Todd County Standard - Kentucky Press Association

FAIRVIEW
A HISTORIC PARK AND A FIGHT TO KEEP ITS IDENTITY
BY ELIZABETH JOHNSON
TODD COUNTY STANDARD
Just off of Highway 68-80, running
along Jefferson Davis Highway and nestled
closely against the Christian County
line sits the small community of Fairview.
A community with substantial Amish
and Mennonite populations, it is common
to see horse-drawn carriages and
bicycles traveling the roads or men working
with horses and mules to plow fields.
Most noticeable though, is the 351-
foot obelisk reaching to the sky, commemorating
the life of Jefferson Davis,
the first and only president of the
Confederacy.
The monument, part of the Jefferson
Davis State Historic Site rises next to the
birthplace of Davis, now home to Bethel
Baptist Church and can be seen several
miles out of Fairview.
The park is open daily from May 1 to
Oct. 31 each year. During the rest of the
year the monument is closed, but the
museum and gift shop are open Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays.
The obelisk draws many people —
some passionate about Civil War and
Confederate history, others curious as to
why such a site exists.
“A present day Army captain at Fort
Campbell came through here in the winter
months on a Saturday,” said Ron
Sydnor, who has been the director of the
site since May of 2010. “I walked out and
he looked up and saw me and froze. He
stared at me for 35 or 40 seconds and he
said ‘You’re the last person I expected to
see here.’ I started laughing.”
Sydnor, who gets similar comments
from other people, is African-American.
Many people find it ironic that he
operates a site about the South and its
history. Sydnor often surprises people
when he tells them he is the descendant
of a Confederate soldier. And while it is
a historic fact that thousands of black
men served on the Confederate side during
the Civil War, Sydnor surprises even
more when he reveals his ancestor was a
white soldier who married a black
woman.
The first and only president of the Confederacy was born in Fairview.
Sydnor said people often believe the
Civil War was based on slavery and he
feels it is his duty to teach people a more
in-depth history which shows the war was
based more on economics in general.
While the site hosts an annual
Jefferson Davis Birthday Celebration,
Sydnor is currently working on a fiveyear
project commemorating the sesquicentennial–
150th anniversary — of the
Civil War. The event kicked off in June
2010 with a three-day combined birthday
and Civil War celebration.
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