Cincinnati Firefighters Memorial

One of the bonuses of a recent trip north of the Ohio to Cincinnati was getting to visit the Cincinnati Fire Museum. A future post will look at the artifacts in their collection that concentrate on 19th century firefighting, but I stumbled upon this solemn memorial to the city's firefighters while walking the surrounding streets. The names that surround this memorial answered the alarm and paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. A beautiful, moving memorial dedicated to just one branch of our first responders who daily put their lives on the lines to protect and serve our communities.

Here are some of my pictures.

 

 

 

Where it all began for me . . . sort of: Visiting with Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone

Besides the tidbits of history I can recall learning in kindergarten up through third grade, it was in 4th grade that I was introduced to history, learning the history of the United States and Kentucky from its colonial origins (the Commonwealth was, of course, part of one of those other commonwealths--Virginia--during its colonial phase) up to the beginning of the Civil War. I took to history immediately. No doubt a large part of that was due to the incredible Social Studies teachers that I was privileged to have and sit in their classrooms. They each made history fun with the energy they brought to the classroom, their passion for the subject, and the stories they told. History was story time where I got to meet legendary American figures and they made those individuals come alive for me.



In 4th grade, I learned my history not from my regular classroom teacher, a very young teacher probably not more than a year or so on the job, but from the veteran teacher across the hall, Betty Boone. The first thing I can recall is her telling us that she was a part of Kentucky's royalty (not her exact words, but mine). She had married into the Boone family, Daniel Boone's family, a prominent frontiersman in early American history. If not Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone is the very first historical figure that every young Kentuckian encounters in the classroom, or so they did when I was a mere cog in Kentucky's educational system. As my year as a fourth grader unfolded, Mrs. Boone's enthusiasm for the subject and especially Kentucky's state history was palpable indeed. I took to the subject in general naturally and delved into Kentucky's colonial and early history as a state, reading supplementary books in her classroom. Subsequently, I must have impressed her because I was selected captain of our school's Kentucky history team, which went to Frankfort, the state capital, where we participated in the Governor's Cup, a quick recall-like competition in which teams from schools across the state competed in a battle royale over the state's history. Sadly, we came up short in the semi-finals or else we would have stood a great chance at winning (perhaps the lack of a gold medal on my trophy case still haunts me, but I can vividly recall sitting on the sidelines conferring with my team members as we knew every single question asked in the final round but one!).

After fourth grade, I got my fill of American history in fifth grade and beyond; however, Kentucky history was no longer an emphasis in our curriculum. Truth be told, I have lost much of what I knew then. I feel as if I know much more today about my adopted state's history than I do about my native Kentucky. Still, Daniel Boone remains one of any native Kentuckian's most beloved figures. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit the gravesite of Kentucky's pioneer legend at Frankfort Cemetery, overlooking the Kentucky River and the state's modern capitol building . . . or did I?


There seems to be some debate as to whether the site actually does contain the body of Boone and his wife, Rebecca. I enclose some links below to stories about Boone, his actual bones, and the controversy.

The Body in Daniel Boone's Grave May Not Be His (New York Times article from 1983)

Where is Daniel Boone Buried? (a video segment from Kentucky Public Television)

Boone's Bones Broohaha

Daniel Boone (find a grave website)

Nevertheless, here are some of the photos that I took of Boone's gravesite, with the remarkable view of the state capitol building in the distance, and the marble reliefs that appear on each side of Boone's "grave."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebels at Rest in Lexington: The Todds, a Couple Notable Rebels, & Kentucky's Basketball Baron

 

 

The gates to Lexington Cemetery on Main Street

Despite being a native who lived nearly 26 years in the great Commonwealth and an avid Kentucky fan, I have only occasionally visited Lexington. More often than not, my visits took me to the University of Kentucky's campus for research--to grab journals (Journal of East Tennessee History!) and books that the University of Louisville's library did not carry and to nap in the library's cozy surroundings. Last weekend I had an opportunity to visit again on my way back to Knoxville, and this time I decided to see two sites I had always wanted to see--Rupp Arena and Mary Lincoln's childhood home. What I hadn't expected to do, however, was to visit Lexington Cemetery. But had it not been for a segment on UK talk radio (the hosts had spent the previous weekend searching for Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp's grave), I wouldn't have thought to go in the first place. I figured I would do some quick research and see any other "big" historic names that may be buried there as well. I was astonished to see several folks I wouldn't mind visiting. What follows is a collection of some of my photos.


The Todd family plot, Section F (sits alongside Main Avenue)

When Abraham Lincoln entered the Senate race against Stephen Douglas in 1858, months before the famous Lincoln-Debates, he referred to the nation, which was splitting over the issue of slavery, as "a house divided." This biblical metaphor could be used to describe the situation in which many families, especially those among the border states, found themselves in 1860-1861.

The Todd family plot, Section F. 

It is certainly fitting when discussing Mary Todd Lincoln's Lexington, Kentucky family. Mary was born into a slaveholding family, many of whom chose to support the Confederacy during the Civil War, even though Kentucky, a slave state, struggled to remain neutral at a time in which states were compelled to choose between their allegiance to the United States or an allegiance to a new "nation" on which slavery stood as its cornerstone. During the war, Mary's stepmother and eight of her thirteen siblings supported the Confederacy, some of those siblings donning Confederate gray.




Mary's father, Robert (left) and her mother Elizabeth (right)

Mary's parents are both buried at Lexington Cemetery. Her mother, Elizabeth "Eliza" Ann Parker Todd died when Mary was seven years old (Lincoln also lost his mother when he was young, at the age of nine). Elizabeth died as the result of complications following the birth of her seventh child, George, who survived. She was buried next to her sixth child, Robert, who died at 14 months of age.

Mary's father, Robert Smith Todd, who had remarried (Elizabeth Humphreys Todd), was a prominent Kentucky Whig and a state senator. In the summer of 1849, he decided to run for political office; however, he collapsed suddenly on July 7 while on the campaign trail and fell ill as a cholera epidemic swept through central Kentucky. The doctors could do little for him and he began finalizing his will. He managed to live more than a week before passing away quietly on July 16.

John C. Breckinridge, Section G

Nearby, one can find several prominent Rebels. John Cabell Breckinridge, United States Vice President, the Southern Fire-Eating Democratic challenger in the 1860 presidential election, a Confederate commissioned officer, and Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America.


John C. Breckinridge

Across the street from Breckinridge is the so-called "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy," Kentucky cavalryman John Hunt Morgan. Morgan was killed by Union forces in Greeneville, Tennessee during the Civil War, but buried in Richmond, Virginia in the summer of 1864. Morgan, who had garnered a lot of attention in the press for his summer 1863 raid into northeastern Ohio, which had caused great anxiety among Union officials, was a marked man. The raid proved to be the furthest northern incursion by Confederate military forces during the Civil War (smaller operations by former Confederates and secret service operations were conducted as far north as Vermont); however, Morgan's raid proved a futile, sideshow of the war. His younger brother Thomas H. Morgan was also killed in action and was first buried in Lebanon, Kentucky in 1863. Both brothers' remains were re-interred in the same grave in a double ceremony in April 1868.


John Hunt Morgan

The Duke, Morgan, and Hunt family plot, section C

John Hunt Morgan grave, Section C

Basil W. Duke

An additional Rebel of interest includes Basil Wilson Duke who is also buried next to Morgan. Duke was Morgan's second in command, becoming commanding general of the cavalry after Morgan's death. Duke and his men protected the Confederate president Jefferson Davis as he fled Richmond in early 1865 as Union forces closed in. Duke later served Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives after the war.

A monument to the Rebel dead.

Last but not least, an adopted son of the Commonwealth, the Baron of basketball, coaching legend Adolph Rupp.