OWNED BY 2 COLONELS, 1 UNION, 1 CONFEDERATE! HISTORY OF BEAUMONT

This historic location has been owned by two colonels, one Union and one Confederate. The inn has stayed in the family name for five generations making it Kentucky’s oldest family operated country inn. For more than six decades a women’s college stood here which educated well over one thousand women of the area. It has stood as a destination for many prominent people to visit and a proud symbol of the community. Today it continues to be a gathering place for friends reuniting from all over. The Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

Hey everybody, this is Colonel Carson with Family Tree Nuts, and recently we visited the historic Beaumont Inn, and we wanted to share its story with you. The first house on the area was a log cabin that was the boyhood home of John Marshall Harlan. Harlan served as Kentucky Attorney General and eventually served as a United States Supreme Court Justice. He was known as “The Great Dissenter” due to his many dissents in cases that restricted Civil Liberties. Before his public legal service, he served at a Union Army Colonel in the 10th Kentucky Infantry. Five years before his death, Harlan donated a King James Bible, which later became known as the “Harlan Bible”, and starting in 2015 has been signed by every succeeding Supreme Court justice after taking office. 

The property was purchased by Dr. Samuel G. Mullins. In May of 1851, the cabin burned down and this three-story house was soon built, which was completed in 1855, at a cost of $10,000. The house could accommodate one hundred students. In 1856, Mullins founded the Greenville Female Institution named for the medicinal springs which are located a few hundred yards from the school.

Later in 1856 Mullins sold the school to John Augustus Williams, who had founded, Christian College in Columbia, Missouri. Williams was also the first president of the University of Kentucky when it was located in Harrodsburg. Williams soon changed the name of the school to “Daughters College” because he lost three daughters at a young age. He later became a father figure to the students and said “all these girls will be my daughters” & he helped them in their education as if they were his own.

The school thrived during the Civil War because many people sent their daughters here to escape the war. During the Battle of Perryville, 15 miles away, canon fire could be heard at the school. Several of the windows still have the original glass in the windows and some of the glass has students’ names and dates of things like engagements, carved with their diamond rings. 

In 1895, Williams sold the school to Colonel Thomas Smith, who served in the Civil War under Stonewall Jackson, and was with him when Jackson was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Williams requested that Smith change the name of the school once the sale was official. Colonel Smith’s wife said that since the school sat on one the highest points in town, it should be called “Beaumont”, meaning, “beautiful hill”. Colonel Smith spoke seven languages and taught all seven at the college. 

After Colonel Smith died in 1914, Beaumont College began to have financial issues. Due to the increasing numbers of public schools, fewer people sent their daughters to schools like Beaumont. The school sadly closed in 1917. The following year, in 1918, Glave and Annie Bell Goddard purchased the building for $7,800. Annie Bell had graduated from the school in 1880, had taught mathematics there, and had eventually became the Dean.

The alumni made many visits to the building and it was soon turned into an inn. The Beaumont Inn has stayed in the family name for five generations making it Kentucky’s oldest family operated country inn. The inn has a museum of Kentucky history and has lavish Victorian and pre-Civil War furnishings. You can spend hours reading and viewing all the history displayed on the walls. Besides being an inn, the building has a restaurant, and the “Old Owl Tavern” in the old carriage house. The tavern gets its name from a brand of whiskey distilled here in Mercer County. The inn is well known for its southern hospitality. 

So now you know the story of the Historic Beaumont Inn, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Have you ever visited here on even heard of it? Places like this need to be remembered because they are a source of pride to their communities. We are proud to share its story with you. Be sure to see our video from here in the video below.

-Col. Russ Carson, Jr., Founder, Family Tree Nuts