Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 69

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 69

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Earliest Ownership and Surveys of Covington .- The first survey of lands on the plat of Covington seems to have been one of 200 acres, in the name of Stephen Trigg-who came to Kentucky in the fall of 1779 as a member of the court of land commissioners, and was killed at the battle of the Blue Licks, Aug. 19, 1782. It embraced the Ohio river front from the mouth of Licking to near the foot of Philadelphia street. A patent from the state of Virginia, by Beverly Randolph, lieutenant governor, issued for said land, Feb. 14, 1780-in consideration of military warrant No. 367, under the King of Great Britain's proclamation of 1763, to a soldier of His Majesty, George III., in the war with France, named George Muse. Not appreciating his land- warrant very highly, like some drunken soldiers of a later date, Muse sold it for a keg of whisky to a man who, putting a like small valuation upon it, traded it to James Taylor, of Virginia, for a few pounds of buffalo beef. He assigned the warrant to Stephen Trigg, who located it at the mouth of Licking as above; then assigned to John Todd, jr., and he again to James Welch, whose patent bears date Sept. 20, 1787.

The next entry south was of 400 acres, made Dec. 12, 1782-in the name of Levi Todd, who assigned to Robert Todd, who, as deputy surveyor of . Woodford county, surveyed it, Sept. 16, 1791. Its west line ran, " supposed with the lands of Col. Peachy," [which covered the hills west of Covington, ] S. 19° E., 220 poles, to a buckeye and two small sugar trees, about 40 poles west of the path leading from Elkhorn to the mouth of Licking [near the pres- ent turnpike to Lexington ].

When Covington was first established it embraced only Igi0 acres, of which 100 acres were platted at once; now (March, 1873,) it includes over 1,350 acres. Then it was on part of the Welch patent; now, it embraces all of that patent of 200 acres. all of John and of Robert Todd's patents of 90 and 400 acres, and parts of John Todd's patent of 300 acres, Samuel Beall's patent of 1,000 acres, Rawleigh Colston's patent of 5,000 acres,' and Prettyman Merry's patent of 2,000 acres.

The Census, in the winter of 1804-05, of that portion of what is now Ken- ton county, lying east and north of a line from the mouth of Pleasant Run on the Ohio river, southward to the foot of the Dry Ridge on the Independence turnpike, nine miles, thence eastward three miles to the Licking river, was thus singularly obtained : The small-pox was raging in Cincinnati to a fearful extent, crossed the Ohio and was spreading in Kentucky, where there were no physicians. The Cincinnati physicians wisely concluded to inoculate all who had not had the disease, and appointed to the charge a leading citizen, Capt.

* Probably Capt. Wm. Harrod; it is not certain that Jas. Harrod was with the party.

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Wm. Martin. For medicine he used pills, made for him by his father, of butternut bark. Within that district, seven persons only were found who had been inoculated or had had the small-pox; and these were required to assist in nursing the 69 patients inoculated by Capt. Martin-all of whom recovered. Thus, on about 30 square miles binding on the Ohio and Licking rivers, south and west, and including Covington, there was a total population, white and black, of 76.

Kennedy's Ferry was the name by which was known, until 1815, the few farms in the locality now embraced in the city plat of Covington. The farm of Thomas Kennedy, sen., included the point. He and his sons-before 1815, and after his death (in 1821) his son, Samuel, in 1822, purchased, and with his family-carried on the ferry ; by skiff's for foot passengers, at 123 cents each, and by flats (propelled by oars, worked by men) for wagons, horses, and stock, at $1 for a four-horse team, and others in proportion. In 1823, under a renting of the Cincinnati landing, a horse-ferry-boat was introduced by the late Pliny Bliss. From 1833 until the discontinuance of the Vine street ferry in 186S because of the suspension bridge, steam ferry-boats were used. The Kennedys always claimed and used the ferry, ferry right, and the wharf; except for the seven years, 1815-22, the legal ownership of the right was in the proprietors of the new town. This was the principal crossing for the travel down the ridge-road, from Lexington and the interior of Kentucky westward.

Covington was established by an act of the legislature approved Feb. 8, 1815, on 150 acres of Thomas Kennedy's farm, purchased of him in 1814 by Gen. John S. Gano, Richard M. Gano, and Thomas Davis Carneal, for the round sum of $50,000. By the act, the title was vested in Alfred Sandford John C. Buckner, Uriel Sebree, John Hudson, and Joseph Kennedy, as trus- tees-who were to make title to purchasers of lots upon the order of the pro- prietors. The first sale of lots was at public auction, March 20, 1815, at prices exceeding what the same lots sold for ten years afterwards; indeed, in 1828, some of the lots changed hands for less than half what had been paid for them in 1815.

The Plat of the original town of Covington was recorded Aug. 31, 1815. The city was named in honor of Gen. Covington, and the streets in honor of ex-governors Isaac Shelby, James Garrard, Christopher Greenup, and Charles Scott; of Thos. Kennedy, the late owner of the farm; and of Gen. Thomas Sandford, the first representative in congress from this part of the state. The street next west of Scott was left without a ne me, awaiting the ensuing election for governor, and then named after Gov. George Madison. The plat embraced the ground west only to the east line of what is now Washington street, and south only to the north line of what is now Sixth street. The Kennedy homestead, half-square from Front to Second, east of Garrard, was reserved. The four lots embracing the present court house square were never formally dedicated to the public, but only marked upon the plat "Public." Shelby street extended along the bank of Licking river to Third only, and was 50 feet wide ; most of it has been washed away by the current. Garrard, Greenup, Scott, and Madison streets were laid off 66 feet wide; Kennedy, Sandford, First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth streets only 50 feet wide. "Such part of the town as lies between the lots and the edge of the bank of the Ohio river . shall remain for the use and benefit of said town for a common." The market space, from Greenup to Scott, was 100 feet, and the cross space 60 feet wide. The course of the streets running from the Ohio was S. 162º E .; and of the cross streets at right angles. Onerias R. Powell surveyed the plat. " All the fence rails on the land were reserved." Some 20 acres of the plat were an apple orchard, and some of the trees were preserved for 30 years afterwards.

The City Charter of Covington was granted Feb. 24, 1834, and at the first election thereunder, in April, Mortimer M. Benton was chosen the first mayor. On Feb. 22,1834, a company was incorporated to construct an "artificial " (turnpike) road from Covington, "opposite Cincinnati," through Williams- town and Georgetown, to Lexington. Of the 30 original corporators, all were dead on Feb. 22, 1873, 39 years after, except John B. Casey, of Covington, and ex-Gov. Jas. F. Robinson, of Georgetown.

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First Extensive Manufactures .- The town of Covington hardly began to grow until 1828; when Robert Buchanan, of Cincinnati, Charles McCallister, jr., and Wm. Yorke, of Philadelphia, and Wm. Whitehead, of Covington, but recently from Philadelphia, began the erection of the Covington cotton fac- tory, on the west half of the square bounded by Front, Second, Scott, and Greenup steets, adjoining on the west the present entrance to the Covington and Cincinnati suspension bridge. It was very successfully managed by Mr. Whitehead (who was killed by being thrown from the inclined railway which connected the factory with the river), and afterwards by his son-in-law, John T. Levis, until the manufacture of cotton became unprofitable. The MeNickle rolling mill, on the opposite square, just across Scott street, was established about 1831 ; followed by other factories, and, of course, by a rapid increase of the population.

The First Bank in Covington was private and temporary, established in 1821, by Benjamin W. Leathers, in connection with his store. It was the reign of fractional currency, nearly fifty years before the exigencies of the civil war invented that handy designation. Instead of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents currency, Mr. Leathers, like many others at the time, and a thousand imita- tors in 1837, issued his own " promises to pay," or shin plasters, of the denom- inations of 62, 123, 25, and 50 cents, and perhaps of $1 and $2. Having served to bridge over the hard times, the day of redemption came around, and Mr. Leathers took them in promptly like a true banker. It is said that as he redeemed them at his counter, he aimed to clear away the rubbish by consigning them to the devouring flames in the broad fire-place in his store ; but, unobserved by him, the powerful draft of the chimney carried many of them into the outer and upper air, and rained them in beautiful profusion upon the ground outside and upon the roof of the store. Before he discovered that he had established such a bank of re-issue-a sort of "fire in the rear " to consume his capital-he had redeemed many handfuls brought in by the growing stream of panic-stricken citizens, young and old. It was a "run " upon his bank not anticipated, and it worried him not a little when he dis- covered that he had been made the victim of his own want of caution. An old trunk was made the recipient of the after redeemed shin plasters; and the surviving residents of the "Beech Woods farm," four miles out on the old road to Lexington, well remember how patiently the ex-banker watched the actual destruction of his favorite notes as he committed them slowly but surely to the fire. He thus closed the doors of his bank against a second re- demption. To redeem once was honorable, but twice was cruel. As long as he lived he was kept in lively remembrance of his balloon currency.

Semi-Centennial Celebration of 1832 .- The band of intrepid heroes under the command of Gen. George Rogers Clark, stationed at the mouth of Licking (Covington), on the 4th day of November, 1782, resolved that all the survivors should on that day fifty years afterward, meet on the same ground. The 4th of November, 1832, was the day thus set for that half-centennial celebration. The day of meeting was ascertained by reference to an old letter of Maj. John Kenton's; and Simon Kenton-the most prominent of the survivors-at the suggestion of friends, issued from his home at Urbana, Ohio, an " Address to the citizens of the Western Country," inviting all the old soldiers of the Indian wars and of the War of 1812 to join in the celebration, at old Fort Washing- ton, now Cincinnati; proposing "to meet at Covington on the 3d; on the 4th, being Sabbath, to attend divine service ; and on Monday, the 5th, meet our friends on the ground where the old fort stood; and then take a final adieu, to meet no more until we shall all meet in a world of spirits."

It was contemplated to erect, on the site of old Fort Washington, a monu- ment to the settlement and settlers of the West, the corner-stone to be laid by the pioneers at that meeting. But the Asiatic cholera was prevailing with fearful virulence, and the general gloom only made more gloomy the meeting of the fow pioneers who ventured to assemble. Simon Kenton was taken sick, at the house of Mr. Doniphan, in Clermont county, Ohio, while on the way to Covington, and prevented from attending. (See further notice of this meeting, in Kenton's biographical sketch under this county, page 449.)

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KENTON COUNTY.

The First Newspaper Advertisement from what is now Kenton county we find in the Cincinnati Centinel of the North West, of date Dec. 12, 1793; from a farmer on Bank Lick creek, named Obediah Scott, proposing to "take a number of horses or horned cattle to winter."

A Petrified Buffalo-head, full size, and perfectly natural in appearance, was discovered, in 1858, in the soft mud in the bottom of Licking river, about a hundred yards above Deadman ripple and a quarter of a mile below the long tunnel on the Kentucky Central railroad. The eyes, horns, teeth, mouth, ears, hair, and mane were well developed-only somewhat worn by the slow action of the current and what it carried down. The petrifaction was the wonder of the neighborhood for a few days ; then taken to Cincinnati and sold, for the trifle of $1, to Frank's museum.

A Cat-Fish, it is recorded in Niles' Register, was taken on a trout line, in the Ohio river in front of Covington, in July, 1816, which, by actual measure- ment was 53 feet in length, 4 feet girth, 12 inches between the eyes, 19 inches across the breast, and weighed 117 pounds. Such was its power, that the men were obliged to shoot it, in order to get it ashore.

The Public Schools of Covington, said to be among the best conducted in the country, embrace a high school and five district schools. During the school year ending July 5, 1872, there were 164 scholars in the former and 2,863 in the latter, under a corps of 47 teachers and a superintendent (since 1867, the venerable Rev. John W. Hall, D.D., for many years president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, but formerly of Tennessee). For the sup- port of these schools, a special school tax of 25 cents on the $100 worth of property is assessed, in addition to the 20 cents collected by the state. The school buildings are the best, or among the best, in the state, if not in the United States. An elegant high school building is in course of erection on the corner of Twelfth and Russell streets.

A Licking River Bridge company was incorporated Feb. 22, 1834, to build a permanent bridge between Newport and Covington. Just 20 years after, in Jan., 1854, the first (a wire suspension) bridge was completed, but in two weeks after fell with a crash, and was not rebuilt for several months. (See under Campbell county.)

The Great Suspension Bridge between the cities of Covington and Cincinnati was ten years in building; was begun in Sept., 1856, and so far finished as to be opened to the public Dec. 1, 1866 ; on that and the succeeding day, over 100,000 people crossed on foot. Vehicles were not allowed to cross until Jan. 1, 1867, when the ferry-boats were laid up because of heavy floating ice. The total cost of the work, real estate, interest, taxes, and construction, was nearly $2,000,000, of which three-fourths properly belonged to the construc- tion account. The towers (see engraving) rest on heavy oak timbers, hewed square, laid crossing each other, bolted together, and made solid by cement; above the surface, they are built of free-stone, from quarries on the Ohio river, opposite Lewis county, Ky. The foundations of the anchor piers are nearly 30 feet below the grade of Water street, Cincinnati, and Front street, Covington. These piers measure 60 by 90 or 100 feet on the ground. The cast-iron anchor plates underneath them, to which the ends of the cables are attached, are 143 by 173 feet in size, and 2 feet thick, and weigh 11 tons each. The piers are 86 by 52 feet at the base, 74 by 40 feet at the top, and 230 feet high, from the foundation to the top of the brick turrets, each of which is surmounted with a cross 12 feet high. The length of the main span of the bridge, from center of towers in a direct line, is 1,057 feet; and, following the curve of the floor, 1,079 feet. The full length over all, from Second street, Covington, to Front street, Cincinnati, is 2,225, feet or over two-fifths of a mile (42-100ths). Each of the two cables is 1,400 feet long, 12} inches diameter, is made of 5,180 wires twisted together, and weighs about 500,000 pounds. The width of the carriage-way is 20 feet, and of each sidewalk, 3} feet; full width of floor 34 feet. 600,000 feet of oak and pine flooring were used. The sustaining power of the bridge is estimated at 16,800 tons, or 33,600,000 pounds. 606 wire ropes, of 49 wires in each, are suspended from the cables, to stiffen the bridge.

JOHN AUGUSTUS ROEBLING, the most distinguished if not the first builder of

VER

SUSPENSION BRIDGE BETWEEN COVINGTON AND CINCINNATI.

.......

FIRST DISTRICT SCHOOL HOUSE, COVINGTON, KY.

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wire suspension bridges in the world, spent several years in Kentucky ; in 1851, in superintending the towers and preparing to erect a wire suspension bridge with a span of 1,224 feet over the Kentucky river, for the crossing of the Lexington and Danville railroad (never completed) ; in 1856-58, and again in 1863-67, in superintending the building of the great bridge between Cov- ington and Cincinnati, whose dimensions are given above. Mr. R. was born in the city of Mülhausen, in Thuringia, Prussia, June 12, 1806, and died in Brooklyn, New York, July 22, 1869, aged 63 years. He received the degree of civil engineer at the Royal Polytechnic school at Berlin, and emigrated to this country in 1831. In I851 he built the railroad suspension bridge over the Niagara river, 12 miles below the Falls, and at the time of his death was engaged in the most remarkable engineering feat, in bridge-building, in the world-a wire suspension bridge over the East river, from New York- to Brooklyn. While making measurements in connection with this, one of his feet was terribly crushed by a Fulton ferry-boat, inducing lockjaw, which ter- minated fatally. His son, Col. Wm. A. Roebling, assisted his father in his public works in Kentucky, and succeeded him as the engineer of the East river bridge, which is progressing steadily.

The Holly Water Works system was introduced into Covington, 1870-71, and proves the most efficient fire-engine system yet discovered. When the tunnel under the Ohio river for supplying soft water shall be completed, the only serious objection (March, 1873,) to the system will be removed-the water hitherto being hard, and on that account less adapted to some of the ordinary purposes of a water supply. By sinking a well, 18 feet in diameter and 71 feet deep, upon the bank of the Ohio river a permanent supply of water, fil- tered through the substratum of gravel underlying the river, was expected to be obtained, as in other cities; but the result was not favorable-the water proving hard, and evidently drawn from the springs of this limestone region. After two years constant use the supply began seriously to fail, necessitating a direct resort to the Ohio river. Over 16 miles of iron pipe were laid in the streets, of which one-fifth of a mile of 20-inch main, half a mile of 16-inch main, 12 miles of 10 and 12-inch main, 5 miles of 8-inch, 2 of 6-inch, and nearly 8 miles of 4-inch pipe. The total cost of the works, as per report on April 5, 1871, was $366,072, but somewhat increased afterwards-of which for the Holly pumping machinery $63,540, pumping-well $32,210, water works building on level ground $10,250, and foundation on the river bank $68,350, besides $9,000 for the lot, and for the reservoir for extra supply of water in case of too rapid exhaustion by fire $6,900. The funds were realized from the sale of $400,000 of 20-year city bonds, bearing interest at seven and three- tenths per cent., payable semi-annually ; to pay which a special tax of 30 cents upon the $100 was authorized, which yielded $29,823 in 1871, and $28,417 in 1872. The river tunnel and connections are not yet completed ; the cost is to be added to the above.

First Block-House at Cincinnati .- In 1780, when Col. George Rogers Clark's expedition against the Indian towns on the Little Miami and Mad rivers, ren- dezvoused opposite the mouth of Licking, it was found necessary to build a block-house on the spot where Cincinnati now is-for the purpose of leaving some stores and some wounded men of Capt. Hugh McGary's company, wounded by Indians while venturing too much on the Indian (or Indiana) side of the Ohio river, on their way up from the Falls, now Louisville. The late John McCaddon,* of Newark, Ohio, claims that although he did not cut a tree or lift a log, yet he helped to build the first house ever built on that ground- for he was at his post in guarding the artificers who did the labor of building.

Thomas Vickroy, t a surveyor, and a soldier on the same expedition, says that on the 1st day of August, 1780, Gen. Clark's troops crossed the Ohio river from what is now Covington, and built the two block-houses where Cin- cinnati now stands. He was at the building of the block-houses; and ag commissary of the campaign, in charge of the military stores, was left to maintain that post for fourteen days, until the return of the troops. Capt. Johnson, and 20 or 30 men who were sick and wounded, were left with him.

* Am. Pioneer, i, 377.

t Western Annals, 3d edition, 324.

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The Second Settlement near Covington was at what is now Cincinnati. Mat- thias Denman, of Springfield, New Jersey, purchased the fractional section of land on the bank of the Ohio, and also the entire section lying immedi- ately north of it, which-when Judge John Cleves Symmes' purchase between the Miami rivers should be definitely surveyed according to the established government plan-should be found to lie immediately opposite the mouth of Licking river; he regarding that river and its branches, which penetrated the richest region of Kentucky, as sure to pour unbounded business and wealth into the lap of a town located at its mouth. The price paid for about 800

acres of land was five shillings per acre (a shilling in New Jersey was 13} cents, and five shillings 663 cents,) in continental certificates, which were then worth in specie five shillings on the pound-so that the specie price per acre was fifteen pence, or 163 cents, and the cost of the 800 acres only" $133.33} (which is now worth, with its buildings and improvements not less than $200,000,000).

Mr. Denman came out to the land of promise in the summer of 1788, down the Ohio to Limestone (Maysville), and thence to Lexington. There he inter- ested with him Col. Robert Patterson, because of his enterprising spirit and general acquaintance, and John Filson, formerly a school teacher, now a sur- veyor, and already favorably known in the eastern states and in Europe by the publication, at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1784, and the translation into French and publication at Paris in 1785, of his History of Kentucky and wonderful Autobiography of Daniel Boone (written by Filson at the dictation of the sturdy old pioneer). This production of Filson was singularly well adapted to arouse and fix curiosity and inspire enthusiasm about this terra incognita of which all accounts hitherto were glowing and exciting but not always convincing. Denman saw his double power as a surveyor and writer, and enlisted him. The following advertisement, in the Kentucky Gazette of Sept. 6, 1788, announced the near maturity of the plan :

NOTICE-The subscribers, being proprietors of a tract of land opposite the mouth of Licking river, on the northwest side of the Ohio, have determined to lay off a town upon that excellent location. The local and natural advan- tages speak its future prosperity, being equal if not superior to any on the bank of the Ohio between the Miamis. The in-lots to be each half an acre, the out-lots four acres, thirty of each to be given to settlers, upon paying one dollar and fifty cents for the survey and deed of each lot. The 15th day of September is appointed for a large company to meet in Lexington, and mark a road from there to the mouth of Licking, provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is laid off, lots will be given to such as become residents before the first day of April next.

MATTHIAS DENMAN, ROBERT PATTERSON, JOHN FILSON.

Lexington, Ky., Sept. 6, 1788.

By the contract between the proprietors, besides paying one-third of the purchase-money, Col. Patterson was to exert his influence in obtaining settlers ; while Filson, in the ensuing spring, 1789, was to survey the town, stake off the lots, and superintend the sale, besides " writing up" the remarkable ad- vantages of the site. His fanciful name for the intended town was adopted- Losantiville, which he designed to mean "the village opposite the mouth," Le os ante ville, but which more nearly signifies "the mouth opposite the village." Who or what induced the change from such a pedagogical and un- musical name to the euphonious one of Cincinnati is unknown; but in the name of the millions of people who now live in or in reach of it, or visit it and do business with it, we thank the man and the opportunity. The invention of such a name was positively cruel in Mr. Filson ; we hope it had no con- nection with his early death. Perhaps that is reason enough why no street in Cincinnati should be named after him; but it is no credit to the liberality or gratitude of the authorities and citizens that they should attempt to per- petuate the names of Denman and Patterson by attaching them to little in- significant short streets or pieces of streets, in the northwest part of the city, near the Brighton House. A great avenue around the city should be laid out

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 69

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