Jackson Purchase Historical Society

I hope this finds you well. We have traditionally covered the year’s events in the Journal and in an end-of-year letter to the members. As the Society becomes more active, I think we may need to increase our level of communication without burdening people with too many emails. So, we will start quarterly reports that will look back at what was done in the previous three months and offer a brief look ahead to the next three months. If you are unsure as to your membership status, please contact the treasurer at info@jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org and he can check. We encourage everyone to keep their membership current.

We began in January with a program by Bob Jackson, president of Murray State University, who discussed the Centennial history of the University he co-authored with Jeff McLaughlin and Sarah Marie Owens. We held the event on campus in Faculty Hall, an appropriate venue to discuss the history of the University. We had a nice turnout of society members, MSU alumni, and others. Dr. Jackson focused on the early, formative period of the University which allowed in-depth discussion rather than a light gloss over the entire history of this important Purchase institution. We continued offering our programs by Zoom as well as in-person. The meetings are recorded and, after editing, posted on our website jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org) as a resource for teachers and others interested in Purchase history.

In February we partnered with several institutions in Mayfield to celebrate the work of Ellis Wilson, an important African American artist, who was born in Mayfield. The occasion was the publication of a children’s book on Wilson and his determination to become an artist by Jayne Moore Waldrop. Michael McBride, the illustrator of the book, joined us as well. The Ice House Gallery arranged the loan of three of Wilson’s paintings from the collection of the Eagle Gallery at Murray State University for display at the Graves County Public Library. Our secretary, Bruce Dobyns, coordinated six schoolchildren who read the book and commented on it during the meeting. Wilson’s family in Mayfield sent flowers and another family member zoomed in from the East Coast.  One of the highlights developed at the last minute. There was an exhibit of Wilson’s work in Mayfield in 1947 and during that visit he sketched a young girl with her mother’s permission and then gave her the sketches. Clara Ann Pollock, the young girl, contacted Jayne and came from Greenville to attend the meeting and brought the sketches with her. Her mother, Sylva S. Atkins, was the librarian who organized the exhibition in 1947. An unexpected bonus for sure. This was one of our better attended meetings in some time with an audience of about 100. Thanks to the Graves County Public Library for providing such a wonderful venue for all aspects of the program.

We had two events in March. Our regular meeting, which was held in Martin, and a special workshop on Irish genealogy research presented by the Ulster Historical Foundation in Mayfield. The Martin meeting focused on a survey of historical records and repositories in the 21 counties of the Western Grand Division of Tennessee, which is part of the Jackson Purchase. Dean Erik Nordberg and Archivist Sam Richardson from the Meek Library at UT-Martin discussed the background of the project and its goals. A highlight was presentations by student interns who did the field work. This project is important because it can serve as a model for surveying and identifying historical materials in any region. Without records, it is very difficult, in fact it is impossible, to write real history. We may in the future investigate doing such a project for the counties in our Kentucky service area. Given the large number of people in the Jackson Purchase who trace their ancestry to migration from Ireland during the American colonial period, we thought this would be a useful program. The Ulster Historical Foundation has played an important, pioneering role in digitizing Irish genealogical records and making those records, and those yet to be digitized, available to a North American and really a global audience. Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt from the Ulster Historical Foundation did an excellent job making the attendees aware of the wide variety of records that exist, what information they contain, and how best to access them. They also provided a voluminous collection of online resources attendees can use for future reference.

Several of our programs and speakers relate to books published by the University Press of Kentucky. They have graciously offered a discount. Order on their website — www.kentuckypress.com. Promo code JPHS23 has been assigned and will be effective January 9 through May 15, 2023. The following titles will receive 30% off and free media mail shipping:

Also, during the first quarter of the year we made significant progress digitizing the back issues of our Journal and making them more easily accessible to researchers and others who might want to use them. The Journal is now fully accessible online, except for the current issue, and more easily searchable. Our web administrator, Dieter Ullrich, played a major role in carrying this out. The Journal is now available online through 2021 and it is our intention to add a year as each new Journal is published. In addition to getting the material online, Dieter has made the entire collection of back issues keyword accessible, which will allow searching when one does not know the year in which an article appeared or the author. This will greatly enhance its usefulness.

We had hoped to share the latest updates to the Constitution and By-laws earlier this month so that they could be considered at an upcoming meeting and then voted on. A variety of life events among the officers have put that behind schedule, but we intend to complete the process of updating the Constitution and By-laws to better reflect what we do and how we can move forward.

The second quarter has interesting programs planned. On April 15 we will meet at the River Discovery Center in Paducah for a presentation by Stuart Sanders of the Kentucky Historical Society on his book Murder on the Ohio Belle, which deals with a murder that took place on a riverboat between Smithland and Wickliffe and involved a great deal of Civil War era intrigue and undercover spying. The River Discovery Center is joining us as partners in this event. On May 20 we will gather at the Benton Branch of the Marshall County Public Library, which is a new building from the last time we met at the Benton Branch. Our program will be given by Ben Moss, a noted area collector of baseball memorabilia, who will discuss professional baseball players who were from the Jackson Purchase or who settled here after their careers. This should be an interesting program that will appeal to many.  Finally, on June 17 we will return to Mayfield for a program on the Cartwright Grove project that will deal both with the history and tradition of Cartwright Grove in Mayfield and the efforts to create a community resource that carries on that local tradition. Following the formal program there will be an opportunity to tour the site and after the tour we will have a luncheon to celebrate our 65^th anniversary. The program and tour will be free, but there will be a charge for the luncheon to cover costs.

I hope you will join us for any and all of the programs that interest you, feel free to bring guests — share the love of the history of the Jackson Purchase!!!

Bill Mulligan,
President