To: the Sasser list (particularly those who have become members since I first shared this information) From: Glenn E. Perry Since my recent posting of the material from the Henry Sasser Bible, I have been asked about the history of this Bible. Rhoda Glass, as I mentioned, had possession of the Bible for a long time. A granddaughter of Jesse Sasser, she was a teacher in Lexington, Kentucky for many years. After retiring from the public schools, she even taught--or so I understood--at the University of Kentucky, presumably as an adjunct. I don't really know the history of the book before she got it. I had assumed that she inherited it from her mother, Francis Evelyn Sasser Glass, but I recently heard that it had been in the possession of Champ Sasser (son of Wallace Sasser and his second wife and grandson of Jesse Sasser), who lived just across the hill in Knox County from the Henry Sasser place at Blackwater. Allegedly, Rhoda borrowed it from Champ--who presumably was not considered the right sort of person to care for something with so much value to the family--and never returned it. But I cannot verify this story. When my grandmother told me about Rhoda Glass and the Bible in 1955 I inferred that Rhoda had had it for a long time. Rhoda never married. She had nieces who would have been expected to inherit the Bible from her after her death in ca. 1972. But apparently they were not interested in it and allowed my aunt, Lucy Taylor Stanfield, to take it to give to her aunt (my great aunt), Rebecca Taylor Deming (daughter of Susan Sasser Taylor and granddaughter of Jesse), in Nebraska. I understood that Aunt Becky was particularly sentimental about this Bible because of its association with her grandmother, Nancy Gilbert Sasser. But at the time I thought it was unfortunate for it to be given to somebody who had no children to hand it down to. It was my understanding that Aunt Lucy would get the Bible back after Aunt Becky's death (in 1980). I even gathered that she would eventually give it to me. Although my interest in these matters was somewhat dormant in those days, I kept asking about the Bible. Aunt Lucy seemed almost to have forgotten about it in her old age. It was only a couple of years ago--after asking various people who seemed either not to know what I was talking about or not to think it was very important--that I found out that my mother's brother, Robert Taylor, had obtained the Bible following Aunt Becky's death. Then I was told that he in turn had given it to my first cousin, Paul Harris, who now, or so I hear, has moved--following his retirement--from Cincinnati to Shelbyville, Indiana. Actually, I suppose it is Paul's wife, Yvonne, who was especially interested in the Bible, for I know that she is intensely involved in genealogy, as she wrote to me about the matter in the early 1980s. Expecting to see them now that they live fairly close to me as well as hoping to get a xerox copy, I wrote to the Harrises almost a year ago after being unable to reach them by telephone. They have not answered my letter. I am going to inquire further about whether I have the wrong address. But now I have been told, as I reported a few months ago, that my first cousin and his wife have cut out the pages with writing and deposited them in the Kentucky state archives in Frankfort. I had been hoping that someone would allow a museum or whatever to preserve the book. But the story is that the archives would not take either the whole Bible or xerox pages. Again, this is hearsay, but--assuming that it is true--should we be be rejoicing that the pages are being preserved (at least until some archivist decides they are of no significance) or grieving over the book being mutilated? It would be interesting to hear everybody's opinion on the matter. ***************************************** Glenn E. Perry Department of Political Science Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN 47809 USA E-Mail: psperrg@scifac.indstate.edu (812)237-2505 (office) (812)234-5661 (home) ****************************************