USA > Kentucky > Henderson County > History of Henderson County, Kentucky > Part 22
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February 5, an act was passed, dividing the State into four Ap- pelate Districts, under this act Henderson became a part of the Fourth District. March 6, the State was divided into sixteen judicial districts. Under this appointment Henderson, Livingston, Union, Webster, and McLean formed the Third District.
March 6, A. H. Major, John H. Stanley, Harbison Butler, Fran- cis E. Walker, William McClain, George Atkinson, Archibald Dixon, John K. Smith, Hugh Tate, A. B. Barrett and Andrew Circles, were incorporated under the name and style of the "Horse Shoe Bend Fence Company."
March 9, an act was passed changing the term of the Common Pleas Court, directing them to be held in June and December of each year, twenty-four, in place of eighteen days each. At the same ses- sion the time of holding the Circuit Courts was changed to March and November, and thirty days allotted to each term. At the same
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
term fifteen hundred dollars was appropriated for the purpose of erecting a monument over the grave of the lamented Governor L. W. Powell, the amount to be expended by his excellency, Governor John W. Stevenson.
On the same day an act was passed incorporating the " Hender- son Running Park Association," and authorizing subscription books to be opened by Jackson McClain, William M. Lockett, James Alves, G. L. Compton, S. K. Sneed, N. C. Howard and Samuel W. Rankin. On the same day an act was passed incorporating the Green and Bar- ren River Navigation Company. By the terms of this act, those great commercial thoroughfares were given to that company for a mere song, and from six months after that day to this, the shippers and people along the two rivers have found just cause to complain.
1869.
March 9, an act was passed authorizing the County Court to ap- point additional processioners, not exceeding two in each voting pre- cinct of the county.
March 15, an act was passed incorporating the Henderson & Hartford Railroad Company, and granting George M. Priest, Robert G. Beverley and R. T. Glass, of Henderson, together with others along the proposed line, all the power and authority incident to such corporations.
CHAPTER XXIII.
POPULATION-NEW PRECINCTS-HEAVY SNOW FALL-COLORED MEN VOTE FOR THE FIRST TIME-WM. M'CLAIN'S
GREAT LAND SALE, ETC.
1870.
ENDERSON County now contained by the Federal census, eleven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-nine natives, and six hun- dred and eighty-eight foreign whites, and five thousand, nine hundred and ninety blacks, making a total population of eighteen thousand, four hundred and fifty-seven, an increase since the census of 1860, of four thousand, one hundred and ninety-five. From 1860 to 1870 the in- crease of the negro population was only one hundred and forty-six, while the increase of the whites was four thousand and sixty-two.
On the second day of January of this year occured the heaviest snow fall ever known in the State, reaching in many places a depth of from three to four feet.
March 21, an additional voting precinct was established. Hen- derson Precinct, under this act, was divided into two precincts, called Upper and Lower, Third Street becoming the division line.
The State Fair Association held its annual meeting at the grounds of the Henderson Fair Company this year, commencing October 4.
August 1, the colored population legally qualified, exercised the right of suffrage for the first time. Great fear was apprehended, but the election passed off as quietly as any that had ever preceeded it.
At this election the "Road Tax " proposition was submitted, and carried by a majority vote of the people. The first levy was made at the October Court of Claims, two dollars upon each person
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
legally bound to work upon the roads, and ten cents upon the one hundred dollars worth of property ad valorem. Two-fifths of this amount was set aside as a sinking fund for the purpose of taking up the bonds of the county.
Thursday, July 7, William McClain's great land sale drawing took place in " Weisiger Hall," Louisville. Ticket No. 8,553, owned by Dennis J. Mclaughlin, a carpenter, of Brashear City, Louisiana drew the capital prize, consisting of river bottom land of the finest character, valued at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and ten thousand dollars in cash.
Ticket No. 7,175, owned by Robert Hunt and Frank Karesner, of Louisville, and others, drew the second prize, consisting of river bottom land valued at thirty thousand dollars, and five thousand dol- lars in cash.
The third prize, valued at thirty thousand dollars, was drawn by H. Brown, of Mobile, Alabama.
The fourth prize, valued at thirteen thousand dollars, was drawn by Lieutenant Governor, Thomas P. Porter, of Versailles, Kentucky.
December 4, several prisoners confined in the county jail, effected their escape.
1871.
The first ten days during the month of February, the two banks of the city, the Farmers' and National, paid out in tobacco checks, six hundred and fourty thousand dollars, of this amount the Farmers' Bank paid four hundred and fifty thousand, and the Henderson Nat- ional one hundred and ninety thousand dollars.
On the thirtieth day of December, a proposition to subscribe for five thousand shares, of fifty dollars each, to aid in building the South Kentucky Railroad, was submitted to a vote of the people, and as usual with Henderson County, easily and most gracefully defeated. The South Kentucky has never been breathed from that day to this.
1872.
February 6, the Legislature repealed the act of February 27, 1867, authorizing the county to levy an ad valorem tax for public uses, and in lieu of that, enacted a law authorizing the county court to issue and sell her bonds, to an amount not exceeding forty thousand dollars
March 18, an act to lay the State off into ten Congressional Districts was passed. Under this apportionment, Henderson, Daviess, Hopkins, Muhlenburg, Ohio, McLean, Christian, Webster, Union, and Hancock Counties formed the second district.
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
The road law having been adopted by the people, and a tax cre- ated for the purpose, at the February term of the County Court, a motion was made to elect for the first time under the new law, a Superintendent of Roads. The court was pretty evenly divided, as will be observed by the following vote :
Those voting in the affirmatives were Turner; Toy, Shelby, Grif- fin, Cooper, Parker and Pritchett, (7.) Those negative, were Royster, Priest, Farley, Denton, Long and Gibson, (6.) The motion was de- clared adopted. J. T. Wilson was elected, and an order passed di- recting him not to expend exceeding three thousand dollars upon the roads of the county.
March 28, an act was approved incorporating the Evansville & Jackson Railroad. The incorporators from Henderson were Henry F. Turner, E. L. Starling, W. A. Hopkins, George M. Priest, E. W. Worsham, Joseph Adams and Leonard H. Lyne. Quite an amount of wind work, and perhaps some practical work has been indulged, looking to the building of this road, but at this time there is no pros- pect for its early completion. (See Ohio Valley Railroad.) 1873.
. January 18, an act of the General Assembly was approved, incor- porating the St. Louis Catholic Cemetery.
March 28, Captains A. O. Durland, Charles G. Perkins, E. O Boyle and St. John Boyle, were incorporated under the name and style of the Evansville & Henderson Railroad Packet Company.
KENTUCKY BOUNDARY.
April 23, an act was approved, having for its object the settle- ment of the boundary line between the State of Indiana and this State. The unsettled boundary begins at the head of the Island, known as Green River Island, opposite, or nearly so, the mouth of Green River, running thence in a direction down the Ohio River to the lower end of said Island, upon a line dividing said Island and the State of Kentucky, from the State of Indiana.
Many years ago, even in ordinary high water, steamboats passed down the schute between this Island and what was then known as the Indiana shore, but annual sediments, and the rapid growth of willows and cottonwoods caused the chute to fill up, until at this day it has become valuable as farming lands. Kentucky claims up to the corpo- rate limits of Evansville, under the United States survey made at the time Indiana was admitted into the Union of States, but since the change made by annual high waters, there has been a dispute between the two States as to the correct boundary line. Under the act of
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
April 23, the Governor was authorized and directed to select a com- missioner, a practical surveyor, who was to be a resident of Kentucky, to act with a similar commissioner from the State of Indiana, to carry into effect the provisions of the act. David N. Walden, of Hender- son, was selected by the Governor, and August Pafflin, of Evansville, Indiana, by the Governor of that State. These commissioners, guided by old papers in their possession, proceeded to make a close and ac- curate survey. They were careful and painstaking, and after weeks of hard work, succeeded in agreeing upon the line, and caused stones to be planted marking the survey. On the fifth day of March, 1878, this survey was ratified by the Kentucky Legislature, but upon com- ing before the Indiana legislature, was rejected, and there the matter has stood from that day to this, so far as any settled understanding is concerned.
1874.
January 31, the Collins School District, in the Hebardsville Precinct, was established by law.
On the nineteenth day of February, an act was approved, appor- tioning the State into thirty-eight Senatorial Districts. Under this ap- portionment, Henderson and Union became the Fifth District. .
February 17, the jurisdiction of Quarterly Courts was extended to two hundred dollars.
1875.
The summer of this year will be remembered by river bottom planters as the one most destructive ever known in the history of the country. On the seventh day of August, the whole bottom country, bordering on the Ohio and Green rivers, was inundated and remained so, long enough to completely destroy the growing crops of corn and tobacco. All the tenants and renters were completely ruined, while landlords had to content themselves with the loss of rent and .any amounts they had advanced. It was a most destructive year, and but for the liberality of land owners, great distress would have followed.
1876.
February 6, the great hurricane passed through the county sweeping houses and timber before it.
February 25, an act was passed by the Legislature incorporating William Soaper, H. P. Randolph, F. T. Crutchfield, George L. Ro- bards, Charles Elliott and G. B. Martin, under the name and style of the "Walnut Bend Fence Company."
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
March 20, an act was passed and approved exempting citizens liv- ing north of Green River from the two dollars per capita tax, and of ten cents on each one hundred dollars worth of property, now assess- ed and levied as a road tax; but they were required to work on the roads of that district under the rules governing road services before the act of March, 1869, went into effect.
An act, entitled "An Act for the protection of sheep in Hender. son County," was passed at the same term. This act required the Assessor, in taking lists of taxable property, to list all dogs, and upon each dog should be levied and taxed two dollars, and on each bitch the sum of three dollars ; provided, the party or parties so assessed should be permitted to own one dog, or one bitch, upon which no tax should be levied or assessed. The amounts arising from this tax was directed to become a part of the white school fund. It was further enacted that any person owning, having or keeping any dog or bitch should be liable to the party or parties for all damages done by these animals.
1878.
March 11, an act was passed making it unlawful for any one to throw, or cause to be thrown, any logs or trash into the creeks of the county.
March 15, an act was passed reducing into one the acts relating to the roads of the county. It directed the division of the roads into precincts, and the apportionment of surveyors to let them out to the lowest and best bidder, commencing Monday, April 1.
At the same term, John T. Handley, J. S. Wilhoit and W. B. Pen- "tecost were incorporated under the' name of Jonathan Lodge, I. O. O. F., No. 152.
1880.
The tenth census credits Henderson County with a population of twenty-four thousand five hundred and fifteen souls. Of this number six teen thousand nine hundred and forty-three were whites, and seven thousand five hundred and seventy-two were blacks. Of the whites, six hundred and forty-four were foreigners.
Comparing the census of 1880, with that of 1870, it will be ob- served that the increase in population aggregates six thousand and fifty-eight souls, and of this increase, four thousand four hundred and seventy-six were whites, and one thousand five hundred and eighty- two were black.
Of the twenty-four thousand five hundred and fifteen souls in Henderson County in 1880, 19,967 were natives of the State, 563 of
250
HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
Tennessee, 779 of Virginia, 171 of Ohio, 1,396 of Indiana, 191 of North Carolina, 17 of British America, 59 of England and Wales, 154 of Ireland, 11 of Scotland, 345 of Germany, 10 of France, and 5 of Sweden and Norway.
Of the total number there were 12,646 males and 11,869 females, Of school, military and citizenship ages, the population was divided as follows : Five to seventeen years, both inclusive, 4,270 males, 4,183 females; eighteen to forty-four years, both inclusive, 5,051 males ; twenty-one and over, 5,700 males.
FARM AREAS AND FARM VALUES.
Farms, 1,983 ; improved land, 146,388 acres ; value of farms, in- cluding land, fences and buildings, $3,666,786 ; value of farming im- plements and machinery, $142,221 ; value of live stock on farms July 1, 1880, $596,044; cost of building and repairing fencing, 1879, $49,- 612 ; cost of fertilizers purchased, 1879, $1,220 ; estimated value of all farm productions (consumed or on hand) for 1879, $1,119,482. Prin- cipal productions of the county : Barley, 300 bushels ; Indian corn, 1,680,007; oats, 27,589; rye, 3,577; wheat, 124,991. Value of or- chard products, $11,350 ; hay, 2,243 tons ; cotton, 9 bales ; Irish po- tatoes, 29,286 bushels ; sweet potatoes, 5,205 bushels ; tobacco, 10,- 312,631 pounds. Live stock and its productions : Horses, 4,277 ; mules and asses, 2,768 ; working oxen, 108; milch cows, 3,577; other cattle, 4,660; sheep, 4,307; swine, 31,554; wool, 21,670 pounds ; milk, 74,385 gallons ; butter, 207,040 pounds ; cheese, 230 pounds.
March 4, an act was passed making it unlawful for any one to deaden timber within one hundred feet of any public road in. Hen -. derson County.
April 1, an act was passed authorizing the formation of corpora- tions, for the purpose of constructing turnpike and gravel roads in Henderson County.
April 22, an act was passed which not only authorized, but re- quired, the County Court to subscribe fifteen thousand dollars to the stock of every gravel road company, but this was to be ratified by the voters of the county. This act never was submitted to a vote.
April 15, an act was passed dividing the State into eighteen Ju- dicial Districts. District No. 3 was composed of Henderson, Critten- den, Union and Webster.
This act repealed the act heretofore mentioned, which established a Court of Common Pleas, and gave to Henderson County three
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
terms of the Circuit Court, beginning on the first Monday in January and fourth Monday in May, and holding thirty-six judicial days each, and on the fourth. Monday in October, holding twenty- four judicial days. At the January and May terms, the first two weeks of each are devoted to the trial of criminal causes, the re- mainder of the terms to the civil docket. The October term is de- voted to the rendition of judgments by default, and general civil busi- ness.
May 5, the "Southwestern Narrow Gauge Railroad Company " was incorporated, and William H. Lewis, J. T. Leake and Ken Cha- peze, authorized to open books for the subscription of stock. This was thought to be a fine project, but, so far, it has failed to ma- terialize.
On June 9 D. Banks, Jr., B. G. Witt, Larkin White, J. D. Ro- bards, George W. White, William Hatchitt, M. M. Johnson, Samuel Epperson, William Soaper, Jr., O. B. Smith, J. P. Beverly, and John T. Bunch, filed before the County Court their articles of incorporation of the " Henderson, Zion and Hebardsville Gravel Road Company," and the same were approved by the court.
July 7, the right of way over the road was granted, with certain conditions attached.
July 24, the company accepted the terms of the court, and, in a few weeks thereafter, gravel was being rapidly placed upon the road bed.
On the third day of December following, the road was completed five miles out from the city limits, examined, and reported substanti- ally built, and in good condition, by W. K. Ayer, Paul J. Marrs, and Dr. P. Thompson, commissioners appointed to view the work. This was the first gravel road built in the county, but others soon followed.
1881.
On the twenty-seventh day of April, Harvey S. Park, William J. Marshall, Jackson McClain, John H. Barrett, Cornelius Bailey, Fielding S. Turner, J. T. Wilson, Charles L. King, George W. Mc- Clure, Henry Kleymeier, and William Hatchitt filed before the court of the county, articles of incorporation of the " Henderson and Cory- don Gravel Road Company," and the same were approved by the court.
On the seventh day of May the right of way was granted, upon similar terms, to those of the Henderson and Zion road.
June seventh, the company accepted the terms offered by the county, and commenced grading the road for the reception of gravel.
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252
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
On the ninth of July articles of incorporation were filed by the same company of the " Henderson and Geneva Road," and on the eleventh the right of way was granted. These two roads were com- pleted during the fall months, ready for winter travel.
On the seventh day of May Cornelius Bailey, E. M. Johnson, S. A. Young, Thomas Posey, George W. White, A. B. Sights, William Hatchitt, James C. Hicks, R. Scrogin Eastin and Robert Dixon, filed with the court articles of incorporation of the " Henderson and Cross Plains," and " Henderson and Cairo Gravel Road Companies." On the same day the right of way was granted, and on the second day of July the terms of the County Court, expressed in the order grant- ing the right of way were accepted by the company. This road, also, was finished in time for winter travel.
1882.
January 15, an act was passed by the Legislature re-appor- tioning the Congressional Districts of the State. Under this act Henderson, Christian, Hopkins, Webster, Union, McLean, Daviess and Hancock formed the Second District.
On April 22, an act creating and establishing a “ Superior Court," known as a Court of Justice for the State, and to con- sist of three Judges who shall have the same qualification as are now required for Judges of the Court of Appeals, a co-adjutant to the Court of Appeals, was passed and approved.
Under this act the First District was composed of the following counties : Henderson, Fulton, Hickman, Ballard, McCracken, Graves, Galloway, Marshall, Livingston, Trigg, Crittenden, Caldwell, Chris- tian, Todd, Logan, Warren, Union, Webster, Hopkins, Daviess, Mc- Lean, Muhlenberg, Hancock, Ohio, Butler, Grayson, Breckenridge, Hardin, Barren, Allen, Simpson, Edmundson, Meade and Hart.
The first election was held on the first Monday in August.
April 24, an act to levy an additional tax of two cents, for the purpose of equalizing the per capita tax of the white and col- ored school children, was passed, and at the following August elec- tion submitted to the qualified voters of the county. Be it said to the credit of the county, the proposition carried, by a majority of eighty- two votes.
March 10, an act was passed exempting the inhabitants living on Green River Island from the payment of road tax of all kinds.
April 11, an act was passed authorizing the County Court to issue bonds for the purpose of building gravel roads or purchasing those already built.
April twenty-second, an act was passed to prevent stock from running at large in the county. This act was never submitted to a vote of the people, as required.
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HENDERSON .
ITS LOCATION-EARLY SETTLERS-ORDINANCE OF THE TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY-ITS GROWTH FROM A VILLAGE, LOCATED IN THE WILD WOODS, TO A CITY-KEEPING STEPS WITH ADVANCED CIVILIZATION-PAGES OF GENERAL INTEREST.
HE City of Henderson, the county seat of Henderson County, is situated on the southeast bank of the Ohio River, about midway between Louisville at the Falls, and Cairo, Ill., at the mouth, and is the northern terminus of the Henderson and Nashville division of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, a great through railway line, connecting New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola and the Southern cities with St. Louis, Chicago and the East via Evansville. It is also the northern terminus of the Ohio Valley Railway, a new road now run- ning to Marion, the county seat of Crittenden County, and which will, as it is contemplated, soon be completed to some central point south where general traffic arrangements will be effected, whereby the Ohio Valley will soon be a great through route, as the Louisville & Nashville, and a strong competitor of that system. It is now pre- dicted with a degree of certainty, that justifies historical prophesy, that a railway will soon be completed between this city and Louis- ville, a road to be known as the river road.
Henderson is one hundred and forty-five miles from Nashville, and is one hundred and seventy miles from St. Louis, and is the cen- tral point in navigation of a number of river routes, including the Ohio, Green, Wabash, Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi. This city was originally known as the " Red Banks," because of its high per-
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
pendicular front of red soil, and was settled by Jacob and Michael Sprinkle, John Upp, John Husbands, John Hausman, John Dunn, Eneas McCallister, John Kuykendall, Hugh Knox, Abraham San- ders, Daniel Ashby, Jacob Newman, Edmund Talbott and a few others, commencing as far back as 1784. Since these brave and true old pioneers have laid their heads beneath the violets' bed, many changes have passed over earth. Since then the pioneer village be- came a town, and the town has grown to a city. Since then the wild deer has disappeared from dingle and glee, the wolf extinct, the poor " red man " is yet being driven into the far west, and the few remain- ing decendants of the proud-hearted Sachems, White Cloud and Ta- hante are now waging war far beyond the waves of the " Great River," from whose lofty cliffs the daughter of Menonemee made the "Lovers Leap" in history and song. Since then the "Eagle of American Liberty " was grasped by the robber hand of faction, dispoiled of his matchless plumage and plunged into the gory mire of civil strife. Since then the factious decendants of those who claimed that the prec- ious freight of the Mayflower was the Bible and the freedom, have scoffed at the declaration from the pen of Thomas Jefferson, and signed by the double pledge of life, honor and property, of old Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. Since then the triad of forensic heroes, Clay, Calhoun and Webster, have come and gone. Since then two Presidents of the United States have fallen by the pistols of assas- sins. Since then the scientific application of steam and electricity has startled the world. Yes, and since then empires have fallen. More too, if these old people could only come back to earth and wit- ness the work of their children and children's children, they would scarce believe their own eyes.
MRS. HANNAH DUNN.
From 1791 to 1800, Mrs. Hannah Dunn kept a sort of tavern and barroom at the Red Banks, and George Holloway was the pro- prietor of a general provision store, including whisky and millinery. The whisky was made in little kettle stills, but where the supplies of millinery were brought from in those early times no one now living knows.
Mrs. Dunn, true to the nature of her sex, was fond of dress, even though she was a woman of masculine mind and business. She' paid Mr. Holloway the round sum of one pound ten shillings for a hat trimmed with ribbons and feathers, and packed salt from the works, a distance of twenty miles, for the money to settle the bill.
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HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KY.
Bacon retailed at that time at one shilling per pound, while deer and bear meat were valueless in price.
Captain John Dunn operated a small hand mill, which furnished meal for the settlement, but most persons used the mortar and pestle. The mortar was made by splitting a short cut of a tree and hollowing one end of each half and then pinning the two together with wooden pins. The pestle was a heavy wooden instrument with an iron or stone wedge in the end and used by hand. Sometimes this was op- erated by the use of a wooden spring.
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