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 54
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"Captain Bullitt was a man of great enerys and enterprises, as he showed on several important occasions. He served on the French war and was engaged in the battle which resulted in Brad- dock's defeat, and noth warts. He whatyou in the regent he was commanded by Washington. On one Person to detachment from Colonel Washington's rement were out upon the frontiers in surprise a party of French troops from Fort Du Chesne Instead of falling in with the Bremen, the two detachments met rach atver, and the day being very foggy, each party sup- posed the offer to be the enemy, and a warm firma was commented on both sides. Captain Bullitt was one of the first hat discovered the mistake, and ran in between the two parties, waving his hat, and calling upost them to cease hring.
TAA larger fort was built in 17-2. and called Fort Nelson, in honor of Cov. Nelson, of Virginia.
# The name was given to the place in honor of the ill-fated French menareh. Louis XVI. whose troops were at that time assisting the Americans in the war against England.
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JEFFERSON COURT - HOUSE, LOUISVILLE, KY.
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UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, KY
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a settlement under Squire Boone, near the place where Shelbyville now stands, became alarmed by the appearance of Indians, and resolved to remove to the neigh- borhood of Louisville. On the way, the party. consisting of nien, women and children, encumbered with the charge of household goods and cattle, were attacked by a large company of Indians that had pursued them, and were defeated and dis- persed. Colonel John Floyd, on receiving intelligence of this event, raised a company of twenty-five men, and hastened to pursue the enemy. He divided his men and proceeded with great caution ; but this did not prevent his falling into an ambuscade. The Indians, whose force is said to have been three times as great as his, completely defeated him, killing about half his men, and losing nine or ten. Colonel Floyd himself lost his horse, and was retreating on foot, nearly exhausted, and closely pursued, when Captain Samuel Wells seeing him, rode up and gave him his horse, running by his side to support him. These two gentlemen had been unfriendly towards each other, but this noble act made them friends for life .*
In 1793, a party of Indians fired on a flat boat descending the river, but with- but serious injury to those on board. On the succeeding day, they captured a boy at Eastin's mill, and conveyed him to the Ohio. Here. by a strange freak, they gave him a tomahawk, knife and pipe, and set him at liberty, unhurt.t
In those days, the dress and furniture were of the simplest kind. Many who are now proud of their ancestors, would be ashamed of them if they were to appear before them in the costliest dress of the early times. It is amusing to imagine the consternation of a belle at a fashionable party, if her ancestors should present themselves before her-the grandfather in coon-skin cap and buck- skin breeches, and his wife dressed out for the occasion in her best attire of linsey-woolsey. The very fan of the belle would tremble, as if participating in the shame and confusion, and the odor of the smelling-bottle would rise in indig- nant steam.
In 1783, Daniel Brodhead began a new era, by exposing goods from Philadel- phia for sale in Louisville. The merchandise had been brought from Philadel- phia to Pittsburgh in wagons, and thence to Louisville in flat boats. The belles of our " forest-land " then beran to shine in all the magnificence of calico, and the beaux in the luxury of wool hats.
After the old county of Kentucky had been divided, in November, 1781, into three counties-Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln-Jefferson included all the part of the old county lying south of the Kentucky river, north of Greene river, and west of Big Benson, and Hammond's creek. The county court of each county was composed of the most respectable citizens of such county, and appointed its own clerk. The limits of its authority were rather undefined. The county court of Jefferson sat also as a court of oyer and terminer. In regard to capital offen- ces, it acted merely as an examining court when white persons were concerned, but tried and condemned slaves to death. " At a called court held for Jefferson county on the 10th day of August, 17-5, for the examination of negro Peter, the property of Francis Vigo, committed to the jail of this county on suspicion of stealing, present. James F. Moore, William Oldham. Richard Taylor and David Meriwether, gent."-Peter was found guilty, valued at eighty pounds, current money, and condemned to be executed on the 21th day of that month. On the 21st day of October, 1786, "negro Tom, a slave, the property of Robert Daniel," was condemned to death for stealing " two and three-fourths yards of cambric. and some ribbon and thread. the property of James Patten." The following appears on the early records of the court :
" The court doth set the following rates to be observed by ordinary keepers in this county, to wit: whiskey fifteen dollars the half pint ; corn at ten dollars the gallon; a diet at twelve dollars ; lodging in a feather bed, six dollars ; sta- blage or pasturage one night, four dollars."
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These seem to be very extravagant prices ; but we suppose travelers took care to pay in continental money. These were the times when a hat was worth five hundred dollars. The following is an inventory rendered to the court of the property of a deceased person :
* Marshall I, 115. See also biographical sketch of Colonel Floyd.
t Ibid. II, 81.
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"To a coat and waistcoat £250, an old blue do. and do. £50 300
" To pocket book £6, part of an old shirt £3 9
" 'To old blanket, 6s .; 2 bushels salt £480 460 6
£789 6."
The following is recorded May 7th, 1784 :- " George Pomeroy being brought before the court, charged with having been guilty of a breach of the act of assembly, entitled * divulgers of false news,' on examining sundry witnesses, and the said Pomeroy heard in his defence, the court is of opinion that the said George Pomeroy is guilty of a breach of the said law, and it is therefore ordered that he be fined 2000 pounds of tobacco for the same. And it is further ordered that the said George Pomeroy give security for his good behavior, himself in £1000, with two securities in £500, and pay costs, &c."
This may seem like making rather too serious a matter of divulging false news. It is certain that if all who are guilty of this crime in our day were punished. it would add very materially to the business of the courts. The history of this matter is rather curious. Tom Paine wrote a book ridiculing the right of Vir- ginia to the lands of Kentucky, and urging Congress to assume possession of the whole country. Two Pennsylvanians, whose names were Pomeroy and Gallo- way, had imbibed the principles of this production, and came to Kentucky to propagate them-Pomeroy to the Falls, and Galloway to Lexington. Galloway produced considerable disturbance at Lexington. " Several of the good people," says Mr. H. Marshall, " yielded so far to his persuasions as to commence chopping and improving upon their neighbors' lands, with the pious intent of appropriating them, under an act of Congress, which, they were assured, was soon to be pro- mulgated." It was decided that he must be punished. After this determination had been made, an old law of Virginia was fortunately found which inflicted a penalty, in tobacco, at the discretion of the court, upon the " propagation of false news, to the disturbance of the good people of the colony." Galloway was Aned one thousand pounds of tobacco. As it was impossible to procure so much tobacco in Kentucky at that time, he had a prospect of spending some time in prison. At length it was intimated to him that if he would leave the country, justice would be satisfied. He instantly caught at the offer. Mr. Marshall says that at the Falls, no one minded Paine's disciple. The extract from the records shows that he was mistaken, and that Pomeroy was fined twice as much tobacco as Galloway was ordered to pay.
Into the original log cabins the light entered by the open door, or by any open- ing it could find. One of the first settlers would almost as soon have thought of bringing some " bright particular star" into his dwelling to illuminate it, as of introducing light through a glass window. In the progress of time, however, the owner of a certain shop or " store " procured some glass, and inserted a few panes in his house. A young urchin who had seen glass spectacles on the noses of his elders, saw this spectacle with astonishment, and, running home to his mother, exclaimed, " () ma ! there is a house down here with specs on!" This may be considered a very precocious manifestation of the power of generalization in the young Kentuckian.
The first brick house was built in 1789, by Mr. Kaye, on the square on which the court house now stands.
The beginning of the nineteenth century found Louisville with a population of 600 in the midst of her ponds. In 1310, the number had increased to ti ...
In 1811 and 1810, occurred that succession of earthquakes which shook a great part of cur continent. The first shock was felt at Louisville, December 16. 1-11. a few minutes after two o'clock in the morning, and continued three and a half or four minutes. For one minute. the shock was very severe. Several gentle- men of Louisville were amusing themselves at a social party, when one of their acquaintances burst into the room and cried out. " Gentlemen, how can you be engaged in this way. when the world is so near its end !" The company rushed out, and from the motion of objects around them, every star seemed to be falling. " What a pity." exclaimed one of them, " that so beautiful a world should be thus destroyed !" Almost every one of them believed that mother earth, as she
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heaved and struggled, was in her last agony. For several months, the citizens of Louisville were in continual alarm. The earth seemed to have no rest, except the uneasy rest of one disturbed by horrid dreams. Each house generally had a key suspended over the mantle piece, and by its oscillations the inmates were in- formed of the degree of danger. If the shock was violent, brick houses were im- mediately deserted. Under the key usually lay a bible. In the opinion of a distinguished citizen of Louisville, who has related to us many incidents of those exciting times, the earthquake had a beneficial influence upon public morals. Usually, we believe, times of great danger and excitement have had a contrary effect. Thucydides tells us that during the prevalence of the plague at Athens. men be- came more reckless and wicked, more eager in grasping at the pleasures which they saw so rapidly flitting by them. When the great plague raged in Italy, if we may judge from the character of the ladies and gentlemen in Boccaccio's Decameron, the morals were any thing but good. The plague in London, also, was accompanied by a corruption of morals.
In 1812, the legislature passed an act authorising the paving of Main street from Third to Sixth. No city in the Union had greater need of pavements. The horses had to draw the wagons through the business part of the city, as Sisy- phus rolled " the huge round stone" up the hill,
" With many a weary step, and many a groan."
In 1819, Dr. McMurtrie published his " Sketches of Louisville." The num- ber of inhabitants was then more than four thousand, and was rapidly increasing. Society was becoming more refined. Dr. Mc Murtrie complains a good deal of that characteristic of all new.cities, too great a devotion to the accumulation of wealth ; and adds, with considerable rotundity of style : " There is a circle, small 'tis true, but within whose magic round abounds every pleasure that wealth, regulated by taste, can bestow. There the ' red heel' of Versailles may ima- gine himself in the very emporium of fashion, and, whilst leading beauty through the mazes of the dance. forget that he is in the wilds of America."
In speaking of the diseases of the place, Dr. M. mentions " a bilious remitting fever, whose symptoms are often sufficiently aggravated to entitle it to the name of yellow fever," and predicts the appearance of yellow fever itself, " unless greater attention be paid to cleanliness in every possible way." " During the months of July, August and September," says he, " so strongly are the inhabitants of this and the adjacent towns predisposed to this disease, by the joint influence of cli- mate and the miasm of marshes, and decayed and decaying vegetable matter. that they may be compared to piles of combustibles, which need but the appli- cation of a single spark to rouse them into flame." The yellow fever did not make its appearance as Dr. M. predicted, but in 1822 a fever raged which seemed to threaten almost the depopulation of the town. It prevailed in some degree over the whole western country, but in Louisville it was particularly virulent. Almost every house seemed to become a hospital. In a family. consisting of twenty persons, nineteen were sick at one time. In one family, perhaps in more. every individual died.
After that visitation, Louisville began to be more healthy. At that time, where now stand some of the finest buildings in the city, large ponds flourished in perpetual green, and the croaking of frogs was not less ominous of death than had been the vell of the savage. That period, like all others, had its conservative party-" its party of the present," -- who wished every thing to remain as it was, and were opposed to depriving the frogs of the possessions which they had hold "time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." They would as soon have thought of interfering with the music of the spheres as with that of the pond :. But other counsels began to prevail, and the inhabitants of the waters were obliged to retire before advancing civilization, as the inhabitants of the woods had done before them. Louisville had been called " the grave yard of the west ;" but it began to change its character. Dr. M. says-" To affirm that Louisville is a healthy city, would be absurd." The affirmation may now be made without any fear of the charge of absurdity. Louisville is now acknowledged by all who are acquainted with the matter, to be one of the most healthy cities in the world. There is nothing to make it unhealthy. There are no hills to confine the tir. until it becomes putrid. The course of the breeze is as unobstructed as is that
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of the winds that revel over the surface of the ocean. The water is cool and pure and abundant. Ten years after the fever had made its dreadful rav .!! *. ::: cholera appeared ; but so gently did the destroying angel lay his hand upon the city, that the appearance of this scourge of the world scarcely forms an epoch in her history.
The attention of the people was directed, at a very early period, to plans for overcoming the obstructions to navigation presented by the . Falls." In 1804. the legislature of Kentucky incorporated a company to make a canal round the Falis. Nothing was done, however, for many years. The Louisville and Portland canal company was incorporated in 1825, and the canal was finished in 1833. The completion of the canal produced a great change in the business of the city. The " forwarding and commission" business, the operations in which formed so great a part of the mercantile transactions of Louisville, and had given employment to so many persons, was, in a great measure, destroyed. Much of the capital and industry of the city was obliged to seek new channels, and the transition state was one of great embarrassment. But a more healthy condition of things succeeded.
In the latter part of April, 1784, the father of the late Judge Rowan. with his family and five other families, set out from Louisville in two Hat-bottomed boats, for the Long Falls of Greene river .* The intention was to descend the Ohio river to the mouth of Greene river, and ascend that river to the place of destination. At that time there were no settlements in Kentucky, within one hundred miles of the Long Falls of Greene river (afterwards called Vienna). The families were in one boat, and their cattle in the other. When the boats had descended the Ohio about one hundred miles. and were near the middle of it, gliding along very se- curely, as it was thought, about ten o'clock of the night, a prodigious yelling of Indians was heard, some two or three miles below, on the northern shore ; and they had floated but a short distance further down the river, when a number of fires were seen on that shore. The yelling continued, and it was concluded that they had captured a boat which had passed these two about mid-day, and were massacreing their captives. The two boats were lashed together, and the best practicable arrangements were made for defending them. The men were distrib- uted by Mr. Rowan to the best advantage, in case of an attack-they were seven in number, including himself. The boats were neared to the Kentucky shore, with as little noise by the oars as possible ; but avoided too close an approach to that shore, lest there might be Indians there also. The fires of the Indians were extended along the bank at intervals, for half a mile or more, and as the boats reached a point about opposite the central fire, they were discovered, and cont- manded to come to. All on board remained silent, for Mr. Rowan had given strict orders that no one should utter any sound but that of his ride, and not that until the Indians should come within powder burning distance. They united in a most terrific yell, rushed to their canoes, and gave pursuit. The boats floated on in silence-not an oar was pulled. The Indians approached within less than a hun- dred yards, with a seeming determination to board. Just at this moment, Mrv. Rowan rose from her seat, collected the axes, and placed one by the side of each man, where he stood with his gun, touching him on the knee with the handhof the axe, as she leaned it up by him against the side of the boat, to let him ki w it was there, and retired to her seat, retaining a hatchet for herself. The Intins continued hovcring on the rear, and yelling, for nearly three miles, when, awed by the inference which they drew froin the silence observed on board. they teli :- qnished farther pursuit. None bat those who have a practical acquaintance of Indian warfare, can form a just idea of the terror which their hideous y. 5 is calculated to inspire. Judge Rowan, who was then ten years old, stap . that he could never forget the sensations of that night, or cease to admire the fortitude and composure displayed by his mother on that trying occasion. There were seven men and three boys in the boats, with nine guns in all. Mrs. R. whp. in speaking of the incident afterwards, in her calm way. said-"we made a proti- dential escape, for which we ought to feel grateful."
Col. RICHARD C. ANDERSON (the father of the Hon. Richard C. Anderson, a sketch of whose life will be found under the head of Anderson county), Was a.
. Dr. D. Drake's Oxford Address.
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citizen of Jefferson-a member of the first electoral college, and for several years a member of the legislature.
Colonel RICHARD TAYLOR. the father of General Zachary Taylor, came to Ken- tucky at a very early period, and settled in Jefferson county. He was a member of the conventions of 1792 and 1799, which formed the first and second constitu- tions of Kentucky, and was often a member of the legislature.
Commodore TAYLOR, a distinguished officer of the American navy, resided in Louisville for many years before his death.
Colonel G. R. CLARK FLOYD, son of Col. John Floyd. (for whom Floyd county was called), a native of this county, commanded the fourth regiment of infantry at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was highly complimented by the commanding general for his gallantry and good conduct on that occasion.
Colonel Jons FLOYD, of Virginia, also a native of Jefferson, and son of Colonel John Floyd. He removed to Virginia when twenty-one years of age, and is the only Kentuckian who ever became Governor of the Ancient Dominion.
Colonel WILLIAM POPE was an early and estimable citizen of Louisville, and was the ancestor or relative of the extensive connection of the same name in Louisville and Jefferson county.
Judge FORTUNATUS COSBY, also a citizen of Louisville, was an eminent lawyer, several times a member of the legislature, and judge of the circuit court. He lived to the age of eighty-one, and died in the year 1846.
Colonel GEIGER, also a citizen, was distinguished at the battle of Tippecanoe, and lived to an advanced age, honored and esteemed by all who knew him.
Honorable STEPHEN ORMSBY was a judge of the circuit court, and a member of Congress from 1811 to 1817. He was highly esteemed as a man and as a public servant, and lived to an advanced age.
THOMAS and CUTHBERT BULLITT were two of the first merchants of Louisville -distinguished for their probity and business qualifications, and amassed large estates for their descendents.
THOMAS PRATHER was also one of the first merchants of Louisville, and a most remarkable man. Possessed of a strong intellect, bland and courteous man- pers, a chivalric and high moral bearing, with superior business qualifications. and an integrity and probity of character which became proverbial-riches flowed in upon him like water, and he distributed his wealth with a beneficent hand, in benefactions which will prove a perpetual memorial of his liberality. He was president of the old bank of Kentucky, and when that institution suspended specie payments, he resigned the office, with this remark :- " I can preside over no institution which declines to meet its engagements promptly and to the letter ! "
JOHN ROWAN was an able jurist and statesman, and one of the most distin- guished men in the western country. He was a native of Pennsylvania. His father, William Rowan, having sustained in the cause of liberty heavy losses. At the close of the revolutionaty war came to Kentucky in the hope of repairing the ravages made in his private fortune. Kentucky was then a wilderness, the choice hunting ground of many hostile tribes of savages-the field of hazardous adven- ture, the scene of savage outrage, the theatre of ceaseless war, an arena drench- ed in blood and reeking with slaughter. In the month of March, 1783, the father of John Rowan settled in Louisville, then an insignificant village. In the spring of 1784, when John was eleven years old, his father, with five other families, made a settlement at the Long Falls of Greene river, then about one hundred miles from any white settlement. This region was resorted to by a band of the Shawnee tribe of Indians, as a hunting ground, and Mr. Rowan and his neigh- bors had many encounters with their savage foes. Young Rowan was soon dis- tinguished for his bravery and for his remarkable energy and sprightliness. He" spent several years of his boyhood in this wild and adventurous life, developing
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his physical powers in the manly and athletic sports and exercises common to the country, and insensibly communicating to his mind and character. a maturity and firmness inseparable from the habits of self reliance and fortitude, generated by a continual familiarity with danger.
At the age of seventeen, he entered a classical school kept at Bardstown, by a Dr. Priestly. In this school were educated many of those men who have since figured conspicuously in the history of Kentucky, and on the broader theatre of national politics. Here John Rowan was remarkable among his fellows for the facility with which he mastered the most difficult branches. He obtained an ac- curate and critical knowledge of the classical tongues, seemingly without an effort, and soon learned to appreciate the unrivalled beauty and sublimity of those wonderful productions of ancient genius, which have been the admiration of all ages. In his old age, he used to refer with much liveliness, to the pleasure he experienced at this period of his life. when he first learned to appreciate the beauty of the Greek writers, in retiring to the summit of a wild cliff, and there reading aloud to the rocks. woods and waters, the lliad of Homer.
At this school, he received an education much superior to what we might now suppose could be afforded by the institutions of the country at that early day. In addition to this, he enjoyed the advantage of access to instructive and well select- ed libraries ; and his acquirements in general information were commensurate with the development of his uncommon faculties, which now began to attract the attention of men of the best talents in the country.
Guided by the advice of his friends he went, upon leaving this school, to Lex- ington, and commenced the study of the law. In 1795, he was admitted to the bar, and soon attained a high rank in his profession. Kentucky, even at that day, held many men eminent for talent, learning and eloquence ; yet he was con- sidered among the foremost. As an advocate, in criminal cases, he had few equals in the state.
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