Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 35

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1654

USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II > Part 35

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Gen. Morgan was killed at Greenville, in East Tennessee, about sunrise on Sept. 4, 1864, in the vineyard or garden of Mrs. Dr. Williams, and while trying to escape; he and his staff having spent the night at her residence within the same enclosure. He died, believing he was betrayed by Mrs. Lucy Williams, daughter-in-law of his hostess, and sister-in-law of Maj. Williams of his own staff. The brutal soldier who killed him was Miles Leatherwood (who was accidentally burned to death in Polk county, Tennessee, in the winter of 1871-2). Gen. Gillem attributes his death to a carbine shot by sergeant A. J. Campbell, 13th Tennessee cavalry ; but his description of the wound proves him mistaken.

The nearest eye-witness of his death was his chief of staff, Adjutant-general Chas, Albert Withers (of Covington, Ky.), who, in a letter dated Savannah, Oct. 25, 1871, thus minutely describes the closing scene of an eventful life : "I went into each opening in different directions, and found every street blocked with cavalry, while lines of men were riding around next the fence (a high plank fence). shooting in all directions through the grounds. I could also see squads of men at the terminus of each street on the outskirts of the village. Reporting these facts to the general, I urged him to go into the house and there surrender, as it was our only chance, and that growing momentarily less, as the fire was growing heavy and at point-blank range. He replied :

"'It is useless ; they have sworn never to take me a prisoner.'

" Hearing the church being forced open, we crossed over into the vineyard. It must here be stated that all movements were effected by almost crawling and taking advantage of each bush, as the enemy were not over twenty yards from us; and crouching down among the vines, L. C. Johnston and myself again urged him to go up to the house. This he refused, and told us that we had better separate, as three together might be perceived. In leaving, the general shook hands with me and remarked:

"' You will never see me again.'

" I had gone but a few steps when I heard him call out : 'Don't shoot ! I surrender.'

"Stopping immediately, I looked around, and upon the outside of the fence, almost over the general, who had risen and was holding up his hands, sat a Yankee with gun presented, who replied : 'Surrender and be God damned- I know you '-and fired. I was so close that to this day I firmly believe that I can identify the man.

" As soon as the shot was fired, and the general fallen, he commenced shouting: 'I've killed the damned horse-thief;' and began tearing down the fence, in which he was soon assisted by a large crowd of his comrades. [I neglected to mention that while we were dodging about in the garden, some fiends, in the noble guise of women, were calling to the Yankees from their upper windows : 'Yonder he goes !' 'That's him!' 'That's Morgan,' etc.] "Being soon after captured, and taken some distance out of town, I saw nothing of the general's body until when, after repeated solicitations, the sergeant who had me in charge consented to take me to Gen. Gillem, the commander of the Federal forces, and on my way there. I was stopped by a crowd of half-drunken wretches, who made me dismount. 'They wanted to show me something.' That ' something' was the dead body of Gen. Morgan, thrown in a muddy ditch by the road-side, the features almost undistinguish- able from mud and blood, and the body nude save a pair of drawers, the clothing then being torn up into small pieces as souvenirs of the 'Dead Lion.'

" Upon reaching the town I found Gen. Gillem at Mrs. Dr. Williams' house, and with him was her daughter-in-law, the Mrs. Lucy Williams, who had gone out the day before after ' watermelons' (?) and who had returned, strange to say, about the same time, with the Yankees. I stated to Gen. Gillem that my object in coming to him was for permission to get the general's body, 'as his men were treating it like a dog.' 'Ay, sir, and it shall lie there and rot like a dog,' was his reply; and then followed a series of abuse, which would scarcely be palatable to your readers or pertinent to this statement. Suflicit, he rejected every proposition by which I had hoped to succeed in getting the general's body to his friends.

"Our force having rallied, Gen. Gillem was summoned to the front, and

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one of his staff-whom I have thought was Col. Brownlow, though my memory may be at fault, but who, nevertheless, seemed a gentleman-of- fered to bring in the body, which was done, and in a small back room Capt. Jas. Rogers and myself, with the assistance of a negro man, washed and dressed it. The wound was full in the breast, and seemed to have glanced on the breast-bone, passing through the heart and coming out under the left arm. The head was much bruised and the skin broken in several places upon the face and temples, seeming a verification of the statement that the body was thrown over a horse, with the head dangling against the stirrups."

Gen. WILLIAM PRESTON-son of Maj. Wm. Preston, of the U. S. army, and Caroline Hancock, daughter of Col. Geo. Hancock, of Botetourt co., Va. (an officer of the Revolution and a member of congress)-was born Oct. 16, 1816, near Louisville, Ky. ; received a classical education at St. Joseph's college, Bardstown, Ky., which was afterwards completed at New Haven, and at Harvard University where he graduated, 1838; was admitted to the bar in Louisville ; married Margaret Howard, daughter of Robert Wickliffe, of Lex- ington, 1840; served as lieutenant colonel of the 4th Ky. infantry, in the war with Mexico, 1846-47; was elected one of the three members from Jefferson county in the convention which formed the present Constitution of Kentucky, 1849; took an active part in the debates of that body, especially against the anti-Catholic and " Native American" views advocated by Hon. Garret Davis; represented Jefferson county in the lower house of the legislature in 1850, and in the senate, 1851-53; was elector for the state at large in 1852; elected to congress the same year, to fill a vacancy, and re-elected, 1853-55 ; appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Spain by President Buch- anan, 1858, but recalled at his own request in 1861; entered an energetic protest against the act of Spain in seizing, in violation of the "Monroe doc- trine," the bay of Samana, with a view of re-establishing her monarchy over San Demingo-for which, and for his entire fidelity to his duty, he received the special thanks of Wm. H. Seward, then U. S. secretary of state. He re- turned to the United States shortly after the first battle of Manassas, Aug., 1861, and urged the people of Kentucky to prompt and united resistance to the Lincoln administration ; finding the state already occupied by Federal troops, he left Kentucky, and entered the Confederate army, serving until the battle of Shiloh upon the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell and expired in his arms, in the instant of a victorious assault upon the enemy.

Col. Preston was immediately transferred to the staff of Gen. Beauregard; in a week after the battle was commissioned brigadier-general, April, 1862; was at Corinth, at Tupelo, guarded the line of the Tallahatchie, and aided in the defense of Vicksburg-the first siege of which was abandoned July 27, 1862, by Admirals Farragut and Porter and the Federal land forces; reached Kentucky in Oct., 1862, but too late to take part in the battle of Perryville ; commanded the right of Gen. Breckinridge's division at Murfreesboro, and in the tremendous charge " into the jaws of death " across Stone river, in the face of two divisions and 58 guns, when 1,700 men out of 7,000 fell ; was transferred to the command of the troops in south-western Virginia, in the spring of 1863; commanded a division at Chickamauga, Sept., 1863, in which -- after the repulse by Gen. Geo. HI. Thomas of the Confederate attack of Gen. Longstreet with Hood's division under McLaws, and the repulse of another attack by Hindman's division-Preston ordered Gracie's brigade to fix bayonets and renew the attack, and pressing after him his whole force with desperate enthusiasm, gained the whole of Missionary Ridge, and drove the Federals in one long confused mass headlong down the ridge and through every avenue of escape to Chattanooga. It was a grand victory, but at terrible cost-losing, out of 4,078 men, 14 officers and 184 men killed, 63 officers and 1,014 men wounded, and 61 missing, a total of 1,336, or one-third. The correspondent of the London Times said that Preston's bearing in that charge " would rank, in history, with that of Dessaix recovering the lost battle of Marengo, or with any other famous deeds of arms ever witnessed upon earth ;" and Capt. Ches- ney, professor of military history at the Staff college, near London, said

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(EASTERN) LUNATIC ASYLUM, LEXINGTON, KY., IN 1846. ( Partially Destroyed by fire, Feb. 16, 1852; Re-built and Enlarged.)

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" the charge of Preston's division, as gallant as any ever witnessed in war, carried the line held by Steadman and forced the right held by Thomas completely back." Maj. Gen. Buckner and Lieut. Gen. Longstreet both, in a few days after the battle, recommended his promotion to a major-general- ship.

In the winter of 1863-4, President Davis appointed Gen. Preston envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico-the only minister of that grade ever commissioned by the Confederate government. He proceeded to Havana and Europe in the execution of his duty ; but finding the condition of Mexico such that nothing could be done, requested to be recalled, returned to the United States through Mexico, and joined Gen. E. Kirby Smith in Texas, by whom, under the authority conferred upon him, he was promoted major-general. Since the close of the war, he has remained in private life at Lexington, Ky., except that he represented Fayette county in the legisla- ture in 1869, being elected to fill a vacancy. A leader in politics, an -accom- plished diplomat, a soldier and officer of proved valor and skill, a cultivated scholar, and an able lawyer, yet in the meridian of life, it is not probable that an appreciating people will allow Gen. Preston to continue long in pri- vate life.

The EASTERN LUNATIC ASYLUM, at the western end of the city of Lexing- ton, was opened as a state institution on May 1, 1824. Its history dates back to 1816, in the hands of benevolent citizens, the most active of whom was Andrew McCalla, a man of large heart and benevolent enterprise. In that year the "Fayette Hospital " was incorporated, with 55 contributors. The corner-stone of the building was laid June 30, 1817, with imposing cer- emonies. Upon the brass plate in the corner-stone, was inscribed : "The first erected west of the Apalachian Mountains." The asylum at Williams- burg, Va., was established in 1773-the first state asylum, while that in Ken- tucky was the second. As early as 1752 a department for the insane was opened in the Pennsylvania Hospital ; but it was not until 1841 that a pub- lic hospital in that state was erected. The retreat for the insane at Hart- ford, Conn., was opened in 1824, shortly after that in Kentucky.

It is a curious and interesting circumstance that the first patient in the asylum was named Charity-a mulatto woman, aged 21, who had never been able to walk or talk, nor had she ever partaken of solid food. From that period, May 1, 1824, to Oct. 1, 1871, the whole number admitted was 3,492- males 2,195, females 1,297. Of these 1,260 were reported as recovered, 1,196 as having died, 354 removed, 146 eloped, and there were remaining 536-males 289, females 247; showing that the proportion of females to males is rapidly increasing, amounting on Oct. 1, 1871, to 46 per cent., whereas the per cent. of the whole is only 37.

The lives of the inmates have more than once been endangered by fire ; on one occasion, a large portion of the building was consumed, and some of the inmates perished.

Asiatic cholera was particularly severe when it invaded the institution in 1833, 1849, 1850 and 1865, carrying large numbers to the grave.

A new era in the management of the institution began in 1844. For the twenty years prior, it was managed upon the idea that madmen as a class were dangerous to the community and must be confined-notwithstanding that very confinement intensified and made incurable the insanity ; and that all that could be done was to safely keep all patients, and prevent harm to themselves or others. In 1844, Dr. John R. Allen was appointed superin- tendent, and the reign of moral treatment began ; chains and maniacles, and small cells with iron bars, began to disappear, and gentleness and kind- ness and sympathy were made the rule, followed by rapid improvement and far more frequent cases of entire restoration to health and to society. Few men have accomplished more important results than Dr. Allen, in his ten years' administration here. He was succeeded by Dr. Wm. S. Chipley, during whose administration, 1855-70, the asylum grew to be one of the most ex- tensive in the United States, and one of the best managed and most success- ful in the world. In February, 1870, the present very efficient superintend-

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ent, Dr. John W. Whitney, took charge of the asylum. The assistant phy- sicians are Drs. Thomas P. Dudley, Jr., Wm. M. Layton, and Rogers.

Receipts .- The aggregate of appropriations by the state, in 47 years, from 1822 to Oct. 1, 1869, (excluding $8,483 refunded to the state treasury,) was $1,198,954; while, in the same time, $230,234 was received from boarders and pay patients, $2,000 from the Maysville railroad for a strip of land over which it passed, $19,766 for hides, tallow, rags, old metal, surplus products of the farm, etc. Total, $1,450,960.

The Expenditures, during these 47 years, were for land $45,676, buildings (including those destroyed by fire) $266,406, repairs and improvements $53,467, heating apparatus, plumbing and sewerage $41,372, and for furniture and bedding $76,585; total for land, buildings, improvements and furniture $483,506-an economy of expense, for the accommodations and extent, per- fectly unparalleled in the history of the public charities of the United States ! To this add : For provisions in 47 years $358,742. clothing $94,951, medical stores $12,826, account of farm and garden $29,184, lights and soap $17,794, fuel $121,229, salaries, wages and hire $261,851, conveyance of patients to and from their homes $28,365, and other expenses $40,465. Total $1, 448,917.

James Strode Megowan, who had been an inmate of the asylum, by his will, in 1850, left $1,000 " for the purpose of adding to the comfort and amuse- ment of the patients." Noble bequest from a grateful man ! and suggesting a field of singular usefulness and philanthropy that ought to be cultivated. Who will imitate it? The "Megowan Fund" was invested in a house in Lexington, now leased at $750 per year, and the net proceeds are sacredly devoted to the purpose of the founder. The means of entertainment already consist of books, engravings, stereoscopic pictures, two billiard tables, two pigeon-hole tables, one bagatelle, four pianos, cards, dominoes, checkers, cro- quet and other games. The pleasure grounds are extensive and beautiful, provided with seats, arbors, flower gardens, swings, etc.

The asylum buildings are substantial, neatly and comfortably furnished, and afford accommodations for 525 Innatics, besides the full corps of officers, attendants and servants, nearly 100 in number. The grounds embraced in 1855 only 40, but now 238 acres, mainly cultivated by the patients-experi- ence having long since proved that well regulated labor is one of the most important curative or palliative agents in the treatment of the insane.

The institution has three distinct departments : 1st. The new main build- ing (440 feet front, with a variable depth of 36 to 78 feet, the center building 4 stories besides the basement, and the remainder 3 stories,) with about 15 acres of handsome pleasure grounds, inclosed by a close board fence and thus separated from the remaining grounds; this building is occupied by the superintendent's family, the white female patients, and their attendants. 2d. The old building is the department for white males. 3d. The detached building, 200 yards distant, is the department for negro lunatics. This sepa- ration of the sexes and races has been found of great convenience and com- fort, and spares the officers much of the anxiety formerly experienced.

Prior to 1856, diarrhoea prevailed in the asylum at all seasons. This was then traced to the impure water, rendered impure by the drainage of the city of Lexington. An artesian well was bored 106 feet deep, and pure water procured in abundance; since when not a single death has occurred from diarrhea, although in the 12 years previous 50 had occurred from that canse. In 1872, an appropriation was made for boring additional artesian wells, and for large cisterns for rain water.

At the close of 1855, the number of deaths exceeded the number of recov- eries 75. Up to Oct. 1, 1869, the recoveries exceeded the deaths 38-a gain in 14 years of 113 recoveries over deaths. Until 1838 monomania does not appear upon the register; a case of dementia is mentioned for the first time in 1844, one of imbecility in 1845, and one of general paralysis not until 1856. Of the whole number admitted to Oct. 1, 1869, 55 were cases of monomania, 310 of dementia, only 10 of imbecility, and only 12 of general paralysis ; 2,006 were of mania, acute and chronic, 131 of mania-a-potu, 155 of melan- cholia, 243 of epilepsy, and 126 of idiocy.

During the year ending Oct. 1, 1871, 212 applications for admission to the

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two asylums of Kentucky were turned away, for lack of accommodation-a painful faet, and necessitating their enlargement, or the ereetion of a third asylum. In January, 1873, the legislature was gravely considering the most practicable course to adopt.

More of the Early History of Lexington .- Among the original settlers of Lexington were two brothers, Elijah and Josiah Collins. In August, 1780, Stephen Collins, whose name appears among the earliest lot-holders (page 172), then a resident of Bowman's station, when returning from the success- ful expedition of Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark against the Indian towns of Old Chillicothe (three miles north of the present eity of Xenia, Greene county, Ohio) and Piqua, stopped in Lexington and exchanged the horse he rode for a three-aere lot of growing corn, a cow, a few hogs, and some farming uten- sils. He also exchanged his eabin at Bowman's station for one in Lexington, into which he removed permanently in a few weeks. His bargain was con- sidered a bad one, and his change of home dangerous-for the capture on the 22d of June previous, of Ruddle's and Martin's stations on the waters of South Licking, had left Bryan's station and Lexington the most exposed posi- tions in the country. Mr. Collins consoled himself with the remark that it was as well to die by the sword as by famine-the latter being threatened, south of the Kentucky river, by the wild game having been hunted out or driven off. Soon after, the young corn and pumpkins were available for food, and as the corn grew hard the mortar and pestle turned it into hominy and meal for bread. The skins of deer and elk, when dressed, furnished clothing ; stretehed in a frame with the woolly side up, the buffalo hides made at once bed and bedstead, and no warmer covering could be desired than the hides reversed with the woolly side down. Shirts were made of the linen manufactured of the lint from the bark of the dead nettle stalks.

David Hunter Killed .- A small party of Indians, not long after this, killed a young man named David Hunter, as he was passing from MeConnell's station, on the Town fork a mile below Lexington. When near the fort at Lexington, he was shot with several balls and sealped. The men rushed out from the fort with their guns, but the Indians escaped into the cane- brakes.

A Fight at Odds .- Through a crack in the picketing of the fort, some of the inhabitants witnessed the desperate rencounter between John Wymore, Henry McDonald and a third man from the station engaged in woodehop- ping, and five Indians. McDonald killed an Indian, but Wymore was killed. Bent on revenge, the same party hung around McConnell's station, and ser- eral days after wounded John Brooky while cutting wood; one of the Indi- ans in turn was shot and wounded by Thomas Stinson.

A Water Grist Mill on South Elkhorn ereek was ereeted by Capt. James McBride-at an earlier period, it is claimed by some, than that of Higbee's in the fall of 1785, mentioned on page 180; certainly before 1789, in which year McBride was killed, while engaged in surveying on the waters of Lick- ing river, 20 miles N. E. of Lexington. A man named Barton, one of the surveying party, had his arm broken by a shot from the Indians. MeBride, when shot, fell from the horse on which he was riding at the time, but had strength to rise up and shoot an Indian, before they reached and toma- hawked him. He had shot and killed the first Indian who attempted to scale the out-works at the siege of Bryan's station, Aug. 15, 1782; and was long remembered for his bravery at the fatal battle of the Blue Licks, four days after.

" Wild- Cat Mckinney" was the sobriquet won and worn by the faithful school-master, John KeKinney, by the singular incident detailed below. Early in the spring of 1783, a traveler arrived at Lexington having a news- paper containing the articles of peace agreed upon with Great Britain, but not yet ratified by congress. The stranger would take the paper with him, when he should renew his journey next morning. This was nearly three years and a half before the establishment of the Kentucky Gazette, the first newspaper in the district. The sight of one was a rare treat; but one with such important and joyous news could not lightly be given up. Mr. MeKin-

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ney was appealed to for a copy of the articles of peace ; and for this pur- pose rose before daylight, went into the school house, which stood outside of the fort a few rods-and was engaged at this work when the strange visitor appeared. Some years after, he removed to Bourbon county, and was one of the five members from that county in the convention of 1792, at Danville, which formed the first constitution of Kentucky, and on June 4, 1792, took his seat as a representative in the first legislature, at Lexington. In 1820, he removed to Missouri, and lived to a good old age.

"In 1783, Lexington was only a cluster of cabins, one of which, near the spot where the court house now stands, was used as a school house. One morning in May, Mc- Kinney, the teacher, was sitting alone at his desk, busily engaged in writing, when hear- ing a slight noise at the door, he turned his head, and beheld, what do you suppose, reader ? A tall Indian in his war paint, brandishing his tomahawk or handling his knife ? No! an enormous cat, with her fore-feet upon the step of the door, her tail curled over her back, her bristles erect, and her eyes glancing rapidly through the room, as if in search of a mouse.

" Mckinney's position at first completely concealed him, but a slight and involan- tary motion of his chair, at the sight of this shaggy inhabitant of the forest, attracted puss's attention, and their eyes met. Mckinney having heard much of the powers of " the human face divine,' in quelling the audacity of wild animals, attempted to. dis- concert the intruder by a frown. But puss was not to be bullied. Her eyes flashed fire, her tail waved angrily, and she began to gnash her teeth, evidently bent upon seri- ous hostility. Seeing his danger, Mckinney hastily arose and attempted to snatch a cylindrical rule from a table which stood within reach, but the cat was too quick for him.

" Darting upon him with the proverbial activity of her tribe, she fastened upon his side with her teeth, and began to rend and tear with her claws like fury. Mckinney's clothes were in an instant torn from his side, and his flesh dreadfully mangled by the enraged animal, whose strength and ferocity filled him with astonishment. He in vain attempted to disengage her from his side. Her long sharp teeth were fastened between his ribs, and his efforts served but to enrage her the more. Seeing his blood flow very copiously from the numerious wounds in his side, he became seriously alarmed, and not knowing what else to do, he threw himself upon the edge of the table, and pressed her against the sharp corner with the whole weight of his body.

" The cat now began to utter the most wild and discordant cries, and Mckinney, at the same time, lifting up his voice in concert, the two together sent forth notes so dole- ful as to alarm the whole town. Women, who are always the first in hearing or spread- ing news, were now the first to come to Mckinney's assistance. But so strange and unearthly was the harmony within the school house, that they hesitated long before they ventured to enter. At length the boldest of them rushed in, and seeing Mckinney bending over the corner of the table, and writhing his body as if in great pain, she at first supposed that he was laboring under a severe fit of the colic ; but quickly perceiv- ing the cat, which was now in the agonies of death, she screamed out, ' Why, good heaven 1 Mr. McKinney, what is the matter ?'

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 35

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn Publication date: 1874 Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co. Number of Pages: 1654

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1654