Free My Old Confederate Home by Rusty Williams

dissenting vote and was signed by Governor Beckham on March 27, 1902. (Senator R. H. Fleming, a Federal veteran from Covington, explained why he voted in favor of the ex-Confederates. “I faced these men for four years,” he said, “and I have an abiding respect for them.”) 20 The new law created an institution to be known as the Kentucky Confederate Home, and it contained four key provisions.
    First, the bill required that the Confederate veterans (or their friends or sympathizers) deed to the commonwealth an appropriate residence on at least thirty acres of land, fully furnished and ready for the care and custody of at least twenty-five persons. The ex-Confederates must convey clear title to the secretary of state, and the governor's office must inspect and approve the facility, before the state would make any payment for the operation of the Home.
    Second, the state would provide $125 a year for every resident enrolled in the Home (or a lump sum of $10,000, whichever was greater) for operation of the Home. The state's $10,000 annual payment allowed the ex-Confederates to count on a minimum annual revenue; the $125 annual per capita payment protected the ex-Confederates in the unlikely event that more than 80 veterans sought refuge in the Home.
    Third, all residents of the Home must be able to prove their active military service for the Confederate States of America and their honorable discharge or parole at the termination of the war.
    And fourth, the governor would appoint an active and involved board of trustees consisting of ex-Confederates or their sons to manage the Home. The fifteen trustees would have complete financial and operational control of the Home, and they would not be paid for their services. The act required that the trustees elect their own board president, treasurer, and secretary. The board would meet at the Home at least three times annually and would provide a detailed financial accounting the first of every year.
    Governor Beckham named his fifteen appointments to the Home's board of trustees within a week of signing the bill.
    Bennett Young's appointment to the Kentucky Confederate Home board of trustees was no surprise. Neither were the appointments of Harry P. McDonald and William O. Coleman, the legislators who had introduced the Home bills in the General Assembly. Governor Beckham also appointed General Fayette Hewitt, former state auditor, in whose Frankfort bank much of the state's cash was held. The rest of the board members—all of them active ex-Confederates—were politically and geographically balanced, with trustees selected from the strongest Democratic counties of western and central Kentucky. (Lexington's Confederate veterans were not represented on the board.)
    The fifteen new trustees gathered for the first time at noon on May 6, 1902, in a conference room of the Courier-Journal Building in Louisville. They were serious men, all of them big fish in their respective ponds. Each had a nodding acquaintance with the others from business dealings, political conventions, or veterans’ reunions; but only Bennett Young and Fayette Hewitt had statewide reputations. As a first order of business, a state clerk on hand for the occasion administered an oath of just, impartial, and honest service to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 21
    No sooner had the clerk set down his Bible than William O. Coleman rose to nominate Bennett Young president of the board. With little discussion (and no dissent), Young was elected by acclamation.
    The election of officers continued, with Fayette Hewitt named treasurer, Leland Hathaway of Winchester vice-president, and Harry P. McDonald secretary. These four board officers, along with former Confederate chaplain Dr. Lindsay H. Blanton of Danville, would serve as the board's executive committee.
    Coleman stood again to offer a resolution, this time typewritten (with revisions already made in pencil in Bennett Young's handwriting). Coleman's