Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 44

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 44

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Judge Bibb was a profound scholar and a great mathematician, as well as a most eminent jurist. He had an iron frame and ardent temperament, was capable of great endurance and labor, and liable to great bursts of indigna- tion when roused. His favorite recreation was angling. He was very dis- tinguished and very useful in his day and generation. He married a daughter of lien. Chas. Scott, who bore Im twelve children-only one of whom, Mrs. Frances A. Burnley, of Frankiort, was living in 1873-the last surviv- ing soll, 1. 1'. Atticus libb, having died in 1972. Judge Bibb married again in 1832, in Washington city, his second wife bearing pim tive children, of whom two married daughters survive. One brother survives him, John B.

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FRANKLIN COUNTY.

Bibb, now (1873) of Frankfort, aged about 84 years; he represented Logan county in the Kentucky house of representatives, 1827, '23, and in the state senate, 1830-34. .

Gen. GUSTAVUS WOODSON SMITH was born at Georgetown, Ky., Jan. 1, 1822; in 1838, at the age of sixteen, entered the U. S. military academy at West Point, where he graduated, 1842, and was appointed lieutenant of engineers ; in 1846, as senior lientenant of Co. "A," U. S. Engineers, was ordered to join the U. S. army, then in Mexico. The death of his captain, soon after his arrival in that country, left Lieut. Smith, at the age of twenty-four, in command of the only company of engineers at that time in the U. S. army- in which position he took a signally important part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, and the City of Mexico. It was high praise-but not more high and distin- guished and deserved than other general officers have given, with whose com- mands his engineers co-operated-when the commander-in-chief, Gen. Winfield Scott, in an official letter on record in the War Department, said of him : "I have never known a very young officer so frequently and so highly distin- guished as Captain Gustavus W. Smith was, in the campaign of Mexico."

He was appointed in 1849, principal assistant professor of civil and mili- tary engineering and of the art of war, at West Point, which place he held until Dec., 1854; then resigned his commission in the U. S. corps of military engineers, and soon after removed to New Orleans, intending to make that city his home. It was then that Brig. Gen. J. G. Totten, chief engineer U. S. army, wrote of him :

I am parting, in the present case, with an officer whose services in the field have, by their marked gallantry and high professional character, added to the reputation of the corps and the army. These considerations strengthen my regret at the loss we are now sustaining.

Late in the year 1856, advantageous business propositions induced Capt. Smith to remove to New York city, where, in 1858, he was tendered the position of street commissioner-an office of vast responsibility and trust, in- volving the disbursement of millions of dollars, and the highest scientific and administrative ability. Among the strong recommendations made to Hon. D. F. Tiemann, then mayor of the city, was the following by Prof. D. H. McMahon, of the U. S. military academy, dated April 19, 1858 :

My knowledge of Capt. Gustavus W. Smith extends through a period of twenty years, during which time, as a pupil of this institution, as my colleague in it (he having served for eight years as an assistant professor in the department under my charge) and as an officer of the U. S. corps of engineers, I have had the most favorable oppor- tunities of forming a correct judgment of his mental and moral worth. I know no man for whose sterling integrity of purpose, fidelity in the discharge of official duties, and unflinching firmness in standing unwaveringly up to the right, I have a higher respect.

The position of street commissioner of New York is the most important in the city government. It is the same in which Wm. M. Tweed made him- self rich and infamous. The salary is only $5,000 per annum, with no per- quisites. Capt. Smith, in 1861, when he resigned this office, was worth much less pecuniarily, than when he accepted' it in 1858. His administration was noted for its ability and integrity, and won for him the respect and confi- dence of the leading men of the city; although he was severely censured by many for leaving the North and entering the Confederate army.

In politics, Capt. Smith was a states-rights Democrat. It was known by the authorities in Kentucky, that in case the reserved rights of the state were infringed by other states, or by the government of the United States, he would return to his home and take part in the defense of his people. There were at that time three political parties in Kentucky-of which John J. Crittenden, John C. Breckinridge, and James Guthrie were the leaders. Had the position of armed neutrality been adhered to in this state, it has been confidently stated that all parties were prepared to offer the military leadership to Capt. Sinith ; but in the immediate presence of a great impending revolu-

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tion in the government of the country, in direct opposition to the proud motto upon the state seal, the people of Kentucky became " divided."

In August, 1861, Capt. Smith went South. He was soon after appointed major general in the Confederate States army, and placed in command of the second corps of the Army of the Potomac, then lying at Fairfax Court House in front of Washington city. The first corps of that army was com- manded by Gen. Beauregard, and the army itself by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Early in Oct., 1861, there was a conference held at Fairfax Court House, Va., between the President of the Confederate States and the three principal officers of the army named above. The proceedings of that conference were written afterwards by Gen. Smith, and signed by himself, Gen. Beauregard, and Gen. Johnston. This document found its way to the public press, and undoubtedly has great historic value. The war-policy recommended by Gen. Johnston and his two corps commanders, was not adopted by the President of the Confederate States. Early in 1862, Beauregard was ordered to the Tennessee army, and Gen. Smith became the second officer in rank in Gen. Jos. E. Jolinston's army in Virginia. He commanded the reserve at York- town, and the rear guard when the army fell back from that place to the vicinity of Richmond. When Gen. Johnston was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, the command of the army devolved upon Gen. Smith. He was relieved, however, in a short time, by Gen. Lee, whom the President assigned to the command of that army. Shortly after this Gen. Smith was assigned to command the capital of the Confederacy, and the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina. In 1863, an irreconcilable break occurred between Gen. Smith and the President. The former resigned his commission in the Confederate States' army, joined his friend, Gen. Beauregard, at Charleston, and volunteered to assist in its defense. He was present when the iron-clads attacked Fort Sumter, witnessed the sinking of the Keokuk by the fire of the fort, and saw the whole fleet retire from the fight-leaving Sumter scarred, but uninjured.

During the next twelve months, Gen. Smith was engaged principally in the manufacture of iron for the Confederate armies; at all times holding himself in readiness to assist, when called upon, in defense of Charleston, Savannah, or Wilmington.

In the summer of 1864, Gen. Smith's iron works at Etowah, Georgia, were burned and destroyed by Gen. Sherman's army. Soon after this, the non-conscripts of Georgia-consisting principally of the civil officers and the militia officers of the state-were ordered into service. This body of men, some 4,000 in number, almost unanimously elected Gen. Smith as their com- mander, without his knowledge or consent. He accepted the position with reluctance, preferring rather to serve in the ranks than assume this irregular command of state militia. He was ordered by the governor of Georgia to report to the commander of the Confederate army in that state, and joined that army whilst the headquarters were at Marietta, continuing in service until the end of the war. Under his command, the Georgia militia proved themselves, in many hard-fought battles, equal in every particular to the highest standard of veteran regular soldiers.

After the war, Gen. Smith was actively engaged in private business in Ten- nessee and in Georgia until the summer of 1870, when he was appointed by Gov. Stevenson Insurance Commissioner of the State of Kentucky-which position he still (Nov., 1873,) fills with distinguished ability and usefulness. indeed, the most remarkable and scientific work known to the insurance world, was his " Notes on Insurance," Svo., issued in 1871-which placed him at once in the very front rank of insurance scientists. He resides at Frankfort.

Col. ALBERT GALLATIN HODGES-for a quarter of a century the "State Printer " of Kentucky-son of Francis Hodges and Mary Brock, was born Oct. 8, 1802, in Madison co., Va .; in Oct., 1810, after his father's death, was brought to Fayette co., Ky., 8 miles E. of Lexington ; Jan. 2, 1815, when three vionths over 12 years old, went to learn the printing business at Lex- ington, with Win. W. Worsley and Thos. Smith, of the old Kentucky Reporter ;

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.was carrier of the paper for several years, in which he was often assisted, as a volunteer, by Theodore S. Bell [since distinguished as a writer for the press, for several years one of the editors of the Louisville Journal, a physi- cian of high standing, and professor in several Louisville medical schools]. In 1821, when 18 years old, at Lancaster, Garrard county, he started and for three months published, for Roney & Holmes, the Kentuckian; their funds giving out, he quit, and, in company with his young friend Bell, then visiting in Lancaster, walked to Lexington, 33 miles, in one day-both swimming the Kentucky river, while their clothes were taken over on the ferry-flat (for which favor Hodges promptly enquired " the charge," but, having not a cent of money, was much gratified at the ferryman's kind "nothing, nothing.") After several years as foreman of the Reporter, he and D. C. Pinkham, in Jan., 1824, purchased of S. H. Bullen and Brooke Hill, the semi-weekly Louisville Morning Post, and published it for over a year-when Pinkham collected all the available debts, and departed " between two days." Wm. Tanner (afterwards prominent as an editor) then became his partner; and for awhile the Post " blew hot and cold " in each issue-two pages taking their hue from Tanner, being filled with " New Court and Relief" communi- cations and extracts, while Hodges devoted the other two pages to the strongest " Old Court and Anti-Relief" doctrine and articles. Tiring of such anomalous publishing, early in 1825 they tossed a dollar to decide the exclusive owner- ship. Tanner won, gave Hodges a slow note for $350 for his interest, and made the paper entirely " New Court." Hodges spent a few weeks at journey- work on Shadrach Penn's Public Advertiser, then went to Lexington and started the Kentucky Whig, for Nelson Nicholas, one of the ablest political writers in the state (son of the great lawyer and statesman, Col. George Nicho- las)-at whose death, about Feb., 1826, the paper was discontinued.

Marrying soon after, Hodges removed to Frankfort, and was the partner of James G. Dana, in publishing the Commentator, and in the state printing, until 1832-when he sold out to Dana, who stopped the paper, removed to Louisville, and for several years published the Lights and Shadows, an Anti-Masonic weekly, and afterwards became distinguished as the reporter of the court of appeals. Hodges was elected state printer, early in 1833, and soon after started the Commonwealth-which immediately became and continued (under the editorship of Orlando Brown, John W. Finnell, Thos. B. Stevenson, and others) a leading, dignified, and generally able paper, for many years Whig in its principles, then " Know Nothing " and "Am- erican," during the war "Union," and latterly Republican until its sus- pension, April 5, 1872 (when just 39 years old), by its founder, Col. Ilodges, rather than advocate the re- nomination of President Ulysses S. Grant for a second term. Col. Hodges then ceased to be active as a publisher and occasional editor, although still owning his steam printing establishment at Frankfort, carried on by one of his sons.

In 1872, Col. Hodges removed to Louisville, and continues his faithful and able administration as secretary and treasurer of the Masonic Temple company. He has been treasurer, re-elected every year, of the Masonic Grand Lodge and also of the Grand Chapter of Kentucky, since 1845-and is now ( Nov., 1873) the only living officer of the Grand Lodge at that date ; and the only one who has so long filled one of its offices.

For 25 years successively-except one year, when he was defeated by Jacob Harrod Holeman, but executed the work for him-Col. Hodges was Public Printer of Kentucky, re-elected annually by the legislature until 1851, and biennially afterwards. For nearly 50 years, Col. Hodges has been the intimate associate and personal friend of most of the public men of Kentucky-his genial manuers, hospitanty, and fidelity as a public officer, always commanding the respect and partiality even of political opponents in times of bitterest strife. Few in any age or country have enjoyed the friend- ship of so many distinguished men. His firmness and kindly nature enabled hum, repeatedly, by active influence at Washington city and with the mili- tary vincers in Kentucky, to mitigate some of the hardships and horrors of the late fratricidal war, and to avert some threatened and appalling dangers.

2S1

FULTON COUNTY.

FULTON county was formed, the 99th in order in the state, in 1845, out of the south-western part of Hickman county, and named in honor of Robert Fulton. It is bound w. and N. by the Mississippi river, N. E. and E. by Hickman county, and s. by the Tennessee state line. It contains 184 square miles, is the last county west, and is literally cut in two by the Mississippi river- so that in going from the main or eastern part of the county to the western (familiarly known as " Madrid Bend,") it is necessary to pass over about 8 miles of Tennessee territory. The county is divided between Mississippi bottoms, subject for 25 miles to inun- dation, and uplands ; lies well, has no mountains, and but a small portion of hill country ; soil generally good, a part very produc- tive ; timber good-the finest oak, walnut, poplar and cypress ; principal productions-corn, tobacco, wheat, stock-raising and lumber; the streams-Little Obion river, Bayou du Chien, Mud, Rush, and Dixon creeks.

Towns .- Hickman, the county seat, was established by act of the legislature in 1834-then called Mills' Point, in honor of Mr. Mills, the first settler there, in 1819-and changed to its present name in 1837, after the maiden name of the wife of G. W. L. Marr, who at one time owned the entire town and several thousand acres around it. It is located on the east bank of the Mississippi, 45 miles below the mouth of the Ohio river, and contains, besides the court house and 7 lawyers, 7 doctors, one newspaper (The Courier), 4 churches (Methodist, Baptist, German Reformed, and Roman Catholic), 1 academy, 3 hotels, 17 stores, 11 mechanics' shops, 1 wagon and 1 furniture factory, 1 flouring and 1 corn mill ; population in 1870, 1,120. Jordan Station, on the Memphis and Ohio railroad, 10 miles from Hickman, has 2 stores, 2 mechanics' shops, a hotel, and saw mill. Fulton Station, a thriving village, on the Paducah and Gulf railroad, 20 miles from Hickman, has 1 church (Methodist), 1 academy, 2 hotels, 6 stores, 3 mechanics' shops, 2 doctors, and a flouring mill.

STATISTICS OF FULTON COUNTY.

When formed. See page 26 Hemp, hay, corn, wheat ...... pages 266, 268

Population, fromn 1850 to 1870 .p. 258 Horses, mules, cattle, hogs .. .... ·page 268

whites and colored .. ·p. 260 Taxable property, in 1846 and 1870 ... p. 270

towns .p. 262 Land-No. of acres, and value of .... p. 270

white males over 21 .p. 266 Latitude and longitude ....... p. 257

children bet. 6 and 20 yrs. p. 266

Distinguished citizens. .... e Index.

MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE FROM FULTON COUNTY.

Senate .- Henry A. Tyler, 1869-71.

House of Representatives .- [For additional names, see under Hickman county.] Win- frey B. McConnell, 1848, '49 ; Guy S. Miles, 1867-69; B. R. Walker, 1873-75.

The First Settlers avoided the Mississippi river, settling in the "upper end" of the county, near the Tennessee line.

No Indian Wars, but worse. Fulton county was a sort of dividing line between the combatants during the civil war, and suffered severely-being plundered heavily by both parties.

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FULTON COUNTY.

The Earthquake of 1811-the most alarming and extensive, and the most serious in its effects, that ever occurred within the United States east of the Rocky mountains-spent its greatest force in Kentucky, in Fulton county, and in the extreme s. w. portion of the county and state. After shaking the valley of the Mississippi to its center, and extending its vibrations all over the valley of the Ohio, to Pittsburgh and beyond, it passed the Alleghenies and their connecting " mountain barriers, and died away along the shores of the Atlantic ocean .* During the continuance of this appalling phenomenon- which commenced by distant rumbling sounds, succeeded by discharges as if a thousand pieces of artillery were suddenly exploded-the earth rocked to and fro ; vast chasms opened, whence issued columns of water, sand, and coal, accompanied by hissing sounds, caused, perhaps, by the escape of pent- up steam; while ever and anon flashes of electricity gleamed through the troubled clouds of night, rendering the darkness doubly horrible. The cur- rent of the Mississippi was driven back upon its source with the greatest velocity for several hours, in consequence of an elevation of its bed. But this noble river was not thus to be stayed. Its accumulated waters came booming on, and, o'ertopping the barrier thus suddenly raised, carried every thing before them with resistless power. Boats, then floating on the surface, shot down the declivity like an arrow from a bow, amid roaring billows, and the wildest commotion.

"A few days' action of its powerful current sufficed to wear away every vestige of the barrier thus strangely interposed, and its waters moved on to the ocean. The day that succeeded this night of terror, brought no solace in its dawn. Shock followed shock ; a dense black cloud of vapor overshadowed the land, through which no struggling sunbeam found its way to cheer the desponding heart of man-who, in silent communion with himself, was compelled to ac- knowledge his weakness and dependence on the everlasting God. Hills dis- appeared, and lakes were found in their stead; numerous lakes became elevated ground, over the surface of which vast heaps of sand were scattered in every direction ; in many places the earth for miles was sunk below the general level of the surrounding country, without being covered with water- leaving an impression in miniature of a catastrophe much more important in its effects, which had preceded it ages before. One of the lakes formed is sixty or seventy miles in length, and from three to twenty in breadth ; in some places very shallow; in others, from fifty to one hundred feet deep, which is much more than the depth of the Mississippi river in that quarter. In sail- ing over its surface in a light canoe, the voyager is struck with astonishment at beholding the giant trees of the forest standing partially exposed amid a waste of waters, branchless and leafless."

In a keel-boat moored to a small island in the Mississippi river, about 18 miles below the boundary line of Kentucky and Tennessee, the crew (all Frenchmen) were frightened almost to helplessness by the first terrible con- vulsion. This was before 2 o'clock in the morning of Dec. 16, 1811. At 23 A. M. another, only less terrible, shock came on-a shock which made a chasm in the island four feet wide and over three hundred feet long. Twenty-seven shocks, all distinct and violent, were felt and counted before daylight; they continued every day until the 21st of December, with decreasing violence- indeed, they were repeated at intervals until in February, 1812. The center of the violence was ascertained to be about Island No. 14, 22 miles below New Madrid, Missouri-which is opposite Fulton county, Ky.

A scientific English gentleman f who happened to be upon the above keel- boat, became cool enough to record his observations. lle noticed that the sound which was heard at the time of every shock always preceded the shock at least a second, originated in one point and went off' in an opposite direc- tion. And so he found that the shocks oume from a little northward of east, and proceeded to the westward.

The following vivid description of the horrors of the earthquake was written probably fifty years ago, but not published until 1842. An eye-witness, who

* Letter, dated Feb. 1, 1836, from Dr. Lewis F. Linn, U. S. senator from Missouri. t John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America, pp. 199-207.

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was then about forty miles below New Madrid, in a flat-boat loaded with produce bound for New Orleans, narrated the scene. It must be premised that danger was apprehended from the southern Indians-it being soon after the battle of Tippecanoe; and for safety and mutual self-defense several boats kept in company :

" The agitation which convulsed the earth and the waters of the mighty Mississippi filled every living creature with horror. In the middle of the night there was a terrible shock and jarring of the boats, so that the crews were all awakened and hurried on deck with their weapons of defense in their hands, thinking the Indians were rushing on board. The ducks, geese, swans, and various other aquatic birds, whose numberless flocks were quietly resting in the eddies of the river, were thrown into the greatest tumult, and with loud screams expressed their alarm in accents of terror. The noise and commotion soon became hushed, and nothing could be discovered to excite apprehension, so that the boatmen concluded that the shock was occasioned by the falling in of a large mass of the bank of the river near them. As soon as it was light enough to distinguish objects, the crews were all up making ready to depart. Directly a loud roaring and hissing was heard, like the escape of steam from a boiler, accompanied by the most violent agitation of the shores and tremendous boiling up of the waters of the Mississippi in huge swells, rolling the waters below back on the descending stream, and tossing the boats about so violently that the men with difficulty could keep on their feet. The sandbars and points of the island gave way, swallowed up in the tumultuous bosom of the river ; carrying down with them the cottonwood trees, cracking and crashing, tossing their arms to and fro, as if sensible of their danger, while they disappeared beneath the flood.

"The water of the river, which the day before was tolerably clear, being rather low, changed to a reddish hue, and became thick with mud thrown up from its bottom; while the surface, lashed violently by the agitation of the earth beneath, was covered with foam, which, gathering into masses the size of a barrel, floated along on the trembling surface. The earth on the shores opened in wide fissures, and closing again, threw the water, sand, and mud, in huge jets, higher than the tops of the trees. The atmosphere was filled with a thick vapor or gas, to which the light imparted a purple tinge, altogether different in appearance from the autumnal haze of Indian summer, or that of smoke. From the temporary check to the current, by the heaving up of the bottom, the sinking of the banks and sandbars into the bed of the stream, the river rose in a few minutes five or six feet; and, impatient of the restraint, again rushed forward with redoubled impetuosity, hurrying along the boats, now set loose by the horror-struck boatmen, as in less danger on the water than at the shore, where the banks threatened every moment to destroy them by the falling earth, or carry them down in the vortexes of the sinking masses.

" Many boats were overwhelmed in this manner, and their crews perished with them. It required the utinost exertions of the men to keep the boat, of which my informant was the owner, in the middle of the river, as far from the shores, sandbars, and islands as they could. Numerous boats wrecked on the snags and old trees thrown up from the bottom of the Mississippi, where they had quietly rested for ages, while others were sunk or stranded on the sandbars and islands. At New Madrid several boats were carried by the reflux of the current into a small stream that puts into the river just above the town, and left on the ground by the returning water a considerable dis- tance from the Mississippi. A man who belonged to one of the company boats, was left for several hours on the upright trunk of an old snag in the middle of the river, against which his boat was wrecked and sunk. It stood with the roots a few feet above the water, and to these he contrived to attach himself, while every fresh shock threw the agitated waves against him, and kept gradually settling the tree deeper into the mud at the bottom, bringing him nearer and nearer to the deep muddy waters, which, to his territied im- agination, seemed desirous of swallowing him up. While hanging here, call- ing with piteons shouts for aid, several boats passed by without being able to relieve him, until finally a skiff was well manned, rowed a short distance

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 44

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