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 53
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
The men started in answer to the enquiry of the inhabitants, that their names were Harpe, and that they were emigrants from North Carolina. They remained at their ene unpiment the greater part of two days and a night, spending the time in rioting, droukruness and debauchery. When they left they took the road lead- ing to Greene river. The day succeeding their departure, a report reached the
353
HARPE'S HEAD.
neighborhood that a young gentleman of wealth from Virginia, named Lank for .! , had been robbed and murdered on what was then called, and is still known ay the "Wilderness Road," which runs through the Rock-castle hills. Suspicion immediately fixed upon the Harpes as the perpetrators, and Captain Ballenger. at the head of a few bold and resolute men, started in pursuit. They experienced great difficulty in following their trail, owing to a heavy fall of snow, which had obliterated most of the tracks, but finally came upon them while encamped in 3 bottom on Greene river. near the spot where the town of Liberty now stands. At first they made a show of resistance, but upon being informed that if they did not immediately surrender they would be shot down, they yielded themselves pris- oners.
They were brought back to Stanford, and there examined. Among their effects were found some fine linen shirts, marked with the initials of Lankford. One had been pierced by a bullet and was stained with blood. They had also a consid- erable sum of money, in gold. It was afterwards ascertained that this was the kind of money Lankford had with him. The evidence against them being thus conclusive, they were confined in the Stanford jail, but were afterwards sent for trial to Danville, where the district court was in session. Here they broke jail, and succeeded in making their escape.
They were next heard of in Adair county, near Columbia. In passing through that county, they met a small boy, the son of Colonel Trabue, with a pillow case of meal or flour, an article they probably needed. This boy it is supposed they robbed and then murdered, as he was never afterwards heard of. Many years afterwards human bones, answering the size of Colonel Trabue's son at the time of his disappearance, were found in a sink hole near the place where he was said to have been murdered.
The Harpes still shaped their course towards the mouth of Greene river. mark- ing their path by murders and robberies of the most horrible and brutal character. The district of country through which they passed was at that time very thinly settled, and from this reason their outrages went unpunished. They seemed inspired with the deadliest hatred against the whole human race, and such was their implacable misanthropy. that they were known to kill where there was no temptation to rob. One of their victims was a little girl, found at some distance from her home, whose tender age and helplessness would have been protection against any but incarnate fiends. The last dreadful act of barbarity, which led to their punishment and expulsion from the country, exceeded in atrocity all the others.
Assuming the guise of Methodist preachers, they obtained lodgings one night at a solitary house on the road. Mr. Stagall, the master of the house, was ab- sent, but they found his wife and children, and a stranger, who, like themselves, had stopped for the night. Here they conversed and made inquiries about the two noted Harpes who were represented as prowling about the country. When they retired to rest. they contrived to secure an axe, which they carried with them into their chamber. In the dead of night they crept softly down stairs, and assassinated the whole family, together with the stranger, in their sleep, and then setting fire to the house, made their escape.
When Stagall returned, he found no wife to welcome him ; no home to receive him. Distracted with grief and rage, he turned his horse's head from the smitul- dering ruins, and repaired to the house of Captain John Leeper. Leeper was que of the most powerful men of his day, and fearless as powerful. Collecting for or five other men well armed, they mounted and started in pursuit of venge ance. It was agreed that. Leeper should attack " Big Harpe." leaving " Little Harpe " to be disposed of by Ntazalt. The others were to hold themselves in readiness to assist Lepper and Stagall, as circumstances might require.
This party found the women belonging to the Harpes attending to their little camp by the road side; the men having gone aside into the woods to shoot an unfortunate traveler, of the name of Smith, who had fallen into their hands, and whoin the women had begged might not be dispatched before their eyes. It was this halt that enabled the pursaers to overtake them. The women immediately gave the alarm, and the misereants mounting their horses, which were large, feet and powerful, fed in separate directions. Leeper singled out the Big Harpe, and being better mounted than his companions, soon left them far behind. Little 23
Pum
354
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Harpe succeeded in escaping from Stagall, and he, with the rest of his compan- ions, turned and followed on the track of Leeper and the Big Harpe. After a chase of about nine miles, Leeper came within gun shot of the latter and fired. The ball entering his thigh, passed through it and penetrated his horse, and both fell. Harpe's gun escaped from his hand and rolled some eight or ten feet down the bank. Reloading his rifle, Leeper ran up to where the wounded outlaw Jay wel- tering in his blood, and found him with one thigh broken, and the other crushed beneath his horse. Leeper rolled the horse away, and set Harpe in an easier po- sition. 'The robber begged that he might not be killed. Leeper told him that he had nothing to fear from him, but that Stagall was coming up, and could not probably be restrained. Harpe appeared very much frightened at hearing this, and implored Leeper to protect him. In a few moments Stagall appeared, and without uttering a word, raised his rifle and shot Harpe through the head. They then severed the head from the body, and stuck it upon a pole where the road crosses the creek, from which the place was then named and is yet called Harpe's Head. Thus perished one of the boldest and most noted freebooters that has ever appeared in America. Save courage, he was without one redeeming quality, and his death freed the country from a terror which had long paralyzed its bold- est spirits.
The Little Harpe, when next heard from, was on the road which runs from New Orleans, through the Choctaw grant, to Tennessee. Whilst there, he became acquainted with and joined the band of outlaws led by the cele- brated Mason. Mason and Harpe committed many depredations upon the above mentioned road, and upon the Mississippi river. They continued this course of life for several years, and accumulated great wealth. Finally, Mason and his band became so notorious and troublesome, that the governor of the Mississippi terri- tory offered a reward of five hundred dollars for his head. Harpe immediately determined to secure the reward for himself. Finding Mason one day in a thick canebrek, counting his money, he shot him, cut off his head, and carried it to the village of Washington, then the capital of Mississippi. A man who had been robbed about a year before by Mason's band, recognized Harpe, and upon his evidence, he was arrested, arraigned, tried, condemned, and executed. Thus perished the " Little Harpe," who, lacking the only good quality his brother pos- sessed, courage, was if any thing, more brutal and ferocious.
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
JEFFERSON county was formed in 1780, by the Virginia legisla- ture, (being one of the three original counties which composed the district of Kentucky), and named in honor of THOMAS JEFFER- sos, distinguished. at that day, as the author of the declaration of independence, and one of the ablest and most efficient members of the continental Congress. This county is situated in the north- west middle part of the State-bounded on the north by Okdi- ham and the Ohio river, on the east by Shelby, on the south by Bullitt and Spencer, and on the west by the Ohio river. Louis- VILLE city is the seat of justice, about fifty miles from Frankfort.
Besides the Ohio river, which, in an extended and beautiful curve, borders half of the northern and the entire southern por- tion of the county, Jefferson is watered by Beargrass, a stream noted in the early settlement of the State, which enters the Ohio at Louisville, and by Pond's and Floyd's creeks-the latter emp- tying its waters into Salt river. The face of the country is di- versified, presenting, for many miles around, and including the
355
LOUISVILLE.
city of Louisville, an almost unbroken level plain, rich, prodac- tive and highly cultivated ; while the up-lands are undulating or hilly, with a soil inferior, generally, to the bottom-lands, but pro- ducing fine wheat, oats and corn. The staples of Jefferson are hemp, wheat, corn, oats and potatoes. Horses, cattle and hogs, in large numbers, are also raised, and the county is dotted with fine gardens for the supply of the Louisville market with vege- tables.
Number of acres of land in Jefferson county, 200,680; average value per acre, $28.12; value of taxable property in 1846, $22,- 940,533 ; number of white males over twenty-one years old, 7,547; number of children between five and sixteen years old, 6,326. Population in 1830, 10,090-in 1840, 36,346.
The city of LOUISVILLE is situated at the Falls of the Ohio, im- mediately at the junction of Beargrass with that river. It is 1,480 miles, by water, from New-Orleans, 607 from Pittsburgh, 350, by land, from St. Louis, 53 miles from Frankfort : latitude 38 deg., 3 min. north; longitude 85 deg., 30 min. west from Green- wich, and 8 deg., 45 min. west from Washington city. It is built on an elevated plain, 70 feet above low water mark, and very gently declining towards its southern border ; is regularly laid out on a plan similar to that of Philadelphia, having eight broad and beautiful streets, running east and west, and parallel with the river, from one and a half to two miles in length, and from sixty to one hundred and twenty feet in breadth-these are inter- sected at right angles by more than thirty cross streets, ali sixty feet wide. The streets are generally well paved, and the side walks wide and convenient. The public buildings are a city hall and court-house not yet complete, a city and county jail, on the most approved model, a marine hospital, a medical institute, an asylum for the blind, an edifice for the university of Louis- ville, thirty churches, viz : four Baptist, one Christian, six Metho- dist (one of which is German), one Seamen's Bethel, four Presby- terian, three Episcopal, one Unitarian, two Universalist, two Roman Catholic (one of which is German), four churches for colored people (three Methodist and one Baptist), one Free church, one Jewish synagogue, five banking houses, four market houses, one city work-house. one hospital, two orphan asylums, one Magdalen asylum, under the care of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, four large city school-houses, twenty-four schools, six of which are grammar schools, three for males and three for females. Some of these buildings are splendid structures, and would do credit to any city of the United States. The city hall is a noble building, admirably planned, and presenting a beautiful exterior. It is not yet complete. The first Presbyterian and St. Paul's (Episcopal), churches are fine specimens of architec- tural beauty.
RELIGIOUS AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS .- Thirty churches, of the various denominations of Christians, including one of the Jews. a depository of the Ameri- can Sunday School Union, the Louisville Bible Society, and the Young Men's
-
-----
356
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Tract Society, five Masonic lodges, one Royal Arch Chapter, one Encampment of Knights Templars, six lodges of Odd Fellows, one grand lodge of Odd Fel- lows, and one grand encampment, ten divisions of the Sons of Temperance, three Temples of Honor, and one grand division Sons of Temperance of Kentucky.
The MEDICAL INSTITUTE ranks high among the public institutions of Louisville. It was organized in 1837, by an ordinance of the city council, which appropriated $50,000 for the library, chemical apparatus, and suitable buildings. The first course of lectures was delivered to 80 students, the second to 120; the third class numbered 204, the fourth 208, the fifth 262, the sixth 189, the seventh 242, the eighth 2+3, the ninth 312, and the tenth 349 students. The college edifice is a commodious, well arranged, and handsome building; and the professors are learned and able men.
The Asylum for the Blind is a noble institution, established by the State of Kentucky in 1842. A spacious building has been erected for this institution. by the joint contributions of the State and benevolent citizens of Louisville. The institution already embraces between forty and fifty students, of both sexes. The course of instruction embraces the elementary and higher branches of the English language, ancient and modern languages, and music, vocal and instrumental. The students are instructed also, in the various kinds of handicraft, by which they will be enabled to gain an honorable support, after leaving the institution.
The University of Louisville is yet in its infancy ; but from the liberality of its endowment, and the character of the people among whom it is located, there can be no doubt that it is destined to take a high rank among the literary institutions of the west. The first course of lectures in the law department, was delivered last winter to about thirty students.
The Marine Hospital is another important public institution, located at Louis- ville. It was established in 1820, by a grant from the State of $40,000-and designed as a refuge for sick and infirm mariners.
The Kentucky Historical Society, which has its location in Louisville, was in- corporated by the legislature in 1838. It is an institution of great value-the object of its organization being, to collect and preserve the public and private records which are calculated to elucidate the history of the west, but more par- ticularly, of Kentucky.
The other public institutions of Louisville, consist of-the Bank of Kentucky, with a capital of 85.000.000; Bank of Louisville, capital $2.000,000 ; Branch of the Northern Bank of Kentucky, capital $600,000 ; Louisville Gas Company, capital $1,200,000; Mechanics' Savings Institute, $100,000 ; ten insurance com- panies ; and the Mercantile Library Association, with a library of four thousand volumes.
The trade of Louisville is very extensive, and to those who have not made themselves acquainted with statistics of this character, would appear almost in- credible. In the two articles of sugar and coffee, the sales, during the year 1847, it is believed, will amount to several millions of dollars; while the total export and import trade will fall but little short of $50,000,000 .* The houses engaged in the dry goods, commission, drug. hardware, grocery, fruit, and produce busi- ness, number upwards of six hundred, employing a capital of about $6.000.000. Besides the houses engaged in the business named, there are seven book stores, seven iron stores, ten Imumber yards, twelve founderies for the construction of steamboat and null machinery, one brass foundry, one rolling and slitting mill, two steam bagging factories, producing about two million yards cotton bagging annually, six cordage and rope factories, one cotton factory. one woolen factory, four flouring mills, four lard of factories, one white lead factory, one burr mill- stone factory, several extensive poteries, six tobacco stemmeries, two tobacco inspection houses, two glass cutting establishments, one oi! cloth factory, two
"In May. 1-15. the first trip of a steambout was made from New Orleans to Lou sville and P.us- burgh. the second and third trips im 1-17. In I'll. there were But steamboats on the western and south-western waters, measuring. in the aggregate. more than fifty thousand tons. In le47, the number ot boals and tonnage is believed to be double that of 1511. In the immense trade carried on by these boats, Louisville largely participates.
-
Unser
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LOUISVILLE, NY
até
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE, AT.
358
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
surgical instrument manufactories, two lithographic engravers, one large paper mill, one star candle factory, four pork houses, three piano manufactories, three breweries, one ivory clock manufactory, six tanneries, ten soap and candle facto- ries, four planing machines, city gas works, two scale beam factories, two glue factories, three ship yards, one nail manufactory. There are, also, extensive manufactories of sheet iron. brass, copper, tin ware, silver ware, saddlery and harness, cabinet ware, chairs, plows, carriages, wagons, hats, boots and shoes, clocks, clothing, &c., &c., with a large number of building mechanics.
The city is well supplied with hotels and boarding-houses of a high character. The professions of law, medicine, and divinity, are well filled with able and dis- tinguished men-there being, in the city, about one hundred lawyers, ninety physicians, and upwards of thirty ministers of the gospel.
There are twelve newspapers and periodicals-political, commercial, religious, temperance, medical, emancipation. and agricultural-some of them old estab- lishments and of high repute, published in the city. The Louisville Journal,* published daily, tri-weekly. and weekly ; the Morning Courier, daily, tri-weekly, and weekly; the Evening Express, daily ; the Louisville Democrat, daily, tri- weekly, and weekly ; the Journal of Commerce, weekly ; the Presbyterian Herald, weekly ; the Baptist Banner, weekly; the Catholic Advocate, weekly ; the Spirit of the .Ige, weekly; the Examiner, weekly ; the Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery, monthly ; and the Southern Methodist Quarterly Review.
There are several extensive job printing offices in the city ; and the book print- ing establishment of Messrs. Morton & Griswold, is one of the most extensive in the western country.
The want of public squares in Louisville is deeply felt. According to the origi- nal plan, a strip of land nearly two hundred feet in width, lying south of Greene street, and extending the whole length of the city, was reserved for a public promenade. If this plan had been followed, and some of the magnificent forest trees had been suffered to remain, Louisville would have presented beauties which the most splendid buildings in the world could not give. Health, pleasure, taste and even morality are improved by fine promenades and public squares. No one can tell how much of the literary eminence of Athens is due to the " groves of Aca- demus." There is yet an opportunity for Louisville to have a good promenade, though she can have no central public square. If Broadway were properly graded and set with trees, it would prove one of the most beautiful streets in the world. If the street were extended to " Preston's Wood" on the east, and this wood were properly improved, it would be a delightful place of resort.
The population of Louisville, in 1780, comprised only thirty souls; in 1800, population six hundred ; in 1-10, population one thousand three hundred; in 1920, four thousand; in 1-30, ten thousand and ninety ; in 1840, twenty-one thousand ; in 1×13, twenty-eight thousand ; in 1845, thirty-two thousand ; and in 1817, it is estimated at forty thousand.
Those who approach Louisville from the east, will probably arrive in the night. When within a few miles of the city. the boat winds round an island, and a long row of brilliant gas lights presents itself to the view. The effect of this is very fine, and a considerable time elipses before the appearance of buildings mars the beauty of the scene. But those who approach by daylight, have a much more varied and beautiful prospect. A view taken from the Kentucky shore, just above the city, is one of the most charming on which the eye can rest. Before you are the Falls, Corn Island, and, in the distance. New Albany ; on the left is a view of part of I, misville ; on the right, below Jeffersonville, appear some of the forest trees of Indiana. The river here has the appearance of a lake, for it winds around in such a manner that its course is concealed. The upper part of this apparent lake, is sinooth and tranquil : while the lower part is in violent commotion from the dashing of the water over the rocks. In looking at the upper part, the river seems to you to be collecting its energies for some violent exertion. After a mo- ment's hesitation, after taking breath, as it were, it rushes furiously upon the im-
* George D Prentice, who has been for many years connected with the Journal as a proprietor and the principaled'or stands une:valled as a political writer, a wit and a sau st. and has written some poetical ast closed "yereding beauty. Among the poets of Louisville, it is proper to mention the name, and, of Mes Andlet Welby, where exquisite productions, under the signature of " AMELIA," have given her a high rank among American ports. Fortunatus Cosby, and his son, Robt. T. Cosby, have also written many poetical articles of great merit.
359
PRISON, LOUISVILLE, KY.
-. 44
MEDICAL COLLEGE, LOUISVILLE, KY.
360
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
pediments in its way, like an army charging upon the foe. In the back-ground the blue hills crown the view, the long line curving itself as if to embrace the city.
'Three-quarters of a century have not elapsed since Louisville was selected as a site for a town. Captain Thomas Bullitt, of Virginia, uncle of the late Alexander Scott Bullitt, who was the first lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, is said to have laid off the town in August, 1773 .* This was before the first log cabin was built 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. Aber these had been taken by Clark, the settlers were inspir d 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 .; 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 1760, 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, 17-1. several parties entered Jefferson county, and killed Colonel William Lynn, 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
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.