A Woman’s Home is Her Castle: Honoring Lavinia Ballard and Women Who Dared to Stand Tall

Welcome to our new blog series, A Woman’s Home is Her Castle—a heartfelt tribute to the fierce, brilliant, and boundary-breaking women who carved their place in history, often when the world told them they couldn’t.

We’re starting right here at home—with Lavinia Ballard.

Long before hashtags, glass ceilings, or even the right to vote, Lavinia Ballard made history in her own bold way. In the 1800s, after the death of her husband, Camden Ballard, she stood her ground—quite literally—and became one of the first women in Kentucky to own property, after winning a court case that defied the legal norms of her time. That house? You’ve probably walked through it. You may have even felt a chill or heard a whisper. Today, it stands as the very heartbeat of our La Grange bookstore.

But Lavinia wasn’t just a name on a deed. She was a force. And we believe her story—and stories like hers—deserve to be told, honored, and carried forward.

This blog will explore women like Lavinia: women who fought for what was right, led with courage, and built their own castles in a world designed to shut the gates on them. Some were loud. Some were quiet. All were powerful.

We’ll dive into the historical, the haunted, and the heroic. You’ll meet writers, rebels, witches (the real kind and the wrongly accused), and local legends whose legacies still ripple through time.

So pour a cup of tea—or bourbon, we don’t judge—and join us as we step into the past to shed light on the women who built, protected, and ruled their homes, their stories, and their lives with unwavering strength.

Because in this house? We believe a woman’s home is her castle.

Up next: The true story of Livinia Ballard—ghost, legend, and pioneer.

Stay tuned, The From the Ground Up Books Team

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