History ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mt. Brilliant is steeped in rich history and tradition. From its first owners to the rebirth that is taking place today, the stories of the farm unfold one after another and never cease to amaze.

It all started in 1774 when Thomas Jefferson granted 2,000 acres of land north of the Kentucky River to William Russell in recognition of his brother Henry's outstanding military service in the French and Indian War.


The land was eventually divided between William's two youngest sons, Robert Spotswood Russell and William Russell, Jr. Shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War, young William laid claim to the smaller portion (800 acres) so he could enjoy the mystical cave and ever-flowing spring that add an enchanting ambiance to what is now known as Mt. Brilliant. Russell chose the name to commemorate the Virginia estate of Patrick Henry's family.

In 1792, Russell built the central portion of the house. Cuming remarked in his 1807 book, "Tour of the West", that Mt. Brilliant, surrounded by a wall with turrets at each end, lacked "only the vineyards" in its similarity to the French Provincial regions of Languedoc and Provence.



Russell died in 1824 and his heirs sold Mt. Brilliant in 1863. The farm changed hands several times, until 1905 when it was purchased by James Ben Ali Haggin. The Haggin family owned the farm for the next 85 years, and it became a fixture in the Kentucky political and social scene in the 20th Century.

In fact, it was at a political rally held near Russell Cave, which lays on the Mt. Brilliant property, that the infamous duel between abolitionist Cassius Clay and Samuel M. Brown took place. Clay, Henry Clay's cousin, was saved by a stroke of astonishing fortune when the bullet aimed directly for his heart ricocheted off the silver-lined sheath of his Bowie knife.


Mt. Brilliant was also well known for its beautiful gardens. Owner, Greg Goodman, has returned the gardens of Mt. Brilliant to their splendor. The gardens include a vineyard, a kitchen garden full of berries, herbs and vegetables, a formal English flower garden surrounding a pond, lines of dogwood trees and rose bushes, and a twisting and winding taxus maze that reveals a Horsemania horse at its center.  The gardens at Mt. Brilliant were recognized in 2002 by the American Society of Landscape Architects Design Awards.   

Today, Mt. Brilliant sprawls over 400 acres of well-manicured grasses, lined with horse fences and dotted here and there by several newly, renovated buildings.

 

MEMORIES OF MT. BRILLIANT SCHOOL - Harriett McDonald Holladay

Not long ago a friend said to me, “You went to Mt. Brilliant School, didn’t you?”  I admitted I had and she said, “Someone ought to write a history of it, it was pretty unique and I for one would like to know more about it.”  Then she added, “You belong to the Monday Club, don’t you?  Why don’t you do a paper on it?”

           

So I began thinking about it and decided to give it a try.  It cant be any kind of history but just some bits and pieces of what I can remember because as far as I know, there’s no one living who can help me with the details.  But from Elizabeth Simpson’s book, “Bluegrass Houses and their Traditions,” published in 1932, I discovered the origin of the name Mt. Brilliant.  The farm was a part of a land grant, dated 1774 to a William Russell.  His son named it Mt. Brilliant in memory of the Virginia estate of Patrick Henry where Russell had frequently visited.  The subsequent owners have kept that name. 

           

I quote from Mrs. Simpson’s book.  “Of all the estates in the Bluegrass there is none that holds the place closest to the heart of Lexington.  Perhaps because it is typically Kentucky with the vine-covered stone walls where wild grapes festoon the branches of age-old trees and its mansion of southern colonial style that forms the exquisite setting for its exquisite mistress, or perhaps it is because the Haggin family is more of the warp and woof of the community than most of the owners of the great estates, throwing Mt. Brilliant open for horse shows, hunts, pilgrimages, fetes and carnivals, extending hospitality in the gracious, boundless manner that has ever been distinctive of Kentucky.”

           

The school started when Mr. And Mrs. Louis Lee Haggin wanted their four children to be taught at home.  There were Betty, Jimmy, Louis and Emmie.  I believe about 1920 the two boys were included in the school.  But by 1921 only Betty and a few of her little friends attended.  I know for sure that I was asked to join the school in 1922 and I was there for three years.  After that we all went to different boarding schools.  Besides Betty Haggin, who later married Jamie Molloy, and myself, there were Lucy Johnston (Mrs. Joe Graves), Malinda Bush (Mrs. Matt Clay), Eliner Manning (Mrs. James Moore), Katherine Graves (Mrs. Kenneth Andrews), Mary Tipton (Mrs. George Swisher), Agnes Forman, who later became a nun and is know as Sister Agnes Forman, and occasionally Rhetta Johnston who would join us, but she was not a regular attendant.  She later became Mrs. Floyd Wright. 

           

Only Agnes and I are living and we have kept up with each other through the years.  And sad to relate, she has very little memory of those days.  She visited me last summer and I had high hopes that she would be a big help in remembering details, but she was not much help.

           

I know that Charlotte Bowman (Mrs. Fontleroy Pursley) and Anne Rodes (Mrs. Drury) were pupils before my time.  Annie is no long living and Charlotte says she doesn’t remember much.  After all, it was seventy years ago!

           

Those of us who lived in town were taken by our parents to Fourth and Broadway at 8:30 a.m. and the Haggins sent in  a “Reo Speed Wagon,” driven by Edgar, the chauffeur, to pick us up on that corner.  At the time there was a nice little grocery store with a covered porch where we could wait or we could go inside and buy dill pickles or just get warm. 

           

I remember that Speed Wagon well.  It had seats along the sides and the sides were made of some sort material that could be removed.  Then with the long seats tipped up, it made a good farm truck.  So we could only see out of the front or back when we rode in it.  A clear memory I have a deciding to change seats when sitting at the very back when the driver started up suddenly and I went overboard.  I sat up in the street clutching my books in my arms, unscathed, but feeling very foolish.  Funny things we remember as if it were yesterday!

           

It was about a six mile drive out the Russell Cave Pike.  It was a pretty drive but we could only see the road in front of us or what was behind.  The school, consisting of two rooms, was in a building to the right of the main house.  At the time Mrs. Simpson wrote her book, it was a guest house.  She believed it to be a part of the original home of the Russells built around 1786.  The rest of the house when we were in school was lived by Edgar, chauffeur and head gardener, and his wife.  They were English and were memorable for their interesting accents. 

           

The main house was more like Tara in “gone with the Wind” than anything I can think of.  I hear it is now pretty run down and I don’t know who owns it, but then it was a beautiful house, is all that Mrs. Simpson said of it.  In three years we had three teachers, Miss Karman, Miss Pilsbury and Miss Pied.  They lived in town and were with us all day except at recess.  Then we were on our own and I remember playing Kick-The-Can in a large barn.  There was a hay loft for hiding in and stalls and tack rooms to get lost in.  We often went into the greenhouse where among other flowers was a fine collection of pelargoniams, one of Mrs. Haggins favorite flowers. 

           

There was a swimming pool, fed with the ice-cold water from nearby Russel Cave, in a sunken walled-in garden and we swam there when it was warm.  I remember in the early spring it was ablaze with tulips, jonquils and lots of phlox divaricata, almost the same color as the pool.  Then later there were tubs of Blue Lilies of the Nile at teach corner of the pool and borders were full of color. 

           

Adjoining this garden was a formal garden with parterres outlined with low boxwood and surrounded by a tall taxus hedge.  Roses and heliotrope were in the beds alternated so they created a pattern and a delightful fragrance.  I remember playing a little tennis, but the thing I remember most about the court was when Elinor and I tried to jump over the net together and we fell together.  Our noses were never the same after that. 

           

Now as to the school work I am very hazy.  We had all the usual subjects.  Miss Pied gave us a good foundation in French and I remember with great pleasure our study of Art Appreciation.  I kept our text book “Apollo” for many years.  Latin and math were not easy for me.  I remember the current event period with pleasure but to this day I regret my inability to read Roman numerals. After about fifty, I’m lost.  I must have been absent the day we were introduced to them. 

           

One thing I can be sure of.  We had  a sort of year book and I have it here, squirrel that I am.  It is a true record of the honor roll for each month of 1922 and I hate to say so, but I never was on it that year.  But for consolation I was awarded the Honor cup as Best All Round Girl!

           

There were lots of good times that I remember.  Every 4^th of July the Haggins entertained grown-ups and children alike.   They had fireworks not often seen in those days.  On several occasions I remember Judge Keene Daingerfield tying on a string of fire crackers to the back of his belt and running through the crowd yelling like a wild man.  I remember so pleasantly George, the cook, and Pete, the house man, who were so good to us.  When we spent the night with Betty, as we often did, they good naturedly fed us in the breakfast room off the spacious kitchen.  There was a friendly parrot there in his cage and he would throw his head back and say, “three cheers for the 4^th of July,” time after time to our delight.

           

I’m convinced that young people get their education from their environment as well from their books.  Once looking out of the classroom windows, I remember seeing Mrs. Haggin walking back from a horseback ride.  She was a vision of beauty. Her habit was graceful for she rode side saddle and I thought she looked like a Greek goddess come to life.  She was a great lady and as a role model, she was the very best we could have had. 

           

It was a gentle time and we eight girls were very fortunate to have had three such years together.