The Nearly Forgotten History Of Portland Kentucky

Excerpt from A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky The first and most important inquiry respecting any history of social transactions is, its impartial truth. In order to answer this question, two others present themselves for examination. First, what have been the opportunities of accurate information enjoyed by the author? and secondly, how faithfully has he availed himself of his opportunities? The latter enquiry must be left to every reader; the author's protestations neither shall, nor ought to interfere with the answer. To the former, he will answer most unreservedly. The author has been no inattentive observer of public events in Kentucky, from his migration to the State in 1806; nor has he been destitute of intercourse with public characters. His curiosity, he may add, his heart, was early engaged in the story of Kentucky heroism, hardship, and enterprise. Nor during twenty-eight years' residence in the bosom of the State, has he felt his interest lessen in the fame and the fortunes of his adopted commonwealth. Still the author places the claims of his history to the public attention on a basis higher, than any personal intercourse he may have enjoyed, at the late period of his removal to the west. It is on a body of private papers belonging to some of the principal actors in Kentucky history. These have come into his possession from numerous sources in the most cheering and friendly manner. In the first place are the papers of Gen. George Rogers Clark; these contain a memoir by the great western hero, of his public services, from 1775 to 1779. These periods embrace the most interesting epochs; the papers also include an interesting correspondence with Patrick Henry and Jefferson, the early and distinguished Governors of Virginia, as with many military officers in the western country. These documents are now, after more than the lapse of half a century, for the first time submitted to the public. To the McAfee papers, preserved by Gen. Robert B. McAfee, the author has had full access. They form a part of the records of Providence church, the first established in Kentucky; and embrace the adventures of that enterprising and bold family of men from 1773 to the final settlement of the family in peace and in the plenty of Kentucky. In addition to these almost untouched mines of western history, and memorial of Kentucky story, the author has, by the liberality of Colonel Charles S. Todd, John J. Crittenden, and Nathaniel Hart, Esqrs., been favored with the Shelby, Innes, and Floyd papers. Messrs. Thomas and Edmund Rogers, H. Marshall, Esq., judges Rowan, Underwood, and Pirtle, Hon. H. Clay, and Jas. Guthrie, Dr. D. Drake, of Cincinnati, Messrs. John and James Brown, and Gov. Pope, have all most freely and kindly contributed every thing in their power. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In the summer of 1987, Johnny Boone set out to grow and harvest one of the greatest outdoor marijuana crops in modern times. In doing so, he set into motion a series of events that defined him and his associates as the largest homegrown marijuana syndicate in American history, also known as the Cornbread Mafia. Author James Higdon—whose relationship with Johnny Boone, currently a federal fugitive, made him the first journalist subpoenaed under the Obama administration—takes readers back to the 1970s and ’80s and the clash between federal and local law enforcement and a band of Kentucky farmers with moonshine and pride in their bloodlines. By 1989 the task force assigned to take down men like Johnny Boone had arrested sixty-nine men and one woman from busts on twenty-nine farms in ten states, and seized two hundred tons of pot. Of the seventy individuals arrested, zero talked. How it all went down is a tale of Mafia-style storylines emanating from the Bluegrass State, and populated by Vietnam veterans and weed-loving characters caught up in Tarantino-level violence and heart-breaking altruism. Accompanied by a soundtrack of rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues, this work of dogged investigative journalism and history is told by Higdon in action-packed, colorful and riveting detail.

Few ships in American history have had as illustrious a history as the heavy cruiser USS Portland (CA-33), affectionately known by her crew as 'Sweet Pea.' With the destructionof most of the U.S. battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor, cruisers such as Sweet Pea carried the biggest guns the Navy possessed for nearly a year after the start of World War II. Sweet Pea at War describes in harrowing detail how Portland and her sisters protected the precious carriers and held the line against overwhelming Japanese naval strength. Portland was instrumental in the dramatic American victories at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, and the naval battle of Guadalcanal—conflicts that historians regard as turning points in the Pacific war. She rescued nearly three thousand sailors from sunken ships, some of them while she herself was badly damaged. Only a colossal hurricane ended her career, but she sailed home from that, too. Based on extensive research in official documents and interviews with members of the ship's crew, Sweet Pea at War recounts from launching to scrapping the history of USS Portland, demonstrating that she deserves to be remembered as one of the most important ships in U.S. naval history.

In 1835, the city of Washington simmered with racial tension as newly freed African Americans from the South poured in, outnumbering slaves for the first time. Among the enslaved was nineteen-year-old Arthur Bowen, who stumbled home drunkenly one night, picked up an axe, and threatened his owner, respected socialite Anna Thornton. Despite no blood being shed, Bowen was eventually arrested and tried for attempted murder by district attorney Francis Scott Key, but not before news of the incident spread like wildfire. Within days Washington’s first race riot exploded as whites, fearing a slave rebellion, attacked the property of free blacks. One of their victims was gregarious former slave and successful restaurateur Beverly Snow, who became the target of the mob’s rage. With Snow-Storm in August, Jefferson Morley delivers readers into an unknown chapter in history with an absorbing account of this uniquely American battle for justice.

Hillsboro began as a crossroads for the Native American Atfalati, retired trappers, missionaries, and land-hungry settlers whose collection of farms became East Tualatin Plains. These earliest residents were drawn to the rich valley land between the forested creeks. As the missionary influence waned and the railroads arrived in the 1870s, the town, by then called Hillsborough, was dubbed "Sin City." Farmers and merchants quenched their thirst and gambled in saloons and placed bets on horse races down Main Street. Throughout the early 20th century, Hillsboro became predominantly a conservative, family town. Residents enjoyed their town bands, theaters, and Carnegie Library. Then and now on the Fourth of July, proud farmers drive their state-of-the-art farm equipment in the downtown parade, and fireworks light up the sky at the County Fairgrounds. Today the crossroads is one of agriculture and high technology, as people from around the world become new residents of Hillsboro, drawn to the Tualatin River plain as were their predecessors.

A small neighborhood in northern Frankfort, Kentucky, Crawfish Bottom was located on fifty acres of swampy land along the Kentucky River. “Craw’s” reputation for vice, violence, moral corruption, and unsanitary conditions made it a target for urban renewal projects that replaced the neighborhood with the city’s Capital Plaza in the mid-1960s. Douglas A. Boyd’s Crawfish Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community traces the evolution of the controversial community that ultimately saw four-hundred families displaced. Using oral histories and firsthand memories, Boyd not only provides a record of a vanished neighborhood and its culture but also demonstrates how this type of study enhances the historical record. A former Frankfort police officer describes Craw’s residents as a “rough class of people, who didn’t mind killing or being killed.” In Crawfish Bottom, the former residents of Craw acknowledge the popular misconceptions about their community but offer a richer and more balanced view of the past.