Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the 15th state on June 1, 1792, splitting from Virginia in the process. It is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on Kentucky bluegrass, a species of green grass introduced by European settlers for the purpose of grazing in pastures, which has supported the thoroughbred horse industry in the center of the state.
Historically, Kentucky had excellent farming conditions, which led to the development of large tobacco plantations similar to those in Virginia and North Carolina in the central and western parts of the state that utilized enslaved labor during the Antebellum South and Civil War periods. Kentucky ranks fifth nationally in goat farming, eight in beef cattle production, and 14th in corn production. While Kentucky has been a long-standing major center for the tobacco industry, the state's economy has diversified in multiple non-agricultural sectors, including auto manufacturing, energy fuel production, and medical facilities. The state ranks 4th among US states in the number of automobiles and trucks assembled. Kentucky is one of several states considered a part of the Upland South. (Full article...)
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Official portrait, c. 1990s
Wendell Hampton Ford (September 8, 1924 – January 22, 2015) was an American politician from Kentucky. He served for twenty-four years in the U.S. Senate and was the 53rdGovernor of Kentucky. He was the first person to be successively elected lieutenant governor, governor, and United States senator in Kentucky history. He was the Senate Democratic whip from 1991 to 1999, and was considered the leader of the state's Democratic Party from his election as governor in 1971 until he retired from the Senate in 1999. At the time of his retirement he was the longest-serving senator in Kentucky's history, a mark which was then surpassed by Mitch McConnell in 2009. He is the most recent Democrat to have served as a Senator from the state of Kentucky.
Born in Daviess County, Kentucky, Ford attended the University of Kentucky, but his studies were interrupted by his service in World War II. After the war, he graduated from the Maryland School of Insurance and returned to Kentucky to help his father with the family insurance business. He also continued his military service in the Kentucky Army National Guard. He worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Bert T. Combs in 1959 and became Combs' executive assistant when Combs was elected governor. Encouraged to run for the Kentucky Senate by Combs' ally and successor, Ned Breathitt, Ford won the seat and served one four-year term before running for lieutenant governor in 1967. He was elected on a split ticket with RepublicanLouie B. Nunn. Four years later, Ford defeated Combs in an upset in the Democratic primary en route to the governorship. (Full article...)
The community no longer exists and has mostly been annexed into Florence. The last surviving structure was the Sugartit Asphalt factory. (Full article...)
Image 9James Pierce Barton's Kentucky Landscape (1832) (from History of Kentucky)
Image 10The Native American Crab Orchard culture existed in western Kentucky and southern Indiana from c. 200 BCE to 500 CE. (from History of Kentucky)
... that in 1969, unknown persons dynamited the tower of a Kentucky TV station, leaving it leaning at a 15-degree angle?
... that in 1977, Appalachian folk singer Phyllis Boyens performed at a Christmas benefit concert to support Kentucky coal miners who had been on strike for 17 months?
... that American drag queen James Herndon donated funds and resources into black and LGBTQ+ communities in Lexington, Kentucky?
... that Claudia Riner was falsely accused of distributing lesbian erotica in the Kentucky House of Representatives?
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