Published: September 10, 2009 08:46 am      

Visit Kentucky’s past from your armchair, car, or the KHS Frankfort campus

Carl Keith Greene

If you haven’t been on the Kentucky Historical Society’s (KHS) campus or its Web site, you’ve missed some good stuff.

It’s at history.ky.gov if you want to look.

In doing a bit of research the other day, I looked at the site and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

First, it’s totally changed since I looked at it the last time, maybe a year or so ago. There are lots more things to see and read and links that bring Kentucky’s history alive.

It was a while before I actually looked up what I was looking for, because I found so many interesting sites that drew me away from my intended goal.

First, I noted in the research and genealogy section an area called KHS Digital Collections.

To quote the KHS, the collections allow users to, “Access digital images, sound, video, and text from the KHS collections of historic photographs, manuscripts, oral history, maps, rare imprints, library resource lists, and museum artifacts.”

So, being curious as I am, I clicked onto the site and found a truly marvelous treasure trove of stuff.

I first clicked on the photographs section and found photos of Laurel County made in 1885, in the colonies that the Swiss immigrants settled in the county. There were photos of Bernstadt, Langnau, Lily and Strassburg, people and views from nearly 125 years ago.

They are from the collection of Willard Rouse Jillson who was the Kentucky state geologist during the years 1919-1932. I presume the 1885 photos were photos he had garnered during his stint as geologist, and weren’t actually made by him.

It is a wonderful look at the people who made the trip from Switzerland all the way to Laurel County to find a new home, a new way of life and land, a commodity that was rare in the mountains of Switzerland.

A really neat site is the historical marker section that shows every highway historical marker in the state. You can search by counties, keywords, subjects and the marker number, if you took note of it as you passed in your car. For instance, there’s number 672 on the courthouse lawn in Williamsburg noting the work of “Aunt Julia” Marcum.

Also in the county are markers remembering events such as Scott’s Raid, also on the courthouse lawn, and the Kiwanis Trail marker at DuPont Lodge in Cumberland Falls.

But Corbin has none of the markers inside its city limits in the Whitley County portion of the city nor in the Knox County section.

Knox County, though, marks in the courthouse lawn number 1884, noting Gov. Flem D. Sampson who was elected governor in 1927, born in Laurel County and a Union College graduate.

Also in Knox is the Dr. Thomas Walker, first log cabin in Kentucky marker and the Flat Lick, Ky. marker noting the divergence of Boone’s Trace, the Wilderness Road and the Warrior’s Path from the road coming from Cumberland Gap and heading deeper into central Kentucky.

In Laurel County, the newest marker is number 2113 at A.R. Dyche Cemetery’s southern entrance. It celebrates the five U.S. Congressmen from Laurel County, four of whom are buried at the cemetery and the fifth in the family plot atop East First Street hill.

Also in Laurel are markers noting the presence of Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury when he visited the Camp Ground Methodist Church in about 1790 and several markers noting the path of the Wilderness Road and Civil War events in the county.

But the KHS site is more than old photos and historical markers. There’s a good collection of maps that show the development of the state, lots of documents detailing how Kentucky grew, and deep in the site is the expression of love of the commonwealth that is held by all historians whose research has filled the society with information about the Bluegrass State’s past.

It’s also a wonderful source for history about cities, counties, towns, families, schools, important persons and just regular citizens.

Its collections include the oral history of the state in recorded audio and video documents of again, important Kentuckians and the regular citizens, documenting the history of the state with their voices and memories.

But, I suggest more than just visiting the KHS on the Web. Take a trip to Frankfort to the Dr. Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History which is the headquarters for the KHS, the Old State Capitol, the Kentucky Military History Museum and the Old State Arsenal.

The Old State Arsenal has a particular connection to Laurel County. During the uprising of the “mountain army,” after the wounding and eventual death of Gov. William Goebel in the last year of the 19th Century, the Laurel County State Militia unit was sent to the arsenal to take charge of the weapons and ammunition there to keep it safe from the mountaineers who had come to town as a result of the shooting.

So, it’s your history and someday your name or photograph or maybe an interview about growing up in London, Barbourville, Williamsburg or Corbin may be there.

And the next time you’re on your way to Louisville, make plans to stop for a while at Frankfort and luxuriate in your heritage at the KHS campus.

Carl Keith Greene is a writer for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at cgreene@thetimestribune.com