Rev. Newton Bush was in the Company “E” 5th United States Colored Cavalry.

He mustered in at Camp Nelson, was wounded at Simpsonville, and worked to try to get a pension on behalf of the widow of a fallen soldier from the Simpsonville massacre. Rev. Bush is presented by Robert Bell, a veteran re-enactor and member of the Kentucky Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.

John G. Fee was a noted abolitionist and founder of Berea College.

Fee gave up his comfortable life and his property to pursue the cause of abolition and dedicated himself to providing the education he believed was equally important to true emancipation. Obadiah Ewing-Roush, an MFA student in theatre at the University of Louisville, portrays Fee.

Private William Greathouse On August 24, 1813, at approximately nineteen years of age, William Greathouse answered Governor Isaac Shelby’s call for militia men to run the British out of Upper Canada. Greathouse’s account follows his adventures on this rapidly executed campaign into Canada. The victory at the Thames broke England’s power in the Old Northwest and proved to their Native American allies that the British could no longer be relied upon for protection or maintenance. Pvt. Greathouse is portrayed by Harry Smith, a student at Harrison County High School.

Johnny Green was 19 at the outset of the Civil War and one of the only soldiers in the Orphan Brigade alive when it ended.

Orphan Brigade soldiers were unable to return to their home state of Kentucky until the war was over — lest they be tried for treason — because they chose to fight for the Confederacy. Ethan Smith, student at Georgetown College and veteran Chautauquan, portrays Green.

Emilie Todd Helm was the sister of Mary Todd Lincoln and the wife of Confederate Gen. Benjamin Hardin Helm.

After Gen. Helm was killed at Chickamauga, Emilie Todd Helm visited the Lincolns in the White House, arousing protest and controversy. Back in Elizabethtown, she was later hailed as the mother of the Orphan Brigade. Betsy Smith, of Cynthiana, gives this insightful portrayal.

Grandpa Jones will be remembered by many of you from his television days on Hee Haw, which showcased his skills as a vaudeville comic and musician.

Inducted into the County Music Hall of Fame in 1978, Jones wrote many of his most popular songs and toured with Bradley Kincaid. Grandpa Jones was a native of Henderson, Kentucky. David Hurt, of Frankfort, brings him back to the stage by way of Kentucky Chautauqua.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States and Kentuckian, never forgot the lessons of his early years in LaRue County.

During the Civil War, Lincoln was unpopular in Kentucky, but when he said, “I too am a Kentuckian,” no one could dispute it. Jim Sayre, of Lawrenceburg, presents Kentucky’s Lincoln.

Harland "Colonel" Sanders His life story is about much more than fried chicken, including lessons learned throughout the future chicken king’s life as well as insights into Sanders, the man.

With only a sixth grade education but a natural talent for sales, Sanders had many jobs — mule tender, railroad worker, lawyer — before becoming the nationally famous “Colonel” at the age most retire. He is recreated by Henry Dowell, actor, who also portrays Dr. Ephraim McDowell for Kentucky Chautauqua.

Mary Settles, the last survivor of the Pleasant Hill Shakers, was left at the village along with her small children when her husband learned that she would be of no use in producing the large family he needed to farm in Missouri.

Mary Settles saw the Civil War from the point of view of the Shakers, her adopted extended family. Settles is portrayed by Janet Scott, an accomplished nationally recognized actress, who currently coaches University of Kentucky Opera Theatre students.