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 15
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Under these discouraging circumstances, Mr. Breckinridge practiced law in Albemarle county, Virginia, from 1785, until his removal to Kentucky, and as a lawyer, no man of his day excelled him, and but few could compare with him. While a member of the Kentucky legislature, he inaugu- rated the movement against the alien and sedition laws, and was prominent and influential in the convention which framed the state constitution of 1799.
As a senator in Congress, as attorney-general of the United States under Jefferson, and as a great leader of the old democratic party, he displayed the qualities of a patriot, and made himself famous as a statesman. He resided for some time in a house which stood in the rear of the present residence of Mr. B. Gratz, fronting on Broadway, and be-
1793.]
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.
183
tween Second and Third. He died near Lexington, Decem- ber 14, 1806. Mr. Breckinridge was the grandfather of our distinguished fellow-citizen, General John C. Breckin- ridge.
With the year 1793 commences the history of invention in Lexington, for at that time, in all reasonable probability, was invented the first steamboat that ever successfully plowed the waters of the world. The inventor, Edward West, was a Virginian, and moved to this city in 1785. . He was the first watchmaker who settled in Lexington. His shop and residence both were near the corner of Mill and Hill streets, opposite the present residence of Mrs. Letcher. Mr. West was a hard student and close investi- gator. He spent all his leisure time in experimenting with steam and steam machinery of his own construction, and the little engine that so successfully propelled his little boat, was the result of years of untiring industry. He obtained a patent for his great invention, and also one for a nail- cutting machine, the first ever invented, and which cut 5,320 pounds in twelve hours, the patent for which " he sold at once for ten thousand dollars."* Models of both inven- tions were deposited in the patent office, but they were un- fortunately destroyed when Washington was burned by the British in 1814. It is said that John Fitch, of Pennsyl- vania, made the initiatory step in steam navigation in 1787, but it is also known that he had no success till August, 1807, while West's boat was notoriously a success as early as 1793, years before Fulton had built his first boat on the Seine. In that year (1793), in the presence of a large crowd of deeply interested citizens, a trial of West's won- derful little steamboat was made on the town fork of Elk- horn, which was damned up near the Lexington and Frank- fort freight depot for that purpose. The boat moved swiftly through the water. The first successful application of steam to navigation was made, and cheer after cheer arose from the excited spectators. A number of our most
£
*Michaux.
184
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1793.
respected and venerable citizens remember witnessing this experiment when boys. In confirmation of the early date of this invention, we quote the following editorial notice from the old Kentucky Gazette, dated April 29, 1816 :
"STEAMBOATS .- A steamboat owned by a company of gentlemen of this town (Lexington) was to sail for New Orleans yesterday, from near the mouth of Hickman creek. We are informed that she is worked on a plan invented by Mr. West, of this place, nearly twenty years ago, and in a manner distinct from any other steamboat now in use. On trial against the current of the Kentucky, when that river was very high, she more than answered the sanguine expectation of her owners, and left no doubt on their minds that she could stem the current of the Mississippi with rapidity and ease."
The editor settles the question of the antiquity of the invention, but speaks indefinitely. John B. West, the inventor's son, states decidedly that it was in the year 1793. The memory of Edward West should be cherished by all his countrymen; for to his genius is due one of the grandest inventions recorded in the " geographical history of man," since Jason sailed in search of the golden fleece, or the Phoenicians crept timidly along the shores of the Mediterranean, in their frail, flat-bottomed barges. The time when steam was first used as a motive power will form an era in the world's history, for the revolution it has worked has been a mighty one, and a hundred years from now, the little stream called the " Town Fork of Elk- horn" will have become classic. The identical miniature engine that West made and used in 1793 is now in the museum of the lunatic asylum in this city. Edwin West . died in Lexington, August 23, 1827, aged seventy.
ard
In 1796,* Nathan Burrowes, an ingenious citizen of Lex- ington, introduced the manufacture of hemp into Kentucky, and also invented a machine for cleaning hemp. Like many other inventors, he was betrayed, and derived no
*S. D. Mccullough.
185
INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.
1793.]
benefit from either. He afterward discovered a superior process of manufacturing mustard, and produced an article which took the premium at the World's Fair, in London, and which has no equal in quality in existence. The secret of its compounding has been sacredly transmitted unre- vealed. It is now three-quarters of a century since "Bur- rowes' Mustard" was first made, and it is still manufactured in Lexington, and has a world-wide celebrity. Mr. Bur- rowes settled in Lexington in 1792, and died here in 1846.
At the beginning of the present century, John Jones, who died in Lexington in 1849, at the advanced age of ninety years, invented a speeder spindle and a machine for sawing stone, which were afterward "caught up" by eastern impostors.
Though not an invention, it may not be inappropriate here to state that vaccination had been introduced for sev- eral years in Lexington by Dr. Samuel Brown, of Transyl -. vania University, when the first attempts at it were being made in New York and Philadelphia .* Up to 1802, he had vaccinated upward of five hundred persons in Ken- tucky.
In 1805, Dr. Joseph Buchanan, long known as one of the most remarkable citizens of Lexington, invented, at the age of twenty, a musical instrument,; producing its harmony from glasses of different chemical composition, and origi- nated the grand conception of the music of light, to be ex- ecuted by means of harmonific colors luminously displayed ; an invention which will, if ever put in operation, produce one of the most imposing spectacles ever witnessed by the human eye.
About 1835, Mr. E. S. Noble, of Lexington, invented an important labor-saving machine, for the purpose of turning the bead on house-guttering.
One of the greatest mechanical geniuses, or inventors, that Lexington has produced, and one who has done honor to America, was Thomas Harris Barlow. His shop was, for a long time, located on Spring street, between Main and
*Michaux's Travels.
+Collins, 559.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1793.
Water. He settled in Lexington in 1825, but first attracted public attention in 1827, by making a locomotive which would ascend an elevation of eighty feet to the mile, with a heavily-laden car attached .* He, at the same time, con- structed a small circular railroad, over which the model lo- comotive and car ran successfully in the presence of many spectators, some of whom are still alive. This model is yet in existence in the Lunatic Asylum of this city. Lexing- ton can claim, therefore, the first railroad and the first loco- motive ever constructed in Western America. After this, Mr. Barlow invented a self-feeding nail and tack machine, which was a success. He sold it to some Massachusetts capitalists. In 1855, he invented and perfected a rifled per- cussion cannon, for the testing and experimental manufac- ture of which Congress appropriated $3,000 .; This gun attracted the attention and admiration of the Russian min- ister at Washington during the Crimean war, which was then raging, and is believed to be the pattern which subse- quent inventors of rifled guns have more or less followed. It weighed seven thousand pounds, the bore was five and a half inches in diameter, twisting one turn in forty feet. It was cast at Pittsburg.
His last, and greatest achievement, and one that will long cause his name to be gratefully remembered by the learned and scientific throughout the world, was the invention of the planetarium, now so celebrated, both for the wonderful ingenuity of its harmonious arrangement and working, and for the ease and accuracy with which it represents the mo- tions and orbits of the planets. The planetarium was the result of ten years' patient study and labor, having been commenced in 1841, and finished in 1851 .¿ It was finally perfected and exhibited in a room in the upper story of the building which formerly occupied the site of the present banking-house, on the corner of Main and Upper streets.|| The first planetarium Mr. Barlow made, was purchased for Transylvania University. The instrument is now used at Washington, West Point, and in most of the great ed-
*Obs. and Rep.
¡Milton Barlow. įId. ! Wm. Swift.
187
INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.
1793.]
ucational institutions of this country. At the late grand Exposition at Paris, in 1867, Barlow's planetarium was ex- amined with delight and admiration by the savants of Europe, and received a premium of the first class. Mr. Bar- low was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, August 5, 1789, and died in Cincinnati in 1865.
June 2 ,
188
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1794.
CHAPTER XXI.
Game - Wayne's Victory-Lexington Post-office-Incidents, and List of Postmasters-The Catholic Church - Father Badin-Pastors.
GAME, once so abundant about Lexington, had greatly diminished by the year 1794. Teal and duck were still plentiful, and the deer had not left the forests, but the buffalo and the elk had disappeared, and wild turkeys were never seen. Immense numbers of quails, which before the settlement of Kentucky had been unknown, now migrated from the other side of the mountains, following up the grain scattered by emigrants.
Relief from the plundering and murdering Indians was now at hand. General Anthony Wayne, the successor of the ill-fated St. Clair, after having organized his forces with great care and deliberation, moved against the Miami sav- ages in the summer of 1794. General Wilkinson, Robert Todd, and Thomas Lewis, and a large number of mounted volunteers from Lexington and Fayette county, constituted a part of the army, and participated in Wayne's brilliant and decisive victory over the Indians at the rapids of the Miami, August 20, 1794. A few months after the battle, peace was effected with the northwestern tribes, and, after long years of bloodshed and misery, anxiety and watching, the settlers of the Dark and Bloody Ground had rest from their savage foes, who never again ventured upon Kentucky soil.
The Lexington post-office was established about the year 1794, the inefficiency of the old confederation and the incomplete organization of the new government rendering it impossible until that late period. Before that time, all
189
LEXINGTON POST-OFFICE.
1794.]
letters and papers received by the citizens were obtained through the kindness of friends and immigrants, or came by private enterprise. A lady in Lexington, at that early day, whose husband had gone to Crab Orchard, received a letter from him which he had intrusted to a party of settlers who intended to go through Lexington on their way west. In passing through the " Wilderness," the Indians attacked the party, killing the man who had the letter, and his com- panions carried it to the anxious wife stained with his blood .*
1n 1787, Bradford's "post-rider " brought letters to the citizens, and in 1790 to still further accommodate them, he opened a letter-box in his office where all letters and papers brought to town could be deposited, and he published a list of them in the Gazette once a month .* The first post- master, Innis B. Brent, who was also jailer, had his office in the log jail building which stood on Main street, between Graves' stable and the corner of Broadway. It was next located in " Postleth waite's tavern " (Phoenix). In 1808, it was in a building with immense hewed log steps, which oc- cupied the site of the new Odd Fellows Hall, on Main. Mr. Jordan was then postmaster, and our venerable fellow- citizen, Mr. Ben Kiser, was his deputy.
In the year 1812 and for some time after, the post-office was located in a little red frame-house which stood on the site of Hoagland's stable, on Main, between Limestone and Rose. Persons are still living who remember when the news came to Lexington that the war with England was over. The post-rider, with the mail bag strapped behind him, and furiously blowing his horn, dashed up to the post- office door with the word "Peace " in big letters upon the front of his hat.
At a later period the post-office was near the old Ken- tucky Gazette office, near Clark & Bros. grocery, on Main. In 1861, it was removed from the building now known as Rule's cigar store, on the corner of Main, to its present lo- cation, on the corner of Mill and Short streets.
*Cist, 129.
tOld Gazette.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1794.
Joseph Ficklin, who was appointed postmaster in 1822, is believed to have held the office longer, and through more presidential administrations than any other postmaster in this country. The names of the postmasters of Lexington, in order of their succession, are Innis B. Brent, Peter G. Voorhies, John W. Hunt, John Jordan, Jr., John Fowler, Joseph Ficklin, Thomas Redd, Squire Bassett, Jesse Wood- ruff, L. B. Todd, S. W. Price.
The Catholic church in Lexington owes its establish- ment to the self-sacrifice and untiring energy of the Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin,* who commenced, in January, 1794, to gather together the few Catholies then in the town. Father Badin was a native of France, and had been a sub- deacon of the diocese of Orleans. He escaped from Bor- deaux in 1792, while the furious Jacobins were murdering his fellow-priests, and sailed for the United States. He was ordained in Baltimore, by Bishop Carroll, the following year, being the first priest of his church ever ordained in this country, and shortly after set out for Kentucky. He journeyed from Limestone (Maysville) to Lexington on foot, and passed over the field of the disastrous battle of Blue Licks, and though the defeat had taken place more than eleven years before, the scene of it was still marked by the whitened bones of the massacred settlers. For a number of years after his arrival in Lexington, Father Badin, like the majority of the pioneer preachers, fared badly.
A little hut was his home; he ground his own corn with a hand-mill, and once had to go several days without bread .; Father Badin celebrated mass in private houses until the year 1800, when his congregation erected a log church in a corner of the lot on which the First Baptist Church, on Main, is now located. Here he officiated until 1812, when the wants of his flock demanded a larger house. A gothic chapel of brick was accordingly built in the old Catholic graveyard, on Winchester street, and was dedicated May 19, 1812 .¿ The subscription for this new church was
*Spalding.
+Davidson. #McCabe.
191
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH.
1794.]
opened on St. Patrick's day in 1810, at which time the Rev. F. O'Flynn preached in the court-house an eloquent pan- egyric on Ireland's patron saint. Three hundred dollars were subscribed on the spot, and enough was raised shortly after to commence work on the chapel.
Father Badin labored in Lexington for many years, be- loved by his congregation, and respected by all who had the good fortune to know him. This early and zealous missionary, whose goodness, learning, and wit would have made him an ornament in the most polished society, spent his life with hunters and hardy settlers, in doing what he believed to be the best for his fellow-men. In 1822 he went to Paris, France, and while there published a book entitled "Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky." In 1832 he labored among the Potawatomie Indians. After traversing Ken- tucky and other states on missionary duty a hundred times through rain and storm, and heat and cold, he went to his rest at last in 1853.
Rev. G. A. M. Elder, born in Marion county, Kentucky in 1793, succeeded Father Badin. He was a student at Emmettsburg College, Maryland ; was ordained by Bishop David in 1819, and is noted as the founder and first presi- dent of St. Joseph's College at Bardstown. He was a man of strong mind and unconquerable energy. Rev. Elder died September 28, 1828, in the institution he had established, and which remains as his monument.
St. Peter's Church, on Limestone street, was built during the pastorate of Rev. Edward McMahon, a native of Ire- land, and was dedicated December 3, 1837. On Sunday, August 13, 1854,* just a few moments after the congrega- tion had retired from this building, the entire ceiling fell in with a crash that would have carried death and destruc- tion with it if it had occurred a little while before. Fathers Butler, John Maguire, and Dismaria succeeded each other. Father Dismariæ was an Italian, learned and scholarly, and endowed with unusual philosophical talents. He died in
*Observer and Reporter.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1794.
Philadelphia, a few years ago. In 1859, Rev. Peter Mc- Mahon and Rev. H. G. Allen were the resident priests.
Rev. John H. Bekkers, a Hollander, took charge of the church in 1864, and has remained its faithful and efficient pastor ever since. Under his direction, the present hand- some and commodious St. Paul's Church, on Short street, between Broadway and Spring, was completed. The corner- stone of this church was laid by the Rt. Rev. G. A. Carroll, on Sunday, November 12, 1865, and was dedicated, with impressive services, October 18, 1868, by Archbishop Purcell.
193
BRICK HOUSES, ETC.
1795.]
CHAPTER XXII.
Brick Houses-Immigration-Infidelity-Free Navigation of the Mississippi-German Lutheran Church-Lexington Li- brary, Founders, Incidents, Librarians.
BRICK houses began to take the place of wooden ones in Lexington in 1795. The first one erected is believed to have been the one built by Mr. January in the back part of the lot, between Mill and Broadway, on which the residence of Mr. Benjamin Gratz now stands .*
The fear of all future invasions by the Indians having been removed by the decisive campaign of General Wayne, immigrants in great numbers poured into Kentucky, and many of them settled in Lexington, whose substantial growth dates from this year. Unfortunately, some of the newcomers were admirers of Thomas Paine, and exerted themselves to spread his peculiar views through the com- munity, and being aided by the existing partiality for French ideas, met with some success, and laid the foundation of the infidelity and lax morality which became unpleasantly prominent shortly after.
There was great rejoicing in Lexington, in the fall of 1795, over the welcome news that a treaty had been concluded with Spain, by which the United States was conceded the free navigation of the Mississippi river to the ocean, with a right of deposit at New Orleans.
About this time (1795), the organization of a German Lutheran church was effected in Lexington, mainly through the efforts of Captain John Smith, Jacob Kiser, Casper Kernsner, and Martin Castel .¡ Money enough was secured, by means of a lottery, to purchase the lot on Hill street, be- tween Mill and Upper, on which the Southern Methodist
* McCabe.
tOld Kentucky Gazette.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1795.
Church now stands, and to erect a story and a half frame building, which was used both as a church and school-house. The pastor of the church was the Rev. Mr. Dishman, the teacher was Mr. Leary. The congregation was composed almost entirely of Germans, among whom were Henry Lanckart, Jacob Springle, John Kiser, Adam Webber, George Adams, Haggard, Edward Howe, Malcolm Myers, and Mr. Bushart. Many members of the Lutheran Church were buried in their old graveyard, which is still to be seen back of the present Hill Street Methodist Church.
About the year 1815, the little frame Lutheran church was destroyed by fire, and no other was ever erected. The congregation became scattered, and finally died out, even from the memory of many. When the old church lot was sold to the Lutheran Methodists, only one trustee of the Lutheran Church, Adam Webber, was still alive.
The Lexington Library, the oldest institution of its kind in Kentucky, if not in the West, commenced its existence in this year (1795). On New Year's day, a number of gen- tlemen met in the " old state-house " to consult in regard to establishing a library for the benefit of the citizens of Lex- ington and the students of Transylvania Seminary. It was resolved to organize such an institution, to be called " Tran- sylvania Library," and the following citizens were appointed a committee to perfect the work, viz: Robert Barr, John Bradford, John Breckinridge, James Brown, R. W. Down- ing, Thomas Hart, Thomas January, James Parker, Samuel Price, Fred. Ridgely, H. Toulmin, and James Trotter.
So earnest were these gentlemen in the good work to which they had been called, that in a few days they had se- cured subscriptions from the public amounting to five hun- dred dollars. A purchasing committee was appointed, and the money forwarded for the books .* At this time, Tran- sylvania Seminary, as the present university was then called, was a small school, with no collection worthy the name of " library," and there were no private libraries in the city, though it could boast, even at that early day, of many citi-
*Kentucky Gazette.
195
LEXINGTON LIBRARY.
1795.]
zens of culture and education, who no doubt waited with the greatest impatience for the infant library. Patience was needed, for it took nearly a year to collect and transport the books to Lexington. But they came at last (four hun- dred volumes) in January, 1796, and were placed for safe keeping in the seminary building.
In 1798, when the Presbyterian grammar school, "Ken- tucky Academy," was merged in Transylvania Seminary, forming Transylvania University, the library was increased by the addition of the little library of Kentucky Academy. By this means, the library came in possession of valuable theological works, obtained through the generous exertions of Rev. Doctor Gordon, of London,* and also books bought by subscriptions obtained by Rev. James Blythe from President Washington, Vice-President Adams, Aaron Burr, and other distinguished gentlemen. The library now numbered over six hundred volumes, and the committee, believing it could be made more useful if placed in a more central location, removed it to the drug store of the first librarian, Andrew McCalla, which was located at that time on the corner of Market and Short streets, where the Daily Press office now stands, and its name was changed to " Lexington Library." By this name it was incorporated November 29, 1800. The shareholders named in the charter are : Thomas Hart, Sen., James Morrison, John Bradford, James Trotter, John A. Seitz, Robert Patterson, John McDowell, Robert Barr, William Macbean, James Maccoun, Caleb Wallace, Fielding L. Turner, Samuel Pos- tlethwait, and Thomas T. Barr. At a general meeting of the shareholders, held at the house of John McNair, on the first Saturday in January, 1801, a complete organiza- tion under the charter was effected by the election of a board of directors.
In 1803, the library contained seven hundred and fifty volumes, and had been removed to a room in the old state- house on West Main street, between Mill and Broadway. The juvenile library of one thousand one hundred and
*Winterbotham's History, vol. iii, p. 155.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1795.
thirty-five books, which had been collected by an associa- tion of ambitious and energetic boys, was consolidated with the Lexington Library in 1810. It was further in- creased by donations and sales of shares, until, in 1815, it had grown to two thousand five hundred and seventy- three volumes. In 1824, the books of the Lexington Athæneum were turned over to it. Small as it was, the Lexington Library was now the largest and most prominent one in the western country, and it received frequent con- tributions of books, pamphlets, journals, and documents from various literary, scientific, and philosophical societies throughout the country, not to mention many donations of books from private citizens of Lexington and Fayette county. The library numbered over six thousand volumes in 1837, and was increased the next year through the efforts of Henry Clay, Robert Wickliffe, Jr., and A. K. Woolley, who addressed public meetings in its behalf. In 1839, Leslie Combs gave one thousand three hundred dol- lars in turnpike stock to the institution. At present, the number of books in the library is estimated at ten thou- sand, a small number when the age of the library is con- sidered, but its smallness is due, to some extent, to the vicissitudes it has encountered during an eventful history. It has suffered from frequent removals, from fire, and from water. At one time, the books were kept in the old Odd- Fellows' hall, on Church street, between Upper and Lime- stone. The building was destroyed by fire, and the books sadly damaged. They were then removed to the Medical hall, which at that time occupied the site of the present library building, on the corner of Church and Market street. This hall was also destroyed by fire, and many books were lost. The library found another refuge in the new Medical Hall, erected on the corner of Broadway and Second streets, but still the fire fiend pursued it; the hall was burned, and the books, for the third time, were dam- aged, both by the fire itself and water from the engines. That the library was not scattered and almost entirely de- stroyed, Lexington may thank the watchful care of our late fellow-citizens, Leonard Wheeler, and also William A.
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