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Liberty Hall welcomes guest writer Rachel Grimes for a series of blog posts entitled Tracing the Harts!

In 1860, Mason Brown enslaved about 31 people, and one was a little girl around five years old. Recently, we’ve discovered that her name was likely Amanda Preston née Nichols.

Here is the truth about Liberty Hall's Gray Lady... she was a very real person and beloved member of the Brown Family. An Aunt to Margaretta Brown, Margaretta Varick lived in the New York area until she came westward for a visit.

In late August of 1865, Mary Yoder Brown (granddaughter of John & Margaretta Brown) married Union Colonel William T. Scott, and one of the gifts they received was fine silver service set.

When the French formally joined the Americans as allies against the British in 1778, Kentuckians started adopting French names for their new counties, cities, and towns in honor of France, America’s oldest ally.

As February turned to March, I noticed downtown Frankfort shops changing window displays from red to green, chalkboard signs outside the bars offering Guinness pint specials, and sounds of Céilidh music playing on St. Clair Street.

Liberty Hall Historic Site owns eight Paul Sawyier paintings.  Six of these were likely collected by Brown family members.  Though not born in Frankfort, Paul Sawyier (1865-1917) and his family moved to the capital city in 1870.

Throughout her nearly twenty-year tenure there, the Frances Coleman who took the photo, reported several mysterious incidents, which she herself witnessed or were experienced by visitors to the site.