RIP "Duke of Paducah"

Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born in 1876 Paducah. At sixteen, he took his first newspaper job as an apprentice reporter with the Paducah Evening News to help support the family, and he never looked back!

As his career progressed, Cobb became well-known as an editor, reporter, columnist, and humorist in papers all over the state and nation. He hob-nobbed with the best of them through the years: politicians, actors and actresses, writers, and so on. But he never forgot his home state and seemingly retained a sense of morality. Early on (1900), he married Laura Spencer Baker - a marriage that lasted a lifetime.

Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 17 April 1900, p 5
Cobb was a larger-than-life figure. One of his early columns, as paraphrased here in the 1900 Earlington Bee, humorously commented on "Fads of Kentucky Statesmen." It included observations on Goebel, who would be assassinated only weeks later! Cobb went on to report in Europe in World War I. He saw the potential in film, and sold several scripts to Hollywood, not to mention appearing in a few or hosting the 1935 Academy Awards! But that was only the beginning.

Politics was not far from Cobb's thoughts. He vehemently wrote about and fought for what he believed in, including African-American rights and composing anti-Prohibition press releases.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Cobb was easily one of the most recognizable (and quotable!) American celebrities directly connected to Kentucky. He died on March 10, 1944, and now rests in Paducah, quite appropriately under a tombstone reading "Back Home."

Happy Birthday, Henry Hardin Cherry!

Without Henry Hardin Cherry, Kentucky would quite possibly be without one of its quickest growing, most well-known universities today - Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green. WKU has fostered a number of talents, from 1950s musical group the Hilltoppers to filmmaker John Carpenter; sports mascot Big Red to contemporary rap group Nappy Roots. Of course, there is a long tradition of education, as well, beginning more than 25 years before Cherry took his role as president in 1906, but he arguably began the process of establishing and molding WKU into the college we know today.

Henry Hardin Cherry was born to Warren County farmers, on November 16, 1864. He actually received little to no formal education until entering Bowling Green's Southern Normal School (what WKU was essentially known as then, established in 1875) in January 1886. Six years later, he and his brother, Thomas Crittenden Cherry bought the school, while he was faculty there, in an attempt to save it. By 1899, enrollment exploded, thanks to Henry, and he bought out his brother's share, developing it into the Southern Normal School and Bowling Green Business University.

The REAL turning point came seven years down the road, in 1906. Cherry played an integral role in state legislation to establish normal (teaching) schools in Eastern and Western parts of the state. Along with others, success came with two schools - one in Richmond and one in Bowling Green. This was noted throughout the state, as was his naming as president of Bowling Green's school in June of that year. The specifics of the site bids are laid out in these clippings from page 4 of the May 10, 1906 Hopkinsville Kentuckian:



There were apparently a few issues with providing deeds for the proposed land in Bowling Green. Nevertheless, Cherry fought for the school. Classes began in the private school in January 1907, and the name - "Southern Normal School" - changed to Western Kentucky State Normal School (Hartford Herald, 1 August 1906, p. 1). By 1911, it moved to its current location (on top of a hill, overlooking Bowling Green; hence the school sports team - "Hilltoppers"), bought from another college in 1909. It has absorbed assorted lands, and even another college throughout the years. These are all memorialized through buildings on, and colleges within the university (e.g. Potter, Ogden).

Cherry, himself, is remembered in WKU's landmark building - Cherry Hall, which has the campus belltower. The building was completed in 1937, and dedicated in November of that year, a few months after Cherry died - the only thing that ended his more than 30-year tenure as president. He had seen the college through its first bachelors and masters degrees (1924; 1931) numerous name changes (though it would not be known as WKU until 1966) and various social challenges, including women's suffrage (of which he proved himself a considerable ally) and the Great Depression.

Probably most importantly, Cherry championed the success of the students, encouraging them to become all that they could. He even endowed WKU with a motto it still uses and holds true to, to this day: "The Spirit Makes the Master."

A story for the season

Seeing as how this is the start of not only the season of cold weather (despite all of which we already seen!), and the season of sharing, giving, and the best of humankind, it seems only appropriate to offer something that covers all this and more! Something that reminds us of both physical and spiritual warmth, as well as offering hope for potential of human existence.

Isaac Wolfe Bernheim was born today, in 1848, in Schmieheim, Germany. At 19, he immigrated to the US with $4 in his pocket, hoping to make a life for himself in NYC. When that company when bankrupt, he worked as a peddler in PA, but was forced to stop after his horse died. He settled in Paducah, where he found work as a bookkeeper for a wholesale liquor company. He soon earned enough to pay his brother, Bernard's way to America. Soonafter (1872), with a silent partner, they founded their own distillery - Bernard Brothers and Company. Seven years later, they acquired the trademarked "I W Harper" - a bourbon whisky.

I W Harper became very well-known and popular. It earned a number of domestic and national awards, including a gold medal at the 1903 Chicago World's Fair. It was one of the few brands allowed to continue as a medicinal bourbon. The name - "I W Harper" was never fully explained until shortly before I.W. Bernheim's death, in a 1944 letter. While the I W is self-explanatory, he writes that "Harper" came from a man named Harper who had a horse in the Kentucky Derby. Three years (1882) after the intro of their trademark bourbon, the Bernheim Brothers moved, expanding their distilleries to Louisville. This is a 1901 ad for their Louisville Distillery, from the Kentucky Irish American:



Though the bourbon business proved profitable, the brothers invested in other ventures, such as mining & real estate. They likely lived quite comfortably for their time, but they also invested back into their Kentucky communities. One such example began in 1882 Paducah, after a terrible winter flood left many poor and needy. The Bernheim brothers started a yearly tradition (outlined in this article from page 1 of the December 20, 1909 Paducah Evening Sun) of indiscriminately donating coal to the poor and needy in the city.


I.W. Bernheim also financed, donated & commissioned a great deal of statuary to, and in honor of Kentucky. Many of his donations can still be seen today, including the Abraham Lincoln bust in Frankfort's Old Capitol dome (1910), the Abraham Lincoln that still stands in front of the Louisville Free Public Library (1922), and the only 2 sculptures representing Kentucky (Henry Clay & Ephraim McDowell) in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. He & Bernard also donated the Thomas Jefferson statue that stands in front of the Jefferson County courthouse. Commissioned in 1899, it was not unveiled until November 1901, due to assorted mishaps. Read these excerpts (respectively: 5/12/1900 KY Irish American, 6/8/1900 Bourbon News, 6/26/1900 Mt. Sterling Advocate, & 11/12/1901 Hopkinsville Kentuckian) below to learn about its rocky journey from Germany to Kentucky.



Probably one of the greatest gifts I.W. Bernheim left to Kentucky was not bought until after Bernard died in 1925, and did not truly fall into place until after Isaac died in 1945 - the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County. In 1928, he bought 14,000 acres of worn-out farmland, stripped for mining ore. A year later, he established it as an arboretum & research forest, over time creating lakes on the land & working with the Frederick Law Olmstead Firm to lay out a proper landscape & essentially "restore" it. Finally, in 1950 - 5 years after Isaac died - Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest opened to the public. Ultimately, he and his wife were buried there, exhumed from their initial resting places at Cave Hill Cemetery. Their graves are marked by George Bernard Grey's memorial sculpture "Let There Be Light."

And so it was, in this cold season, yet time of warmth in the human spirit - a German immigrant was born, came to America, and lived the American dream. He gave us something to warm ourselves on cold winter nights, but also gave us an inspirational story of the human spirit - sharing & spreading his wealth & legacy with the earth & with others.

Spirits & Superstitions in Kentucky

Fear and paranoia make people people do strange things, especially when it has to do with the unknown and "things that go bump in the night." From when we were children, we learned to beware what was unusual and what could not be explained. We learned the superstitions of our ancestors through traditions passed down through family.

One such Deputy Coroner took this advice into practice on Friday, November 13, 1908, when he traveling to Williamson to examine a miner, killed at work. He declared it an accident. His trip home - on a fare of 13 cents - took him all night (a trip that should have been much quicker) whence the power went out. He declared THIS triple combination of incidents "Triple Hoodoo," owing it to the fateful date and the fateful fare. Read the report below from the front page of the November 20, 1908 Hartford Republican.



Despite what our ancestors and tradition tells us, nature might offer a perfectly logical explanation. Two years earlier, a Mr. & Mrs. Isaac Welborn, of Munfordsville, were plagued with strange nightly noises. For all the searching, seeking, and rationalizing, they could find nothing to explain the sounds. The wife insisted their house was haunted! When they could take no more, Mr. Welborn finally removed a stone from their hearth to discover a nest of 42 rattlesnakes living beneath - "haunting" their house! Read their story, reported on the front page of February 16, 1906 Hartford Republican. Nearby Glasgow Junction experienced spooky goings-ons the next year, with a "mysterious rain" coming from a clear sky, and localized under a single tree. The "haunted tree" attracted quite a crowd, including a passing farmer. After listening to the story and looking at the tree, he provided the simple & not quite-so-exciting answer: bugs. Little insects infested this tree, puncturing the limbs, allowing the sap to fall like rain. Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 5 November 1907, p. 4.

Ultimately, whether inexplicable or perfectly natural & logical, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do! Sometimes, you must face your fears & combat the spirit world head on! Such is the suggestion of this clipping from an unknown author, who talks about getting rid of "old-time ghosts" using a popular style of the time - "local color," which uses an interpretive (and often stereotypical) language. In a brief, amusing story, the narrator describes how the ghosts dragged around heavy chains at night. Finally, deciding this must not only be quite a labor on the ghosts, but had also "gone out o' fashion," the narrator gives the ghosts tin rattles instead. Problem solved! Hickman Courier, 15 February 1907, p. 3.


How do you deal with your superstitions & "things that go bump in the night?" What did your mother/father/grandparents/etc. warn you about & do you carry it on? Do you even realize it? How so?

The Grisly Murder of Poor Pearl Bryan

{A haunting suggestion by Kathryn Lybarger}

Betrayed by your beloved! A tragic way to go! Wouldn't you want to stick around & share your misery with the world? Pearl Bryan apparently did.

Pearl Bryan came from a wealthy farming family in Greencastle, Indiana, and was dating the son of a local Methodist minister, in 1896. Unbeknownst to her friends and family, her boyfriend, William Wood, had "seduced" her and she was pregnant. He convinced Pearl to get a secret abortion, to be performed by his friend, Scott Jackson and his roommate, Alonzo Walling. These young men were current students at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati. Surely, they must have the appropriate medical skills! So, on February 1, a 5-month pregnant Pearl left her parents with a lie, and met up with Jackson and Walling in Cincinnati.

Jackson used assorted chemicals, including cocaine, to see to his task - all of which failed. The men carried on, trying dental tools to complete their duty; and failing again. This botched abortion left Pearl afraid and bleeding profusely. Walling, Jackson, and even Wood saw no other option than to "cover the evidence" of what was, at the time, not only one, but two sinful & shameful acts (an unwed pregnancy & an abortion) - they decided to murder Pearl Bryan!

Traveling to Fort Thomas, KY, they cut off her head in what would later be described as a "clean slice" with a dental instrument. Arranging the scene to make it appear as a rape of a prostitute, they abandoned her body behind what is now the YMCA. Her head was never found, though many people tried throughout the years, and there are any number of theories throughout the years as to what happened to it, from being abandoned in a nearby thicket to tossed in the river, and even thrown in the river. People were still "finding" Pearl's poor head over a decade after her murder! Check out these clippings below, from the 1900 Hopkinsville Kentuckian, February 1907 Paducah Sun, & March 1907 Mt. Sterling Advocate, for just a few examples:



Ultimately, Pearl was identified by her shoes - since her head was nowhere to be found. An autopsy revealed the chemicals in her system. Soon after her murder, her killers were arrested and brought to trial by that Spring. Jackson & Walling were found guilty of murder. The trial garnered so much attention, a Barclay & Co. published a book detailing Pearl's tragic death & the ongoing trial by the end of 1896 titled: Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan, or, The Headless Horror (digitally available in KDL books). They attempted an appeal, then escape. However, due to the national attention and the outrage felt by townspeople, KY Governor William O. Bradley brought more security to their cells (which foiled their escape attempt). About 13 months after Pearl Bryan's murder, Jackson & Walling were hanged; again, Gov. Bradley made sure to bring extra security.


But this is only the beginning of the story - at least what can be proven in the physical realm that humans can conceivably see & know, without a doubt. Some say, on the gallows, Walling - believing himself an innocent man - cursed everyone involved in the case. And though the newspapers do not directly support this "evil eye" curse, there is a strange coincidence that a large number of people involved in the case of Pearl Bryan's murder, and those who brought her killers to justice mysteriously and/or tragically died within 15 years of her death; else they were brought a string of bad luck. Reporters had a habit of bringing up her name when someone related to the case came ill, whether it mattered or not. This included such people as prominent as the judge (died of a "hemorrhage of the lungs" in 1903) to as overlooked as the African-American who carried her remains (fatally injured in a 1902 accident) to obscure figures, such as C.E. Walling - her murderer's brother - was noted as related to the case, when the Berea Citizen reported him as dying in 1910!



Of course, Pearl Bryan herself has supposedly caused some mischief (though it's not directly accredited to her in this August 10, 1904 Richmond Climax clipping from page 1, it's implied)



And she still allegedly does today, most notably in Bobby Mackey's Music World - a night club & former slaughterhouse in Wilder, KY, with its own sordid history embedded in the building, involving satanic rituals & occultists. One of these legends involves a ritual that placed a curse on the disembodied head of Pearl Bryan before it was tossed down a well in the basement of the building, which is why she haunts the place.

I'm not sure they ever ACTUALLY found poor Pearl's head. Perhaps we will never know, as one story alleges Walling & Jackson kept silent because they feared "the wrath of Satan" (other stories place them as Satanists, as well). Supposedly, when people visit her grave, they leave her pennies, so she can have a head at Resurrection.

What do you think happened to Pearl Bryan's head? Do you think there is a curse on those involved with her murder & the case - even those that brought her justice? What & where do you believe she haunts, if she still does? Do YOU believe?