Basketball, feuds, settlers and politics. This KY county history museum has it all.
Daniel Boone surveyed land here in the 1780s, and before the Civil War it was one of the biggest producers of salt sold in the South.
It was the site of one of the most protracted feuds of its kind that made Kentucky notorious in newspapers across the country, and the birthplace of a governor considered one of the most progressive of the 20th Century.
If ever a place deserved a museum dedicated to local history, it’s Clay County.
So volunteers created one.
The museum in downtown Manchester, a project of the Clay County Genealogical and Historical Society, features hundreds of items that trace the history of the county from pioneer days.
The society won an award for the museum this year from the Kentucky Historical Society, along with an award in 2018 for a photo-book project.
“I think we have one of the premier historical and genealogical societies in Kentucky at this time,” said Danny Finley, vice president of the society.
The historical society started in the mid-1980s, but it had nearly died out before Charles House, a Clay County native and former editor of the newspaper in London, moved home from Florida in 2006.
House wrote several books, including histories of the county, and revitalized the society.
Some were concerned the organization would fade after House died in 2015, but committed volunteers have kept it going, said Mike White, a retired school principal who is president of the society.
“It’s the amount of passion and the amount of work people are willing to put into it,” White said of the volunteers. “They are passionate about our local history. They are dedicated to this organization and the work that goes on here and they are the reason for our success.”
The society put $30,000 that it had with $30,000 raised in donations to create the museum with the help of a design firm from Cincinnati and elbow grease from volunteers who helped with construction, White said.
The Clay County Public Library was a key help, giving the society space to create the museum.
“We probably couldn’t operate the way we do without their support and help,” Finley said of the library.
Every artifact ‘has a 30-minute story’
The new museum, called The Clay We Were, opened in December 2019.
The history starts at the front door, the original 1905 wooden door and transom of the First National Bank that a contractor saved during a renovation and donated to the society.
The museum is organized in sections that include early settlement, education, Manchester’s downtown, military history, coal mining, politics and sports.
The items on display include a large kettle used to boil down water to produce salt before the Civil War.
Salt production — using enslaved Black people for labor — played a key role in the development of the county, drawing entrepreneurs, driving the economy and helping form alliances and rivalries that influenced the county for decades.
Union soldiers destroyed the salt works in late 1862, according to one of House’s histories, called Blame it on Salt.
The museum displays a wide range of artifacts, from tools early settlers would have used, to the score sheet from the Clay County High School boys basketball team’s win in the 1987 state championship, to the organ from the historic Webb Hotel that was a center of activity in Manchester for decades, and a moonshine still donated by state Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican from Manchester.
Stivers’ father confiscated the still in the 1960s when he was commonwealth’s attorney, White said.
“Every artifact here has a 30-minute story behind it,” White aid.
Bert T. Combs is prominent in the politics section. Combs, a Democrat, grew up in the county and was elected governor in 1959.
Historians have described Combs’ term as one of the most progressive of the 20th Century.
It included a tax increase that boosted education, expansion of the state park system, creation of the community college system and a merit system for state employees, and an executive order desegregating public accommodations, according to A New History of Kentucky, by Lowell H. Harrison and James Klotter.
Feuds brought ‘climate of fear’
White, the society president, said the first large item donated to the museum was a piano that salt maker Daniel Garrard, son of Kentucky’s second governor, bought in the 1830s for his wife.
Members weren’t sure the society would get enough items to stock a museum, but people donated more than enough.
The society tries to be accurate in what it accepts and displays, Finley said.
“We’re very particular about the historical aspect of the item that we’re receiving,” he said.
The museum highlights local leaders and accomplishments, but it doesn’t ignore the dark side of the county’s long-running feuds between local families and factions that left scores dead, with local law officers taking part at times or unable to control the violence.
House said in his 2007 history Blame it on Salt that the feuding lasted for about 100 years beginning in the 1840s, with violence so prevalent in the 1930s that there was a “climate of fear” throughout the decade.
There were various theories on what started the violence, House said, from a fight over cattle in the early 1800s to animosity between rival, elite families vying for control.
The feuds finally faded away because of changing times and people.
The museum uses quotes from books and articles to show how others perceived the feud violence.
“We’ve got a storied history, a lot good and a lot bad, but it’s our history,” White said.
‘It’s impressive what they did’
The society’s other work includes publishing a glossy magazine with stories of local history, and this year it placed large banners of historical photos on downtown buildings with the help of a grant from the University of Kentucky.
Hundreds of people from Kentucky and elsewhere have used the society’s resources for genealogical research.
The museum houses more than 400 volumes of family histories, marriage records dating to 1807 when the county was founded, and extensive tax, property and census records, among other resources.
The museum, which has contributed to tourism in the county, won the Community Impact Award in 2020 from the Kentucky Historical Society.
The award was in recognition of the museum providing long-term community engagement and expanded access to history.
“It’s impressive what they did,” said Scott Alvey, president of the Kentucky Historical Society.
The county historical society is planning additional projects next year, including restoring the exterior of the 1910 jail and tours of historic sites around the county.
“We just go from one project to another,” White said.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 10:02 AM.
