Henry Harvey Fuson
(1876-1964)
Kentucky
H.H. Fuson was born at Little Clear Creek, in Bell
County, Kentucky on August 21, 1876, the son of John Thomas and
Sarah Jane (Lee) Fusion, descendant of Thomas Fuson (1760-1849),
a Kentucky pioneer. Fuson obtained his A.B. in 1905 from Cumberland
College, and his B.S. in 1920 from the University of Cincinnati.
His poetry was anthologized in Kentucky Poetry and Folk Lore
(1926), Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1926 and Yearbook of
American Poetry (William Stanley Braithwaite ed., 1926), Principal
Poets of the World (1932). Fuson was associated with the editing
of Kentucky Folk Lore and Poetry Magazine and was a member
of the Kentucky State Historical Society. After 1929, he was an
attorney in Harlan, Kentucky. [Source: The Biographical
Dictionary of Contemporary Poets: The Who's Who of American Poets
171-172 (New York: Avon House, 1938)]
The following biographical information appears in
Fuson's The History of Bell County, Vol. II (1938):
H. H. Fuson began his literary efforts in 1902 while he was living
in the old Pineville Hotel. A good part of his first book was
written while he lived in Pineville, Kentucky, 1902-1912. Most
of the other writings were done while he lived in Covington, Kentucky,
1912-1925. Some writing was done while he lived in Louisville,
Kentucky, 1925-1928, and some of the work has been carried to
completion since he has lived in Harlan, Kentucky, 1929 to the
present.
In 1931 H. H. Fuson began depositing his Kentucky books and manuscripts
in the Library of the University of Kentucky, Lexington. He has
placed over two hundred Kentucky books there under his name, books
of a variety of authors on Kentucky literature. He has placed
the originals of all his manuscripts there. He has had bound and
placed in this library five volumes of Fuson family statistics,
ten volumes of letters of the Fuson family, and numerous other
bound material. His twenty-eight scrap books placed in the library,
extending from 1905 until the present, contain much history of
Bell County as well as much history of southeastern Kentucky.
His main interest has been in the literature of the state of his
birth.
He was born on Little Clear Creek, Bell County, August 21, 1876;
attended the Evans School, near W. L. Fuson's in 1883; the Clear
Creek Springs School, 1884-1894; Pineville High School, winter
term, 1895-1896; Cumberland College, 1894-1905, part time work,
where he graduated in 1905 with an A.B. degree; University of
Cincinnati, 1912-1925, part time where he graduated in 1920 with
a B.S. degree; completed his A.M. credits there but did not take
degree; attended University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1912, summer
term. He taught school, acted as Principal and Superintendent,
as follows: Lower Cannon Creek (Happy Valley) 1895; Clear Creek
Springs 1896-1898; Laurel Fork in South America 1899-1901; County
Superintendent of Bell County Schools, two terms, 1902-1910; Superintendent
of the Pineville, Kentucky, Schools 1910-1912; Principal of the
Seventh District School, Covington, Kentucky, 1912-1914; Principal
of the First District School, Covington, 1914-1922; Principal
of the John W. Hall Junior High School 1922-1925. He gave up teaching
in 1925, studied law and was admitted to practice in 1929, when
he came to Harlan and opened a law office with J. B. Snyder. He
was County Attorney of Harlan County, September, 1935, to November,
1936, by appointment.
In 1906 he was married to Sara Ellen Watson, born April 7, 1876
Somerset, Kentucky. She graduated at Georgetown College, Georgetown,
Kentucky, 1904, B.S. degree, and taught school in Kentucky and
Montana for several years. There was born to them one daughter,
Ruth Maurine Fuson, born July 7, 1910, who married Philip W. Scott,
October 16, 1937 and went to Bradford, Pennsylvania, to live.
Poetry
Henry Harvey Fuson, The Pinnacle and Other Kentucky
Mountain Poems (Louisville, Kentucky: J.P. Morton, 1921) [online
text]
_______________, Just From Kentucky (A Second
Volume of Verse)(Louisville, Kentucky: J.P. Morton & Co., 1925)
_______________, I Chant the Mountains ( [Louisville,
Kentucky: Standard Printing Company, 1945)
_______________, Poems ([Frankfort, Kentucky]:
Roberts Printing Co., 1950-1952)
_______________, A Mess of Pottage (Frankfort,
Kentucky: Roberts Printing, 1950)
_______________, Florida Poems (Frankfort,
Kentucky: Roberts Printing, 1950)
_______________, The Vanishing Plateau (Frankfort,
Kentucky: Roberts Printing, 1951)
_______________, These Hills (Frankfort, Kentucky:
Roberts Printing, 1951)
_______________, The Autumn Maid (Frankfort,
Kentucky: Roberts Printing, 1952)
_______________, The Crown of Glory (Frankfort,
Kentucky: Roberts Print Co., 1952)
Writings
Henry Harvey Fuson, History of the Bell County
Association of Baptists: Over a Quarter of a Century of Growth,
1896-1922 (Covington, Kentucky: Jameson, 1922)
________________, Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands
(London, Kentucky: The Mitre Press, 1931)(Folcroft, Pennsylvania:
Folcroft Library Editions, 1977)
________________, History of the Cumberland
and Ford Settlement (1931)
________________, History of the Fuson
Family, Vol. 1 (London, Kentucky: Mitre Press, 1932)
________________, History of the Fuson
Family, Vol. 2 (London, Kentucky: Mitre Press, 1938)
________________, The Strange Shape (Louisville,
Kentucky: Standard Printing Co., 1946)
________________, History of Bell County,
Kentucky (New York: Hobson Book Press, 1947)
Research Resources
"Collected Poems" [typescript, 2 vols,
1935-1951]
"The Kentucky Cardinal [and other poems]" [typescript,
1933]
"The Cave Dweller and Other Poems"
[typescript manuscript, Inverness, Florida, 1951]
"The Path to the Sun and Other Poems" [typescript manuscript,
1957]
"Echoes from the Mountain, and Other Poems" [typescript
manuscript, 1958]
"Buffalo River Tales and Other Poems" [book, 1958]
"Poems From the Wayside" [1960]
"Rhymes of Old Age" [1961]
"86 Poems at 86" [book, 1961]
Poetry of the Fusion Family [typescript], Journal [24 vols.]
"Here I Am" [biography]
"Westward Ho!" [3 vols., typescript manuscript, Los Angeles,
1955]
Miscellaneous Writings [manuscript, 1906-1914]
Educational Writings [typescript, Harlan, Kentucky, 1931]
Literary Efforts, 1902-1924 [Louisville, Kentucky, 1928]
A Kentucky Mountain Boy: An Autobiography" [Inverness, Florida,
1952]
Letters of the Fuson Family [1927-1937]
Scrap-books [30 vols., 1905-1942]
Fuson Family Records [1961]
"History of Harlan County, Kentucky: Some Chapters" [1942]
"The Battling Ages" [typescript manuscript, Harlan, Kentucky,
1945]
"Honey in the Rock" [manuscript, Harlan, Kentucky, 1945]
"Many Colored Sands" [manuscript, Harlan, Kentucky, 1945]
"Pegasus in Kentucky ..." [book]
"The Golden Age" [book]
"The Wolves of Hinterland" [typescript, manuscript, Inverness,
Florida, 1951]
"Following the Game Trail" [typescript manuscript, Inverness,
Florida, 1951]
"Fruit of the Vine" [book, Palatine, Illinois, 1955]
"Down Country Lanes" [typescript manuscript, 1955]
"The Winding Trail" [typescript manuscript, Harlan, Kentucky?
1955]
"Winning of the West" [book, Los Angeles, 1956]
"The Fig Tree" [typescript manuscript, Los Angeles, 1956]
"Call of the Wild" [typescript manuscript, 1956]
"Stories from the Kentucky Mountains" [typescript, compilation,
12 vols., 1956-1963]
"Halley's Comet Again" [typescript manuscript, Los Angeles?
1956-1957]
"Nuggets of Gold" [book, 1957]
"The Phantom Horseman" [Los Angeles, 1957]
"A Time for Dreams" [typescript manuscript, 1958]
"The Trees Remember" [book, 1960]
"I ride to visit schools; the story of early education in the
Kentucky mountains"
[book, 1961]
"The Last Leaf" [book, 1963]
"The Wider View of Life" [book, 1963]
" The Honking Geese" [misc. material, Los Angeles, 1956]
University of Kentucky Library
Lexington, Kentucky
"Out From Shore" [manuscript, 1963]
"The Dreamers [i.e. Dreamer's] Dream" [poetry manuscript,
1963]
Bell County, Kentucky, Public Library
Pikeville, Kentucky, Public Library
|
