A Uniform Does Not a Colonel Make or Does It?
Kentucky Colonelcy holds its roots in Colonial America when the colonels (heads of colony) took stock in their freedom and patriotism to remove the foreign influence of a repressive regime of taxation and sovereign authority over the American colonies. The (native sons) of the Americas many of whom were colonels born here, began the removal of the British in 1774. Within the next 25 years these colonels had liberated American from the British and established treaties eliminating their role as colonels through the introduction of a civilian state (sovereign republic). During those years colonels held all the power and authority they could wield to accomplish their Most Honorable Order, "establish law and order in the eyes of a civil government". Colonels in-fact came from 13 colonies to Kentucky starting in 1780, within 10 years there were colonels of all shapes and sizes retiring to Kentucky after the liberation of America from the Monarchy based on land warrants as pay for participating in the American Revolution, some had uniforms and some did not, there were colonels from New Jersey to Georgia headed to Kentucky to meet the great Col. Daniel Boone, who was at that time a living legend.
In the 1800s Kentucky's Governors, commissioned civilian "Colonels" as their honor guard for all those who present themselves to the office of the Governor. Some governors did not have colonels, some had an aide-de-camp, some had colonels that were an aide-de-camp and some just had a dog to watch their front door. These few colonels that were designated by the governors most likely had uniforms and the descriptions for them most likely are in the archives of the state somewhere unless they were burnt in one of the fires at the capitol in the 1800s. Kentucky state government has built four capitols in Frankfort. Fire destroyed the first two. The third, known today as the Old State Capitol, is open as a museum, the new one was inaugurated in 1910.
In the 1920's Kentucky Colonelcy took on a new dimension and popularity with the silent-movie, "The Kentucky Colonel" starring Joseph J. Dowling based on the popular best-selling American novel "A Kentucky Colonel" by Opie Read written 30 years previously.
