Stephen Lyman Bishop (abt. 1821 - 1857)

Born about 1821 in Barren County, Kentucky, United States

Husband of Charlotte (Brown) Bransford — married about 1844 (to 1857) in Jefferson, Kentucky, United States

Died 1857 at about age 36 in Mammoth Cave, Edmonson, Kentucky, United States

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Biography

Stephen Bishop is Notable.

Stephen Bishop, a slave and a guide to the cave during the 1840s and 1850s, was one of the first people to make extensive maps of Mammoth Cave, and named many of the cave's features.

Stephen was born a slave about 1821probably in Barren County, and as a teenager became the property of Frank Gorin (1798-1877)^[1]. He is famous for being one of the lead explorers and guides at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. ^[2]Gorin purhased the cave in 1838. In 1839, Dr John Croghan of Louisville bought the Mammoth Cave Estate, including Stephen and other slaves of Gorin. Croghan briefly ran an ill-fated tuberculosis hospital in the cave. In 1842, Stephen Bishop was sent to Locust Grove to draw a map of the cave from memory. ^[3] Bishop met and married Charlotte Brown at Croghan's estate, Locust Grove, Jefferson, Kentucky, about 1843. They had at least one child, Thomas Bishop. Stephen Bishop was freed by manumission in the year before his death. He passed away in 1857. ^[4]

Research Notes

THE ENSLAVED AT LOCUST GROVE Locust Grove was the home and workplace of dozens of enslaved African Americans during the Croghans’ residency from 1790 to 1849. Some were born here, and others were purchased and brought here to do the work of building the house and outbuildings, planting and harvesting the crops, digging the gardens, preserving and cooking the meals, stitching the clothes, washing the laundry, watching the children, and other tasks. At the peak of the farm’s operations in 1820, more than 40 enslaved people labored here. All of them had little control over the conditions of their lives.

In 1849, the 22 enslaved individuals remaining at Locust Grove were emancipated by the will of Dr. John Croghan. Those who were freed were indentured for seven years to be trained in marketable skills, then finally released from bondage. We do not know where they went after leaving Locust Grove, though some probably remained nearby, while others left for free territory north of the Ohio. We have few details about how the enslaved were treated here, with no words left from them to tell the story. There is no record of any runaways; but we do know that at least three of the enslaved were sold “down river” in New Orleans by the Croghans. Slavery was a cruel institution and the people of early Kentucky struggled with the morality and daily realities of life under a slave system.

OUR RESEARCH INTO THE LIVES OF THE ENSLAVED AT LOCUST GROVE IS ONGOING, AND WE ARE COMMITTED TO SHARING THEIR STORIES. Visit our blog to learn more about our plans, projects, and progress surrounding enslaved interpretation and to hear from those involved in the research and interpretation here. Listen to conversations between two of our interpreters of the enslaved, Caisey Cole and Sidney Edwards, here. Hear from our researcher and volunteer Heather Hiner here. Hear Michael Twitty’s presentation at Locust Grove in May 2018 here. Listen to the March 2019 lecture Teasing Out Black History at Locust Grove by Dr. Joy Carew here. Read about the visit of Joe McGill and the Slave Dwelling Project in August 2019 here. Learn more about our Enslaved Interpretation Task Force here. ^[5]

Slave Owners

• Frank Gorin^[6][7]
• Quotation from Frank Gorin on Wikipedia of Stephen:

"I placed a guide in the cave – the celebrated and great Stephen, and he aided in making the discoveries. He was the first person who ever crossed the Bottomless Pit, and he, myself and another person whose name I have forgotten were the only persons ever at the bottom of Gorin's Dome to my knowledge.

After Stephen crossed the Bottomless Pit, we discovered all that part. of the cave now known beyond that point. Previous to those discoveries, all interest centered in what is known as the "Old Cave" . . . but now many of the points are but little known, although as Stephen was wont to say, they were 'grand, gloomy and peculiar.'

Stephen was a self-educated man. He had a fine genius, a great fund of wit and humor, some little knowledge of Latin and Greek, and much knowledge of geology, but his great talent was a knowledge of man. "

• Dr John Croghan

Sources

1. ↑ http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/barren/obits/g/g6500004.txt
2. ↑ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Cave_National_Park
3. ↑ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Cave_National_Park
4. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10041751/stephen-lyman-bishop : accessed 05 September 2021), memorial page for Stephen Lyman Bishop (1820–15 Aug 1857), Find a Grave Memorial ID 10041751, citing Old Guides Cemetery, Mammoth Cave, Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA ; Maintained by ky caver (contributor 46770774) .
5. ↑ https://locustgrove.org/learn/theenslavedcommunity/
6. ↑ "United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 ", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HR7N-5V3Z : 15 February 2020), Franklin Gorin in entry for MM9.1.1/MVC1-QH6:, 1850.
7. ↑ "United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WKKP-XGT2 : 16 October 2019), Frank Gorin, 1860.

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bishop_(cave_explorer)#:~:text=Stephen Bishop %28c. 1821–1857%29 was a mixed race,Mammoth Cave in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
• https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1887&context=msu_faculty_research
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/15V_Z5vNWbCRwb-enzLqEZD-f2TJb-xTd9ztHlr5k4ss/htmlview#gid=0