The Kentucky Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Writing in the Bluegrass State

Thomas D. Clark

588 The Kentucky Anthology Thomas D. Clark from A History of Kentucky The dean of Kentucky historians, Thomas Dionysius Clark, was born in Mississippi in 1903. After a brief sojourn in Lexington in the late 1920s to pick up a master’s degree, he had the good sense to move to Kentucky permanently in 1931, remaining there until his death on June 28, 2005. What he accomplished as Kentucky’s preeminent historian in over three quarters of a century is amazing: as a teacher, writer, lecturer, collector, faculty leader, and inspiration for generations of Kentuckians at the University of Kentucky, and as father of the state archives, the UK Library Special Collections, and the University Press of Kentucky. Two excerpts give a brief sample of Clark’s readable style of writing history: the first is from his classic History of Kentucky (1937), in which he discusses the social side of pioneer life. h With all the trials and tribulations characteristic of settling a new country, where both animal and human kingdoms conspired against them, the Kentucky pioneers were not without their lighter and happier moments. Distinction in social rank was the exception rather than the rule, for one man’s rifle was as effective as another’s, if both were good shots. It is a matter of history that on the American frontier there were fewer women than men and that this condition naturally led to whirlwind courtships and hurried marriages. A single woman was a highly coveted prize by every bachelor, and no woman, regardless of her homeliness of appearance or state of decrepitude, was forced to remain single for any length of time. Widows hardly donned their weeds before being “spoken for.” When courtships resulted in marriage, the whole community prepared to celebrate, for frontier weddings were generally accompanied by as much ritual, pomp, and ceremony as a royal nuptial. The bridegroom’s friends gathered at his father’s house, and from there they proceeded to the home of the bride. The party timed itself to arrive at the scene of the wedding shortly before noon, for the wedding was allowed to interfere in no way with the customary infare following the ceremony. The wedding party constituted in reality a frontier dress parade. Guests were clothed in garments ranging from the typical deer skin and linsey woolsey, worn by the hunters as everyday clothing, to that of frayed and faded silks, of another day and another land, worn by some of the ladies. Most of the women, 588 Thomas D. Clark 589 however, dressed in homespuns, and, in some cases, coarse linsey woolsey “Sunday” dresses, trimmed with ruffles taken from former-day finery. A miscellaneous collection of buttons and buckles “from over the mountains” served as ornaments. After the wedding ceremony, the bridal party went from the home of the bride to that of the groom, where the infare was served. A cavalcade set forth, the young males of which performed numerous antics to the amusement of their lady escorts. Often a young gallant would purposely frighten the horse of his partner to hear her scream and to give him opportunity to rush to her rescue. Occasionally, the wedding party was a victim of practical jokers who preceded it and threw obstacles in the way by cutting down trees or tying grapevines across the path. When the merrymakers neared their destination, two of the more daring boys were singled out to “run for the bottle.” This feat (which was really a horse race in the woods) required expert horsemanship , for the run was through the forest, over fallen trees and under lowhanging branches. At the bridegroom’s home, the infare consisted of nearly every kind of food known to the frontier. There were venison, beef, pork, and fowl. Vegetables , such as cabbage and potatoes, were present in abundance. There were biscuit and hoecakes, treacle (molasses), honey, sweetened corn meal mush, and milk. The “bottle” was passed freely, for the feast was a merry affair. Individuals traded witticisms; toasts were drunk to the newlyweds; jokes were told at the expense of the bridegroom; and, inevitably, prophecies of large families were made—prophecies which were soon fulfilled. When the wedding banqueters had finished their revels at the festal board, the musicians, led always by the fiddler, struck up a merry tune for the dance, which lasted for hours. A unique dance was developed on the frontier in the well-known “square dance,” and the Virginia reel was a favorite in...