Category Archives: Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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.

Tempie Jane (Bell) Witten

Tempie Jane (Bell) Witten (1901-1985), a native of Grayson County, Kentucky, taught elementary and high school for more than 40 years.  This manuscript collection of more than 1,500 items, available at WKU’s Special Collections Library, includes genealogical research on the Bell, McCrady, Skaggs, Salsman, Witten and other families; materials relating to Witten’s teaching career; news clippings on Grayson County history, people and places; and information relating to Grayson County schools and churches.  Of particular interest are four letters describing Japan in 1947-48, and a 1975 sermon by LaVerne Butler of Ninth & O Baptist Church in Louisville on school desegregation and busing of students in that city and Jefferson County.

A collection finding aid is available here.

A new addition to the Manuscripts collection of WKU’s Special Collections Library is an 1844 letter from John C. Easton, a Taylorsville, Spencer County, Kentucky lawyer, to his brother James. He discusses the forthcoming presidential election, including the possibility that the “Locos” (short for Locofocos, a radical wing of the Democratic Party) might nominate former vice president and Kentucky native Richard Mentor Johnson. Opponents had criticized Johnson for his relationship with a mulatto slave with whom he had two children, and Easton refers to Johnson’s “colored” wife in his letter. A finding aid and transcription of the letter can be accessed here.