|
"The
Cuckoo's Nest"
Somewhere in Kentucky aka McCutchanville,
Indiana
If you landed on this page from a
search engine link, you may already be confused. We're talking
about a place in the Little Colonel stories. In those stories, the
place known almost lovingly as the "Cuckoo's Nest",
Betty's home,
is introduced in
The
Little Colonel's House Party,
Chapter II as somewhere at a remote crossroads in rural Kentucky.
Throughout the Little Colonel stories, we return again and again to this
place, which may be no surprise when you consider the place that
Annie Fellows Johnston was thinking of here for the most part was her
own childhood home in McCutchanville, Indiana.
So in the stories only, this place was supposed to
be in Kentucky. In real life, it was Indiana.
Drawing of her childhood home by Albion Fellows Bacon
(Annie's sister's)
Here in
McCutchanville, just north of Evansville in Southern Indiana, was the old
church Annie wrote about that contained "all
that was left of a scattered Sunday-school library, that had been in use two
generations before." It was also in McCutchanville
that Annie remembered playing Barley-Bright around an old barn we're told
still exists. (The
Little Colonel's Holidays Chapters
IV,
V,
& VI
and mentioned again in
The
Little Colonel's Hero Chapter XI
and
The Little Colonel in Arizona (Lost on the Desert), Chapter 15)
"The Church, just beyond the big gate, at the end of
Cherry Lane"
Albion Fellow's Bacon, Beauty for Ashes,
1914
Alas,
Annie's childhood home no longer exists, but the homestead can be found on
Erskine Lane (formerly Cherry Lane) and as of this writing some of Annie's
relations still live there. The old church pictured above has also
long since been replaced by a more modern building.
"That vision of wind-swept, sun-crowned hills, and great
free spaces"
Albion Fellow's Bacon, Beauty for Ashes,
1914
Sisters Albion and Annie Fellows as young ladies, ca 1880
Albion would have been about 15, Annie 17
Albion's story is given to Mary Ware in
Part 2 of
Mary Ware's
Promised Land. The rest of the story is written by Albion herself
in her own book, Beauty for Ashes,
1914. Because of her work for decent housing for the poor, Albion is noted
by history among the leading social reformers of her day.
(an old mis?-spelling)
This Site:
Home Page
What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows
Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete
Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The
Giant Scissors
Two Little
Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's
House Party
The Little Colonel's
Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel
at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: in Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero" Elsewhere:
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana),
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock (Arizona),
San Antonio and
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Texas,
The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
Email us about this site
We always appreciate your suggestions and insights, and will do our
best to answer your questions.. Much of the material included on
this site comes from devoted Little Colonel Fans like you.
Subscribe to our mailing list
Visit historic Old Louisville
on the web at the:
Old Louisville Guide
(Old Louisville and
Literature)
original material & research ©
1998-2007 LittleColonel.com
|
This web site is devoted to
