Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 59

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 59

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Land Offices and Land Entering .- In Nov., 1782, George May, the surveyor for the new county of Jefferson, arrived from Virginia, and opened his office at Cox's station, then in Jefferson, now in Nelson county. The office of the Virginia military district was opened by Col. Richard C. Anderson, July 20, 1784, at the Falls. Entry No. 1, in the name of Win. Brown, was made at the mouth of Cumberland river, Ky. The first location made in his office, from or for the N. side of the Ohio river, was recorded Aug. 1, 1787-for Wace Clements, at the mouth of Eagle creek, No. 386, for 1,000 acres.

The STATE HOUSE OF REFORM FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS-the youngest, and least tried as to practical usefulness (although promising well), of the charity institutions of the state of Kentucky-originated in an act of the leg- islature of 1869, which appropriated $75,000 for the purchase of grounds, and $10,000 to defray the necessary incidental expenses of its daily support and management. The law provided for the custody and care, until they arrive

* In American Pioneer, vol. i, page 377.

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at 21 years of age, of white male and female children under 20 years, and also of white women, who should be legally committed, on conviction of any criminal offence less than murder. But, by the amended act of March 23, 1871, the courts were authorized to commit to the House of Reform all white male and female children between S and 17 years convicted of any offence less than murder, and excluded females until the governor should announce by procla- mation that provision for the care of females had been made. The managers are invested with power to discharge any inmate whose good conduet may warrant it; when, as also others at expiration of term of imprisonment, they are to receive a certificate of good character and a recommendation for the special occupation or business in which they have been instructed. A " his- tory book " is kept, of the age, nativity, residence, and deportment of each in- mate. The managers intend to make the institution not only self-sustaining, but a source of revenue.

The location is at Anchorage, 12 miles east of Louisville, on the railroad to Cincinnati and Lexington. The farm contains 240 acres of fine land, 325 feet above the elevation of Louisville. The house proper as finished-and opened Sept. 25, 1872, by the proclamation of the governor, for the reception of those sentenced thereto-has comfortable accommodations for 150 boys, large and well ventilated rooms, water through the building (for bathing and other uses) from a 50-barrel tank in the attic filled by hydraulic ram from a never-failing spring, and work-shops ample and admirably arranged.

The Planet, a newspaper edited by colored men, and professing to be non- sectarian and non-political, was started in Louisville in Nov., 1872.

Judge NATHANIEL POPE was born in Louisville, in 1784: died in Illinois in 1850, aged 66; was educated at Transylvania University ; studied law with his brother, ex-Gov. John Pope, of Washington co., Ky .; having studied the French language, emigrated to Upper Louisiana, 1804, and remained at St. Genevieve, Missouri, practicing law until 1809; was appointed secretary of the territory of Illinois, 1809, and removed to Illinois; elected delegate to congress from Illinois territory, 1817-where Gov. John Reynolds says he did more important services for the people than any one man has done since, in so short a time. Among other measures, he procured the extension of the northern boundary of the state from the southern bend of Lake Michigan to latitude 423° northi ; " on this globe, to the extent, there is not a better tract of country." When there were barely 35,000 souls in the territory, he had an act of congress passed, authorizing the people of Illinois to form a state . government. When Illinois was admitted to the Union, in 1818, he was ap- pointed U. S. judge of the district, and held that office until his death, over thirty years. Pope county, Illinois, was named in lionor of him.

For biographical sketches of other distinguished citizens of Jefferson county, see as follows: Richard Clough Anderson, Jr., under Anderson co. ; Alex. Scott Bullitt, under Bullitt co .; Col. John Campbell, under Campbell co. ; Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark, under Clark co. ; Col. John Floyd, under Floyd co. ; Col. Wm. Oldham, under Oldham co. ; and for the following, consult their names in General Index : Rt. Rev. Benj. B. Smith, D D., Rev. Bishop Hub- bard H. Kavanaugh, Rev. Benj. O. Peers, Dr. Chas. Caldwell, Dr. Jos. Buch- anan, Gen. Robert- Anderson, Gen. Jeremiah T. Boyle, Gen. Wm. Preston, and Fortunatus Cosby.

Mrs. AMELIA B. WELBY, one of the sweetest of Kentucky poetesses. was born Feb. 3, 1819, at St. Michael's, Maryland, a small village on an arm of the Chesapeake bay; removed soon after to Baltimore, and thence when 15 years old to Louisville, which continued to be her home until her death, May 3, 1852, aged 33. Her maiden name was Coppuck. She married, June, 1838, George Welby, a Louisville merchant; and had but one child. a boy, born only two months before her death. Her earlier attempts at poetry are not preserved. Her first published piece, over the simple signature of Amelia, was in 1837, when she was just IS. George D. Prentice, himself a poet and a lover and culturer of the poetic, prefaced it in the Daily Journal with such a genuine compliment and encouragement as enlisted at once in the army of

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poetesses every girl and young lady who was touched with the spirit of poetry. Much of merit was soon developed-of sweet, gentle, touching, innocent, home verse ; but Amelia's "led all the rest." If she did not rise to the sublime, she never fell to the common-place. The natural, and the touching, the tender outgushings of her own pure heart when they could not longer keep pent up, refining and happifying in all their allusions-these were the marked elements of her poetry. She became popular as a poet; with every new piece more so. In 1845, eight years after her first piece saw the light, her pieces were col- lected in a volume, and published at Boston; the second edition by the Ap- pletons, at New York, in 1846; in ten years fourteen editions appeared-how many since, we have no means of knowing.

The Salt Trade .- Probably the best idea of the importance and extent of the trade in salt, and the necessity for increasing its manufacture at Bullitt's and Mann's Licks-much the largest sources of supply -- will be gained by . reading the following letters from Gen. James Wilkinson, then one of the most enterprising merchants and traders in Kentucky, to Nathaniel Massie- afterwards General, but then just 23 years old :

DANVILLE, DECEMBER 19, 1786.

DEAR SIR :- I beg you to proceed with all possible dispatch to the falls. You will call by the lick, and urge the provision of the salt; and prepare some way of conveying it to the river, &c. &c. You will make the best of your way to Nashville, and there dispose of it for cotton, beaver furs, raccoon skins, otter, &c. You must always observe to get as much cash as you can. When you have completed your sales, you will yourself move with the horses, &c., by land, and commit the other articles, with the barge, to Capt. Alexander, with directions to him to proceed up to the falls ; there secure the boat and property, and give me the earliest advice of his arrival, by express or other- wise.

The goods which Capt. Alexander carries down to the falls, I wish you to exchange for horses, or elegant high blooded mares, if you can get great bar- gains ; otherwise, sell them for cash, peltry, or cotton. When you receive the salt, take care to have it measured in a proper honest way, with a spade or shovel, and no sifting, &c. One Smith is preparing to go down with two or three hundred bushels from the lower lick. Endeavor to get off before him, and if you can not, persuade him to stay for you; but you must not wait for him a moment, as it will be your interest to arrive before him. You will re- member you are going amongst a set of sharpers, and therefore must take care of yourself. Write to me by every opportunity, letting me know how you come on. Don't fail in this. God bless you and give you good luck.

Yours sincerely, J. WILKINSON.

FAYETTE, 29TH DEC., 1786-Friday Morning.

DEAR MASSIE :- I approve of your plan to go to the port with two hundred bushels of salt, and sell for cash or furs, but take no deer skins. Be sure and get as many otters as possible. Be cautious in your movements, guard against the savages, coming and going, and discharge your men the moment you get to the port. The only thing you have to dread is the ice. To be caught in the ice would be worse than the devil's own luck. Act with decision and dis- patch in whatever you do. God bless you. J. WILKINSON.

Land Office at Louisville .- Col. Richard Clough Anderson, pursuant to an act of the Virginia legislature, was chosen principal surveyor of the bounty- lands to be entered for the Virginia officers and soldiers of the continental line-in the tract of country between Green and Cumberland rivers in Ken- tucky, and between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers in Ohio. A copy of the contract between Col. A. and the deputation of officers (which was in the - handwriting of Col. A. ) is preserved in MeDonald's Sketches, pp. 23, 24. Col. Anderson removed to Kentucky, purchased a fine farm near Louisville-where he afterwards established his residence, naming it the "Soldier's Retreat " __ and on July 20, 1784, opened his office for the purpose of having entries and surveys made of lands in the Kentucky reservation.

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The First Survey and Settlement at Louisville was made by one of the first two parties of surveyors from Virginia, who came down the Ohio river, in June, 1773, to explore and locate the rich cane lands of Kentucky. (See under Boone, Bracken, Greenup, Lewis, Mason, and Mercer counties. )

Capt. Thomas Bullitt" (uncle of the late Alexander Scott Bullitt, Ist lieu- tenant governor of Kentucky), laid off a town on part of the site of Louis- ville, on Aug. 1, 1773-before the first log cabin was built by white Americans in Kentucky. For several years after this, the silence of the forest was undis turbed by the white man. The place was occasionally visited by different per- sons, but no settlement was made until 1778. In the spring of this year, a party, consisting of a small number of families, came to the Falls with George Rogers Clark, and were left by him on an island near the Kentucky shore, now called Corn island. The name is supposed to have been derived from the circumstance that the settlers planted their first Indian corn on this island.

These settlers were sixty or seventy miles distant from any other settlement, and had nothing but their insular position to defend them from the Indians. The posts in the Wabash country, occupied by the British, served as points of sup- port for the incursions of the savages. After these had been taken by Clark, the settlers were inspired with confidence, and, in the fall of 1778, removed from the island to the site now occupied by Louisville. Here a block house was erected. t and the number of settlers was increased by the arrival of other emigrants from Virginia.

In 1780, the legislature of Virginia passed " an act for establishing the town of Louisville, t at the falls of Ohio."' By this act, "John Todd, jr., Stephen Trigg, George Slaughter, John Floyd, William Pope, George Meriwether, Andrew Hynes, James Sullivan, gentlemen," were appointed trustees to lay off the town on a tract of one thousand acres of land, which had been granted to John Con- nolly by the British government, and which he had forfeited by adhering to the English monarch. Each purchaser was to build on his own lot "a dwelling house, sixteen feet by twenty, at least, with a brick or stone chimney, to be fin- ished within two years from the day of sale." On account of the interruptions caused by the inroads of the Indians, the time was afterwards extended. 'The state of the settlers was one of constant danger and anxiety. Their foes were continually prowling around, and it was risking their lives to leave the fort.

The settlement at the Falls was more exposed than those in the interior, on account of the facility with which the Indians could cross and re-cross the river, and the difficulties in the way of pursuing them. The savages frequently crossed the river, and after killing some of the settlers, and committing depredations upon property, recrossed and escaped. In 1780, Colonel George Slaughter arrived at the Falls with one hundred and fifty state troops. The inhabitants were inspired with a feeling of security which led them frequently to expose themselves with · too little caution. Their foes were ever on the watch, and were continually de- stroying valuable lives. Danger and death crouched in every path, and lurked behind every tree. We give here some illustrations of the incidents connected with Indian warfare.

In March, 1781, several parties entered Jefferson county, and killed Colonel William Linn, and Captains Tipton and Chapman. Captain Whittaker and fifteen men pursued and traced them to the foot of the Falls. Supposing that the enemy had crossed the river, they embarked in canoes to follow them. While they were making their way across the river, they were fired upon by the Indians, who were still on the Kentucky side, and nine were killed or wounded. The rest returned and defeated the enemy. In the next month a party that had made

*Captain Bullitt was a man of great energy and enterprise. as he showed on several important occasions. He served in the French war, and was engaged in the battle which resulted in Brad dock's defeat, and in other actions. He was a captain in the regiment that was commanded by Washington. On one occasion. two detachments from Colonel Washington's regiment were out upon the frontiers to surprise a party of French troops from Fort Du Quesne. Instead of falling in with the French. the two detachments met each other. and. the day being very foggy. each party sup- posed the other to be the enemy. and a warm firing was commenced on both sides. Captain Bullin was one of the first that discovered the mistake, and ran in between the two parties, waving his hat, and calling upon them to cease firing.

1 A larger fort was built in 1782, and called Fort Nelson, in honor of Gov. Nelson, of Virginia.

# The name was given to the place in honor of the ill-fated Freuch monarch. Louis XVI. whose troops were at that time assisting the Americas \ in the war against England.

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a settlement under Squire Boone, near the place where Shelbyville now stands, became alarmed by the appearance of Indians, and resolved to remove to the neigh- borhood of Louisville. On the way, the party, consisting of men, women and children, encumbered with the charge of household goods and cattle, were attacked by a large company of Indians that had pursued them, and were defeated and dis- persed. Colonel John Floyd, on receiving intelligence of this event, raised a company of twenty-five men, and hastened to pursue the enemy. He divided his men and proceeded with great cantion ; but this did not prevent his falling into an ambuscade. The Indians, whose force is said to have been three times as great as his, completely defeated him, killing about half his men, and losing nine or ten. Colonel Floyd himself lost his horse, and was retreating on foot, nearly exhausted, and closely pursued, when Captain Samuel Wells seeing him, rode up and gave him his horse, running by his side to support him. These two gentlemen had been unfriendly towards each other, but this noble act made them friends for life .*

In 1793, a party of Indians fired on a flat boat descending the river, but with- out serious injury to those on board. On the succeeding day, they captured a boy" at Eastin's mill, and conveyed him to the Ohio. Here, by a strange freak, they gave him a tomahawk, knife and pipe, and set him at liberty, unhurt.t

In those days, the dress and furniture were of the simplest kind. Many who are now proud of their ancestors, would be ashamed of them if they were to appear before them in the costliest dress of the early times. It is amusing to imagine the consternation of a belle at a fashionable party, if her ancestors should present themselves before her-the grandfather in coon-skin cap and buck- skin breeches, and his wife dressed out for the occasion in her best attire of linsey-woolsey. The very fan of the belle would tremble, as if participating in the shame and confusion, and the odor of the smelling-bottle would rise in indig- nant steam.

In 1783, Daniel Brodhead began a new era, by exposing goods from Philadel- phia for sale in Louisville. The merchandise had been brought from Philadel- phia to Pittsburgh in wagons, and thence to Louisville in flat boats. The belles of our " forest-land " then began to shine in all the magnificence of calico, and the beaux in the luxury of wool hats.

After the old county of Kentucky had been divided, in November, 1781, into three counties-Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln-Jefferson included all the part of the old county lying south of the Kentucky river, north of Greene river, and west of Big Benson, and Hammond's creek. The county court of each county was composed of the most respectable citizens of such county, and appointed its own clerk. The limits of its authority were rather undefined. The county court of Jefferson sat also as a court of over and terminer. In regard to capital offen- ces, it acted merely as an examining court when white persons were concerned, but tried and condemned slaves to death. " At a called court held for Jefferson county on the 10th day of August, 1785. for the examination of negro Peter, the property of Francis Vigo, committed to the jail of this county on suspicion of stealing, present, James F. Moore, William Oldham, Richard Taylor and David Meriwether, gent."-Peter was found guilty, valued at eighty pounds, current money, and condemned to be executed on the 24th day of that month. On the 21st day of October, 1786, "negro Tom, a slave, the property of Robert Dan .. ]," was condemned to death for stealing " two and three-fourths yards of cambric, and some ribbon and thread, the property of James Patten." The following appears on the early records of the court :

" The court doth set the following rates to be observed by ordinary keepers in this county, to wit: whiskey fifteen dollars the half pint ; corn at ten dollars the gallon ; a diet at twelve dollars ; lodging in a feather hed, six dollars ; sta- blage or pasturage one night, four dollars."

These seem to be very extravagant prices ; but we suppose travelers took care to pay in continental money. These were the times when a hat was worth five hundred dollars. The following is an inventory rendered to the court of the Property of a deceased person :

* Marshall I, 115. See also biographical sketch of Colonel Floyd.

t Ibid. II, $1.

aw.

OBRI

JEFFERSON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LOUISVILLE.

OLD PRISON, AT LOUISVILLE, IN 1846.

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"To a coat and waistcoat £250, an old blue do. and do. £50 300

" To pocket book £6, part of an old shirt £3 9

" To old blanket, 6s .; 2 bushels salt _480 480 6

£789 6."

The following is recorded May 7th, 1784 :- " George Pomeroy being brought before the court, charged with having been guilty of a breach of the act of assembly, entitled ' divulgers of false news,' on examining sundry witnesses, and the said Pomeroy heard in his defence, the court is of opinion that the said George Pomeroy is guilty of a breach of the said law, and it is therefore ordered that he be fined 2000 pounds of tobacco for the same. And it is further ordered that the said George Pomeroy give security for his good behavior, himself in £1000, with two securities in _500, and pay costs, &c."

This may seem like making rather too serious a matter of divulging false news. It is certain that if all who are guilty of this crime in our day were punished. it would add very materially to the business of the courts. The history of this matter is rather curious. Tom Paine wrote a book ridiculing the right of Vir- ginia to the lands of Kentucky, and urging Congress to assume possession of the whole country. Two Pennsylvanians, whose names were Pomeroy and Gallo- way, had imbibed the principles of this production, and came to Kentucky to propagate them-Pomeroy to the Falls, and Galloway to Lexington. Galloway produced considerable disturbance at Lexington. "Several of the good people," says Mr. H. Marshall, " yielded so far to his persuasions as to commence chopping and improving upon their neighbors' lands, with the pious intent of appropriating them, under an act of Congress, which, they were assured, was soon to be pro- mulgated." It was decided that he must be punished. After this determination had been made, an old law of Virginia was fortunately found which inflicted a penalty, in tobacco, at the discretion of the court, upon the " propagation of false news, to the disturbance of the good people of the colony." Galloway was fined one thousand pounds of tobacco. As it was impossible to procure so much tobacco in Kentucky at that time, he had a prospect of spending some time in prison. At length it was intimated to him that if he would leave the country, justice would be satisfied. He instantly caught at the offer. Mr. Marshall says that at the Falls, no one minded Paine's disciple. The extract from the records shows that he was mistaken, and that Pomeroy was fined twice as much tobacco as Galloway was ordered to pay.

Into the original log cabins the light entered by the open door, or by any open- ing it could find. One of the first settlers would almost as soon have thought of bringing some " bright particular star" into his dwelling to illuminate it, as of introducing light through a glass window. In the progress of time, however, the owner of a certain shop or " store " procured some glass, and inserted a few panes in his house. A young urchin who had seen glass spectacles on the noses of his elders, saw this spectacle with astonishment, and, running home to his mother, exclaimed, " O ma ! there is a house down here with specs on !" This may be considered a very precocious manifestation of the power of generalization in the young Kentuckian.

The first brick house was built in 1789, by Mr. Kaye, on the square on which the court house now stands.

The beginning of the nineteenth century found Louisville with a population of 600 in the midst of her ponds. In 1810, the number had increased to 1.357.

In 1811 and 1812, occurred that succession of earthquakes which shook a great part of our continent. The first shock was felt at Louisville, December 16, 1811, a few minutes after two o'clock in the morning, and continued three and a half or four minutes. For one minute, the shock was very severe. Several gentle- men of Louisville were amusing themselves at a social party, when one of their acquaintances burst into the room and cried out, " Gentlemen, how can you be engaged in this way, when the world is so near its end !" The company rushed ont, and from the motion of objects around them, every star seemed to be falling. " What a pity," exclaimed one of them, " that so beautiful a world should be thus destroyed !" Almost every one of them believed that mother earth, as she

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heaved and struggled, was in her last agony. For several months, the citizens of Louisville were in continual alarm. The earth seemed to have no rest, except the uneasy rest of one disturbed by horrid dreams. Each house generally had a key suspended over the mantle piece, and by its oscillations the inmates were in- formed of the degree of danger. If the shock was violent, brick houses were im- mediately deserted. Under the key usually lay a bible. In the opinion of a distinguished citizen of Louisville, who has related to us many incidents of those exciting times, the earthquake had a beneficial influence upon public morals. Usually, we believe, times of great danger and excitement have had a contrary effect. Thucydides tells us that during the prevalence of the plague at Athens, men be- came more reckless and wicked, more eager in grasping at the pleasures which they saw so rapidly flitting by them. When the great plague raged in Italy, if we may judge from the character of the ladies and gentlemen in Boccaccio's Decameron, the morals were any thing but good. The plague in London, also, was accompanied by a corruption of morals.

In 1812, the legislature passed an act authorising the paving of Main street from Third to Sixth. No city in the Union had greater need of pavements. The - horses had to draw the wagons through the business part of the city, as Sisy- phus rolled " the huge round stone" up the hill,

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 59

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