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Accession Number: HC 5
Berea City Records
Dates: 1890-1918
.5 linear feet
Online Catalog Record (BANC)
Overview
History
Series Description
Series I - Trustees' Minutes, 1890-1908
Series II - City Ordinances, 1895-1918
Access and Use
Provenance: Officers of the City of Berea entrusted these documents to the Berea College Archives.
Preferred Citation: Berea City Records, 1890-1917, Berea College Special
Collections & Archives, Berea, Ky.
Overview
The early records consist of a ledger book and a folder of ordinances. The book contains the Berea Village Board of Trustee
minutes for 1890-1908, from its incorporation as a village until it was reclassified as a 5th class city in 1909. The accompanying
folder includes the town bylaws from 1895 and city ordinances enacted at various times between 1895 and 1917, with an additional
pamphlet on licensing ordinances from 1957.
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History
The Village of Berea was incorporated as a 6th class city on May 9, 1890,
at a meeting held in the office of the treasurer of Berea College, P.D. Dodge.
The location suggests that the College community initiated the creation of
a formal government structure for the town. Berea was governed by a five-man
Board of Trustees until 1909, when it became a 5th class city and was therefore
entitled to have a mayor. During the period covered by the ledger, the Chairman
of the Board of Trustees carried out the duties of a mayor.
The early Berea Village Trustees nominated a police judge and a marshall,
and began to collect taxes. They signed a contract to put up telephone wires
between the train depot and the post office, and licensed refreshment booths
at the annual Berea College graduation ceremonies. Some of their ordinances
were controversial; for example, in the summer of 1894 a petition was presented
with the names
of 57 voters in regard to the most recent (of many) ordinances restricting
hogs.
When Kentucky’s laws governing 5th class cities were altered in 1895,
the trustees proposed new bylaws for the city, which are preserved
in the folder of city
ordinances.The folder also contains provisions made by the city and the college
in respect
to redesigning the roads that run through the campus.
In October of 1896 John L. Gay was chosen to be Clerk to the Board, and served
until 1898, when he became magistrate. He was son-in-law to the first Chairman
of the Board of Trustees, Josiah Burdette. In
1901, Gay was involved in an intense political
contest. As Mayor Steve Connolly tells it,
"The election for governor in 1899, which culminated in Republican
charges that Democrats had stolen the race and the assassination of candidate
William
Goebel, created a climate of political mistrust and suspicion that affected
the 1901 local elections in Berea. The controversy arose when the Berea
town council nominated S.E. Welch Jr., a prominent Republican and business
leader,
as its new police judge, but the Democratic governor, J.C.W. Beckham, appointed
Democrat H.C. Kinnard.
"Outraged by this action, Republicans in Berea chose a straight Republican
ticket for the fall elections. In the past, though Berea was a Republican bastion
in Madison County, the town elections had customarily been nonpartisan. John
L. Gay withdrew from the magistrate's race and filed for police judge. Wm.
J. Tatum agreed to run for marshal. W.R. Gabbard, S.E. Welch Jr., T.J. Osborne,
J.W. Stephens, and Josiah Burdette ran for town council. As a result, a rival
caucus met and nominated a nonpartisan slate consisting of both Democrats and
Republicans: E.T. Fish for police judge; Hiram Richardson for marshal; and
Jas. Stigal, L.V. Dodge, J.J. Branaman, R.G. Ramsey, and R.W. Todd for town
council. . . . On November 5, 1901, the entire Republican slate was elected
by a wide margin. John L. Gay went on to serve as police judge until 1909 when
he
was elected the first mayor of Berea, a position he held for 48 years." (http://www.bereaencyclopedia.blogspot.com/)
By 1909 a town-gown
political division was evident; the Berea Citizen, commenting on the
opposition ticket in the municipal election that year, wrote, "No pretence
is made that there is anything against Messrs. Dinsmore or Seale except they
draw their salaries from the College." (10/17/1909, p. 1, col. 6)
Series Description
1 Manuscript Box
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| Series I |
Trustees' Minutes, 1890-1908
|
Box 1 |
The first Chairman of the Board of Trustees was Josiah Burdette, a member
of the Prudential Committee of Berea College [i.e., the Board of Trustees],and
the
other members
were P.
B. Johnson, a dry-goods merchant; P.D. Dodge, Berea College treasurer from
1880-1894; Richard Cornelison, a local farmer; and A.W. Titus, a black graduate
of Berea’s
Normal school [i.e., teachers’ college] and town businessman. They started
out by forming three standing committees: Streets and Sidewalks, Stock and
Sanitation, and Law and Order. At the end of 1891 four of the original trustees
were replaced by J. W. Hanson, Chairman; J.T. Stephens, J. W. Van Winkle; and
G.M. Patterson, Clerk. Municipal elections were held each
November; in 1894 Prof. Dodge appealed to the County magistrate to appoint
the current
trustees,
because the city election had not been held. At least two other black citizens
served as trustees in the 1890s: Louis Titus, and. James Hathaway, a black
instructor
at Berea College.
Box 1
Handwritten ledger, Minutes of the Board of Trustees for Berea Village, May
1890-1908
| Series II |
City Ordinances, 1895-1918
|
Box 1, con't |
Box 1
Miscellaneous copies of City ordinances and memos, 1895, 1900-1918,
1957.
- Bylaws and ordinances of the town of Berea, Kentucky 1895
- Copy of stock law, April 17, 1900
- Memorandum of questions submitted to the town board at an informal conference
with President Frost at Boone Tavern Wednesday night July 16 (no year)
- Memorandum of town ordinance
- College undertaking with regard to water supply
- Memorandum regarding a dumping place
- Fire escapes ordinance, 3/12/12
- Loitering ordinance, 11/29/1911
- Estille [sic] Street ordinances, July 1915-May 1916, extracted from City
Record
- Ordinance regarding Estill Street and contract between the city and Berea
College
- Fire escape ordinance (n.d.)
- Comprehensive set of city ordinances read April 16, 1918, and passed,
May 12, 1918, and posted May 16, 1918 in the Berea National Bank. Signed
by J.L. Gay, Mayor, and Edward Fothergill, Clerk.
- Copy of amendments to the hog law
- Prudential Committee notices to those who use college water, October
4, 1918, and n.d.
- Extracts from the General Statutes of Kentucky, July 1, 1878
- City of Berea license fee ordinance # 1-58, effective January 1, 1958
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