USA > Kentucky > Historical sketches of Kentucky : embracing its history, antiquities, and natural curiosities, geographical, statistical, and geological descriptions with anecdotes of pioneer life, and more than one hundred biographical sketches of distinguished pioneers, soldiers, statesmen, jurists, lawyers, divines, etc. > Part 30
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John Breathitt taught a country school in early life, and by his industry and economy, as teacher and surveyor, he acquired property rapidly, consisting mostly in lands, which were easily obtained under the acts of the assembly appropriating the public domain. After his earnings had secured a capital capable of sustaining him a few years, he resolved to read law, which he did under the direction of the late Judge Wallace. He was admitted to the bar as a qualified attorney. in F'pb- ruary, 1810. His industry and capacity for business, soon secured him a lucrative practice ; and from this time he rapidly advanced in public estimation.
In 1810 or '11, he was elected to represent the county of Logan in the house of representatives of the general assembly, and filled the same office for several years in succession. In 1828, he was elected lieutenant governor of the commonwealth, the duties of which station he filled with great dignity and propriety. In 1832, he was elected governor, but did not live to the end of his official term. He died in the governor's house, in Frankfort, on the 21st of February, 1834.
It is not the design of the writer to notice the political principles, official acts, and measures of policy recommended or executed by Governor Breathitt. These may be found among the archives and records of the country, and their considera- tion here would swell this article to the magnitude of a lengthy work. It may not, however, be improper to say, that Governor Breathitt acted with the dritto- cratie party, and espoused with warmth the election of General Jackson to tid: presidency in 1928 and 1832.
Governor Breathitt had two wives, both of whom he survived. The first was Miss Whitaker, daughter of William Whitaker of Logan county ; and the second was Miss Susan M. Harris, daughter of Richard Harris, of Chesterfield c. ..... Virginia. By his first wife he left a son and daughter. and by his last a daughter.
Governor Breathitt, in all his transactions, was considerate and cautious. Rashness was no part of his character. He was nevertheless, firm, and pursued his objects with great assiduity, after resolving upon the course he intervied to pursue. He did not commit himself in favor of any measure, without before hand weighing the consequences with much deliberation.
As a husband, father, friend and neighbor, it is not too much to say that Gor- ernor Breathitt had no superior. In all the relations of life, he was actuated by
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a spirit of indulgence and benevolence. The comfort and happiness of others, with him were objects of pre-eminent solicitude. His affection and kindness in his relations, manifested itself in an eminent degree, by the assistance he gave his father, and the liberal expenditures he made in educating his brothers and sisters. To associates of his profession, he was uniformly courteous, and ever ready to give the younger members of the bar aid and instruction.
BRECKINRIDGE COUNTY.
THE county of BRECKENRIDGE was formed in the year 1799, and was named in honor of the Hon. John Breckinridge. It is situa- ted in the western-middle part of the State, and bounded on the north by the Ohio river, on the east by Hardin, on the south by Grayson, and on the west by Hancock county.
The face of the country is generally rolling, high, dry, and finely watered. The climate is pleasant and healthy; the soil fertile, with a basis of red clay and limestone. The principal water courses are, Sinking creek, the North Fork of Rough creek, main Rough creek, and Clover creek.
The principal products of the county are tobacco, corn, wheat. and oats. Four thousand five hundred hogsheads of tobacco are annually raised and exported. The total wealth of the county in 1846, according to the auditor's report, was $1,933,364. Number of acres of land, 309,926. The population in 1830 was 7,345- in 1840 it was 8,944; showing an increase of population in ten years of 1,599.
The principal towns are Hardinsburg, Cloverport, Stephens- port, Hudsonville, Constantine, and Jackeysburg.
Hardinsburg is the seat of justice, and was named in honor of Captain William Hardin, a distinguished Indian fighter. It was laid out in town lots in 1782 ; incorporated in 1800, and contains a population of eight hundred inhabitants.
Cloverport is the second town in the county ; it is a place of considerable importance as a shipping point, and contains a pop- ulation of seven hundred inhabitants. Its immediate neighbor- hood abounds in extensive banks of coal of fine quality. Four miles from Cloverport are the Breckinridge, Tar, and White Sul- phur Springs, which are becoming one of the most fashionable watering places in the State.
Stephensport is a neat and handsome village, of some commer- cial importance, situated on the Ohio river, at the mouth of Sink- ing creek. It contains a population of two hundred inhabitants. and was incorporated in 1825. The remaining towns are Hud- sonsville, Constantine, and Jackeysburg.
Breckenridge county possesses a very remarkable curiosity, in Sinking creek, a considerable stream, which supplies a sufficiency of water to drive machinery during the entire year. Six or seven
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miles from its source, the creek suddenly sinks beneath the earth. showing no trace of its existence for five or six miles, when it re-appears above ground, and flows into the Ohio. On this creek is to be seen a natural rock mill-dam, eight feet high, and forty feet wide, which answers all the purposes of a dam to a mill which has been erected at the place by a Mr. Huston. Near the creek is a large cave, called Penitentiary cave, which has never been fully explored. Some of the apartments are said to rival, in the splendor and magnificence of their scenery, the celebrated Mammoth cave in Edmonson county. In one of the rooms, about one hundred yards from the mouth of the cave, the roof is from sixty to seventy feet high, and on the floor there are three natural basins or troughs of cool, clear water, of very remarkable con- struction and appearance, fifteen feet in length, four feet wide, and twelve inches deep. These basins are elevated above the level of the floor in the form of troughs, and it is remarkable that the stone which forms the sides and ends of the basins, do not exceed in thickness the blade of a table knife.
One of the earliest settlers in that portion of Kentucky which now forms the county of Breckinridge, was Capt. WILLIAM HARDIN, a noted hunter and Indian figliter-a man of dauntless courage and resolution -- cool, calm, and self-pos- sessed in the midst of most appalling dangers, and perfectly skilled in all the wiles and arts of border warfare. Soon after Capt. Hardin had erected a station in what is now the county of Breckinridge, intelligence was received that the Indians were building a town on Saline creek, in the present state of Illinois. Hardin, not well pleased that the savages should establish themselves in such close vicinity to his little settlement, determined to dislodge them. He soon had collected around him a force of eighty select men; the hardiest and bolJest of those noted hunters whose lives were passed in a continual round of perilous ad- venture.
When this force reached the vicinity of the lick, they discovered Indian signs, and approaching the town cautiously, they found it in the possession of three war- riors who had been left to guard the camp. Hardin ordered his men to fire on them, which they did, killing two. The third attempted to make his escape, but he was shot down as he ran. He succeeded, however, in regaining his feet, and ran fifty yards, leaped up a perpendicular bank, six feet high, and fell dead.
In the mean time, Hardin, correctly supposing that the main body of the In- dians were out on a hunting expedition, and would shortly return, made immedi- ate preparation for battle. He accordingly selected a place where a few acres vi timbered land were surrounded on all sides by the prairie. Here he posted his men with orders to conceal themselves behind the trees, and reserve their fire until the Indians should approach within twenty-five yards. Soon after the little band had taken their position, they discovered the Indians rapidly approaching on their trail, and numbering apparently between eighty and one hundred men. When th sav- ages had arrived within one hundred yards of the position of the Kentuckians, one of the men, in his impatience to begin the battle, forgot the order of the ... ,- tain, and fired his gun. Immediately the Indians charged, and the fight Coul- menced in earnest.
At the first fire, Captain Hardin was shot through the thighs. Without, how- ever, resigning his command, or yielding to the pain of his wound, he sat down on a large log, and during the whole action, continued to encourage his wenn vid give forth his orders, with as much coolness, promptitude, and self-posse sep n. d3 if engaged in the most ordinary avocation. This more than Spartan fois as and resolution, was not, however, anything very remarkable in the early history of Kentucky. Every battle field furnished many examples of similar ner is. The iron men of those times. seet, indeed, to have been born insensible to fesz, and impregnable to pain. The coolness, courage, and unyielding determination of
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Hardin, in this trying situation, no doubt contributed greatly to the success of the day ; and after a severe contest, in which some thirty of the savages fell. they were finally repulsed. The loss of the whites, in killed and wounded, was very considerable. During the action the parties were frequently engaged hand to hand.
This battle was never reported to the government, and it seems to have es- caped the notice of the historians of early times in Kentucky ; though it was, unquestionably, one of the most fiercely contested battles ever fought in the west.
The Honorable IQuy BRECKINRIDGE, [for whom this county was named], was the second son of Colonel Robert Breckinridge, of Augusta county, Virginia, and was born on a farm, upon a part of which the town of Staunton now stands, on the 2d day of December, 1760. His paternal ancestors were what were then called " Scotch Irish," that is, they were Presbyterians-from the north of Ire land, immediately-but originally from Scotland. After the restoration of Charles II., they were hotly persecuted in Ayreshire, their original seat, and being driven out from thence, spent half a century in the highlands of Breadal- bane, and removed thence to Ireland, and early in the last century to Virginia; a portion of the persecuted remnant of the Scotch Covenanters, who suffered so long and so heroically for liberty and the reformed religion. His paternal and maternal grand fathers both lie buried in the grave yard of the Tinkling Springs congregation, in the county of Augusta, of which both of them were ruling elders. His mother, Lettice Preston, was the oldest child of John Pres- ton and Elizabeth Patton, and was the second wife of his father. General James Brechinridge, of Virginia, was his younger, and a full brother; General Robert Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was his elder, and a half brother.
At a very early age, he was carried by his father to the neighborhood of Fincastle, in Bottetourt county, Virginia, whither he removed, and where he died, when his son was about eleven years of age ; leaving a widow, and seven children, in circumstances which we should now consider narrow : and exposed, upon what was then almost the extreme limit of the white settlements, to all the dangers of an Indian frontier ; and this only a few years before the commence- ment of our long and bloody struggle for National Independence, which was ended about the time the subject of this notice arrived at man's estate.
Raised in the midst of dangers, hardships, and privations; the tradition of his family replete only with tales of suffering and exile, for conscience sake; and a widowed mother and orphan family-of which he became the head at the age of early boyhood-the objects of his constant care ; it is by no means strange that his powerful character and uncommon talents, should have been early and re- markably developed. A calin, simple, correct man-gentle to those he loved- stern and open to those he could not trust-always true, always brave, always self dependent, it is just in such a way, that such circumstances would mould and develop such a nature as his. But it is not so easy to ascertain how it was, that in his circumstances, there should have been implanted in him, from earliest childhood. a thirst for knowledge that seemed to the end of his life, insatiable ; nor could anything less than the highest mental endowments, directed with energy that never targed, explain the extent, the variety, and the richness of the acquisitions which be was enabled to make. His education, both preparatory and professional, was privately conducted, and so far as is now known, chtety without other and than books, except about two years, which he spent at the col- lege of William and Mary, in Virginia. During the latter part of his attendance at this ancient seat of learning, and when he was abont nineteen years of age, i.e was elected to the Virginia house of burgesses, from the county of Bottetourt, without his having even suspected that such a matter was in agitation. On ac- count of his youth, the election was twice set aside, and it was only on the third return, and against his own wishes and remonstrances, that he took his seat. From this time to the period of his death, he lived constantly, as a lawyer and a statesman, in the public eye.
In the year 17-5 he married Mary Hopkins Cabell, a daughter of Colonel Joseph Cabell, of Buckingham county, Virginia; and settled in the county of Albemarle, and practised law in that region of Virginia, until the year 1993, in the spring of which he removed to Kentucky, and settled in Lexington; near to
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which place, at " Cabell's Dale," in the county of Fayette, he resided till the period of his death, which occurred on the 14th December, 1806, when he h ...! just completed his 46th year.
As a lawyer, no man of his day excelled him, and very few could be compa! ! with him. Profoundly acquainted with his profession, highly gifted as a pathie speaker, laborious and exact in the performance of all his professional duties and engagements-these great qualities, united to his exalted private character, give him a position at the bar, which few men ever attained, or ever deserved; and enabled him, besides the great distinction he acquired, to accumulate a large for- tune. An event extremely characteristic attended the disposition of his estate : for on his death bed, he absolutely refused to make a will, saying that he had done his best to have such provisions made by law for the distribution of- estates, as seemed to him wise and just, and he would adhere to it for his own family. At the end of forty years, it is not unworthy to be recorded, that his wisdom and foresight, in this remarkable transaction, did not lose their reward.
As a statesman, very few men of his generation occupied a more commanding position, or mingled more controllingly with all the great questions of the day ; and not one enjoyed a more absolute popularity, or maintained a more spotless reputation. He took a leading, perhaps a decisive part in all the great questions of a local character that agitated Kentucky. from 1793 to 1806, and whose settle- ment still exerts a controlling influence upon the character of her people and in- stitutions. The constitution of 1798-99, which is still preserved unaltered, was more the work of his hands than of any one single man. The question of negro slavery, as settled in that constitution, upon a middle and moderate ground,-the ground which Kentucky still occupies-the systematizing, to some extent, the civil and criminal codes-the simplification of the land law-the law of descents-the penitentiary system-the abolition of the punishment of death, except for wilful murder and treason-all these, and many other important sub- jects. of a kindred nature. fell under his moulding labors at the forming period of the commonwealth, and remain still nearly as they were adjusted half a century ago. In those vital questions that involved the destiny of the whole west, and threatened the plan if not the continuance of the Union itself, no man took an earlier or more decided stand. It is capable of proof, that the free navigation of the Mississippi river, and subsequently the purchase of Louisiana (which latter act, though it covered Mr. Jefferson with glory, he hesitated to perform. upon doubts both as to its policy and constitutionality), were literally forced upon the general government by demonstrations from the west, in which the mind and the hand of this great patriot and far-sighted statesman were conspicuous above ail.
As a statesman, however, he is best known as one of the leading men-perhaps in the west, the undoubted leader of the old democratic party ; which came into power with Mr. Jefferson, as president, under whose administration he was made attorney general of the United States. He was an ardent friend, personal and political, of Mr. Jefferson ; he coincided with him upon the great principles of the old democracy ; he concerted with him and Mr. Madison, and others of kindred views, the movements which brought the democratic party into power; he ser- ported the interests of that party with pre-eminent ability. in the legislature of Kentucky, and in the senate of the United States; and died as much bel vei, honored and trusted by it. as any man he left behind. Some twenty years Hurt his death. it began to be whispered, and then to be intimated in a few now - papers, that the Kentucky resolutions of 1798-9, which he offered. and wol was the first great movement against the alien and sedition laws-and the geret !! principles of the party that passed them, were in fact the production of Me Jor- ferson himself, and not of John Breckinridge ; and it is painful to reflect that Mr. Jefferson did certainly connive at this mean calumny upon the memory of friend. The family of Mr. Breckinridge have constantly asserted that their tlther was the sole and true author of these resolutions, and constantly defind the pr- duction of proof to the contrary : and there seems to be no question that they are right.
In stature, John Breckinridge was above the middle size of men ; tall, slender and muscular : a man of great power and noble appearance. fle had very clear gray eyes, and brown hair, inclining to a slight shade of red. He was extremely
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grave and silent in his ordinary intercourse ; a man singularly courteous and gentle, and very tenderly loved by those who knew him. His family consisted of nine children : two of them only, with his venerable widow, still live; but his descendants are numerous, both of his own and other names.
BULLITT COUNTY.
BULLITT county was established in 1796, and named for Lieuten- ant Governor BULLITT. It is situated in the north-west middle part of the state, its extreme western boundary extending to near the mouth of Salt river, and is watered by that stream and its tributaries. Bounded on the north by Jefferson ; east by Spencer; south by Nelson, and on the west by Hardin and Meade,-the Rolling fork of Salt river washing its south-west border. This county is generally fertile, though the surface is rolling; the scenery is variegated and beautiful, the hills covered with tall pine and laurel, and abounding in iron and other ores, and salt and mineral waters. The valuation of taxable property in IS46, $1,801,972; number of acres in the county, 162,004; average value per acre, $5,56 ; number of white males over twenty-one years of age, 1,206 ; children between five and sixteen years of age, 1,313. Hogs, cattle and sheep, are the principal articles of commerce ; a great number of the former being driven to Louis- ville annually. There are in the county, three woolen factories, four steam merchant mills, a number of blast iron furnaces, and a rolling mill and forges, making superior iron and nails.
The towns in Bullitt, are, Shepherdsville, Mount Washington and Pittstown. Shepherdsville, the county seat. is situated on Salt river, seventy-four miles from Frankfort-contains one Methodist church, (a handsome brick building, appropriated to the use of Bullitt academy.) four stores, two groceries, five doctors, seven lawyers, three taverns and twenty mechanics' shops. Incorpo- rated in 1793. Population about four hundred. Mount Wash- ington, formerly Vernon, a beautiful town, incorporated in 1822, contains three churches, two schools, six stores and groceries, five doctors, one lawyer, two taverns, and twelve mechanical trades. Population about seven hundred. Pittstown is a small village, situated at the junction of the Rolling fork and main Salt river, nine miles from Shepherdsville.
The Paroquet Springs, a fine and popular watering place-the grounds beautifully improved, with rooms sufficient for the aceoni- modation of six hundred persons-is situated half a mile above Shepherdsville, in this county. The water contains salt, iron, magnesia and salts. Bullitt's old licka, where the first salt works were erected in Kentucky, Jie about three miles from Shepherds- ville.
The first forts and stations erected in the county, were called Fort Nor.sense. Mud Garrison, Bresshear's Station, Clear's Station and Whitaker's Station ; which were severally the scenes of a number of conflicts with the Indians, who
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BULLITT COUNTY.
resorted to the licks to hunt the game, and make salt. Near Bullitt's hick, on a high knob, which is called " Cahill's knob," the Indians whipped to death an old man whom they caught while chopping wood for the salt works.
HENRY CRIST was born in the state of Virginia, in the year 1764. During the revolutionary war, his father, with a numerous family, emigrated to the western part of Pennsylvania, from whence young Henry and other ardent youths of the neighborhood, made frequent and daring excursions into the western wilderness; sometimes into what is now the state of Ohio, sometimes to Limestone, (now Maysville, ) and finally to the falls of the Ohio, which place he first visited in 1979, The buffalo and deer had clearly indicated to the early settlers, those places where salt water was to be found. The great difficulty of importing salt. the increasing demand and high price of the article, encouraged the attempt to manufacture here at a very early day. Salt was made at Bullitt's lick, now in Bullitt county, near seventy years ago.
In Crist's excursions to the west, he had become acquainted and associated with an enterprising Dutchman, named Myers, a land agent and general locator, and in whose name more land has been entered than in that of almost any other man in the west. This pursuit of locator of lands, brought Crist at a very early day to Bullitt's lick, where he took a prominent and active part in some of those scenes which have contributed to the notoriety of that renowned resort of all who lived within fifty miles around in the first settlement of the country. Here the first salt was made in Kentucky, and here from five hundred to a thousand men were col- lected together in the various branches of salt making, as well as buying of, seil- ing to. and guarding the salt makers, when Louisville and Lexington could boast but a few hovels, and when the buffalo slept in security around the base of Cap- itol hill.
In May, 1778, a flat boat loaded with kettles, intended for the manufacture of salt at Bullitt's lick, left Louisville with thirteen persons, twelve armed men and one woman, on board. The boat and cargo were owned by Henry Crist and Sol- omon Spears; and the company consisted of Crist, Spears, Christian Crepps, Thomas Floyd, Joseph Boyce, Evans Moore, an Irishman named l'ossett, and tive others, and a woman, whose names the writer cannot now recollect. thengh to has heard Crist often repeat them. The intention of the party was to descend the Ohio, which was then very high, to the mouth of Salt river, and then a send the latter river, the current of which was entirely deadened by back water from the Ohio, to a place near the licks, called Mad Garrison, which was a temporary for- tification, constructed of two rows of slight stockades, and the space between filled with mud and gravel from the bank of the river hard by. The works enclosed a space of about half an acre, and stood about midway between Bullitt's lick and the falls of Salt river, where Shepherdsville now stands. These works were then occupied by the families of the salt makers, and those who hunted to supply them with food, and acted also as an advanced guard to give notice of the approach of any considerable body of men.
On the 25th of May, the boat entered Salt river, and the hands commenced working her up with sweep-oars. There was no current one way or the other -- while in the Ohio, the great breadth of the river secured them against any al- den attack. but when they came into Salt river, they were within reach of the Indian rifle from either shore. It became necessary, therefore, to send out scouts. to apprise them of any danger ahead. In the evening of the first day of their as. cent of the river. Crist and Floyd went ashore to reconnaitre the bank of the river ahead of the boat. Late in the evening they discovered a fresh trut, bet for want of light, they could not make out the number of Indiens. They fra. aned out all night, but made no further discoveries. In the morning. as they Were te- turning down the river towards the boat, they heard a number of pons, which they believed to be Indians killing game for breakfast. They hastened back to the boat and communicated what they had heard and seen.
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