The event was held at Spindletop Hall. The address is a Lexington address but it is located across Ironworks Pike from the Kentucky Horsepark. The farm was established by Pansy Yount in 1935 on 800 acres of prime bluegrass land. The mansion was finished in 1937 at a cost of $1,000,000. The mansion has 40 rooms (each with its own thermostat), 14 bathrooms, 133 full-size exterior and interior doors, 102 windows and 11 fireplaces. There are over 45, 000 square feet of floor space. It has a circular staircase on either side of the main entrance door, basically making a half circle on each side of the room to the 2nd floor and down to the basement level.
The Spindletop home and farm get their name for the Spindletop Oil Company which in its day was the largest oil drilling and producing company.
In 1955 Mrs. Yount left Spindletop and returned to her hometown of Beaumont, Texas. In 1957 Dr. Frank Dickey, then president of the University of Kentucky began negotiations to purchase Spindletop Hall. The sale was complete in 1959. In 1962 Spindletop Hall, Inc. was chartered as the faculty, staff and alumni club for the University of Kentucky. Today you can buy associate membership even if you are not an alumnus of UK.
This was our first visit to Spindletop Hall. I hope it will not be our last.
The reason for this visit to this particular meeting was to support Cynthia Foster (Cindy), Sadieville's City Clerk. She was being given the Anne Bolton Bevins Award for all of her work on historic preservation in Sadieville and Scott County. Cindy and her hubby Billy were there and Claude and I came to support her. Cindy is such a dedicated, efficient, honest, committed city clerk and person. Claude and I just love her to pieces. Cindy found a treasure in the Rosenwald School and the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church located in Sadieville and understood their historic significance. She got the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance group going to work as a non-profit organization to help with preserving these two significant pieces of Sadieville and our countries history as well as working to improve and revitalize Sadieville. The hours she has put in are astounding. So we were extremely pleased to be there when Cindy received this much deserved award.
We found Cindy speaking with Susan Lyons Hughes who is the Museum and Special Programs Director for Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Susan would be the guest speaker for tonight's program. It was time to find a table so we all moved into the first room we went through.
There were 9 people at our table. Everyone was just delightful. The conversation was great and covered many topics from fishing to travel to places we had lived, etc. To my left was Alice Anne. She was a wonderful person to sit beside. She knew the five people at the table except for Claude, me, Cindy and Billy. But we all got to know each other very quickly. Alice Anne had been a teacher by profession. She was supposed to teach speech but they needed her to be more specialized with children with disabilities so she took classes that she said, "Gave me a certificate but didn't mean I was really qualified."
My favorite quote of the evening came from this interesting and delightful lady. Alice Anne said, "I learned early in life always to leave a hole large enough to crawl out of." Now you have to read that with a real beautiful Southern drawl and you'll get the full effect. I can just hear it prefaced by "My mamma told me to..."
To Alice Anne's left was Joe Rhinehart. He had also been a teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland. He taught at Gaithersburg Middle School. I'm not sure when he left and came back to Kentucky. But he knew the area we lived in Maryland before it was all full of the businesses that were there when we left. He was a character as well.
I never caught the lady's name to Joe's left. The Apples were seated next to her. Dr. Apple had been a professer at UK because his kids grew up playing in the swimming pools at Spindletop before it became as expensive as it is today.
The meeting opened with a blessing on the meeting and food. Then Joseph Henderson sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth". He has a very full rich tenor voice. I'm going to say this and I don't want anyone out there to see me as racist. But Joe is a large black man. I totally enjoyed him and his singing. He had no accompanyment. He just opened his mouth and the sound came out like it was spilling from some wonderful cup. Every now and then Joe would trick me and go a little higher than the regular musical version of this song or a little lower. This was a popular song when I was a teen and it was just good to hear it and hear it done so well this evening.
Dinner came next. My what a feast. They served us a wedge salad. I LOVE wedge salads. Then came the main course, salmon, broccoli and rice with some type of white sauce on it. My, oh my, it was just delicious. Then they brought tiramisu for dessert. Heavenly!!
The program consisted of the business of selecting new officers and members of the board. Then the awards were given. There were 3 given, one of which was for Cindy. Then the guest speaker, Susan Lyons Hughes, spoke.
Susan's presentation was titled "It was a Strange and Melancholy Sight: the Shakers and the Civil War". Susan used a PowerPoint presentation and shared the history of the Shakers and how they were affected by the Civil War by reading entries from the journals of the Shakers from that time period.
Let me just draw you a word picture of where this happened. The first 'Pike' in the United States was the National Pike. We were very familiar with this Pike because of living in Maryland. It runs from Washington, DC through Cumberland, Maryland and on to Ohio. We often chose this highway for our motorcycle rides. Another main 'road' if you will back in this time period was Natchez Trace. For our anniversary several years ago, Claude and I drove the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. So when Susan explained these two major highways from this time period we knew them both personally. Then she had us think of the one ending in Ohio (north of Kentucky) and the other ending in Nashville, Tennessee. To get from one to the other was the old Highway 68 through Kentucky. Can you guess where this meant Highway 68 went?? Yep, right through Pleasant Hill, Kentucky and the Shaker Village.
Who are the Shakers? Their real names is United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill has the most restored actual buildings. It is a wonderful place to visit. The Shakers didn't marry. They believed the 2nd Coming was right at hand. They did invite wonderful things like the clothes pin and a potty chair for hospitals, etc. Simple stream-lined furniture that was exceptionally functional is a treasure they have left for us today. They were pacifists, unionists and believed in the gradual releasing of slaves. They believed they were setting up a Zion society in preparation for the 2nd coming. Can you imagine all of that and Highway 68 running right through the middle of all the land and buildings you own. There was no way the Civil War was not going to come right through your land.
The soldiers were used to 'foraging' for food in the areas they march into and through. They called it foraging, the people called it 'stealing'. The Shakers determined they would feed and assist as best they could whatever troops came through their village in the hopes that whatever troops came through would treat them with the same respect. Because the Shakers had this wonderful land covered in well tended farms, they had animals for food and well as transportation, they were a prime target for foraging by the militaries on both sides. Their plan of providing hospitality worked well for them most of the time.
Susan read many, many quotes and told us what was happening in the war on the dates the entries were made in the Shaker journals. It was very moving and gave a vivid picture of the Civil War in Kentucky from the Shaker's perspective. I kept wishing Jacob was there to hear all of this. He would have truly appreciated it.
Susan commented about Perryville being only about 15 miles or so from Pleasant Hill. During the Battle of Perryville the Shakers could hear all the cannon fire. It must have been heart rending to these peace seeking people.
I totally enjoyed this presentation. I couldn't believe what a treat it was to spend a Friday evening in such good company and learn so many knew bits of history and see a dear friend receive just recognition for all her hard work.
To close the evening Joe Henderson had us all stand and join him in singing "My Old Kentucky Home". This is Kentucky's state song. Joe was just as clear and true with this rendition as he was with the opening song. We sang 2 verses and a chorus. Then Joe said, "That sounded so good, let's do the chorus again." And we did. I felt like a real Kentucky girl. It was tender and sweet and just felt really good.
I'm happy to live in Kentucky. It is a treasure in this country of ours. I'm happy we chose to check out Lexington when we were thinking of where in the world we wanted to spend our retirement years. I don't know for sure what the future will hold for Claude and I but I will forever be grateful for these little opportunities that come our way.
"To My Old Kentucky Home...Good Night!!"
PS: Monday night I became the Chair for the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance,
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