Photo from the Armstrong Archives
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Friday, October 9, 2020
Anna Elliott Bohon
Anna Elliott Bohon
was born on January 7, 1893 in Pike County, Kentucky and was educated at
Pikeville Collegiate Institute, now Pikeville College. Her nursing education was
at Dr. Hall’s Hospital School of Nursing, Cincinnati, Ohio. She did graduate
work at Cincinnati General Hospital in children’s diseases. She studied and
received a certificate in the technique of radiology from Hunter College of the
City of New York. She did work at Post Graduate Hospital and Medical College in
Chicago, took post graduate courses at Nazareth College, Louisville and City
Hospital in Louisville, as well as other short studies at various institutes on
X-ray technique, anesthesia, Red Cross staff aid service and operating problems
of small hospitals.
Anna Elliott served in the Barrow Hospital Unit from Lexington, Kentucky in England during World War I and later with the Red Cross camp hospital in France.
Anna Elliott came to Harrodsburg February 1926 and was married to Henry Clay Bohon in February 1927. She became Superintendent of the A.D. Price Memorial Hospital at Harrodsburg in 1926 and gave practically all anesthetics at that hospital and its successor the James B. Haggin Memorial Hospital until her retirement.
She was Chairman of the Harrodsburg hospital board from 1940 to 1964 and was one of the leading forces in raising the money and making the plans for the building of the present James B. Haggin Memorial Hospital, now owned by Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center.
Mrs. Bohon helped organize the local Red Cross Blood Bank and was active in volunteer work there. Honors she received are: Harrodsburg Woman of the Year – 1950; Outstanding Club Woman of Kentucky, 1949-1950; Mercer County Citizen chosen by Harrodsburg Rotary Club – 1965; Memorial garden and new wing of James B. Haggin Hospital named in her honor – 1964; Woman of Achievement in the Community chosen by the Harrodsburg Business and Professional Women’s Club 1976; and Community Leader of America in 1969 edition of Community Leaders of America.
Anna Elliott Bohon, truly an outstanding woman of service to her community. The Anna Elliott Bohon Women's Club was organized in 1990 and is a philanthropic organization dedicated to serving the women and girls of Mercer County.
Monday, October 5, 2020
Who Was James Harrod?
James Harrod
Takes A Wife
Up until now, James Harrod had no interest in
starting a family. Early in his career he had been too busy to find a girl and
marry. But now Kentucky was growing, and he thought it would be nice to have a
household and a wife to make it cozy. In early 1778, he took a shine to
twenty-two year old widowed Ann Coburn McDaniel. Ann made a good match for
James because he was one of the finest men in Kentucky. He was strong, energetic,
and smart and gentle mannered and he had the best pieces of land in the
country.
Ann was small,
beautiful, cultured, and educated. She came to Kentucky in 1776 with her first
husband, James McDaniel, who was killed by Native Americans the same year. In late 1777, Ann’s father,
whom she lived with at Logan’s Station, was also killed and scalped by Native
Americans while picking corn between
Logan’s and Harrod’s forts. She had a two year old son, James McDonald,
Jr., whom James Harrod would come to love as his own.
In mid-February 1778, the
Harrod wedding took place at Logan’s Station. February was a quiet time at the
fort because Indian tribesmen were in their camps, waiting for spring, and this
gave settlers time for a big celebration. New supplies of jerked meat were
stowed away and the ground was too frozen to prepare for the new crops, so it
was time for a party.
Harrod’s wedding was probably typical for frontier
affairs, with the groom arriving at noon and the celebration lasting until the next
day. By today’s standards it was probably a boring affair with no silver, fine
china, or pure Irish linen to cover the table; no beautiful flowers or soft
music, just the seesaw of a screaming violin accompanied by tapping feet and
clapping hands.
Ann had one ruffled dress and a brooch she brought
across the mountains. James wore a new hunting shirt and leggings. Because it
was such a long trip to Williamsburg to get a marriage license, James and Ann
married without one. This would bother Ann in later years when she was involved
in lawsuits over her inheritance. In later years she took great pains to prove
the legality of her wedding.
The ceremony preceded a dinner of all the best the
pioneers had to offer. The warm weather of this particular February had started
a new flow of maple sap, so the couple had hasty pudding, a favorite dessert
made with cornmeal mush and baked with molasses. Bear meat and venison with
kraut were also favorite dishes. Gourds and wooden plates held food and there were
a few pewter cups to hold milk or toddy.
A dried apple stack cake
was a form of pioneer wedding cake that was served. Because wedding cakes were
so expensive, neighbors brought cake layers to donate to the bride’s family.
The dough would be rolled or pressed out into very thin layers and baked in
cast iron skillets. The family of the bride cooked, sweetened, and spiced dried
apples to spread between the layers of the cake. The number of layers in the
wedding cake was a gauge of the bride’s popularity. The average cake had seven
to eight layers, but sometimes there would be twelve or more. The dried apple
stack cake recipe was supposedly brought to Kentucky by James Harrod along the
Wilderness Trail.
After dinner the fun really began as the dancing
started, with the bride and groom jigging off the first reel. Jokes and games
were abundant and everyone had fun until the girls pulled the bride to one side
and led her up to the cabin loft. When she was tucked securely into bed, the
men carried the groom up the ladder and dropped him on the cornhusk mattress
beside his bride.
Dancing continued in the
room below with the occasional intermission to take drinks to the newlyweds.
Closer to morning the women placed a huge bowl of kraut or hominy before the
couple and the newlyweds had to eat it all before the guests below would leave
them alone. By midmorning the last guest was gone and the couple went to their
own home where another crowd would give them a rousing welcome.
Harrod’s new station at Boiling Springs was
incomplete and too isolated for safety, so he took Ann straight on to Fort
Harrod, where they lived until the next fall. Boiling Springs became
Harrod’s Station and though no exact description exists, it is said to have
been several cabins surrounded by a stockade. Also living with them were Samuel
and Margaret Coburn (Ann Harrod’s parents) and her brother’s family, the James
Coburns.
Ann got busy helping James to greet the many new settlers arriving to Harrod’s Town during the summer of 1778. She had to teach the women to make linsey, show them where to find the best herbs for the “itch,” and what to do for snakebites and fever.
Friday, October 2, 2020
Post Office Murals
In 1938, Harrodsburg was given the opportunity by its 6th district congressman to secure murals for the post office lobby which would depict the history of the town. This project was handled by the state Director of Federal Art under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). During this period, the WPA did numerous art projects in post offices around the country.
Photo by Keith Rightmyer
This photograph shows a mural depicting pioneers welcoming travelers to the fort and the bottom picture shows settlers at the spring collecting water. Because the murals are painted so high up the 12-feet high walls, it is hard to get adequate photographs, but these give a glimpse into what they look like. Next time you're at the Post Office, look up on the walls
Thursday, October 1, 2020
The Birthplace of Kentucky - The Search for Salt
Wearen & James Drugs
Harrodsburg Opera House
This is a photo we had never seen and Belinda S Kurtz shared this from another group. “Wasn’t Bob Martin that used to run the radio statio...

-
Photo by Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill Do you have a favorite Shaker artifact? When you think of Pleasant Hill, do any special objects co...
-
Photo from the collection of Jerry L. Sampson This family photo is of the Hardin family and comprises of Judge Charles A Hardin, his son E...
-
The first tavern in Kentucky was Harrodsburg’s Old Wingfield Tavern, which was followed by numerous other saloons. Legends as to why Har...