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The Melungeon Heritage Association is proud to present
"Melungeons: Fact or Fiction?"
Frankfort, Kentucky on July 29-30, 2005
MHA is proud to present “Melungeons: Fact or Fiction?”
on Friday and Saturday, July 29-30, at the
Holiday Inn Capital Plaza
in Frankfort, Kentucky.
This is a FREE event; you can just show up on Saturday
if you choose, but your pre-registration will help us
make plans. Also, if you plan to attend one of the
events on Friday, we need to know you’re planning to be
there; you can pre-register online.
The event is FREE, but pre-registration will help us
make plans You can pre-register online
at
Registration Form for Melungeons: Fact or
Fiction?
MHA has
a special room rate at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza.
This is a full-service hotel with a pool and exercise
room. It is also across the street from a park and a
walking trail on the Kentucky River. You can get
information at Holiday Inn Capital Plaza; Frankfort, KY
but make your reservation by phone to get the special
discount for this event. The national Holiday Inn phone
number is 1-800-465-4329, the number for the hotel is
502-227-5100. Mention the Melungeon gathering to get the
special rate of $67.00 plus tax per night. This rate
allows for up to four people per room.
A "Melungeon Mixer" will offer an opportunity for
socializing on Friday night, and on Saturday, we have a
full day of presentations scheduled for the meeting
rooms at the Holiday Inn.
Saturday - a full day of presentations in the meeting
rooms at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza. Speakers will
include:
Elizabeth Hirschmann, author of
The Melungeons: Last Lost Tribe in America
Manuel Mira, author of
The Forgotten Portuguese
Wayne Winkler, author of
Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia
DruAnna Overbay, editor of
Windows on the Past
Researcher James Nickens
Historians and entertainers
Frank and Mary Sweet
Historians Ron Bryant and Jim
Pritchard
…and more.
Kentucky History - KENTUCKY
(kntk´, kn–) , one of the so-called border states of
the S central United States. It is bordered by West
Virginia and Virginia (E); Tennessee (S); the
Mississippi R., across which lies Missouri (SW); and
Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, all across the Ohio R.
(W, N).
Early Exploration and Settlement -
When the Eastern seaboard of North America was being
colonized in the 1600s, Kentucky was part of the
inaccessible country beyond the mountains. After
Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, claimed all
regions drained by the Mississippi and its
tributaries for France, British interest in the area
quickened. The first major expedition to the
Tennessee region was led by Dr. Thomas Walker, who
explored the eastern mountain region in 1750 for the
Loyal Land Company. Walker was soon followed by
hunters and scouts including Christopher Gist.
Further exploration was interrupted by the last
conflict (1754–63) of the French and Indian Wars
between the French and British for control of North
America, and Pontiac’s Rebellion, a Native American
uprising (1763–66). 12
With the British victorious in both, settlers soon
began to enter Kentucky. They came in defiance of a
royal proclamation of 1763, which forbade settlement
west of the Appalachians. Daniel Boone, the famous
American frontiersman, first came to Kentucky in
1767; he returned in 1769 and spent two years in the
area. A surveying party under James Harrod
established the first permanent settlement at
Harrodsburg in 1774, and the next year Boone, as
agent for Richard Henderson and the Transylvania
Company, a colonizing group of which Henderson was a
member, blazed the Wilderness Road from Tennessee
into the Kentucky region and founded Boonsboro.
Title to this land was challenged by Virginia, whose
legislature voided (1778) the Transylvania Company’s
claims, although individual settlers were confirmed
in their grants.
Native American Resistance and Statehood
Kentucky was made (1776) a county of Virginia, and
new settlers came through the Cumberland Gap and
over the Wilderness Road or down the Ohio River.
These early pioneers of Kentucky and Tennessee were
constantly in conflict with the Native Americans.
The growing population of Kentuckians, feeling that
Virginia had failed to give them adequate
protection, worked for statehood in a series of
conventions held at Danville (1784–91). Others,
observing the weaknesses of the U.S. government,
considered forming an independent nation. Since
trade down the Mississippi and out of Spanish-held
New Orleans was indispensable to Kentucky’s economic
development, an alliance with Spain was
contemplated, and U.S. General James Wilkinson, who
lived in Kentucky at the time, worked toward that
end. 14
However, in 1792 a constitution was finally framed
and accepted, and in the same year the Commonwealth
of Kentucky (its official designation) was admitted
to the Union, the first state W of the Appalachians.
Isaac Shelby was elected the first governor, and
Frankfort was chosen capital. U.S. General Anthony
Wayne’s victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers in
1794 effectively ended Native American resistance in
Kentucky. 15
River Rights and Banking Problems
In 1795, Pinckney’s Treaty between the United States
and Spain granted Americans the right to navigate
the Mississippi, a right soon completely assured by
the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Enactment by the
federal government of the Alien and Sedition Acts
(1798) promptly provoked a sharp protest in Kentucky
(see Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions). The state
grew fast as trade and shipping centers developed
and river traffic down the Ohio and Mississippi
increased. 16
The War of 1812 spurred economic prosperity in
Kentucky, but financial difficulties after the war
threatened many with ruin. The state responded to
the situation by chartering in 1818 a number of new
banks that were allowed to issue their own currency.
These banks soon collapsed, and the state
legislature passed measures for the relief of the
banks’ creditors. However, the relief measures were
subsequently declared unconstitutional by a state
court. The legislature then repealed legislation
that had established the offending court and set up
a new one. The state became divided between
prorelief and antirelief factions, and the issue
also figured in the division of the state
politically between followers of the Tennessean
Andrew Jackson, then rising to national political
prominence, and supporters of the Whig Party of
Henry Clay, who was a leader in Kentucky politics
for almost half a century.
The Slavery Issue and Civil War
In the first half of the 19th cent., Kentucky was
primarily a state of small farms rather than large
plantations and was not adaptable to extensive use
of slave labor. Slavery thus declined after 1830,
and for 17 years, beginning in 1833, the importation
of slaves into the state was forbidden. In 1850,
however, the legislature repealed this restriction,
and Kentucky, where slave trading had begun to
develop quietly in the 1840s, was converted into a
huge slave market for the lower South. 18
Antislavery agitation had begun in the state in the
late 18th cent. within the churches, and
abolitionists such as James G. Birney and Cassius M.
Clay labored vigorously in Kentucky for emancipation
before the Civil War. Soon Kentucky, like other
border states, was torn by conflict over the slavery
issue. In addition to the radical antislavery
element and the aggressive proslavery faction, there
was also in the state a conciliatory group. 19
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Kentucky attempted
to remain neutral. Gov. Beriah Magoffin refused to
sanction President Lincoln’s call for volunteers,
but his warnings to both the Union and the
Confederacy not to invade were ignored. Confederate
forces invaded and occupied part of S Kentucky,
including Columbus and Bowling Green. The state
legislature voted (Sept., 1861) to oust the
Confederates and Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Ohio
and took Paducah, thus securing the state was
secured for the Union. After battles in Mill
Springs, Richmond, and Perryville in 1862, there was
no major fighting in the state, although the
Confederate cavalryman John Hunt Morgan occasionally
led raids into Kentucky, and guerrilla warfare was
constant. 20
For Kentucky it was truly a civil
war as neighbors, friends, and even families became
bitterly divided in their loyalties. Over 30,000
Kentuckians fought for the Confederacy, while about
64,000 served in the Union ranks. After the war many
in the state opposed federal Reconstruction
policies, and Kentucky refused to ratify the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S.
Constitution.
-
SOURCE: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth
Edition 2001
Kentucky State Archives
P.O. Box 537
300 Coffee Tree Road
Frankfort, KY
40602
(502) 564-8300
KY History Center & KY Archives By
Connie Hoskins
On Friday, July 29, Wayne mentioned that those who
attend the Melungeon Gathering will have the opportunity
to visit the KY History Center and the KY Archives.
Because you can spend a day or more at both, I thought
I'd offer some info about them. Briefly, if you are
interested in learning about the state of KY, visit the
KY History Center in downtown Frankfort diagonally from
the Civic Center. If you have KY ancestors and want to
research vital statistics records, court documents, etc,
head to the Archives on Coffee Tree Lane.
Kentucky Department of Tourism
"Welcome to Frankfort, Kentucky! This site will
show you what to see, where to stay & eat, and more
about Frankfort and Franklin County. Presented by the
Frankfort/Franklin County Tourist and Convention
Commission" 100 Capital
Avenue
Frankfort, KY 40601
1-800-960-7200 or (502)
875-8687
email :inquire@visitfrankfort.com
Frankfort Cemetery, located downtown at 215 E. Main
Street, overlooks the city. A monument mark the graves
of Daniel Boone and his wife, Rebecca. The cemetery also
has the graves of seventeen governors. A black granite
wall bears the names of Kentuckians who have died
defending their country from the War of 1812 through the
Gulf War. Many graves stones bear quaint epitaphs. Allow
thirty minutes minimum.
Directions To Frankfort Cemetery
Frankfort,
Kentucky is located approximately 50 miles east of
Louisville via I-64 or US 60 and 25 miles west of
Lexington via I-64, US 60, US 421 or scenic Old
Frankfort Pike. Travel time to the Lexington Bluegrass
Airport via US 60 is approximately 25 minutes and to the
Louisville International Airport is approximately 1 - 1
1/2 hours via I-64/I-264. When arriving in Frankfort go
to E. Main on the Eastern side of the river. Close to
the top of the hill you will see the cemetery. The
cemetery can be seen from any place in town as it sits
on the cliffs overlooking the Kentucky River on the East
Side.
Frankfurt Cemetery Map and pictures
Pictures of the cemetery along with a special map to the
grave sites.
USA, Kentucky, Frankfort, Frankfort Cemetery
Mike's Notes: Daniel Boone is buried here, but don't
miss seeing the grave of America's 9th vice-president,
Richard Mentor Johnson (bet you haven't even heard of
him before, have you?). Daniel Boone's grave has an
awesome view of the city nearby. Too bad he has that big
monument blocking his view.
Confederate Pension Records
In 1912, Kentucky began granting pensions to Confederate
veterans or their widows. The records are on microfilm.
A published index is available in many libraries:
Simpson, Alicia. Index of Confederate Pension
Applications, Commonwealth of Kentucky (Frankfort,
KY: Division of Archives and Records Management,
Department of Library and Archives, 1978).
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
Research Room
300 Coffee Tree Road
Frankfort, KY
40601
Telephone: 502-564-8704
Unique memorial is a 14-foot sundial that casts a shadow
across veterans' names on the anniversaries of their
deaths. Memorial contains more than 1,000 names.
300 Coffee Tree Rd
Frankfort, KY 40601
Kentucky Vital Records Index
This data was acquired from Kentucky's state Office of
Vital Statistics for noncommercial use only. It may not
be used for any commercial purpose. Any reselling,
profit making, or surcharges added by an Internet
provider for access to the data will result in loss of
access to the data. Accessing the data will be
interpreted by the University as agreement to the above
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