USA > Kentucky > Fayette County > Lexington > History of Lexington, Kentucky : its early annals and recent progress, including biographical sketches and personal reminiscences of the pioneer settlers, notices of prominent citizens, etc., etc. > Part 10
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We might mention here, that Mill street, which was not opened for some time after "Main Cross," received its name from a cow-path which led out to a wind-mill, which stood near the present work-house. Limestone street was opened still later, and was so called from the fact that it was part of the road leading to " Limestone," now Mays-
*Ben. Kiser.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1785.
ville. This street is now inappropriately and unfortunately called "Mulberry."
A new county was created by Virginia, in 1785, out of the immense territory of Fayette, and given the name of Bourbon. Two elections were also held in Fayette this year, to choose delegates to the second and third Danville conventions, which assembled in May and August respect- ively. The delegates elected to the second convention were : Robert Todd, James Trotter, Levi Todd, and Caleb Wallace. Those elected to the third one were: James Wilkinson, Levi Todd, Caleb Wallace, and Robert Pat- terson.
The first white woman born in the savage wilds of Ken- tucky lived for many years in Lexington. Here she died, and here she sleeps. Many now living still remember the venerable Mrs. Rhoda Vaughn, the first born of the wil- derness. She was the daughter of that Captain John Holder, spoken of by Boone in his narrative, as the man who pursued the Indians who had attacked Hoy's station in August, 1782. Captain Holder was one of the old pio- neer's earliest companions. He assisted in building and defending Boonesborough fort; and within the palisades of that noted stronghold, and about the year 1776, his daughter, afterward Mrs. Vaughn, was born. Her earliest recollections were of savages, sufferings, alarms, and blood- shed; and she passed her infant years in the midst of mem- orable sieges and desperate conflicts. When she grew to womanhood, and was married, her father started her in life with a home and servants, but she lost both in a few years, by her husband's mismanagement, and after his death, times with her grew worse and worse.
At a very early day, she settled in Fayette county, and subsequently made Lexington her home, and here she re- mained and raised her children. One of her sons was the gallant adjutant, Edward M. Vaughn, a Lexington volun- teer, who fell upon the bravely contested field of Buena Vista, in 1847. His blood-soaked gauntlets were carried reverently to his mother, and they told at once, to her stricken heart, the same tragic and eloquent story that the
117
MRS. VAUGHN.
1785.]
armless and battered shield expressed to the Spartan mother in the classic days of old. Other afflictions and misfortunes followed; and destitute and desolate, the brave old lady struggled on through a life, not unfrequently made brighter by kind and sympathetic friends. Mrs. Vaughn lived for some time in the residence lately occupied by Rev. J. D. Matthews, on Winchester street, between Limestone and Walnut. She died, however, at the residence of Mrs. Susan Craig, on the south side of Short street, between George- town and Jefferson street, in the month of June, 1863, aged about eighty-seven years, and was buried in the Whaley lot, in the Episcopal Cemetery, where her remains still repose.
The only relic of the venerable heroine known to be in existence is a patch-work quilt which she made with her own hands, and gave to a sympathetic lady of Lexington, who was a friend to her in her days of sorrow and af- fliction.
That Mrs. Vaughn was the first white woman born in Kentucky, there can not be the slightest doubt; the fact is placed beyond dispute by the frequent declarations of many of the earliest settlers of this state to persons still living. Mrs. Vaughn, herself, always declared that she had never heard a statement to the contrary.
Mrs. Vaughn was a woman of excellent mind, warm heart, and sincere piety; and neither her true pride, nor the beautiful characteristics of her christian life, were abated by her poverty and misfortunes. How strange were her experiences. The fate-star of sorrow, which beamed upon her birth, seemed ever to follow her with its saddening influence. She was born when the tomahawk and the torch were busiest; the hope of her declining years died upon a field of battle, and she breathed out her own life in the midst of a terrible civil war. Her parents helped to reclaim and settle an empire; their daughter died without a foot of land that she could call her own. Will justice, even now, be done to her memory? Will the state appropriately mark the spot where rest the mortal remains of the first white woman born in the now great Commonwealth of Kentucky.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1786.
CHAPTER XIII.
Baptist Church-Pastors-Incidents-The Creath, Fishback, and Pratt Troubles-Fires.
THE Baptists were the pioneers of religion in Kentucky, and were the most numerous body of Christians in the early settlement of the state; but, as we have seen, they were not the first to found a church in Lexington. But they were not far behind, for a little band of them were meeting, from house to house, as early as 1786,* and were frequently preached to by Elder Lewis Craig, who, in 1783, had organ- ized, in Fayette county, on South Elkhorn, the first wor- shiping assembly in the state .; This valiant soldier of the cross was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and was several times imprisoned, in the Old Dominion, for preach- ing contrary to law. He was greatly gifted as an exhorter, and his constant theme was, " practical godliness and every- day christianity." He died in 1827, aged eighty-seven years, sixty of which he spent in the ministry. In 1787, Elder John Gano, of New York city, settled in Central Ken- tucky,¿ and, in conjunction with Elder - Payne, aided greatly to build up the church in Lexington. In 1789, the congregation erected a log meeting-house on the same lot where the present church stands, in the " old Baptist grave- yard," and Rev. John Gano became its first pastor. Mr. Gano, who was born at Hopewell, N. J., July 22, 1727, had been a chaplain in the American army during the Revolu- tionary war, was one of the most eminent, eccentric, and successful ministers of his day, and was personally known almost throughout the United States. Elder Gano, after being connected with the Lexington church for many years,
*Old Journal.
¡Taylor's History. ¿Benedict.
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BAPTIST CHURCH.
1786.]
moved to Frankfort, and died there in 1804. He was buried at Harmony Church, Woodford county, Kentucky.
The Baptist Church in Lexington had its troubles, too, and early in its history. In 1799, Arianism crept into the flock, and created some dissention, but finally died out under the vigorous blows of Elder Gano, who, upon one occasion (while a cripple from a fall), was held up in the arms of his friends to preach against it. But the Arian trouble had hardly died out before another one came up. In 1804, the " Emancipators," who claimed that no fellow- ship should be extended to slaveholders, commenced to dis- tract the church with their zealous efforts, and the mischief grew into a mountain in 1807, when the notorious difficulty about a negro trade took place between Jacob Creath, Sen., and Thomas Lewis; and great party strife and injury to the church ensued. At last peace came with the secession of the " Emancipators," who formed a separate association, long ago extinct, but the church was greatly weakened. It languished on with decreasing numbers until 1817, when prosperous times dawned upon it. In that year, on the 4th of January, a number of its best scattered members assem- bled and reorganized the church, with the assistance of Elders Toler, Jacob Creath, Sen., and Jeremiah Vardeman ; Berry Stout being moderator, and Samuel Ayers, clerk. On the church list of members about that time, we find, among others, the names of James Trotter, R. Higgins, William C. Warfield, Walter Warfield, W. H. Richardson, William Stone, Matthew Elder, William Payne, Edward Payne, J. H. Morton, J. C. Richardson, Gabriel Tandy, Thomas Lewis, and William Poindexter.
The congregation met at this time in the chapel of Tran- sylvania University, but immediate steps were taken to build a new house of worship. It was completed and occu- pied in October, 1819,* and was located on North Mill street, opposite the college lawn. It was a substantial two-story brick, provided with galleries, and is noted as being the building in which the first general Baptist Convention of
*Church Records.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
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Kentucky was organized. Immediately after the reorgani- zation of the church, Dr. James Fishback, who had just been ordained to the Baptist ministry, was called to the pas- torate, at a salary of four hundred dollars per year, a sum considered at that time quite extraordinary for a preacher's services. A quaint feature of the day was the custom, kept up for a long time in the Mill Street church, of giving out hymns line after line.
In 1826 the influence of the religious movement headed by Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell caused the intro- duction of a resolution into the First Baptist Church, to change its name to "the Church of Christ,"* which was ad- vocated and opposed by the two parties which had then formed in the church. After a prolonged discussion, the party favoring the resolution " swarmed out," under the the leadership of Dr. Fishback, and organized "the Church of Christ," and worshiped in the building now known as the Statesman office, on Short street, between Upper and Limestone. This church was eventually dissolved. Many of the congregation went back to the First Baptist Church, and the remainder connected themselves with the body now called the " Christian Church."
When Dr. Fishback left the First Baptist Church, Rev. Jeremiah Vardeman was called to the pastorate. Mr. Var- deman was born in Wythe county, Virginia, July 8, 1775, and came to Kentucky in 1794. He was a faithful and laborious minister of the gospel, and in the pulpit was clear, earnest, fervid, and convincing .; He was often assisted by Elders W. C. Breck and J. B. Smith. Mr. Vardeman was pastor up to 1831.
Rev. R. T. Dillard was the next incumbent. Mr. Dillard was born in Caroline county, Virginia, November 17, 1797, served in the war of 1812, came to Kentucky, and settled at Winchester in 1818, and began the practice of law, which he abandoned in 1825, when he was licensed to preach. He came to Fayette in 1828, and was for very many years pastor of David's Fork and East Hickman Baptist Churches.
*Church Record.
tSprague's Annals.
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BAPTIST CHURCH-PASTORS.
1786.]
In 1838 he traveled in Europe for his health. He was sub- sequently Superintendent of Public Instruction, has mar- ried six hundred and seventy couples, and is at present a resident of Lexington.'
Rev. Silas M. Noel* succeeded Mr. Dillard, in October, 1835. Dr. Noel was born August 12, 1783, in Essex county, Virginia, and was educated for the bar. He came to Ken- tucky in 1806, and practiced law until 1811, when, after much study of the subject of religion, he united with the Baptist Church, and was ordained to the ministry in 1813. Being poorly paid, like all the Western preachers of that day, he accepted, in 1818, the position of circuit judge in the Fourth Indiana district, without relinquishing his supe- rior office. Mr. Noel was the originator of the Baptist Educational Society of Kentucky. He was a man of much more than ordinary powers, and as a speaker was noted for his fluency, chasteness, and elegance. He died May 5, 1839, and was buried near Frankfort, Kentucky.
Mr. Noel's successor was Rev. W. F. Broadus, who was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, about the year 1802. He was descended from a preaching family, and was himself a laborious pastor and excellent preacher. He filled the pul- pit in this city until 1845, after which he became president of a female college, in Shelbyville. He is now one of the prominent Baptist ministers of Virginia.
The church called Rev. William M. Pratt, of New York, in 1845. During his administration the congregation worked together with harmony, its efforts were attended with great success, and in 1854, the old church opposite the college lawn was sold, and a handsome new one erected on Mill, between the present new First Presbyterian house of worship and Church street. It was dedicated the 19th of November, 1855, the regular pastor, Mr. Pratt, being assisted by Rev. R. T. Dillard and Dr. S. W. Lynd, then president of the Theological Seminary at Georgetown. This house was unfortunately destroyed by fire, January 1, 1859, but in the May following the erection of another one was
*Sprague's Annals.
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IIISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1786.
commenced in the old churchyard, on Main, the site of the pioneer Baptist Church of Lexington. While digging the foundation many relics of the old settlers and citizens were exhumed, and all not identified were buried in a vault under the church. This house was dedicated January 1, 1860. President Campbell, of Georgetown, Rev. G. C. Lorrimer, and the pastor officiating.
In 1863, after having been pastor for seventeen years, Mr. Pratt resigned, and the Rev. W. H. Felix, a native of Woodford county and graduate of Georgetown College, was called. Some months after Mr. Felix came the church was again burned, but mainly through his efforts another one was built on the same spot, and dedicated August 20, 1865, only to be visited by fire again in February, 1867. The untiring congregation set to work once more, and the pres- ent building was completed in a short time after the disas- ter. Even at this late date the war feeling had not entirely died out. A little while after the last fire, Mr. Pratt, W. E. Bosworth, and others asked and were given letters of dismission, and they proceeded to organize a "Second Baptist Church." The little congregation met for some time in the City Library building, but is now disbanded, most of the members having returned to the First Church. Mr. Felix resigned his charge in April, 1869, and was suc- ceeded the June following by Rev. George Hunt, the present faithful pastor, a native of Fayette county. The Baptist Church has exhibited great energy under many misfortunes, and is now enjoying the abundant prosperity it so well deserves.
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CONVENTIONS, ETC.
1787.]
CHAPTER XIV.
Paint Lick Expedition-Delegates to Conventions-Society for
Promoting Useful Knowledge-Old Kentucky Gazette-The First Western Newspaper-Lexington Racing Clubs-Ken- tucky Association-Founders-Incidents-Officers -Great Horses-Improvements -Turfmen -Breeders-The Great " Lexington."
THE events of the year 1787, if not of great importance, were of more than ordinary interest. The Indians con- tinued to show great restlessness and dissatisfaction. On information given by some friendly Shawanese that a party of Cherokees, at Paint Lick, were meditating a predatory raid, Colonel Robert Todd made an expedition against them and dispersed them, killing three, and taking seven pris- oners, who escaped the next day after capture .*
Fayette sent two delegates to the Virginia convention, which in this year ratified the constitution of the United States. The delegates were Humphrey Marshall and John Fowler.t
Another convention, the fifth, met at Danville, in Septem- tember, 1787, and Fayette was represented by Levi Todd, Caleb Wallace, Humphrey Marshall, John Fowler, and William Ward.}
A number of gentlemen, alive to the interests and ad- vancement of the district, assembled in the month of De- cember, 1787,|| and arranged for the establishment of the " Kentucky Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge." At least half of the members of the society were citizens of Lexington, and many of them were afterward counted
*Marshall.
+ Butler. ¿Old Gazette.
ĮGazette.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1787.
among the most eminent men of the state. We give the names of all the members. They were: Christopher Greenup, Humphrey Marshall, J. Brown, Isaac Shelby, James Garrard, Charles Scott, George Muter, Samuel McDowell, Harry Jones, James Speed, Wm. McDowell, Willis Green, Thos. Todd, Thos. Speed, G. J. Johnson, Joshua Barbee, Stephen Armsby, J. Overton, Jr., John Jewett, Thos. Allen, Robert Todd, Joseph Crockett, Ebenezer Brooks, T. Hall, Caleb Wallace, Wm. Irvine, James Parker, Alex. Parker, John Fowler, John Coburn, George Gordon, A. D. Orr, Robert Barr, Horace Turpin, Robert Johnson, John Craig, David Leitch.
The first newspaper ever published west of the Alle- ghany mountains was established in Lexington, in 1787, by John Bradford. It was then called the Kentucke Ga- zette, but the final e of Kentucky was afterward changed to y, in consequence of the Virginia legislature requiring certain advertisements to be inserted in the Kentucky Ga- zette. This paper was born of the necessities of the times. The want of a government independent of Virginia was then universally felt, and the second convention that met in Danville, in 1785, to discuss that subject, resolved, "That to insure unanimity in the opinion of the people respecting the propriety of separating the district of Kentucky from Virginia and forming a separate state government, and to give publicity to the proceedings of the convention, it is deemed essential to the interests of the country to have a printing press." A committee was then appointed to carry out the design of the convention; but all their efforts had failed, when John Bradford called on General Wilkinson, one of the committee, and informed him that he would establish a paper if the convention would guar- antee to him the public patronage. To this the convention acceded, and in 1786 Bradford sent to Philadelphia for the necessary materials. He had already received every en- couragement from the citizens of Lexington, and at a meeting of the trustees in July, it was ordered "that the use of a public lot be granted to John Bradford free, on
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FIRST NEWSPAPER.
1787.]
condition that he establish a printing press in Lexington ; the lot to be free to him as long as the press is in town." Mr. Bradford's first office was in a log cabin, on the corner of Main and Broadway, now known as "Cleary's," but then known as "opposite the court-house." He subse- quently used a building on Main, between Mill and Broad- way, about where Scott's iron front building stands.
At last, after being months on the route, the precious printing material arrived, and on August 18, 1787, ap- peared the first number of the first newspaper ever pub- lished in the then western wilderness. It was a quaint little brown thing, about the size of a half sheet of com- mon letter paper, "subscription price 18 shillings per annum, advertisements of moderate length 3 shillings." It was printed in the old style-f being used for s. The first number is without a heading, and contains one adver- tisement, two short original articles, and the following apology from the editor :
"My customers will excuse this, my first publication, as I am much hurried to get an impression by the time ap- pointed. A great part of the types fell into pi in the car- riage of them from Limestone (Maysville) to this office, and my partner, which is the only assistant I have, through an indisposition of the body, has been incapable of render- ing the smallest assistance for ten days past.
"JOHN BRADFORD."
No wonder " the types fell into pi," for they had to be carried from "Limestone " to Lexington on pack-horses, that had swollen streams to cross, fallen trees to jump, and many a terrible "scare " from the sudden crack of Indian rifles, for there was not a half mile between the two places unstained with blood. The Gazette of 1787 is the only indicator extant of the size and importance of Lexington, at that time. We are able to surmise some things, at least, after looking over the first volumes of the Gazette. They are adorned with rude cuts and ornaments gotten up by Bradford himself. It is well known that he cut out the larger letters from dog-wood. In these volumes we find
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
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advertised, among other things, knee-buckles, hair-powder, spinning wheels, flints, buckskin for breeches, and saddle- bag locks. "Persons who subscribe to the frame meeting- house can pay in cattle or whisky." In another place the editor condemns the common practice of "taming bears," and also that of "lighting fires with rifles." Proceedings, of the district convention are published. No. 5, of volume 1, contains the constitution of the United States just framed by the " grand convention " then in session. Notice is given to the public not to tamper with corn or potatoes at a cer- tain place, as they had been poisoned to trap some veg- etable stealing Indians. In another number, "notice is given that a company will meet at Crab Orchard next Mon- day, for an early start through the wilderness; most of the delegates to the State Convention at Richmond (to adopt constitution of United States), will go with them." Chas. Bland advertises, "I will not pay a note given to Wm. Turner for three second-rate cows till he returns a rifle, blanket, and tomahawk I loaned him." Later, the names of Simon Kenton and 'Squire Boone appear. The columns of the Gazette are enriched with able and well-written ar- ticles, full of that mental vigor and natural talent for which our pioneer fathers were so justly celebrated; but "locals" are vexatiously scarce. Still the editor got up some. He often speaks of stealing, murdering, and kid- napping by Indians. At one time he speaks of a wonder- ful elephant on exhibition in a certain stable, and at another, "the people of the settlement are flocking in to see the dromedary"-quite a menagerie at that day. We must re- member, if we think his " items " scarce, that at that time steamboats didn't explode, nor cars run off the track, for none of these, or a thousand other modern item-making machines, were in existence.
Still the Gazette must have been read with the most in- tense interest ; in fact, a writer in one of its earliest num- bers says : "Mr. Bradford, as I have signed the subscription for your press, and take your paper, my curiosity eggs me on to read everything in it." And no wonder, for all docu- ments of public interest had up to this time been written,
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FIRST NEWSPAPER.
1787.]
were often illegible, and one copy only was to be seen at each of the principal settlements. And then it was the only paper printed within five hundred miles of Lexington, and there was no post-office in the whole district. It was published, too, at a time of unusual interest in politics, and while party spirit ran high. The old national government was crumbling to give place to the new; the settlements were distracted by French and Spanish intrigues ; the peo- ple were indignant and hot-blooded over the obstructed navigation of the Mississippi, and convention after conven- tion was being held to urge on the work of separation from Virginia. What a treat the Gazette was to the pioneers ! Often when the post-rider arrived with it at a settlement, the whole population would crowd around the school- master or "'squire," who, mounted in state upon a stump, would read it, advertisements and all, to the deeply inter- ested and impatient throng.
Bradford's editorial situation, contrasted with the mag- nificent surroundings and princely style of a New York journalist of the present day, was quite interesting. His steamboat, railroad, telegraph, and mail carrier was a pack mule. His office was a log cabin. His rude and unwieldy hand-press was of the old-fashioned style, that for centuries had not been improved, and, in addition, it was a second- hand one. He daubed on the ink by hand with two an- cient dog-skin inking balls, and probably managed to get sixty or seventy copies printed on one side in an hour. If he wrote at night, it was by the light of a rousing fire, a bear-grease lamp, or a buffalo tallow candle; an editorial desk made of a smooth slab, supported by two pairs of cross legs ; a three-legged stool, ink horn, and a rifle com- posed the rest of the furniture of his office. The Gazette was, for some time, in its early history, printed on paper made near Lexington, at the mill of Craig, Parker & Co. This pioneer journal of the West existed for nearly three- quarters of a century. There is no greater treasure in the Lexington library than the old files of the Kentucke Gazette.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
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(2)
John Bradford became a citizen of Lexington in 1786. This useful man, whose name is so closely linked with the early history of our city, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1749, and married Eliza, daughter of Captain t Benj. James of the same county, in 1761. He took part in the Revolutionary war, and was also in the battle with the Indians at Chillicothe. In 1785, he brought his family out from Virginia, and settled in Fayette county. He founded the Kentucke Gazette in 1787, and published the next year the Kentucke Almanac, the first pamphlet printed west of the mountains. Mr. Bradford was chairman of the Lex- ington Board of Trustees, which welcomed Governor Shelby, in 1792, to our city, which was then the capital of the state. He was the first state printer, and received from the legislature one hundred pounds sterling. He printed books as early as 1794, and some of them of that date are still to be seen in the Lexington library. He was at one time, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Transylvania University, and filled many places of trust and honor in Lexington. He was greatly respected, and after leading a life of much usefulness, went to his rest, sincerely mourned by all who knew him. His residence was on the corner of Mill and Second streets. It was built by Colonel Hart, and is the same one now occupied by Mrs. Ryland.
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