McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
The program A D-Day tragedy: “Love you dearly” presented by Hugh Ridenour and his wife Carolyn on Thursday evening at the Senior Citizen Building was well attended. The program funded in part by the Kentucky Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities was a story about Calhoun natives Alma and Gene Wheeler. The Wheeler’s son Jim, affectionately called Jimbo by Calhoun family and friends, and his wife Leta came from Hardinsburg and Gene’s brother, Bubbie Wheeler, came from Owensboro.
It was an evening honoring Gene Wheeler and all McLean County men who gave their lives in World War II.
Historian Ridenour, a former resident of Livermore now lives in Hanson, Kentucky. He has been published in the Filson Club Quarterly and the Kentucky Historical Society Register. He was the recipient of the Kentucky Historical Society’s Richard H. Collins award for his article about a Confederate Civil War surgeon. His book “The Greens of Falls of Rough: A Kentucky Family Biography 1795-1965” was selected as one of the top ten best books published on Kentucky history in the previous four years. Mildred Iglehart has given a copy of the book to the museum.
A program commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of McLean County was given by members of the museum for West Central Kentucky Family Research Association in Owensboro on Thursday night. The main speaker was our friend Ann Vincent a great-great-great-great niece of Alney McLean for whom our county was named. Ann spoke of McLean’s life as a surveyor, soldier, lawyer and judge. She displayed the tool that McLean used to survey the Muhlenberg/McLean line. This tool is on display at the Duncan Center in Greenville where Ann is employed.
In April Mildred Iglehart introduced Ann to members of our museum. At that time she gave us a book “McLean , the family of Judge Alney and Tabitha McLean” for our collection. We thank Ann for the book, for her very informative talk on Alney McLean and her continued interest in our museum.
The West Central Kentucky Family Research Association is located in Commonwealth Court, just off Highway 54 in Owensboro. It is a very fine facility housing much genealogy and history. Edith Bennett is president and Dorothy Smithson and Linda Shown contribute much time to that effort. We thank them for the opportunity to spread the news of our museum and its purpose.
Visitors to the museum last week were Elveda Beal from Evansville and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Deen from Searcy, Arkansas. The Deens and Lois Smith Jones of Sacramento are new members.
A correction to the article of June 3rd…one of the first families to come to the settlement of Rhoadsville was the William Rowan family, not the John Rowan family. Thanks to Virginia Davis for calling this to our attention.