Author Archives: Lynn Niedermeier

Alice Hegan Rice

WKU’s Special Collections Library has contributed a photo of author Alice Hegan Rice to an upcoming exhibit at Louisville’s Speed Museum relating to its founder, Hattie Bishop Speed.

A lifelong resident of Louisville, Alice Hegan Rice (1870-1942) published many popular novels and stories, but it was Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1901), inspired by her experiences working with the city’s underprivileged, that made her famous.  Selling 650,000 copies in its first two years, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch generated numerous stage, screen and radio adaptations and brought notoriety to Louisville’s Cabbage Patch district and to Mary Bass, a resident of the area who was the model for “Mrs. Wiggs.”

Rice and her husband Cale Young Rice (1872-1943), himself an author, dramatist and poet, enjoyed a personal and professional partnership that lasted more than 40 years and brought them into contact with such early 20th-century notables as Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Ida Tarbell, Henry Watterson and Theodore Roosevelt.

We hold a large collection of correspondence, manuscripts, clippings and scrapbooks relating to the life and career of both Alice Hegan Rice and Cale Young Rice.  A finding aid can be downloaded here.

Dr. Joe Sarnowski’s new book

Dr. Joe E. Sarnowski, Chair of the Department of English at San Diego Christian College in El Cajon, California, has just published his book, The Literary Achievement of the American Poet Robert Penn Warren: His Life-Long Struggles with Morality, Myth, and Modernity (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009). 

In the book, Dr. Sarnowski examines how Warren’s poetry addresses the myths residing in five American cultural discourses: racism, war, romantic love, nature, and death.

For the cover of the book, Dr. Sarnowski chose an image of Warren from the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library.

Click here for information about the Robert Penn Warren Library at WKU’s Special Collections Library.

Gail Raley (right), Judy Perkins (left, with her granddaughter) and Jonathan Jeffrey, Manuscripts Coordinator, holding Miller day book

William Makel Miller (1806-1886) was one of the founders of Horse Branch, Kentucky.  In addition to farming large tracts of land in the area, he operated a store, served as a justice of the peace and election officer, and was appointed the community’s first postmaster.  It is said that many residents of Ohio County can trace their ancestry back to “Uncle Make” and his wife Mary “Polly” Mitchell Miller (1810-1886).  Two of those descendants have recently donated to WKU’s Special Collections Library a day book belonging to Miller that documents his business activities from 1852-1886.  Miller’s many commercial pursuits included trading in corn, wheat, oats, animal hides and lumber, renting out horses and wagons, engaging laborers, and keeping boarders; Miller also regularly earned fees from serving legal documents.  Found inside the book were several loose papers, including a poem written by young Judy Bradley of Rosine and a copy of Miller’s will, dated less than two weeks prior to his wife’s death and less than four weeks prior to his own.  A finding aid for Miller’s day book can be downloaded here.

Warren County, Ky. Equity Court Cases

In the 19th century, equity court (sometimes called chancery court) was the forum where Kentuckians sought justice for wrongs that could not adequately be remedied in a court of law.  For example, where a court of law might simply award monetary damages for breach of contract, an equity court could order the contract performed exactly as written, or order it undone as if it had never been made.  Equity courts could order a person to act in a certain way–to give an accounting of ill-gotten profits, for example–or not to act in a certain way, such as selling property that was likely to be seized for debt, or leaving the jurisdiction in order to avoid a lawsuit.  Equity courts also handled other cases requiring the broader application of principles of justice, such as divorces, estate disputes, and problems involving title to land.  The Department of Library Special Collections holds a large collection of Warren County Equity Court cases covering the years 1802 to 1856.  A finding aid is now available online, showing the names of the plaintiff and defendant, the date, the number of documents in the file, and a summary of the type of case.  The list is arranged by case number and can be most easily searched by using the “Find” function of your word processing software.  Remember: standards of literacy varied widely, so use your imagination when searching for a name and possible alternate spellings.  The finding aid can be downloaded here.

Irene Moss Sumpter

Irene Malone (Moss) Sumpter (1902-1996), a Warren County, Kentucky native and WKU graduate, was an author, genealogist and local historian.  She was a member of the Samuel Davies chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames of America for the State of Kentucky, the Warren County Historical Society, the Landmark Association and the Hobson House Association.  In 1954, for the benefit of their daughter Reta, she and her husband Ward Cullin Sumpter (1903-1977) completed a genealogical project entitled “Our Daughter’s Ancestry.”  In 1976, she published Our Heritage: An Album of Early Warren County Kentucky Landmarks, and in 1985 published Medical Doctors of Bowling Green and Warren County, 1796-1985.  Over many decades, Mrs. Sumpter collected research in support of her publications as well as genealogical materials — wills, deeds and other legal documents, family pedigree charts, photos, letters and news clippings — tracing the lineage of dozens of families, many with Warren County connections.  Most letters and legal papers are photocopies, but some, mainly those of the Watson and Coleman families that reveal their relationship to Texas politician Collin McKinney (1766-1861), a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico, are originals.

An earlier collection of Sumpter’s research, totaling more than 1,300 items and housed in WKU’s Special Collections Library, has now been supplemented by a second collection of more than 700 items.  Finding aids for both collections can be downloaded here and here.

Bowling Green City Hall

Researchers interested in the history of local government can access original minutes of the Bowling Green City Council at WKU’s Special Collections Library.  The minutes document meetings of the Board of Councilmen from 1948-1967, the Board of Aldermen from 1955-1967, and the Board of Commissioners from 1968-1987.  Why the different names?  In March 1952, Bowling Green established a bicameral system of government in which a four-person Board of Aldermen shared legislative duties with the Board of Councilmen.  On January 1, 1968, Bowling Green officially eliminated the bicameral body and adopted a “city manager” form of government with a mayor and Board of Commissioners.  The minutes trace this evolution of city government and record matters of city business including passage of ordinances, annexations, purchases and sales of city property, employee appointments and salaries, building permits, bond issues, and rezonings.  A finding aid for the collection is available here.

A related collection consists of the typescripted minutes of the city trustees of Bowling Green covering the years 1823 to 1868.  These are also available in the Special Collections Library.