Widow Bottom House

Widow Bottom House. Perryville . The Battle For Kentucky. , In 1862, an elderly widow named Mary Bottom lived in a cabin at this site. Mary was the mother of Henry P. Bottom, who owned most of the land upon which the battle was fought., When Confederate troops crossed Doctor's Creek to attack the center of the Union lines, they formed near the cabin before moving forward. Like most Perryville homes, the Widow Bottom house most likely became a field hospital following the battle., After the Civil War, on April 10, 1866, two Perryville residents named Bill and John Taylor murdered the Widow Bottom during a robbery. According to one resident, this brutal act "had the whole town wild." Citizens formed a posse and caught the culprits., Taken to Perryville, the Taylors were hanged from a tree at the edge of the town's Hillcrest Cemetery. Somehow, Bill Taylor managed to escape, but he was recaptured and sent to prison. John Taylor was not as fortunate. When a group of schoolchildren visited the cemetery and found his corpse, one of the children promptly fainted., Because of the lawlessness that pervaded Kentucky in the years following the Civil War, many residents turned to vigilante justice. As the years passed, the mobs disbanded and Perryville residents learned to readjust to peace., About 9 O'clock they were taken from the grounds, a rope put about their necks and conducted to the graveyard and hung to a tree that was just over the fence and in front of the church door. , - William Linney, Perryville resident., (Sidebar):, Despicable Crime, In the troubled years following the close of the Civil War, when guerrillas roamed the country at will and all forms of banditry were rife, an old lady named Mrs. Polly Bottom lived alone on her farm near Perryville. One night she was awakened by violent pounding on her door and when she did not respond it was broken open and three men entered and demanded her money or her life. The terrified old lady repeatedly assured them that she had no money in the house but they repeated their threats of death unless she produced some. She begged the privilege of saying a prayer before she died and as she knelt beside her bed they shot her dead. They then searched the house and later left without finding any money. , They did not know that the old lady's small granddaughter had lain, still as a mouse, in the large feather bed, watching by the glimmer of firelight in the room. When they were gone the child ran across the dark fields to the home of Mrs. Susan Bottom, a neighbor, to whom she related the tale of horror. , The entire community was incensed and suspicion fell upon a man named Taylor and his two grown sons who lived near by and who had bad reputations in the neighborhood. They were arrested and taken to the Courthouse in Danville, furiously protesting their innocence. Then the little grand daughter was brought into the courtroom and told to look for the murderers among the swarm of angry men who crowded the room. The child, scarcely reaching to the boot tops of most of the crowd, ran among them, peering up into their faces. When she reached the three prisoners she began to scream frantically and say, "There are the men who killed granny." , The three Taylors were hanged on the strength of the child's identification., Virginia Reynolds , Carlisle, KY., (Captions):, Mary "Polly" Bottom , "Widow Bottom" , Mother of H.P. Bottom, This photograph was taken of the Widow Bottom House near the end of the 19th Century. It is unknown when the house was razed.