Dr. James Bond and the Lincoln Institute

The Lincoln Institute was founded in 1909 for African American students who could no longer attend Berea College. The Day Law, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1904, mandated the segregation of Kentucky higher education institutions. The law was aimed at Kentucky’s  only interracial College at Berea.

Berea graduates, Dr. James Bond and Kirke Smith, joined in the campaign to find funds to build a new school. Andrew Carnegie gave a gift of $200,000, and donations were solicited from and received from private individuals. The Lincoln Institute was to be modeled after Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute, and the school was initially referred to as the Tuskegee of Kentucky. Unfortunately, this idea was soon dropped because funding would never be sufficient for the Lincoln Institute to become a college.

Just finding a site for the school had been a major feat. School founders were unable to secure land in Lexington or Louisville. Property was finally acquired in Anchorage, in Jefferson County, but the white residents in the community opposed the idea, and a $2000 gift was given to the School to persuade the search committee to seek another location. Finally, a farm in Simpsonville was purchased, and again whites opposed the idea of an African American school in their community. Shelby county citizens quickly passed the Holland Bill, which allowed voters to approve or deny the establishment of industrial schools in the entire county. The Lincoln Institute administrators fought the bill and it was declared unconstitutional in June 1910.

To appease the community, the school administrators decided that only Lincoln Institute students who lived at the school would be allowed to enroll. This would keep large numbers of African American families from moving into the Shelbyville area. Also, Shelbyville’s mayor, who owned a construction company, was given a contract to assist in the building of the school. The first building, Berea Hall, was constructed in 1911. The Lincoln Institute opened in October 1912.

The day the school opened, a group bearing arms barred the entrance to the new Lincoln Institute. The group was disbanded by the persuasions of Dr. Bond without violence. Dr. Bond also provided escort for the arriving students past the demonstrating crowd of white protestors. The opening of the Lincoln Institute proceeded as planned with Rev. Eugene Thomas, pastor of the Berea Union Church, being it’s first president. Dr. James Bond became the school financial agent.

To read more about Dr. Bond, his life from slavery to his part in the civil rights movement and his contributions to Camp Zachary Taylor and the YMCA,  visit our “History” page and click on the “Notable Veterans” link.

Ken Maguire

Fort Knox may never have been built if Camp Zachary Taylor had not been constructed in Louisville. When it was announced that 16 Cantonments were going to be built by the US Government in various locations across the country, the Louisville Board of Trade lobbied for one of them to be built here. The Board of Trade was an organization comprised of the Mayor of Louisville, John H. Buschmeyer, and Louisville businessmen such as Mr. Fred M. Sackett, President of the Board of Trade (and future Congressman), Mr. William Heyburn, and Mr. Jas. B. Wilson, Chief Engineer and Superintendent of the Louisville Water Co. and several other prominent businessmen. Louisville was competing for the Camp with several other cities. Evansville, Ind., Fort Wayne, Ind., Indianapolis, Ind., Bowling Green, Ky., Lexington, Ky., and Jeffersonville, Ind. were all in the race to win the Camp.

One of the reasons that Louisville was selected to build one of the camps here was, that it had the option of using the land around West Point Ky for Artillery practice. West Point had 16,000 acres available for an artillery range. This land had been used in the past for similar training as far back as the civil war. Camp Taylor sent men to that site from Sept 1917 until August of 1918. Men were housed in tents due to there only being a few permanent structures on the land at the time. It was not until April 1918 that a temporary camp was authorized to be built at West Point. That construction began in June of 1918. In a few weeks it was decided that the area around West Point was not large enough and the camp was expanded to take in the town of Stithton, Ky. The Constructing Quartermaster in charge of building what was now going to be named Camp Knox, was Major W. H. Radcliffe.

The new Camp was built to house 10,000 men and had a firing range with the capacity of 50 cannons. Upon the completion of Camp Knox, the US Army conducted the first training camp for artillery in the United States at Camp Zachary Taylor.  The” Field Artillery Central Officers Training School” (FACOTS)  was held at Camp Zachary Taylor, and Camp Knox was the” hands on” training location.

In reality, Fort (Camp) Knox was actually the 17th Cantonment build, although only 16 were authorized by congress in 1917. Now home of the Armor School, Ireland Army Hospital, the Patton Museum and the United States Bullion Depository, it houses 23,000 men and women. If not for Camp Zachary Taylor, Fort Knox may not have ever been built.

Here is another tidbit of information about Camp Taylor that you may not know. We have just heard the local weather media this week, going on about the current cold snap. Yesterday, they announced the end of the fourth longest run of consecutive days below 32 deg. at 11 days. The longest period of consecutive days on record for below freezing temperatures in Louisville occurred during the winter of 1917–1918, with 17 days below freezing. This cold snap that has just ended does not hold a candle to the winter of 1917–18.

One fact that they did not mention was, that during the 1917–18 winter, the coldest temperatures on record for four consecutive days in the month of December happened during this time. The records still hold up, and they are the only four consecutive days of record cold temperatures ever to be recorded in Louisville.

The dates that this occurred in 1917 were Dec 8th @ -1 Deg F., Dec 9th @ -6 Deg F., Dec 10th @ -4 Deg F., and Dec 11th @ -3 Deg F. On January 12th, 1918, the temperature dropped to -15 Deg F., and is the record low for that date.

The 1917–1918 winter also holds the record for the most snow fall in one winter season for Louisville, at 50.2 inches. Also, on December 8th, 1917, the deepest snowfall for the month of December was recorded at 13.6 inches. These types of record cold temperatures were not exclusive to the Ohio Valley region, as the entire nation was experiencing a very unusual weather pattern. The colder than normal weather trend had been developing for several months prior, with a colder than usual September and October in 1917.

It was recorded in the Quartermasters Report on the camp construction, that the brand new steam heating system was not capable of producing enough heat in the Hospital Group. The temperatures in the Operating Rooms could only achieve a constant temperature of 40 Degrees. The wards only were able to maintain a temperature in the mid 40’s throughout the entire Hospital group. Many of the steam lines froze and had to be constantly thawed out to allow the steam to reach the buildings. The building construction would also have contributed to part of the problem, as there was no insulation of any type in the walls. The buildings were all wood frame and elevated above the ground on piers which allowed cold air under the floors and into the buildings.

The Officers had the luxury of having steam heat also, but not sure how warm they were able to maintain it in their quarters. All of the remaining buildings were heated by coal burning stoves. I would venture to say that the barracks interiors were lucky to make it to the freezing point during this 17 day record cold snap.

It’s a wonder that more of them didn’t die from pneumonia. Of course, the Camp was just recoveing from the first wave of the Bird Flu Panedmic that peaked at the Camp in October of 1917. It was just a bad winter all the way around.

Ken M

Check out our “Recent Acquisitions” page for the story about one of our newest items. Perhaps you can shed more light on the Mysterious Token and read about how Potash was used by Germany to hinder the Allies during World War 1.

Ken Maguire

Thanks to all who came down to the LFPL to view the Camp Zachary Taylor exhibit, and I thank everyone for their comments they left me about it. I heard from several of the neighbors who live in Camp Taylor, and even a few of those who lived in some of the houses that were featured on the 4th of July panoramic. I had a great time putting it together, and I got a few comments on how to make it better next time. I hope that there will be a next time.

Some of those comments were about what I should do to improve it, and I thank you for those. I do want to say that the exhibit was put together on a shoe string budget, and we did the most we could with the litte money we had to spend. That money was donated from Metro Councilman Jim King, and without their support, the exhibit would never have happened. Thank you Mr. King. I also got lots of support and help from Mr. Burns at the LFPL. Thank you for your help as well.

I wanted to also take a minute to say that the LFPL, who funding is being cut, may not be able to continue to host exhibits like these without your financial support. Since there was no fee to view the exhibit, no money was made to pay for the printing costs for future exhibits. To all of you who appreciated it as much as I did bringing it to you, please donate to the LFPL and write your Metro Council Members to find funding for the Library System in Louisville.

I also received lots of questions about the photos, maps and some of the facts. I was asked a couple of times about not having much representation on the soldiers of color. There were two panoramics of some of the African American soldiers on display, and if you were patient enough to view entire book that was on the computer display and the end of the gallery. there were several more featured there too. There was also the display on Dr. Bond, who you can read more about here on our website.

Information on the African American presence at Camp Taylor is the most the difficult to find, and the rarest. I have only see one other photograph outside of our collection, and the information about them is long gone. If anyone has information that they would like to share with us about the African American soldiers at Camp Taylor, I would very like to hear from you.

Thanks again for all who came. and please feel free to write me at anytime.

Ken Maguire

Camp Zachary Taylor Historical Society

Monday nights Grand Opening and Reception for the Veterans Day and Camp Zachary Taylor Exhibit at the Library was a hugh hit. Thanks to all who were able to attend. There were lots of questions about the Camp, how big it was, were buildings stood and the one’s that are still standing.

The Super Size Panoramic Photograph (36″ x 200″) of the Flag Rasing Ceremony of July 4th, 1918 surprised everyone. Landmarks that are standing today are shown and described on the cooresponding map.

The World War Portion, along with the 1918 film on the sinking of Lusitania in 1915 is being shown along with a slide show of the 210 page, Official Photographic book at each end of the gallery.

I hope everyone enjoys the Exhibit, which runs through Dec 7th, and I thank you for visiting the Library to view it.

Ken Maguire

The Kentucky Educational Television (KET) will be broadcasting a show in early November and part of it will be on the 100th anniversary of the Louisville Free Public Library. In this segment, there will be a short feature about Camp Zachary Taylor, and the Exhibit at the Library which opens November 8th.

Here are the air dates of the program for those who are interested in seeing it.

Program 306

Louisville Life profiles filmmaker, entrepreneur and environmentalist Gill Holland; showcases the Zoom Group’s talented artists; celebrates centennial of Louisville Free Public Library. (#306)

Thursday, November 6 at 7:30/6:30 pm CT on KET2

Thursday night, November 6 at 12:30/11:30 pm CT on KET1

Friday, November 7 at 5:30/4:30 pm CT on KET2

Saturday, November 8 at 7:00/6:00 pm CT on KET1

Sunday, November 9 at 12:00/11:00 am CT on KET2

Ken Maguire

Camp Zachary Taylor Historical Society

http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/fw_louisvillelife.exe/db/ket/dmps/Programs?do=topic&topicid=LOUL110062&id=LOUL

A description of the progam and camp can be seen at the above link.

The Exhibit will open to the Public on Saturday, November 8th, and there will be an Official Opening and Reception at the Main Branch, Monday Evening, November 10th at 7:00 pm. The Main Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library is at the intersection of 4th and York Street in Louisville, Ky.

The Reception will be free and Open to the Public. So mark your calendar’s for Monday Night and come out to honor our Veteran’s of yesterday and today! Many of the Items, Photos and Artifacts have never been on display before, and this may be the only time you will get chance to see them.

The Exhibit will run through December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day), so don’t delay. Make your plans to view this first time exhibit of Camp Zachary Taylor memorabilia before it closes.

Ken Maguire

Camp Zachary Taylor Historical Society

The Camp Zachary Taylor Society is proud to announce that we will be working with the Louisville Free Public Library to present an Exhibit of Photographs and Documents from Camp Zachary Taylor at the Library’s Main Branch. The Exhibit is planned to open on November 8th, 2008 in commemoration of Veterans Day, which will be Tuesday,  November 11th. We are also commemorating and remembering  Camp Zachary Taylor, which opened officially on November 3rd, 1917, 91 years ago.

On November 11, 2008, it will mark the 90th Anniversary of the end of World War 1. Hostilities were officially ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, ending the War to end all War’s. The exhibit will include several original panoramic photographs of Camp Zachary Taylor, photographs of the Camp Construction and of the Soldiers who were stationed there.

We hope that you will be able to view the exhibit, which will be free to the public. The Main Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library is on York Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. Please join us in remembering our heroes from the First World War, and our Heroes of today.

Ken Maguire

Camp Zachary Taylor Historical Society

Welcome to Camp Zachary Taylor. The mission of our Historical Society is to preserve, conserve, collect and make available information, photographs and artifacts directly related to the World War Training camp that was built in Louisville Ky in 1917, Camp Zachary Taylor. The construction of the facility was one of the single most important events that took place in Louisville in the 20th century, nearly increasing the population of Louisville 25% in three months. The economic, social and political impact of this one event has never been matched by any other in the city’s history, and probably never will again.

The neighborhood that is now known as Camp Taylor only takes in a small portion of what was the largest WW1 army training camp built in North America at the beginning of the United States entry into the war. The camp which covered over 3000 acres would not be recognizable today, having been dismantled in 1921, it is now occupied by mostly residential and light commercial buildings.

We hope you enjoy this site, and find it informative. Please help us keep the history alive by supporting us in our efforts.

Kenneth Maguire
Camp Zachary Taylor Historical Society
Louisville, Ky

This site is under construction and new information is being added regularly. Please visit often, and feel free to register for notifications of updates and new acquisitions.