"The pages of this book contain pictures from the late 1800s to 1940-photographs from the archives of area historical societies and from the albums of individuals throughout Eastern Ketnucky. There are the innocent faces of children in front of their one-room school houses, the solemn older couples looking straight into the camera, the candid images of people going about an everyday life that has long since faded into memory. Look carefully through the photos"--Back cover.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed that historian Benson J. Lossing did more than any other man to make history interesting and popular. Lossing wrote his comprehensive three-volume history of the Civil War at a time when the facts were still fresh. Originally published in 1867, Volume Two covers the period immediately following the Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1861 to the summer of 1863 and the fall of Vicksburg. To research this volume, the author traveled several thousand miles to visit principal battlefields of the war. Lossing accompanies his narratives of marches, battles, and sieges with maps and plans, includes biographical sketches of the prominent people from both sides of the conflict, and illustrates his history with hundreds of drawings and engravings by the author and others.
This book is about the history of the Wilderness Road and a trekking guide with photos. It presents the background of how Daniel Boone and a group of some thirty men blazed a trail by way of three states to connect Kingsport, Tennessee, to Middlesboro, Kentucky, and became an important roadway in modern-day industrial United States. Its beginning opened the east to the west for what was the early pioneering spirit of pioneers that settled those lands along with early tradesmen and stockmen. Its importance became famous with the discovery of iron ore in its environs of Middleboro; that is a story of unfounded lasting wealth that ended with disappointment for those of the area and Englishmen who invested heavily only to have the grade of iron ore become useless. It played its role during the Civil War and its status today in a thriving city. It stands as a monument to Daniel Boone and the thirty men who created it, the undaunted pioneer men and women who faced and conquered natural and human hardships that made it a lasting monument to humanity as part of the history of the United States.
The Kentucky Encyclopedia's 2,000-plus entries are the work of more than five hundred writers. Their subjects reflect all areas of the commonwealth and span the time from prehistoric settlement to today's headlines, recording Kentuckians' achievements in art, architecture, business, education, politics, religion, science, and sports. Biographical sketches portray all of Kentucky's governors and U.S. senators, as well as note congressmen and state and local politicians. Kentucky's impact on the national scene is registered in the lives of such figures as Carry Nation, Henry Clay, Louis Brandeis, and Alben Barkley. The commonwealth's high range from writers Harriette Arnow and Jesse Stuart, reformers Laura Clay and Mary Breckinridge, and civil rights leaders Whitney Young, Jr., and Georgia Powers, to sports figures Muhammad Ali and Adolph Rupp and entertainers Loretta Lynn, Merle Travis, and the Everly Brothers. Entries describe each county and county seat and each community with a population above 2,500. Broad overview articles examine such topics as agriculture, segregation, transportation, literature, and folklife. Frequently misunderstood aspects of Kentucky's history and culture are clarified and popular misconceptions corrected. The facts on such subjects as mint juleps, Fort Knox, Boone's coonskin cap, the Kentucky hot brown, and Morgan's Raiders will settle many an argument. For both the researcher and the more casual reader, this collection of facts and fancies about Kentucky and Kentuckians will be an invaluable resource.
Floyd County, named for Kentucky pioneer John Floyd, was formed in 1799. Originally encompassing all of the Big Sandy River Valley and much of eastern Kentucky, the boundaries included portions of what are now Pike, Martin, Knott, Magoffin, and Johnson Counties. Because of its river access, Floyd County developed earlier than many counties in eastern Kentucky. Prestonsburg, the county seat, became a major river port and center of trade in the region. With the coming of the railroad in 1903 and the coal industry, which began booming in the early 20th century, the county rapidly grew. This growth included a rapid rise in population due to the migration of native-born whites from around the country, European immigrants, and African Americans from southern plantations and coalfields. What had been an agrarian, white population suddenly took on a whole new face, one more reflective of the nation. The railroads and coal industry permanently changed both the economy and culture of Floyd County.
