Author Archives: Sandy McAllister

WKU Libraries recently received a major collection of the literary works of southern women writers.  The three thousand volume collection was the generous gift of the former Dean of Potter College and Department of English Professor Ward Hellstrom who is now retired and living in Florida.  The collection contains many valuable first editions and copies signed by the authors and will be an incredible asset to the library’s holdings.

“None of the life of a good man should be lost but should be preserved for the beneficent results it would give posterity.”     Alfred Leland Crabb

Alfred Crabb included the above epigram in a letter to a former student prior to being approached by Mary Leiper Moore, head of the Kentucky Library & Museum, about depositing his correspondence and manuscripts at WKU.  Although he taught at Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville for over twenty years, Crabb had deep ties to WKU.  He was born on 22 January 1884, the son of James Wade Crabb and Fannie (Arbuckle) Crabb in Warren County’s Girkin community.  He attended the Plum Springs Grade School and later matriculated at Bethel College in Russellville.  He received a life [teaching] certificate from Western Kentucky State Normal School in 1910.  From 1913 to 1927 he served on the faculty at Western.

After completing his doctorate at Peabody, Crabb accepted a faculty position there in 1927 and remained until his retirement in 1949.  He wrote extensively for scholarly journals and was editor of the Peabody Journal of Education from 1932 to 1967.  He is best remembered for his historical fiction novels about Civil War-era Nashville and middle Tennessee.  However, he never forgot Warren County.  Crabb wrote a number of “Plum Springs School” stories, several published in national periodicals, which recalled his early educational experiences.  He also published the locally popular Peace at Bowling Green, a saga that traced the Park City’s heritage from the 1790s to the Civil War.

Crabb’s manuscript collection consists chiefly of his published and unpublished writings, including a draft of Peace at Bowling Green.  Of interest is a large grouping of manuscripts entitled “Hilltop Stories” which are loosely based on his experiences as a student at WKU.  Anyone familiar with WKU’s history will recognize the professors Crabb creates and no one would fail to discern that the president of Hilltop Academy is based on Henry Hardin Cherry.  The collection includes one box of correspondence which includes a number of letters penned by Dr. Cherry as well as Thomas Crittenden Cherry, James Lewie Harman and J. Murray Hill, Sr., and other Bowling Green notables of the era.  Click here to see the finding aid for the Crabb Collection.  To look for other literary and historical collections in WKU’s Manuscripts & Folklife Archives search TopSCHOLAR and/or KenCat.

Sam Sing Price List

The Kentucky Library & Museum recently accessioned an interesting account book related to a Chinese laundry in Bowling Green.  The ledger, written in English, contains a few pages of customer accounts kept for Sam Sing, the operator of a laundry here in the 1880s.  At the back of the notebook is a small printed form which lists the types of work Sam Sing performed in his hand laundry and the corresponding prices for those services. We know nothing else about Sam Sing.  To view the finding aid for this collection click here.

In the late-nineteenth century United States, the occupation of laundry worker was heavily identified with Chinese Americans. Discrimination, language barriers, and lack of capital kept Chinese Americans from most available occupations.  Around 1900, one-fourth of all ethnic Chinese men in the United States worked in a laundry.  “Laundry work,” wrote one historian, “was especially wearisome, because it meant the soaking, scrubbing, and ironing of clothing solely by hand; moreover, prompt and high quality service was necessary to keep customers satisfied. Workers in laundries…received the going wage of twenty-five dollars per month, and despite long hours the work-week was seven days.  For the majority of the Chinese, then, the daily routine was almost solely working, eating, and sleeping. There were few other occupations available to Chinese.”

We do know of at least one other Chinese launderer that lived in Bowling Green, and unfortunately he met a tragic fate.  Kee Shuck operated a laundry on College Street.  He was murdered with a pair of scissors on May 30, 1896.  The culprit was never found, although the operator of a rival Chinese laundry was a prime suspect.  With no local family Kee Shuck was buried in an unmarked grave in Fairview Cemetery.  The Kentucky Library & Museum owns his city-issued burial permit.  His cause of death is listed as “murder” and his color “yellow.”  For more information on Bowling Green history, check out TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

At the final  Java City Concert,  singer/songwriter/WKU employee entertained the crowd Sean Giddings entertained the crowd with his thoughtful lyrics and sophisticated song stylings.

Johnson Building, Bowling Green, KY

WKU Folk Studies graduate student Katherine Chappell is completing an internship in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives of the Kentucky Library & Museum.  Last semester while conducting research to provide information for a National Register of Historic Places nomination of James Ingram-designed home, she discovered how prolific Ingram’s career as a Bowling Green architect truly had been.  He designed well over a thousand homes, schools, and businesses in and around the city from the 1930’s through the mid-1950s.  Thanks to a donation made by his widow, Ruby Stephens Ingram, the Kentucky Library & Museum is home to nearly 1200 sets of his architectural drawings. 

Since January, Chappell has been working to catalog some of these drawings and adding them to a publicly accessible online database.  She has also transcribed a 1982 interview with Ingram’s widow, in which Ruby Stephens Ingram talks about her husband’s career, many of the people he worked with, and how he felt about the buildings he designed.  Chappell has sought out many of the Ingram-designed homes still standing in Bowling Green to match new photographs with the archival drawings and to reveal how influential, long lasting, and popular his designs were in the area.  One of her most exciting moments was contacting Ingram’s grandson to let him know that his grandfather’s work is still known and appreciated.  Thanks to her work in this internship, she was recently awarded one of three Russell M. and Mary Z Yeager Graduate Scholarships.

Chappell is currently designing the content for a new website to honor Ingram and to showcase his prolific local career.  Included will be excerpts from Ruby Stephens Ingram’s interview, some representative samples of his drawings and photographs of the completed buildings, research on Ingram by former WKU students, and more.  Chappell would be interested in hearing from you if you live in an Ingram-designed home or have your own Ingram memories to share.   To see records created for the Ingram drawings search under his name in KenCat.

The local alt-rock band “Technology vs. Horse” brought its high energy,  wonderfully creative style of music to a very appreciative crowd at Java City today. Learn more about them here.

The Noon Concert series continues next week with Sean Giddings on April 27th.  Find Sean on Facebook here.

Thanks to Independence Bank for their continued sponsorship.

The Crowd at Java City was thrilled by local music legend

and humorist “Banjo Bill” aka William Green

as he performed all of his favorites like “Bowling Green,”

“This All I Get For Looking Like Burt Reynolds?”

and “I want your blood” a vampire love song.

Bethel College (Russellville)

Samuel Baker, a Baptist minister, is credited with initiating the scheme to begin two Bethel Colleges in southcentral Kentucky, one in Russellville for males and one forty miles west in Hopkinsville for females. Born in Sussex County, England in 1812, Baker emigrated to the United States in 1834 to study theology. He started his ministerial duties at Alton, Illinois in 1837, followed by pastorates in Missouri and Shelbyville, Kentucky.

In 1841, Baptists from Russellville aggressively recruited Baker to take charge of their fledgling church. The group “cordially” invited Baker “to take up his residence” and become their pastor for an annual salary of $600. The pastor search committee admitted that “the church has been long without pastoral supervision,” but assured the candidate of the church’s unity. The committee also informed Baker that they were willing to wait up to six months for him to settle his personal affairs in Shelbyville before assuming duties.

Baker remained at Russellville for five years before taking a similar position at Hopkinsville Baptist Church, where he served for four years. While at Hopkinsville, Baker chaired Bethel Association of Baptists’s education committee.  Under his leadership, the Association appproved the establishment of Bethel College in Russellville; it began operation in 1854. That same year Baker delivered an address at the Association’s annual meeting outlining the needs for a similar institution for young ladies. The Russellville school remained in operation until 1933; its female counterpart stayed open until 1964. Baker later served churches in Nashville, Williamsburg, NY, Chicago, Evansville and Brooklyn, New York. In 1873 he returned to the church in Russellville and pastored there until 1885.

The Kentucky Library and Museum owns a small collection of letters and documents that belonged to Baker. This material includes facsimiles of letters written by important Baptist leaders of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection also contains some of Baker’s personal correspondence related to his pastorates. The finding aid for this collection can be found here. For more information about Kentucky Baptists in the Kentucky Library & Museum collections search KenCat and TopSCHOLAR.

The beautiful weather brought a crowd to the patio outside Java City in Helm on Wednesday to hear Louisville based rappers D- Lux and Drian.

Last week featured a performance by belly dance troupe Zingara.  The troupe performed at Java City last year and is a University favorite.