Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Dr. Marvin Downing will be addressing the society at the quarterly meeting.  In anticipation of the upcoming talk, we talked with him about his 34-year career as a professor of history at UT Martin, his civic activities he performs and his research and knowledge of Christmasville.  It was the town that time forgot, nestled away in the Tennessee woods.  It would fail to take advantage of technology in railroads and slowly die down to nothing but a post office until 1903 and then nothing after that.

Join us as we take a look at a now forgotten part of the Jackson Purchase.

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The podcast will feature our speaker, Dieter Ullrich.  At our Summer meeting this Saturday, July 24, 2010, Dieter will be discussing the Battle of Lochridge Mills, Tennessee.  Mr. Ullrich holds a Masters in Science in Library/Archival Science and a Masters in Arts in History.  He is currently the Special Collections Librarian/Archivist of the Pogue Library at Murray State University.  Among other publications, Mr. Ullrich has written “They Met At Lochridge Mills” (West Tennessee Historical Society, Vol. 51, 1998 Annual Issue, pages 1-20) and spoken about this battle before other historical groups.

The meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the auditorium of the Wrather Museum on the campus of Murray State University.

We will also be electing officers for the 2010-2011 year and the 2010 Journal will be distributed.  Dues for 2011 can be paid at this meeting.

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We recently had a chance to talk with Constance Alexander, oral historian and lady of letters in advance of her presentation to the Society at the Spring Meeting this coming Saturday.  She recounted her youth growing up in New Jersey, her time gathering and recording the history of the Jackson Purchase and the joys and difficulties of conducting oral history interviews.  Constance has her own website at www.constancealexander.com.  You can email her at constancealexander@newwavecomm.net.

The Spring meeting is this Saturday, April 17 at 10:30am at the Wrather Auditorium on the campus of Murray State University.  Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to hear Constance talk about our history.

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In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past - recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This fourth voice is again that of historian Dr. James Hammack.  Dr. Hammack was on the Department of History faculty of Murray State University (MSU) for 30 years, 10 years of which he served as Department Chair.   Following his death,  a Scholarship Banquet has been held, for the past 8 years, at which the Dr. James W. Hammack, Jr. graduate scholarship is awarded.

Dr. Hammack was instrumental in creating the Kentucky Oral History Commission and he tells here of the original mission of collecting oral histories of the people in Kentucky government and politics including Governors Nunn and Ford.    His "adventures" collecting those oral histories are recounted in this speech given to the Society in June 1974.

This recording is the exclusive property of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. It is made available for your personal use only and may not be used for any other commercial or non-commercial purposes, including any public performance, broadcasting, or copying of this recording. If you have any questions about how this recording may be used, please contact the President of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at info@jacksonpurchasehistory.org

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In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past - recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This third voice is that of a historian, James W. Hammack, Jr.   Dr. Hammack was on the Department of History faculty of Murray State University (MSU) for 30 years, 10 years of which he served as Department Chair.   Following his death,  a Scholarship Banquet has been held, for the past 8 years, at which the Dr. James W. Hammack, Jr. graduate scholarship is awarded.

Dr. Hammack was the author of a book entitled, Kentucky and the Second American Revolution:  The War of 1812. This recorded speech was given December 5, 1975.

Dr. Hammack's speech explores the various battles of the War of 1812, including the Battle of the Thames and the Battle of New Orleans, and how the valor and skill of the fighting men from Kentucky gave birth to the term "Kentucky Rifleman" .

This recording is the exclusive property of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. It is made available for your personal use only and may not be used for any other commercial or non-commercial purposes, including any public performance, broadcasting, or copying of this recording. If you have any questions about how this recording may be used, please contact the President of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at info@jacksonpurchasehistory.org

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In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past - recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This second voice is that of a writer, Robert Drake, talking about his hometown, Ripley, Tennessee, and the origin of his characters.  "What I Write About:  Death and Old Women" is the title of one of his works, and his answer when anyone asks about what he writes.

This was recorded on June 1973 in Fulton, KY and here for the Society he discusses his early life which was populated with old maids and women sipping their tea while gossiping, whom he loved and immortalized in his fiction.

Dr. Drake was a professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Martin from 1973-99, University of Tennessee, 1965-73, University of Texas, Austin 1961-65.  A collection of his works, "For the Record: A Robert Drake Reader", published at the time of his death in June 2001, is still available from online booksellers.  Earlier works include a collection of short stories, Amazing Grace (1965), and other collections, The Single Heart (1971), the Burning Bush (1975), The Home Place (1980), Survivors and Others (1987), My Sweetheart's House (1993) and What Will You do for an Encore? (1996)

This recording is the exclusive property of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. It is made available for your personal use only and may not be used for any other commercial or non-commercial purposes, including any public performance, broadcasting, or copying of this recording. If you have any questions about how this recording may be used, please contact the President of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at info@jacksonpurchasehistory.org

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In this series, we are going to bring you voices from the past - recordings recently found of four of our speakers from the years 1973-1975.

This first voice is a musical one, that of Jimmy Driftwood on July 28, 1975.   Records of the Society do not reveal the name of the building at whose dedication Driftwood is speaking.

Jimmy Driftwood was a school teacher who was also a songwriter.  His most famous song was "Battle of New Orleans" and sings it during this speech.  He also sings and discusses old ballads.  For those of you who are not Southerners, when Driftwood speaks of "ambeer" he is talking about tobacco juice.

Driftwood (born James Corbitt Morris, 1907-1998) was one of the original members of the Grand Ole Opry and was instrumental in establishing the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas which preserves Ozark Mountain culture.  The Center has since been absorbed by the Arkansas State Park System.

When the "Battle" was recorded by Johnny Horton it stayed 21 weeks on top of the pop and country charts and was awarded a Grammy for the Song of the Year in 1960.   He received Grammy awards for others of his songs such as "Wilderness Road", "Tennessee Stud", and "Songs of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb."

This recording is the exclusive property of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. It is made available for your personal use only and may not be used for any other commercial or non-commercial purposes, including any public performance, broadcasting, or copying of this recording. If you have any questions about how this recording may be used, please contact the President of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society at info@jacksonpurchasehistory.org.

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We had the extreme pleasure of talking with Teresa Ray of the Paradise Friendly Home an orphans' home located in Farmington, KY.  She recounted her time there as an orphan as well as Paradise Friendly Home's place in the history of Western Kentucky.  She will be the guest speaker at the quarterly meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society on January 16.

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We recently sat down to talk to Dr. Kit Wesler, the upcoming speaker at the Fall 2009 Quarterly meeting.  Dr. Wesler earned his B.A. from Washington University-St. Louis and his M.A. and Ph.D from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   Dr. Wesler is a past contributor to the Journal (Vol. X, June 1982).  He was Director of Murray State University’s Wickliffe Mounds Research Center until it became a state historic site under the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

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