Lucien V. Rule added papers, 1898-1963 (bulk: 1919-1945)
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Rule, Lucien V., 1871-1948
Title: Lucien V. Rule added papers, 1898-1963 (bulk: 1919-1945)
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 3 cu. ft.
Location Number: Mss. A R935a
Biographical Note
Lucien V. Rule was born in 1871 in Goshen, Kentucky, to Rev. John and Mary Woolfolk Rule. Rev. John Rule was pastor of the Goshen Presbyterian Church. Lucien Rule attended the University of Kentucky from 1887 to 1888 and graduated from Centre College in 1893. He was educated for the ministry at Louisville Presbytery and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1908. He served as pastor of Indiana rural churches from 1908 to 1914. In 1914, he became chaplain of the Indiana Reformatory in Jeffersonville.
In 1916, Lucien married Ida Lee McClure of Nelson County, Kentucky. Their daughter Mary Lily was born in 1920.
While Lucien Rule was chaplain of the Indiana Reformatory from 1914 to 1923, he served as national secretary of the American Prison Chaplains Association. In 1920, he published The City of Dead Souls, which exposed the deplorable prison conditions in Kentucky and Indiana. In 1923, he became home missions pastor for the New Albany Presbytery in charge of rural churches.
Throughout his life, Lucien Rule gathered stories from local people in Oldham and Jefferson counties in Kentucky and in small towns in southern Indiana. Over a period of thirty years, he wrote numerous articles for the newspaper The Oldham Era. He authored and published several history and poetry books.
Lucien Rule was an admirer of Robert Morris, an American poet and Freemason who helped organize the Order of the Eastern Star, created for female relatives of Masons. Morris was crowned “The Poet Laureate of Freemasonry” a few years before he died in La Grange, Kentucky, in 1888. The Rob Morris home is kept as a shrine by the Kentucky Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Rule’s writings include many Masonic poems and tracts.
Lucien Rule died in Crothersville, Indiana, in 1948.
Sources:
Ancestry.com
“Rev. Lucien V. Rule Succumbs to Heart Attack in Indiana,” Oldham Era, 20 Feb. 1948
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of the papers of Lucien V. Rule, a Presbyterian minister and author from Goshen, Kentucky. Rule worked as a prison chaplain in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and he spent much of his life collecting stories and writing about local and religious history, the Masons, the experiences of incarcerated individuals and the need for prison reform, and Christian Socialist ideas. Included in the collection are his notes, writings, and correspondence.
Folders 1-18 hold correspondence from 1898 through 1963 and include letters Rule received as well as ones he wrote and retyped. Among Rule’s correspondents are family members, editors and publishers, and fellow Presbyterians. Also included are letters written by and about men imprisoned at the Indiana Reformatory, where Rule worked as a chaplain from 1914 to 1923. There are letters addressing Rule’s proposal that the Grand Chapter of Kentucky Order of the Eastern Star purchase the library of Robert Morris, “The Poet Laureate of Freemasonry,” who died in La Grange, Kentucky, in 1888. There are letters relating to church activities in Goshen and Louisville, Kentucky, and in North Vernon and other Indiana churches. Other letters address the history of local people and preachers. The last few folders contain greeting and sympathy cards and the correspondence of Lucien’s wife Ida Lee McClure Rule.
Folders 19-29 contain miscellaneous records from Indiana churches and Rule’s writings about religious and local history, ca. 1908-1943. Indiana church records include programs from Presbyterian churches in Greenwood, Vernon and North Vernon, New Albany, Scottsburg, and Crothersville, as well as a ca. 1914 typescript for a historical pageant titled “The New Covenanters” by Rule. Rule’s notes and essays document individuals from Kentucky and Indiana, including Geneva Cooper, a Black singer from Louisville; Joseph S. Cotter, a Black educator from Louisville; Rev. John D. Shane; Rev. James McGready; Lucien Beckner; Rachel Donelson; Rev. William H. Craighead; Rev. Hamilton McGregor; Rabbi Joseph Rauch of Louisville; Rev. John Todd; and Rev. John Dickey. Folder 29 contains poems written by Rule.
Folders 30-35 contain records and writings dating from 1919 through the early 1920s, during Rule’s years as chaplain of the Indiana Reformatory in Jeffersonville. Included are chapel notes and programs; columns from The Reflector, a newspaper published by individuals imprisoned at Indiana Reformatory; and Rule’s stories about incarcerated individuals. See folders 1-18 for correspondence relating to the Indiana Reformatory and men imprisoned there.
Folders 36-37 contain miscellaneous papers and periodicals. Miscellaneous papers include blueprints of architect Ray O. Peck of Summit, N.J., for “residence for Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Rule, Goshen, Kentucky,” dated 7/37; information about the 1938 reunion of the Centre College class of 1893; Rule’s reflections on Richard Wright’s Native Son; a 1938 issue of the Scottsburg High School Booster; Mark Sexon’s Training for Rainbow Leadership, 1941; the 1942 annual report of the Synodical Presbyterian Orphanage in Anchorage, Kentucky; and an obituary for Lucian Rule from the Oldham County Era. Miscellaneous periodicals include issues of The Life Boat: Twenty-First Annual Special Prisoners’ Number, May 1920; The Archive, Oct. 1938; The Epworth Herald, Sept. 18, 1920; Louisville’s Eight-House Printer, Aug. 25, 1907; New York Call, Jan. 12 and Feb. 18, 1912; and Louisville Leader, Jan. 20, 1945.
Folders 38-83 hold Lucien Rule’s notebooks and loose papers that were stored in the notebooks, dating from the late 1920s through the early 1940s. Each notebook is filled with Rule’s notes, writings, and papers on a variety of topics. He copies newspaper articles by hand, takes notes on his research, and writes out drafts of essays and sermons. He also takes notes on meetings and interviews with local people in Louisville, in Oldham County, and in towns in southern Indiana. Loose papers kept in the notebooks include financial receipts, notes, and correspondence.
Folders 84-86 contain mostly undated miscellaneous papers stored with but not in bound notebooks, as well as miscellaneous and mostly unidentified photographs.
Separation note: Due to their size and fragile condition, issues of Camp Knox News newsletters were separated from the Lucien Rule added papers. See: Camp Knox, Camp Knox News newsletters, 1918-1919 [Mss. C C].
Related collections
Lucien V. Rule papers, 1921-1947 [Mss. A R935]
Lucien V. Rule miscellaneous papers, 1930-1945 [Mss. C R]
Lucien Rule scrapbooks [Mss. SB R935, vols. 1-2]
Lucien V. Rule, The Shrine of Love, and Other Poems, 1898 [811.4 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, When John Bull comes a-courtin’, and other poems, 1903 [Pamphlet 811.5 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, The House of Love, 1910 [811.5 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, An Old Country Church: Its Traditions and Ideals, 1913 [Pamphlet 285 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, The City of Dead Souls, and How It Was Made Alive Again, 1920 [365 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, Pioneering in Masonry: The Life and Times of Rob Morris, Masonic Poet Laureate, Together with the Story of Clara Barton and the Eastern Star, 1922 [366.1 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, The Light Bearers, Home Mission, Heroes of Presbyterian History: Centennial Story of an Old Country Church and Neighborhood in the Presbytery of Louisville, 1926 [922.5 R935]
Lucien V. Rule, Forerunners of Lincoln in the Ohio Valley, 1927 [973.715 R935]
Newspaper columns from The Oldham Era, Dec. 1, 1937-July 26, 1940 [976.983 R935n]
Oldham County History [976.983 R935 and 976.983 R935t]
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, 1898-1918
Individuals documented include Reuben T. Durrett; Leander C. Woolfolk; Eugene V. Debs; Booker T. Washington; Woodrow Wilson
Folder 2: “What I think about life” notes written by men at Indiana Reformatory, 1919
Folder 3: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, 1919-1920
Individuals documented include men imprisoned at Indiana Reformatory; Rev. H. R. Coleman; Joseph S. Cotter; Joseph S. Cotter, Jr.
Folder 4: Correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Lucien Rule (stored together inside an issue of The Gospel Trumpet), ca. 1920
Individuals documented include men imprisoned at Indiana Reformatory
Folder 5: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, 1921
Individuals documented include men imprisoned at Indiana Reformatory; Rev. H. R. Coleman; Robert Morris
Folder 6: Correspondence re: Robert Morris’s library, 1920-1921
Individuals documented include Rev. H. R. Coleman; Rob Morris, Jr.
Folder 7: West Goshen Church correspondence, ca. 1921-1923
Folder 8: North Vernon and Indiana church correspondence, 1923-1924, 1932
Folder 9: Correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Lucien Rule (part 1 of 2 of papers separated from binder), 1922
Folder 10: Correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Lucien Rule (part 2 of 2 of papers separated from binder), 1922
Folder 11: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, 1923-1924
Folder 12: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, ca. 1929-1939
Individuals documented include Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston; Rabbi Joseph Rauch; Clarence Rule
Folder 13: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, 1941-1944
Individuals documented include Joseph S. Cotter; the Jacob family
Folder 14: Correspondence of Lucien Rule, 1945-1947, undated
Folder 15: Copies of correspondence from Lucien Rule, 1937-1940
Individuals documented include Rev. John Todd; Rabbi Joseph Rauch; Joseph S. Cotter; Langston Hughes; Geneva Cooper
Folder 16: Copies of correspondence from Lucien Rule, 1941-1947
Individuals documented include Joseph S. Cotter; Joseph Cotter, Jr.; Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr; Vernon Bartle; Thomas Davidson
Folder 17: Christmas and sympathy cards, 1938 and undated
Folder 18: Correspondence of Ida Lee McClure Rule, 1919-1963, undated
Folder 19: Miscellaneous Indiana church records, ca. 1908-1946
Folder 20: Church histories and religious writings, undated
Folder 21: “The Bible of Labor,” undated
Folder 22: “The Downmost Man: A Tale of Toil and Love,” undated
Folder 23: “The Lost Eden,” undated
Folder 24: Writings about local people in Kentucky and Indiana, ca. 1937-1943
Individuals documented include Geneva Cooper; Joseph S. Cotter; Rev. John Little; Levy Scott; Mrs. J. A. Priest; Rev. James McGready; Webster George; Sallie Taylor; Lucien Beckner; Rev. John D. Shane; Rachel Donelson; Rev. William H. Craighead; Rev. Hamilton McGregor; Ella Magdalene; Rabbi Joseph Rauch; John Todd; Rev. James Welch; Rev. E. W. Elliott; Rev. John Dickey
Folder 25: Local and regional histories and stories, undated
Individuals documented include the Vawter pioneers; the Garriott pioneers; German Protestant pioneers in Jackson County, Indiana; pioneers on the Kentucky frontier
Folder 26: Oldham County notes and historical material, undated
Folder 27: “Inside Story of African Slavery and Race Intermingling,” 1937-1938
Folder 28: Miscellaneous history writings, undated
Folder 29: Poetry, undated
Folder 30: Indiana Reformatory chaplain’s chapel notes and programs, ca. 1919-1921
Folder 31: Brighter Day League columns in The Reflector and chapel leaflets, 1920-1921
Folder 32: Newspaper clippings re: Indiana Reformatory and The City of Dead Souls, 1919-1920
Folder 33: Writings about imprisoned people, early 1920s
Folder 34: Writings about imprisoned people, early 1920s
Folder 35: Writings about imprisoned people, early 1920s
Folder 36: Miscellaneous papers and publications, ca. 1920-1948
Includes Lucien V. Rule’s obituary from the Oldham County Era, 20 Feb. 1948
Folder 37: Miscellaneous periodicals, 1907-1945
Box 2
Folder 38: Notebook titled “Mr. Reed and His School at Sandy,” ca. 1888
Folder 39: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1925-1930
Individuals documented include Rev. John D. Shane; Edwin Carlisle Litsey; Charles Edward Russell, Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst; Rev. Edward L. Warren
Folder 40: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1929
Individuals documented include the Vawter family; Lucien Beckner; William P. Johnson
Folder 41: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1929-1933
Individuals documented include Rev. E. W. Elliott; Lucien Beckner
Folder 42: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1930-1931
Individuals documented include Rev. John D. Shane; Lucien Beckner; Otto Rothert
Folder 43: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1930
Individuals documented include Rev. John D. Shane; Christopher Harrison; Lucien Beckner; Abbie Leavitt; Cordelia Vance; Rev. E. L. Powell
Folder 44: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1930-1934
Individuals documented include Lucien Beckner; Reuben T. Durrett
Folder 45: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1925-1935
Individuals documented include Tom Greene; Rev. E. W. Elliott; Mrs. Kochenour; Prather family
Folder 46: Notebook, ca. 1931
Individuals documented include John Finley Crowe
Folder 47: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1931-1932
Individuals documented include Blue Jeans Williams; Abbie Leavitt
Folder 48: Notebook and loose papers, 1932
Individuals documented include Williamson Dunn; Richardson family; Mary L. Glick; Emma Hamptons; Joseph S. Cotter
Folder 49: Notebook and loose papers, 1932-1933
Individuals documented include Otto Rothert; Lucien Beckner; Belle Alley; Dr. John Green; Barton W. Stone
Folder 50: Notebook and loose papers, 1932
Individuals documented include Smith Vawter; Rev. John D. Shane; Paul Plaschke; Charles R. Hemphill; Lucien Beckner; Samuel Newby; Josephine McElroy Killen
Folder 51: Notebook and loose papers, 1932-1933
Individuals documented include Judge Cox
Folder 52: Notebook and loose papers, 1933
Individuals documented include Lucien Beckner; John Rowan
Folder 53: Notebook and loose papers, 1933
Individuals documented include R. M. Johnson; life sketch of Lucian Rule; Squire Boone
Folder 54: Notebook and loose papers, 1934
Individuals documented include Judge Cox.; Lucien Beckner
Folder 55: Notebook, 1934
Individuals documented include Mr. and Mrs. Harschman; Judge Cox
Folder 56: Notebook, 1934
Individuals documented include Judge Cox; John M. Norton
Folder 57: Notebook and loose papers, 1934-1935
Individuals documented include Mrs. Kochenour; Lucien Beckner; John Todd
Folder 58: Notebook and loose papers, 1935-1938
Individuals documented include Rev. Welch; Mrs. Kochenour; Charles Staples; Jane McCormack; tombstone of Rev. John D. Shane
Folder 59: Notebook and loose papers, 1935-1936
Individuals documented include Mrs. Kochenour; Rabbi Joseph Rauch; Gus Brandt; Ernest Howard Crosby; John Dickey
Box 3
Folder 60: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1936
Individuals documented include James H. Arnold; Blue Jeans Williams
Folder 61: Notebook and loose papers, 1936
Individuals documented include the Fultz family; Richard M. Johnson; Mrs. Kochenour
Folder 62: Notebook, 1936
Individuals documented include Gen. Charles Scott; Levy Scott; Lucien Beckner
Folder 63: Notebook, 1936
Individuals documented include Dr. May and Preston Rider
Folder 64: Loose papers from notebook, 1936
Individuals documented include the Woolfolk family
Folder 65: Notebook and loose papers, 1937
Individuals documented include James Waddell; John Todd
Folder 66: Notebook and loose papers, 1937
Individuals documented include Lawrence Minor; James McGready; John Todd; Rev. John Blair Smith
Folder 67: Notebook and loose papers, 1937
Individuals documented include John Dickey: James Waddell; Rev. William Graham
Folder 68: Notebook and loose papers, 1937
Individuals documented include Lemuel Haynes; Squire Boone Jr.; Otto Rothert; Joseph S. Cotter
Folder 69: Notebook and loose papers, 1937-1938, 1943
Individuals documented include Mrs. Kochenour; Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston; James Harrod; Lucien Beckner; Clara Ellen Baringer
Folder 70: Notebook and loose papers, 1938
Individuals documented include Lucien Beckner; Otto Rothert
Folder 71: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1938
Individuals documented include Gen. Scott; John Dickey
Folder 72: Notebook and loose papers, 1938
Individuals documented include Joseph S. Cotter
Folder 73: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1938-1939
Individuals documented include Gen. Charles Scott; Squire Boone; Levy Scott; Lucien Beckner; George and Mary Boone, Squire Boone; Rev. John D. Shane; Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston; Otto Rothert
Folder 74: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1939-1943
Individuals documented include Joseph S. Cotter; Paul Laurence Dunbar; Anne Davis; Rogers Clark Ballard Thurston
Folder 75: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1930s-1940s
Folder 76: Notebook and loose papers, ca. 1940
Individuals documented include Lucien Beckner; Geneva Cooper and Rev. Moran; will of Katie T. Brooks, 1919; Mildred Hill; C. W. Merriweather
Folder 77: Notebook and loose papers, 1939-1941
Individuals documented include Shepard Spry; Geneva Cooper and Rev. Moran; Dorothy Maynor; Joseph S. Cotter; I. Willis Cole
Folder 78: Notebook, 1941
Individuals documented include Evan Roberts; Rev. W. W. Jones, pastor of the 5th St. Colored Baptist Church, Louisville
Folder 79: Notebook, ca. 1945
Folder 80: Notebook, ca. 1945-1946
Folder 81: Loose papers from notebook, ca. 1945-1946
Individuals documented include Col. Richard M. Johnson
Folder 82: Loose papers from notebook, ca. 1945-1946
Individuals documented include Arthur Rule
Folder 83: Miscellaneous papers not in bound notebooks, 1943 and undated
Individuals documented include Rev. William Martin of Paoli, Indiana
Folder 84: Miscellaneous papers and photographs removed from envelope, 1921-1946
Individuals documented include unidentified Black individuals; West Goshen church
Folder 85: Miscellaneous photographs, ca. 1920s-1940s
Individuals documented include the gravestone of Gen. Samuel Hopkins at the Spring Garden Cemetery (also known as Hopkins Cemetery) in Henderson County, Kentucky; Lucien Rule; unidentified White individuals; and an unidentified Black woman and child
Subject Headings
African American clergy – Kentucky.
African American poets.
African Americans – Kentucky.
Beckner, Lucien, 1872-1963.
Boone family.
Centre College (Danville, Ky.)
Christian Socialism.
Christmas cards.
Clergy – Indiana.
Clergy – Kentucky.
Cole, I. Willis, 1887-1950.
Cotter, Joseph S. (Joseph Seamon), 1861-1949.
Crothersville (Ind.) – History.
Diseases – Kentucky.
Enslaved persons – Violence against – Kentucky.
Enslaved women – Violence against – Kentucky.
Filson Historical Society.
Freemasons.
Greeting cards.
Hanover College.
Historic buildings – Ohio – Ripley.
Indiana Reformatory (Jeffersonville, Ind.)
Jennings County (Ind.) – History.
Kentucky State Capitol (Frankfort, Ky.)
Louisville (Ky.) – History.
Madison State Hospital (Madison, Ind.)
Mental illness – Treatment.
Morris, Robert, 1818-1888.
New Albany (Ind.) – History.
Oldham County (Ky.) – History.
Order of the Eastern Star. Rob Morris Chapter No. 114 (La Grange, Ky.)
Orphanages – Kentucky.
Poetry.
Presbyterian Church – Clergy.
Presbyterian Church – Indiana.
Presbyterian Church – Kentucky.
Prison chaplains.
Prison reform.
Prisoners – Indiana.
Race relations.
Rauch, Joseph, 1880-1957.
Reformatories – Indiana.
Religious work with prisoners.
Rich, Geneva Cooper, 1911-1989.
Rothert, Otto Arthur, 1871-1956.
Rule, Arthur R., 1876-1950.
Rule, Ida Lee McClure, 1889-1981.
Salvation Army.
Schools.
Slavery – Kentucky.
Steamboats.
Stephen Foster Center.
Thruston, Rogers Clark Ballard, 1858-1946.
