 |
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
EXPLORING
KENTUCKY- April 2001 by Katherine Tandy Brown Rabbit Hash with
Dinsmore Gravy
Rich in history, the county was the site of a 12th century prehistoric Indian village, and the excavation beginnings of prehistoric mammal remains at Big Bone Lick State Park were begun by none other than Thomas Jefferson. If you’re looking to unwind, two unusual sites along the 20-mile Boone County Scenic Byway offer a relaxing peek into its fascinating bucolic roots. On a sunny November day, I stopped in the Rabbit Hash General Store, and laughed when I picked up the t-shirt that read “Rabbit Hash Ironworks: Blacksmithing, welding, storytelling, widows tended and tomcats thrashed.” Though the Ironworks no longer builds the economical wood stoves for which it was created and is now defunct, Rabbit Hash is anything but. Open seven days a week, the General Store – where you can buy anything from penny candy to Bybee pottery – is owned by Boone County native Louis Lee Scott, who bought the town of Rabbit Hash a parcel at a time back in the late 1970s, until he finally owned all 2.7 acres. Built in 1831 by the Grange, the old-time store lies across Lower River Road from a candle- and soap-maker, an antiques and crafts shop and a traditional stone carver. The community harbors a cache of artists and artisans, including internationally-known arts quiltmaker Jane Corcoran and her husband, Randy, a professional photographer, and Chris Klaschik, who custom crafts rustic Southwest furniture out of old timbers and barn wood at his Kiva Designs. In the late 1890s, William H. Nelson, who lived in Rabbit Hash and was editor of the Lawrenceburg, Indiana, newspaper, penned “The Buried Treasure: A Rabbit Hash Mystery,” a 40-page novel, or more accurately, “urban myth,” about some stolen gold that was buried and never found. An addendum relates how the village got its name. Seems a flood around Christmastime in 1847 cut the community off completely. Food became scarce, so when the flood waters brought up a slew of rabbits, they were hunted and eaten. Lamenting their ill fortune, the townsfolk gathered in the General Store and began discussing what they’d serve for Christmas dinner. Someone wished for a goose, another for ham. When they asked Frank, the town drunk, what he was having, he replied, “Guess there’s plenty of rabbits, so I guess I’ll have rabbit hash.” For years, the moniker stuck on him. Located in the Carleton District, the local post office was named Carleton, but its mail kept going down river to Carrollton by mistake. So in the late 1880s, Carleton became Rabbit Hash. “There are probably about 20 versions of the naming story,” says Donny Clare, president of the Rabbit Hash Historical Society. “They’re all similar, but this is the most reliable.” According to Clare, because the main channel of the Ohio was on the Indiana side and steamboats couldn’t land here, Rabbit Hash stayed small while the Hoosier towns of Rising Sun, Aurora and Lawrenceburg grew. Local folks would ferry across to Indiana to shop and to attend church and school, but the devastating flood of 1937 destroyed the last ferry boat, and took the river side – about half – of Rabbit Hash. Though waters raged over the roof of the General Store, the building survived because after the flood of 1913, it was reinforced with a system of iron rods, hooks and concrete. Built from two original log cabins scheduled for demolition, the nonprofit Rabbit Hash Historical Society Museum is securely anchored in the same manner, and is rife with donated family heirlooms and memorabilia, including newspaper clippings, photos and other fascinating facts. The collection is tiny. “It’s a small town, so we don’t need a lot of room,” said Clare. Once you’ve listened to that historian’s true town tales and let your mind roll with the mighty Ohio from a platform just a few steps behind the museum, follow the river north to Belleview Bottoms, then climb northeast up Burlington Pike through the Camargo Hunt Club’s rolling foxhunting country to the Dinsmore Homestead. Upon first glance, I assumed this fresh white, two-story, columned house to be just another historic home that I’d tour, learn a bit from and go about my day. But once inside, I actually felt like a guest who’d happened inside when the family had stepped out and would be right back. “People always mention the feeling they get when they go through the house is that the family is still there,” said Dinsmore Homestead’s outgoing executive director Carol Chamberlain. “I think it’s because everything we have is original – furniture, collections, belongings of the family.” From 1842, when patriarch James built the house and moved his wife and three daughters from their Louisiana plantation to Boone County to grow grapes, raise sheep and grow willows for a basket-making enterprise, five generations of Dinsmores occupied these premises. One daughter, Julia inherited the farm and ran it successfully for 54 years until her death at age 93. A published poet, she kept a detailed journal of her life on the farm, part of nearly 90,000 pages of family documents, including letters, journals and business records on microfilm. In 1988, the Dinsmore Homestead Foundation bought the home and about 30 acres to preserve the site, where nearly all the contents of the beautifully-preserved home and outbuildings still survive, and hiking trails wind through the property. The Dinsmore family was intriguing. “Though they were not wealthy or politically prominent,” said education director Jordan O’Rylee, “the family knew and were very closely connected with some of the most famous and influential people in American history, from George Washington to George Bush.” “They just seemed to gravitate toward where there were famous people and important things happening,” said Chamberlain.
Kids can learn about life in the 1800s through an award-winning school social studies program and at Pioneer to the Past Day Camps. Adult educational programs have included workshops in dulcimer-making, heirloom plants and hearth cooking. Check the Web (www.dinsmorefarm.org) for dates on the Dinsmore’s annual Antique Tractor & Farm Equipment Show, its Hauntings and Ghost Stories, and Mother & Daughter Brunch. During the holidays,
the Homestead is aglow the first weekend in December with
candlelight house tours, refreshments, music and
children’s crafts. And just after Thanksgiving, you
can learn about old traditions at Christmas in Rabbit
Hash and Heritage Skills Day. Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
|
|
Copyright 1996-2001, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial
content is copyright 2001, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
In 1798, a
frontier section of Woodford County, Virginia, became
Boone County, Kentucky. Though today it bustles from the
busy I-75 corridor slicing through Florence to the
Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport,
Boone County still is primarily rural, with small farms
tucked between sheer cliffs and wooded land that’s
vibrant with red, orange and yellow foliage come Fall,
and which rolls down to the Ohio River on its northern
and western perimeters.
Last farmed in the
mid-1950s, the Dinsmore Homestead these days is a
treasure of a 19th and early 20th century farm life
experience for all ages. On volunteer-led tours, you can
walk through the beautifully-preserved house that’s
open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons from April
through mid-December.