8 Stranger Things In Scott County, KY
Written by Dylan Marson
There’s something strange in the neighborhood, and we don’t have any ghostbusters on call. Just beneath the surface of this unsuspecting Kentucky community, there lies an uncanny number of strange tales and unusual experiences just waiting to be uncovered. Follow along for 8 of the stranger things you can experience that will turn your trip to the Bluegrass upside down.
A Hairy Situation on the Walls of Ward Hall
In the heart of Scott County lies a 12,000-square-foot Grand Manse that was home to some of the sauciest and most scandalous historic individuals to grace Kentucky’s high society. While there are countless stories and artifacts housed within its walls, one item in particular might just make your skin crawl. It’s known as a mourning wreath.
As you can guess from the name, mourning wreaths were made to honor and memorialize family members after they had passed away. This all sounds very normal and perhaps even a little sweet until you take a closer look at what these wreaths were made out of…human hair.
Yes, hanging above a bed in this historic home is a wreath made of hair collected from the deceased. At one time, it was actually a popular and widespread victorian-era tradition to create a mourning wreath and add more hair to it as family members would pass away. It is not uncommon to find wreaths with 10 or more different individuals' hair woven into them as they were passed down through the generations.
So while it is unknown whose hair is woven into this particular wreath, you can be assured that it is not the only one of its kind. Not just wreaths, but hair necklaces, earrings and jewelry can be found all across the United States as the last remnants of this bizarre practice. Victorian-era mourning traditions like this are assumed to have largely died out in the early 1900s as the world was ravaged by the Great War and the Spanish Flu. There was simply too much death to keep up with tradition.
Conversations With A Centuries Old Talking Crow
Throughout the history of Scott County you can find many historical figures who led interesting lives or who were just plain scandalous, but there’s only one you can speak to still today and he’s well over 100 years old!
His name is Pete and yes, he is a crow. While he may not be as animated as he once was in his prime, he is certainly just as talkative as he spends his days perched in the Georgetown & Scott County Museum. “Go!” he would squawk; or so the story goes. It was his favorite word, one which would often confuse the horses at local races and gained him local notoriety.
Troublemaking aside, Pete lived a happy life with his owner and companion Dave Adams. Adams was a hatmaker who ran a hat shop in downtown Georgetown. The pair were known to stroll downtown to socialize and enjoy the local delights. Sadly after 3 years in Georgetown, Pete's story was violently cut short by a naive young boy with a well-aimed rifle.
So well known was Pete, and loved by some, that he was given a burial on the grounds of Georgetown College. And though he now rests on those grounds in an unmarked grave, his mechanical twin helps his spirit live on; Perched in the town he called home and chatting with the people who so cherished his mischievous outbursts. So when you visit the old Museum and a strange black bird squawks at you to “Go,” know that he is truly glad you came.
13 cabins, An Abandoned Camp And A History Of Death
Fisher’s Travel Camp can be found in the outskirts of Scott County, just off of US 25. Opened in 1928, this roadside stop once offered a selection of 13 cabins (numbered 1-12.5) and a full service gas station. While once a busy stop for wayward travelers on the road, it now lies in ruins as newer and bigger highways (I-75) caused it to suffer a slow decline in business.
Passers-by will quickly find themselves picking up on some spooky vibes and a rather unwelcoming gas station sign, but the truly unsettling details of this forgotten destination lie much deeper, buried in the earth beneath your feet.
Fisher’s Travel Camp may look rather cheery from the post cards and newspaper clippings, but it was not always such a care-free resort. In fact, long-time residents knew the area by a different name: Dead Man's Hollow. A name which the area certainly earned over the years.
One standout story tells of a local Confederate sympathizer known as John "Jack" Beard. A group of Union soldiers were camped out in Dead Man's Hollow and one night decided to "Go get Old Jack". They rode out to Jack's farm, drug him from his home in front of his wife and executed him amongst the trees. A grim tale of the violent division that the Civil War drove into America.
Old Jack was not alone in meeting his demise in Dead Man's Hollow. Throughout the 1800s the area had a long history of murders, violence, crime and banditry, with several bodies being dumped into a nearby cave. Reports show many of those bodies were not discovered until years after their murder, supposedly perfectly preserved by the cave's conditions.
With such a storied history of death, it is no surprise there are countless reports of ghosts and hobgoblins spotted in the area dating as early as 1897. Still today at the mouth of the nearby cave, a roar can sometimes be heard; the cries of souls who were hidden away in the depths of the earth.
A Haunting Bullet Hole In A Small Town Boutique
Taking a step inside Abby Mae’s Boutique, you might begin to notice some things are out of place. The architecture is oddly familiar, the changing room is behind a giant vault door and…wait is that a bullet hole in the wall? Yes, this small-town boutique is built inside a historic bank. And you might be surprised to find some tragic stories held within its very walls.
Now back to that bullet hole. You didn’t think we’d just gloss over that one, right? You will find it neatly framed and labeled in the employee bathroom. (If you ask the shopkeeper, they’ll be happy to show you)
“BULLET HOLE FROM SUICIDE OF GEORGE T. HAMBRICK BANK PRESIDENT 1929”
Not the most inspiring thing you’d want to see on your bathroom breaks. For those of you who aren’t history buffs, 1929 wasn’t a great year for the banks. It was the year that the stock market crashed and kicked off a massive financial decline across the United States that is known today as the Great Depression.
George Hambrick had actually been planning to rob his own bank for some time now. One can only imagine, after news of the stock market crash reached him, his motives were of self preservation as the imminent destruction of his livlihood loomed large. Before he could get the chance to carry out his plans, however, the local authorities caught wind of his scheme. As officers were dispatched to aprehend Hambrick, he eluded capture and locked himself in the bank bathroom. Sensing no other way out and a dismal future ahead, he decided to take his own life with his pistol.
Rumors of hauntings have stuck with the building over the years, undoubtedly of the troubled scheming banker who took his life too soon. Some reports conclude that Georgetown's bank went on to perform fairly well through the depression.
Official paranormal investigations were done on the interior of the building by the Order Of The Astral Star in 2009 and while they were unable to conclusively capture a haunting, several "orbs" were reported along with the feeling of being touched by an unseen force while in the building.
Buried Treasure From America’s Most Infamous Bandit
On December 28, 1841 two 16-year-old sweethearts said “I do” in a small home in Stamping Ground, KY. Unbeknownst to them, their union would spawn one of America’s most infamous bands of Outlaws. Their names were Zeralda Cole and Robert James and they were the parents of Jesse James.
Even at the height of their infamy, Jesse and his equally criminal brother Frank would visit the town of Stamping Ground often. This led to the circulation of many rumors and the speculation of would-be treasure hunters. To this day, there are many who believe that much of the James brothers’ ill-gotten gains are buried somewhere in that small town. While the house their parents were married in was damaged in a 2012 fire, it can still be seen today alongside a simple historical marker to mark the possible location of perhaps one of America's most saught after treasures.
Cats & Coffee? Sign me up!
Okay…this one might not be as strange as the rest, depending on your affinity for feline friends. Regardless, you just have to admit that it’s not something you run into on every street corner. Central Purrk Cat Cafe opened in 2021 as a dream-project of owner Jennifer Hoskins and her husband Ryan.The operation itself is part coffee shop and part adoption center. Partnering with the Scott County Humane Society, they have found furever homes for over 530 cats since their doors first opened. You heard right, you could go in for a frap and walk out with a newly adopted furry family member!
The cafe and cat sections are cleanly divided and provide large glass viewing windows in case you simply want to watch cats play and not get your coat covered in hair. The cats themselves are free to wander the play area, where they get to interact with new humans every day. They also have a cat-only area to escape to for their own privacy. It’s the perfect arrangement for cat lovers and coffee drinkers alike.
A Field of Dead Horses
Avid readers may recall Nick Allen Brown’s “Field of Dead Horses”, a dramatic mystery novel based in 1939 Georgetown, KY. While the book is based in fiction, readers might be morbidly surprised to learn that we really do have our own field of dead horses. Though the truth is much more wholesome than it seems.
A graveyard of champions rests in a field just a short walk from a busy Kentucky roadside. Some of the greatest athletes to grace the Bluegrass call that field their final resting place, and all of them were horses. Old Friends is a thoroughbred retirement farm which makes it its mission to provide a dignified retirement to Thoroughbreds whose racing and breeding careers have come to an end. Visitors will find everything from the final resting place of one of the most controversial Kentucky Derby winners (Medina Spirit 2021) to the oldest living Derby winner (Silver Charm 1997).
The farm is home to more than just champions as well; sometimes quite the opposite. Some of the residents have never won a single race in their entire career, and some never had a career at all. From winners’ circles to slaughter auctions, every 4-hoofed resident of Old Friends has a unique story to tell that you won’t soon forget.
Bloody Dueling Grounds on the Scott County Lines
Located on the outer ranges of the Kentucky Horse Park sits a nondescript clearing along Cane Run Creek. If you didn’t know any better, you’d probably pass by the scene without a second thought, but in between the small copse of trees and babbling waters lies a long dark history of personal disputes and spilt blood.
Once marked by a large oak tree, now lost to time, the grounds were the infamous site of many bloody duels throughout the 1800s. The area was conveniently located right on the border of Scott & Fayette county, making it a favored spot for duelists who could quickly escape the jurisdiction of local law enforcement should there be any attempt to intervene in their activities. From squabbling doctors to a Kentucky senator drawing down against a disparaging newspaper editor, many are on record to have used the site and undoubtedly there are many more we don’t know about.
In 2014, National Geographic scoured the grounds for evidence of the gunfights and discovered various spent shell casings and lead bullet fragments, all but confirming the popular use of the dueling site. (These can be found on display at the International Museum of the Horse) The practice of dueling had become such an issue for Kentucky politics during that time (1849) that a provision in Kentucky’s new charter was put in place to require all state officers to take an oath that they had never fought, used a challenge or acted as a second in a duel. Kentucky is the only state that requires its office holders to swear to uphold that provision to this day. While the provision did stem the issue of dueling, the final recorded duel at the site would not occur until 1866 between a former Union soldier, Alexander Kimbrough, and a former Confederate soldier, Jo Desha. Desha would walk away unharmed, but Kimbrough left with a pistol ball in his hip.
Author: Dylan Marson
Dylan Marson is a Public Relations Assistant for Georgetown/Scott County Tourism.
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O Tannenbaum! Ward Hall Shows Off The History of the Christmas Tree
Written by Kathy Witt
Nine decorated Christmas trees illustrate the history of the faithful evergreen, from its earliest days to the present, at Kentucky’s grandest home: Ward Hall.
With its 27-foot-high fluted Corinthian columns, magnificent plasterwork and breathtaking double elliptical staircase, Ward Hall is the epitome of Southern architectural splendor – and the perfect backdrop for showcasing a tradition rooted in Germany that came to America by way of a British Royal Family.
“The Queen Victorian/Prince Albert tree, a tabletop tree in the Ladies Drawing Room, represents the 1840s-era tree these two had and that led to the craze of the Christmas tree,” said Ward Hall Preservation Foundation Board Chair Ron Bryant.“Prince Albert was German and brought the custom to England, where it crossed the Atlantic to America.”
The rest, of course, is history – and one richly added to as the Victorians were known to do.
In fact, Ward Hall’s Victorian Christmas tree, holding court in the parlor, is the most elaborate of the trees.
“The Victorians loved to put so much on their trees – flowers, things from nature, homemade decorations,” said Ron. “They did cutouts from popular magazines, like Godey’s Ladies Book, and would make little figures out of those.”
See these trees and seven others, including a traditional Kentucky cedar tree and an aluminum tree representing the 1950s and 1960s, during Ward Hall’s evening Candlelight Tours, taking place Thursdays through Sundays, December 7-10 and December 14-17.
The home will be decorated, from basement to attic, and the whole house is open to the public. In addition to the trees, lit candles will add a soft glow throughout the mansion and fragrant live greenery and fresh fruit will bedeck the home’s 13 fireplace mantels. Stockings will be hung not only by the chimney but also from chairs, a more accurate reflection of the Victorian-era stocking hanging tradition.
“Everything would have roasted otherwise,” said Ron. “The stockings would be put on the backs of chairs and Santa Claus would fill them there.”
During the tours, you may find a volunteer playing Christmas carols on Ward Hall’s 1881 rosewood square grand piano and some of the volunteers will be in period costume – the ladies in their hoop skirts and the gentlemen in frock coats.
Author: Kathryn Witt
Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.
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The Gospel According to History at 6 Scott County Churches
Written by Kathy Witt
Georgetown/Scott County has dozens of historic churches, including some dating back nearly 240 years. Here is an ecclesiastical stroll through time and religious denominations that shares fun facts about these houses of worship along with some of the key players and pray-ers.
In the beginning, there was Great Crossing Baptist Church. Organized in 1785 and situated near the buffalo crossing on Elkhorn Creek, this Stamping Ground church had as its first pastor the founder of Georgetown, Reverend Elijah Craig. Also known as the Father of Bourbon, Craig was famous for his solemn preaching and his “great readiness of speech.”
“The “great fervor of [Craig’s] preaching commonly brought many tears from his hearers, and many, no doubt, turned to the Lord by his preaching,” wrote the Reverend John Taylor in his 1827 account of Craig’s solemn style in The History of Ten Churches,
While no records are available from the earliest days of the Stamping Ground Christian Church, it was established by a man who gained a reputation as the “Evangelist of Kentucky.” That was John T. Johnson, prominent minister of the Christian Churches.
In Scott County Church Histories: A Collection, published in 1979 by the Scott County Bicentennial Committee, it is noted that Johnson had been a member of Great Crossing Baptist Church. At some point he became involved with the Campbell movement – a group that arose during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century, which was known as the American Restoration Movement.
Johnson began preaching the doctrine according to Campbell to church members, who soundly rejected it. He then withdrew from that church and formed a congregation of Disciples of his own with the two other members who withdrew from Great Crossings. In 1832, Johnson united his congregation with the Christians founded by Barton W. Stone.
Stone was also the founder of the Corinth Christian Church. Established in 1833 in a one-room log cabin, it was humbly described in Scott County Church Histories: A Collection as a church where “there was no covering on the dirt floor, and the pews were split logs with short legs.
“The building was placed about forty feet from the road and sixty feet from the stream, thus providing ample parking space for horses and buggies.”
The church building had walls measuring over nine feet tall, but its entrance was plagued with an “extremely low enframement,” resulting in the congregation (and the village in which the church sat) earning the name, “Skullbuster.” Thankfully, the current brick building has raised the enframement so that is no longer poses a danger to those crossing the threshold.
Known in its early years as “the church at Sugar Ridge,” the Oxford Christian Church owes its building’s structural beauty to the craftsmanship of E.C. Muddiman, a highly regarded stone and brick mason especially skilled in architectural corbeling. His Victorian-style influence may be seen in other buildings in the Oxford Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and notable for its stone sidewalks in addition to the community’s churches, homes and school.
This congregation was founded in 1832. That it was also founded by John T. Johnson shouldn’t come as a surprise. “It has been said that of all the pioneers of the Restoration, Johnson was the most devoted, zealous, self-sacrificing,” wrote H. Leo Boles in Biographical Sketches Of Gospel Preachers. “There were few States in the Union at that time in which he did not preach the gospel and establish churches.”
Johnson was the son of Robert and Jemima Johnson, a family “whose influence would be great in the political, social and religious life of Kentucky,” as noted in Scott County Kentucky: A History, published in 1993 by the Scott County Historical Society. (John’s brother Richard was a U.S. Vice President under President Martin Van Buren, U.S. Congressman, state legislator, War of 1812 veteran and Georgetown lawyer.)
From the camp meetings that began in Kentucky in 1799 as part of the Great Revival emerged several congregations, including Long Lick Baptist Church. These evangelical meetings, which included preaching, hymn singing and baptisms – even on-the-spot conversion experiences – and frequently characterized by wild enthusiasm, influenced leaders of the Second Great Awakening, such as Johnson.
One year after the end of the Civil War, the Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1866, became one of the first African American churches in Georgetown.
“Like the saints of old who wandered in a solitary way and ‘found no city to dwell in,’ so the little band of Methodists met from house to house for prayer services,” recounted Scott County Church Histories: A Collection and quoting Psalm 107 from the bible.
Initially the congregants met at a two-story brick building, but in July of 1868, $300 was raised to purchase a lot where the church still stands today. Four years later, in 1872, the membership had grown from 50 to 113 and the present brick church was built at a cost of $5,000.
Author: Kathryn Witt
Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.
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Follow the historic markers to Downtown Georgetown’s ‘Shop Small’ holiday experience
Written by Kathy Witt
The Holiday season is upon us and shopping small can make a big impact – on local, independent business owners; on shoppers who want to find the perfect gift for everyone on their list; and on communities that benefit when dollars stay in town rather than going elsewhere, like to big box stores and online.
Why shop small?
Already known for creating a welcoming atmosphere and unforgettable shopping experiences, Georgetown’s more than 40 independently owned shops, boutiques, restaurants and galleries are adding lots of sparkle and shine – and we’re not talking merch, although there’ll be plenty of thoughtful, personal and one-of-a-kind gift ideas throughout.
Why shop small in Historic Downtown Georgetown?
So many reasons . . . The ambience of small-town Main Street; a picturesque Victorian streetscape trimmed with holiday lights and decorations; inviting storefronts dressed with seasonal color and come-hither displays; owners who care and really want you to have the best shopping experience ever . . . Georgetown is all this plus a history lesson that takes visitors on a downtown walking tour to some unexpected points of interest.
Add to shopping fun by following the newly minted Georgetown Historic Marker Tour to 11 stops, including the Birthplace of Bourbon at Royal Spring (Marker #63), the Scott County Jail/Scott County Jailer’s House (Marker 2605) – a jumping off point to the G-town Jail Trail – and to the Federal-style, circa 1814/1815 Payne Desha House (Marker 2021) that connects Georgetown to the War of 1812. Find directions here; click “Downtown Georgetown.”
Author: Kathryn Witt
Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.
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Irish and Scottish roots: The craftsmanship behind central Kentucky’s stone fences
Written by Kathy Witt
Once upon a time, as pioneer farmers prepared a foreign land for plowing and planting, they faced one dragon of a challenge: removing piles and piles of limestone rocks and figuring out what to do with them.
Fortunately, these early settlers knew how to slay it. Of Scots-Irish ancestry, they carried with them to Kentucky the ancient art and tradition of dry stone masonry – and all the skill and know-how that went along with it. Carefully selecting the best rock, these mythmaking masons built stone fences, fitting pieces together like a weighty three-dimensional puzzle and creating a storybook effect to the roads, pastures and farmlands they outlined.
The craftsmen-farmers knew that interlocking stones were crucial to maintaining the strength of the walls they constructed. Built entirely without mortar, their methodology depended on the forces of friction and gravity to hold the rock together, and evidence of their craftsmanship may be found wherever stone is available. And Kentucky is famous for its stone – specifically limestone and particularly in the Bluegrass region.
Legend holds that limestone is why those bluish-purple buds produce that fabled hue to the fields that gives the Bluegrass its nickname. It is the secret to raising great racehorses and producing fine bourbon – for which Kentucky is rightly famous. And it is the reason the largest concentration of rock fences is found in the central part of the state.
It is easy to see what drew the pioneers to dry stone wall construction. Few tools are needed to build them. If damaged, the fences are easily repaired. They are water-, fire-, insect- and even earthquake-resistant. Making stone fences works with nature rather than against it; there is no depletion of natural resources and the end result fits naturally into the landscape to create that fairytale aesthetic. It all comes down to the forces of gravity and frictional resistance – and the skill of the craftsmen.
As pioneer times turned to a new century, crews of Irish masons arrived in the mid-1800s to build rock fences bordering newly created turnpikes. Besides fences, they put their craftsmanship to work in farm structures, outbuildings, warehouses and (not surprisingly) distilleries. Some of the fence builders were indentured servants, working as dry-stone masons to pay off their debt. Some were enslaved persons assisting masons and learning the craft and, following the Civil War, passing their skills onto freed slaves.
The development of concrete in the early 1900s effectively closed the chapter on rock fences – but their legend and beauty live on in central Kentucky. More than two centuries after being laid, miles and miles of dry stone fences still stand.
See more: Impressionist and Modern artist Will T. Hunleigh (1848-1916) painted Kentucky’s stone fences, including the former entry at the Cardome Renaissance Centre and the stone wall at Big Spring in Georgetown. Watercolors created by this local Scott County artist are featured at the Georgetown & Scott County Museum and notecards depicting his work are carried in the museum gift shop.
Learn more: Read Rock Fences of the Bluegrass (Perspectives on Kentucky’s Past: Architecture, Archaeology, and Landscape) by Carolyn Murray-Wooley and Karl Raitz. Published in 1992 by the University Press of Kentucky, the book details “the background of Kentucky’s rock fences, the talent and skill of the fence masons and the Irish and Scottish models they followed in their work.”
Readers discover that it was Kentucky’s earliest settlers who built dry-laid fences, constructing them around eighteenth-century farmsteads, cemeteries and mills. During the nineteenth century, fence building increased dramatically. By the 1880s, rock fences lined most roads, bounded pastures and farmyards throughout the Bluegrass. Rock Fences of the Bluegrass is the first book-length study on any American fence type. It is available through Amazon and other retailers.
Author: Kathryn Witt
Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.
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