Pictures from Arkansas, Kentucky and
Indiana: October
2005
We set out on our trip with a number of genealogy-related destinations
in mind, so we took along lots of detailed maps of locations relevant
to Linda's and Jerry's kin. And of course, Boo made sure she wouldn't
be left behind:
In northeast Arkansas, along the Black River, the town of Powhatan
prospered a century ago. We're told it's pronounced "POW hattan"
(rhymes with Manhattan) though supposedly Virginians pronounce it "pow
it TAN." Today there's little left to the community except the columns
of a great bridge than once spanned the river, some old buildings
maintained as a state historical park, and a splendid but inactive
courthouse that's being restored as a museum:
Our primary interest, however, was the Black River itself. Between 1838
and 1840, while attempting to swim across the stream, Linda's kin John
Eddy drowned. The precise location of the tragedy isn't known to us.
Here's a view of the river at Powhatan. Perhaps at the time John
drowned the river was swollen by heavy rains and crossing it was more
dangerous than it appears here.
We entered Kentucky via Tennessee and made our way northeasterly to
Lewisport in Hancock County, which would be our base for a couple of
days as we explored points to the east in Breckinridge County. Kentucky
is famed as a great producer of two sinful products: whiskey and
tobacco. We didn't care to visit a distillery (we'd been to the Jack
Daniels operation years ago), but we did see a lot of barns that held
recently-harvested tobacco that had been hung todry for a couple of
months before going to auction:
As the name Lewisport suggests, we were in northern Kentucky, along the
great Ohio River that does much to shape history and life along its
banks. As it was two hundred years ago, the Ohio is a avenue for
commerce, linking Pittsburgh to the wide Missisippi. Perhaps this "tow"
(as it's called although the boat is pushing rather than pulling the
barges) was headed upstream for Pennsylvania:
Jerry's mother was a descendant of several families with Kentucky
roots, and some of them lived in or near Cloverport, a now-sleepy
little town that looks more to US 60 than to the river for connections
to other places. But in the early 1800s, it was a significant way
station for traffic along the river. It began in 1802 with Joseph
Houston's founding of Joeville, a hamlet on the east bank of Clover
Creek, but Joeville merged with the community on the west bank and the
Cloverport name survived. Abe Lincoln's family crossed the Ohio here
(or maybe at a nearby town; there are rival stories) when they moved to
Indiana. A rare type of coal mined in the vicinity was used in the
first production of coal gas, and the coal was even exported to Great
Britain by a venture that included the future King Edward as an
investor. James Weatherholt, step-father of William "Billy"
Miller (who was Jerry's maternal grandmother's great-grandfather),
operated a ferry between Cloverport on the south side of the
river shown here ...
and the sister city across the river in Indiana, Tobinsport, where
Weatherholt resided:
Of course, on most any genealogical expedition visits to cemeteries are
important. We went to several in Breckinridge County, including the
graveyard at Walnut Grove Baptist Church (est. 1816) where Jordans and
Claycombs (also ancestors of Jerry's grandmother Fern Miller Hebbe),
are among those at eternal rest:
At Union Star cemetery we found the tombstone of Adam Barr, "a soldier
of the revolution," who enjoyed remarkable longevity for the time (or
for our time, for that matter). Again, Jerry's connection is through
his maternal grandmother.
Also at Union Star is the grave of Barbara Claycomb Barr Jolly,
daughter of Adam Barr. Her tombstone has weathered the elements through
142 years better than most, but here we'll use a photo taken by Jerry's
parents in the 1980's, when the stone had less lichen to obscure the
lettering. It's not kown whether the engraved finger pointing skyward
was meant to indicate Mrs. Jolly's expectation of a heavenly reward, or
if it just reflects confidence that her football team was No. 1:
One grave marker bore a reminder that genealogists should never place
complete trust in the accuracy of information etched on tombstones:
We attempted to visit the Pate Cemetery, which would seem to be easy
because Pate Cemetery Road is on the map. But old family cemeteries are
usually on private land, and we decided it would be better to turn
around when we found that road petered out in a farmer's field.
Nevertheless, we got a pretty picture. When Jerry's ancestors moved to
the prairie of south-central Kansas, they left behind this hilly,
well-watered and forested countryside:
After roaming around Breckinridge County and spending several hours at
the archives in Hardinsburg, we traveled on to Louisville. The city's
economy is mainly industrial now, but the city arose because the Falls
of the Ohio made it necessary to unload boats and portage the cargo
around the rapids. Eventually a canal and then railroads meant the
Falls were no longer an impediment to commerce. Today they are
interesting because the fossil-rich rocks--now the basis for a state
park on the Indiana side--are above water most of the year so visitors
can walk about and see the traces of ancient plants and animals.
The Kentucky Derby is so famous that we decided to take a look at
Churchill Downs, which is a few miles south of downtown Louisville.
It's reportedly the oldest continuously-operated race track in America.
It may well be one of the biggest, too. This snapshot shows only a
portion of the main building :
In downtown Louisville, overlooking the Ohio, is a spacious plaza where
we ate a picnic lunch. The main feature is a large statue of George
Rogers Clark, called the founder of Louisville because he established a
fort on a nearby island. (It offered protection from Indian attack and
deterred desertion.) Even without the tantalizing prospect of kinship
to the remarkable Clark family, the statue is interesting in the way it
expresses his leadership of the audacious military expedition that
vanquished the British in the Northwest Territory and led to a huge
expansion of the young United States. Clark is depicted looking back
over his shoulder at his troops and pointing to the lands across the
river:
It was at George's retirement home on the Ohio near Louisville that
Merriwether Lewis and William Clark (George's brother) began their
famous Journey of Discovery. This statue at the Falls of the Ohio State
Park depicts the moment when Clark, in civilian garb, greets Lewis who
is in fine military regalia. Perhaps Clark is saying, "Egad, Sir, I
must concede that you have won the Silly Hat Contest!"
On the east side of Louisville is the restored Locust Grove plantation,
home of George Rogers Clark's sister, Lucy. Her husband, William
Croghan, had become a friend of George's brother Johnathan Clark during
the Revolutionary War. The old general had lost a leg due to injuries
from a fall into a fireplace, and Locust Grove became his home for the
rest of his health-challenged life. Locust Grove had many famous
visitors, including Lewis and Clark, who stopped at the
plantation on their return journey to Washington. Locust Grove
was an especially sumptuous residence for the era, so it's no wonder
the weary explorers tarried several weeks.
The final big stop was a delight for Jerry. In the small northeastern
Indiana city of Auburn is the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, a shrine
and showcase for those notable cars of the Classic era. The museum is
in a building that housed the head offices of the Auburn Automobile
Company:
The building, and the cars it houses, have been restored to their
glorious condition when new:
Just as interesting, for Jerry at least, is the story of those cars'
origins and engineering, and the museum gives much attention to that:
So it seems that, one way or another, most of our excursions wind up
getting us involved with the history of one place or another!
