Local communities often contributed to the expense of building or operating Confederate soldiers’ homes. In 1902 residents of Morganfield, Kentucky, staged a two-day Old Fiddlers Contest and raised more than $200 for the Kentucky Confederate Home.
The event had some political overtones, however: two of the competing fiddlers were opponents in an upcoming election.
John B. Brasher and E. P. Taylor were both candidates for Congress in the Morganfield district. After a day and night of fiddling, the contest came down to a head-to-head competition between the two politicians. Contest organizers declared the men co-winners (though Taylor beat Brasher in the primary election several months later).
(See Hopkinsville Kentuckian, April 11, 1902.)
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