Chapter L of the Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky

LICKING RIVER. The Licking River, a tributary of the Ohio River, flows for about 320 miles from Magoffin Co. northwest to its confluence witht the Ohio River between Covington and Newport... (cont’d on pg. 547)

The Enquirer/Craig Ruttle

L

Introduction | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z | Index

Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky in partnership with NKY.com

The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky Contents Introduction, Foreword, Acknowledgments and Guide for Readers Chapters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z Index, Bibliography, Illustration Credits

Edited by Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Republished for the World Wide Web by NKY.com and Enquirer Media

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Dave Adkisson, Frankfort Jane Beshear, Frankfort Thomas R. Brumley, Lexington John S. Carroll, Lexington Sara W. Combs, Stanton

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Robert Ted Steinbock, Louisville Mrya Leigh Tobin, New York City James M. Wiseman, Erlanger

Editorial Staff Editors in Chief: Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool Associate Editors: David Hatter, John Schlipp, David E. Schroeder, Robert Stevie, Michael R. Sweeney, John W. Thieret (deceased), Thomas S. Ward, Jack Wessling Topical Editors: Agriculture: Lynn David & James Wallace; Art: Rebecca Bilbo; Biography: Michael R. Sweeney; Business & Commerce: John Boh; Counties & Towns: David E. Schroeder; Ethnology: Theodore H. H. Harris; Government, Law, & Politics: John Schlipp; Literature: Danny Miller (Deceased); Medicine: Dennis B. Worthen; Military: James A. Ramage; Music, Media, & Entertainment: John Schlipp; Religion: Thomas S. Ward & Alex Hyrcza; Sports & Recreation: James C. Claypool; Transportation Joseph F. Gastright (Deceased); Women: Karen Mcdaniel.

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Copyright © 2009 by The University Press of Kentucky, 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, KY 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com.

Print editions: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Encyclopedia of northern Kentucky / edited by Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool. p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8131-2565-7 (hardcover : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-0-8131-2585-5 (limited leather edition) 1. Kentucky, Northern— Encyclopedias. 2. Kentucky— Encyclopedias. I. Tenkotte, Paul A. II. Claypool, James C. F451.E55 2009 976.9'3003—dc22 2009027969

L&N BRIDGE (PURPLE PEOPLE BRIDGE). The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Bridge spans the Ohio River, between the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (I-471) upstream to the east and the Taylor-Southgate Bridge, downstream to the west, linking the cities of Newport and Cincinnati.

Following the Civil War, Cincinnati emerged as a strategic shipment center between the Kentucky and West Virginia coalfields and the industrial heartland of the nation. Recognizing the potential for commercial expansion, business and political leaders in both Ohio and Kentucky organized the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge Company to improve railroad facilities and promote a southern railroad connection. Newport eventually won out over Covington in a bidding war for the proposed bridge, which was to carry the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington Railroad (the Short Line) into Cincinnati. Newport’s winning proposal included an agreement to grant the railroad the right-of-way to operate trains along the entire length of Saratoga St., an arrangement that, at times over the years, divided the city for hours while a train passed or changed cars. The new bridge’s cornerstone was laid at the foot of Saratoga St. on June 3, 1868.

Jacob H. Linville, the nation’s foremost railroad bridge engineer, designed the original bridge to carry railroad freight and passengers, with a walkway to accommodate wagons and pedestrians. The Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., built the steel superstructure. The Newport approach to the structure consists of a series of small brick arches that were later turned into automobile entrances to the current Newport-on-the-Levee parking lot.

When the bridge formally opened on March 20, 1872, it was called the Newport and Cincinnati Railroad and Wagon Bridge. It was the second bridge built to Cincinnati but the first to combine both railway and roadway features; the railroad track was in the center of the bridge, with roadways on both sides. In about 1881, the bridge was widened to accommodate streetcar tracks for horsecars. After the acquisition of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington Railroad by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) in the 1880s, the bridge became commonly known as the L&N Bridge.

Although the railroad tracks along Saratoga St. later caused many a traffic jam and a small chorus of citizens’ complaints, the acquisition of the railroad represented a major coup for Newport. Railroads were supplanting river commerce as the primary means of moving products and people, so besides adding jobs, the new bridge gave easier access to national and even international markets

for the city’s manufacturers. Local business leaders used the availability of a railroad depot (at modernday Fift h and Saratoga Sts.) to promote Newport as a highly attractive place to do business.

The bridge introduced a new phase into the city’s economic history: commuter-based suburban expansion. Before the bridge was built, there were only two ways to get from Newport to Cincinnati: via ferry and by going over Newport’s Fourth St. Bridge into Covington and then over the John A. Roebling Bridge. Once it was completed, the L&N Bridge gave direct access to Cincinnati and its jobs.

Employees could conveniently live in Newport and work in Cincinnati. The bridge also attracted many businessmen and families who exploited the new access to Cincinnati. It was then possible to own a business in Cincinnati but live in Newport. By the late 1880s, Newport had become well integrated within the Greater Cincinnati economy as workers and businessmen enjoyed greater access to markets and employment.

The building of the bridge also had an immediate impact on residential development in Newport.

Between 1880 and 1900, Newport witnessed a 52 percent increase in the construction of housing, and the city’s population swelled 35.4 percent during the same period, with large additions in the eastern part of the city. By 1880 Newport ranked as the 98th-most-populous city in the nation. Because of this population growth in Newport proper, suburban growth also began to occur throughout Campbell Co. By the 1890s, it had become clear that the existing bridge could no longer accommodate the increased weight of locomotives and railcars, nor that of the heavier electric streetcars. Max Joseph Becker designed a new $700,000 bridge, which was constructed by the Keystone Bridge Company. In September 1896 the channel span of 510 feet was floated on barges to the site and hoisted into place by cables. Approaches on each side of the new bridge were improved; in Newport the rail tracks were elevated over Taylor St. (modern-day Third St.), no longer crossing the streetcar track at grade; they reached ground level just north of modernday Fourth St. The new L&N Bridge, which included a railroad track on one side and, on the other side, a roadway with two electric streetcar lines and a walkway, opened in May 1897. Streetcars then returned to the L&N Bridge; during the bridge construction, Newport’s electric streetcars passed over the Central Bridge downriver. In 1904 the Louisville and Nashville Railroad purchased the bridge.

The last rail corporation to own it was the Chessie System, later known as the CSX, until the City of Newport held control of it for a brief period in 2005.

Although an impressive achievement for its time, the bridge had some serious drawbacks. The rail yards on the Cincinnati side could not be expanded because of their location, and the completion of the railroad Union Terminal in western Cincinnati in 1933 put an end to the need for any passenger drop-offs. As automobiles became more of a factor in commuting patterns to and from the suburbs, the bridge’s urban location kept it from be-

coming an important part of automobile traffic patterns between Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.

The Kentucky Department of Highways bought the two-lane vehicular section of the bridge in 1935 and began the unpopular practice of collecting a toll, which lasted until November 11, 1941.

As trucks became the most popular way of transporting products to market, railroads and railroad bridges became less important to the nation’s economy. Those bridges that were not torn down, such as the L&N Bridge, began to show the effects of this loss. CSX, when it was utilizing the bridge, refused to paint its side when the Kentucky Department of Highways painted its side blue; the result was an odd two-tone blue-and-rust combination.

The CSX Railroad discontinued its use of the bridge structure in 1984. The tracks on the bridge were removed and the rail approaches at each end were dismantled. The tracks in the city were also removed after railroad traffic ceased; they were replaced in 1987 with a landscaped green space along the middle of Saratoga St. After the Kentucky Department of Highways determined in 1992 that the bridge was no longer functional to carry modern automobile traffic volumes and weights, proposals were made for its demolition. However, rather than spend the $2 million to demolish the bridge, the City of Newport and the Commonwealth of Kentucky began negotiations to save the structure and turn it into a pedestrian-only bridge, like the Walnut St. Bridge over the Tennessee River at Chattanooga, Tenn.

With funding provided by both the City of Newport and the state, this plan became a reality.

The bridge closed to vehicular traffic on October 21, 2001, and reopened as the Newport Southbank Bridge on April 26, 2003. It was then owned and operated by a private nonprofit organization known as the Newport Southbank Bridge Company (see Southbank Partners). Much discussion and controversy occurred over what color to paint the bridge.

Eventually, purple was chosen because it was deemed to be festive, to age slowly, to fade gracefully, and not to show rust. Thus, the bridge has become known most commonly as the Purple People Bridge. The L&N/Purple People Bridge has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places for its engineering and transportation significance.

“Bridge Formally Open on March 20, 1872,” CJ, March 23, 1872, 3.

Condit, Carl W. The Railroad and the City: A Technological and Urbanistic History of Cincinnati.

Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1977.

Lehmann, Terry W., and Earl W. Clark Jr., The Green Line: The Cincinnati, Newport and Covington Railway. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2000.

Purvis, Thomas L., ed. Newport, Kentucky: A Bicentennial History. Newport, Ky.: Otto Zimmerman, 1996.

“Span’s Ownership Remains with State—Public-Private Transfer Delayed,” KP, September 16, 2005, 2K. Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

Michael Whitehead

528 LACEY, GENE LACEY, GENE (b. March 19, 1888, Covington, Ky.; d. July 5, 1965, Covington, Ky.). Businessman Eugene F. Lacey, the son of Samuel and Emma Lacey, was a lifelong resident of Covington. His early education was at Lincoln- Grant School in Covington, and he graduated from Woodward High School, on Sycamore St. in downtown Cincinnati. In 1918 he opened his first grocery store, at 508 Scott St. in Covington (currently the site of the Kenton Co. Public Library), while residing at nearby 839 Craig St. In 1919 Lacey married Bessie Merritt of Falmouth, and together they opened a second store in Covington at 205 E. Robbins St., calling it the Gene and Bess Store; the building also served as their home.

Sometime during those years, Gene Lacey found time to attend the University of Cincinnati and the American Institute of Management. He graduated from the Alexander Hamilton Business School, and later the Laceys formed two companies, the Lacey Sausage Company and the Lacey Paper Company. In 1924 Gene and Bess Lacey faced a major challenge to their business when the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) and another major grocery chain moved into the neighborhood less than a block away from their small grocery, then located on Greenup St. The Laceys remained competitive not by charging low prices but by the convenience of their store and by employing local people, thus keeping the money spent at their store in the community. In 1926 Lacey closed his store at 508 Scott St.; in 1933 he opened a grocery store at Court and John Sts. in Cincinnati.

Lacey was a 32nd Degree Mason and served on the Southern Jurisdiction of the Supreme Council of Masons, was a member of the Odd Fellow Lodge, and became Exalted Ruler of Ira Lodge No. 37 of the Elks. He was a member of the National Negro Business League, served on the executive committee of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP, and was active in the Ninth St. Methodist Church, serving as treasurer and a trustee for many years.

In 1931 Lacey was a speaker for the new Covington City Manager League, which supported the city manager form of government for Covington. There were 300 new members at the time within the Negro Division. Lacey was also a founding member of Covington’s African-American Businessmen’s Association.

A frequent visitor to the Lacey household during the summer months of the 1940s was their nephew, college football coach John A. Merritt.

Gene Lacey died in 1965 and was buried at Mary E. Smith Cemetery in Elsmere.

Dabney, Wendell P. Cincinnati’s Colored Citizens.

Cincinnati: Dabney, 1926.

“Enroll 300 New Members in Colored Division,” KTS, July 7, 1931, 2.

“Eugene Lacey, Businessman,” KP, July 6, 1965, 3K. Harris, Theodore H. H. “Reader Recollection,” KP, March 2, 1992, 4K.

Theodore H. H. Harris

LADD, DOROTHY (b. 1902, New Orleans, La.; date and place of death unknown). The Poet Dorothy Ladd was the daughter of Alvin and Bertha

Holle Ladd. The family moved to Bellevue when she was age 22 in 1924. Two of Ladd’s poems, “Cry in the Night” and “Bread with Jam,” appeared in J. T. Cotton Noe’s A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry (1936). Her work has also been published in the poetry magazine Letters. Her father, a printer, died in 1934, and her mother died in 1944. That was the last year Dorothy was found in the local city directories; she was living at 243 Taylor Ave. in Bellevue and was employed as a nurse. Where she lived and what she did after the death of her mother remain to be discovered.

Noe, J. T. Cotton, ed. A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry: Selections of Poetry Written by NinetyThree Persons Closely Identified with Kentucky, Most of Them Native Born. Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky Department of Extension, 1936.

Jenny Plemen

LAFARGE NORTH AMERICA INC. The small Campbell Co. city of Silver Grove was once a bustling railroad town of 1,100 residents. In 1920 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad built many of the houses in Silver Grove so its employees could be close to their workplace. When the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway closed the 200-acre Stevens rail yard at Silver Grove in 1981, the town suffered greatly. Businesses along the Mary Ingles Highway in town lost many of their customers, and homes, now mostly owned by railway workers, became difficult to sell.

Over the next 17 years, several companies considered locating on the site of the former rail yard; however, none showed serious interest until a French company, Lafarge, negotiated to buy the property in 1998. The city, county, and state governments offered tax breaks and other incentives to lure the company to the area. The parent company of Lafarge North America Inc. is headquartered in Paris, France, and has been in continuous operation since 1833. It has locations in 75 countries and a worldwide workforce of 77,000. The company is a world leader in the production of construction materials such as cement, asphalt products, and gypsum wallboard. The corporation’s North American subsidiary currently operates several facilities in the United States and employs 15,300 people. The Silver Grove plant, which opened in July 2000, was built at a cost of about $100 million and employs 150. The plant produces 900 million square feet of gypsum wallboard each year, for use in the United States and Canada. Strategically located on the Ohio River, the facility has easy access to transportation by water, rail, and highway.

Answers.com. “Lafarge.” www.answers.com/lafarge (accessed February 25, 2007).

“Campbell Wooing French Manufacturer,” KE, December 17, 1998, 2C. “Lafarge Almost Ready,” KP, July 21, 2000, 1K. “Lafarge North America,” KP, July 27, 2000, 5K. “Lafarge Plant Revitalizes Silver Grove,” KE, July 25, 2000, 1B. “Silver Grove Gets Drywall Plant,” KE, January 28, 1999, 1K.

LAFFOON, POLK, JR. (b. February 6, 1877, Madisonville, Ky.; d. April 20, 1945, Covington, Ky.).

Utility executive and horse-racing enthusiast Polk Laffoon Jr. was the son of Polk Laffoon Sr. and the former Hattie Parker of Madisonville. His father had been a lawyer and a U.S. congressman and had served under Confederate general John Hunt Morgan during the Civil War. Polk Laffoon Jr. was also a first cousin of Ruby Laffoon, who was a Kentucky governor (1931–1935). Polk Jr. married Emily Woodall in 1914, and they had two children, Polk III and Emily. Polk Jr. was a lifelong horse-racing enthusiast and raised many thoroughbreds on a farm he owned in Kenton Co. on Turkeyfoot Rd. He served as president of the Kentucky Racing Commission and of the Latonia Jockey Club Inc., which operated the (Old) Latonia Racecourse in Covington, and was a vice president of the Churchill Downs Racecourse in Louisville. During his long and illustrious career, he also held executive positions with the Peoples Liberty Bank and Trust Company; the Union Light, Heat and Power Company; the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company in Ohio; and the Cincinnati, Newport and Covington Railway Company (see Green Line Company). After a long illness, Polk Laffoon Jr. died at age 68 on his farm, which he called Pokeaway. Funeral ser vices were held at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington and he was buried in the Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. His wife Emily and their two children survived him.

“Colorful Figure Passes with Death of Laffoon,” KP, April 21, 1945, 1.

“Commodore Laffoon Now,” KP, June 15, 1932, 3.

“Laffoon Estate Is Left to Widow,” KP, May 5, 1945, 1.

“Laffoon Rites Set Monday at Trinity Church,” KP, April 21, 1945, 1.

Leonard, Lewis Alexander. Greater Cincinnati and Its People: A History. New York: Lewis Historical, 1927.

LAGOON AMUSEMENT PARK. One of the largest and most popu lar resorts in Northern Kentucky at the beginning of the 20th century was the Lagoon Amusement Park in Ludlow. An 85-acre lake was created for the park by damming Pleasant Run Creek, which empties into the Ohio River nearby; and streetcar lines were extended to the Lagoon entrance at what is today Laurel St. between Park Ave. and Lake St. The park’s grand opening was May 18, 1895.

Park patrons paid a fee to enter the park, and additional fees were charged for the major activities.

A very important attraction at the Lagoon was its large lake; the clear, fresh water provided for excellent fishing, swimming, and boating. A wide, sandy bathing beach was constructed on the north side of the lake. Another early attraction was the grand clubhouse, a large Victorian structure sporting wide verandas that wrapped around the building. The clubhouse was constructed on high ground, which offered sweeping views of the lake and other parts of the park. Activities at the clubhouse included dancing and fi ne dining, for which park managers insisted on the best chefs and waiters. The Lagoon dance pavilion, which drew thousands to the park, provided space for hundreds of dancers

LAIDLEY, FREDERICK A.

Lagoon Amusement Park, as seen from the Cincinnati Southern Railroad Bridge.

and for the large orchestras and bands popu lar at the time. It boasted the largest dance floor in the United States west of New York City. All of the original buildings at the park were designed by a Ludlow architect, John H. Boll. The fi rst general manager of the park was John Noonan, who held the position from 1895 to 1902. J. J. Weaver was his successor.

Rides available for the first season included a large toboggan sled, a pony track, a miniature gold mine, and a scenic railroad. Of the early rides, one of the most popu lar was the roller coaster, which was built over the lake and took patrons up and down many times. Riders began on the shore of the lake and were quickly propelled over the water. At the halfway point of the ride, the small cars entered a circular building constructed on piers, where the track spiraled several times inside the building before reemerging into the light for the return trip to the shore. Over the next few decades, many rides were added. In 1896 a chute-the-chutes was constructed on the north shore of the lake. It consisted of small cars that slid down a steep ramp into the lake. Other innovative rides were an Alpine slide, a circular swing, a $10,000 merry-go-round, and a 100-foot Ferris wheel built on one of the lake’s many islands. In 1909 the management constructed an elevated automobile ride in the park, featuring full-sized touring cars. The ride carried patrons along a two-mile elevated track, which snaked its way through the woods on the north end of the park.

Various entertainers also drew large crowds; the park’s 2,500-seat amphitheatre was available for live productions. A large motion picture theater was also very popu lar, as were the performances on the park’s vaudev ille stage. Each weekend there were free vaudev ille shows in which local and occasionally visiting performers provided entertainment. Other activities included a large mid-

way with assorted games, refreshment stands, picnic grounds, and several miles of walking trails. By 1905 an Edisonia exhibit was in operation: the large exhibit hall displayed more than 100 recent inventions from across the country.

Current events gave the park managers inspiration for new attractions. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War (see National Guard, Spanish-American War), a Cuban village was constructed on one of the lake’s islands. Included were an authentic native hut with thatched roof and a small replica farm growing tobacco and sugar cane. A Cuban family (a father, a mother, and five children) fleeing the war was hired to occupy the exhibit. Park visitors were taken to the Cuban village by boat; they could then disembark and tour the exhibit. This early experiment in living history proved very popu lar.

The victory of the Japanese Navy over Russia in 1905 led to the establishment of a Japanese Fair that same year at the park. This attraction featured a large teahouse built in the traditional Japanese architectural style. A Japanese immigrant operated the exhibit with the assistance of five authentic “geisha girls.” The Japanese Fair also offered Japanese music, several Japanese games of chance, and a jujitsu instructor who gave regular demonstrations of his art.

A large wooden motordrome, or motorcycle racetrack, was planned for the grounds in 1912.

The quarter-mile oval track was constructed at a 60-degree angle, allowing drivers to reach great speeds. The observation grandstand could seat up to 8,000 spectators, and many more could sit in the infield. The motordrome was officially opened on June 21, 1913, and was an immediate success.

Races were held three times each week with an admission charge of 50 cents.

Four events between 1913 and 1920 led to the closing of the park. The costly floods of 1913

529

damaged many of the Lagoon’s attractions. They were quickly repaired, but at considerable cost.

In July 1913 a serious wreck at the motordrome brought notoriety to the Lagoon. A driver named Odin Johnson lost control of his motorcycle on the large wooden track and veered off into a grandstand. The cycle hit a gas lamp, causing burning fuel to spread throughout the stand, and panic set in as the 5,000 spectators tried to flee the fire.

Seven people were killed and more than 100 were treated for burns on the day of the accident. Initial newspaper accounts listed the dead as Odin Johnson of Salt Lake City, age 34; Charles Davis of Ludlow, 5; Mrs. Ethel Buchtman of Covington, 20; and Cincinnati residents Henry Andrews, James Carter, Mrs. William Michaels, and William Patterson. Several other spectators died in subsequent days from their burns and other injuries. Injured patrons included residents of Bromley, Covington, and Ludlow, Ky., and Cincinnati and Lima, Ohio. Lawsuits and criminal charges were quickly fi led in the local courts. Despite the tragedy, the motordrome was repaired and reopened later in the 1913 season.

Two years later, on July 7, 1915, at the height of the summer season, a large tornado ripped through Ludlow and caused more than $20,000 in damage to the buildings in the park, including the dance hall and the clubhouse. Costly repairs were made and the park was reopened. The final event that spelled doom for the park was World War I. For many years, the Lagoon had served the locally brewed Bavarian beer at various locations. But now grain was needed for the war effort; federal officials halted the manufacturing of liquor and beer for the duration of the war. The loss of alcohol sales resulted in a drastic loss in profits, and the Lagoon Amusement Park closed after the 1918 season.

Part of the Lagoon property was developed as a residential neighborhood. Portions of Deverill, Lake, Laurel, Ludford, Park, and Stokesay Sts. were built on the site. Only two buildings from the original park have survived. The clubhouse was converted into an apartment building, and the women’s washroom, at the northwest corner of Deverill and Lake Sts., was transformed into a single-family home.

In 1967 the Ludlow Realty Company sold the remaining Lagoon property to Ludlow Development Enterprises Inc. (Carlisle Construction, King Wrecking Company, and other firms) for $28,000.

The low-lying areas were later fi lled and the lake was eliminated.

Centennial Celebration, Ludlow, Kentucky: Commemorating 100 Years of Progress, 1864–1964.

Ludlow, Ky.: Ludlow Centennial Committee, 1964.

John Burns Collected Papers, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. “Ludlow Lagoon Amusement Park,” Local History File, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky.

David E. Schroeder

LAIDLEY, FREDERICK A. (b. January 28, 1841, Huntington, W.Va.; d. December 14, 1931,

530 LAIDLEY HOUSE Covington, Ky.). Frederick Alexander Laidley was a prominent businessman in both river and rail transportation and a civic leader in the city of Cincinnati from 1886 until at least 1918. The son of James Madison Laidley, a prominent attorney, and Anna Maria Buhring, he was raised in Charleston, W.Va., and attended public schools there. He started a small store in Charleston and then from 1858 to 1864 manufactured salt in West Virginia on the Kanawha River. In connection with the salt business, he traveled often to Cincinnati. Laidley had become fascinated with steamboats as a boy, and in 1864 he began his career as a river man, getting a job as a clerk on the Ohio River steamer Annie Laurie. By 1866 he was captain of that boat. For most of his life, he was best known as a river man and was variously referred to as Captain Laidley or Commodore Laidley (these titles may have been informal, since official licensing of captains and chief mates did not begin until the U.S. Congress established it by legislation in 1871).

Laidley moved to Cincinnati in 1867 as the agent for the Kanawha Salt Company and became a charter member of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Even though his business was in Cincinnati, he lived in Covington and raised his family there. Laidley engaged in numerous business ventures and partnering associations over the next almost 50 years. From 1873 to 1896, he was in the pork-packing business (see Meatpacking); in 1886 he became a prime stockholder of the Louisville & Cincinnati Packet Company, and later (by 1891) served as its general manager and treasurer. With this company, he built and operated two of the finest and fastest boats on the Ohio River, the famed City of Louisville and the City of Cincinnati.

These two steamboats and five others were called the White Collar Line (WCL) or White Packet Line. He was an original stockholder of the Common Carrier Company and president of the Louisville & Evansville Transportation Company. These companies were in the business of transporting freight or passengers, or both, up and down the Ohio River. He was president of the Licking Coal & Towboat Company, which supplied steamboats with coal and provided harbor-towing ser vices, and in 1881 he began shipping meat by rail with the Cincinnati Southern Railroad to southern cities such as Chattanooga, Tenn.; Atlanta and Macon, Ga.; Mobile and Montgomery, Ala.; and many others.

In 1866 Laidley married Julia A. Rook from Malden, W.Va., and they had four children. The family lived in what is now known as the Laidley House, at 404 E. Second St. in Covington, surrounded by other magnificent homes of the pre– Civil War and post–Civil War periods. During the mid-1800s and into the early 1900s, the Laidley home was a center for hospitality known for its glowing lights, grand balls, and lovely parties.

Laidley’s lifestyle and his role as a prominent businessman came to an abrupt end after the winter of 1917–1918. During that winter the Ohio and Licking rivers froze in many places, and in 1918 an ice gorge destroyed the City of Cincinnati, the

City of Louisville, and the Loucinda (also WCL).

Much of Laidley’s great wealth was gone. He lived out the rest of his life in his Covington home on Second St. and died after a short illness at age 90 in December 1931. He was buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

Bricking, Chuck. Covington’s Heritage: A Compilation of the City’s Historical Houses and a Short Biography of the Inhabitants. Covington, Ky.: Privately published, 1980.

Goss, Charles Frederick, ed. Cincinnati: The Queen City, 1788–1912. 4 vols. Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1912.

Kentucky Death Certificate No. 30006, for the year 1931.

“Mourn Laidley—Veteran Riverman Passes in 90th Year,” KP, December 15, 1931, 1.

Fran Allen

LAIDLEY HOUSE. The Laidley House faces south at the corner of Second and Kennedy Sts. near the Licking and Ohio Rivers in the protected Licking-Riverside National Historic District of Covington. The house itself is a Kentucky landmark and is surrounded by historically significant homes.

The Laidley House was built in 1865, at the end of the Civil War, in the Second Empire style. A visitor to the imposing and beautiful three-story mansion will first be impressed by its setting on the property and its lovely facade. The home is surrounded by a stone wall topped with an iron fence, and the property is entered through a decorative iron gate. The structure itself is orange red brick with a white Kentucky limestone foundation and massive front steps, and the entrance, corners, and windows are trimmed with limestone. Above the approach to the house is an octagonal cupola sitting on top of the colorful slate-faced mansard roof, like the decorative top of an elaborate wedding cake. After walking up the front steps, one comes to the glass-paneled front door inside an intricately carved, walnut-stained wooden entrance, with folding paneled doors and a black and white, checkerboard-patterned marble floor.

Just inside the front door is a long rectangular entrance hall with an elaborate parquet floor and a winding staircase, which has unusual parquet stair treads. On the right is a poolroom, thought to have been a gentlemen’s smoking parlor; on the left is a large living area originally called “the ballroom.”

The ballroom has a large bay window on the entrance side and wonderful white plaster decorations of morning glories and leaves all around the edges of the 14-foot ceiling. At the end of the entrance hall are two doors: one opens to the dining room, the other to an exterior L-shaped porch with heavy carved pillars and a balustrade, and a view of the Ohio River.

Frederick Alexander Laidley and his family lived in the house from 1880 until 1972. Commodore Laidley, as he was called, owned the White Packet, or White Collar, line of riverboats on the Ohio River. He and his wife, the former Julia Rook, had four children: Frederick Rook, Mary, Marguerite, and Elsie Louise. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the house was a lively social gathering

place. However, the ice gorge of the winter of 1917–1918 crushed five of Commodore Laidley’s boats, changing the family’s economic status considerably, and social life at the home became a lower priority. The last Laidley occupant was Elsie Louise Laidley More, who died in 1972. Soon afterward, the house was sold at auction to an interim absentee owner who planned to convert it into small apartments. By that time, the house and grounds had been neglected for many years. In 1975 James and Frances Allen purchased the property and restored it to its former glory. They live there today.

Bricking, Chuck. Covington’s Heritage: A Compilation of the City’s Historical Houses and a Biography of the Inhabitants. Covington, Ky.: Privately published, 1980.

Stamm, Michelle. “Riverside Renaissance: Covington’s Historic Riverside District from the 18th Century to the Present.” NKH 1, no. 1 (Autumn–Winter 1993): 1–22.

Fran Allen

LAKESIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. This Christian church in Lakeside Park began because in the 1960s men of the Independent Christian Church–Church of Christ felt that a new church was needed in Northern Kentucky. A group of ministers and laymen met in October 1966 to discuss establishing the new church. The New Testament Church Evangelism Committee was formed and incorporated in March 1967, and the Lakeside Park– Crescent Springs area was selected for the church’s location. The committee chose Jerry Scarborough to be the minister-evangelist. On September 10, 1967, 73 worshippers attended the church’s first Sunday ser vices at the Crescent Springs Elementary School, on Buttermilk Pk. Seventeen adults agreed to form the nucleus of the new church, and at a meeting in December 1967 the name Lakeside Christian Church was chosen. By January 1968 the congregation had grown to 55 members; property was purchased and plans were drawn for the construction of a permanent church, for which ground was broken March 10, 1968. One year later the congregation occupied the new building, at 195 Buttermilk Pk., and on October 1, 1970, Bro. John Russell was chosen as minister-evangelist, since Scarborough had departed to start new churches elsewhere. As the congregation grew, new programs were added and staff members were hired to direct the areas of music, youth, adult involvement, education, and a comprehensive children’s program of participation and instruction.

By 1979 continued growth made it necessary to schedule multiple worship ser vices on Sundays, so construction ensued to increase worship ser vice and educational space. The congregation also began to purchase adjacent land along Buttermilk Pk. In 1996 growth again required increasing the meeting space. The building campaign now included a new sanctuary seating about 1,400, as well as renovation of the existing facilities to include a family life–sports complex, meeting rooms for church and community use, and supplementary space for classes and activities.

LAMPRECHT, WILHELM

Lakeside Christian Church endeavors to influence the community by actively participating in charitable needs and by offering beneficial programs—musical productions; men’s, women’s, and family seminars; and special seasonal drama productions—and also through a comprehensive worldwide mission endeavor: 20 percent of its weekly offerings is used to help people outside the local church body. In 2005 weekly attendance was averaging more than 1,750 in worship ser vices as the church continued to prosper and grow.

“Churches Celebrate Building,” KP, September 18, 1993, 10K. “Lakeside Park—Suburban Wrap Up (Expand Lakeside Christian Church),” KP, February 12, 1992, 9K. “Ushers Pass the Construction Hat,” KP, November 20, 1995, 1K.

Mary Ellen Lucas

LAKESIDE PARK. Lakeside Park is a largely residential fi ft h-class city in northern Kenton Co. It is surrounded by the cities of Fort Mitchell and Crestview Hills and is bisected by the Dixie Highway (U.S. 25). I-275 passes just to the south.

Lakeside Park’s origins can be traced to a nearly 1,000-acre farm granted to Col. John Leathers, who settled the area in 1785. It was mainly farmland until landowner and Kenton Co. water commissioner Paul Hesser developed the city’s first subdivision on 40 acres that he purchased from R. L. and F. D. Crigler. Th is first neighborhood was placed west of the old Covington and Lexington Turnpike (Dixie Highway). The development, along with the formal incorporation of the City of Lakeside Park on May 12, 1930, also championed

by Hesser, was specifically arranged to prevent annexation by South Fort Mitchell. Today, Lakeside Park encompasses 530 acres (parts of which were annexed from Kenton Co.) and includes 16 subdivisions, three businesses, a U.S. post office, and four churches. The city has adopted a set of ordinances that promote the city’s beauty and limit the number of businesses to three. The three businesses are a restaurant, an automobile windowtinting business, and a branch office of Cincinnati Bell. City ordinances forbid the businesses to expand outside their current boundaries and restrict their sales activity to entities within their categories: food ser vice, automobile ser vice, and communication.

The community is rich with history. The turnpike that runs through town (the Covington and Lexington Turnpike) was a well-traveled route to the South that, during the Civil War, was guarded by earthwork forts. Barleycorn’s Five Mile House, located at Dixie Highway and Hudson Ave., dates from the 1860s. Another historical site is the Dry Creek Baptist Church, a 19th-century brick building on Buttermilk Pk. now serving as a private home.

Lakeside Park includes a formally registered historical area called the Dixie Highway National Historic District. In 2000 the city of Lakeside Park had a population of 2,869, made up mostly of middle- to upper-income residents. Police protection

is provided in collaboration with the City of Crestview Hills, while Fort Mitchell supports the fire and life-squad needs of the community.

“Birth of a Police Department,” KP, June 22, 1998, 4K. “History of Dry Creek Baptist Church, Kenton County, Kentucky,” Lakeside Park Local History Files, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. Kleber, John E., ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia.

Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.

National Register of Historic Places National Register Form, 1986, Lakeside Park Local History Files, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. U.S. Census Bureau. “American Fact Finder. Data Set. Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF1) 100-Percent Data. Custom Table.” www.census.gov (accessed June 28, 2006).

Blanche Gaynor

LAKESIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. In 1961 two churches, the Lakeside Presbyterian Church and the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, were merged to create the present-day Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Lakeside Park.

In 1854, 28 members of the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Covington decided to start a new church closer to their homes. They named their new congregation the Second Presbyterian Church, and at first ser vices were held in an old pottery building on Madison Ave., just south of Ninth St., which had also previously been used as a schoolhouse. In 1861 the congregation built their first church building on the north side of Ninth St. just east of Madison. After that structure was destroyed by fire in September 1880, the church’s members authorized construction of a new church at 1035 Madison Ave. (today the parking lot of Allison & Rose Funeral Home); the new facility was completed in 1883. The following year, the congregation changed the church name to the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. In spring 1886 the new edifice, too, was destroyed by fire, but a replacement was soon built on the same site. In 1916 a house at 1048 Scott St. was purchased to be used as the first parsonage. A new Sunday school section was added to the side of the church in 1922. By 1955 church membership had increased to 420, and that year the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church celebrated its centennial. About that time, growth had begun to slow in inner-city churches, causing church leaders to consider building new churches in the suburbs. It soon became apparent that fi nancing a new facility would be difficult, given the small size of the congregation. Therefore, in 1960 it was decided to approach the newly formed Lakeside Presbyterian Church about a merger.

The Lakeside Presbyterian Church was organized in 1955, becoming the fi rst new Presbyterian church in Kenton Co. within the past 60 years. From its original 70 charter members, the church grew to 131 members by the end of the fi rst year and to 221 members by 1960. Their initial place of worship was the Dixie Four Star Theater Building in Fort Mitchell (see Movie Theaters). On August 4, 1955, the church purchased the stately old George Hill Estate, at 2690 Dixie Highway in Lakeside Park. The nine-room

531

house, with a large detached garage, was located on three acres of land. A local artist, Caroline Williams, was asked to make a pencil drawing of the house for use in church promotions. Copies of the picture were made available to all church members. The congregation removed several interior walls of the house and made other alterations to make it more suitable for church ser vices.

A special offering was taken, which was used to purchase chairs, hymnals, and a Baldwin Orgasonic Organ. In May 1956 the church called Leon Drake to be its fi rst pastor. Shortly after his arrival, he began a church newsletter, the Lakeside Life, which soon became a weekly publication.

Monthly church suppers were also begun, encouraging fellowship among members. In 1958 the church held its fi rst Vacation Bible School, which was attended by 62 pupils, and purchased a house at 11 Alpine Dr. in Fort Mitchell, for a parsonage. By the end of the church’s fi ft h year, membership had reached 240. Around that time, the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church approached Lakeside about the merger.

Early in 1961 both churches voted to approve the merger, which was formalized on February 16, 1961. The new church retained the name of Lakeside Presbyterian Church, and 455 members were present at the first combined ser vice. Not all members of the former Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church came to Lakeside. With the increased attendance, it became imperative that a new, larger sanctuary be built. A new church building, constructed on the Dixie Highway property, was dedicated on November 24, 1963. Inspired by having a new building, many members donated money, furnishings, and other items in memory of loved ones. The names of those donors were recorded in a Book of Remembrance kept at a place of honor in the church sanctuary. At the dedication of the new building, it was stated that the new church stands as a memorial to those who contributed so generously of their time and money.

“Ground Broken for Lakeside Church,” KP, March 25, 1963, 1K. Lakeside Presbyterian Church, 1955–1961. Brochure. Lakeside Park, Ky.: Lakeside Presbyterian Church, 1962.

“Old Covington Landmark Falls,” KP, March 23, 1963, 1.

“Presbyterian Church Going Up,” KP, March 25, 1963, 2K. Tenkotte, Paul A. A Heritage of Art and Faith: Downtown Covington Churches. Covington, Ky.: Kenton Co. Historical Society, 1986.

LAMPRECHT, WILHELM (b. October 31, 1838, Altenschoenbach, near Würzburg, Germany; d.

1922, Munich, Germany). The establishment of the Covington Altar Stock Building Company in 1862 attracted German-born artists who were skilled in decorating religious edifices, and one of these persons was Wilhelm Lamprecht. There was a great need in the United States for talented painters to add inspirational art to the new churches that had been erected by immigrants during the 19th century. Lamprecht studied at the Munich

532 LAMY, JOHN JEAN BAPTISTE Royal Academy of Art in Bavaria between 1859 and 1867. His first teacher was a history painter, who sparked Lamprecht’s interest in large-scale historical tableaux. His second was the famous Munich painter Johann von Schraudolph, a specialist in religious art. Von Schraudolph founded a Society of Christian Art, and his pupil Wilhelm Lamprecht became a member and, for a time, president of the Cincinnati Society of Christian Art in Ohio, 20 years later.

In 1867 Lamprecht left Germany for the United States, where during his lengthy career he worked on some 300 churches. That same year, he painted at St. Mary’s Abbey Church in Newark, N.J., murals that depict 10 scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, beginning with her birth and ending with the encounter with her son Jesus after he had risen from the grave. Flanking each scene are paintings of two saints, some of them identifiable as German, for instance St. Cunegund, St. Hermann, and St. Rupert. Lamprecht’s murals were painted in oil on dry plaster and placed high in the clerestory. His large canvas painting of St. Benedict greets visitors at the main entrance of the New Jersey church.

Some time after he painted in the Newark church, the artist joined the Covington Altar Building Stock Company. Lamprecht created many exquisite altarpieces and murals throughout North America for the company, which had been established by the Benedictine clergyman Archabbot Boniface Wimmer in 1862 and was managed by the Benedictine lay brother Cosmas Wolf.

In 1868 Lamprecht traveled to Canada to decorate the church of St.-Romuald d’Etchemin in Quebec with large murals. Two other German painters accompanied him from Covington, Louis Lang and Wenceslaus Thien, to assist. In 2004 this Canadian church was classified as a historic monument by the culture minister of Quebec.

In 1869 Lamprecht worked in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Indiana had attracted a large number of German Catholic settlers, especially in its southern counties. The St. Joseph Church in the hamlet of Millhousen in southeastern Indiana displays today two altarpieces by Lamprecht: Death of St. Joseph and Immaculate Conception. In Oldenburg, Ind., Lamprecht decorated the chapel of the Immaculate Conception for the Franciscan sisters. The murals are no longer in place, but a canvas

by Lamprecht, which he donated to the prioress, still graces the entrance hall of the sisters’ house.

The year 1870 brought an important commission for Lamprecht in Vincennes, Ind., to paint three large murals in the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier, named after the 16th-century Jesuit missionary. The church, built before 1816, was the first Catholic edifice in what became Indiana and was the seat of Bishop Simon Brute, a refugee of the French Revolution. The three Lamprecht paintings are Crucifixion, Madonna of the Chair, and St. Francis Xavier. Madonna of the Chair is based on the Italian Renaissance prototype Sacra Conversazione, which traditionally portrays the Madonna seated on a throne with the Christ child, receiving homage by a group of saints. For the group of saints in his painting, Lamprecht chose the pa-

tron saints of the early French bishops of Vincennes: St. Celestine, St. Maurice, St. Simon, and St. Stephen.

Lamprecht returned to Northern Kentucky in 1871 to take part in the interior decoration of Covington’s Mother of God Catholic Church, where he painted the four Evangelists in the pendentives of the dome. During that same year, he was called to the small town of Quincy in western Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi River.

There, for St. Boniface Church, he painted several beautiful murals in the sanctuary: Christ Handing the Keys to St. Peter, Nativity, and images of St. Boniface, St. Lawrence, and St. Stephen. Of the small canvases he painted for the church baptistery, only Blessed Hermann and Joseph and the Fourteen Holy Helpers survive.

In 1876 Lamprecht was in western Pennsylvania, where he painted an altarpiece at St. Mary’s Church in a small German settlement called Marienstadt.

His painting The Immaculate Conception was on display in Philadelphia during the national Centennial Celebration in 1876, where it was widely praised.

Lamprecht’s fame spread to Wisconsin, where German settlers had built a large number of churches and monasteries. In Milwaukee two Swiss priests had established the Capuchin Order in 1856. In 1877 Lamprecht decorated their church, dedicated to St. Francis, with a huge mural, The Triumph of Christianity. Harking back to his first career as a history painter in Munich, he designed a one-cent stamp for the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Neb., in 1898. It depicts the French explorer Father Jacques Marquette crossing the Mississippi River.

Shortly before his return to Germany in 1901, Lamprecht created a 65-foot-wide painting, Immaculate Conception, located in the Immaculate Conception chapel at the Sisters of Charity Mount St. Joseph Motherhouse in Cincinnati. Lamprecht’s painting, on a gold-leaf background behind the high altar, is among his most breathtaking works. About the same time, he painted as many as five pieces on the ceiling of old St. Joseph Church at Linn St. and Lincoln Park Dr. (today Ezzard Charles Dr.) in Cincinnati’s west end. They represented the Assumption and the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

Some of the paintings survived the transition to the new 1960s church building at the same location. After settling again in Munich, Lamprecht became a much-sought-after portrait painter and died there in 1922, at age 84.

Buerkle, Boniface, O.S.B. Mary’s Legacy, Saint Mary’s Church. St. Mary’s, Pa.: McKee Press, 1988.

Humphreys, Henry. “Found in Doomed West End Church,” CTS, December 12, 1956, 3.

Kuhn, Charles. “Little Known Facts Told by Parish Member: Written and Oral Lore of Old Cathedral,” 1933, Vincennes Old Cathedral Archives, Vincennes, Ind. McPadden, Malachy, O.S.B., ed. St. Mary’s Church, Newark, NJ. Newark, N.J.: Newark Abbey Press, 2002.

Metz, Jack. “Church Art Salvaged for New Structure,” CTS, April 17, 1961, 5.

“Wilhelm Lamprecht zum Fest seiner Goldenen Hochzeit, 20. Maerz, 1920,” Allgemeine Abendzeitung, Munich, March 26, 1920.

Annemarie Springer

LAMY, JOHN (JEAN BAPTISTE) (b. October 11, 1814, Lempdes, Auvergne, France; d. February 13, 1888, Santa Fe, N.Mex.). The subject of Willa Cather’s popular fictionalized American novel Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), John Lamy was a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, having immigrated in 1839. He was pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Covington (later named Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption) from 1848 until 1850. Lamy then became the first bishop (1853–1875), and then archbishop (1875–1885) of Santa Fe, N.Mex. He was buried in St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral in Santa Fe. Horgan, Paul. Lamy of Santa Fe. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1975.

Ryan, Paul E. History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Diocese of Covington, 1954.

Steele, Thomas J., ed. and trans. Archbishop Lamy: In His Own Words. Albuquerque, N.Mex.: LPD Press, 2000.

Tenkotte, Paul A., David E. Schroeder, and Thomas S. Ward. To Be Catholic and American in Northern, Central, and Appalachian Kentucky: The Diocese of Covington, 1853–2003. Forthcoming.

Paul A. Tenkotte

LANDRUM, RALPH (b. August 16, 1957, Covington, Ky.). Professional golfer Ralph L. Landrum, who played on the PGA Tour 1983–1985, is the son of Jesse and Betty Landrum. He began playing at Summit Hills Golf and Country Club, won numerous junior titles while attending St. Henry District High School, and played college golf at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

Landrum, who currently resides in Burlington, qualified for the 1978 Masters Golf Tournament by reaching the semifinals of the 1977 USGA Amateur Tournament. He played in the Masters Golf Tournament in 1984 as a professional and also competed in six U.S. Open Golf Tournaments; he had seven top 10 finishes on tour. The highlight of his U.S. Open Golf Tournament play was an eighthplace finish in 1983 at Oakmont, Pa. A Class A PGA Member, Landrum operates Landrum Golf Management locally and is the head professional at Devou Park Golf Course in Covington. He has always been one of Northern Kentucky’s staunchest supporters of junior golf. He and his wife Mary Pat have two children, Kyle and Joe, who also have excelled in amateur golf.

Landrum, Ralph. Interview by Denny Van Houten, June 2005, Covington, Ky.

Dennis W. Van Houten

LANE, WILLIAM LEROY (b. November 27, 1897, New York City; d. December 14, 1968, Fort Worth, Tex.). William Lane, the son of James Robert Lane and Alberteena Martin, became the first African American priest to minister within the

LARRY A. RYLE HIGH SCHOOL

Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington. Lane served at the Our Savior Catholic Church, located at 242 E. 10th St. in Covington. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Lane signed up to become a camp secretary with the Catholic Knights of Columbus organization. After basic training at Camp Zachary Taylor, near Louisville, Ky., he was stationed in France. He was a graduate of Fordham University in New York City and attended St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio, and St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pa. He was ordained in 1933 by Bishop John Swint in Wheeling, W.Va. Before he came to Covington, Lane served in the Diocese of Port of Spain, Trinidad, British West Indies.

Bishop Francis W. Howard spearheaded an effort to form an African American church and school as a mission of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, and in 1943 the decision was made to do so. At one time, this new parish, named Our Savior Catholic Church, had both a grade and a high school; most of the students were from Covington and Newport. In 1945 the parish priest at Our Savior was Rev. Henry Haacke, assisted by the newly arrived Rev. William LeRoy Lane. At this time and throughout the 1940s, the parish school at Our Savior had 60 students enrolled in grades one through eight. Lane’s primary mission was to work with the people of the surrounding neighborhoods and to attract converts to the church. He was of great help to the African American children, as he received clothing in the form of jackets for the boys at the school from the Eilerman Clothing Store (see Eilerman & Sons, Men’s Clothiers). He sought the assistance of another African American priest from Cincinnati to teach diction in the school. However, Lane was very outspoken on the question of racial prejudices. His efforts had attracted many converts, but it was time for him to move on. Lane left Covington in late 1947.

Afterward, Lane secured temporary assignments in various cities throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1951 he arrived in the Diocese of Dallas, Tex., after a two-year tour of duty as an assistant priest at the Holy Cross Church in Austin, Tex. Later, he was named assistant pastor of St. Charles Parish in Gainesville, Tex. In 1961 Lane was appointed assistant pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Dallas and became pastor there in 1964. At that time, he was one of only two African Americans among about 300 priests in the Diocese of Dallas. His appointment as pastor of the Holy Cross Parish made Lane the first African American priest to lead a congregation in the Dallas Diocese. Lane’s ministry flourished in the racially mixed Holy Cross Parish, which in 1965 consisted of 400 families. He retired as pastor due to failing health in 1967 and served as the associate chaplain of St. Joseph Hospital in Fort Worth, Tex., until his death in 1968. He was buried at Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas.

Foley, Albert S. God’s Men of Color. New York: Arno Press, 1969.

Harris, Ted. “School’s Pioneer,” KP, October 27, 2005, 6K. The Official Catholic Directory. New York: P. J. Kennedy, 1946–1949.

Reis, Jim. “Our Savior Fills Unique Niche,” KP, January 17, 1994, 4K. “Rev. William LeRoy Lane,” Archives, Diocese of Dallas, Tex.

Theodore H. H. Harris

LANFERSIEK, WALTER B. (b. February 3, 1873, Cincinnati, Ohio; d. March 1, 1962, Cincinnati, Ohio). Walter B. Lanfersiek, who became a political activist, was the son of William Henry and Elizabeth (Ellerman) Lanfersiek. He graduated from Woodward High School in Cincinnati (1891) and received a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Cincinnati (1895). Having become enamored with the socialism of Eugene V. Debs, Walter married a kindred spirit, Pearl A. Blanchard, in 1906 in a ceremony performed by noted Cincinnati socialist and future congressman Rev. Herbert Bigelow. After working at various jobs, including that of an actor, Lanfersiek was practicing law in Newport in 1910 and living at 502 Washington Ave (today the Mansion Hill Tavern).

He and Pearl crusaded for more city parks, better health care for the poor, and the redistribution of wealth. Lanfersiek ran on the 1910 Socialist ticket for U.S. Congress in the Sixth District of Kentucky; in 1911 he was the unsuccessful Socialist candidate for governor of Kentucky, receiving 8,718 votes. In May 1913 he was elected national executive secretary of the Socialist Party of America and moved to Chicago to fulfi ll his duties. He held that position until 1916. Over time, Lanfersiek had become a confidant of Debs and a participant in his presidential campaigns. During World War I, Lanfersiek became involved in the Socialist Peace movement. In 1917 he changed his name to Walter B. Landell, one of his former stage names, following the practice of assuming an alias that was common with many of his left-leaning contemporaries. He went on to work for the American Red Cross and as a proofreader in several southwestern Ohio cities. He came to believe that communist Russia was the utopia for the future. Lanfersiek died at a nursing home in the Avondale area of Cincinnati, unrecognized locally for what he once had been nationally. He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Southgate.

Haines, Randall A. “Walter Lanfersiek: Socialist from Cincinnati,” BCHS 40, no. 2 (Summer 1982): 124–44.

Papers of Eugene V. Debs, Indiana State Univ. Library, Terre Haute, Ind. “Socialist and Wife Running for Office Teach Creed to Baby,” KP, November 4, 1910, 3.

Michael R. Sweeney

LANG’S CAFETERIA. Frank T. Lang (1892– 1971), the owner of this Covington restaurant, was the American-born son of German immigrants Theodore and Clara Rauchfuss Lang, who settled in Louisville. As a young adult, Frank traveled to Newport to join his brother Hugo in the baking business. Later he struck out on his own, opening a sandwich shop in 1928 at 623 Madison Ave. in Covington, named simply Lang’s. Lang’s sandwich shop/Lang’s Cafeteria changed and expanded sev-

533

eral times over the nearly 40 years at the Madison Ave. location. In the 1930s additional space was acquired and decorated to express a Spanish theme, and the business became Lang’s Spanish Tavern.

The flood of 1937 found part of the restaurant under water. Subsequent renovations included a plaque to mark the spot where the floodwaters had reached. At this time there was a cafeteria downstairs; upstairs was a restaurant and sandwich shop. The walls were of decorative stucco and wood paneling, with iron lighting fi xtures in a Spanish motif. The cafeteria seated about 90 patrons and was open from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. The upstairs stayed open until 1:00 a.m. and was a popular spot for a late-night sandwich and drinks. Beer was the only alcoholic beverage served. On July 4, 1944, a kitchen fire caused the closing of the upstairs. Fortunately, the cafeteria suffered only smoke damage and was able to continue serving customers. The upstairs was not reopened until four years later, because of the lack of adequate insurance and also the scarcity of building materials after World War II. The decor upstairs had changed again, by this time, to a more modern theme with indirect lighting and large original oil paintings of Kentucky by George Siegal. Gone were the sandwich and bar areas, and the space was dedicated to table ser vice catering to businessmen and families. The menu also changed from time to time. Frank Lang personally planned all the menus, bought the food, and supervised the cooking. Each morning he drove his large station wagon to “the bottoms” of Cincinnati, where he purchased fresh produce from the warehouses located along the riverfront.

Lang was very proud of the quality of his food. The orange juice was fresh squeezed, and pure butter and cream graced the tables. The desserts and rolls were baked fresh daily. By 1967, when the Lang family sold the restaurant to R. B. Cameron and William A. Taylor, it had become Covington’s longestoperating restaurant. Two years later, in 1969, the restaurant closed.

Colegrove, Albert M. “A Story of Auld Lang Syne,” KP, November 20, 1969.

“Lang Restaurant Changing Hands,” KP, September 4, 1967.

Judy Lang Klosterman

LARRY A. RYLE HIGH SCHOOL. The Larry A. Ryle High School, a public secondary school in Boone Co., is located in the southern part of the county along U.S. 42, in Union. The namesake of the school, Larry A. Ryle, was a superintendent, a school administrator, a teacher, and a bus driver in Boone Co. When it opened in 1992, Ryle High School housed approximately 1,000 students in grades 7 through 12 on what had served as tobacco farmland for several decades. The campus of several hundred acres is also now home to both the Gray Middle School, opened in 1995, and the Mann Elementary School, opened in 2006.

Today, Ryle High School is a comprehensive school with about 1,700 students in grades 9 through 12. The school’s goal is to provide the skills for students to excel and to contribute to the leadership,

534 LA SALETTE ACADEMY technology, citizenship, and character of the Ryle High School community. The organization of the school is traditional in purpose and design. Teachers work in content area teams, each of which has a common planning and work room, and the classrooms for each content area are located near each other. A variety of professional activities for teachers are offered.

The academic program at Ryle High School includes Advanced Placement courses, recognized by most colleges and universities for credit, in American history, art, biology, calculus, chemistry, computer science, English language, English literature, European history, German language, physics, psychology, and Spanish language. Honors courses in the core academic areas challenge students and prepare them for Advanced Placement courses or other college-level courses. The Career and Technical Education Team offers courses in business, technology, family and consumer science, and agriculture. The Fine Arts Team offers courses in foreign languages (Chinese, French, German, and Spanish), art, choral music, concert band, and marching band.

Ryle High School has distinguished itself for academic success since its founding. Newsweek named the school to its listing of the 1,000 best schools in the United States in 2001 and 2006. The school also has met its state-mandated achievement goals in every two-year grading period since 1992. Ryle High School has also been a leader in the awarding of the Commonwealth Diploma for achievement in Advanced Placement classes.

The extracurricular and cocurricular programs at Ryle High School have also been popular and successful. The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) have won many regional, state, and national honors: the group has been the largest chapter in the state, and among its members have been a Mr. FBLA, a Miss FBLA, and a national champion.

The music program has earned honors and distinguished ratings in both concert band and marching band, and the marching band has reached the state final competition on several occasions. The athletics offered include baseball, basketball, cross-country, fast-pitch softball, football, golf, soccer, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. Students have been crowned as individual state champions in swimming, track and field, and wrestling. The fast-pitch softball team earned the school’s first team state championship in June 2006.

Randall K. Cooper, the founding principal, served Larry A. Ryle High School for 14 years and helped to establish a tradition of excellence. Cooper died in May 2006, and Matthew L. Turner was named as the second principal; he continues in the position.

“Boone to Name School for Larry Ryle,” KP, September 14, 1990, 5K. “Cooper Chosen as Principal of Boone’s New High School,” KP, March 31, 1992, 6K. Larry A. Ryle High School. www.ryle.boone.k12.ky.us.

Larry A. Ryle High School Records, Larry A. Ryle High School, Union, Ky.

Matthew Turner

LA SALETTE ACADEMY. When the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Ky., arrived in the city of Covington in 1865, they found a handful of parochial schools operating that were staffed primarily by lay teachers. Bishop George Aloysius Carrell, the first bishop of Covington, had invited the sisters to the city to staff the elementary school of the Cathedral parish (see Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption) and to establish a private academy for the young Catholic men and women of the area. The Sisters of Charity found a building for their new academy at the southeast corner of Seventh and Greenup Sts. in Covington. The six rooms and basement of that structure served as both classrooms and convent. Although the building was not large, it was located near the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption on Eighth St. and near Covington’s growing Irish immigrant community. The new school was christened La Salette Academy.

La Salette Academy grew slowly but steadily over the next two decades. The school accepted both male and female pupils. Tuition was charged, but many were unable to pay the full amount. Initially, the academy enrolled only elementary aged students. A formal high school program, for girls only, was created, and the academy’s first high school diploma was presented in 1884.

The small size of the original building that housed the academy hampered the development of the school. In 1886 the construction of a new twostory brick academy was begun on the original site, and the building was completed in the following year. The new academy housed both elementary and secondary programs and provided living quarters for the teaching sisters. In 1903 a third floor was added to the building for exclusive use as a convent for the sisters. La Salette Academy earned Kentucky state accreditation in 1923, and in 1930 the academy was granted membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

The sisters began planning for the construction of a new high school building in the 1920s. These plans, however, had to be put aside owing to the Great Depression. Land was acquired directly south of the academy’s building along Greenup St. for this purpose, and a new two-story Georgianstyle brick school with a full basement was eventually constructed. Msgr. Walter A. Freiberg dedicated the new high school building on December 27, 1939.

La Salette Academy continued to flourish during the 1940s and 1950s. With the overturning of Kentucky’s Day Law, the school enrolled its first African American student in 1955. From that point on, the academy’s minority enrollment continued to grow. A majority of the pupils, however, were drawn from the nearby Catholic elementary schools staffed by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. These schools included ones operated by the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St. Patrick Catholic Church in Covington, St. James Catholic Church in Ludlow, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Newport, St. Anthony Catholic Church in Bellevue, and St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic Church in Fort Thomas. All of these schools, with

the exception of the St. Catherine school, were located in the older city parishes in Northern Kentucky, the areas most affected by the post–World War II migration to the suburbs. This demographic change had a major impact on La Salette Academy.

In 1966 the elementary school program at La Salette was discontinued. The academy’s enrollment reached its peak in 1968 at 340. Beginning in that year, a steady decline took place, and by the mid1970s, the operation of the academy was no longer financially sound. Finally, La Salette Academy conferred its last diplomas in 1977. A private developer eventually acquired the former academy’s buildings and transformed them into La Salette Gardens, a residential facility for senior citizens.

Crone, Mary Collette, S.C.N. “La Salette Academy,” Archives of the Diocese of Covington, Covington, Ky. “La Salette Academy to Celebrate Its Seventy-Fift h Anniversary,” KTS, May 22, 1931, 2.

Ryan, Paul E. History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Diocese of Covington, 1954.

David E. Schroeder

LASSING, JOHN M. (b. 1864, Elm Tree, Boone Co., Ky.; d. October 25, 1936, St. Petersburg, Fla.).

John Maurice Lassing, a politician, a lawyer, and a judge, was born in Boone Co., a son of Dr. H. C. and Anna E. Lassing. His early education was in area public schools before he entered Central University (now Eastern Kentucky University) at Richmond, where he graduated in 1886. For the next two years, he taught school and in his spare time apprenticed law under Burlington attorney Fountain Riddell.

Lassing entered the Cincinnati Law School in 1889 and graduated two years later. He then set up his legal practice in Burlington. Shortly after locating there, he married Mary Lillard Brady, youngest daughter of Robert A. and Susan Brady, and the couple had three sons. For many years, John Lassing was active in state Democratic politics, successfully running the campaigns of Governor James B. McCreary (1875–1879 and 1911–1915) and state senator Thomas S. Paynter. Lassing was elected Boone Co. attorney in 1891, a position he held until 1898, when he was appointed a circuit court judge. He held that post until 1906, when he was appointed an appellate court judge. Lassing bought a home on Nelson Pl. in Newport and moved there in 1908. Because of ill health, Judge Lassing retired from the bench in 1913.

He was named president of the Latonia Bank in 1914. Continuing health problems prompted him to begin wintering in Florida. Lassing died in Florida and was buried in the Richwood Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Boone Co. Boone County Recorder, historical ed., September 4, 1930.

“Lassing’s Life Ambition Is Granted,” KP, June 23, 1906, 2.

“Latonia Bank Reopened,” KP, June 1, 1914, 3.

Reis, Jim. “Judge Also Headed Boone Baseball League,” KP, May 6, 2002, 4K. “Resigns from Bench—John M. Lassing,” KP, September 15, 1913, 2.

U.S. Gen Web Boone County, Ky. Biographies. www .rootsweb.com.

LATINOS/HISPANICS

LATINOS/HISPANICS. Many Latinos/Hispanics, the latest in a long history of immigrants to the region, have recently made Northern Kentucky their home. The term Latinos, like Hispanics, generally refers to persons of Latin American origin or Spanish descent living in the United States.

It is an ethnic, not a racial, category, since Latinos/ Hispanics may be of any race or any mixture of races. The U.S. government adopted the category Hispanic for the 1970 census. In current usage, the term Hispanic is more common on the East Coast, while Latino is more prevalent on the West Coast.

Neither term sufficiently describes the rich variety of races and cultures represented by Latin Americans. However, because Latin America and the Caribbean were colonized by the British, the French, and the Dutch, in addition to the Spanish, some scholars prefer the term Latinos. It seems more inclusive than Hispanics, which implies Spanish linguistic or cultural roots.

Pioneer Kentuckians had a vast, long-standing interest in the politics of the North American colonial empire of Spain. By terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War, Spain regained Florida from Britain (which it had lost at the Treaty of Paris of 1763, ending the French and Indian War) and continued to possess New Orleans, as well as the territory of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. Until Spain ceded the expansive Louisiana possessions to France in a secret treaty in 1800, it essentially controlled navigation of the Mississippi River. In 1784 Spain closed the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans to American citizens, upsetting Kentuckians interested in trade and commerce. In addition, Spain contended that its boundary with the United States lay just south of the Ohio River, while the United States maintained that the border was the 31st parallel.

Claiming sovereignty over the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek Indians, Spanish authorities promised them an Indian buffer state and armed them, hoping to push settlers in Tennessee and Kentucky east of the Appalachian Mountains. The tense situation was later resolved by the Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney’s Treaty) of 1795, whereby both nations recognized the 31st parallel as the boundary between the United States and Spanish Florida and both promised not to incite the American Indians; also, Spain gave the United States a threeyear grant of navigation of the Mississippi River and of deposit of goods at the port of New Orleans. In 1803 President Jefferson’s administration arranged the Louisiana Purchase. As a result of the AdamsOnís Treaty (1819–1821) between the United States and Spain, the United States gained control over all of Florida. That agreement also fixed the southern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the Arkansas, Red, and Sabine rivers, and then westward along the 42nd parallel; this provision essentially waived any claims on the part of the United States to Texas.

In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain. Spain, however, attempted to reconquer Mexico in 1829 and did not formally recognize Mexico until 1836. Also in 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. In 1845 the U.S. Congress admitted Texas as a state, leading to the

Mexican-American War of 1846–1848; soldiers from Kentucky and the Newport Barracks played a major part in this war (see Mexican War). By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico ceded more than half of its territory to the United States for $15 million. The loss of these possessions to the United States left a deep and lasting wound in the minds and hearts of many Mexicans. Continuing U.S. intervention in Latin America throughout the 19th and 20th centuries contributed further to lessthan-ideal relations. That Northern Kentuckians maintained an interest in Latin American political affairs is illustrated by newspaper articles of the period and also by the popularity of an 1898 Cuban village exhibit, featuring a real Cuban refugee family, at the Lagoon Amusement Park in Ludlow (see also National Guard, Spanish-American War).

Throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries, Northern Kentucky did not attract a large number of Latino immigrants. Rather, German Americans, Irish Americans, African Americans, Italian Americans, and Appalachians were the major groups to migrate to the region. The number of Hispanics remained negligible until the late 20th century. The musician Joseph Tosso (1802–1887), born in Mexico, lived in Kenton Co. as early as 1860, but in the same year, the U.S. Census reported only three other people of Spanish or Latin American birth in Kenton Co. In the 1980s and after, more Latino immigrants arrived in Northern Kentucky. Some obtained work in the labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco in the region, while others gravitated to ser vice, industrial, skilled trade, and professional positions. The growth of the Latino population in the area generally followed national trends. For instance, in June 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau released a news bulletin stating that the Hispanic population of the United States had passed the 40 million mark. Currently, Hispanics constitute the nation’s largest minority. Likewise, in Northern Kentucky, Hispanics are becoming an increasingly important component of the population. The official census figures listed below are merely an indication of the growth in the Latino community; the actual population of Hispanics in the region is much larger than these numbers, owing to a significant undocumented and uncounted population.

In May 2006 the large numbers of undocumented workers in Northern Kentucky made regional and national news. Agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, after a two-year investigation, arrested 76 illegal aliens, largely from Mexico or Guatemala, who were employed for a subcontractor of Fischer Homes of Crestview Hills. Also arrested were four supervisors for Fischer Homes. Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security secretary, stated in an official ICE news release about the Fischer Homes case, “We will continue to bring criminal actions against employers who are consistently harboring illegal aliens.” Throughout the following weeks and months, other arrests in the investigation were made, until nearly 100 had been charged. The in-

535

HISPANIC POPULATION IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY

County

1990

Boone

318

Bracken

2000 1,702

2005 (est.)

2,622

12

39

45

319

765

941

Carroll

22

330

408

Gallatin

8

82

187

Campbell

Grant

36

232

308

Kenton

704

1,669

2,151

Mason

76

160

188

Owen

14

105

123

Pendleton

29

97

125

Robertson

4

21

23

1,542

5,202

7,121

Total

vestigation of Fischer Homes appeared in national news media, including the New York Times and Fortune magazine.

Numerous institutions and programs have been established to serve the needs of Northern Kentucky’s growing Latino population, as well as to educate other ethnic groups about Latinos.

These include the Centro de Amistad (2001); the Cristo Rey Parish (2004); HealthPoint Family Care’s Promotores (Health Promoters Program, 2003); the Hispanic Resource Center (2001); the Latino and Multicultural Center for Regional Development (2005) at Northern Kentucky University (NKU); NKU’s Latino Student Affairs office (2001); the Latino Police Academy (2003) of the City of Florence; and Thomas More College’s many Latin American programs. The college offers a Latin American and Caribbean Studies concentration in its International Studies BA degree program, the Mexico/U.S. Border Studies Program (2000), and the Jamaica Ser vice Learning Program (2001). Thomas More College also keeps in touch with a sister university, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In addition to the Catholic parish of Cristo Rey, Spanish-language religious ser vices are held at Iglesia Cristiana Renacer, Russell St., Covington; the Immanuel United Methodist Church, at its old First Methodist Church campus in Covington (see First United Methodist Church); the St. John Catholic Church in Carrollton; the St. Patrick Catholic Church, Maysville; and Unidos en Cristo, at the Madison Ave. Baptist Church, Covington. Northern Kentucky’s libraries offer many Spanish materials and programs, WCVG in Covington provides Spanish-language radio, and there are television and cable television Spanish-language programs. Latino grocery stores, restaurants, and businesses also abound in Northern Kentucky.

Birger, Jon, and Jenny Mero. “Shaking the Foundation.” Fortune, June 12, 2006, 30.

Collins, Michael. “Fischer Homes Feels Sting of ‘Get Tough’ Approach,” KP, June 10, 2006, 1A.

536 LATONIA Glover, Robert Alan. “Celebrate Unity: Methodist Church Launches Hispanic Outreach Ministry,” KP, August 28, 2003, 5K. Kentucky State Data Center. http://ksdc.louisville.edu (accessed June 19, 2007).

Kreimer, Peggy. “Bienvenidos a Estados Unidos,” KP, January 10, 2004, 1K. Long, Paul. “Sentencing Is Delayed in Illegals Case,” KP, January 4, 2007, 1A. Long, Paul, and Shelly Whitehead. “Immigrant Raid Hits Homebuilding,” KP, May 10, 2006, 1A. Mitchell, Pama. “Living La Vida NKY: Latinos Finding Community Here,” Sunday Challenger, August 22, 2004, 1B. Newberry, Jon. “Illegal Workers an Open Secret,” KP, May 13, 2006, 1A. Schroeder, Cindy. “Clinicians Fill Need for Hispanics,” KE, July 26, 2003, B1.

Troutman, Elizabeth. “Morales on a Mission to Help Hispanics,” KP, July 14, 2005, 4K. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Fischer Homes Supervisors Charged with Harboring Illegal Aliens in Worksite Enforcement Investigation.” www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/ 060509washington.htm (accessed June 19, 2007).

Whitehead, Shelly. “Latino Police Effort Wins Annual Award,” KP, June 12, 2004, 5K.

Paul A. Tenkotte

LATONIA. Latonia in Kenton Co., originally known as Milldale, developed at the intersection of two toll roads, Decoursey Pk. (the Three-L Highway) and Taylor’s Mill Pk. Decoursey Pk. originally led to a ferry that operated across the Licking River, and Taylor’s Mill Pk. led to an early gristmill located on the Banklick Creek. The name Milldale probably was a reference either to James Taylor’s early mill or to George Mills, a local entrepreneur who owned a large amount of land and operated an early distillery in the area. Although the community was incorporated in 1894 as South Covington, this name was never used. The name Latonia was borrowed from the famous Latonia Racecourse (1883–1939) located in the southern end of the community, now the site of a large shopping center. The name of the racetrack, in turn, originated from a popular 19th-century health springs site located to the south of the city on Madison Pk. (Ky. Rt. 17) at the intersection of Highland Pk. The historic crossroads of Latonia’s business district (known as Ritte’s Corner) included banks, groceries, saloons, apartments, drugstores, and hardware stores, which developed along with the racetrack. Walter Ritte ran one of the earliest saloons and groceries, dating from 1890, and lived nearby at the northeast corner of Southern and Church Sts. Ritte’s Corner, the five-street crossroads of Decoursey Pk. and Taylor Mill Rds., took its name from Ritte’s long-lasting establishment. Johnny’s Toys (see Toys), perhaps the town’s most enduring business, was begun as a small confectionery near Ritte’s Corner. In the early and middle 20th century, Nick and Margie Casullo operated Nick’s Place, probably Latonia’s most popular restaurant of that period. The business continues as Nick’s Grove in nearby Independence. Latonia Bakery, now named Bernhard’s Bakery, has been a Latonia commercial landmark for more than 80 years.

In the early 1900s, Ritte’s Corner boasted a fountain erected in the middle of the crossroads, used primarily to water horses. After the advent of the automobile, the fountain began to be a traffic hazard and was removed after occasionally being struck by motorized vehicles. Fift y years later, the Latonia neighborhood association and the city’s VFW raised $60,000 to build a new fountain. A small park was constructed at Ritte’s Corner in 2002 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Korean War. Today, water flows from a fountain facing north at Ritte’s Corner.

Flowers, benches, and a decorative wrought-iron fence surround the fountain.

Railroad tracks, built in the 1850s, crisscrossed the center of Latonia; the Kentucky Central (north-south) and the Louisville and Nashville (east-west) were the main railroads involved. These railway lines are now owned by CSX. The rail yard just south of Latonia at DeCoursey Station, the northernmost point of the Louisville and Nashville main line until the 1930s, was the terminus of coal shipped from southeastern Kentucky. Freight cars were sorted here. The local area’s early economy was based on railroad development, and many residents of Latonia worked for the railroads. The DeCoursey Yards were phased out during the early 1980s. Even though little remains of the railroad industry in Latonia, one can still experience the era by visiting the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati on the western side of Latonia and seeing vintage railroad equipment.

In 1883 Milldale’s population was a sparse 700 persons, but with the opening of the racetrack, the community grew rapidly. Local businesses profited exceptionally from the Latonia Racecourse; particularly brisk was the boardinghouse activity in town during the spring and fall meets. Many residents added to their incomes by renting spare rooms to visiting gamblers or people working at the track.

By the turn of the 20th century, the growing community, which began being called Latonia soon after the racetrack opened there in 1883, reached the status of a third-class city, and streetcar ser vice connected Latonia to downtown Covington and Cincinnati. Soon afterward, however, Latonia incurred a large public debt in attempting to install sidewalks and other infrastructure in the city. After lengthy negotiations, Latonia was annexed to the City of Covington in 1909. Covington agreed to assume Latonia’s debt, and Latonia became the most politically influential portion of the City of Covington, continuing so for many years. Latonia also accounted for 25 percent of the total population of Covington.

Among Latonia’s many churches, some of the largest are the Calvary Baptist Church; the Holy Cross Catholic Church, with its wellestablished elementary school and Holy Cross High School; the Latonia Baptist Church; the Latonia Christian Church; the Runyan Memorial Christian Church; and the Trinity United Methodist Church.

Boeckley Drugs, Conley Brothers, and Swindler & Currin Funeral Homes are examples of

long-standing commercial enterprises in Latonia of which several generations of the same families have been owners. Many families in Latonia choose to remain in the community and pass on the homes they have lived in to their children.

“Change the Name—Milldale to Be Known as Latonia,” KP, September 13, 1899, 1.

Claypool, James C. The Tradition Continues: The Story of Old Latonia, Latonia, and Turfway Racecourses. Fort Mitchell, Ky.: T. I. Hayes, 1997.

“Latonia Is Now a Part of Covington,” KP, November 4, 1908, 1.

“Latonia Will Soon Erect Its Fountain,” KP, August 11, 1914, 1.

Karl Lietzenmayer

LATONIA BAPTIST CHURCH. The Latonia Baptist Church dates back to 1892, when, under supervision of the Immanuel Baptist Church in Covington, Rev. J. A. Lee began leading the Latonia Mission. Lee’s small group first met in the home of O. M. Johnson at the corner of 31st and Rogers Sts. in Milldale (which was annexed to Latonia in 1906). Later, they congregated in other homes, in a hall above Scroggins’ Drug Store (later Keller’s Hardware Store) on Main St., and in the “old” Methodist Church building. In 1896 a lot was purchased at Main (now Decoursey) and Golden Sts. (or Golding, now 38th St.) in Milldale; a new church building was completed and occupied that same year. On May 14, 1900, an agreement was reached whereby the Latonia Mission congregation would pay $750 and assume the Immanuel Baptist Church’s $800 mortgage on the property. A reorganization meeting was held on Sunday, May 20, and on May 27 Rev. C. A. Earl became the reorganized church’s pastor. In the fall of 1900, the North Bend Baptist Association granted membership to the congregation as the First Baptist Church of Latonia. The new church in Latonia listed its membership at 39. Although Earl was pastor in 1900 when the church was admitted into the North Bend Baptist Association, W. R. Hutton, a lay preacher and the clerk of Immanuel Baptist Church from 1893 to 1895, led the congregation during 1898–1899 and is regarded as the first pastor of the Latonia Baptist Church.

The present sanctuary, located in Latonia at 38th and Church Sts., was completed in February 1917. A new education building was finished in 1941, and membership grew from 992 to 2,101 between 1941 and 1949. On August 1, 1943, the church began radio broadcasts over the 250-watt WCPO in Cincinnati; on Sunday, August 5, 1945, it aired its first weekly program of The Glorious Gospel Hour to 32 states and several foreign countries over Cincinnati’s 50,000-watt radio station WCKY. In 1954 a new education building was constructed and existing facilities were remodeled to accommodate 1,250 in Sunday school. On September 4, 1959, a kindergarten was opened, and later a preschool program was added; both served to bring generations of children into the church.

August 25, 1983, marked the birth of the SUN (Someone Understanding Needs) Group, which provided spiritual development to shut-in individuals, to the Baptist Convalescent Center in

LATONIA RACECOURSE

Newport, and to Rosedale Manor in Covington.

The LBC Television Ministry was launched in February 1984, when the Sunday morning worship ser vice began being taped for broadcasting on the public access channel. Two additional programs were offered as well. This ministry continues to thrive, having received a number of awards.

The church serves as a meeting place for Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon for spouses, and AlA-Teen for children of alcoholics. Participants have become active members of the church. At least since 1934, the Boy Scouts of America have met in the church. The Cub Scouts and the Girl Scouts began meeting there in 1970 and 1997, respectively.

In 1998 a minister of family life was appointed, to provide counseling to individuals or groups. In the first two years, about 250 persons, about half of them church members, participated. Women became eligible to serve as deacons when the church bylaws and constitution were revised in 1989. In 1994 the first woman was ordained, and several other women have since become deacons. In 1996 the church purchased the vacant Johnny’s Toy Shop property in Latonia in order to provide expanded parking space. In March 1998 a $2.2 million stewardship campaign was initiated with a major church renovation as its objective. On August 17, 2000, Latonia Baptist Church celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Latonia Baptist Church’s mission efforts have led to the establishment of other churches locally, including the DeCoursey Baptist Church, the Rosedale Baptist Church, and the Ashland Baptist Church. In 1920, as a result of internal friction at Latonia Baptist Church, a member group established a separate fellowship that five years later was admitted by the North Bend Baptist Association as Calvary Baptist Church in Covington Throughout the Latonia Baptist Church’s history, it has provided activities such as festivals, picnics, music, parties, and sports for persons of all age groups.

Gibson, Smith H., M. F. Stephens, Frank Hacker, Pauline Hacker, and Emma Batson. The Spirit of Antioch: A History of Latonia Baptist Church. Covington, Ky., Latonia Baptist Church, 1969.

“Latonia Baptist Celebrates 75th,” KP, August 16, 1975, 12K.

Garry A. Casson

LATONIA CHRISTIAN CHURCH. This church owes its existence to a three-week revival series, held by Rev. George A. Miller, at the First Christian Church of Covington in early 1898.

Miller and 25 charter members met on February 27, 1898, to form the Latonia Christian Church. Their early meetings were held in Bird’s Hall at Ritte’s Corner in Milldale, which was annexed to Latonia in 1906. Initially, Miller and Rev. P. H. Duncan, pastor of the Ludlow Christian Church, served as dual pastors, preaching on alternate Sundays.

A church member, Elizabeth Whipps, donated a 50-by-50-foot lot in Latonia on Franklin St. (now 36th St.) for a future church building. A subscription drive was held in February 1900, during which sufficient funds were raised to erect a small building. Construction was begun in March 1900, and

the church was completed and dedicated on October 7, 1900. The congregation hired as its first fulltime pastor Rev. Harlan C. Runyan, who was a graduate of Transylvania College in Lexington. He often told of the first ser vice he held at the church in February 1902, when only 23 members attended and he was paid the entire offering collected, 30 cents. In those early years, the church received financial assistance from the Kentucky Christian Missionary Society. Under Runyan’s able leadership, membership doubled by 1907, and an addition was made to the church to accommodate the increased attendance. In January 1911 the church declared its financial independence from the Christian Missionary Society. Owing to the rapid growth of the congregation, a new lot was purchased in Latonia at the corner of 39th and Decoursey Ave. for $5,500 in June 1921, and Cincinnati architect David Davis was commissioned to draw plans for a new building. It was erected at a cost of $98,000 and was dedicated on April 8, 1923.

At the dedication ser vice, 714 worshippers were in attendance. The church continued its phenomenal growth throughout the tenure of Runyan. Crowds in excess of 1,000 were common at ser vices during the latter years of his ministry. To show their appreciation, his friends and fellow church members sent him and his wife on a tour of the Holy Land in 1926. Church membership had reached about 1,600 by the time Runyan died unexpectedly of heart failure on December 13, 1935.

The grieving congregation hired as their next pastor Rev. Charles D. Carter, who stayed for almost three years. At that time, a serious split occurred in the congregation, with Carter and about 250 members leaving to start a new church in Latonia, which they called the Latonia Church of Christ.

The Latonia Christian Church attendance had dropped to about 350 by the time the congregation hired their next pastor, Rev. Thomas D. Alderson, who stayed for only about a year. On December 3, 1939, the church voted to call as their next pastor Rev. Joseph D. Hill, who served the congregation faithfully for the next 33 years. During his tenure a parsonage was purchased, a new educational wing was built, a church bus began operating, and all debt was retired. When Hill resigned in 1973, he was followed by Rev. Hondel Adams, who stayed for about three years. On April 19, 1977, Rev. Mike Sweeney was hired as pastor, and he has now served the congregation for more than 30 years. The Latonia Christian Church celebrated its 100th anniversary at special ser vices held in April 1998.

Latonia Christian Church, 1898–1948. Anniversary booklet. Latonia, Ky.: Latonia Christian Church, 1948.

“New Latonia Church Formed,” KP, June 6, 1938, 1.

“New Latonia Church Voted by Dissenters,” KP, May 23, 1938, 1.

LATONIA LAKES. The small community of Latonia Lakes, incorporated in 1953, was originally developed as a summer resort and weekend getaway destination. It was located on the east side of Taylor Mill Rd., about five miles south of I-275.

537

The cities of Covington, Independence, and Ryland Heights, as well as small pockets of unincorporated Kenton Co., surrounded the tiny community. When the development opened in 1931, more than 900 cottage sites were quickly sold at $77 each. Within a few months, 40 cottages were completed and dozens more were under construction.

Many of the homes were built overlooking the four lakes on the property. Residents suddenly enjoyed such attractions as fishing, boating, and swimming.

The original clubhouse was renovated in 2004, and several tennis courts were added the following year.

At the colony’s peak, nearly 300 cottages were situated across the well-maintained property. The construction of new homes diminished during World War II as the entire development began a slow, steady decline. Many people who had purchased lots left them vacant. The property that was to become a later phase in the development has remained vacant as well.

Today, only 124 homes remain. The tennis courts are gone, and there is no boating or swimming in the one remaining lake. Several attempts to annex this former resort, by both Covington and Independence, had been rejected. However, suffering from too few tax dollars to cover necessary repairs to the roads and infrastructure, residents of the city voted 32-29 in November 2006 to dissolve the city. It came to an official end in December of the same year and is now part of unincorporated Kenton Co. Hassert, Dan. “Last Rites for Latonia Lakes Near,” KP, January 10, 2007, 1A. Latonia Lakes advertisement. KP, May 27, 1932, 4.

“Latonia Lakes Clubhouse,” KP, May 29, 1932, 2.

“900 Cottage Sites Established at Latonia Lakes,” KP, June 14, 1931, 9.

Robert D. Webster

LATONIA RACECOURSE. The original Latonia Racecourse (1883–1939), located adjacent to 38th St. and Winston Ave. in what was once Latonia (now Covington), was for several decades one of the leading thoroughbred horse racing facilities in North America. Founded in 1882 by the Latonia Agricultural and Stock Association, Latonia Racecourse’s first day of competition, June 9, 1883, drew an estimated 10,000 patrons and featured the Hindoo Stakes, a race that by 1888 was renamed the Latonia Derby. The Latonia racetrack immediately became part of Kentucky’s famed “3-L” (Latonia, Lexington, and Louisville) race circuit, and racing there was equal in quality to that at the older facilities, the Association Track in Lexington (1828) and Churchill Downs in Louisville (1875).

Black jockeys were prevalent at southern and midwestern racecourses in the post–Civil War era, and the Latonia track was no exception. Isaac Murphy (1861–1896), acclaimed as the greatest black jockey, and several of his peers dominated Latonia’s race stakes, winning with such regularity that they were preferred as riders over their white contemporaries. From the outset, the list of owners, trainers, and horses appearing at Latonia’s racing facility was impressive. Top national racing stables were represented, such as the Chicago Stable of

538 LATONIA SPRINGS

Old Latonia Racecourse, ca. 1920.

Hankins and Johnson, “Lucky” Baldwin’s westcoast stable, and many of the most prominent stables from Kentucky. Horses competing at the Latonia track were among the finest racing nationwide and included, between 1883 and 1929, 27 Kentucky Derby winners as well as many winners of prominent national stakes races.

Between 1883 and 1919 the track changed ownership several times; control alternated between locals and owners based in Louisville. In 1919 Latonia was sold to the Kentucky Jockey Club, a newly formed race syndicate led by Matt J. Winn.

Winn, the man who had made the Kentucky Derby famous and arguably the most aggressive promoter of horse racing in America, thus entered the Latonia scene. Winn had always viewed the Latonia Derby as a serious rival to his beloved Kentucky Derby (he had been the chief figure at Churchill Downs since 1902), and with good reason, for the Latonia Derby had frequently offered a higher purse to its winner than that offered in Louisville.

Winn moved immediately to correct the problem by introducing in 1919 a new featured race at the Latonia track, the $50,000 Fall Championship.

This step prepared the way for the Latonia Derby’s subsequent decline, because the new race downplayed Latonia’s top-stakes race.

The new owners, operating first as the Kentucky Jockey Club and later as the Latonia Jockey Club, had purchased a thriving urban racetrack that throughout the second and third decades of the 20th century consistently led the nation in total purse money awarded. A track noted for its beautiful landscaping and a scenic infield lake, Latonia was often portrayed as one of America’s finest race facilities. The “roaring 20s” were Latonia Racecourse’s heyday. Legendary Kentucky Derby winners such as Black Gold (1924) and Clyde Van Dusen (1929) raced at the Latonia course, as did Upset, who took the Latonia Derby in 1922, two

years after having become the only horse ever to defeat the great horse Man o’ War. National and international champions such as Harry Sinclair’s Zev (1923) and the French Champion Epinard (1924) also competed. Present at the Latonia track were many of the top riders, including Hall of Fame jockey Mack Garner, a Covington resident, as well as the famed Kentucky horseman E. R. Bradley, who for many years was a regular at the track. Exterminator (known to his many faithful fans as “Old Bones”) won his maiden victory at the Latonia course in 1917 and while racing there (1917–1922) finished first, second, or third in seven out of eight races. Later inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame, he also placed first, second, or third in 50 of 100 races during his unrivaled eight-year career.

Speed always seemed to rule at Latonia, where the track was lightning fast and new national and world speed records were common. Two events marked the pinnacle of racing at the original Latonia track. First, Latonia’s 1923 Fall Championship featured a thrilling battle between two-year-old champion and Kentucky Derby winner Zev and In Memorium, owned by local Carl Wiedemann.

Zev was beaten, much to the delight of the locals, but weeks later avenged his loss to In Memorium in a still-disputed finish of the match race Winn had arranged for them at Churchill Downs. Second, a star-studded field competed in the third leg of the American International race run at the Latonia track on October 11, 1924. The American International race was won by Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt III’s Sarazen, saddled by legendary trainer Max Hirsch, giving the French champion Epinard his third straight defeat and concluding a series meant to match America’s best horses against the finest ones from Europe.

The fall of the stock market in October 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression ended “the glory

days” at the old Latonia Racecourse. The size of Latonia’s race purses dropped, the top jockeys, trainers, and owners departed, and the quality of the horses competing declined dramatically. The 1930s, especially the later part of the decade, were desperate times at the track. An assortment of gimmicks, such as lottery-type betting pools and lower admissions, were introduced in the attempt to survive. When these did not work, post times were set later in the afternoon, to attract fans who had completed their day’s work. At best, the Latonia Racecourse was in a holding pattern with no relief in sight. The once-proud track’s grounds were being used for political rallies, picnics, auto races, air shows, and even steeplechase racing. Ironically, the Latonia track’s fame in racing history for having introduced “the 2 dollar bet” in 1911, for paying a record $1,885.50 win mutual in 1912, and for being where local jockey legend Eddie Arcaro got his start in 1931 was already assured, but the track’s survival was not. Ultimately, Matt Winn and his partners, straining to sustain both Churchill Downs and the Latonia Racecourse during hard times, were forced to act. On July 29, 1939, the track in Latonia concluded its last meet. A few days later, the property was sold to the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, and demolition of the facilities began immediately.

Fortunately, many of the traditions and legacies of the original Latonia Racecourse have been continued, first at the modern Latonia Racecourse (1959–1986) in Florence, Ky., established and named as a tribute to the old track, and today by Turfway Park, an enterprise begun by Jerry Carroll in 1986 when he bought and renamed the Florence track.

Turfway Park, which was sold again in 1999 to a partnership consisting of the Keeneland Association, Harrahs Entertainment, and GTECH Corporation, has also attempted to preserve the original track’s legacy by continuing to run several races named for stakes first run at the original Latonia track. Lingering also are treasured recollections of the first Latonia Racecourse’s glorious past as locals recall and recount either firsthand or passeddowned memories of the time when the track, affectionately referred to as “Old Latonia,” was unquestionably one of the finest racecourses in all of America.

Claypool, James C. The Tradition Continues: The Story of Old Latonia, Latonia, and Turfway Racecourses. Fort Mitchell, Ky.: T. I. Hayes, 1997.

“The Minute Book of the Latonia Agricultural and Stock Association,” archival collection of the Kenton Co. Library, Covington, Ky.

James C. Claypool

LATONIA SPRINGS. In mid-September 1788, a party of 30 or so settlers was scheduled to leave Lexington to mark out a road to the Mouth of the Licking River. Each settler paid a $1.50 survey fee for a one-half-acre in-lot and a four-acre out-lot in a new town located on the shore opposite the Mouth of the Licking. The deal would become permanent if the settler built a house on the in-lot and if, on the out-lot, two successive one-acre crops were planted.

L. B. WILSON RADIO COMPANY

The buffalo path (see Buffalo Traces) traveled by these settlers followed the Banklick Creek valley from near modern Walton toward the Mouth of the Licking. The settlers noted the large buffalo lick located five miles south of the mouth. The salty mineral water flowing from the ground looked like a buffalo lick to this generation, but like a medicinal spa to the next.

By summer 1829, Ralph Letton, proprietor of the Western Museum in Cincinnati, was building a hotel and spa on the buffalo lick, where today Highland Ave. meets Madison Pk. (Ky. Rt. 17; see Three L Highway). The hotel was located on the northeastern corner, while the springs were across the road under a lake. It was claimed that the Latonia Springs offered four different types of water: the first was strongly sulfured; the second was a solution of Epsom salts with sulfur and carbonic acid gas; the third was similar but more potable; and the fourth, although slightly saline, afforded a cool and pleasurable drink. The waters cured diseases that were variations on an upset stomach (indigestion, biliousness). Daniel Drake was among the visitors to the springs. J. Winston Coleman states that “Kentucky became the social center of the south because of the springs,” but also that “trading horses, political opinions, and marriageable daughters [was] the real business at the springs.”

The name Latonia probably comes from the ancient Greek goddess Leto, called Latona by the Romans. She was the mother of Apollo and Diana.

The springs declined after the Civil War, but not before they gave their name to the fairgrounds, the Latonia Racecourse, and the small city containing the springs. Around 1900 the mineral waters stopped flowing at Latonia Springs and at hundreds of other locations in Kentucky.

Cist, Charles. Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1859. Cincinnati: Charles Cist, 1859.

Coleman, J. Winston. The Springs of Kentucky. Lexington, Ky.: Winburn Press, 1955.

Gastright, Joseph F. “Latonia Springs.” Bulletin of the Kenton County Historical Society, May 1997, 2–3.

Reis, Jim. “Stories Flow along the Banklick,” KP, April 22, 1991, 4K.

Joseph F. Gastright

LATTA, ALEXANDER BONNER (b. June 21, 1821, near Chillicothe, Ohio; d. April 28, 1865, Ludlow, Ky.). Alexander Latta, an inventor, was the youngest of six children of John and Rebecca Bonner Latta. Following a few years of elementary education, he worked in various industries, including a cotton factory, woolen mills, shipbuilding, a brass foundry, and a machine shop. At the machine shop, Latta gained important experience and many new skills. In the early 1840s, he moved to Cincinnati and became the superintendent of the Anthony Harkness Shop, one of the largest machine shops in the city. While at this firm, he was primarily responsible for the construction in 1845 of the first railroad locomotive west of the Allegheny Mountains. He also designed an innovative steam locomotive for the Boston and Maine Railroad. In 1846 Latta and his two brothers Edmundson and

Findlay established the Buckeye Works on Race St. in Cincinnati.

The major accomplishment of Alexander Latta was designing the first practical steam-powered fire engine in the United States. The engine, which was first publicly tested on January 1, 1853, at the corner of Second St. and Broadway in Cincinnati, proved highly successful and profitable. In time, Latta improved on the design and sold many of his engines to fire departments throughout the United States.

Latta married Elizabeth A. Pawson of Cincinnati on October 21, 1847, and two of their children survived. The Latta family lived in Ludlow, Ky., for many years. Alexander Latta was a prominent citizen of Ludlow and was elected to the first city council in 1864. He was reelected in 1865 but died in 1865, before his term was completed. He was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

The original Latta family home in Ludlow stood on Butler St. near Elm. This was the home Alexander and Elizabeth Latta lived in for many years. Latta’s son, G. Taylor Latta, inherited the Ludlow property. In 1900 he had the old family home demolished and began construction of a new residence. This new brick home was designed in the shape of a dodecagon (12 equal sides) and is one of only a few such shaped homes in the United States. G. Taylor Latta was also responsible for subdividing the original Latta property and for constructing the appropriately named Latta Ave., which runs in front of the family home.

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they collected. Before 1900, the stockholders of these companies deeded their roads to the county.

The Cross Roads (Lawrenceville) School was on the John Mitts farm. The Grant Co. School Census of 1888–1889, District 52, listed G. W. Winters as trustee and H. Z. Alphin as teacher, with 31 children between 6 and 20 years of age enrolled. In the school year ending June 30, 1895, there were 110 pupils. The Lawrenceville School later was consolidated with the Mason School.

The Mount Olivet Church cemetery, on the Heekin-Crossroads Pk., remained when the church moved to Heekin. That cemetery is also called the Scroggins-Fortner graveyard. Another well-known local cemetery, the Musselman Children’s Cemetery, is located on the Lawrenceville Rd. The post office at Lawrenceville was established in 1876 and closed in 1906. Lawrenceville continues to be a close-knit community of good neighbors. Descendants of early settlers who have stayed on their families’ land share their pleasant memories with those who return to visit.

Chandler, Virgil, Sr., comp. Grant County Cemeteries. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1988.

Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.

Grant Co. Board of Education Records. Grant Co. Board of Education, Williamstown, Ky. Pease, Janet, comp. Kentucky Abstracted County Court Records. Vol. 9. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.

Mary Louis Evans Alexander B. Latta Local History File, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. “Architectural Freak,” KP, July 6, 1931, 4.

Malone, Dumas, ed. Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. 6. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1961.

Spring Grove Cemetery Records, Cincinnati.

David E. Schroeder

LAWRENCEVILLE. Lawrenceville in Grant Co. is located southwest of Williamstown, at the junction of Lusby Mill and Heekin Rds. Streams in the area are the Eagle, Musselmans, and Wicked Willow (Grassy Run) Creeks. According to longtime Lawrenceville resident Christine Mitts, the town at one time had a store, a creamery, a blacksmith, and a Baptist church (organized in 1874). Lawrenceville’s economy was rural, and the early local farms were largely self-sufficient. Today, the Lawrenceville Baptist Church has a well-kept building and grounds. Its building, which formerly belonged to the St. Joseph Catholic Church, was moved from Blanchet to be used as the Baptist church.

Early landowners in Lawrenceville were required to furnish labor for surveying and maintaining the roads to the mills, the churches, and the markets. Among the families responsible for the roads were the Chipmans, the Clarks, the Gaughs, the Hickses, the Jumps, the Simpsons, the Sipples, and the Wilsons. Later, toll-road companies, including the Mason and Lawrenceville Company, the Cincinnati Southern & Lawrenceville Company, and the Williamstown and Owen Line, attempted to maintain gravel roadbeds from usage revenues that

L. B. WILSON RADIO COMPANY. L. B. Wilson was born in Covington and spent his early years traveling in a theatrical group. In 1912 he returned to Covington and by 1913 had opened a smoke shop. He eventually became president of the Covington Industrial club, the forerunner of the local Chamber of Commerce (see Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce). Along with several other local men and Kentucky senator Fred M. Sackett, Wilson applied for a 5,000-watt radio station license that was granted and became WCKY radio in Covington. Wilson also started a radio manufacturing company that introduced three models of radios just in time for the opening of the radio station in September 1929. Two of the models were named Kenton and Campbell after the two northernmost counties of Kentucky, and the third was named the Kentuckian. They were displayed at the 1929 Radio Show at Music Hall in Cincinnati.

The Kentucky Post sponsored a radio show in Covington in October 1929, and the Wilson sets were featured at some of the show’s numerous radio display booths. The complete line of Wilson receivers were sold locally by Wilson himself and by the Dixie Sales and Ser vice Company and the Johnson Radio shops. Wilson claimed to be Northern Kentucky’s only radio manufacturer, and his company was chosen as the area’s exclusive dealer for Howard Radios, which were very well known among radio manufacturers. The three radio models introduced by Wilson were Screen Grid receivers, and Wilson chose Magnavox Dynamic speakers

540 LEADERSHIP NORTHERN KENTUCKY as standard equipment. The Kenton and the Kentuckian were standard radio consoles, while the Campbell was a “highboy” version. All three featured various degrees of elaborate inlays and imported veneers, and the Kentuckian was available in two models with different complexities of cabinet design. All of the cabinets had the initials “LBW” carved into the scrollwork. The Robert Mitchell Company manufactured the radios in Cincinnati.

At a time when the radio market was intensely competitive and many of the smaller manufacturers had already gone out of business, apparently Wilson radios did not sell well; it appears that they were manufactured and sold for only one year.

Each year, approximately 40 new class members are selected by a panel of judges based on three required reference letters, individual professional accomplishments, community ser vice contributions, and the individual’s desire to contribute to the community. A growing alumni network of 800 members also helps to foster participation in community activities such as board memberships and charitable work.

“Famous Set on Market,” KP, September 15, 1929, supplement.

“Highboy Console Model of Radio Is Being Shown,” CTS, Special Radio Show ed., September 16, 1929.

“One Station Is Due to Kentucky,” KP, February 6, 1929, 1.

Dave Hatter

John E. Leming Jr.

LEADERSHIP NORTHERN KENTUCKY. Founded in 1979 by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Northern Kentucky (LNK) is a highly respected, communitybased leadership development program designed to fulfi ll the community’s need for informed and engaged leaders.

The mission of LNK is “to use the community as a classroom to develop leaders to effectively serve the region.” This is accomplished through a curriculum delivered as a series of eight daylong training sessions, one overnight retreat, a community project, and a graduation program. The following topics are included in the curriculum: —arts and literature: covers Northern Kentucky cultural history, the community impact of the arts, and the challenges facing arts organizations; —health and human ser vices: exposes members to the societal ills faced by many local individuals and families and the governmental and community organizations striving to end these problems; —justice: teaches about the justice system and its impact on the community through visits to local jails, courts, and police organizations; —diversity: introduces members to the community’s diversity; —government: includes meetings with public officials and observation of public meetings, including a trip to observe the Kentucky General Assembly; —education: discusses all aspects of the K-16 educational system, including its many challenges and the opportunities for members to support and contribute; —economic development: deals with the current economic climate and the importance of economic development on the region’s health and well-being; and —media: introduces members to the print, radio, and television media and explains how media can promote community issues.

“Business People,” CE, August 28, 2004, D1.

“Formula for Success,” KP, December 14, 2004, 4K. Leadership Northern Kentucky Foundation. www .nkyleadership.com (accessed July 3, 2006).

“Leadership Program Sparks Change,” KP, February 5, 1990, 3K.

LEAD INDUSTRY. Lead was mined along the southwestern fringes of Northern Kentucky, where early settlers found substantial lead deposits in present-day Owen Co. The industry was also active in the adjacent counties of Franklin and Henry.

Lead deposits were discovered in the lower Kentucky River valley by 1780. Initially, the lead was utilized for making bullets. Later occupants made shot, white lead, and pipes from the lead. In more modern times, lead has been used in storage batteries, paint, ceramic glazes, gasoline, and alloys.

Lead, or galena as it is properly known, is usually found in association with other minerals such as barite, calcite, and sphalerite, which occur in narrow, nearly vertical veins. Galena occurs in the form of small gray cubes that are frequently embedded in barite, a dense white mineral. Once lead was discovered, miners would prospect the area to determine the direction and length of the vein. Veins exposed near the surface could be exploited by following the lead downward in narrow trenches. To reach deeper deposits, vertical shafts were sunk and hoists were used to raise the ore to the surface. Drift shafts were commonly excavated horizontally off the vertical shaft following the vein. The drift shafts were often placed at 100-foot vertical intervals. After the ore was removed from a mine, the galena had to be cleaned and separated from other minerals occurring with it. Wooden troughs, called jigs, were used in conjunction with a stream of water to wash the ore. A concentrating mill separated the galena from the barite.

Early furnaces for smelting lead ore were simple stone foundations built into the side of a hill.

The lead ore and logs were placed in alternating layers. As the wood burned, the galena melted and settled to the bottom, where it was later collected.

More complex and efficient furnaces were developed as time passed. The reverberatory or cupola furnaces, with tall chimneys and with separate fireboxes that kept ashes out of the lead, replaced the old log furnaces. Reverberatory furnaces could operate continuously, unlike the primitive log furnaces, which were burned only once per firing.

Lead mining started in Owen Co. about 1812 and continued until around 1940. Four lead veins, named the Barnett, Cantor, Gratz, and Hoosier veins, are known in the county. The Barnett vein, mined to a very limited extent, was narrow and

had a 20-foot-deep shaft sunk into it in 1913. The Cantor vein, up to three feet wide, was exploited by the Twin Creek Mining and Smelting Company Inc., incorporated in 1901, which excavated vertical shafts to depths between 80 and 90 feet. Drift shafts were placed horizontally near the bottom of the vertical shafts to follow the veins.

The Gratz lead vein, first mined about 1825, was the one most extensively mined in Owen Co. The Ohio Lead Mining Company of Portsmouth, Ohio, operated the mine at Gratz that exploited this vein.

At Gratz a vertical shaft was excavated to a depth of 325 feet. Horizontal shafts up to 1,040 feet long were placed at 100- and 200-foot levels in the shaft.

The Twin Creek Mining and Smelting Company also mined the Gratz vein. Geologist Charles Norwood visited this mine in 1875 and noted that the shaft was 76 feet deep and the vein was 22 inches wide at 54 feet below the surface. In the early 20th century, it was found that this vein went as deep as 480 feet below the surface. Occasional swells in the vein were reported to be five to six feet wide. The Hoosier vein was mined by the Lead Mining Corporation of America, which excavated a shaft to 130 feet deep to exploit a lead vein ranging up to 14 inches wide. The mine and the concentrating mill appear to have closed by 1905. The deposits removed from these mines were often sent to be assayed by the Hartsfeld Reduction Works along Thornton St. in Newport. Some small lead veins in southern Campbell Co. were discovered around the time of the Civil War. The once important lead industry is all but forgotten. The plants and furnaces have long since been dismantled, and most of the mineshafts and trenches have been fi lled in for safety reasons.

“Important Discoveries in Campbell County,” CDE, June 7, 1865, 3.

Jillson, Willard R. Lead Mines of the Lower Kentucky River Valley. Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton, 1941.

“Lead—A Valuable Owen County Mine,” KJ, June 23, 1893, 4.

Norwood, Charles J. A Reconnaissance Report on the Lead Region of Henry County, with Some Notes on Owen and Franklin Counties. Frankfort, Ky.: Kentucky Geological Survey, 1877.

Charles D. Hockensmith

LEATHERS, JOHN W. (b. 1809, Kenton Co., Ky.; d. May 17, 1873, Kenton Co., Ky.). Kentucky legislator John W. Leathers was the third child of John W. and Elizabeth Leathers. A farmer by occupation, he lived on Lexington Pk. (Dixie Highway) about five miles south of Covington. Leathers spent almost his entire life on his family’s farm. In his public life, he was described as a lifelong Democrat (see Democratic Party) who was frank and outspoken but always true to his principles. In his private life, he was described as a good husband, father, friend, and neighbor who inspired love, honor, and respect from those around him. Leathers served in the Kentucky Senate (1849–1851) and in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1867– 1869). He also was for many years a director of the Covington and Lexington Turnpike Company

LEDOUX, ALBERT REID

and a strong advocate for improved roads and other public projects. Leathers suffered a stroke on May 12, 1873, and died five days later at age 64. His funeral ser vice was held at his home and was attended by a large crowd. He was laid to rest in the Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

Collins, Richard H. History of Kentucky. Vol. 1. Covington, Ky.: Collins, 1882.

“Death of John W. Leathers,” CJ, May 24, 1873, 2.

Reis, Jim. “Leathers Family Member Made Mark in State Politics and Real Estate Deals,” KP, November 4, 1991, 4K.

LEBANON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The second church organized in the area that later became Grant Co. was the Presbyterian Church at Lebanon, which was started in 1796. The Lebanon community, west of Crittenden, was settled by Virginians William Anderson, Nathaniel Bullock, Andrew Kincaid, William Martin, Andrew McCluir (McClure), and their families. Later, Joseph Canady, Thomas Canady, Alexander McClure, Moses McClure, Nathaniel McClure, Alex McPherson, Joseph Meyers, and Robert Stewart joined them. These pioneers petitioned the Synod of Virginia to organize a Presbyterian Church at Lebanon, and it was established by Elder Samuel Rannells in the home of Andrew Kincaid. William Martin and Robert Stewart soon erected a small log building near Bullock Pen Creek, where worship ser vices were conducted.

Men and women sat on opposite sides of the church, and the only hymns sung were the Psalms.

An Indian attack against the Andrew Brann family in 1807 or 1808 resulted in a fire that destroyed the log church. With help from his fellow church members, Joseph Meyers constructed a second log church in 1808 on Big Bone Rd., where the Lebanon Cemetery is located. Alexander McClure, Joseph Meyers, and Jonas Stephenson donated the land for the new church.

In 1826 on a nearby hill, a noted former Presbyterian minister named Barton Stone held a series of meetings in which he questioned several points of doctrine held by the Presbyterian church.

As a result several members of the church decided to form a separate church adhering to Stone’s beliefs, the Crittenden Christian Church. The Lebanon Presbyterian Church lost some additional members in 1842 when they left to form the Crittenden Presbyterian Church. The Lebanon Presbyterian Church continued to be active until the 1950s, but eventually its membership dwindled, and in August 1968 Rev. Ralph Hoff man conducted the Lebanon Presbyterian Church’s final ser vice. In 1988 the Presbytery merged the Lebanon and Dry Ridge Presbyterian churches; the surviving members of the Presbyterian church in Lebanon transferred their memberships to the Dry Ridge Presbyterian Church.

Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.

John B. Conrad

LEDGER INDEPENDENT (MAYSVILLE).

Although Maysville’s daily newspaper, the Ledger

Independent, is only 40 years old, its roots can be traced back for more than a century. The Ledger Independent was first published on October 1, 1968, following the simultaneous purchase of the city’s two daily newspapers, the Public Ledger and the Daily Independent, by the Gadsden (Ala.) Times Publishing Corporation. The newly chartered Maysville Publishing Corporation, with former Gadsden Times business manager James M. Striplin as its president and publisher, continued publication of an afternoon edition of the Public Ledger while the company’s morning edition carried the masthead of both papers. By early 1969 the Maysville Publishing Corporation was printing one morning edition six days a week under the combined Ledger Independent masthead. Both the Ledger and the Independent had been familyowned and family-operated newspapers.

The Public Ledger started publication in 1892 under eight incorporators, including Thomas A. Davis, who soon became sole owner. The paper was bought by Arthur F. Curran in 1909 and later was sold to Clarence Mathews and William D. Cochran in 1915. By 1920 the Public Ledger was under the sole ownership of Mathews, remaining in the family until the 1968 sale to Gadsden and the Maysville Publishing Corporation. Mathews served as publisher until his death in 1958. His son, William B. Mathews, became the fourth and last sole owner and publisher. Mary Mathews, the publisher’s wife, served as editor of the Ledger, and she followed her husband into retirement after the sale.

The Daily Independent, first published as the Mason Independent in 1907, was founded by James and John L. (Jack) Purdon. In 1911 the paper came under the sole ownership of James Purdon, but by 1913 Purdon had acquired another partner, L. F. Schatzman. Schatzman continued his association with the publication until his death, at which time the newspaper reverted to the sole ownership of the Purdon family.

The Daily Independent absorbed its morning rival, the Daily Bulletin, in 1936. Martha Purdon Comer, who served as editorial consultant to the Ledger Independent until her death in 2003, began her career with the family-owned Daily Independent. She succeeded her brother, J. Clifford Purdon, as editor in 1935. In 1980 the Ledger Independent was sold to Howard Publications Inc., a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Oceanside, Calif.

Howard Publications owned 17 daily newspapers nationwide. Gary Quinn, who came to Maysville with the Striplins in the late 1960s, assumed the position of publisher and retained that position until 1991, when he accepted a similar position with another Howard newspaper, the Freeport (Ill.) Journal-Standard. Robert L. Hendrickson, who began his journalism career with the Ledger Independent as a reporter in 1978, served as editor of the newspaper before Quinn’s departure. At that time he was named publisher, a position he currently holds.

In 2002 Lee Enterprises Inc., based in Davenport, Iowa, purchased the Howard publishing group, including the Ledger Independent. At the

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time of the purchase, Lee Enterprises Inc.’s chairman and chief executive officer, Mary Junck, cited the Howard newspapers’ focus on local news, which was also the primary focus for the Lee group.

Lee Enterprises owns 38 daily newspapers and has a joint interest in 6 others, along with associated online ser vices. Lee Enterprises also publishes nearly 200 weekly newspapers, shopper guides, and classified and specialty publications.

Located in the heart of a seven-county area of Northern Kentucky and southern Ohio, the Ledger Independent has shown tremendous growth in both quality and quantity in the last several years, meeting the expanding needs of the community.

One added ser vice is community Web sites serving the newspaper’s market. The newspaper has made great strides in technology and newsgathering capabilities, including the addition of computer networks for news, advertising, photo scanning, and layout pagination.

“Looking Back on a Century of Publishing,” Ledger Independent, September 10, 2004, supplement.

“Martha Comer Led Maysville Paper—Editor, Columnist, Advocate Dies at 96,” CE, March 7, 2003, B4.

LEDOUX, ALBERT REID (b. November 2, 1852, Newport, Ky.; d. October 25, 1923, Cornwall-onHudson, N.Y.). Mining engineer and metallurgist Albert Reid Ledoux was the son of Rev. Louis P. and Katharine Reid Ledoux. Following his graduation from the School of Mines at Columbia University in New York, in 1873, Ledoux studied at universities in Berlin and Heidelberg; he received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1875. Ledoux began his career as a state chemist and a member of the State Board of Health in North Carolina. He received an honorary master’s degree from the University of North Carolina in 1880. Ledoux relocated to New York and worked with major corporations as a consulting engineer, a metallurgist, an assayer, and a chemist; he served as an expert in chemistry and engineering cases. Partnered with his brother Augustus and Columbia University professor Pierre de P. Ricketts, Ledoux opened his own research laboratory, Ledoux and Company. Ledoux rose to fame in U.S. industry after solving one of the most pressing issues facing the copper industry in the late 19th century. At the time, nearly all U.S. copper exports had to be weighed and tested in Europe, utilizing antiquated Cornish testing procedures, before European markets would make payment for shipments. This requirement resulted not only in delays but also in loss of the silver found within the copper.

Ledoux decided to open his own assay laboratory in his New York–based company to decrease the losses faced by American copper exporters. As Ledoux and Company gained a reputation in the eyes of European importers as a reliable assay firm, other U.S. copper exporters began to use its ser vices, so that they could receive payment for their exports before shipping to Europe. In 1903 Ledoux was the president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.

He was also a member of the Scientific Alliance, the American Chemical Society, the Canadian Mining Institute, and the New York Academy of Sciences,

542 LEE, CATHERINE “DIXIE” among other scientific and professional organizations in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. He was also involved as an expert in the New York Electrical Subway Commission, was vice president of the Assurance Company of America, consulted for the American Bureau of Mines, and served as vice president of the Chapultepec Land Company.

Two years after the death of his first wife, Anne Van Vorst Powers, in 1918, Ledoux married Alice M. Baird. He was the father of the author and poet Louis Vernon Ledoux. Albert Ledoux died In 1923 at his home in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York.

“Albert R. Ledoux Dies,” NYT, October 25, 1923, 19.

Purvis, Thomas L., ed. Newport, Kentucky: A Bicentennial History. Newport, Ky.: Otto Zimmerman, 1996.

Who Was Who in America. Vol. 3. Chicago: A. N. Marquis, 1960.

Amanda C. Kerley

LEE, CATHERINE “DIXIE” (b. September 21, 1916, Covington, Tenn.; d. August 5, 2001, Cincinnati, Ohio). Dixie Lee, a political activist and socialite, was born Catherine Boshers, the daughter of John Pershing and Clara Woods Boshers. Her father operated a string of movie houses and her mother was a school teacher. Clara Boshers died in a kerosene explosion in their home when Catherine was five years old. When she was six, the family moved to Clarendon, Ark., where she grew to maturity. She attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and earned a BA in psychology from Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. She also earned a MA in French at the University of Cincinnati. In 1939 Catherine enlisted in the U.S. Navy Nursing Corps and served for six years, until after World War II ended, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander.

During the war Catherine was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago, Ill. When she worked as a nurse in Akron, Ohio, her friends started to call her “Dixie Belle,” a nickname that Catherine disliked. She succeeded eventually in getting rid of the “Belle” part; however, “Dixie” stayed with her for the rest of her life. While stationed in San Diego, she met Dr. W. Vernon Lee, whom she married in 1946. Lee, a surgeon who came from Brooklyn, N.Y., was also in the U.S. Navy. In the 1950s Dixie Lee taught at the University of Kentucky Northern Community Center (later Northern Kentucky University) in Covington.

When Lee began running for office, she wanted to change her name legally to Dixie so that the ballot would show the name by which she was known and recognized. However, attorneys found that Kentucky law did not permit a married woman to change her name. In 1966 Lee was the first woman in Kentucky to make a run for the U.S. Congress; she was a Democrat at the time. Although she lost in the primary to former mayor and Kentucky state senator John Moloney of Covington, she came in second in the Boone Co. portion of the congressional district. The following year, when she failed to obtain her party’s nomination, she filed as an independent People’s Choice candidate. Lee also ran for the U.S. Senate. She made her final bid for office in a campaign for the Kentucky Senate in 1969.

Lee continued to participate in politics by working for the Democratic Party for many years.

In 1992, however, she endorsed Ross Perot, the Independent Party candidate for U.S. president. She liked the direct democracy inherent in Perot’s electronic-town-hall campaign. Her local political involvement included a December 1995 challenge to the City of Covington to deal with traffic hazards on Garrard and Greenup Sts. Dixie Lee loved political galas. In 1976 she attended the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981). In January 1992 she was determined to attend the inauguration of Bill Clinton as president. With the help of an old-time friend from Kentucky, U.S. senator Wendell Ford, chairman of the Inauguration Committee, Lee did attend the inauguration, accompanied by Rick Sacksteder.

She was also a gourmet cook and one of Kentucky’s premiere hostesses. She entertained such luminaries as tennis players Jimmy Connors and Vitas Gerulaitis at her Fort Mitchell home, and visitors at her oceanfront villa on the Italian island of Sardinia included the English rock group the Rolling Stones and Prince Karim Aga Khan, a wealthy Muslim leader. In 1977 she wrote an article entitled “How to Throw a Party,” in which she maintained that “the most important ingredient for any party is without a doubt the right combination of people.” Lee was a unique woman who not only had qualities of leadership but was also was very insightful. Kentucky Post editor Vance Trimble said, “She could look you in the eye and read your mind. She would let you have your foibles and not take you to task about it.” Lee was also opinionated, compassionate, and unpredictable.

After her husband died in 1996, Dixie Lee moved to Ball’s Row in Covington, where she lived until her death at Cincinnati’s Christ Hospital in 2001. Her ashes were buried in Clarendon, Ark. She was survived by her two children, Wellington Lee of Lakeside Park, Ky., and Jeanette Lee of Brooklyn, N.Y. As a Kentucky Post editorial commented, “No one will fi ll Dixie Lee’s high heels.”

“Dixie Lee,” KP, August 10, 2001, 4K. “Dixie Lee, State’s Ultimate Socialite, Dies,” KP, August 8, 2001, 1K. Lee, Jeanette. Telephone interview by Rick Sacksteder, August 23, 2006.

Lee, Wellington. Telephone interview by Rick Sacksteder, June 10, 2006.

Ohio Death Certificate No. 72440, for the year 2001.

Reis, Jim. “Turmoil, Tragedy Defi ned Congressional Race of ’66,” KP, May 18, 1998, 4K.

Richard M. Sacksteder

LEE, E. S. (b. May 23, 1862, Danville, Ky.; d. December 8, 1932, Covington, Ky.). Edmund Shackleford Lee, a longtime Covington banker and local park commissioner, was the son of Joshua E. and Elizabeth Waller Lee. He came to Covington in 1884 and took his first banking job with the Northern Bank of Kentucky. His first wife was Frances Penn, and on June 22, 1886, he married his second wife, Stella Collins, at the Madison Ave. Presbyterian Church in Covington. In 1899 Lee

became treasurer of the Kenton Building Association. He moved to the First National Bank and Trust Co. in Covington in 1900, where he served as cashier. In 1905 he was promoted to president of the bank. In 1909 the bank he headed merged with the Farmers and Traders Bank to form the First National Bank of Covington (see First National Bank and Trust Company of Covington), and Lee was named president of the combined bank.

He also served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank in Cincinnati and was chairman of the Liberty Loans campaign in Covington during World War I. Lee sold his home and 40 acres of land in Villa Hills to Villa Madonna Academy in 1922.

He was also instrumental in gaining the donation of land by the millionaire businessman William P. Devou to the City of Covington for the park bearing Devou’s name. As a result, Lee was named park commissioner. E. S. Lee died of a heart attack in his home at 1114 Cleveland Ave., in Park Hills, and was buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

His wife and eight children survived him. One son, D. Collins Lee, is generally regarded as the founder of the City of Park Hills.

“Banker,” KE, December 9, 1932, 1.

“Covington Banker Found Dead in Bed, Heart Attack Victim,” KTS, December 8, 1932, 1.

“Covington Park Board Pays Tribute to E. S. Lee,” KP, December 16, 1932, 1.

“Details of Merger of First National Bank and Farmers & Traders Bank,” KE, December 28, 1909, 9.

“Heart Attack Proves Fatal to E. S. Lee,” KP, December 8, 1932, 1.

Kenton Co. Marriage Book 6, p. 181, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. Kentucky Death Certificate No. 29838, for the year 1932.

Kerr, Charles. History of Kentucky. Vol. 5. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1922.

“Normal School to Be Erected,” KTS, July 17, 1922, 16.

LEE, HENRY, BRIGADIER GENERAL (b.

1757, Virginia; d. October 24, 1845, Washington, Ky.). Revolutionary War veteran Henry Lee, an early Kentucky settler and prominent political figure, was born and raised in Virginia. Lee laid claim to 1,400 acres of land in what is currently Mason Co., Ky., by a process known as preemption, whereby he cultivated a crop of corn in 1775 and moved to the area, residing there at least twelve months before the year 1778. During the Revolutionary War, he left Northern Kentucky to serve in the Virginia line of the American army, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. For his seven years of ser vice in the war, he was given a patent for 7,777 2 ⁄ 3 acres of land. In 1785 he returned to the Mason Co. area and established Lee’s Station, two miles from present-day Maysville. One year later, he became a trustee of Washington, Ky., and in 1787 he served as trustee of the newly chartered town of Maysville.

In 1787 Lee served as a delegate to a convention in Danville, Ky., seeking statehood for Kentucky from Virginia. He was among the petitioners to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the establishment of Mason Co. in 1788. In 1792 he was one of five commissioners who chose Frankfort as the new state capital of Kentucky. Lee served in the

LEGAL AID OF THE BLUEGRASS

Kentucky Militia and was promoted to brigadier general of its 5th Brigade, which included the 15th, 28th, 29th, and 30th regiments. As compensation for his work as a surveyor for many years, he acquired substantial landholdings in Mason Co. Henry Lee married 26-year-old Mary Young Fox, the widow of Arthur Fox Sr. and mother of 5 small children, and Henry and Mary Lee had 10 children of their own. As a result of the marriage, Lee gained additional land and became one of the largest landowners in Mason Co. He built a stately home for his family, which he called Clover Hill.

As their family grew, the Lees found it necessary to build an addition onto the house. Today, Clover Hill remains and is known as Leewood, but the addition to the home has been removed.

During a storied lifetime, Henry Lee held many influential positions in the region, including county lieutenant, associate Circuit Court judge, city trustee, and president of the Washington branch of the Bank of Kentucky. Lee died at age 88; his place of burial is unknown.

Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Chicago: John M. Gresham, 1896.

Brumbaugh, Gaius Marcus. Revolutionary War Records Virginia. Reprint. Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Publishing, 1995.

Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. The Towns of Mason County: Their Past in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Maysville and Mason Co. Library Historical and Scientific Association, 1986.

Clift, G. Glenn. History of Maysville and Mason County. Lexington, Ky.: Transylvania, 1936.

LEE, WILLIS AUGUSTUS, JR., VICE ADMIRAL (b. May 11, 1888, Owen Co., Ky.; d.

August 25, 1945, Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Maine). Willis Augustus Lee Jr., a prominent naval officer, was the son of Judge Willis Augustus Lee and Susan Arnold Lee. According to family accounts, he particularly enjoyed outdoor activities and target shooting during his youth. He graduated from Owenton High School in 1904 and promptly received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. At the time barely 16 years old, he was the second-youngest member of the academy’s class of 1908. During his years at Annapolis, he was the academy Rifle Team’s star member, winning first place in both the rifle and the pistol competitions at the 1907 National Rifle Match.

Lee’s shooting abilities led his superiors to steer him toward gunnery and ordnance positions after he graduated, and he started with gunboat ser vice in the Asiatic fleet. Beginning in 1915, Lee put his knowledge and experience of weaponry to use as an inspector of ordnance. He went on to spend most of World War I in that position, overseeing quality control in the various munitions factories that were supplying the navy’s war effort.

In 1920 Lee was temporarily relieved from naval duty so he could compete with the U.S. Rifle Team at the Olympic Games in Belgium. Individually, he won five gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal. Additional medals were awarded to Lee and Capt. Carl T. Osburn for team shooting

events. Lee’s marksmanship talents were even more remarkable because a childhood firecracker mishap had almost blinded him, making it necessary for him to wear thick corrective lenses for the rest of his life. Under modern Naval Academy admissions standards, Lee would have been summarily rejected on account of his poor eyesight.

Throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, Lee alternated between sea and shore assignments. As war began to brew in Europe, the navy tapped his experience to educate the next generation of sailors. Lee was posted to the Division of Fleet Training, where he first headed up the gunnery and tactical sections. He soon rose to become assistant director, and ultimately director, of the entire Division of Fleet Training.

After Pearl Harbor, Lee was promoted to rear admiral and became assistant chief of staff to the commander of the U.S. Fleet, a post he held for only six months, before being summoned to the Pacific. Lee is best known for his pivotal role in the campaign for Guadalcanal. In November 1942 he led a task force of American battleships into combat against a much larger Japanese force, sinking a battleship and a destroyer and preventing the Japanese from recapturing a strategic stronghold in the region. As a result of this accomplishment, Lee was placed in charge of all the battleships in the Pacific theater.

The Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941 had decimated the Pacific fleet, and the new battleships that were being built to replenish U.S. forces were faster than their predecessors. They were able to keep pace with the aircraft carriers that had become the preferred mode of naval warfare. Lee’s battleships acted as escorts to aircraft carriers, using their guns to defend the carriers while they carried out bombing missions. Despite decades of training and ser vice in the traditional model of battleship warfare, Lee quickly adapted to the new supporting role. At least one military historian of the Pacific theater has credited Admiral Lee with raising carrier defense to an “art form.”

Lee spent almost three full years at sea during World War II and participated in every single major action in the Pacific except the Battle of Midway. He was promoted to the rank of vice admiral in 1944, in recognition of these achievements. In May 1945 he was sent to the Atlantic to research possible defense strategies against Japanese kamikaze attacks. While on this special mission, off the Maine coast, he died suddenly on August 25, 1945, of a massive heart attack.

Lee was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. His numerous awards included the Navy Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Ser vice Medal with Gold Star, and the World War II Victory Medal. In 1952 a ship was christened the USS Willis A. Lee in his honor. At a final cost of $29.5 million, it was one of the largest destroyers that had ever been launched. The Willis A. Lee served with distinction in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean until it was scrapped during the 1970s. In 2001 the U.S. Naval Academy’s Rifle Team honored Vice Admiral Lee by placing a wreath on his Arlington gravesite on the 56th anniversary of his death.

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Houchens, Marian Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

James, Edward T., ed. Dictionary of American Biography. Supplement 3, 1941–1945. New York: Scribner’s, 1973.

Kleber, John E., ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.

“Navy Rifle Squad to Honor VADM Willis Augustus Lee, Jr., USN ’08.” Naval Academy Varsity Athletics. www.navysports.com (accessed September 29, 2006).

Deborah Diersen Crocker

LEE HOUSE. One of the most famous buildings in Maysville is the Lee house, located at Front and Sutton Sts. It was built in three stages, the first about 1798, the second about 1840, and the third about 1850. The oldest section of the house is a Federalstyle building on Sutton St. that is thought to have been originally a section of row houses. Two enterprising brothers, Peter and Henry Lee, built the house’s second section in the Greek Revival style.

They used the buildings as a hotel, to which they gave their family name. Henry Lee was a trustee of the town of Maysville and also president of the local branch of the Bank of Kentucky. During the summers, the Lee House was a convenient stop for travelers along the Ohio River and for tourists on their way to Lexington or to the mineral springs at the nearby Blue Licks. The Marquis de LaFayette, who had been a general in the Revolutionary War, visited Maysville on May 21, 1825, and it was said that he spoke from a balcony at the hotel. What is known is that General LaFayette dined at John T. Langhorne’s hotel (then the Eagle Tavern, later called the Goddard House, and now demolished) on Front St. near Market St. in Maysville. In later years, when the Lee House was no longer in use as a hotel, it was erroneously named the Lafayette Apartments.

Many prominent people stopped at the Lee House, as attested by its guest register, which is on display at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center in Maysville. Probably the most famous American guest was Kentuckian Henry Clay. He signed the register on May 31, 1852, listing his address as “Ashland” and his destination as “Heaven, I Hope.”

Over the years, the building has had a long succession of owners, some of whom called it the Lee House, others the Hill House, and still others the Lafayette Apartments. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently being restored.

Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. Maysville, Kentucky: From Past to Present in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Mason Co. Museum, 1983.

Clift, G. Glenn. History of Maysville and Mason County. Lexington, Ky.: Transylvania, 1936.

National Register of Historic Places Inventory— Nomination Form (for the Lee House), Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, vertical fi les, Maysville, Ky.

LEGAL AID OF THE BLUEGRASS. The Northern Kentucky Legal Aid Society, known today as Legal Aid of the Bluegrass (LAB), is a nonprofit

544 LEITCH, DAVID, MAJOR organization that provides quality legal assistance to families and individuals who otherwise cannot afford it. As early as the 1920s, the legal community recognized the importance of legal justice for all.

The Northern Kentucky Legal Aid Society formed more than 30 years ago in an effort to address equal justice in eight Northern Kentucky counties. In its infancy, the program included only two Covington locations. The Northern Kentucky Legal Aid Society first merged with Northeast Kentucky Legal Services. Then on January 20, 2002, the organization merged with Central Kentucky Legal Ser vices to form LAB. Today, it serves 33 counties in Kentucky and is staffed by attorneys, management personnel, paralegals, and support staff. It operates five offices, with its main office in Covington; the eligible population served by LAB is about 139,000.

LAB supports client-specific legal ser vices in civil matters, defending the integrity, safety, and well-being of families and individuals. It believes that people have a right to be safe and secure in their own homes and to enjoy economic stability. The health issues of Kentuckians are a priority, and particular attention is paid to the rights of the elderly, children, and all vulnerable individuals in society.

Although justice for all is a constitutional right, there is no law mandating legal representation in civil cases. Thus, funding to provide quality legal ser vices is limited, and LAB cannot respond to the entire demand of the communities. Today there is nearly $4 million in funding sources, yet this cannot meet more than a fraction of the legal needs of low-income clients. Therefore, LAB makes use of case-acceptance guidelines that prioritize the most urgent needs, which are determined by input from clients, social ser vices, legal communities, and the general public. There is a constant struggle to find alternative funding sources. LAB operates an active pro bono program, wherein private attorneys work for the good of the public, rather than for fees.

Through this effort, attorneys assist low-income persons at no cost to the client. The organization receives only about 30 percent of its funding from federal sources, so community funding is vital to the life of this organization.

Despite the funding issues, the attorneys and staff are dedicated professionals who want to provide outstanding public ser vice. Although the salaries for the attorneys and the staff are generally low, the workforce consists of highly skilled specialists, usually with many years of experience. Everyone has staggering workloads. Yet, these dedicated individuals enjoy a high rate of successful outcomes for their clients.

The American Bar Association honored LAB with its 2005 Hodson Award for Public Ser vice.

This national award honors one government or public-sector law firm annually.

American Bar Association. www.abanet.org (accessed July 27, 2006).

Cullison, Richard. “Two Legal Ser vices Merge Office,” KP, May 3, 2002, 2K. “Justice for All,” KP, January 8, 2003, 4K. “Legal Aid Need Is Stressed,” KP, February 14, 1928, 1.

Steven D. Jaeger

LEITCH, DAVID, MAJOR (b. September 11, 1753, Glasgow, Scotland; d. November 9, 1794, Leitch’s Station, Ky.). At an early age, David Leitch immigrated to America with his older brother, James, and the two later went into business in Manchester, Va. David served in the army as a major during the Revolutionary War. When land grants were being given out to veterans of that war, he, in partnership with others, began speculating in land.

Leitch came to own many thousands of acres in Kentucky; his holdings comprised most of the modern-day cities of Alexandria, Cold Spring , and Wilder, as well as much of southern Campbell and Kenton counties. The Commonwealth of Virginia granted him 13,800 acres along the Licking River in 1785; 10 years later, he deeded 4,600 acres of these to William Kennedy.

Leitch first came to Kentucky in the 1780s and was a member of the December 1784 convention in Danville that initially sought the separation of Kentucky from Virginia. In 1790 he married Keturah Moss of Bryants Station and around the same time built a block house called Leitch’s Station along the Licking River, about five miles upriver from its confluence with the Ohio. The site of Leitch’s Station was formerly thought to be in the vicinity of Tippenhauer Rd. in Campbell Co., but later research placed it farther north, closer to present Beacon Dr. and the AA Highway. On a hillside east of the block house, Leitch built a one-and-a-half-story log house, with a stone chimney and hewn walls inside and outside; still standing but in bad condition, it is located on the old Licking Pk. In 1794, while surveying a piece of land he was selling, Leitch slept outside all night in a cold rain; afterward he caught a bad cold and likely developed pneumonia. When he returned home, his wife’s brother-in-law, Capt.

George Gordon, and a surgeon from Fort Washington came to treat him, but Leitch died. On the day before he died, he had signed a will leaving his entire estate to his wife, Keturah Leitch. He was buried in the yard of the Leitch home, but in 1853 Keturah had his remains moved to the Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate. She had an impressive monument erected there, detailing significant events in David’s life but incorrectly listing his date of death. In 1795 Keturah Leitch married James Taylor Jr., the founder of Newport, with whom she bore 11 children; only four survived infancy. When Keturah died on January 18, 1866, she was buried next to David Leitch in the Evergreen Cemetery.

Bond, Beverley W., Jr., ed. “Memoirs of Benjamin Van Cleve.” Quarterly Publication of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio 17 (January– June 1922).

Hartman, Margaret Strebel. “Major David Leitch and Leitch’s Station.” In Campbell County, Kentucky History and Genealogy, Falmouth Outlook, December 15, 1978, supplement.

“The James Taylor Narrative,” 1840, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky.; Campbell Co. Historical and Genealogical Society, Alexandria, Ky. Lindsey, Helen Bradley. “Leitch Station in Campbell County, Kentucky.” Papers of the Christopher Gist Historical Society 1 (1949–1950): 35–42; reprinted as a pamphlet by the author and available in the collections of the Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati.

Reis, Jim. “Birthright: Campbell County Grew from Leitch’s Station,” KP, October 3, 1983, 4K. Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

Jack Wessling and Paul A. Tenkotte

LENOXBURG. Lenoxburg, located on the western border of Bracken Co. and the eastern border of Pendleton Co., was named for Samuel B. Lenox, who owned the general store and was the community’s postmaster for several years. The town’s economy was dominated by the transport of tobacco to larger markets. In 1887 local citizens could purchase brooms from the E. C. Gosney broom factory. Lenoxburg also had a coffin shop, located in the basement of a house in town; that was where the coffins were displayed, and additional stock was stored in a nearby tobacco warehouse. Some residents vividly remember the large tobacco screw press, which remained until the warehouse was destroyed. Another such press was reported to have been in the tobacco warehouse in Foster; it was probably a John P. Parker press, manufactured in nearby Ripley, Ohio. Lenoxburg remains much as it began, a lovely small community with fine farms surrounding it.

Bracken Co. Extension Homemakers. History of Bracken County. Bicentennial ed. Brooksville, Ky.: Bracken Co. Extension Homemakers, 2002.

Caroline R. Miller

LEVASSOR, EUGENE (b. ca. 1789, Rouen, France; d. November 6, 1881, Covington, Ky.). Businessman Eugene Levassor was born in France, where his family and Gen. Marquis de Lafayette, one of the heroes of the American Revolution, were close friends. As a youth, Levassor became an accomplished pianist and was a friend of the renowned composer Wolfgang Mozart. Levassor served as a captain in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. Upon Napoleon’s downfall in 1814, Levassor fled in exile to Santo Domingo and then to the United States. He married his wife, Sofia, in 1815, and they had two children, Armand and Clara. Levassor moved to Cincinnati around 1820, where he started a grocery and dry-goods business in 1829 and became quite wealthy. Lafayette visited Cincinnati in 1825 and, while there, gave Eugene Levassor a present of a solid mahogany desk that had recently been given to him by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

The desk became a treasured possession of the Levassor family.

About that time, Daniel Holmes took a job as Levassor’s personal valet. Levassor taught his young employee to play the flute and to speak French. While working for Levassor, Holmes became enamored with his mentor’s lifestyle and longed to pursue a business career himself. It was said that one day the two men had a heated argument, which caused Holmes to quit his job. He told Levassor that he was going out into the business world but would return someday, after becoming successful. Holmes traveled to New York City and took a job with the dry-goods firm of Lord and

LEWIS AND CLARK IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY

Taylor. When his employer decided to open a new store in New Orleans, Holmes was chosen to be the manager because he spoke fluent French. He later purchased the store from Lord and Taylor. Holmes was very successful and to many was known as the “King of New Orleans.”

The mid-19th-century Covington farm estates known as Wallace Woods, Holmesdale, and Levassor Park owe their existence to the three businessmen Levassor, Holmes, and Robert Wallace.

Wallace and Levassor ran businesses in Cincinnati, and Holmes had his business interests in New Orleans, but all three loved to retreat to the tranquility of this part of Northern Kentucky.

Levassor purchased several parcels of land totaling 50 acres, close to the property of Robert Wallace. He built his first home there, between Catalpa St. and Holmesdale Ct. Later, he built a new, larger home nearby, which some called the Levassor Castle. He retired from his dry-goods business in 1845. In the mid-1850s, Daniel Holmes returned in triumph, as he had earlier promised Levassor, and purchased much of the land between Wallace and Levassor Aves. Holmes built his home on the site of present-day Holmes High School and renewed his friendship with Levassor. Levassor died in 1881 at age 92. At the time of his death, besides his holdings in Covington, he owned 5,000 acres of land in Virginia, nine houses in Cincinnati, and land in the West. He was a devout Catholic, and his memorial ser vice was held at St. Mary Cathedral (Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption) in Covington. He was buried at St. Mary Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.

Dressman, Elmer H. “Lafayette’s Desk Preserved in Covington Residence,” KP, May 31, 1925, 1.

“A Drive out the Madison Pike.” Papers of the Christopher Gist Historical Society, January 26, 1954, 49–56.

Gastright, Joseph F. Gentleman Farmers to City Folks: A Study of Wallace Woods, Covington, Kentucky. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1980.

“Levassor Place Has Interesting History,” KP, May 15, 1927, 9.

Reis, Jim. “Wallace Woods, Covington’s First Suburb Sprang from Wooded Estate,” KP, December 4, 1995, 4K. “Sudden Death,” DC, November 7, 1881, 1.

Jack Wessling

LEWIS, HOMER DICK (b. October 4, 1926, Covington, Ky.). Nuclear scientist Homer Dick Lewis is the son of Homer Dewey and Viola Codey Lewis. He grew up on W. 34th St. in Latonia, where his father was an engineer for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. He attended Covington schools and graduated from Holmes High School (1944).

After a stint in the U.S. Navy, he earned a BS in metallurgical engineering in 1952 from the University of Cincinnati. He also holds graduate degrees from the University of New Mexico. Lewis quickly became a leading nuclear scientist, researching and writing widely in his field of powder metallurgy. He has contributed entries in several books, has presented papers around the world, and holds patents

relating to his specialty. He has worked for the Boeing Company and at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico. Lewis’s work in powder metallurgy has brought about improvements in U.S. security and helped to end the cold war. In his retirement, Lewis lives with his family in Farmington, N.Mex. He remembers his Holmes High School days as being the impetus for his stellar career.

Holmes High School Alumni fi les, Holmes High School, Covington, Ky. Who’s Who in America, 2004. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 2003.

Michael R. Sweeney

LEWIS, LYDA (b. September 17, 1948, Maysville, Ky.). Lyda Florence Lewis was the first African American to be named Miss Kentucky; she was the third African American and the first from the South to participate in the Miss America pageant.

Lewis wanted others to view her for her talents and accomplishments, without race as a factor. She is the daughter of Edward Holt Lewis and Alice Kirk Johnson Lewis. Lyda Lewis’s pioneering firsts in beauty competitions paved the way for other black women in the state and nation. Lewis graduated in 1966 from Maysville High School, where she was one of the first African American cheerleaders in the recently integrated schools. She also won awards for her academic work. She attended Morehead State University (MSU) in Morehead and graduated in 1970. She was the MSU homecoming queen in 1967, the first African American so named from any of the Kentucky colleges that were previously open only to whites. Since the MSU queen was selected by a vote of the student body, her selection is a testament to her popularity among her peers; it was also noted in Jet magazine. Lewis was the first African American to compete in Kentucky’s Mountain Laurel Festival Pageant, where she was named Miss Congeniality. She was crowned Miss Jeffersontown in 1972 and Miss Louisville in 1973, and while competing as Louisville’s representative in the state beauty pageant, she became Miss Kentucky in 1973. In 1974 she toured with the Miss America United Ser vice Organizations Far East troupe. Lewis signed with the Ford Agency and worked as a model and an actress in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s.

“Black Is Beautiful for Lyda,” KP, September 4, 1973, 4K. Lyda Lewis fi le, Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, Maysville, Ky. “Lyda Lovely Loses,” KP, September 10, 1973, 3K. “She’s First Black Miss Kentucky,” KP, July 16, 1973, 2K.

John Klee

LEWIS AND CLARK IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY. Before the names of Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) and William Clark (1770–1838) were linked as explorers of the Louisiana Purchase and the Northwest, they undertook separate missions or adventures in Northern Kentucky. Clark viewed the land from Mason to Carroll counties at age 14 in 1785 when he migrated to Kentucky from Virginia along the “Great Ohio River Highway”

545

with his parents, John and Ann Rogers Clark. The first visit to the region by Lewis occurred between 1797 and 1801, while he was on military duty serving at Fort Pickering (present-day Memphis, Tenn.).

His later travels as regimental paymaster, between Pittsburgh and Fort Washington (now Cincinnati), Detroit, and other scattered military units, added to his experience in the region.

Clark was commissioned a lieutenant in the regular infantry on March 7, 1792. His assignment under the command of Gen. James Wilkinson and later Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne gave him a firsthand view of Northern Kentucky. In 1793 Clark was sent to the mouth of the Kentucky River, the future site of Port William (modern-day Carrollton), to build a depot for corn and other supplies.

Lewis, a militia veteran of the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, met Clark in 1794 at Fort Greenville, now Greenville, Ohio, when General Wayne transferred Lewis to Clark’s Chosen Rifle Company of the 4th Sub-Legion. Lewis and Clark’s service together in Wayne’s Legion was short because Clark resigned his commission on July 1, 1796, to assist in settling the tangled financial affairs of his brother Gen. George Rogers Clark as well as for personal health reasons. After leaving the army, however, William Clark maintained a correspondence with Lewis, and on March 10, 1801, when Lewis accepted the invitation of the newly elected president, Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809), to be his private secretary, the names of Lewis and Clark were about to become linked forever. On June 19, 1803, Lewis wrote to Clark at Louisville, inviting him to be a co-commander in what was later called the Corps of Northwest Discovery. The letter carried an assurance that the offer was supported by President Jefferson.

As Lewis descended the Ohio River during fall 1803, on his way to meet Clark, he stopped in Limestone (future Maysville), where he met and recruited John Colter. Colter, who was one of the “Nine Young Men from Kentucky,” became a legend as a mountain man after the expedition. Lewis rested his men and resupplied his boat in Cincinnati, then traveled across country to Big Bone Lick in Boone Co. His crew brought the boat to Landing Creek while Lewis dug for mastodon bones for President Jefferson. Lewis was successful with the excavation, but the bones were lost in a boat accident near present-day Memphis, Tenn.

Jefferson also asked Lewis and Clark to look for living mastodons in the west during the expedition. The explorers found none, and the president sent William Clark to Big Bone Lick in 1807, following the expedition, for a second effort to secure bones from the site. Jefferson knew the property owner, David Ross, and made arrangements for Clark’s dig. Clark arrived at Big Bone Lick on Sunday, September 6, 1807, with his older brother George Rogers Clark and York, William Clark’s slave. A crew of eight worked in the mud to recover bones, teeth, and tusks for President Jefferson.

They found stone tools and Clovis points as well, but the collateral material was not recognized as significant for almost 200 years. The Clovis point excavated by William Clark in 1807 became part of

546 LEWISBURG COVINGTON the collection of Dr. William Goforth, who had helped Clark with his dig at Big Bone Lick. Today, those Clovis points are at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History.

Experience and leadership skills learned by Lewis, Clark, Colter, and York in Northern Kentucky were important to the success of the 1803– 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. On December 2, 1806, 484 square miles of Mason Co. were spun off to become Lewis Co., the first government jurisdiction named in honor of a coleader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Clark, William. Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark. Edited and with an introduction by James J. Holmberg. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 2002.

Foley, William E. Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark. Columbia: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2004.

Jackson, Donald. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1773–1854.

2nd ed. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1978.

Jillson, Willard Rouse. Big Bone Lick. Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1936.

Jones, Landon Y. William Clark and the Shaping of the West. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.

Kleber, John E., ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia.

Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.

Tankersley, Kenneth. In Search of Ice Age Americans. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibb Smith, 2002.

James L. Mallory

LEWISBURG (COVINGTON). The Lewisburg neighborhood of southwest Covington developed along a branch of Willow Run Creek. Today, the National Register of Historic Places defines the Lewisburg historic district as located between I-75 and Covington’s boundary with Park Hills and Devou Park. The district extends north to the Ohio River. Lewisburg was annexed by the City of Covington in the 1840s.

After 1842 German Catholics in Lewisburg could attend Mutter Gottes (Mother of God Catholic Church), the new German-speaking church located in nearby Covington. In 1848 Lewisburg residents attending Mutter Gottes began lobbying to build a Catholic elementary school nearby. Backers purchased three lots and a fourth one was donated; the school opened in 1848. In 1854, a year after the Diocese of Covington was formed, St. John Catholic Church in Covington was built.

Several breweries (see Brewing Industry) operated in Lewisburg: the Lexington Brewery, opened by Duhme and Company in 1859 on the north side of Pike between Lewis St. and Western Row; the Lewisburg Brewery, which Charles Lange and Frank Knoll established in 1866 at the northwest corner of Lewis and Baker Sts.; and the Bavarian Brewing Company, started by Julius Deglow and Charles Best in 1866 on Pike St. east of Willow Run Creek.

Lewisburg was the home of many tanneries, as well as slaughterhouses (see Meatpacking). Lo-

cal historian Chester Geaslen once recalled six slaughterhouses (including those of Conrad Walz, Charlie Hais, and Charlie Kraus and Sons), mostly along Lewis St. Moonshiners operated in a barn not hidden from the neighborhood, and more than one public establishment hosted cock (rooster) fights. At the corner of Lewis and Worth Sts. were Fromandi’s Beer Saloon and, next door, Fromandi’s Zoo, which had a bear, a wolf, a fox, a weasel, a raccoon, a monkey, a wildcat, an alligator, and two snakes. By 1957 Fromandi’s grandson John M. Zembrodt operated Fromandi’s, then called the Hillside Café.

Streetcar ser vice began in the Lewisburg district in 1890, and the Lewisburg line also became the first leg in a very scenic route up Montague and Amsterdam Rds. that eventually included a view of lovely Park Hills (see Streetcars). This was a streetcar ride on high trestles over Sleepy Hollow Rd. and over the entrance to St. John Cemetery, a run along the Dixie Highway past Highland and St. Mary cemeteries, Blessed Sacrament Church, and residential streets in Fort Mitchell to the turnaround at the end of the line in Fort Mitchell, opposite Orphanage Rd. Most of the buildings in Lewisburg were built between 1865 and 1900. Lewisburg had a flourishing business district along Pike St. that included a post office, a kindergarten operated by the City of Covington (the teacher for many years was “Miss Daisy”), Vogt’s Pharmacy, Dr. King’s chiropractic office, Tinglehoff ’s Bakery, Ed Schmidt’s Supermarket, and Zimmer’s Hardware (closed in 2008).

Grander than most of the homes in Lewisburg are 618 W. 11th St., once the home of H. H. Helman, a grain merchant, and 708 Lewis St., at one time owned by Charles Lang of the Lewisburg Brewery.

The architecture of Lewisburg is typical of the other parts of Covington.

Chris Papas, who had opened a candymanufacturing shop, Lily’s Candies, in Covington on Madison Ave. in 1935, later relocated the manufacturing function to 921 Baker St., the former site of the Lewisburg Brewery. When Papas retired in 1951, his son took over Chris A. Papas and Sons, a wholesale candy business on Baker St. in Lewisburg, still known for its Easter candies (see Candy and Ice Cream). In 1946 Robert L. Glier ran a butcher shop at 439 Pike St. In the mid-1950s, the shop (now Glier’s Meats Inc.) began making goetta and soon opened a second plant in Cincinnati. In 1967 the Glier’s meat company concentrated its operations at 533 W. 11th St. in Lewisburg in a former dairy bottling plant adjoining the Bavarian brewery’s complex. In the 1990s, selling locally and regionally, the Glier’s meat company doubled production. In 2002 Glier’s Meats Inc. sold 1 million pounds of goetta and Covington renamed a section of 11th St. in Lewisburg Goetta St. Herb and Thelma’s (operated by the Boehmker family) is a neighborhood tavern along Pike St. that displays both old and new beer signs and serves soup, chili, steak hoagies, mettwurst, hot dogs, and especially hamburgers and cheeseburgers, to patrons who might be focusing on television sporting events. The business is located in a build-

ing dating to 1859, at the site of the old Lexington Brewery. Like the Standard Club, between Baker St. and the expressway in Lewisburg, Herb and Thelma’s has hosted neighborhood “social clubs,” card playing, and sports activities. Butler Plumbing and Heating, once located at 957 Western Ave. in Lewisburg, returned there after Knochelmann Plumbing and Heating moved to a larger facility.

Dixie Novelty, started 45 years ago by Doug, Derek, and Dan Bosse, the third generation of the Bosse family, is at 934 Baker St. in Lewisburg. Dixie Novelty sells party decorations, ceremonial award items, and supplies for such charitable gaming activities as bingo and Monte Carlo.

The construction of I-75 in the early 1960s impacted Lewisburg significantly (see Expressways), displacing many homes, the nearby historic Covington Ball Park (see Baseball), and some playgrounds. The Lewisburg Neighborhood Association, which began in 1993, has organized a neighborhood Block Watch in an effort to prevent crime. In early 1997 a convenient and affordable family health center (see HealthPoint Family Care) opened in the old Schmidt’s Supermarket on Pike St., replacing the old tile storefront with a brick front reminiscent of the 19th-century architecture of the neighborhood. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post at 945 Montague Rd. (see VFW) has sponsored the War Memorial across from the post’s meeting hall in Lewisburg. The memorial features two field artillery pieces, a large flagpole, and a marker commemorating members of the post who were killed in World War II. In 1994 the Lewisburg Neighborhood Association, using federal grant money, transformed an unkempt space across from the VFW into the landscaped Quarry Pointe and War Memorial located near the entrance to Devou Park.

Geaslen, Chester F. Strolling along Memory Lane.

Newport, Ky.: Otto, 1971–1974.

Schmitz, Raymond A. St. John’s Catholic Church, Covington, Kentucky, 1854–2004. Covington, Ky.: St. John Catholic Church, 2006.

John Boh

LEWISBURG (MASON CO.). The town of Lewisburg in Mason Co. is approximately halfway between Maysville and Flemingsburg on the main road and six miles south of Maysville along the North Fork of the Licking River and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad line. Lewisburg was established on December 17, 1795, by the Kentucky legislature on the land of George Lewis, after whom the community was named. Lewis was a pioneer and a founder of the county. He had reestablished Clark’s Station at Lewisburg in 1789 (see Mason Co. Stations), was one of the signatories requesting that the Virginia legislature establish the town of Washington in Mason Co., was one of Mason Co.’s representatives to the convention in Danville in 1792 that wrote Kentucky’s first constitution, and later served in the Kentucky legislature. Lewisburg quickly became a thriving community. Lewis built a mill and a dam, and then a canal was constructed to direct water to the mill. A woolen mill

LICKING RIVER

operated in town in the 1840s, using wool purchased from local farmers. The Lewisburg Baptist Church was established in 1843, across the North Fork on the edge of town; according to tradition, Lewis did not want a church built in the town proper. The congregation of the Lewisburg Baptist Church continues to use the original church building. The town also had a distillery. Residents crossed the Licking River from early in the 19th century until 1930 using a covered bridge located in Lewisburg. Schools in the town included the Lewisburg Academy, the Lewisburg Male and Female Institute, and the Lewisburg High School, which in 1926 consolidated the local one-room schools. That school served the community in some form until 1973, and its gym continues to be used by the community through the Lewisburg Lions Club. The railroad came through town during the 1870s, and the rail station was named Marshall’s Station. The post office at Lewisburg was called North Fork. The new Fleming-Mason Airport was opened in recent years just south of Lewisburg.

Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. The Towns of Mason County: Their Past in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Maysville and Mason Co. Library Historical and Scientific Association, 1986.

Clift, G. Glenn. History of Maysville and Mason County. Lexington, Ky.: Transylvania, 1936.

Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1984.

John Klee

LIBRARIES. Libraries in Northern Kentucky first appeared in the urban areas located along the Ohio River: Covington, Maysville, and Newport.

The earliest known library was the Covington Social Library, established in 1824. For the next 75 years, numerous libraries operated in Covington for brief periods, usually as subscription ser vices for those who could pay a minimal fee. In 1839 the Kentucky legislature chartered the Maysville Lyceum to operate a library and reading room. The first public library in Northern Kentucky was established in Maysville in 1878 with a bequest from an unknown Englishman along with a gift from Maysville hat and umbrella merchant James Wormald. It opened along Sutton St. and remained in that block for the next 117 years (see Mason Co. Public Library). In the 1870s and 1880s, a series of groups including the Odd Fellows established subscription libraries in Newport.

The 1890s brought a dedicated effort by local governments to establish free public libraries in Newport and Covington. Committees of prominent citizens in each city approached Andrew Carnegie for financial assistance for library construction. Carnegie provided funding that resulted in new libraries in Newport in 1902 and Covington in 1904. In the meantime, temporary libraries had begun in Newport in 1899 and in Covington in 1901 (see Covington Public Library; Kenton Co. Public Library; Campbell Co. Public Library; Newport Public Library).

Outside the major cities, women’s clubs were responsible for establishing many public libraries

throughout Northern Kentucky. The Erlanger Woman’s Club was organized in 1914 to provide library ser vice in Erlanger and Elsmere that continued until 1967. The Owen Co. Women’s Club began library ser vice with a library in Owenton in 1946 (see Owen Co. Public Library). The Carrollton Woman’s Club opened a library in that city during the late 1940s using World War II bonds for funding. Building on this foundation, the Library Commission of Carroll Co. was formed in the late 1940s to receive a state grant for providing countywide ser vice. The Williamstown Women’s Club and the Grant Co. Younger Women’s Club petitioned the Grant Co. Fiscal Court for funding, which made it possible to open the Grant Co. Public Library in 1954. The Town and Country Women’s Club of Brooksville received a grant from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA) in 1983 to create a library in Bracken Co. (see Bracken Co. Public Library).

As the region developed, other groups also attempted to establish libraries. Several groups opened libraries in Boone Co. beginning in the 1940s, but none were successful in obtaining the necessary funding. A coalition of organizations in Pendleton Co. received a grant from the state in 1953 to open the county’s first library in the Falmouth City Hall (see Pendleton Co. Public Library).

Library ser vice in the region improved during the 1950s as a result of a statewide bookmobile program. Kenton, Owen, and Pendleton counties received their first bookmobiles as a result of this program during the early 1950s. In 1952 the Robertson Co. Public Library was founded in Mount Olivet.

By the mid-1960s, it was apparent that public library ser vice across Northern Kentucky was inadequate for modern communities. Even the Carnegie libraries in Newport and Covington were chronically underfunded. The Commonwealth of Kentucky became more active in promoting public libraries, and the KDLA assigned Philip N. Carrico to the position of regional librarian for Northern Kentucky to promote the development of public libraries. Carrico immediately began to establish or support public libraries in each county.

State law allowed the creation of special taxing districts that became the method of support for libraries. Kenton Co. created such a district in 1967, combining the Covington Public Library, the Erlanger-Elsmere Library, and the Kenton Co. bookmobile. Mason Co. followed suit in 1971, along with Owen and Boone counties in 1973, Carroll Co. in 1975, and Grant Co. in 1976 (see Carroll Co. Public Library; Boone Co. Public Library).

Gallatin Co. obtained a grant from the KDLA in 1978 for a demonstration library that led to the creation of a county library system in 1980. A petition drive led by Betty Daniels in Campbell Co. resulted in the creation of the Campbell Co. Public Library district in 1978. The Women’s Club demonstration library in Bracken Co. was closed in 1987, owing to the lack of continued funding, but a dedicated group of residents persisted through

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many obstacles to create the Bracken Co. Public Library District in 1991.

As Northern Kentucky continued to grow, so did public library facilities. New libraries were opened in 1973 in Owen Co. (Owenton); in 1974 in Kenton Co. (Covington); in 1976 in Boone Co., Kenton Co. (Erlanger), and Pendleton Co.; in 1981 in Carroll Co.; in 1984 in Campbell Co. (Cold Spring) and Gallatin Co. (Warsaw); in 1989 in Boone Co. (Hebron); in 1994 in Boone Co. (Walton); and in 1995 in Bracken Co. (Brooksville), Campbell Co. (Fort Thomas), Kenton Co. (Independence), and Mason Co. (Maysville). The Pendleton Co. Public Library (Falmouth) was devastated by flooding in 1997 but was restored and reopened with a new collection and new technology.

The new millennium brought a generation of new libraries with expanded ser vices and facilities.

Libraries were constructed or expanded in 2000 in Boone Co. (Union) and Gallatin Co. (Warsaw); in 2001 in Owen Co. (Owenton); in 2002 in Kenton Co. (Erlanger); in 2003 in Campbell Co. (Newport), Grant Co. (Williamstown), and Mason Co. (Maysville); in 2004 in Bracken Co. (Brooksville); and in 2007 in Kenton Co. (Independence).

Northern Kentucky libraries were also at the forefront of the technology revolution in the late 1990s. Automated card cata logs were developed throughout the region, beginning in Kenton Co. in 1990. The Internet brought the world of information to Northern Kentucky public libraries, with public access to the Internet beginning in Boone Co. in 1996. With strong funding and heavy usage by the public, libraries in Northern Kentucky are among the strongest in Kentucky.

Mueller, Jan. Soul of the City: A Centennial History of the Newport Public Library. Cincinnati: Specialty Litho, 2004.

Wayne Onkst

LICKING RIVER. The Licking River, a tributary of the Ohio River, flows about 320 miles from Magoffi n Co. northwest to its confluence with the Ohio River between Covington and Newport, opposite Cincinnati. The watershed of the Licking drains about 3,707 square miles, or about 10 percent of Kentucky. The Dry Ridge Trace in Northern Kentucky is the geological division between the watersheds of the Kentucky River, to its west, and the Licking River, to its east. That is, most streams to the east of the Dry Ridge Trace flow into the Licking River, and thence into the Ohio River; creeks to the west of the Dry Ridge generally flow into the Kentucky River, and from there into the Ohio. Of course, some streams on both sides of the Dry Ridge Trace flow directly into the Ohio River.

The Licking River has three main forks in Northern Kentucky: Middle (sometimes referred to as the Main Licking), South, and North (not to be confused with the Upper North Fork of the Licking in Morgan and Rowan counties). The Middle Fork of the Licking River, the longest of the three, originates in the Cumberland Mountains (see Appalachians) in Magoffi n Co. and flows in a

548 LICKING RIVER northwesterly direction through Morgan Co., where it joins Cave Run Lake, an 8,270-acre body of water in Daniel Boone National Forest, impounded by the earth and rock-fi ll dam in Rowan Co. completed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1973. North of the dam, the Middle Fork of the Licking River continues, forming all or part of the boundaries between Rowan and Bath counties, Bath and Fleming counties, Nicholas and Fleming counties, Nicholas and Robertson counties, and Robertson and Harrison counties. Fed by the North Fork of the Licking River, which joins the Middle Fork near the southeastern boundary of Pendleton Co., the Middle Fork continues to Falmouth. At Falmouth the Middle Fork and the South Fork join and continue in one main Licking River, which then travels northward through Pendleton Co. and continues north, serving as the boundary between Kenton Co. on its western banks and Campbell Co. on its eastern banks. The South Fork of the Licking River begins in Bourbon Co., at the juncture of Stoner and Hinkston Creeks, and flows northward through Bourbon and Harrison counties to Pendleton Co., where it joins the Middle Fork at Falmouth. The North Fork has its headwaters in the northeastern section of Fleming Co. and flows northwest, dividing Lewis and Fleming counties, traverses Mason Co., then forms a part of the boundary between Mason and Robertson counties; it proceeds through Bracken Co., constituting a portion of the boundary between Bracken and Robertson counties, and continues through Bracken Co. to the Middle Fork of the Licking near the southeastern line of Pendleton Co. Geologists refer to three stages of the Licking River: the Old Licking, the Deep Stage Licking, and the modern Licking (see Geology). The Old Licking River and the Old Kentucky River, before the Pre-Illinoian Glacier of about a million years ago, flowed north into what is now the state of Ohio, joining near the current city of Hamilton, Ohio (see Glaciers). The Pre-Illinoian Glacier blocked the channels of old rivers and streams, forcing the development of the Deep Stage Ohio River and the Deep Stage Licking River. The Deep Stage Licking River was shifted westward from the Old Licking River, essentially forming the valley that it uses today in Northern Kentucky. Then the Deep Stage Licking River proceeded north through the present-day Mill Creek Valley along I-75 (see Expressways) in Cincinnati, where it flowed into the Deep Stage Ohio at St. Bernard, Ohio. About 200,000–250,000 years ago, the Illinoian Glacier’s ice blocked the Deep Stage Ohio and formed the current Ohio River channel stretching from Lunken Airport on the east side of Cincinnati to Lawrenceburg, Ind. At that time, the modern Licking River began to empty into the modern Ohio River between what later became Covington (the Point) and Newport.

American Indians, prehistoric animals, and white settlers all availed themselves of the salt licks along the Licking River, probably giving rise to the river’s eventual name. American Indians followed the buffalo traces, one of which led from the

Point into the interior. The best-known salt licks were Grants Lick, the Upper Blue Licks, and the Lower Blue Licks (see Blue Licks). The latter was the site of the Battle of the Blue Licks (see Blue Licks, Battle of; Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park).

The Licking River was known to French explorers and traders of North America. Kentucky geologist Willard Rouse Jillson cited a 1744 Carte de La Louisiane (map of Louisiana) by Jacques Nicolas Bellin and a 1746 map by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon D’Anville, both of which made reference to salt licks, most likely the Blue Licks. Dr. Thomas Walker of the Loyal Land Company (Virginia) explored Kentucky in 1750 through the Cumberland Gap (which he named) and called the Licking River the Frederick’s River. The following year, Christopher Gist of the Ohio Company (Virginia) explored the Ohio Valley, crossing the Point in 1751.

Early settlers of the area established posts along the Licking River, such as Leitch’s Station (see David Leitch). In 1802 Campbell Co. officials gave James Taylor Jr., who married Leitch’s widow Keturah, permission to build a two-foot-high dam, with a 17-foot-wide gate for the passage of boats, across the Licking River about five miles south of Newport.

The mill dam provided power for a saw and grist mill that Taylor constructed (see Taylor Mill).

The development of the cities of Covington and Newport at the Licking River’s mouth brought urbanization, industrialization, and pollution to the lower reaches of the river. The U.S Army’s Newport Barracks, built at the mouth of the Licking in 1803–1804, operated until 1894. Like Newport’s West End, the barracks were subjected to the flood of 1884 and other flooding. Situated higher, the residential areas of Covington’s current LickingRiverside, Riverside Drive, and Ohio Riverside National Historic Districts were less susceptible to flooding. Iron and Steel manufacturing, as well as meatpacking establishments, lined the Licking River’s Covington and Newport shores.

Ferries operated along the Licking, and the Newport and Covington Suspension Bridge connected the two cities in 1853 (a suspension bridge opened upriver in the same year at Falmouth; see Falmouth Suspension Bridge); the Shortway Bridge opened between Covington and Newport in 1892.

In the 1830s the State of Kentucky proposed the building of 21 locks and dams along the Licking River to enable slack-water navigation to West Liberty, Ky., a distance of 231 miles (see Licking River Navigation). Construction was begun on the first five locks, but not yet the dams, in about 1839; completion of these would have enabled navigation to Falmouth, 51 miles from the mouth.

State financial problems resulted in the permanent suspension in 1842 of the construction project, a disappointing expenditure of $372,520. Some of the stonework was later sold and used in building the John A. Roebling Bridge between Covington and Cincinnati. A rockbar, situated in front of the mouth of the Licking River, further impeded navigation. Beginning in 1887, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began underwater blasting of

the Licking rockbar and by 1895 had removed 29,862 cubic yards of material. Removal of the rockbar was continued after 1900.

Without locks and dams, the upper reaches of the Licking were navigable only during the rainy seasons of late fall and early spring. At those times, large flatboats carry ing coal from the Kentucky mountains could be floated downstream from West Liberty in Morgan Co. Timber from the Cumberland Mountains was tied together as makeshift rafts and also floated downstream to mills in the cities.

The 19th-century locks and dams proposed for the Licking River were designed for navigation purposes only, not for flood control. In 1936 the U.S. Congress authorized construction of a dam about nine miles above Falmouth, designed primarily for controlling flooding. The funds for this project were not forthcoming, although efforts to secure them were pursued again and again. In 1980 the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution opposing the use of state funds for the dam, and in 1981 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shelved the Falmouth Dam project. U.S Representative Gene Snyder made one last-ditch effort to resurrect it, but to no avail. Following the tremendous destruction of the flood of 1937, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built floodwalls in Covington and Newport to protect those cities from the floodwaters of both the Ohio and the Licking rivers. The catastrophic Licking River floods of 1964 and 1997 (see Flood of 1964, Licking River; Flood of 1997, Licking River) did extensive damage to the cities of Falmouth and Butler.

The Kentucky Chapter of the Nature Conservancy has designated the Licking River watershed—what it calls the Licking River Buffalo Trace Preserve—as worthy of conservation efforts. Including over 1.8 million acres, the Nature Conservancy’s Licking watershed project area contains 100 fish species and more than 50 species of freshwater mussels, 11 of which are endangered. The Kentucky Chapter and its partners in federal, state, and local government, as well as private organizations, seek to educate the public about the dangers of pollutants to the Licking River ecosystem and to work with landowners in protecting lands in the watershed. Another group, entitled the Licking River Region Team, also promotes monitoring and conservation of the watershed. Finally, the Northern Kentucky Port Authority exemplifies how reclamation and economic development can be complementary. With the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the Port Authority participated in a cleanup of the old Newport Landfi ll in Wilder, along the Licking River. A clay cap was placed over the landfi ll site, and other appropriate reclamation and vegetation actions were taken, so that the site is now safe for humans and the environment and can be marketed for development.

Hedeen, Stanley. Natural History of the Cincinnati Region. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Museum Center, 2006.

Jillson, Willard Rouse. A Bibliography of the Licking River Valley in Kentucky. Frankfort, Ky.: Roberts, 1968.

LICKING RIVERSIDE, RIVERSIDE DRIVE, AND OHIO RIVERSIDE NATIONAL HISTORIC DISTRICTS Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Inventory and Classification of Streams in the Licking River Drainage, by Albert R. Jones. Kentucky Fisheries Bulletin No. 53, 1970, Frankfort, Ky. Kerr, Charles, ed. History of Kentucky. Vol. 1. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1922.

“Licking River,” Maysville Bulletin, February 9, 1871, 3.

Licking River Region Team. “The Licking River Region in Kentucky: Status and Trends,” November 1998. www.watersheds.ky.gov/ (accessed June 17, 2007).

The Nature Conservancy. “Places We Protect.” www .nature .org/ wherewework/northamerica/states/ kentucky/preserves/ (accessed June 17, 2007).

Smith, Allen Webb. Beginning at “the Point”: A Documented History of Northern Kentucky and Environs, the Town of Covington in Par ticular, 1751– 1834. Park Hills, Ky.: Privately published, 1977.

Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Cave Run Lake.” www .lrl.usace.army.mil/crl (accessed June 17, 2007).

Paul A. Tenkotte and Vic Canfield

LICKING RIVER NAVIGATION. The Licking River, one of Kentucky’s major waterways, is formed in Magoffin Co., flows 320 miles through numerous additional Kentucky counties, and empties into the Ohio River at Covington and Newport. The origin of the river’s name is uncertain, but most likely it is taken from the numerous salt licks found along the river’s course in the pioneer period. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, flatboats were used on the Licking River for the movement of agricultural produce. As early as 1788, Virginia state law had established several inspection stations along the Licking River in Kentucky for assurance of “quality control of commodities.” After Kentucky gained statehood in 1792, county courts, along with the state legislature, passed various measures to provide for navigation improvements on certain of the waterways of Kentucky, mainly the removal of channel obstructions and the regulation of milldams.

At the request of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, U.S. Army officers conducted the first survey of the Licking River in 1829; later, based on another survey in 1837, federal engineers recommended the construction of 21 locks and dams to overcome a fall of 310 feet from West Liberty to the river’s mouth. The State Board of Internal Improvements awarded contracts for the first five projects in 1837, to be built of the typical stone lock chambers, with dams of stone-fi lled timber cribs. Over the next several years, construction was slow and sporadic, owing to lack of state funds, which were concentrated on improvement projects on the Kentucky River and on the Green River, located in the west-central part of the state. By 1842 all work on the Licking River was suspended, and the five projects begun earlier were left only partially completed. For the next 25 years, political and business leaders in the Licking River valley petitioned the state legislature for resumption of funding support in order to push the project to completion, citing the importance of the improved river to Northern Kentucky. As with the proposals for improvements

on the Kentucky River, these leaders sought improvements on the Licking in order to move the farm products and natural resources from the upper valley. By the 1860s, some of the Licking’s locks had been dismantled and the stone used for building the piers of the Covington and Cincinnati bridge over the Ohio River (see John A. Roebling Bridge).

The U.S. Congress, in 1936, authorized construction of Falmouth Lake by impounding the Licking River about nine miles above the town of Falmouth. The project was placed in the inactive category in 1981, because lack of funding support by the state government, and no construction has ever commenced. In 1984 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed construction of Cave Run Dam, 174 miles above the mouth, for flood control and associated purposes. Cave Run Lake has become a fishing and recreation mecca in the region.

Today, the Licking River is made navigable for about seven miles above its mouth by waters impounded by the Markland Dam on the Ohio River.

Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

“Water Resources Development in Kentucky, 1995,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, Louisville, Ky.

Charles E. Parrish

LICKING-RIVERSIDE, RIVERSIDE DRIVE, AND OHIO RIVERSIDE NATIONAL HISTORIC DISTRICTS. The Licking Riverside, Riverside Drive, and Ohio Riverside National Historic Districts are located in Covington at the confluence of the Ohio River and the Licking River. This area was one of the first established neighborhoods in Kenton Co. and in all of Northern Kentucky and is often referred to as “The Point.”

The first person known to explore the area was Christopher Gist, an agent of the Ohio Company, and the year was 1751. Key moments in the early life of the Licking Riverside Historic District include the launching of expeditions by John Bowman, and later by George Rogers Clark, to fight the Shawnee (1777, 1780, and 1782); the establishment of “The Point” as a base for the military excursions for Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and Benjamin Logan throughout the 1770s and 1780s; and the gathering of 4,000 troops under the command of Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby (1792–1796 and 1812–1816) before he led the troops to victory at the Battle of the Thames (1813).

Significant figures associated with the area and honored by bronze statues along the riverfront are John James Audubon, wildlife artist and renowned painter of birds; Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts; James Bradley, the only ex-slave to participate in the famous Lane Seminary debates on slavery and abolitionism; Captain Mary B. Greene, a licensed boat master and river pi lot; Simon Kenton, explorer and soldier; Chief Little Turtle, the great Miami war chief who fought to protect the Indians’ hunting

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grounds; and John A. Roebling, the designer of the John A. Roebling Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Architects, historians, and preservationists have noted that an example of nearly every major architectural style from 1815 to 1920 can be found within the historic districts here.

The George Rogers Clark Park within the district was originally the site of the Thomas Kennedy House and Inn (1791). Kennedy and his family traveled by flatboat from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Licking River, where he purchased and settled the area that became Covington. Kennedy established a ferry operation across the Ohio River.

The oldest surviving structure, the GanoSouthgate House, is thought to be the first brick structure in Covington and possibly one of the best examples of a house of its era in the United States.

The deed shows that Thomas Kennedy sold it in 1814 to Thomas D. Carneal, Gen. John S. Gano, and Richard M Gano. Local legend holds that the tunnel leading from the house to the Ohio River served as a stop on the Underground Railroad; however, it was likely just a ser vice tunnel to load and unload provisions for the large household.

Other significant homes in the district include the Riverside House (ca. 1916), built by Charles McLaughlin, architect and artist at Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati; the Laidley House (ca.

1865), owned by Commodore Frederick A. Laidley, president of the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet Company and owner of the Cincinnati, Pomeroy & Charleston Packet Company, nicknamed the White Collar Line; and the Porter-Fallis House (ca. 1852), also known as the Mimosa House, built by merchant Thomas Porter and later owned by banker Daniel Fallis (see Porter-Fallis-Lovell House).

Of special note is the Daniel Carter Beard House (ca. 1820), childhood home of Daniel Carter Beard. This structure has the additional distinction of being designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest accolade given by the National Park Ser vice. It was also home to Mexican War soldier and poet George W. Cutter and his wife, actress Mrs. Alexander Drake.

There are two outstanding examples of the rowhouse style in the district—Ball’s Row (ca. 1840) on Garrard St., illustrating Greek detail and early rowhouse construction, and Shinkle Row (ca. 1880) on East Second St., exemplifying the English-style row house known as Renaissance Revival. Amos Shinkle, one of the financiers of the Roebling suspension bridge, built Shinkle Row. Many other architectural building styles are represented, including coach houses, frame houses, Federal, Gothic Revival, Greek Revival, Italianate, Regency-style townhouse, Victorian Gothic, and Chateauesque; it is this rich architectural heritage that brings professors, students, and tourists to the area in large numbers each year.

Though well respected and valued now, the area was in grave danger of being destroyed and replaced by urban renewal projects, especially during the late 1960s. Throughout the 1960s, the City of Covington’s financial situation steadily declined, as it

550 LIMABURG lost population in a mass exodus to the suburbs and consequently had few prospects for expansion of its property tax base. This increasingly grim situation forced Covington’s leaders to look at ways to improve the economic base of the city. To some, the riverside had the brightest potential for redevelopment, positioned at a prized location on the Ohio River and just across the river from the soon-to-bebuilt Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, which was completed in 1970.

Coinciding with Covington’s economic problems was the emergence of a new city council as a result of the 1967 election. The council included newly elected mayor Claude E. Hensley; newly elected council members Vera Angel, Edward Drahmann, and Ron Turner; and reelected councilman Raymond Wehrmann.

Throughout 1967 both sides established their roles in what proved to be “a contest of wills that raged for nearly two years,” as the Preservation News described it. The stage was set for a major fight over the fate of the area. Preservation groups began focusing their attention, and several of them banded together to fight the urban renewal projects being discussed. These groups included the Cincinnati Historical Society, the Kentucky Heritage Commission, the Northern Kentucky Heritage League, the Miami Purchase Association, and the Riverside Preservation Society. Key leaders from the citizens’ groups included Patrick Flannery, Steve McMurtry, Dave Surber, George Thompson, and Mary Wood.

In December 1967 the Covington commission voted to lease the riverfront; the Northern Kentucky Heritage League opposed the vote and asked that the leased property be restricted to the western end of Riverside Dr. Some criticized the Northern Kentucky Heritage League, claiming that it was willing to sacrifice one block for urban renewal and that such an action was not justified, even if it might save the rest of the neighborhood.

In October 1968 the contest of wills arrived at its most heated period. On October 31, a public hearing was held in order to discuss declaring a section of the area a city urban renewal project, referred to as a CUR-1. This initial phase focused on a specific section, of which Riverside Dr. and Greenup, Garrard, and Second Sts. marked the perimeter. One set of structures slated for demolition under this plan was Shinkle Row. In all, 20 structures on 11 different pieces of property were to be destroyed. In their place, the commission planned to build a high-rise apartment, hotel, and office complex that would rest on top of a five-story parking garage. Mayor Hensley referred to the plan as his “pet project.”

On November 1, 1968, the headlines of the Kentucky Post read, “People ‘Save’ Riverside: City Hall Bows Out on Renewal Project.” The proposal had failed. However, the residents of the riverside had little time to enjoy their victory. On November 21 another resolution for an urban renewal project for the district was added to the commission’s agenda. Patrick Flannery, a resident of Riverside Dr., an attorney, and one of the leaders of the community group fighting the resolutions, claimed that

this was the same resolution that had been proposed and voted down two weeks earlier. The November resolution also failed, by a vote of 3 to 2.

Ray Wehrmann brought up the issue yet again at the December 5 meeting. The resolution had a new look this time, as Wehrmann asked that only a one-block section of Riverside Dr., from Garrard St. to Greenup St., be declared an urban renewal project. Commissioners Vera Angel and Ron Turner protested, asking why this proposal had not been included on the agenda for the December 5 meeting. When the resolution was read, only three residents of the district were in attendance. One of the three left the meeting to rally support from the other citizens, especially since none of them had been aware that a new resolution would be discussed that evening. Residents then began pouring in, many in their house slippers, to protest and to question the legitimacy of the proposed resolution. The meeting ended without passing of the resolution; however, the question remained as to how the citizens might come to an agreement with the city, so that they would not be forced to attend every council meeting in an effort to protect their property.

Between the December 5 and December 12 meetings, another assault on the riverside came, this time from a new source—the CovingtonKenton-Boone Chamber of Commerce (see Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce). The chamber’s proposed plan, which it intended to present to the city, was to redevelop three blocks of the area in a multimillion-dollar venture financed with private funds.

Meanwhile, on December 12, the commission voted again, and now the vote swung in favor of the urban renewalists; Wehrmann’s favorable vote was the deciding vote. This was the fourth time within six weeks that the resolution had been considered.

Although many preservation groups were there to support the riverside residents, the Kentucky Post observed that the Northern Kentucky Heritage League was “conspicuous in its silence.” Refusing to concede defeat, the residents of the area created a petition for referendum on the resolution and also one for the recall of Mayor Hensley. They succeeded, gathering 3,300 signatures that they presented at the Covington commission’s December 19 meeting.

At the beginning of that meeting, Wehrmann requested that the resolution be read again (for the fift h time) so that he could ask for its repeal, citing a lack of commitment from a developer as his reason. In spite of this reprieve, Patrick Flannery requested that the 3,300 signatures for the petition be fi led and recognized in the hope of avoiding future resolutions. Mayor Hensley agreed to fi le them. Commissioner Turner added a rider to the repeal, stipulating that the issue of urban renewal would not be brought up again during their commission. The rider was accepted.

The citizens finally achieved victory, and this time with such support from the commission that they could feel confident for the time being. Instrumental in the fight was what Flannery referred to as “the Underground Press.” A hobby of Dr. George

Thompson, a University of Cincinnati professor who was a district resident, this was a printing press operated out of his townhouse in Shinkle Row. It allowed the citizens’ group to act quickly, using techniques popular at the time with civil rights groups and antiwar protesters. They could produce flyers, petitions, and signs in response to commission meetings, a helpful aid in gaining the support of fellow area residents.

Another battle ensued during the 1980s, in the form of a dispute with the Bernstein family, owners of Mike Fink Floating Restaurant, over the riverbank and the landing. A lawsuit resulted. It went to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which granted a favorable ruling for the residents of the district, further helping to preserve and protect the area that Patrick Flannery refers to as “the commons.”

In 1971 the National Register of Historic Places selected the Riverside Drive Historic District for inclusion. Its basic boundaries are from the alley between Greenup and Garrard Sts. east to the Licking River, and from Fourth St. north to Riverside Drive. In 1975 a second district, the Licking Riverside Historic District, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It generally includes the area south of Fourth St. to Eighth St., west to Scott St., and east to the Licking River. In 1987 the Ohio Riverside Historic District Boundary Extension was approved for sections of Third, Fourth, Court, and Greenup Sts. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, many of the homes in these districts were restored, and some now serve as bedand-breakfast commerical operations, while most are still residences.

Today the riverside area continues its distinguished tradition of architectural significance. In 2007 the Ascent at the John Roebling Bridge will be the newest addition to Covington’s architectural heritage; it is an 80-condominium tower designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. Libeskind, the architect of the new World Trade Center in New York City, was inspired by the cables of the Roebling suspension bridge and by the river itself.

For more than 250 years, the riverside area has been the scene of change and often of turbulent, dramatic events. In the midst of controversy, it has survived because citizens supported their right to exist. Oblivious to the world and events around it, this unique and historic place stands as a sentinel, a witness to its history and evolution.

Flannery, Patrick. Interview by Jennifer Reynolds, December 7, 2005, Covington, Ky. Lietzenmayer, Karl. “Riverside Assailed: The Turningpoint of a City,” NKH 11 (Fall–Winter 2001): 10–18.

“Local History,” vertical fi le, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. National Trust for Historic Preservation. Preservation News 9, no. 3 (March 1969): 1–2.

“People ‘Save’ Riverside: City Hall Bows Out on Renewal Project,” KP, November 1, 1968, 1.

Jennifer Adkins Reynolds

LIMABURG. The community of Limaburg was located in Boone Co., three miles west of Florence and two miles east of Burlington. It ceased to exist

LIMESTONE AND LIMESTONE CREEK

in the early 1970s with the widening of Burlington Pk. (Ky. Rt. 18). Limaburg was at the intersection of three county roads: Burlington Pk., North Bend Rd., and the Anderson Ferry Rd. The village had fi rst been known as Needmore and then as Florence Crossroads. In 1884 the residents of Florence Crossroads petitioned for a post office to be established in their community. After some debate, the residents had decided that Lima should be the new name of the village. Postal officials, however, thought that confusion might result from having a Lima, Ky., and a Lima, Ohio, and suggested an alternative name, Limaburg. This suggestion was accepted, and on February 17, 1885, a cancellation stamp with the appropriate designation was granted to the community of Limaburg.

By 1885 Limaburg was well established and growing. At its peak it was home to a mill, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a school, the town’s post office, and the Harvest Home fairgrounds. Although it had no church, Limaburg was the site of the Lutheran parsonage. The earliest business in Limaburg was the gristmill built by Jeremiah Beemon in 1849. In 1859 Israel and Robert Rouse joined him in business, and the operation became both a sawmill and a gristmill. More than 100 years later, the last owner of the mill, William Waters, was still using the original grindstones that had been imported to Limaburg from France. The heart of Limaburg was the general store. Operated by the brothers Silas and Jacob Rouse, the store boasted an inventory valued at $3,100 in 1880. The last owner of the store, John “Proc” Brothers, was famous for the quality country hams he sold. At his death in 1957, the store closed.

The Lutheran parsonage in Limaburg was the boyhood home of author Lloyd C. Douglas, among whose works were The Robe and Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal. The latter book was the basis for a television series of the same name during the 1950s. Limaburg was also home to William C. C. Rouse, who in March of 1879 patented a design for an automatic safety gate for railroads. Today, a few homes and the buildings that housed the school and the blacksmith shop are all that remain of this once thriving community.

CE, Sunday Pictorial Magazine, August 3, 1947.

Warner, Jennifer S. Boone County: From Mastodons to the Millennium. Burlington, Ky.: Boone Co. Bicentennial Book Committee, 1998.

Michael D. Rouse

LIME INDUSTRY. Lime was an important commercial product in Northern Kentucky. In addition to many uses in the building trades (it was used in mortar and plaster), lime was spread on agricultural fields, was an ingredient in many commercial products, and was used in various chemical processes. Lime could be produced in any area where suitable deposits of limestone were available. Massive stone kilns, both round and rectangular, were constructed to reduce limestone to powder. The burning of limestone altered its chemical properties by driving off the carbon dioxide.

Early kilns were usually built into the side of a hill

so that they could be loaded, or “charged,” from the top. Layers of broken limestone and wood were alternated in the kiln. A fire was then built in the bottom of the kiln and allowed to burn for several days. Once the kiln had cooled, the lime was removed from an arch at the base. Later kilns were designed with separate fireboxes so that the lime was not contaminated with wood ashes. Fresh lime from the kiln was unstable until it was slaked (mixed with water). When the lime came into contact with water, a chemical reaction occurred that generated heat. However, once the lime had been slaked, it was safe to transport it to markets.

The extent of lime manufacturing during Northern Kentucky’s early history is not currently known, since few records have survived. Kenton Co. appears to have been the primary area for production. The 1850 Census of Manufacturing in Kenton Co. listed seven individuals as lime makers. In the 1860 census, only John Kearney and Clements Resenbeck were listed; in 1870 A. D. Easton and Eli T. Rusk were listed; and by 1880 only Clem Resenbeck and Frank Wolking were listed.

In Covington and nearby communities, many individuals and fi rms sold lime. Among them were Edward Spinks of Covington, who engaged in the enterprise in 1876–1907; T. W. Spinks, 1897–1913; Richard Wolking’s Sons, 1878–1879; Wolking Brothers, 1880–1885; Bernard Wolking, 1886–1899; and Ben Wolking, 1892.

In Newport Charles Spinks was a seller of lime during 1878–1892 and was succeeded by Charles Spinks & Son, 1894–1905. Others were Louis D. Emert, 1880–1903; the Newport Lime Kilns, 304 Monmouth St., operated by H. and F. Boehne, 1886– 1887; Marion M. Allen, 1886–1907; and M. M. Allen & Bro., 1888–1911. The Spinks family became a major landholder in northern Campbell Co., owning properties such as Taylor’s Bottoms and the hill on which Newport Central Catholic High School was later built.

No lime producers were found for Bracken, Gallatin, Grant, Owen, or Robertson counties. W. H. Chaplin sold lime in Petersburg in Boone Co. during 1876; William L. Smith sold lime in Carrollton in Carroll Co. in 1876–1877; and Sphar & Cooper of Maysville in Mason Co. produced lime during 1887–1888.

The physical remains of the old limekilns have long since disappeared from the region, but the lime industry has been revived in Mason and Pendleton counties. The Black River Mining Company in Pendleton Co. was established along the Ohio River in the 1960s. The company was owned jointly by the Armco Steel Corporation, the Southwestern Portland Cement Company, and Marble Cliff Quarries in 1968. Three large rotary limekilns and a quicklime plant were located at the quarry. In 1979 the company added a hydrated-lime production facility as an adjunct to its plant. By 1986 the Black River Mining Company had been purchased by the Dravo Lime Company. Carmeuse North America, a Belgian company, acquired the Pendleton Co. plant in 1996. The Black River plant produces lime for the steel industry, the paper and pulp industries,

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chemical plants, and wastewater plants and for gas desulfurization and other uses.

The Dravo Lime Company constructed a limeprocessing plant on the Ohio River near Maysville in Mason Co. during 1973. This was one of the largest mines and lime-production facilities in North America. Three large rotary kilns burn the limestone into lime. The lime from the Mason Co. plant is used primarily for scrubbing sulfur dioxide in power plants. Barges on the Ohio River ship much of the lime. The Dravo and Black River plants are still actively producing lime.

Hockensmith, Charles D. “An Overview of Kentucky’s Historic Lime Industry.” In Current Archaeological Research in Kentucky, vol. 7, ed. Charles D. Hockensmith and Kenneth C. Carstens. Frankfort, Ky.: Kentucky Heritage Council, 2004.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. “Manufacturing Census Schedules for Kenton Co., Ky., 1850–1880.” Microfi lm copies on fi le at the Kentucky Historical Society Library, Frankfort, Ky.

Charles D. Hockensmith

LIMESTONE AND LIMESTONE CREEK. The community that became Maysville in Mason Co. and the creek that first attracted settlers there were both named for the local sedimentary rock, limestone, which continues to be quarried in the area. Both the rock and lime obtained from it were used for roads, and limestone was the raw material for early buildings and foundations of buildings, as well as for rock fences throughout the vicinity.

Lime was also used on fields. Today, lime is used to clean the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants in the region and beyond. Local farmers and gardeners have long believed that the lime in the soil was responsible for the high quality of the tobacco and other agricultural products that they grew.

During the 1770s, the creek that emptied into the Ohio River at Maysville attracted numerous explorers. The inlet created by the creek served as a natural landing and also tied into a trace used by American Indians and animals for untold numbers of years. In 1773 Capt. John Hedges named this spot Limestone, a name that was used by some residents and even in court documents, into the 1820s. In 1777 Simon Kenton hid gunpowder at Limestone to keep it safe from Indians until he could transport it to Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania.

Several attempts were made to form a permanent settlement at Limestone; Simon Kenton and others built a fort there in April 1780, but it was abandoned because of British and Indian incursions into the region during the final years of the Revolutionary War. In 1784 George Lewis and Edward and John Waller built a block house on Limestone Creek, and settlement of the area was steady thereafter. Limestone landing became an important stop for settlers as they moved south along the Buffalo Trace (see Buffalo Traces), north into what became Ohio, or west down the Ohio River. Most of the early inhabitants of Limestone were from Virginia. They built largely brick homes, along with the needed taverns and businesses.

Among the many travelers who stopped in Limestone was, in 1785, U.S. congressman and future

552 LINCOLN GRANT SCHOOL president James Monroe. Both Jacob Boone and Daniel Boone were Limestone tavern owners.

Daniel Boone became prosperous in Limestone during the late 1780s and held several slaves. The first gristmill in Kentucky was built at Limestone in 1787 (see Gristmills). Also that year, the Virginia legislature established a tobacco-inspection warehouse in the town (see Maysville Tobacco Warehouses). Limestone is prominently featured on maps from the 18th century, such as the map of General Collot, a French explorer, printed in 1796.

Meriwether Lewis passed through Limestone in the early fall of 1803 and recruited John Colter to be part of the famous expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory (see Lewis and Clark in Northern Kentucky). The Bank of Limestone was established in 1818. However, by then the name Limestone was going out of common usage; the town of Maysville was established on 100 acres in December 1787 by the Virginia legislature. It was so named because that land was owned by John May along with Simon Kenton. Daniel and Jacob Boone, Thomas Brooks, Arthur Fox, Henry Lee, and George Mefford were the first trustees.

Limestone Creek marked the area of original settlement, but it later became a deterrent because it stood in the way of development. The creek has been rechanneled several times and now empties into the Ohio River a short distance east of the original inlet. Limestone St. in Maysville now occupies the original site of the creek bed. Bridges over Limestone Creek eventually tied the community together, and the eastern sections of the community were annexed to Maysville. In 1940 the Kehoe Viaduct (see James N. Kehoe) brought the roadway away from the potential flooding of the creek and separated the railway from the roadway.

This new channeling and earlier changes created several pools of water that still stand in the city.

Today, the mouth of Limestone Creek empties through an opening in the Ohio River floodwall at Maysville, which was completed in the 1950s. During high water, floodgates seal Limestone Creek and pumps go into operation to empty Limestone Creek into the swollen Ohio River.

The name Limestone has experienced a renaissance of usage in the past few decades. Many businesses and other entities have incorporated Limestone into their name. Limestone Landing was reborn in 1992, with an opening in the floodwall, a park, a dock, and a fishing pier; floodwall murals followed that trace the early history of Limestone and Maysville. Just as the landing attracted settlers in the 1790s, the same spot today attracts visitors and is a favorite for festivals and community activities.

American schools opened in Covington. Until 1932 these schools were commonly known by either their street location or their church affi liation.

In that year, after construction of the LincolnGrant School building at 844 Greenup St., the elementary school was named Lincoln-Grant School, and the high school, located in the same building, was named William Grant High School. The building that housed both elementary and high school grades was commonly called Lincoln-Grant School.

The names of the schools honored William L. Grant, a white businessman and former member of the Covington City Council. When Grant decided to seek the Democratic nomination for Covington’s seat in the Kentucky legislature, African American education received a boost. Recognizing the importance of the African American vote and aware of the poor conditions in black schools, he met with a few of the most prominent leaders of the African American community: Isaac Black, a Mr. Dixon, George Durgin, and Rev. Jacob Price.

Grant made a proposition: If African American voters supported him and if he was elected, he would have the city charter of Covington amended to include a new provision to establish an African American public school. Grant received the nomination, and, as promised, the city’s revised charter created an African American school that opened one year later, in 1876.

In March 1876, the Kentucky legislature specifically mandated that the Covington Board of Education, “out of funds in their hand, derived by taxation under and by virtue of the City Ordinances of said City, be, and are hereby authorized and empowered to establish and maintain schools for the colored children of the city in such numbers and localities as in their judgement will furnish sufficient educational facilities for the colored children of the city.” It stipulated,

Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. Maysville, Kentucky: From Past to Present in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Mason Co. Museum, 1983.

Clift, G. Glenn. History of Maysville and Mason County. Lexington, Ky.: Transylvania, 1936.

John Klee

LINCOLN-GRANT SCHOOL. Lincoln-Grant was the last in a succession of public African

Lincoln-Grant School faculty, 1929.

“Said schools shall be under the same control, rules and regulations as govern other schools of the city.”

In response, the Covington Board of Education hired John S. McLeod, former principal at a private school for African Americans, as the first African American principal employed by the Covington board. In September 1876, the school housed in the Methodist church on Madison became known as the Madison Ave. School, with McLeod as principal and Arzelia Ross as the first assistant. By this time, the First Baptist Church had moved from Th ird St. to Robbins St., and this school became known as the Robbins St. School, with Constantia H. Taylor as teacher. In 1879 McLeod resigned and became a U.S. government gauger.

The Robbins St. School closed in 1880 and was replaced by one on land donated by William L. Grant. First called the Seventh St. School, it opened with 200 pupils, a new principal, Darius L. V. Moffett, and two teachers, Hattie Todd and Clara Grandstaff. In 1883, Samuel R. Singer became the school’s new principal and Darius Moffett was one of its teachers. Singer was still principal in 1888 when a new 12-year school opened. It included a high school, which the Board of Education named William Grant High School after the businessman who donated the land.

On June 21, 1889, William Grant High School held its first graduation exercise. The two graduates were Annie E. Price, daughter of prominent minister Jacob Price, and Mary E. Allen. In 1894, commencement was held at the Odd Fellows’ Hall (see Independent Order of Odd Fellows) in Covington. This graduation attracted a large and enthusiastic audience. Board of Education president James A. Averdick’s address was well received, and board superintendent W. C. Warfield spoke also and presented diplomas.

LINCOLN GRANT SCHOOL

The 1896 superintendent’s annual report to the Board of Education recommended prompt action on the renting of schoolrooms as quickly as possible in the southeastern part of the city. This was done and relieved the crowded conditions at the Seventh St. School. A result was expansion of the elementary school into what was called the Sixth St. Annex. On August 23, 1900, Singer was asked to resign as the principal of William Grant High School and Seventh St. Elementary School, and in September, the board hired Frank L. Williams, a native of Louisville, to replace Singer. Williams, who was actively involved in the community, was one of the founding members of the Progressive Building and Loan Association. On June 19, 1908, the high school’s 19th annual commencement took place at the public library auditorium. In July, Williams resigned his position at the Seventh St. School and accepted a similar position in St. Louis, Mo. The next principal was William H. Fouse (see Elizabeth B. Cook “Lizzie” Fouse), a native of Lexington. In May 1909, the name of the elementary school was changed from Seventh St. School to Lincoln School. A month later, Robert P. Johnson’s one-teacher school in Latonia was merged into the Lincoln School. Johnson became a teacher at Lincoln School and his students were picked up and transported there by car. William Fouse resigned as principal in 1913 and was replaced by Robert L. Yancey. In October 1914, a night school, serving African American adults who had missed their opportunity for an education earlier, opened at Lincoln-Grant School. Some Campbell Co. students began attending Lincoln-Grant School after the African American school in Southgate in Campbell Co. closed in 1921. The elementary students there were sent to an African American grade school in Newport, but the high school students were sent to Lincoln-Grant in Covington. The Newport school continued to pay $50 tuition annually per student until the 1955–1956 academic year, when African American students from Campbell Co. finally began attending Newport High School.

In 1925, the Covington Board of Education decided to build a new Lincoln-Grant School. LincolnGrant’s principal, Robert Yancey, attended a special board meeting to complain that only $100,000 would be spent on his new school, while $425,000 was earmarked for a white school. The board remained unchanged, and Yancey eventually resigned in 1926. He was replaced by a teacher, Henry R. Merry, who continued as principal until retiring in 1955.

In May 1929, during site selection for the new African American school, the Julius Rosenwald Foundation of Chicago, financer for several African American schools in rural Kentucky, became involved. The preferred building site, on Greenup St. between Ninth and Saratoga Sts., had seemed too expensive. However, the foundation said it would help finance the purchase and also buy machine-shop and wood-shop equipment for the school. Several hundred citizens attended a special board meeting called to discuss site selection for the new school. Businessman Charles E. Jones

presented a resolution from the Utopia Club showing that that organization favored the Ninth and Greenup location; the same view was expressed by the Covington Ministers Alliance and the William Grant Alumni Association, represented by Horace Sudduth. The board chose the site unanimously, and the new Lincoln-Grant School, financed in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation and costing $250,000, was dedicated on March 31, 1932. At the dedication, principal Henry R. Merry was the speaker of record; former principal Robert L. Yancey extended his greetings as well.

In 1927 Paul Redden came to William Grant High School to teach physical education and to coach football and basketball. His football teams were undefeated and won the African American Kentucky State Football Championship in 1929 and 1932, but football was dropped that year because the school had no football field. Redden continued to coach basketball until he left to become head football coach at Knoxville (Tenn.) College in 1952. He had started a winning tradition in athletics at Lincoln-Grant that was extended into the mid-1960s by coach James Brock.

Teachers at Lincoln-Grant stressed having a well-rounded education and fostered a variety of extracurricular activities. Dr. Clarence Cameron White, the world-renowned African American opera composer and director, visited Lincoln-Grant in November 1938. He conducted several institutes on music. To keep the community involved, a training session was held in the evenings at Ninth St. Baptist Church and at the First Baptist Church. The training period resulted in a memorable public concert featuring students and adults performing African American spirituals.

Throughout the history of Lincoln-Grant School, the Parent-Teachers Association encouraged academic excellence and parental involvement.

So too did Lincoln-Grant faculty, whose qualifications were considered grade “A” within the state.

Each teacher had at least a bachelor’s degree, and most held a master’s degree or were continuing their education through graduate study at leading universities. After 1932, the school faculty continued to improve, as did the graduation rates and the numbers of graduates attending college. In the 1950s five high school faculty members held master’s degrees or double master’s degrees, and one had a PhD. The school always received high marks from the Southern Association of Schools.

The Covington Board of Education took note of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v.

Board of Education of Topeka at their July 1955 meeting. In May 1956, the local branch of the NAACP sent a letter to superintendent Glenn O. Swing concerning desegregation of the schools. In 1957 one African American student, Jessie Moore, attended Holmes High School. Covington Independent Schools were divided into districts, with the exception of Lincoln-Grant School, and desegregation took place within the districts and on a district-by-district basis. In 1959 African American students living in Peaselburg (a section of Covington) began attending Seventh District School; other African Americans began attending their neighbor-

553

hood schools in 1961. Some students were moved from Lincoln-Grant to John G. Carlisle School, if they lived in the Russell St. area. The Board of Education never mandated that African American high school students attend Holmes High School until William Grant High School was closed in 1965.

Lincoln-Grant School was integrated after it was renamed the Twelfth District School in 1967. In the 1970s, the integration of Covington Independent Schools was finally complete, with the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s encouragement, through redistricting and the busing of students.

The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision impacted the area of athletics also. William Grant High School, which fielded only a basketball team, was admitted to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) in December 1956. For the remainder of that school year, the school was permitted to remain in the Kentucky Negro Basketball Conference, which became defunct when other African American teams were admitted to the KHSAA. In March 1957, William Grant High School was eligible for the KHSAA district tournament. In that tournament, their first, the school’s team won the 34th District championship and was runner-up to the Ninth Region winner Dixie Heights High School. In the eight years from 1957 to 1965, William Grant High School won four regional championships and six district championships; it was runner-up in the district once and in the region twice. The basketball team has the best winning percentage within the region.

After Henry R. Merry retired in 1955, having served 30 years as principal, teacher Charles L. Lett became principal. Lett resigned in 1964 and was replaced by Matthew L. Mastin. It was during Mastin’s tenure that Lincoln-Grant School was integrated, placed in the Covington school district system, and renamed Twelfth District School. Mastin left the school in 1973, replaced by James K. Burns.

The school closed in 1976 and was later purchased by the Northern Kentucky Community Center.

The Lincoln-Grant building became the William H. Martin III Northern Kentucky Community Center. Facing fiscal problems, the community center was closed; it is currently vacant.

“Colored Graduates,” KP, June 22, 1894, 4.

“Colored Night School Opens,” KP, October 6, 1914, 1.

Crosby, Leconia Franklin. “A Study of Pupil Marks, William Grant High School, Covington, Kentucky, 1918–1929,” Master’s thesis, Univ. of Cincinnati, 1929, 4–7.

“Famed Negro Composer Heads Music Institute,” KP, November 30, 1938, 2.

Hargraves, William F. “Comparative Study of the Educational Effectiveness of the White and Negro Schools of Covington, Kentucky,” Master’s thesis, Miami Univ., 1935, 1–20.

Harris, Theodore H. H. “Creating Windows of Opportunity: Isaac E. Black and the African American Experience in Kentucky, 1848–1914,” RKHS 98, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 155–77.

———. “Reader Traces Effort to Build First School for Blacks,” KP, July 29, 1991, 4K. Jackson, Jewell Rebecca Smith. “A Proposed Course of Study in Speech in William Grant High School,

554 LINDEN GROVE CEMETERY Covington, Kentucky,” Master’s thesis, Univ. of Cincinnati, 1945, 1–25.

Nordheim, Betty Lee. Echoes of the Past—A History of the Covington Public School System. Covington, Ky.: Covington Independent Public Schools, 2002.

“To Dedicate New School,” KP, March 31, 1932, 3.

Theodore H. H. Harris

LINDEN GROVE CEMETERY. Dedicated in 1843 and today consisting of 21 acres, Linden Grove Cemetery in Covington is an invaluable public asset as well as the scenic burial site of pioneers; political, civic, and business leaders; war veterans; and hundreds of other citizens. It began when the board of the Western Baptist Theological Institute of Cincinnati, which had purchased some 350 acres south of Covington, established a new public cemetery for the growing city of Covington on part of that acreage.

The earliest known reference to a burying ground in Covington is dated January 11, 1823. It noted existing burials west of the original town at Sixth and Craig Sts. on property purchased by local pioneer Thomas Kennedy. Development soon crowded around this cemetery, making it obsolete.

In 1872 city planners decided to move the remains buried at this cemetery to Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Linden Grove Cemetery, or other places chosen by the families of the deceased. Before long, however, residential development crowded Linden Grove Cemetery as well.

In 1998 George C. Dreyer published two volumes—a difficult compilation—that reviewed the cemetery’s mishandled records and cata loged the burials at Linden Grove Cemetery. According to Dreyer, the cemetery’s original name was Cincinnati-Covington Cemetery before it was changed to Linden Grove Cemetery. At least 34 tombstones in the cemetery date from before 1835.

On May 1, 1858, the Covington Journal listed the numbers of interments at Linden Grove Cemetery from 1845 through March 31, 1858. The total was 2,086, and it included 880 children younger than age six, 112 of whom had died of cholera in the four years beginning in 1849. Nineteen children had died of smallpox in 1849–1850. But Dreyer found only 91 of the numbers mentioned in this article listed in the cemetery’s records. Nearly 2,000 records were missing.

Linden Grove Cemetery once extended from about Holman St. to Willow Run Creek, but overseers of the cemetery sold land on its western end for city street development. In 1849 some original trustees of the Western Baptist Theological Institute, Cave Johnson, Samuel Lynd, John Stevens, and Henry Wingate, became overseers of Linden Grove Cemetery. Some of the cemetery’s disrupted burial records date back to the dividing of seminary assets and sales of assets to the Baptist Educational Society at Georgetown, Ky., in 1848 and to Northern Baptists at the Fairmont Theological Seminary of Ohio in 1855.

Even before the Civil War, lack of upkeep and vandalism became concerns at the Covington cemetery. The Linden Grove Cemetery board in

1860 included prominent leaders: P. S. Bush, William Ernst, John W. Finnell, W. H. Gedge, and Amos Shinkle. Some of them purchased unsold lots to help pay for upkeep at the cemetery. In 1862 the board was requiring admission “tickets” to the cemetery as an attempt to prevent rowdy behavior on Sundays by young men. Over the years, people desecrated grave makers with paint, left trash, and broke into the mausoleums. In 1905 the city council of Covington voted to ban further burials, but this action was later nullified. As a result of newspaper publicity about neglect, citizens in 1928 formed the Linden Grove Memorial Association, which oversaw the paving of a central driveway, grass and plant trimming, the planting of new bushes and trees, and the resetting of grave markers. But desecrations kept occurring. In April 1945 vandals upset almost 30 markers, and in October 1980 around 80 markers. From time to time, individuals and groups volunteered to clean up the cemetery, but such efforts were never long-lasting.

In 1870 about 200 people commemorated a section of Confederate soldier grave sites in Linden Grove Cemetery. Decorating both Union and Confederate soldiers’ graves became an annual Memorial Day event that at least once drew a crowd of more than 1,000 and included music and speeches.

In 1912 the federal government provided $200,000 for the marking of Confederate prisoner-of-war graves nationwide, including 10 graves at Linden Grove Cemetery. In the 1930s, Spanish-American War veterans began commemorating Civil War soldiers, while also setting a plaque and recognizing deceased veterans of the Spanish-American War. In 1953 an American Legion post brought former vice president Alben W. Barkley to the cemetery for a Memorial Day address. The post also sponsored a commemorative marker for Civil War veterans. Updated plats of the cemetery show a section of Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Civil War burials. Section 25 was marked for African American burials.

People well known in local history are interred in Linden Grove. The body of Thomas Kennedy (1795–1869), owner of the farm where the original town of Covington developed, was moved from the Craig St. burying grounds to Linden Grove.

B. F. Howard, founder of the African American Elks, lies at Linden Grove Cemetery. So do U.S. congressman and judge William E. Arthur, industrialist Alexander Greer, and U.S. congressman William Wright Southgate. In 1910 public offices closed and children were excused from school for the interment, attended by hundreds, of Covingtonborn statesman John G. Carlisle and his wife Mary Jane at Linden Grove Cemetery. Besides holding local and state offices, he had been a U.S. Speaker of the House, a U.S senator, and the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

In recent years, the Kenton Co. Fiscal Court and the City of Covington began implementing a list of capital improvements at the cemetery: new fencing, cleanup, marker work, improved drainage, landscaping, restoration of the caretaker’s house, and relocation of the entrance from Holman St. to the more accessible 13th St. In addition, the city placed

signage along roadways announcing the “Historic Linden Grove Cemetery.”

Dreyer, George C. Linden Grove Cemetery. 2 vols.

Covington, Ky.: Kenton Co. Historical Society, 1998.

Reis, Jim. “Monument to Our Past, Covington Cemetery off the Beaten Path but Rich with History,” KP, May 31, 1999, 4K.

John Boh

LINSTAEDT, HERSCHEL J. (b. 1909, Newport, Ky.; d. December 28, 1966, Cincinnati, Ohio).

Herschel J. Linstaedt, a teacher of piano and organ, was the son of Dr. William J. and Freda Aschenback Linstaedt. His father was an optometrist.

Herschel grew up in Fort Thomas, graduated from Highlands High School (1927), and studied at the Cincinnati College of Music (now the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music), where his mentors were Leon Conus and the world-renowned Albino Gorno. He went to New York City to study with Conrad van Bos, the famed voice coach and accompanist. Linstaedt became a popular teacher of piano and organ throughout Greater Cincinnati and was often invited to perform with celebrated musical visitors to the area. He taught at his home on W. Southgate Ave. in Fort Thomas, at a private studio on W. Fourth St. in Cincinnati, and at his alma mater, the College of Music.

For many years he was the organist at Christ Church in Fort Thomas. At age 57 in 1966, he collapsed during lunch at a College Hill restaurant, apparently from a heart attack, and died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. Linstaedt was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate. He was a veteran of World War II. “Herschel Linstaedt, 57, Collapses in Restaurant,” CE, December 29, 1966, 18.

“Music Teacher, Pianist Dies,” CP, December 29, 1966, 14.

Ohio Death Certificate No. 93888, for the year 1966.

LIONEL FLYING FIELD. The Lionel Flying Field in Edgewood, with its grass runway, was thought to be the future of aviation in Northern Kentucky when it formally opened on Sunday, May 4, 1930, with 1,500 spectators in attendance.

The new airfield sat on 11 acres situated on the west side of Dudley Pike, between the present site of President’s Park and Turkeyfoot Rd., across the road from the Summit Hills Golf and Country Club.

The field’s name honored Lionel E. Stephenson, who, with his partners, leased the property for $12,000 per year. The land was owned by J. Stanley Durrell and F. W. Belberbe. Stephenson (1897–1968), a native of Covington, built a nationally recognized career around aviation and aeronautics. Previously, he had worked for the Triangle Parachute Company in Cincinnati as a parachute tester. He frequently competed around the Midwest as a barnstorming parachute jumper. Through the Lionel Flying Service, which Stephenson had established and of which he was president, he trained student pilots and offered charter flights and parachute jumps at the field’s airport.

LIPPERT, LEON

The Lionel Flying Field lasted barely one year.

In its short history, it provided entertainment for community celebrations, through stunt shows and aerial parades. More importantly, the airfield was an attraction that lured new residents to Edgewood. An advertising campaign encouraged people to visit the new Edgewood subdivision development when they attended events at the Lionel Flying Field.

During the 1940s, Stephenson worked for the federal government at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio. Later Stephenson, who was also an artist, owned and operated several printing companies in Covington for 30 years. He died in 1968. His airfield at one time, along with the Crescent Air Park in Crescent Springs and Boyer Field in Ross, marked the beginnings of general aviation in Northern Kentucky before the opening of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Boone Co. “Contract of Leasehold,” Kenton Co. Court house Records, Covington, Ky. “Crowd Thrilled: Stunt Fliers Do Their Stuff as New Field Opens,” KP, May 5, 1930, 2.

“Lionel Stephenson, Artist-Aviator,” KE, February 10, 1968, 20.

“Seeks Honors at Air Show,” KP, August 30, 1931, 1.

Steven D. Jaeger

LIONS CLUBS. As members of Lions Clubs International, Northern Kentucky’s Lions chapters share in the mission “to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding.” In 1917 Melvin Jones, a Chicago businessman, convened a group of business clubs interested in supporting unselfish causes. Before this time, many such clubs were primarily interested in the betterment of their own members. The Lions were subsequently organized, and chapters opened quickly nationwide and throughout the world. In 1925 Helen Keller addressed the international convention of the Lions in Cedar Point, Ohio, asking them to adopt work on behalf of the blind and visually impaired. They accepted the challenge and have become known for their philanthropy in this area, as well as their programs for the disabled, the deaf and hearing-impaired, youth, and the environment. They also sponsor diabetes education and provide international disaster relief. Lions membership numbers 1.3 million men and women in 45,000 clubs, which are located in 202 nations.

The oldest Lions Club in Northern Kentucky is the Maysville one, established in 1929. By the 1940s additional chapters had been organized in Brooksville, Butler, Corinth, Covington, Dayton, Erlanger, Fort Thomas, Newport, Owenton, and Warsaw.

From the earliest days, Lions Clubs’ benevolence in behalf of eyesight has ranged from sponsoring visual-screening programs for schoolchildren, to buying glasses and paying for cataract surgery for persons unable to do so, to purchasing and training seeing-eye dogs. The Lions Clubs also funded sightsaving classes for the visually impaired at Covington’s 10th District School, a program started in

February 1955. Fundraising activities have been varied. The Northern Kentucky clubs sponsored an annual Mile-of-Dimes campaign, often with the slogan “Give That Others Might See.” This campaign featured “tag days” in downtown areas, where volunteers manning booths accepted donations and gave tags in return. In schools, the clubs distributed cardboard holders with slots for the placement of dimes so that young children could become involved. The Covington Lions Club, and later Ludlow’s chapter, sponsored an annual Turtle Derby, and the Erlanger Lions Club began an annual carnival in 1946. In 1954 the Erlanger Lions purchased property on Commonwealth Ave. in Erlanger as the site for their carnival, and they held it there through 1961. In 1958 members of the Erlanger club were instrumental in establishing the Triple “E” Swim Club, the first community swim club in Northern Kentucky. Erlanger Lions Park, on 27 acres on Sunset Ave. in Florence, is the current home of the Lions Club.

Northern Kentucky chapters of Lions Clubs International now operate in the following places, established in the years indicated: Alexandria (1965), Bellevue (1957), Brooksville (1940), Butler (1945), Carrollton (1987), Corinth (1948), Covington– Kenton Co. (1940), Erlanger (1945), Falmouth (1966), Florence (1952), Fort Thomas (1940), Hebron (1956), Independence (1981), Lewisburg–Mill Creek (1966), Mayslick (1959), Maysville (1929), Orangeburg (1988), Owenton (1945), Sardis (1986), Taylor Mill (1961), Warsaw (1946), and Washington (1960).

Clubs existed earlier in Bellevue, Dayton, Fort Mitchell, Ludlow, and Newport.

“Covington Lions Club to Receive Its Charter,” KP, November 15, 1940, 1.

Lions Clubs International. www.lionsclubs.org/EN/ index.shtml (accessed September 5, 2008).

“Lions Clubs of Northern Kentucky Launch Annual Mile-of-Dimes Campaign,” KP, December 5, 1945, 1.

Local history vertical fi les, Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. Reis, Jim. “Festive Challenges: Lions Overcome Ups and Downs to Continue Their Money-Making Carnival,” KP, July 16, 1984, 8K. “Sight-Saving Work Outlined for Lions,” KP, March 5, 1955, 1.

Paul A. Tenkotte

LIPPERT, LEON (b. March 15, 1863, Sailauf, Germany; d. June 27, 1947, Newport, Ky.). Born Leonard Lippert, this portrait painter was the youngest son of Johann and Anna Maria Bergmann Leonard Lippert. He left his life as a poor shepherd boy in Germany and sailed for the United States in 1880 to pursue a career in fine art. He settled in the Cincinnati area in 1885 and later, for a short time, resided with relatives at John’s Hill (modern Wilder) in Campbell Co. He was living in Sedamsville, Ohio, when he met his future wife, Wilhelmina Miller. At that time Lippert worked as a cooper by day and studied evenings at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

He moved to Newport, married in 1890, and resided in Newport the rest of his life.

Possessing a natural talent for drawing faces, Leon Lippert opened his first Cincinnati portrait

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studio in 1889 and maintained a downtown studio at various addresses for the next 58 years, painting mostly in oils or pastels. His brush styles ranged from academic realism to strong American impressionism. He deviated briefly from his career in 1897–1900, when he partnered with entrepreneur Charles G. Cox to form the Reliable Art Company in Cincinnati at 621 Main St. Success in producing crayon portraits, sold from six wagons and produced with the aid of a staff of 40, brought prosperity to the Lipperts and their children, Elsie, Raymond, and Ralph. Lippert attended the Life Classes of Frank Duveneck faithfully for nearly 20 years and was active in the Cincinnati Art Club as a director (1905), vice president (1922), and ultimately an honorary life member (1938). Periodically, he supplemented his income through commercial art for use in advertising, most of which depicted females attired in 1920s-era finery or American Indian costumes. Numerous pupils apprenticed in his art studio.

Lippert’s first important painting commission (1904–1908), for the Loyal Legion, was to create portraits of Union Army officers who had Ohio connections. The most famous of these is a portrait of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, now hanging with others in the series at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. Lippert painted portraits of many notable persons on both sides of the Ohio River and from 1915 to 1930 painted members of the prominent Wagner and Thedieck families in Sidney, Ohio. Independently, he painted from photographic sources U.S. presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and all the Ohio-born presidents. Commissions to portray religious subjects and clerics for the Diocese of Covington (see Roman Catholics) were undertaken during the 1930s, culminating in an assignment to paint the entire line of Covington bishops, a task Lippert completed during the last four years of his life. In his final decade of work as a painter, he produced mostly landscapes and flower paintings in addition to some portraits and religious works.

Lippert regularly received mural commissions from churches and commercial establishments.

Extant examples of such works in Northern Kentucky include two 9-by-5-foot canvases (1915) that were removed from the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Newport on the closing of that church.

The murals were restored and reinstalled at Holy Spirit Parish in St. Stephen Church on Washington St. in Newport. In addition, there are three large sanctuary murals at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Camp Springs, Ky. (1917), and 36 Gospel narrative scenes in Sacred Heart Catholic Church (now Divine Mercy Parish), Bellevue (1924). The St. Stephen Church was Lippert’s own parish, where he was married and where his funeral was conducted.

There in the church he attended hang colorful Stations of the Cross that he painted on copper for the dedication of the parish’s new church in 1938. Earlier Stations of the Cross at Corpus Christi Church and at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, John’s Hill, Ky., credited to Lippert, have been lost, as have been murals in the Cincinnati churches

556 LITERATURE Blessed Sacrament and St. Augustine. Murals for the dome of Longview Hospital in the Bond Hill area of Cincinnati and a wall mural titled Protection in the lobby of the Central Savings Bank and Trust Co. at Eighth and Monmouth Sts. in Newport were lost in reconstruction. English hunting scenes on the walls of downtown Cincinnati’s Wiggins Tavern were mostly saved, however, as was a mural Washington’s Reception from the Cricket Tavern, moved by the Elsaesser family to the reception hall called The Farm in their Anderson Ferry Rd. restaurant.

Two Lippert canvases are in the Cincinnati Art Museum: Young Apprentice (a portrait of John Kohl), signed and dated 1907, and Fountain Square 1929. His notable posthumous portrait of Frank Duveneck is featured with other pieces in the Cathedral Museum in Covington. Lippert died at his Newport home, 658 Nelson Pl., in 1947 and was buried at St. Stephen Cemetery, Fort Thomas.

In 2007 a Lippert painting of Christ, which originally adorned Corpus Christi Church in Newport and was thought to have been destroyed, was found at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Independence. It was restored and now hangs in that church’s sanctuary.

Ader, Mary. “Tending Flower Garden and Long Walks Hobbies of Prominent Portrait Painter,” CTS, September 5, 1932, 3.

Alexander, Mary L. “The Week in Art Circles,” CE, April 14, 1935, sec. 3, p. 6.

Lippert, Thomas J. Leon Lippert: Rediscovering the Art and the Man. Cincinnati: ArtLeaf, 2001.

“A Page of Portraits by the Cincinnati Artist, Leon Lippert,” CC, January 15, 1922, Gravure sec., 2.

Prichard, Vicki. “A Lippert Original: Valuable Painting Restored, Returned to Church Sanctuary.” KP, October 16, 2007, 1A.

Thomas J. Lippert

LITERATURE. Northern Kentucky has had an active and prolific literary tradition, beginning in the early 19th century. Numerous newspaper editors and journalists; other nonfiction writers; writers associated with the radio, television and motionpicture industries; poets; and novelists have lived and worked in the region. In addition, several nationally known writers have passed through the area at some time in their lives or have had some connection with the area; examples are Mark Twain, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Walter Tevis, and Ed McClanahan (Tevis and McClanahan both taught at Northern Kentucky University).

Harriet Beecher Stowe received inspiration for her bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin by visiting the Maysville-area home of Marshall Key in Mason Co. (see Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum). Toni Morrison utilized the Northern Kentucky setting and the true story of Margaret Garner for her novel Beloved. Northern Kentucky, unlike Appalachian Eastern Kentucky, the Central Bluegrass, or the Western Pennyrile, has not produced a distinctively regional literature but a literature eclectic in subject matter, style, and genre. No single subject, like coal mining, farming or horse racing, has dominated the literature of the

region. The one distinctive subject of fiction writers of the region has been life along and on the Ohio River.

Journalists Some of the influential and noteworthy editors, reporters, and writers who have lived and worked in the Northern Kentucky region have achieved national reputations. Among the most prominent was Clay Wade Bailey, affi liated with the Kentucky Post, who has been called the “dean of Kentucky journalists.” Bailey covered Kentucky state government and was well known to everyone in the state capitol. One of the bridges across the Ohio River from Covington to Cincinnati was named for him. Judy Clabes, former editor of the Kentucky Post and now CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation, is a Northern Kentucky citizen with a long list of civic involvements, including being a founding member of Forward Quest and a member of the Governor’s Task Force on the Economic Status of Women. Other well-known journalists affi liated with the Kentucky Post have been Gilbert W. Kingsbury, who also reported for radio station WLW and was a news correspondent in Washington, D.C., and Craig M. Brown, a columnist for the paper. Nick Clooney, a Maysville native and a current resident of Augusta, has been one of the most famous recent columnists for the Cincinnati Post. Clooney, of course, is also well known in radio and television. Northern Kentucky resident Brady F. Black, a Pulitzer Prize juror, was an editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Robert S. Allen, a journalism partner of Drew Pearson, achieved a national reputation as a political investigative journalist. Allen and Pearson wrote exposés of the Washington scene in the New Deal–era column Washington Merry-Go-Round. With Pearson, Allen also coauthored two works about the U.S. Supreme Court, Nine Old Men (1936) and Old Men at the Crossroads (1937).

Several creative writers and nonfiction writers were also associated with the field of journalism.

Perhaps best known as a novelist, Ben Lucien Burman was also an editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star. George Elliston, well known for her poetry and encouragement of poetry writing, began her career as a writer for the Kentucky TimesStar newspaper, later becoming its society editor.

She was also a reporter for the Cincinnati TimesStar.

Maysville has had a remarkable number of men and women in the journalism and editing field, beginning with Judge Lewis Collins, who became the editor and publisher of the Maysville Eagle in 1820, a position he held for more than 20 years.

Collins was also the author of the highly acclaimed Historical Sketches of Kentucky (1847). His son Richard Collins followed after his father as editor of the Maysville Eagle and revised and republished his father’s famous history. Henry T. Stanton, a veteran of the Civil War, edited the Maysville Bulletin (Stanton was also a poet). Martha Purdon Comer, a lifelong resident of Maysville, began her career with the Daily Independent, which was edited by her brother J. Clifford Purdon. When the

Daily Independent merged with the Ledger in 1968, Comer became the editor of the Maysville Ledger Independent.

Other famous journalists with Northern Kentucky connections have been Mary Cabell Richardson, a reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial Times, and another poet, Forceythe Willson, who was an editorial writer for the Louisville Journal.

Writers of Nonfiction Books Other nonfiction writers have also contributed to the literary scene in Northern Kentucky. Among those who have achieved prominence is Judge Lewis Collins, mentioned above in connection with the newspaper industry. Collins stands out as an eminent man of letters. In 1847 he published Historical Sketches of Kentucky, which was based on the materials of his brother-in-law Henry Perviance Peers, who died before he could finalize his work. Historical Sketches was revised and republished in 1874 by Collins’s son Richard. Judge Collins’s history was considered the most complete history of the state at the time of its publication and is invaluable to modern historians (it is referenced in the Encyclopedia Britannica online as a major source of Kentucky history).

Covington’s Daniel Carter Beard, after whom another one of the bridges spanning the Ohio River between Kentucky and Ohio is named, is best known as the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. His reference guide for that organization (and its forerunner the Sons of Daniel Boone) was The American Boys’ Handy Book. Beard’s sisters Lina and Adelia Beard wrote The American Girls’ Handy Book.

Civil War veteran Alfred Cobb, author of Liff y Leman; or, Thirty Years in the Wilderness, wrote colorful stories about life in 19th-century Owen Co. and Northern Kentucky. One of his most interesting accounts concerns the Ohio River collision of the steamboats United States, on which Cobb was a passenger, and America. Novelist and motion-picture writer and director Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier was, in addition, the author of the nonfiction works History of Red Cross Nursing and The American National Red Cross: Its Origin, Purposes, and Ser vice. G. Glenn Clift wrote History of Maysville and Mason County and other historical works. George Dallas Mosgrove, author of Kentucky Cavaliers in Dixie, and Craig M. Brown, author of the controversial Caketown USA about Fort Thomas, were also well-known nonfiction writers of Northern Kentucky.

Several writers are known for their biographical, autobiographical, and personal writings. Regarded as an exemplar of genealogical and family history writing is Anna Virginia Parker’s The Sanders Family of Grass Hills (1966). Sue Hamilton Jewell’s The Sun Shines Bright (1952) contains autobiography, history, and biography and recounts traditions of life in the 1890s. Schoolteacher and librarian Berniece Terry Hiser of Walton, a graduate of Berea College, is the author of a collection of local traditions and folklore enti-

LITTLETON, ROBERT

tled Quare Do’s in Appalachia: East Kentucky Legends and Memorats, her first book, published when she was age 70. Hiser also published a children’s book set in Kentucky during the Civil War, The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat. Dr. Darrell Richardson, a Baptist minister in the area (at one time pastor of the Fort Mitchell Baptist Church), was also a prolific writer on many subjects. Among his best-known nonfiction works are Max Brand: The Man and His Work, Counseling in Times of Crisis, and A Christian Facing a World of Change. Like many other literary figures in the area, Richardson was very publicly engaged and held positions in many local church and civic organizations. In the 1950s, for example, he was one of the leaders in the movement to eradicate gambling and the crime syndicates in Northern Kentucky.

Radio, Television, and Movie Writers Writers for radio, television and motion pictures have included Craig M. Brown, a scriptwriter for television, the aforementioned Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier, a motion-picture writer and director who worked for Fox and Paramount Studios, and Mary Wood, a writer for the Cincinnati Post who also wrote soap operas for the WLW radio station.

Local celebrity Nick Clooney had a long career in radio and television in addition to his newspaper column in the Cincinnati Post. Jean Shepherd is known for his screenplay A Christmas Story, which has become a popu lar Christmas classic.

Poets Among the best known of the poets in Northern Kentucky who have achieved local fame is George Elliston, a graduate of the old Covington High School. Elliston was the society editor for the Kentucky Times-Star as well as writing poetry and promoting the writing of poetry as the editor of The Gypsy: A Poetry Magazine. Her most famous book of poems was Cargoes: Poems for Poets and Those Who Love Poetry. Through the George Elliston Poetry Foundation, which she established at the University of Cincinnati, the university sponsors a visiting poet each year and supports the George Elliston Poetry Room. George Cutter, a lawyer who came to Covington in 1840 and soon became the captain of a company during the Mexican War, was also a well-known poet during the first half of the 19th century. Among his most famous poems are “Buena Vista” and “The Song of Steam,” which extols the rise of steam technology in the 1820s and 1830s. Another poet of the early 19th century was Mary E. Wilson Betts of Maysville, whose poem “A Kentuckian Kneels to None but God” became an inspiration to Kentuckians during the Spanish-American War. Other poets in the area include Frank E. Schoolfield, called the “poet laureate of Northern Kentucky”; Daniel Henry Holmes Jr., praised as one of Kentucky’s “finest lyric poets” by John Wilson Townsend in his Kentuckians in History and Literature; newspaper reporter Mary Cabell Richardson, actively involved in the Daughters of the American Revolution and in Trinity Episcopal Church;

Maysville native Henry T. Stanton; Forceythe Willson; Eleanor Duncan Wood, whose poem “In Memoriam” is engraved on the side of the Memorial Building at the University of Kentucky; Julia Dinsmore, of the prominent Dinsmore family; William Whiteman Fosdick, editor of the literary journal the Sketch Club; Newport schoolteacher Margaret Estes; Annette Cornell, who also published a magazine of poetry; Myrtle Stickrath Jessup; Dorothy Ladd; Ninona Miller; Helen Truesdell; Rena Lusby Yancey; Clement M. Byrne; and Mary L. Mitchell Cady. A unique poet and publisher in the area is Gray Zeitz of Owen Co., whose Larkspur Press publishes handmade limited-edition chapbooks. Zeitz has published the work of major Kentucky writers, including Wendell Berry, Gurney Norman, Bobbie Ann Mason, Guy Davenport, Richard Taylor, and James Baker Hall.

Writers of Fiction Fiction writers of Northern Kentucky have been diverse in their subjects and genres, ranging from historical novels, adventure novels, science fiction, and suspense thrillers to children’s and young adult fiction, graphic novels, and “chick lit” novels.

The subject of life along the Ohio River is exemplified by one of the region’s best-known novelists, Ben Lucien Burman. A graduate of Holmes High School and a World War I veteran, Burman was called “the new Mark Twain” because of his many books about the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Among these are his most famous work, Steamboat Round the Bend (1933), which was made into a motion picture starring Will Rogers, and his other humorous Catfish Bend stories. As renowned in the area as Burman was John Uri Lloyd, best known for his Stringtown books, set in late-19th-century and early-20th-century Florence, Ky., which is the Stringtown of the books’ titles. Some of the most famous of them are Stringtown on the Pike (1900), Warwick of the Knobs (1901), and Felix Moses: The Beloved Jew of Stringtown (1930). Lloyd, after whom Lloyd Memorial High School was named, was also the author of a fantasy–science fiction novel, Etidorhpa; or, The End of the Earth (1895), his first novel, written in the vein of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells.

Journalist and motion-picture director and writer Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier achieved a national readership with her novel Drivin’ Woman, which covers the 50 years after the Civil War in the life of heroine America Moncure. Popu lar in his day was Robert F. Schulkers, a writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer but best known for his young adult series centered around the character of Seckatary Hawkins and the Fair and Square Club with its rules of morality, decency, and honesty.

Novelist and poet Hollis Summers was an English teacher at Holmes High School. When he later taught English at the University of Kentucky, Summers and his colleague Robert Hazel were influential in the development of writers Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, Gurney Norman, Ed McClanahan, and James Baker Hall. Ruth Wolff, a graduate of Newport High School and a resident of

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Newport and later Fort Thomas, was the author of several novels, including A Crack in the Sidewalk, a story about hill people from Eastern Kentucky living in Newport in the 1950s. Contemporary writer Barbara Paul of Maysville has written 24 novels thus far in the science fiction, mystery, and detective genres. Jack Kerley is a suspense-thriller author, while Sheila Williams is a writer of popular romance. Northern Kentucky University graduate David Mack, writer and illustrator of the Kabuki series of graphic novels, is internationally known.

Noe, J. T. Cotton, ed. A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry: Selections of Poetry Written by NinetyThree Persons Closely Identified with Kentucky, Most of Them Native Born. Lexington: Univ. of Kentucky Department of Extension, 1936.

Townsend, John Wilson. Kentucky in American Letters, 1784–1912. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press, 1913.

Ward, William S. A Literary History of Kentucky.

Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1988.

Danny Miller

LITTLETON, ROBERT (b. October 1850, Tennessee; d. July 27, 1909, Newport, Ky.). Robert Littleton spent most of his life in Newport, where he was one of the leading African American figures for more than 35 years. He married Josephine Smith of Covington on September 15, 1884; they raised two daughters and a son. In November 1872, Robert Littleton was involved in the organization of the Corinthian Baptist Church, located in Newport on Roberts St. In February 1873, Littleton, Rev. Dennis Lightfoot, Washington Rippleton, and a delegation from Newport attended the Colored Education Convention held in Louisville, where attendees were informed of the proposed new state law that would allow for public schools for black children. After the convention, Littleton and the other Newport delegates took the next step by encouraging the Newport Board of Education to include African American children in their plans for new schools. The delegation’s efforts resulted in the establishment of the Southgate St. School in Newport.

Littleton, along with his close friend Rippleton, became involved in Republican politics in Campbell Co. during the 1890s. In August 1891, Littleton, Rippleton, and a group of other black Republicans from Campbell Co. formed the first Republican League Club. Littleton was one of five people to serve on its executive committee. In March 1892, when the league elected new officers for the ensuing year, Robert Littleton was chosen as secretary. At this time the league had 80 members. In May 1894 the African American Republican League Club was renamed the Crispus Attucks Club.

In 1882 Littleton was employed by the Cincinnati and Newport Iron and Pipe Company. His family continued to attend the Corinthian Baptist Church and his children went to the Southgate St. School. From 1888 until his death in 1909, Littleton and his family lived at 837 Putnam St. Littleton died at age 59 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate.

558 LITTLE TURTLE MISHIKINAKWA Annual Report of Board of Education of Newport, Kentucky. Newport: Newport Printing, 1873.

“Colored Club,” KJ, May 25, 1894, 6.

“The Colored League,” KJ, March 4, 1892, 4.

“First in the State,” KJ, August 13, 1891, 5.

“Newport Briefs,” CE, August 2, 1909, 3.

Theodore H. H. Harris

LITTLE TURTLE (MISHIKINAKWA) (b.

1747, Miami Nation; d. July 14, 1812, Fort Wayne, Ind.). Mishikinakwa, or Little Turtle, as the early Europeans knew him, was the son of Chief Mishikinakwa, who signed the 1748 Treaty of Lancaster in Pennsylvania (see American Indians).

That treaty led to the relocation of various Algonquian tribes into the Ohio Territory. Little Turtle, a Miami Indian war chief and political leader himself, became a leader in the Miami tribe during the Revolutionary War. He led the resistance of the Algonquian tribes against American settlement within the Old Northwest Territory in the period from 1780 until 1795, conducting offensive and defensive operations north of the Ohio River and dispatching raids south of the river. In 1780 Little Turtle won his battle of note when he led a war party that defeated a French force, operating in support of the American colonists, under the command of Augustin Mottin de La Balme near present-day Fort Wayne.

After the Revolutionary War, Great Britain transferred the Old Northwest Territory to U.S. jurisdiction via the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The U.S. government, as a result, viewed the Old Northwest Territory as ceded land open for settlement. The Algonquian tribes, however, rejected this interpretation of the Treaty of Paris. The result was a lowintensity guerrilla war of the Miamis and their allies against the European settlers. It soon escalated into full warfare.

In response to complaints from settlers within Kentucky, Virginia, and the Old Northwest Territory, the U.S. Congress authorized President George Washington in 1789 to orga nize an army, consisting of many Kentuckians, including Northern Kentuckians, to pacify the Algonquian tribes. In 1790 Gen. Josiah Harmar led an American army, much of which had been assembled in Covington, north from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) to crush the Miami and other tribes of the Great Miami River basin. After an initial successful attack on the village of Kekionga, Harmar and his troops were led into an ambush orchestrated by the masterful Little Turtle. Harmar lost 183 men in the ambush and was forced to retreat to Fort Washington, abandoning the field to Little Turtle.

The next year, 1791, leading a rebuilt American army, Gen. Arthur St. Clair marched north from Fort Washington to destroy the Indians in presentday central Ohio and Indiana. Little Turtle once again drew the American troops into an ambush and inflicted upon St. Clair’s army the worst defeat American soldiers ever sustained in a battle with American Indians. More than 700 officers, men, and camp followers were killed, including many Kentucky soldiers.

In 1794 a newly raised and trained American army, under the direction of Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne, set out from Fort Washington to vanquish the Algonquians. Little Turtle, realizing that this time he was up against a competent foe with superior arms, urged the tribes to sue for peace. But Little Turtle’s proposal for peace was defeated in council, and Chief Blue Jacket of the Shawnees was appointed war chief of the tribes. Little Turtle’s observation of the capability of General Wayne’s troops was proved correct, as Blue Jacket lost to Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794.

Little Turtle was now called forth to be the Algonquians’ principal negotiator with Wayne at a peace conference held near present-day Greenville, Ohio. During the negotiations Little Turtle had entered into the treaty’s documentation various claims by the Miamis for land in the Old Northwest Territory. The U.S. government later recognized these claims as valid statements of Miami ownership and provided land-transfer compensation. However, the result of the Treaty of Greenville, signed on August 3, 1795, was that the Algonquians surrendered their claim to land in much of present-day Ohio and Indiana.

After the signing of the Treaty of Greenville, Little Turtle settled with his family near Fort Wayne. He soon lost credit with his tribe, but he was still recognized by the United States as the chief of the Miami tribe. In 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1809, Little Turtle signed treaties with the United States, giving up most of the land claimed by the Miami Indians in the Old Northwest Territory.

He placed his name on these treaties as carry ing out the will of the Miami Indians, without consulting with the tribal council or receiving its authorization to sign. In 1809 the Miamis publicly rejected Little Turtle as their leader and directed that all further negotiations with the United States concerning Miami lands be through their new chiefs, Owl, Pacanne, and Peshewa. Little Turtle died in 1812, having never lost to an American army. At the end of his life, he was the recipient of a pension from the United States.

The Miamis and the other Algonquian tribes were caught up in the struggle between the Canadians and the Americans for supremacy over the Great Lakes, and Little Turtle’s village was burned during the conflict and his family scattered. The power of the Algonquian tribes was forever destroyed at the Battle of Thames in Ontario, Canada, in 1813. The remaining Algonquin tribes were pushed west of the Mississippi River and north into Canada, and the threat of Indian attack was lifted from the Northern Kentucky region. Today, a statue of Little Turtle stands on Riverside Drive in Covington.

Anson, Bert. The Miami Indians. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1970.

Carter, Harvey L. The Life and Times of Little Turtle. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1987.

Dowd, Gregory A. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1812.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1992.

Charles H. Bogart

LIVERS, WILLIAM “BILL” (b. August 3, 1911, near Owenton, Ky.; d. February 7, 1988, Owen Co., Ky.). Musician Bill Livers, the son of Dave and Lula Thurston Livers, was born about three miles south of Owenton on the Monterey Rd. His father was a tenant farmer, and Bill followed in his father’s footsteps. Bill grew up in and around the county’s Long Ridge community and was well known for his stories as well as for his fiddling. Living as an African American in a mostly white community did not seem to affect Livers in any way. He was always welcomed into a group regardless of its ethnic mix, fitting in perfectly.

Livers’s greatest joy was to have friends gather to play “the old songs,” have plenty of “good eatin’s,” and enjoy fellowship. When the word got out that Bill was having a fish fry, people would come from miles around, fi lling the yard and overflowing into the field nearby. They would bring food, chairs, and blankets, prepared to have an enjoyable time into the early hours of the morning.

The major entertainment for farmers was music; Livers had family and assorted friends who played the fiddle, the guitar, the French harp, the mandolin, the banjo, and the harmonica. During the late 1920s, Livers first taught himself to play the French horn, an instrument for which he had paid a mere 50 cents, one tune at a time. The first horn pieces he learned to play were “Down Yonder” and “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby.” In 1937 he purchased a 200-yearold fiddle and on it learned to play “My Old Kentucky Home.” The ability to play a fiddle allowed him to find employment in the evenings playing for square dances. He had an uncanny ability to pick up melodies easily. He told the story that the first fiddle he played came from a man who played left-handed.

Livers was right-handed, but he had to learn to play left-handed because the fiddle was strung that way.

Later he got a fiddle strung for a right-handed player, and it took him almost a year to relearn how to play it. But learn he did, and he could play both ways. Livers would ride a horse for miles and play all night, returning home to work in the field at his farm all day. He played at homecomings and square dances and for anyone or any group who asked him. As early as 1928, he was performing a song titled “The Carroll County Blues,” but it was in 1942 that he began playing the blues seriously with his rendition of the “St. Louis Blues.” He was later featured playing the blues at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and at the World Fair in Knoxville, Tenn. Numerous articles have been written about Livers and published in Newsweek, Time, Living Blues, and other such publications. His work is captured on several record albums; included on them are two of Bill’s favorite tunes: “Up and Down Old Eagle Creek,” reflecting his Owen Co. heritage, and a popular fiddle tune, “Old Virge.”

During Livers’s memorial ser vice at Owenton’s Second Baptist Church, his importance in the community was described by the person who said, “God bless you Bill for being our friend and making the hard times seem like good times and helping us realize that we have so much [more] to be thankful for than sorry for.” Bill Livers was buried at the Maple Cemetery in Owen Co.

LLOYD, JOHN URI Vertical fi les, Owen Co. Public Library, Owenton, Ky. Ware, Burnham. “Bill Livers: Tenant Farmer and Rural Musician.” Living Blues 51 (Summer 1981): 31–33.

“William ‘Bill’ Livers,” KP, February 9, 1988, 3B.

Doris Riley

LLOYD, ALICE (b. October 22, 1864, Germantown, Mason Co., Ky.; d. January 21, 1951, Nashville, Tenn.). Alice Lloyd became Maysville’s foremost leader for women’s suffrage, temperance, and women’s rights. (She is not connected with Alice Lloyd College in Knott Co., Ky.) Lloyd, the eldest daughter of Evan and Lydia Cheeseman Holton Lloyd, grew up on the family farm, The Pines, in western Mason Co. Prominent land-owners, the Lloyds were early residents of the region. Alice was educated at Miss Park’s School in Maysville, Daughter’s College at Harrodsburg, Ky., Hamilton College in Lexington, and Ward Belmont in Nashville, Tenn. She became president of the Madison Female Institute in Richmond, Ky., and served from 1890 to 1898. Lloyd was a teacher for most of her life; at various times she was on the faculties of Transylvania and Hamilton colleges in Lexington.

But social causes drove her when she was outside the classroom. She was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Kentucky Equal Rights Association. She was a speaker at the Democratic platform convention in Louisville in 1919, where she called for a plank supporting the franchise for women. Surprisingly, she was opposed by her good friend Laura Clay. Clay was a proponent of women’s suff rage but did not agree with Susan B. Anthony’s and Lloyd’s support for a federal constitutional amendment legalizing suff rage.

Having been raised on a tobacco farm, Lloyd fought on the side of growers against the large tobacco trusts of the day. She was often found in Frankfort, lobbying on behalf of her causes and frequently lecturing Kentucky governors— particularly Augustus P. Wilson (1907–1911) and A. B. “Happy” Chandler (1935–1939)—about issues.

During the 1928 presidential campaign, Lloyd did not support Democrat Al Smith, because “He was wet,” meaning anti-Prohibition. She persuaded the Kentucky state legislature to increase the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18 years. She often appeared in Covington and Newport espousing her causes. In 1928 she spoke at the Immanual Baptist Church in Covington at 20th and Greenup before the WCTU’s annual convention. She lived mainly in Maysville, Lexington, and Louisville. In her last few years, she resided with her sister in Nashville, Tenn. Alice Lloyd died in Nashville in 1951. Her funeral was held at the Christian Church in Germantown, and she was buried in the nearby Maple Grove Cemetery.

Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. Maysville, Kentucky: From Past to Present in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Mason Co. Museum, 1983.

“Miss Lloyd Dies at 86: Long Was Public Figure,” Maysville Ledger Independent, January 23, 1951, 1–2.

Thomas, Mike. “In Search of the ‘Other’ Alice Lloyd,” Maysville Ledger Independent, March 27, 1986, 2.

LLOYD, CURTIS GATES (b. July 17, 1859, Florence, Ky.; d. November 11, 1926, Cincinnati, Ohio).

Curtis Gates Lloyd, a mycologist, was the youngest of three sons of Nelson Marvin and Sophia Webster Lloyd. His brothers were John Uri Lloyd and Nelson Ashley Lloyd. The Lloyd boys spent long hours exploring the woods of Northern Kentucky, developing an interest in natural history, especially botany. Their youthful interest grew into a passion for Curtis, ultimately influencing the direction his life took. He moved to Cincinnati in the late 1870s and, like his brothers, entered pharmacy practice.

While working to earn his pharmaceutical certificate, Lloyd continued studying plants. In 1886, with his brothers John Uri and Nelson Ashley, Curtis Lloyd became a partner in Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists. His assignment in the partnership was to specialize in locating and describing plants with potential medicinal properties; however, a turning point came in 1887 when Curtis Lloyd met A. P. Morgan. Morgan, a local mycologist (student of fungi), introduced him to the scientific study of mushrooms, which was developing into a specialized branch of botany. Lloyd’s scientific enthusiasm was ever after focused on mushrooms. He was excused from most duties connected with the family business, and he devoted his time and energies almost exclusively to mycology. He never married.

Lloyd maintained offices in Cincinnati; Paris, France; and London and traveled extensively, examining and collecting specimens and studying existing works on mycology. He freely disseminated his own fi ndings in the self-published serials Mycological Notes and Puff Ball Letters. He also published several monographs, and his writings appeared in the Mycological Series of the Bulletin of the Lloyd Library and Museum of Botany, Pharmacy, and Materia Medica. All of his writings were gathered and bound into seven volumes titled Mycological Writings of C. G. Lloyd. Through his many contributions, he became a prominent authority in the study of mycology and was regarded by some as a leading architect of the science. Although he was opposed to using personal names in the scientific names of mushrooms, several genera bear his name. With his brothers, Lloyd was also instrumental in development of the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati. In 1917 he executed the trust that enabled the library to be maintained into the future. He also established Lloyd’s Welfare House in Crittenden (Grant Co.) for the recreation of the city’s various church and school groups. Lloyd’s formal education consisted of a few years at schools in Florence, Ky., and in Crittenden (Grant Co.), where his parents taught; however, in June 1926 the University of Cincinnati awarded him an honorary degree of doctor of science. A few months later, Lloyd died of diabetes at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati. According to his wishes, his body was cremated and the ashes spread on a property in Crittenden that he had inherited and on which he had established the Lloyd Library Botanical Park and Arboretum, now the Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Area (see Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Area). A part of that land is today’s Grant Co. Park.

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Curtis Gates Lloyd Papers, 1859–1926, Collection 11, Lloyd Library and Museum Archives, Cincinnati.

Fitzpatrick, H. M. “Curtis Gates Lloyd.” Mycologia 19, no. 4 (1927): 153–59.

“Lloyd’s Ashes Are Scattered to Four Winds,” KP, November 12, 1926, 1.

Mayo, Caswell A. “Curtis Gates Lloyd.” Bulletin of the Lloyd Library of Botany, Pharmacy, and Materia Medica 28 (1928): 16–24.

Simons, Corinne Miller. “Curtis Gates Lloyd, Mycologist, 1859–1926.” National Eclectic Medical Quarterly 43, no. 1 (1951): 13–16; no. 2 (1951): 11–14.

Maggie Heran

LLOYD, JOHN URI (b. April 19, 1849, W. Bloomfield, N.Y.; d. April 9, 1936, Van Nuys, Calif.). John Uri Lloyd, a pharmacist and an author, was the first of three sons born to Nelson Marvin and Sophia Webster Lloyd; the second was Nelson Ashley Lloyd, and the third Curtis Gates Lloyd.

At age four, Lloyd moved with his family to Burlington, Ky., where both parents worked as teachers, following opportunities for employment around Northern Kentucky. The family moved from Burlington to Petersburg, then Florence, and later Crittenden. The Lloyd sons had very little formal education; however, under the tutelage of their teacher-parents they were well educated and encouraged to learn from their experiences and interests. For John Uri Lloyd, those lay in the local flora and fauna. His parents encouraged his fascination with nature and prodded him to learn through conducting experiments. As an adult, Lloyd said his apprenticeship in pharmacy essentially began at home when, as a young boy, he was guided in chemistry experiments.

In 1863, when Lloyd was age 14, his parents decided to fi nd him a position as a druggist’s apprentice. Since formal education for pharmacists was largely a post–Civil War development, apprenticeship was the accepted way to enter the trade. After a long search, Lloyd found a position at W. J. M. Gordon & Brother in Cincinnati, where he apprenticed for two years. In order to gain further knowledge and skill, Lloyd apprenticed with George Eger for an additional two years and afterward returned to Gordon’s drug shop. During this time Lloyd met some of the most influential physicians and pharmacists in Cincinnati. Dr. John King, a prominent physician of the eclectic branch of sectarian medicine, was especially impressed with young Lloyd and his abilities; Lloyd could not only compound prescriptions but also suggest innovations in the formulas. King arranged for Lloyd to take a position as a chemist in the fi rm of H. M. Merrell, a pharmacist who specialized in eclectic preparations.

Eclecticism was one of many healing philosophies of the 19th century that disagreed with what was then called regular medicine, in which practitioners adhered to a very harsh regimen of purging, bleeding, and blistering. Eclectic practice relied heavily on medicinal plant treatments.

Compared to other pharmacists who compounded botanical preparations, eclectic pharmacists sought to use substances that were more

560 LLOYD, NELSON A.

The Lloyd brothers: left to right, Curtis Gates, Nelson Ashley, and John Uri, ca. 1880s.

highly concentrated and fresh rather than dried; they also preferred native American plants. Taking the position at Merrell’s fi rm in 1870 placed Lloyd fi rmly in the eclectic camp.

As a chemist at Merrell’s firm, Lloyd continued his pharmaceutical research and learned well the role of an eclectic pharmacist. By 1877 he became a partner with Merrell and T. C. Thorp in the firm Merrell, Thorp, and Lloyd. Lloyd made some attempts to go into business with his younger brothers, also trained pharmacists, but it was not until 1885 that they formed Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists Inc. The business was extraordinarily successful and remained in family hands until 1938, when it was sold to the S. B. Pennick Company.

Yet Lloyd was much more than a highly skilled pharmaceutical manufacturer. A largely homeschooled country boy, he became a scholar in his own right. His business interests in manufacturing eclectic preparations motivated him to do serious phytochemical research that resulted in an astonishing number of publications; the first of them was an 1870 contribution to the Eclectic Medical Journal. The steady stream of articles that followed, published in medical and pharmaceutical periodicals, led to recognition for Lloyd throughout the pharmaceutical profession. Lloyd’s scholarship extended to teaching and professional leadership. He taught chemistry and pharmacy at the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Institute from 1878 to 1895 and held a similar position at the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy from 1883 to 1887. He was also president of the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA) in 1887. He received three Ebert Prizes (1882, 1891, and 1916) for outstanding original research in pharmacy and the Remington Medal (pharmacy’s highest honor) in 1920 for his lifetime of distinguished service. In addition, he founded the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Chemical Society and was in-

strumental in establishing a History Section in the APhA. Lloyd’s accomplishments included inventions and discoveries. He held several patents on various apparatuses and compounds. Among the more significant were his “Cold Still Extractor,” an improvement on distillation methods; an atropine sulfate used in eye wounds during World War I; a “Percolating and Concentrating Apparatus,” another enhancement of pharmaceutical equipment; and an improved “Medicine Dropper or Syringe.”

Perhaps Lloyd’s greatest innovation was his work on “mass action” in chemistry, which established him as a pioneer of colloidal chemistry.

Throughout his life Lloyd voraciously collected books. He felt that he needed readily available resources to manufacture the finest eclectic preparations. Lloyd’s working library began with a few books he had as an apprentice, and he added medical journals. While he was working at the Merrell drug firm, Lloyd’s mentors, Drs. John King and John Scudder, helped him acquire books and journals donated from colleagues throughout the country. By the time Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists was established, Lloyd had amassed a rather impressive collection; it grew even more rapidly with his brothers’ assistance. Curtis Gates Lloyd eventually assumed the role of chief acquisitions officer for the growing library, which was augmented in 1893 when King died and the library received his extensive collection. Although John Lloyd did not intend to continue the library venture and assumed that one day it would become part of an academic institution, ultimately he could not part with the library he had worked so hard to build. He moved to ensure its autonomy and future by incorporating it in 1898. Curtis Gates Lloyd further guaranteed its future by establishing a trust fund for the library in 1917. The Lloyd Library in down-

town Cincinnati continues to operate from moneys generated by the trust.

Lloyd was the quintessential 19th-century Renaissance man. Chemist, pharmacist, businessman, teacher, inventor, author of influential scientific treatises, and founder of an important research library, Lloyd also wrote eight successful novels. His first, published in 1895, Etidorhpa; or, The End of the Earth (Etidorhpa is Aphrodite spelled backward), told of a fantastic journey reminiscent of tales by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Lloyd’s many other novels, such as the Stringtown series, vividly recalled the Northern Kentucky of his youth. His best-known novels were Stringtown on the Pike (1900), about Florence, Ky.; Warwick of the Knobs (1901); Red Head (1903); and Felix Moses: The Beloved Jew of Stringtown (1930).

In addition, Lloyd was civic-minded and active in community affairs. In 1935 he and others formed the Big Bone Lick Association for the scientific study and preservation of the site in Boone Co. that today is the Big Bone Lick State Park.

Lloyd served as the association’s first president and wrote the forward to its 1936 publication Big Bone Lick: An Outline of Its History, Geology, and Paleontology.

Lloyd married Adeline Meader on December 27, 1876, but she died 11 days later of acute peritonitis. In 1880 he married Emma Rouse, daughter of Thomas Rouse; they raised three children: John Thomas, Anna, and Dorothy. Lloyd died in 1936 of pneumonia while visiting his daughter Annie Welbourn in California, and his cremated remains were buried in the Hopeful Lutheran Church Cemetery, in Boone Co., Ky. “Ashes of John Uri Lloyd to Rest amid Scenes of His Boyhood Days,” KP, April 11, 1936, 1.

Flannery, Michael A. John Uri Lloyd: The Great American Eclectic. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1998.

———. “John Uri Lloyd: The Life and Legacy of an Illustrious Heretic.” QCH 50 (Fall 1992): 3–14.

Heran, Maggie. “Lloyd Brothers’ Community Involvement.” Lloydiana 10, nos. 2, 3 (2006): 5–9.

“John Uri Lloyd Dies; Kentucky Life Recalled,” KP, April 10, 1936, 19.

John Uri Lloyd Papers, Collection 1, Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kleber, John E., ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia.

Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.

Maggie Heran

LLOYD, NELSON A. (b. November 19, 1851, Lima, N.Y.; d. January 27, 1925, Cincinnati, Ohio).

Nelson Ashley Lloyd, a businessman and co-owner of baseball teams, was the second of three sons born to Nelson Marvin and Sophia Webster Lloyd; his older brother was John Uri Lloyd, and his younger brother was Curtis Gates Lloyd. When he was two years old, Nelson A. Lloyd moved with his parents and older brother to Northern Kentucky, and the brothers grew up on their parents’ farm near Florence, Ky. Lloyd followed the advice of his parents and the footsteps of his brother John Uri by apprenticing in W. J. M. Gordon’s Pharmacy in Cincinnati. He became a trained pharmacist

LLOYD MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL

and, in 1886, a partner in Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists when it was established. Nelson spent the greatest part of his life tending to the financial and business affairs of the company, serving as its treasurer.

Nelson A. Lloyd is perhaps best known for his involvement with baseball, particularly the Cincinnati Reds. For many years he and John T. Brush were co-owners of the team. Lloyd also served as the team’s secretary and treasurer. During their tenure, Lloyd and Brush introduced the baseball world to the practicality of abandoning wooden stands in favor of concrete ones. After a major fire in the Cincinnati Reds’ ballpark, the grandstand was rebuilt with concrete in 1912; it featured pillars and columns carved by hand. Referred to as “The Palace of the Fans” by baseball historians, it was baseball’s first concrete grandstand.

After Lloyd and Brush sold the Cincinnati baseball club to Cincinnatians George B. Cox, Julius and Max C. Fleischmann, and August Hermann, the two men purchased a controlling interest in the New York Giants baseball team (National League). Lloyd was involved with that team for many years, serving as its treasurer. Among his many other interests, Lloyd was a well-known collector of art, especially the works of renowned local artist Henry F. Farny. He was a trustee of the Cincinnati Children’s Home, where his role was far more personal than official. Lloyd was a frequent visitor to the orphanage, often paid bills so that important activities could be maintained, and ensured that all drugs and medicines needed were supplied free of charge from Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists. He was active in civic affairs, once serving on a commission to investigate the natural drainage of Norwood, Ohio. A modern sewage system was built as a result of that study. At one time Lloyd was offered the opportunity to run for mayor of Cincinnati, but he declined. Together with his brothers, he not only ran the pharmacy business but also contributed to the development of the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati.

Lloyd married Olive Augusta Gardner in Champaign, Ill., in 1877. They had one daughter, Marcia Olive Lloyd, who later became the wife of Judge George E. Mills. Lloyd died in Cincinnati in 1925 after a brief bout with pneumonia and was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

“Ashley Lloyd Died after Brief Illness,” CTS, January 27, 1925, 1.

“Career of N.A. Lloyd Ended,” CE, January 28, 1925, 12.

John Uri Lloyd Papers, 1849–1936, Collection 1, box 21, vol. 4, Lloyd Library and Museum Archives, Cincinnati.

Mayo, Caswell A. “Nelson Ashley Lloyd.” Bulletin of the Lloyd Library of Botany, Pharmacy, and Materia Medica 28 (1928): 24–36.

Reds Ballparks. “Ballparks: 1869–Present.” http:// cincinnati .reds .mlb .com/ NASApp/ mlb/ cin/ history/ballparks.jsp (accessed January 13, 2006).

Simons, Corinne Miller. “Nelson Ashley Lloyd, 1851– 1926.” National Eclectic Medical Quarterly 47, no. 1 (1955): 14–18; no. 2 (1955): 14–15.

Spring Grove Cemetery Records, Cincinnati.

Maggie Heran

LLOYD BROTHERS PHARMACISTS INC. (1885–1938). The journey to the independent, family-owned drug-manufacturing firm of Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists Inc., Cincinnati, could be said to have begun in 1877, when Northern Kentuckian John Uri Lloyd became a partner of H. M. Merrell and T. C. Thorp to form Merrell, Thorp, and Lloyd. During that era, large-scale drug firms saturated the market with botanical products and created an increasingly competitive environment.

As the partnership endeavored to not merely survive but to thrive in this atmosphere, Lloyd, the youngest partner, was asked to develop new drugs.

Lloyd rose to the task by expanding the firm’s product line and creating his distinctive Specific Medicines, which were associated with an eclectic therapeutic and diagnostic system. Eclecticism was one of many 19th-century healing philosophies opposed to the harsher regimens of the regular physicians. Lloyd’s Specific Medicines were highly concentrated, unofficial tinctures of plant constituents extracted by maceration or percolation. Eclectic pharmacists also preferred using fresh rather than dried botanicals and native American specimens rather than the diverse materials used by other drug manufacturers.

These and other new products developed by Lloyd brought the firm prosperity; however, success bred discord among the partners. Merrell left the partnership in 1881 to start a drug business with his son. Lloyd’s younger brother, Nelson Ashley Lloyd, also a trained pharmacist, purchased Merrell’s share, and the company became known as Thorp and Lloyd Brothers; it consisted of T. C. and Abner (T. C.’s son) Thorp, Nelson Ashley Lloyd, and John Uri Lloyd. By 1884 its cata log contained 80 pages of pharmaceuticals in addition to an assortment of medical supplies and apparatuses—the company declared itself “Physicians’ Headquarters for Pure Medicines.” Of all its products, Lloyd’s Specific Medicines were the most publicized. Inevitably, with the successful formulation and marketing of these products, the Thorps’ involvement in the business waned, and late in 1885 the Thorps left the company. Their departure provided an opportunity to bring in the youngest Lloyd brother, Curtis Gates Lloyd, also a trained pharmacist, and Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists Inc., owned by three Northern Kentuckians, was born.

Each brother made a unique contribution to the company. Curtis Gates’s boyhood interest in botany had grown into a fervent avocation and positioned him to serve as field representative, traveling extensively to explore new medicinal plants and examine foreign supply sources. Ashley was the business manager; he handled all financial aspects of the company. John served as chief researcher and developer of pharmaceutical products and was the undisputed head of Lloyd Brothers. The mainstay of the business continued to be the Specific Medicines, and well into the 20th century, pharmacists dispensed what came to be known as Lloyd’s Specifics.

The business prospered and remained in family hands until the deaths of the brothers. Ashley and Curtis died in 1926, and John died in 1936. In 1938

561

S. B. Penick purchased the firm from the Lloyd estate and continued to manufacture its products largely unchanged from the original Lloyd formulas. Over the next decade or so, ownership passed to several different pharmaceutical manufacturers; however, the Lloyd name was retained on many products. When the German firm Hoechst gained control in 1960, the company moved, and the Lloyd name ceased to be found on its pharmaceutical output.

Flannery, Michael A. John Uri Lloyd: The Great American Eclectic. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1998.

———. “John Uri Lloyd: The Life and Legacy of an Illustrious Heretic.” QCH 50 (Fall 1992): 3–14.

John Uri Lloyd Papers, Collection 1, Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists Inc. Papers, Collection 6, Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Maggie Heran

LLOYD MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL. The Lloyd Memorial High School in Erlanger was established in 1928, after the Erlanger and Elsmere school systems consolidated. Former U.S. congressman Arthur B. Rouse suggested that the new school be named after John Uri Lloyd, a wellknown local scientist and author of several books, including Stringtown on the Pike. It was hoped that Lloyd would donate a large sum of money to the school. The school board voted unanimously to name the new high school Lloyd Memorial High School, and Lloyd did make contributions to the school, but not in the large sums dreamed of by the school founders. He donated several books to the library and established a fund to support the Lloyd Medal, an award given to an outstanding student each academic year.

The new high school was housed in the old Locust Street School in Erlanger while a new building was being constructed. Many former parochial high school students, as well as students from the former Erlanger and Elsmere high schools, enrolled at the new school, creating a student body large enough to field a football team and bolstering the school’s competitive position in other sports. For school colors, it was decided to take one color from Elsmere High School’s green and gold and one from Erlanger High School’s orange and black. Lloyd Memorial High School’s colors were black and gold, changed to blue and gold in the 1940s. The first football team was formed during the 1928–1929 school year. Players and parents cleared a locust thicket to make a playing field. Local residents rallied around the school and staged minstrel shows and “womanless weddings” to raise funds to develop an adequate football field. The school’s mascot was also chosen during the first football season.

According to oral history, a Cincinnati Post reporter wrote that the Lloyd football team played “like a juggernaut,” and the unique nickname stuck.

There are no other high school or college Juggernauts in the United States.

During this first year of the school’s existence, the new school building was completed. A plot of about five acres of land near the fairgrounds in

562 LLOYD’S WELFARE HOUSE Erlanger was purchased and bonds were sold for school construction. Access was created by building two roads: Bartlett Ave. from the school to the Dixie Highway (U.S. 25) and an extension of Cowie Ave. from Graves Ave. to Bartlett Ave. The new school building’s auditorium was completed in time for the 22 members of the first graduating class to hold graduation exercises in a school they had never attended. The new school had many modern features, including a cafeteria with a paid staff and a new type of desk with straight chairs and an enlarged armrest for writing.

In the 1930s debates, plays, musicals, operettas, and choral programs were popu lar at the school.

Lloyd High School had football, basketball, and track teams. The school’s first yearbook was published in 1936. In the late 1940s, the school board, using money loaned at a low interest rate by six residents, purchased land adjacent to the high school (formerly the Erlanger Fairgrounds). Fundraisers were also held to build a new football field and stadium on the site. The old building was demolished, and a new structure, completed in 1956, is in use today.

During this time of growth, the ErlangerElsmere Schools achieved racial integration, and the process went so smoothly that the schools were featured in an article in Life magazine. In 1979 the Scheben Gymnasium was built on the grounds between Lloyd Memorial High School and Tichenor Middle School. Dietz Auditorium was added to that facility in 1996.

The Lloyd Memorial High School Alumni Association was formed in 1988. The orga ni zation works to connect alumni, preserve school history, and lend support to the school. The Alumni Association awards thousands of dollars in scholarships each year to Lloyd Memorial High School graduates.

Over the years, Lloyd Memorial High School has been successful in academics, sports, band, chorus, and speech and drama. The school’s test scores consistently rank in the top 10 percent of the state, and the school is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The school and district have been awarded the What Parents Want Award for excellence in education. In 2006 Lloyd Memorial High School separated all freshmen and sophomores by gender for core courses, because teachers felt they were better able to meet the needs of the students in separated classes. The move resulted in fewer discipline problems and more focused students. Lloyd Memorial High School was named one of “America’s most innovative high schools” by Newsweek magazine because of this approach to learning. In fall 2008, a $5.5 million addition was opened, as part of a five-phase $25 million project; it included new spacious hallways, administrative offices, five special education classrooms, five science classrooms, and two science labs.

Onkst, Wayne, ed. From Buffalo Trails to the Twenty-First Century: A Centennial History of Erlanger, Kentucky. Erlanger, Ky.: Erlanger Historical Society, 1996.

Deborah Onkst

LLOYD’S WELFARE HOUSE. Located on the grounds of Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Area (see Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Area), the Welfare House was built in 1921 and dedicated on Saturday, January 28, 1922. Curtis Gates Lloyd built it for the welfare of the Crittenden community of Grant Co. Lloyd’s Welfare House is a frame building consisting of an auditorium and a stage. The auditorium is 30 feet wide and 64 feet long, with two windows in the front and three on each side. Five brass lights were located down each side. It has four-foot wainscoting all around and two fireplaces on its north wall; originally there were four murals on the south wall. The stage is 30 feet wide and almost 10 feet deep. It had panels that could be removed to open the silver screen (which is still there today) for motion picture shows.

The Welfare House could be used for any approved gathering or entertainment as long as it was not used for commercial profit. Any profits made were to go to maintenance of the Welfare House or to the Recreational Area.

The building sat empty for years and was beginning to need repairs, so in 1992 a group of concerned local citizens raised sufficient funds to fi x the roof and begin repairs. After several years of bake sales, yard sales, and quilt raffles, the old building began to come alive again. The Grant Co. Fiscal Court matched the money that had been raised, so that the total was enough to add bathrooms and install siding on the exterior. Today it has been deeded over to the Grant Co. Fiscal Court and is used for family reunions, birthday and anniversary parties, graduation parties, and weddings.

Curtis Gates Lloyd Collection, Lloyd Library, series 9, box 22, folders 608–38, Cincinnati.

Edna Marie Cummins

LOCUST. From 1880 to 1940, the hamlet Locust was the commercial, religious, and educational center for the extreme northwestern section of Carroll Co., a hilly district drained by Locust Creek as it cascades north into the Ohio River. Locust is situated west of the Little Kentucky River and southeast of Hunter’s Bottom.

The Locust General Store was constructed originally at the Forks of Locust Creek, at the confluence of the East and West Creek Prongs, just downstream of Locust Falls. The store and its adjacent residence were flooded frequently as a result.

The store’s earliest proprietors included persons named Ginn, Hundley, and Metzler, who occupied the L-shaped section of the store. James G. Mosgrove added an addition to this store section that measured 30 by 32 feet and was 20 feet high; it featured a half story above the first floor. When Mosgrove died in 1882, John M. and W. Harvey Conway purchased the store and expanded its offerings of agricultural equipment, feed, hardware, groceries, and supplies. In 1903 the Conway brothers used skids and horses to move the store and its adjoining house about one-half mile to higher ground at the junction of Locust Rd. and Wrights Ridge Rd. A creamery and an icehouse were added,

and customers could then purchase ice cream cones. In the last half of the 20th century, the Locust Store was run by Elmer Dunn, Jim Dowd, and Ralph and Katie Yocum, and then by Cookie and Donna Yocum.

Locust also had both an elementary and a high school, even though the town’s total population was never more than 60 people. The Locust School was built in 1895 as a large two-story brick structure. It had four large rooms on the first floor and a gymnasium on the second, with a large encased dome on its roof (see Locust High School). When the school at Locust was demolished in 1963, the iron girders from the dome were saved as supports for a bridge that led to a private dwelling along the East Fork of Locust Creek.

The Great Depression hit the backcountry in Kentucky very hard. Tobacco provided the farmers’ only cash crop, and they used every possible space on the hills and tiny valleys for cultivating tobacco plants and building tobacco barns to house their crops. The tobacco market at Carrollton meant economic success or failure for the hardscrabble farmers living in and around Locust.

The Locust Baptist Church was constructed in 1866 on land owned by S. W. Fallis on Wright’s Ridge Rd. along the East Prong of Locust Creek.

The trustees at the time were Edward Holmes and S. W. Fallis. Although in poor condition, the small stone church still stands today. It was a member of White’s Run Baptist Association for many years.

The Hopewell Methodist Church dates to 1842, when Henry Wise donated land in Hunter’s Bottom on the banks of the Ohio River; the trustees were George Harsin, Martin Hoagland, Moses T. Hoagland, Okey Hoagland, and Jefferson V. King.

In 1895, because of the frequent flooding of the Ohio River, the Hopewell Methodist Church congregation moved its entire log church by horsedrawn wagons from Hunter’s Bottom two and a half miles and 700 feet higher to the West Prong of Locust Creek. Then in 1910 the Methodists built a brick Greek Revival structure on that site, and it is still in use today. Elements of the old log church are still visible: a huge threshold stone, a chimney, and interior planking.

Carrollton Democrat, May 8, 1884.

Gentry, Mary Ann. A History of Carroll County.

Madison, Ind.: Coleman, 1984.

Hammon, Neal O. Early Kentucky Land Records, 1773–1780. Louisville, Ky.: Filson Club, 1992.

Diane Perrine Coon

LOCUST HIGH SCHOOL. When the common school system in Kentucky was instituted during the 1850s, James Crawford taught at the school at Locust in District 19 within Carroll Co. Other common schools in Carroll Co. were started at Hunter’s Bottom, Kings Ridge, and Notch Lick. In 1878 school district trustees George Clegg. Owen Driskell, and James G. Mosgrove sold the old log schoolhouse on the East Prong of Locust Creek and built a new school next to the Locust Baptist Church. In 1882 the schoolhouse burned under suspicious circumstances, but the community re-

LOOKOUT HOUSE

built it in time for the fall term. The Ohio River flood of 1913 greatly damaged the new school, but it was repaired and refurbished. That school was used until 1928, when a large brick school was constructed for the Consolidated Locust School and High School near the Forks of Locust Creek and the center of the community of Locust.

The Locust High School had been established as a two-year school in 1912, and it occupied one room of the original large two-story schoolhouse. Children attending the school came from Hunter’s Bottom, Wrights Ridge, Kings Ridge, Locust Rd., and Painter’s Hollow. By 1927 J. B. Pullium was teaching 8 pupils at Locust High School, in a school term that ran eight months, and the next year he taught 13.

Rev. Graham Good was the high school’s teacher in 1929; that year he had 9 students and in 1930 he had 8. Then in 1930 R. J. Wade taught 10 students at the high school. R. Bernhardt Bauer, who had attended Georgetown College in Kentucky, was teaching 14 students at the Locust High School in 1933.

The Locust High School basketball team had to adjust its offense and defense around a pot-bellied stove that sat in the middle of the gym. A skylight provided light to the second-floor gymnasium. The high school closed while Allan McMannis was principal of the Consolidated Locust School in 1938. Students from Ghent, English, and Locust Schools in Carroll Co. were then bused to the Carrollton High School (CHS). The first year after its closing, the Locust Consolidated School sent 22 students to CHS. Bevarly, R. W. “History of Education in Carroll County,” Master’s thesis, Univ. of Kentucky, 1936.

Campbell, Justine Tandy. “History of the Carroll County Schools,” Carrollton, Ky.: Carroll Co. Public Library, 1976.

Carroll Co. Deed Books, 4, pp. 36, 38, 299, Carrollton, Ky. Carrollton News-Democrat, February 2, 1878; September 15, 1938.

Diane Perrine Coon

LONG RIDGE. This Owen Co. hamlet, located three miles north of Owenton at the intersection of U.S. 127 and Ky. Rt. 36, sits along the long ridge that cuts north-south across the county. Long Ridge is near the former location of Ed Porter Thompson’s short-lived Harrisburgh Academy/Owen College, in an area Thompson had named Harrisburg during the late 1860s. In 1909 the community’s name was changed to Long Ridge owing to the common postal confusion with the Harrisburg community in Mercer Co. Thompson opened the post office at Long Ridge in 1873, and it operated until 1966. Long Ridge was home to the well-known Kentucky blues fiddler Bill Livers, whose farm was along Old New Liberty Rd (Ky. Rt. 1978).

Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1984.

LOOKOUT HEIGHTS. The city of Lookout Heights was located on the west side of the Dixie

Highway, overlooking Park Hills and Covington.

Much of the early housing development, including the Fort Henry and General Dr. subdivisions and the streets along Park Rd. and the west side of Sleepy Hollow Rd., was done by Nick Kreutzjans, Fred Riedinger, and Joseph Trenkamp. Lookout Heights was incorporated as a sixth-class city in 1937, after a campaign led by a group of residents known as the Dixie Welfare Association, who were troubled by insufficient fire protection.

Although largely residential, Lookout Heights had a diverse set of business and community organizations, among them St. Agnes Catholic Church and school, the Dixie Gardens Drive-In Theatre (see Drive-Ins), Oelsner’s Colonial Inn, the Hillcrest Tavern, the Lookout Motel, Lookout Bowl, a goldfish farm, a golf driving range, and the Dixie Bicycle Club, which offered bicycle paths, horseshoe courts, an archery range, and canoeing.

The most famous locale was the Lookout House, a well-known nightclub along the Gourmet Strip of Dixie Highway. Offering casino-style gambling and national entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, it became notorious for its ongoing gambling problems. The Lookout House, after a decades-long run, burned to the ground in 1973. In 1964 the Lookout Heights Civic Club building opened and became a central gathering spot for the community as well as the seat of city government.

Former mayors of Lookout Heights include Russell Oelsner (owner of Oelsner’s Colonial Inn), J. R. Blumlein, Howard Schambach, and Alfred Beasley.

Annexation was an ongoing topic in Lookout Heights as in neighboring towns, leading to a major battle with Covington in the early 1980s.

Covington tried to annex undeveloped land in the Fort Henry subdivision in the 1960s, but the landowners sued to block annexation, and the matter languished in court for over two decades. In 1980 the court ruled in favor of Covington; however, Fort Wright used a new state law that permitted reannexing land and put the issue on the ballot.

Residents voted overwhelmingly to leave Covington and return to Fort Wright.

In the interim, seeking better fire protection and wishing to prevent annexation by Covington, Lookout Heights merged with Fort Wright. In November of 1967, Fort Wright voted 532 to 319 in favor of the step, while Lookout Heights voted 389 to 150 for the merger; in 1968 the merger was complete, and the Lookout Heights name was dropped in favor of Fort Wright.

City of Fort Wright 50th Anniversary Booklet. Fort Wright, Ky.: City of Fort Wright, 1991.

“The City They All Seem to Want,” KP, November 11, 1985, 4K. “Dixie Bicycle Club Takes Over Plot for Recreation Project,” KP, March 14, 1941, 18.

“Lookout Heights Has Vigor of Youth,” KE, June 26, 1958, 1K. “Park Hills, Ft. Wright, Lookout Heights Talk More on Merger,” KE, March 21, 1967, 19.

“Town Groups Organize Dixie Municipal League,” KP, March 20, 1940, 1.

Dave Hatter

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LOOKOUT HOUSE. The Lookout House, a thriving nightspot for almost a century in Northern Kentucky, was located in Fort Wright, on the southeast corner of Kyles Lane and the Dixie Highway. The restaurant was well known for its gourmet dinners, gambling rooms, and live entertainment shows.

In 1886 Aloise Hampel, a German immigrant, purchased the land on which the restaurant was to be built. The facility initially was a three-story brick structure with a slaughterhouse and an underground passageway that was used as a natural refrigerator for storing cut meat. The building also had a large tower in the front, which attracted visitors wishing to have a spectacular view of Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. The popularity of this feature led Hampel to name his building the Lookout House. Many locals have speculated, erroneously, that the restaurant was so named because it had been used as a lookout point by Union troops during the Civil War. Hampel operated a successful restaurant at the Lookout House, and later he added a beer garden and a dance pavilion. During Hampel’s ownership the Lookout House was famous for excellent food and accommodations. After his death in 1912, Hempel’s children sold the business to Bill Hill for $25,000. Hill already had a national reputation as a saloon owner. Under his management, the Lookout House flourished as a nightclub; however, the business later struggled during the era of Prohibition, 1919–1933.

In 1933 the Lookout House was sold to Jimmy Brink, who remodeled the restaurant and added Las Vegas–style gambling and live entertainment.

Gambling was illegal in Kentucky, and in the 1930s Brink was charged numerous times but never convicted.

In 1948 Brink was again charged with permitting gambling on the Lookout House premises.

Harriett Shelander of Erlanger, along with several other witnesses, appeared in court and testified against Brink. It was also during this time that national investigators led by U.S. senator Estes Kefauver (see Kefauver Committee) uncovered a connection between Brink and the Chicago-based Capone crime organization. Two local mobsters, Morris Kleinman and Louis Rothkopf, were regular high-stakes gamblers at the Lookout House.

Both men were connected to Jacob “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, who was known to be part of Capone’s gang.

None of the three men, however, admitted to any involvements that connected themselves or the Lookout House to underworld activities. Before the case against these three men could be tried, Brink was killed in 1952 in a suspicious private plane crash at an airport in Atlanta, Ga. The Kenton Co. Circuit Court ruled that “there was a possibility Brink caused the crash through negligence by turning over the controls of the plane to Charles Drahmann.” Both men had been facing prosecution on gambling charges.

Brink’s activities in Northern Kentucky at this time would suggest that organized crime was involved at his restaurant. He was nicknamed “Mr. Big,” and it was said that “everyone bowed to them

564 LORD DUNMORE’S WAR [Jimmy Brink and his wife] . . . and it was political suicide to get on the bad side of the Brinks.” A commonly held axiom in Kenton Co., while Jimmy Brink was alive, was that if Brink did not approve of a certain person running for political office, that person was expected to accept this fact and drop out of the race.

After Brink’s death the Lookout House was taken over by veteran local restaurant proprietors Bob and Dick Shilling, and illegal gambling continued in a partitioned casino room with slot machines, blackjack tables, roulette, and dice games.

The years during which the Shillings owned and operated the Lookout House were characterized by times of either boom or bust. Occasionally, the illegal gambling was shut down during a police raid, but more frequently the shutdown occurred when the Shillings had been tipped off that a raid was imminent. The nightclub, which sat next to a busy drive-in movie facility, the Dixie Gardens, was also regularly vandalized late at night during these years. One par ticu lar act, in 1958, caused $3,000 worth of damage.

On August 14, 1973, tragedy struck the Lookout House just months before the scheduled date of a grand reopening. A fire blazed through the rooms of the famous nightclub while it was closed for maintenance. It is remembered as being “one of the most dramatic fires in local history . . . as smoke and flames ate away generations of Northern Kentucky’s entertainment history.” Hundreds of spectators lined up outside the restaurant to witness its destruction. The fire supposedly started in the kitchen as a simple grease fire that got out of control, and it was especially difficult to subdue because the restaurant had been remodeled several times, preventing access that firefighters needed.

The Lookout House has never been rebuilt; instead, the Lookout office complex and a savings bank building now occupy the property.

“Attorney Assailed for Testimony in Lookout House Case,” KTS, October 15, 1937, A1.

“Brink Case before Kenton Grand Jury,” KTS, September 20, 1948, A1.

“Brink Plea Overruled,” KTS, June 8, 1956, 1A. Dressman, Elmer. “Big Man Is Gone and Scene Changes for Kenton County,” KE, August 6, 1952, A1.

Hampel, John E. To the Editor, KP, January 23, 1987.

Kennedy, John. “Union Troops Marched by More Than a Century Ago,” KP, August 15, 1973, 1.

KP, August 28, 1912, 2; April 14, 1925, 1A; April 15, 1925, 1A; August 15, 1973, 1A. “Lookout House Damaged by Vandals,” KTS, March 1, 1958, A1.

“Trial Dates Set by Kenton Court,” KE, June 30, 1936, A1.

Craig Schneider

LORD DUNMORE’S WAR. In 1768 the Iroquois Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, N.Y., allowing European settlers to enter the land south and east of the Ohio River. By 1774, however, European settlers’ demands for the area north of the Ohio River had intensified. Settlers from both Pennsylvania and Virginia were moving into the Ohio River Valley below Pittsburgh, and clashes between the Europeans and the American Indians

under Chief Cornstalk began to increase. In response to cries for governmental support from the settlers in and around Pittsburgh, Lord John Murray, Earl of Dunmore (1732–1809), the last royal governor of Virginia, in 1774 called out the Virginia militia. Dunmore was not averse to using the cries of help from the settlers to advance his colony’s claims to land beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

The Virginia troops came into the Upper Ohio Valley in two columns during fall 1774. Dunmore led the northern (main) column, and Gen. Andrew Lewis led the smaller, southern column to the Ohio River. Cornstalk led his warriors against Lewis.

Cornstalk’s plan was to defeat Lewis and then attack the main column, hoping that the news of the defeat would demoralize Dunmore’s troops and cause them to retreat. On October 10, 1774, Cornstalk’s warriors ambushed Lewis, who was in camp at Point Pleasant, (West) Va. Although the attack was initially successful, Lewis was able to rally his troops and drive the Indians from the field of battle. Casualties were about even between the two forces, but Cornstalk was unable to hold his warriors together to renew battle on the next day.

Unable to mount a military defense against the advance of Lewis and Dunmore, Cornstalk entered into peace talks with Dunmore. Part of the initial agreement was that Dunmore would stop all troop movements during negotiations. However, Dunmore’s order to Lewis to stop his advance was met with disgust by Lewis, who continued to advance and destroy abandoned Indian villages.

When Dunmore stated that he would use royal troops to protect Cornstalk’s village from Lewis’s men, open rebellion almost broke out among the militiamen. This act of Dunmore to protect Cornstalk and his people was later cited as a justification for the colonists’ rebellion against the Crown.

The result of the peace negotiation between Cornstalk and Dunmore was the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which opened the Ohio River to navigation and reconfirmed that the Indians were to stay north of the Ohio River. The immediate result of Lord Dunmore’s War was to cause the American Indian tribes in the Old Northwest Territory to focus their attention on their eastern border. As the Indians guarded their eastern border during 1775 and 1776, European settlers moved into Kentucky via the Cumberland Gap and established Forts Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Logan, eventually helping to populate the lower counties of the Northern Kentucky region.

De Hass, Wills. History of Early Settlements and Indian Wars of Western Virginia. Parsons, W.Va.: McClain, 1989.

Withers, Alexander S. Chronicles of Border Warfare in Western Virginia. Parsons, W.Va.: McClain, 1975.

Charles H. Bogart

LORING, CLARA B. (b. 1896, Covington, Ky.; date and place of death unknown). Vocalist Clara Loring was the daughter of Frank Loring. By 1914 she was performing operatic concerts at the College of Music in Cincinnati, where she was the

youngest singer at the school. She graduated that year and spent the following season in New York City, studying voice and doing concert work. In 1915 she became the first American pupil to be awarded a $5,000 scholarship to the elite International Academy of Opera in Paris, France. That May, she and her mother set sail for Paris. One evening in 1916, Clara was called upon to perform at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera after the lead singer became ill. The next morning newspaper reviewers raved about Loring’s great potential. Contract offers came flooding in to the beautiful and talented 21-year-old singer from Covington. Afterward, she and her mother spent two winters in Havana, Cuba. In early 1918 Clara was called home because her father, a Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad train engineer, had been killed accidentally at the rail yard in Russell. Clara’s former neighbors along Greenup St. in Covington were amazed to learn that she was receiving $800 each time she sang.

“Covington Girl Is Awarded Scholarship,” KTS, May 11, 1915, 10.

“Funeral of Wreck Victim,” KTS, January 25, 1918, 16.

“Miss Loring to Sing,” KTS, February 28, 1914, 1.

“Sudden Rise to Fame,” KTS, November 29, 1916, 2.

LOUISIANA HOTEL. This local landmark in downtown Mount Olivet, the county seat of Robertson Co., was financed by merchant and tobacco buyer James Cumber and originally named the Cumber House. At the time of its construction in 1869, cost estimates ranged from $12,000 to $15,000 for the three-story structure. The original interior, which boasted solid poplar woodwork, was configured to include 23 guest rooms along with a large ballroom on the top floor.

The property changed hands at least eight times before 1930, often under interesting circumstances. During the 19th century, playing the Louisiana Lottery was an extremely popu lar pastime in Robertson Co. Citizens would pool their money to buy tickets through the mail. A local teacher, S. H. Bettys, won $7,500, a modest portion of that lottery’s grand prize, in 1886 and used his winnings to buy and refurbish the hotel. He changed its name to the Louisiana Hotel to honor the source of his newly acquired wealth.

According to local accounts, during its heyday of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Louisiana Hotel had many visitors, including various governors of Kentucky and, occasionally, a U.S. senator or a U.S. Representative. Unfortunately, however, the facts about the hotel have become somewhat confused in the retelling of stories over the years. For example, many people in the region now believe that the hotel was originally built by someone who moved from Louisiana to Kentucky after winning the Louisiana Lottery’s grand prize; this erroneous account has even been published on at least one occasion by a regional Kentucky newspaper.

In 1930 two owners of a Robertson Co. car dealership purchased the hotel and an adjoining lot for the sum of $4,000. They removed interior walls from the hotel and turned the first floor into a Chevrolet showroom. This phase in the building’s

LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI, AND LEXINGTON RAILROAD

life was short-lived, however. Just two years later, in 1932, the business partnership dissolved, and one of the partners took the title to the hotel. The Louisiana Hotel then became a private residence.

The once grand Louisiana Hotel still stands on Main St. in downtown Mount Olivet. The first floor houses a floral shop, while the upper level is an apartment. No sign or historical marker commemorates the building’s rich and storied past.

Moore, T. Ross, ed. Echoes from the Century, 1867– 1967. Mount Olivet, Ky.: Robertson Co. Historical Society, 2000.

Pearce, John Ed. “Robertson County.” LCJ Magazine, January 11, 1981, 6–12.

Robertson County Tribune, April 24; May 1, 15; June 5, 1884. Available on microfi lm at W. T. Young Library, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky.

Deborah Diersen Crocker

LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI, AND LEXINGTON RAILROAD. Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in the 1850s and 1860s found themselves at a disadvantage in serving the growing Southern trading markets. East Coast cities were being linked with the South by railroads running down through the Tidewater region of America. In Kentucky two railroads had been completed from the Ohio River into the heartland of the South. The Illinois Central (IC) extended south from Chicago to Cairo, Ill. At Cairo a railcar ferry transferred IC rolling stock across the river to Columbus, Ky., and to a connection with the Mobile and Ohio, whose track ran to Mobile, Ala. Upstream at Louisville two railroads, providing connections with Detroit and Chicago, terminated on the north shore of the Ohio River: the New Albany and Salem Railroad and the Jeffersonville, Madison, and Indianapolis Railroad (JM&I) in Indiana. Goods were carried by wagons and ferried from railcars that had arrived at Jeffersonville and New Albany to Louisville and loaded onto Louisville and Nashville (L&N) equipment headed for Nashville, Tenn., and points further south.

Cincinnati by 1860 had developed two limited rail routes to reach the South. The first was by the 6-foot broad-gauge Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, which intersected with the JM&I at Seymour, Ind., and with the IC at Sandoval, Ill. Since both of these two later railroads were standard gauge (4 feet 8.5 inches), cargo had to be transloaded at these connections. The second route used the Kentucky Central Railroad (KC) at Covington to reach Lexington; merchandise then was transferred to the Lexington and Frankfort (Lex&F) and the Louisville and Frankfort (Lou&F) to reach Louisville. The Lex&F and the Lou&F were built to standard gauge, but in 1863 the War Department converted them to 5-foot gauge, the same gauge as the L&N. The roundabout nature of both of these routes added to the cost of shipment to Louisville. The conversion to the 5-foot gauge was a rare event in U.S. railroad history, done for the sake of expediency in the Union war effort.

To stay competitive, what Cincinnati wanted and needed was a more direct rail connection with

the South. The solution proposed by some in Cincinnati was to build a railroad along the Kentucky side of the Ohio River to Louisville, connecting with the L&N. When the charter to build this railroad was issued by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, it called for the building of standard-gauge rail between the cities. Goods would have to be transloaded at Louisville, providing jobs in Louisville and adding to the cost of shipment.

The Lou&F and the Lex&F combined their resources to build a connecting rail line between Louisville and Cincinnati. The two railroads in 1869 reorganized themselves as the Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad (LC&L). The route the LC&L chose ran somewhat inland from the Ohio River and for most of its distance perpendicular to the natural drainage system, thus requiring the construction of numerous bridges and six tunnels. Because this railroad, upon completion, would shorten the rail distance between Cincinnati and Louisville, it quickly gained the title the Short Line. Regular traffic on it between Louisville and Covington began in June 1869. With the completion of the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge (the L&N Bridge) in 1872, the LC&L reached Cincinnati.

The rail line, as built, was 113 miles long. It crossed the Ohio River from Cincinnati by bridge into Newport, where it ran south along Saratoga St. to its own private right-of-way south of 11th St. The road then went down the Licking River Valley to Wilder, where it crossed the Licking River into Latonia. At Latonia the LC&L crossed the KC at grade. From Latonia the railroad ran along Banklick Creek, climbing to the plateau above the river valleys via two high trestles, one at Banklick Creek and one at Independence. Once on top of the hill, the rail line ran south to Walton, before turning west for LaGrange, where it met the Lou&F line. Between Walton and Glencoe, the terrain is rough; it had necessitated numerous cuts and fi lls and had required construction of the 636-foot Eagle Creek Tunnel in northwest Grant Co. West of the tunnel is the Eagle Creek Valley and the towns of Glencoe and Sparta. Glencoe served as the railhead for Warsaw in Gallatin Co., and Sparta for Owenton in Owen Co. At Worthington the railroad crossed the Kentucky River and began its climb up Mills Creek for LaGrange and Louisville via Campbellsburg. At LaGrange the LC&L ran over the existing Lou&F rails into Louisville. In 1959 the Lou&F’s Frankfort Junction at LaGrange was taken up and rail ser vice between Louisville and Frankfort was rerouted through Shelbyville in Shelby Co. The bridge between Newport and Cincinnati was built by the a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR); the PRR sold the bridge to the L&N in 1904. The Little Miami station at Pearl and Butler Sts. in Cincinnati was the northern terminus of the LC&L. For a short period before the bridge to Cincinnati was completed, the northern terminus was the Newport station, located along the east side of Saratoga St. between present-day Fift h and Sixth Sts. Until the combined station of the C&O and the L&N was opened at 11th and

565

Monmouth Sts. (called the NX Cabin) in 1888, the old station served Newport as both a freight and a passenger stop; after the passenger depot moved to the combined station at the Newport diamond, it remained a freight depot for the L&N for many years. Concrete marks can be seen today in the sidewalk where the sidings from the main line once entered the small station yard. In its last days, the Newport city sign could be seen on the freight station, which served local Newport businesses. That property became Art’s Rental Equipment in the late 1960s.

The Short Line did not attract the business its promoters believed it was capable of supporting.

The problem was the excessive grades and curves on the line, which limited the loads that could be pulled by the steam engines of that era. More than 25 miles of the Short Line have grades greater than 1 percent, and another 20 miles have a grade of between 0.75 and 1 percent. The ruling grade is a 2.72 percent climb as part of a 5-mile overall 1.16 percent climb. The right-of-way has no straight stretch longer than 2 miles, and only two other stretches are straight for more than 1 mile. In one section of the line there are 5.7 miles of curves within 7.4 miles of track. The maximum curve on the line measures 7 degrees 10 minutes. Curves of 3 degrees and more, however, are common, and many occur on a grade. This configuration made for stress on the engines pulling cars over the line. Accepted railroad practice of the day allowed that an engine that could move 1,000 tons on level grade could move only 200 tons on a 0.05 percent grade, a rise of 6 inches in 100 feet. Therefore, watering points were established at Walton and Glencoe, and both coaling and watering facilities were provided at Worthington.

As a result of the lack of business, which only grew worse with the opening of the Cincinnati Southern in 1877, the LC&L went into bankruptcy in 1881. The line was then bought by the L&N to keep competitors away. Over the years the L&N straightened a few curves, lowered some grades, and daylighted all but the Eagle Creek Tunnel, but the route still presents a challenge for engineers who attempt it.

In 1875 the Cincinnati Southern crossed the LC&L by a bridge at Walton, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) in 1888 crossed the LC&L on grade in Newport at NX Cabin (11th and Monmouth Sts.).

In 1980 the Short Line became part of CSX. In 1984 CSX embargoed traffic along Saratoga St. in Newport, shifting ser vice into Ohio over the C&O Bridge. CSX donated the L&N Bridge to the City of Newport in 1999, and it is used today as a pedestrian bridge, affectionately called the Purple People Bridge because of its color. The Short Line today terminates in a connection with the former C&O Railway track at NX Cabin in Newport, and both are parts of CSX. In recent years the line has seen a growth in traffic, moving up to 16 trains daily.

The first LC&L Bridge over the Licking River remains between Wilder and Latonia, but it is not in use. Replaced in the 1920s by a bridge able to carry heavier loads, the 1869 bridge serves as a support

566 LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE RAILROAD structure for water lines crossing the Licking River.

The LC&L Bridge across the Kentucky River was also replaced in the 1920s.

Appleton’s Railway and Steam Navigation Guide.

New York: Robbins and Appleton, 1870.

Condit, Carl W. The Railroad and the City. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1977.

Herr, Kincaid A. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2000.

Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

Charles H. Bogart

LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE RAILROAD. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) served Northern Kentucky via two rail lines.

The first ran west from Northern Kentucky to Louisville, and the other ran south to Winchester. The L&N received a charter in 1850 to build a line between its two namesake cities, and it completed construction of that line in 1860. The L&N was heavily damaged during the Civil War but also made a profit as a carrier of supplies to Union troops in Tennessee. After the war, therefore, the L&N was able to expand by acquiring local lines and merging them into its system. The L&N eventually owned track from Chicago to New Orleans and became the predominant railroad in Kentucky.

The L&N first reached Northern Kentucky over the Short Line, which was built between 1869 and 1870 as the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington Railroad (LC&L) to provide a connection with the South for merchants in Cincinnati. The LC&L reached Cincinnati in 1872 by crossing the Licking River at Latonia into Wilder and then running down the middle of Newport’s Saratoga St. to the Cincinnati and Newport Bridge, now the L&N Bridge, over the Ohio River. (Train traffic ended on Saratoga St. in 1984, and the bridge was donated to the City of Newport by CSX in 1999.) Once across the Ohio River, the rail line connected with the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Railway via the tracks of the Little Miami Railroad, later the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The rail line built by the LC&L was constructed to standard gauge, 4 feet and 8.5 inches. The L&N, whose track extended into the South, was built to a 5-foot gauge. The result was that the LC&L cars could not interchange with the L&N at Louisville; goods moving south had to be transferred to cars of the other railroad. Thus, there was an extra charge for transportation of goods between Cincinnati and southern destinations. When the LC&L went into receivership in 1881, it was bought by the L&N. This purchase allowed Louisville to continue to set the price for goods originating in Cincinnati and destined for a southern state. These actions by Louisville led to the building of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad.

The predecessor L&N line due south from Northern Kentucky had been started in 1850 to gain Cincinnati a rail route to Tennessee and Georgia.

The road was built by three separate companies: the Covington and Lexington (C&L) from Covington to Paris, the Maysville and Lexington (M&L)

from Paris to Lexington, and the Lexington and Danville (L&D) from Lexington to Nicholasville.

This rail line was projected to cross the Kentucky River near Wilmore via High Bridge, a suspension bridge designed by John Roebling, and continue to Burnside, Ky., and Chattanooga, Tenn. The outbreak of the Civil War caused this plan to be temporarily shelved. This line operated under the advertising title of Kentucky Central Railroad. After the Civil War, the Kentucky Central route was not available for Cincinnati’s scheme to build south to Atlanta, Ga., so the Cincinnati Southern was forced to build its own route south.

In 1865 the C&L and the M&L were acquired by the Kentucky Central Association and in 1875 were merged as the Kentucky Central Railroad (KC). The KC languished in the years after the Civil War until, in 1881, it was bought by Collis P. Huntington, who was building westward from Ashland, Ky., to Cincinnati with his Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O). Huntington also owned the Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern (CO&SW), which ran from Louisville to Paducah.

To gain access to the CO&SW from the C&O, he bought the KC, which provided access to Lexington. At Lexington he used track rights over the L&N line between Lexington and Louisville to reach the CO&SW. Unfortunately, a recession caused the whole venture to go into receivership.

The L&N then stepped in and bought the KC in 1891. The KC at this time consisted of three parts, a road from Paris to Maysville, the line from Covington to Lexington, and track from Paris to Sinks.

The L&N in the 1890s began a program to turn the KC into a major hauler of coal to the northern markets. The southern terminus of the line was shifted from Lexington to Corbin. The line between Cincinnati and Corbin became the CC Division. Then in 1916 the L&N built a new line from Winchester to the coalfields of Perry Co., the Eastern Kentucky Division.

The Paris-to-Maysville rail line remained a branch line with the L&N. Because of steep grades and tight curves, which mandated slow speed, the line never developed through freight ser vice. This line connected with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway at Maysville and with the Flemingsburg and Northern Railroad at Flemingsburg Junction. In 1979 the L&N sold the line to Transkentucky Transportation Railroad Inc., which developed a market niche of moving Eastern Kentucky coal to the Ohio River coal terminal at Maysville.

In 1902 the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad gained a controlling interest in the L&N. The L&N, however, continued to operate as a separate company. In 1967 the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line Railway merged to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, a subsidiary of Seaboard Coast Lines Industries. The Seaboard Coast Line began a marketing campaign in which its components, including the L&N, were referred to as the Family Lines. In 1980 Seaboard Coast Line Industries merged with the Chessie System Railroad to form the CSX Corporation, which created CSX Transportation operators of CSX’s railroad properties. In 1982 the L&N, as part of the Seaboard Coast Line, lost its corporate

identity with the forming of the Seaboard System Railroad. The Seaboard System Railroad in turn was folded into CSX in 1986. Repainting of L&N rolling stock with CSX colors, however, had begun as early as 1980.

The heart of the L&N presence in Northern Kentucky, during its last years of existence, was the DeCoursey Hump Yard south of Latonia, which was built in 1918 and rebuilt in 1963. During its operational life, with its two humps, the yard was one of the largest hump freight classification yards in the nation. It was among the first of the hump yards to have retarders installed; the north hump received its set in 1940, and the south hump in 1964. At the hump yard L&N freight trains were broken down and their component cars forwarded to other railroad yards in the Greater Cincinnati area, and cars received from other yards were built into trains for dispatch over the L&N. A shift in movement of goods from boxcars to containers, the use of unit coal and auto trains, and the opening of Queensgate Yard in 1981 at Cincinnati spelled the end of DeCoursey as a hump yard. The yard was used for a time for the storage of bad-order and excess cars by CSX before portions of it were sold off during the 1990s.

The L&N operated a number of named and local passenger trains south from Northern Kentucky until it terminated passenger ser vice in 1971.

The named trains included the Pan American, the Humming Bird, and the Azalean to New Orleans, and the Southland and the Flamingo to St. Petersburg, Fla. The L&N’s passenger depot in Cincinnati had been served via the bridge between Newport and Cincinnati, but in the early 1930s, with the opening of the Cincinnati Union Terminal, L&N passenger trains began to use the C&O Bridge between Covington and Cincinnati as their gateway into Ohio. This was not the first use of the C&O Bridge, as it had been used to transfer freight cars between the railroad transfer yard in Latonia and the railyards of other railroads in Cincinnati.

“A Fond Farewell,” KP, August 24, 1984, 4K. Herr, Kincaid A. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2000.

Klein, Maury. History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. New York: Macmillan, 1972.

Trains Magazine. The Historical Guide to North American Railroad. Waukesha, Wis.: Kalmbach Books, 2000.

Charles H. Bogart

LOVELL HOUSE. See Porter-Fallis-Lovell House.

LUCAS, KEN (b. August 22, 1933, Kenton Co., Ky.). Kenneth Ray Lucas became a successful businessman and an elected public official. After graduation from the University of Kentucky at Lexington in 1955, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served until 1967. Lucas worked many years as a financial planner in Northern Kentucky. He began his political career as an elected member of the Florence City Council from 1967–1974. He then was elected as a Boone Co. commissioner, serving from 1974 to 1982. In 1970 he earned his MBA degree from Xavier University in Cincinnati. Lucas was judge-

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executive of Boone Co. for six years (1992–1998). He sat for 23 years on the Board of Regents at Northern Kentucky University, and for 13 of those years he was the board’s chairman. He also saw service as the president of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and over the years he has volunteered as a worker for many other civic organizations and causes.

In 1998 Lucas was elected to succeed Representative Jim Bunning as the Kentucky 4th District U.S. congressman. Lucas served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and then chose not to seek reelection in 2004. In November 2006 he ran for his former congressional seat, occupied by congressman Geoff Davis, and lost. As a congressman, Democrat Lucas was a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, championing economic development issues, education, and social security. He is married to Mary Kappas, and they have five children.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

“Lucas, Ken.” http://bioguide.congress.gov (accessed March 6, 2006).

Robert Schrage

LUDLOW. Ludlow is located in northern Kenton Co. on the Ohio River. The city is bordered by Covington to the east, Bromley to the west, and Fort Wright to the south. The first permanent resident in what is today the city of Ludlow was Thomas D. Carneal, a member of Kentucky’s General Assembly and a wealthy landowner. Carneal acquired 1,200 acres of property and began in 1818 constructing a grand home, which he called Elmwood Hall. An early visitor to the estate described it in this way: “I have not, since I left England, seen a house so completely furnished with all the elegancies and refinements of society, nor a more hospitable and abundant board, which is wholly supplied from his own grounds.” The home sat on a small rise of ground facing the Ohio River.

Carneal and his family lived in Elmwood Hall until 1827, when it was sold to Englishman William Bullock, the owner of London’s Piccadilly Circus and Egyptian Hall. Bullock intended to live in Elmwood Hall and establish a model community on the spacious grounds. He acquired the services of architect I. B. Papworth to draw plans for this new community, which he called Hygeia, a word of Greek derivation meaning “health.” Plans for the community included a central fountain surrounded by four city blocks named Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Patterson squares. A circular boulevard was to surround the four squares. The plans also included a theater, churches, a library, a museum, a cemetery, a tavern, and many singlefamily residences. It was Bullock’s intention to entice Englishmen and their families to purchase lots and take up residence in Hygeia; however, he had little success, and the planned community of Hygeia was never built.

In 1831 Bullock sold most of his property to Israel L. Ludlow, a son of one of the founders of Cincinnati. During the ensuing decade, a few individuals purchased portions of the Ludlow estate and

built large residences. One of these homes was Somerset Hall, a large Federal style structure built by the Kenner family of Louisiana. Casper Ritchie, a Swiss immigrant, constructed a grand home at the northwest corner of Elm and Locust Sts. Matthew Bentley built another early home at the northwest corner of Elm and Butler Sts. In 1846 Israel Ludlow laid out a small town on his property and began selling lots for residential and business uses.

In the years before the Civil War, the little village of Ludlow evolved into a quiet country hamlet of small homes surrounded by lush gardens and beautiful orchards. The village was connected to Covington by River Rd. and to Cincinnati by a ferry. River Rd., however, was prone to flooding and was not always properly maintained. The owners of the ferry did not keep a regular schedule. A number of prominent town residents suggested that the area incorporate. They hoped that a local government would be able to regulate the infrequent and expensive ferryboat ser vice to Cincinnati. The Commonwealth of Kentucky officially incorporated the city of Ludlow on February 20, 1864.

The State of Kentucky operated the first public school in the city. Classroom space was acquired on the first floor of the Christian Church at the corner of Elm and Locust Sts. When the city was incorporated in 1864, town officials established a school district under the supervision of city government. Ludlow voters approved a $3,000 bond issue to build a permanent school building (see Ludlow Independent School District). That same year, work began on a new school building on Linden St. The brick building contained two classrooms. In 1879 an addition to the building was built to house the growing enrollment. Ludlow High School began operation in 1886.

The Ludlow Police Department was established in 1864 with the appointment of the town’s first marshal. In 1882 the first town hall was built on Oak St. The building housed the police department, city offices, and the jail. The office of town marshal was changed to chief of police in 1893 with the passage of Kentucky’s new constitution. That year, Robert E. Callahan was elected the first Ludlow chief of police. Callahan became a beloved figure in the community and held the position of chief from 1893 until his death in 1936, a period of more than 43 years. The Ludlow Volunteer Fire Department was established in 1884, following a tragic fire that destroyed two businesses and a home. The department was reorganized in 1890. The first firehouse was built on Oak St. near the new city building.

Churches played an important role in the early development of the city. The first congregation established within the city was the Ludlow Christian Church in 1841. Early city government was conducted in the old church building at the southeast corner of Elm and Carneal Sts. Baptist residents living in the area established the First Baptist Church, Ludlow, in 1849. Eventually, the congregation built a large church on Linden St. The Wesley United Methodist Church was founded in 1853 and constructed a small Gothic Revival edi-

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fice on Oak St. In 1872 the German Catholic community in Ludlow established St. Boniface Church and School on Adela Ave. in the city’s west end. That congregation also sponsored a school from the time of its founding. An impressive Romanesque Revival church building was dedicated in 1893. In 1887 the city’s Irish Catholics founded St. James Parish on Carneal St. A parish school was established in 1893 and a new Gothic Revival church was constructed on Oak St. in 1903–1904 (see Saints Boniface and James Catholic Church).

Ludlow changed from a rural area to a workingclass suburb during the 1870s, with the arrival of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad (also known as the Queen and Crescent Route). Many new residents, especially German and Irish immigrants, were attracted to Ludlow by the abundance of railroad jobs (see Cincinnati Southern Railroad Yard). Frequent and dependable railroad service also attracted many other new businesses to the community. The railroad bridge to Cincinnati was completed in 1877.

In 1885 the residents of Ludlow passed a bond issue to construct a footpath on the bridge.

The 1890s witnessed much development in the city. In 1893 streetcar ser vice between Covington and Ludlow began over the new Highway Ave. That same year, the Pullman Company constructed a large plant in the city to repair luxury railroad passenger cars. During the height of operations, the Pullman Shops employed 200 area residents. The shops were destroyed by fire on May 20, 1919. In 1894 investors in the South Covington and Cincinnati Street Railway Company opened the Lagoon Amusement Park along Pleasant Run Creek, west of the city. The creek was dammed, forming a large lake. Along the shores of the lagoon were built park rides, assorted carnival amusements, and many other attractions. Ludlow became an attractive entertainment destination for many people living both in and outside of the Greater Cincinnati area.

Significant progress was made by the Ludlow Public Schools in the 1890s, as well. In 1895 William and Albert Ludlow donated a lot at the northwest corner of Oak St. and Adela Ave for the construction of a new school building. On June 29, 1895, the cornerstone of the new school was laid, with impressive ceremonies, and the building was dedicated on June 12, 1897. A Cincinnati newspaper declared, “The new building has no equal in the State of Kentucky in point of comfort, beauty, and general utility for educational purposes.” In 1915 a second building was constructed to house the growing number of pupils in the district. The Ludlow Board of Education oversaw the construction of a modern high school building at the southwest corner of Elm St. and Adela Ave. in 1932. The new George Washington High School contained classrooms, a large auditorium, and a gymnasium. In 1937 Rigney Stadium was constructed for athletics, using Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds.

Ludlow experienced another building boom in the years following World War I. In the eastern end of town, the Morningside Addition was constructed along the south side of Highway Ave. Much of the city’s west end was also developed during this era on the former site of the Lagoon

568 LUDLOW HIGH SCHOOL Amusement Park, which had closed in 1918. In 1923 a bond issue provided the funds to build a new combination city hall and firehouse, which was erected on Oak St. after the old firehouse and city hall there were demolished. Ambulance and life-squad ser vices were initiated in the city in 1932. In 1926 William Ludlow donated to the city five acres on the north side of Elm St. for park purposes. The donation was made in memory of his brother, Albert S. Ludlow. A park board was established in 1926, and playground equipment was installed in 1928. The current park shelter house was constructed in 1932.

The flood of 1937 was the largest natural disaster in the history of Ludlow. By January 22, Ludlow’s residents living in low-lying areas began moving their furniture and other belongings to high ground. At this time Hooper, Somerset, and Forest Aves. were under water. Also, water was creeping up the lower portions of Euclid, Butler, and Kenner Sts. The Ludlow Streetcar line was blocked in Covington, and egress through Bromley was impossible. The only reliable way out was through Devou Park to the north. The Green Line Transit Company began running buses to Ludlow through Devou Park. The river reached a crest of 79.99 feet on January 26. More than 500 families were forced to leave their homes, and more than 43 percent of the city was under water. Residents stored their furniture in the Odd Fellows Hall, St. Boniface School, St. James School, the Masonic Hall, the Wesley Methodist Church, the First Baptist Church, the Knights of Columbus Hall, and the Dixie Metal Tag Company. The American Red Cross established a relief center at the First Presbyterian Church. Emergency meals were served at both the Presbyterian Church and St. Boniface Church. Because Ludlow was without running water and gas, residents were forced to cook their food on outdoor fires. Most of the city was also without electricity; only the line that supplied the city hall was operational. Men from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped the citizens recover from the flood.

These workers were housed at St. James School. The Ludlow Volunteer Fire Department and the Ludlow Police Department worked around the clock to ensure the safety of residents. All flooded homes were sanitized and inspected before residents were permitted to return.

The baby boom following World War II fi lled Ludlow’s schools and churches. Several new developments were built at this time, including the 600 blocks of Laurel and Linden Sts. By 1950 the population had reached 6,374. The 1950s also witnessed the development of Ludlow Heights on the south side of Highway Ave. In 1957 the old Ludlow Elementary School was demolished to make way for the current structure, which was dedicated to Mary A. Goetz, a teacher in the Ludlow Schools for 52 years.

The population of Ludlow began to decline during the late 1960s. Many Ludlow residents were drawn to the new suburban cities located south and west of the town. By the early 1980s, the city’s population had stabilized at 4,500. More recently, Ludlow has continued to advance with an addition to the

firehouse in 1989 and the construction of the Highpoint Senior Citizens Apartments in 1980. Ludlow’s reputation as a city of fine homes was strengthened in 2001 with the groundbreaking for the River’s Breeze Condominium Complex on Pigeon Point.

This development offers spectacular views of downtown Cincinnati. In 2000 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Ludlow’s population was 4,409.

seat facility was built on a site near the elementary school on Oak St. In November 1975 the Ludlow High School football team defeated Heath High School (7-6) to win Ludlow High School’s first state championship. A second state title was won in 1999 by the Ludlow High School Girls Cross Country team.

Centennial Celebration, Ludlow, Kentucky: Commemorating 100 Years of Progress 1864–1964.

Ludlow, Ky.: Ludlow Centennial Committee, 1964.

Hunnicutt, John M. History of the City of Ludlow.

Ludlow, Ky.: Ludlow Volunteer Fire Department, 1935.

Tenkotte, Paul A. “Rival Cities to Suburbs: Covington and Newport, Kentucky, 1790–1890,” PhD diss., Univ. of Cincinnati, 1989.

Benson, George S. “Looking Ahead,” Ludlow News Enterprise, April 16, 1970, 1.

“Dedication of School Is Set,” KP, April 23, 1932, 1.

“Early Ludlow Public Schools,” Kenton County Historical Society Newsletter, August 1990.

“Local Crowd Follows Team to Western Bowl,” News Enterprise, December 4, 1975, 1.

Ludlow Centennial Celebration, Inc. Ludlow Centennial Souvenir Program, 1864–1964. Newport, Ky.: Acorn-OTTOmatic Printing, 1964.

David E. Schroeder

David E. Schroeder

LUDLOW HIGH SCHOOL. Ludlow High school was established in 1886, to further the educational goals of the Ludlow Independent School District. Before this date, students from Ludlow who wished to continue their education paid tuition to attend the Covington High School or one of the region’s private schools. The high school program in Ludlow began modestly in the district’s elementary school building along Linden St. In 1889 the first graduating class received diplomas. These first graduates were Alice Closson, Grace Harwood, Elizabeth Hankins, Margaret Hill, Jessie Howe, Anna Nixon, Robert Rigdon, George Price, and Bertha Vanderbilt. Enrollment at the school grew slowly in the years before World War I. Between 1890 and 1893, 30 students received diplomas. No diplomas were awarded in 1894 or 1895.

In 1915 a separate building was constructed to accommodate the growing number of junior high and high school pupils. The architectural firm of Weber, Werner, and Adkins of Cincinnati designed the building. The structure contained five classrooms, a science laboratory, a study hall, a library, a small auditorium, a gymnasium, and a lunchroom.

This building quickly became inadequate to serve the educational needs of the district. During the 1920s, more students began attending high school, and the need arose to obtain a larger building. In 1932 a new high school was constructed at the southwest corner of Elm St. and Adela Ave. Architect F. J. Porter designed the structure, and it cost $164,000. The new Collegiate Gothic style building was dedicated formally on April 30, 1932. It contained 16 classrooms, an 800-seat auditorium, and a gymnasium. Each classroom was equipped with a radio. Officially, the name of the school is the George Washington High School. However, throughout its history, the school has been referred to as the Ludlow High School.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) financed the construction of Rigney Football Stadium on Ludlow’s riverfront in 1937. The stadium was dedicated on October 8, 1937. Lights were added to the stadium in 1960, and an electronic scoreboard was installed in 1963. The need for more modern sports facilities resulted in the construction of a new gymnasium at the high school in 1970. The 1,300-

LUDLOW INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. The Commonwealth of Kentucky operated the first public school in the city of Ludlow.

Classes were held on the first floor of the old Christian Church at the corner of Elm and Locust Sts. When Ludlow was incorporated in 1864, town officials established a school district under the supervision of city government. Enrollment at that time was 130. The first school board consisted of Levi Bavis, Fred Gottlieb, and C. W. Harwood.

In 1869 Ludlow voters approved a $3,000 bond issue to construct a school building, which was built on Linden St. and contained two spacious classrooms. In 1879 an addition was erected to accommodate the increasing number of pupils. In 1887 additional classrooms were opened in a nearby cottage that was purchased by the school board. William and Albert Ludlow donated a large parcel of property at the northwest corner of Oak St. and Adela Ave. for a new school building in 1895, and the architectural firm of Fasse and Company was chosen to design the new structure. Plans called for a school measuring 90 by 120 feet with a circular tower at each corner. The cornerstone was set on June 29, 1895, and the facility was dedicated on June 12, 1897, with impressive ceremonies. This building contained 10 classrooms, a room for music instruction, and a lunchroom.

A high school program was begun in Ludlow in 1886. The first high school graduation class, consisting of nine students, received their diplomas in 1889.

The school board named the school George Washington High School. As the population of Ludlow increased, so did the need for additional school facilities, especially for the high school. By 1915 the school building at Oak St. and Adela Ave., which housed both the elementary school and the high school, was operating beyond capacity. The citizens of Ludlow approved a bond issue for the construction of a new building to accommodate the high school classes. In 1915 a new high school (currently the junior high school building) was opened near the elementary school. The architectural firm of Weber, Werner, and Adkins of Cincinnati designed the building. The years following World War I witnessed a sharp increase in attendance at Ludlow High School. In 1932 the district built a modern

LUKOWSKY, ROBERT O.

high school building at the southwest corner of Elm St. and Adela Ave. Architect F. J. Porter designed the structure, which was constructed at the cost of $164,000.

The current elementary school building opened in 1957. The modern steel-and-glass building was dedicated to the memory of Mary A. Goetz, who taught there for more than 50 years. Born of immigrant parents, Goetz and her two sisters, Christina and Esther, devoted their lives to the education of children. All three sisters taught within the Ludlow school system. In 1998 Ludlow school officials approved an addition to the school building, which was erected in the area between the high school and elementary school buildings facing Adela Ave. The Ludlow Independent School District is known for its dedicated faculty and staff and for its consistently high achievement on national and state standardized tests.

Benson, George S. “Looking Ahead,” Ludlow News Enterprise, April 16, 1970, 1.

“Contract for School Is Let,” KP, June 16, 1931, 13.

“Dedication of School Is Set,” KP, April 23, 1932, 1.

“Early Ludlow Public Schools,” Kenton County Historical Society Newsletter, August 1990.

“Local Crowd Follows Team to Western Bowl,” News Enterprise, December 4, 1975, 1.

Ludlow Centennial Celebration, Inc. Ludlow Centennial Souvenir Program, 1864–1964. Newport, Ky.: Acorn-OTTOmatic Printing, 1964.

“Ludlow Schools Forming Foundation,” KP, November 21, 2001, 2K. “Ludlow Tells Plans for Middle School,” KE, December 13, 1998, B1B. “Middle School Going Up,” KP, June 15, 1999, 2K. “New Ludlow High School Nearly Ready,” KP, April 7, 1932, 1.

David E. Schroeder

LUKOWSKY, ROBERT O. (b. August 23, 1927, Covington, Ky.; d. December 5, 1981, Cincinnati, Ohio). Robert O. Lukowsky Jr., an acclaimed judge, legal writer, and teacher of law, was the son of Robert O. and Esther Agnes Cole Lukowsky. His grandparents, Joseph and Rebecca Lukowsky, emigrated from Odessa, Russia. Robert Lukowsky Jr. grew up at 316 Madison Ave. in Covington and attended St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati (class of 1945) and the University of Cincinnati. He graduated from the university’s College of Law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1949.

Lukowsky served in the Corps of Engineers of the U.S. Army at the close of World War II, was commissioned in the Judge Advocate General’s Department of the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, and retired from active ser vice in the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.

He was appointed and served as judge pro tem and trial commissioner of the Kenton Co. Court from 1952 to 1955. During that time he helped to found the court’s Juvenile Session and also served on a three-member committee that drafted rules of practice and procedure for the Kenton Circuit Court. He was appointed a Kenton circuit judge in 1962 by Governor Bert T. Combs; at the time he was the youngest circuit judge in the history of Kentucky. He was reelected circuit judge in 1969.

He was elected without opposition in 1974 to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Kentucky’s highest court at the time.

According to a resolution passed by the Kentucky Supreme Court in 1986, Lukowsky “took the lead to push for passage of the Judicial Reform Act, which amended the Kentucky Constitution in the mid-1970s.” Known then as the Judicial Article, this set of comprehensive reforms rationalized the organization of hundreds of petit courts across the commonwealth and incorporated them into a unified judicial system. The Judicial Article required that all Kentucky judges be lawyers, it vested all litigants with the right of at least one appeal, and it created the new Kentucky Supreme Court. The enactment of the Judicial Article and its implementation in the succeeding years brought Kentucky into the front rank of states in the cause of progressive court reform.

Lukowsky was appointed by three different governors to the Kentucky Crime Commission.

He also served on a committee that revised the Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure and was a member of a commission that reviewed Kentucky’s substantive criminal law, leading to the enactment of the Kentucky Penal Code. He was a member of the first class of the National College of State Trial Judges in 1964 and served on the faculty of the judicial college as a lecturer and seminar leader of the judicial conferences in 18 different states. Lukowsky was an adjunct professor of law at Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University and served as a consultant to the Institute of Court Management on the subject of rural court administration.

Upon enactment and implementation of the Judicial Article, Lukowsky was elevated to the Kentucky Supreme Court in 1978, representing a district that included metropolitan Northern Kentucky and several rural counties nearby. He was the first Northern Kentuckian to serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Lukowsky enjoyed a reputation for prodigious intellectual capacity, he wrote pungent appellate opinions, and his tutelage in law and procedure was venerated by lawyers and judges, who embraced his high standards and mordant wit. He believed that law, vigorously practiced, was fundamental to a just society. He “possessed great literary skill,” according to Kentucky Supreme Court chief justice John S. Palmore, who served with him in the inaugural term of the high court. Lukowsky believed that lay people as well as practitioners should understand legal writing. One could never be in doubt about Lukowsky’s position on the issues at hand after reading one of his opinions. His appellate opinions were gems of literacy, clarity, and wit. Each is a small legalliterary classic.

Lukowsky thought that the Kentucky legislature had made a muddle of part of the workers’ compensation statute in its 1978 session. Nevertheless, he voted with the court majority to uphold the act, damning the legislature with faint praise: “In the last analysis, the palate of the people determines the legislative diet. As President Ulysses S. Grant put it in his Inaugural Address on March 4, 1869, ‘I know of

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no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. . . .

The constitutional ring is closed. The legislature gave. The legislature has taken away. This court shall respect the function of the legislature.’ ” Perhaps his best-known and most controversial opinion was in the case that upheld the legislature’s enactment of a law requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state. It may have been in deference to what were apparently his own strong religious beliefs that Lukowsky took five doublecolumned pages to explain his dissent, which included these comments: Section 5 of the Kentucky Bill of Rights is unequivocal: “No preference shall ever be given by law . . . to any particular creed. . . .” It is an inescapable conclusion that the Ten Commandments are a religious creed. . . . The same power which could place a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of every public elementary and secondary classroom could place a copy of the Communist Manifesto on the same wall. The same state that could require a pledge of allegiance to the “Stars and Stripes” could require a salute to the “Hammer and Sickle.” . . . The wall that separates church and state protects as it restricts.

Justice Lukowsky’s position was adopted when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Ten Commandments decision.

He was considered for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District that sits in Cincinnati but was heard to say that he had been out-maneuvered in the hurly-burly of the nomination process, and the appointment went to another judge.

At the peak of his reputation and influence and seven years into an eight-year term on the Kentucky Supreme Court, Lukowsky was stricken with cancer. He died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati in 1981. He was 54 and had been a judge for 29 years. He had resided in Fort Mitchell. “He loved the law. His total life was the law,” said his widow Rosemary Domashko Lukowsky upon his passing. “He was one of the most dedicated and courageous men I have ever met,” observed Kentucky Supreme Court chief justice Robert Stephens at the time of his passing.

Lukowsky was a practicing Catholic who attended Mass on Saturday evenings at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington.

He was a member of the Ralph W. Fulton Post 6423 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Latonia Post 2032 of the American Legion.

His memory is preserved at Chase Law School with an award given in his name each year to the outstanding professor, as selected by the students.

The law library at the Kenton Co. Justice Center bears his name. A portrait of Lukowsky by the artist Maria Simmons of Elizabethtown, Ky., was hung in the capitol at Frankfort on June 11, 1996.

At the unveiling, Chief Justice Stephens, himself a Covington native, wrote in remarks placed in the record of the Supreme Court, “No one fought more fiercely to preserve the integrity of our courts than Bob Lukowsky.”

570 LURTON, HORACE HARMON “Annexation,” Lexington Herald, January 23, 1970, 1.

“A Fitting Tribute,” KP, June 13, 1996, 4K. Chase Law School Archives, Northern Kentucky Univ., Highland Heights, Ky. Long, Paul A. “Portrait Honors Jurist’s Impact on State,” KP, June 11, 1996, 5K. Memorial Resolution of the Kentucky Supreme Court, November 7, 1996.

Neikirk, Mark, and Bill Straub. “The Law Loses a Fine Mind in Lukowsky,” KP, December 7, 1981, 1K. “Robert Lukowsky Dies at 54: Kentucky High Court Judge,” NYT, December 7, 1981, D18.

Jim Dady

LURTON, HORACE HARMON (b. February 26, 1844, Newport, Ky.; d. July 12, 1914, Atlantic City, N.J.). Horace Harmon Lurton, a Confederate soldier, a lawyer, and a U.S. Supreme Court justice, was the son of Dr. Lycurgus L. and Sarah Ann Harmon Lurton. In the 1850s the family left Newport for Clarksville, Tenn. Lurton’s early education was by private tutor; he then entered Douglas University in Chicago at age 15. After his second year in college, the Civil War began, and he joined the Confederate Army. He intended to enlist in a Kentucky regiment, but, encountering none, he joined the 5th Tennessee Infantry. By age 18 he had been promoted to sergeant major, the highest rank attainable for an enlisted man. Then he joined the 1st Kentucky Infantry CSA. He was captured at Fort Donelson, Tenn., and imprisoned at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio. After escaping from the prison, he joined the 7th Kentucky Cavalry CSA. When Morgan’s Raiders (see John Hunt Morgan) surrendered in July 1863 during their invasion of Ohio, Lurton was imprisoned again. This time he was taken to Camp Johnson’s Island, near Sandusky, Ohio. He became seriously ill with what was thought to be tuberculosis, and his mother was able to persuade President Abraham Lincoln (1860–1865) to allow him to come home. After regaining his health, Lurton was admitted to Cumberland Law School, at Lebanon, Tenn.

He received his law degree in 1867 and set up practice in Clarksville, Tenn. That same year, he married Mary Frances Owen. Lurton was elected to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1886, becoming chief justice in 1893. President Grover Cleveland (1885–1889 and 1893–1897) appointed him to the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals in 1893. In 1898 he began teaching constitutional law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and was promoted to dean of the law school in 1905. President William Howard Taft (1909–1913) nominated Lurton as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in December 1909. His performance with the court was considered outstanding; it was said that he wrote clear, scholarly opinions. Because of failing health, he took a leave of absence in December 1913 and spent the winter in Florida trying to recuperate. He returned the following year, but his health continued to decline and he died at Atlantic City, N.J., of heart disease. He was buried in Greenville Cemetery in Clarksville, Tenn.

“Lurton, a Newport Boy on the Bench,” KJ, March 31, 1893, 4.

“The New Judge a Campbell County Boy,” KJ, March 23, 1893, 8.

Purvis, Thomas L., ed. Newport, Kentucky: A Bicentennial History. Newport, Ky.: Otto Zimmerman, 1996.

Reis, Jim. “Seven Left Mark on Supreme Court,” KP, October 3, 1988, 4K.

LUSBY’S MILL. Lusby’s Mill in Owen Co. is located six miles east of Owenton along Ky. Rt. 330 and Eagle Creek. In the early years of the county’s history, this area was settled by the Cobb family, hence its earliest name, Cobb’s Mill. William Jones built a mill there for the Cobbs. Before 1852 John or William Lusby had acquired the mill, and the area came to be called Lusby’s Mill. It had a post office from 1852 until 1904 and was incorporated as Lusby’s Mill in 1869. The town also had a grade school and the Lusby Central High School; the latter closed in 1934 after the last class graduated.

During the Civil War, Camp Humphrey, a Confederate recruiting and training center, was just up an adjacent steep hill. There have been several churches in the town, and until 1897 there was a distillery. Lusby’s Mill was the home of nostalgic poet Perry Jones, who was raised by Margaret McGibney “Aunt Marge” Hammon (1832–1929). She donated the land for the first school in town. After a bypass road was constructed, business activity declined greatly. No recent population estimates are available.

An Atlas of Owen County, Kentucky. Philadelphia: Lake, 1883.

Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976.

Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1984.

LUSTRON HOMES. Northern Kentucky contains a number of Lustron homes, an interesting architectural development of the mid-20th century.

The Lustron Corporation manufactured porcelainenameled steel prefabricated ranch-style houses during the immediate post–World War II period.

With financial support from the federal government, Lustron was the largest manufacturer of factory-made prefabricated housing for a brief time until its collapse in 1951. A shortage of affordable housing for returning veterans created a favorable climate for new approaches to housing construction, and Lustron capitalized on the market demand, using advanced production technologies and timely political connections.

In 1946 Kentucky native Wilson Wyatt, head of the veterans emergency housing program under President Harry S Truman (1945–1953), selected Lustron as an exemplar of new thinking about factory-produced housing. He hoped that large-scale manufacturing would make decent housing available to middle-income families just as mass production had done for automobiles. Although Wyatt soon left the administration, he succeeded in establishing Lustron as a viable enterprise, and the company eventually received $37 million in federal funds.

Lustron had limited success, but the large commitment of taxpayer dollars to the firm made it an easy target for those opposed to federal funding of

Lusby’s Mill.

private firms in peacetime. The automobile analogy proved misguided, as factory-produced and dealerdistributed housing presented far more obstacles.

Success required fundamental changes in the financial, legal, and social underpinnings of the housing industry, an industry notoriously resistant to change.

Lustron produced approximately 2,500 houses from 1949 to 1951 and distributed them through regional dealerships. With the United States embroiled in the Korean War and traditional home builders expanding production, Congress cut Lustron’s funding and the company drifted into receivership. In the years following the company’s demise, prefabricated housing gained greater market share and customer acceptance. Many of Lustron’s technical innovations, especially its steel framing system, have become increasingly common in residential construction.

Northern Kentucky Lustrons can be found in Alexandria (1), Edgewood (2), Fort Wright (1), and Owenton (4). The houses were durable, attractive, and popu lar with their owners. Twenty-five Lustrons are currently on the National Register of Historic Places, and nearly all the homes produced remain standing.

Knerr, Douglas. Suburban Steel. Columbus: Ohio State Univ., 2004.

Douglas Knerr

LUTHERANS. As German immigrants moved into Northern Kentucky in the 19th century, Lutherans were among them, although they were greatly outnumbered by German Roman Catholics (see German Americans). The Lutheran tradition of Christianity originated with the Reformation during the early 1500s. Martin Luther (1483–1546), a Roman Catholic Augustinian monk, priest, professor, and theologian, is considered the founder of Lutheranism. The first Lutherans to arrive in North America came from Holland as early as 1623 and founded the city of New Amsterdam (New York City). Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787) may rightfully be called the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America. Arriving in Charleston, S.C., after a 14-week voyage in 1741, Muhlenberg was a tireless worker who helped organize churches in the colonies until his death in October 1787. Three of Muhlenberg’s sons became ordained Lutheran ministers and were prominent in other fields including botany, the military, and politics. One son, John Peter Gabriel (1746–1807), is

LYNCHING OF PETER KLEIN

the namesake of Muhlenberg Co. in Western Kentucky.

Lutherans moving westward in frontier America during the early 1800s were typically Germanspeaking farmers. A lack of strong church leadership and the scarcity of pastors made church organization difficult. The freedom-minded Lutherans found slavery repulsive, and furthermore, the terrain and soil were not very conducive to their farming needs and skills. These are some of the reasons why more congregations were not founded in Northern Kentucky.

From 1820 to 1970, Lutheran synods evolved by regions and doctrinal beliefs. While the General Synod of the northern states, including northern Indiana, was generally more liberal, evangelistic, and socially active, the General Council of southern Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee was more orthodox, separatist, and silent on public issues. In 1917 a merger of the General Synod, the General Council, and the United Synod in the South created the United Lutheran Church in America. Kentucky had about 3,900 members, and there were almost 1,300 Kentuckians in the Missouri Synod. By the 1920s, most Kentucky mission churches were urban. In 1934 the Kentucky-Tennessee Synod was organized, and although most of its constituency was in Louisville, its first convention was held in Newport. Overcoming the hardships of the Great Depression and World War II, the synod was held together by placing emphasis on the importance of the individual and in authentic fellowship. Common goals in Christian ser vice were pursued. By 1962, membership had doubled, and in 1963 the reorganized Indiana-Kentucky Synod became operative with a Gospel-centered ministry as its focus.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod began in 1839, with 750 Saxon immigrants who, seeking religious freedom, settled in Missouri. Pastors sent from Germany helped form the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, and its first convention was held in Chicago in 1847. One hundred years later, in 1947, the name was changed to the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. This arm of the Lutheran Church maintains some theological differences with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) in biblical interpretation, such as holding the ordination of women as contrary to scripture. The ELCA has ordained women ministers since 1970, while European Lutheran churches began ordaining women in the 1920s.

In 1988 three Lutheran church bodies in the United States formed the ELCA—the American Lutheran Church, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and the Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA is the largest body of the Lutheran church in the United States today, numbering more than 5.5 million people. The second-largest Lutheran Church group in the nation is the more conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), with more than 2.6 million members.

Other organized bodies currently include the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. There are about 82.6 million Lutherans worldwide—

primarily in Africa, Asia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, North America, Norway, South America, and Sweden.

On a global level, the organized body of the Lutheran Church helps support the missions of Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) and Lutheran World Relief (LWR), which are among the world’s largest immediate-response efforts to assist in domestic and global emergencies. LDR, a collaborative ministry between the ELCA and the LCMS, provides care to anyone in need domestically through Lutheran Social Ser vice. It has acted in recovery efforts following natural disasters in Florida and along the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes of the early 21st century. LWR supports global ministerial efforts such as recovery from the tsunami that impacted Africa, India, and Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2004. It also advocates fair trade to help developing-world farmers and artisans overcome poverty and to create better communities and environments. These organized, corporate church bodies exemplify joint efforts by all facets of the Lutheran Church to provide assistance in emergency situations with immediate aid in counseling, medical and material assistance, and supplies.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 company—the result of a 2001 merger between two early-20th-century fraternal benefit companies founded by Lutheran leaders in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The not-for-profit organization provides financial products to members and gives profits back to the larger community through its sponsored programs, such as Thrivent Builds, Habitat for Humanity, and broadcast programs such as Minnesota Public Radio’s Speaking of Faith—conversations about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas.

From the establishment of Hopeful Lutheran Church in Florence, Ky., in 1806, to the rebuilding of St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cold Spring in 2008, this faith tradition persists.

Reformation is an ongoing, perpetual process as the eight ELCA, four LCMS, and one WELS Northern Kentucky Lutheran congregations minister to the needs of all people with physical, social, and spiritual ser vice.

Existing Lutheran congregations in the early 21st century and their founding dates in Northern Kentucky include the following eight ELCA churches: Hopeful Lutheran Church in Florence (1806), Hebron Lutheran Church in Burlington (1854), St. John Lutheran Church in Melbourne (1861), St. Mark Lutheran Church in Newport (1897), St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chatham (1928), St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cold Spring (1953), Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Bellevue (1978), and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Crestview Hills (1982). There are also four LCMS churches: Trinity Lutheran Church in Maysville (1929), Bethany Lutheran Church in Erlanger (1934), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Florence (1995), and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Dry Ridge; and there is one WELS congregation, Amazing Grace Lutheran Church in Boone Co. The founding dates of the Immanuel and Amazing Grace congregations are unknown.

571

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. www.elca .org (accessed October 10, 2006).

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. www.lcms .org (accessed October 10, 2006).

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History. New York: Penguin Group, 2003.

Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior. The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. Trans. Theodore G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein. Philadelphia: Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States, 1958.

Nafzger, Samuel. An Introduction to the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia, 1994.

Waltmann, Henry G., ed. History of the IndianaKentucky Synod. Indianapolis, Ind.: Central, 1971.

Melinda G. Motley

LYNCHING OF PETER KLEIN. On March 7, 1879, an African American vagrant from Ohio, Peter Klein, spent the evening drinking whiskey in the bars of Cincinnati. Later that night he crossed the Ohio River and continued drinking in the saloons of Newport. He wandered into the District of the Highlands (modern Fort Thomas) drunk and destitute. Returning toward Newport, he approached the farmhouse of Charles Truesdale (Truesdell) along modern-day Waterworks Rd. Klein knocked on the door, which was answered

by Truesdale’s 24-year-old pregnant wife, Carrie.

After Klein concluded that Carrie Truesdale was home alone, he forced his way into the home. He beat her, hitting her in the head and kicking her in the stomach, and dragged her into a closet, where he tied her up and raped her. Klein then proceeded to ransack the home in search of valuables. He left with some change and Carrie Trusedale’s gold watch. Trusedale’s husband returned several hours later to find his wife unconscious. He ran to the home of his neighbors, the Jollys, who proceeded to “raise the county.”

Carrie Truesdale gave a description of Peter Klein, and the manhunt began. The Southgate brothers offered a large reward for the capture of the culprit, as did the local county judge and the governor of Kentucky. On March 16, Peter Klein was found in a saloon on Isabella St. in Newport.

He matched the description of the suspect and, more importantly, had Carrie Truesdale’s gold watch in his pocket. He was immediately lodged in the Newport jail, and he gave his confession of the crime. Word spread throughout the county that the fugitive had been caught. Officials planned to move Klein to the jail in Covington later that evening for safety reasons, but before they could execute their plan, a large mob stormed the Newport jailhouse. Several hundred citizens armed with shotguns and axes marched through town in a blinding snowstorm to reach Klein. Newport mayor William Harton tried to dissuade the mob from taking Klein. The crowd carried the mayor out of the building and threw him over the fence.

The jailer’s keys were confiscated and Klein was seized from his cell. The mob, headed by several prominent citizens, marched him into the snowy streets, shouting, “All of you who have mothers,

572 LYNCHINGS wives, or sisters, come on!” The crowd grew to an estimated 1,500 in number. Klein was forced to return to the scene of his crime and was brought before Carrie Truesdale, who positively identified Klein as her assailant.

The angry army of citizens showed Klein no mercy. They marched him to an oak tree in the nearby Odd Fellows Grove along Waterworks Rd. A noose was thrown around his neck and he was placed in a wagon under the tree. Klein protested, “Th is is not the law!” “Th is is Kentucky law!” was the reply. Klein was hanged and the lynch mob riddled his hanging body with bullets. Klein’s body was not taken down until the next morning.

As news of the lynching gained national attention, many newspapers, including the New York Times, ran editorials expressing their sentiments about the lynching. Public opinion was divided: some thought that Klein got what he deserved and that justice was served. Others were embarrassed by the incident and thought it reflected badly on the city and the state. Although some well-known citizens were known to have participated in the lynching, no charges were ever fi led. Kentucky governor James McCreary (1875–1879 and 1911– 1915) came under attack for not having sent for a military guard, especially since he had been previously warned about the mob’s intention. The Covington Daily Commonwealth summed up the matter by saying, “So ends one of the most horrible and disgusting events that has taken place in this county.”

“Echoes of the Outrage,” DC, March 12, 1879, 1.

“Hanged without a Trial,” NYT, March 17, 1879, 1.

“Law vs. Mob Rule,” CDC, March 18, 1879, 1.

“Snowstorm Recalls Hanging to Pioneers,” KP, March 17, 1926, 1.

“Taken Out and Done For,” CDC, March 17, 1879, 1.

Robin Caraway

LYNCHINGS. Although extralegal executions had taken place in Kentucky before the Civil War as so-called citizen’s committees carried out the

sentence of “Judge Lynch,” postwar Kentucky suffered an epidemic of lynchings, and some of these took place in Northern Kentucky. Most Kentucky lynchings were racially motivated as white supremacists attempted to maintain control over newly emancipated slaves. Sometimes calling themselves “Negro Regulators,” bands of white marauders terrorized free black households and communities for several years after the war. During this time, lynch mobs often justified their actions by arguing that the legal system had failed to serve timely justice to alleged perpetrators of murder, rape, and theft. For example, on June 23, 1876, several dozen masked men forcibly removed a black man named Smith Williams from the Boone Co. jail in Burlington, where he had spent nine months awaiting trial for shooting a white man during an altercation. Once out of town, the mob stripped and hanged Williams, then riddled his body with bullets. Northern Kentucky mobs also seized and executed several white men during this era, but African Americans, though a small minority of the population, were lynched with greater frequency and more overt brutality.

By the late 19th century, racially motivated lynchings often took the form of public spectacle and had at least tacit support from local authorities. On December 9, 1899, Richard Coleman, a young black man from Mason Co. being held in jail at Covington pending trial for the rape and murder of a white woman, was placed on a train bound for Maysville. Before marshals could deliver their prisoner to the local jail, a large group of citizens, led by the victim’s husband, demanded that Coleman be handed over to them. His guards complied, and a subsequently convened sham court sentenced the accused to be roasted alive. Hundreds of Mason Co. residents, young and old, male and female, participated in the lynching by adding fuel to the pyre as the victim was tortured and burned to death over a four-hour period. Although the lynching took place in broad daylight, none of the participants bothered to disguise themselves, and none faced charges afterward. Once the fire

had died down, what remained of Coleman’s corpse was dragged through the historic port city in a macabre parade. Newspapers from Chicago to Cincinnati to New York City reported the ghastly details of Coleman’s death, yet national notoriety, even combined with new antilynching laws, did not bring an end to the practice in the commonwealth of Kentucky.

Grant Smith, a black resident of Maysville, was lynched in March 1920. According to an NAACP investigation following his death, Smith, who was married, appears to have been guilty of nothing more than an affair with an unmarried white woman. However, he was accused of rape, held in Covington pending trial, and finally sent by rail to Maysville. A group of about 40 men stopped the train and took Smith from it after making public their intent to give him the same treatment Coleman had received. Not enjoying the same level of community support, particularly from local authorities, this lynch mob decided instead to hang their victim unceremoniously from a Bourbon Co. telephone pole. As the 20th century progressed, Kentucky authorities gradually undermined public support for racially motivated lynchings, in part by allowing swift prosecution of black defendants before hostile, all-white juries, a practice that frequently resulted in what historians have called “legal lynchings.” See also Lynching of Peter Klein.

Lucas, Marion B. A History of Blacks in Kentucky.

Vol. 1, From Slavery to Segregation, 1760–1891.

Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society, 1992.

Waldrep, Christopher. Th e Many Faces of Judge Lynch: Extralegal Violence and Punishment in America. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002.

Wright, George C. A History of Blacks in Kentucky.

Vol. 2, In Pursuit of Equality, 1890–1980. Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society, 1992.

———. Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865–1940: Lynching, Mob Rule, and “Legal Lynchings.” Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1990.

J. Michael Rhyne