History

Over the last decade Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement Facility in Georgetown, KY, has put a new face on the concept of equine aftercare.

When Michael Blowen first dreamed of creating Old Friends, he envisioned a place where Thoroughbred stallions could retire with dignity following their racing or breeding careers. He also wanted people to visit the iconic horses.

In 2003, Old Friendsopened on leased land with a miniature horse named Little Silver Charm, a gelding named Invigorate and a mare named Narrow Escape. Today, the two-hundred-plus-acre farm in Georgetown has more than 160 retired Thoroughbred stallions, geldings and mares, including two Kentucky Derbywinners. It even welcomed two satellite farms, one in New York and one at Kentucky Downsracetrack.

In his follow-up to History of Old Friends, Rick Capone revisits the unforgettable history of this horse retirement home.

Join author Dr. Rick Simmons as he recalls the hidden history and legends of The Grand Strand in South Carolina.

Though today South Carolina's Grand Strand is known primarily for tourism, Hidden History of the Grand Strand examines the area's often-overlooked stories spanning more than five hundred years, from the lost Spanish flagship Capitana in 1526 to the German U-boats that reportedly roamed the Intracoastal Waterway with the help of local collaborators during World War II. Along the way, learn about the hidden history of the now-vanished villages of La Grange and Lafayette, the great canal on North Island and the wrecks of the Freeda A. Wyley, the USS Harvest Moon and the City of Richmond, as well as the real stories behind the legends of Old Gunn Church, the illegal casino at the Ocean Forest Hotel, the U-boat pens on the Waccamaw River and Drunken Jack Island. This work presents a unique look at the area, its history and the legends that enthrall visitors to this day.

The culinary history of Myrtle Beach reflects a unique merging of Native American, European, African and Caribbean cuisines.

Learn the techniques used by enslaved Africans created vast wealth for rice plantation owners; what George Washington likely ate when visiting South Carolina in 1791; how the turpentine industry gave rise to a sticky sweet potato cooking method; and why locals eagerly anticipate one special time of year when boiled peanuts are at their best. Author Becky Billingsley, a longtime Myrtle Beach-area restaurant journalist, digs deep into historic records and serves up both tantalizing personal interviews and dishes on the best local restaurants, where many delicious farm-to-table heritage foods can still be enjoyed.

Author Nelson Harris delves into the annals of history to uncover these marvelous and mostly unknown stories of the Star City of the South.

How did a Roanoke neighbor's secret upend North Carolina politics and why did a weeding scandal in Big Lick make front-page headlines in New York? These questions and many more are answered in this exciting volume of hidden stories and forgotten tales from the Star City. Discover why a Roanoker was found frozen in the North Atlantic and what Mother's Day crime and trial shocked the city in 1949. Meet the Black Cardinals, a semi-pro African American baseball team that played in the 1930s and '40s, and find out how a fistfight at Shenandoah Life helped save the company.

-- General overview of the picturesque county located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

-- Walking and driving tours through Henderson County s most fascinating historic areas, including Hendersonville, Flat Rock and Fletcher.

-- Images and illustrations of the most important sites, from churches and historic houses to cemeteries and inns.

-- Timeline of key events capturing the historic spirit and heritage of Henderson County.

Written by accomplished historian and author Alexia Jones Helsley and her father, Dr. George Alexander Jones, founder of Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society and director of Henderson County History.

Get ready to experience the Music City with this guide of one of the most culturally and historically rich cities in the Southeast.

Whether you're a local or a tourist, this guide will come in handy. Enjoy 11 walking and driving tours around Tennessee's historical capital of Nashville. Explore the legendary Music Row and the famous Ryman Auditorium. Discover fascincating facts about Nashville's past - from the battlefields to the universities. Carefully researched and exceptionally written by accomplished historian James Hoobler, who is senior curator of art and architecture at the Tennessee State Museum and former executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, this book offers extraordinary insight into Nashville's heritage. It is a wonderful companion, both for visitors and for Nashville residents who want to see their hometown in a new light.

Discover the little known and unknown rich heritage of Memphis, TN.

Step inside the fascinating annals of the Bluff City's history and discover the Memphis that only few know. G. Wayne Dowdy, longtime archivist for the Memphis Public Library, examines the history and culture of the Mid-South during its most important decades. Well-known faces like Clarence Saunders, Elvis Presley and W.C. Handy are joined by some of the more obscure characters from the past, like the Memphis gangster who inspired one of William Faulkner's most famous novels, the local Boy Scout who captured German spies during World War I, the Memphis radio station that pioneered wireless broadcasting and so many more. Also included are the previously unpublished private papers and correspondence of former mayor E.H. Crump, giving us new insight and a front-row seat to the machine that shaped Tennessee politics in the twentieth century.

Author Brian Burns traces the history of the River City as it marched toward a new century.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Richmond entered the Gilded Age seeking bright prospects while struggling with its own past. It was an era marked by great technological change and ideological strife. During a labor convention in conservative Richmond, white supremacists prepared to enforce segregation at gunpoint. Progressives attempted to gain political power by unveiling a wondrous new marvel: Richmond's first electric streetcar. And handsome lawyer Thomas J. Cluverius was accused of murdering a pregnant woman and dumping her body in the city reservoir, sparking Richmond's trial of the century.

In this engaging volume, local historian Douglas Bostick reveals the unacknowledged history of the second community in South Carolina, settled in 1671.

Whether investigating prehistoric clues about Native American life before European settlement, detailing the history of agriculture and the reign of King Cotton, following armies from multiple wars or chronicling the triumph of equality on the greens of Charleston's Municipal Golf Course, Bostick tells the story of James Island as only a native son can. Join Bostick as he brings this small jewel of an island out of Charleston's shadow and into the light of its own rich, historic assets.

Authors Patrick and Patricia Mesmer navigate through spooky tales of vanished sailors, wandering phantoms and lost treasure scattered across the ocean floor.

The Treasure Coast is such a popular destination that some choose to never leave. From the spirits of ancient Indians who once inhabited the beaches to the pirates who spied for passing victims from the safety of the inlets and coves, the region is infused with eerie, tragic history.

A phantom widow keeps watch from the Boston House window for men long ago lost at sea. Spirits of the victims of a murderous cop linger at the Devil's Tree, where their bodies were found. The dreaded pirate Black Caesar still steers his ghost ship toward Dead Man's Point in the St. Lucie Inlet.

When the sun slips behind the trees, the spirits who linger in the mountains and valleys of North Carolina’s Highlands and Cashiers whisper their stories.

Located in the Appalachian Mountains, within the Nantahala National Forest, the Highlands and Cashiers are townships rich in natural beauty and folklore. In this carefully cultivated collection, there are tales of lost loves, deals gone bad, and ghosts who walk the night. Is that a whisper winding through the hemlocks, or is it just the wind?

Join longtime journalist and ghost seeker Cheré Dastugue Coen as she visits Lafayette's haunted sites and travels the countryside in search of ghostly legends found only in South Louisiana.

Ghost stories abound in the Cajun and Creole city of Lafayette, Louisiana. The Hub City boasts a multitude of spirits and specters, from those lost in Civil War skirmishes and fever outbreaks to those souls that simply can't say goodbye. Today, they wander the halls of bed-and-breakfasts and restaurants and linger along back roads and cemeteries. Pirates are rumored to guard buried treasure, and ancient French legends hide in the swamps, bayous and woods.

With this powerful, evocative new book, St. Petersburg residents Jon Wilson and Rosalie Peck present an informative narrative that explores the history of St. Petersburg, Florida's most vibrant African American neighborhood: 22nd Street South or the deuces.

Throughout the city's history, no other area has personified strength for the African American community like this segregation-era thoroughfare. A haven during the brutal Jim Crow years, 22nd Street South was a place where prominent businessmen and community leaders were the role models and residents and neighbors looked out for one another. The close-knit community encouraged strong, positive values even as its members were treated as second-class citizens in the wider world. Authors Wilson and Peck tell the story of this unique district and how its people and events contributed to and helped to shape the history of St. Petersburg in the context of the greater South and the Civil Rights Movement.

Through the eyes of photographers a century ago, the story of Hunting Island unfolds.

Over 4,000 years old, the barrier islands of South Carolina's Lowcountry are ever-changing and hauntingly beautiful. Hunting Island's importance to Beaufort and the nation has always stemmed from its use as a recreational area. From the rice planters, who took their families here on week-long excursions to hunt and fish, to present-day naturalists, campers, and beachgoers, Hunting Island's unique ecology, terrain, and wildlife have always been enjoyed and valued on an international level.  Readers visit early planters, and meet shrimpers who spread their nets in the shoaled waters surrounding the island. We travel though marshes brimming with life and enjoy moments of solitude along quiet sandy beaches.

Asheville, North Carolina has a long history with beer, one that is still easily seen in this city today, from moonshine to craft beers and breweries.

Drinking local harks back to the founding of Asheville in 1798. Whether it be moonshine or craft beer, the culture of local hooch is deeply ingrained in the mountain dwellers of Western North Carolina. Both residents and visitors alike enjoy Asheville's wealth of breweries, brewpubs, beer festivals and dedicated retailers. That enthusiasm earned the city the coveted Beer City, USA title year after year and prompted West Coast beer giants Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Oskar Blues to establish production facilities here. Beer writer and educator Anne Fitten Glenn recounts this intoxicating history, from the suds-soaked saloons of Hell's Half Acre to the region's explosion into a beer Mecca.

Wicked Charleston: The Dark Side of the Holy City, by local resident and tour guide Mark R. Jones, explores the dark alleys and seedy characters not often associated with the Charleston of today.

A beautiful Southern city distinguished by its opulent homes, towering church steeples and hospitality, Charleston, South Carolina, has long been associated with the genteel side of Southern living. However, beyond the outward appearances that most people associate with Charleston, there is another side that most visitors and residents would dare not believe is part of the very fabric from which the city's history was woven. From the sexual escapades of an original Lord Proprietor and the comings and goings of the most notorious pirates, to secret brothels and nightclubs, Jones leads the reader back to a time when drinking, eating and whoring with more than fifty wenches was perhaps more common in the Holy City than one may imagine.

The men of Pierce County faced with both bravery and uncertainty the greatest challenge of their lives, while the women and children they left behind toiled to sustain the community, with the hope that their loved ones would return. After the war, Pierce County families joined together to re-build their community, which was nearly destroyed in its infancy. The late nineteenth century brought growth and change, as a determined citizenry built new homes, churches, and schools to nourish and educate its young. From the abundant green pines and beautiful white sands of Southeast Georgia arose enterprising businesses and a successful agricultural economy. Residents of the county kept their eyes toward the future while always honoring and remembering the sons and daughters they lost through the ages. The proud faces of generations past and the tangible results of their pioneering efforts to build a home fill the pages of this treasured volume.

The enduring spirit of Wake Forest is celebrated in this memorable collection of more than 200 vintage photographs.

Wake Forest College was founded in 1834 to train Baptist ministers. Now a nationally and internationally recognized university, it is renowned for both its graduate and undergraduate programs. Over 6,000 students attend this university nestled within the beauty of the North Carolina Piedmont. The school's motto, pro humanitate, meaning ""for the good of humanity,"" reflects the university's emphasis on the importance of values, ideals, human service experiences, and faith in the educational process. Wake Forest University explores the founding of the college in 1834, its move to Winston-Salem in 1956, and its development into a modern university beginning in the 1960s. Wake Forest University features many notable alumni that walked the campus pathways including Arnold Palmer, Tim Duncan, Brian Piccolo, W.D. Cash, and Al Hunt.

For locals and visitors alike, read about the events that uncover the history behind the legendary Memphis culture, and examine the stories of music, murder, natural disaster and other River City blasts from the past.

Far more than blues and barbecue, Memphis deep and fascinating culture has evolved one day at a time. Author G. Wayne Dowdy pins an exact date to a host of important, quirky and forgotten events in the history of Tennessee's largest city--an entertaining footnote for each day of the year. Earth, Wind and Fire founder Maurice White entered the world in a Memphis hospital on December 19, 1941. On January 15, 1877, a severe thunderstorm mysteriously left the city covered in snakes. On December 31, 1902, a resident was murdered on Main Street after taunting a Native American named Creeping Bear. A day or a month at a time, enjoy a year of entertaining River City blasts from the past.

Discover the story behind the potent partnership between High Point University and the furniture industry.

High Point University was founded in 1924 as a small liberal arts college. The High Point Furniture Market was founded in 1921 and has since grown to be the largest wholesale furniture market in the world. Over the last century industry and university have developed an ongoing, mutually beneficial partnership that has resulted in industry-specific programs being offered to students at the school. Discover the history of this relationship and the impact that real-world exposure has had on both the furniture business and the students. Read the stories of several High Point University graduates who are successfully employed in various positions throughout the industry.

High Point professor and furniture industry veteran Richard Bennington unearths the history of a dynamic partnership.

This fascinating photographic history tells the story of Campbellsville, a town in Taylor county with a rich history.

Taylor County became the 100th county in the commonwealth of Kentucky when it was created on March 1, 1848. The county was named after Zachary Taylor, who gained fame as a general in the Mexican War and eventually became president of the United States. The town of Campbellsville, founded in 1817, was selected to serve as the county's seat of government. Throughout its history, the growth of Campbellsville and Taylor County has been marked by both boom periods and years of severe trials and tribulations. Despite the difficulties faced by the residents of Taylor County, its citizens have always shown admirable grit and determination in improving the circumstances of their families and community. Today the county features a diversified economic base that serves a population of 24,069. Of that number, 11,010 reside within Campbellsville's borders.

The alma mater of  both Dr. Booker T. Washington and Wanda Sykes, Hampton University's history is a story of ingenuity and inspiration.

Hampton University is situated on an arm of Hampton Roads, two miles from Fort Monroe. Founded under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Samuel Armstrong in 1868 and incorporated in 1870 as Hampton Normal & Agricultural Institute, it was the first permanent school for freedmen in the South. Industrial and normal education through self-help was the fundamental principle of the school; trades and industries were taught and practiced. Among the university's noteworthy alumni are Dr. Booker T. Washington, renowned orator and Tuskegee Institute founder; Alberta Williams King, mother of Martin Luther King Jr.; Marcus Dixon, NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs; and Wanda Sykes, comedian and actress. Today, the university is recognized for the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute, the world's largest cancer proton treatment center, and its local commitment to the commercial revitalization of downtown Hampton, Virginia. Through the use of vintage photographs, Hampton University shows how the university community continues to uphold Armstrong's legacy by keeping their eye to the future.

Washington County, located on the Mississippi River in the heart of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, is the culture that cotton built.

Founded by hearty pioneers willing to risk even their lives for the unexcelled wealth that the white gold of cotton promised, the county was literally carved out of a swampy, cane-covered wilderness where the brave were as likely to reap an early grave as elaborate grandeur. This collection of more than two hundred photographs from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth depicts the unique and pervasive dichotomies that the struggle to weave the Cotton Kingdom produced, especially the twin threads of prosperity and poverty. Here men struck it rich in an unprecedented short time, but here they lost it just as quickly. While high cotton bought white men opulent homes and the leisure to produce literary classics, simultaneously it bought the black man little more than a shotgun shack and the pain that birthed the blues. Witness the challenges presented to the mule by the machine and to the isolation of the county's way of life by international war and the infusion of industry. Despite the divisions, this collection also illustrates the common, commendable effort by the citizens of one American county in the South to clear their land, cultivate their fields, build their homes, pave their streets, construct their highways, lay their railroads, and protect it all from flood, fever, and fire with an unfaltering faith in the future.

York County is representative of the Carolina experience and its dual identity, with its "big city" opportunities along its eastern boundaries and its rustic, austere charm lingering in its western sections. This volume explores the county's bucolic setting from the centrally located county seat of York to its western border along the Broad River and traces the history of the county from an era dominated by early American Indian tribes, to the arrival of the first Scotch-Irish settlers, across three centuries of struggle and progress, to the present. York and Western York County: The Story of a Southern Eden brings to life, through word and image, the personalities and events that shaped York and its western rural paradise, including the small towns of Sharon, Hickory Grove, Smyrna, McConnells, and Bullock's Creek.

Since Europeans first settled along the banks of Back Creek in the 1740s, southwest Roanoke County's history has been as fluid as the creek itself. Local historian Nelson Harris details the eclectic history of the area.

The once dense forest with log cabins gave way to the sprawling suburbs of the present. The colonial-era Trader's Path that directed Scots-Irish homesteaders, the growth of the apple industry in Bent Mountain after the Civil War, a state highway built by convicts during the Depression and Cave Spring becoming a modern commercial center have shaped the region. The changing picture of daily life in Back Creek spanning two centuries emerges in stories of one-room schoolhouses, doctors on horseback, country stores, local baseball and NASCAR races at Starkey.

Suffolk's peanut star was already on the rise when an Italian immigrant named Amedeo Obici moved his chocolate and nut operation, Planters Peanuts, to town in 1913 to be in the heart of peanut country. Three years later, Mr. Peanut was born in Suffolk. The success of the goober gave the community cause to celebrate, and it did so on the first large-scale basis in 1941 with the National Peanut Festival and Exposition, complete with a parade and queen. Today the Suffolk Peanut Fest carries on the legume's legacy. More than 200,000 people attend the fete each fall to enjoy family entertainment and pay homage to the humble peanut.

Brunswick, Georgia, was laid out from a plan by Gen. James Oglethorpe in 1771. Growing quickly after the Civil War, Brunswick became a thriving Gilded Age port for naval industries and shipping as well as a stop off for the wealthiest northern industrialists escaping to the Golden Isles.

Today’s vibrant Old Town Historic District still boasts eye-catching examples of days gone by. Suzanne Hurley is coauthor of The Great Houses of Brunswick and a former communications manager at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Joshua Dukes is a digital photograph restoration artist and Brunswick historian.

Jean Lafitte left behind many a legend for generations to follow in thepages of Louisiana history. Treasure hunters still speculate about the site ofpirated loot buried under French Quarter homes or sunk in the Barataria swamps.His notorious reputation was born of tales like these of the blacksmith andsuspect pirate. But regardless of whatever the storytellers may repeat, thereis one legend that does survive the test of authenticity, the story of how JeanLafitte and his men were heroes at the Battle of New Orleans against theinvading British forces during the War of 1812.In The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans , authorRobert Tallant has given younger readers a chance to relive the excitement,romance, and thrill of those days when the Barataria pirates threatened rivertraffic and New Orleans felt the threat of seige by the British. Thisenthralling story from the pages of history is delightfully told with anemphasis on helping children understand the political events of the time aswell as the social climate of the city in the early-nineteenth century.The story reveals the speculative past of Lafitte and how he hid behind thefacade of his blacksmith's shop in the Vieux Carr . He held bittercontempt for his enemy Governor Claiborne until that famous battle, in whichthe pirate-turned-hero joined Gen. Andrew Jackson to protect the city from theincoming assault of British soldiers. Combining tales of pirates, mystery,battle, true events, and real people, this children's book is a thrillingchapter in American history.Robert Tallant (1909-1957) was one of Louisiana's best-known authors, andparticipated in the WPA Writers Project during the 1930s and 1940s. BesidesMardi Gras . . . As It Was, Tallant also wrote Voodoo in NewOrleans and The Voodoo Queen . With Lyle Saxon and EdwardDreyer he coauthored the famous collection Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folktales ofLouisiana.

No fictional swashbuckler could ever rival Jean Lafitte's dramatic life. From his hidden base in the Louisiana swamps at Barataria Bay, Lafitte mounted daring raids on ships in the Gulf of Mexico. His battles with the law were the stuff of legend: when Governor Claiborne of Louisiana offered a reward for the buccaneer's capture, Lafitte responded with a bigger reward for the governor! But when the British asked for his help in their invasion of Louisiana during the War of 1812, the pirate instead joined forces with Andrew Jackson to win the Battle of New Orleans. Later, the brigand moved his operation to Galveston and harried Mexican vessels in support of the Texans seeking independence.

Lyle Saxon's superbly written account examines Lafitte's fascinating career, and frees the truth of the pirate's life from the web of fantastic myths which grew up around him. Did Lafitte participate in the French Revolution as a lad? What was his role in the plot to rescue Napoleon from his exile on St. Helena? And where is Lafitte's treasure hidden? Lafitte the Pirate is a classic work which will appeal to both adventure lovers and students of Louisiana history.

Author Gerri Reaves compares Fort Myers, Florida from its beginnings to the urbanistic river community it is today.

In these photographs, the neighborhood service station, the drugstore soda fountain, and steamboat mail-delivery live on. Nineteenth-century storefronts stand amid condo towers. Cattle stroll to market, and post–World War II newcomers transform the paradise of Gilded Age millionaires and tin-can tourists. Fort Myers continues to reinvent itself, maintaining the treasures of its richly storied past.