According to "Historic Pewee Valley," Tuliphurst was built in two principal
stages. Noble Butler built the original modest two-room cottage about 1854.
In 1864, it was purchased by Woodford H. Dulaney and he added a fine Gothic
Revival front wing about 1865.
Tuliphurst is historically important to Pewee Valley, because it was here
that the town received its very unusual name. From "History & Families
Oldham County, Kentucky: The First Century 1824-1924," pages 243-244:
...by the late 1860s, the name of the area
had been changed from Smith's Depot to Pewee Valley, as recounted in the
following poem, Pewee Valley, by
C.A. Warfield, first printed in 1873.
A band of settlers had chosen a glade
Deeply embowed in beechen shade;
Weary of turmoil, of crowds, of strife,
They longed for the peace of a rural life.
They reared their dwellings with porch and hall;
Volumes and pictures on ev’ry wall;
While vines and blossoms of many a dye
Made gardens fit for a poet’s eye.
“What shall we call our valley fair?”
Said the poet one day, with the golden hair;
“Our homes are garnished, our trees are set.
But a name is a thing that is wanting yet.”
Then they called a council of young and old,
And every settler was soon enrolled;
A motley group, yet of one accord
As each one rejected his neighbor’s word.
For every settler a name had brought,
Some amid ancient lore had sought,
But the sounding titles of Greece and Rome
Seemed strange in that peaceful, rural home.
Grand Indian names some bore in mind,
Strong and deep as the lurking wind,
But they bore strange memories of whoop and yell,
and were quite too fierce for that sylvan dell.
Others had gathered from Spain and France,
High sounding titles of past romance;
And some had wished to enshrine the spot
With the lovely legends of Walter Scott.
All failed to please, and a silent cloud
Hung o’er the disappointed crowd;
When suddenly from a tiny throat
Burst forth an unexpected, suggestive note.
On the ledge of the porch where council met,
Where his mate on her speckled eggs was set,
While he hovered above her in loving glee--
A self-called member proposed "Pee Wee."
A sound of greeting -- a glad "All Hail!"
It seemed from the genies of the vale.
And the dark browed student said to the bird
"You have supplied the wanted word."
Then the council arose with one acclaim
And Pewee Valley became a name.
Still the small, gray bird with marital nest
“Neath every roof is a welcome guest.”
Legend has it that for years, residents
wanted a name for their own town that better exuded its charm than did
Smith's Depot. One day several town leaders met at Tuliphurst, the home of
Noble Butler, who had written the standard grammar book used in Kentucky
schools. A native bird, the
Eastern Wood Pewee, accompanied their conversation with its song,
inspiring the group to adopt Pewee Valley as the town's name.
Noble Butler is profiled in the "Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky of
Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century" published in 1877. Excerpts
from that profile:
BUTLER, PROF. NOBLE, A.M., LL.D., was born
July 17, 1810, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and was named after his
great-grandfather...His early education was commenced in a log school-house
in Jefferson County, Indiana to which State his father had moved when his
son was seven years of age. He was graduated at Hanover College, Hanover,
Indiana, in 1836; was immediately afterward appointed Professor of Greek and
Latin in that institution; held the position until 1839, when he was
appointed to the same chair in the University of Louisville, and removed to
that city, where he has since resided, and taken rank among the most
accomplished scholars and first educators of the country. Many years ago, at
the request of the Louisville publishers, Morton and Griswold, he prepared
an English Grammar, which became very popular throughout Kentucky, and was
very favorably received and extensively used as a text-book in schools over
the country. He has recently published his "Practical and Critical Grammar,"
which has received the highest encomiums from teachers throughout the United
States and Canada and in Europe. Some years ago he was employed to revise
S.G. Goodrich's series of school Readers, which were greatly improved and
known as "Noble Butler's Goodrich's Readers." He subsequently produced
"Butler's Readers," an independent series...Professor Butler was married, in
1836, to Lucinda Harney, sister of the late John H. Harney, who was many
years editor of the Louisville Democrat. They have five children....
Tuliphurst, "home of Noble Butler
(early postcard)
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Dulaney Years and the Little Colonel Years >
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