By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
When Grandma Flairty was still driving, I recall on our family visits her getting in her late 1940s Chevy and taking my younger brother and me on a trip to “the Lick” to get some groceries. Being only six or seven years old at the time, I was excited because it likely meant she’d buy us a Pepsi or an RC Cola while there. Grandma liked having company on those short trips, and she didn’t mind spoiling her grandchildren with sweets.
The Lick, you see, was another name for the community of Grant’s Lick, in southern Campbell County. And that special community loomed large in my young life, in a good way, especially until our family moved a few miles north, to Claryville, where we became part-time farmers.
Grant’s Lick Elementary School is where I received eight years of basic education (no junior high school or middle school then) before attending Campbell County High School, in Alexandria. In a relatively small building with several hundred students, I forged relationships at the school lasting a lifetime. I played little league baseball at the nearby Vater’s Playground with many of those friends.
Our family bought our groceries at Phillip and Joy Smith’s grocery, where Grandma patronized. We attended the local funeral home in Grant’s Lick to see persons, mostly older ones, “laid out” for people to pay their last respects. The time serves as an indelible part of my past, and the same for many others with connections there, too.
That’s why I got excited when I found out about plans now happening to give tribute to the Grant’s Lick community — a book and an event in September. A former Campbell County middle school art teacher, Ken Reis, is researching the area’s history and plans to publish a book about it. Much of that history Ken carries around in his head, as he has lived on Clay Ridge Road in Grant’s Lick for forty-eight years.
Reis is also the founder and director of the Campbell County Log Cabin History and Farm Heritage Museum, located at his homeplace. Ken and his brother also founded the Campbell County Historical & Genealogical Society in Alexandria, several miles north of Grant’s Lick.
There will be a celebratory event on Saturday, September 17. The special day is planned “to illustrate the pride we share in our rural community at its 225-year mark,” Ken noted. “We are a community of individuals that are hardworking and appreciate our country life and share a desire for it to remain that way. Our celebration is centered on the main street area around the original business district that was flourishing in the 1800s. We will highlight all the historic sites and buildings with street signs explaining the site’s significance and buildings use and age.”
There will be an antique tractor and car show; bluegrass and gospel groups are set to entertain. Along with the tour of the “old” Grant’s Lick Baptist Church, visitors will be shown the creek and pond used for baptizing church members. The Grant’s Lick Elementary School will be open for touring, and that should be a popular attraction.
“Our 1860 cemetery, dating back to the 1860s, will be a focal point,” continued Ken, “especially since Daniel Boone’s sister, Mary Boone Bryan, is buried there. The Campbell County Log Cabin History and Farm Heritage Museum will be open all day for tours and to provide information about our area.”
Ken singled out a few people who are integral to putting Grant’s Lick in the forefront. “Linda Bray-Schafer has been a ‘ball of energy’ in helping put the event together,” he noted. “I can’t keep up with her.” He also mentioned J.W. Crail, a Korean War veteran, who has lived in Grant’s Lick for his whole life. Ken has spent many hours interviewing J.W. about the community’s history, and Crail’s input will be crucial to the book and information shared on September 17.
A friend of mine since the first grade, Billie Jo Chaplin, put her thoughts and feelings about her community to verse:
America is my country and Grant’s Lick, Kentucky, is my hometown, but so much more to me than just a hometown.
To me, Grant’s Lick is a place I find peace.
To me, its streets and roads feel homely.
To me, the dusty lanes are magical.
To me, it has the best elementary school in the state.
To me, its people are my own and I can just be me, even sixty-eight years later.
To me, no matter where I am, no matter where I go, no matter what obstacles I face, Grant’s Lick has always been in my rear-view mirror.
It’s where my roots are, no matter where my branches go.
To me, it’s the place that grew me!
For more details on the 225th Grant’s Lick Anniversary Celebration, email Linda Bray-Schafer at lbrayschafer@zoomtown.com or Ken Reis at kennethareis@yahoo.com.