Episode 19: Glasgow's 225th Birthday Special with Sam Terry

Join us in a very special edition of Henry's Dashboard Dialogues as we celebrate Glasgow's 225th birthday on May the 10th. Our honored guest is the famous historian Sam Terry, known for his deep knowledge on Kentucky's history and his captivating presentations.

Sam has prepared a special presentation for this birthday celebration that will unravel Glasgow's rich history, from the struggles and highlights of its formation to its role and achievements over the centuries. Expect to learn about fascinating historical facts, such as how the streets were named, and the development of the cemeteries, alongside the unveiling of interesting stories and other surprises.

Alongside history, we also pay homage to Glasgow's Scottish heritage and celebrate its culture, which extends to music, education, and much more. There will be a host of activities, ranging from viewing the original articles of incorporation of the city of Glasgow and minutes from early council meetings, exploring food trucks and enjoying a concert by famous Celtic rock band, Seven Nations.

In this episode, Sam and I also take a look into the past’s challenges, like the cholera outbreak brought by the travelling circus, and the solutions found, such as the establishment of the unclaimed animals pen in the courthouse yard. We will also highlight Glasgow's achievements, such as its early manufacturing and agricultural advances and the success of local figures who have made significant contributions to humankind.

This journey will inspire you to appreciate Glasgow's intricate history as we wrap up this special edition with an engaging conversation with Sam Terry on the importance of Glasgow's history and the role it continues to play in shaping the community.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(00:12):
It's a very special edition of Henry's Dashboard Dialogues because we have some
celebrating to talk about right here. Thank you for joining us.
I am in the studio with a very famous gentleman here for a lot of different
reasons, including his knowledge of history.
His name is Sam Terry. Now, perhaps you know Sam from various,

(00:35):
you know, Sam Terry's Kentucky.
He has a huge following. Some of the other presentations, his cemetery presentation.
You perhaps might have heard him on the archives, on the radio.
But Sam is here today because of the fact that we have a big 225th birthday
celebration that is going on in Glasgow, Kentucky on May the 10th.

(00:58):
And Sam, first of all, glad to have you here on Henry's Dashboard Dialogues.
Oh, well, it's great to be here.
We're going to get into the car and drive around town, but we're going to talk.
We're going to talk about history. And first of all, I'm going to do some points of interest.
Sam Terry, as a part of our 225th birthday celebration, is going to host a wonderful event to 6 p.m.

(01:25):
On Thursday night, the 9th, in the council chambers up on the second floor here of City Hall. call.
Now, Sam, I just know from talking to Sam, he has a presentation that he's put
a lot of time into that you do not want to miss.
You got to be here for it. And that's going to be six o'clock on Thursday night.

(01:46):
So I want to make sure that, of course, the actual day is on Friday,
the 10th, that is the 225th birthday.
There's a lot of things going on that day. We're going to have We're going to
have food around town. We're going to have food trucks at 5 o'clock.
We're going to have Seven Nations, famous Celtic rock band, is going to be here.
I think they were at the Highland Games 13 years.

(02:08):
A lot of fans around here. We're just going to celebrate our heritage,
our Scottish heritage, our history.
And that's why, Sam, I'm so glad you agreed to do this historical presentation,
because Glasgow is a place worth celebrating, isn't it? It certainly is.
We have such a rich history here. and it's always wonderful to recall the history

(02:31):
and the people who made this town and this community what it has evolved into
today, a raging success.
I know Sam well enough to know that he's got a lot of surprises and he's going
to unveil some interesting facts about how things were set up here in the beginning,

(02:51):
how things wound up being done, a lot of interesting stories on how the streets
got named around here, on how the cemeteries were developed.
It's fascinating what you know and what you're going to bring to this,
but certainly it makes for a really large celebration of a real special place we call home.
So give us a little idea of how you think we can navigate our history, Sam.

(03:14):
Well, I think we obviously began before the beginning because a lot of people
don't realize that there were a few inhabitants in Barron County before it became
a county, and obviously in Glasgow,
and how the name of the community came about, and the influence of about three
other Glasgows, and their role in Glasgow, Kentucky.

(03:40):
And so the founding of the town,
how we set up the downtown areas specifically, specifically and to realize just
how small Glasgow was, you know, just a decade after Glasgow was formed.
We still only had 244 people living here.
Took a while for people to get here, huh? It took a while. We didn't go over

(04:03):
1,000 until nearly the Civil War.
So Glasgow was a pretty small place, and a lot of people contributed greatly
to its creation and evolving into something wonderful that we get to enjoy today.
Certainly. And I'm sure you will talk about some of our involvement in the war,

(04:27):
what we did with the war, and what some of the, I guess, choleras and things
like that that have been through here in the past that we had to kind of deal with.
Didn't the circus bring one in here one time? Yes. The traveling circus came
through Glasgow in 1854, and unfortunately,
one of those performers had contracted Asiatic cholera and created an epidemic

(04:51):
here that wiped out a percentage of the town.
People probably never forgot that one for a long time, did they?
No. And you mentioned wars.
You know, a lot of people here don't think that Glasgow has any connection to
the Revolutionary War because it was over when we were formed.
But actually, we have Revolutionary War history all around us.

(05:14):
It's on our streets every single day.
And we all tend to walk by it and never think about it.
And so it's important to know why Revolutionary War soldiers were attracted
to this area and their roles in development of Glasgow.
I think the people that come on Thursday night are specifically want to hear

(05:37):
you explain about the Munford Crenshaw Cemetery, because that's a great history.
That's just one of the many things that you're going to learn about Glasgow.
You know, 225 years, towns did occasionally dry up and go away back in the day.
So there had to be some people who were thinking ahead, utilizing some of the

(05:58):
resources that we had here.
Didn't we used to manufacture hogsheads here or something like that?
Yeah, we did. All kinds of things were manufactured here in the early days.
Of course, tobacco played a huge role in Glasgow's history through much of the
19th century and the 20th century.
Another thing that I think that you're going to learn about,
we'll call them celebrities.

(06:19):
There's a lot of famous people who have roots here in Glasgow.
And I feel like that that's going to be a point of discussion for a lot of folks as well, Sam.
Yes. And I think it's important. You know, there are certain celebrity type
people from Glasgow we've mentioned frequently, but there are so many more who

(06:42):
are not mentioned frequently.
And hopefully we will be able to highlight a few of those people and some of
their unique contributions to, uh.
Humankind. So Thursday night also we're going to have up in the council chambers,
this is going to be the first time it's ever been revealed.
But throughout history, and I'm proud that this has happened over the years,

(07:04):
but people who worked with the city and for the city were able to salvage important documents,
the charters and some of the other things, election results,
those things of that nature that were a part of the city's history,
those have been kept in order.
But our city clerk, Mona Simmons, just recently wrapped up a big project,

(07:28):
and she's got two big volumes of all of the original articles of incorporation
of the city of Glasgow and minutes from early council meetings,
but they are in plastic.
Plastic they're in these sleeves to where they can't be
damaged any further than what the damage has been and those
are going to be on display up in the up in the council chambers that people

(07:51):
can kind of flip through those and i just know
that's going to be really interesting oh it will be it will
be i'm anxious to see some of those obviously they were preserved because they
didn't let people touch them because that wouldn't have lasted long but now
we have them in a touchable format and i I really think going back through there
and some of the names that are associated with the history of Glasgow.

(08:15):
You're going to see those names coming through in the minutes of organizational
charts and things of that nature. I think so.
One of the many things people are going to get to learn about is our fascination with music around here.
We have a lot of famous musicians, a lot of history when it comes to music.
Music, and some of the other things that we've been involved in,

(08:36):
evolution of some of the industries that came here and the reasons why.
Absolutely. Obviously, our agricultural base has been all-important from day
one, and of course, we've touched on manufacturing and tobacco and industries coming here.
Music, we had a very cultured town to be a small town with this few residents,

(09:00):
and it's It's really amazing.
We also had some of the best schools available at times that other communities
didn't even have schools.
So that's a rich part of our heritage, too. Well, and there's,
you know, right here on the, I guess this would be the northeast corner of the
square is where the pavilion is.

(09:22):
Over time, that has been a bandstand, a much larger version of it,
where bands came and provided music for the whole town in that location. They certainly did.
And the most famous person being John Philip Sousa, the composer of all of these
wonderful marching tunes that we enjoy going to concerts and hearing.
It's fascinating, our history and our love of music. That's just one of the many things.

(09:45):
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all kind of know all these things happen,
but to get to come up here and celebrate 225 years and learn more about it,
to look through the articles of incorporation, and then the various city departments
who are going to have things that maybe that you can look through and see about,
it's just going to be a little day of pride for sure, Sam.

(10:07):
Yeah, I think it'll be fascinating to see those. Sam Terry told me about one
that I never had heard of.
What I want you to be sure and repeat that it's the unclaimed animals pen down
here in the courthouse yard. Tell me what that was about.
Well, you know, in the early days of our community, there weren't fences.
You had to build it first.
And for decades, the courthouse lawn had a stray animal pen.

(10:31):
And so if someone's cow was out and eating up your garden,
you know, you could drive it to the stray animal pen and
let somebody know his cow was over there or the sheep
or whatever the case may be and so
our square has such a
rich history and most of it has been sort of forgotten right because we don't

(10:54):
talk about things like the stray animal pens on the square and you know trying
to keep people from letting their hogs wallow in the streets they were dirt
of course or contaminating the big spring because that's where everyone got their water.
So if your animals are contaminating the water in the spring,
that's going to be a hardship on everybody in town.

(11:15):
And it's a very interesting place, a lot of meaningful things and a lot of kind of humorous things.
I think we saw actually how you advertise for bids for city services.
The city of Glasgow was advertising for somebody to come in and put in a pump
to pump the water. Well, that was actually a well that was in the courthouse yard.
Oh, okay. So you see, folks, Thursday night at 6 o'clock, we're going to get

(11:39):
the chance to listen and to learn a whole lot more about the history.
And what better reason to do that, to come up here at City Hall,
than the 225th birthday of the city of Glasgow. We have something to be proud of.
Three food trucks are going to be here prior to the Seven Nations concert.
Talking about fun things going on, in addition to all these wonderful things you're going to learn.

(12:03):
The kids can just learn about inflatables. We're going to have a number of inflatables
down here on Friday for the youngsters to come up here and to kind of get a
thrill out of being in downtown Glasgow, too.
Well, it sounds like a festive addition to all the celebration.
So we're looking forward to it. I've heard of at least three different kinds
of birthday cake and some other things like that.

(12:23):
Just a good reason to come downtown and enjoy history.
When I think about, I can walk right out of this office and stand on the same
ground where the stray animal pen was, stand on the same ground where the pump
was to pump the water for people in the courthouse yard.
That's a lot of history for us to celebrate in 225 years. Certainly is.

(12:46):
And, you know, we can pretty much document that there are some people buried
in the courthouse yard from the cholera epidemic and have a little bit of documentation
about that, That location,
it's one of those fun things that you can't attend and look at all these things
and hear about them and not learn something.

(13:08):
I really appreciate the amount of time and effort that I know you're going to
put into putting a nice presentation.
We should all take advantage of the fact that we're going to learn something.
Sam, thank you for being here with us and taking a little stroll on Henry's
Dashboard Dialogues. And we look forward to learning more about this place we
call home real soon. Okay? I'll look forward to it. Thank you, sir.

(13:29):
Music.