USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 76
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The fourth governor of the state of Indiana was James B. Ray, a native of Jefferson county, Kentucky, his administration being marked by his interest in internal improve- ments.
Henry Smith Lane, thirteenth governor of Indiana, was born in Montgomery county,
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Kentucky, in 1811. He was elected governor in 1860 and held the office but four days in consequence of his being elected to the United States senate.
The twenty-third governor of Indiana, Claude Matthews, was born in Bath county, Kentucky, in 1845. He was elected governor in 1895. Gov. Matthews was "a Free Silver Democrat and a prominent candidate for the presidential nomination in 1896." Mr. Town- send says of this candidacy: "But Mr. Bry- an's glittering 'cross of gold' so dazzled the delegates' eyes, and his 'piercing crown of thorns' so punctured all previous booms that the gifted Kentuckian was as one with Rich- ard Parker Bland, better known as "Silver Dick" and a Kentuckian born. Governor Mat- thews died in Indianapolis August 28, 1898- the last Kentuckian to govern the Hoosier state.
One of Ohio's greatest men was Thomas Corwin, born in Paris, Kentucky, in 1794. In 1830 he went to congress from Ohio, serv- ing in the house for ten years. In 1844 he was elected to the senate and six years later he entered the cabinet of President Fillmore as secretary of the treasury. He subsequently served another term in congress.
Ohio's thirty-fifth governor was Richard M. Bishop, born in Fleming county, Kentucky, in 1812. In 1859 he was mayor of Cincin- nati and in 1877 was elected governor, dying in 1893.
The sixth governor of Arkansas was Henry M. Rector, born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1816, and elected governor in 1860.
Another native of Louisville, Thomas J. Churchill, was the thirteenth governor of Ar- kansas, elected in 1880. He served in the Mexican war and as a major general in the Confederate Army.
John Long Routt was the only Kentuckian ever elected governor of Colorado. He was horn in Eddyville, Kentucky, in 1826. He served in the Union army and when General
Grant became president, Routt was appointed governor of the territory of Colorado. When Colorado was admitted to the union, in 1876, he was elected governor. He was elected mayor of Denver in 1883, and in 1890 was a second time elected governor.
David S. Walker, seventh governor of the state of Florida, was born in Logan county, Kentucky. He was elected governor in 1865.
The fifth governor of the state of Idaho was Frank W. Hunt, born in Newport, Ken- tucky, in 1861. He served in the war with Spain and in 1900 was elected governor.
The twenty-third and twenty-fourth gover- nor of Kansas, Edward W. Hoch, was born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1849. He was elected governor of Kansas in 1905 and re- elected in 1907.
The thirteenth governor of Louisiana, Rob- ret C. Wickliffe, was born at Bardstown, Ken- tucky, and in 1856 was elected governor of the state. He was the son of Governor Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, and an uncle of Governor J. C. W. Beckham, of the same state. Governor Beckham's mother, the sis- ter of Governor Wickliffe of Louisiana, en- joyed a distinction no other woman has ever held, in that she was the daughter of a gov- ernor, the sister of a governor and the mother of a governor.
Montana's third state governor, Robert B. Smith, born in Hickman county, Kentucky, was elected in 1896.
The present governor of Montana, Edward L. Norris, born and reared in Cumberland county, Kentucky, was elected in 1908.
The twenty-fourth governor of Tennessee, Albert S. Marks, was born in Davies county, Kentucky, in 1836, served in the Confederate army as Colonel and was elected governor in 1878.
His successor was Alvin Hawkins, a native of Bath county, Kentucky, who was elected governor in 1880.
Benton McMillan, born in Monroe county,
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Kentucky, in 1845, was for twenty years a prominent member of congress from Tennes- see, in 1889 was elected governor of that state and re-elected in 1901.
The seventeenth governor of Texas, John Ireland, born in Hart county, Kentucky, was elected governor in 1882 and re-elected at the expiration of his first term.
John Floyd, born in Jefferson county, Ken- tucky, was the only Kentuckian who ever held the office of governor of Virginia, he having been elected in 1830. In 1832, South Caro- lina voted for Governor Floyd for president.
Not only has Kentucky been generous in supplying her sister states with governors, but she has shown equal generosity to the terri- tories where many of her son's have exempli- fied the high capacity of Kentuckians for political positions of responsibility, as will be seen from the following list :
During Mr. Cleveland's second administra- tion Benjamin J. Franklin, a native of Ger- mantown, was appointed and served as gov- ernor of Arizona territory, from 1896 to 1897.
Robert Crittenden, of Logan county, as sec- retary and acting governor of Arkansas ter- ritory, served in that capacity for about a year, owing to the delay of the regularly ap- pointed governor in reaching his station.
Willis A. Gorman, the second territorial governor of Minnesota, was born in Fleming- burg, Kentucky, in 1814, and served in that capacity from 1853 to 1857.
Montana's second territorial governor was Gen. Green Clay Smith, born in Richmond, Kentucky, in 1832. While serving in con- gress from Kentucky in 1866, President John- son appointed him governor, and he did much to prepare the territory for statehood. At the conclusion of his term of office he entered the Baptist ministry. He died in Washington, D. C., June 30, 1893.
The seventh territorial governor of Mon- tana was Samuel T. Hauser, a native of Fal- month, Kentucky, who was appointed by Pres- ident Cleveland in 1885, serving two years.
His successor was another Kentuckian, a beloved gentleman of the old school, Preston H. Leslie, born in Wayne county, Kentucky, in 1819. In 1871, Gov. Leslie defeated for governor of Kentucky, Gen. John M. Harlan, now, and for many years past, a justice of the supreme court of the United States. In 1887, President Cleveland appointed Governor Leslie governor of Montana territory, in which position he served for two years. In 1894 President Cleveland appointed him United State's attorney for the district of Montana. He died at Helena, Montana, in 1907.
The fifth territorial governor of Nebraska, William A. Richardson, born near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1811, was sent to congress from Illinois in 1846, and in 1858 was appointed to that office. Serving but a few months, he returned to Illinois, and was elected to the United States senate to fill the unexpired term of Stephen A. Douglas, on the latter's death.
The last territorial governor of Nebraska, Alvin Saunders, born in Fleming county, Ken- tucky, served in that capacity from 1861 to 1867 and was afterwards a member of con- gress from Nebraska. He died in Omaha in 1899.
The first provisional governor of Texas was Henry Smith, born in Kentucky in 1784. He was elected governor in 1835 and later de- clined the presidency of the republic of Texas. when Gen. Sam Houston was elected. Gov- Smith was the first secretary of the treasury of the infant Republic.
Two Kentuckians have been governor of the territory of Utah-Gen. Eli H. Murray and Caleb W. West. Gen. Murray was born in Breckinridge county in 1844. He fought in the Union army and was brevetted as brigadier general at its close. For ten years, he was United States marshal in Kentucky. President Hayes in 1880 appointed him gov- ernor of the territory of Utah and President Arthur reappointed him, but he resigned dur- ing President Cleveland's administration.
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General Murray was succeeded by Caleb W. West, born at Cythiana in 1844. He had served in the Confederate army, studying law after returning home. While serving as county judge, President Cleveland appointed him governor of Utah territory in 1886, and seven years later he was reappointed to the same position, again by President Cleveland. He later became a special agent of the United States treasury. He died at San Francisco in January, 1909, beloved and mourned by all who had ever known him.
Joseph C. S. Blackburn was born in Wood- ford county, Kentucky, October 1, 1838. He served in the Confederate army, and after the war, while practicing law at Versailles, was elected a representative in the legislature in 1871, and re-elected in 1873. In 1875 he was elected to congress, serving in either the house or senate-three terms in the latter- until 1907, with the exception of a short period. On April 1, 1907, President Roose- velt appointed him a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission in charge of the depart- ment of civil administration in the Canal Zone, and it was Governor Blackburn for the
next three years. At the expiration of that period he resigned and returned to his home in Woodford county.
To succeed Governor Blackburn, President Taft appointed Maurice K. Thatcher, who had the misfortune to have been born in Chi- cago, but he atoned for this mishap by com- ing, at an early age, to Butler county where he grew to a useful manhood. He has been as- sistant United States attorney for Kentucky, state inspector and examiner of public offices, and is at this writing Governor Thatcher of the Canal Zone. It has been charged that Governor Thatcher writes poetry, but this he denies. At any rate, he is a useful young man and a good citizen.
An inclination to publish herewith a list of those Kentuckians who have represented other states in the national senate and house of representatives, had to be resisted on ac- count of the limitation of space. It is enough to say that in the matter of senators and rep- resentatives for other states, Kentucky has been even more generous than in that of gov- ernors.
CHAPTER LXV.
THE TOPOGRAPHY-THE RIVER SYSTEMS-THE SOILS-THE GEOLOGY-GEOLOGICAL SCALE AND ECONOMIC VALUES - QUARTERNARY - TERTIARY - CRETACEOUS - PENNSYL- VANIAN (UPPER CARBONIFEROUS)-THE COAL FIELDS-MISSISSIPPIAN (LOWER CARBON- IFEROUS)-DEVONIAN-SILURIAN-ORDOVICIAN (LOWER SILURIAN).
[This chapter, bearing upon the geology of Kentucky, is from the pen of Professor C. J. Norwood of the State University, the accom- plislied Director of the Geological Survey and Chief Inspector of Mines for the State of Kentucky.]
The precise area of Kentucky is yet to be determined; according to the computations last made by the State Geological Survey, the area closely approximates 41,283 square miles, including about four hundred square miles of water. With the exception of the southern border and about one hundred and forty miles on the southeast, the boundary is formed by rivers-the Big Sandy and its Tug Fork for approximately one hundred and twenty miles, the Ohio for six hundred and forty-three miles, and the Mississippi for fifty or sixty miles. The southeastern border follows the north- eastwardly trending crest of Cumberland Mountain for thirty-five or forty miles, then crosses to Pine Mountain, by way of the Big Black and associated ridges, and follows the ridge of Pine to the Breaks of Sandy; from the latter point it pursues an arbitrary north- east line to the Roughs of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy. As was aptly stated by the late N. S. Shaler, these boundaries give the state the form of an irregular pentagon, four sides of which are natural boundaries of river or mountain range, the fifth being a conventional
line. While the reasons for the irregularities seen in the southern border, and for the ex- tension of the northern one by arbitrary line from the Breaks of Sandy to the Tug Fork, may be of some historical interest, it does not seem necessary to discuss them here.
THE TOPOGRAPHY
Save for a small area in the southeast, which has true mountain structure, Kentucky is essentially a table-land, with subordinate peneplains, sloping to the northwest and, in the main, broken only by stream excavations. Perhaps no general description of the surface more suitable for these pages can be presented than one based in part on emendation of that given by N. S. Shaler in Vol. III of reports of the State Geological Survey, issued during his administration as director of the Survey : The Ohio river, so prominent a feature in the map of the state, is the key to most of its surface. All except about. one-eighth of its area, situated in the southeast corner of the state, may be regarded as a part of the valley table-lands of the Ohio, varying in character according to the underlying rock, but owing their form almost entirely to the cutting action of the rivers, acting upon rock which has never been thrown into great moun- tain folds. In the formation of this surface there have been, with comparatively few excep- tions. no other factors than the hardness of
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the rocks and the energy of the wearing agents-running water and frost. This has given a surface in general, and broadly speak- ing, rather level, but elevated high above the plane of the main streams, which cut for them- selves deep valleys with precipitous sides, often true canons in their form. The height of these elevated plains or peneplains above the sea, and above drainage, varies a good deal, according to their position in the state and the nature of the rock in which they have been excavated. At Hickman, on the Mississippi, the base of the topography may be placed at about two hundred and fifty feet above the sea. From this section eastward there is a continual in- crease of height. This may best be represented by drawing radiating lines from the mountain area of southeastern Kentucky in every direc- tion to the Ohio; this mountain section being the stream center of the south Ohio area, all its southern tributaries pointing toward that region. The drainage levels rise with great uniformity in that direction, the only great differences of level being caused by the change in the height of the plateatt between the streams. Whenever these lines cross the line of outcrop of the different formations, there is apt to be a sudden change in the character of the surface, and often a distinct cliff-like ridge occurs. Muldraugh hill and Big hill are good examples of this structure.
Proceeding eastwardly from the before- named base, we rise to about five hundred feet as we cross the Western Coalfield and to seven hundred and eight hundred feet as the Lower Carboniferous area east of that field is crossed, until an altitude of about nine hundred feet is reached at the Muldraugh Hill escarpment. Upon passing the escarpment, a drop to about six hundred feet occurs, but there is then a continuous gain in height to a line drawn southwestwardly approximately through Lex- ington, where the surface attains to heights of about nine hundred and one thousand feet above tidewater. Along this course, the table-
land rises more rapidly than the stream-beds, so that the valleys of the stream-courses are deeper as we go towards this central region. Lexington occupies a position on the top of a low geological ridge, formed at a very early date by a broad folding of the rock strata, which crosses the state in a southwestwardly direction and rises to a height of somewhat more than one thousand feet at points of max- imum altitude of its present surface. Formerly called the Cincinnati Anticline, and the Cin- cinnati-Nashville Axis, this fold is now known as the Cincinnati Geanticline; as the result of it, the central part of the state occupies a higher level than otherwise would be the case. Passing southeastwardly from Lexington, the general elevation of the surface increases as the Eastern Coalfield is approached and entered, reaching the maximum in the Black and Log Mountains that, with their valleys. occupy the region between the Pine and Cum- berland Mountains, the latter being the only mountains of elevation within the state.
In some of the older discussions of the topography of the state attempts were made to present a notion of the form of the surface by means of statements giving "average ele- vations" for the state as a whole and for large divisions of it. After careful consideration of the matter, the writer believes that such statements are of no real value; they may mislead, and doubtless have misled and caused disappointment to persons who have sought residence within certain areas because of re- ported "average" altitudes. To say that the average elevation of the surface of the State is one thousand feet above the sea may prove misleading, since the average must include a large area in the extreme west where the aver- age elevation is less than four hundred and fifty feet ; larger areas to the east, including the Western Coalfield and reaching as far east as Muldraugh hill, in which the average will not exceed six hundred feet ; the central part of the state, where the average will not exceed
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eight hundred or nine hundred feet; and the Eastern Coalfield, which includes the highest portion of the state and where the elevations range from about five hundred feet on the Ohio river to about four thousand two hun- dred feet at the highest point on Big Black Mountain, in Harlan county, the more com- mon of the extreme heights in the mountain ridges being two thousand five hundred to three thousand feet. And so many averages for sections of the area fail to convey correct impressions. In the more central part of the state, away from the rivers and excluding some of the knobs, elevations range from about seven hundred and fifty to one thousand and fifty feet; in the Mississippian (Lower Carbon- iferous) area fringing the Western Coal- field on the east and south, the range is from about three hundred fifty feet on the Ohio to six hundred and nine hundred and fifty feet in the southwest and southeast; in the Western Coalfield the range is from about four hundred feet above tide at the northwest, near the Ohio, to about eight hundred feet in the south- east, the more common heights varying from five hundred to six hundred feet; while in the Jackson's Purchase region, the elevations range from two hundred and fifty-six feet at low water of the Mississippi at Hickman and two hundred and ninety feet at the level of Reelfoot Lake, up to about five hundred and fifty feet on the higher lands.
THE RIVER SYSTEMS
The whole of Kentucky lies within the Mis- sissippi basin, and nearly all of it within the Ohio valley ; very nearly ninety-seven per cent. of its drainage is to the Ohio river, the re- mainder to the Mississippi. Among all others, it is notable for the large mileage of rivers within its confines; one of the largest trib- utaries of the Ohio, the Cumberland, has its origin within the state and receives a large part of its water here; another, the Tennessee, gathers a part of its water from Kentucky
slopes ; and two other of the more important tributaries, the Kentucky and the Green, lie wholly within this commonwealth. It has been estimated that, exclusive of the Ohio and other bounding waters, there are more than three thousand miles of streams within the state that to a large or small extent are nav- igable. Most of these streams may be made to yield excellent water-powers. With few exceptions they occupy deep-sunken valleys with steep walls, occupy channels with good, firm banks, and have a relatively low and gradual rate of fall, notwithstanding the con- siderable height of the descent from their respective sources to the Ohio-the low rate of fall being due to the tortuousness of their courses and consequent long distance between head and mouth.
The economic importance of the fact that, excepting in a narrow strip immediately bor- dering the Mississippi, all the streams drain to the Ohio is plain. Beyond question, the principal rivers of the state are, with their more important tributaries, susceptible of being so improved as to add a very large mileage of slack-water navigation to that which already has been obtained, and thus, through their connection with the Ohio, afford to the larger portion of the state cheap transportation to the Gulf of Mexico and thence to South American countries and the Panama canal.
THE SOILS
Away from the immediate regions of streams, and exclusive of some of the lands west of the Cumberland, the soils are all of immediate derivation-due to the decay of the rocks beneath them-and thus partake of the chemical nature of the beds that form the crust of the region in which they lie. A large part of the state, including the "Blue Grass" is characterized by underground water- channels and caverns, and is thus provided with natural underdrainage. Underdrainage, as is well known, is a prime necessity for the
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continued fertility of a soil, and where a sys- about one hundred years without apparent tem of underground water-channels is well de- damage to the soil. No other land of the world is so fitted to withstand the evils of the utterly unscientific agriculture to which it has been submitted in former days. The area of second-class soils, those less fertile than the preceding, easily worn by careless tillage, still affording a good basis for agriculture, may safely be estimated at about twenty-two thous- and square miles. The distinctly inferior soils, those not well fitted for any grains without fertilizing, or for other agricultural use, save veloped, there soils derived from rock in place are thickest. The exceptional endurance and fertility, and the virtue of continuous re- newal, possessed by the soils that mantle the central region and the wide belt of cavern- forming limestones around the Western Coal- field are, therefore, due not only to the chem- ical constituents of the rocks to which they owe their genesis but to the natural under- drainage of the districts.
HARVESTING BLUE GRASS
The following is taken from Shaler's "Ken- tucky, a Pioneer Commonwealth:" "The area of very fertile soil in the state-that which may be called of the first order-is about ten thousand square miles. This is equal in fertility to the best English, Belgian, or Lombardian lands, and surpasses any other region in this country or in Europe for its fitness for pasturage land. It lies on a lime- stone rock, which, by its rapid decay, con- stantly restores to the soil the elements re- moved by cultivation, so that there are fields in Kentucky which have been steadily cropped, with no attention to fallow or fertilizer, for
as low-grade pasture lands and for timber, in- clude about seven thousand square miles. There are not over two hundred square miles of irreclaimable swamps and arid rocky fields ; and not more than eight hundred square miles unfit for pasturage. It is doubtful if an equally good showing can be made for any other state in the Mississippi valley, and there are few regions in the world where so large an area with so little waste land can be found."
The lowlands west of the Tennessee river, comprising in the aggregate perhaps a thou- sand square miles, present some difficult prob- lems in drainage and flood-control, but through
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the application of intelligent methods, as de- veloped in modern progress, they will be taken care of; aside from these, the state presents no drainage problems requiring really more than simple, standard methods for their solit- tion.
THE GEOLOGY
Practically all the geological formations of the state consist of stratified deposits. The exceptions are a small number of igneous dikes and sills (mica-peridotite) in the fluor- spar district of Western Kentucky, and one or two short crater-like dikes of peridotite in Elliott county. Because of its petrographic resemblance to the diamond-bearing rock of South Africa, the Elliott peridotite has been rather thoroughly prospected for diamonds- and without success.
The younger formations are represented by Quaternary, Tertiary, and Cretaceous deposits in the region west of the Tennessee river known as "Jackson's Purchase." They con- stitute the filling of an arm or bay of the ocean, now known as the Gulf Embayment.
The oldest rocks are those that are exposed in the central part of the state, popularly known as the Blue Grass region, and along the Cumberland river in the south-central portion.
The small area in the southeast corner of the state, the only region in which mountains of elevation occur, consists of a synclinal be- tween Cumberland Mountain on the southeast and Pine Mountain on the northwest. Cum- berland Mountain, though now worn away on its eastern flank so as to expose basseting edges of its structural members, is a complete fold ; Pine Mountain, on the other hand, is a broken one, the strain of the thrust from the southeast having been relieved by a break and fault on the north, the course of which is well defined by Straight creek. The Kentucky side of Cumberland Mountain shows only Penn- sylvanian (Coal Measures) beds, but on the north side of Pine Mountain rocks as low as
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