On March 23, 1910, the General Assembly passed "an act to protect religious worship in assemblages known as Associations, Camp Meetings, etc." The act made it illegal for any person or persons to "engage in the business of erecting or running stands or other contrivances or places whereby soft drinks, tobacco, cigars or refreshments of any kind, whether in the nature of eatables or drinkables" within a mile and a half of the meeting places except where refreshments are sold under supervision of "the Directors or Managers of the meeting." Violators of the act, which was not applied to incorporated towns, were to be punished by fines of up to one hundred dollars.
Ruggles Camp, site of the annual camp meeting sponsored by the United Methodist Church, Lewis County, 1908. Local teenagers commonly quipped, "More souls were made than saved" and "the buggies' creaking sounded like crickets." Contributed by Jean Clark Smoot to the Ohio River Portrait Project, Kentucky Historical Society Collections.
