From "The Meade County Messenger", Brandenburg Kentucky, Wednesday, March 12, 2003.

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Hotel Meade memories

By THOMAS J. STITH
Submitted Article

Hotel Meade, that is across from the Messenger office, was once owned by an uncle of mine, John Frakes in the late 1890s.

John Frakes married my mother's sister, Aunt Carrie Drury. They had one child named Carrie, and she married Winfield Scott, who was the brother of Walter, Harold, and Fletcher Scott of Stith Valley.

One night, John Frakes had a visitor at his hotel. He was a young man in his early twenties He got off the boat and made his way to the hotel, and make the remark that Brandenburg was the "spookiest place he'd ever seen." This man was John Gilbert Harrison, and the English government had sent him over here to learn farming, and he was to go back and tell them what he had learned, but he never went back to England.

The next day, Harrison made his way to Irvington and got a job on the Jolly Farm. While there, he got acquainted with my mother's sister, Aunt Willow Drury.

One day, Mr. Jolly put Harrison to plowing in new ground, and the roots and stumps got to hitting Harrison on the shins. It made him mad, and he threw the plow down, and went in and told the old farmer where to head in, and he left and went to Oklahoma. He got a job, and when he was financially able, he came back to Bewleyville, and married Aunt Willow Drury.

The Harrisons had a son that became editor of the Oklahoma City Times. He was a good friend of Will Rogers.

There was another Englishman that came over about the same time Harrison did, and he was to study farming and go back, but he didn't go. This man was named W.J. Piggott, and he settled in Irvington and started the First State Bank.

I remember Piggott conducting a Masonic funeral, and he made a lasting impression with his English accent.