USA > Kentucky > Boone County > History of Boone County, Kentucky > Part 3
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Boone County borders on the Ohio River for about forty miles and since sympathy was divided, information was constantly conveyed to military authorities on both sides. The Federal headquarters at Fort Mitchell received much information concerning actions of southern sympathizers in Boone County.
General Lew Wallace, who commanded all of the forces in the area pressed all male citizens into the military services for the defense of Cov- ington, Newport, and Cincinnati. Ministers of the Gospel and old men were not exempt from this service.
General Kirby Smith had marched his army in and around Lexing- ton, Brigadier-General Heath, with 5,000 confederate veterans from Smith's army was encamped at Corinth and several of his companies had reached Snow's Pond near Walton. At that time there were several mills in the county for grinding corn. The soldiers began searching for these mills.
Mr. Will Aydelotte told the writer that he was a boy of about ten years of age at the time. As he was helping his father cut wood along the Union-Florence road they saw many wagons drawn by four mules, loaded with ground corn and slabs of bacon, on their way to Snow's Pond. General Heath's army was preparing to move as soon as suf- ficient supplies were on hand. There is no doubt but that General Smith felt that this twenty - mile distance on the Ridge Road was the logical way to advance on Covington, Newport, and Cincinnati.
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Another means of securing food was from the mill on the farm of Julius Rouse, two and one half miles from Florence on the Burlington Pike. Here the advanced companies of Smith's army received a great many loads of ground corn and wheat. On September 15, 1862, the owners of the mill were arrested on the charge of aiding the Confeder- ates and the officers of General Wallace blew the mill to atoms.
In 1902 the writer, while plowing, turned up debris of this mill about 200 yards from where it originally stood. There was but one thought that entered his mind and that was the poem in McGuffey's Fifth Reader entitled "The Battle of Blenheim." In it the grandfather saw his grandson roll something large and round and repeated, "Tis some poor fellow's skull, and when i go to plow, the plow share turns them out."
After the days work was completed, the mules stabled and fed, and supper over, and everyone seated on a wooden bench on the front porch, the writer told his story of what his plow-share had brought up. The owner of the land in 1862 still owned it at the time in 1902. He began the story of the mill "My father and I owned this mill and did general mill work, both in sawing lumber and grinding corn and wheat until it was blown to atoms on Setember 15,1862. We were arrested with several others and taken to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and put in a prison camp."
The above statement suggested a question and answer procedure in an effort to get the details of the destruction of the mill. Here is the story.
Question. "Did you grind corn for Smith's army?"
Answer. "It was for the soldiers at Snow's Pond."
Q. "Where were you when the mill blew up?"
A. "I was standing on the back porch under guard and saw the mill go up and debris go in all directions."
Q. "What happened after the mill was blown up?"
A. The men returned and said, "We want to search your house as we understand you have a gun and pistol in your bedroom."
Q. "Did you show any disposition to prevent the search?"
A. "No, they seemed to know exactly where the gun and pistol were hidden."
Q. "What happened after the search?"
A. "They came out on the porch with gun and pistol."
Q. "What happened to the gun and pistol?"'
A. "One of the men asked me if the gun was loaded."
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Q. "State what you told him."
A. "I told him the gun was not loaded."
Q. "What did he then do?"
A. "He stepped off the porch and fired it into the air."
Q. "What effect did this have on you?"
A. "I was wishing all the time that it had been loaded to the end of the barrel."
Q. "What was the next procedure?"
A. "The officers then went to the barn and saddled a riding horse and had father and myself to accompany them, which we did."
Q. "Where'did they proceed with you?"
A. "On leaving the farm the officers had us to ride ahead of them to the Burlington and Florence Pike, then we followed the pike to Lima- burg, and we were held there until two of the officers went beyond Burlington and returned with several men. Then we followed the Limaburg and Hebron road to the farm of (the writer here will blank the name). The officers were treated to a pitcher full of cold water and cake. A lengthy conversation took place, then we moved forward to Hebron. When we reached Hebron we turned left and followed the road towards Petersburg until we reached Bullittsburg where we were halted again, and several officers reconnoitered and came back with several men. Then we began our journey forward and finally crossed the Ohio River and were put in a prison camp near Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Tents were used for sleeping and shelter."
Q. "What opinion did you have of a military prison camp?"
A. "Well it would do all right but every Sunday visitors came in roam- ing about and would pull back the flaps of our tents and stare at us as if we were wild animals."
Q. "How long were you in the prison camp?"
A. "About two weeks and then we were sent to Cincinnati and we sent for an influential citizen who resided at Hebron, Boone County, to come over and he came over and through him we took the oath of allegiance to the U. S. Government and were told then to go home.
After the return home an organization was established among a goodly number of these men so that when they became drafted they could pool their money and purchase a substitute. Several of these men were drafted, but evaded service in this way, yet by skillful manipulation substitutes seldom received what was alloted for them. One man, who was treasurer of the above organization, told the writer that he had in his possession oft times as much as $5,000 for the purpose of purchasing substitutes.
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Note: The mill was on Gunpowder Creek a short distance below where the Florence-Burlington Pike crosses the creek. The bridge there is known as the George Rouse bridge.
LARKIN VAUGHN KILLED
We had the opportunity to have a chat with William Aydelotte, a man that was born in Florence on September 14, 1851. Although old in years, Mr. Aydelotte's mind is keen and he can give much informa- tion in reference to Boone County, as we can readily see that he was ten years old when the Civil War broke out and remembers quite well that he and his father were cutting wood on the Union pike, when a company of Union soldiers were retreating back toward Ft. Mitchell, and in trying to cover their retreat kept firing along the Lexington pike. At the junction of Shelby Street and the Lexington pike Larkin Vaughn was shot and died as he was being carried to a nearby house.
He also stated that the Confederate soldiers did not attempt to go any farther than the intersection of the Union pike with the Lexington pike, then wheeled to the left and went out the Union pike with a dozen wagons. In about three hours they returned with their vehicles loaded with ground corn and wheat and a great number of sides of bacon. The camp was located at Snow's pond near Walton.
FIRST HOUSE
The first house built in Florence was opposite the school at the junc- ion of Oblique and Center Streets.
The writer has a record of the boy who lived in this house during the Civil War and helped carry Larkin Vaughn from the junction of Shelby and Main Streets when he was shot by a stray bullet from the advance guard of Gen. Wallace's army stationed at Ft. Mitchell. After the Civil War was over John Latham purchased this house and moved it to the corner of Oblique Street and Burlington Pike, when it was used as a barn. It was later torn down.
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BIG BONE LICK
From 1754 to 1763 the colonies hesitated to follow up their explor- ations in the Ohio Valley on account of the French and Indian war, but at its close we find Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia still encour- aging the settlement of this vast territory.
Col. Geo. Croghan, an Indian agent, in 1765 visited Big Bone Lick and encamped there. Eight years later Virginia sent the following com- pany of men: Thomas Bullit, Hancock Taylor, Robert McAfee, Simon Kenton, and James Douglas. We are indebted to Mr. Douglas for the records he kept of what he saw at Big Bone Lick. He says,"The Lick constituted about 10 acres, bare of trees, no herbage of any kind, three flowing springs whose waters would produce one bushel of salt to every 550 gallons of water, also a large number bones so large and long that he used the ribs for tent poles."
There have been four collections of these bones. The first collection was made in 1803 by Dr. Goforth who sent it to England where it was divided into three parts, viz: One part to the Royal College of Surgeons in London, one part to Dublin, Ireland, and the other to Edenburgh, Scotland.
The second collection was made by order of President Jefferson in 1805, this collection was divided between the America Philosophical Society and the French Naturalist, Mr. Cuvier. The third collection, 1819, by the Western Museum Society. The fourth in 1831 by Mr. Finnell, who sold the same for $2,000 to a Mr. Graves, who resold to a firm in New York, for $5,000. It has been estimated that the bones of at least 100 mastodons, 25 elephants and other animals were collect- ed in the above four collections. No place in America (except Boone county) can boast of the findings of remains of pre-historic animals as were found in the above four collections. Undoubtedly these animals were in search of salt and as Mr. Douglas says,"The land being marshy they became mired in the mud and died of exhaustion, thus leaving many of their bones in an upright position."
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BIG BONE LICK
The following article was prepared by A. M. Yealey of Florence, after Big Bone was chosen as one of the sites for the proposed State Park. Many interesting historical events are outlined by Mr. Yealey in the following article:
Big Bone Lick has long been remembered for its salt springs, the depository of bones of animals of the glacial age in North America and its geographical surroundings.
Twenty years ago the writer published articles stating that M. Long- ueil was the first white man to visit the Lick, 1739. We should know that the French and Indian wars that were fought in the Ohio Valley from 1744 to 1763 prevented settlements in this region, and those that were getting a foothold were attacked and plundered.
Robert Smith, a frequent visitor at the Lick lived in the village of Pickwithanny. This hamlet was situated on the Big Miami River near Urbana, Ohio. Mr. Smith was a frequent visitor at the Lick from 1744 to 1751 and was the first person to realize the value of those large bones, and he had transported quite a number of them to the village where he lived when the French and Indians plundered and destroyed the village. There is no doubt that Mr. Smith, being the first visitor that knew these bones would be of great value to the twin sciences, viz. Geology and Paleontology had the choice and selected the best. So we may conclude that the first choice was lost or destroyed.
From 1751 to 1780 Big Bone had a great number of visitors. Christopher Gist, who was employed by the Ohio Land Company of Virginia, John Findley a fur trader, Mary Ingles the first white woman in Kentucky, George Croghan, a Kentucky explorer while here collect- ed a great number of bones. During this period Kentucky was a county of Virginia and surveyors were sent to make land surveys. Therefore John Floyd and William Preston, surveyors of Fincastle County, Vir- ginia made the first land grant surveys in 1774.
At the close of the French and Indian war the King of England gave the governor of Virginia the power to give grant land to Ameri- can soldiers who fought for her during the last war against the French.
Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia during 1779 and 1780, and he made a land grant of 1000 acres to William Christian. This . . .
grant included all the springs, being the same tract surveyed by John Floyd in 1774.
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Mr. Christian did not hold this land very long. In 1780 he sold the same to David Ross, a good friend to Jefferson. Mr. Ross was a real estate operator and held title to about 100,000 acres of land in Ohio and Kentucky. Most all this land was obtained by the purchase of grant lands that were sold by American soldiers, who had received them under the King of England's proclamation.
Mr. Rose finally got in debt so much that he was forced to dispose of the Big Bone tract. Therefore in 1806 he sold this tract to Wilson Allen, Edmund Rootes and Jacob Myers, but held possession of it (through the influence of Thomas Jefferson, who then was president of the United States) until 1808.
Mr. Ross then gave the president permission to make further search for these bones. The president then ordered Geo. Rogers Clark to have his brother William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, who had just returned from their famous expedition to the Oregon Territory, to em- ploy laborers and collect as many of these bones as possible.
After three weeks' work, Mr. Clark shipped three large boxes of bones to Mr. Jefferson by the way of New Orleans. One of these boxes was opened and put on display in the White House, the other boxes were given to the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia and the Nation- al Institute of France, in Paris.
During the month of August, 1808, Mr. Ross completed his deal with Allen, Rootes and Myers, who became the owners. They did not fancy this wilderness and held the ownership but one year, 1809, and sold the tract to Mr. Colquohoun, who purchased it for the purpose of establishing a salt industry.
Salt had been manufactured here since 1756, but the cost was about $4.00 per hundred-weight, which proved too high to be exported. Mr. Colquohoun thought he could reduce the cost of manufacture, and built two fine furnaces and mounted kettles that would hold from 15 gallons of water to one hundred gallons, but all his work was in vain. He found the great distance over bad roads made it too expensive. Mr. Tanner's shop book shows that he purchased salt on the Cincinnati market in 1812 at a cost of $2.94 per barrel, or about lac a pound. This was the end of the salt industry at Big Bone, but the salt industry and the large bones had advertised and made the Springs known for their medical value through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
A large hotel was built and called the Clay Hotel (named for Henry Clay). From 1815 to 1845 Big Bone was one of the best water- ing places and health resorts west of the Alleghany Mountains, equip-
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ped with a fine hotel, a long row of bath houses, a large open pavillion.
Here in the evening we find the Negro slave fiddling the old Virginia reel, while his dancers and audience consist of representatives of the best families in Ohio and Indiana who came by steamboat on the Ohio River, landing at Hamilton, then traveling afoot or by hack to the Spring. But it was different with the bluegrass families. They came in their family coaches with their slave drivers and servants. It was not only a short visit, a great many spent the entire summer here.
Mr. Leonard Stephens, who became the first sheriff of Kenton County in 1840 was always deeply engrossed in politics from 1825 to 1845, made it his political domicile and all the politicians over the state would meet him there to plan the outlook for Northern Kentucky. We have records of the Clays, Breckenridges, Marshalls, Johnsons, and many others who sought his political advice here.
The old hotel has disappeared, but another was built about 1870 on a hill above the road north of the springs. This was once very popular but it has been rapidly decaying perhaps today is entirely gone.
Boone County was organized in 1798 and we have given you the owners up to 1810. Therefore you should be able to find all owners since then at the court house.
EARLY SETTLERS
The county being organized, representatives from Virginia began to invade the country for the purpose of seeking suitable places for settle. ment. We find in 1804 that William Carpenter, a preacher from Mad- ison, Va, made a journey to our county for such a purpose, and on his return home he advised his friends that Boone county was an ideal place, and on October 8th, 1805, Geo. Rouse, Elizabeth Rouse, Jno. House, Milly House, Frederick Zimmerman, Rose Zimmerman, Ephriam Tanner, Susanna Tanner, John Rouse, Nancy Rouse, and Elizabeth Hoffman, packed their belongings in covered wagons, trudging down the Shenandoah Valley until they came to the Holston river, then up that river until they came to the road that Daniel Boone had made, which they followed to Lexington. From there they followed the ridge route or what we call the Dixie Highway, finally locating where the Hopeful church now stands.
It is difficult for us to conceive the hardships that were endured by
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these families in a wilderness of beech forest. Florence had no exis- tence, where Covington is now situated there was one log cabin. Cincin- nati had two brick buildings, two frame buildings, and a few log cabins. Burlington had a log court house, a log jail, and a few cabins. These hardy settlers with two utensils, the ax and grub-hoe, felled the trees, erected cabins and prepared the soil for cultivation and were so pleased with the results of their labor and the location, that they encouraged John Beemon, Daniel Beemon, Jacob Rouse, Michael Rouse and Simeon Tanner to locate here in 1806.
The above families were also a religious people and felt the need of a place to worship God. Therefore Geo. Rouse gave an acre of ground on which to build a church of unhewn logs. The roof and door were made of clapboards, the floor with puncheons and the seats were made of saplings, there was an opening left at each end for a window, but these were always open for the want of glass. There was no stove no fireplace, and yet they always met for worship during the winter.
Mr. Ephriam Tanner seems to have been their leader in the relig- ious worship in absence of a regular minister and without a doubt he must have been a man of strongcharacter and far-reaching influence to have held his flock together until 1813, when Rev. William Carpenter (the man who advised the settlement) moved here and became their first regular pastor.
Boys and girls of today, do you realize that the above poineers are your ancestors, and that several of them fought in the Revolutionary War and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown?
I fear that we are too prone to forget the inconveniences and privations our ancestors endured for our welfare.
READING MATERIAL
Reading material was very scarce in our County from 1762 to 1799. During that period Cincinnati had two papers, one the Freemans Journal and Cincinnati Sentinel. They were published weekly or monthly accord- ing to amount of paper they had, and at the close of 1799 they quit and the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette were issued in their place and these two papers issued a weekly copy until 1814 when the Western Spy assumed the name of Cincinnati Republican.
The press, from 1814 to 1840, began to take sides in politics and three papers advocating Whig candidates were founded, viz: Cincinnati
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Gazette, Cincinnati Chronicle and Cincinnati Republican. These three papers had a daily circulation of 2000. The one that advocated the Democratic cause was the Cincinnati Advertiser and Journal with a circulation of 400. There were also two neutral papers published daily called the Daily Times with a circulation of 1500 and the Public Led- ger whose patrons numbered 1400. These last two papers had corres- pondents in Boone County who gave them the general news. Remem- ber, Kenton County had not been organized and our information was through the Cincinnati papers.
The school books that your grandparents studied consisted mainly of the Eclectic School Books which were the primer, spelling book, first, second, third and fourth readers, Ray's arithmetic and Mans- field's grammar. All these books were published in Cincinnati by Truman and Smith on Main St., and used in the Boone County schools in 1835.
We shall now give you some of the news that our Boone County ancestors read in the Western Spy from 1799 to 1814.
Obituary of Mrs. Martha Washington states she died on May 22nd, 1802 after 17 days illness. One-half column of the Spy, containing the details, shrouded in mourning. Andrew Jackson, (Old Hickory) adver- tises his negro slave, (George) as having eloped from his plantation, fifty dollars reward April 26, 1802.
No Spy published for the last 3 weeks for want of paper, May 27th, 1803. No mail for 3 weeks, there is great dissatisfaction and with good cause.
The first sea vessel passed Peterbsurg April 27, 1801, called the "Bright St. Clair" 100 tons burthen. This vessel was so well constructed that it could cross the Atlantic Ocean.
A remarkable kind of fish caught in the Licking River, it had no scales. (Writer's opinion, a catfish).
To our country subscribers: The printers of the Spy want some tur- nips and potatoes for which a reasonable price will be paid.
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BELLEVIEW (GRANT)
In reference to a letter I received I shall attempt to answer the ques- tion "How did Belleview receive its name and why was the post office called Grant?"
During research study I find the spelling of this word "Belleview" has been spelled as follows: In early times "Belleview," I have maps and papers, 1880, which spell it "Bellevue," and during the past 75 years it has taken its early spelling "Belleview."
Collin's history, 1870, lists the spelling "Belleview" with a popula- tion of 61. At this time we had a Belleview in Campbell County with a population of 381 and a Belleview in Christian County with a popula- tion of 140, but my historical atlas, 1890, lists Belleview, Christian County, with a population of 3,163 and having a post office.
My morning paper "Cincinnati Enquirer" February 25th, gives a basketball score as "Boone County 62, Bellevue 47."
In seeking information why Belleview was so named I have enrich- ed my knowledge in reference to the early incidents that took place from 1770 to 1815 along the river front from Taylorsport to Rabbit Hash. We were surprised to know who held some of these land grant and who became owners later by purchasing small tracts that were in the former land grants. Also, the names of a great number of surveyors who laid out the boundaries containing these tracts. This information is a great help in understanding why places are so named.
From 1780 to 1793 and later, the Indians committed many depre- dations by massacreing the white settlers and stealing their horses. For protection against these crimes warning bells were erected at con- venient distances on the hillsides which gave a good view of the rivers thus detecting any Indians crossing from the Indiana side, thus the alarm was given to settlers.
Therefore we have the word Belle, a beautiful sounding vessel shaped like a pear, and the word View, to behold, to see, to inspect, a mental survey -Belleview.
There being other towns in the state pronounced the same or spell- ed the same Uncle Sam established the post office as Grant on July 15, 1869, with Jessee Hewitt as postmaster. So named in honor of J. Grant who owned much land where Belleview is now located.
You should know Tanner's Station was protected by guards after 1791 and these gaurds used different signals, but the bell was the most sounding instrument used in giving warning to the settlers along this river frontage.
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