USA > Kentucky > Jessamine County > A history of Jessamine County, Kentucky, from its earliest settlement to 1898 > Part 16
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The records which contain the certificates of the earlier mar- riages in Jessamine county, show that his services for these cer- emonies were largely in demand. On the 14th of March, 1799. he married Jesse Hughes and Nancy Nicholson, and a very large proportion of the carly marriages celebrated in the county were solemnized by him. He was a faithful, earnest, devout man of God. Some might call his sphere humble, but his influence on the religious and moral condition of Jessamine county will long be felt, and in it he has a monument, which should be both to his church and to those of his name, a cause of unfailing pride.
Samuel H. Woodson.
Samuel H. Woodson was a step-son of Col. Joseph Crockett. While in the military service in Albemarle county, Virginia, and guarding prisoners which had been surrendered by Burgoyne, Colonel Crockett protected the property of Mr. and Mrs. Tucker Woodson. There resulted from this circumstance a warm at- tachment between Mr. Woodson and Mrs. Woodson and the young officer. Shortly after Colonel Crockett had been ordered to come west and serve under George Rogers Clark, in command of the Illinois or Crockett Regiment, which had been dispatched by the state of Virginia to assist Clark in his contest with the In- dians, Tucker Woodson died, and after Colonel Crockett returned from the West he fell in love with the handsome young widow and married her.
After this marriage, in 1783, Colonel Crocket came to Kentucky and soon brought his family here, in 1784. and with
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him came out Samuel H. Woodson, his step-son. Colonel Crockett gave him a father's love, affection and attention. He was prepared for the law and had every advantage the educational facilities of Kentucky then could offer.
He entered for his step-son about a thousand acres of land, part of which is that now owned by Mr. Jesse Bryant, on the pike between Nicholasville and Lexington.
He read law with Col. George Nicholas and named one of his sons for Judge Nicholas. At the time of the formation of Jessa- mine county he was chosen clerk for the county. As he held his office for life, it was considered a distinguished place. He built the house on the Sheeley place, about one mile from Nicholasville on the Danville turnpike, and kept his office as clerk there. There were no county buildings in those days and the judges and clerks used their residences for the discharge of their official
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duties. He married Annie Randolph Meade, a daughter of Col. David Meade, of Chaumiere.
He resigned the clerkship in 1819 and was succeeded by Daniel B. Price. He was elected to congress from the district, and moved to Frankfort in 1826. He came, in 1827, to attend circuit court in Nicholasville and rode, in very warm weather, on horseback from Frankfort to Nicholasville. During the term of court he went out to Chaumiere, was taken suddenly ill and died, in the forty-seventh year of his age. He was a man of great cul- ture, superb integrity, much learning, and in his day was one of the distinguished men of Kentucky. He left a large family, and the people, not only of his district but of Jessamine and Franklin, his adopted home, mourned his early death. He represented Jessamine county in the legislature from 1819 to 1825.
Maj. Daniel B. Price.
Maj. Daniel B. Price was born in Powhattan county, Virginia, the IIth day of May, 1789. His father, John Price, removed to Kentucky in 1794. taking with him Daniel, his only son, and pur- chased 1,200 acres of land in Bourbon county. The title proving defective, he afterwards removed to Clark county, where he lived to the extreme old age of ninety years.
When a boy, Major Price came to Nicholasville and was ap- pointed deputy clerk for Samuel H. Woodson, and when Mr. Woodson resigned, in 1816, he succeeded him and held the office, giving entire satisfaction until 1851, a period of thirty-five years, which is the longest period any one office was ever held by the same man in the county.
In 1813 he married Eliza Crockett, the fourth child of Col. Joseph Crockett, who died during a cholera epidemic in 1832. He subsequently married Miss Stuart, daughter of Rev. Robert. Stuart.
He was a member of the Presbyterian church in Nicholasville and for half a century a ruling elder. He was also a trustee of Center College and one of the directors of the Theological Sem- inary at Danville. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge said of him: "Probably no citizen of Jessamine county was ever more gener- ally and favorably known, and certainly no one was ever more
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thoroughly respected. A man resolute for God's saving truth in proportion as his meek and gentle spirit, he lived upon it as his life and soul."
He won and retained the respect and confidence of the entire
community. He was looked up to as a man of splendid judg- ment and unswerving integrity. Noble memories of his life and character survive after a lapse of nearly forty years.
Tucker Woodson.
At Chaumiere, in Jessamine county, in 1804, Tucker Woodson was born. It is a remarkable fact that he and his wife were born in the same house and in the same room. His wife was Evelyn Byrd, and she was a daughter of Sarah Meade, daughter of David Meade. He and his wife were both possessed of ample fortune.
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They received the best education that Kentucky could give. He chose the law as his profession but spent most of his life in care of his landed estates. He was a born politician, a man of the highest refinement of feeling, of the strictest integrity, the kindest heart and charming manners. He was a great Whig and a fol- lower of Mr. Clay. He represented Jessamine county in the legislature in 1835, '36. '37 and '40. Was also in the senate in 1842-46 and 1853-7.
He was always popular among his neighbors and friends and even his political opponents loved him. „Of distinguished linea ye, he was always the friend of the humbler people. He owned land in what was then known as the Plaquemine District which in- cluded Sulphur Well, now Anibrose. This was considered in early days the roughest district in the county; but it was there that Mr. Woodson had his warmest friends. .
In the great race for Congress between John C. Breckinridge and Robert P. Letcher, in 1853, in which Breckinridge was elected by 526 majority, Mr. Woodson had charge of the Plaque- mine District, and for a long time it was remembered in Jessa- mine county how shrewdly and beautifully he played his op- ponents. : A leading Democrat had been sent by Major Breckin- ridge to handle the money and control the votes in the Plaque- mine District. In those days pecuniary inducements paid to voters were not looked upon in the same light in which they are now regarded. The idea that all things were fair in politics and war pervaded the public mind and the purchase of votes was carried on with a good deal of publicity and without any reproach or disapproval on the part of political opponents.
The Democratic manager had been provided with a large numbe " new bills issued by the Northern Bank of Kentucky. They v. er. fives and tens, for even in those days good prices were paid for votes, and especially in this election, which called forth the highest enthusiasm and the greatest devotion of the rank and file on both sides. Mr. Woodson saw with dismay the large amount of new notes which were being circulated by his political opponents, and he turned over in his mind a plan by which the effect of this new money could be avoided. Taking one of the men aside whom he knew very well, and who had received al- ready one of these new bills, he asked him if he was sure that it
TUCKER WOODSON.
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was good; saying, what was true, that there had been circulated a large number of counterfeit bills lately and that if he and his friends were taking money from the Democratic manager, Mr. Scott, they had better be very careful as to its genuineness. At the same time he pulled from his own pocket a roll of well-worn and old-time bills and placing the new and old bills side by side, commented upon some differences. The news spread like wild- fire that the new bills were counterfeit and the floaters refused to receive them and turned in disgust from the Democratic manager. who only had new bills, and would receive nothing but the old time Whig money, which Mr. Woodson and his friends were ready, under proper conditions, to distribute.
A strong pro-slavery man, he sided with the government in the Civil war, but it was conceded on all hands that he acted from conviction, and few men of his prominence and of his activity escaped with so small a number of enemies.
In 1872 he was elected county judge on the Republican ticket and died in 1874. Hospitable, courteous, cultivated, honest. patriotic and true, he left behind him a large array of friends who mourned his death.
His home was always open to friends and strangers alike. Gifted in conversation, a capable raconteur, and full of the purest and gentlest kindness, he won the hearts of all who came under his roof. His wife, one of the housekeepers of those times which made Kentucky housekeeping renowned in all the civilized world, sympathized with the hospitable instincts of her husband, and united with him to make his home always pleasing and attract- ive. Some of the rich treasures of Chaumiere had descended to them and these, enlarged by contributions from other relatives and ancestors, gave their home a charm which will never be forgotten by those who entered its portals. For thirty years Judge Wood- son and his family entertained more and more delightfully than any citizen of Jessamine county, and no couple ever left more delightful memories of real Kentucky home life than they.
Chaumiere.
In 1796 there was established in Jessamine county one of the most beautiful and attractive country homes in America. It was
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founded by David Meade, who was born in Virginia on the 29th of July, 1743. At seven years of age he was sent to England with the hope that change of climate might improve his health and also for the purpose of furnishing better means of education than were then in existence in America.
Here he remained until 1761, when he returned to his native land. He had acquired only a general knowledge of mathemat- ics, geography, French, grammar and drawing, but he had cul- tivated science and the elegant arts.
He had two brothers, younger than himself, both of whom afterwards became distinguished in the American army. Richard Kidder, an aid de camp to General Washington, and who had charge of the details of the execution of Major Andre, and Ever- ard, who was an aid de camp to General Lincoln, and he himself was subsequently raised to the rank of General.
In his twenty-fourth year he married Sarah Waters, a daugh- ter of Mr. William Waters, of Williamsburg, Virginia, and in 1769 he was elected to represent Nansemond county in the House of Burgesses. This was his first and only political experience. This assembly was dissolved by the representative of the crown on account of certain resolutions which it had passed upon the subject of the disagreement between England and the colonies.
Prior to 1796 David Meade, a son of the founder of Chaumiere, came to Kentucky. He was attracted by the splendid climate, fertile soil, wonderful forests and charming surroundings, and in- duced his father to leave a beautiful home in Virginia. on the James river, and come to the wilds of Kentucky. He was capti- vated by the glowing description of the new land given by his son, and, though accustomed to all that wealth and culture could give, he was willing to abandon the comforts and the associations of his Virginia home and build him a new one amid the forests of Ken- tucky.
David Meade was a man of large fortune. Under the laws of primogeniture, then prevailing in Virginia, he inherited the major share of his father's estate, and his wife also brought him no in- considerable dowry. He came to Kentucky in 1796 and debated for some time whether he would settle on the forks of Elkhorn, in Franklin county, or in Jessamine county, but through his personal regard for Col. Joseph Crockett, who had come to Kentucky in
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1784, and settled in Jessamine county, in 1787, he was induced to choose Jessamine as his future home.
He purchased about three hundred acres of land from the Crocketts and Woodsons. This land is four miles from Nich- olasville, on the turnpike which connects the Lexington and Danville, and the Harrodsburg and Lexington turnpikes, and is now owned in large part by Mr. John Steel. The beautiful forest trees attracted his admiration and won his affections. Sugar trees, poplar, ash, oak, hackberry and walnut, all growing in most superb profusion, determined his choice of residence. He had large tracts of land in other parts of Kentucky.
He founded at this locality a home, called Chaumiere des Prairies, but it was familiarly known throughout the country as Chaumiere, which is the French for Indian Village. On this small place David Meade lavished vast sums of money. He had all the tastes of an educated and refined Englishman. Whatever could have induced such a man with such a fortune to have come down the Ohio river in a flatboat, and land at Maysville and suffer the inconvenience of travel and transportation from Nicholas- ville to Jessamine county, and to live in such a remote and unim proved district, is almost impossible to understand.
He laid out a hundred acres of Chaumiere into a beautiful garden. He imported rare and exquisite plants. He made lakes, constructed water falls, shaped islands, built summer houses and porters' lodges, and in this backwoods wilderness created an ideal Englishman's home. He had a large retinue of liveried servants, splendid coaches, magnificent furniture, service largely of silver, and maintained in every way the style of a feudal lord.
The house was one-story, built of various materials, stone, brick and wood, but all erected for comfort and for convenience. Here David Meade lived from 1796 to 1832. During his thirty- six years of residence in Jessamine county he made no change in his method or manner of living. His service, his carriages, his liveries, fashion of entertainment, his own personal dress and that of his wife, always elegant, were still maintained in true English style. Different from everybody else in Kentucky in his style of living, he never excited the envy of his less wealthy or less cultured neighbors. The hospitality and elegance of his home were the boast of Kentucky. No distinguished man ever
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came to the state who did not express a desire to see this wonder- ful place, and none were ever disappointed in receiving a cordial invitation for the enjoyment of its hospitality.
No other home in Kentucky ever entertained so many Presi- dents, for at various times the roof of Chaumiere covered Monroe, General Jackson, General Charles Scott, and General Tay- lor. All the distinguished families of Kentucky were invited and always welcomed within its borders. Henry Clay was a constant visitor at this delightful residence, and a very funny story is told of the politeness of Mr. Clay and Mr. Meade. Mt. Clay had come to spend the night at Chaumiere. Mr. Meade was too polite to suggest to Mr. Clay that it was time to retire, and Mr. Clay was too polite to tell Mr. Meade that he desired to retire, and so they sat up and talked all night.
Aaron Burr often visited Chaumiere. He was there again and again with Blennerhasset, and there is in possession of a member of the family a mirror before which Aaron Burr sat and had his hair powdered. After the arrest of Aaron Burr he was permitted to remain in custody at Chaun.iere, and Col. Meade's son acted as chief of the guard during his stay.
Mrs. Meade was as elegant, refined and cultured as her hus- band. They died within six months of each other.
The costly furniture, cut glass and china, with which one hun- dred guests could at one time be served, have been scattered throughout the country. The lovely and beautiful bric-a-brac can be found in many homes, and there is still in Chillicothe, Ohio, a piano upon which Mrs. Meade, when three-score and ten, played. and it was the first instrument of its kind ever brought into the state of Kentucky.
The eldest son had died young and unmarried. At Colonel Meade's death, none were able to maintain or to hold Chaumiere, and so it went under the hammer on the block and was bought by a plain, practical farmer. This surprised and distressed the citi- zens of Jessamine county, who had taken a just pride in this strange and beautiful home, and in a little while after the new owner of the place had been announced, there was placarded in large letters on the houses over the grounds the words "Para- dise Lost." This caused the purchaser to become indignant, and in less than a week the beautiful flower gardens were filled with
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
horses, cattle and hogs. The glorious forest trees were felled. lodges torn down, parks destroyed, and lakes drained. A portion of the house was pulled down, and in the rooms which were once the resort of fashion and made memorable by the presence of the most distinguished people in the land, were stored wheat and corn. Only three rooms now remain of this once magnificent home.
On a hill overlooking Chaumiere in a neglected burying. g1011nd, sleeps the dust of David Meade and his wife and a few of his family, but the memories of Chaumiere will long live in Jes- samine county and in the West.
Notwithstanding its difference from the other homes in Jessa- mine county, and notwithstanding the difference between him and his neighbors, there was no jealousy. He did not interfere with his fellow-countrymen. He entertained their guests if they were refined and reputable, and he sought no political pre- ferment, asked for no honors, only desiring to be permitted to live in his own way and to exhibit his own taste in his own home.
It was arranged that General La Fayette should be entertaine 1 at Chaumiere, and for this purpose Colonel Meade constructed a beautiful octagonal room. This, with two other small rooms off of the octagonal room, are all that remains as a monument to the beauty and to the charming associations connected with this marvelous home in the wilderness.
John Cawbey.
John Cawbey was a resident of Independence, Mo. In Sep- tember, 1884, he wrote to S. M. Duncan a letter which contains many interesting facts in regard to some of the olden time people in Jessamine, and also some reminiscences in regard to Dr. Tris- ler, the first physician in Jessamine, and which indicates that Dr. Trisler was something of a medium and fortune teller and prac- ticed these arts in addition to medicine. For many years, tradi- tions have been floating among the people of pristine Jessamine, in regard to the marvelous power of Dr. Trisler and his possession of mysterious powers in locating disease. finding lost property, and in early days there were many who accredited the good, old doctor with the highest order of supernatural vision.
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Mr. Cawbey says : "My mother died at Franklin, Ind., in her 70th year ; my father died in his 47th year ; my grandfather, John Cawbey, lived to the age of 87 years. His wife, my grandmother, lived to the age of 105 years, and died in Mercer county, Ky. My grandfather was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, and settled in Jessamine county in 1808, where he spent all his life, and was buried at old West Union church lot, better known as the "Hoover graveyard." In this old lot lie my first wife, her brother, father, and grandfather, Conrad Earthenhouse; the father of the late venerable Elizabeth Bowman, who lived to reach the great age of 108. She died in 1886. 1 have in my keeping Dr. Peter Trisler's German medical works, printed in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1442, which makes 442 years since they were printed. (Printing was invented in 1440.) I have also the Bible of Dr. Tris- ler, which is 400 years old and a commentary over 300 years old, in the German language. The first of his medical books contains 1,180 pages, the second book, 1.342 pages. I send you this infor- mation for the purpose of giving you a correct account, and the dates that I found concerning the first settlers on Jessamine creek, among my papers which I sent to Missouri several months before I left Jessamine county. When I have more time it will afford me pleasure to give you many more interesting facts concerning the old settlers along Jessamine creek and their occupation. Be- ginning on the west side of Hickman road, running down Jes- samine creek, there was the home of Joseph Wallace, who was a farmer and tanner. Next was John Carroll, farmer and auction- eer : Peter Funk, farmer and distiller ; Michael Ritter, farmer and vender of crockery ware, etc. ; Samuel Walls, farmer ; Thos. Rey- nolds, father of Barney Reynolds, farmer and distiller, and spent much of his life fishing ; Jacob Myers, father of the late W. B. Myers, was a manufacturer of gun powder on the farin where Wmn. Mathews now lives; Richard West was a gunsinith and farmer, and owned the farm where Wm. Bourne is now living : Christopher Arnspiger lived on the other side of the creek, was a farmer and cooper; next came the old Howser mill property, owned by Abraham Howser and George Mason. Both had an equal share in the mill, and each one had his part of the farm, and both carried on a distillery of their own ; next was the Bennett farm- this old Mr. Bennett fell down from his barn loft and killed him-
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self. He was an old bachelor, and would often hide himself when ladies passed his house ; Conrad Earthenhouse was a farmer and weaver, and also had a distillery; George Smith, the grandfather of Willis B. Smith, lived on the farm now occupied by Willis ; he was a farmer and distiller. On that old farm in his grandfather's lifetime, I ground corn for the said distillery in the year 1827. At old Thomas Haydon's mills, now owned by James Lewallen, for- merly by Frank Grow, there was a distillery attached to this prop- erty. It has passed through many hands since I first knew the place ; the next farm on the creek was the old Crozier mill and cotton factory. This property, like many others in those days, had a distillery on it. It was here on this farm that the first steam engine was ever used in Jessamine county. Mr. Crozier and James Hill ran it for nineteen years. The next place was that owned by Mr. Womack and Thos. Bryan, who owned the old paper mill and grist mill built by old John Lewis. This mill was the first one erected in Jessamine county, and had the first French buhr stones brought to Jessamine county, which cost Mr. Lewis $1,200. The old mill is now owned by John H. Glass.
"Before closing this long letter I will relate some of Dr. Tris- ler's strange performances. He would sometimes invite his neighbors to see him. He would then disappear in the very presence of the company, and none could tell what had become of him. He could stop the flow of blood from any wound by giving the initials of the proper name of any man or women-this was all that was required. He could tell where stolen property was concealed. He could light a candle in a large room by rubbing his hands together. He could tell the exact number of pigs a sow would have at a litter. These are matters of fact and have been tested and are well known as facts, among the early settlers of Jes- samine county. I remember, myself, there lived a man on the farm of Thomas Gordon, about one mile south of Nicholasville, who had a horse stolen. He came to see Dr. Trisler, three times before he would tell him where the horse was. On the third day Dr. Trisler met the owner of the stolen horse and told him to go to the town of Lancaster, in Garrard county, and near the county jail he would find the horse hitched to a fence ; he added : "But the man that took the horse from your stable has been killed in a
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drunken frolic." This may appear unreasonable, but I know it to be true.
Very truly, your friend, JOHN CAWBEY.
Alexander Wake.
Alexander Wake was the first County Judge of Jessamine county under the Constitution of 1850. He was born in Fau- quier county, Virginia, in 1797, and died in Nicholasville in 1867. Through his maternal and paternal ancestors, he inherited the love of liberty, for both took part in the war for independence. In the beginning of the present century, Judge Wake's father re- moved to Woodford county. He brought with him from Vir- ginia, a large number of slaves. Judge Wake commenced the study of law and was admitted to the practice of his profession in 1820. In 1851, when he was elected County Judge, he refused to grant license to sell liquor. Judge James Letcher, of Garrard county, was the first judge who refused to grant such license, and he was immediately followed by Judge Wake, of Jessamine. He was a fearless man in the discharge of his official duty ; he knew neither friend or foe on the bench ; he followed the dictates of his conscience and his judgment, and commanded the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens.
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