Author: Ginger Karrick Kincaid

From White Sulpher to Salt Lick (William Owen Karrick Story: Part 1)

On By Ginger Karrick KincaidIn Karrick, Salt Lick, UncategorizedLeave a comment
            
 

Hugh Karrick, 1845-1925 (my great, great-grandfather)

 

 My (Ginger’s) great-uncle William Owen Karrick wrote about growing up in Salt Lick.  For those of you who don’t know, my grandfather was Hugh Karrick of Salt Lick, and his brothers and sisters included Travis (father of Ann and Nan), Edsel (former principal at Salt Lick), Louticia (who taught school for many years in this county) and Virginia (who was the wife of Dr. Milburn Wheeler of Morehead).  There are others, but those are the names with which many of you will be familiar.  Some of my papaw’s siblings lived their lives away from Bath County.  My Uncle Bill did, but, as you can tell upon reading his words, Salt Lick always held a special place in his heart. 

From The William Owen Karrick Story:
I was born March 7, 1911 at White Sulpher, Bath Co., Kentucky.  My father was James Thomas Karrick and my mother was Mary Warner Karrick.  I was the seventh of twelve children in the Karrick family.  Midwife Kate B. Nickell of Ewing brought me into this world.
I remember several instances in life when I was three years old – such as sitting on my father’s knee while he played the violin, bouncing me up and down.  Several of my uncles were present at Christmas 1914.  They had brought whiskey from Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, but I can’t remember anyone getting drunk other than my oldest brother, Paul.  On one occasion Paul decided to play drunk-man.  He poured and drank a cup of whiskey and ended up very sick, with a promise never to play drunk-man again.
I remember riding on a roof shingle over an embankment in our side yard when the snow was on.
I remember wanting to go with my older brothers to their rabbit boxes down in our orchard.  Of course they didn’t let me go.
I remember well the day that we moved from White Sulpher to Salt Lick.  We were riding in a buggy – a one horse carriage.  I was four years old at the time.  I was seated on the floor board, Mother (holding my sister Gertrude) and Dad were in the buggy seat, and my brother Hugh was standing up behind the buggy seat.  I thought this trip of approximately three miles was a very long journey.  We finally arrived at our new home in the afternoon.  Three of my older brothers had preceded us with two wagons and our furniture – the last two loads.
My grandfather Hugh Karrick and grandmother Leticia Karrick had moved to Salt Lick earlier.  They lived next door to our house.  As soon as I could, I made a mad dash over to Grandmother’s house.    I had visited with my parents when my grandparents lived on a farm at Mudlick before moving to Salt Lick.  I spent many happy days at my grandmother’s house.  She always had plenty of milk and molasses cookies.  The cookies were in a big jar which I could reach.
At the age of six I started to school at Salt Lick.  I had a teacher named Maude Wright.  I remember the first day very well.  I wanted to go to the same room with my brother Hugh but he insisted and I went to the Junior Order school building across the road from the main school building.  I can’t remember too much of the first year of school except my dad helping me learn to read.  He was always ready to help any of us with our studies.  Our mother was the main spelling teacher. 
James Thomas Karrick, 1870-1944 (my great-grandfather).
 

More Old Receipts

On By Ginger Karrick KincaidIn Uncategorized2 Comments
Not a receipt but a campaign card for school superintendent, 1885.

Receipt from the undertaker (last number in year is hard to read, but I think it says 1884).  

Brother & Goodpaster receipt, 1889.
The name “Lacy” has been blotted over  and  “Brother” stamped above it.

Receipt from T.F. Allen Meat and Ice Market,  1915
 (the actual transaction is recorded on the back)

Circuses in Owingsville

On By Ginger Karrick KincaidIn Uncategorized2 Comments
Ticket for The Mighty Haag from the 1930’s (Photo from josephinesjournal.com).  

This week Don makes his blogging debut:

In 1972, Daddy and I went to see the Clyde Beatty/Cole Bros. Circus in Lexington in the Turfland Mall parking lot.  I was ten and had only been to see the lights, glamour and glitter of Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey.  When we arrived, the tent was a dull gray, but the side show barker was by no means dull: “It’s never out, never over, going on all the time!  See the circus side show, the bearded lady, the sword swallower….it’s never out and never over……step right up young man!”  Daddy was leery of the side show, concerned that I might see something I shouldn’t, but we did see the animals in the menagerie tent. 

The show had kept the name of the famous animal trainer Clyde Beatty.  The cat act was done by another man who imitated Beatty with the same costume, a whip, a chair and a gun.  Just for the hoot of it, he would fire off the gun!  We both laughed since it was really uncalled for and outdated.  It started raining outside and the tent leaked directly on me.  I didn’t miss anything though….just slid on down a seat or two.  Today the show is the Cole Bros. Circus and they have a beautiful new tent that doesn’t leak.

As you can tell, this is where my love for all circuses and the circus arts stems from.  Before Rupp Arena opened in 1976, he would drive us yearly in our big Buick to Louisville’s Freedom Hall to see the RBB&B show.  We probably ate cheap, but we always had front row seats for the show no matter the cost.  We were often late for church but never for the big show.  We were the first ones there and the last to leave.  I loved it! At any moment when things would slow down slightly, I would wonder around back stage and in the alley getting clowns’ autographs!

When Daddy grew up the circus was one of the main events of the year.  He met the show people and even remembered the elephants’ names.  This was one of his favorite stories, as it included both the circus and Big Band music:

Hey, it’s circus time and how thrilling it is!  Spine tingling, exciting – you add a few superlatives of you own.

Clowns, elephants, high-flyers, calliopes, brass-bands, cotton candy and excited happy crowds!

In the nineteen teens, twenties, thirties and forties, many small circuses criss-crossed this great country.  Small circuses were usually outstanding, and of course, most people could not travel any distance to attend the large ones.

Bath County had its share of small, good circuses.  Sharpsburg, Bethel, Salt Lick, and Owingsville welcomed some of these circuses most every summer.  One of the best circuses that was routed through this county was the Haag Brothers Circus or, as it was better known, “The Mighty Haag.”  This great, small circus had three large pachyderms which had to walk from one town to the next stand.  When the circus had played in Flemingsburg, the elephants walked from there to Owingsville’s Kimbrough Park.

The “Mighty Haag” had a crackerjack band directed by a man named George James.*  Please note that surname.  You are right!  Mr. James was the father of the great Harry James.  Harry, of course is considered as one of the greatest trumpet players of all time.

Harry played in the Haag band while still a young lad and played in Bath County many times.  Some true circus fans in the county knew George and Harry James.  Mr. Willie Lacy knew both of these musicians and really treasured that memory. 

The great trumpeter became iron lunged, as expressed by some musicians, but that in itself did not make him outstanding.  He later added finesse and played in jazz and/or swing bands.  Then Harry became an orchestra or dance band leader and then world famous.    

When any circus came to the area, whether a mud show,  a big top or in a big arena,  we went. ~ Don Kincaid

*Harry James’ father’s name was officially Everette Robert James, although my father  refers to him as George.

Mighty Haag Logo

A picture of Babe, Tip, and Alice of the Mighty Hagg!  Daddy new the name of the old handler walking beside carrying an elephant hook.   He said he never left the elephants.  In the background you can see paper with the “HAAG” name on it. 



Another picture, courtesy of bucklesw.blogspot.com.


Everette and Harry James, circa 1922
(Photo from circushistory.org)

Carnivals in Bath County

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The Whip (Image courtesy of Whiplake Hopatcong Historical Museum)


This entry gave me a few giggles – I hope it gives you one or two as well.  
From the journals:
Carnivals kept the roads hot in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and even the 50’s traversing the state.  They visited the towns of Bath County.   Owingsville often had as many as three during the summer.  The Green Tree and Silver Slipper visited Owingsville about every summer. The attractions were the Ferris wheel, merry-go-round,  the Whip, pony rides, gambling joints, and girlie shows. 
Remember  Brownie’s Comedians and Bud Hawkins’ tent shows?  It was customary for them to make a week’s stand in each town with a show every night and occasionally a matinee.   The formats of these two shows were similar, with Brownie’s leaning more toward comedy.
Between acts of their plays, they made their pitches selling toffee candy with prizes included.  You no doubt are aware that shows such as circuses use this gimmick today. 
Small traveling shows were ‘thick as hops’ – most of them touring from town to town in one truck.  Some carried several small animals – others acrobatic acts, magicians, ventriloquists, etc. 
On the occasion of one small show visiting Owingsville and parking in the old Owingsville School yard, the owners needed someone to exercise a big bear.  No one in the group of boys and men standing around volunteered for such work.   The owner, seeing Banks  ‘Jelly Roll’ Coleman, Jr.  looking on and noting that Banks was a tall man,  begged him to exercise the bear.   Banks gingerly took the chain in hand which had the bruin on the other end.    Let’s just say the bear started leading Banks around and yanked the chain from Banks’ hand.
The bear ran to a telephone pole which stood just outside the old iron rail fence surrounding the school grounds and easily climbed to the cross-arms.  He sat there and old friend Banks headed for home.  All present said they could have done no better than Banks did.
Hope you enjoyed this post.  Next week, my husband, Don, will make his blogging debut on here, and you’ll get to read what Mr. Burl wrote about the circuses that passed through – and about a famous band leader who played with one of them. ~Ginger


A clipping from an old copy of The Owingsville Outlook
announcing that a carnival “is holding forth on the school campus” at Salt Lick.

We love magic in our family, and that’s due in part to Mr. Burl, who was known to perform a magic trick from time to time.  Perhaps his enthusiasm towards magic stemmed from seeing the magicians who performed with the carnivals that passed through.  I like vintage images like this one of the great magician Thurston.  Many of the old images hint of the supernatural, an association most modern magicians (and their audiences)  tend to eschew.  Houdini, by the way, rejected the idea that his feats were in anyway supernatural, although the author Conan Doyle argued that they were, which caused a bit of a disagreement between the two friends.

                                                         

A Book Review and a Bit of History

On By Ginger Karrick KincaidIn Military HistoryLeave a comment
George Nicholas Owings Bascom, 1836-1862

“History has been hard on Bascom and his judgment,
 but there can be little doubt about his courage. . .” 
– Terry Mort, The Wrath of Cochise


What do the Apache Wars of the American Southwest have to do with Owingsville, Kentucky?  Well, actually quite a bit.

In January of 1861, a young, inexperienced second lieutenant was called upon to track down a group of Chiricahua Apache Indians who had been accused of  kidnapping a twelve year old boy.  It was the second lieutenant’s first big assignment and one that would end up being referred to in Native American oral history as “Cut- the-Tent.”

Cut-the-Tent – it is called that because after the young second lieutenant (a graduate of West Point) had invited a chief named Cochise to come inside his temporary abode to discuss the whereabouts of the child and partake of coffee, the young officer abruptly stated that he was holding Cochise and party prisoners until he brought forth the missing boy, a pronouncement that caused Cochise to pull a knife, cut the tent, and escape.

But it doesn’t end there.

Cochise escaped, coffee cup still in hand according to legend, but the rest of his party didn’t. The young lieutenant held them as hostages, which caused Cochise to go get some hostages of his own (some very unlucky folks who were riding through in a wagon train).  There was a standoff.  Cochise made it known he wanted his people back.  The young lieutenant wouldn’t give in, perhaps thinking the hostages were his only way out of the mess he had gotten himself into.  Hostages were held and then hostages were killed, including the chief’s brother.  It got ugly fast and many scholars claim the incident was the trigger for the Apache Wars, while others say it didn’t exactly cause the Apache Wars, but most definitely embittered the Apache even more towards the whites. 

That’s very much the condensed version but you get the gist.

Cut-the-Tent  is more commonly called The Bascom Affair because George Nicholas Bascom, native son of Owingsville, Kentucky, and grandson of the town’s namesake, Thomas D. Owings, was the young second lieutenant at the heart of the story.

If you want to read more about The Bascom Affair, I highly recommend Terry Mort’s The Wrath of Cochise.  Mort presents a very balanced view of the incident, explaining, for instance, that although Bascom had graduated from West Point, his education there would have in no way prepared him for Indian warfare. In fact, while Bascom is often portrayed as inept in regard to his handling of the incident, Mort argues that it is possible that Bascom was actually drawing upon his military training in making some key decisions.  For instance, Bascom’s hostage holding was probably done in part to guard against a direct assault against his troops, but the Apaches rarely engaged in such a tactic (preferring guerrilla warfare), a fact Bascom most likely didn’t know and certainly hadn’t been taught.

Mort doesn’t let Bascom off the hook, but he does attempt to explain why Bascom made the decisions he did.   He also doesn’t allow Bascom to bear the entire weight of the blame, as some seem fond of doing.

He mentions Owingsville a few times, which might make his book especially intriguing for anyone with roots here.

By the way, Bascom was promoted to captain and was killed by Confederate forces in the Battle of Val Verde.  Fort Bascom was named for him, but he is buried in an unmarked grave.

You can find a short overview of the Bascom Affair on Wikipedia.
You can buy Terry Mort’s book at Amazon or check it out at the library.

I’ll warn you, once I started reading about The Bascom Affair, I got hooked! ~ Ginger

Apache Pass, the place where Bascom and Cochise met.
The historic marker for Fort Bascom, named after one of Bath County’s own.

Old Owingsville Receipts

On By Ginger Karrick KincaidIn Old Pictures, Owingsville2 Comments
The weather finally prettied up a bit, so I was able to haul in another box of goodies from our storage building.  What a treat to find these old receipts from the early 1900’s.  I like the one from the telephone company the most.  
A 1910 telephone receipt – can you imagine? 

 

Shrout, Piper & Shrout burial receipt.
I can’t make out the last number in the year, but it’s from the 1910’s.
Owingsville Cemetery receipt.  I like how they used the words “Cemetery Sexton.”
I don’t know if that is still used or not but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it around here.

 

A receipt from the coal yard in Owingsville.  The Dawson family owned the coal yard which was located about where the health department is now.  You can see its location on the old maps of Owingsville that I’ve linked to here on the blog.

 

Kimbraugh & Son receipt from 1911, I’m assuming from their drug store.

 

Lyceum Courses

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The Dixie Girls performed in Owingsville as part of a Lyceum course.

Last week’s excerpt was about the Chautauquas that came to Owingsville, and this week we follow up on that.


From the journals:

Lyceum Courses!!  What were they?  Lyceum courses were the cold weather counterparts of the Chautauquas.  They catered to the arts mostly, but their programs were similar to those of Chautauquas. 

In small towns such as those in Bath County, the Lyceums were almost always held in auditoriums.  In those days, there were few gymnasiums in Kentucky and none in Bath County.

The same procedure that was followed in acquiring the Chautauquas was also followed with the Lyceums.  Generally, a minimum number of season tickets had to be sold in advance.  Sometimes, there would be five performances spread over the winter months – sometimes more.

In an old issue of the Owingsville Outlook dated 1919, I found a notice regarding an upcoming Lyceum.   It was to be held at the City School Chapel, and on the program were Fanny May Baldridge (a soprano who presented “stories of Negro life . . . in a delightfully wholesome and natural manner” – Miss Baldridge was white, by the way) and Evelynne Murphey (who specialized in pianologues and whose voice had a “flutelike quality”).   When performing together they were billed as The Dixie Girls.  Season tickets were $1.50 for adults and $1.00 for children.   



The description of the Lyceum offering, especially that of Fanny Baldridge’s act, piqued my curiosity because I’m interested in how some have attempted to romanticize the Old South.  This attempt is officially referred to as the “Lost Cause Movement” and it’s fascinating. The grave markers in the Owingsville Cemetery that were funded by the Daughters of the Confederacy can be regarded as a part of this Lost Cause Movement. Margaret Mitchell’s epic novel Gone With the Wind stands as a literary example of the movement.   Can we consider the Dixie Girls’ act as an example of it too?  

And how would that have gone over in a place like Bath County?  After all, if your families are like ours, you can count both Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks in your family tree.  We have one handed down story of an ancestor helping a slave escape, while one of those markers from the Daughters of the Confederacy sits upon the grave of another ancestor (and thanks to my brother-in-law, Bill Kincaid, for his research on those markers and the Daughters – hopefully he can share some of what he’s learned with all of us in a future post).  

The 1919 clipping I refer to.
Sorry it’s a bit hard to read.

If you want to learn more about the Lost Cause Movement, click here.  
To read a bit more about Fanny Baldridge, click here.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm.   When the weather pretties up, I’ll try to take some pictures of those Confederate markers and then post them on here. ~ Ginger

Another clipping about an upcoming Lyceum from 
a 1910 edition of the Owingsville Outllook.

Chautauqua in Owingsville

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Inside a Chautauqua tent, circa 1910.

         This is the first in a series of excerpts about the various forms of entertainment that passed through Owingsville and Bath County during the early 1900’s.   We hope you enjoy it and the ones that will follow!
        From the journals: 

        Do you wonder how folks were entertained years ago?  Most people back then did not have the transportation and especially the financial means to go to a distant city for entertainment.  Top entertainment was available for rural communities but it did strain many folks’ resources to attend some of the functions.
       Chautauquas were among the highest type of entertainment.  Believe it or not, Chautauquas usually were shows under a tent.  Several Chautauquas showed across the United States during the warm months of the year.  Two of the better known ones were the Redpath and the White and Brown.
         The Chautauquas came to Bath County and for many years pitched tent in several different lots in Owingsville.  They showed on Wells Avenue when there was only one house on that street.  Joe Bailey’s home now stands on the lot on Slate Avenue where they showed for several years.
        High class entertainment was the claim of a Chautauqua.  Bands, magicians, lecturers, and the best novelty acts were among programs presented. William Jennings Bryan, who was thrice the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, spoke to a capacity crowd on Well’s Avenue.  Mr. Bryan spent the day in Owingsville, having the noon meal with Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Perry on High Street.   Many local citizens, not having seen a president or even a candidate for president before, made an effort to come and see the former presidential nominee.
         There are a few things to note in regard to this excerpt.  First, the Perry House, as my husband and his brother still refer to it, is currently owned by the Raleigh family and it is located across the street from the home of Barry and Jill Toy (or across the alley from our home).    Some of you might not know this, but there is a cemetery just beside that house.   There are no markers, as they were taken up years and years ago.  Second,  the house Mr. Burl refers to as Joe Bailey’s is the one to the right of Rob and Mandy Kiskaden’s home (My husband, Don, says there is a flat piece of ground behind that house that would have been suitable ground for the erection of a tent).   Third, we think Bryan’s visit happened in 1922 but are still trying to confirm that date. ~Ginger 

William Jennings Bryan.  This master of oratory was a favorite of the Chautauqua circuits, drawing huge crowds with his populist speeches.

A Chautauqua program printed in the Owingsville Outlook in 1921.  Note how season tickets were sold.

Chautauquas didn’t just appear in a community and set up – they required the hard work and support of many people.  Guarantors promised to promote the show and signed their names on the contract, with the expectation that the public’s purchase of tickets would pay for the programming in the long run (this didn’t always pan out in some communities, causing the guarantors to have to pay out of their own pockets).  Note how the Woman’s Club was in charge of decorations.   


Links:
To hear a recording of Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech, click here.
For an overview of the Chautauqua movement, click here.
To read more about Chautauquas and theater in Kentucky, take a look at Marilyn Casto’s Actors, Audiences, and Historic Theaters of Kentucky by clicking here.

Jim Beam and The Abbey of Gethsemani: Or, Mr. Burl’s Road Trip to Nelson County

On By Ginger Karrick KincaidIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
“I think the chief reason we have so little joy is that we take ourselves too seriously.” 
– Thomas Merton
Colonel James B. Beam, 1864-1947 (Photo courtesy of jimbeam.com)
When the news broke last week that Jim Beam had been purchased by a Japanese company, we knew immediately what excerpt from Mr. Burl’s writings we wanted to share with everyone.   You see, as a teenager, Mr. Burl spent some time in Colonel James B. Beam’s home.  He also spent time in the intelligence branch of the U.S. Army Air Force (as it was called at that time) in the Pacific theater during WWII, and he lived forever after with the concern that the Japanese, after their loss, would exact their revenge upon the United States through economic one-upmanship.  So, needless to say, he would not be a bit happy about the Japanese owning such a prestigious American label as Jim Beam, especially when he had such a wonderful memory of the company’s namesake.
But let’s put all worries about global politics and economic warfare aside for the moment and enjoy this tale about a local boy’s visit to Bardstown, where he met the renowned whiskey maker and a group of monks – all in the same trip!
From the journals: 
At the age of sixteen, I had the pleasure of driving three elderly men to Bardstown, KY.   Mr. Lee Brother, Mr. Clarence McCallister, and Mr. Hugh Cox were making the trip but none could drive, so they invited me.  Upon our arrival in Bardstown, we checked in at the historic Talbott Inn.  Cousin Hugh was reared in Nelson County and was a close friend of Mr. Jim Beam.  He called Mr. Beam from the Talbott Inn and informed him that we had arrived in town, so Mr. Jim invited Cousin Hugh to come visit in his home.  He thanked Mr. Beam but stated that he had a sixteen year old boy with him.   Mr. Beam then invited Cousin Hugh to come on and bring the boy with him.  I, of course, was the boy. To me, this was “big doings,” getting to spend several days in the home of a millionaire as they were very, very scarce in the early 1930’s. 
On that same trip, we also visited the Gethsemani Monastery.   The monks of that order did not speak to anyone; however, a guide who was a monk directed tours through the beautiful buildings.  All of us thought it strange that the monks would not speak to us, but Mr. Lee Brother, who was a lot of fun, was much impressed with their ability to never say a word.  We would meet them in the corridors and other parts of the buildings, but they never, ever, spoke.  Mr. Brother would say to me invariably as we met them, “It seems that they could at least say, ‘Hello.’”
              As we left the monastery late that afternoon, driving down a narrow country road, we met a herd of milk cows driven by one of the monks.  Mr. Lee spotted the monk and leaned out the window.  As we came alongside, Mr. Lee blatantly said to the monk, “Hi, Pard!”  He thought he was slipping up on the monk and that by taking him by surprise, the monk would answer, but Mr. Lee Brother’s tactic did not work and his scheme failed. 
             If Mr. Burl was only sixteen when he made this trip to Nelson County, the year would have been 1932, the year before Prohibition ended, and while he recalls Colonel Beam being a millionaire,  the reality is that Prohibition had greatly reduced the Beam family’s wealth by that time.  In all likelihood, he still probably held many of the outward displays of his past wealth:  a fine house and a nice car, for example.  More importantly perhaps, his attitude never changed – he was as pleasant and confident as always according to those who knew him,  traits that no doubt helped mask his financial woes.  People in Nelson County, however, had evidently quit saying “he’s as rich as Jim Beam” in regard to someone who was doing well financially. 
             Hope you enjoyed this story and we also hope you’re surviving this wicked winter weather.  Stay safe and warm. ~ Ginger

Source:
American Still Life: The Jim Beam Story and the Making of the World’s #1 Bourbon by F. Paul Pacult – available here at Amazon.com
Links:
To read more about The Abbey of Gethsemani, click here. Visit their store to order fruitcake, fudge, and/or cheese.

To discover more about Colonel Beam and the history of the Jim Beam company, visit http://www.jimbeam.com/heritage

If you would like to take a “spiritual tour” of places in Kentucky of import to the Thomas Merton story, click here.

If you want a good bourbon ball recipe, I’ve added one to the recipe page here.


The Abbey of Gethsemani.  The famous Trappist monk Thomas Merton was of this abbey.
(Photo courtesy of USGenWebarchives)