By Sierra Marling

HISTORY OF BEREA , KY

In 1850 , this area of southern Madison County was called the Glade . There was no town , just a loose community of scattered farms known primarily for its racetrack and citizens who were sympathetic to emancipation .

EARLY BEREA – THE GLADE

Since the early 1840 ’ s ,

Cassius Clay , a large landowner in Madison County , had sought to build a community in the Glade which would be a base for his own high political ambitions and the abolitionist cause . Located between the solid slavocracy of the Bluegrass and the mountains , he hoped the Glade would provide a gateway into a political base in the mountains . He sold land to prominent nonslaveholders at nominal cost and encourage abolitionist

missionaries to come to the area .

In 1853 , Clay offered his friend Reverend John G . Fee , of Lewis County , Kentucky , a free tract of land to move to the Glade . With some reluctance , Fee decided to move , and in 1854 accepted ten acres upon the ridge . With the help of local supporters and other missionaries from the American Missionary Association , Fee established a church , a school and a tiny village . Asked by Clay to name the new settlement , Fee

called it Berea after the Biblical town where the people “ received the Word with all readiness of mind .” This tiny village became the center of an abolitionist missions field as Fee directed a band of teachers and preachers in

Madison , Jackson and Rockcastle Counties . Although never a significant political threat , the Berea Community was enough of an irritant that prominent Madison County slave owners drove Fee and 94 other supporters from the state