Owensboro | Hawes Family Cemetery

The Hawes Family Reunion Returned to Kentucky!

Just down the river from Hawesville is Owensboro. The 2014 reunion convened Sunday September 21, from 12:30 to 4:30 PM at the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden in Owensboro, a beautiful jewel of a venue.

The Mission of the Botanical Garden is to discover, observe and enjoy the wonders of our environment and to provide priceless education in order to foster an awareness of our interaction with nature. The gardens are lovely in the fall, and the weather will be comfortable.

One of the areas described in the www.wkbg.org web site is the rose garden. Several nationally known rose growers and nurseries donated over 120 roses to begin the garden in 1998. There are now over 250 roses in this garden. They consist of miniatures, floribundas, climbers, hybrid teas, David Austin English and old fashioned roses. The David Austin English roses combine the hardiness and disease resistance of old-fashioned roses with the repeat blooming and double flowers of modern tea roses and floribundas. Each of the rose varieties blooms at different times and require different pruning and insect and disease prevention. The beautiful water fountain in the center of the rose garden was donated by Betty Sue Hill. The six-foot tall fence surrounding the garden is patterned after the fence in the rose garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden and was made by Barbara and Wayne Russ. The entrance arch was also designed and made by the Russes as a memorial to Nancy Murphy. The trees at each corner of the Rose Garden are Little Girl magnolias. The Rose garden has been sponsored by the Ryan Fund at the Community Foundation of Owensboro-Daviess County.

Owensboro Visit

Owensboro is in Daviess County, Kentucky. It is the county seat and the 4th-largest city by population in the state. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about 107 miles southwest of Louisville, and is the principal city of the Owensboro metropolitan area. The city’s population was estimated at 58,083 in 2012, with a metropolitan population of 116,030.

From Wikipedia, “There is evidence of American Indian settlement in the area dating back 12,000 years. Following a series of failed uprisings with British support, however, the last Shawnee were forced to vacate the area before the end of the eighteenth century. The first European descendant to settle in Owensboro, then called Yellow Banks, after the local soil, was frontiersman William Smeathers or Smothers in 1797, for whom the riverfront park is named. The Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered at what is today’s Owensboro prior to departing on their famous travels. In 1817, Yellow Banks was formally established under the name Owensborough, named after Col. Abraham Owen. In 1893, the spelling of the name was shortened to its current Owensboro.

In August 1865, Owensboro was subject to a raid by a band of Confederate guerrillas from Tennessee led by Captain Jack Bennett, an officer in Stovepipe Johnson’s Partisan Rangers. Bennett’s men rode into Owensboro, tried and failed to rob a local bank, took 13 Union soldiers of the 108th Coloured prisoner, executed them, burned the bodies on a supply boat and escaped back to Tennessee having covered a total of 300 miles (480 km) on horseback inside six days.

There have been several distillers, mainly of bourbon whiskey, in and around the city of Owensboro. The major distillery still in operation is the Glenmore Distillery Company.

On August 14, 1936, downtown Owensboro was the site of the last public hanging in the United States. Rainey Bethea was executed for the rape and murder of 70-year-old Lischa Edwards. The execution was presided over by a woman sheriff, Florence Shoemaker Thompson, who gained national media attention for her role in the process.

The end of the Second World War brought civil engineering projects, which helped turn Owensboro from a sleepy industrial town into a modern, expanding community by the turn of the 1960s. Many of the projects were set in motion by Johnson, Depp & Quisenberry, a firm of consulting engineers then engaged in a runway redesign at the County Airport; the ‘Depp’ in question was a member of an old and prodigious Kentucky family which includes the town’s most famous son, actor Johnny Depp.

Of especial interest to Haweses is the Ben Hawes Golf Course and Park (formerly Ben Hawes State Park) located just outside of Owensboro . The park encompasses 297 acres ), and was named for the former mayor of Owensboro.

Owensboro considers itself the “BBQ Capital of the world”; it holds its International BBQ festival and competition every second weekend in May.

Each summer, Owensboro is host to the Big O Music Fest, a large country music festival. Some of the artists who have played at the Big O Music Fest include Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen, and Gary Allan. The one day event, dubbed “The Party of the Year”, draws an estimated 12,000 people from across the country. The Big O Music Fest is held at Reid’s Orchard. http://www.bigOmusicfest.com.

Owensboro also hosts ROMP, a bluegrass festival, River Of Music Party. ROMP has grown to 20,000 visitors a year. Some artists include Sam Bush, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, Earl Scruggs, Merle Haggard, Vince Gill, Old Crow Medicine Show. ROMP Also won the Governor’s Award for Community Arts in 2013.

Lanham Brothers Jamboree is an event held every second Saturday from April through September at the Diamond Lake Resort Theater in Owensboro, KY. The Jamboree was started by Randy Lanham and Barry Lanham. All show are filmed and broadcast on KETKY, Kentucky Educational Television, The Public Broadcast Station.

During the summer, the city offers “Friday After 5”, a free 16-week series of outdoor concerts on the downtown riverfront. The festival includes live bands, events for families, and entertainment every Friday from 5:00 pm till 10:00 pm. An estimated 55,000 people attend the events.

There are ecstatic reviews online about the revamped Riverfront Park..

“It’s “Resort Quality”. Not enough space to talk about the Sprayground, Lazy Dayz park that includes huge trees that kids can climb and and through! The whole thing is overlooking the Ohio River and set to music almost every night with festivals. Friday After 5 is the largest. Music, kids’ events, street fair, costume characters, three stages plus Gospel Music Series inside their performing arts center all right there on the river. It’s all free. A destination location”!

and

“All new, well designed with something for adults and children. The downtown river walk is awesome with big fountains and all kinds of seating overlooking the Ohio River. One of my favorites is the way the overlook curves around all the beautiful attractions including the big waterfall in to the river as you walk from the River Park Center to the Owensboro Convention Center and Hampton Inn . Late Spring to early fall there are as many as seven free outside music venues with Friday night the best. There is sidewalk eating all over downtown where you can get everything from adult beverages, burgers to fine dining and finish with an ice cream. This is a wonderful must see if you are in the area or are looking for a great weekend get a way.”