Mrs. Josephine Carr, Formerly of Huntertown
story by Donna Hecker & photography by Talitha Schroeder
Mrs. Josephine Carr, born and raised in Huntertown, is still statuesque at the age of 94. We met in the driveway of her old house on one of Huntertown’s two lanes, the only paved driveway in the whole hamlet and all that’s left now of the property where she grew up.
My grandmother told me, ‘this yard is big enough to keep you; don’t go down the road – there’s bad people there.’ But my favorite thing was the basket meetings because that’s when I got to play with other children.
Mrs. Carr was an only child; her father was killed when she was five and her mother died four years later. I was raised by my grandmother – not half-raised — raised.
Her grandmother, Georgie Washington, took in washing and ironing for a living. Every week she met the Riney “B” train on one of its two daily runs and picked up baskets of laundry which she carried home to wash by hand with Fels Naptha. Mrs. Washington was paid a quarter per basket.
I loved to have her rub my back. Her hands were rough from washing and it felt good on my skin. In the wintertime, she hung the clothes outside to freeze before bringing them in. They dried faster that way.
Growing up, Mrs. Carr went to Huntertown Colored School, a one-room schoolhouse where grades one through five were all taught by Mrs. Lillian Marshall. After fifth grade, she moved to Simmons Colored School and would have graduated twelfth grade had she not become pregnant and gotten married in February of that year. I fell in love and didn’t want anybody else to get him. All the girls were after him.
They were together 58 years and had ten children, one of whom died at just nine months old. Richard “Cotton” Carr passed away in 2005 at the age of 75. He groomed horses at Keeneland Race Track for over 57 years, the second longest tenure of anyone in his position at the world-famous track. By coincidence, we met up on the day that would have been Mr. Carr’s 95th birthday.
Huntertown was famous for its basket meetings. Mrs. Carr and her grandmother filled their basket with fried chicken and chicken croquettes, and yellow cake with caramel icing. Once her grandmother had wrung the chicken’s neck, little Josephine was tasked with retrieving and plucking it. I’m still scared of feathers today.
Mrs. Carr was one of the first to leave Huntertown. I was glad to go. We had no bathroom, no running water. After construction of the Bluegrass Parkway in the 1960s, Huntertown, having been built on a floodplain, became prone to ever more frequent flooding.
She carried her memories with her, and her religion too. I joined the church when I was nine. We had a lot of preachers in Huntertown and there was a big revival one day. I got religion and I still have it in here. (placing a hand on her heart.)
Memories are all that’s left of Huntertown today. After Woodford County bought the last properties, the remaining 23 structures (including 15 houses) were torn down in 2006. Between 2012 and 2021, proposals were pitched and plans made to convert the site into an interpretative park. In August of 2021, on the 150th anniversary of the first parcel purchase, Huntertown Park was dedicated. And Mrs. Josephine Carr was there to remember.
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