Work to start on Uncle Tom’s Cabin

State News

May 9, 2009

Art Jester The Richmond Register Sat May 09, 2009, 11:06 PM EDT

LANCASTER — Two-hundred-year-old logs lie in wait on the ground, a Mount Sterling man is making shingles, and construction of a replica of the fictional Uncle Tom’s Cabin is expected to begin in Lancaster in mid-June.

The cabin will be built on the grounds of the Gov. William Owsley House on U.S. 27 about a mile south of the Public Square, but it won’t be ready for tourists and visitors until summer 2010.

“Once we start, it will go up fairly fast,” said Skip Gladfelter, a retired IBM executive who serves as Garrard County’s tourism director. “We should have it up in a couple of months.”

However, it will take many more months to locate furnishings for the cabin as author Harriet Beecher Stowe described them in her classic novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852), which aroused strong anti-slavery sentiment as the United States moved steadily toward the start of the Civil War in 1861.

Upon meeting Stowe in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War!”

The novel was a best seller in the U.S., England, Europe and Asia, was translated into more than 60 languages and remains one of the most famous works in American literature.

There is some convincing evidence that Stowe was influenced by a visit to a large slave plantation in Garrard County. But literary historians and Stowe’s biographers disagree on this point. Some scholars say Stowe never visited the South and that the real Uncle Tom’s Cabin was in Maryland or Canada.

Gladfelter said the Garrard countians who are putting up the replica of the cabin are well aware of the dispute and aren’t trying to resolve it. Their goal is to be faithful to the novel.

“I only know what is in the novel,” and the builders want a cabin that resembles as close as possible the famous but fictional one in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” he said.

“None of us has gotten comfortable that we know the truth,” Gladfelter said.

“The goal is to have all of the materials come from Garrard County,” he said. “At least everything will come from this region.”

The logs came from a house on Danville Street that was torn down last year by the Lancaster Church of Christ.

County leaders believe the replica cabin can increase historical interest in the county and thereby boost tourism and economic growth.

The goal is to have the cabin ready by or before the opening of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington from Sept. 25 to Oct. 10, 2010, Gladfelter said.

This will be the first time the prestigious international horse competition will have been held in the U.S.

The games are expected to draw more than 300,000 people and produce an economic impact of about $100 million.

With this many people from different countries wanting to tour central Kentucky and with Uncle Tom’s Cabin ready as a new attraction, Garrard County officials believe they could enjoy a substantial increase in visitors at the Owsley House. Currently it attracts about 300 to 500 visitors a year, Gladfelter said.

Text Only

State News

End of the line
The second day of competition at the state tennis meet was not kind to Model Laboratory athletes.

May 18, 2012 1 Photo
State lawmakers call for constitutional convention
With U.S. Sen. Rand Paul leading the cheers, the state Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution calling for a limited constitutional convention to pass a federal balanced budget amendment.
The vote was 22-16 — Republican Sen. Julie Denton of Louisville joined the 15 Democrats in opposing the measure — on the measure sponsored by Senate President and Republican candidate for governor David Williams. The vote followed Paul’s speech to the body and his earlier remarks to the Senate State Government Committee.

February 23, 2011
Company that blundered pollution reports will again test mining sites
The same people blamed for inaccurate pollution reports from mining sites operated by ICG Coal will be responsible for collecting samples under that company’s corrective action plan submitted to the state.
ICG and Frasure Creek Coal entered a consent decree with the state's Energy and Environment Cabinet in December after environmental groups discovered reams of inaccurate pollution reports by the two companies.

February 17, 2011
Immigration bill delay may be about political leverage
The House Local Government Committee conducted a second day of hearings on a Senate immigration bill Wednesday without taking a vote, but the delay may be about political leverage as much as it is about philosophical objections.
The hearing also got testy, when the sponsor, Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, objected to critics who have characterized the measure as racially motivated and after suggestions by one Democrat committee member that another supporter of the bill used “self-righteous and venomous” language in his testimony.

February 10, 2011
House passes immigration bill
The Democrat House overwhelmingly passed its version of immigration control Tuesday while Senate leaders tried and fell short for now to garner enough votes to pass a bill to require a prescription for cold remedies used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
The House voted 90-6 to pass HB-3, which would require employers who contract with the state and public agencies to verify the immigration status of new hires using the federal EVerify system. Those who violate the law would be prohibited from securing state contracts for one year after the first offense. A second or subsequent offense would bar contracting with the state for five years.

February 9, 2011
Payday lenders targeted for interest rates
Mary Love doesn’t look the part. A retired pastor and former employee of UPS Logistics from Oldham County, Love, 65, found herself retired, divorced and trying to live off “a small pension.” Soon, she found herself in a “debt trap.”
It began when one month she was a bit short and her rent was due. She visited a “payday lender,” and wrote a $230 check that the lender held for two weeks. She walked out with $200. But two weeks later she owed the lender $230 and still couldn’t make ends meet. This time she wrote a check for $460 and left with $400.

February 8, 2011
State settles case with Medicaid administrator
The third-party administrator for a Medicaid managed care program has agreed to pay more than $2 million in damages for falsely reporting patient results in order to secure a $700,000 bonus payment.
The settlement was the result of a nine-month investigation by the office of Attorney General Jack Conway acting on tips from a whistleblower inside AmeriHealth Mercy, the administrator for Passport Health Plan, the state-funded managed care program which serves clients from Louisville and 15 surrounding counties that has come under scrutiny by the state auditor and lawmakers. The over-reporting of positive health outcomes occurred in 2009, and the state Medicaid fraud statute allows the state to assess the company triple damages, Conway said.

January 27, 2011
Republican primary for governor grows
The Republican primary for governor grew by one on filing deadline day as expected, but Gov. Steve Beshear is getting a free pass in the Democratic primary.
Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw and her running mate, retired naval officer and high school teacher Bill Vermillion, filed candidacy papers Tuesday morning, promising a competitive race despite a late entry and delayed fundraising start.

January 26, 2011
Williams-Farmer ticket is official
FRANKFORT — Kentucky Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, and his running mate, Commissioner of Agriculture Richie Farmer, made it official Monday. They filed paperwork to run for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.

January 19, 2011
Poll: Majority favors state smoking ban
Though advocates of anti-smoking laws don’t believe a statewide smoking ban will pass in the General Assembly this year, they see public support for it and have come to the conclusion that it is time to get the discussion started.

January 14, 2011
More State News Headlines

State News

Search Results

Work to start on Uncle Tom’s Cabin

A recent health ranking listed Madison County as the 20th healthiest county in the state. It measured factors such as exercise, access to health care and smoking. Do you smoke cigarettes?

Site Map