Clay Family Society

Lindsey Apple

Many who live in the state of Kentucky appreciate its rich history, but few spend their lives devoted to the discovery and sharing of that history. Dr. Lindsey Apple is approaching his thirtieth year of fostering interest in history, both of Kentucky and beyond, at Georgetown College. 

Though Apple was trained as a French Revolution and Napoleonic scholar and continues to teach and research in that field, he has developed a zeal for gender and family studies, with his focus centered on the Henry Clay family in Kentucky. Through access to Clay family papers, Apple developed his book Cautious Rebel: A Biography of Susan Clay Sawitzky, one of his many publications on aspects of the Clay family and Kentucky history. 

Apple's scholarly focus inspires and aids his students' achievements. Apple assisted one student in researching and writing the text for a set of new historical markers along a walking trail in the Georgetown area. He is currently helping another student in a research project to develop a database on the Underground Railroad and the routes that runaway slaves might have taken through this state. The college has recognized Apple's extraordinary involvement in creative teaching by awarding him the college's premiere recognition for classroom achievement, the Cawthorne Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

"I like to see students get excited about what they are doing," said Apple. 

Over the past thirty years, Apple has been affecting students the way he once was affected by his own Georgetown College professors. He values the rapport he builds with students, which has become his favorite aspect of teaching.

Apple continually strives to learn more that he can share with students and peers, and he has plans for future publications. "I want to stay current in my discipline. I want to continue to have a sense of what is important for students to experience in the classroom." 

“Cautious Rebel, based upon extensive research in the Susan Clay Sawitzky papers as well as other Clay family papers, will be a significant contribution to historical and literary scholarship and should have an appeal to historians and specialists in American literature—especially those with an interest in poetry.” —Nancy Forderhase, Eastern Kentucky University Susan Clay Sawitzky (1897-1981) was born into a traditional Kentucky family dominated by the lingering renown of its patriarch and Susan's great-grandfather, Henry Clay.