be deterred by a state law prohibiting public executions. In accordance with the law, they ordered the gallows to be surrounded by a fence that would ostensibly remove the proceedings from public view. However, they then sited the scaffold at the foot of a hill, giving all comers an unobstructed view of the event.

And come they did, by the thousands. If it was the intention of the Kentucky legal machinery to send a message that the decades-long feud must end, they could not have chosen a more impactful vehicle. It mattered little who was being hanged or for what specific offense. What signified most to the observers, and the law, k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 37

was that it would hopefully put an end to the bloodletting.

The event was an entertainment as well as a morality play. Liquor—much of it home-distilled—was readily available, and Bad Frank Phillips took full advantage of it. He got fallingdown drunk and reeled through the proceedings, shooting his pistols into the air and shouting that he had cleaned out the Hatfields and would do the same for Pikeville. After a fight in which he broke four of the sheriff’s ribs, the volatile killer was beaten into submission and unceremoniously deposited on the jailhouse floor.

Word had spread throughout the region that Devil Anse and his brood were planning to swoop down on Pikeville and stage a last-minute rescue of their kinsman. As a precaution, the local sheriff swore in 20 new deputies and organized an armed 50-man citizens’ guard. By the time morning broke on a chilly Feb. 18, there had not been—nor would there be—an attempt to break the condemned man from his cell.

Shortly after noon, the 25-year-old Cotton Top ascended the gallows steps, apparently unconcerned over the awful fate awaiting him. He calmly stated his readiness to die and his wish that his friends would meet him in heaven. Only when the black hood was being lowered over his face did he cry out in an anguished voice that reverberated up the crowded hillside, “The Hatfields made me do it!”

A F T E R M AT H

Hostilities did not simply cease at the death of the addled youth.

Kentucky murder warrants were still out for Devil Anse, Cap and Johnse Hatfield, and there were plenty of bounty men eager to earn the posted rewards. In addition to being on the alert to man-hunters, Anse had to maintain a constant lookout for 38 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

officers of the U.S. Marshals Service and—because some of the family’s activity was devoted to the distilling of whiskey—revenue agents.

Over the next few years, there would be an occasional killing with roots in the feud. In 1896, Cap, who had returned from Texas on the assumption that all past transgressions had been forgiven, was involved in a stand-up gunfight with members of the Rutherford clan, a

family of McCoy sympathizers. Three Rutherford family members died, while Cap sustained only a superficial wound. After his arrest, he broke jail and successfully evaded a manhunt.

Johnse was not so fortunate.

Having returned from his selfimposed exile in 1898, he was captured by a bounty hunter and jailed in Pikeville. Sentenced to life in prison, he eventually was pardoned for saving the warden’s life.

That same year, younger brother Elias exchanged fire with a man who had aided in Johnse’s capture. The man died, and Elias was sent to prison for murder; however, a sympathetic governor, William O’Connell Bradley, soon paroled him. Fourteen years later, Elias and Troy, another of Devil Anse’s sons, would die in a gunfight unrelated to the feud.

Franklin “Bad Frank” Phillips also

died by the gun in 1898 after being shot by a friend in a drunken quarrel.

And in late March 1902, yet another Rutherford, seeking to serve a warrant on Ephraim Hatfield, broke down the door of the Hatfield home.

Gunfire immediately erupted, and Rutherford, his sidekick, Hatfield and his father all fell dead.

For the most part, however, scores of family members on both sides of the feud were more interested in pursuing a peaceful coexistence than in engaging in life-anddeath altercations over a generation-old quarrel. Some even went on to become respected public figures. Henry Hatfield, Devil Anse’s nephew, became a highly regarded doctor and was elected as the youngest governor ever to serve the state of West Virginia.

Randolph “Old Ran’l” McCoy lived to the age of 88, but the years weighed heavily.

He had suffered the loss of five children to gunfire and daughter Roseanna to illness.

He saw his home destroyed and his wife terribly injured, and it had all taken a terrible toll. A broken man, for several years he operated a ferry at Pikeville, where he reportedly would shamble through the streets at odd hours, mumbling to himself and cursing the Hatfields.

Ran’l died in early 1914, months after tripping into a fireplace and horribly burning himself.

William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield saw his 82nd birthday, dying of pneumonia in 1921. By that time, he had become a legend, and approximately 5,000 people attended his funeral. His family ordered a monument and a larger-than-life-size statue, built of Carrara marble, to be placed over the old patriarch’s grave.

LO O K I N G BAC K

With the war between the two clans presumably at an end, the local

populace could turn its attention to a much more immediate threat to its well-being: coal. While the national press was busy capturing the public attention with tales of murderous “hillbillies,” the railroads were snaking their tracks through the hills and valleys, wealthy investors were financing huge tracts of land for the minerals below its surface, and an entire way of life was changing almost overnight.

The new war would be waged not between two clannish mountain families but between the mine owners and the miners, with the advantage ever on the side of big money. It would plunge the region into a struggle that would span generations, cost countless miners’ lives, and wreak havoc on the hills and hollers of both Kentucky and West Virginia.

The conflict between the Hatfields and the McCoys was unquestionably a dismal, bloody affair. However, in terms of regional feuds, it was not the longest-running, nor was it the costliest in terms of human life.

Neither side could be considered the winner and, despite the best of Hollywood traditions, it was never a contest between good and evil. Men from both sides committed unspeakable acts of violence and mayhem, each believing his actions to be justified by an ancient unwritten cultural and familial code of action and retribution.

There is no question that the war between the two families would have occurred below the level of historic scrutiny, as had countless other feuds of its kind, were it not for the enterprising journalists who shaped and molded both the players and their actions to fit a national readership ravenous for sensational news. Just a few years after the McCoy and Hatfield guns were stilled, William Randolph Hearst’s brand of so-called yellow journalism would play a major role in fomenting a senseless war in Cuba. Hearst’s form of distorted, sensationalist reportage saw its beginnings in the post-Civil War period, with such subjects as a Southern mountain feud providing grist for its mill.

The reporters’ stereotypical hillbilly image of the Hatfield-McCoy

feud has survived—and thrived—for well over a century. It initially enhanced the pages of the newspapers, “penny dreadfuls” and dime novels of the late Victorian Age. More recently, it has been used for everything from a punchline to sell products to a metaphor for today’s political divisiveness.

It also has given Americans countless hours of home entertainment. From the earliest days of television, millions of viewers were treated to such broadly caricatured programs as Hee Haw, The Beverly Hillbillies and the derivatively titled The Real McCoys. And the image has been passed on to our children. In the 1950s, Warner Brothers released a Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny and titled Hillbilly Hare. It is a thinly disguised spoof of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, with the characters depicted for laughs, in all their hostile, barefooted ignorance.

Ultimately, the hawkers of what now is referred to as “fake news” were aided by the rapid changes taking place in the Southern mountains. Writers contrasted progress and industrialization with the “backward” ways of largely illiterate, extended families that had made the mountains their home since the 18th century. In an unforgiving environment, these clans had scratched for their living, practiced the same traditions, and abided by the same unwritten rules of behavior that had guided their ancestors when they first arrived from Scotland, Ireland and England.

In the end, it is a sad fact that, while the world changed around them, they frequently did not. The ever-increasing gulf between mountain folk and the more “civilized” members of American society encouraged the spoon-fed readers of the nation’s newspapers and magazines to assume a condescending “us-and-them” view.

This, in turn, has perpetuated an image of the ignorant, gun-toting hillbilly that is still very much with us today and has earned the Hatfield-McCoy feud its dark place in America’s oral and written tradition. Q

learn more

RECOMMENDED READING:

Of the many books, articles and treatments on the HatfieldMcCoy Feud, the best, in my opinion, is the well-researched work The Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys: The True Story, by Dean King. The author makes use of historical documents, old newspaper articles, and first-hand accounts, and manages to tell an exciting story without losing the strong sense of history.

— Ron Soodalter k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 39

off the shelf

(P)-Paperback (C)-Clothbound (H)-Hardback

Joyful Tribute More than 20 years ago, when Lexington’s Fox 56 television veteran anchor/reporter Marvin Bartlett scrambled to piece together a short news item about a cancerstricken boy in a local hospital who delivered toys to other sick children, he didn’t realize the long-term positive effect the boy would have on him and thousands of others.

Bartlett now knows personally the abiding story of Jarrett Mynear, who died in 2002, and he’s written about it in The Boy Who Delivered Joy, a much-expanded version of one he wrote about Jarrett in 2002. It’s an important offering because it shares, in illuminating detail, not only the inspiring narrative of the smiling, optimistic Jarrett but also the ongoing effect—even in death—of his “Jarrett’s Joy Cart” project that continues to thrive today. Bartlett likens that effect to jumping into a swimming pool, with Jarrett’s Joy Cart “like doing a cannonball. It caused a lot of other people to get drenched in the desire to do good.”

The book supplies many examples of such.

Bartlett gleans his account from his personal relationship with Jarrett, along with hundreds of hours of interviews with Doug and Jennifer Mynear (Jarrett’s parents) and a host of others involved with the special youth’s life. The newsman manages to stay detached enough to allow Jarrett’s actions and influence—and the words of many—to relate what is an amazing presentation of the human spirit expressed by one so young.

By Steve Flairty The Boy Who Delivered Joy

By Marvin Bartlett Gatekeeper Press, $15 (P) 40 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

The Glory of Ashland This hardback coffee-table book contains 200-plus pages of gorgeous photos of 19th century statesman Henry Clay’s Lexington estate, Ashland. The estate dates back to the early 1800s and is preserved with period furnishings. The photos of the home of the man known as The Great Compromiser are crisp, clear and beautiful. If you have never toured the property, you may think you have made a visit after viewing the images. If you have indeed been there, the photos allow you to get a more in-depth tour.

In addition to the interior, exterior and grounds photos, there are close-up images of some of the family’s belongings. These photos allow the reader a chance to appreciate the amazing Ashland collection better than just passing through the rooms while on a tour.

Pistols that Clay borrowed for a duel, a book he inscribed for his friend Abraham Lincoln, and greatgranddaughter Madge’s suffragist button are but a few items captured by the camera lens.

Photographer Bob Willcutt, longtime owner of Lexington’s Willcutt Guitars, has been interested in photography his entire life. His first book, Feathers of Fayette: Wild Birds of Lexington, Kentucky, was published in 2018.

By Deborah Kohl Kremer Henry Clay’s Ashland: A Pictorial Tribute to One of America’s Greatest Statesman and his Lexington, Kentucky Estate Photography by Bob Willcutt Acclaim Press, 39.95 (H)

The Beauty of Barns Aside from bourbon and horses, what is more iconic Kentucky than a beautiful old barn? This coffeetable book boasting more than 200 pages is loaded with colorful and scenic photos of the Commonwealth’s barns, some ravaged by time and others state of the art.

Each entry includes the county in which the barn can be found and interesting facts about its architecture, uses and, if available, history. Photographer Carol Peachee does an excellent job of capturing the “personality” of each barn, showing the time-worn slats, the unique foundations and sometimes an interior shot so that we can see what’s inside.

The book includes a foreword by Mary Berry, who—as the daughter of farmer, author and environmental activist Wendell Berry—has some barn memories of her own.

Peachee, who lives in Lexington, is an award-winning fine art photographer of historic and heritage sites.

By Deborah Kohl Kremer Kentucky Barns: Agricultural Heritage of the Bluegrass By Carol Peachee, Quarry Books, $40 (H)

gardening

by Walt Reichert

Time to Sweat Lawn Care

I

t’s counterintuitive to think about lawn care when it’s hot, sometimes dry, and we’re really “over” cutting grass. But University of Kentucky research shows August and September are the best months to make improvements to your turf.

If you are looking for that emerald green carpet that is the envy of the neighborhood, put on the sweatband and get started.

First, find out the pH of your lawn soil and adjust it if necessary.

Turf grasses like a soil pH of nearly neutral—about 7 on the pH scale— but they will tolerate a range from 6.5-8. If your numbers are on either side of that range, growing a good lawn will be challenging.

The best way to find the pH of your soil is to take a soil sample to your local Extension office. The sample will go to UK for a test that will indicate your soil pH and show what fertilizers are needed. If your pH number falls below 6.5, you will be told how much lime to add per thousand square feet of lawn to bring the number closer to 7. Most of you in the state will not need to add lime, but if you do, it’s best to put it down as soon as possible. Lime takes a while to work its magic.

Options If your lawn is in fairly good shape—a few weedy spots but mostly good grass—you may simply want a renovation. This involves spot treating weeds with a total-kill herbicide containing glyphosate or using a broadleaf herbicide containing 2,4-D over the entire lawn to kill dandelions, chickweed, etc. Note that a broadleaf herbicide will not kill the good grasses but also will not kill obnoxious weedy grasses like crabgrass and

Johnsongrass. Those are best controlled with a total-kill herbicide this month or a pre-emergent herbicide in the spring.

After treating the weedy spots, you can rake up those areas and sow good lawn grasses, such as turf type tall fescue. Don’t leave those spots bare or you invite weeds to come a-camping. Water the grass seed and cover with a thin layer of straw. Try to keep those renovated spots wellwatered if the rains fail, which is likely in late summer. Watering every other day is not too much. You can stop when the emerging grasses get as tall as the surrounding turf.

Total Kill If your lawn looks like death on a cracker—weeds and bare spots everywhere—you might do well to do a total-kill and start all over. A total-kill involves spraying the entire lawn with a total-kill herbicide. If your lawn is small, you can do this with a hand-held sprayer. If your lawn is large, you might do well to hire a service to do it or rent a pullbehind sprayer for your lawn tractor.

Once the herbicide has killed the entire lawn—usually in about two weeks, depending on weather and instructions on the herbicide label— you can sow the lawn with desirable grasses. Again, you want turf type tall fescue, with brand names such as Rebel II or Falcon.

You can simply walk along the lawn and broadcast the seed.

Inefficient, but it does work. Divide the seed in half and walk in two directions to get the best coverage possible. Using a whirlybird type seeder is the next step up. Coverage is a little more uniform, and the job goes a bit faster.

Since good grass seed is not

cheap, and the above two methods are wasteful of seed, it will likely pay you to rent a power seeder. The seeder looks a bit like a walk-behind lawn mower. You fill the hopper with seeds, and the power seeder drills them into the turf. This allows for better soil-to-seed contact and uses far less seed than you would if you walk along, Johnny Appleseedlike, scattering grass seed. You also can hire someone to power seed your lawn, and many lawn-care companies offer this service.

The hard part of getting the new lawn established is keeping it watered. Covering the lawn lightly with straw after the grasses have been sown will help keep moisture intact. Once the seedlings germinate, they’re quite fragile and will perish if allowed to dry out.

Given the typical heat of August and September, this means the new seedlings should be watered at least every other day. That’s challenging on a large lawn but absolutely necessary if you want to get off to a good start.

The new lawn can be mowed once the grasses get 4 or 5 inches tall, but don’t take off more than an inch or an inch and a half. Turf grasses perform better if left higher than what makes us comfortable.

Taller grasses shade out weeds and hold in moisture better than a “scalped” lawn.

Fertilize your lawn in October and December per soil test instructions, and you won’t need to fertilize again in the spring. In fact, your lawn will thrive better if you don’t fertilize in the spring. You’ll have enough gardening projects to do at that time of year!

Readers may contact Walt Reichert at editor@kentuckymonthly.com

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 41

field notes

by Gary Garth

Neighboring Ponds

T

here is a trio of ponds near my Calloway County home that I occasionally fish. I am not alone.

Flanked by a well-traveled county road and being easily accessible, it’s a popular spot. The property is publicly owned, fenced and gated. The iron gate is a double-hinged affair wide enough for the passage of farm equipment. It is rarely closed.

The ponds fill about a half-acre each. There were originally four, but the northwest corner pond appears to have been dry for several years, having become overgrown and sprouting a couple of trees with trunks the size of softballs. The ponds are laid out in a rectangle and were probably dug as irrigation tanks for the adjoining farm. The three remaining ponds may still serve that purpose. The farm remains in operation, although it now serves as an educational agricultural field lab.

The pond area is regularly mowed—not manicured, but well maintained—and includes two barns,

42 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

a large open-air pavilion and a portable toilet. The ponds lie in full sunshine, but a couple of large trees provide ample shade for parking.

They are odd fisheries, not overly productive but accessible and fun to fish. The one closest to the parking area is nearly as clear as a mountain lake with some bank grass. The adjacent pond is the color of creamed coffee, and the third is murky but not muddy. I first assumed this was due to rain or runoff but then noticed that the water color is nearly always consistent regardless of weather conditions. I tracked the ponds using Google Earth. The photo didn’t have a time stamp, but the color range was consistent with today.

Turtles, frogs and an occasional water snake are easily spotted.

These are warm-water fisheries, of course, and surrender bluegill, crappie, bass and catfish. While recently casting for bass with an 8-foot, 5-weight, I hooked and landed about a 2-pound channel

catfish on a No. 12 bead head black wooly bugger with silver flash. In five decades of fishing, it was my first catfish on a fly.

The cream-colored pond might be the best bass water of the three, an assessment made after a brief encounter with a bassman. I stopped late one afternoon earlier this year and, while I was rigging up, was joined by a guy who, armed with a 7-foot baitcaster tipped with a Zara Spook, marched toward the southeast corner with purpose and made about a dozen laser-like casts, then left as abruptly as he had arrived. He worked the Spook with skill and expertise.

“Just wanted to see it they were hitting top water yet,” he announced with a flourish while climbing into his four-wheel-drive Chevy. “They’re not. Not yet.”

I counted this as a pretty good source, although pre-season bass passion can push anticipation to such a frenzy that it can become difficult

CELEBRATING 71 YEARS IN THE BLUEGRASS!

to separate informative wheat from overly optimistic chaff. ggg

I stopped late one afternoon recently searching for some solace in the following the death of days in Minneapolis. The George Floyd country was aflame with an understandable rage that seemed to be seeping into every fiber of the nation. Justice, I hoped, would soon

be at hand.

A family the south

of four was at2020 end of the clear-water pond. This is the area most readily accessible from the parking spot and is the favorite for fishing with youngsters. It’s easily accessible, near some shady cover, and can be depended upon to surrender fairly steady bluegill action. Few things keep kids entertained like a pod of friendly bluegill.

Just as I finished readying my tackle, I heard the squeals of a young fisherman. I walked around the front of my vehicle to enjoy the excitement.

One of the kids—a boy about 5—had a small bluegill dangling from the tip of his rod. The youngster spotted me and swung his rod to show off his catch about the same time his dad was reaching for the fish to unhook it.

I admired the catch and offered my congratulations. The dad, who was African American, acknowledged me with a nod but said nothing. I felt like Minneapolis hung in the air like humidity following an afternoon summer thunderstorm. Everyone had seen the video. While the kid bounced with delight at his catch, Dad used his fingers to work the hook from the fish’s mouth. They held the fish together for a moment then tossed it, underhand, back into the water.

I suddenly realized I was intruding. “Good luck, men,� I said and headed toward the north end of the pond.

The dad stood and wiped his hands on a cloth stuck in his belt. “Thanks,� he called out cheerfully. “Good luck to you, too.�

71

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Grant County is just a short drive from anywhere in Kentucky.

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Readers may contact Gary Garth at editor@kentuckymonthly.com

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 43

past tense/present tense

by Bill Ellis

Education, Education, Education

M

ost of the folks reading this column probably know I was a longtime teacher. I grew up with the intention of becoming an educator as far back as the seventh grade. History was always my favorite subject, not that I did poorly in school. “Billy is a bit slow,” my high school trig and plane geometry teacher Bill Shannon wrote in a brief note congratulating my parents on my graduation from Shelbyville High School. He was pointing out the obvious: Mathematics was not my forte.

Playing football in high school encouraged me to go to a small college where I could get experience.

I graduated from Georgetown College in the spring of 1962. Toward the end of my last semester in school, a head coaching job opened up at Harrodsburg High School. I coached and taught there for one year, and then spent three years as head coach of the fledging football program at Shelby County High School.

I had some success. However, as I have often told the story, the mark of a good football coach is to win at least 200 games in a career. I think Bear Bryant won 323. At the rate I was going, after four years of coaching I figured it would take me about 100 years to reach 200 wins (humor intended). So, I decided to go to graduate school and concentrate on teaching history.

Looking back, I hope I had a beneficial impact on the young men who played for “Coach” Ellis.

I spent a year at Eastern Kentucky University, obtaining a master’s degree in history. Over a period of several years, I completed the Ph.D. program in history at the University of Kentucky, graduating in December 1974. All the while, I was teaching— first at Lees Junior College in Jackson for three years, then on the social science faculty at EKU, eventually transferring to the department of history there.

44 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

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The desire to conduct research and write was instilled in me by George Robinson, who guided my master’s thesis, and Richard Lowitt, a New York City native and UK history professor who knew nothing about the subject of my doctoral dissertation, E.Y. Mullins, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dick and I both learned a lot and made quite a pair: big city scholar and small-town Kentucky boy. Over the years, we developed a lasting friendship, participating in seminars and conferences on agricultural history.

Many people like to believe that they are self-made, never owing anything to anyone. Occasionally, I have met such people. Some have even risen to high positions and often have a haughty attitude of having made it on their own.

Public education has always been a leveling feature in our democratic society, as was the military draft for many years. With the end of World War II, the G.I. Bill of Rights sent to colleges and universities millions of men and women who never would have had an opportunity without this substantial support from the federal government. Military service is still a steppingstone to higher education with many schools, including EKU, highlighting its efforts to engage veterans.

Nowadays, we hear that the accumulated higher-education student debt in this country exceeds all other forms of indebtedness. ggg

Education and educators have always been close to my heart. Back in the old days, when I was teaching at EKU and briefly served as head of the Oral History Center, I spoke with a great number of teachers and education administrators among the 678 interviews I recorded.

Interviewing these teachers and

administrators encouraged me to begin work on A History of Eastern Kentucky University: The School of Opportunity (2005) and A History of Education in Kentucky (2011), both published by the University Press of Kentucky.

Some interviewees started teaching in the 1920s. Many taught in one- or two-room schools for only a six-month term, if that long, boarding with a local family and making as little as $25 to $30 a month. They often taught for a term and then went to get more education coursework at EKU, Western Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, UK and private colleges.

In a 1987 publication, From the Fort to the Future: Educating the Children of Kentucky, Thelma Beeler wrote about perhaps the longest career of teaching in Kentucky history. “My Sixty-Five Years in the Classroom, 1922-1987,” included recounts of her teaching in a two-room school near Shaker Village in Harrodsburg to a career spanning 29 years at Lexington’s Lafayette High School.

Beeler was a tough disciplinarian.

In the early years of her career, a young boy, having run off a previous teacher with a knife, tried the same trick on Beeler. “I grabbed the knife, threw it up front against the blackboard, knocked him out of his seat onto the floor, grabbed him, shook him, and flopped him back down into his seat. Things were very peaceful after that.”

Years later, she recalled boarding a bus, and the driver was the same former student. “Well, Miss Thelma,” he said, “do you remember when you made a man out of me?”

“Yes,” she responded with a laugh.

After finishing a term at Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, Raymond Layne began his career at a school in a coal camp in Harlan County unaware that digging pits for outhouses would be part of his

HockensmitH's Fine Art editions Gallery & Press

duties. One incident made his reputation as a disciplinarian. Not knowing a mischievous boy had matches in his back pocket, the young teacher administered a healthy swat to the miscreant’s backside.

“The matches ignited and burned a hole in his pants and blistered his hip,” Layne recalled many years later.

“The word got around that ‘Mr. Layne set a boy on fire at school.’ ” Many teachers have taught longer than my active years in education.

Richard Day, who is now professor of education at EKU, began his career at R.C. Hinsdale Elementary School in Kenton County in 1973. He completed 47 years of active teaching in May. Recently, Carol Montgomery Williams of Georgetown told me that she taught a total of 52 years, combining elementary school experience and teaching at Georgetown College.

How many of our readers have at least 40 years of teaching experience? How many have that many years in a single profession?

I always had great education mentors to guide me.

Email your stories about a teacher who had a great impact on your life.

146 East Main • 502. 8 63. 229 9

Georgetown • KY

40324

The Chrysalis Project Traveling Exhibition 24 giclée images Visual and Poetic Interpretation of the Monarch Life-Cycle

John S. Hockensmith

Faulkner Originals Ltd. Editions Giclée Award Winning Book

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My hat is off to teachers and students from kindergarten to college classes who have kept up their efforts during the terrible COVID-19 pandemic.

The Gift of Color

ggg

I enjoyed my teaching years. While teaching at a county high school, I realized that many of the kids worked long hours. I allowed some who lived and worked on dairy farms to take a brief nap in class.

Discipline was not a problem for the most part.

The most disheartening event I experienced at EKU happened a few days after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. As students were discussing the tragic crime, a male in the back of the room raised his hand. “Sometimes, these things are necessary,” he said rather softly. Thirty or more heads immediately turned toward him. I don’t recall if anything else was said. He dropped the class soon after that. I was glad.

I tried to be helpful to students after classes, probably too much so by more modern standards. One time, a female student received her test back with many marks indicating why she had made an F. I wrote on her paper to come to my office to try and straighten out her deficiencies. After her classmates had left, she walked up to my desk. Thinking that she was about to schedule a conference, I waited patiently.

“You G.D.S.O.B.,” she said, filling out the words. I, of course, was taken aback, not knowing what to do. I started laughing; then she started laughing. She walked out the door, and I never saw her again.

Oh, well. You can’t win ’em all.

Henry Lawrence Faulkner

Gallery Artists Chip Dumpstorf Jerry Stone Michele MacDonald Robert Clark Diane C. Maroscia Giles Prett and others

Jim Brancaccio Visit our gallery in the center of historic downtown Georgetown or go online

www.FineArteditions.net k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 45

Due to COVID-19, please call or visit the event’s website prior to attending to ensure that it is taking place.

calendar

AUGUST 2020 MONDAY

Ongoing Car-toon Creatures, Kustom Kars and Corvettes,

Ongoing >>> What Is a Vote Worth?

Suffrage Then and Now, Frazier

National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, through Dec. 31

History Museum, Louisville, through February, (502) 753-5663

2

3

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

10

SOKY Fair, Lampkin Park, Bowling Green, through Aug. 15, (270) 842-7980

16

Vintage Baseball Game,

17

23

24

30

31

SATURDAY

Maybe Baby, It’s You, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, through Aug. 15, (859) 236-2747

4

Tuesday Night Concerts,

5

11

The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder virtual,

6

Bourbon and Botanicals Music, Yew Dell Gardens, Crestwood, also Aug. 13, 20 and 27, (502) 241-4788

12

13

Filson Historical Society, Louisville, (502) 635-5083

18

Mystery Meat Blues Band,

25

7

8

presentation, Filson Historical Society, Louisville, (502) 635-5083

RiverPark Center, Owensboro, (270) 687-2770

Archiving 101, virtual

14

Women’s Weekend Retreat, Shaker Village, Harrodsburg, through Aug. 16, (859) 734-5411

19

Gearheart Auditorium, Prestonsburg, (606) 886-2623

Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611

FRIDAY

1

President’s Park, Edgewood, also Aug. 11, 18 and 25, (859) 331-5910

9

THURSDAY

20

Kentucky State Fair, Kentucky Expo Center, Louisville, through Aug. 30, (502) 367-5000

26

21

Comedy Weekend, Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, through Aug. 22, (859) 236-2747

Hops on the Ohio,

15

Woodland Art Fair, Woodland Park, Lexington, (859) 246-7024

Soapmaking Workshop, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, Crestwood, (502) 241-4788

26

NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, through Aug. 30, (270) 781-7634

22

a guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events 46 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

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E X T R A V E S T E D. . .

The Middle Lane M

y grandparents’ Latonia home shared a driveway with that of their next-door neighbors.

Apparently, driveways were not a significant consideration when the houses were built. The space between the two brick homes did not allow for two full lanes. The solution was three stone treads spaced a car’s width apart.

From the street, my grandparents’ path was the center and right tread, and Neighbor’s was the center and left. In the backyard, the center tread, which straddled the property line, forked and STEPHEN M. VEST Publisher + Editor-in-Chief led to separate detached garages.

Mamaw, my grandmother, and Neighbor were not friends. To him, she was a stubborn old woman who too freely spoke her mind. To her, he was a cocky young man who did not show her the respect she’d earned long before he was Neighbor. “He’s loud,” she would complain to the invisible audience in her empty kitchen. “Uhmph.”

I was a frequent visitor to Mamaw’s house on Locke Street. When my grandfather, Mac, was away on the

railroad, I spent much of my time either sitting on my feet in front of Mamaw’s large color television or playing in the backyard with my Matchbox cars in the shade of a vast catalpa tree—alone, which, in retrospect, prepared me for the isolation of COVID-19.

Neighbor’s house was exotic. He had six or seven children of a wide range of ages, and they were always coming and going from the house, often accompanied by wild-haired friends. “It’s a carnival over there,” Mamaw would mutter. “Who in their right mind would have so many children?”

Occasionally, I was invited to play with Neighbor’s children in Neighbor’s backyard. I had to remain within sight of Mamaw’s kitchen window, and she couldn’t understand why I’d want to go over there with them. “Don’t you go getting dirty and track anything into my house,” she’d say.

Mamaw and Neighbor lived next to each other for decades. Their differences were apparent, and there was no lack of communication. While each needed to stay in his or her own lane, each knew the importance of the middle one—the common ground—that made their individual pursuits of happiness translated into “comings and goings” possible.

We were alerted to Melvin the Magnificent (see page 3) by a reader, which sparked a phone call to Amy Ellis in Franklin, where we learned, as radio commentator Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.”

Jeremy Loveall, the welding teacher at Franklin-Simpson High School, and his students have created several public art pieces, including Melvin, an equine sculpture made of horseshoes. Melvin has become Franklin’s unofficial mascot, said Ellis, director of Franklin-Simpson Renaissance.

“He’s quite the fashion icon, dressing up for most major holidays,” Ellis said. “He even sported a mask and scrubs in a tribute to the health care workers during the pandemic.”

Loveall’s welding students also have created a space capsule that mysteriously appeared in a Simpson County field one morning, a lock tree and metal letters in front of the high school, and a “fork in the road” with its own Facebook page.

1. B. At one time, Boone owned 100,000 acres in Nicholas County, but he was not the best at details or paperwork, so he lost ownership of the land when Kentucky developed a new system to pay taxes/record deeds. In 1799, he moved on to Missouri, leaving not only Kentucky but the United States (at the time); 2. B. Distilled in Owensboro, Glenmore was found under the statue; 3. D. All are true. Actor Terrence Currier portrayed Carroll in the 2004 film National Treasure, and Carroll is mentioned in 1939’s Gone With the Wind; 4. C. Just in time for the nation’s bicentennial celebration; 5. C. The Host with the Most; 6. A. Stanton, who acted well into his 90s; 7. C. O’Grady hailed from Ennis in County Clare, which is in western Ireland; he moved to the U.S. soon after the Civil War and married a daughter of Lewis and Amanda J. “Mandy” Walker, an African-American couple from Todd County; 8. C. Caramel; 9. B. More than two dozen educational institutions are named for St. Francis de Sales; 10. A. Black Mountain rises 4,139 feet above sea level, and the outer reaches of Fulton County are 257 above sea level and 263 feet higher than New Orleans.

48 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY AUGUST 2 0 2 0

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