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THE HISTORICAL
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“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
Near Lexington in Clark County, Kentucky — The American South (East South Central)
 

John Jacob Niles

 
 
John Jacob Niles Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, March 27, 2021
1. John Jacob Niles Marker
Inscription. Composer, author, and ballad singer John Jacob Niles (1892-1980) built Boot Hill Farm here in 1939. Niles composed the songs “I Wonder as I Wander,” “Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair,” and “Go 'Way from My Window.” A WWI aviator, he published the wartime collections Songs My Mother Never Taught Me and Singing Soldiers.
 
Erected 2018 by Kentucky Historical Society and Kentucky Department of Highways. (Marker Number 2549.)
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, MusicWar, World I. In addition, it is included in the Kentucky Historical Society series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1939.
 
Location. 37° 55.888′ N, 84° 20.353′ W. Marker is near Lexington, Kentucky, in Clark County. It is on Athens Boonesboro Road (Kentucky Route 418), on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 7510 KY-418, Lexington KY 40509, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region. It is also in the American
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South and specifically in the Upper South. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture and also the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 4 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Jones Nursery / Nursery Place (approx. 1.6 miles away); Samuel Boone (approx. 1.6 miles away); Uncovering Our Pioneer Past (approx. 1.7 miles away); Caveland (approx. 1.7 miles away); Boone (approx. 1.7 miles away); Boone's Creek Baptist Church (approx. 2 miles away); Cleveland-Rogers House (approx. 2.2 miles away); Cave Spring (approx. 3½ miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lexington.
 
Another marker is no longer nearby. Boone's Station (was approx. 1.6 miles away but has been confirmed missing).
 
Also see . . .  John Jacob Niles (Wikipedia). (Submitted on March 29, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.)
 
John Jacob Niles Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, March 27, 2021
2. John Jacob Niles Marker
John Jacob Niles image. Click for full size.
Photographed by Doris Ulmann
3. John Jacob Niles
Portrait taken between 1920 and 1934. From University of Oregon's Doris Ulmann photograph collection.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on March 29, 2021. It was originally submitted on March 29, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 870 times since then and 31 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3. submitted on March 29, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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Aug. 10, 2026