David F. C. Weller Collection

In spring of 2005, a History Center volunteer, Nina Brehm, started a project to study and document the Weller Collection. David F.C. Weller enlisted as a Confederate Volunteer on July 16, 1861 at Camp Boone. He was a theatre critic for the Louisville Times newspaper. He served as a Private in the Kentucky Infantry, 2nd Regiment, Company C. His unit was part of what was later called the “Orphan Brigade”. It was so named because Kentucky’s government declined to join the Confederacy and supported the Union cause. Having no source of support from their home state, the Kentucky Confederates had to scrounge for arms, uniforms and other supplies. Also, these units were outlawed in their home state, which made if very difficult for the soldiers to see their families. Soldiers were on the move and family members at home sometimes had to relocate. Communications were infrequent. Soldiers and their families were overjoyed when they received some word that their loved ones were alive and well. Fellow soldiers also tried to keep track of each other and their letters were often filled with news concerning the status and whereabouts of friends and relatives serving in other units.
While David served in the Confederate Army, he exchanged letters with several fellow soldiers, who shared their war experiences. The following letter dated July 27th, 1864 was received from David’s uncle, Jim H. Ellis, a lieutenant assigned to Company B, 9th Kentucky.

Griffin, GA, July 27th, 1864

Dear Dave
I am in hospital at this place. Slightly wounded in the right thigh. My blanket saved me, the ball cut 23 holes in my blanket and dog tent before it struck me. Tom Lilly lost his right arm at the shoulder. Ike Bryant was wounded through left heel. Charly Ceib through the right arm. Weedman through left thigh. Druary shot in fingers left hand, Lou Miller on the chin, Moore is wounded and missing. I am going to the front Friday, write to me and let me know how you are getting along. Direct your letters to the dept. Col Wickliffe, Lt. Applegate and Mattingly are safe. The last letter I reced (sic) from home was dated May 12th,all were well also need Mollie’s photograph. Moses Black is dead. Dick Hast was wounded on the 17th June in right hand severely, Joe Wilson and Crit Holtshousen was wounded near Kennesaw Mountain, both in left thigh. Kim Brissba was wounded in foot at Dawson. Co. B has caught the devil but none killed thank God. Our Brigade has only 450 for duty now, out of 1160 they left Dalton with. Bird Joyce was killed on the Second. Jim Talbot is wounded severely in head, he is at the L. P. Moore Hospital Ward, No. 1 Room B. He wants you to write to him. I am expecting a letter from home and
I will let you know the news. Write soon. Yours

J. H. Ellis.

Confederate Soldier

A couple of years ago, Oldham County resident, Loren Johnson, bought the property across the river from Westport that contains the remnants of what is known as the “Westport lighthouse”. Loren shared photographs and the lighthouse history with the Oldham County History Center so others could enjoy the benefit of the lighthouse’s role in Oldham County’s past.

The old lighthouse is located on property originally called Bowyer’s Landing. A ferry was operated there by Levi Bowyer as early as 1800 to form a link in route to Illinois county. Levi’s great-granddaughter said that Levi built a boat at Ft.Washington (now Cincinnati) and floated it down to Westport. He unloaded his family, came back across the river to the Indiana side and drove a stake in the ground, then walked to Vincennes, Indiana to claim the land. It took him 2 weeks to walk there and back. He took the cabin off the flatboat that he had built and placed it on the Indiana property, making it a home for his family.

Bowyer operated a ferry that connected Westport to the Indiana side, and it became a trade route for local citizens. The ferry was propelled by horsepower and it took quite a while to make the river crossing. Mail was dropped off by flatboats coming down the river and a horseback rider took the mail to New Washington, Indiana for distribution. Farmers and businesses would come from the interior counties of Kentucky and Indiana to trade stock and goods across the 2 states. The stone foundation of the building was used as a general store, post office and saloon.

According to other Bowyer descendants, Levi Bowyer would bring women and children across the river on his ferry when there was danger of Indian raids. There he would stay on guard at the blockhouse. Levi was a member of the Militia Guards during the time of the Pigeon Roost Massacre in 1812. His name is on the roll spelled Levi “Boyer”. Bowyer was a wheelwright by trade and women used his spinning wheels to spin reels of wool and flax. Levi lived from 1773 to 1850.

After Bowyer’s death, the property changed ownership over the ensuing years. In the 1930s Mr. and Mrs. George Theodore Johnston bought the property, designing and building a home to resemble a lighthouse. The framework from the old river tavern was used in the new house and the foundation from the tavern was used for the foundation of the new house and the stone wall below it. The bottom level of the house was a basement that included a brick furnace. The first level consisted of a living room, dining room and kitchen. The next level was reached by means of an outside, winding stairway in the rear of the house. The first dome was reached by climbing up and around the roof and the top dome was reached from the first dome.

George “Theo” Johnston was a general contractor by trade and owned the Economy Paint Company at Campbell and Market in Louisville. He built numerous buildings locally including homes, barns and a sternwheeler, the Letitia W. for a Dr. Watkins. Unfortunately, after completing their unusual “lighthouse” home, the 1937 flood hit, destroying much of the work and details that the Johnstons had so carefully executed.

In the winter, when the trees are bare, the old wagon tracks are still visible from aerial photographs as they journey down the steep slopes of Indiana to reach the Westport crossing. The old tracks and the stone foundation serve as a reminder of the time when Oldham County was a gateway for the pioneers as they moved westward to a new frontier.

The information for this piece it taken from notes copied from the Bowyer genealogical records and from correspondence of Mary Olson to Mrs. Griswold on July 3, 1975.

Mrs. Verna Garr Taylor

       Born in 1878 in Bowling Green, Ky., Brigadier General Harry Denhardt served in WWI and the Spanish-American War.  In 1923 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, serving a four-year term.  In 1933 he divorced his wife of 28 years and bought an 800 acre farm near LaGrange, Ky.  It was there that the 60 year old Denhardt met Verna Taylor, a 40 year old widow who was considered to be the most beautiful woman in Henry and Oldham County.  In the summer of 1936, Denhardt proposed to Taylor with a $1,500 engagement ring, much to the demise of Taylor’s two daughters, Mary Taylor Brown and Frances Taylor, and her three brothers, Roy, Jack and E. S. Garr.  Denhardt had a reputation of being hot-headed, a womanizer and heavy drinker.

            On the evening of Nov. 6, 1936, Denhardt and Taylor had dinner in Louisville with friends and were scheduled to chaperon one of Taylor’s daughter at a dance later that evening.  They left their dinner early because Taylor indicated that she was not feeling well.  Taylor called her daughter to tell her she couldn’t make the dance and then asked Denhardt to go for a drive in hopes that it would make her feel better.  They drove down Hwy. 146 into Henry County and then pulled around to go home.  Unfortunately the car stalled and a farmer stopped to help them push their car into a nearby driveway, at the home of George Baker.  Another man, J. B. Hundley, stopped by to help and offered to go in search of a new battery for the car.

            George Baker invited Denhardt and Taylor into his home several times while they waited but they declined.  Baker’s dog kept barking and then he heard a loud gun shot.  Baker went outside to investigate and saw Denhardt standing beside the car.  Baker and Denhardt then heard a second gunshot.  Baker asked Denhardt if he heard the gunshot and the colonel replied : “Ain’t it awful?  She was the finest woman I ever knew.”

            Hundley had returned with the car battery and all three men began to search for Taylor.  They found her body lying in a ditch, an eighth of a mile down the road with Denhardt’s .45 caliber revolver lying several feet from the body. Denhardt kept his revolver in the glove compartment of the car.  Henry County Coroner D. L. Ricketts said that the position of the entry of the bullet hole in Taylor’s chest made it seem unlikely that she committed suicide.

            A trial took place in Henry County on April 20, 1937. Over 1,000 people gathered in the courthouse and on the lawn for the trial with entertainment and refreshments being offered on the courthouse lawn. The trial ended in a hung jury and a retrial was scheduled on Sept. 21, 1937.  On the night before the retrial, Denhardt met with his attorneys at the Armstrong Hotel in Shelbyville to discuss the trial’s strategy and then walked to a nearby tavern.  Upon leaving the tavern to return to the hotel, Denhardt was gunned down by Verna Taylor’s brothers, E.S., Jack and Roy Garr.   The Garr brothers turned themselves in and later were cleared of all charges.  Roy claimed self-defense, E. S. claimed mental illness and Roy was unarmed. 

            No one has ever figured out if Denhardt was the real murderer of Verna Garr Taylor. Verna Garr Taylor is buried in the Valley of Rest Cemetery in LaGrange. (Taken from the Denhardt Scrapbook in the Oldham County History Center J.C. Barnett Archives and Library)

Fred Smith, Vietnam Veteran

We do a lot of oral histories at the Oldham County History Center and the Veteran’s Project is one aspect of those.  In 2001, The Oldham County History Center joined with the Library of Congress and the AARP to begin these series of oral histories collected from veterans in our area. Below is an excerpt from one of our oral histories transcribed by history center educator, Jan Jasper.

Vietnam Veteran Fred Smith

Fred Smith was born January 2, 1933 in Atmore, Alabama. In 1953, in his second year in industrial engineering at A& M University at Huntsville, Alabama, he joined the Army and was trained for clerk duty. By 1968, Smith had served numerous posts and was appointed Warrant Officer One by the President of the United States. “I left Fort Knox and went to Fort Riley, Kansas, where we formed a unit, a personnel company. We didn’t have anything. So we formed this company from nothing… They gave us all these guys out of the jail house. They turned out to be some of the best clerks I’ve ever seen.” It was at that time, in 1968, he and his ‘dirty dozen’ personnel company headed to Vietnam.
“We were over there and supposed to be going to, they said, we were going to land in Cam Ranh Bay. So we got to Cam Ranh Bay. ‘Nope, you’re not supposed to be here. You are supposed to go up to Dong Ha.’. So by the time we started up, ‘No, you are going to Da Nang.’ So when we got to Da Nang, they were not prepared for us. Nobody was there to load us. We had no place to stay. It was just a mess. So we had a shelter and a half. Two officers would get together and put two shelters and halves together to make a tent. That’s where we stayed. We stayed on the beach for the first two months, just out there under the stars.”
During this time Smith said that there were about 200 men in tents. “We were under the Third Marine Amphibious Force. We couldn’t fire back at a Viet Cong or anything, like that, unless we got permission from the Third Marine Amphibious Force to shoot back……It was not anything like I had ever read about with regards to lines. You conquered this today and everything behind you was free and clear. But today you would go out and have a little battle here, and go back tomorrow; it is re-infected with the same folks you ran out.”
“One night we had what they called an LCU that had just come up from Saigon and Long Behn. And I guess it had 150 people on it. And by being warm at night, they were laying on top of it. This thing, it’s kind of like a duck. It could go in the water, on the land, through the water, back on the land, where ever it was. So that’s what they hauled the troops in. These guys were laying on top of this thing trying to get cool. And unfortunately, a 122MM round hit the top of that boat and just mangled it. I don’t know how many people. I mean just bad stuff. So as part of my job, being Personnel Manager, I had to go to the morgue every day, to make sure everything there was going on OK.”
Smith relates another story about “sappers”. “Sappers, these were individuals who had just had a loin skin and a little back pack, and their bodies were greasy. They would grease their body down so you couldn’t hold them if you caught them. They would come through lobbing hand grenades into your buildings. We had that happen a couple times.”
“When I got back in the States, I got to Seattle-Tacoma. I got off the plane there. One of these flower children spit in my face; called me a baby killer… I just said, ‘I hope God forgives you.’ I don’t believe the person did it to me because I was black or anything like that, but because of the uniform I had on.” Asked to reflect on his experiences, Smith said, “I don’t think that God intends for us to fight among ourselves. I don’t believe that…because what happens, I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but you know who pays the price for war? Our 18 year olds and our 21 year olds. I’d go to that morgue every day. Those kids! They just look like they are asleep, and that’s somebody’s baby, somebody’s child. Then I was wondering when their parents got the letter that I had written to them saying, ‘Sorry that you son’s killed.’
“While serving in Vietnam, it never occurred to me how much a soldier’s service in a war impacts family members. I have first-hand knowledge of this impact now that my only son – the baby of my family – is now serving as a rifle platoon leader in Iraq. He has a four year old daughter that is greatly impacted by his absence and service in the war.
Even though I have said that I’m against war, I feel… as though every American who enjoys the freedom that has been gained by other people who have gone before us – WWI / WWII vets - I feel that everybody should be afforded the opportunity to at least serve; to know what it is to defend this country. I think every American who enjoys the freedoms here needs to have an opportunity to serve.”