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Religion in Kentucky - Colesburg, Kentucky

 

The first Baptist settlement west of the Alleghany Mountains was in Elizabethtown at Severns Valley Baptist Church, named after the first name of Elizabethtown. Catholics came west from Nelson County and settled at Colesburg at St. Claire Parish before coming to St. James Parish in Elizabethtown. Lucinda Helm helped bring United Methodists into Elizabethtown and they immortalized her in naming the Helm Memorial United Methodist Church, today simply called MUMC. More than 12 denominations are represented by over 100 churches in Elizabethtown.

St. Claire was rebuilt as a brick structure in 1874.

Samuel Haycraft Jr., in his 1869 History of Elizabethtown, wrote: "For who can tell what Elizabethtown will be with her delightful location, her enterprising and energetic population, her railroad facilities, her fine water, and her surroundings of intelligent and gentlemanly farmers, the best fruit country in the world, and her future manufactories that must spring up, and when it becomes a large city it will be well to look back upon her starting point."

Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Established in 1793, the county was named for Colonel John Hardin, an Indian fighter who worked with tribes in the local area. In a few years, professional men and tradesmen came to live in the area. In 1793, Colonel Hynes had 30 acres (120,000 m²) of land (until then known as the Severn's Valley Settlement) surveyed and laid off into lots and streets to establish Elizabethtown. Named in honor of his wife, Elizabethtown was legally established in 1797.

Thomas Lincoln helped Samuel Haycraft build a millrace at Haycraft's mill on Valley Creek. After Lincoln married Nancy Hanks in 1806, they lived in a log cabin built in Elizabethtown. Their daughter, Sarah, was born there in 1807. Soon after, they moved to the Sinking Spring Farm, where Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809. Thomas Lincoln took his family to Indiana in 1816. After his wife died in 1818, he returned to Elizabethtown and married Sarah Bush Johnston, widowed since 1816. She and her three children accompanied Thomas back to Indiana, where Sarah was stepmother to Thomas' two children.
On March 5, 1850, the Commonwealth of Kentucky granted a charter to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company authorizing it to raise funds and built a railroad from Louisville to the Tennessee state line in the direction of Nashville. John L. Helm, the grandson of Capt. Thomas Helm, became the president of the railroad in October 1854; he directed construction of the main stem of the rail line through Elizabethtown. The rail line was completed to Elizabethtown in 1858, with the first train arriving on June 15, 1858. The opening of the railroad brought economic growth to Elizabethtown, which became an important trade center along the railroad and a strategic point during the Civil War.
On December 27, 1862, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his 3,000-man cavalry attacked Elizabethtown. During the battle, more than 100 cannonballs were fired into the town. Although he successfully captured Elizabethtown, Morgan's chief goal was to disrupt the railroad and northern transportation. He proceeded north along the railroad, burning trestles and destroying sections of the track. After the battle, one cannonball was found lodged in the side of a building on the public square. After the building burned in 1887 and was rebuilt, the cannonball was replaced in the side wall, as close to its original site as possible, where it remains in the present day.
From 1871 to 1873 during the Reconstruction era, the Seventh Cavalry and a battalion of the Fourth Infantry, led by General George Armstrong Custer, were stationed in Elizabethtown. The military were assigned to suppress the local Ku Klux Klan under the Enforcement Acts, as their members had been attacking freedmen and other Republicans. They also broke up illegal distilleries, which began to flourish in the South after the Civil War. General Custer and his wife Elizabeth lived in a small cottage behind Aunt Beck Hill's boarding house, now known as the Brown-Pusey House.

Source: Wikipedia
Photos by Mary C Smith

Elizabeth Temms

Women in the Civil War

Highways and Byways

Little Shepherd Trail


Photo from www.harlancountytrails.com

    Kentucky Highway 1679, "Little Shepherd Trail", is a 38-mile narrow road on the crest of Pine Mountain from US 421 east of Harlan to US 119 south of Whitesburg. This serpetine route twists though numerous refreshing overlooks and massive, spine-like rock out-croppings, termed "Hogbacks." Rhododendron and Mountain Laurel bloom profusely in craggy exposures.

    Paved sections are easily traversed, while mountain bikers and hikers greatly enjoy the more remote sections of this route. If you drive, a 4x4 vehicle is recommended. Current paved sections are: US 421 to KY 2010 and KY 160 to Creech Overlook.

    Little Shepherd Trail also passes through Kingdom Come State Park

Source:
http://www.harlancountytrails.com/littleshepherdtrail.php

Fort Duffield - West Point Kentucky

                                                            Fort Duffield Sunset

Fort Duffield is an American Civil War fort located outside West Point, Kentucky. It saw use in 1862, and was abandoned when it appeared that the War would never come near the fort. Ironically, John Hunt Morgan would in 1863 lead his Raiders right past the fort and could have been stopped had the fort not been abandoned.


William Tecumseh Sherman was concerned with the Confederate positions in Bowling Green and Columbus, and sent the 37th Indiana and the 9th Michigan regiments to West Point. The plan was to use West Point as a Union supply base for Elizabethtown. Sherman ordered the fort to be built on Pearman Hill to protect the town and supply route. Construction began on November 3, 1861 and was finished in two months. The fort was named for the Rev. George Duffield of Detroit, whose son, Colonel William W. Duffield, led the 9th Michigan Infantry . There were 950 troops stationed there, but they were soon sent to the front lines and the fort was mostly unused in 1862, seeing its last use that Fall.

Source: Wiki
Photos by Mary C Smith

Kentucky Moonshine

Photo by Mary C Smith

Kentucky Distillery

Bullitt County, Kentucky
Photos by Mary C Smith