The Lexington Civic League: Agent of Reform, 1900 - The Filson ...

THE LEXINGTON CIVIC LEAGUE : 

AGENT OF REFORM, 1900-1910 

MELBA PORTER HAY 

The nineteenth century in Kentucky was an era marked by 

violence. In 1890 Kentucky with a population of 1.6 million had 

425 reported homicides while New York State with a population 

of 6 million had 442. By the end of the century conditions in 

some areas of the Commonwealth resembled civil war with 

scores of people killed in election-day brawls each year while 

family feuds in the eastern section of the state took the lives of 

many more. The situation culminated in January 1900 with the 

assassination of William Goebel following a disputed gubernatorial 

election.l 

Numerous factors contributed to this deplorable condition. 

Contemporaries and historians alike have noted the effects of 

the Civil War on Kentucky, a deeply divided border state. Violence 

was undoubtedly exacerbated by the long and enduring 

hatreds which the war fostered between individuals and between 

the two political parties. Various shortcomings in the Commonwealth's 

criminal justice system also contributed to widespread 

evasion and lack of respect for the law. Such factors as poorly 

trained and poorly paid prosecutors, long delays for criminal 

trials, problems with packed juries, and cultural mores which 

extended sympathy to defendants encouraged crime. A state law 

against carrying a concealed weapon was laxly enforced and 

widely circumvented through a loophole allowing a person in 

"immediate danger" to carry such a weapon. In addition, governors 

often abused their power to reprieve or pardon convicted 

criminals and to remit fines. 2 

ME LBA PORTER HAY, PH.D., is an associate editor for The Papers of 

Henry Clay at the University of Kentucky. 

1 Hambleton Tapp and James C. Klotter, Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 

1865-1900 (Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society, 1977), 37%78, 401, 408; 

James C. Klotter, William Goebel (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 

1977). 

2 Klotter, Decades of Discord, 377-78, 382, 400-404. For a detailed in- 

336 The Filson Club History Quarterly 

Vol. 62, No. 3, July, 1988

1988] Lexington Civic League 337 

Even Lexington, a town of 26,369 people in 1900 and located 

in the heart of the supposedly genteel Bluegrass, was no stranger 

to violent crime or to lax law enforcement. By the turn of the 

century, however, reform elements were beginning to demand a 

safer and more progressive city. The reformers were galvanized 

into action by an incident which occurred on 11 February 1899, 

when John S. "King" McNamara shot Jacob Keller, a railroad 

cashier, on Main Street. Each man said he was jostled in the 

street by the other. Keller, who was known as a pleasant, peaceful 

man, died two days later. At the time of the shooting McNa- 

mara was arrested and released on a $1,000 bond which proved 

to be invalid because of an irregularity in the signature. Brought 

before a magistrate where he claimed self-defense, McNamara 

was again released on a $1,000 bond. When he failed to appear 

at the time set for his examining trial, local officials made little 

effort to apprehend him.s 

Many in the community were incensed by this breach of jus- 

tice. On 18 February a group of reform-minded women, repre- 

senting such organizations as the Lexington Woman's Club and 

the Women's Christian Temperance Union, joined together in 

calling a mass meeting to raise money to hire detectives to search 

for McNamara and to provide a reward for his capture. A Lexington 

Herald editorial noted that since the law officers had 

failed in their job, Lexington would now be protected by the 

women. The public meeting, attended by both men and women, 

exerted enough influence to cause officials to convene a special 

terpretation of the failure of Kentucky's criminal justice system and its 

effect on crime in the Commonwealth, see Robert M. Ireland's articles, "Law 

and Disorder in Nineteenth Century Kentucky," Vanderbilt Law Review 

32 (1979): 281-99 and "Homicide in Nineteenth Century Kentucky," The 

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 81 (1983) : 134-53. 

3 John D. Wright, Jr., Lexington, Heart of the Bluegrass (Lexington: 

Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission, 1982), 129; Abstract e! 

the Twelfth Census of the United States (Washington: U.S. Census Office, 

1901), Part 1, 131; Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, Madelin6 McDowell 

Breckinridge: A Leader in he New South (Chicago: University of Chicago 

Press, 1921), 33-35; Lexington H rald, 12, 13, 15 February 1899.

338: The Filson Club History Quarterly [July 

grand jury which indicted King McNamara's brother, William 

J. "Squire" McNamara, for shooting a police officer just two 

days after King had shot Keller. When the grand jury also called 

for the bond on which King McNamara had been released, 

Justice of the Peace Abner Oldham could not produce it. He and 

Police Judge John J. Riley were indicted for malfeasance in 

office for their handling of the McNamara cases. The indictments 

against Oldham and Riley were later dismissed but 

Squire McNamara was convicted and received a three-year prison 

sentence.4 

The mass meeting did not result in the immediate capture of 

King McNamara) It did, however, lead directly to the formation 

of a permanent organization to promote civic improvements. On 

17 April 1900, the Lexington Civic League was founded by much 

the same group that had organized the mass meeting the previous 

year. Ida W. Harrison, president of the Lexington Woman's 

Club, presided over the initial meeting. At the next meeting 

on 10 May, Judge Samuel M. Wilson, a socially prominent attorney, 

judge, and professor of law, was elected president while 

Edward M. Wiley and Mary McClellan, both local physicians, 

were chosen vice president and secretary. Two of the most influential 

charter members were Desha Breckinridge and his 

wife, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge. Breckinrldge was the 

managing editor of the Lexington Herald, which was owned by 

his father, former congressman W. C. P. Breckinridge. During 

4 Lexington Herald, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 February, 8, 9, 31 

March, 1 April 1899; "Resolutions of the Mass Meeting of February 21, 

1899" Breckinridge Family Papers, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 

The Breckinridge Papers have now been organized and a guide to them 

has been prepared, but this was not the case when I surveyed them. Thus 

no references to box numbers or titles will be given since they would not 

be meaningful. 

5 King McNamara remained a fugitive tmtil 14 June 1912, when he was 

arrested by Fayette County Sheriff Daniel W. Scott at the Seelbach Hotel 

in Louisville. On 12 July the jury rendered a verdict of voluntary :man-. 

slaughter, and he was sentenced to five years at labor. King's brother 

Squire had been killed in a saloon shooting in Lexington soon after his 

release from prison in 1901. Lexington Herald, 17 September 1901, 15, 16 

June, 2, 6, 13, 14, 23 July 1912.


the first two decades of the twentieth century this newspaper 

became a major force in promoting the progressive reform movement. 

Both its news reporting, which gave the Civic League and 

other reform groups front-page coverage, and its editorial 

stance wei e greatly influenced by Mrs. Breckinridge. The greatgranddaughter 

of Henry Clay and the great-niece of Dr. Ephraim 

McDowell, she became known throughout the state as a leader 

fo1: progressive reforms and for woman suffrage. Indeed, evidence 

in her papers indicates that she was the one who formulated 

the idea of establishing a civic league in Lexington) 

• Immediately after its creation the Civic League began to promote 

reforms similar to those being advocated by Progressives 

around the country.7 Very often these reformers focused on the 

child as the key to solving existing social problems; this was 

trueof the Lexington Civic League. While it might be too late to 

liber .te adults from the cycle of poverty, disease, and exploitation, 

they hoped to prevent the child from following the same 

path. As a 1902 Lexington Herald editorial expressed it: "Fellow 

6 Ida (Mrs. Albert M.) Harrison had been one of the founders of the 

Kentucky Federation of Women!s Clubs. See Mrs. W. T. Lafferty, comp., 

Fifty Years of Service Outline History, Kentucky Federation of Women's 

Clubs (n.p.: Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs, 1944), 14. For 

Samuel M. Wilson, see Charles Kerr, ed., History of Kentucky (5 vols.; 

Chicago: American Historical Association, 1922), 3:365. Detailed accounts 

of the role of Desha and Maleline Breckinridge in the Progressive reform 

movement in Lexington are found in James C. Klotter's, "The Breckinridges 

of Kentucky, Two Centuries of Leadership" (Ph.D. dissertation, University 

of Kentucky, 1975), 226-35 and his book, The Brecklnridges of Kentucky, 

1760-1981 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986), 208- 

243; also Melba Porter Hay, "Madeline McDowell Breckinridge: Kentucky 

Suffragist and Progressive Reformer" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of 

Kentucky, 1980). The resolutions adopted at the mass meeting of 21 February 

1899 (see note 4 above) were handwritten by Mrs. Breckinridge. 

7 For various interpretations of Progressivism and its goals, see John D. 

Buenke ': Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform (New York: Charles 

Scribner's Sons, 1973) ; Allen F. Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social 

Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890-191d, (New York: Oxford 

University Press, 1967) ; Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous With Destiny (New 

York: Alfred A. Knopf,Inc., 1952) ; Richard Hofstadtor, The .4ge of Reform 

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1955); Jack Tager, "Progressives, 

Conservatives and the Theory of the Status Revolution, ''• M/d- 

America 48 (1966): 162-75 Robert H.'.Wiebol The Search for Order, 1877- 

19 0 (New York: Hilt and Wang, 1967).

340 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July 

Citizens, let us remember, if we are not satisfied with the present 

status of affairs, that our hope lies in the children of our 

State...." Thus the League became a prime force behind such 

causes as improving public education, developing parks and playgrounds, 

establishing a juvenile court system, and ending child 

labor,s 

In 1900 Lexington did not have a single public park nor did 

any of the schools have a playground. This became the first 

major goal of the Civic League. In its first year of existence the 

League concentrated its efforts on publicity in order to raise 

public consciousness of the need for such facilities. At the first 

meeting of 1901, Madge Breckinridge presented an offer by Richard 

P. Stoll, president of the Commonwealth Distillery Company 

and owner of a wholesaler liquor dealership, to provide a lot on 

Manchester Street for one year to be used as a playground. The 

Civic League accepted the offer, appointed Mrs. Breckinridge 

and Mary McClellan to be the playground committee, and authorized 

them to seek the cooperation of the Woman's Club.S 

The site for the new playground was in the west end of the 

city, a section known as Irishtown. The poorest and most 

blighted area of Lexington, Irishtown had evolved in the 1840s 

when a large number of Irish descendants congregated in the 

area to work in factories and on the railroads. The streets were 

unpaved, there was no drainage, houses were crowded, and 

toilet facilities were inadequate. Sewage contaminated the water 

supply. Smoke and stench from the distillery poured over it. 

Civic League members, therefore, felt an urgent need to do 

something for the area, especially for the children living there. 

8 Lexington Herald, 18 April, 11 May 1900, 24 June 1902, 31 January 

1903, 12 February 1911. 

9 A Review of Lexington As She Is (New York, 1887 [?]), 65; Lexington 

Herald, 16, 18 June, 1 July 1901; interview, Florence Shelby Cantrill with 

author, 25 March, 25 October 1976. Years later, Mrs. Breeklnridge recalled 

the day when she had asked StoU for the use of the Manchester lot 

and remembered "the quick and generous response" be made. M. M. Breckinridge 

to Mrs. R. P. Stoll, 19 July 1916, Breckinridge Family Papers, 

Library of Congress.


They viewed the playground as a first step toward reforming 

the whole section,l° 

The Woman's Club gave $200.00 for the project; it required 

much exhausting work to prepare the Manchester Street lot. 

When the playground opened on 17 June, benches, flowers, and 

play equipment transformed the grounds. Kindergarten and 

sewing classes met each weekday, with Elizabeth Cloud, a 

trained teacher, serving as head of the kindergarten. For ten 

weeks the League maintained the playground at a total cost of 

$275.00. Most importantly, the Civic League persuaded city officials 

to install a hydrant with filtered water from the reservoir 

which was made available to everyone in Irishtown, providing 

residents there with their first safe source of water.11 

A variety of other activities were held at the playground; 

some of which were open to the entire community. On one occasion 

nearly 150 Irishtown residents attended an open-air concert. 

Almost all of them expressed to the sponsors their pleasure 

at the effect the playground was producing on their children. A 

policeman from the area noted that in the evenings the children 

gathered to sing the songs they had learned during the day at 

the playground. 2 

When it closed at the end of the summer, Madge Breckinridge 

summed up her thoughts in an article, "The Passing of the 

Playground." She viewed the effort as a supplement to the public 

schools, noting that out of 124 children who had attended the 

playground, only twenty-seven had ever attended elementary 

school or kindergarten. Almost all the children were of school 

age and, reportedly, more planned to enroll in public school 

than ever before. Despite this encouraging sign, she pointed 

10 Davis, Spearhead8 for Refcrm, 60-65; Raymond G. Fuller, Recreation 

and Child Welfare (New York: National Child Labor Committee, 1919), 

3-11; Lexington Herald, 21 August 1977; Wright, Lexington, 139; Breckinridge, 

Madeline MeDowell Breckinridge, 48-50. 

llLexington Herald, 16, 18 June, 1 July, 4, 12 August 1901; Breckinridge, 

Madellne McDowell B 'eckln idge, 48-50. 

12 Lexington Herald, 4, 12 August 1901.


out, many Irishtown parents were reluctant to allow their young 

children to go to public school because they had to walk long 

distances and cross dangerous railroad tracks. This situation 

highlighted the need for building a kindergarten and elementary 

school in Irishtown. 13 

While on a trip in early 1902, Mrs. Breckinridge studied the 

playground system in San Francisco. On her return home, she 

informed the community of her findings as she continued to 

promote the cause in Lexington. She announced at a Civic League 

meeting, held at her home, that the Manchester lot would not be 

available for the coming summer and that the Woman's Club 

would not pledge financial support as it had the previous year. 

The League ultimately decided to hold a vacation school and a 

playground for two months during the summer. The playground 

committee chose a house on Willard Street for the school and a 

lot on South Upper Street for the playground. They hired a 

young woman who had taught in a social settlement in New 

York City to teach cooking, sewing, and housewifery, and employed 

Elizabeth Cloud as head of the vacation school. When the 

school opened in July, seventy-four children enrolled, fifty of 

them in the kindergarten division. Mrs. Breckinridge also per- 

suaded the mayor to install a hydrant and a water fountain at 

the Willard Sireet location.14 

The Upper Street playground with basketball and tennis 

courts opened in late July. The Combs Lumber Company, owned 

by Thomas A. Combs, a friend of the Breckinridges and subsequently 

Lexington mayor and state senator, had moved the 

equipment used the previous year and had set it up on the lot 

without charge. Berkeley M. Fontaine of Hanover County, Virginia, 

became the playground supervisor. Baseball and basketball 

teams from the playground and the school competed against each 

other during the summer. All of these activities were supported 

13 Ibid., 8 September 1901. 

14 Ibid., 2, 5 March,. 29 April, 4 28, 29 May, 2. 8, 11, 13, 15, 22 July 

1902; W. C. P. Brecklnridge to Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, 28 Febi"uary, 

12 April 1902, Breckinridge Family Papers, Library of Congress.


by private contributions of money and supplies solicited by the 

Civic League. 15 

A significant victory for Irishtown children resulted from 

these activities. On 7 August 1902, two representative of the 

Civic League -- Mrs. Breckinridge and Mrs. Shelby T. Harbison, 

wife of the owner of Lexington Tattersalls thoroughbred dealership 

-- attended a meeting of the board of education to plead for 

the establishment of a permanent, public kindergarten in Irishtown. 

The board agreed to maintain the kindergarten which the 

League had started there and to hire two teachers. From then 

on the kindergarten was in the hands of the school board. 16 

The movement for a city park system also made headway in 

1902. A Herald editorial suggested that Woodland Park -- a fifteen-acre 

site on High Street and Park Avenue then used by the 

Chautauqua Association for a variety of cultural, educational, 

and recreational programs -- be opened to the public during the 

summer months. This was accomplished after the Herald se- 

cured promises from the mayor and fire chief to provide pro- 

tection to the area. In addition, the Lexington Railway Company, 

which would profit from fares to and from the park, agreed to 

provide lights, entertainment, and upkeep for the grounds. Dean 

P. Baker Lee of Christ Church Episcopal in a sermon urged the 

city to purchase Woodland Park and open it to the public permanently. 

The Herald endorsed the idea immediately, and the 

city completed the purchase in 1903. At the instigation of the 

Civic League, Lexington officials hired one of the country's outstanding 

landscape architectural firms, the Olmsted Brothers of 

Massachusetts, to develop it. This marked the first step in the 

development of a city park system which would within twenty 

years encompass five public parks and playgrounds, two vacant 

play areas, and three playgrounds at children's institutions, with 

15 Lexington Herald, 20, 24 July, 14, 20 August 1902. For Thomas 

Combs, see Kerr, History o/ Kentucky, 4:199. 

16 Lexington Herald, 8 August, 5 December 1902; Breckinridge, Madeline 

McDowell Breekinridge, 51. For Shelby T. Harbison, see Kerr, History of 

Kentucky, 3:193.


twelve supervisors hired by the city. The League remained active 

in directing these parks and playgrounds with help from the 

city until 1927 when they were made a department of the municipal 

government.l 

Members of the Civic League also recognized the need for 

various kinds of improvements in the field of education. Mrs. 

Breckinridge spoke to the school board in December 1902 asking 

that manual or vocational training be initiated in all the public 

schools. The board responded by appointing a committee to 

study the possibility. Encouraged by this action, the League 

dramatized its interest in education by bringing to Lexington 

Jane Addams, the famed Hull House reformer, to speak on 

"New Ideals in Education." In a speech, given on the campus of 

Kentucky University (now Transylvania University), on 14 

May 1903, she called for an end to child labor, for the introduction 

of manual training in the schools, and for playgrounds and 

kindergartens.lS 

Publicity for manual training continued as the League brought 

Judge Ben B. Lindsey of Denver, Colorado, a pioneer in the 

development of the juvenile court system, to Lexington in 1905. 

In an address at the Opera House on 30 January and at the 

Courthouse on the following day, Lindsey spoke on "Manual 

Training as a Preventive of Delinquency in Children," arguing 

for the benefits of both manual training and a juvenile court 

system. One reason why children got into trouble, he said, was 

because they could not find employment. Manual training schools, 

he contended, were "moral hospitals" which would train children 

for a job and thereby keep them out of trouble.1 

17 Wright, Lexington, 10O; Lexington Herald, 11, 13 July, 8 September 

1902, 30 January, 31 May, 1 April, 2, 14, 30 June, 30 August 1903, 27 April, 

1O, 26 June, 31 August, 5 September, 20 November 1904; Florence Shelby 

Cantrill, "Among My Souvenirs," unpublished autobiography in possession 

of Mrs. Florence Tabling, Lexington, 90. For a brief history of the 

traveling Chautauqua groups which provided lectures, concerts, and recitals 

around the country, see World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: World 

Book, 1984), 3:301. 

18 Lexington Herald, 30 June, 4 July, 5 December 1902, 12, 13, 14 May 

1903. - 

19 Ibid., 31 January, 1 February 1905; "Reports of Hon. Ben B. Lindsey,


By the autumn of 1905 the school board indicated it would 

consider including some form of manual training in its January 

budget. During the fall the Civic League continued to sponsor 

lectures on the subject by such experts as Professor Harry G. 

Brownell of Flexner University School in Louisville and Chicago 

social workers and reformers, Marion Talbott and Dr. Sophon- 

isba P. Breckinridge. (The latter, a sister of Desha Breckinridge, 

was a professor at the University of Chicago and a pioneer in 

the professionalization of social work.) Superintendent M. "A. 

Cassidy professed to be a convert to the cause, but when the 

school board met in January 1906, it again decided that Lexing- 

ton could not afford to institute manual training. The next yea1:, 

however, after the League offered to help finance the initial 

expenses of the program, the school board appropriated $4000 to 

begin manual training in carpentry and domestic science.2° 

At the 1906 session of the Kentucky General Assembly, the 

Civic League helped to sponsor a juvenile court bill. Drafted by 

Bernard Flexner and Albert Brandeis of Louisville, the bill was 

introduced in the house on 20 January. It provided for juvenile 

courts in first and second-class cities with the county judge as 

the presiding magistrate, assisted by a probation officer and one 

other appointee. In an effort to promote the cause, the Civic 

League sponsored a return visit by Judge Lindsey. On 2 March, 

the day he spoke in Lexington, the house passed the bill, and on 

21 March the senate did also. Upon his return home Lindsey 

Chairman, Committee on Juvenile Courts," Breckinridge Family Papers, 

Library of Congress; Ben B. Lindsey to Madeline MeDowell Breckinridge, 

7 August 1905, Ben B. Lindsey Papers, Library of Congress. 

20 Lexington Herald, 10 September, 24, 27, 29 December 1905, 1, 4 

January, 12 February, 5 May, 3 October 1907. Sophonisba Breckinridge's 

importance in developing an educational curriculum and philosophy leading 

to the professionalization of social work, as well as her close relationship 

to Chicago social settlement workers and other Progressives, is amply detailed 

in Lela B. Costin, Two Sistvrs /or Social Justice, A Biography o/ 

Grave and Edith Abbott (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), 27, 

58-67, 119, 184, 194, 227-28 and also in Klottsr, B 'eckln 'idges o/Kvntueky, 

189-90, 201-207.

346 The Filson Club History. Quarterly [July 

wrote Mrs. Breckinridge: "The women of the country are doing 

the work for the children, and it is such unselfish, devoted and 

magnificent work as yours... [which has] inspired me to speak 

the truth in this matter."21 

During these years the Civic League also concerned itself with 

ending child labor and providing for compulsory school atten- 

dance. In 1902 Kentucky had passed a child labor law which prohibited 

the employment of children under fourteen in workshops, 

mines, mills, or factories except with the written approval of 

the parent or guardian and the agreement of the county attorney. 

This exception proved to be a loophole of significant magnitude 

which the Civic League hoped to circumvent by a more stringent 

compulsory school attendance law. They lobbied for and helped 

obtain passage in 1904 of a law which lengthened the school 

term to six months and compelled children aged seven to fourteen 

in cities of first through fourth classes to attend school for 

the full term. At the 1906 legislative session the Civic League 

also supported a bill creating two state normal schools for the 

purpose of educating teachers. 

More sweeping changes than these, however, were needed to 

deal with the deplorable educational condition of the state. The 

1900 census had shown Kentucky to be thirty-seventh in literacy, 

while only eighty-one of (then) 119 counties had a pub!ic high 

school. In addition, state superintendents of public instruction 

for years had called for an end to the district system adminis- 

tered by more than 24,000 school trustees, many of whom did 

not want the office and refused to meet their responsibility. Fay- 

21 Lexington Herald, 4, 7, 9, 14 January, 2, 6 February, 18 March. 1907; 

Ben Lindsey to M. M. Breekinridge, 12 March 1906, Lindsey .Papers, 

Library of Congress; Edward Clopper, Child Wel[ars 17 Kentucky (New 

York, 1919), 203-204. A rather negative view of Judge Lindsey and the 

effects of the juvenile court system is presented in David A. Rothman, 

Censcisnce and Convenience, The Asylum and its Alternatives in Progressive 

America (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980), 205-25. 

22 Kentucky General Assembly Acts . . . (1902), 44-45; Kentucky General 

Assembly Acts . . . (1906), 393-404; Barksdale Hamlett, History o/ 

Education in Kentucky (Frankfort, 1914), 190.

1988] Lexin'gton Civic League 347 

ette County, for example, in 1907 had thirty white and fourteen 

black school districts.2a 

In 1907 the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs under- 

took a major campaign for educational reforms, calling for 

consolidated school districts, school suffrage for women, and 

an increased appropriation for the new state normal schools at 

Richmond and Bowling Green. The Civic League added its en- 

thusiastic support toward helping lay the groundwork for the 

so-called "Educational Legislature" of 1908. Responding to sta- 

tistics showing that fewer than fifty percent of school-age 

children were attending school and that approximately fifteen 

percent of the white, adult, male population was illiterate (in- 

cluding about 5,000 school trustees), the General Assembly 

passed a series of laws intended to remedy the situation. The 

most significant of these acts was the Sullivan bill which estab- 

lish-ed the county as the school unit, required the counties to 

levy taxes to support local schools, and required the establish- 

ment of a high school in each county within two years. Other 

acts included an appropriation of $500,000 for the state colleges 

and normal schools, a law strengthening enforcement of com- 

pulsory school attendance, and another calling for creation of 

a state educational commission to recommend future avenues 

for reform. 4 

23Mable P. Dagett, "Kentucky's Fight for an Education," in The 

Delineator, John G. Crabbe Scrapbook, Townsend Room, Eastern Kentucky 

University Library; John Grant Crabbe, Biennial Report of the Superintendent 

of Public Instruction for the Two Years Ending June 30, 1909 

(Frankfort, 1909), 15, 21, 293. 

24 Lexington Herald, 17 March, 9 April, 22 June, 14, 28 July, 5 October, 

3, 21 November 1907; Nancy Forderhase, "'Limited Only By Earth and 

Sky': The Louisville Woman's Club and Progressive Reform," The Filson 

Club History Quarterly 59 (1985): 337, 339; Forderhase, "'The Clear Call 

of Thoroughbred Women': The Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs 

and the Crusade for Educational Reform, 1903-1909," The Register of the 

Kentucky Historical Society 83 (1985) : 25-31, passim; Hamlett, History of 

Education in Kentucky, 200-210. For a further discussion of women and 

educational reforms in the South, see James L. Leloudis, II, "School Reform 

in the New South: The Woman's Association for the Betterment of 

Public School Houses in North Carolina, 1902-1919," Journal of American 

History 69 (1983) : 886-909.


The League also inaugurated in 1908 a major educational reform 

effort of its own, designed to provide a so-called "Model 

School" in the west end of the city. By this time the kinder- 

garten started in Irishtown in 1902 had grown into an elementary 

school with four grades. Conditions at the school were 

very poor with 150 pupils crowded into a three-room cottage. 

When the board of education appropriated $10,000 in 1908 to 

construct a larger building, the Civic League, under the guidance 

of Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, undertook to raise $35,000 

to provide the facilities necessary to make it a "Model School." 

It was to have a carpentry shop, a gymnasium, a laundry, shower 

baths, a swimming pool, and an assembly hall. In addition it 

would provide manual training in every grade and the public 

would be allowed to use its facilities. In short, it was to serve 

as a social and civic center for the community.25 

Mrs. Breckinridge, the current Civic League president, organized 

the fund-raising efforts for the school and contributed 

three lots, valued at $350.00 for the site of the school, plus 

$650.00 in cash. Her mother, Anne Clay McDowell, and her aunt, 

Magdalen McDowel], each contributed $1,000. In the spring of 

1909 Mrs. Breckinridge traveled to Chicago in an effort to interest 

ex-Kentuckians and other Chicago philanthropists in the 

project. She received $1,000 from Robert Todd Lincoln, son of 

Abraham Lincoln for whom the school was eventually named, 

and $100.00 in gold from Mrs. Ogden Armour, an old chum 

from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. These 

and several smaller contributions made this trip very profitable. 

James R. Keene, a Bluegrass horseman who resided in New 

York City, donated $1,000. The League sponsored a lawn fete 

in May to raise money. It was held at "Ashland," the home of 

Henry Clay which was then owned by Mrs. Brecklnridge's 

family, the McDowells. The League also sold ballons at Wood- 

25 Annual Report of the Public Schools of Lexington, Kentucky 1908 (Lexington, 

1908), 13-14; Lexington Leader, 30 May 1909; Breckinridge, Madeline 

McDowell Breeklnridge, 92.


land Park at the Fourth of July celebration, while school chil- 

dren sold garden seeds. On 24 May the League helped sponsor a 

banquet at the Lexington Country Club to discuss the equipment 

needed for manual training and social work in the school. A 

public meeting at the Opera House followed the dinner with 

Mrs. Breckinridge, Elizabeth Cloud, principal of the West End 

School, and Mary McDowell, a Chicago social settlement worker, 

as the speakers.26 

In June 1909 the League sponsored another lawn fete at 

"Ashland," charging a twenty-five-cent admission for adults 

and fifteen cents for children. Both pony and automobile rides 

were available at a small fee as were games of basketball and 

tennis. Other entertainment included acrobatic performances and 

wild animal shows. Additional profits came from the sale of 

ice cream, candy, lemonade, popcorn balls, and ballons. The 

entire affair netted $500.00 for the school fund.27 

In May of 1910 the Civic League reported to the school board 

that it had collected $9,159.60, with $830.00 more pledged. Minor 

fund-raising efforts continued throughout the summer, but the 

League had only $10,900 in money and pledges when Clinton 

M. Harbison took over as its new president in October. Harbison, 

the son of wealthy horseman Shelby T. Harbison, had just 

started his career as an attorney in Lexington after graduating 

from Harvard Law School the previous year. He appointed the 

more experienced Mrs. Breckinridge as the head of the campaign 

committee which was to raise the $25,000 still needed for 

the model school. 28 

Mrs. Breckinridge decided to launch a nine-day drive beginning 

on 14 November in an effort to obtain the remainder of 

the money. On the preceding Sunday several ministers agreed 

26 Lexington Herald, 9 April, 8, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26 May, 1 July, 14 

November 1909, 5 October 1910; Lexington Leader, 10 April 1909. 

27 Lexington Leader, 30 May 1909; Lexington Herald, 17, 19 June 1909. 

28 Lexington Herald, 8, 13, 18 May, 4, 15 July 1910. Clinton M. Harbison's 

obituary is in the Lexington Leader, 10 June 1980.


to preach their morning sermon on some aspect of the West 

End School. Mrs. Breckinridge also wrote an article on the 

subject for the Sunday edition of the Herald. In it she again 

explained what the term "Model School" meant. It would be a 

school better than any the community possessed and standards 

would grow higher each year. Because ninety percent of the 

children in public school would some day earn their living with 

their hands, it was folly, she argued, to teach them Latin and 

higher mathematics without first teaching them sanitation, 

nutrition, and vocational skills. In addition, the school should 

serve social uses. By providing young people with a gathering 

place, they could be better protected from the saloons and other 

evils which often filled recreation time.za 

The campaign opened with a parade of 2,500 school children, 

followed that evening by a banquet with Charles W. Dabney, 

president of the University of Cincinnati, as the guest speaker. 

On each of the nine succeeding days, one hundred and fifty 

solicitors scoured the city door-to-door. The first day brought 

$3,798.50 in pledges with $2,000 of that amount coming from 

prominent Bluegrass horseman, James B. Haggin. Subscriptions 

did not flow in quickly or easily. By the time of the ball which 

was held on the last evening of the drive, the League was still 

$3,500 short of its goal. A number of people attending the ball 

pledged to make up that amount. As both the Lexington Leader 

and the Herald pointed out, those who guaranteed the final 

amount were the same ones who had already given the most 

in time and money. The Leader then suggested and the Herald 

endorsed a plan to ask those people to contribute who had not 

done so before because they felt their contribution was too in- 

significant to matter. This produced a good result but not 

enough to make up the $3,500. Collecting the pledges was not 

easy either. Because the money came in so slowly, plans for the 

school had to be modified by postponing the swimming pool 

29 Lexington Herald, 11, 12, 13 November 1910.


and a few other luxuries until a later time. The laying of the 

cornerstone of Lincoln School on 6 December 1911 capped a 

little more than a decade of civic improvement. 3° 

The reforms promoted by the Civic League were not, of 

course, the only ones being supported by Lexington citizens 

during the first decade of the twentieth century nor was the 

League the only active reform organization. During the same 

period, the Associated Charities was formed to promote a more 

efficient dispensing of charity by using the case-work method. 31 

The Fayette County Anti-tuberculosis Association was organized 

to fight the disease which was then the leading cause of death 

in both the city and the state. 32 During these years, membership 

in the Kentucky Equal Rights Association also increased as the 

movement for woman suffrage gained momentum. The year 

1910 saw women on the verge of winning school suffrage, a 

30 Ibid., 15, 17, 20, 23, 25 November, 1, 2 December 1910, 7 December 

1911; Margaret Preston Johnston Diary, 21, 22, 23 November 1910, Preston- 

Johnston Papers, Special Collections Department, Margaret I. King Library, 

University of Kentucky. 

31 Lexington Herald, 3, 8 January, 28, 30 March, 1, 2 April 1900; 

Breckinridge, Madeline McDowell Breekinridge, 42, 156, 158; Report on the 

Associated Charities of Lezington, Kentucky (Lexington, 1909), 12. The 

underlying principle of the case-work method is the individualized study 

and treatment of each client in an effort to alleviate the cause of distress 

without increasing dependency. The term "case work" came to be used 

commonly after the turn of the century in the charity organization movement 

and probably had its origin in the case method of teaching law. 

Sophonisba P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott ably argued for the treatment 

of juvenile delinquency by the case-work method in their book, The 

Delinquent Child and the Home (New York, 1912). For more on its development, 

past and present, see Philip Kline, From Philanthropy to Social Welfare, 

An American Cultural Perspective (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, " 

1968) ; and Ronald C. Federico, The Social Welfare. Institution (2nd ed.; 

Lexington, Massachusetts: Heath, 1976). 

32 At this time the primary treatment for tuberculosis was rest, fresh 

air, and good nutrition. In November 1905 the Lexington Civic League led 

in founding The Fayetto County Anti-Tuberculosis Society for the purpose 

of collecting and disseminating information about the dreaded disease. 

The new organization pushed for the establishment of a state tuberculosis 

sanatorium and itself founded the Bluegrass Tuberculosis Sanatorium in 

1917. For details of these activities, see Hay, "Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, 

" 94-97, 135o98, 167-76, 209-10.


feat they finally accomplished in 1912 In virtually all of 

these causes -- education, charity, health, and woman's rights -the 

Woman's Club of Central Kentucky was active. 4 In fact, 

there was a great overlapping in membership in all of these 

organizations in Lexington as each frequently gave moral, and 

sometimes financial, support to causes being promoted by one 

of the other groups. In addition, the Lexington Herald gave 

front-page coverage to these reform activities, promoting them 

through news stories, feature articles, and editorials.3S Thus, 

by 1910 Lexington citizens could look back on a decade of civic 

progress in which a large portion of the community's leaders 

had shared. 

Who were the people involved in these activities? This seems 

a relevant issue in light of the attention which has been given 

by scholars to the question: "Who were the Progressives?" In 

Lexington at least they were community leaders, usually from 

old-line families--several lawyers, a newspaper editor, and 

socially conscious women who in an earlier period would have 

been simply society women. In fact, it was much the same group 

as that which made up "Society." Florence Shelby Cantrill, a 

great-granddaughter of Governor Isaac Shelby and a descendant 

of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, described it in her autobiography: 

Society was spelled with a capital S in those days... Lexington had 

its little set of "cliff-dwellers" and you were either in it or out of it. 

The possession of money helped and so did brains but neither was a 

requisite. But belonging to a good family was a "must." 

33 For the woman suffrage movement in Kentucky, see Paul Fuller, 

Laura Clay and the Woman's Rights Movement (Lexington: University 

Press of Kentucky, 1976) ; Breckinridge, Madeline McDowell Breckinrldge, 

passim; and Hay, "Madeline McDowell Breckinridge," 116-213; Melba 

Dean Porter, "MadeIine McDowell Brecklnridge: Her Role in the Kentucky 

Woman Suffrage Movement, 1908-1920," The Register o/ the Kentucky 

Historical Society 72 (1974) : 342-63. 

34 The Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs was founded by Mary 

Gratz (Mrs. Jeremiah) Morton on 9 July 1894, at the Chautauqua grounds 

(Woodland Park) when she called together sixteen founder clubs and enrolled 

them in the General Federation of Women's Clubs. See Lafferty, 

Fifty Years . . . Kentucky Fedvration of Women's Clubs, 14, 18. 

35 Klotter, "The Breekinridges of Kentucky," 228-45 and The Breck- 

4nridges of KenSucky, 189-243; Hay, "Madelino ]VIcDowell Breckinrldge," 

passim.


Mrs. Cantrill during this period worked in a little lending library 

which had been established in Irishtown. She later became deeply 

involved in the Civic League's playground work and ultimately 

succeeded to the presidency of the League in 1920. She recorded 

in her autobiography concerning herself and close friend 

Margaret Preston Johnston : "I really believe we naively thought 

at one period that neither the city of Lexington nor Christ 

Church Episcopal could get along without us.'' 

As Blaine A. Brownell notes, Progressivism has "been defined 

and redefined, examined and reexamined" with fervor in 

the last thirty years, and yet "there will doubtless never be universal 

agreement on the precise meaning of 'progressivism' and 

whether or not it was a distinct 'movement' or a vague collection 

of impulses for political change. ''37 The Lexington Pro- 

gressives, however, were a fairly coherent group which sought 

justice by attempting to change the environment in order to 

prevent rather than simply cure social ills; thus, their emphasis 

on education, health, child labor, and other reforms which particularly 

affected children. Without a doubt the leading reformer 

among Lexington Progressives was Madeline McDowell Breckinridge. 

Referred to at the time of her death in 1920 as the 

founder of the Civic League, the Associated Charities, and the 

Fayette County Anti-Tuberculosis Society as well as leader of 

the successful fight for a federal woman suffrage amendment, 

she had long been the guiding force for change in the Bluegrass. 

Due in large part to her dominance, the Civic League never 

developed a close organization althought it maintained a number 

of standing committees. It functioned primarily when she had 

a new idea, and she reportedly orchestrated its activities in an 

adept and sometimes dictatorial manner. Through her relationship 

with her sister-in-law, Sophonisba Breckinridge, Lexington 

36 Cantrill, "Among My Souvenirs," 51, 89. 

37 Blaine A. Brownell, "Interpretations of Twentieth-Century Reform," 

in David R. Colbure and George E. Pozzetto, eds., Reform and Re]ormers 

in the Progressive Era (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983), 

3, 18.


was also greatly influenced by Chicago Progressives who were 

at the forefront of the reform movement. Many of the speakers 

the Civic League brought to Lexington reflected this connection)s 

Perhaps Mrs. Breckinridge and the other Lexington reformers 

are best described as proponents of the concept of noblesse 

oblige as defined by Kathleen McCarthy in her book Noblesse 

Oblige, Charity & Cultural Philanthrophy in Chicago, 1849-1929 

in which she defines noblesse oblige as "the notion that success- 

ful citizens owe a dual obligation of time and money to the communities 

in which they have prospered." As John Burnham has 

written, they were people who could not stand idly by while 

they saw social wrongs.40 Certainly the Lexington Progressives 

did not seek revolutionary goals, but they did believe that the 

state should actively promote social justice. As Mrs. Cantrill 

wrote about her mentor, Mrs. Breckinridge: "Many of the things 

inaugurated by her in a small way later became tax-paid projects 

under municiple Is/c] administration or integral parts of the 

public school system. It was Madge's dream to have her plans 

develop that way ....-41 

The Civic League in its second decade was not nearly so 

active as it had been during its first years of existence. It did, 

however, continue to support the Lincoln School which was 

dedicated on 30 November 1912. It helped provide funds for an 

Outdoor School which opened on the roof to provide an environment 

of fresh air and nourishing food to childern at risk 

for contracting tuberculosis and also provided money for a 

swimming pool. In 1915 the League undertook the task of buy- 

38 Interview, Forence Cantrill with author, 25 March and 25 October 

1976; interview, Clinton M. Harbison with author, 21 July 1976. For an 

interpretative analysis of Mrs. Breckinridge's reform activities, see Hay, 

"Madeline McDowell Breckinridge," 214-42. 

39 Kathleen D. McCarthy, Noblesse Oblige, Charity & Cultural Philanthropy 

in Chicago, 1859-19 9 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 

1982), ix. 

40 John D. Buenker, John C. Burnham, Robert M. Crunden, Progressiv- 

/sin (Cambridge, Massauchetts: Schenkman Publishing Company, 1977), 23. 

41 Cantrill, "Among My Souvenirs," 87.


ing property and developing a model playground for the school. 

This project became the focus of its efforts for several years. 

The decline of the League's prominence in civic reform dur- 

ing its second decade was due largely to Mrs. Breckinridge's 

dominance of it. Because much of her time was devoted to the 

woman suffrage movement and also because she was frequently 

ill from tuberculosis, the League virtually ceased to exist for 

much of the time. Although it continued to function to some degree 

after her death in 1920, it never regained the momentum 

it had experienced during its first decade.4s 

42 Lexington Herald, 30 November, 1 December 1912; Madeline McDowell 

Breckinridge, "Report of the Civic League For the Season 1912-1913," 

Breckinridge Family Papers, Library of Congress; Hay, "Madeline Mc- 

Dowell Breckinridge," 106-115. 

"43 Interview, Florence Cantrill with author, 25 March and 25 October 

1976.

The Lexington Civic League: Agent of Reform, 1900 - The Filson ...

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