Monument

Few people living near this monument even know if its existence. Located three miles south of the Shelbyville Courthouse just north of Himesville Road where it intersects with the Old Tullahoma Highway the monument to Beautiful Jim Key and “Jim’s Dear Friends” Albert R. Rogers (Promoter), Monk (Pal – the dog) and Dr. William Key (owner and trainer) sits on a low grassy rise.

Beautiful Jim Key had died in 1912 at age 23 after nine years of the most extraordinary travels, exhibitions and demonstrations of his unexplained abilities to read, write, spell, do mathematics, tell time, sort mail, cite biblical passages and debate politics. He was first buried where he died in the front yard of Dr. Key's widow and then looked after by his brother-in-law, Dr. Stanley Davis, who had taken over the veterinarian duties after Dr. William Key’s death in 1909. When Dr. Davis died, his brother's widow, Essie Davis, moved Beautiful Jim Key to a new burial place on Jim Key Farm. She turned the duties of tending to his grave over to her nieces, along with the scrapbooks and other memorabilia that had belonged to the "World's Smartest Horse," his trainer and promoter.

Those scrapbooks held the information that enabled this wonderful history of a man who through kindness and patience educated a horse and taught a nation about the care of animals. After Essie Mott Lee self-published a book about Dr. Key, in 2005 Mim Eichler Rivas produced a sweeping history that recaptures the “lost” history of Beautiful Jim Key – a most wonderful horse!