Quarterly Meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society
Saturday, April 26 2014, 10:30 AM
District Courtroom, Graves County Courthouse, Mayfield KY
Present: Bob and Kate Lochte, Sid Easley, Jim Gantt, Bill and Jo Wells, Sandy and Marvin Downing, Jud and Faye Fortenbery, Charles and Alma Blair, Lonnie Maness, Marion Claybrook, John E.L. Robertson, and Dieter Ullrich.
Others: Graves County Circuit Judge Deborah Crooks, Andy Lucy who is the Pretrial Officer, Pretrial Office of the Graves County Courts Ann Salmon who plans to join JPHS. Greg Miller, a former JPHS member and President, and Bruce Dobyns, a new member who is interim minister at the Mayfield Christian Church.
Downing’s unofficial count was 35 people.
Agenda. President Bob Lochte called the meeting to order at 10:30 a.m.
1) Approval of the minutes of the January 25, 2014 meeting. Marion Claybrook moved, Lonnie Maness seconded, and the minutes were approved as distributed.
2) Secretary’s Report – Marvin Downing. Marion Claybrook moved, Lonnie Maness seconded, and the minutes were approved as distributed.
3) Treasurer’s Report – Marvin Downing. Marion Claybrook moved, Charles Bobbitt seconded, and the minutes were approved as distributed. Lochte reported Web by D-Squared had the JPHS website up and running.
4) Journal Editor’s Report. Via Downing, Strange shared the deadline for submitting materials for the 2014 Journal is May 1st. However, she does allow some calendar flexibility. She would like someone to send in a poem.
5) Discussion of elections. Lochte and Nominating Committee member Bill Wells stated there is already a partial slate ready for the July balloting.
6) Old Business
a) Summer and Fall 2014 meeting plans. The July 19th meeting will be at the old Coca-Cola Plant in Paducah with Ed and Meagan Musselman, the new owners, speaking about their plans for restoring and utilizing the historic structure. . .
The Fall meeting will be November 1, 2014 in Martin’s Weldon Public Library with African-American photographer-educator Robert Nunley talking about his family and their ethnic heritage in Martin, TN.
The January program is incomplete, but may have Ernie Bailey, retired archivist at Murray State University, presenting information about Revolutionary War warrants and patents in the Jackson Purchase. These land grants brought many of the original settlers to the region in the early 19th century.
b) Membership recruitment. Hopefully some non-members attending will join JPHS. So invite more people. In fact, Bruce Dobyns of the Mayfield Christian Church did join and Ann Salmon plans to associate in the future. JPHS gave a complimentary membership to Andy Lucy of the Pretrial Office of the Graves County Courthouse for arranging use of the facilities.
7) New Business
a) Kentucky History Award nomination. The deadline to nominate is the end of May. Lochte believes an appropriate project is the audio recording about construction of Kentucky Dam. It has already received an Associated Press award in Kentucky and a national award. It was completed in 2013 following the nomination deadline. Bobbitt moved, Claybrook seconded, and JPHS approved submission of the recording.
Dieter Ullrich pointed out John E.L. Robertson had just re-printed an update of his 1980 history of Paducah. It seems viable for 2014 nomination since it was published in 2014.
b) Publicity
Lochte plans more press releases concerning meetings. Some attendees saw the news item in the Paducah Sun and the Mayfield Messenger.
Adjournment. The business session adjourned at 10:45 a.m.
Program. Lochte introduced Murray attorney and JPHS member Sid Easley who is a Graves County native. He discussed the background of the book A Courthouse Tragedy: Politics, Murder and Redemption in a Small Kentucky Town,” the trial and his sources. He abruptly concluded his most interesting talk at the point the jury foreman handed the verdict to the presiding judge. In referring to Judge Bill Cunningham’s Castle, The Story of a Kentucky Prison Easley did “leak” that the defendant was imprisoned there without specifying incarceration terms. Several persons purchased autographed copies of Easley’s volume.