Kentucky Bluegrass
Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, joyous, white-bearded man - sometimes with spectacles - wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots (images of him rarely have a beard with no moustache). This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" and of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast. This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, children's books and films.Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and simply "Santa", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24. The modern figure was derived from the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas,which, in turn, was part of its basis in hagiographical tales concerning the historical figure of Christian bishop and gift giver Saint Nicholas. A nearly identical story is attributed by Greek Orthodoxand Byzantine Christian folklore to Saint Basil of Caesarea. Basil's feast day on January 1 is considered the time of exchanging gifts in Greece.
According to a tradition which can be traced to the 1820s, Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, with a large number of magical elves, and nine (originally eight) flying reindeer. Since the 20th century, in an idea popularized by the 1934 song "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", Santa Claus has been believed to make a list of children throughout the world, categorizing them according to their behavior ("naughty" or "nice") and to deliver presents, including toys, and candy to all of the well-behaved children in the world, and sometimes coal to the naughty children, on the single night of Christmas Eve. He accomplishes this feat with the aid of the elves who make the toys in the workshop and the reindeer who pull his sleigh.
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The Simple Life
John Rowan (July 12, 1773 – July 13, 1843) was a 19th century politician and jurist from the U.S. state of Kentucky. Rowan's family moved from Pennsylvania to the Kentucky frontier when he was young. From there, they moved to Bardstown, Kentucky, where Rowan studied law with former Kentucky Attorney General George Nicholas. He was a representative to the state constitutional convention of 1799, but his promising political career was almost derailed when he killed a man in a duel stemming from a drunken dispute during a game of cards. Although public sentiment was against him, a judge found insufficient evidence against him to convict him of murder. In 1802, Governor Christopher Greenup appointed Rowan Secretary of State, and he went on to serve in the Kentucky House of Representatives and the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1819, Rowan was appointed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, serving until his resignation 1821. He was again elected to the state legislature in 1823. With the state reeling from the Panic of 1819, Rowan became the leader of a group of legislators dedicated to enacting laws favorable to the state's large debtor class. He believed the will of the people was sovereign and roundly denounced the Court of Appeals for striking down debt relief legislation as unconstitutional. He led the effort to impeach the offending justices, and when that effort failed, spearheaded a movement to abolish the court entirely and replace it with a new one, touching off the Old Court – New Court controversy. New Court partisans in the legislature elected Rowan to the U.S. Senate in 1824. During his term, the nascent Whig Party ascended to power in the state legislature, and at the expiration of his term in 1830, the Whigs replaced him with John J. Crittenden, an ally of party founder Henry Clay.
After his term in the Senate, Rowan returned to Kentucky, where he served as the first president of the Louisville Medical Institute and the Kentucky Historical Society. In 1840, he was appointed to a commission to prosecute land claims of U.S. citizens against the Republic of Mexico, but resigned his commission in 1842 because of failing health. He died July 13, 1843 and was buried on the grounds of Federal Hill, his estate in Bardstown. According to tradition, Stephen Collins Foster, a distant relative of Rowan's, was inspired to write the ballad My Old Kentucky Home after a visit to Federal Hill in 1852, but later historians have been unable to conclude whether or not Foster ever visited the mansion at all. The mansion is now owned by the state of Kentucky and forms the centerpiece of My Old Kentucky Home State Park.
Flower Garden at Federal Hill
My Old Kentucky Home
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home
'Tis summer, the people are gay
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
All merry, all happy and bright
By'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door
Then my old Kentucky home, good night
Chorus
Weep no more, my lady
Oh, weep no more today
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home
For the old Kentucky home far away
They hunt no more for possum and the coon
On the meadow, the hill, and the shore
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon
On the bench by the old cabin door
The day goes by like a shadow o're the heart
With sorrow where all was delight
The time has come when the people have to part
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night
The head must bow and the back will have to bend
Wherever the darkey may go
A few more days, and the trouble all will end
In the field where the sugar-canes grow
A few more days for to tote the weary load
No matter, 'twill never be light
A few more days till we totter on the road
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night
