USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
Live stock was pre-eminently the export of the Blue Grass region but it did not constitute the sole trade. The exports of Bourbon County in 1820 were made up of hogs, horses, mules, cattle, sheep, hemp, to- bacco, whiskey, bacon, linseys, linens, and numerous other articles of lesser importance, amounting to almost a quarter of a million dollars. During this same time her imports were $133,000.20 A decade later the Blue Grass region as a whole was exporting products approaching $3,000,000 in value, consisting of (besides the important item of live stock), hempen fabrics, tobacco, iron in pigs and bars, wool, ginseng, feathers, and other articles of lesser importance.21 With the Lexing- ton and Ohio Railroad in contemplation and the turnpikes building, great prosperity was predicted for this region, induced by the increased exports that must follow. According to an account of the day: "These roads will pass through nearly the middle of the richest portion of our state, possessing a soil of such exuberant fertility as to be capable, under improved cultivation, of trebling its present amount of products; which it will do whenever the completion of these works gives encouragement, by an easy, quick and cheap mode of transportation to market. They will also create new articles of trade, which, from their bulk and weight, will not bear transportation by the roads and means of conveyance now used." 22
16 A large folder announcement of this fair may be found in the Breckinridge MSS. (1851).
17 Breckinridge MSS. (1851). October 10, 1851.
18 In the panic year of 1841-42 the following stock went through the Gap; 2,765 horses, 2,247 mules, 2,406 beef cattle, 54,813 hogs, 718 sheep. Frankfort Common- wealth, March 15, 1842. See also Niles' Register, Vol. 21, p. 400; Vol. 23, p. 259; Vol. 30, p. 5; Vol. 35, P. 402; Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 43; Flint, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 355; Letters on the Conditions in Kentucky in 1825, P. 73; F. J. Turner, "The Colonization of the West 1820-1830" in American Historical Review, XI, 322.
19 Letters on the Conditions in Kentucky in 1825, p. 73; Flint, History and Geog- raphy of the Mississippi Valley, I, 355.
20 Niles' Register, Vol. 21, p. 215.
21 Ibid., Vol. 40, p. 194.
22 Niles' Register, Vol. 40, p. 194.
743
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
At this time the commerce of the state as a whole tended to divide into two directions with the Mississippi to New Orleans the greatest route. The Ohio up to Pittsburg was the other great highway used in reaching Eastern markets both for exports and imports. Besides hemp, wheat, tobacco, and live stock, "she sends off immense quantities of flour, lard, butter, cheese, pork, beef, Indian corn and meal, whiskey, cider, cider-royal, fruit, both fresh and dried, and various kinds of domestic manufactures." Steamboat tonnage on the Western rivers mounted higher with each succeeding year, until the peak point was reached just before the Civil war broke upon the country. Kentucky being centrally located played a commanding part in this immense busi- ness, both in the construction and ownership of steamboats and the traffic they carried. As early as 1821 preparations were made to establish a direct line of steamers from Louisville to Havana.23 The southern drift of Kentucky's trade was much more easy and natural than its movement up the Ohio to Pittsburg. Only the more valuable and less bulky articles could compete by this route. The steamers that plyed up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers from and to New Orleans carried all the bulky articles that the state imported or exported. The iron rails for Kentucky's early railroads came from England to New Orleans and thence up the rivers on steamers to Louisville.24
Louisville's strategic position at the falls of the Ohio, circumvented by the canal, in 1829, gave that city a commanding position in the whole Ohio Valley, and rapidly made her the chief city of the state. Kentucky was really developing into a one-city state, with many smaller strug- gling towns but none able to successfully compete with the colossus. In 1860, Louisville had grown to the point where her inhabitants were virtually equal to the remainder of the urban population throughout the state in towns of more than a thousand souls. The growth. of the city was immediate on the coming of the steamboat. In the decade be- tween 1820 and 1830 it more than doubled its population. "Manu- factures are taking root there ;" it was reported, "and the happy effects of them will be extended over the whole neighborhood." 25 Its river commerce grew with amazing rapidity. In the early '30s it was no un- common sight to see dozens of steamers loading and unloading. On one day in 1833, thirty-five steamboats were counted at the docks "all briskly being laden or unladen." 26 The commercial business of the city during the year 1835 amounted to nearly $25,000,000.27 The prosperity and growth of the city was not based entirely on the carrying trade. Manu- factures were growing rapidly. In 1842 more than 2,500 tons of hemp were manufactured.28 .Flint in the early '30s described Louisville as being "in a commercial point of view, *
* far the most important town in the state. The main street is nearly a mile in length, and is as noble, as compact, and has as much the air of a maritime town, as any street in the western country." 29
As heretofore mentioned, Lexington had for various reasons been left far behind by Louisville. Although surpassed in wealth and population, she could never be robbed of her commanding and dignified position as the social and intellectual center of the state. Lexington was by no means stagnant or going backward, neither had she lost her driving power. In 1831 it was described as being "in a state of rapid improve-
23 Ibid., Vol. 20, p. 63.
24 Alfred Pirtle, "Some Early Engineers and Architects in Kentucky" in Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 12, No. 36, p. 41.
25 Niles' Register, Vol. 37, p. 181.
26 Niles' Register, Vol. 44, pp. 235, 342.
27 Niles' Register, Vol. 49, P. 361. Exactly $24,837,000.
28 Ibid., Vol. 63, p. 228.
2ยบ Flint, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 358.
744
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ment-new buildings to the value of $100,000, will be erected in the present season, and many old ones are undergoing extensive repairs." It was at this time that she began to macadamize her streets.30 She still had important manufactures, chiefly cotton bagging and various kinds of cordage. The output of the farmer in 1830 was 1,000,000 yards, and of the latter, 2,000,000 pounds. There were three factories for spinning and weaving wool and a half dozen for cotton, while there was one large machine-making factory and other smaller ones. Lexington feeling her position as a manufacturing city slipping away from herself laid the cause partially to the lack of patriotism of her merchants in importing articles made within the city. A meeting was
VIEW OF STREET SCENE IN LEXINGTON
held in the court house in 1839 in which it was resolved that "the importation of manufactured articles into the city of Lexington [was] highly detrimental to the best interests of the working classes." They called upon the Legislature for aid.31
But the characteristics of Lexington were not those of a commer- cial city, as a visitor in the '30s readily observed : "The town buildings in general, are handsome, and some are magnificent. Few towns in the west, or elsewhere, are more delightfully situated. Its environs have a singular softness and amenity of landscape, and the town wears an air of neatness, opulence, and repose, indicating leisure and studiousness, rather than the bustle of business and commerce. It is situated in the center of a proverbially rich and beautiful country. The frequency of
30 Niles' Register, Vol. 40, p. 344.
31 Kentucky Gazette, Dec. 19, 1839.
745
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
handsome villas and ornamental rural mansions, impart [sic] the im- pression of vicinity to an opulent metropolis. *
* * The inhabitants are cheerful, intelligent, conversable, and noted for their hospitality to strangers. The professional men are noted for their attainments in their several walks, and many distinguished and eminent men have had their origin here. *
* * The people are addicted to giving parties; and the tone of society is fashionable and pleasant. Strangers, in general, are much pleased with a temporary sojourn in this city, which conveys high ideas of the refinement and taste of the country. There are now much larger towns in the west: but none presenting more beauty and intelligence. The stranger, on finding himself in the midst of its pol- ished and interesting society, cannot but be carried back by the strong contrast, to the time when the principal hunters of Kentucky, reclining on their buffalo robes around their evening fires, canopied by the lofty trees and the stars, gave it the name it bears, by patriotic acclama- tion." 32
Frankfort, though small, was the capital of the state and for that reason alone had many attractions and tended to develop respectability in architecture and manufacturing. There were here in 1830 three cot- ton bagging factories, one cotton factory, a rope walk, and other estab- lishments of lesser consequence. In point of actual commercial im- portance during this period of steamboat supremacy, Maysville was second only to Louisville. This was due to the fact that it was the principal point for importations into the central and north-eastern portions of the state. Almost all the goods from Philadelphia and the other Eastern markets were landed here and distributed over the state. It also served as a point of exportation for much Kentucky productions. In 1834 the imports here were more than $1,000,000 and exports over a half million. Its exports of hemp increased from 147 tons in 1827 to 449 tons in 1831.33 There were numerous other towns which depended on different factors for their varying prosperity, such as Washington, Paris, Georgetown, Harrodsburg, Versailles, Covington, Newport, Cynthiana and Russell- ville.
Apart from the gain that came from exchange and the profit from tilling the soil, there was much hidden wealth in the state whose outcrop- pings had been noted and delved in from the earliest settlements and ex- peditions. The more evident natural resources of the country had by the close observers been noted in connection with the fertility of the soil. Iron ore was noticed by the earliest settlers and its development was among the first uses to be made of the natural wealth of the country. Jacob Myers came to the Kentucky region in 1782, patented a large tract of land on Slate Creek, a branch of the Licking River, in what is now Bath County, and nine years later began the construction of a small fur- nace. The next year operations were begun and for almost a half cen- tury the business was continued. This was a most valuable development in the western wilderness; it supplied the settlers with pot and pans; it began supplying the United States navy in 1810 with cannon balls and grape shot ; and it contributed its part to the defeat of the British at New Orleans in 1815. In 1798 a forge was built nearby to convert the pig into bar iron, and in 1810 another forge was built in the same region. In 1817 a furnace was built in Greenup County, and during the '20s the iron industry developed considerable proportions in this Northeastern Kentucky region, with five furnaces being set up in Greenup, Carter, and Boyd counties. During the next decade at least seven furnaces were built, and from then on to the Civil war the development was constant. Three were erected during the year 1833, which led Hezekiah Niles,
32 Flint, History of Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 357.
33 Ibid., 359, 360; Niles' Register, Vol. 47, P. 373.
746
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
always interested in the material growth of the country, to say, "How much more pleasant it is to hear of such creations of value, than to be informed of the building up of paper money manufacturies." 34
The iron industry had developed for the most part in the northeastern part of the state; but a few furnaces grew up in the western part of the state in Lyon, Edmondson, Muhlenburg, Trigg, and Caldwell counties. It was in the first-named county that the first "Bessemer" iron in the world was made, and that by the Kelleys two years before Bessemer had discovered the process in England.35
Coal was also early known here and its importance recognized. In 1805 the Palladium carried an advertisement by an enthusiastic specu- lator who had a large tract of land for sale on the upper reaches of the Kentucky River. The land would not only produce in great abun- dance virtually every crop that grew out of the ground but it was also underlaid with vast mineral wealth among which were a half dozen "valuable coal banks." 36 Coal did not however come into any con- siderable use until in the latter '40s, when it began to be brought down the Kentucky River. In 1848, the first boat-load came down this route to Claysville from where it was hauled by wagon to Cynthiana, there selling for 21 cents a bushel. This traffic grew with time, so that many Kentucky towns came to use this fuel before the Civil war.37 The West- ern coal fields were tapped even before the regions of the Upper Kentucky River were developed. In 1825, the mining of coal was be- gun in Daviess County near Owensboro.38
The production of salt was among the earliest of pioneer industries. In 1778 Daniel Boone with a party of twenty-seven men while making salt at the Lower Blue Licks was captured by the Indians. Salt springs were so abundant in Kentucky and the output of salt so extensive that James Wilkinson engaged extensively in that trade together with his tobacco business as early as 1786. Kentucky salt bore a good reputation throughout the West and much of it was exported. Salt springs existed in western as well as the eastern parts of the state. Allen County developed salt works which by 1846 were making 300 bushels a week. Carter County in the East had salt wells that were operated by Simon Kenton when he first came to the region; while Clay County tended to become the center of good salt from 1800 on down to 1846 when there was being made here 200,000 bushels a year. In Southeastern Kentucky, Pike and Pulaski counties made much salt before the Civil war. Its manufacture was early encouraged by the state government. Such an act was passed in 1813, and shortly before areas of land had been given for ten cents the acre to encourage the building of salt work in Pulaski and Wayne counties.39
Oil in large quantities was produced as early as 1830. Workmen while boring for salt wells in Cumberland County were surprised on withdrawing their auger to find oil thrown up 12 to 14 feet beyond the mouth of the well. According to a contemporary account, "Although the quantity somewhat abated, after the discharge of the first few min- utes, during which it was supposed to emit seventy-five gallons a minute, it still continued to flow in a stream, that made its way to the Cumber- land, for a long distance covering the surface with its oily pellicle. It is so penetrating as to be difficult to confine it in any wooden vessel. It
34 Niles' Register, Vol. 28, p. 259.
85 J. M. Johnson, "The Iron Industry of Kentucky," in Engineers and Archi- tects Club of Louisville Papers and Reports, 1911, pp. 16-28; Hunt's Merchant Magazine, Vol. 19 (1848), p. 229.
36 Quoted in Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 407, 408.
37 Ibid., 58.
38 Ibid., II, 153.
39 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 24, 26, 27, 33; II, 34, 123, 141, 370, 656, 680. 684.
1
747
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ignites freely, and produces a flame as brilliant as gas light, for which it might become a cheap and abundant substitute." 40 Another descrip- tion of this development, after mentioning the flow of the oil upon the Cumberland River, continued, "If ignited, it would present a magnifi- cent, if not an appalling, spectacle." 41 By the '50s the development of oil had reached such proportions that efforts were being made to secure markets for it. In 1857 the Breckinridge Coal Company offered the United States Lighthouse Board to supply its needs with 95,000 gallons for the next year. It offered this oil at a cheaper price than sperm oil and guaranteed "that it shall have excellent properties." 42
The timber supplies of the eastern section of the state were little worked before the Civil war, although the importance of this wealth was recognized. In Central Kentucky and especially in the Blue Grass part, the large spreading trees scattered over the country were soon felled, and a timber shortage was being felt here as early as the '20S. "A Farmer" complained in 1822 of the practice of road-workers entering upon timber lands wherever convenient and cutting the trees for cross laying the roads and for other road purposes. He warned the people that timber was getting scarce and that it would take generations to renew it; the practice should be stopped.43 It was only a step from the feeling of a timber shortage to a demand for timber conservation. A forward looking Kentuckian wrote to the Kentucky Gazette under the name of "Public Good" that, "The destruction of timber without any effort to reinstate it, is a neglect on the part of the farmers near Lexing- ton which is altogether inexcusable. If the next generation should be as forgetful of its duty to posterity, there will not be a stick left to burn in the country." 44
These more or less sporadic discoveries and developments of out- cropping natural resources had all begun through private initiative alone, and without any exact knowledge of the location and amounts of the state's natural wealth. The lack of exact information on this subject was felt keenly by many people of the state, who believed that a valuable line of endeavor was being left undeveloped. The agricultural associa- tions were particularly anxious that an inventory be taken of the natural wealth of the state; and it was to a large degree due to two of these associations, the Carlisle Agricultural Association and the Franklin Agricultural Society, that the first geological survey was made. Other states, such as Ohio, Maryland, and New York, were making surveys about this time; why not Kentucky ? 45 In February, 1838, the Legisla- ture provided for a preliminary geological survey, appropriating $1,000 for the purpose. That the "mineral wealth and resources should be well understood, and be properly developed," it was stated was "important to the agricultural, manufacturing and commercial interests of the Com- monwealth." "Some competent person" should be appointed "to prepare and report to the next General Assembly, a plan in detail for a geological and mineralogical survey." 46 W. W. Mather of the New York Geolog- ical Survey was appointed to make the reconnoissance. He spent the summer of 1838 in the work, making a survey of the whole state and publishing his findings in a Report on the Geological Reconnaissance of Kentucky, made in 1838.47 This was merely a preliminary survey to a
40 Flint, History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, I, 354.
41 Niles' Register, Vol. 36, p. 117.
42 Hunt's Merchants Magazine, Vol. 36, p. 385.
43 Kentucky Gazette, March 21, 1822.
44 May 8, 1823.
45 Thos. B. Stevenson wrote Crittenden on the desirability of such a survey, December 8, 1837. Crittenden MSS., Vol. 5, No. 969.
46 Acts of Kentucky, 1837, P. 357. The resolution was approved February 16, 1838.
47 Published in Journals of Kentucky Senate, 1839, Appendix, 253-292. See also Chapter of Dr. Miller in this work.
RAFTING LOGS IN KENTUCKY RIVER AT JACKSON
LOGGING SCENE NEAR CRESSMONT, LEE COUNTY
749
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
complete and searching survey, which it was expected would be made later. Mather gave an excellent summary of the state's natural wealth, noting the various areas of mineral wealth. He summed up the mineral wealth thus: "The mineral districts are grouped in different parts of the state, and varied in their character and aspect as in their products. Coal, iron ores, salt, saltpetre, limestone for common and hydraulic lime, sandstones for building, and firestone, limestone for building stones and marbles, clay for bricks and coarse pottery, shale for firestone, fire bricks and pottery, and pyrites for the manufacture of copperas, are among the most important mineral substances of economical interest.
"These substances occur in abundance within the limits of the state, but few of the locations, comparatively, are either known or appreciated by the mass of the people. In addition to these, are various valuable medicinal springs, petroleum or burning springs, and lead ore. Chal- cedony, agate and amethyst, such as are extensively manufactured in Germany into small ornamental articles and precious stones, are common in some parts of the state. The mineral districts of Kentucky embrace in the aggregate almost the whole area of the state."
As suggestive as this report was of the great mineral wealth pos- sessed by the state, which might be made more available by a more complete survey, nothing was done until 1854. A memorial of the Ken- tucky Historical Society signed by many men of importance was pre- sented to the Legislature in 1847, but nothing came of it. By 1853 opinion was being aroused and frequently expressed through the various agricultural associations calling for a geological survey. In 1854 the first geological survey was provided for, with the appointment of David Dale Owen as state geologist. Now for the first time a detailed geological and geographical mapping of the state was carried out. Also a searching survey was made of all the various kinds of mineral wealth of the state, together with the geological formations. The findings of this survey were published in four good-sized volumes, which the Legislature dis- tributed in considerable quantities.48 The Civil war put a stop to further work in this field, and not until the enthusiastic re-awakening following the war, did Kentucky again take serious note of her natural resources.49
Wars, panics, and plagues punctuate the history of every people and rudely upset the even tenor of their way. Kentucky was not freed from any of these disturbing elements. Governors invariably called attention in their messages to the Legislature to the smiling days of prosperity or to the frowning times when these evils beset them. Governor Adair in his message to the Legislature in 1822 could not record only unmingled goods : "Amid the rich and numerous blessings with which providence has signalized our happy country, we have been not wholly exempted from some of its severest calamities. While peace, tranquility and order have reigned throughout the land; while the fruits of the earth have repaid the labors of the husbandman with a bounteous profusion, and every species of industry and skill have been liberally encouraged by the rewards of reviving commerce, while our people have witnessed with joy and thankfulness the masculine growth of their favorite institutions, and hailed, with sentiments of just and exalted pride, the glorious tri- umphs of that redeeming spirit, inspired by their own example, which, in distant regions of the world, impelled the votaries of republican free- dom to plant their standard on the grave of departed despotism, the sudden incursions of sickness and death have cast an unexampled gloom over different portions of our healthful state. In common with her
48 Acts of Kentucky, 1855, P. 143. A resolution of March 10, 1856, provided for the printing of 5,000 copies of the work available at that time.
49 For a short account of the state geological surveys see W. R. Jillson, "A His- tory of the Kentucky Geological Survey (1838-1921)" in The Register of the Ken- tucky State Historical Society, Vol. 19, No. 57, pp. 90-112.
750
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
sister states, Kentucky, during the short periods of the summer and autumn, experienced an unusual visitation of disease. When we look back on the suffering inflicted by the prevalence of a general malady and remember-who can forget it ?- that we have been deprived of some of our most valuable and respected citizens, it is with hearts full of gratitude to a kind Providence that our minds are averted from the painful retro- spect by the welcome and consolatory assurance that the evil has de- parted, and that returning health, with her long train of blessings, oc- cupied again her accustomed abode !" 50
But disease broke out again in the latter part of 1832 and growing into a malignant form by 1833 wrought unexampled havoc to human life. This was the dreaded Asiatic Cholera, which had already struck Europe. In a surprisingly short time the whole state was almost prostrated. Its nature was wholly unknown; it struck high and low; and it suddenly ap- peared in a community, spreading death on every side, and as suddenly ceased without any known cause. It was mysterious and frightful; people fled in terror before it and some were driven to insanity. Within a few months, there were 67 deaths in Maysville and sixty in Mason County. In Flemingsburg 47 whites and 19 blacks were stricken dead and in Elizaville and vicinity 21 died. In Fleming County whole fam- ilies died in less than forty eight hours-two such families of 12 and IO members each being buried in one common grave "without winding sheet or coffin." In Paris there were 73 deaths, Millersburg 78, Center- ville 16, and numerous others throughout Bourbon County. Thirty-six died in Montgomery County, and 120 in Lancaster and the surrounding neighborhood. Throughout the state was the same tale of woe and destruction.51
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.