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This chapter provides a brief overview of the book, touching on topics that will be covered in depth later. These include the Mentelles' French origins; their experience of the French Revolution; their life on the Ohio frontier in the French colony of Gallipolis; Charlotte's career as an educator; their struggle to survive in early Kentucky; their ties to Henry Clay, Mary Todd Lincoln and Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours; their unusual perspective on the culture of early Lexington; and the importance of their voluminous correspondence in revealing their personalities and their story.

The French did not immigrate to America in massive numbers; the Mentelles were not typical whose who did, fleeing neither religious nor political persecution. Waldemar might be considered to have come in search of economic opportunity, yet that is more apparent than real, for he would probably not have done so had his father not forced him to. Neither would he have willingly left Charlotte behind. She came simply to find him, and not, as she told her students, to escape a Revolutionary mob. Although as her obituary indicates the Mentelles were "from their education incapable of following the usual avocations of life" in the land where they settled, they accomplished much, leaving their mark on an admiring community.

While attempting to preserve a nation, Henry Clay endured both the intense criticism of political enemies and family tragedies that would have felled most men. All six Clay daughters died prematurely, a son died in war, and two sons suffered mood disorders so severe that they were placed in the Lexington Lunatic Asylum. The oldest son spent his life there; the youngest was released but remained subject to manic episodes and a source of concern throughout Clay's life. Henry Clay struggled, not always successfully, to balance public and private responsibilities, and tragedy humbled a proud man. As his “afflictions” began to take a toll on the third generation, Clay looked to a higher power and submitted to baptism late in life. Even in tragedy he found it difficult to console Lucretia or receive consolation from her, yet his children took lessons from his suffering.

The Niles' trip to Kentucky took them first to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and then to Pittsburgh, where they spent Easter with their close friends, the Eliots. When they arrived at Lexington they checked into the Phoenix Hotel and had dinner with President McVey and his wife. Through President McVey, Niles got to know Elmer Sulzer, the director of the university's radio station. Niles was familiar with radio through his work in Chicago and New York City. He was a highly respected performer who could talk eloquently about music. Lexington offered a new beginning; they were liberated from the memories of New York City and Brasstown that haunted Niles's past and free of the family entanglements of Albany and Louisville.

Jacqueline Duty, a defiant-looking teenager from Greenup Country, Kentucky, stood outside the federal courthouse in Lexington on a cold December day in 2004. She was wearing a strapless dress emblazoned from bust to toe with red, blue, and silver sequins in the shape of a Confederate battle flag. Duty, who did not have another dress to wear, decided to wear the dress and go anyway, and in doing so launched a chain of events that resulted in her filing suit against the Russell independent school district for violating her First Amendment rights to free speech and her right to “celebrate her heritage.” Duty's prom dress drama is one of several high-profile incidents involving Confederate symbolism to come out of eastern Kentucky in recent years.

After graduating, Niles started work with the county survey crew, cutting brush, dragging chains, and driving stakes. His work was hard and not any more challenging than his work on his parents' farm. But unlike his work at the farm, his current work provided an income. In August 1910, Niles was hired in Burroughs Adding Machine Company because they saw his talent in fixing machines. Niles worked as a “mechanical inspector” for a year in Louisville, and traveled to central Kentucky to repair machines. These travels also conveniently served as an excuse to collect songs. In 1912, Niles moved completely away from home for the first time. The Burroughs Company decided to relocate him to their Lexington office, thereby introducing him to the city where he eventually resided from 1937 until his death.

McVey had to leave Maxwell Place despte the many memories the place held for him. Frances McVey established Maxwell Place as a venue for Lexington–s social and intellectual life. Frank McVey often discussed with Frances how his time would be spent as president emeritus as he wanted to write and even expressed intentions of moving to either Florida or California. He, however, preferred to remain closer to his friends and family, so he bought a lot on Shady Lane. McVey was very interested in constructing plans for his new home. In spite of architectural disputes, McVey's family was able to enjoy the new home. At this point McVey offered just a little assistance to the temporary president, so he taught an agricultural economics class and he and his wife began to travel. This chapter looks into McVey's activities as he entered retirement.

War and rumors of war, funding difficulties, reticent and sometimes rebellious students, underpaid and overworked faculty, sectarian strife, helpful as well as meddling alumni and supporters, and feckless and sometimes downright hostile legislators and governors are all familiar problems today in higher education. Yet, the same could be said for the earliest days of higher education in Kentucky. The highlight of early higher education in Kentucky was Holley's leadership at Transylvania, which produced great changes in the Lexington school. This chapter discusses Transylvania under Holley's guidance. The sectarianism that encouraged the development of higher education in Kentucky also led to the founding of several schools of theology. The description of student behavior and college administrations' proscriptions in the early days of college education in Kentucky places the state's colleges within a southern context.

This chapter discusses the wide range of activities that Madeline launched into. It notes that in 1897 she joined John Fox Jr. in an effort to assist Robert Burns Wilson by raising a subscription to publish a collection of his works. The McDowell–Breckinridge wedding took place at noon at Ashland on November 17 and newspaper accounts gushed about the “distinguished family connections on both sides, the brilliant personal endowments of the bride and groom and their universal popularity.” Madeline had formulated definite goals and mastered techniques of publicity and organization and began to create for herself a career in public reform during the early years of the Progressive reform movement. During the first two years after her marriage, she could record some important achievements: the beginning of social settlement work by the Gleaners, and the formation of Associated Charities and the Lexington Civic League.

Southern intellectual life experienced a significant flourish in spite of being situated in a regional and local social environment characterized by change, violence, and disorder. The collegiate and community life of Lexington, Kentucky—a small city in the upper South—played no small part in determining the intellectual lives of not only the undergraduates but also those that comprised the upper- and middle-class white communities. This story is examined because the region, locale, interaction between the campus and the community, and how these contribute to American intellectual history may be observed. This enables an examination of the larger context in terms of locale, as well as clarifies the need to resolve the neglect often associated with the southern intellectual history.

Although Lexington and other towns and cities in Kentucky acquired some damage during the Civil War that also signified the end of Reconstruction as well as the military occupation of the South, Kentucky was generally secured as it did not experience the worst of the desolation and the physical destruction. However, that series of events led to political institutions, and the economy, infrastructure, and social structure being left in unfavorable conditions. While the white sentiment was usually perceived to have favored the South, the Confederacy's “Lost Cause” was honored in various monuments in Lexington and other places. This chapter illustrates Lexington during the Gilded Age—from 1870 to 1900— when “Victorian” practices and values proliferated.

Attorney Joseph Tanner, who served as Lexington's Democratic city treasurer, ran for reelection in that position in February 1884. Tanner's first seat in city government was acquired in 1881. During that period, Dennis Mulligan, Lexington's political boss, was disappointed as Claud M. Johnson again won as mayor. Mulligan's power was then passed on to William Klair, one of Tanner's good friends. Tanner's loss in 1884 signified the beginning of the decline of his professional life as an attorney as well. During the Progressive Era, Tanner left the legal profession to pursue real estate, and this move was found to be in favor of government bureaucracy since he became the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) storekeeper-gauger. This chapter explores various aspects of Tanner's life, particularly his contributions as a Gilded Age Lexingtonian.

The victory parade that followed the 1896 oratorical contest in the streets of Lexington served as a manifestation of one of the student group's oldest traditions. Even before the war, public parading and its attributed merriment and notoriety serves as a departure point for analyzing the development of these societies, particularly in one of Lexington's most prominent collegiate institutions. Honor and status were appropriated to the participants of this type of cultural performance, and these events were viewed as “cultural performances” in antebellum America. This chapter attempts to explore the various features and the proliferation of collegiate literary societies in Lexington during the nineteenth century.

As the collegiate literary societies in Lexington, as well as those in other places, were not able to maintain student loyalty and relevance, they became less and less important compared to a number of other campus organizations. There were some, however, who reacted remorsefully to this incidence, as the Crimson Rumbler pointed out the lack of patronage of campus literary societies. Although four of the traditional literary societies were still operating during the school year 1919–1920, this was marked with a significant decline in participation in extracurriculum activities. Lexington after the war experienced a number of different changes as it veered away from the Gilded Age. Although the Gilded Age may have been characterized by gentility and refinement as well as racism and violence, it is important to note that this period marks significant advances in terms of Lexington's intellectual life.

Kentucky’s waterways carry a history of the landscape as well as life-sustaining water. Watersheds are any area of land draining water to a common water body, and the quality of the water body reflects human activity and natural processes. The Cane Run watershed is a polluted watershed in central Kentucky. A watershed-based plan was created by investigating the current status of the watershed and making plans to improve its conditions. Some progress has been made to improve the Cane Run watershed. Effective watershed-based plans require scientific inquiry as well as social considerations of the citizens in the watershed.