How Kentucky culture spawned the National Spelling Bee

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

“I’ve wandered down to the village, Tom,

And eat beneath the tree,

Upon the school house playground,

That sheltered you and me; 

But none were left to greet me, Tom,

And few were left to know

Who spelled me down at the ‘Spellin’ Bee,’

Just forty years ago.

play on ‘Twenty Years Ago,’ by A.J. Gault²

“Remember the old blue-backed speller³, with its dog-ears and thumb-marks and penciled notes, a hated, yet treasured possession that was lugged to school each day, the first book under the strap?” 

“And remember the shudders that ran through the class when a whole page was assigned by the bespectacled teacher as ‘tomorrow’s lesson’?

“And how the whole class would stand, back to wall, on ‘visitor’s day,’ and hesitate, stumble, then spell words hurled at them from between the soiled covers?

“And finally, at commencement time, when pig-tails gave way to pompadours and tousled heads were brushed straight, and starched gingham and creased pants were brought out, that Willie or Mary was presented to the applauding audience as the school’s star speller”?⁴

The Louisville Courier Journal’s vivid 1924 depiction of student spelling drills would have rung true across the state, a ritual regularly repeated since the one room schoolhouse first appeared.

It’s not hard to imagine how these classroom drills morphed into our modern day spelling bee, which has maintained its emphasis on student participants. 

But you might be surprised to learn that from at least the last quarter of the 19th century through roughly the Great Depression era, the spelling bee (or ‘spelling match’ or ’spelling battle’) was a sought after social activity outside the classroom, particularly in small mountain communities that lacked access to big city entertainments.

In much the same way as the quilting bee or the corn husking bee brought farm mountain neighbors together to share the workload, the spelling bee brought them together to unwind.

It’s easy to assume that the ‘bee’ portion of the phrase derives from the industrious, social nature of a beehive. But in fact the word most likely comes from the Middle English word bene, which means “a prayer” or “a favor” (and is related to the more familiar word boon).⁶ In England, a dialect form of this word, been or bean, referred to “voluntary help given by neighbors toward the accomplishment of a particular task.” 

Bee may simply be a shortened form of been.

In an 1877 article, the editors of the Interior Journal (Stanford, KY) frame the spelling bee not as a casual pastime, but as a Public Good: “A Western journal says that one of their local judges recently had a lesson in spelling. The incident affords a ‘Spelling Bee’ suggestion. The witness before the court was a Mr. Wood. ‘What is your name?’ asked the clerk. ‘Ottiwell Wood,’ answered the witness. ‘How do you spell your name?’ then asked the somewhat puzzled judge. Mr. Wood replied, ‘O double T, I double U, E double L, double U, double O D.’ The astonished judge though it the most extraordinary name he had ever met with, and after two or three attempts to record it, gave it up, amid roars of laughter.”⁷

The spelling bee was often employed as a fundraising tool: “A birthday party, musicale and spelling bee, for the benefit of the Ladies Columbian Club, of Danville, was given at the home of Mrs. Samuel G. Boyle, Wednesday evening,” reported the same newspaper in 1893.⁸

Nor was the spelling bee the exclusive domain of the well-heeled. In September 1890, a Missouri detective named T.V. Imboden tracked Harlan murderer John Howard all the way to Hindville, AR.

Howard’s crimes were numerous enough that the KY governor had offered a $500 reward for his capture ($500 in 1890 is worth $14,673.30 today, if you’re wondering).

“At the time the detective caught him he was enjoying a spelling bee,” reported the Interior Journal on September 30.⁹

The community spelling bee format generally featured a master of ceremonies who selected the contest’s words from the blue back speller that local citizens would have grown up with, and two teams headed up by ‘choosers’ who’d select their team from the audience. The Adair County News noted that one spelling bee at the courthouse in Columbia “could only get a few to spell, thirteen on a side.” The fact that 26 participants was considered a lean turnout suggests the popularity of spelling bees in the public eye.¹⁰

Competition was as fierce as that on any gridiron or baseball diamond. “A hot wave may strike your cheek,” quipped the Mt. Sterling Advocate. ¹¹ “Don’t get excited. It is just the ‘feller’ next to you that has exhausted all of his forces. A weak and shaky sensation will creep up your limbs and a large lump about the size of a football will arise in your throat, but push it back. The second attack will come after you cool off.”

Newspapers were only too happy to fan the flame by applauding victors with the enthusiasm of an Olympics judging committee: “Professor C.P. Caywood covered himself with glory by spelling down all competitors,” crowed the Mountain Advocate (Barbourville, KY) of one PTA sponsored bee. ¹²

An anecdote from the Hindman Settlement School (founded 1902) illustrates clearly that students at the century’s turn were still expected to purchase their own spelling books before attending school: ” ‘You’ll have no trouble with Effie, she’s nine and a good hand to work, and she’s a pure scholar.’ And Effie’s mother bade farewell to the settlement worker, swung over her shoulder the saddle-bags, and started out the door and down the hill to the waiting wagon. Effie sat, meantime, in the new boots Mammy had just bought her and the homespun dress Granny had woven and sewed, holding firmly to the speller whose contents she knew backward and forward.”¹³

And former students hung onto their blue back spellers into adulthood. An announcement in the Maysville Public Ledger for a 1914 community spelling bee declares: “Bring your spelling book, your husband, your wife, your children, your sweetheart, and a good time.” ¹⁴

By the turn of the 20th century the generation that had come of age when the spelling bee first surged to popularity was panicked that good spelling had become a lost art. 

“The school [of the 1850s] was a very different institution from the school of nowadays,” wrote Eugene Newman in 1911. ¹⁵ “The teacher was strong on spelling and on ciphering. The pupil was required to wade through the old blue back speller at least twice before he was permitted to read. Nowadays they put children to reading before they know their letters. The old-fashioned spelling bee is a thing of the past, when on Friday afternoon the school was divided into two classes and competed for the prize that was awarded for excellence in spelling. We have none of that now, and that is why we have so few good spellers.”

One editorial writer at the Public Ledger opined that employers of 1920 were throwing up their hands in horror at the spelling of their ‘young stenographers.’ “They spell with a lick and a promise, going at it phonetically and blaming the sad result upon the typewriter. Perhaps a little of the drill and the fun of the old-fashioned spelling bee would give the youngsters a better start.”¹⁶

The repeated drumbeat from the older folks sparked a renewed public interest in the spelling bee.

To a Kentuckian of the early 1920s encountering all this hand wringing, it probably wasn’t such a surprise to learn that in late 1924, the Kentucky Educational Association had teamed up with underwriter Louisville Courier Journal and eight other newspapers to stem the downward spelling spiral by creating a statewide spelling bee. By the time the events started to schedule for the following year, the competition opened itself to students nationwide as the National Spelling Bee. The event, now officially known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee, is held annually to this day in late May or early June.

More articles on Kentucky schools:

Traipsin’ the Stage(Opens in a new browser tab)

We air now aiming to give a dumb show for to pleasure the Little Teacher(Opens in a new browser tab)

Kentucky’s fotched-on women(Opens in a new browser tab)

1. Multum In Parvo. | Liverpool Mercury | Monday 12 April 1875 | British Newspaper Archive
2. Spelling Bee at Forest Avenue School Building. (1914, March 20). The Public Ledger, Maysville, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/70854219/
3. Noah Webster published the first volume of A Grammatical Institute of the English Language in 1783. In 1786 the first volume’s official title changed from The First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language to The American Spelling Book. However, generations of school children referred to it as the “blue-backed speller,” because it usually was sold in a blue binding.  Revised versions of the book remained in general use for the entire 19th century.  The book has never been out of print, and about 100 million copies have been sold so far.
4. Statewide Spelling Bee to be Started Next Month by C.J. (1924, September 14). The Louisville Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/107106842/
5. Multum In Parvo. | Liverpool Mercury | Monday 12 April 1875 | British Newspaper Archive
6. Origin of the term Spelling Bee. (2021, January 1). E.W. Scripps National Spelling Bee Official Site. https://spellingbee.com/origin-term-spelling-bee
7. A Western Journal Says. (1877, May 4). Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/221460142/
8. Danville news. (1893, May 12). Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/221216222/
9. https://www.newspapers.com/image/222741110/
10. Locals: The Spelling Bee. (1917, August 8). The Adair County News, Columbia, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/93121940/
11. The Effects of a Spelling Bee. (1914, February 11). The Mt. Sterling Advocate, Mt. Sterling, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/71280757/
12. Parent Teacher Association Hold Spelling Bee. (1922, February 17). Mountain Advocate, Barbourville, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/71139252/
13. The Story of the Hindman Settlement School. (1928). Kentucky Historical Society. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/RB/id/3230/rec/7
14. Spelling Bee Tonight at the Forest Avenue School Building. (1914, March 20). The Public Ledger, Maysville, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/70854181/
15. Savoyard [pseud.]. (1911). In the pennyrile of old Kentucky : and Men, things and events. Press of the Sudwarth Company, : Washington : https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7v154dp34h
16. A Lost Art. (1920, November 23). The Public Ledger, Maysville, KY. https://www.newspapers.com/image/171718905/