Fible Family collection
MSS 34
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MSS 34
Fible Family Collection, 1819-1971
OVERVIEW
Number: MSS 34
Title: Fible Family Collection
Dates: 1819 – 1971 (bulk 1881 – 1956)
Media: Mixed materials
Quantity: 1 box, 5 c.f.; 1 package
Location: Archival Storage. Kentucky Historical Society, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, Kentucky, 40601-1931, Phone: (502) 564-1792, Email: khsrefdesk@ky.gov, http://history.ky.gov
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE COLLECTION
The Fible family came to Kentucky from Virginia and settled in the 19th century in Oldham County. The family founded the Fible and Crabb distillery near Eminence, Kentucky. Several members of the family became writers including Micajah Fible and Betty Fible Martin. Micajah was an excellent student and accomplished orator whose high school commencement address was noteworthy enough to be printed in local Kentucky newspapers as well as the New York Times. Fible graduated from Harvard Law School and returned to his native Louisville to begin practicing law. He also wrote for local newspapers and in 1888 moved to Chicago to take a position with the Tribune. Micajah Fible died in 1890 while on assignment for the Tribune in Seattle. Betty Fible Martin grew up in Virginia and moved to New York City in 1925 to attend college. She graduated from Barnard in 1929 and planned to enter Columbia Law School, but the serious illness of her father caused her to return to Virginia. She purchased a dilapidated farm in northern Virginia and began renovating it and eventually made it a profitable venture. Martin began working as a feature writer for the New York Times during the 1940s and her homespun and warm-hearted stories of Americana also appeared in the Yale Review, Country Book, and Read.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION
This collection contains letters, diaries, and photographs documenting the Fible, Stone and Martin families of Kentucky and Virginia. Although there are small amounts of materials on other individuals, the majority of the collection focuses on two individuals: Betty Fible Martin (b. 1907) and her uncle, Micajah Fible (1862-1890). Fible Family collection
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The manuscripts for a dozen of Martin's New York Times pieces are included in this collection, as well as a 1944 issue of Read which contains one of her articles. Also included are Martin's correspondence with her editor at the New York Times and the rejection notices from publications which could not use her short stories. The manuscripts for three of her stories – “A Golden Dream World,” “The Gay Young Call of Spring,” and “Remedy” -- are found in this collection.
The collection contains numerous diaries: Micajah Fible's diary while he was a student at Harvard; two diaries (possibly kept by Sarah Fible) entitled "Dorritt's Run" and dated 1884 and 1885; and Betty Fible Martin's diaries and notebooks about mid-twentieth century rural life.
The collection also contains two letters written by Kentucky author John Fox, Jr., to Micajah Fible. Fox was best known for his works set in the Kentucky mountains at the turn of the twentieth century, including his famous The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. Fox asked Fible in one letter to help a friend get a piece of work published. The other letter by Fox is a note informing Fible that Fox had waited for him on a recent occasion, not knowing Fible was away on business.
Betty Fible Martin's application to join the Daughters of the American Revolution and supporting documents (an 1819 indenture, copies of wills, genealogical information) are contained in this collection. Also included are cookbooks circa the 1930s; an 1896 issue of The Delineator, a woman's fashion magazine; three scrapbooks circa the 1880s containing newspaper clippings of political events, family related news, and whimsical feature articles; and genealogies of the Fible, Martin, Catlett, and Stone families of Virginia and Kentucky.
RELATED MATERIAL
Researchers are encouraged to search the Online Collection Catalog for additional related materials.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Preferred Citation:
[Identification of item]. Fible Family Collection, 1819-1971, MSS 34, Kentucky Historical Society.
Property rights: The Kentucky Historical Society owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights have not been dedicated to the public. Consideration of the requirements of copyright is the responsibility of the author and publisher.
Fible Family collection
MSS 34
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CONTAINER LIST
Box
Folder
Folder Title
Dates
Notes
1
1
Correspondence and documents
1819-1883
Family correspondence between Fible, Stone, and Lewis family members; business letters between Crabbe and Fible re distillery; an Indenture for the sale of land in Nicholas County by Reuben Terry to John Barnett; Last will and testament of Francis Montgomery of Prince William County, Virginia
1
2
Diary of Micajah Fible
1882-1886
begun while he was a student at Harvard
1
3
Diary of Sarah Fible
1884
Diary entitled “Dorritt’s Run,”
1
4
Diary of Sarah Fible
1885
“Notebook: Summer of 1885, Dorritt’s Run”
1
5
Correspondence
1885-1891
Family, mostly
1
6
Diary
1893-1894
author unknown, an American residing in Zurich
1
7
Correspondence and documents
1895-1900
Fible and Martin families
1
8
Correspondence and documents
1904-1918
Includes WWI nursing identification papers for Harriet F. Young
1
9
Correspondence and documents
1920-1939
Young and Martin families, includes Program for the 175th annual commencement exercises at Columbia University
1
10
Correspondence
1940-1943
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
11
Correspondence
1944
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
12
Correspondence
1945
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
13
Correspondence
1946 Jan – May
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
14
Correspondence
1946 June – Dec
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence Fible Family collection
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Box
Folder
Folder Title
Dates
Notes
1
15
Correspondence
1947-1948
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
16
Correspondence
1951-1952
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
17
Correspondence
1953-1955
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
1
18
Correspondence
1956
Betty Fible Martin stories and correspondence
2
1
Scrapbook
1853
containing news clippings; inscribed “ A Christmas gift to Sophie from her affectionate mother, 1853”
2
2
Scrapbook
1881
Scrapbook containing news articles and feature stories from various Kentucky newspapers, including reports of Micajah Fible’s high school commencement speech which criticized Kentucky’s inability to keep pace with her neighboring states in the areas of commerce and education
2
3
1883
Scrapbook belonging to Mrs. David M. Fible. Contains news clippings of political events, family-related news, and whimsical feature stories.
Vol.
1
Scrapbook
1889
news articles collected by Micajah Fible
3
1
Diaries
1951-1952
Diary of Betty F. Martin, describing life as a farmer and writer
3
2
Fible genealogy
1940
Written by Sarah Fible Bloom: typescript entitled The Fibles of Maryland and Kentucky with special reference to the descendents of Joseph Fible (1782-1867) of Oldham County, Ky. Fible Family collection
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Box
Folder
Folder Title
Dates
Notes
3
3
Fible family genealogy notes
3
4
Fibles of Oldham Co.
3
5
Catletts in America
3
6
The Stone family of the Northern neck of Va. And Ky.
3
7
DAR application and Martin family genealogy
3
8
Ephemera
Includes dance cards, visiting calling cards, etc.; includes Bicycle map of Chicago, printed by the Columbia Bicycle Co. (1897)
3
9
Newspaper clippings
Includes obituaries
3
10
Royal Baker and pastry cook
Ca. 1930
Cookbook, ca. 1930, printed by the Royal Baking Powder Co.
3
11
The Delineator
1896
Women’s fashion magazine
3
12
Theater program
1900
Program for the play L’AIGLON, the “farewell American tour of Mme. Sarah Bernhardt and Mons. Coquelin.” Includes newspaper clippings about the plan and reviews.
3
13
“Aunt Jane’s Cook Book”
undated
3
14
“Rawleigh’s Good Health Products” catalog
3
15
Arm and Hammer Co. pamphlets
“Good Things to Eat,” “A Friend in Need”
3
16
Kentucky Progress Magazine
1932
Vol
2
Fible family bible
With family record
Vol
3
Stone family bible
With family record
4
1
Photo Album 1 notes
Fible, Stone, Crabb, Gunther, Lewis families
4
2
Photo Album 1
4
3
Photo Album 1
Fible Family collection
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Box
Folder
Folder Title
Dates
Notes
4
4
Photo Album 1
4
5
Photo Album 2
Fible, Stone, Young, Gunther, Duncan families
4
6
Scrapbook marked Sophie Bainbridge
Loose images
4
7
Robert Mallory Place photo album
Home in Oldham Co. Ky
4
8
Fible Photographs
4
9
Photo album
Seaside, school, pony, children, lake
4
10
Carte de Visite album
Stone and other families
5
1
Loose small photographs
Mostly portraits
5
2
Photo album
1907-1908
Little boy and old man smoking pipes, ponies, women unsaddling mule, tea pots, mules,
5
3
Photo album
1907-1915
Fishing, golf, ponies, children, costumes, farming, tobacco, baseball, bareback pony riding, houses, teddy bear,
5
4
Martin family photographs
5
5
Fible family photographs
World War I army nurses marching in parade
5
6
Family photos
Fible, Martin, Bainbridge
