All around you there are plants to see and smell, ground to feel under your feet. Maybe you spot a bird in the trees, and hear insects moving, or cars rolling down the street. There might be wind, or rain, or cold, or blazing sunshine.
The land you are standing on is a part of a Lexington city subdivision, drawn on a map in 1956, and approved by a city Planning Commission to be divided up into smaller lots for houses and one big lot meant for a neighborhood church. The quiet, beautiful neighborhood around you was once a piece of farm property, with traceable ownership records back to the early history of Fayette County. In the mid-20th century, the Vestry of St. Michael the Archangel took ownership of the property from the Rector; Wardens of Christ Church. Before that, it was held by the Zandale Company, and Ted & Della Osborn, and James Lowry, and Robert, Elizabeth & John Lowry, and the Berry Family, who had a dairy farm on the rolling expanse of farm land with good water sources back in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s. N. F. Berry was known for his prize-winning cattle, even taking awards at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Even further back, the Lewis Family passed the property to the Berry Family, and before that the intermingled Clark, Lewis, and Farra families held the land.
Close your eyes for just a moment, and let your skin feel the air, your ears hear the hum of nature’s activity, and imagine yourself in 1814, when the Lewis Family owned not only the ground below your feet, but also the structures that housed them, the carriages that took them to town, and the people who did the work and made the land profitable.
Fayette County Clerk records have evidence of enslaved persons transferred between members of the Lewis family in the first part of the 19th Century. Fanny, Sarah, Mary, William, and Charles are all human beings, divine and created in God’s image as we all are, and they are memorialized in the pages of deeds and mortgages. Sarah and Mary were Fanny’s daughters. William acted as a guardian of sorts to two of the Lewis children, as did Charles. All five people were property of the Lewis family, and likely worked, slept, and prayed on this ground.
What might life have been like for them, with no rights or liberties? What did they have to eat? What did they have to wear? How were they treated by the people who owned them? Were Fanny and her daughters Sarah and Mary separated and sent to work in other places? What additional research could be done to learn more about them? Take a moment to invite God to fuel your imagination and your wonder, to open your heart for remembrance and honor of their names, and to contemplate what the same day you are living in this time here and now might have been for them and for all the enslaved people in Fayette County.
Take another moment to speak their names aloud, so that their memory is not lost to the ages:
Fanny
Sarah
Mary
William
Charles
Rest eternal grant unto them, O lord.
Let light perpetual shine upon them. Amen.
The land you are standing on is a part of a Lexington city subdivision, drawn on a map in 1956, and approved by a city Planning Commission to be divided up into smaller lots for houses and one big lot meant for a neighborhood church. The quiet, beautiful neighborhood around you was once a piece of farm property, with traceable ownership records back to the early history of Fayette County. In the mid-20th century, the Vestry of St. Michael the Archangel took ownership of the property from the Rector; Wardens of Christ Church. Before that, it was held by the Zandale Company, and Ted & Della Osborn, and James Lowry, and Robert, Elizabeth & John Lowry, and the Berry Family, who had a dairy farm on the rolling expanse of farm land with good water sources back in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s. N. F. Berry was known for his prize-winning cattle, even taking awards at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Even further back, the Lewis Family passed the property to the Berry Family, and before that the intermingled Clark, Lewis, and Farra families held the land.
Close your eyes for just a moment, and let your skin feel the air, your ears hear the hum of nature’s activity, and imagine yourself in 1814, when the Lewis Family owned not only the ground below your feet, but also the structures that housed them, the carriages that took them to town, and the people who did the work and made the land profitable.
Fayette County Clerk records have evidence of enslaved persons transferred between members of the Lewis family in the first part of the 19th Century. Fanny, Sarah, Mary, William, and Charles are all human beings, divine and created in God’s image as we all are, and they are memorialized in the pages of deeds and mortgages. Sarah and Mary were Fanny’s daughters. William acted as a guardian of sorts to two of the Lewis children, as did Charles. All five people were property of the Lewis family, and likely worked, slept, and prayed on this ground.
What might life have been like for them, with no rights or liberties? What did they have to eat? What did they have to wear? How were they treated by the people who owned them? Were Fanny and her daughters Sarah and Mary separated and sent to work in other places? What additional research could be done to learn more about them? Take a moment to invite God to fuel your imagination and your wonder, to open your heart for remembrance and honor of their names, and to contemplate what the same day you are living in this time here and now might have been for them and for all the enslaved people in Fayette County.
Take another moment to speak their names aloud, so that their memory is not lost to the ages:
Fanny
Sarah
Mary
William
Charles
Rest eternal grant unto them, O lord.
Let light perpetual shine upon them. Amen.
Garden #7 The South Slope Woodland
Landscaping the south slope is a work in progress. The goal is to replace the turfgrass and plant a woodland garden as the trees mature and create ever more shade. The large tulip poplar and white pines are the oldest trees here. Unfortunately, the latter grow under electric wires and must be pruned regularly. The Kentucky coffee tree, black maple and blackgum have been here for 20 years and have almost reached maturity. Shrubs, flowers and a few more trees were planted in 2024, and we are curious to see how this new garden will evolve in the years to come.
