In the early 1920s, in many a sawmill town across the South, the last quitting-time whistle signaled the cutting of the last log of a company's timber holdings and the end of an era in southern lumbering. It marked the end as well of the great primeval forest that covered most of the South when Europeans first invaded it. Much of the first forest, despite the labors of pioneer loggers, remained intact after the Civil War. But after the restrictions of the Southern Homestead Act were removed in 1876, lumbermen and speculators rushed in to acquire millions of acres of virgin woodland for minimal outlays. The frantic harvest of the South's first forest began; it was not to end until thousands of square miles lay denuded and desolate, their fragile soils -- like those of the abandoned cotton lands -- exposed to rapid destruction by the elements. With the end of the sawmill era and the collapse of the southern farm economy, the emigration routes from the South to the industrial cities of the North and Midwest were thronged with people forced from the land. Yet in the first quarter of this century, even as the destruction of forest and land continued, a day of renewal was dawning. The rise of the conservation movement, the beginnings of the national forests, the development of scientific forestry and establishment of forest schools, the advance of chemical research into the use of wood pulp -- all converged even as the 1930s brought to the South the sweeping reclamation programs of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Tennessee Valley Authority; in their wake came a new generation of wood-using industries concerned not so much with the immediate exploitation of timber as with the maintenance of a renewable resource. In The Greening of the South, this dramatic story is told by one of the participants in the renewal of the forest. Thomas D. Clark, author of many books about southern history, is also an active timber producer on lands in both Kentucky and South Carolina

For subsistence farmers in eastern Kentucky, wealthy horse owners in the central Bluegrass, and tobacco growers in Western Kentucky, land was, and continues to be, one of the commonwealth's greatest sources of economic growth. It is also a source of nostalgia for a people devoted to tradition, a characteristic that has significantly influenced Kentucky's culture, sometimes to the detriment of education and development.

As timely now as when it was first published, Thomas D. Clark's classic history of agrarianism prepares readers for a new era that promises to bring rapid change to the land and the people of Kentucky.

From 1826 to 1829, John Bradford, founder of Kentucky's first newspaper, the Kentucky Gazette, reprinted in its pages sixty-six excerpts that he considered important documents on the settlement of the West. Now for the first time all of Bradford's "Notes on Kentucky" - the primary historical source for Kentucky's early years - are made available in a single volume, edited by the state's most distinguished historian. The Kentucky Gazette was established in 1787 to support Kentucky's separation from Virginia and the formation of a new state. Bradford's "Notes" deal at length with that protracted debate and the other major issues confronting Bradford and his pioneering neighbors. The early white settlers were obsessed with Indian raids, which continued for more than a decade and caused profound anxiety. A second vexing concern was overlapping land claims, as swarms of settlers flowed into the region. And as quickly as the land was settled, newly opened fields began to yield mountains of produce in need of outside markets. Spanish control of the lower Mississippi and rumors of Spain's plan to close the river for twenty-five years were far more threatening to the new economy than the continuing Indian raids. Equally disturbing was the British occupation of the northwest posts from which it was believed the northern Indian raids emanated. Not until Anthony Wayne's sweeping campaign against the Miami villages and the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1794 was tension from that quarter relieved. Finally, the Jay Treaty with Britain and the Pinckney Treaty with Spain diplomatically cleared the Kentucky frontier for free expansion of the white populace. John Bradford's "Notes on Kentucky",now published together for the first time, deal with all of these pertinent issues. No other source portrays so intimately or so graphically the travail of western settlement.

Maps published frorn the third quarter of the eighteenth century through the Civil War reflect in colorful detail the emergence of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the unfolding art of American cartography. Ten maps, selected and annotated by the most eminent historian of Kentucky, have been reproduced in authentic facsimiles. The accompanying booklet includes an illuminating historical essay, as well as notes on the individuaL facsimiles, and is illustrated with numerous details of other notable Kentucky maps. Among the rare maps reproduced are one of the battlefield of Perryville (1877), a colorful travelers' map (1839), and a map of the Falls of the Ohio (1806) believed to be the first map printed in Kentucky.

Among the hundreds captivated by the vision of quick riches in the gold fields of California was Elisha Douglass Perkins, a tall handsome youth from Marietta, Ohio, who has here left a remarkable first-hand account of the great trek westward in 1849. Perkins' diary is an unusually full and intimate record of crossing the plains and mountains of the Great West. Extensive notes supplement the text, associating it with numerous other published and unpublished accounts, while an appendix of reports and letters from the Marietta newspaper reveals the involvement of those at home with the Gold Rush. An annotated map shows Perkins' progress along the Overland Trail.

From its origins in the Cumberland Mountains to its entry into the Ohio, the Kentucky River flows through two areas that have made Kentucky known throughout the world--the dark, remote mountains in the eastern part of the state and the lush, rolling Bluegrass in its center. In this book Thomas Clark has painted a rich panorama of history and life along the river, peopled with the famous and infamous, ordinary folk and legendary characters. It is a canvas distinctly emblematic of the American experience. In the beginnings were occasional European explorers, John Swift's fabulous silver lode, and the lonely outpost of Boonesborough. As later romantic figures of the state, the mountaineer vied with the planter. The Kentucky belle Sally Ward is played against the fiery abolitionist Cassius Clay, the simple life of the Shakers against the blithe amusements of Graham's Springs. In these pages are mountain funerals and moonshining and the log runs that recaptured briefly the rowdy days of the earlier keelboat trade to New Orleans. And what account of Kentucky would be complete without notice of its contentious and confounding politics, its fleet horses, and its bountiful food? All these and more are portrayed here in Clark's fond yet shrewd story of the Kentucky River. The Kentucky was first published in 1942 in the "Rivers of America" series and has long been out of print. Reissued in this new enlarged edition for commemoration of the Commonwealth's bicentennial, it brings back to life a distinguished contribution to Kentuckiana and is itself a historical document of a past time. In his new conclusion for this edition, Clark suggests some of the tremendous changes that have taken place sincethe book's initial publication.

This is a new release of the original 1939 edition.

The casual and the serious of American history -- fiddlers, yarn spinners, and riverboat gamblers, politicians, educators, and social reformers -- have all concerned Thomas D. Clark, celebrated historian of the Western frontier and the changing South. Three American Frontiers, a volume of his selected writings, draws from works produced throughout Clark's long career as a writer, teacher, and lecturer on the frontier West, social change in the South, and the cutting-edge of historical research. An avid researcher and a tenacious collector of original materials, Clark looks to the everyday items like the record book of a country store, the file of a small-town newspaper, or the diary of a young Gold Rusher for aids to the analysis of larger trends in history. Holman Hamilton conveys Clark's unique approach to his material and his enthusiasm for the common man in America's past.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kentucky history centers on the Bluegrass; this is not to say that the rest of Kentucky does not have a rich story, but chronologically, the beginning was here. Too, Bluegrass history can scarcely be separated from the rest of the state. Boonesboro and Harrodsburg, Henry Clay and Elizabeth Madox Roberts are the cherished possessions of all Kentuckians. Jane Todd Crawford and Dr. Ephraim McDowell stood in for humanity. It is a great matter of local pride that they did so in Kentucky.

Bluegrass Cavalcade brings together fifty-five Kentucky writers to write about their home state and to capture a taste of the rich regional flavor of the Bluegrass as an introduction to Kentucky history. Among the selections included in this volume is represented a small army of distinguished authors who have viewed Kentucky from various perspectives. Edited by revered state historian Thomas D. Clark, Bluegrass Cavalcade is meant to be a literary and historical reception where these esteemed Kentucky writers meet their readers.

Featuring Contributions from: John FilsonBasil DukeCassius Marcellus ClayJohn Fox, Jr.Robert Penn WarrenHarriet Beecher StoweElizabeth Madox RobertsJames Lane AllenandHenry Watterson

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

During the early years of the U.S. Republic, its vital southwestern quadrant - encompassing the modern-day states between South Carolina and Louisiana - experienced nearly unceasing conflict. In The Old Southwest, 1795-1830: Frontiers in Conflict, historians Thomas D. Clark and John D. W. Guice analyze the many disputes that resulted when the United States pushed aside a hundred thousand Indians and overtook the final vestiges of Spanish, French, and British presence in the wilderness. Leaders such as Andrew Jackson, who emerged during the Creek War, introduced new policies of Indian removal and state making, along with a decided willingness to let adventurous settlers open up the new territories as a part of the Manifest Destiny of a growing country.

Kentucky Bluegrass Country by R. Gerald Alvey Horse breeding, the cultures of tobacco and bourbon, the forms of architecture, the codes of the hunt, the traditions of gambling and dueling, convivial celebrations, regional foodways-all of these are ingredients in the folklife of the Inner Bluegrass Region that is the focus of this fascinating book. R. Gerald Alvey (retired) was a professor of folklore and English at the University of Kentucky.

First published in 1848, "What I Saw in California" has long been recognized as the foremost trail guide for the Forty-niners. Almost overnight, Edwin Bryant became their authority on how to survive the grueling passage from Independence, Missouri, to San Francisco, and how to prosper in the Promised Land. He also served as a literary model for the diarists among them. His popular book was based on journals describing fully his "tour" west in 1846. For the Kentucky newspaperman, it had been an undertaking with an uncertain outcome, since the overland trail was still faint and the fabled, remote California was then in political turmoil. In fact, Bryant's party had headed straight into the Mexican War. For today's reader, "What I Saw in Califorinia" is more than a trail guide. It is a valuable primary source of information about the westering experience. In sharp detail, the book portrays births, weddings, and deaths on the trail and the strategies of men and women desperately trying to survive in the adventure of their lives. It introduces such figures as William H. Russell, Joseph Walker, John Charles Fremont, and Stephen Watts Kearny, and includes an early account of the Donner tragedy and of the kaleidoscopic life in California immediately following the American conquest. Its language fixes the restless, feverish wandering that characterized Edwin Bryant and so many of his generation.

Originally part of the Rivers of America Series, The Ohio traces the river from its headwaters in Pittsburgh to the point it empties into the Mississippi, nearly a thousand miles and five states later.

Banta gives us a rare portrait of the frontier era of this region, from back-woods entertainment to learning and the arts. From early exploration to land disputes, clashes with Native American inhabitants to the birth of steamboat travel, the Ohio River comes alive through the retelling of the incidents and anecdotes that shaped its history.