Kentucky Whisky

A couple weeks ago we drove up to St. Louis to see friends and family. As it is a long drive, we stopped in Loretto, Kentucky so we could experience the Maker's Mark Distillery tour. There's a bit of a connection between Loretto and Webster Groves, the St. Louis suburb that we lived in before moving to North Carolina.

Loretto is known as the national home of the Sisters of Loretto, which were founded in 1812 to provide education and serve the community. The early nuns enlisted the aid of Father Charles Nerinckx, the Flemish missionary priest who served the area, to help them establish their community. We visited the Loretto campus, and saw the sign for a road named Nerinx. 

Sisters of Loretto

In Webster Groves, very near where we lived, is a girl's Catholic school called Nerinx Hall. It was founded in 1924 following the Loretto values, and the name is a tribute to Reverend Charles Nerinckx of Kentucky. Also nearby is Webster University, which was founded in 1915 by the Sisters of Loretto as Loretto College. It was one of the first women's colleges west of the Mississippi River.

In Loretto we stayed at the Hill House Bed & Breakfast, a home that was built in 1863. We had a lovely stay there, and the hosts recommended that we head to Yellowstone Bourbon for a free flight of whisky. As I am not a whisky fan (and felt bad about only getting a free flight with our coupon) I ordered a gin Old Fashioned. It was tasty!

Yellowstone Bourbon

Following a delicious breakfast at the B & B, we drove the few miles down the road to Maker's Mark. The campus, also known as Star Hill Farms, is approximately 1,100 acres. Our tour began at 11:00 and lasted an hour and a half. The tour guide provided a lot of interesting information about the history of Maker's Mark and the process they use to make, bottle, label, seal and ship their whisky. An added bonus for us was the Chihuly glass exhibit that is taking place this year. After the tour we made our way to Huntingburg, Indiana, where we spent the night at our daughter-in-law's parent's house. They are right on the way to St. Louis, so it was great to be able to catch up with them for a bit. 

Maker's Mark Distillery

Looking for Hightowers

Last Wednesday I drove to Kentucky to look for my illusive Hightower family records. Just to break up the trip, I stopped in La Grange, Kentucky, which is just north of Louisville. I had seen the town listed on the website Roadside America. This website, by the way, is great if you are going on a road trip and want to stop and see oddities or attractions along the way. In fact, I use it to find interesting things to see around my own city. You enter the state where you will be traveling, and a list of attractions pops up. You can also look at a map view so you can see what is along your route.

La Grange, KY

La Grange has the distinction of being one of only a couple towns in the U.S. where trains come right down Main Street. So if you hear that train a comin', you better get the heck out of the way! La Grange is a pretty little place, and it was nice to get out and stretch my legs. But sadly, none of the 20 plus trains that pass through daily chose the time I was there to make an appearance.

Melbourne, KY

My final destination was Alexandria, where I would be visiting the Campbell County Historical Society as well as the Campbell County Clerk's office. I stayed at an AirBNB for two nights in nearby Melbourne. Of course I had to take a picture of the sign. Who gets to visit Melbourne twice in two months?

I found a great little diner in Alexandria for breakfast on Thursday morning, thanks to Yelp. TripAdvisor totally let me down this time. It showed no places to eat in Alexandria. The Spare Time Grill was just what I was looking for so I could get my goetta fix. I passed the time talking to the owner and his daughter while waiting for the historical society to open at 10:00.

Spare Time Grill

Campbell County Historical Society

At 10:00 on the dot I was on the front steps of the old Campbell County Courthouse. I believe that it was constructed in the 1840s, but was heavily remodeled in 1928. It is still an impressive building, nonetheless. On the second floor lies the collection of the Campbell County Historical and Genealogical Society.

There was one volunteer in the building, and she was extremely helpful. Many of their records are online, and I had searched their site extensively before coming on the trip. But family files and some church files are not online, so I looked through those. She helped me brainstorm other areas that I might look, and probably most importantly indicated what records would and would not be located at the other Campbell County Courthouse in Newport (yes, Campbell County has two courthouses, just to make things even more difficult and confusing), as well as the holdings of the Campbell County Library in Newport. She saved me a lot of time looking for genealogy love in all the wrong places.

county clerk's office

Unfortunately, I found nothing new in their archives, and she sent me on my way to the county clerk's office. Though mostly used for licensing cars and drivers, this office also has old documents such as marriage bonds, deeds, wills, etc. It's a rare situation in that you are allowed to pull the books off the shelves and look through them. As the shelving area was right across from the license renewal desk, there were interesting conversations for me to listen to as I looked through the materials. I will say that the staff was much more friendly and helpful than any of the license offices I have had to go into around here.  While I found deed information for the man who may or may not be my 4 times great-grandfather as well as some other Hightowers who may or may not be brothers of my 3 times great-grandfather Thompson Hightower, there was nothing to tie them all together definitively. I took scans of all the deeds just in case.

I did find the original the original marriage bond that was posted for Thompson Hightower and Elizabeth Hopper. Marriage bonds were popular in the 1700s and early 1800s. It was essentially a declaration of an intent to marry. The groom-to-be would go to the courthouse with a bondsman, typically the father or brother of the bride-to-be, and posted a bond indicating his intention to marry. No money was paid at the time of the posting, but if the marriage did not occur then the would-be groom would pay the amount stated on the bond, in this case 50 pounds.

Marriage Bond

The Campbell County bonds had been indexed and that index appears online, so I knew the substance of the document. The bondsman in this case was J.P. Piner, an uncle of Elizabeth's, with whom she had lived from the age of 6. I had assumed (and you know what they say about assuming) that her parents were deceased. I do not know their names, so I have no idea if Piner was her mother's brother, or he could have been a brother-in-law to either of Elizabeth's parents. But when I saw the original document, there was a hand-written note that stated Elizabeth's "father is willing that a marriage license might be issued..." Her father was alive in 1838! For whatever reason, he had not been able to care for Elizabeth since she was about 6. Maybe his wife was ill or deceased, or maybe he was simply too poor to take care of her. Either way, it gives me another clue in looking for her father. Too bad they didn't list his name.

The next morning I bid my AirBNB adieu and drove north to Newport. Here I found The World Peace Bell, one of more than 20 peace bells located around the world. It was the world's largest free swinging bell from 2000-2006. It weighs 66,000 pounds, is 12 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. I found out about it through the above-mentioned Roadside America. It was pretty impressive to see, though I did not hear it ring while I was in the area.

World Peace Bell

After I grabbed a quick lunch in Newport, I went to the Campbell County Library, which had little genealogical information, and then headed over to Covington. The Kenton County Library has a lot of good stuff, but I have spent quite a bit of time there in the past. This visit I was focused on seeing if I could find out anything about the Baptist churches that were in the area in 1838 as I had found that Thompson Hightower and Elizabeth Hopper were married by a Baptist minister. Unfortunately the Baptists are not as organized as the Catholics, so I struck out there as well. It was time to get the heck out of dodge, and so I traveled across the river to Cincinnati, where I spent the rest of the weekend with my cousins and aunts. More on that in the next post.

A Hunting I Will Go

Thompson's Civil War unit

There is one ancestor that is hiding so far behind a brick wall that the brick wall has a wall. Thompson Hightower is my three times great-grandfather on my dad's side of family tree. I have created a solid, documented trail from myself to him, but his ancestry remains elusive. There are numerous family trees on ancestry.com that indicate his father is George Hightower, Jr. and his mother, Frances Ann Hall. The problem is that none of the trees has one piece of evidence to back up that connection. I can place both Thompson and George in Cambell County Kentucky at the same time, but that is it. George's family is extremely well-documented back to the early 1700s in Virginia. If I can ever prove the relationship between Thompson and George, I will have quite a robust tree. Not to mention the ability to become a member of the DAR as well as numerous other prestigious associations.

The problem is that Thompson had the audacity to be born around 1815, long before Kentucky kept birth records. He compounded the problem by dying in 1866 before death records were recorded in Kentucky. He was of age when he married in 1838, so no parent's names are listed on the marriage license, and he left no will. George also died intestate, and research in Adams County, Ilinois where he died offered no clues regarding his children.

A week at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, despite the assistance of the highly qualified staff there, yielded no new information on Thompson. So my Hail Mary is a trip to Alexandria, Kentucky this week. When Thompson was born the area was all Campbell County, so records before 1840 are in the courthouse in Alexandria. Or they might be in a second county seat in Newport. In 1840 the area where Thompson lived became Kenton County, so records after that date are located in the courthouse in Covington. Or are they in a second county seat in Independence? It is all very confusing, and I have my work cut out for me.

My game plan is to first start at the Campbell County Historical and Genealogical Society, conveniently located in the old courthouse in Alexandria. They have limited hours, so I need to be there when they open at 10:00 on Thursday. In addition to looking at their collection, I feel like they will be able to direct me on what records are held at the various courthouses so I'm not wasting time at the wrong place.

Thursday and Friday I'll do research in the area, and will be staying at an AirBNB in Melbourne, Kentucky. I'll need to take a selfie with the sign since I was just in Melbourne, Australia in May. The cottage where I am staying is located on 20 acres. Apparently mountain lions have been spotted on the property! Maybe I can get a picture of one without being eaten.

Betty, Margie & me

Friday afternoon I will head north to Cincinnati to spend the weekend with my cousins. My mom's sister turns 95 on Friday, and she doesn't know that I am coming over. I'll also see her sister, who turned 90 last month. I can't wait to see them - they're the best! The picture on the left is of the three of us two years ago. I always have a great time in the city where I was born, and hopefully I'll have a genealogy find to celebrate in addition to a milestone birthday.

Genealogy Road Trip

Recently I drove to Covington, Kentucky to do some research on my dad's side of the family. I found a relatively inexpensive hotel nearby in Florence, and spent the night there so that I could get an early start at the Kenton County Public Library the next morning. I have mentioned before, I believe, that my three times great-grandfather is Thompson Hightower. I am confident in the paper trail that leads from me to him, but I have been unable to prove who his parents are. I believe them to be George Hightower, Jr. and Frances Ann (Hall) Hightower. Proving it is another story altogether.

Thompson was born around 1815 in Campbell County, Kentucky. This is well before birth certificates were required by the state. He died of cholera in 1866, which is before death certificates were required. Further complicating the record situation is the fact that Campbell County was divided in 1840, with the Covington area becoming Kenton County. So documentation on the Hightower family may exist in either Campbell County or Kenton County. And another twist is that Kenton County has two courthouses - one in Covington and one in Independence so records could be in either or both places. Lucky me...

George and Frances were in Campbell County along with their children from 1800 until the late 1830s, when several members of the family moved to Adams County, Illinois. A few of the children stayed in Campbell County. George, of course, was not kind enough to leave behind a will when he died in 1845. How tidy it would have been had he mentioned his wife and all his children in a will. The only inkling I have that Thompson is his son is on findagrave.com, where a picture of George's headstone resides along with a brief biography listing all his children including Thompson. The biography was written by a volunteer from Adams County, who has since died himself. I have no way of knowing where he came by the information he put on the website.

Hightower Family File

At the Kenton County Public Library I asked to see a file folder they had on the Hightower family. I couldn't help but wonder if the file would hold the key to my family tree. The first thing I noticed is that the file was pretty thin. Not good. Inside I found two letters from people seeking information on the Hightower family, along with the responses from the librarian. There was no new information for me, but if I end up finding a connection between Thompson and George, these two letter writers are my cousins.

The three librarians in the history and genealogy department were extremely kind and helpful. But despite their (and my) best efforts, we did not find a definitive link between Thompson and George. The department head said that she is sure they are all family, but the exact relationship remains unknown. I pulled all of their books on Campbell and Kenton Counties and looked at the indexes for references to Hightowers. And I did find some citations that I didn't already have, so the time spent there was not wasted. But I have to think about my next step now. I could go to any or all of those courthouses next time I go to Cincinnati to see relatives, but the fact of the matter is that while I might find a land record or something else that refers to Thompson, George was long gone so there would be nothing on him. I might be better served talking to some folks in Adams County, Illinois to see if they have something on George that I might have missed.

Linden Grove Cemetery

After I left the library, I drove to the Linden Grove Cemetery where Thompson is buried. The librarian told me that Thompson does not have a headstone (or it is illegible) because volunteers have indexed all the stones in the cemetery. Because he died in 1866, the records are poor. They know he is buried there in the same grave as his daughter, but they cannot tell me exactly where. But I wanted to see the cemetery nonetheless. Some of the plots have fabulous views of downtown Cincinnati. I guess you could say that have a permanent room with a view.

After the cemetery I went to Devou Park in Covington. Within this park is the area where Thompson Hightower and other men of the Home Guard (militia called into service by an act of the Kentucky legislature) erected batteries to help protect Cincinnati from a Confederate attack in 1862. There were 60 men in Captain Leonard's Company, the unit in which Thompson served. I did not hike back into the wilderness where remains of the battery are still visible, but I certainly enjoyed the view of the Cincinnati skyline from the overlook in the park. It was a thrill to think that Thompson had once walked the same ground that I was on. It was nearing the end of the day, but I would love to go back and visit the museum in the park when I have more time.

Cincinnati skyline

The rest of the weekend I spent visiting with relatives. I stayed with my cousin and her daughter, and we always have so much fun together. They take me to unique places to eat, and we always hit the Findlay Market downtown to do some shopping. This time I picked up some wonderful spearmint tea at a local tea shop, and we bought fresh bread, pasta and sauce to make for dinner one night. We also saw the butterfly exhibit at the Krohn Conservatory, enjoyed beer tasting in an old church that has been converted to a brew house, had breakfast with my mom's two remaining siblings, and dinner with several other cousins. As usual, I feel like I ate my way through Cincinnati. But what memories we created!