MIDWAY AUTHOR Bill Penn enjoys doing research on local history and sharing those stories. The 81-year-old historian interviewed his mother and located property deeds for his next project, his own family’s story. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

 

Local historian Bill Penn has recently published his fourth book about Midway and, more broadly, Woodford County. 

“The Fincastle Surveyors in Woodford County, Kentucky” became important for him to write and publish because of two historians, Jim Sames and Neal Hammon, who he met after moving to Midway in the mid-1980s. 

Their maps, which illustrated military surveys in the spring and summer of 1774, became a starting point for a book that interprets the earliest property lines in northern Woodford County and what became Midway. 

Researching local history like this, and writing about what happened in our shared past has been Penn’s passion since he lived in his native Cynthiana in Harrison County. So when he and his wife Leslie moved to Midway, he naturally was interested in what happened in his adopted hometown. 

Now, Penn has begun a journey of discovery that’s focused on a history much closer to him – his own family’s story. 

The 81-year-old historian, who interviewed his mother and also located property deeds during his research, has already determined all four branches of his family came from three villages within a few miles of each other in Harrison County, but there’s so much more to learn and tell. 

And that’s been the story of Penn’s life. 

Whether it’s his book “Kentucky Rebel Town: The Civil War Battles of Cynthiana and Harrison County” or his story about the owner of Woodford County’s Calumet Farm, delving into history has always fascinated him. 

Piecing together his own family’s roots could be his most fascinating project yet. 

“I’ve never put it all together,” says Penn of writing a story and publishing a book so his family has an understanding of where they came from. 

“I’m kind of stumbling into it,” he adds with a laugh. “I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out.” 

That’s the conundrum of being a historian and writer. 

When Penn goes upstairs to work on a project in his office/library at home, he says, “Before I know it, it’s midnight almost.”