Kentucky Hidden Wonders

Celebrating Shelby County's Rich History with Helen McKinney

• Kentucky Hidden Wonders • Episode 5

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Helen McKinney, Executive Director of the Shelby County Historical Society, reveals the rich historical significance of Shelby County and the many programs preserving its heritage. As a descendant of Samuel Boone (brother to Daniel and Squire), Helen brings a personal connection to the county's frontier past while leading efforts to celebrate America's upcoming 250th anniversary.

  • Historical Society programs include the popular History Matters Speaker Series with 50-75 attendees per session
  • Award-winning summer history camp engages 65-70 children annually with a waiting list for participation
  • Science Hill Female Academy celebrates its bicentennial in 2025, founded by Julia Tevis as one of the first female academies west of the Alleghenies 
  • Plans for America's 250th birthday include History Minutes videos, special programming, and a grand parade in 2026
  • The Historical Society is investigating the Simpsonville Massacre site where Confederate guerrillas killed Black Union soldiers
  • Hidden wonders like underground tunnels beneath Shelbyville and historic tombstones at the library grounds reveal unexplored aspects of local history
  • The museum is open Wednesday-Friday 10-4, Saturday 10-2 with membership starting at just $25 annually

Visit www.shelbykyhistory.org or contact director@shelbykyhistory.org to learn more about becoming a member, volunteer, or supporting their historical preservation efforts.

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Do you know someone who would be an excellent guest on Kentucky Hidden Wonders? You can nominate them by filling out the form linked HERE or going to visitshelbyky.com/podcast and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

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🥃 Plan a visit to Your Bourbon Destination® at www.visitshelbyky.com. Located in the heart of central Kentucky and less than an hour from Louisville and Lexington, ShelbyKY is the perfect Kentucky getaway. Complete with two great distilleries, action-packed outdoor adventures, and the best vacation rentals near Louisville, put ShelbyKY at the top of your list when planning a Kentucky Bourbon Trail® trip, romantic couples retreat, or a whole-family vacation.

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Janette Marson:

Welcome to Kentucky Hidden Wonders. I'm Janette Marson.

Mason Warren:

and I'm Mason Warren.

Janette Marson:

Together, we're uncovering the secrets, stories, and hidden gems of Shelby County, Kentucky.

Mason Warren:

From unforgettable places to off-the-beaten-path adventures. Join us as we explore Kentucky treasures and Shelby County's best-kept secrets. Our guest today is Helen McKinney, who is the Executive Director of the Shelby County Historical Society. Helen, thanks for being here.

Janette Marson:

Thanks so much for being here. We're super excited.

Helen McKinney:

Thank you for having me.

Janette Marson:

Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and just how you came to be at the Historical Society?

Helen McKinney:

Okay, sure, well, I'm a Kentucky native. I grew up in Oldham County, just one county over, pretty close. I grew up on a dairy farm. I have a background in museum work, history, things like that. Went to Bellarmine College, BA in history and English. So I'm a freelance writer too, so that kind of plays into every job I have. But I'm also a Kentucky Colonel, living history reenactor and a direct descendant of Samuel Boone, who was an older brother to Daniel Boone and Squire Boone, who established Painted Stone Station here in Shelby County.

Janette Marson:

That is very cool.

Helen McKinney:

Kind of in my DNA to be in this job and I came on board. I've been there fully a year now. Actually, I've been a member of the Historical Society off and on over the years. Actually, I've been a member of the Historical Society off and on over the years and in probably 2023, Brian Cushing, the previous executive director, asked me to be part of a 250th committee and we'll kind of go into that later, probably, and explain that. But America's having a great big birthday party, so 250th and he asked me to be on a committee and from there he kind of left. A few months after that they offered me interim last January and I think it was about mid-March it was pretty close to this time of year. I came on as permanent. It's just part-time. Wish it was full-time so we could do more. We do a lot of things. It's a part-time position and I've been in that since about this time last year. So it's like I said, it's kind of in my DNA to do these things.

Janette Marson:

That is amazing. I love the part of the tie-in with Daniel Boone and everything. You should dress up like Rebecca Boone every day at the Historical Society

Mason Warren:

Has that happened before?

Janette Marson:

The previous directors executive directors have dressed in period clothing.

Helen McKinney:

It's just kind of our thing. You know, brian worked at Locust Grove, so when you do that kind of job it's just normal. I know other people look at us and think—the comment I get most is are you Amish? That's so funny. No, I'm like. No, I'm 1781, frontier, Kentucky. So you know, when you put those clothes on, it means a lot to me because I'm a descendant. So I don't know that it means more. I think it does. But I just feel like I just put those clothes on, they're like a second skin, it feels normal and everybody else is like, well, that's kind of weird, but to me it's normal, those things are normal. And when you're a reenactor, especially as a descendant, you walk out on that battlefield when you're actually doing a reenactment and it's real. I mean, history does come alive in a lot of different ways.

Janette Marson:

Well, I love dressing up and being other people, and I have probably mentioned this before to you, helen, but I am a descendant of Henry Banta, which followed Squire Boone here to. Painted Stone yes, from the Low Dutch community. So that's my little tie to history, but I know the Historical Society does so much. Just give us a little overview of some of the things that you do at the Historical Society.

Helen McKinney:

Okay, sure, our mission is to preserve and promote the knowledge and appreciation of Shelby County and Kentucky history, the whole state. We like to tie it all together. We do that in a variety of ways. We have lots of programs. For example, last year we started a series called History Matters Speaker Series and the library was gracious enough to partner with us. We used the Carnegie Center and we had a series of three to four programs and we had anywhere from 50 to 75 people at each one. These are evening programs. You're not really thinking you're probably going to get that many people. And one of them we featured Paul Sims, who is a retired Secret Service agent and we had, I know, 75 people and people were still coming in once he started speaking. It was just amazing. So tomorrow night kicks off the first one of those. We are going to feature Vivian Overall, who will speak about the Lincoln Institute. She's fantastic.

Janette Marson:

We love Vivian.

Helen McKinney:

She helps with our summer camp. She's a special lady so we think that will be very well attended. I know there's a lot going on tomorrow evening but we hope people come out. It's at 6 pm at the library and we're going to follow that with Meet Julia Tevis on March 20th and I'll kind of touch on that. But Julia was the founder of Science Hill Female Academy, which celebrates 200 years this year. So Cheryl Van Stockham is going to do that for us and tell everyone about Julia Tevis.

Helen McKinney:

We may have some extra things. We may even bring a few artifacts to show, but we'll have one more in May to wrap up the series that will probably focus on Derby, maybe, or something along those lines, or maybe even our artifacts. Last year one of our other programs, because we had a whole lot focused on artifacts between myself and Sarah Beth Farabee, who's our vice president at the Historical Society, we put together a program of I think we have 14 artifacts and I explained half, she explained half and we actually got to show them. Because people are always asking well, what do you do over there, what do you all do and what do you have in your collection? Because we have a limited space where we can display and we have a lot of stuff we're always taking in collections. So Sarah Beth thought well, why don't we do this program and kind of see where it goes? And people were really interested in that. We got enough feedback to do another one. So if our May speaker cannot be there, we may do our artifacts At some point this year.

Helen McKinney:

We will. But it's really cool and we had some things from Science Hill. But that's fun. And we do things like special things for members too. If you're a member, we have just a few members only, like a summer picnic, a Christmas dinner, just to show our members how much we appreciate them.

Janette Marson:

You know what this is so silly? I didn't realize there was membership. I want to be a member.

Helen McKinney:

Well, that's easy. I was saving that for the end, but I can jump right into that.

Janette Marson:

Well, we will save that for the end, but just know I'm super interested.

Helen McKinney:

So there's little perks. Let me say that. There's little perks if you become a member, you get to go to some of these events, and that's really to show our appreciation for your support.

Mason Warren:

So your episode will be out kind of early April and so we'll keep an eye on the May event and add some details and show description and everything like that. So once you get all that set, we'll get that put out. Awesome.

Helen McKinney:

Okay, yeah, and just kind of going back to what we do, we have a hugely successful summer history camp.

Mason Warren:

I did it as a kid, did you?

Helen McKinney:

Yes.

Janette Marson:

Did you Mason? That's cool. What's a memory you have from?

Mason Warren:

that.

Helen McKinney:

What was your take on it?

Mason Warren:

It was. To be honest, it was a minute ago, but it was a great time. I had always been interested in history and kind of the area. That was always my favorite subject in school, and so that was just kind of a fun Did anything stand out, it was really kind of neat.

Mason Warren:

It just felt I don't know why, but it was just interesting, and it was a lot of people that were interested in the same thing, and so it was like, you know, you could ask questions, you can get involved in things like that, and so it was a good.

Helen McKinney:

Do you remember what it focused on? Because they've done all kinds of stuff.

Mason Warren:

I cannot remember. I know Duann Puckett was there, john Graham.

Helen McKinney:

Probably Sharon Hackworth. Sharon Hackworth was there.

Mason Warren:

So so I mean all of these people that are still uh, involved, uh, with the exception of Duann.

Helen McKinney:

Yeah.

Mason Warren:

Uh, but, but yeah, no, it was a great time and we the one memory that I have, uh, or one of the memories that I have that kind of stands out uh, we were at Grove Hill Cemetery, yeah, and we were just kind of walking along the path and I looked down and I'm like, oh, there's my great-grandfather's headstone.

Helen McKinney:

I mean like, it was just kind of fun to see yeah.

Mason Warren:

Yeah, absolutely, it kind of makes it real it was like seven or something like that, and so I hadn't really seen been there before to the cemetery or anything like that, and so it was just kind of I'm like, oh well, he has my same name. I'm like, oh, that's so-and-so. But it was just kind of a fun connection there.

Helen McKinney:

We try to make it fun in all our programs. We want people to have fun and last year I know we had 65 to 70 kids in a waiting list.

Janette Marson:

Oh, that's amazing.

Helen McKinney:

The students who are still eligible from last year, age-wise, get to come back. They get first dibs at it, but then we open it up. So I mean we have a waiting list. We're going to try to do a little more this year, but we're also going to have a good portion of it over at Science Hill. We're incorporating Science Hill into a lot of things. So Matt Burnett has let us use that for camp. Three-day camp first part of June I think. The dates are 3rd through the 5th. But, like I said, we have a waiting list.

Helen McKinney:

It's won awards. I know three to four Kentucky History Awards. We won one last year for the previous year for the camp. But it's just amazing. So that's fun. And we speak to school groups too. Back in January, mid-january we had a group of 45, 46 homeschoolers come in, asked to come in. About 13 of those was parents, the rest kids, and we had an amazing program on artifacts and things that we had in the museum at the time. We speak to the young leaders, leadership Shelby. So you know, if anyone just contact us if you want to come in or you want me, I'm trying to establish a program called History in a Trunk and take it into the elementary schools, if they can't come to us.

Helen McKinney:

I want to go to them.

Janette Marson:

Oh, that's a great idea. Yeah, great idea.

Helen McKinney:

And the Kentucky Historical Society does something. They may even call it that I think I can get away with calling it that but they kind of are geared for more middle and high schoolers and this is for more elementary. Elementary is kind of my level, my age, more my focus, and we are starting a junior historical society that's going to target older kids, but I wanted something specifically for elementary. So you know we're limited on space. We can't get 90 kids in the museum at one time, so I'm getting together history in a trunk to take it to them, which literally we have like an old trunk or a tote. I'll make use a tote or probably an old trunk, where I'm going to fill it with like five to six artifacts, maybe some reenacting clothes they can actually try on. We talk about the Revolor, just to make it fun. History should be fun. It shouldn't be boring and dates and all that dull stuff. It should be fun like the camp, like you remember going to camp.

Helen McKinney:

Well, no matter what your age, we want you to get out of what we do. So we speak to school groups. We also this is a big thing for this year we have an annual publication that we try to do every year. This year we'll focus on Science Hill, the female academy, the inn or the restaurant in Wakefield Scarce. It is their bicentennial, the bicentennial of Lafayette, which I'll kind of that kind of goes with some of our 250th. So there's a lot going on, but we wanted to focus that. It's neat. We've got a lot of stories. Actually, we have a meeting tomorrow. We're in the process of still getting the stories for that publication, but I think it's going to be a really good one and it's going to tie in Wakefield Scarce Galleries as well. Matt's going to write an article for us. It's going to be really good, a good thing to look for.

Janette Marson:

Go back to Lafayette and explain to the listeners who that person was and the connection with Shelby County.

Helen McKinney:

Yeah, mark Anty Lafayette obviously was a freshman helped America win the war, briefly said, was a good friend of Washington. He was younger than Washington and about 40, 50 years later, after the war had ended, on May 13, 1825, he visited Shelbyville and if you've been by our office on Main Street you've seen the red, white and blue patriotic-looking sign that is dedicated to Lafayette's May 13, 1825 visit. So we're planning a lot of events to go with that in camp, we're going to tie all that in in the 250 years and we plan to have a big celebration, hopefully on May 13th this year. But Lafayette was very important. They say that when he came Science Hill opened in, I believe, march 25th 1825. Well, six weeks later he visited Shelbyville, as the story goes, and was at, I want to say, mcgowan Tavern. It was a tavern. They had a ball. The Kentucky State Historical Society has a ball gown that was worn at that ball.

Helen McKinney:

Oh, wow it was on display when they put up the marker.

Janette Marson:

Right.

Helen McKinney:

But the story goes and we're really looking into this. This will be one of our articles. To give you a little preview this is going to be a good one. Now, this is not historically documented as yet, but we're working on it. They say so. Lafayette came six weeks after Julia opened her school and they say he asked for her to come visit with him and converse in French because, if you think about it, he had been in France, he was out of America, probably no longer spoke as much American. So when he came back to America on that farewell tour he did 1824, 1825, they say he spoke with Julia and, as accomplished as she was, she taught French, latin, all the amazing things girls at that time weren't really exposed to. So they say they conversed in French because she was the only person in town that could speak French. So they say so it makes a nice story.

Janette Marson:

We don't know. Oh, it does yeah.

Helen McKinney:

But just to give you a little teaser about our publication. Actually, sarah Beth is working on an article on that, so that's fascinating. But yeah, that's one way to remember him too 1825 was a big year for Shelbyville.

Mason Warren:

1825 was it was.

Helen McKinney:

A lot happened. Yes, anything else in?

Janette Marson:

1825? Or were those the two biggies?

Helen McKinney:

Those are the biggies for this year that we're really plugging.

Janette Marson:

Okay, well, those are big enough, they are.

Mason Warren:

Sarah Beth that you've mentioned. She's going to be a guest on a future episode to talk about the history of the library and how it's a Carnegie Library, and the resources in the. Kentucky Room and everything like that.

Helen McKinney:

Yes, yes, her and I together that was one more thing I was going to point out work on genealogy. More so her, because I'm restricted to only so many hours a week. But she handles a lot of the requests because people have a lot of interest and the older you get, I think you just naturally want to know. But we have requests I mean we have them from all over people wanting to know about their ancestors. So she helps with that. That's a big part of what we do in our collections. We're always looking to add to the collections. We have a lot of stuff stored not at the museum because we just don't have the space. So we try to rotate out. It's kind of a job carrying things back and forth when not everything's together. So we just this year changed out and put up a new exhibit on Science Hill, which an exhibit would be our next biggest thing that we have. So that will run to the end of the year. We're really excited.

Helen McKinney:

You'll see all kinds of things If you drop by and see our exhibit. You'll see actually you'll see a dress. I hope I get this right Matt Burnett's great grandmother, I believe he has lent us a dress, maybe her graduation dress that she wore when she graduated from Science Hill To recall what year I want to say early 1900s. It's amazing. So it's there for you to see. We have a lot of documents and kind of paper-like programs and catalogs and a lot of photos, class photos of the girls that went there. So it's a good exhibit. It gives you a good idea of just how important Science Hill was, because it was like the first female academy west of the Alleghenies pretty much.

Helen McKinney:

I think there was something similar in Nashville when Julia opened her academy, because she referenced it in her book that she wrote an autobiography. But I mean it was amazing because I kind of get a giggle when you read her autobiography you learn about in the wilderness Shelby was in the wilderness still in 1825. But just the just the thought that she offered a school that taught Latin, greek botany, I mean everything that you know you wouldn't get in a one room schoolhouse, let alone boys wouldn't get that education. So it kind of made me wonder, you know, why would you send your daughter in the wilderness in 1825? You know it was a special place to think. Why am I going to send my daughter there?

Helen McKinney:

Right, and these people had money too, right Primarily, and a lot of them were from the southern states, because there's even instances one of the ladies that graduated I think she was in one of the last graduating classes. Rosella Davis has written some memoirs, been on a KET program and made the comments and I've seen that she's made in her writings that a lot of them were from the southern states. And the girls, if you think about it, because Science Hill went on from 1825 to 1939.

Helen McKinney:

That was the last graduating class but during the Civil Wars those girls couldn't return home, so some of them were sort of stranded for four years during the Civil War at Science Hill, and it had day they called them, I think, day boarders girls that lived there boarders, but they couldn't go home for like four years. So it's a lot of history. It makes you think.

Janette Marson:

It does make you think. Now you mentioned, and I know we have a wonderful, wonderful museum and you've made mention of it For the listeners. Talk about the hours when you're open, when can they visit? When can they visit?

Helen McKinney:

Sure, we are open Wednesday through Friday 10 to 4, saturday 10 to 2, or by appointment. You can call check with me. Sometimes I have to be out. I don't have any staff. I'm a staff of, I guess, half a person. We're open part-time. So if you're coming from far away, I'd suggest you call and I do have to be out for meetings or things will come up and we have volunteers that help staff us.

Janette Marson:

And is the museum free or is there a charge?

Helen McKinney:

No, charge free Very good. But yeah, and it's good to check ahead. Like I said, we can do other hours. My schedule is pretty flexible, but I try to stick to those hours.

Janette Marson:

Well, it's been a minute since I've been over. I want to come over and see the new exhibit.

Helen McKinney:

It's neat.

Janette Marson:

It is a wonderful museum, it really is wonderful.

Mason Warren:

Yeah, so is there anything else that you wanted to talk on about what you all do before we move on?

Helen McKinney:

Just I did want to kind of give a plug. We have got our Junior Historical Society back up and running. Danielle Wade is our she's actually camp director, board member and junior historical society director. She's fabulous she has. We're getting this back up and running. We feel a need for it to work with. This will be with probably older kids. We'd like to do field trips. If we could take it to Fort Boonesboro, fort Herod, we're just up for anything. So Danielle's getting that up and going. That's a big thing right now we're working on Is it through the schools? Through the schools? She'll work through the schools. Fantastic, kind of get a club together.

Helen McKinney:

I guess you'd say, and just one of our other. We're always looking for volunteers and help. We are working on several digitization projects as well, and that is some things. That's kind of a. We mentioned some member perks, that's kind of a perk. We'll have some things on our website that, if you're a member, you can access them. You may not be able to unless you're a member, but it doesn't cost much to become a member, so that will help researchers, writers, anyone just interested in history. So that's, we have a lot going on. Gotcha.

Mason Warren:

So there's an exciting anniversary coming up in 2026. America is turning 250. There are celebrations planned throughout the country, but the Shelby County Historical Society is kind of taking the lead on that for Shelby County, I think. So can you talk about what you all have planned for that?

Helen McKinney:

Yeah, sure, and that goes back. That was started by Brian Cushing, started a committee and we're calling ourselves Countdown to USA 250. And actually we had a big kickoff last year. It was the Day of the Independence Day Parade. I think that's always the last Saturday in June. We had some demos. Well, we had some demos along the parade route in front of Centenary United Methodist. We had kind of like a Revoir encampment parade route in front of Centenary United Methodist. We had kind of like a Revoir encampment. And then we had at our Historical Society. As the parade passes right by there, we had a lot going on there too. We had a special display from the Kentucky State Historical Society displayed the state constitution. So that was really exciting to have that. We had a lot of people come in and the SAR Sons of the American Revolution Museum in Louisville also came out and displayed some artifacts. So we like to partner Anyway we can partner.

Helen McKinney:

That was really cool. We had good traffic but it was amazing to see that, like 1792 state constitution right there in front of you. That was amazing. So we kicked off. We've got some programming. That was amazing. So we kicked off where we've got some programming that also goes along with our programming for this year.

Helen McKinney:

We're going to kick off April 15th a new series entitled With Liberty and Justice for All, and I've got one more speaker to nail down. It should be set Soon as I get that I'll release information. But April 15th we're excited to have Jim Holmberg from the Filson Historical Society. I think he's going to talk more about the Clark family. But all these programs will focus on the Rev War years and how it really began, although we do want to encompass, you know, 250 years of history. That's a lot of history and we want to point out Shelby County's contributions as we do this. But one of the other exciting things this is really cool.

Helen McKinney:

This hopefully, will come out next month we are developing something called History Minutes. It's going to be probably more like a YouTube social media type thing where literally in 60 seconds, someone will have a narrator to give you a few facts about, say on this day in history is how it will begin. It's based on the bicentennial minutes that were done in 1976. So you know, we'll start off like on this day in history, maybe tell you something about the Boston Tea Party or some fact from those years. But we're also going to focus as much as we can on just a brief fact from Shelby County history that ties in. Like Squire Boone was here then during the war Overall in Kentucky. You know we'll have things about Fort Boonesboro. We'll get a little nod in there.

Helen McKinney:

We're working on writing the scripts but that'll just kind of be another visual where you'll see 60 seconds, you'll hear a little fact and you'll see some pictures and that's what we're working on now. So we hope to get that going by next month and then that'll last like a year and three months till we actually get to 2026. Which, when we do get to 2026, our goal is to have a humongous parade in Shelbyville Just everything red, white and blue bunting everywhere, everything you can see red, white and blue bunting everywhere, everything you can see red, white and blue devoted to our veterans. So that's really the end goal for us with the 250th. That sounds fantastic.

Helen McKinney:

And you ask about. I'll throw this out there. You ask about Lafayette. He will literally return to Shelbyville May 13th this year. We hope, if all plans go well, he will literally return to Shelbyville May 13th this year. We hope, if all plans go well and we tie to trying to like Main Street events like Wild About Shelbyville music festival, art festival we will tie into that. We are going to have a flag display during that inside and out to kind of draw some attention. Last year we did that and had some SAR guys demoing and it was great. So that will be a tie-in to kind of Lafayette and he'll come back to Shelbyville May 13th if all goes well, when we put up the sign.

Helen McKinney:

The president of the Lafayette Trail, julian Itcher I know I won't pronounce his name, right, julian came and spoke and he has agreed to come again. He wants to give a program. We're kind of going to rededicate our sign. We have a lot of special things planned for May 13th so we'll be rolling that out soon. But that's you know. We just try to tie a lot of things into one program and give you a good like a visual. We'll have demos and things to give you a visual of history, not just read you something.

Janette Marson:

Right, always making it fun. Just read you something Right, always making it fun. I knew you were going to say that, yes, fun and engaging.

Helen McKinney:

That's the purpose. So yeah, and like I said, we'll culminate in that big parade in 2026. And we have a committee. You know, if you want to join the committee, you don't have to come to every meetings. We try to meet once a month to keep on track. Keep it going, keep the momentum going.

Janette Marson:

I've wanted to come to the meeting.

Helen McKinney:

Every single one of them has been a conflict, yeah it's a conflict with me sometimes oh my gosh, I don't even know what's happening. Yeah, but you know, and if you're interested I'll send you notes. If you come to one meeting you'll get the gist of it. But we are trying to plan these events to be 250th events for the year and we'll add things as the year goes along. There'll be more to add, but it's just to give people the idea that, hey, it's a big deal to celebrate 250 years of anything, it only happens once.

Helen McKinney:

So we want people to be excited, to be excited for Shelbyville, for America, I mean, this is America's big birthday.

Janette Marson:

Well, that's exciting. As we know, and people that are listening are finding out, Shelby County is so rich in history, we're so blessed to live here and there's so many things to know about. What would you say would be one of your favorite little facts or historical things that happened in Shelby County?

Helen McKinney:

Well, being a Boone descendant, I'm going to zero in on Squire Boone's Painted Stone Station.

Janette Marson:

Right.

Helen McKinney:

Or Uncle Squire's I would have called him. He would have been like my eighth, ninth great uncle In 1781,. I do the reenactments with the Painted Stone settlers. I've done that for a long time and it's just thrilling. I mean that history. We get a lot of requests and comments and questions about P stone even today. So we would um like with the historical society. We'd like to put some programming in place going forward and uh, kind of focus on that too. And again, that's one thing that goes along with the 250th, but I'm a little partial to the boone history absolutely so, as I had mentioned previously um henry banta.

Janette Marson:

so he was at and that family was at Painted Stone, and then I always wondered how in the world did they get to Shaker Village? Was it Indian attack, I guess?

Helen McKinney:

Painted Stone. Yeah, in September of 1781, the settlers were fleeing because they had been harassed by the natives so many times. So on a September day in 1781, they decided to flee to Lynn Station, which was part of the Beargrass Stations in Louisville, and they were attacked about mid-route. It would be the town of Eastwood today, if you're familiar with Middletown the little base spot Eastwood. That's about where it happened and you know there wasn't. I mean, historically they've said there were a lot of people killed. There wasn't. It was probably only about 13 people, but people did lose their lives, but it was such a massacre.

Helen McKinney:

So but the rest of the settlers that made it straggled into Lynn Station and we have, you know, in things like the Draper manuscripts there's a lot of references to the settlers. That's how we have their stories. And there's a historian, vince Akers, who I believe he lives in Ohio, he's not from here, he has come to the Painted Stone Long Run Massacre event but he recorded that Low Dutch history and he's who we reference as the major historian. We have basically his document on our website, but he is the one that took the time to record it and piece those things together and tell us what we know about Painted Stone Station.

Janette Marson:

Fantastic. So I have a couple burning questions. Mason may have burning questions as well. Okay, I don't know if you'll know or not, so of course our show is called Kentucky Hidden Wonders. So this is definitely a hidden wonder and I have wondered. So under Shelby County there are all these tunnels. So when they were redoing the steps on the courthouse they found a tunnel that went somewhere. I think at Serendipity Candy Kitchen she has a tunnel. What are these tunnels that are here in Shelby and what historically were they used for? Do you know?

Helen McKinney:

I don't quite know Now. Trace Kirkwood I've heard him talk about it. He's our president of the Historical Society, but I've heard him talk about those underground tunnels just used by the city. I really don't know. It is fascinating. I wish we could do some kind of tours and things.

Janette Marson:

Oh, I do too For the courthouse. I have said what you put the cement on before I could strap on a flashlight and go through it.

Helen McKinney:

Yeah, who knew? But? Yeah, there's like a whole other little city under there there is. Yeah.

Janette Marson:

And then the other question. So at our library, our Carnegie Library, there are all these old tombstones and then as you look at the grounds there are indentations where the graves were. I know there is historical significance with that area. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about the library? I can tell you what I've discovered.

Helen McKinney:

Now, Sarah Beth would be able to tell you exactly who they are and everything about them. But from what I understand, the church that is there on the corner, like across from the library, the Presbyterian Church right beside us from what I understand, they either own land there or I'm not sure if that's the original location for that church, but I think it belonged to that church. It was a graveyard that belonged to them, but the church, of course, is now hopped across the street on the corner, but the graveyard remains. So, as much as I can come up with, I think it tied into that church.

Helen McKinney:

But of course, the city looks totally different now.

Janette Marson:

Oh, it does. And those tombstones, they're very, very old.

Helen McKinney:

Yes.

Janette Marson:

And I'm so glad they've preserved them.

Helen McKinney:

And I'm all about preserving history, yes, and I think it was just the graveyard that went to that church and I might be wrong. Sarah Beth could tell you exactly. But you know, in the building we are in the museum is in the manse that went with the Presbyterian Church. I think it dates to 1872, something like that.

Janette Marson:

And that's another reason to go to the museum at the Historical Society. It's a neat old building. It is a neat old building and even the grounds that surround it are really, really— the garden out back everything.

Mason Warren:

It's very pretty.

Helen McKinney:

That's a city parking lot behind us, but it's very pretty and, of course, the VFW is right there across from us and we are just rich with history.

Janette Marson:

just walking around downtown or anywhere in Shelby County, you can encounter wonderful history. Yeah, oh, you know what. You did not let me know about my membership. Oh, yes, I will be glad to hear that. How does that work? How does that?

Helen McKinney:

work. You can contact the office, stop by. We're always looking for members, volunteers, donors, because we try to keep all our programs free, except for camp, but it's kind of hard to do that. We do have to have sponsors for different things, volunteers, especially camp. But just for as little as $25 and up you can be a member. We will probably kick off next month our annual fund drive which we target our members. But, like I said, anybody can be a member. There's no requirements. We have different levels, starting at $25 and up.

Janette Marson:

Is that a year annual? Yes, okay.

Helen McKinney:

Yeah, but an interesting thing, it's $100. We have like everything labeled so, for example, if you give $100, you're at the Julia Tevis level. So we thought we might kind of challenge people this year. I call this year the year of Julia, since there's a bicentennial, all these things with Julia Tevis signed sale To me it's like the whole year is a year of Julia, but we're kind of going to challenge and see how many people would give at that level. Or we have so many bicentennials. If you can do it, can you give 200? You know that really helps. It goes a long ways because we do have expenses. We're even going to be working on an archaeology project. We did get some funding for it, but we're going to target high schoolers and work on an archaeology project, which is exciting. That is super exciting. I want to be a part of it.

Janette Marson:

So you know what we could, even on our podcast, put a challenge out like 250.

Helen McKinney:

Yeah, yeah. But I was like, hey, it's bicentennial If you want to give 200,. Julia Tevis level is 100. But we always need those contributions to have the events like the 250th, to keep things up and running and going Because, like I said, we want to provide free programming as long as we can.

Janette Marson:

But we do have expenses. Well, that is incredibly affordable and everyone should be a member of our fabulous historical society. Anything else you'd like to add? Have we missed anything?

Helen McKinney:

We got a lot going on.

Janette Marson:

Have we missed anything?

Mason Warren:

You might have said it and I might have missed it Website where people can learn more? Oh, yes, wwwshelbykyhistoryorg.

Helen McKinney:

I'm glad you said that we are in the process of updating that website. So if everything doesn't come quite up, give us about another month, okay. But we're kind of freshening it up, adding some new stuff, getting that up to par. You can always contact me, director at shelbykyhistoryorg, or call the office 502-513-5555, wednesday through Saturday that's the easiest way. Just contact me if you have any questions or anything.

Janette Marson:

And you all have a great website. I've looked at it. You've got some good videos, some reenactments.

Helen McKinney:

Yeah, like I, said, we're updating all that and a lot of things. That's gotten a lot of attention is the Simpsonville Massacre. The anniversary of that was January 25th, I believe 160 years. So members Jerry Miller and Juanita White have been very involved with that and I think Wave 3 actually reached out to me and I think Juanita may be appearing on there. Jerry's been on WDRB here recently, so there's a lot of interest and we even partnered with Camp Nelson on that date, january 25th of this year. They reached out to us to do a program and Ali Center just recently that was last week premiered the screening again of Secrets of the Dead.

Janette Marson:

That was the episode that focused on the massacre and just for people who don't necessarily know just quickly, could you describe for them what that was?

Helen McKinney:

It happened in Simpsonville. You can see the markers along US-60 if you drive through Simpsonville. That's in that area was where some black Union soldiers were massacred. They were attacked by Confederateederate guerrillas and buried in a mass grave. That's the information we have. So jerry jerry and juanita both have taken an enormous amount of time to look into that, and there are others too. They have worked with uk, with some archaeologists, and jerry is close to. He thinks he has pinpointed where that mass grave is, because they had to be buried quick. You know it was in January. We're assuming the bodies were stripped. So it's kind of hard to find like anything metal or anything, because they probably took the soldiers' boots, they took their uniforms with their metal buttons. But they think they have narrowed down and found the spot.

Helen McKinney:

So Jerry is going to dig and no matter what is found one way or the other, we're going to have a program, a follow-up program, once that happens too. So we'll have programming that we plug in throughout the year. We don't just set our dates in January, we're just kind of filling in as we go. But we will have a program in Simpsonville near that site it won't be that site to kind of update at Camp Nelson. There, the head guy at Camp Nelson, stephen Fann, has already agreed to come and speak, so that's we may do a panel discussion. It's going to be a good program for everyone to be on the same track right at that time and know what's happening going forward, because if they do find the bodies of the soldiers, they are going to, from what I understand, transfer them to Camp Nelson, which is probably most fitting.

Janette Marson:

Right.

Helen McKinney:

Um, if they find that mass grave. Um. So yeah, that's exciting. That's kind of an ungrowing project with Jerry and Juanita.

Mason Warren:

Oh well, that's incredible. I remember seeing the WDRB story about that.

Helen McKinney:

Okay, yeah, yeah, I'm excited for them. I'm glad they're getting attention. They've worked really hard because I want to say this started in maybe 2007 when Jerry started on this program, so it's been a while. So I know Juanita. I heard her talk about how she went through all those soldiers' pension records to pull out information. Get their names, because we have their names. Pull the information.

Janette Marson:

Oh, so you do. You know who they are. A lot of work, yeah, you know who they are.

Helen McKinney:

But she like pieced the information together from the pension records Because, if you think about it, those were young men, like maybe 21, 19, 21, 22 years old, so they may not have had families or you know who are they going to leave something to and who's going to apply for a pension. So they put a lot of work into that to get that history out there.

Janette Marson:

Oh well, thank you, Helen, you are a wealth of information.

Mason Warren:

Yes, all kinds of good information, thank you. Thank you so much for being on our show. I appreciate it.

Helen McKinney:

Thank you for having me. We appreciate it.

Janette Marson:

You've been fabulous Thank you very much.

Mason Warren:

This has been Kentucky Hidden Wonders. Thank you to Helen McKinney for coming on the show to talk about the Shelby County Historical Society and thank you for listening. If you've made it this far, make sure you subscribe and leave us a review. It means the world to us. We'll return with a brand new Kentucky Hidden Wonders episode in two weeks. Bye everyone. Kentucky Hidden Wonders is a Shelby KY Tourism production. Your hosts are Janet Marson and Mason Warren. To learn more about Shelby KY Tourism and to start planning a visit, head to visitshelbykycom.

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Janette Marson

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Mason Warren

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Helen McKinney

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