USA > Kentucky > Jessamine County > A history of Jessamine County, Kentucky, from its earliest settlement to 1898 > Part 12
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The Bridge at the Mouth of Hickman.
The bridge at the mouth of Hickman was long considered one of the engineering wonders of Kentucky. It was part of the structure of the turnpike between Lexington, Nicholasville and Lancaster. It was projected when the state was interested in in- ternal improvements, and was lending its credit and its money to the construction of railroads, canals and turnpikes. It cost $30,000. The length of a span was 270 feet, which was unusual for a wooden bridge. Garrard county paid a part of the cost of the structure. It required six months to build it, and about
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eighteen workmen were employed upon it-a large proportion of these were unskilled and received a dollar a day. It was erected in 1838 by Lewis B. Wernwag, a native of Pennsylvania ; he died in Lexington, Mo., in 1874, aged seventy-six years. For the time and with the materials at hand, it is a wonderful structure. It has now remained intact for more than sixty years ; it has car- ried all the traffic required on a great thoroughfare, and during the war it was considered so important that a regiment was sta- tioned on either side to protect it from destruction. It is not only a unique piece of engineering, but, in view of the advances in en- gineering since that time, was a signal triumph : and, while it has long been one of the curiosities of Jessamine, it also stands as a monument to the engineering skill, enterprise and courage of its constructors. It was built some distance above the site and floated down the river on rafts in sections, and when put to- gether in position it was so accurately constructed that not even a hammer was required to adjust its parts.
High Bridge.
One of the most noted of the engineering feats in the past thirty years, is the celebrated High Bridge, across the Kentucky river, at the mouth of Dick's river. It was built in 1876. The railway approaches the span from either direction along a ledge of rocks several hundred feet above the river, and the perpendic- ular cliffs run from the track to the water's edge for a mile on either side. Where the bridge crosses the Kentucky river it has an elevation of 276 feet above the river bed. At one time it was the highest bridge on the continent, and at the period of its con- struction was a marvel of ingenuity. A great many distinguished engineers of the country pronounced the work an impossibility. It was necessary to build the structure without trestling, and for that reason the cantilever principle was introduced. By this principle one span is erected, and from the end of this span is built out into space part of another span. The length to which such spans may be extended out into the air without support is fixed by the weight of the span from which it is built, and these spans from which the cantilevers are extended are generally weighted so that they carry tremendous burdens. Many dis-
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tinguished engineers of America pronounced the plan of C. Shaler Smith, who constructed this bridge, visionary, and de- cided that it was not feasible in this way to construct a bridge at this point; but Mr. Smith was a skilled, learned and practical bridge engineer.
At this point the Kentucky river with its channel had cut down through the stone cliffs to a depth of about 290 feet. It was necessary to construct the bridge without trestles, and this Mr. Smith undertook to do. He assumed the responsibility of the construction personally, and in the end his designs and his calculations were found to be correct. The great cantilever arms stretched out from the piers on either side, reaching the middle of the channel, and when the last bolt, which was to hold them in place, was driven, it was said that they did not vary I-100 of an inch from the calculations which this man had made one day in his office in Baltimore. He immediately sprang into prom- inence as one of the great bridge engineers of the world, and since then others have followed his ideas and adopted his plans.
The bridge known as Young's High Bridge, named in honor of Col. Bennett H. Young, over the Kentucky river at Tyrone, has a span 200 feet longer than the one constructed at the mouth of Dick's river. It is built upon the same principle, and thus over the Kentucky river are two of the great cantilever bridges of America.
At the time the Lexington & Danville Railroad was to be built, a suspension bridge was designed to cross this chasm, but the railway company failed after the piers had been erected, and these towers stand as a monument to the genius of John A. Roebling, who had the contract from the president of the Lex- ington & Danville Railroad, Gen. Leslie Combs, to build a suspension bridge, and about $100,000 were spent in the erection of the towers and anchorage for the construction of the suspen- sion bridge which it became necessary to abandon because of the lack of financial support. On one of the towers is this inscrip- tion : "Gen. Leslie Combs, born in Clark county, Kentucky, November 28, 1793."
The old Cincinnati Railroad from Cincinnati to the South, was at first proposed as an outlet from the Ohio Valley to the south-
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eastern seaboard. The enormous cost of constructing the rail- road through the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, de- terred private means from undertaking such a task, and the city of Cincinnati, after full investigation, in the summer of 1869, un- dertook to build a trunk line of railroad from Cincinnati to Chat- tanooga, in order to give Cincinnati proper connections with all the southern railway systems which centered at Chattanooga, and also to open up to the Cincinnati markets portions of Ten- nessee and Kentucky.
This line passes through Jessamine county for 17 miles, and is now one of the great American railway thoroughfares. To build it, Cincinnati paid out $20,000,000, but it has proven a good investment, and though it will pass from under the control of the city which built it the cost has been amply returned in the bene- fits it has bestowed.
Kentucky River Improvements.
The Kentucky river flows through Jessamine county for nearly twenty-five miles. It bounds the county on almost one. half of its border lines. The state undertook to improve the Kentucky river, but it abandoned the work, and the locks never reached farther than Frankfort.
In 1865 the Kentucky River Navigation Company was incor- porated by the Legislature, for the purpose of building new locks and dams, and extending the navigation of the river through Jessamine county. At the September term of the Jessamine County Court, in 1865, John S. Bronaugh was appointed a com- mission to subscribe for $35,000 of stock in the Kentucky River Navigation Company, and in November, 1867, he was further directed to subscribe for $65,000 additional stock in the com- pany. The company failed and its creditors attached these sub- scriptions. Their validity was attacked. The courts relieved Mercer and Garrard counties of their subscriptions, but Jessa- mine county was held for a large proportion of hers and com- pelled to pay it.
The river has been ceded to the United States .The old locks have been enlarged and repaired and new ones built. Naviga- tion is now assured to the mouth of Hickman all the year round.
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Another lock in process of construction will give navigation throughout the entire river border of the county and in a few years the system of locks will reach the coal fields on the North Fork of the Kentucky and secure to Jessamine county the ad- vantage of river transit for the entire year from the coal fields to the mouth of the river at Carrollton.
Turnpikes.
Few counties in the state are better supplied with turnpikes than Jessamine. They are built partly by private subscriptions and partly by county aid. There are about 175 miles of turnpike in the county, and when it is remembered that it only has 158 square miles, it will be seen that the county is most thoroughly supplied with first-class roadways. At this time there are not ten miles of leading roads in the county that are not macadamized. The county has bought the turnpikes and hereafter they will be free.
Ferries.
Two of the earliest ferries established in Kentucky were with- in the limits of Jessamine county.
The first ferry in Kentucky was across the Kentucky river at Boonesboro, authorized in October, 1779, by the Legislature of Virginia, on the farm of Col. Richard Calloway: while the second ferry established by legislative authority in Kentucky was at the mouth of Hickman creek in 1785. The act was as follows :
"Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that public ferries shall be constantly kept at the following places and the rates for passing the same be as followeth, that is to say : from the land of James Hogan in the county of Lincoln across the Kentucky river at the mouth of Hickman's creek to his land on the opposite shore in the county of Fayette, for a man four pence, and for a horse the same."
Up to 1786, only five ferries had been established in Kentucky ; two across the Ohio river and three across the Kentucky river. In 1786, two more were established, one of which was the ferry at the mouth of Dick's river, the legislative act for which was as follows :
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"Section I. Whereas, it has been represented to this present General Assembly that it would be of public utility to establish a warehouse for the reception and inspection of tobacco on the land of John Curd in the county of Mercer ;
"Sec. II. Be it therefore enacted that an inspection of to- bacco shall be and same is hereby established on the land of John Curd lying at the mouth of Dick's river in the county of Mercer, to be called and known by the name of Curd's warehouse:
"Sec. V. Be it further enacted that a public ferry shall be con- stantly kept at the following places and the rates for passing the same as followeth, that is to say: Upon the land of the said John Curd in the county of Mercer across the Kentucky river to the opposite shore, for a man four pence, and for a horse the same, and for the transportation of wheeled carriages, tobacco, cattle and other beasts at the place aforesaid, the ferry keeper may de- mand and take the same rates as are by law allowed at other fer- ries. If the ferry keeper shall demand or keep from any person or persons whatsoever any greater rates than are hereby allowed, he shall for every offense forfeit and pay to the party aggrieved the ferriage demanded or received and ten shillings, to be awarded with costs before the justice of the peace of the county where the offense shall be committed."
The Largest Corn Crop.
Jessamine county, it is claimed, has produced the largest yield of corn ever known.
In 1840, Gen. James Shelby, of Fayette county, received from the Agricultural Society a premium for the most productive five acres of corn. The five acres yielded 550 bushels, or 110 bushels per acre ; but in the same year Walter C. Young, of Jessamine county, who then lived in the eastern part of it, gathered, by dis- interested parties, from two acres of a field of corn, the enormous vield of 195 and 198 1-2 bushels, respectively, which stands, so far as known, as the largest yield ever obtained from a similar area.
Hemp Manufacture.
The manufacture of hemp begun in Kentucky as early as 1796, and was introduced by Nathan Burrows, of Lexington, who after-
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wards produced Burrows' mustard, which received the premium for excellence at the World's Fair in England in 1851.
The growth of hemp commenced with the earliest days of the settlement of Kentucky. It came with the corn and flax, among the first products of the state. The soil of Jessamine county has always been extremely favorable to the production of this plant. The black loam, so general throughout many parts of
GEORGE BROWN.
the county, produces hemp of very heavy and excellent fibre, and Jessamine county stands among the greatest hemp-producing counties of Kentucky. Per acre, no county in the state produces a larger yield.
Melanchthon Young, who resides about a mile from Nicholas- ville, on the Harrodsburg pike, has been one of the great hemp
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growers of the county and in the last quarter of a century has rarely failed to secure fine crops. The introduction of Chinese hemp seed thirty years ago stimulated hemp product. As show- ing the extreme fertility of Jessamine county soil, the land upon which Mr. Young has been growing his hemp, a portion of it at least, has been in cultivation for more than one hundred years,
MELANCHTHON YOUNG.
and the yield, after a century of use, of the ground is greater than when the crop was first planted in the virgin soil.
Jessamine county has always been one of the great hemp coun- ties of the state. Clark, Fayette, Scott, Bourbon, Woodford and Jessamine; grow the bulk of the hemp crop raised in Ken- tucky, and in the earlier period of manufacture in the state this staple produced great profits and brought large gains to those
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who were engaged in it. Among the pioneer manufacturers of bagging and rope were George I. Brown, Moreau Brown, George Brown, Henry Metcalf, William Scott and Col. Oliver Anderson. Mr. Cleveland, in Keene, also manufactured rope and bagging. Most of the people engaged in this business amassed large for- tunes. The bagging was used at that time in baling cotton throughout the Southern States, and there was no other substi- tute, prior to the fifties, for the Kentucky bagging.
This bagging was generally carried to the Kentucky river and shipped by steamboat to Louisville, and thence distributed throughout the South. Very few white men were ever employed in this manufacture. Most of those who operated the factories, owned in large part the negroes necessary to carry on the busi- ness, and where they did not have sufficient hands, they hired them from the surrounding farmers, by the year.
The hacking of the hemp was done in open sheds, and the dust, which has, in close factories, been so detrimental to health, was not considered injurious by those engaged in the manu- facture in Jessamine county.
The hemp crop in Jessamine was not sufficient to supply all the factories operated, and much of the staple was purchased and bought in parts of Garrard, Mercer and Woodford and hauled to Nicholasville and there manufactured. Geo. I. Brown was prob- ably the pioneer of hemp manufacture in Jessamine. He was a man of fine personality and a strong intellect. He repre- sented Jessamine county in the Senate in 1829 and 1834, and in the House of Representatives in 1829 and 1832.
Robert Crockett. a son of Col. Joseph Crockett, built what is now known as the Union Mills, five miles northeast from Nich- olasville on Hickman creek. The buildings were constructed about 1803, and comprised a grist mill, a saw mill and a powder mill. This mill has continued in operation down to the present day. The old stone house near it, which was erected at the same time, is still one of the most substantial houses in the county.
Nicholasville Beginnings.
Maj. Anderson Miller, in 1805. made up a large lot of gun- powder, at his father's residence in the northern part of Jessa-
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mine ; he hauled it by wagons to Louisville, bought flatboats and shipped it to New Orleans. The venture was largely remunera- tive.
In July, 1824, a capillary steam engine, invented by Dr. Joseph Buchanan, was used in working Jackson's cotton factory in Nicholasville.
In early days cotton was grown quite extensively in Ken- tucky, in sufficient quantity to meet all the wants for family use.
Dr. Joseph Buchanan was a professor in Transylvania Uni- versity, and this engine was a remarkable piece of work. It was claimed for it that it was perfectly safe and that one cord of wood would sustain a seven-horse power for twenty-four hours. In- ducements were offered to owners of steamboats to avail them- selves of this capillary arrangement, because of its great power in proportion to its weight, to enable boats to outrun all competi- tors by changing the boiler for a generator, thus converting the boilers then in use into capillary engines.
The first shoemakers in Nicholasville were Samuel Peake, Thomas Dunbar and a colored man named Martin. Also James Lusk, who carried on the business until 1837.
The first saddle and harness-maker in Nicholasville came in 1812, and was named Edmund Phipps. David Majors was an- other person, who carried on a saddlery and harness business three-quarters of a century ago.
Early in the twenties Edmund Emanuel Hart established a cabinet-making shop and his son, Joseph Hart, settled in Nich- olasville as a cabinet-maker in 1834.
The first hat-makers were Thomas Foley and Stephen Guy, and they made wool hats in a house on the lot now occupied by the hemp factory of E. R. Sparks, and on the corner lot of Dr. Talbert. John Fritzlen carried on the making of silk and fur hats. It was with him that Robert Young learned this business of manufacturing silk and fur hats and opened a factory in Nich- olasville, in 1825.
John La Fevers, of French Huguenot extraction, had a pot- tery establishment on the lot of the late Mrs. Eve. His daughter, Nancy La Fevers, was the first person to open a school in Nicho- lasville, in 1802.
Miles Greenwood, of Cincinnati, who was a day laborer on the
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Lexington and Danville turnpike in 1831 and '32, helped to dig the land down on a level with the pike where the court house now stands. He worked with James Gooch, who had undertaken to build a section of the pike running through Nicholasville, two miles each way from the town. Mr. Greenwood afterwards be- came one of the most distinguished men in the business world at Cincinnati.
Postmasters of Nicholasville.
The postmasters of Nicholasville have, some of them, held unusually long terms. Benjamin Netherland held the office from 1801 to 1822; Dr. Archibald Young from 1822 to 1826, and Wm. Rainey, from 1826 to 1835. He was succeeded by Jas. Lusk; he by James A. Welch, he by David P. Watson, and he by Jas. A. Welch. In 1848 D. P. Watson was again appointed post- master, and was succeeded by R. A. Gibney, who held the office until 1856, when he was succeeded by Joseph Fritzeen. After him, Thos. Payton held the office for eight years, then H. C. Ro- denbaugh, who remained postmaster for eight years. Then fol- lowed W. J. Denman ; he was succeeded by Samuel M. Anderson who held the office for eight years, and was succeeded by John B. Smithers, who held it for four years, and he gave place to W. L. Buford, who now holds the place.
Court House in Nicholasville.
The first court house erected in Nicholasville was built in 1823. In earliest times the quarter session judges who represented the Circuit Court held their sessions in sheds or stables, or in par- lors of their private homes. Judge William Shreve, the last of the quarter session judges, often held court in a shed attached to a large stable on the ground where the Jessamine Female In- stitute is now built. The court house of 1823 was a brick build- ing and was used until 1878. It had thus served the people fifty- five years. It was erected by Thompson Howard, who removed to Missouri, and died there in 1836. It was inconvenient and un- comfortable, but it served well in its day, and the men of the present generation have many delightful and pleasing memories
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connected with the old red brick edifice in which they have often listened to the great men who made Kentucky history, for the half-century following 1820.
The first work on the present court house was done Septem- ber 5, 1878. The new building cost $38,385, and is a superb structure of modern style. The magistrates composing the County Court. when the question of either repairing the old court house or putting up a new one was first advocated by Hon. W. H. Phillips, the present County Judge, were: Dudley Portwood, John J. Cobbman, E. J. Young, Charles McDavitt, Mordecai Crutchfield, Richmond Hunter, George T. Nave, R. J. Scott, Isaac Bourne and Edmund E. Horine. A commission had been appointed, consisting of G. B. Bryant, J. L. Logan and W. G. Woods, to examine the old court house. They reported that it could not be repaired. Thereupon the construction of a new court house was undertaken. It may stand for a hundred years as a monument to the public spirit and wisdom of the officers who laid before the people the necessity and the advantages of a new structure, which in all its appointments is creditable to a great county.
It has all modern appliances and conveniences. it was pro- vided for by taxation and the obligations of the county have long since been paid off. It was opened for the public in 1878. The ministers resident of the town of Nicholasville, were invited by County Judge Phillips to dedicate the structure with re- ligious ceremonies, which occurred at nine o'clock on Monday morning. The following ministers were present: Rev. A. D. Rash, Baptist ; W. F. Taylor, Methodist Episcopal, South ; T. F. Farrell, Methodist Episcopal ; Rev. Russell Cecil, Presbyterian ; also the venerable John T. Hendricks, of Paducah, who died only a few months since in Texas.
Judge Phillips first spoke in the new building. He announced the purpose of the meeting. After the reading of scripture, Dr. Hendricks took the ten commandments as the basis of his ad- dress on "The Law Which Should Govern Men and States." The members of the bar at the opening of the court house in 1878 were: George S. Shanklin, Benj. P. Campbell, J. S. Bronaugh, H. A. Anderson, T. U. Wood, M. T. Lowry, A. L. McAfee, W. S. Holloway, George R. Pryor. L. D. Baldwin, J. C. Wickliffe, W.
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NICHOLASVILLE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
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H. Crow, G. B. Letcher, Benjamin A. Crutcher. On the same day Circuit Court met. Honorable Joseph D. Hunt, Judge of the court, arrived at noon and at one o'clock opened court, with Charles J. Bronston, Commonwealth Attorney, who had been recently elected to that position.
Of the sixteen grand jurors who were then empaneled only five remain : Lee Reynolds, G. W. Goode, W. J. Dennan and G. S. Moseley.
Hotels.
Nicholasville in its earliest days had distinguished men as pro- prietors of its hotels. In those times keeping hotel was a much more important business than in later years. Immediately after the cessation of the Indian raids in Kentucky, there was such a tremendous influx of travelers that almost every gentleman took out tavern license. The prices were not very extravagant, but it was more to accommodate friends and to show hospitality than to make profits. The uniform price was, for each meal of victuals, 25 cents ; for lodging and a bed at night, 12 1-2 cents ; horse, 12 I-2 cents ; horse with corn and fodder at night, 18 3-4 cents. Whisky and brandy were plentiful, as the prices show at this time. The price was, for whisky or peach brandy, 18 3-4 cents per pint, apple brandy and cherry bounce, 4 pence a drink.
Joshua Brown was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He married Margaret Mansel. lle was in the siege of Yorktown, and served for six months under the immediate supervision of General Washington. He came from Baltimore, Maryland, and landed in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1789. He had four sens: Col. Washington Brown, Preston Brown, Samuel Brown, and Col. Thomas Jefferson Brown. The two latter were both graduates of the Transylvania University. Wash-
He married Gen. Hugh ington studied and practiced law. £ Chrisman's daughter Matilda: General Chrisman then lived on Hickman creek, at the old stone house, the last building erected by Gov. Thomas Metcalf in the county. Col. Geo. W. Brown settled in Nicholasville in 1825. He twice represented the county in the legislature. He was an enterprising citizen and a suc- cessful manufacturer of hemp. He left Kentucky in 1837 and
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moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he died in 1862. Alexander Campbell said of him that he was the most perfect and courtly gentleman that he had ever met. The names of these two sons, Washington and Thomas Jefferson, evinced a high degree of patriotism ; one being named for George Washington and the other for Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson Brown came to Nicholasville and took charge of the hotel in 1836. He was a man of splendid appearance, six feet two inches in height, and on county militia days, in his fine uni- form, and on his thoroughbred horse, in a suit of blue, with a red silk sash and golden epaulets, he impressed all who saw him with his superb physique. He studied medicine, but did not practice. He married Miss Mary J. Wallace, of Jessamine, and settled in Nicholasville, taking charge of the Central Hotel, where he died in 1849. He was reckoned as one of the most courteous men of the county. His kindly heart prompted him to many generous deeds and his helpfulness to the struggling and de- serving left him many grateful and sincere mourners. He first urged the necessity of a public cemetery in Nicholasville, helped to lay off Maple Grove cemetery, and was the first person buried there. He and his wife dispensed kindly hospitality. They were charitable and humane, and created pleasing impressions on all who visited Nicholasville. They left a family who have al- ways been prominent in county affairs. Miss Henrietta Brown, Mrs. Virginia Noland, and Mrs. Victoria Mitchell were daugh- ters of Col. Brown.
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