The First Kentucky Colonel was probably Col. Daniel Boone (no doubt) who was originally commissioned as a “Colonel” (colonial leader) to organize a team of axmen in order to build the “Wild Road” (Wilderness Road) in March of 1775 and establish the colonial settlement of Boonesborough. However, while I know Col. Boone was the first real Kentucky Colonel, an in-depth investigation and research has revealed that: “I am the First Kentucky Colonel” of "Old Kentucky" customs, folklore, heritage and traditions after debuting on the world stage in 1830-1835 from England in the “Lion of the West” and the farce “A Trip to New York or The Kentuckian”. It was in England that the descriptive term "Kentucky Colonel" was coined in 1833 when it was published in Philadelphia a review of our play at the Covent Theater. I am what inspired a long line of “official and unofficial” colonels in Kentucky for many years to come. — "Colonel Nimrod Wildfire of Kentucky occupies a special place. He claimed to be "half horse, half alligator [and] a touch of the airth-quake." He had "the prettiest sister, fastest horse, and ugliest dog in the deestrict." He could "tote a steam boat up the Mississippi and over the Alleghany mountains." His father could "whip the best man in old Kaintuck, and I can whip my father." All in all, the colonel was a wow back in the 1830s—the literary prototype of the tall-talking frontiersman, the first introduction to the stage of native Western humor. But what had happened to the play that first made him famous? Until last week, most scholars could point to that as a U.S. literary mystery." (Time 1954)

Location

New York City

Disciplines

• American Studies
• History
• Performing Arts
• Philosophy
• Cultural Studies and Ethnic Studies

Affiliation

Commonwealth of Kentucky