When the Civil War between the States of the Union was about to begin,
Kentucky refused to take sides in the controversy, and in the strict sense
of the term was never out of the Union. When the President of the United
States called on Kentucky to furnish men and equipment for the Union army,
the Governor replied that the State was neutral and would take no steps
toward secession, nor would it espouse coercion by force of arms. The
people, however, chose for themselves, and enlisted in the Union or in the
Confederate army, as they believed to be in the right of the controversy.
The result was that about an equal number enlisted with both armies. Hence
the State became a common battleground during the struggle, very much as
it was in the days when the Indian tribes from the North and from the
South met on our soil as a common battleground. Families were divided as
to their espousal of the respective sides of the contest, father and son
frequently taking up arms on opposite sides. When the war closed, the
people went to work with a will to repair the damages incident to the
struggle, and no state has shown greater progress in the development of
its natural resources.
Probably no state has greater resources capable of development. The coal
beds of Eastern Kentucky comprise an area of more than ten thousand square
miles or about one-fourth the area of the whole state, and the western
coal fields underlie four thousand square miles, or about one-tenth of the
area of the state. Inexhaustible deposits of iron ore are found, and the
forests are exceedingly rich in fine lumber.
The state has made wonderful progress in the development of the school
system. In fact, no other state has a more practical and efficient school
system, nor has any state a more determined set of school workers.
Kentucky has had three permanent Capitol buildings. The last was completed
in 1909 at a cost of $1,750,000, and is considered one of the handsomest
structures of its kind in the Union.
Great virtues are sometimes accompanied by great faults; but Kentucky’s
faults have been those born of isolation and inaccessibility. Now that her
railways are penetrating into even the remotest districts, bringing her
citizens into closer and quicker communication with the outside world, her
people rapidly are becoming united in their efforts to make her future
eclipse her glorious past. With the purest Anglo-Saxon blood in the United
States forming the greater part of her citizenship, and the riches of her
forests and mountains even now just beginning to pour into the laps of the
people, a great future is inevitable for Kentucky, “The land of the China
Brier.”
[Illustration: Ancient Mound, Greenup County]