Several years ago my wife and I took a vacation. Our eventual
destination was Floydfest in Southwest Virginia. We decided to travel through
the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains in search one of our favorite things, Music!
It appropriately began with a bluegrass jam in West Virginia. On to Kentucky
with stops at the Master Musicians Festival, to Rosine to visit Bill Monroe’s
grave and then up Jerusalem Ridge to his birthplace. Onto Muhlenberg County down by the Green River
where Paradise lay, the town of John Prine’s youth that was hauled away and is
now a power plant. Next was Nashville to the church of traditional music, the
Ryman Auditorium, the Bluebird Cafe and the bluegrass mecca, the Station Inn. From there we moved
east and north along the Blue Ridge of North Carolina and Southwest Virginia,
the heart of traditional American Music.
RT 62 Rosine, KY ©ricgrass
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| Bill Monroe's Grave |
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| The Old Home Place. Birthplace of Bill Monroe |
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| "There's a backwards old town that's often remembered, Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away" Paradise - John Prine |
One of our stops was in central Kentucky near Lexington.
Years earlier I read a story about the grave of a racehorse named Ten Broeck. His
headstone was the first ever erected for a thoroughbred in the state of
Kentucky. I decided to try to visit this grave. My wife thought I was crazy. I
explained I was not suddenly becoming a racehorse nut. There were other reasons
to visit the grave.
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| Ten Broeck |
Ten Broeck was the famed racehorse that was immortalized in
the traditional song Molly and Tenbrooks. This song is a fictional account of
the actual July 4. 1878 match race between this Kentucky horse and the
California mare Mollie McCarty at the Louisville Jockey Club (now Churchill
Downs). The race and song has become legend and part of American folklore. It
was an especially popular Kentucky folk tune likely composed by black stable
workers in the 1880's. Also known as The Racehorse Song, Run Molly Run, Hole in
the Wall, and Tim Brook. It has various melodies and lyrics.
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| Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs |
The version penned by Bill Monroe is by far the most popular
and enduring. Many claim it to be the first bluegrass song. In the 1940's the song
was one of the first songs performed by his Blue Grass Boys in what came to
known as the bluegrass style. Monroe felt it would be a good vehicle to
showcase his new banjo sound and its player Earl Scruggs. In 1947 it was the
first recording by the Stanley Brothers and the first time a "bluegrass"
song was recorded by someone other than Monroe. So with this recording, bluegrass was
first copied and thus emerged as a distinctive musical form. It has since
become a bluegrass standard and an audience favorite. Musicians like it because
it is not hard to play. It provides for several instrumental breaks and the story
lyrics and quick tempo has the feeling of a horse race.
https://youtu.be/qJ1Rv64Mn6I?si=ABj2RW4FjRjex7Of
Mark O'Connor & Jerry Douglass' Version
https://youtu.be/qJ1Rv64Mn6I?si=2dGcj-ESeUoa7xl4
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| The Ryman Auditorium, Nashville ©ricgrass |
Unfortunately the story I had read earlier did not give the
exact location of the grave. I knew it was on a long abandoned horse farm on
private property and well off the beaten track. I wasn't going to find this in
any travel guide!
I spent some time searching the internet for information on
the location and was able to narrow it down to a several square mile area but
unable to nail down the exact location.
I was about to give up and abandon the
whole idea when I found a reference to the horse farm in a biography of the
outlaws Frank & Jesse James. As it turned out their mother was born at a
Kentucky tavern established by the outlaw's great-grandfather. In 1865 Frank
James was on the lam from Missouri with a band of anti-Union bandits and
returned to his family's Kentucky roots. I found an account of them visiting
the family's tavern and then moving on, plundering the area robbing several
nearby farms including the farm of John Harper the future owner of Ten Broeck.
James and his men shot and killed Harper's brother and stole several horses.
Luckily the story referenced the farm's location and included a map!
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| Frank & Jesse James |
Those were the days prior to an having an auto GPS and it
took some searching of the Kentucky bluegrass countryside to locate the still
standing historic tavern. From there we followed the directions given in the
James brother's bio and ended up on a road surrounded by fields but no sign of
any graves or horse farms.
What now? After some discussion we decided to go to
the nearest house and inquire. We drove up the long driveway of a residence and
knocked on the door. No one answered. We were just about to leave when noticed
a woman around back weeding her garden. We walked around and asked:
"Excuse me. I wonder if you can help us. We're not sure if this is even the right area but
do you know of any horse graves around here?” She looked up smiled and said
"You're in the right place". After some conversation we found out her
family were the owners of the surrounding property which was now a cattle ranch
and got permission to visit the grave site. She said we were not the first.
That an occasional traveler would come searching. Sometimes their interest was horse
racing. Others like us were drawn by the music connection. She added that there
are actually two graves at the same location. The equally famous racehorse
Longfellow was also buried there.
Following her directions we drove down the
road, turned onto a dirt drive, entered a cattle farm, opened and closed some
cattle gates, and even had to wait for some cows to pass. Well off the main
road we found the original Harper farm house and nearby in a middle of a field
was a small grove of trees and two tall gravestones surrounded by fences.
©ricgrass
We stood there paying our respects, in the middle nowhere,
on a very still and quiet summer afternoon. Musing on how serendipitous it was that we even
arrived at this place. I thought about some of the traditional figures portrayed
in American folk and how seldom it is that anyone makes direct connections with
them. I pondered if people like Sally Goodin' or Old Joe Clark were real and
how their lives ended up as the subject of song? Who was Diamond Joe? Did
Rueben have a train? I wondered if there was a John Henry? Where were John Hardy, Stagger Lee and Casey Jones buried and have their graves also faded into obscurity? Their songs have
been sung and heard millions of times, but only a few ever stop and think about
the people and honor their memory.
MOLLY AND TENBROOKS @ Blll Monroe l947
Run oh Molly run, run oh Molly run
Tenbrooks’s gonna beat you to the bright shining sun
To the bright shining sun oh Lord, to the bright shining sun
Tenbrooks was a big bay horse, he rode a shaggy mane
He run all around Memphis, he beat the Memphis train
Beat the Memphis train oh Lord, beat the Memphis train
Tenbrooks said to Molly what made your head so red
Running in the hot sun with a fever ln my head
Fever ln my head oh Lord, fever in my head
Molly said to Tenbrooks, you’re looking mighty squirrel
Tenbrooks said to Molly. I’m leaving this old world
Leaving this old world oh Lord, leaving this old world
Out in California where Molly done as she please
Come back to old Kentucky, got beat with all ease
Beat with all ease oh Lord, beat with all ease
The women’s all a’ laughing the children’s all a’ crying
The men’s’ all a ’hollering and old Tenbrooks’ a’ flying
Old Tenbrooks’ a’ flying oh Lord, old Tenbrooks’ a’ flying
Kuiper. Kuiper--you’re not a’ riding right
Molly’s a’ beating Tenbrooks clear out of sight
Clear out of sight oh Lord, clear out of sight
Kuiper, Kuiper, Kuiper my son
Give old Tenbrooks the bridle and let old Tenbrooks run
Let old Tenbrooks run oh Lord, let old Tenbrooks run
Go and get your Tenbrooks and hitch him in the shade
We’re going to bury old Molly in a coffin ready-made
Coffin ready-made oh Lord, coffin ready made
(Extra verse)
See that train a’ coming--it’s coming ‘round the curve
See old Tenbrooks running, straining every nerve
Straining every nerve oh Lord, straining every nerve
