USA > Kentucky > Henderson County > History of Henderson County, Kentucky > Part 14
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TOWN LOTS SOLD FOR TAXES.
During this year a number of town lots and lands, sold under the act of Congress of March 5 and April 26, 1816, for direct tax, were redeemed. The following receipt goes to show how low down the Government of the United States did go in those days for tax money:
" Received, the twenty-ninth day of November, 18. 8, from Thomas K. Moore, the sum of thirty-fire cents, being the amount of the purchase money
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
for one lot in Henderson County, in the Fifth District of Kentucky, contain- ing one lot in Henderson, on Water Street, sold under the acts of Congress March 5 and April 26, 1816, to satisfy the direct tar of 1816, and additions thereto, due by Jacob Kecl for tax 29 cents. John II. Moore, addition of 20 per ct 6-35 cts. collector designated by the Secretary of the Treasury in the State of Kentucky."
CONSTANTINE $. RAFINISQUE,
A native of Galota, near Constantinople, Turkey, a naturalist of great reputation, spent some time during the early part of this year with Mr. Audubon .. He came down the river in an " Ark," which he owned and occupied conjointly with another.
IMPROVEMENTS OF GREEN RIVER.
During the session of the Legislature, 1818, an act for the im- provement of Green River was passed and approved. This act did away with the system of working Green River by overseers ap- pointed by the County Court, and appropriated ten thousand dollars annually of the State dividend of the stock of the Bank of Ken- tucky, for the purpose of improving the navigation of the river and its navigable branches.
A GRACEFUL COMPLIMENT.
At the regular term of the Circuit Court the only order entered of record, was written by Judge Broadnax, in his own hand, and was quite a compliment to the Circuit Clerk. The following is a copy of the order :
" It appearing to the satisfaction of the court, that Ambrose Barbour, clerk of this court. is too much indisposed to attend to the duties of his office during the present term, it is ordered that court adjourn until the next term.
" HENRY P. BROADNAX."
The first murder, of which the Circuit Court had judicial notice, and the second one since the formation of the county, was committed in 1818. This was the celebrated case of Stephen Grimes and Charles E. Carr, for killing Lemuel Cheaney, near Colonel Elias D. Powell's meadow farm, a brief sketch of which will be found under the head of " Sketchs and Recollections."
1819.
At the March term of the Circuit Court, John Boyle was the first British subject to renounce allegiance to the Queen.
Charles E. Carr was tried at this term for the murder of Lemuel Cheaney, found guilty, and sentenced to be hung ; was subsequently hung, to-wit : on the twenty-sixth day of July.
Jean Spidel, for himself, wife and children, late subjects of the Duke of Wertemburg, Germany, asked to become a citizen of the United States. The family consisted of Jean Spidel, thirty-three years of age; Charlotte Elizabeth Spidel, thirty-five years ; John, eleven years, and Christian, three years of age.
The first suit for slander, brought in the county, was that of Dan- iel Toole vs. Gabriel Homes, brought at this term of the court. Toole proved his case, and was given a verdict for four hundred and twen- ty-five dollars.
CHAPTER XVI.
COUNTY DIVIDED INTO PRECINCTS-BANKS AND BANKING-CONGRESS- IONAL DISTRICTS-ITEMS OF INTERISTS-1820.
HE census of 1810 gave Henderson County 4,703 population. The census of 1820 gave a population of 5,714, an increase in ten years of 1,011 souls. The population of the Village of Hender- son, in 1810, according to the census, was 159. The population for 1828, is not given. Assuming the increase of the village population to have equaled that of the county, as a whole, we may conclude as that of the county was over twenty per cent., the village may safely be estimated at twenty per cent., which would then make the popula- tion in 1820, the year of which we are now writing, 1,191, all told. A sort of boom struck the county this year, and immigration came in fast, both to the county and village. Immigration had been alarm- ingly slow prior to that time, and as an evidence of it, the liberal terms offered by General Samuel Hopkins, agent of Richard Hen- derson & Co., in the disposition of their town and out lots, had been embraced by but very few persons. The lot on the corner of Water and Upper Fifth Street, now the property of Hugh Kerr, was not dis- posed of until 1819, and then it was donated to Wyatt Ingram.
"COUNTY DIVIDED INTO PRECINCTS."
Agreeably to an act of the Legislature to divide the county into certain precincts, and to allot a constable to each district, the county proceeded to lay off the county as follows :
First Precinct, to include the Town of Henderson and all that part of the county lying above the Smith's Ferry Road. Second Pre-
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
cinct, between the Smith's Ferry Road and the road to Christian County Court House, and the Third Precinct, below the Christian Road, and between that and the Ohio River. There had been but , one voting place prior to that time, and that was at the Court House.
This division of three precincts, created three voting places - one at the Court House, one at Zachariah Galloway's, near what is now known as Hebardsville, and one at Cannon's,-in what is now known as Walnut Bend. Owing to the old system of three days' election, ample time was given each voter to attend and cast his vote.
There were two new towns-mushroom like-sprung up in the county, this year. One was called Bellville, and the other Felixville.
Arrangements for grinding grain became more satisfactory, for the reason a great number of grist mills were established. Most of these mills were built along creeks, to be run by water, during the rainy or wet weather seasons, and in addition had what was known as the sweep attachment, to be operated by horses or oxen, but subsequently the tread was substituted for the sweep.
During this year an established rate of fare between the Falls of the Ohio and New Orleans, was agreed upon, in which a passenger from New Orleans to the " Red Banks," or Henderson, was taxed one hundred and ten dollars, and going down stream, from the Falls of the Ohio to Henderson, the sum of ten dollars. While this would be considered an exhorbitant charge at this time, at that time it was con- sidered so much cheaper than walking, no man who could spare the price of passage, would have been safe to complain.
It is calculated that this year there were sixty-eight steamboats on the rivers, with an aggregate tonnage of twelve thousand seven hun- dred and seventy ; yet, for a long period, until economy of time be- came more important in human life, travel and freight stood mostly by the old keel and flatboats.
The Court of Claims for Henderson County, in estimating the necessary expenditures of the county for this year, laid the levy at one dollar and twenty-five cents per tithable. The Commissioners of Tax reported, for 1820, fifteen hundred and forty-six tithables, and this number, at one dollar and twenty-five cents, gave the county one thousand nine hundred and thirty-two dollars and fifty cents, from which amount, delinquents had to be deducted.
1821.
From some cause, unknown to the records, the Court of Claims this year reduced the annual levy. The Commissionors of tax reported
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
sixteen hundred and sixty-four tithables, and the court laid the levy at one dollar each, making a total of $1,664 subject to delinquencies.
The winter of eighteen hundred and twenty-one and two, is said to have brought the mercury to the intense degree of twenty degrees below zero.
December 21, an act was approved directing a change in the time of holding the courts of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit,composed,of the counties of Muhlenberg, Henderson, Hopkins, Union, Daviess, Breck- enridge, and Ohio. Under this act the courts of Henderson were held, commencing on the fourth Monday in March, June, and Septem- ber, and continued six juridical days.
An act passed prior to this, but during the same month, directed that a Circuit Judge and Commonwealth's attorney be appointed for the Fourteenth District, who should reside in the district. Soon after the passage of this act, Judge Alney McLean of Muhlenberg, was appointed, and served for years with great ability and satisfaction. In the latter part of this year or the early part of 1822, John J. Audu- bon removed from Henderson.
1822
Commissioners reported, fifteen hundred and sixty-eight tith- ables, and the levy was laid at one dollar and a quarter per head. It will be observed that the tithable population fluctuated greatly, and . that the solid growth of the county was lamentable about this time.
The tithable population in 1821, showed sixteen hundred and sixty-four, ninety-six more than the present year, and this number was not again reached before 1828.
SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
Agreeably to an act of the General Assembly, the County Court, by Commissioners, divided the county into twelve school districts. This, with the exception of the splendid achievement of the Trustees of the Henderson Academy, was the first public recognition of the necessity of a general diffusion of knowledge throughout the county ; yet nothing was done for many years subsequent to that time.
It was enacted December 11, "That whenever there shall be five Mondays in the months of March, June and September, or either of them, the term of the Henderson Circuit Court, appointed by law to be held in those months, shall be extended to two weeks, if the busi- ness thereof shall be required."
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS.
By an act, approved May 23, the State was divided into twelve Congressional Districts, and Henderson then became a part of the
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
Eleventh District, composed of Henderson, Muhlenburg, Butler, Ohio, Grayson, Breckenridge, Daviess, Hart and Hardin.
Under an act passed January 1, the County Courts of Henderson County were directed to be held on the fourth Monday in every month. in which no Circuit Court was held.
An act, passed December, " Be it further enacted, That the County of Henderson shall be entitled to sixteen Justices of the Peace, and no more, two of whom shall reside in the town, and one north of Green River."
AGGRAVATED FEVER.
In the summer of this year, an aggravated bilious fever, visited most, if not all of the river towns of Kentucky, and while it was not so distressing at this point as at others, it was yet frightful. So terrible was this disease in form and character, it gained and deserved the name of yellow fever. The mortality was very great, and the alarm existing on account of it, throughout the whole interior of the neigh- boring States, was of the most exciting character. It has been said by graphic writers, that during the months of July, August, and Sep- tember, so strongly were the inhabitants of this and other towns pre- disposed to this disease, by joint influence of climate, and the miasm , of marshes, ponds, and decayed and decaying vegetable matter, that they may be compared to piles of combustibles, which needed but the application of a single spark to rouse them to a flame.
This frightful malady, was the most terrible blow ever given the place, and for many years afterwards, the name of Henderson was synonemous with that of "Grave Yard." Emigrants dreaded to pass through the place, and of those who had determined to locate here, many were dissuaded from their purpose, by the assertion that it was rushing upon death to make the attempt. This occurred, too, just at a period when the resources of the town, beginning to develope them- selves, were attracting the attention of capitalists. Had the feeling of alarm ceased with the disease, it would have been less of a blow, but for years after, it was referred to as a warning against emmigra tion hither.
This year, the County Court had new bridges built over Canoe Creek, at the Madisonville and Morganfield crossings.
1823.
Several new bridges were built this year, and the county levy was reduced from one dollar and twenty-five cents, to sixty-two and a half
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
cents. Outside of this, nothing of a public nature worthy of notice appears on the records.
1824.
The Commissioners returned forty-eight more tithables this year than last. This was the year of the Walton murder. This murder of Walton was one of the most heartless, cold-blooded and incarnate specimens of human depravity to be found in the records of any county. It has never really been surpassed in savage lands.
1825.
The militia was now in its glory, and all able-bodied men were required to turn out to company, batallion and regimental muster. It was a great bore to all but a few ambitious officers and privates. Thomas K. Newman, and John Newman, as field officers of the forty- first regiment, settled with the paymaster January 31, and then a great jollification was had.
An act, approved January 3, changed again the time of holding the Circuit Courts. Under this act, the courts were held on the third Monday in March, June, and September, and were directed to sit twelve juridical days, and where there were five Mondays in the month, to sit eighteen days, if the business of the court required it.
1826.
The Commissioners of tax reported this year sixteen hundred and twenty-fou." tithables, and the court levied eighty seven and one half cents, making a total of fourteen hundred and twenty-one dollars. It was reported to the court, that the jail was uncomfortably cold, and out of the abundance of fellow-feeling, James Rouse jailer, was directed to furnish criminals coal, during the day time, and blankets at night.
COAL MINING
It may be asked where coal was brought from so early as 1826; there were no mines at that time. In the early times there were many places on the Ohio River where coal cropped out of the surface of the bank, or decline, between the bluff bank and the water's edge. Notably among those locations was the mouth of Sugar Creek, above the water-works. At this point coal was taken out with- out mining or blasting, dumped into boats, and floated down to the town. This mine furnished the town of Henderson up to 1850 with most of the coal used. Dr. Thomas J. Johnson, even between 1850 and 1860, dug coal at Sugar Creek and boated it down to the town, reserving a year's supply to himself, and selling the remainder at a
11
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
price about equal to the expense of getting out the whole amount. There were wealthy men in those days as there is now-for instance, Leonard H. Lyne, assessed this year sixty-eight slaves, four hundred and fifty-one acres of farming land, and twenty-eight horses.
Congress had passed a law appropriating a certain amount to be paid to surviving soldiers of the Revolutionary War. The County Court of Henderson County received a number of declarations of pensions, and ordered them to be certified to the Secretary of War. The following are of record: Wynn Dixon (father of Governor Archibald Dixon), John Martin, William Brown, Thomas Baker, Joel Gibson, William Frazier, Furna Cannon, Peter L. Matthews, John Ramsey, Isham Sellars, General Thomas Posey, Dr. Joseph Savage, Gabriel Green, and Nathaniel Powell. Fourteen of the old patriots, who fought that America might be free, lived their latter days in this county, and were buried beneath its sod. The gallows, upon which was hung the lifeless body of Calvin Sugg, cost the county the great sum of ten dollars. It was built by James Rouse, and the court, thinking perhaps that it might be needed again, passed in sub- stance the following order . "James Rouse being regarded as a fit person, it is ordered that he be appointed to take care of the gallows."
The County Court deemed it necessary to revise the tavern rates heretofore established, and the following is a copy :
TAVERN RATES.
Dinner, supper and breakfast, each.
25 cts
Lodging.
1212 cts
Horse per night.
50 cts
Horse per feed 1212 cts
Foreign spirits, 1/2 pint.
614 cts
All to be paid in specie.
Foreign liquor was just eight times the price of domestic.
1827.
The Commissioners of Tax reported for this year fifteen hundred and sixty-four tithables-sixty less than last year-and laid the levy at 75 cents-1212 cents less than last year. The effect of the panic and hard times had not worn away. Many men had fled the State, taking with them their slaves to avoid the levy of executions for debt. It is a fact that many slave-holders left the State with their slave property for this very purpose, and afterwards, by permission of the County Court, returned again. This, perhaps, may explain the dis- crepancy so noticeable during the years of hard times, as they were known. Political excitement in Kentucky ran high during this year.
.
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
Under the law, passed February 23, 1808, free negroes and mulattos were prevented from migrating to Kentucky, unless allowed to do so by a special act. During this year a number of free negroes came to the State, and by special act were freed and exempted from the pains and penalties of the law of 1808. Frank Hogg, one among the first, if not the first, was granted the right to remain in the Commonwealth, and authorized to hold real estate. From this beginning quite a col- ony of free negroes migrated to the county, and so far as is known, were orderly, well behaved and industrious people.
1828.
The Commissioners of Tax reported this year seventeen hundred and thirty tithables, and the levy was fixed at one dollar twelve and a half cents, making a total of nineteen hundred and forty-six dollars and twenty four ‹ ents. It will be observed that the number of tith- ables reported this year is one hundred and sixty-six greater than last year, and the tax increased thirty-seven and a half cents.
1829.
The tithable population reported this year was seventeen hundred -thirty less than last year - and the levy fixed at 68 1/2 cents -forty- four cents less than last year.
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CHAPTER XVII.
MILK SICKNESS-SCHOOL DISTRICTS-THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC-MIAS- MATIC PONDS-METEORIC SHOWERS, ETC., ETC .- 1830.
HE census for 1830 gave Henderson County a population of six thousand six hundred and fifty-nine souls, an increase of nine hundred and forty-five during the preceding ten years. Seventeen hundred and eighty-seven tithables were reported this year, and the levy fixed at what it was in 1828, one dollar twelve and a half cents.
MILK SICKNESS.
For some years prior to 1830, the milk sickness had made its ap- pearance in Kentucky, but, during this year, it was unusually annoy- ing and frightful in Henderson County. Particularly along the banks of Green River, it did its work undiscovered. Scientists endeavored to discover the true cause of the disease, but all their efforts failed. January 29, the Legislature of Kentucky offered a reward of six hun- dred dollars for the discovery of the cause, and a specific cure, yet no discovery was ever made. It was only with the clearing up of the woods and timbered lands, that the dread disease disappeared. There has been no cases of milk sickness reported in Henderson County for many years.
On the twenty-ninth day of January, an act was approved, incor- porating a company under the name and style of the "Green River Navigation Company," for the purpose of constructing locks, dams, docks, basins, canals, chutes and slopes upon Green River and its tributary streams. The capital stock of the company was fixed at
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
sixty thousand dollars, divided into shares of twenty-five dollars each. Books for the subscription of stock were directed to be opened on the fourth day of March, and Leonard H. Lyne and James McLain ap- pointed commissioners for Henderson County. The scheme proved an utter failure.
Under and by authority of an act of the Legislature, approved January 29, Henderson County was divided and laid off into public school districts.
1831.
The Commissioners of Tax reported this year, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine tithables, and the county levy was fixed at sixty-two and a half cents, making a total of one thousand two hundred and thirty dollars and sixty-two and a half cents. From this, it will be seen that the tithable increase from the Court of Claims in October, 1830, to the Court of Claims, 1831, was one hundred and eighty-two, the greatest increase for any one year known up to that time.
The population in what is now known as the Point, or Scuffle- town District, had so increased, that on the twenty-first day of Decem- ber, an act of the Legislature was approved, establishing it as an election precinct, and fixing the voting place at the house of Doak Prewitt.
1832.
Nineteen hundred and sixty-nine tithables were reported this year, and the levy fixed at seventy-five cents. The county had now begun to grow rapidly, and everything assumed a more cheerful as- pect, but during the year the cholera brought grief and gloom, and business stagnation in Henderson, as well as many other points in the Ohio River Valley.
This epidemic visitation occurred in the month of October, and absolutely paralyzed the whole community. Business was suspended, and the panic complete. Men were seized with the disease while walking in the streets, and were dead in ten hours. The population of Henderson at that time was about seven hundred, and fully ten per cent. of that number died. The physicians stood manfully at their posts, and administered calomel and opium without limit. The practitioners at that time were Drs. Levi Jones, Thomas J. Johnson, Owen Glass, Henry M. Grant and Horace Gaither. Among those who died, were : Rev. Nathan Osgood, Rector St. Pauls Episcopal Church, and J. B. Pollitt, husband of the first wife of Governor Dixon. Mr, Butler, father of Harbison Butler, came into the town one day,
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
transacted his business and returned to his home in the country, and before twelve o'clock that night, died of cholera. The negroes suf ferred more, perhaps, than the whites.
Henderson, at that time, was a victim of " ponds," those frightful generators of misasma, being located all over the place. At the corner of First and Elm Streets, was one covering as much as one acre of ground. In the center of the intersection of Main and Second Streets, was the public well, and this furnished impure water for the greater part of the citizens. Those who drank water from the river bank, escaped the cholera, while those who drank of the well, were to a great extent victims of the disease.
This was also the year of the great flood, when the river rose at Cincinnati to the almost incredible height of sixty-two and a half feet above low water mark.
THE FLOOD.
The youthful city did not feel the visitation of the flood, but the river bottoms suffered immensely. This great rise commenced on the tenth day of February, and continued until the twenty-first of that month, having risen to the extraordinary height fifty-one feet above low water mark at Louisville. Nearly all of the frame and log build- ings near the river, either floated off or turned over and were de- stroyed. The marks made by the Government engineers, for that purpose, at the head of the Canal and foot of the Falls, at Louisville, showed a maximum height at the head, of forty-six feet above low water, and sixty-nine feet above low water at the foot of the Falls. This was by far the greatest rise ever known in the Ohio at that time.
A RALROAD CURIOSITY.
As an evidence of the progress of the age, it may be noted that during this year upon a circular track, in George Atkinson's Factory, formerly Audubon's Mill, was exhibited a small locomotive made sev- eral years before at Lexington, by Mr. Thomas H. Barlow. To this locomotive was attached a small car, in which many people took their first railroad ride. This miniature engine ran smoothly, and was a great curiosity. A small amount was charged for riding, which the people paid most cheerfully. This was the first railroad or railroad engine and car ever seen by but very few, if any, of the citizens of Henderson.
1833.
Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two tithables were reported this year, one hundred and eighty-three more than last year, and the levy fixed at 8114 cents. The cholera returned to Kentucky this year,
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
and raged from about May 30 to August, only two months, but with great virulence and deadly effect. Beginning as high up as Maysville, it soon spread through the State, slaying large numbers in town and country. Within nine days after its appearance at Lexington, fifteen hundred persons were prostrated by it, and fifty deaths occurred in some single days. Many places, altogether spared in 1832, were des- olated this year. In Henderson there were but few cases This was the year also of
" METEORIC SHOWERS "
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