Hensley Settlement
Coordinates: 36 ° 40 ′ 10 " N , 83 ° 31 ′ 42" W.
Hensley Settlement is a living history museum in the Appalachian Mountains . It is located on Brush Mountain in Bell County , Kentucky in the United States . The settlement is part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and is located approximately 15 km north of the park's visitor center on the Ridge Trail. It includes twelve log cabins , a one- room school and a forge . A well house , which has since been restored , also served as a storage room for groceries. The settlement was founded by two brothers-in-law, Sherman Hensley and Willy Gibbons, and most of the residents belonged to one of the two families. The last resident of the settlement was Sherman Hensley, he left the village in 1951. The school and the approximately 45 buildings and the agricultural area were restored to their original state in the 1960s by the Job Corps .
background
The settlement originated in 1845 when Governor William Owsley gave five hundred acres on Brush Mountain in the Appalachian Mountains to the brothers C. and RM Bales. They leased it to John Nichols and Jim Nelson, who used it largely for pasture farming. They cleared the area and made further improvements, for example with the construction of clapboard-roofed log huts made of chestnut wood .
Hensley
In 1903, Barton Hensley Sr. acquired the entire property and divided it into sixteen individual lots for his large family. The pig farmer Sherman Hensley and his wife Nicey Ann, the daughter of Barton Sr., moved into an existing log cabin on their allotted 21 acres. The couple purchased another 33 acre property. The following year, Nicey's niece Nancy and her husband Willy Gibbons also moved to the self-sufficient settlement, whose residents mostly had one of the surnames Hensley or Gibbons. The village was never connected to the electricity network, there was running water in the houses, modern streets or other amenities. The settlement was practically self-sufficient, everything that was needed was grown, bred or produced here. The residents walked or used the horse for longer distances. A well house served as a storage room for food.
school
In 1908, Bell County hired a teacher for the newly constructed one-room school. Originally, the schoolhouse was little more than an attached shed, built so that the county's superintendent of schools agreed to assign a teacher to educate the local children. At this school, all school children were taught up to eighth grade. Until the school closed in 1947, four different buildings consecutively served as the Brush Mountain School. The last schoolhouse was a log cabin, heated by a cast iron stove with wood and coal. The school furniture was made of wood and cast iron.
Later years
The settlement reached its greatest strength with around one hundred inhabitants in 1925. During the Second World War , many of the residents moved away either to join the military or to work in the coal mines. Nicey Ann Hensley died in 1937. The population continued to decline, and from 1949 Sherman Hensley was the only remaining resident. When Hensley finally left the property in 1951, the settlement gradually fell into disrepair. Hensley died in 1979 and is buried next to Nicey Ann in the local cemetery, where there are also 36 other graves.
present
The settlement became part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park on July 4, 1959. The National Park Service and Job Corps began restoration work in 1965, returning the 45 structures and agricultural facilities to their original state. On January 8, 1980, Hensley Settlement was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District .
The National Park Service operates the Appalachian Hensley Settlement in the form of a Living History Museum and offers tours of the settlement from May to October.
supporting documents
- ^ A b c John E Kleber: The Kentucky Encyclopedia . The University Press of Kentucky, 1992, ISBN 978-0813117720 , p. 426.
- ^ A b Tom N Shattuck: The Cumberland Gap Area Guidebook 2005, p. 35.
- ^ A b Visit Hensley ( English ) Harlan Tourist and Convention Commission. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ^ Harvey H Kaiser: The National Park Architecture Sourcebook . Princeton Architectural Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1568987422 , p. 358.
- ^ Hensley Settlement-Time Turned Backwards ( English ) The Blue Ridge Country. February 16, 2009. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ↑ Nicey Ann Hensley in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ↑ Harry L Moore: Geologic Trip Across Tennessee: Interstate 40 . University of Tennessee Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0870498329 , p. 198.
- ↑ Sherman Hensley in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ↑ Hensley Cemetery-Cubage Ky ( English ) Find A Grave. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ^ Pam Eddy: Protecting the Pioneer Spirit at Hensley Settlement ( English ) Middlesboro Daily News. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ↑ Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , accessed June 12, 2016
- ↑ On The Road ( English ) KET-TV. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ↑ Folder 9 Living History at Hensley Settlement 1968 ( English ) In: NHPS Hensley Settlement Collection . Lincoln Memorial University. Archived from the original on April 18, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ^ NPS-Hensley Settlement Tours ( English ) National Park Service. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
