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A farmer standing next to his tall sorghum plants. Sorghum was once frequently processed to make a sweetener known as sorghum molasses. The main sweetener in the southern United States in the 1800s, it is rarely encountered today.
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Stephen Foster was the author of the most famous racehorse song of the era, “The Camptown Races,” popularized by Christy’s Minstrels.
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The most famous horse race song later in the 1800s was “Molly and Ten Brooks,” famously recorded by Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe.
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The Kentucky bay racehorse referenced in “Molly and Ten Brooks was actually named Ten Broeck, and was ridden by the African-American jockey Billy Walker, pictured here leading the horse to victory. Horse racing was enormously popular in 1800s America.
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Willets’ mill could also be a permanent installation like the one still viewable locally at Malabar Farm State Park.
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In October of 1861, Harvey Devoe worked periodically at David Willets’ sawmill. He doesn’t describe it in detail. It could have been a movable steam-powered sawmill like this one pictured in the mid- 1800s in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.
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