In February 2020, Ashlie Cruse Hatton, a multigeneration native of Madison County and her husband, Brad, a native of Bell County, purchased a country store. Because of the pandemic, Ashlie could not continue her career in biotech and pharma, so they threw their hearts and souls into their new acquisition. According to Ashlie, the “first goal was to create a gathering place where everyone would feel welcome and wanted. This would be a place that felt like childhood and like a step back in time on a beautiful country day. Second, they wanted to encourage literacy and lend a helping hand in the rural area that they also call home. Next, they wanted to offer and highlight Kentucky Proud meats, cheeses, and specialty grocery items while also carrying a variety of fare from around the United States.” They wanted to give back to the community and the county in any way they could. Their first step was to change the name to one from the 1950s – Newby Country Store.
Newby Country Store was established in 1891 and was one of three stores in the thriving Newby area in the late nineteenth century. Prior to February 2020, there had been ten owners. The historic building has served as everything from a general store to a post office. Stories abound, but the common themes are the old pot belly stove where farmers and musicians would gather around to trade stories or play their fiddles. Stories of the building, the original windows, the 60-year-old floors, the lack of running water, and the gas pumps that sit on the road are often still a topic of conversation. Grandfather clauses allowing the store to operate close to its original state are protected, as are the barn swallow nests which are believed to have lasted over 20 years with new generations hatching each summer.
Newby Country Store has not only been preserved, but has become a community hub, a gathering place, and a true country store. It brings customers to Madison County from throughout Kentucky and the United States. Having been featured in multiple media outlets and recognized for its friendly atmosphere, great food, and unique vintage items, the store offers something for everyone. However, most importantly to the owners, Newby Country Store has been able to create a platform which has allowed them to donate to more than fifty local charities and organizations, and most recently, to start The Newby Blessed Foundation to benefit Madison County.
For preserving the architecture, memorabilia, and feeling of community of the Newby Country Store, the Madison County Historical Society is honored to present this Preservation recognition to Ashlie and Brad Hatton.
Mary Ann and Bill West are multigenerational natives of Madison County. Her background is in the medical and banking field, while Bill was involved in construction, agriculture and advising. They grew up in northern Madison County, but now live in the Berea area. Over time, while the building sat empty and deteriorating, they made multiple offers and were finally successful in 2013. “It was more by emotion than by thoughtful consideration”, but by the time they purchased the property, the family had become enamored with the background of the building. Mary Ann is convinced that the building picked its caretakers, who are all women: Eleanor Churchill, Lila Ballando and now Mary Ann.
The building is actually seven buildings, built from 1923 to 1953. Six of the buildings are attached to each other. Three other buildings are the adjacent Country Club, built from 1954 to 1964. The Churchill’s facility has approximately 56,000 square feet, while the country club facility is about 9,000 square feet.
Their initial goal was to protect what was in existence and after consulting with architects, the building was found to be structurally sound. The couple researched the history of the facility and after replacing parts of the roof, gutters, and some windows, renovation began at the front door, moving toward the rear. Staying true to the time period of the building, they sometimes skipped small parts of the process because they did not have the correct materials. When necessary, they made every effort to use substitute materials which blended with the time period, such as re-planed barn boards and period bricks. Old steam heating pipes became balcony rails and stair bannisters. They are constantly in search of just “the right thing”. Most furnishings in Churchill are original to the building, or are West family heirlooms, or are regional or at least period correct.
The building is now home to Churchill’s Event Center, Honeysuckles Bourbon and Dining House, The Café at Churchills, The Berea Golf and Country Club, Don’s Cottage, which is a destination rental, and Millstone, LLC, a strategic advisory company.
The Wests are parents of five children; Dee, Matt, Sheri, Coty and Ben. Coty and Ben are deceased. Dee operates Honeysuckles and Sheri operates the Golf Club.
The Madison County Historical Society is honored to present this preservation award to the West family for their devotion to an iconic Madison County facility.
Samuel Freeman Miller was born in Richmond, Kentucky, to a farmer Frederick and Patsy Miller on April 5, 1816. He attended Transylvania University where he earned a medical degree in 1838. Subsequently, he practiced medicine in Barbourville, Kentucky for 10 years. While serving as a doctor, he studied law on his own and successfully passed the bar in 1847. At that time, he basically abandoned his medical career to concentrate on his legal practice. He favored abolition of slavery as a member of the Whig party. Largely due to his opposition to slavery, he moved to Keokuk, Iowa in 1850. His reputation quickly rose in the legal profession, and he switched allegiance to the new Republican Party in
which he was very active. His support of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election was rewarded in 1862 when President Lincoln appointed him an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. His reputation was so great and positive that he was confirmed by the Senate on the same day as he was nominated and was sworn in five days afterwards.
In his early days on the Court, he staunchly supported Lincoln’s actions including the suspension of Habeas Corpus and military trials for civilians. After the Civil War, Justice Miller upheld the constitutionality of loyalty oaths, a narrow interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the broad authority of the Federal Government to override state laws. During his twenty-eight years on the Court, he heard over 5000 cases and is credited with writing 783 opinions, more
than twice as many as any colleague during that period. Many of those cases such as the Slaughterhouse cases, U.S. versus Cruikshank, and numerous civil rights cases were ground breaking and guided decisions of the Court for many decades. When Chief Justice Chase died, Miller had strong support in the legal community to replace him, but President Ulysses Grant chose to bring an outsider in for that position.
Outside the Court, he served on the electoral commission that awarded disputed electoral votes to Rutherford Hayes in the presidential race between Hayes and Tilden. Miller was religious and served as President of the Unitarian National Conference in 1884.
Miller first married Lucy Ballinger, who was the mother of three daughters, but died in 1854.
He remarried in 1856 to Eliza Reeves, who bore him an additional daughter and a son. She survived him by ten years.
It is truly fitting that the inaugural presentation of the History Maker Award go to native son Samuel Freeman Miller, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. His contributions there were monumental and helped set the tone of the country during and after the Civil War.
Vicki Stevens Whitaker grew up in the West Irvine community of Estill County, but has lived in Madison County for more than fifty years. She attended Eastern Kentucky University, majoring in Accounting. Vicki retired from Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes, having worked in Accounting and Purchasing for thirty years.
Vicki has always had an interest in genealogy, but didn’t do professional research for others until after her retirement. She has done research for the Madison County Historical Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, The Society of Boonesborough, and several other organizations. She is a member of several lineage and historical societies, including Boonesborough Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of American Colonists, First Families of
Kentucky, and currently serves as Chaplain of Colonial Dames of America Chapter IX, Kentucky Company of Jamestown Society, and Kentucky Chapter of Magna Charta Dames and Barons, and is the Registrar of the Society of Boonesborough. In this latter position, she performs detailed evaluation of new applications to insure that the information is accurate. In many cases of incomplete data, she frequently does painstaking research to help fill in the voids or in some cases proves that the submitted lineage is not correct.
Her personal family tree is quite extensive and connects with many other local individuals. Her generosity in sharing that information often provides insight for those individuals which they had previously not known. She does this pro-bono and with great pleasure.
Vicki is married to Dean Whitaker, Jr. who is the President of the Society of Boonesborough.
Vicki’s dedication to helping others define their ancestries and to qualify for lineage-based organizations is most noteworthy and greatly deserving of recognition.
The Madison County Historical Society is honored to present this Specific Historic Contribution for genealogical expertise and contributions to Vicki Whitaker.
Beth Jamison, native of Jessamine County and a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant was hired by the Richmond Cemetery Board of Directors in June of 2013 to be the secretary and cemetery manager. In short order she identified deficiencies in the record keeping process and on her own initiative set out to automate approximately one hundred and sixty-five years of cemetery records. Without question, she proved to be the right person for this task with her knowledge, sense of organization, diligence, and commitment. Two and a half years later, she had entered forty-three thousand grave records into a database, and more than twenty thousand burials were electronically recorded. The information was gathered from multiple sources including original burial journals from 1895 to 2015, a card file system created by Emma Gibson in the 1960’s, the Inventory of Burials published by the Madison County Historical Society in 2000, and decades of old hand drawn maps.
After the basic grave and burial records were entered, she embarked on a process of collecting and recording “missing” information which was necessary to update owner records, and to recover information not collected at the time of burial. To insure that this valuable information was preserved for all times, she had the database with all burial information backed up daily to an off-site server. Additionally, she houses all original documents in fireproof cabinets. Recovering supplemental information has been an ongoing venture, which began in 2017 and is approximately 60% completed. Beth’s detailed procedures consist of gathering and recording information collected from obituaries, newspapers, death certificates, marriage, birth, and census records, and scanning all pertinent documents into the database. Throughout this process, she carefully removed all the old paper obituaries collected since 1969 from scrapbooks, scanned them into the database, and then preserved them in binders.
Based on evaluation of the foregoing actions, she determined that updating approximately 4,000 lot maps within the cemetery was necessary to improve control and define lot ownership. This process began in June of 2015 and with each new burial, the lots are surveyed, maps updated, automated, and scanned into the database. Old hand drawn maps, after being verified for accuracy, are used when available. Approximately 1500 of the 4000 maps have been completed.
Beth also created a public website in June 2015 to assist families with locating loved ones and to provide access to rules, regulations, gate hours, burial options, pricing and general information about the cemetery and its long history.
Beth’s extraordinary achievements for researching and creating logical systems for the management of burial information will have a lasting impact. The results of her very diligent efforts make her most worthy of this recognition.
Both Melissa and Bryan have strong central Kentucky roots. Bryan was raised in the Boonesborough area and graduated from Madison Central High School. Melissa was raised in Fayette County and graduated from New Covenant Academy in Lexington. They currently reside in Jessamine County. Both are lifelong collectors of antiques. Bryan’s particular interests include old items that have to do with central Kentucky, particularly Madison County memorabilia and portraiture. Mellisa is a strong supporter of Bryan’s projects and an important part in most all of them. She is currently working with the state historical highway marker program and several other projects to preserve and memorialize her father’s iconic Lexington restaurant, The Parkette Drive-in. Historically, their first date involved breaking into an abandoned house just to explore.
They moved to Jessamine County in 1994, where they purchased and restored a 1920s farmhouse. They then purchased and restored a 1920s Nicholasville row house. Their current home, in Jessamine County, is an early post and beam barn, which they also restored.
Bryan had always said that he wanted to own a certain home in Madison County. In 2016, they purchased that property which was Pattie A. and Brutus Clay’s Lynwood estate. In an eight year and counting process, they are lovingly restoring the main house, servant house, log cabin, and carriage house, and filling each with their large antique collection. As with all of their restorations, everything is period correct.
In 2022, they purchased the Little Bethel Primitive Baptist Church on North Second Street and are in the process of making necessary repairs and beginning restoration. Bryan met with some of the surviving members of the church and borrowed the church minutes, which he has had transcribed.
Bryan is a Trustee for the EKU Foundation at Elmwood and most recently helped to stabilize the Elmwood Carriage House. He is involved in efforts to stop condemnation and demolition of EKU owned buildings having historical and architectural significance. He also annually adopts and preserves early Richmond Cemetery headstones. He is the founder of the Madison County Preservation Society and co-founder and vice-president of Madison County Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Tipton’s dedication to preservation of central Kentucky architecture and memorabilia is most noteworthy and greatly deserving of recognition.
The Madison County Historical Society is honored to present this Preservation recognition to Melissa and Bryan Tipton.
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