Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Public Career Of Maurice Hudson Thatcher, Randy Ream

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The public career of Maurice Hudson Thatcher was wedded to one of the most interesting epochs in Kentucky history and Kentucky politics. From 1895, with his election as county clerk of Butler County, to his defeat for the United States Senate in 1932, Maurice Thatcher was intimately involved in almost every statewide political campaign. He participated in the rise of the Republican party to a point where it was a definite force in state politics and won almost as many statewide races as it lost. He also participated in the party’s relegation to minority status with the advent of the …

Thomas Jefferson And The West, Denise Baker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

From his childhood on the fringe of the Virginia frontier until his years of retirement at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson displayed a special interest in the vast expanse of land stretching westward. The land provided the ideal place for the expansion of Jefferson’s dream of an American empire for liberty. He viewed the continent as the home of an agrarian nation living under the principles of democracy.

Chapter one is introductory in nature, linking Jefferson’s ideals to his interest in the West. Chapter two concentrates on his early contributions to the West. Emphasis is placed on land speculation, the western land …

“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 …

United States-Russian Relations, 1917-1933, Raymond L. Cravens

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

“One should doff one’s cap to the statue of Jupiter, in case he returned to power.” – Lord Byron

Our task in this study is to determine whether the words of Lord Byron are true in the realm of International Power Politics. This is a study of the application of the principle of non-recognition – the refusal of acknowledgement – to Russo-American relations during the period from 1917 to 1933.

The year was 1917, and the Gladiator of Capitalism stood over the prostrate form of Russian Bolshevism and appealed for the decision of “life” or “death” to be meted out …

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 …

Matthew Lyon In Kentucky, Lyda Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

“Men at some time are masters of their fate:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Thus Shakespeare has the wily Cassius speak, and thus Matthew Lyon must have believed; else he had not contended so fiercely, so incessantly, and so interminably against such adverse circumstances as the average individual would have submitted to sooner or later. Many may have thought so; the facts often indicated so; yet never in a true sense was Matthew Lyon an underling. His fierce spirit was supreme over material things. Even while an indentured servant …

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 …