Each month, The Kentucky Explorer magazine receives literally scores of letters from our faithful readers. Whenever possible, we try to publish as many of them as possible in the 12 pages we have set aside for "Letters to the Editor."

Request For Seeds
Dear Editor:
Please inform your readers of my request for greasy bean and plum granny seeds.
Kathleen Meade
258 Store Hollow Road
Betsy Lane, KY 41605

Interested In Pulaski
County Historical Society
Dear Editor:
I would like for someone to write me regarding the story about White Lily, Kentucky, in the May issue of The Kentucky Explorer. The story was written by a member of the Pulaski County Historical Society.
I would also like to attend a meeting of the Pulaski County Historical Society and maybe join if qualified.
I attended elementary school at Sloan's Valley, Squib, Acorn, Mt. Victory, Burnside, and Ano and high school at Shopville.
In May 1952 I joined the U. S. Navy, along with Cordell Eldridge, Wayne Ping, Gerald Ping, and others from eastern Pulaski County.
After college I taught one year at Science Hill and one year at Swiss Colony.
J. Leo Richardson
143 Tando-Way
Covington, KY 41017

Father Nerinckx Contributed
To Many Churches
Dear Editor:
Your wonderful article on Father Charles Nerinckx in the May 2003 issue deserves a few more details.
The missionary's great physical strength is just part of the reason for his fame. This man of average height, but massive build, ate barely enough to keep most men alive and slept very little while riding Pointer on a six-week circuit stretching throughout Kentucky.
The 1902 article, author unknown, consists of anecdotes found in Ben Webb's classic 1884 book The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky, and Webb attributed the stories to Dr. Martin John Spalding, the man who succeeded Benedict Joseph Flaget as Bishop of Louisville in 1850.
Father Nerinckx's personal labor contributed to the building of churches stretching from Mason County to Grayson and Breckinridge counties, and he often rode 50 miles without stopping to eat. It should also be noted, though, that he founded the first community of women religion on the frontier, the Sisters of Loretto, an act that has much to do with his place in Kentucky history.
Here in Spencer County, Father Nerinckx succeeded another famous pioneer, Father Stephen Badin, in ministering to the Catholics around Little Mount as part of his circuit from 1808 until he left to minister to the Indians in Missouri in 1821. In 1815 he built the log church of St. Benedict at Little Mount. Only the parish cemetery remains today, but St. Benedict served the community well. Even after the parish center moved to Taylorsville in 1830 with the building of the present All Saints Church, the old log church was used as a funeral chapel until 1861.
By the 1870s St. Benedict's was in decay and its wood was finding other uses, but at least part of it just moved from one Nerinckx parish to another. The main beam, a 45-foot-long piece of yellow poplar, was taken to Fairfield in Nelson County to be incorporated into the present St. Michael's Church there.
Carl Fahringer
244 Meadowlake Drive
Taylorsville, KY 40071