BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:First Kentucky derby held 1875 DTSTAMP:20250504T074103Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:264-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n First Kentucky derby held 1875 \n\n\n\n The Colt's name is Aristides\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n newspaper clipping [ The Tennessean\n\n Nash ville\, Tennessee • \n\n Thu\, May 11\, 1876\n\n Page 1 ]\n\n https://w ww.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-aristides-breaks-record-f/1488958 58/\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n info\n\n https://www.espn.com.sg/sports/horse/news/st ory?id=5086727\n\n\n\n Aristides: The first Derby winner\nTerry Conway\nAp r 14\, 2010\, 11:51 PM\n\nH. P. McGrath was a barroom brawler who worked h is way up from crooked dice games in his native Kentucky to owning posh ga mbling parlors in New Orleans and New York City. Cashing in his massive pr ofits in 1867\, McGrath returned to Lexington as a member of the landed ge ntry. He built his lordly estate McGrathiana on the crest of a hill a few miles outside town. Breeding\, racing\, and betting topflight thoroughbred s would dominate the rest of his life.\n\nHenry Price McGrath also gained immortality. His blood-red chestnut colt Aristides will forever be remembe red in racing history as the first Kentucky Derby winner.\n\nThe burly Iri shman also threw the biggest parties in town. Each spring and fall on the Sunday before the opening of the race meetings\, McGrath hosted lavish bur goo feasts. In May of 1875 the carriages of McGrath's racing friends swept up the twisting drive. Under a grove of locust trees at half-past one the feast commenced. First came the burgoo (a sumptuous beef stew) and burgun dy\, followed by roast dishes of mutton\, goat and pig while the champagne and bourbon flowed.\n\nAfterwards McGrath paraded the leading lights of h is stable before guests on the lawn. Eastern champions Tom Bowling and Sus an Ann drew great applause. Not so for Aristides. His heroics were still a day away.\n\nMonday May 17 saw most businesses in Louisville shuttered by noon. Merchants realized the lion's share of the money exchanging hands w ould be at the new racetrack south of town. The previous summer one of the town's leading socialites\, Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark\, button- hole d 320 of his friends to pony up funds to build the track on 80 acres he le ased from his uncle\, John Churchill.\n\nOn that sun-splashed day\, stream s of Louisvillians rode mule-drawn streetcars down Fourth Street departing for an easy walk to the site of the Louisville Jockey Club. Others arrive d on foot or in wagons brimming with race fans. Fringe-topped buggies and handsom carriages led by brilliant teams of hackneys all made their way to the racecourse.\n\nRich gentlemen wore silk hats and fine clothes\, while pretty ladies in colorful dresses carrying parasols filled the boxes of t he grandstand. Working men in straw hats and shirtsleeves got their first glimpse of the big city.Some paid two dollars for a badge that let them wa tch near the rail in the home stretch\, others trooped into the infield an d settled on their patch of grass. As the Derby 2:30 p.m. post time approa ched\, more than 10\,000 roamed the grounds.\n\nMcGrath owned the favorite \, a stout and spirited bay colt named Chesapeake. In addition\, Aristides was entered as the \"rabbit\" to soften up the field. \"Risty\" was a pin t size (a little over 15 hands) colt with a white star on his forehead and white socks on his hind legs. Possessing plenty of \"bone and substance\, \" as a two-year old Aristides captured three of nine races. Richly bred\, the colt was sired by imported English stallion Leamington out of dam Sar ong\, also by Leamington. His bloodlines traced back to the greats — Glen coe\, Sir Archy and Diomed.\n\nFrank B. Harper's Ten Broeck turned up for the Derby that bettors considered a \"mile-and-a-quarter dash.\" A week ea rlier Ten Broeck dominated the field (including Aristides) in the two-mile Phoenix Hotel Stakes in Lexington and would go on to reign as one of the turf's all-time long distance runners.\n\nThe bugle sounded playing \"Boot s and Saddles\,\" and 15 three-year old colts jogged onto the track in sin gle file. Parading past the judge's stand Aristides tossed his head follow ing a lad on a lead pony. He sported a saddle blanket \"as green as the gr ass of Erin\" bound with a bright orange stripe. In one corner big orange letters spelled \"McGrathiana\" and in the other \"Aristides.\" The topnot ch broadcloth was a gift from Aristides Welch of Philadelphia\, the celebr ated owner of Leamington. The gregarious Irishman had named the compact co lt for his friend.\n\nA line was drawn in the dirt and the horses stood to start the race. In unison with the rat-tat-tat of a drummer's beat\, Colo nel William Johnson dropped the flag. The horses sprang into action. McCre ery jumped to the lead\, stalked by Volcano and Aristides. McGrath's Chesa peake was one of the last away. As they hit the backstretch Aristides surg ed to the lead with four horses in close pursuit. Favored Chesapeake was s tuck in mid-pack.\n\nAs they rounded the far turn jockey Oliver Lewis — f ollowing McGrath's instructions — began to pull back on the chestnut colt a bit to make way for Chesapeake's run to glory. Then Oliver glanced over to the rail at the head of the stretch where McGrath waved his hat franti cally and shouted \"go on and win it.\" Aristides sped to the lead and hel d off a pair of challengers\, dashed under the wire and won by two lengths earning a purse of $2\,850. His time of 2:37 ¾ was the fastest ever reco rded at the distance for a three-year old.\n\nThe Louisville Courier-Journ al reported: \"It is the gallant Aristides\, heir to a mighty name\, that strides with sweeping gallop toward victory … And the air trembles and vi brates again with the ringing cheers that followed.\"\n\nEpilogue\n\nArisi tides' trainer Ansel Williams and jockey Oliver Lewis were both African-Am ericans\, a group who played a critical role in shaping early American rac ing history. A total of 14 of the 15 riders in the first Kentucky Derby we re African-American\, with African-American jockeys winning 15 of the init ial 28 runnings.\n\nBorn a slave\, Williamson was purchased by Robert A. A lexander\, the owner of the famous Woodburn Stud in 1864 where Williamson worked as a trainer and breeder. Following Alexander's death in 1867\, Wil liamson went on to train many great horses including Tom Bowling\, who won 14 of his 17 races. Williamson won major races such as the Travers Stakes \, the Jerome Handicap\, and the Wither Stakes and was inducted into the R acing Hall of Fame in 1998.\n\nJockey Oliver Lewis is less well known. Bor n in Fayette County\, Ky.\, Lewis was 19 when he won the 1875 Kentucky Der by. He never rode in another Derby. Instead\, he became a successful bookm aker (then a legal enterprise) and wrote detailed handicapping charts simi lar to what appears in today's Daily Racing Form. Lewis was said to be a g ood family man who raised six children. He died in 1924\, and is buried in Lexington.\n\nHenry Price McGrath trained as a tailor before pursuing the quick riches as a gambler and bookmaker. He spent a year in a federal jai l in New Orleans for fleecing hard spending Union soldiers. His opulent ma nsion at McGrathiana was fashioned after the United States Hotel in Sarato ga Springs. At his New York gambling house he won $105\,000 in a single ni ght. Reportedly\, McGrath never had a bank account and had large sums of m oney\, in gold and silver\, buried on the farm. One of the most prominent turfmen of his era\, he bred numerous brilliant runners\, and declared Tom Bowling his greatest. A bachelor all his life\, he died in July 1881 at a fashionable resort in Long Branch N. J. from a diseased liver and dropsy. \n\nMcGrathiana was sold to Colonel Milton Young who continued the farm's tradition as a birthplace of champion racehorses. Sold again in 1915 to C. B. Shaffer of Chicago\, the breeding establishment was renamed Coldstream Farm. Today\, it is owned by the University of Kentucky. The Coldstream R esearch Campus is home to 1\,000 employees working in biotech\, pharmaceut ical and equine-related companies. Aristides Boulevard runs alongside Cold water Farm.\n\nThe runner-up in the 1875 Belmont Stakes\, Aristides was on the lead heading into the stretch when jockey Lewis put the chestnut colt under a fierce hold allowing stablemate Calvin to win. McGrath had placed a hefty bet on Calvin and took home a stunning $30\,000. Aristides captur ed the Jerome Handicap\, the Breckinridge\, the Withers Stakes and triumph ed in a match race over Ten Broeck. In 21 career starts (9-5-1) he earned $18\,325\, quite a fortune in the day. But with the Derby not yet a famed national event\, breeders did not flock to his stable door. Aristides died at the age of 21 at the Fairgrounds of St. Louis. To honor his racing ach ievements Churchill Downs inaugurated the Aristides Stakes (sprint race) i n 1988. The track also commissioned a life-sized bronze statue that now st ands in the Clubhouse Gardens as a memorial to the \"the little red horse. \"\n\nTerry Conway has been a regular contributor to The Blood-Horse magaz ine since 2003. He wrote a Sunday column on racing for several years for t he Chester County (Pa.) daily newspaper and covers racing and the horse wo rld for a number of regional magazines in the mid-Atlantic area. In additi on\, he has written many historical articles on the art world and business entrepreneurs for a variety of national and regional magazines. Contact T erry at tconway@terryconway.net\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n Pedigree LINK\n\n\n\n PDF\n\n https://www.equineline.com/Free5XPedigreePdf.cfm?page_state=GENER ATE&\;reference_number=5332901&\;registry=T&\;horse_name=Aristide s&\;dam_name=Sarong&\;foaling_year=1872&\;NICKING_STATS_INDICATOR =Y&\;include_sire_line=Y&\;sire_reference_number=0&\;dam_referenc e_number=0&\;color=&\;sex=&\;hypo_foaling_year=&\;breeder=& \;sig=__NA\n\n  \n\n\n\n The jockey's name is Oliver Lewis\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n info\n\n https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-kentucky-derbys-for gotten-jockeys-128781428/\n\n\n\n The Kentucky Derby’s Forgotten Jockeys \nAfrican American jockeys once dominated the track. But by 1921\, they ha d disappeared from the Kentucky Derby\nLisa K. Winkler\n\nApril 23\, 2009\ n\n\n\n\n PHOTO\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n ARTICLE CONTINUE\n\n\n\n James Winkfield was a two-time Kentucky Derby winner and raced across Europe after racism kept him from being the best athlete in America's most popular sport. Cour tesy Kentucky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n\nWhen tens of thousands of fans assemble in Louisville\, Kentucky\, for the Kentucky Derby\, they will witness a phenomenon somewhat unusual for today’s American sportin g events: of some 20 riders\, none are African-American. Yet in the first Kentucky Derby in 1875\, 13 out of 15 jockeys were black. Among the first 28 derby winners\, 15 were black. African-American jockeys excelled in the sport in the late 1800s. But by 1921\, they had disappeared from the Kent ucky track and would not return until Marlon St. Julien rode in the 2000 r ace.\n\nAfrican-American jockeys’ dominance in the world of racing is a history nearly forgotten today. Their participation dates back to colonial times\, when the British brought their love of horseracing to the New Wor ld. Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson frequented the track\, and when President Andrew Jackson moved into the White House in 1 829\, he brought along his best Thoroughbreds and his black jockeys. Becau se racing was tremendously popular in the South\, it is not surprising tha t the first black jockeys were slaves. They cleaned the stables and handle d the grooming and training of some of the country’s most valuable horse flesh. From such responsibility\, slaves developed the abilities needed to calm and connect with Thoroughbreds\, skills demanded of successful jocke ys.\n\nFor blacks\, racing provided a false sense of freedom. They were al lowed to travel the racing circuit\, and some even managed their owners’ racing operation. They competed alongside whites. When black riders were cheered to the finish line\, the only colors that mattered were the colors of their silk jackets\, representing their stables. Horseracing was enter taining for white owners and slaves alike and one of the few ways for slav es to achieve status.\n\nAfter the Civil War\, which had devastated racing in the South\, emancipated African-American jockeys followed the money to tracks in New York\, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. “African Americans ha d been involved in racing and with horses since the beginning\,” says An ne Butler\, director of Kentucky State University's Center for the Study o f Kentucky African Americans. “By the time freedom came they were still rooted in the sport.”\n\nThe freed riders soon took center stage at the newly organized Kentucky Derby. On opening day\, May 17\, 1875\, Oliver Le wis\, a 19-year-old black native Kentuckian\, rode Aristides\, a chestnut colt trained by a former slave\, to a record-setting victory. Two years la ter William Walker\, 17\, claimed the race. Isaac Murphy became the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys\, in 1884\, 1890\, and 1891\, and won an amazing 44 percent of all the races he rode\, a record still unmatched. Alonzo \"Lonnie\" Clayton\, at 15 the youngest to win in 1892\, was follo wed by James \"Soup\" Perkins\, who began racing at age 11 and claimed the 1895 Derby. Willie Simms won in 1896 and 1898. Jimmy \"Wink\" Winkfield\, victorious in 1901 and 1902\, would be the last African American to win t he world-famous race. Murphy\, Simms and Winkfield have been inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs\, New York.\n\nIn 2005\, Winkfield was also honored with a Congressional House R esolution\, a few days before the 131st Derby. Such accolades came long af ter his death in 1974 at age 91 and decades after racism forced him and ot her black jockeys off American racetracks.\n\nDespite Wink’s winning mor e than 160 races in 1901\, Goodwin's Annual Official Guide to the Turf omi tted his name. The rising scourge of segregation began seeping into horse racing in the late 1890s. Fanned by the Supreme Court's 1896 Plessy v. Fer guson ruling that upheld the \"separate but equal\" doctrine\, Jim Crow in justice pervaded every social arena\, says Butler.\n\n“White genteel cla ss\, remnants from that world\, didn't want to share the bleachers with Af rican American spectators\, though blacks continued to work as groomers an d trainers\,\" she says.\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n PHOTO INFO\n\n\ n\n 1\nJames Winkfield retired from horse racing in 1930 after a career 2\ ,600 wins. Courtesy Kentucky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n2\nJames Winkfield was a two-time Kentucky Derby winner and raced across Europe af ter racism kept him from being the best athlete in America's most popular sport. Courtesy Kentucky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n3\nWilliam W alker was already under contract at the age of 11 to an owner named Wood S tringfield and at the age of 13\, he claimed a stakes victory. Courtesy K entucky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n4\nOliver Lewis rode Aristides to victory in the inaugural Kentucky Derby. Courtesy Kentucky Derby Muse um / Kinetic Corporation\n5\nIn 1892\, Alonzo \"Lonnie\" Clayton became th e youngest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby at the age of 15. Courtesy Ke ntucky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n6\nAt the age of 14\, James \"S oup\" Perkins won the Latonia Oaks. The Times called him \"the best ligh tweight jockey of the West.\" Courtesy Kentucky Derby Museum / Kinetic Co rporation\n7\nIsaac Murphy was one of America's first sports stars. At the age of 14\, he rode his first race at Louisville in 1875. Courtesy Kentu cky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n8\nWillie Simms won the Kentucky D erby in 1896 and 1898. Simms also changed the sport of horse racing when h e introduced the natural American riding style to England. Courtesy Kentu cky Derby Museum / Kinetic Corporation\n\n\n\n\n ARTICLE CONTINUE\n\n\n\n Racism\, coupled with the economic recessions of the period\, shrunk the d emand for black jockeys as racetracks closed and attendance fell. With int ensified competition for mounts\, violence on the tracks against black joc keys by white jockeys prevailed without recourse. Winkfield received death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Anti-gambling groups campaigned against ra cing\, causing more closures and the northern migration of blacks from sou thern farming communities further contributed to the decline of black jock eys.\n\nWinkfield dealt another serious blow to his career by jumping a co ntract. With fewer and fewer mounts coming his way\, he left the United St ates in 1904 for Czarist Russia\, where his riding skills earned him celeb rity and fortune beyond his dreams. Fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution in 19 17\, he moved to France\, raced for another decade and retired in 1930 aft er a career 2\,600 wins. In 1940\, Nazis seized his stables\, causing Wink field to return to States\, where he signed on to a Works Progress Adminis tration road crew. Back in France by 1953\, he opened a training school fo r jockeys. In 1961\, six decades after winning his first Kentucky Derby\, Winkfield returned to Kentucky to attend a pre-Derby banquet. When he and his daughter Liliane arrived at Louisville's historic Brown Hotel\, they w ere denied entry. After a long wait and repeated explanations that they we re guests of Sports Illustrated\, they were finally admitted. Wink died 13 years later in France.\n\nAfter his 1903 run in the Kentucky Derby\, blac k Americans practically disappeared from Goodwin’s official list of jock eys. In 1911 Jess Conley came in third in the derby and in 1921\, Henry Ki ng placed tenth. Seventy-nine years would pass before another African Amer ican would ride in the Derby. Marlon St. Julien took seventh place in 2000 .\n\n\"I'm not an activist\,” says St. Julien\, who admitted during an i nterview a few years ago that he didn’t know the history of black jockey s and “started reading up on it.” Reached recently in Louisiana\, wher e he is racing the state circuit\, he says “I hope I’m a role model as a rider to anyone who wants to race.\"\n\nLongtime equestrian and Newark\ , New Jersey\, schoolteacher Miles Dean would agree that not enough is kno wn about the nation’s great black jockeys. In an effort to remedy that\, he has organized the National Day of the Black Jockey for Memorial Day we ekend. The event will include educational seminars\, a horse show\, parade \, and memorial tribute. All events will be held at the Kentucky Expositio n Center in Louisville.\n\nLast year\, Dean rode his horse\, Sankofa\, a 1 2-year-old Arabian stallion\, in a six-month journey from New York to Cali fornia. He spoke at colleges and communities to draw attention to African American contributions to the history and settlement of the United States. \n\n\"As an urban educator I see every day the disconnect students have wi th their past. By acknowledging the contributions of African American jock eys\, I hope to heighten children's awareness of their history. It's a his tory of great achievement\, not just a history of enslavement.”\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n buried\n\n https://web.archive.org/web/20160104062442/https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2-7s95OJiM\n\n\n\n referral info\n\n\n\n Lexingto n Public Library presents an original documentary production on a historic African-American cemetery and the small band of Lexingtonians who have sp ent years restoring it. Thousands are buried at African Cemetery No. 2\, i ncluding the winning jockey of the first Kentucky Derby\, Oliver Lewis\, a number of Buffalo Soldiers and a member of the Civil Wars's 54th Massachu setts Regiment. The 141-year-old cemetery was neglected and overgrown befo re volunteers began the work of restoring the grounds and gathering the li fe stories of those buried there. Produced by the LPL's Cable Channel 20. Edited and Directed by Thom Southerland. Photography by Thai Emmerich.\n\n \n\n VIDEO\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n TRANSCRIPT\n\n\n\n 0:06\nJohn Henry Clark who was a noted historian would be 90 some years old if he was stil l alive said this about\n0:12\nhistory he said that history is like a cloc k it tells of people the historical\n0:18\ntime of day it tells where they 've been where they are and where they yet still\n0:24\nhave to go\n1:03\n African Cemetery number two earliest recorded Cemetery in Lexington to be\ n1:08\norganized owned and managed by African-Americans the site has been in existence since 1869 trusties of\n1:16\nbenevolent Society number two s uccessfully operated Cemetery many individuals buried here were important\ n1:23\nleaders in the community the people buried in that Cemetery are lar g\n1:30\nthe people who put a foundation for African-American communities in\n1:37\nlexingon following the Civil War and the story of these former\n 1:45\nenslaved men and women after emancipation is just graphically told i n\n1:52\nstudying their lives they became the leaders the entrepreneurs th e business\n1:58\npeople the Civic organizers um they formed fraternal\n2: 04\norganizations they were part of the Masons the col it fair the colored Oran home all of the all of these people are\n2:12\nburied in this Cemete ry early church leaders who found it and organized some of the early churc hes in Lexington I\n2:19\nhold very strongly to a belief that when we do n ot know our history when we do\n2:27\nnot have opportunities to learn abou t the\n2:32\nbiographies of people who have gone before us then we lose\n2 :40\nopportunities to understand fully who we came from and who we can\n2: 48\nbecome there are stories here that have been long dormant it's an almo st\n2:55\nforgotten chapter of of Lexington's history this is a spot where so much\n3:01\nNational History is potentially located and yet it's not r eally well known about\n3:07\nuh is to me is is a shame and it it's someth ing that needs to be better brought out I have tried to\n3:17\nunbe inform ation about African-Americans and bring it to light\n3:24\nso that hopeful ly the full Kentucky narrative will be more inclusive of the\n3:32\ncontri butions that African-Americans have made that the cemetery has gone throug h so much\n3:39\nneglect you know renewal desecration vandalism and it's\n 3:44\nstill there it's just been amazing that it has survived I mean just truly cuz so\n3:50\nmany cemeteries just get wiped away and this could hav e been one of them part of restoration is a\n3:58\ncontinuation of the wor k that has been laid here by our foreparents they're\n4:05\ntaking the tas k to buy the land and create the cemetery was part of a larger\n4:12\neffo rt to create Community create a legacy create a safe\n4:18\nplace for thei r children and their grandchildren and to know that this Cemetery holds th eir remains it also\n4:25\nholds their stories you cannot help but uncover their stories when you start\n4:32\nlooking for their names this story ou t here on Seventh Street with all this\n4:37\nindustry around us and all t hese railroad tracks is an important story as\n4:42\nany other story this is your story too whether you are African-American European American Latin o um African\n4:50\nrefugees whoever you are wherever you're from that thi s story is important to you\n4:56\nas well this story can inspire you\n5:0 6\nonce you start working in a cemetery and finding the people that you fi nd the\n5:11\nquestion is how did this come to\n5:26\nbe in October 185 2 enslaved men\n5:33\norganized to help each other care for the sick bury th e dead and perform other\n5:40\nacts of Charity this is before emancipatio n this is after the 1850\n5:47\nSlave Code law that required all states to identify any person they feel were\n5:56\nrunning away uh back at that ti me you didn't have things like Social Security\n6:01\nand insurance and st uff like that people banded together like this Cemetery was\n6:07\nstarted by Union benevolence Society number two and that was a group of people th at banded together and they\n6:13\nwould contribute to the welfare of the members of that Society that's it was sort of a self-help group that group was\n6:20\nmade up of of freed people and enslave people how could people you who we said\n6:27\nwere enslaved who mean couldn't read and couldn't write how could they come out of\n6:33\nemancipation and be able to buy la nd and create businesses and start schools\n6:40\nAfrican-Americans were t old yes you are free but you have no rights you know you\n6:45\ncan't vote uh you can't testify in court uh you we don't recognize you as\n6:52\nhav ing made contributions to our state or city these men and women who came o ut of\n7:02\nenslavement uh knew otherwise they knew they had god-given\n7 :08\ntalents they knew that they could make a difference the\n7:13\ncemete ry was uh organized and burials began in\n7:18\n1869 they purchased the fi rst four acres paid $1\,000 at 10% interest and they had\n7:26\npaid for i t in 2 years how did they do that and how did they stay\n7:31\norganized t hrough the Civil War have such a powerful group that after the\n7:38\nCivi l War and after emancipation they had enough money to purchase property\n7 :43\nthis was a benevolent Society meaning they didn't get paid to do this and they didn't say to get paid to take care of\n7:49\nthe poor to get pa id for any of those things they said that that was what they were supposed to do Henry King and\n7:56\nJordan Jackson actually purchased the propert y from the am family to found the the\n8:03\ncemetery the initial 4 Acres when the trustees first purchased this property\n8:08\nthe deed said about a mile and a half beyond the city\n8:13\nlimits while this was charitable many of them were exactly that business people\n8:19\nand they knew that they had to run this organization the cemeteries and everything that else that they were\n8:24\naffiliated with in a very businesslike manner by Apr il of 1875 they had\n8:29\npurchased another for is a joining their first four and they paid for that in 2\n8:35\nmonths how is it that these people who are supposed to be ignorant who had no\n8:40\neducation or very littl e education knew enough to say yes we matter and we're\n8:49\ngoing to sho w you we matter they ban together they formed the school\n8:54\ncommittees they formed the self-help organizations that moved African Americans who had newly been freed out\n9:02\nof enslavement and poverty and so you know we find the early Educators there\n9:10\nthe early ministers just Communi ty Builders in general those who were\n9:16\nstarting organizations and so \n9:23\non you know there's a lot of history here not only for African-Ame ricans for\n9:29\nthe City of Lexington and the state of Kentucky the wome n who were be there there are founders of the colored orphan\n9:35\nhome f or that was founded in 1892 they Incorporated they spent two years\n9:43\n raising money in order to purchase property and a home and they started st arted a color offing home with pennies\n9:50\nokay a group of women got to gether and they put pennies together to Star this colored Oran and Industr ial home whose\n9:58\npurpose was to to care for Orphans and elderly women uh the City of Lexington\n10:04\nwas supporting the white orphan home but there was no room at all for African-American children Jane Sanders\n10:1 1\nhas a wonderful headstone it's a pillow in the cemetery and on that pil low I had\n10:17\nto do a rubbing in order to see this but it says founder of the color orphan home\n10:24\n1894 Priscilla Lacy she was one of the f irst treasurers uh uh she was a laundry\n10:32\nlady so she wasn't you kno w she didn't have Buu bucks but she evidently was\n10:37\nvery trustworthy because they selected her as their their first treasure and she remained treasure until her death\n10:43\nMary Gillis was one of the founding membe rs she was a member of first African church and she uh according to\n10:50 \ntheir information she remained a Sunday school teacher for almost 62 yea rs Charlotte POG was a um matron at the\n10:59\nhome home when it first op ened and all of these women took turns at keeping the\n11:05\norphan home running they had what I call household duties keeping the day-to-day opera tion\n11:11\nand they took turns every week somebody would be responsible they would be the supervisor for what was going on they\n11:18\nhad kitche n Industries they helped the children learn skills that would carry them t hrough life as well as to be\n11:24\ngainfully employed they had a shoe sh op um they had a bakery they had\n11:59\nthe F went down to\n12:04\nKentuc ky just to play the foul it's a Mighty Fine Place you all\n12:13\nought to go there the color fair was an organization that promoted the idea that\n 12:20\nAfrican-Americans need to showcase the progress they had made since emancipation it two was for organized in\n12:28\n1869 but it was a activi ty that became the largest fair in all the state of\n12:34\nKentucky they had visitors from Indiana from Ohio they would ship in here by train they were very very successful and\n12:42\nestablished a Amphitheater a racing track went out to the RAC track races\n12:49\nhadn't started yet we're now to the RAC track races\n12:56\nhadn't started yet someone said c sloppy b oys and I swear\n13:04\nit was almost all the early jockies uh in our coun try were\n13:09\nAfrican-American almost all the Grooms all the trainers a ll the blacksmiths and\n13:15\nmany of them are buried right here we know that there were at least 80 involved in the industry and the thir\n13:22\n bread industry would not have developed as thoroughly had it not been for the\n13:27\nAfrican-Americans presence there's nothing on any of the stone s except for one that tell you what his\n13:34\nprofession was there is a a young man Joseph Scott who died at the age of 16\n13:40\nand all it says is a jockey no one has been able to find\n13:45\nout who he rode for wher e he died nothing he was 16 and you ask your question how could a\n13:53\n child this age be riding African-Americans were put on the horses\n13:59\n as young child they were introduced to the industry as young children 6 Se ven 8 years old they were working in the\n14:06\nstables and as they got o lder and developed an affinity for the horses you\n14:12\nbegan to sense h ow to handle them uh groomsmen trainers owners would observe\n14:19\nthis as they developed this this uh Talent OR showed the talent that they\n14:2 6\nhad they would be put on horses and they would ride actually guide them in\n14:31\nraces quite a few Kentucky Derby winners are buried in that Ce metery in\n14:38\n1875 the first Kentucky Derby was run and out of the fie ld of 15 jockeys 13 of\n14:45\nthem were African-American the winning jock ey was Oliver Lewis he's buried in\n14:51\nour Cemetery unfortunately his name is not not on the family headstone his uh\n14:56\nbrother and mother' s name is Dr and Butler good for her she tracked this\n15:01\nstory down t he only thing information that I could find about Oliver Lewis was\n15:09\ nthat he um won the first Kentucky Derby and he was running uh riding aise s\n15:17\nthere's a tragedy there that there's a statue of aises the first horse to Wi to\n15:23\nKentucky Derby at Churchill Downs but there's none of Oliva LS or of anel\n15:29\nwho trained the very first horse to win th e Kentucky Derby who was also an African-American there is much\n15:36\nin formation about you know the uh bloodline of atitis and so on but I\n15:42 \ncouldn't figure out when ol valis was either born or died we sat at the table\n15:48\neating dinner and an Dr Butler pulled out this uh big stack of death\n15:54\ncertificates and split them in half and gave me a half an d she took a half and she said said Bruce I'm looking for\n16:00\nOliver L ewis who won the first Kentucky Derby see if you could find this thing wit h his name on it when I first started\n16:05\ndoing research archival rese arch I was told I would never find information about African-Americans it would be very\n16:11\nhard because I was telling people I was looking for my family and they said oh you'll never find it it you can't\n16:17\nthere 's nothing there and there's it's not true it is not true I glean through\ n16:23\na lot of the records at Kean in their Library couldn't find anythi ng and\n16:31\nultimately ran across an obituary that mentioned Oliver Lew is The\n16:39\nOnce famous jockey it listed survivors his of his family an d she finally\n16:47\ndiscovered that um Oliver Lewis had settled in the N orthern Kentucky area\n16:52\nand there was a possibility that they were d escendants it turned out to be ala Lewis's\n16:57\ngreat-granddaughter she said she called the lady and told her who she was she was Dr Anne Butler Kentucky State\n17:03\nUniversity and she would like to come up and talk t o her and the lady said well\n17:08\nwe knew our father was in grandfather was involved in the industry because he\n17:13\nwas a bookie well my ears you know really perked up to hear that Oliver\n17:19\nLewis after ending his racing career ended up being a a booking which then\n17:26\nwas a lega l occupation but she was dismissive of that information because\n17:33\nby the early 30s and 40s uh bookies were uh almost like gangsters you know i t was\n17:40\nconsidered as gamblers and I'm sitting there knowing\n17:46\ nthat oliv vouis developed a racing\n17:51\nchart a racing form used at th e tracks which eventually involved in becoming\n17:56\nthe modern day raci ng form I pulled out a picture of Oliver Lewis\n18:03\nand said this is th e man I am looking for and she went oh my God the\n18:13\ntragedy of not k nowing is that this woman did not know her great-grandfather\n18:19\nhad w on the first Kentucky Derby I could not describe the the the joy at\n18:30 \nintroducing this woman to the legacy of her great\n18:36\ngrandfather th ere's a unique Monument over here an individual named\n18:42\ncases Clay t ankersley on his Monument it said that he was killed at a race at the\n18: 50\nlonia racetrack which is in Northern Kentucky he was 20 years old when this occurred he was riding with the um Piana\n18:59\nFarm borack um Thom as was the owner Mr\n19:05\nThomas had a monument commissioned for him and he has this wonderful\n19:10\ninscription on the monument telling you kno w how much he respected this young man as a as a gentleman sup Perkins\n19 :18\nJames Su Perkins winner of the 1895 Kentucky Derby is buried there he tied a\n19:25\nrecord as being the youngest jockey to have won a derby uh in Lexington he grew up on Thomas\n19:31\nStreet there's a marker that sa ys Perkins beautiful white marker but again\n19:37\nhis name is not on it the famous jockey uh aaac Murphy was\n19:45\noriginally buried here now si nce then they've moved his Stone out of the cemetery but this is still is known as\n19:52\nhis original burial place he was originally buried in the cemetery in 1896 and he was subsequently moved moved\n19:59\nto uh to a g rave beside Mana War and then manaar and Isaac Murphy were subsequently mo ved to the Kentucky Horse\n20:06\nPark what that means is Isaac Murphy was literally buried and reburied the same\n20:14\nnumber of times that he wo n the Kentucky Derby\n20:19\nthree thought I went to see the they call\n20 :26\nman I went to see man W the horse that had\n20:33\nLe and my baby say he fair but he really haven't got\n20:39\nmy one of the heartaches that I experienced over Isaac Murphy was that\n20:47\num the people uh making th e decision about\n20:52\nreentering him forgot about his wife Luc see okay and\n21:00\nthey were from what I can tell virtually Inseparable during l ife you know and it\n21:08\ndoes not sit well with me that she remains in uh an unmarked\n21:21\ngrave our Cemetery holds the remains of\n21:27\nall economic Strat of the African-American community and some of the stones a re so beautiful they\n21:33\nwere just to me Exquisite I mean it's amazing because they were produced in a\n21:39\ntime when they were handcrafted t hey weren't poured in a in a mold or uh had\n21:44\na standard pattern alm ost every stone in there is\n21:55\ndifferent there were people in there t oo poor to put a monument on their grave sites there were people who had f riends\n22:02\nand relatives who actually handcrafted The Monuments and to \n22:09\nme that that said more than uh having the money to buy one there is a grave\n22:17\nover in the front left part of the cemetery the uh mark er is is broken in\n22:25\ntwo but it's it's still very legible and you ca n put the two pieces together and\n22:31\nit says Sally B Ford and she die d when she was I believe\n22:37\n7 years old and the marker is it's a very crude\n22:43\nmarker the uh the lettering on it was not cut into the ston e it was it appears\n22:49\nto have been a concrete marker and they they d rew it in the wet concrete\n23:05\ndoes an African saying that when an eld er dies a library closes so I started\n23:11\ndoing the research to find o ut who the people were and what they had done while they were living and t hey became family\n23:17\nto\n23:23\nme ah Mr Jones is one of my favorite persons here in the cemetery he became\n23:28\npre as a result of the will of Elizabeth Parker who was mared Todd Lincoln's\n23:35\ngrandmother his notation importance to us is that he saved funeral notices from\n23:44\n18 06 to 1886 his collection of death notices larger than anyone else's in in \n23:51\nthe state Moses Spencer was one of the free blacks here in the co mmunity had\n23:56\ngained his freedom about 183 33 he became a merchant h e owned a used\n24:03\nfurniture business on Broadway uh Clayborn Lee he d ied when he\n24:08\nwas 111 years old in 1902 so that mean he was born in the late 1700s right so I did a little digging\n24:16\nand and found out h e was a deacon at one of the uh the churches here in Lexington one of the more interesting characters\n24:22\nthat we know is buried in the cemetery is Alexander Campbell vinegar most\n24:28\npeople know him as Peter menar he was a minister here in Lexington he used to\n24:34\npreach these friy and brimstone uh sermons because the newspaper talked\n24:39\nabout the ti tles uh not everybody appreciated his sermons from what I've learned Edwar d Jackson um was a Dairy\n24:47\nFarmer in Lexington remained in Lexington had 12 children and they all survived and he was probably the only\n24:54 \nAfrican-American in in Lexington that actually had a dairy farm Mr fa wa s the\n25:00\nfirst principal of dumbar high school when it opened in 1923 he wrote a history of education in\n25:07\nKentucky as part of his thesis work when he got his master's degree\n25:12\nJames Andrew Scott they call ed him Andrew he became the first uh\n25:19\nAfrican-American hired by the United States Postal Service as a male carrier in 1892 birdie Taylor she was an\n25:27\neducator she was a teacher teacher and she uh Advanced from being a teacher in\n25:33\nCounty schools at Maddox toown and Warren toow n to County supervisor and\n25:38\nfrom there she went on to uh Statewide supervisor for the Eastern uh Kentucky\n25:45\ncounties her tombstone is b eautiful it has this beautiful Betty lamp if you\n25:51\nknow what I'm peo ple know what I'm talking about it's a Betty lamp but it's an engraved sym bol on her grave side\n26:25\nyou don't you get we there are a lot of indi viduals with a\n26:30\nmilitary background buried in the in the cemetery w e like to focus on the Buffalo\n26:36\nSoldiers because Kentucky was one o f the recruiting grounds for the Buffalo Soldiers Leslie Bohanan was in co mpany C\n26:44\nof the 24th Infantry in the Spanish American war Joseph bi rd it was in company uh G\n26:50\nof the fifth us Cavalry he was at atics at the end of the Civil War so if you\n26:56\nthink about the role that Af rican-American am an and the union played Kentucky being one of the larges t\n27:01\nsuppliers of African-American troops to the union GT prer fought with the 54th\n27:07\nMassachusetts Infantry and that was the first Afric an-American unit that was formed in the Civil War and fought in\n27:13\nth e Civil War and if you've seen the movie Glory you kind of like know the s tory that they uh attacked a fort and a\n27:21\nlot of them were killed he was captured at Fort Wagner he was released after\n27:26\nsome uh some mo nths rejoined his unit and eventually paroled and while it's interesting t hat\n27:33\nhe fought at Fort Wagner as part of that part of that unit wha t's even more interesting is the fight that he had\n27:40\nwith the govern ment pension Bureau to get a pension equivalent to white soldiers at that time and there's a\n27:46\nseries of letters back and forth between prer a nd the pension Bureau he is one of\n27:52\nthe most elegant writers I have ever seen and it was by accident if you read his his re West uh he talks about having\n28:00\nfought as bravely as any other person but he's only g etting half the pension but what we don't know is whether he\n28:06\never got his pension or not so that's one of those unknown unknown stories that would be interesting as a child we\n28:12\nweren't taught any of these th ings we knew nothing about the Buffalo Soldiers here or the Civil War sold iers that were\n28:19\nhere that you know the noble effort that those thes e people made really there was no chance to celebrate it because people\n2 8:27\njust didn't know about it\n28:33\nrco Benjamin uh was a a lawyer a\n 28:38\nnewspaper man uh um who lived in Lexington and uh he was killed in a\n28:46\nfight probably shot in the back I believe\n29:01\nMr Benjamin wa s not a native of Kentucky he was born in u the West Indies In\n29:09\n185 5 he educated himself became an attorney Mr Benjamin was a well-liked\n29: 15\nindividual he had been editor of the Lexington standard which was an\n 29:20\nAfrican-American newspaper here in Lexington while he was here he w as an advocate for civil rights and he\n29:28\nencouraged African-American s to go to the polls and register to vote and this would have been in 1900 people were not\n29:34\nhappy particularly the the Europe european-americ an Community was not totally happy with Mr Benjamin and his\n29:41\nagitat ion for human rights and he actually escorted them to the poll to make sur e they got there while he was\n29:48\nthere he heard um the registar askin g inappropriate questions while they were\n29:55\ntrying to register so he challenged him there was a a gentleman who was a democratic supporter and he challenged\n30:03\nMr Benjamin they got into an argument and a fight a nd Mr Benjamin filed a\n30:10\narrest work a an assault warrant against th is man Mike Monahan the sheriff picked\n30:16\nhim up but they didn't put him in jail they released him Mr benjaman did not\n30:22\nknow that so he returned to the polls to take another group of African-Americans and when he arrived Mike Monahan was\n30:29\nthere Mr Benjamin knew that his life w as in Peril so he left hurriedly Mike Monahan followed behind him and shot him\n30:37\nin the\n30:48\nback unfortunately there was no trial uh Mr Mo nahan we don't know what\n30:54\never happened to him but he was never bro ught up on the charge essentially we feel that he was murdered\n31:01\nand there was no ever justification for it all of the newspapers The Hurl the leader the standard they all were just\n31:10\nincensed at what had happe ned it was just a sad situation but we're privileged to have him here to h ave his\n31:17\nremains stay here and uh know that we can tell his story e ven though his life\n31:23\nwas cut short he was about 45 years old when h e died and it took them 10 years to finally place a monument at Mr\n31:30\ nBenjamin's grave site but when they did it again was a uh\n31:36\nCitywid e recognition of this man and the contributions he had made to our communi ty so the cemetery I think uh\n31:45\nrepresents that sense of of of of of post\n31:50\nemancipation uh need to build community this post-emancipati on period of Renaissance of of of saying well you\n31:58\nknow even though uh you know we we're faced with all kind of Jim Crow laws and\n32:03\nand the riding Night Riders and the KKK and and all kind of uh examples of Op pression and racism we still have to\n32:11\nbuild community when I leave Kentucky I know I really can't\n32:18\nlose I'm coming back to my baby but I'll have the Le\n32:30\nit's always puzzled us as to why the cemetery ju st became so neglected\n32:37\nCemetery number two had been in operation o ver 40 years and they had\n32:44\nused probably all the available burial s paces the area around them had been\n32:50\ndeveloped uh the railroad trac k behind them the lden Avenue um\n32:55\nsubdivision so they were encroach ed there was no way to go as Society changed uh integration\n33:04\nstarte d to take place the the community in this neighborhood started to change\n 33:10\nthe the African-Americans here started to move to other sections of the town I think the last um records that they have\n33:18\nwhere they ha d any interaction with that group was in U 1932 and that's when the\n33:23 \nmajority of the early organizers in the subsequent generation after to t hem\n33:28\nstarted dying out and the cemetery became abandoned and so the cemetery just sort of fell into\n33:35\ndisuse and because the people who had a connection to this Cemetery had moved\n33:42\naway the whole thing kind of just died down and and became overgrown and people\n33:49\ntended to forget about it\n33:58\nand\n34:33\nand I remember in the 50s driving a round we' drive around on Sunday sort of family\n34:39\nentertainment and I remember driving down 7th Street here and seeing this\n34:45\ncemetery a nd at that time it was just overgrown and trash and junk and it was\n34:51 \njust disgusting and uh and it I was about 10 years old at the time\n34:5 8\nand it made me wonder how a city could allow that to happen to a cemete ry I'd never seen a cemetery in that kind of\n35:05\ncondition before I ha ve talked to people who grew up in the neighborhood and they remember pass ing through the cemetery\n35:11\nthey remember playing in the cemetery I m ean I was probably down in here as a kid I grew up in aspendale which was a\n35:16\nhousing project up OFF Fifth Street and we used to come down in here and play\n35:23\npick blackberries raspberries things like that but u h other than that I\n35:28\ndidn't know anything about the cemetery in fac t many people were frightened to come here scared of snakes and whatever\n 35:34\nthat was here but it was pretty much not cleared and so you had to almost uh cut your way through well I never did go\n35:42\ndown in there a nd I work night shift at a\n35:47\nhospital and when I would go out I'd al ways look over in there just to make sure nothing was coming out to meet m e\n35:53\nwhen we first moved here it was high would weed and just a lot o f growth over there and\n36:02\nthey lot of nice tombstones and stuff was there and they got misplaced and\n36:08\nbroke up a couple of years after that it got so high that you couldn't even see the taller ston and the oth er thing\n36:14\nabout the cemetery had never been enclosed it was always open just like it had been when they first bought it there\n36:21\nwere ha d been some wire fence strung along the Shropshire Avenue side and of cour se along the junkyard side but the\n36:27\nfront and back entrances were a lways open so people would cross the railroad track come into the cemetery and walk up\n36:34\nuh 7th Street go Chestnut wherever they wanted to and vice versa and people were dumping uh old refrigerators mattress\n36:43\n there were people that would come in here and uh U uh homeless people woul d sleep in here at one time there was a I\n36:50\ndon't know it was a home less person or what but there was someone actually camped out living down in in the back\n36:56\nportion of it uh there was one character in the mid \n37:01\n1900s that Neighbors in this uh area there on Seventh Street talk ed about and\n37:07\nhis name was lost John he wore a top hat and tails an d he walked the streets\n37:13\nplayed H Monica he hung out down at the co urthouse I understand in the court square and he also walked up and down\n 37:20\nsecond uh seven Street and several people have said that he helped care for the cemetery\n37:30\nI'm Going Back Where I Come I'm going back d own in Georgia my wife died and\n37:37\nleft me that's I'm going back Geor gia you know it's it's just a vague memory\n37:42\nof me coming to this Ce metery with my grandmother and she would have uh shears\n37:47\nand she wo uld have all kind of garden tools to try to clean it up you know around th e site and then she would plant\n37:54\na flower my father many many years ago used to bring me over to the old\n38:01\nCemetery to uh on Memorial D ay to Remember and clear the grave and that sort of thing so I would know where the\n38:07\nspot was but it really it was just a wild place it was t otally unkempt it was\n38:15\num it was in many ways just disregarded and disrespected because nobody was taking care of it uh residents were\n38:23 \ncomplaining about the vagrants in and out of the cemetery\n38:30\nabout the unkempt condition and the newspaper would have a picture in the paper every year showing how uncapped it\n38:37\nlooked the weeds were higher th an the cars I mean truly you couldn't even see you wouldn't know that it w as a cemetery\n38:43\nexcept they said it was and even though Cemetery num ber two became\n38:51\nneglected and it was overgrown because there wasn't a generation that stepped forward to save it\n38:58\nit still remained un fortunately the cemeteries in\n39:05\nLexington once they became overfille d and neglected many of them were\n39:11\ndesecrated uh the city would dec lare the properties abandoned and they would have the bodies\n39:18\nremov ed sometimes many times not and they would just crush the headstones to\n3 9:23\nbe used on foundations uh or just you know destroyed from 1973 when they started\n39:31\ndocumenting um this issue with the cemetery to 1979 t he city had assigned\n39:37\nit to Parks and Recreation well it got to be more than they could take care of so the city decided in 79 after they had \n39:44\nmerged to declare the land abandoned and sell portions of it for development and\n39:50\nkeep a small part for a park they were going to re move all the bodies and\n39:56\nremove the headstones and place them in an other location but in order to do that they had to know how many people we re\n40:03\nburied in the cemetery oral history accounts indicated that the re were 3 to\n40:09\n4\,000 uh burials in the cemetery and yet the only su rviving document that listed\n40:18\nthe burials uh numbered to around 900 \n40:23\nthey hired a company out of uh Owingsville richardon Corporation and he came in and\n40:29\ndetermined that there were over 5\,000 burials no one had anticipated that\n40:35\nnumber at all so then the issue became we don't have the money a to finish\n40:41\npaying this man for determini ng how many burials are here cuz he was getting a\n40:46\ndollar per grave and we don't have the money to disiner this many bodies and move them som eplace else by this time um\n40:56\npeople in the community had heard what was going on and they were not happy and and when it was truly threatened there\n41:04\nwere individuals in this community who knew the value of th e cemetery and stepped forward and formed the\n41:12\norganization that sa ved it so mayor James zato was sitting at the time he\n41:18\nappointed a committee Reverend HH Green in 1979 was one of the first board members\n41 :25\nhe was elected chair of the group that became known as African Cemete ry number two they\n41:32\nIncorporated and he started drawing people into the organization talking to\n41:39\ndescendants uh getting Community Supp ort so that particular generation in\n41:47\n1979 said we shouldn't allow it to be overrun we shouldn't allow it to be\n41:54\ndesecrated we shouldn 't allow it to be con considered abandoned and bodies\n41:59\ndisent teere d this is not how we respect our dad so from that\n42:05\ngroup for 10 yea rs they operated Reverend green died in 1986 but another gentleman Reveren d GM\n42:14\nSmith he was a minister stepped into the leadership position and he along with other\n42:20\nchurches here in Lexington contined to car e for the cemetery again we went through periods of um of of like\n42:27\n restoration and neglect and we C it a jungle in here uh there's all kinds of\n42:35\nyou know evasive Honeysuckle and bushes and bramble bushes were just everywhere\n42:41\nit looked better but it was still UNC kept it did n't look as it didn't look like Lexington Cemetery you know it\n42:47\nwas n't well groomed cuz they could not go in there every every day to do any kind of Maintenance work you start with\n42:54\nanother 10year cycle and T homas M and Bruce Monday come along and see that\n43:00\nthings have gotte n out of hand again and they step into the\n43:10\nvoid we kind of like ca me in around the time that the last of those members were\n43:18\nstill al ive their grandparents were buried here and Thomas decided he couldn't nec essarily clean the whole\n43:24\nCemetery but he was going to clean up his grandparents grave the day I did come my brother was up to the front\n43: 29\ntrying to find my grandparents Tombstone which he did and when he foun d it it was\n43:35\nso dirty and covered with algae that he put it in the back of his pickup truck\n43:40\nthis I just will never forget he put it i n the back of his pickup truck and took it through the car wash I thought oh my\n43:48\ngoodness I thought you're not supposed to do that but when h e showed me where the stone was the Stone's beautiful it\n43:55\ngot it cl ean and you can read it very plainly my brother Thomas was the\n44:01\nins tigator of a lot of this stuff he was in there more than anybody he passed \n44:06\ndaily he enlisted friends and just asked him for one hour a week just come over\n44:13\nand help me for 1 hour a week well Thomas is very p ersuasive and he said\n44:18\ncan you do that and I said well yes I can an d he said good come back next\n44:23\nSaturday well Thomas um pested uh Pa m Miller mayor Pam Miller to\n44:30\ndeath at that time and before long he had people coming and the board got\n44:35\nreconstituted and it actually looked pretty good and we got a couple of\n44:40\nGrants we were able to buy some equipment and we came in here and we started just trying to make the place\n44:50\npresentable the children the the children\n44:58\nin the water in\n45:06\nthe the going to trouble\n45:22\nthe most of the people who became intricately involved in the cemetery I\n45:28\ndon't remember h ow I met them okay they just showed up I got\n45:34\nstarted with the ceme tery after I read an article in the paper I saw that and I\n45:40\nthought that's the cemetery that I remember when I was a child I had a friend tha t was working over\n45:45\nhere and uh he asked me to come over and help h im uh one hour month and no soon I\n45:52\ncame in he left and I haven't s een him no more so it's almost like I took his place I loaded my lawnmower in the in\n45:59\nthe back of the car and came over here and I've been co ming pretty much every Saturday since there are people who um\n46:08\nyou know go there religiously practically every Saturday and do the\n46:13\nmo wing when we came in here there was Japanese nut Sage overtaking the\n46:1 8\ncemetery up to your chest it's not a it's not a piece of property that can simply be left alone we used to make fun\n46:25\nof him because he had this machete and he was going through the cemetery trying to cut the whol e Cemetery with\n46:30\nthis machete and we like that fool can't cut that Cemetery with machete well strangely enough he did he Mark worked\n46:37\n tiously he still works tirelessly to uh maintain this uh Cemetery to maint ain\n46:43\nthis sacred place what you see now is really the culmination o f uh over 15\n46:50\nyears I guess now of work although it was very diffic ult to keep up with the grass there just weren't enough people\n46:57\nand we didn't have the big heavy duty mower it was mostly push mowers and str ing Cutters but really a lot of hard\n47:04\nhand labor trying to keep ahe ad of the of the vegetation when I first came here\n47:11\nwe didn't have the mes that we have now and uh I thought that I could pretty\n47:16\nmuch make a a big impact with a push mow and at the same time I thought it wou ld be a good opportunity for me to get\n47:22\nexercise in the push more w ell it it really I didn't accomplish much and it kind of wor me out so so later I uh I\n47:30\npurchased me a self Propel Mo cuz I really thought wi th a Seth Propel Mo I could really get something done and uh\n47:36\nit's eight acres here and a Seth bmore didn't do as much good either but actual ly what I found is that uh uh when\n47:45\nwe you think about various form s of quiet time even though I'm on a mower uh\n47:51\nevery weekend it's a ctually very quiet contemplative time for me so it's a it's a chance to ge t away from from everyone\n47:57\ncuz no one wants to help you when you're when you're mowing it's a stress reliever and even though I don't have\n4 8:03\nany family in here you know I do enjoy my my time spent in here afte r you've\n48:09\nmowed for for weeks and weeks and weeks and you go by the same tombstones and\n48:14\nyou read the inscriptions you kind of get to know the people they're more like\n48:20\nfamily so you you know you want to be sure that they're taken care of well I tell you when I was cutting u p in the\n48:27\nfront part the middle section uh and as you cut and you k ind of look at the names on it you I was cutting one day\n48:33\nand I loo ked down and my name was on one of them so usually when I get to that one I give it extra special attention\n48:40\nand I even put flowers on it eve ry year I recall numerous times we were back in\n48:46\nthe back just tryi ng to repair the chain link fence and people would come by and\n48:51\ntea r it down and we repair it again and even though we have a fence put in we always were going to have trouble\n48:58\nkeeping out the the other veget ation coming back in so this is an ongoing struggle to make sure that we c an keep\n49:05\nthe property of the cemetery wellmaintained and and cleare d\n49:10\nout there was a summer 2003 I believe when someone came\n49:17\n in with a vehicle and knocked over 36 Stones it\n49:22\njust just was more than any of us could deal with I mean some of of the prettiest stones tha t we had the largest\n49:29\nstones that we had\n49:38\nJus to walk\n49:46 \nwith we talk about the sadness of uh vandalism and it is sad but there's a\n49:54\nChrist Christian scripture that says but joy comes in the morni ng okay we are now\n50:01\nin the morning of the cemetery and so more than sadness I feel Joy this place\n50:07\nhas a 200 I'm not really sure what the figure is some\, fence around it that it's on\n50:15\nthe national reg ister of historic places that tours are done on it Joy comes in\n50:22\nth e morning and so while we know that some things that have been done here\n 50:28\nthat are sad once again I say Joy comes in the morning what a glori ous morning\n50:34\nit's a beautiful day today isn't\n50:45\nit the projec t both the preservation of the\n50:52\ncemetery the research efforts are p art of an ongoing struggle for\n50:59\nAfrican-Americans to retain vestige s of africanamerican\n51:06\nHeritage where we can and it is even a\n51:13 \nstruggle to maintain the sight as a sacred burial\n51:22\nground our gre at grandparents uh grandfathers grandmothers\n51:27\nuh before emancipatio n post emancipation had recognized the need to create again\n51:33\ncemete ries schools or his businesses and they said well we're going to do our\n5 1:38\nwork in our lifetime and we're passing on the Baton what I hope will happen is\n51:45\nthat it will it it will continue to provide a sense of living\n51:52\nhistory for the community because it's important that we ke ep this early\n51:57\nreminder of who we are where we've come from and how we progressed so I think at\n52:05\nthe point now uh where we are we have the fence around it most of the stones\n52:10\nare all up we've kind of g otten down to a science how to keep the grass cut uh\n52:15\nthings like t hat I think now what we trying to do is create this greater\n52:21\nsense of awareness in the community part of our work early on\n52:27\nwas just t o bring young people in here and have them walk in here and get over the f ear of being in the cemetery it's\n52:34\nalways glorious to come in here with young people and have them discover things and\n52:41\nsee what they connect up with I don't know exactly how long I've been coming here it see ms like as long as I can\n52:48\nremember it's a nice Cemetery you know it 's like a nice place it's not creepy\n52:54\nat all there's a Emma Bailey' s tomb Stone it's like over there behind the bush that's been like my favo rite I\n53:01\ndon't know why I just like I like the way it looked it was just really pretty so I remember I'd come like each time I\n53:07\ncame he re I'd always end i' go over there I'd like pick a flower and I'd put it t here as a present for Emma\n53:17\nBailey none of us get paid to do this i t's it's all volunteer and we all find\n53:23\nour passions and this is a passion for the group that's working now now and we'll be passion for the next group that\n53:29\ncomes in behind us the more people know about it t hen the more they can care for it and take care of it before a lot of\n53: 37\npeople didn't know those who did know knew it through\n53:42\nweeds an d overgrown bushes and so it wasn't a comfortable place to come to\n53:50\ nwhile they had heard stories that didn't get to look the stories in the f ace now\n53:55\nyou can come look the St is in the\n54:07\nface you come o ut here on uh any given morning or late in the afternoon this is\n54:13\nr eally a pleasant place to just come and just relax when I\n54:20\nfirst ca me into the cemetery basically I was looking for my own family I had\n54:2 6\nasked my mother to go with me and point out uh the headstones that she recalled her great aunt decorating she showed me\n54:34\nan area she could n't tell me exactly where the stones were but she showed me the area where she thought they were\n54:41\nburied after seeing what it had came from a nd where it was headed uh I\n54:46\nstarted volunteering then I end up bei ng on the board and I found out so much history about the\n54:53\ncemeter uh that I got more and more involved in so now at this point uh it's just a\n55:00\nlabel of love for me and as I walked through the cemetery I begu n to see these headstones of my\n55:09\nfamily when I finally finished uh counting and and recording\n55:15\ninformation from all the headstones I d iscovered I had 42 family members\n55:21\nburied on my maternal side burie d in that cemetery and it was it was almost\n55:27\noverwhelming for me th is cemetery is part of this whole National effort to\n55:35\nlift up uh if you will all the history all the people who have made this\n55:41\ncountr y what it is and as I started doing the archival research I found that\n55 :49\nI had relatives who had been instrumental in starting the cemetery an d keeping it going during their\n55:54\nlifetime so then it became a perso nal\n56:01\nJourney this tells where we've been and so it's important beca use we\n56:08\nneed to know that we need to know the struggles and we need to know the\n56:15\nvictories they established the cemetery it was up to a Next\n56:21\nGeneration and sometimes it skips a generation I happen to be that person\n56:27\nthere is a poem that says every tribe has a\n56:35\ nStoryteller and each uh storyteller's responsibility is\n56:42\nto tell t he story of those who've gone before you and that's what I\n56:47\ndo the world's a good place and I only purpose on it is to do good\n56:54\nwork t he some cemetery is sort of like a time machine when you're out on sth Str eet\n57:01\nyou're out on the road in the sidewalk and there are big heavy trucks going by and a lot of traffic and everything but\n57:07\nthe minut e you come through those Gates it gets quiet and peaceful and you hear the birds and you the wind blowing\n57:14\nthrough the trees and it's a diffe rent atmosphere the minute you cross that\n57:20\nline and you look around and you see the markers and you read the inscriptions and these are the p eople\n57:27\nsome of the people that helped build this town long before I lived here so we\n57:34\nowe these people a debt of gratitude and\n57:41\ nrespect and helping to maintain the cemetery is is how I do that\n57:58\n I think this is the one of the prettiest Stones we have has\n58:05\na a ha nd male and female\n58:16\nhand like in holy matrimony\n58:55\nsee and\n59 :05\nam amen amen join me\n59:22\nsisters brothers\n59:33\nam\n\n\n\n  \n \n\n\n wiki\n\n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Lewis\n\n\n\n  \n\n\ n\n The trainer's name is Ansel Williamson\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n info\n\n htt ps://www.racingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/trainer/ansel-williamson\n\n\n\n An sel Williamson\nAnsel Williamson’s career spanned the pre-Civil War era of the three-mile heat races into the dawning of the single or “dash” races. Born a slave in Virginia\, the point from which his record can be t raced with confidence begins in the South around 1860.\n\nInducted\n1998\n Born\n1806\, Virginia\nDied\n1881\, Lexington\, Kentucky\nCareer\n1860-188 1\n\nBiography\nAnsel Williamson’s career spanned the pre-Civil War era of the three-mile heat races into the dawning of the single or “dash” races. Born a slave in Virginia\, the point from which his record can be t raced with confidence begins in the South around 1860.\n\nFor owner T. G. Goldsby\, Williamson trained the horse Brown Dick for important victories in New Orleans\, Charleston\, Atlanta\, and Mobile. Williamson was sold to A. Keene Richards and trained the noted runners Australian and Glycerna. He was sent in 1864 to work for R. A. Alexander of the famed Woodburn Stud in Kentucky. Williamson was then freed but remained in Alexander’s empl oy and trained a succession of major horses\, including the undefeated pai r Norfolk and Asteroid. Norfolk won the inaugural Jersey Derby of 1864.\n\ n“Old Ansel\,” as he was referred to in contemporary accounts\, later worked for H. P. McGrath and trained Hall of Fame member Tom Bowling\, win ner in 14 of 17 races\, including the Travers\, Jersey Derby\, and Dixie.\ n\nIn 1875\, Williamson trained Aristides\, winner of the inaugural Kentuc ky Derby. That year\, Williamson also won the Belmont with Calvin. Both ho rses were owned by McGrath.\n\nOther noted horses trained by Williamson in cluded Merrill\, winner of the 1866 Travers\; Virgil\, the dam of Hall of Fame member Hindoo\; as well as Aaron Pennington\, Chesapeake\, and Susan Ann. Other major races won by Williamson included the Jerome\, Phoenix\, a nd Withers.\n\nAchievements\nTriple Crown Highlights\n\nWon the 1875 Kentu cky Derby — Aristides\nWon the 1875 Belmont Stakes — Calvin\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n Reproduction of an 1864 Edward Troye portrait of Aste roid with his trainer\, Ansel Williamson\, holding saddle on right (Keenel and Library)\n\n\n\n  \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250517 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR