History Commons^™

The Greens Of Falls Of Rough: A Kentucky Family Biography 1795-1965, Hugh Ridenour

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of writing about the Greens of Falls of Rough is to record the extraordinary lives of three generations of a prominent, but somewhat neglected, Kentucky family that contributed greatly to the history of the Commonwealth. This family’s activities parallel that history in social, economic and political aspects from the state’s inception to the 1960s.

In addition, this thesis should alleviate a pervasive misunderstanding regarding the identity of Willis Green, founder of the Greens of Falls of Rough. Mr. Green, a prominent Kentuckian in his own right, has been confused with another Kentuckian, a Willis Green of Danville. The …

Expressions Of Grief In South Central Kentucky, 1870-1910, Sue Lynn Arnold

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Through the ages, survivors have experienced loss due to the deaths of their contemporaries. Between 1870 and 1910, the people of south central Kentucky (Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Logan, Monroe, Simpson and Warren counties) used significant expressions of grief. Combining oral history with primary correspondence, journals, scrapbooks and mementos, this study determines the importance that area residents placed on deathbed accounts, the care given the deceased's body, the funeral service, obituaries, resolutions of respect, memorial poetry, condolence letters, photography, memorial cards and pictures, hair wreaths, mourning attire and jewelry, the gravesite, and the tombstone. In almost every instance, south central …

Caroline Gordon: A Sense Of Place, Frances Perdue

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Place, as it transcends the immediate setting of a work, is an essential element of Caroline Gordon’s early novels. She looks to the past and to the region of her birth to focus on the traditional South. She shows her characters’ changing attitudes toward the Cavalier Myth, a view that promotes the value of the land, the patriarchal family, and an anachronistic code of honor. To them, the South is unique, and they resist all efforts to change this “given social order.” However, Gordon begins to recognize that change is inevitable. Thus, she reveals her characters’ succumbing to the rising …

Tinsley Bottom Tennessee: An Historical Reconstruction Utilizing Oral Narrative Traditions, Rebecca Morse

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Tinsley Bottom lies adjacent to the Cumberland River in Jackson and Clay Counties in north central Tennessee. The rich rolling bottomland totaling approximately two thousand acres on the south bank of the Cumberland River lured several families to purchase land and take residence there in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The history of Tinsley Bottom is not found in written records or annals of Tennessee history. No person of reknown sprang from the cultural context of this community. Yet tales are told of how Daniel Boone hunted in the Bottom and slept in a cave overlooking the River, and …

“They Made Us Dance In The Pig Trough!” Mrs. Blanche Story’S Oral Accounts Of Dating, Courtship, Marriage And Sexual Attitudes In Northcentral Nebraska, 1885-1910, Gayle Waggoner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Oral recollections concerning dating, courtship, marriage and related attitudes were collected from a single informant, Mrs. Blanche Story of Butte, Nebraska. Through in-depth questioning during twelve tape-recorded interview sessions, value- and attitude-oriented accounts were secured for the years 1885 to 1910, the late frontier period in northcentral Nebraska. These detailed reminiscences focus on common life experiences related to interpersonal relationships and the institutions related to them, resulting in a personal or folk history. The single greatest problem in research was the lack of documentation for the attitudinal content of the texts. Corroboration of both specific information and broad patterns of …

Tobacco Farming: The Persistence Of Tradition, Eugene Umberger Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The culture of tobacco has been associated with the history of Kentucky almost from the beginning and remains to this day a vital force in the state’s economy. In this age of scientific and technological advances – of increasing automation – we find that in tobacco farming, hand labor still figures prominently in the production of a major staple crop. This has resulted in the retention of traditional method, technology and terminology, long since lost in the culture of other crops which lent themselves more easily to mechanization.

The study is divided into three parts. Chapter I deals briefly with …

The Cedar Grove Community In Oral Folk History, Ada Parker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The thesis was originally done for the Center for Intercultural & Folk Studies which no longer exists.

Luke Pryor Blackburn: The Good Samaritan, Nancy Baird

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Luke Pryor Blackburn, Kentucky’s only physician governor, is one of the forgotten public health figures of the 19^th century. As health officer of Natchez in the 1850s he instituted the first effective quarantine used in the Mississippi Valley and became a strong advocate of its use as a preventive measure in the control of yellow fever. During his lifetime Blackburn also became well known for his unselfish aid to communities stricken with the disease.

In March 1878 announced his candidacy for governor of his native state. Local politicians scoffed at his chances for election, but his actions during the …

Geographical Analysis Of The State-Administered Roads In Kentucky, 1920 To 1970, Sudesh Singla

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

There are several problems in the study of the growth and analysis of roads and highways. The first purpose of the study is to determine the stages of expansion in the State Highway System of Kentucky with respect to the density and the types of roads in Kentucky. A comparison has been made with other states of the nation with regards to percentage of roads paved and the total road mileage during the same stages.

The second purpose of the study is to determine the structure of growth, locational pattern of roads and major nodal points. The third purpose of …

Asiatic Cholera In Kentucky 1832 To 1873, Nancy Baird

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Asiatic cholera has been called the scourge of the nineteenth century, for it caused the untimely death of millions throughout the world. During its four visits to the United States, unknown thousands of Kentuckians fell victims to the disease. In attempting to prevent the dreaded scourge, Kentuckians became more conscious of the need for cleaner cities, pure water and adequate sewage disposal. Modern waterworks facilities, sewage treatment and disposal facilities have provided the means by which the United States has conquered this scourge of the nineteenth century, for with these facilities cholera is the easiest of all communicable diseases to …

The Constitutional Union Party In Kentucky, John Lawrence Kelly

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

During the period immediately preceding the Civil War, there arose a new political party, the Constitutional Union party. While nearly every other phase of the era around the Civil War has been covered exhaustively, comparatively, very little has been written about the Union movement and its attempt to prevent the war. What has been written about the Union party deals primarily with the movement at the national level. It is the goal of this author to present a history of the Union movement in Kentucky and the part played in the national party by Kentuckians.

Green River Steamboating A Cultural History, 1828-1931, Helen Bartter Crocker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In recent years, historians have displayed a growing interest in the cultural development of certain well-defined regions. Often a river valley inspired such a study, for example, R.E. Banta’s The Ohio, Thomas Clark’s The Kentucky and Harriette Arnow’s Seedtime on the Cumberland. These and many other river histories dealt less with the river itself than with its tendency to define and alter an area’s culture

This thesis, dealing with the culture of Green River’s steamboat era, is less about the steamboat or Green River than it is about their effect on river people. It searches the area’s homes, schools, business …

The Economic Development Of The South Union Shaker Colony 1807-1861, John M. Keith Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly called Shakers, are a most unique communistic group in American history. Their society had an economic as well as a religious base. Because of this entwining relationship, the Shakers outlived all other communistic societies in the United States.

From the beginning the Shakers placed great emphasis on the economic aspects of their communal society and this emphasis played a paramount role in many of their major decisions. In effect their theory was “Mine is thine and thine is mine.” Taking their beliefs from this statement, together with the preaching of …

Reorganization Of The Warren County School System, Charles Clemons

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A discussion of how to reorganize the Warren County, Kentucky school system. Includes a description of the Warren County school system in 1957.

A Study Of The Public School System Of Nelson County, Earl Huber

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Only seven years more than one hundred years ago, 1838, Kentucky’s public school system was established. Few Kentuckians conceived of a state-wide public school system. Many of the citizens were conservative and inclined to look upon a scheme of public education with doubt and disfavor; they were accustomed to the traditional plan of private education. In Nelson County, as in the rest of Kentucky, the early sponsors of public education were confronted with the problem of building sentiment for such a public service. Their task was one of establishing schools. Their chief goal was one of providing a school service, …

The Development And Growth Of Community Schools In Hopkins County, Compton C. Crowe

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For several years many of the leading educators of the different states and the leading schools of higher education have been studying and advocating the community school idea. There have been many community schools established with various plans and ideas installed. Some are more advanced than others, but all are established with a long time plan in view. Many conferences have been held, and experts have been consultants and co-ordinators, and several visits have been made within the community to see at first hand the workability of school and its affect upon the lives of the children and citizens of …

A Study Of The Nursery Schools Conducted At Western Kentucky Teachers College In 1934 And 1935, Ethel Barnard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

As a result of the recent rapid increase in number of nursery schools in the United States a great deal of interest in nursery education has been evinced. The purpose of this study is to present a descriptive sketch of the nursery schools conducted at Western Kentucky Teachers College in such a manner that some results of the work may be shown.

The Development Of Education In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Lula Dickey Vance

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In recent years several articles have been written concerning education in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but the writer has been unable to discover an article that has treated the development of education from the time Bowling Green was established until now. It is the motive of this study to trace the development of education from the time Bowling Green was established until the present time.

Information for this thesis has been obtained from various sources, but the greater part of it has been secured through personal interviews, unpublished manuscripts, scrapbooks and histories.

Alexander Campbell In Kentucky, Leo Ashby

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The question of religion has caused much strife among mankind in the past, and even the present is not without its spiritual prejudices. In any phase of life the individual who departs too far from the accepted order is almost certain to be brought up sharply against the criticism and even ridicule of his contemporaries.

Alexander Campbell is no exception to this rule. His life was one of strife and conflict in the field of religion. His leadership in the “Reformation Movement” of the early Nineteenth Century has left an indelible impression upon the minds of thousands of men and …

John G. Fee And Berea College, Flora Jones

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

When a student at Berea College it occurred to the writer that if the opportunity should ever present itself, she would be interested in knowing more concerning the early struggles and untiring labor of the men who had made possible such a great and unique institution of learning.

It is the aim of this paper to treat in a brief and concise way the development of this institution and in particular the part played by John G. Fee. Also it is hoped to furnish an account of the early struggles of this institution that will be of interest to the …

Relative Scholastic Success Of College Students From High Schools Of Varying Sizes, Leonard Lee Hudson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Education in America has made substantial growth in its various phases. No factor has been more marked than in the secondary field. The South was tardy in establishing a systematic scheme owing to the devastation of a Civil War and the misunderstandings natural to a reconstruction period. Many forces for the improvement of the secondary field in this section are now accomplishing wonderful results. Accrediting associations to investigate, recommend, and regulate certain practices, different divisions of the state department of education to supervise and inspect, research organizations, graduate schools, and school authorities are adding to the fund of knowledge regarding …

The Attitude Of The Presidents Of The United States Toward Education As Revealed In Their Messages To Congress, Kelsey R. Cummins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is undertaken with the intention of studying the attitude of the Presidents of the United States toward education as revealed in their messages to Congress. The writer chose this subject because he felt that the messages and speeches reflect their attitude toward education and to some extent at least reflect the national attitude. Since this group has included some of America’s ablest leaders, education may find in their works arguments of great weight.

Since the study was restricted to the messages of Presidents, naturally Richardson’s “Messages and Papers of the Presidents of the Presidents to 1908” is the …

Status Of Certificates Issued And Employment Of Certificate Holders At Western Kentucky State Teachers College, James Ashby

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It is the purpose of this study to determine the supply of certified teachers from Western Kentucky State Teachers College. From data compiled at the institution concerning the number of certificates issued, the number at present in effect, and the employment of the certificate holders, this supply will be ascertained. The study undertakes to answer the following questions:

1. What has been the nature of certification of teachers in Western Kentucky State Teachers College?
2. How many teachers certificates issued by the institution are now in effect?
3. How many of the certificate holders are at present engaged in teaching?
4. What per cent …

The Career Of Edward Ward Carmack And The Cooper-Sharp Trial, Robert Franklin Crutcher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The subject of this thesis was suggested to the writer in October 1931, by the History Department of the Western Kentucky State Teachers College. The writer at that time was considering a number of other subjects, but seeing that material could be located easily, and that the field suggested by the subject had not been covered, this subject was chosen. When much of the material had been located and examined it was clearly seen that the material in the field could be grouped under two heads and given this title, “Career of Edward Ward Carmack and the Cooper-Sharp Trial”.

Most …