USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 26
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58 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 67.
59 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 54, 62, 66, 72.
60 Engineers and Architects Club of Louisville Papers and Reports, 1911, pp. 12, 13; Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 62, 69.
61 Ibid., 66. By 1874 an extension down the Ohio toward Augusta had been built to Dover.
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was on and after it was over, the account of this remarkable develop- ment will more properly be taken up later. As this road in fact came to be an integral part of the city's economic consciousness, the rail- road activity of this city was centered preeminently around this road. Although controlling the western part of the state through this road, Louisville did not rest content, but threw out feeders and connections to the eastward where the rich central Kentucky region awaited her con- quest. The Louisville and Frankfort Railroad has been previously men- tioned. The extension of this road southward from Frankfort to Har- rodsburg in Mercer County was soon determined upon. In 1851 Frank- lin and Mercer counties each voted $200,000 in aid of this extension, and two years later Louisville took steps to underwrite bonds of the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad for $500,000 to help construct the road to Harrodsburg, and she also subscribed $300,000 to extend the road from this point to the Tennessee line toward Knoxville. This project, like many others of the times, failed to materialize.62 About the same time a branch from the Louisville and Frankfort was projected through Shelbyville to Harrodsburg and thence on the link desired by Louisville toward Knoxville. Shelby County voted $500,000 to aid this development. Harrodsburg finally obtained railway connections in this link; but the development to Knoxville was never consummated.
Another road in which Louisville soon became interested as only secondary to the Louisville and Nashville was the so-called Louisville and Covington Road. This would give rail connections with Cincin- nati, and this latter city was therefore interested also. In 1854, Cov- ington voted $500,000 to aid this project. This road was not finished until after the Civil war.
Development of railways in the extreme western part of the state came in this same general period of the '50s. The Henderson and Nashville Railroad was organized in 1852 with Archibald Dixon as president. This region was also much interested in the greater project of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. This with the Illinois Central marked the beginning of the national policy of granting aid to railways through land grants and timber rights. In 1848 the Kentucky Legislature ex- pressed its desire to have Congress aid the Mobile and Ohio Railroad by granting to it "the right of way over the public lands lying on the route proposed, the privilege of cutting the timber required for the construction of the road, and also the alternate sections of public lands situated on the route, which are unsold.63 Paducah, in 1853, voted $200,000 to aid in constructing a branch to the Mobile and Ohio which ran through the extreme western counties of the state.
Kentucky active in her own railway development was no less inter- ested in lines projected far beyond her borders. The Mobile and Ohio was one example of this; but the most striking instance was the scheme of Asa Whitney to build a railway to the Pacific. Kentucky easily succumbed to the propaganda of Whitney in his efforts to secure national aid. Whitney appeared before the Legislature in 1848 and explained his magnificent scheme, and in the words of the enthralled Legislature, it listened "with interest to a very lucid explanation * * * of his proposed plan for the construction of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. To conceive the idea of under- taking and accomplishing such an enterprise strikes us with astonish- ment, but it is confessed that the explanation of Mr. Whitney, and the purpose of his plan, places the subject before us in a more plausible point of view than we had supposed it could have been done. * If such a scheme be practicable, it challenges the attentive consideration
62 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 63, 66, 67.
68 Acts of Kentucky, 1847, p. 488. Date of resolution, March I.
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of this nation and deserves the aid of the strong arm of the government." It instructed the Kentucky members of Congress to "give such consid- eration and countenance to that great project which, in their judgment, its magnitude, importance and practicability deserve." 64
In the period before the Civil war, the decade of the '50s saw the great railroad awakening in the state. During the session of the Legis- lature of 1846-1847 three railroad acts were passed; during the session of 1849-1850, seven acts were passed; and during the session of 1851- 1852 the number jumped to eleven. Thereafter until the war came, there was no diminution; but all the acts did not grant charters, for the day of reorganization and relief went with this hasty period of charter granting. The peak point in this decade was easily the first part, with Lexington the greatest center of activity.65 The other two cities most forward in developing railroads, as has already appeared, were Louis- ville and Maysville. Many charters were granted for railways that were never built, and bond issues were promised and voted by cities and counties that were never delivered. This was a boom period when estimations and minute examinations were smothered in the en- thusiasm of the day. Projects far too large for the resources of the communities concerned were undertaken, and the day of reckoning was inevitably approaching. Panic times were approaching by 1854 and in 1857 the full force of depression was upon the land. Many railways fell in the crash, and work was virtually stopped for the time on all of them. The Maysville and Lexington came to grief in 1856, being sold under a decree of the Fayette Circuit Court to the first mortgage bondholders for $105,000. The Covington and Lexington three years later was sold for $2,125,000; and as previously noted the Lexing- ton and Big Sandy came under the hammer in 1860.66 Other roads were suspended and reorganized. A conspicuous exception to this almost universal railroad depression was the Louisville and Nashville. In 1859 James Guthrie sold over a million dollars of bonds of that road at par.67
It was only a short step from the state aiding turnpikes and river development to giving like help to railroads, and it was by no means unlikely in the beginning that such a step would be taken. In 1832, while the Lexington and Ohio was in process of construction the Legislature appointed a committee to investigate the progress that was being made "and the facilities it is likely to afford, when completed, to the commerce of the country" and also to give "their opinion on the utility of the work." 68 Although the state did not take stock directly in the road it had assumed a surety to the road of $150,000 and in 1842 on the failure of the road to meet its obligation, it came into the hands of the state. In 1845 the governor in referring to the transaction said that "a railroad has been taken from a state of dilapidation for commodious and dispatchful transportation of men and things between Frankfort and the City of Lexington.69 Although the Board of Internal Im- provements was set up to develop rivers and turnpikes, still it on certain occasions took note of railway surveys. The resolution of the Legisla- ture in 1839, heretofore noted, directed this board to survey the route for the proposed railroad from Louisville through Lexington to the mouth of the Big Sandy River. One of the factors that seems to have
6+ Acts of Kentucky, 1847, pp. 483, 484. Date of resolution Feb. 28.
65 For example see Lexington Observer and Reporter, Jan. 19, 1850. The press of the state was busy in carrying forward the enthusiasm. Also see Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 63.
66 Ibid., 76, 81, 84.
67 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 81.
68 Acts of Kentucky, 1832, p. 307. Date of resolution December 13.
69 Lexington Observer and Reporter, Jan. 1, 1845. Also see Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 47.
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entered into the question of the state taking stock in railways or even granting charters in certain cases was the fact that such action might militate against the success of the river and turnpike developments in which the state held shares. In 1846 a charter was refused to a company which wished to build a railway, which the state believed would com- pete with the navigation on the Kentucky River.70 But undoubtedly the determining factor in this question was the failure of the internal improvement expenditures of the state to repay even in a small way the money the state had sunk in rivers and roads. An effort was made directly in 1851 to commit the state to a policy of aid to railways. A comprehensive program was produced in which the state should dupli- cate in stock purchased in certain railroads the amounts the railroads had actually expended. This contemplated the expenditure by the state of $900,000 on a road from Louisville to the Mississippi River, $500,000 on the Louisville and Nashville, $200,000 on each of the Maysville and Lexington and Covington and Lexington roads, $300,000 on the Mays- ville and Big Sandy, and $100,000 on an extension of the Louisville and Frankfort to Danville. This bill failed to pass.71
The refusal of the state to aid railway construction did not prevent cities and counties from doing so, and as has amply appeared they did so with more eagerness than reason. The question was almost invari- ably determined, however, by a popular vote; and not in all cases did the people decide to travel the easy road of voting bonds, which they seemed to have little concern about meeting the payment of. Newport in 1854 refused to vote $200,000 of bonds to the Newport and Louisville Railroad, and Lexington in a few instances rejected bond issues for railroads.™2 The great profusion of bond issues by various counties and cities brought about on the part of some people the demand that a halt should be called to the never-ending stream of bonds. It was easy to vote bonds; but paying them was different. A debate on the subject was held in Lexington where Robert J. Breckinridge spoke eloquently against the policy, declaring that it was unwise and, besides, it was unconstitutional. George Robertson, formerly of the Court of Appeals, defended the policy.73 In the hopes of curbing the practice, as well as of raising revenue, the Legislature passed a law allowing the county judge to levy a tax on railroad bonds. Whether the law accomplished its purpose or not, it roused the violent opposition of the citizens of McCracken County who called a meeting of protest and declared "That we will not support any man for sheriff of said county, who says he will collect said tax, if ordered by the county judge." Then waxing more bold in their attitude they declared that they "do hereby state that we, in conjunction with the great majority of the citizens of said county, will repudiate aggression and defend our rights, and ever pray for justice and release-and we will also RESIST the collection of said tax." 74
The development of railways in the state before the Civil war crystallized around a few wide-awake cities from which lines radiated out in all directions to enlist the support and secure the trade of sur- rounding towns and communities. In this new field of activity, unreas- oning enthusiasm carried many people off their feet, and a mushroom growth of railway projects sprang up which could never survive. The panic of 1857 withered many and the Civil war, soon following, for
70 Lexington Observer and Reporter, Apr. 12, 1846. This is an early example of a fear of that very factor that played a very important part in putting the steam- boat out of business-paralleling lines of railway.
71 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 61.
72 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 71.
73 Ibid .. 61.
74 Kentucky Yeoman, Feb. 24, 1854.
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four years devastated the land and left a much changed economic situa- tion when peace came. For a decade after hostilities had ceased the railroad development of the state clung around two great forces, one seeking to be born into a more effective instrument, and the other strong and jealous seeking to prevent it. The one was to be finally expressed in the Cincinnati Southern Railway; the other was the Louisville and Nashville Railway. All others in Kentucky were merely hangers-on and satellites of these two.
CHAPTER LV
ECONOMIC PROGRESS DURING THE MIDDLE PERIOD
The material development of the state during the Middle Period 1 had its vicissitudes. Panics and money heresies played their re- tarding part. The manufacturing industry, so prominent in the state's mind in the early part of the century, was gradually giving way to the all-absorbing agricultural pursuits and the commerce consequent there- upon. Slavery, the hand-maid of the latter, militated against the for- mer. In 1842 there were 197,738 people engaged in agricultural pur- suits as compared to 23,217 in manufacturing and the trades. Three thousand four hundred and forty-eight were listed as busied in com- mercial pursuits.2 The decline in manufacturing is strikingly shown by a comparison of the numbers engaged in 1820 with the numbers given above. At the former date, 110,779 were busied in the manu- facturing industry as against 132,060 in agriculture. Internal improve- ments and the development of railways was of greater direct aid to agriculture than to manufacturies, as the former products were more bulky and therefore could not reach market as readily over undeveloped highways as the smaller and more valuable manufactured articles.
The chief agricultural crops continued to be hemp and tobacco. According to a contemporary account, "both are raised in the greatest perfection." 3 In 1840 Kentucky stood first in the production of hemp and second in tobacco. Another crop not so valuable as these two, but a product in which the state stood first was wheat, and in maize, she stood second. Of these crops Timothy Flint said, "Her wheat is of the finest kind; and there is no part of the western country where maize is raised with greater ease and abundance." 4 Her foremost position as an agricultural state was further attested by the fact that she stood fourth in the production of rye, third in flax, and second in swine and mules. But by 1860, when the great Northwest had been opened up and was beginning to make itself felt in the agricultural world, Ken- tucky's position had undergone these important changes: She now stood ninth in the production of wheat, fifth in rye, fourth in swine, but successfully maintained her first place in hemp and second place in tobacco and mules.5 The tobacco crop was the most valuable product of the state and was first in the interests of the people. A large part of the crop was exported to foreign countries, which brought about a persistent clamor to secure for it proper treatment in the markets of the world. The Legislature at numerous times argued that foreign countries were throttling the Kentucky tobacco trade by high tariffs, and called upon Congress to pass retaliatory legislation.6 Various other minor agricultural products were grown.
1 This term is used to indicate roughly the period from the War of 1812 to the Civil War.
2 American Almanac, 1842, p. 239.
8 Flint, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 355.
4 Flint, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 354.
5 Shaler, History of Kentucky, 423.
6 For examples, Acts of Kentucky, 1836, pp. 356, 357; Ibid., 1841, pp. 303, 304; Ibid., 1855, pp. 131, 132; and Ibid., 1859, pp. 182, 183.
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The most wealthy part of the state was the central region referred to everywhere as the Blue Grass. With the full development of the great fleet of steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the Blue Grass region was left to the side of the great arteries of commerce. True it was that the Kentucky River still remained a valuable outlet, but it could not be otherwise than subsidiary to the larger lines. As the carrying trade came to get a firmer grip on the prosperity and economic development of the West, the great cities grew up on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Lexington was forced into a dignified, social, lit- erary, and political center, while Louisville took up the frenzied chase after commerce and industrial prosperity. By 1860 Lexington, which in 1810 had more than three times as many people as Louisville, was by 1860, herself outstripped by the Falls City by more than seven to one. The attention of the gentry throughout the Blue Grass soon became strongly fixed on live stock; first because, they had an inherent love for fine horses and horse racing, and secondly because horses, cattle and mules could walk to market. Their appreciation of and desire for fine and spirited horses was perhaps unequalled throughout the country. A traveller said, "A handsome horse is the highest pride of a Kentuckian. and common farmers own from ten to fifty."7 Fine cattle were no less an object of pride. Trips were made to Europe to select the best breeds. In 1839 a Kentuckian purchased in England two bulls at $1,000 each "and some splendid cows that cost in proportion." He bought twenty-two on this trip.8 Cattle shows soon grew up and became an institution in the social and economic life of the people. A foreign traveller in the state during the '30s attended live stock shows and sales around Lexington, and was struck with the size of the animals and the high prices they brought. He noted jacks selling for $5,000 and cattle for over $1,000. He also said, "Mr. Clay, who resides near Lexington, is one of the best breeders in the State, which is much indebted to him for the fine stock which he has imported from England." 9
The so-called cattle shows were really the precurser of the fair and the contemporary of the first agricultural associations. These shows, in which horses and cattle were displayed, seem to have made their appearance in Lexington before 1800; and by 1820 they were a recognized institution.1º They early grew to be much more than live stock shows; in fact before 1820 they were in reality fairs although they were generally referred to as "shows." In 1819 such a "show" was held in Lexington in which the committee in charge not only asked that all kinds of live stock be entered, but also solicited "the manufactures of domestic goods, of all the various kinds fabricated in the country, particularly in private families, to exhibit specimens of their productions, including all the various fabrics of woolen, cotton and flax goods, and also cheese." It was also careful to add that "the distillers are expected, as heretofore, to bring forward samples of their best whiskey." 11 Local agricultural societies had sprung up before 1800, as the one in Mercer County already noted, which attempted to better agricultural conditions by examing into the various problems that con- fronted farmers. As the state developed and the interests of the people widened and especially when manufacturers began to engage more atten-
" Flint, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 355.
8 Letter from Nelson Dudley to Mrs. P. Smith written from Liverpool, April 17, 1839. This letter was kindly loaned to the author by Mrs. Calames of Lexington. Dudley found difficulty in shipping his cattle to America for although the vessels were numerous "the immigrants are so great at this time that the capts of Ships refuse to take cattle."
9 Capt. Marryat, A Diary in America with Remarks on Its Institutions (Phila- delphia, 1839), II, 17-20.
10 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 518; Ranck, History of Lexington, 270, 271. 11 Kentucky Gazette, May 7, 1819.
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tion both in the home and in the factory, these associations were broad- ened in their scope. They now became known generally as "Agricul- tural and Mechanical Associations." Some of them embraced only one county as the Fayette County Agricultural and Mechanical Asso- ciation and the Bourbon County Agricultural and Mechanical Associa- tion, while others were composed of a number of counties or a section of the state as the Union Agricultural and Mechanical Association composed of Shelby, Oldham, and Henry counties and the Southwest- ern Agricultural and Mechanical Association with headquarters at Louisville.
The first agricultural society designed for the state at large was organized in Lexington in 1818 with Isaac Shelby as the first president.12 In 1838 the field was taken by the Kentucky State Agricultural Society which immediately developed into an effective instrument in the hands of the farmers. It did more than promote fairs and read papers on the better methods of agriculture. It sought in a most enlightened way to secure the direct aid of the state government in behalf of the farmers. In its meeting in Frankfort on January 10, 1842, it formulated a wide program of activities. After discussing such subjects as crop rotation, hemp production, sheep raising, and the "cultivation of roots as field crops," it recommended to the Legislature the establishment of an agricultural school, and the institution of a geological survey for the state. It suggested the more intensive discussion and investigation of agricultural needs and conditions by the different agricultural societies holding monthly meetings for the purpose and it recommended that each one of them build up a library on agricultural subjects. It offered monetary prizes for essays on various subjects. Among the topics suggested for essays to be submitted at the next meeting were these : $30 for the best essay on the importance of science to agriculture; $20, on the relations of home manufactures to agricultural interests; $10, on "mixed husbandry :" and $10 each, on the best way to produce all the clover seed needed by the state, raising buckwheat, and the dairy busi- ness.13 Some of the county organizations needed little enthusiasm or suggestions from the state organization: in 1839 the Franklin County Agricultural Society resolved that the state should aid agriculture di- rectly as the farmers paid most of the taxes, and as European countries had recognized the principle and were helping agriculture. Their tan- gible suggestion was that the common schools should instruct the chil- dren in agricultural subjects and that college professorships should be established in agriculture.14
The agricultural associations functioning through fairs aroused much interest in the subjects encouraged. The state government first sug- gested aid to agriculture through appropriating money to be offered as prizes at the fairs. In 1853 Governor Powell called the attention of the Legislature to the advisability of appropriating a few thousand dol- lars to be used in this way.15 The State Department of Agriculture was ultimately evolved out of granting aid to the state agricultural as- sociation. Prizes were offered for excellency in almost every line of endeavor. The Bourbon County Association in 1847 offered a pre- mium for the highest amount of merchantable hemp from one acre; and
12 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 518. According to Ranck, History of Lexing- ton, 270, 271, the "Kentucky Agricultural Society" was founded in Lexington in 1814. 13 Frankfort Commonwealth, Jan. 28, 1842.
14 Kentucky Gazette, June 6, 1839. About the same time the Kentucky Agricul- tural Society advocated the organization of an agricultural school to be set up through a joint stock company with a capitalization of $100,000. The state should be invited to subscribe one-fourth of it. The students should do a certain amount of practical work on the farm and in the shops and take up such subjects as mathematics, me- chanics, modern languages, and belles-lettres. Niles' Register, Vol. 57, p. 288.
15 Kentucky Yeoman, Jan. 6, 1854.
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at the state fair in 1851, lasting over a period of five days, prizes were offered in a great variety of subjects. Manufactures of cotton, wool, and silk; cabinet and carpenter work; products made of hemp, leather, and flax ; hats; agricultural implements and useful contrivances and machines; products of the field, orchard, garden, flower-garden, and dairy ; cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, asses, and mules-all commanded prizes. The rule was applied that all manufactured articles must have been made within the preceding two years.16 These fairs tended to take on some of the characteristics of the fairs in Europe, which were de- signed principally for bringing buyer and seller together. The Fayette County Association took up the advisability in 1851 of setting aside a special lot near the fair grounds where trading might be expedited.17
Live stock constituted one of the most important items of export from the state. As has heretofore been noted, a constant stream of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, and sheep went through the Cumberland Gap for the South Atlantic States, amounting to more than a million dollars annually. In 1839 this business approached close to $2,000,000, and it continued unabated on down to the Civil war.18 But the Cumberland Gap was not the only exit. Great droves of cattle were driven across the mountains eastward into Virginia and Pennsylvania; while many saddle and carriage horses were taken down the Mississippi River on flat boats. Although none of Kentucky's live stock went northward, much of it came from that direction. Large droves of hogs were bought in Ohio and Indiana and taken to Kentucky to be fattened before being driven to the Southern markets.19
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