The Jackson Purchase Historical Society will hold a 
virtual meeting on Saturday, June 26 via ZOOM. The meeting will begin at 10:30, but individuals can sign in beginning at 10:00 am. Well-known Kentucky historian Sam Terry IV will speak on “The Veep as the Merry Widower.” His presentation will discuss Alben W. Barkley’s latter years as the “Merry Widower” and his marriage to Jane Rucker Hadley, who wrote a book — “I Married The Veep.” To register for the Zoom session: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vde6rqjMtG9Vg9hyvIBfSCuj3wDipQVtz
Alben W. Barkley was born in a log house in Wheel, Graves County, in 1877 and was raised in Lowes. He graduated from Marvin College in Clinton and briefly attended Emory University in Atlanta. He began his long and successful political career in 1905 as McCracken County attorney and in 1912 was elected to Congress. He was elected to the Senate in 1926 and in 1937 became majority leader. He was elected Vice President with Harry Truman in 1948. He was elected to the Senate in 1954. He died in 1956. Arguably, Barkley, for whom Barkley Dam and Lake Barkley are named, is the most successful national politician from the Jackson Purchase of Kentucky.
“I am very pleased that we are able to have Sam Terry as our June speaker,” said Bill Mulligan, JPHS President. “His Sam Terry’s Kentucky blog and his other writing makes Kentucky history, in all its diversity, accessible to the public. We have been wanting to do a program focused on Barkley for some time. The combination could not have come together better,” he concluded.
Our speaker, Sam Terry, is the creator and author of Sam Terry’s Kentucky. He is a graduate of Transylvania University with a degree in history; he furthered his studies at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. During a stint in state government, he worked as an assistant to the state curator of Kentucky’s historic properties. Both professionally and personally, Sam has contributed to state and local historic preservation efforts and helping people embrace our unique history. He has served as president of the Kentucky Association of Museums, the Historical Confederation of Kentucky, the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, Renaissance-Main Street Glasgow, and he led the efforts to save and adaptively reuse Glasgow’s historic Liberty Street School campus. For the past 27 years he has led cemetery walking tours in his community, and he researched and created a Civil War Walking Tour that is now part of the middle school history curriculum. As editor of the local newspaper, Sam provided readers with a hearty serving of Kentucky history through his popular column, “My Kentucky.” Sam was also the researcher and writer for the first year of the Kentucky Humanities Council’s program, Think History, broadcast on EKU public radio.
In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds a number of meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history and publishes an award-winning journal on local history. Members include a wide range of people who simply share a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area.
While the society has not been able to meet during the coronavirus situation it remains active. Our 2021 Journal is on schedule to appear in July. Articles are welcome for the 2022 Journal and can be sent to the editor Jim Humphreys at jhumphreys@murraystate.edu. The editor would also welcome inquiries about topics, books for review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS. Information about membership and future programs is available on the society’s website: https://jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org/become-a-member/. Free electronic access to back issues of the Journal through 2016 are available through the Murray State University libraries is at https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/jphs/.
