650 NEW LIBERTY or Louisville. Over time, this medical center has suffered the same fate as most small rural hospitals in the United States: its inherent diseconomies of scale make the facility’s per-unit costs higher than those in larger facilities. In the world of modern private insurance and governmental reimbursement caps, some treatment procedures simply are not adequately reimbursed, resulting in red ink for the hospital. However, for the patient passing through its emergency room door, the New Horizons Medical Center still provides critical ser vice. New Horizons Medical Center. www.newhorizonsmedicalcenter.com.
Bernie Poe
NEW LIBERTY. Although the exact date of the first house built in New Liberty, Owen Co., Ky., is unknown, the town was large and thriving in 1800, 19 years before the county was created. Located about 10 miles northwest of Owenton on Ky. Rts. 227 and 36, the community continues to be a place of tranquil residential living. For many years New Liberty was the largest and most prosperous town in the county. It is believed that the first building was a two-story, 10room log house built by John Gayle and his slaves in 1806. A portion of the structure remains standing and has been converted into a barn. Early commercial goods were shipped to New Liberty via boat on the Ohio River to Ghent and via wagon from Ghent. After the Louisville and Nashville Railroad was built, merchandise was shipped to Liberty Station (Sanders) and transported from there by wagon. The Owen Union Agricultural and Mechanical Association Fairgrounds was the center of much interest and many varied attractions. Organized in 1859, the fairgrounds remained quite active until 1886, except for a period during the Civil War; it comprised several buildings, including stables and a large dining room for visitors. Horse racing became popu lar, and many of the local gentlemen owned horses that proved to be exceedingly fast. During the Civil War, when Union soldiers used the fairgrounds as a camp, a smallpox outbreak resulted in the death of many of them. It is reported that the soldiers used the bell tower of the New Liberty Baptist Church for target practice. One of the earliest schools in New Liberty was a combined school already existing by 1850. Concord College was established in town in 1867 for both male and female students. The last building of the college was constructed in 1921. The town’s first high school opened in the 1906–1907 school term. When the county’s high schools were consolidated in 1951, this building was converted to an elementary school, which closed in 1970 owing to further consolidation. The town’s first bank, incorporated in 1886 as Citizens Bank, remains a vital part of the community. At one time the businesses in town included a tanning yard, a woolen mill, the Gayle House Hotel, the first newspaper in Owen Co. the Owen News (1868), a tobacco warehouse, stores, livery stables, an undertaker, churches, and a bank. In 1864 the most important business and residential parts of town
were destroyed by fire; another fire in 1904 destroyed much of the rebuilt section of the town. The first church, established in 1801, was the Baptist Church of the Twins, called that because of its location between two creek branches known as Little Twin and Big Twin. By 1965 it was known as the New Liberty Baptist Church. During the early 1830s, there was a large Christian Church (Campbellites) revival movement in Kentucky, and some members of the Baptist church joined together to become part of the Christian Church denomination. The resulting New Liberty Christian Church is believed to have begun in 1833. There are no records about the first church building, except for the knowledge that bricks from it were used to construct the Second Baptist Church between 1919 and 1921. Today New Liberty no longer shows its former prosperity. It never totally recovered from its two devastating fires. A bank, a general store, a firehouse, a post office, and three churches remain in the town. Houchens, Marian Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976. “New Liberty,” vertical fi les, Owen Co. Public Library, Owenton, Ky.
Doris Riley
NEW LIBERTY BAPTIST CHURCH. This church was originally known as the Baptist Church of the Twins, for the two branches of the Kentucky River, Big Twin and Little Twin creeks, that flow through New Liberty, Ky. The church dates back to 1801, when ser vices were held in the homes of its members. In 1810 a log building was constructed with a balcony for slaves to sit in during worship ser vices. A brick building, erected in 1819, burned in 1836, but the members lost no time in rebuilding; they reused the bricks from the walls of the previous structure. This building, with some modifications, remains the house of worship for the church. The church name was changed in 1842 to the Baptist Church of New Liberty; by 1965 it was known as the New Liberty Baptist Church. Up to that time, a total of 39 pastors had served the church, and it had functioned as the mother church for 10 other Baptist churches. The congregation has supported strong programs in Sunday School, Bible School, and mission ventures in its morethan-200-year history. “History of the New Liberty Baptist Church,” 1951, New Liberty Baptist Church, New Liberty, Ky. Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.
NEWMAN, ERICA (b. August 31, 1904, Oberkirch, Germany; d. February 20, 1992, Covington, Ky.). She was known as Erica A. Newman by her acquaintances in Northern Kentucky, where she spent two decades in her later life, after her performing career had ended. Erica’s father was Maximillan Herrmann, and all that is known of her mother is that her maiden surname was Ebner. As a dancer, model, singer, and actress, Erica Herr-
mann was one of the most photographed persons of the 1920s. She arrived in Hollywood in 1933 and appeared in movies with James Cagney, Bette Davis, and Edward G. Robinson. She was in I’ve Got Your Number (1934) with Joan Blondell and Pat O’Brien and in Strike Me Pink (1936) with Jimmy Durante. In 1939 Herrmann appeared in Wife, Husband, and Friend with Caesar Romero and Loretta Young. She became a good friend of Shirley Temple. Herrmann had two different Hollywood performing names: for her early years at Warner Bros., she used the screen name Rickey Newell; for Fox Studios, at the end of her Hollywood career, she was billed as Alice Armand. Herrmann appeared on Broadway in Flo Ziegfield’s rendition of the musical Showboat (1927). In January 1939 she was one of eight studio starlets to make a 12,000-mile airplane promotional tour in connection with Twentieth Century–Fox’s release of Tail Spin. She retired from entertainment in the mid-1940s and later married New York City policeman Vincent Joseph Newman. She moved to Northern Kentucky in the mid-1970s to be near her son and lived in Florence and then in Covington, in two nursing homes, the St. John Nursing Home and the Garrard Convalescent Center. She remained vibrant, sharp, and interesting until her very last days, recounting stories about her career and sharing items from her scrapbook. She died at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington and was cremated. “Erica Newman,” KP, February 21, 1992, 6A. Kentucky Death Certificate No. 4288, for the year 1992. “Passages,” KP, January 1, 1993, 1K–2K. “Screen News Here and in Hollywood,” NYT, February 7, 1939, 23. “Time Can’t Face a Startlet’s Luster,” KP, May 28, 1990, 1K.
NEW PERCEPTIONS INC. For more than 50 years, the organization now known as New Perceptions Inc. (NPI) has served the special needs of individuals in Boone, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen, and Pendleton counties. NPI has been a leader in promoting the advancement of people who have developmental disabilities and other personal barriers. NPI was founded by a group of concerned parents in 1952 because no appropriate ser vices for their special-needs children existed. Its origins were in the Riverside School, in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church (now Community of Faith Presbyterian) in Covington. A similar school, Good Counsel, opened soon after in two locations: the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Newport and the St. Aloysius School in Covington. Both schools were successful, and in order better to serve their clients, they merged in 1960. Then, as public demand grew, Riverside– Good Counsel built its own school building in 1972, offering grades K–12 and related programs. During the next years, Riverside–Good Counsel brought developmental education into the home, so that families could participate in preparing their children for the future. It also opened an