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FARMINGTON BLOG

A year or so ago I was volunteering at Farmington and I was asked to transcribe a letter written by John Speed to his daughter Mary.  Mary, and her sister Eliza, were away at boarding school in Bardstown.  In the letter John encouraged Mary to be attentive to her...

Say what you will about John Speed, he was a great entrepreneur!  By 1809 he and his young family had taken possession of and moved onto the property that they would call Farmington.  Judge Speed, as he became known in the community, was very good at generating...

The plantation called Farmington was established by John Speed.  We know that Speed had taken ownership of Farmington by 1809 through examining tax records for Jefferson County.  In a letter to his business partner, William Pope, Speed claims that his family was...

I may be going further back into Speed family history than is needed.   I have found, though, that while investigating topics for these blogs I discover things so interesting that it is impossible not to talk (or write) about them.  So it is with the Speed family. ...

This is an invitation to you to join a discussion of the book James:  A Novel by Percival Everett.   The staff, volunteers, and board members are always trying to extend Farmington’s community engagement.  One of the ways we have done this is to join a group called...

In my last blog I talked about Gary Lee Williams’ Ph.D. dissertation that recounted the connections between Abraham Lincoln and Joshua and James Speed.  Most of that discussion dealt with Lincoln and Joshua.  Before I leave the topic of Lincoln’s Kentucky Friends, I...

I had not planned on writing about this topic.  In fact, I am actually doing some reading and investigation about the life of John Speed, the patriarch of Farmington who will be my topic in the future.  Sometimes, though, a person goes in unanticipated directions;...

There are several interesting questions that arise from the story about how Joshua and Lincoln first met.  One is whether or not Joshua and Lincoln had previously known one another.  Is it a normal occurrence for a person to invite a total stranger to share a room?  ...

I began writing this series of posts thinking it would be pretty simple.  What I have discovered is that I can get lost in the weeds trying to uncover what seemed a “simple” quest.   The story of how Speed met Lincoln was recounted by Joshua on multiple occasions. ...

I am going to delay the second part of how Joshua and Lincoln became friends to recognize Lincoln's birthday.  There is no better time to remember Lincoln's most famous speech.  So, to honor our 16th president on his birthday, here is the Gettysburg Address. Four...

If you’ve never visited Farmington or spent time studying about Lincoln, you may not know that the 16th president was best friends with Joshua Speed, who was born and raised at Farmington.  In fact, one of the topics we spend time talking about with guests to the...

Allow me to introduce myself.  I am a volunteer docent at Farmington.  For most of my life I taught history in schools around the Louisville area.  After spending 42 years in education, I decided to finally retire but I had to find some way to satisfy my desire to...