Hilltopper Heritage

Cordell Hull Describes Bowling Green in 1886

Citation: This article appeared in the Park City Daily News on May 23, 1948.

"On September 1, 1886, I went with my brother to the normal school at Bowling Green, Ky., for two terms until June, 1887. My trip to Bowling Green is memorable because I then saw my first train. My brother and I put a small trunk containing all our clothes in a covered wagon going to Nashville for a load of goods. To catch the train we drove the 75 miles from Celina to Gallatin and slept in the wagon at night.

"We went to the Bowling Green school because we had learned about it from friends who had been there. Also it was cheap. Father, who was then making more money, did not skimp us on expenses. He left the choice of school up to us, and he was getting along so well he would have put us into any school we might have selected. We chose schools, however, which did not cost too much. That was our idea of economy, which may have been a mistaken one.

"At Bowling Green, my brother and I did our own housekeeping, or, as we called it, 'kept butch.' Our expenses for the ten months were $175 each, which included everthing, train fare, board, lodging and tuition. We took one meal per day at the dormitory of the school, which was called the 'soup house.'"

"The Memoirs of Cordell Hull" describes the career of this distinguished American from his boyhood in the Cumberland Mountains to his retirement from the position of secretary of state, where for 12 years he was a chief actor in momentous events touching every corner of the world.

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