Most of us talk about the American frontier in terms of Conestoga wagons heading west across the great plains toward California. The idea that this was the conquering of the West is based on hundreds of movies. Yet, however brave and dauntless those pioneers might have been, they were actually the second wave of frontiersmen in American history.

The Boone Tavern Hotel is one of many stops travelers should make when near Berea, Ky., but it's the work of the inhabitants that should catch the eye even more, such as the skillful wood-carvings displayed by Jack Gann at the Tourist Information Center (below).

EARLY PIONEERS TO THE WILDERNESS

At the time of the American Revolution, fully 75 years earlier than the California Gold Rush, a group of pioneers left the relative safety and comfort of the E astern seaboard and crossed the mountains into what was a true wilderness. The name that always seems to be at the top of the list of this group is quite properly Daniel Boone. In 1774, Boone settled on the west side of the Cumberland Mountains, at the edge of what we now call Appalachia. Seeing the value of the rich farmland and the waterways that connected the area with the Mississippi and the ocean, Boone settled.

This was the same area that attracted the family that bore Abraham Lincoln. Settlers in the area came for many reasons. They might have been escaping their contracts of indenture that paid for their voyage from Europe and then placed them in virtual slavery for seven years to pay for their passage. Or they might have been disaffected by the slave holdings in the southeast and wanted to make their homes in an area where men were free. Many were of Scotch-Irish origin and they brought their music and their instruments with them. That was the origin of bluegrass music‹something which is currently popular and which refers to the grazing lands of central and eastern Kentucky.

BEREA, KENTUCKY: Island of Integration

One of the communities that resulted from this earlier migration and the opening of the "Western" frontier was the town of Berea in Kentucky. Beginning in the 1840s a large landowner, Cassius Clay, sought to build a community in an area that had been called "The Glade." In 1853 he offered his friend Reverend John G. Fee a tract of land. The land Fee received was dedicated to the organization of a church, a school and a tiny village which Fee called Berea. Based on his religious principles, the community became the seat of an abolitionist movement. Fee and his followers were driven from the state by slave owners but returned after the Civil War and reopened an interracial school. This was probably the first instance of racial integration in the South. Churches welcomed blacks into their congregations and the school sold lots to homebuilders on the condition that families would be willing to live next to families of different races in a policy called "interspersion."

The Day Law and the Crafts of Appalacia

But this island of integrated living did not sit well with the less liberal residents of Kentucky. In 1904 they passed the Day Law, a state law forbidding integrated education. Berea College turned its focus to the education of mountain whites and assisted in the establishment of The Lincoln Institute near Louisville for black students. The college had already found a fall-back position when, in 1890, the president of the college, William Stewart, realized that there was a growing interest in the culture and crafts of Appalachia. Anticipating the segregation laws that followed, Stewart and his successor William Frost encouraged craftsmen and artisans to move to Berea to build a center where the talents that had been developed on the frontier could be preserved and where the artisans could interact.

Berea College Today

Ultimately, the school was re-integrated. When the Day Law was amended in 1950 to allow integration above the high school level, Berea College was the first school in Kentucky to reopen its doors to black students. No tuition is charged, but students must agree to pay their own room and board and, in addition, provide 10 hours of work weekly to help pay the expenses of the school. Most of the 1,500 hundred students in liberal arts courses are from the region. They work as librarians and sweepers, as wait staff, chambermaids and clerks. The school has graduated many who have gone on to success and fame in the broader American society.

Haven for Artisans

And the arts and crafts movement has flourished as well. Today, there are an estimated 100 artisans in small shops in town and in the exurban reaches of Berea who produce every conceivable sort of hand-crafted product. During our visit, we saw glass blowers, bead makers, metal smiths, wood carvers, potters, dulcimer makers, artists, basket weavers and a half dozen other craftspeople working in their shops, stopping to talk to visitors and demonstrate their craft. The pride with which they exhibit their work is obvious, the quality is outstanding.

VISITING BEREA: Artisans at Work

A visit to Berea should begin with a stop at the Tourist Information Center that's located in the last remaining brick Louisville and Nashville Railroad Station built in 1919. The Center can provide you with plenty of literature to help you find the various craftsmen around the town. In addition, the Center hosts groups of artisans on different days of the week. For example, on Monday, we met master quilter Pat Jennings who was giving advise to a relative novice. Pat, who has 24 years of experience as a quilt maker and whose living was made as a social worker, was on her way to Chicago for a quilting convention.

The next morning, we met with a group of wood carvers. Inside the Center, we found several men carving examples of a bull. With them were a couple of teenagers, whose home schooling required them to be involved in an art project. Learning wood carving was their choice and they were accepted by the other men and women, mostly retirees, who guided their efforts. That group was led by Jack Gann, a prize-winning carver who was carving his bull from a piece of buckeye.

Outside, sitting on the porch of a log cabin, was another group of four who had opted out of the indoor cadre. Each was working on a different carving‹one an angel for a crèche scene for next Christmas, another on a dog. Dave Buzzard showed us his whimsical cow, a response to the bulls that were being formed inside the Center. The group has been getting together for the past five years and, we were told, there was no competition among them. Instead, they helped each other by showing new techniques, offering new materials and generally acting in concert to further their particular art form.

Along the nearby streets, we were able to visit Michelle Weston whose hand-crafted glass works are being sold all over the country including a Michigan Avenue shop in Chicago. Although Berea seems rural, Michelle, for example, holds a Master's degree in fine arts from Bowling Green State University. Neil and Mary Colmer met at Berea College and decided to begin the business of weaving. That's been going on for the past 37 years. Mary also produces corn shuck dolls.

Ken Gastineau together with his wife, Sally, crafts jewelry from pewter, bronze, brass, gold and silver. Jimmy Lou Jackson spent "35 years of my life screening pap smears," but, for the past 10 years, she's into the manufacture of hand-crafted glass beads used for earrings and other jewelry.

The one common thread that we felt through our experience with these and other artisans we met in Berea was that they were serious professionals. Antique stores abound in the region, but the main reason for making the trip is to see the artisans at work.

Churchill Weavers

One of the "must-see" stops in Berea is the internationally famous Churchill Weavers. Visitors are able to take a self-guided tour of the factory where yarn is turned on to spindles, bobbins are wound and the looms are operated by weavers whose fingers fly. As we watched, it became obvious that none of the machinery was electrified‹everything was operated by hands that crafted some of the best blankets, throws and shawls available in the market. The factory has a gift shop selling some of their products. If quality is what you want, Churchill is a place to get it.

The Boone Tavern

The Daniel Boone influence is not missing in Berea as it still clings to its roots. Near the center of the college is the Boone Tavern, a modernized 58-room hotel with a top-flight dining room. As Berea College grew, so did the number of people who visited the campus. Eventually, in 1909, there were too many people to be accommodated in the home of the College president and the Tavern was built. The Tavern was named after the pioneer because of its location at the end of the trail followed by Boone when he migrated from North Carolina to Kentucky. An estimated 80% of the staff are students fulfilling their College working assignments and the hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the Historic Hotels of America, a group that includes Chicago's Drake Hotel.

Finding Berea

Visiting Berea is easy. It's located about 40 miles south of Lexington and 115 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio on Interstate 75. Using Berea as a base for your trip, you could visit the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill or Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. There's also a chance to travel through the Cumberland Gap and retrace the route that opened this part of America to settlement more than two centuries ago.

Resources

Berea Tourist and Convention Commission: 800-598-5263, www.berea.com

Boone Tavern: 800-366-9358, www.boonetavernhotel.com Back to top of page | Journal Home