Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 70

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 70

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433

KENTON COUNTY.

and called Denman avenue; and McMillan street should be extended to East Walnut Hills and known as Patterson avenue. Cincinnati should perpetuate the names of the founders and of the more recent benefactors of the city, rather than of her small-beer politicians and wire-workers.

Before the close of September, 1788, Messrs. Denman, Patterson, and Fil- son left Lexington for Limestone (Maysville); at which point they were joined by John Cleves Symmes, Israel Ludlow (who was expected to be Symmes' surveyor), Capt. Benjamin Stites, and a number of others. They first landed probably just below the mouth of the Little Miami, where Stites soon after made a settlement and station called Columbia; then visited the ground opposite the mouth of the Licking, where Losantiville was to be located -from which point, Patterson and Denman with several others went out ex- ploring northward; while Symmes and the rest, including Filson, went on to what was afterwards called North Bend, and thence up the Great Miami, Filson surveying its meanders. While thus engaged, and several of the party having deserted and gone off, Filson became alarmed about the Indians, and himself started alone across the country to meet his partners at Losantiville. He was doubtless killed on the way by Indians, as no trace of him was ever obtained .* He had already made his plat of the place (which was changed after his death)-in which two entire blocks were set aside for the use of the town; and besides there was given up as a common all the ground between Front street and the Ohio river, extending from Eastern Row (Broadway) to Western Row (Central Avenue)-which were then the extreme boundaries of the town plat. Front street was laid down nearer the river than on the pres- ent plat of Cincinnati. Several of the names of streets upon his plan were transferred to the second-plan. Filson's death before he had stretched a chain upon the ground to survey it, thus preventing his personal services, termi- nated his connection with the town; he had paid no money on the contract.

Mr. Denman having returned to Limestone, entered into another contract with Col. Patterson and Israel Ludlow-by which Ludlow was to perform Filson's part of the contract. On the 24th of December, 1788, a party of 26 persons, viz. : Col. Robert Patterson and Israel Ludlow, two of the proprietors; and

Wm. McMillan, Isaac Tuttle,

James Carpenter,

John Porter,

Robert Caldwell,

Capt. -. Henry,

Thomas Gissel,

Joseph Thornton,

Thaddeus Bruen,

Evan Shelby,

Luther Kitchell,

Scott Traverse,

John Vance,

Francis Hardesty,

Samuel Blackburn,

Elijah Martin,

Matthew Fowler,

Matthew Campbell,

Samuel Mooney,

Sylvester White, and Joel Williams-

of whom the larger portion had come with Col. Patterson from the interior of the Kentucky district of Virginia (Kentucky did not become a state until June, 1792)-left Limestone (Maysville) and " formned the settlement of Cin- cinnati on the 28th day of December, 1788."+ Dec. 26th has been commemo- rated as the day, but owing to the condition of the river, covered with drift ice from shore to shore, the party in their flat-boat proceeded cautiously and slowly, and did not reach there until Sunday, the 28th.

On the 7th of January, 1789, 30 in-lots and 30 out-lots, one of each, were drawn by lottery, at Losantiville, according to the contract with the proprie- tors, by the last 15 names above and the following 15 :

Henry Bechtle, James Dumont,

David McClever, Jesse Stewart,

James Campbell,

Isaac Freeman, James McConnell,

Richard Stewart,

-. Davidson, --. Fulton, James Monson,

Isaac Vanmetre.

Benjamin Dumont, Ephraim Kibby,

Daniel Shoemaker,

The town was called Losantiville until Jan. 2, 1790, when the name was changed to Cincinnati.# But according to Judge Burnet, the plat of Israel

# Ensign Joseph Buell's journal, kept at Fort Harmar, under date of Oct. 21, 1789, ways : " Four canoes landed from Kentucky, loaded with ginseng ; and report that the Indians had attacked a party of men with Judge Symmes, and killed one of his sur- veyors."

t Deposition of Win. McMillan, the first lawyer at Cincinnati, and first delegate in congress from the Territory of the Northwest. # Letter of Dr. Dan'l Drake, Jan. 2, 1841. II ... 28

Wm. Connell, Noah Badgley, Henry Lindsey,

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KENTON COUNTY.

Ludlow was of Cincinnati, and not of Losantiville, the project to call it by the latter name having fallen through .* Judge Burnet was wrong, however, and Dr. Drake right. Judge John Cleves Symmes called it Losantiville as late as June 14, 1789.+

The first cabin (three or four were put up as speedily as possible) was erected upon Front street, east of Main. Before the 7th of January, was completed the survey and laying off of the town, including all between the river and Northern Row (now Seventh street), and between Broadway and Central Avenue. The streets were laid out through the dense forest of syca- more and sugar trees on the first or lower table, and of beech and oak upon the second or upper table; the street corners were marked upon the trees. The first family that settled at Losantiville is unknown. Francis Kennedy, with his wife and seven children (one of them, Mrs. Rebecca Reeder, was still living at Pleasant Ridge, in 1859) reached Losantiville on Feb. 8, 1789, and found there three women, Miss Dement, daughter of James Dement, Mrs. Constance Zenes (afterwards married to Wm. McMillan), and Mrs. Pesthal, a German woman, with some small children. There were but three little cabins there, all without floors ; in these the surveyors and chain-car- riers lived. By the 10th of April, Mr. McHenry had arrived, with two sons and two daughters, all grown ; and a Mr. Ross with a small family.

About June 1, 1789, Maj. Doughty, with 140 U. S. soldiers, arrived at Losantiville from Fort Harmar (now Marietta), and built four block-houses nearly opposite the mouth of Licking. As soon as these were finished, they began the erection of Fort Washington, immediately on the line of Third street in Cincinnati, about 100 feet east of Broadway.

When Cincinnati was First Settled .- On the 26th of Dec., 1833, about 16C persons, many of them invited guests, met and sat down to the table on the river bank, in Cincinnati, near where the first cabin was erected in 1788. Other celebrations, in other years, of that first settlement have taken place, on the 26th December. The inference that settlers who left Maysville on the 24th reached Cincinnati on the 26th, and began the settlement was reasonable, but was not the fact. They proceeded slowly and cautiously, on account of the ice and other difficulties, and did not reach there until Sunday, the 28th. At least, Wm. McMillan-the first lawyer, one of the first three judges of the court of common pleas, and the first delegate in congress-deposed that " he was one of those who formed the settlement of Cincinnati on the 28th day of December, 1788."

The First Settlement near Covington was on Nov. 18, 1788, at Columbia, on the north side of the Ohio, not far below the mouth of the Little Miami river-where Capt. Benj. Stites had made a purchase of 10,000 acres of land from John Cleves Symmes. The party left Maysville on Nov. 17th, 26 in number, mostly emigrants who had just reached there from Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville, Pa., on the Monongahela river. They were Capt. Benj. Stites, Elijah Stites, Greenbright Bailey, Albert Cook, Jacob Mills, James Bailey, Capt. James Flinn, and two brothers and their father, Robert Hamson, Joseph Cox, and about IS others, some of whom had families with them.

Several of these were surveyors, sent down by John Cleves Symmes from Limestone (Maysville), where he thien was, "to traverse the two Miami rivers as high as they could."# Their first act was the erection of a block-house. Shortly after, between the 16th and 20th of December, Mr. Symmes persuaded Capt. Kearsey, of the U. S. army-who reached Limestone, Dec. 12th, with 45 rank and file-to send a sergeant with 18 men to Columbia, "to the as- sistance of Capt. Stites and the surveyors, in order to support the station." On the 15th of December, 1788, just 27 days after its first settlement, Capt. Hugh Dunn (who, in March, 1793, settled Dunn's station, at the mouth of the Great Miami) and his wife, three brothers, and one sister (who afterwards married Isaac Mills), in their family boat, after being fired into by the In- dians, and wrecked in a storm, landed at Columbia. A census taken after the arrival of this little company, and before the arrival of the 19 soldiers, showed

* Letter of Oct. 5, 1844. t Letter to Capt. Dayton.

# Letter to Capt. Dayton, in Cincinnati in 1841, pp. 198-9.

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KENTON COUNTY.

a total population of 56, men, women, and children-being all the American white people then known to be in the now state of Ohio, west of Marietta .* The soldiers erected three other block-houses-at the angles of a square with the first one, with stockades between-forming a square stockade fort, which they named Fort Miami; the very site of which was washed away many years ago by the encroachments of the Ohio river.

Judge Wm. Goforth-the first appointed justice of the peace, one of the first three territorial judges commissioned by President Washington, and one of the first electors for president and vice president of the United States- arrived at Miami (as his register or journal calls Columbia) on Jan. 18, 1790. Prior to this, during 1789, the following persons, many of them with their families, settled there (it is probable some of them were original settlers and should be named above, in Nov., 1788) :

Capt. John Stites Gano (one of the founders of Covington, in 1815), Daniel Bates, Zephy Ball, Jonas Bowman, Edmund Buxton, Jas. Carpenter, Benj. Davis, David Davis and his son Samuel Davis, Isaac Ferris, John Ferris, Gabriel Foster, Luke Foster, Daniel Griffin, Jos. Grose, John Hardin, Corne- lius Hurley, David Jennings and his sons Henry Jennings and Levi Jen- nings, Luther Kitchell, Ezekiel Larned, Ichabod B. Miller, Elijah Mills, Jas. Matthews, John Manning, John McCulloch, Aaron Mercer, Patrick Moore, Wm. Moore, John Morris, -. Newell, John Phillips, Jonathan Pitman, Benj. F. Randolph, John Reynolds, Jonathan Ross, James Seward, John Webb, -. Wickerham, and -. Wickerham.

Provisioning Fort Washington .- In the fall of 1789, when the 70 soldiers stationed at Fort Washington, in Losantiville or Cincinnati, for the defence of the settlers, were about to abandon their post from a want of supplies, three settlers named John S. Wallace, James Dement, and -. Drennon, went down in a canoe from six to ten miles into what are now Kenton and Boone counties in Kentucky, secreted their craft in the mouth of a small branch, and by great diligence killed buffalo, deer, and bear enough to provision the soldiers for six weeks, until supplies arrived from Pittsburgh.

Seed Corn and Bread Corn for the first settlers at Losantiville (Cincinnati), in the winter and spring of 1788-89, was brought in canoes down the Licking river, from the Kentucky settlements near Cynthiana and as far out as Lex- ington. Noah Badgley and three others of the original settlers started by that route for Paris, for corn. When they returned, with their supplies in a canoe, Licking river was high and the weather cold. In one of the rough and crooked chutes, their canoe was violently forced among drift-wood and trees, and upset-the men saving themselves by climbing a tree. One of them swam out and escaped. Badgley followed, but was carried down by the current and drowned. The other two continued on the tree three days and nights, before they were taken off by the people who were following them down the river to Losantiville.

Value of Covington Land .- Maj. John Bush, residing on the Ohio river, opposite North Bend, Ohio, one of the pioneer settlers of Boone county, and who made his mark in the campaigns against the Indians, told Charles Cist that he could have taken up any quantity of farming land in and adjacent to Covington, at an early day, at £5 ($13}) per hundred acres. He was offered 200 acres, including the point at the intersection of the Licking and the Ohio, as an inducement to settle there. t

- The First House in the present bounds of Covington was a log cabin, about 20 rods below the point, built in the fall of 1791, by the father of the late Elliston E. Williams #

The Oldest House now (March, 1873) standing in Covington, and probably the second ever built within its limits, still stands on the bank of the Licking river, a short distance above the foot of 13th street, and exactly one mile and 52 poles from the mouth of that river as shown by measurement in a law-suit in 1818. It is a log house, was built in 1792 by Pressly Peake, who sold it to West Miller, and he in 1804 to Capt. Wm. Martin.

Sketch of Judge Isaac Dunn, in Lawrenceburg (Indiana) Press, July, 1870.

t Cist's Miscellany, i, 16. # Same ii, 36.

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KENTON COUNTY.

Rendezvous .- The mouth of Licking, where Covington now is, was the ren- dezvous of the Kentucky militia, commanded by Col. Hardin and Maj. Hall, which suffered so terribly in Harmar's defeat, in Sept., 1790.

Gen. Charles Scott's expedition against the Eel river Indians in 1792, ren- dezvoused at the mouth of the Kentucky river. The troops returned by way of Covington, and along the Dry Ridge road, to central Kentucky.

The expedition under the same officer, in the fall of 1793, rendezvoused at Newport, which had just been laid out as a town, above the mouth of Licking. After reaching Fort Greenville, Ohio, Gen. Wayne discharged these troops and abandoned the expedition because of the lateness of the season. But in July, 1794, 2,000 mounted Kentuckians under Gen. Scott rendezvoused at Georgetown and Newport, joined Gen. Wayne and participated in the cele- brated battle of the Fallen Timbers. When their term expired, they were marched back and read out of service at Cincinnati, on what is now the public landing, but which was then the ferry opposite Licking.

The Price of Farms at an early day was almost as remarkable as that of town lots. Elisha Arnold, father of James Grimsley Arnold (who, in March, 1873, was probably the second oldest person living in Covington), removed in 1796 from Bourbon county to North Bend, in Boone county; in 1797 he sold his farm there, for a negro woman and her child ; and, for a horse, purchased the place now owned by John Tennis' heirs, 6 miles s. of Coving- ton, near the Lexington pike.

Gen. Leonard Stephens (born in Orange co., Va., March 10, 1791, died in Boone co., Ky., March 8, 1873, aged 82,) was for 62 years, from 1807 until a few years before his death, a citizen of what is now Kenton county. He was the senior justice of the peace of Campbell county in 1840-41, at the time Kenton was organized, of which he became the first high sheriff. He repre- sented Campbell co. in the lower house in 1823, '24, '25, and '26, and the two counties of Campbell and Boone in the senate from 1829 to 1833. When he first saw the site of Covington in the fall of 1807, he came from his residence near Bryan's Station, in Fayette co., over the Iron Works road as far as Henry's mill (probably on Elkhorn), then by the mouth of Raven creek in Harrison co., thence past where Arnold kept tavern (now Williamstown, a county seat). There was no town on that route between Bryan's Station and Cincinnati; and on the Dry Ridge route no town between Georgetown and Cincinnati-where now are the business villages of Williamstown, Wal- ton, Crittenden, and Florence. Within the present boundaries of Covington were a few farm houses, the only prominent one of which is still standing- the then elegant stone residence of old Thos. Kennedy, with its panelled room in the style of that day. Besides the stone residence, he had a stone barn (on now the s. w. corner of Second and Garrard streets), stone ice house, stone smoke house, stone hen house, and stone spring house (the spring of which, in the war of the elements, has been transferred from the top of the river bank to the beach or shore in front.) Thos. Kennedy conducted the ferry on the Kentucky side in 1790-94, and Francis Kennedy on the Cincin- nati side-transferring the soldiers of the Indian expeditions during those years.

Emigration of Squirrels .- In Sept., 1801, an astonishing emigration of squir- rels took place, from Kentucky across the Chio river. As many as 500 per day were killed as they crossed the river. A mild winter was prophesied, from their moving northward.

A Hail-Storm, unprecedented in violence since the country was settled, oc- curred on May 27, 1800, extending from Covington to Lexington. Near Lex- ington, the hail fell the size of goose eggs. Near Covington, after the heavy rain-storm was over, which had much reduced the size of the hail, many lumps of ice weighed over an ounce each.

The First Work of Art in Covington, on record, was the drawing and paint- ing by Mr. Lucas, in May, 1823, of a View of Cincinnati, from the Covington side-as a drop curtain for the Globe Theatre, Cincinnati. It attracted great attention for its beauty and uniqueness.

No Station or Block- Hlouse was ever built in what is now Kenton county. A log cabin, with holes to shoot out of-on the land of John D. Park, 2 miles 8. of Covington-was called a block-house.

437

KENTON COUNTY.

Col. JOHN SANDERSON MORGAN was born in Nicholas co .. Ky., Jan. 6, 1799, and died of cholera, after 123 hours illness, in Covington, Ky., June 17, 1852, aged 53 years. His father, Garrard (or Jared) Morgan was a native of Goochland co., Va., and his mother, Sarah Sanderson, of South Carolina ; they emigrated to Kentucky in 1798, or earlier, and settled in Nicholas co. Left at 15, with a widowed mother and a large family, upon a small and poor farm, he struggled so nobly, and faithfully that in 1824, as soon as he was eli- gible, his neighbors manifested a generous confidence by electing him their representative in the general assembly of the state, in the stormy times of the " old court " and " new court." He sided boldly with the former. He was again elected in 1833; was elected to the senate, 1838-42, and re-elected 1842-46, but resigned in 1844, and in 1845 removed to the city of Covington. Several years after, he took a deep interest in securing the charter of the Covington and Lexington (now Ky. Central) railroad, and was chosen its first. president, and held the office when he died. He was also the Whig presiden- tial elector for the 9th district, and if he had lived, was sure of success. He was anxious to live to complete the great public work of which he was one of the founders-the railroad; but it was otherwise ordered. He had been an extensive and usually successful operator in Western produce. Col. Mor- gan was a man of mark-seldom equalled for native sagacity, sound judgment, energy and decision, and purity of purpose. He was the architect of his own fortunes ; was brave, generous, and manly, thoroughly honest and thoroughly in earnest, and seldom failed to impress others with his own convictions- that he was right, and ought to and would succeed. In 1829, he married Eleanor, daughter of Henry Bruce, Sen., of Fleming county-who, with a large family, still (1873) survives.

Ex-GOV. JAMES T. MOREHEAD was born May 24, 1797, near Shepherdsville, Bullitt co., Ky., and died in Covington, Ky., Dec. 28, 1854-aged 57; when 3 years old, removed with his father to Russellville, Logan co., where he en- joyed the advantages of the village schools; was at Transylvania University, 1813-15 ; studied law with Judge H. P. Broadnax, and afterwards with John J. Crittenden, who was then living at Russellville ; settled at Bowling Green, and began the practice of law, in the spring of 1818; was elected to the leg- islature, 1828, '29, '30; while attending the convention at Baltimore which nominated Henry Clay for the presidency and John Sergeant for the vice presidency, was nominated for lieutenant governor, and elected Aug., 1832; upon the death of Gov. John Breathitt, Feb., 1834, was inaugurated governor, serving until Sept., 1836 ; was made ex-officio president of the board of internal improvement, Feb., 1835, and afterwards, under a change of the law, in 1838, commissioned by Gov. Clark to the same office-having already, since March, 1837, been the state agent for the sale of bonds for internal improvement pur- poses ; resumed the practice of law at Frankfort, in the fall of 1836, and was elected to the legislature from Franklin county, Aug., 1837; in the winter of 1839-40, he and Col. John Speed Smith were elected by the legislature com- missioners to the state of Ohio, to obtain the passage of a law for the protec- tion of the property of citizens of Kentucky in their slayes-which mission was entirely successful; was U. S. senator from Ky., 1841-47, and on his re- tirement resumed the practice of law, at Covington. In the U. S. senate as a debater, few men ranked higher ; whenever announced to speak, the lobbies and galleries were filled with spectators. As a speaker, he was remarkably fluent and energetic, with a manner eminently graceful and dignified. As a statesman, he was sound and conservative. and his political and general in- formation was extensive and varied. His library, embracing the largest col- lection then known of works relating to the history of Kentucky, was purchased by the Young Men's Mercantile Association of Cincinnati. His address at the anniversary of the first settlement of Kentucky at Boonesborough, in 1840, was an invaluable historical summary, and rescued from oblivion a number of documents not elsewhere preserved.

Gen. JOHN W. FINNELL was born in Winchester, Ky., Dec. 24, 1821. His ancestors were from Orange co., Va. His father, Nimrod L. Finnell, was a

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KENTON COUNTY.

practical printer, and was, at various times, either sole or joint editor and proprietor of the Lexington Observer and Reporter, Lexington Intelligencer, Cov- ington Licking Valley Register, and other papers in Kentucky ; was an ardent Whig, and a bold, vigorous, and fearless writer ; he died Dec. 8, 1850. John W. Finnell graduated at Transylvania University when only 17 years of age ; learned the art of printing, with his father, and at 19, assisted him in the editorial conduct of the Lexington Daily Intelligencer, 1840; studied law with Richard H. Menefee, and graduated at Transylvania law school, 1841; settled in Carlisle, Nicholas co., and soon obtained a handsome practice; was the Whig candidate for the Ky. house of representatives and elected, 1843, al- though the county was largely Democratic; during the session of the legisla- ture, was induced to assume the editorial control of the Frankfort Commonwealth, then one of the leading Whig organs in the state, and held that position until- 1848, when he was appointed secretary of state, by Gov. John J. Crittenden ; was re-appointed to the same office, by Gov. John L. Helm, July, 1850, when Gov. Crittenden resigned, to accept the office of attorney general in President Fillmore's cabinet; removed to Covington, 1852, and resumed the practice of law.

In 1854, during the great financial crisis which involved the failure of so many banks and bankers, he was appointed special commissioner of the Ken- ton and Campbell circuit courts, to close up the affairs of the Kentucky Trust Co. Bank and the Newport Safety Fund Bank. This delicate duty was dis- charged with such tact, judgment, and fidelity that the creditors were paid in full of all their demands, while at the time of their suspension the claims did not command a third of their value. Mr. Finnell was a member of the con- vention in 1860 that nominated Bell and Everett for president and vice presi- dent, and engaged actively in the canvass. In 1861, he was elected from Kenton county as a "Union " candidate to the legislature, and there took an advanced position in favor of the Union ; his earnest efforts were then directed towards sustaining that cause in Kentucky. He was appointed adjutant general of the state, Oct. 12, 1861, by Gov. Magoffin, and successfully discharged, at the most trying time, the onerous and perplexing duties of the office. On the accession of Gen. Bramlette to the chair of state, in Sept., 1863, Gen. Fin- nell declined a continuance in office, and remained in private life until 1867, when he was appointed register in bankruptcy for the 6th district of Kentucky at Covington. In 1870, he removed to Louisville, where, in 1872, he became and still is (Feb., 1873,) managing editor of the Louisville Daily Commercial. Gen. Finnell is an elegant and genial writer and speaker, a fine lawyer, re- markable for his tact, energy, and suavity, and the very soul of every coterie. Over the nom de plume of " Jeems Giles of Owen," he has established a "Mark Twain" department in the Commercial which is marked for its originality and power, and is growing in popularity.

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 70

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