On Aug. 12, 1921, the Daily News ran a front-page article about James Elwood Kuykendall, who had been elected by his peers to be the grand master of the “colored” Masonic Lodge in Bowling Green.

Born in 1874, he attended Kentucky State College, Fisk University and the Barnes School of Anatomy, Science and Embalming and then opened his own funeral home in February 1900, which he ran successfully for 54 years. The Daily News noted he was “one of the best known colored citizens in the state.”

– “Way Back When in Warren County” is compiled by researchers at the Warren County Public Library and appears twice weekly in the Bowling Green Daily News. For more information about the library, visit warrenpl.org.