USA > Kentucky > Hardin County > Elizabethtown > A history of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and its surroundings > Part 15
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BLACKSMITHS
at this time all cannot be named. One-eyed Jake Blink was a gunsmith and blacksmith in the early history of the town. John Ferguson was also a blacksmith-cut no considerable figure except that he was the grandfather of Usher F. Linder, Esq., at this time in Chicago. Linder became a lawyer of considerable eminence, was an able debater and sometimes eloquent. He practiced law in Hardin for several years and then left for Charleston, Ill., in which State he served in the Legislature and was elected Attorney General of the State.
David Vance and Jack Quick were blacksmiths. John Rodman was also a fine blacksmith.
Daniel M. Williams, born within two miles of this town, served his apprenticeship in Nelson, and about the year 1812 opened a shop in
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this town. He was an industrious, hard working man and made things move. In winter his hammers rang until 9 o'clock at night and at 5 o'clock in the morning the well-known ring of his hammers awakened the sleepy neighbors. His wife was made of the same industrious stamp and the breakfasts were eaten by candlelight. When clerk of two courts I boarded at his house one year with my deputy, Wm. Fairley, Esq., and that year seemed to fix my early habits of rising.
The result was Williams, by honest industry, accumulated enough to buy an excellent farm on Middle Creek, where, as a prosperous farmer, he lived in high style, exercising the rights of hospitality as true Kentuckians in his day were famous for. But some few years ago he died, leaving a comfortable estate.
JAMES COOK,
an Englishman, was an excellent blacksmith, and carried on his trade extensively for several years, say from about 1815 to about 1825, when he died in the prime of life.
JAMES HAGEN
Soon after came James Hagen. He carried on his smithing several years and moved to the country, where he died.
JOSEPH SWEETS
might be said to come next. A good, smooth and an accommodating, honest man; still continues the business. He is very fond of turkey hunting and as evidences of his trophies in that way he has nailed up to a joist a row of turkey legs more than any other man in town can boast of. Joe has had so much turkey that it is a wonder he has not grown fat, but he still continues in the race horse order. He is a quiet, worthy citizen.
Many other blacksmiths of ancient date might be named, but they made no particular mark, rendering it unnecessary to mention them.
MERCHANTS
I have already named the most of them, but there is one man that deserves notice.
LEWIS HELM
was born on Hardins Creek, Washington county, and when a child
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his father moved to Sugar Tree Run, in Breckinridge county, about the year 1819, where Lewis spent the first few years of his life. After his brother, the Hon. John B. Helm, got established in business, Lewis entered his store and afterward became a partner and continued busi- ness with various partners till shortly before his death in 1828. He was a fine specimen of a Kentuckian, tall and of large frame, of commanding appearance; in fact, one of the finest looking men in Kentucky, and was universally popular. But notwithstanding his manly form and in early life his excellent health promising long life, he was taken off in the prime of life, leaving a handsome estate.
COL. Q. C. SHANKS,
now of Hartford, Ohio County, a son of James Shanks, once surveyor of Bullitt county, was not actually a resident of Elizabethtown but was a frequent visitor.
He raised the Twelfth Kentucky regiment of cavalry and was at- tached to the brigade of Gen. Harlan. He was in the flight with Gen. Morgan at the Rolling Fork in January, 1863. He had in his possession the compass and chain used in laying out the city of Louisville. They were formerly owned by Wm. Peyton, who presented them to him in memory of his father, who was his old companion and acted together in surveying in early and dangerous times.
I have now gone further in particularizing individual citizens than I originally proposed to do and my limits will necessarily compel me to leave out the names of many worthy men who in their day walked in our midst and filled up a space which without them would have been void, or I might have mentioned the names of John Park, David Weller and Joseph J. Hastings, who for many years were good citizens and active members of the Presbyterian church, who have gone to their reward.
Also Geo. Matthis, John Quiggins, Merideth Arthur and R. D. Geohegan, now living and pillars of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Also Samuel L. Hodgen, a zealous and godly man of the Christian church (better known as the Campbellite church), and his wife, Ann E. Hodgen, Mrs. Poston and Eliza Vertrees, members of the same church, all now living except the first named, S. L. Hodgen, who was called home to his reward some years since.
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I would with much pleasure have given the dates of the formation of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic churches, but have not been able to obtain the information, although I have frequently applied to the officials of these churches, and if at a future period, before I close this history, I am furnished the data I will give it publicity.
I shall, in my succeeding numbers, turn my attention to the bar, or the attorneys who, in early years, practiced law in the courts of Elizabethtown.
CHAPTER XLV
HEZEKIAH SMALLWOOD
was a worthy citizen whose name should not be forgotten-in fact, his monument stands in nearly one-half of the brick houses of Elizabeth- town, for he made the brick of which at least one-half of the houses were composed, up to August 7, 1869. I have not been able to learn to a certainty the place of his birth, but the early part of his days were spent about Alexandria, Virginia, near the District of Columbia. But as the people of the United States are noted for their roving or adventurous disposition and very few men, like myself, live all their lives where they were born, but generally seek some other place to live than the place of their birth, that is not at all surprising when we remember what a vast country we have-yes, room for all, and thousands of thousands, if not millions, more, and multiplied millions upon that, and heretofore the free laws and institutions of our country permitted the inhabitants to migrate from place to place until the spot was hit upon to suit the fancy of the individual seeking a home for life. Indeed, it was not uncom- mon for a man to settle down, open a farm and raise a large family, and then seek some place where he could have more room for expan- sion. In old England, where the population is dense and the habits of an old settled country established, it is common for generation after generation to occupy the same place and follow the same pursuits, de- scending from father to son and from son to grandson, down, down, down for hundreds of years, but not so in our land of such extensive range.
So friend Smallwood emigrated from his birthplace and the first location I find him in, is Buffalo Creek, two miles from Elizabethtown,
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in the year 1802, but he must have been about for some time before, for in the ardor of his youth he had wooed and won the hand of a Miss Frankie Owens. Her parents, fearing to trust their daughter to the hands of a stranger, objected. But bolts and bars are not so con- structed as to keep lovers apart. She went with him in open daylight from the paternal roof and, although a policy not always safe, she fell into the arms of one of the most affectionate husbands that ever lived. While living on Buffalo Creek he made a small kiln of brick for my father, and at the age of ten years I had the honor to break off the brick from the moulder's table, assisted by a younger brother. This was the second attempt to make brick in this town. It was looked upon as a great curiosity. One single mould was used, and twenty-five hundred brick a day, besides edging up and breaking, was considered a splendid day's work.
Rev. Ben Ogden, a Methodist preacher, had about twenty-five hun- dred brick made to burn in the same kiln. I was employed to bear off, and received for it fifty cents in silver, the first money I ever owned. A double-bladed knife was a thing I had long coveted, and without suffering the money to burn my pocket, I hastened to Major Crutcher's store and spent my half-dollar, got the double-bladed knife and then ran home in a rapture of bliss and soon had the privilege of hearing myself called A CALF.
Mr. Smallwood moved to Elizabethtown in 1806, opened a brick yard at the end of Main street and there moulded and burned brick for many years-in fact, until he had used all the dirt on his lot that was fit for brick. He then moved across the creek, built a better house and continued at his trade until death overtook him. Mr. Smallwood was strictly an honest man, and his heart was as deeply imbued with the milk of human kindness as ever throbbed in the breast of man. But at first he was a bad calculator and became involved in debt, and was actually committed to the county jail for nonpayment, that remnant of barbarous ages, imprisonment, yet resting on our books, but some friend bailed him out and, having learned from experience, he was more fortunate, paid his debts and lived comfortably the balance of his days.
On perusing an old record of the Baptist Church, I find that in July, 1802, he was appointed by the church to cite a disorderly member to appear and answer. Of course he must have belonged to the church
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for some time before, but the old record has a little touch of fire, and the date and manner of his reception in the church cannot be found. He died in the year 1838, having lived a consistent member of the church. His descendants are partly among us to this day (1870). His son, James S. Smallwood, a worthy man, met his death a few years since on the railroad. He left a genteel, deserving family. One of his daughters was lately married to the Rev. J. S. Gatton, the present popu- lar pastor of the Baptist Church in this town. A grandson, John H. Stewart, Esq., is United States assessor for this county, a faithful and efficient officer. Some think he is so straight up that he leans a little back in his zeal to serve the Government in good faith.
Our old friend had another son, who now lives in Kansas, Hender- son Smallwood, Esq., and report says his son, Hillary Smallwood, is elected secretary of state of Kansas, having previously served in the Senate of that State.
PRINTERS
Hon. Stephen Elliot was born in Otsego county, New York, in February, 1806. After receiving a common school education he served an apprenticeship in the printing business at the then country town about five miles east of where the city of Syracuse now stands. This town was then composed of one frame house. It would take a de- tective with a search warrant to find the place now, as it is swallowed up by the city. He came to Kentucky in 1823 and spent some time in that part of Breckinridge county called Quality Corner, so called on account of the settlement of a number of Virginia gentlemen, high-toned, wealthy and rather aristocratic, such as the Alexanders, Andersons, Washingtons, Browns, Fishers, Murrays, etc. They occupied a beauti- ful valley of rich land, where was kept up for years old Virginia in miniature, with all its proverbial hospitality, social visits and good cheer, and the usual round of Virginia sports and pastimes, and lucky was the man of leisure and decent apparel that got into their society on a favora- ble footing, for he was carried round from house to house and feasted at tables that literally groaned under the most precious viands of the land, including game, fowl, fish and generous wines, such as would make an epicure lick his lips and congratulate himself on his comforta- ble quarters.
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Stephen roamed about a little, found out the names of really every man and woman on Sugar-tree run, spent a while at Natchez, Missis- sippi, then at Hardinsburg, Breckinridge county, and was employed in a printing office soon after he came to Elizabethtown in April, 1826.
Here he engaged in the first printing office ever established in Elizabethtown, publishing a paper called the Western Intelligencer, edited by John E. Hardin and published by Milton Gregg. He was afterward engaged with his brother, Jacob Elliot, in publishing the Kentucky Statesman. He opened a new office in the spring of 1834 and published a paper called the Kentucky Register, and in connection, with various partners continued its publication for many years, after which he retired from the printing business and engaged in other pursuits. He is perhaps the oldest practical printer in the State. He has preserved several mementoes of the art, one of them a composing stick, which from its appearance is at least one hundred years old. It is made of brass and is worn almost as thin as paper. Another is an ancient printing press stowed away in an upper room over one of his store houses. It is part wood and part iron, called Stansberry's patent. This press was once owned by the Hon. Thomas Chilton, who published a paper on it in this town. It was then considered a great improvement on all printing presses then known.
NOW LOOK AT IT
Judge Elliot was for many years a justice of the Hardin County Court and also filled the office of city judge. He is yet an active busi- ness man of the first order of business qualities, and has lately shown good taste in the opened fronts and other improvements on his store houses on Main street, which has greatly improved the appearance of things in that quarter.
CHAPTER XLVI
In taking up my recollections of the bar or attorneys that practiced at the bar in Elizabethtown, as an impartial historian it will involve some labor and delicacy.
That history commenced in my infancy and some of it before I was born. Of course I have drawn to a certain extent upon tradition. It is not my intention to go into the history of the young fry of lawyers
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now at the bar, but of such as are now dead or have made history for themselves.
LAWYERS
The first lawyer that ever sat his foot in Severn's Valley in which Elizabethtown now stands was
JAMES DOHERTIE,
in January, 1793, of whom I have heretofore spoken. He came to my father's house, then in a wilderness, and being out of money, proposed to work his way and assisted in providing wood, etc., during the coming sugar-making season, which opened in February, and aided my mother and the children in making "home-made sugar." There was quite a camp on the old farm of tall, beautiful sugar trees standing thick on the ground. The undergrowth was chiefly pawpaw and spicewood.
Did any of my readers ever visit an old-fashioned sugar camp? Imagine for a furnace a trench three feet wide on a hillside, of sufficient depth for staving in wood, and a row of kettles set on the furnace and fastened around with spauls of stone and clay with a chimeny three feet high in the rear, then a half faced camp built around three sides cov- ered with boards, with a large trough on each side to hold sugar water and sometimes a few still tubs.
Then the trees were tapped by cutting a notch in each tree capable of holding a gill, then a gimlet hole at the corner into which a small elder stalk was inserted-that was called the spile-a wooden trough under each spile of about the capacity of two gallons, which on good sugar days from a full grown tree was filled with sap about twice a day, then a gentle horse was hitched to a wood sled holding a barrel and a funnel in it made out of a gourd, and you have all the machinery used in sugar making.
Now, if none of you have ever broiled a piece of middling on a stick over the chimney of a sugar furnace, then had a tincup full of spice- wood tea made of boiling sugar water, with a cold corn johnny cake or corn dodger and luxuriated upon it, you know nothing about the real luxury of life.
Sally Lunn, pound cake, rusk, even Hallent russ as the Irish cook would call it, roast beef, plum pudding and all such nicknacks eaten in houses on tables will not compare to it. Then the molasses and tacky-
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wax made at those camps threw every other delicacy in the shade. But I have digressed. I was going to talk about lawyers.
Well, in due time the 26th of February rolled around. The first court that ever sat in Hardin county took place at the house of Isaac Hynes in Severn's Valley. A quarter session court opened in due form of law, and then the announcement was made, "O-yes, O-yes, O-yes, silence is now commanded under the pain of fine and imprisonment while the justice of the Hardin Quarter Session Court is now in sitting. All who have suits to prosecute please enter or motions to make come forward and you will be heard. God save the Commonwealth."
Then James Dohertie left the camp, washed his face and hands, gathered a paper out of his knapsack and wended his way to this new court, showed his law license and was sworn in as an attorney-at-law, and the occurrence astonished all the men and women in the Valley. I never saw Dohertie, for it was two years and a half before I saw the light, and then he had departed to parts unknown.
THE HON. STEPHEN ORMSBY
was admitted to the bar on the 24th day of September, 1793. He was a sturdy Irishman from the old sod. Some years afterward he was ap- pointed circuit judge and presided in Hardin several years. He lived in Louisville, and I think he died there.
WILLIAM M. LONG, ESQ.,
on the same day was appointed by the court as attorney for the Com- monwealth. Each county then appointed their own prosecuting attor- ney and the governor did not commission them. Tradition says he was a profound lawyer and an able jurist. He also left before I was born.
JAMES NOURSE, ESQ.,
was admitted to the bar at the June term, 1794. He was said to be a good lawyer and a first-rate surveyor, and wrote a hand of surprising beauty. He was a business man and highly esteemed by a large circle of acquaintances, but in consequence of some aberration of mind he died by his own hand, leaving a family of the highest respectability, and was unusually regretted. Indeed, it was a shock upon the com- munity in which he lived. Bardstown was his home.
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ALLEN MILTON WAKEFIELD
was admitted to the bar in December, 1795, and must have been con- sidered an able lawyer, as he was appointed with the judges after the formation of the Circuit Court system.
HON. JOHN POPE
was admitted to the bar on the 2nd day of February, 1796. He was born in Prince William county, Virginia, in 1770. Having when quite young lost his right arm by accident, he determined to study law and attained the very highest eminence at the bar. He removed to Ken- tucky and served a number of years in the Lgislature. He was a senator in Congress from Kentucky from 1807 to 1812, and after acting a part of the time as president pro tem. of that body, in 1829 he was appointed governor of Arkansas. He served as a representative in Congress from 1836 to 1843. He resided many years in the city of Lexington, but in the latter part of his life removed to Springfield, in Washington county. He was a handsome man of large stature and pleasing address, and stood as high as any man of his day as an elo- quent pleader. He died July 12, 1845.
HON. FELIX GRUNDY
first came to Elizabethtown at September term, 1797. He was born in Virginia, September II, 1770, removed with his father to Kentucky, and was educated at Bardstown Academy. He studied law and soon became distinguished at the bar. He commenced his public career at the age of twenty-two as a member of the Legislature of the State of Kentucky. In 1806 he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Kentucky and soon after chief justice. In the year 1807 he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and became eminent as a lawyer. From 181I to 1814 he was a representative in Congress from Tennessee, and during several years he was a representative in the Legislature of that State. From 1829 to 1838 he was United States senator, and in later years was appointed by President Van Buren attorney general of the United States. In 1840 he resigned that position and was again elected senator in Congress. He died in Nashville on December 12, 1840. If all the public acts of this extraordinary man could be collected it would make a volume.
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CHAPTER XLVII
In my last number I commenced giving my recollections of the bar at Elizabethtown.
And having in that number arrived at a point where I needed the knowledge of some facts I found I had omitted some professional men. For instance:
DR. JAMES W. SMITH
came to Elizabethtown about the year 1830 and remained here the balance of his life. As a physician he was a very popular man, had an extensive practice and accumulated a handsome estate. He built the Shower's house and resided in it until his death, which occurred in the year 186 -. The Doctor had many warm friends, who deeply regretted his death.
HEZEKIAH SMALLWOOD AGAIN
It has been suggested to me that I should not have spoken of his imprisonment for debt. But I contend that it was proper to name it, for that made a turning point in the management of his temporal concerns. He was not imprisoned for crime or disorderly conduct, for he was well known by all as a strictly honest man and an orderly walking Christian man. But it was for debt, and how did he become indebted? It grew out of the goodness and kindness of his heart in employing more hands than was necessary to carry on his business in order that their labor might be lighter, and his generosity in giving those hands too high wages and then, through mistaken policy, feasted them too high. All these things closed in on him stealthily but steadily and caught him unawares in debt, and some Shylock must needs have his pound of flesh, availed himself of a law then in existence, a relic of barbarism and a disgrace to our statute books, and cast him into prison. Some generous friend assisted him, and having discovered the leak which sunk his ship he adopted a new policy, paid all his debts and lived in comfort the balance of his days. To say that he lived com- fortably does not express the true status of his family, for if there ever was a family in which true kindness and love toward each other existed in an eminent degree it was to be found under the happy roof of Hezekiah Smallwood.
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There all the generous feelings and affections existing in the family circle, embracing the connubial, parental, paternal relations were culti- vated, not as a cold science, but were the spontaneous outgushings of the deeply seated and over-flowing fountains of generous souls and loving hearts.
In the number heretofore published in speaking of the descendants of the old patriarch I made an allusion to his grandson, John H. Stewart, Esq., the typesetter omitted the word ALMOST, which left some little doubt about the proper construction of the passage. I meant to convey the idea that he was a faithful and honest officer, striving to secure to the Government all that was right under the law and no more, and my remark that he was so straight up as (almost) to lean back was merely intended to give my idea of an honest officer.
One of Hezekiah Smallwood's daughters married a gentleman named William Deckar. One of his sons, Henry Deckar, lives in Owensboro, Ky., a respectable young man, a strong advocate of temperance, and belongs to the Good Templars. But the paper of that city has rather pitched into him, charging him with having taken two horns and that it was a matter of record. This was rather calculated to shake the confidence of his friends in his sobriety until it was explained. He had been twice married and each time to a lady named Horn.
I have been particular in giving the descendants of my old friend, having previously spoken of Hillary Smallwood, a grandson, who was a Senator in Kansas and now elected Secretary of State, in order to show the progressive nature of our institutions and how from small beginnings and humble pretentions, where honesty and correct morals are taught and better feelings of the heart cultivated, there is, com- paratively speaking, no bounds set to the attainments and prosperity of the descendants down the stream of time, flowing from such a fountain.
NEWSPAPERS AGAIN
In 1857 J. T. Phillips bought out the Elizabethtown Intelligencer, a "know nothing" paper which was previously published by C. G. Smith and George Parker with decided ability. When Smith and Parker sold out they went to Glasgow, where they published a paper for some time. Geo. W. Parker, Esq., on quitting that paper, removed
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to Charleston, Ill., where he is now a successful practitioner of law and vice-president of a railroad company.
Phillips then commenced the publication of the Elizabethtown Democrat, the first Democratic paper ever published in the county except a paper previously published by Chas. Hutchings many years before. In 1860 Phillips sold out his paper to Colonel, now Judge M. H. Cofer, who continued the paper until shortly before he went to the Southern Confederacy in the late war.
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