By JENNIFER MOONSONG
Glasgow News 1
With the passing of generations, and modern innovations, the ways of the past also pass away. For example, in 1850 in Barren County, there were 92 documented blacksmiths, but naturally the profession fell away with the prevalence of automobiles.
One of the first steam-powered threshing machines in Barren County was owned by Sam Norvell, 1911.
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There were many processes and traditions, especially in farming and agriculture, that have been nearly forgotten. Before modern farming innovations, the help of other farm families and the community to complete tasks was necessary. Sugar camps to make sugar, log rolling, barn raisings, sorghum making and gathering for hog killing were necessary practices of sustenance and social occasions. Farm families enjoyed such events, and they also enjoyed, and returned, the help received for tasks.
Log rolling was the clearing of logs for pasture and required brute strength. All of the talks mentioned, even sorghum making, were labor intensive and took many hands to make.
Many of the old farms in Barren County have areas referred to as old “sugar camps.” This was because sugar was a commodity not frequently imported, so sugar camps were set up in groves of sugar maples, and the trees were tapped for sap to boil, to make sugar. Barn and house raisings helped families secure dwellings and barns, and were work days and celebrations.
In the late 1800s, an agricultural custom was mule day. Mule day was the third Thursday of each month. Mules, horses, cattle and even tools and wagons were brought to town for trade. This custom ended in the 1940s. Until approximately the same time, geese and turkeys were herded to town on foot.
Mule Day in the late 1870s in Glasgow.
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In 1900, geese were herded down old Burkesville Road to market.
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A group of men photographed log rolling to clear a field.
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With the invention of machinery and the passing of more than a century from the mid 1800s, in 1978 in the Kentucky Agricultural Statistics, Barren County was ranked first in burley tobacco production, and second in cattle, and is still a predominately agricultural county today.
This information was derived from the recorded history of Barren County by Cecil Goode.
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