"Aunt Rachel Lived to 102 yrs Slave to Her Mistress" -- a slave buried next to the woman she served -- a great storyNew roads are great but back country new roads are even better. Today we traversed the back roads of the hills of Kentucky. Oh the sights we saw today!
To begin the day, we drove to Springfield, KY. to see the birthplace of A. Lincoln and of course, discovered that Lincoln was not born there but only spent some of his boyhood there. So back to the books to figure out where the actual birthplace was located. That would be Hodgenville, KY. Lincoln's birthplace was about 40 miles of great country roads through the hills from where we were.
The drive was fascinating. The hills are dotted with neat little farms. Houses ranged from the grand brick Colonial with tall white columns to the run-down mobile home with a front yard filled with every possible piece of non-working machinery and junk. Most of the homes were somewhere in the middle, brick or white clapboard with neat yards. One thing all the homes had in common was a front porch with at least two chairs. The richer homes had white wrought iron benches and the poorer ones had plastic chairs. The best ones were the white or wooden rockers that filled most of the porches. Watching the neighbors and passing traffic is obviously one of the Kentuckians pastimes.
As we drove through the farmland we began to noticed all the black barns. Farm after farm had big black barns. Our travels have taken us through hundreds of miles of farmlands and most of the barns we have observed are either white, grey or red but never black. We saw hundreds of these black barns just today. The barns fascinated us and as we began a closer observation we realized the barns were filled with drying tobacco. Although we never did see tobacco fields, we saw plenty of tobacco hanging in the barns. Question; are the barns black to produce extra heat to help dry out the tobacco? Does anyone know the answer? Regardless, the black barns and black rail fences against the green fields and Autumn colored forests made for a beautiful scene.
Detail, log-built Old Mulkey Meeting House -- this bump-out portion of the building is where the speaker stood to address the congregation
Not far from Tompkinsville was a place on the map called the Old Mulkey Meeting House State Park. This sounded interesting so off we went. This was the first log meeting house in Kentucky built in 1807. Hannah Boone Pennington was a member of this church. She was the sister of Daniel Boone. Both she and her father, Squire Boone, are buried in the church cemetery as are several soldiers from the Revolutionary War. It is a beautiful log church set amidst the forest, quiet and peaceful.
Old Ford along Kentucky highway -- old cars, old appliances, old stuff . . . right along the road for our entertainment
From there our last stop for the day was to be Nashville, Tennessee. There was not a major road anywhere near the road we were on but the map showed that it would connect with the major road to Nashville that we needed. Maps are not always accurate. We headed south. The back country road kept getting smaller and smaller till we were on a one lane road traveling through the hills of Kentucky. The housing continued to get poorer and poorer, more junk in the front yards. The road dead ended. We turned left. That didn't feel right so we turned around and drove into the sun. After all, our overall destination lay to the west and south. We just kept taking turns to the south or west until we found the road to Nashville. This unintentional tour was totally fun as we were able to really see the back country of the Kentucky hills.
To begin the day, we drove to Springfield, KY. to see the birthplace of A. Lincoln and of course, discovered that Lincoln was not born there but only spent some of his boyhood there. So back to the books to figure out where the actual birthplace was located. That would be Hodgenville, KY. Lincoln's birthplace was about 40 miles of great country roads through the hills from where we were.
The drive was fascinating. The hills are dotted with neat little farms. Houses ranged from the grand brick Colonial with tall white columns to the run-down mobile home with a front yard filled with every possible piece of non-working machinery and junk. Most of the homes were somewhere in the middle, brick or white clapboard with neat yards. One thing all the homes had in common was a front porch with at least two chairs. The richer homes had white wrought iron benches and the poorer ones had plastic chairs. The best ones were the white or wooden rockers that filled most of the porches. Watching the neighbors and passing traffic is obviously one of the Kentuckians pastimes.
As we drove through the farmland we began to noticed all the black barns. Farm after farm had big black barns. Our travels have taken us through hundreds of miles of farmlands and most of the barns we have observed are either white, grey or red but never black. We saw hundreds of these black barns just today. The barns fascinated us and as we began a closer observation we realized the barns were filled with drying tobacco. Although we never did see tobacco fields, we saw plenty of tobacco hanging in the barns. Question; are the barns black to produce extra heat to help dry out the tobacco? Does anyone know the answer? Regardless, the black barns and black rail fences against the green fields and Autumn colored forests made for a beautiful scene.
A non-black barn with hanging tobacco . . . so how many cigarettes will this barn's contents produce?
Continuing on the back roads of Kentucky we drove to Tompkinsville. Doug's grandfather and his family are from this town in Kentucky. We've heard lots of stories over the years about Tompkinsville so it was interesting to actually see the town. It is the county seat for Monroe county, named for President Monroe and his vice-president Tompkins.
At the Old Mulkey Meeting House -- Doug gets 10 seconds to push the shutter, run around to the front door, across the room, and look casual just before the photographic moment
Detail, log-built Old Mulkey Meeting House -- this bump-out portion of the building is where the speaker stood to address the congregation
Not far from Tompkinsville was a place on the map called the Old Mulkey Meeting House State Park. This sounded interesting so off we went. This was the first log meeting house in Kentucky built in 1807. Hannah Boone Pennington was a member of this church. She was the sister of Daniel Boone. Both she and her father, Squire Boone, are buried in the church cemetery as are several soldiers from the Revolutionary War. It is a beautiful log church set amidst the forest, quiet and peaceful.
Old Ford along Kentucky highway -- old cars, old appliances, old stuff . . . right along the road for our entertainment
From there our last stop for the day was to be Nashville, Tennessee. There was not a major road anywhere near the road we were on but the map showed that it would connect with the major road to Nashville that we needed. Maps are not always accurate. We headed south. The back country road kept getting smaller and smaller till we were on a one lane road traveling through the hills of Kentucky. The housing continued to get poorer and poorer, more junk in the front yards. The road dead ended. We turned left. That didn't feel right so we turned around and drove into the sun. After all, our overall destination lay to the west and south. We just kept taking turns to the south or west until we found the road to Nashville. This unintentional tour was totally fun as we were able to really see the back country of the Kentucky hills.
1 comment:
Great pictures.
One correction however;
In ref. to... "Hannah Boone Pennington was a member of this church. She was the sister of Daniel Boone. Both she and her father, Squire Boone, are buried in the church cemetery..."
Squire Boone, the father of Hannah (and Daniel) is buried in N. Carolina. The one whose headstone is at Old Mulkey Meeting House is Squire Boone Jr., the BROTHER of Hannah & Daniel. He, however, was actually buried in Indiana, where he was laid to rest in a cavern on his property near Corydon.
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