USA > Kentucky > Jessamine County > A history of Jessamine County, Kentucky, from its earliest settlement to 1898 > Part 5
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The First Vineyard.
John Frances DeFoure was a native of Vevay, Switzerland, and planted the first vineyard west of the Alleghanies, in Jessa- mine county in 1796. The land was patented by William Hazel- rigg in 1785. The place is ten miles southeast of Nicholasville, and is the land on which Col. Percival Butler lived when Gen. WVm. O. Butler was born in 1791. Col. Percival Butler had moved to this section because the Indians were less dangerous than in the northwest territory. The DeFoures, purchased the land from Colonel Hazelrigg, who lived and died in Bourbon county. They afterwards settled in Vevay, Indiana, and named the county Switzerland. They were very successful in Indiana, and became very wealthy. The deed and agreement between the DeFoures and Hazelrigg is recorded in Deed Book I, page 34. in the Jessamine county clerk's office.
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INIT LV ASIIOH ANOIS
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
The land chosen did not suit the varieties of the grape in- troduced. Hybridizing and crossing had not yet developed the excellent varieties of grapes which can now be grown in all parts of the United States. The European grapes were not adapted to the soil of Kentucky. All other fruits in the early settlement of the state, were produced in perfection. The cherries from Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania, the apples and peaches from Virginia and North Carolina, and the pears from Virginia grew with marvelous rapidity, and were free from all diseases, and in twenty years after the settlement of Kentucky magnificent orchards were abundant in all parts of the Commonwealth. The Janet or Jeniton, the Limber Twig, the Horse apple, the Spice apple, the Pryor Red, Morton's Pearmain, the summer apple, propagated by slips brought over the mountains or produced from seed; found in the virgin soil of Kentucky, a vigor and an abundance of crops which satisfied the fullest wants of the new communities ; but the grapes found wild in the forests of either Virginia or Ken- tucky were not utilized, or domesticated, and for a long while but few grapes were grown.
The Kentucky Vineyard Association was organized in Lex- ington in 1799. and seven hundred and fifty acres of land "lying in the big bend of the Kentucky river near the mouth of Hick- man creek," were secured as the site for planting the vineyard. Great expectations were created. There was supposed to be 110 limit to the products and production of the state and if Europe could grow grapes, it was confidently assumed Kentucky could do likewise and better. The announcement of the association de- clared that, "in less than four years, wine may be drunk on the banks of the Kentucky, produced from the European stock."
The experiment was a dismal failure. Down in the swamps of North Carolina on the banks of the Catawba river was then growing the splendid Catawba grape and on the islands in James river in the midst of the forests and dense thickets the Norton's Va. (Virginia seedling) was yearly producing prolific crops, either of which, if transplanted to Kentucky, would have pro- duced a vintage which would have done all the promoters of the Kentucky Vineyard Association desired and prophesied, but these early grape growers went to Europe rather than unto the
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
forests of America for their plants, and misfortunes were the result.
Another vineyard was started by some Swiss settlers on the banks of Jessamine creek near the Crozier Mill, but these, after some years of cultivation of the European varieties, abandoned their vines and homes and sought success in more congenial climes.
James DeFoure, who was at the head of the vineyard at mouth of Hickman creek, after his failure there, had the sagacity to discover that the European varieties were not adapted to this portion of the country. Alexander, a gardener for Governor Penn, had propagated before the war of the Revolution, a grape now called by his name, which was thought to be the celebrated grape of the Constantia colony from the Cape of Good Hope, but which in reality was a native variety. It was called also the Cape grape. DeFoure planted this vine at Vevay, Ind., and made the first successful attempt to establish a vineyard in America. His experiments in Jessamine county at least showed him the true path to success and wealth at Vevay.
Kentucky Pioneers.
God always provides men for occasions. In emergencies they invariably arise to fill the measure of the hour. Men are fashioned by their surroundings and they must be judged by the same standard.
The settlement of Kentucky and its wresting from the savage, made an unusual demand upon the Ruler of the Universe. It required a man unknown in the past history of the human race. It must be a man devoid of fear, filled with love of adventure, with an instinct of freedom as strong as that of the eagle : as self- reliant as the king of beasts, as hospitable as the Arab-who in the mighty desert despises the yoke of the oppressor and who pro- tects with his life the guest who sits at his board ; as patriotic as the Roman, as enterprising as the Carthaginian, as fearless as the Saxon, as defiant of death as the Turk; and, with all these, the subtle instincts of the Indian and his heroism under misfortune.
The Virginia cavalier, with his superb gallantry, ennobled bv
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his lofty, gentlemanly instincts, would not meet the requirements. The Pennsylvania settler, with his indomitable patience and un- failing courage, fell short of the demands, and the sturdy Scotch- Irishman of North Carolina, with his unquenchable love of free- dom backed by his superb bravery and uplifted by his abiding faith in God, was not equal to what the time and circumstances exacted of the men who should undertake the seemingly impos- sible task of conquering Kentucky.
As we turn backward one hundred years to commemorate the character, lives and virtues of our forefathers and to understand their sacrifices, their valor and their splendid achievements, let us briefly picture their surroundings.
These Kentucky pioneers were to conquer a land four hundred miles away from help or succor. It was an untrodden forest, with no roads or path except such as the buffalo in his migrations had trampled through the canebrake, or beasts of prey had traced in their seach for food. It had no human inhabitants, and its defense was by common consent imposed upon the sav- age red men, who claimed as their lands that vast country which stretches from the great lakes in the Northwest to the waters of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers ; covering an area of over 300,000 square miles. No survey had marked its lines ; he who traversed the solitude and depths of the forest must rely upon the stars, or nature's marks upon the trees, as his guide. All supplies must be carried on pack-horses or pack-men ; powder and lead were to be transported over six hundred miles ; not a single blade of wheat or stalk of corn as yet had sprung from its virgin and fertile soil. He who entered its domain must always be prepared to meet an alert, savage, brave and merciless foe. The cooing of the babe, the wail of defense- less women, or the appeal of the helpless prisoner, found no sympathy or response in the foe who defended this land. Death by the tomahawk or at the stake was the punishment the In- dian meted to those who invaded his beloved hunting ground. As he asked and expected no quarter for himself, he gave none to his white foe. By day and by night the merciless warfare was to be waged. The coming of the morning sun only quickened and vitalized anew his barbarous plans, and its departure at night
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only gave time for more relentless resolve to drive out the in- truder.
What race, what country, could produce men for such a task?
The settlement of Kentucky and its possession and the main- tenance of the white man's supremacy was a part of God's plan to make the colonies free and to form in America a republic-a government of the people by the people, which was to be the great beacon light of freedom and the vanguard of mankind for the establishment in the world of true national liberty.
The thousand pioneers flung out into the wilds of Kentucky, with their log stations and forts, close by the homes of the savages, whom England was arming and teaching to slay white men and white women and white children-with their skill as woodsmen, with their courage as soldiers, and with their endurance as frontiersmen, and with their fierce hatred of the barbarous In- dians, were worth ten thousand men on the Atlantic under leaders as great as even Washington, Greene, or La Fayette.
These Kentucky pioneers stayed savage invasion of Virginia and Pennsylvania. They kept back the herd of marauders and murderers, which in the wilds of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, longed for an opportunity to imbrue their hands in white men's blood, and the savage wrath which would have poured itself with irresistible tide over the settlements of the upper Ohio, Monon- gehela and the Kanawha, turned its savage and bitter force upon the stations in Kentucky. The thousands of brave and noble men, and still braver women, who from 1775 to 1783. died in the Kentucky wilderness, surrendered their lives to protect Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania and stood the red men at bay, while the colonists were enabled to fight and defeat the British soldiers along the Atlantic coast.
Creation of the County of Jessamine.
1798 was the banner year for the creation of new counties. In 1792 seven had been formed, in 1793, one; in 1794 two, in 1796 six had been formed, and in 1798 thirteen were made, of which Jessamine was one, and the thirty-sixth in the state. It was carved entirely out of Fayette, and given one representative
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in the Legislature ; while Fayette county retained six representa- tives, the number to which it had before the separation been en- titled. The inequality of representation had not then been so fully recognized as afterwards. The whole population of Fay- ette county at the time of the division was about 18,000. Jessa- mine took off at least one-fourth of the population of Fayette and was given one member, while Fayette, with only three times the population of newly made Jessamine, had six, or twice the voice in legislation that was given her newly sent out daughter.
The creation of some counties was fought for years, but that of Jessamine produced but little hard feeling. Fayette had al- ways been generous in the partition of territory. With 264,000 acres, after some protesting and legislative discussion, she sur- rendered 101,000 of it to create another county. Doubtless the retention of her six representatives had something to do with acquiescence in the division.
The men in the Senate those days, were men of wide, broad views. They were chosen not by districts, but from the state at large by the Commission formed for that purpose under the terms of the Constitution of 1792. The Senate then consisted of only eleven members. The Senator representing Fayette was James Campbell. In the House, Col. Robt. Patterson, John McDowell, John Parker, Walter Carr, Thos. Caldwell, - McGregor,
These were wide-gauge men, and private interest was subordi- nated to public interest and local benefit.
The real cause leading up to the formation of the county, was some friction between the officers of Fayette county and the peo- ple in the Marble creek neighborhood.
New counties were already being rapidly formed. Starting with nine in 1792. by the beginning of the session of 1798, sixteen new ones had been created, five of which-Scott, Shelby, Clark, Franklin and Montgomery-had been created close to Fayette.
Col. John Price was then a resident of the Marble creek dis- trict and he set about securing the formation of a new county. His influence with the Revolutionary soldiers, who then consti- tuted so large a share of the legislators, was very strong. The battle over the act (creating the new county) continued from No- vember 15 to December 19, 1798.
The journal of the House shows that the petition for the act.
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
signed by the citizens demanding such an act, was on November 9. 1798, read and referred to the proper committee. The copy of the record and the extracts from the minutes of the Palladium tell the story of the struggle. They are as follows :
Journal.
Page 24.
Thursday, November 15, 1798.
Resolved, that the petition of sundry inhabitants of Fayette county, whose names are thereunto subscribed, setting forth that they labor under great inconveniences from their detached situation from their present seat of justice; and praying that the said county may be divided, agreeably to certain lines therein proposed, is reasonable.
The said resolution being read, was ordered to lie on the table. Pages 80-81.
Tuesday, December 18, 1798.
Several petitions from sundry inhabitants of Fayette county, in opposition to the division thereof, were presented and ordered to lie on the table until the end of the present session.
The house then took up the bill for the division of Fayette county.
Wednesday, December 19, 1798. Page 85.
Mr. Slaughter, from the joint committee of enrollments, re- ported that the committee had examined the enrolled bill entitled "An act for the division of Fayette county," and that the same was truly enrolled. Whereupon the speaker signed the said en- rolled bill.
Ordered, that Mr. Slaughter inform the senate thereof.
Extracts from the Minutes of the Kentucky Legislature of 1798, in the Palladium.
November 9. 1798. A petition from Fayette praying for a division of that county, was read and referred to the proper com- mittee.
November 20. Several reports were made and the following petitions were read and referred to the committee on propositions
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
and grievances : A petition praying that a division of Fayette county may not take place.
November 23. The following bills were reported and read a first time : A bill for the division of Fayette.
November 24. In committee of the whole went through the bill for the division of Fayette, which, after some amendments, was ordered to be referred.
November 26. A bill for the division of Fayette was read a third time and passed. Yeas 24, Nays 15.
December 4. Concurred in the senate's amendments to the bill for the division of Fayette.
December 18. Several petitions from Fayette against the division of that county, were laid on the table to the end of the session.
Took up the bill for the division of Fayette with the governor's objections, which were agreed to.
Some very important assistance must have been rendered in securing the necessary legislation tor the creation of the county by Col. Joseph H. Daveiss; for, in a letter written to him eight months after the passage of the act, Col. John Price pro- ceeds to thank Colonel Davis for his services in this regard.
At this time Colonel Daveiss was a resident of Frankfort and later was United States District Attorney for Kentucky.
Extracts from Acts of the Legislature.
CHAPTER CXLIII. An Act for the Division of Fayette County. Approved December 19. 1798.
Section I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That from and after the first day of February next, all that part of the coun- ty of Fayette, included in the following bounds, to wit: Begin- ning on the Woodford line, where it strikes the Kentucky river. near Todd's ferry ; thence along said line half a mile north of John Allin's military survey ; thence to the seven-mile tree, on Curd's road ; thence to the eight-mile tree on Tate's creek road ; thence along said last mentioned road to the Kentucky river ; thence
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
down the Kentucky river to the beginning, shall be one distinct county, and called and known by the name of Jessamine.
Sec. 2. A court for the said county shall be held by the Jus- tices thereof, on the fourth Monday in every month (except those in which the court of quarter sessions are hereafter directed to be held) after said division shall take place, in like manner, as is provided by law in respect to other counties, and as shall be by their commissions directed.
Sec. 3. The Justices to be named in the commission of the peace for the said county of Jessamine, shall meet at the house of Fisher Rice, in the said county, on the first court day after said division shall take place, and having taken the oaths prescribed by law, and a sheriff being legally qualified to act, the justice- shall proceed to appoint and qualify a clerk, and shall, together with the Justices of the court of quarter sessions for said county, fix upon a place for holding courts therein ; then the courts shall proceed to erect the public buildings in such place ; and until such buildings are completed, shall appoint such place for holding courts as they may think proper ; provided, always, that the ap- pointment of a place for erecting the public buildings shall not be made unless a majority of the Justices of the said courts concur therein.
Sec. 4. It shall be lawful for the sheriff of the county of Fay- ette to collect and make distress for any public dues or officers' fees, which shall remain unpaid by the inhabitants of the county at the time of such division, and shall be accountable for the same in like manner as if this act had not been made.
Sec. 5. The court of Fayette shall have jurisdiction in all ac- tions or suits in law or equity, that shall be depending therein at the time of such division, and shall try and determine the same, issue process ,and award execution thereon.
Sec. 6. The court of quarter session for the said county of Jessamine, shall be held, annually, on the fourth Monday in Jan- uary, March, July and October.
Sec. 7. The said county of Jessamine shall send one repre- sentative to the General Assembly, and the county of Fayette shall retain six representatives.
This act shall commence and be in force from and after the passage thereof. 5
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
From Vol. XI. of the Statute Law of Kentucky, printed at Frankfort in 1810.
CHAPTER CCIII.
An Act to Amend the Act, Entitled "An Act for the Division of Fayette County." Approved December 19, 1799.
Whereas, it is represented to this General Assembly, that disputes have arisen between the inhabitants of the counties of Fayette and Jessamine, in ascertaining the true line of division ; and also in the collection and manner of appropriating that part of the levy which was levied by the County Court of Fayette, on the in- habitants now in the county of Jessamine ; for remedy whereof-
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that the dividing line run by the surveyor of Jessamine county, is hereby ratified and confirmed.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the County Courts of Fayette and Jessamine, shall, on their respective parts, in the month of March, next, appoint, each, a commissioner, who are hereby authorized to examine the records of Fayette county, and enquire into the situation of levies and appropriations heretofore made by the County Court of Fayette ; and if upon such examina- tion, it shall appear to the said commissioners, that there is, or ought to be, a deposit, amounting to more than the claims given into the said County Court of Fayette, the said court of Fayette is hereby required to pay to the court of Jessamine county, for the use of said county, their proportion of said deposit.
This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of February next.
The establishment of the new county demanded a name.
Up to this time the thirty-five counties created had all been named for soldiers, pioneers, or a statesman, with one exception, and that was Ohio county, the thirty-fifth, which was named for the great river which marks the northern boundary of Kentucky for 700 miles and had been called by the Indians, the Ohio, "The Beautiful River." Cumberland was called for Cumberland river, but the river had before been named by Dr. Thos. Walker for the Duke of Cumberland. Such names as Jefferson, Fayette (La
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
Fayette), Lincoln, Nelson, Mercer, Madison, Mason, Woodford. Washington, Scott, Shelby, Logan, Clark, Hardin, Greene, Franklin, Campbell, Bullitt, Christian, Bracken, Warren, Gar- rard, Fleming, Pulaski, Pendleton, Boone, Henry, Gallatin, and Muhlenberg, represented a full share of the patriotism, glory, bravery, wisdom and exploits of the people of the United States prior to 1798, and, with so many great heroes still unrewarded, it required both determination and courage to break away from the long line of precedents and call the county by the simple and beautiful name of a flower.
To Col. John Price was undoubtedly given the privilege of naming the new municipality.
Jessamine creek-one hundred years ago a stream of large volume and great beauty-rises near the line of the R. N. I. & B. Railroad, close to the station called Nealton and about half a mile from where the Nicholasville & Versailles turnpike crosses, and on the land now owned by Pleasant Cook, Esq. Along its banks grew the jessamine in richest profusion. This flower was found in great abundance in many parts of the territory embraced by the new county. The name had been given to the creek by the pioneers, and the beauty of the plant and the beauty of the name so impressed the early settlers that they called this beautiful stream Jessamine creek. It is about twenty miles long and empties into the Kentucky river.
Colonel Price asked that the new county should be called Jessamine.
The county, always full of romance, in some way heard the story of Jessamine Douglas, which was to the effect that Jessa- mine Douglas, the beautiful daughter of a Scotch settler, was one day sitting upon the bank which overhangs the source of this creek, and while, in maidenly contemplation, gazing into the depths of the water, an Indian cautiously and silently stole upon her and sunk his tomahawk into her head and then tore her beautiful auburn locks from her head, with his scalping knife.
This story is given the flavor of truth by its insertion in Collins' History of Kentucky. See Vol. 2, page 399. The author goes on to say that the land about the head of the creek was settled by the father of Jessamine Douglas. There is no founda- tion for that pathetic and dramatic incident. The land at the
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History of Jessamine County, Kentucky.
head of Jessamine creek was not settled by Douglas, but by Michael Cogar, and this historical tradition has not even a shad- ow of foundation.
The letter of Col. John Price, quoted below, written within eight months of the legislative creation of the county, settles, beyond all cavil, that the county was called from Jessamine creek and the flower, and not from Jessamine Douglas. The story of the beautiful Scotch girl and her tragic end, has been told so often and has been so honestly and faithfully believed by the people of the county, and it has in it so much of that tragic and bloody character which marked Kentucky's early history, that it is both ungenerous and unkind to destroy and disrupt the faith which for nearly one hundred years has reposed with unfaltering trust in the pathetic story.
As Colonel Meade did not come to Jessamine county until 1796, and as both the East and West Forks of Jessamine creek were known and traveled in 1774 and 1775 and on down to 1790, and lands described and surveyed by the creek, and its course and meanderings laid down on Filson's and other maps and plats long prior to 1790; it is impossible for the creek to have been named for Jessamine Douglas, who, under no circumstances, did she come with Colonel Meade, could have arrived in Kentucky prior to 1796. The Williams deposition, the Watkins journal, and Fil- son's map show that Jessamine creek was a well known and named stream prior to 1789.
The Price Letter about the Formation of the County.
Barbour Home, Jessamine county, November 13, 1820. My Esteemed Friend : I have read your favor of October 6th with much pleasure. The county of Jessamine was surveyed by my friend, Maj. Frederick Zimmerman. I think he com- ienced his work in May, 1796, but the county was not organized as a county until February 14th. In August the next year I was chosen as a member of the General Assembly by the county- without opposition.
The name Jessamine was selected from a flower that grows on many creeks in the county.
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The villainy practiced in the Marble creek neighborhood by the constables and other petty officers of Fayette county, in- duced me to make an effort to form a new county, as I had known for several years that it was becoming impossible for my neigh- bors to get along on peaceable terms with officers who took pleasure in arresting and putting in prison men and women for the pitiful sum of $5. The only bed of straw, the only horse, the only cow, or pig of a neighbor, was leveyed on and sold at Lex- ington by the sheriff, but we now have a new set of officers and they are much better men than the others, who have so long an- noyed my neighbors with their villainy.
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