Verona, 1889

We reached Verona at 11 o’clock.  Verona is in the mud.  There are no pikes here, and one would naturally judge from this that the people in that neighborhood are backward in other respects, but not so.  They are thrifty, intelligent farmers.  They are true Kentuckians, and a more social, hospitable people I have never met than I met right there in Verona.  One of the first men you meet is Dr. Finnell, and when he smiles one of his broad Southern smiles upon a fellow, it makes him forget, not only the mud, but his aches and pains as well.   The merchants all seem to be doing a good business.  The large tobacco interests here are looked after by Kennedy & Hume.  I find that Nannie Bristow, of Union, is conducting the school here, and is very much liked as a teacher . . .   We lingered so long over the dinner spread for us by our hostess, Mrs. Boone Roberts, that we missed the two o’clock train, and in consequence had to take a tie ticket, good for five miles, to Walton [i.e. he walked].  Upon reaching the latter place, one of our party declared that Walton is bound to Verona by 21,840 ties. 

from the Boone County Recorder, November 20, 1889