Eugenia Dunlap Potts
Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Local Authoress. Eugenia Dunlap Potts, daughter of George Dunlap, US Congressman and lawyer, was born in Garrard County in 1840 and pursued her literary career here, where she died, 1912. The first of her nine works was "Song of Lancaster," a metrical history in style of Longfellow's "Hiawatha." In 1892, she became editor of "Illustrated Kentuckian."
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Born in Garrard County in 1840, Eugenia Dunlap Potts built a literary career in Lancaster as a poet, author, and editor at a time when few women published under their own names. Her first work, "Song of Lancaster," was a metrical local history modeled on Longfellow's "Hiawatha," and in 1892 she became editor of the "Illustrated Kentuckian." She produced nine works before her death in 1912.
Why it matters
Potts represents the many regional women writers who shaped American literary and cultural life from small towns, preserving local history in verse and print.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Eugenia Dunlap Potts
- · George Dunlap
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Myrtle Weldon (1890–1971)
Lexington, KY
Myrtle Weldon spent three decades, beginning in 1924, building Kentucky's Home Economics Extension program from a modest corps of 23 agents into a statewide network of 110. Trained in home economics, she led the effort that founded the Kentucky Federation of Homemakers in 1932. Her work grew from a movement that began in 1914, when the first county agents taught rural families the practical arts of canning, food safety, and preservation.
Colored Orphan Industrial Home
Lexington, KY
Led by Mrs. E. Belle Mitchell Jackson, the Colored Orphan Industrial Home opened in Lexington in 1894 to shelter Black orphans and youth, who learned to read and write and acquired a trade, and it also gave refuge to elderly women. By 1909 the home had grown to 18 acres and two brick houses; after a fire in 1912, a new building was dedicated in 1913. That structure now serves as the Robert H. Williams Cultural Center.
First Christian Church of Frankfort
Frankfort, KY
Founded in December 1832 by the noted minister-educator Philip S. Fall, this congregation belonged to the Restoration Movement whose champion, Alexander Campbell, preached from its pulpit. After fire destroyed the church in 1870, philanthropist Emily T. Tubman funded a new building, part of which survives in the sanctuary completed in 1924.
Paul Sawyier Public Library
Frankfort, KY
Frankfort's public library owes its start to Lilian Lindsey, who founded it in 1908; it opened in the McClure Building and was run by the Frankfort Woman's Club until 1965, moving through several homes including the Old State House. In 1955 the Franklin County Homemakers Clubs launched a countywide bookmobile, which merged with the library a decade later. The combined institution was named the Paul Sawyier Public Library in honor of the well-known Kentucky artist, and a new building opened in 2006.