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 24
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Dr. Fishback was a preacher of superior talents, bold- ness, and culture, a man of great information and fine per- sonal appearance. He was a strong and able writer, as evidenced by his " Philosophy of the Human Mind," pub- lished in 1813, and his religious " Essays and Dialogues," of 1834. He was married twice. His first wife was a niece of Patrick Henry, and his last, a daughter of Gov- ernor Shelby.
The first minister regularly employed by the United congregations on Hill street was Elder James Challen. He was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1802, came to Kentucky at an early age, entered Transylvania University, united with the Baptist Church in 1823, but a few years after changed his opinion and entered the ministry of the Christian Church. He became pastor of the Hill Street congregation in 1834. He did much to perfect a thorough organization of the church, and endeared himself greatly to his brethren by his graces and virtues. This now aged soldier of the cross is living at present in Davenport, Iowa.
Dr. B. F. Hall, a native of Fleming county, Kentucky, but who has long made Texas his home, succeeded Mr. Challen. Dr. Hall was a speaker of moderate ability. During his pastorate the church became divided on the subject of ordination, the parties in the contention being Dr. Hall, Dr. J. G. Chinn, and others, on one side, and
311
REGULAR PASTORS.
1825.]
Poindexter and a few followers on the other. The breach was finally closed.
In 1841, Dr. L. L. Pinkerton succeeded Dr. Hall as pas- tor, and under his energetic ministry the church prospered, and shortly after he commenced his labors (1842), the pres- ent large church edifice on Main street was completed. Dr. Pinkerton was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, January 28, 1812, and was trained in the Presbyterian faith, but in 1830 was baptized under the personal ministry of Bishop Campbell. Before he began to preach, he practiced medi- cine, having graduated in the Transylvania Medical College. Dr. Pinkerton was pastor of the Main Street Church for nearly three years, after which he was very largely instru- mental in forming the Orphan School at Midway, Kentucky. He was for five years professor of belles-lettres in Kentucky University. Dr. Pinkerton is gifted with generosity, inde- pendence, and liberality. His discourses are characterized by elegance, vigor, and originality, over which is cast the charm of a tender melancholy. A more uniformly inter- esting speaker has never filled the pulpit of the Main Street Church.
In November, 1843, the celebrated debate between those distinguished champions, Bishop Alexander Campbell and the Rev. N. L. Rice took place before densely packed audi- ences in the Main Street Church. The moderators on that occasion were Hon. Henry Clay, Judge George Robertson, and Colonel Speed Smith.
After Dr. Pinkerton, Elders Newton Short, William Clark, A. W. Robbins, and John I. Rogers became pastors of the church. In 1860, W. H. Hopson, a native of Christian county, Ky., was elected to the pastorate, which he filled up to the year 1862, when J. W. McGarvey succeeded, and he in turn was succeeded in 1867 by Elder Robert Graham, who was born in Liverpool, England, and graduated at Bethany College. L. B. Wilkes, a native of Maury county, Tennessee, became pastor in 1869.
During the ministry of Mr. Wilkes, a part of the congre- gation, by the advice of its officers, commenced to meet for worship in the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the corner of Main
312
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1825.
and Broadway, where service was held, for the first time, on Sunday, January 2, 1870, and continued regularly until May 1st of the same year, when the First Presbyterian building was bought by the Main Street church, and de- voted to the use of its members meeting in the hall. The government of two congregations under one eldership created dissatisfaction among some members of the church, and was publicly condemned by one of them (Mr. Elly) as un- scriptural, despotic, and dangerous. It was continued never- theless, and, unfortunately, a spirit of illiberality at the same time rapidly manifested itself among some of the preachers and leaders of the church. Forced, by these combined causes, and desiring peace and freedom of conscience, a number of the members of the church, acting in accord- ance with the long-recognized rights and usage of the Christian body, quietly established, in the spring of 1871, the " Second Church of Christ," or, as it was kindly and very suggestively called by the public at that time, the "Little Church around the Corner."
In the summer of 1871, the members of the Main Street Church meeting on Broadway were organized into an in- dependent church, after having been nearly eighteen months under the rule of the Main Street officers.
On the 22d of October, 1871, the Main Street portion of the original double body, assumed to exclude from it (the Main Street Church) such members of the Second Church of Christ as had formerly belonged to both the Main Street and the Broadway congregations. The ladies and gentle- men supposed to be excluded, were charged with "disorder and schism in withdrawing and setting up a new organiza- tion without the consent of the church."
M. E. Lard, the present pastor, who took charge of the Main Street Church late in 1871, is a native of Bedford county, Tennessee.
The Main Street congregation has been rapidly increas- ing in numbers for several years past, and is now very large and prosperous. The church has lately been considerably improved in appearance.
313
FUNERAL HONORS TO JEFFERSON, ETC.
1826.]
CHAPTER L.
Funeral Honors to Jefferson, Adams, and Shelby.
THE citizens of Lexington testified their sincere regret for the loss of the patriots, Jefferson, Adams, and Shelby, by extensive and impressive funeral ceremonies on Wednes- day, August 15, 1826.
At eleven o'clock A. M., a procession formed at the Grand Masonic Hall, under the direction of Thomas Bodley, chief marshal ; Messrs. John M. McCalla, Jas. M. Pike, Leslie Combs, C. W. Cloud, and Joseph Robb, assistant marshals; and proceeded in the following order to the Episcopal Church :
Fayette Hussars, Captain Pindell. Light Artillery Cadets, Lieutenant Commandant, W. B. Collins. Lexington Light Infantry, Captain West. Fayette Rifle Corps, Captain Dailey. Other uniform companies of Fayette county. Committee of Arrangements. Officiating Chaplain and Orator of the day. Reverend Clergy.
BIER OF ADAMS,
supported by eight bearers, with white bands and sashes, and followed by a led horse, suitably and appropriately accoutered.
BIER OF JEFFERSON,
supported and followed in the same manner. The two biers of the ex-Presidents, followed by twenty-four misses dressed in white, with white veils and suitable badges, representing the twenty-four states of the Union.
314
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1826.
BIER OF SHELBY,
supported by four bearers, and followed by a led horse ap- propriately accoutered, and a female represent- ing Kentucky, clothed in white, with an appropriate badge. Surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution. Major-general and his staff. Trustees of the town, Treasurer and Clerk. Militia Officers, General, Regimental, and Staff. Members of Congress. Members of the State Legislature. Fayette Circuit Judge, Attorney, and Clerk.
Magistrates of the county, preceded by the High Sheriff. President, Trustees, and Professors of Transylvania Uni- versity.
Principal, Visitors, and Teachers of the Lafayette Female Academy.
Union Philosophical Society,
Whig Society, with badges. Franklin Society,
Teachers of the several Schools in Lexington and Fayette county. Citizens and strangers, four abreast.
After arriving at the church, which was crowded to excess, a soft and beautiful dirge was played, and then, after a touching prayer by the Rev. George T. Chapman, an elo- quent and impressive funeral oration was delivered by William T. Barry. The ceremonies concluded with an anthem by the choir and a benediction.
315
A GREAT RAIN.
1827.]
CHAPTER LI. A Great Rain.
AN extraordinary fall of rain occurred in Lexington, on Sunday, July 25, 1827 .* It commenced with a heavy thun- der shower in the afternoon, and continued all night, and by morning so great had been the volume of water that had fallen, that citizens going to their places of business, were obliged to wade through the torrents of water which poured through the streets. The cellars in the level parts of the town were completely filled with water, causing great losses to grocers and merchants. The damage done was estimated at twenty thousand dollars. Several lives were endangered by the sudden rise of the water. In one case a black woman was very nigh drowned. She was sleeping in a cellar kitchen. The water had arisen in the street till it reached the cellar windows, when it rushed in so rapidly that she either had not time or presence of mind to make her escape, but catching hold of something above her, cried for help. In a few minutes the cellar was filled, and she must inevitably have been drowned had not some per- son ventured in and brought her out.
*Western Luminary.
316
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1828.
CHAPTER LII.
National Republicans and Democratic Republicans.
BY the time the year 1828 rolled 'round, old state and local issues were forgotten in Lexington. The Old Court party was now known as the "National Republican " party, and the New Court as "Democratic Republican" party. Lexington blazed with political excitement all through this year, and it was at its highest pitch at the November election, which resulted in Jackson carrying the state by a majority of eight thousand over Adams.
1
1829.]
FIRST ROAD MACADAMIZED.
317
CHAPTER LIII. First Road Macadamized.
THE macadamizing of the streets and roads of Lexing- ton was agitated in 1829, and urged in particular by Henry Clay. On the 30th of October, a large public meeting was held, at which the McAdam plan was indorsed, and steps were taken to organize a company to construct a road " connecting Lexington with the Ohio river." The follow- ing committee was appointed to advance the interests of the road, viz : Henry Clay, Charleton Hunt, Benjamin Gratz, Richard Higgins, E. J. Winter, John Brand, Benjamin Taylor, Richard Chinn, David Megowan, George Boswell, and D. Sayre. Work was commenced shortly after, on Limestone and Broadway streets, and on the road from Lexington to Maysville, which is believed to have been the first road macadamized in Kentucky.
318
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1830.
CHAPTER LIV.
The First Western Railroad-Corporators-Officers-Inci- dents-First American Locomotive-Charles Humphreys.
LEXINGTON claims the honor of having constructed the first railroad in the West, and the second one in America. It was originally known as the "Lexington and Ohio Rail- road," and was chartered by the Kentucky legislature, January 27, 1830; and the corporators were* Messrs. John W. Hunt, John Brand, Richard Higgins, Benjamin Gratz, Luther Stevens, Robert Wickliffe, Leslie Combs, Elisha Warfield, Robert Frazer, James Weir, Michael Fishell, Thomas E. Boswell, George Boswell, Benjamin Taylor, Elisha J. Winter, Joseph Boswell, David Megowan, John Norton, Madison C. Johnson, and Henry C. Payne. Elisha J. Winter was elected first president of the company. The second president was Benjamin Gratz, of Lexington, Kentucky.
Engineers, at that period, were not so lavish in their es- timates of the cost of constructing railroads, as they have become in modern times, as it is a matter of history that the original estimate of the cost of the contemplated Lex- ington and Ohio road, from Lexington to Portland, was one million of dollars. Of this sum, about seven hundred thousand dollars was promptly subscribed by citizens of Lexington.t
The " corner-stone" of the road was laid on Water street, near the corner of Mill, with great display, on the 21st of October, 1831. Governor Metcalfedrovethe first spike, and an address was delivered to the assembled concourse by Professor Charles Caldwell. Work on this pioneer road was then commenced.
*Acts Legislature.
+Louisville Courier.
319
FIRST AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE.
1830.]
The road-bed was as unique as it was substantial, and consisted of strap-iron rails spiked down to stone-sills. The cars were, for a long time, drawn by horses. The first steam locomotive made in the United States ran over this road. It had been invented by Thomas Barlow, of Lex- ington, as early as 1827 or 1828, and was constructed by Joseph Bruen, an ingenious mechanic, also a resident of Lexington .* The original model of this locomotive is in the museum of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum of this city. On the night of December 21, 1834, a grand ball and supper was given at Brennan's tavern, in Lexington, to celebrate the opening of the road, and the rejoicing and festivity was great.
An immense and excited crowd assembled at Lexington, on Saturday, January 24, 1835, to witness the starting of the first train for the "Villa." In the following December, the first through train arrived at Frankfort from Lex- ington.t
During the session of the general assembly of 1847, the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad Company was or- ganized and chartered, and at once became the purchasers of that portion of the road lying between Louisville and Frankfort. In 1848, the Lexington and Frankfort Rail- road Company was organized, and in turn purchased from the state that portion of the road between Lexington and Frankfort.
Regular trains were first run through from Louisville to Lexington in 1851.
In 1857, the management of the Louisville and Frank- fort and Lexington and Frankfort railroads was consoli- dated. The road is now known as the Louisville, Lexing- ton and Cincinnati Railroad.
Charles Humphreys died October 1, 1830, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He was a self-taught scholar ; was long a law professor in Transylvania University, and was an able and accomplished advocate and jurist. It is said that he was not known to have had a single enemy.
*Observer and Reporter, 1833.
+Observer and Reporter.
320
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1831.
CHAPTER LV. Whigs and Democrats-Physicians.
IN 1831, Henry Clay was nominated for the presidency against Andrew Jackson, and the Whig and Democratic parties in Lexington labored for their favorites with a pas- sionate energy and fiery zeal never since surpassed. The newspapers flamed with phillipics and denunciations. Caucuses, speeches, clubs, barbecues, pole-raisings, and mass meetings kept up a tempest of political excitement in which all ages, sexes, and conditions took a part. De- traction and bitter animosity accompanied the heated oppo- sition of the parties, and when the contest ended with the election of Jackson for the second time, the deep mortifi- cation of one side was only equaled by the wild and tri- umphant rejoicing of the other.
Among the prominent physicians of Lexington about this time (1831) were Drs. Best, Holland, William Pawling, T. P. Satterwhite, and Richard Pindell, the last-named gentleman was a native of Maryland, and had been a sur- geon in the Revolutionary army. He died March 16, 1833.
321
LEXINGTON A CITY-FIRST OFFICERS.
1832.]
CHAPTER LVI.
Lexington a City-First Officers-Poor and Work-House- Trustees' Rooms and Council Chamber-List of Mayors- Appearance of Lexington in 1832-General Jackson's Visit.
LEXINGTON became an incorporated city in 1832, and on the 12th of January of that year, the first mayor and the first board of councilmen were inducted into office .* The brief ceremonies took place at the court-house. The oath was administered to the mayor, Charleton Hunt, by Judge T. M. Hickey, after which the mayor administered it to the following gentlemen, who composed the council, viz: William A. Leavy, Richard Higgins, Stephen Chip- ley, Robert S. Todd, David Megowan, Richard Ashton, Thomas P. Hart, Luther Stephens, Thomas M. Hickey, Leslie Combs, John Brand, and Benjamin Gratz. The city was at once divided into four wards, a municipal seal was adopted, a work-house established, and the general machinery of the new government set in motion.
The first mayor of Lexington, Charleton Hunt, was the oldest son of John Wesley Hunt, and was born December 3, 1801. After graduating at Transylvania University, he studied law, and held a prominent position in his profession at the time of his death, which occurred December 27, 1836. He died just as a future full of promise was opening to him. Few men have been more beloved in Lexington, and his death produced a general sensation of regret and sorrow.
The first work-house was located on Limestone street, adjoining the jail, and its first keeper was T. B. McGowen.t In 1835 a poor-house was combined with the work-house, and the buildings of the joint establishment were erected
*City Records.
tId.
322
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1832.
on Bolivar street. The institutions were connected about thirty-five years. The poor-house is now located in the country. The work-house remains on Bolivar street, and has lately been improved.
The trustees of the town of Lexington held their meet- ings first in the fort, then in the first court-house, afterward in a room in the old state-house, and then again in the court-house.
The city council occupied the old Odd Fellows Hall, on Church street, until it was destroyed by fire in 1854. The Medical Hall, corner of Church and Market (now replaced by the library building), was used for a long time. In 1865, the council took possession of its present hall, in Hunt's row.
The following is a list of the mayors of the city, from 1832 to the present time, viz: 1832-4, Charleton Hunt; 1835-6, James E. Davis; 1837-8, J. G. Mckinney ; 1839-40, C. H. Wickliffe; 1841, Daniel Bradford; 1842-5, James Logue; 1846, Thomas Ross; 1847, John Henry; 1848, George P. Jouett; 1849-50, O. F. Payne; 1851-3, E. W. Dowden; 1854, T. H. Pindell; 1855-8, William Swift; 1859, T. B. Monroe; 1860-1, Benjamin F. Graves; 1862, C. T. Worley; 1863-5, Joseph Wingate; 1866, D. W. Standiford; 1867, J. T. Frazer; 1868, J. G. Chinn; 1869-72, J. T. Frazer.
The appearance of Lexington at the time it was incor- porated as a city is thus described by an admiring visitor :*
" 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 com- merce. It is situated in the center of a proverbially rich and beautiful country. The frequency of handsome villas and ornamented rural mansions impart the impression of vicinity to an opulent metropolis. A beautiful branch of
*Flint's Mississippi Valley.
323
JACKSON'S VISIT TO LEXINGTON.
1832.]
the Elkhorn runs through the city, and supplies it with water. The main street is a mile and a quarter in length, and eighty feet wide, well paved, and the principal roads leading from it to the country are macadamized for some distance. In the center of the town is the public square, surrounded by handsome buildings. In this square is the market-house, which is amply supplied with all the pro- ducts of the state. The inhabitants are cheerful, intelligent, conversable, and noted for their hospitality to strangers. The professional men are distinguished for their attain- ments in their several walks, and many distinguished and eminent men have had their origin here. The university, with its professors and students, and the numerous distin- guished strangers that are visiting here during the summer months, add to the attractions of the city. The people are addicted to giving parties, and the tone of society is fash- ionable and pleasant. Strangers, in general, are much pleased with a temporary sojourn in this city, which con- veys 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 polished and interesting society, can not but be carried back, by the strong contrast, to the time when the patriarchial 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 acclamation."
General Andrew Jackson visited Lexington the second time on Saturday, September 29, 1832,* at which time a grand barbecue in his honor was given by the Democrats at "Fowler's Garden." General Jackson was then a candi- date for re-election to the presidency, and Mr. Clay, selected by the " Nationals," was his competitor. "Old Hickory " was escorted into the city by an immense procession, com- posed of military companies, various orders and societies, several bands of music, and a concourse of horsemen and footmen bearing banners, appropriately inscribed, and sur-
*Gazette.
324
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1832.
mounted by game cocks, which crowed lustily as they went through the streets. General John M. McCalla, Benjamin Taylor, and Abram Morton were marshals of the day. Jackson rode in an open carriage with Governor Breathitt, who had just been elected by the Democrats. The win- dows and streets were crowded with people, to whom the President continually bowed as they waved their handker- chiefs and hickory branches, and gave him cheer after cheer. The concourse, from the barbecue, attended the President's levee, which was held that night at Postle- thwaite's tavern. On Sunday morning, Jackson attended the First Presbyterian Church, corner of Broadway and Second street, and listened to a sermon from the Rev. Nathan Hall. The house was crowded almost to suffocation, and hundreds were unable to enter. The curiosity to see the determined old hero was intense, and he never walked the streets unaccompanied by a crowd. On his way to church he passed the branch of the United States Bank (now the Northern Bank building), which had just been completed, and was then considered a very fine edifice. An amusing tradition, told with great gusto by old-time Democrats long after the reputed occurrence of the incident, declares that Jackson no sooner saw the bank than he gave it one of his most withering glances, muttering, "By the eternal !" and brought his cane down upon the pavement with a most emphatic rap. The effect was, of course, fatal. Three years from that time the bank ceased to exist. The story indicates the intensity of party feeling at that period. Jackson and his suite left Lexington on horseback the Monday succeeding his arrival, after having been given oue of the most enthusiastic receptions ever accorded to a dis- tinguished visitor in Lexington.
325
CHOLERA.
1833.]
CHAPTER LVII. Cholera-Its Terrible Effects-Incidents-The Lexington Or- phan Asylum-First Managers.
THE terrible ravages of the cholera in 1833 will ever keep that fatal year memorable in the annals of Lexington. The devoted city had confidently expected to escape the scourge on account of its elevated position and freedom from large collections of water, but an inscrutable Prov- idence ruled it otherwise. About the 1st of June the cholera made its appearance, and in less than ten days fifteen hun- dred persons were prostrated and dying at the rate of fifty a day .* An indescribable panic seized the citizens, half of whom fled from the city, and those who remained were almost paralyzed with fear. Intercourse between the town and country was suspended for six weeks; farmers had to abandon their grain to the stock for want of laborers; the market-houses in the city were empty and desolate, and famine would have been added to pestilence but for the great activity of the authorities.
The streets were silent and deserted by everything but horses and dead-carts, and to complete the desperate con- dition of things three physicians died, three more were ab- sent, and of the rest scarcely one escaped an attack of the disease .; The clergy, active as they were, could not meet one-third of the demands made upon them. Business houses were closed, factories stopped, and men passed their most intimate friends in silence and afar off, staring like lunatics, for the fear of contagion was upon them. The dead could not be buried fast enough, nor could coffins be had to meet half the demand. Many of the victims were consigned to trunks and boxes, or wrapped in the bed-
*Davidson's History.
+Id.
326
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1833.
clothes upon which they had just expired, placed in carts, and hurried off for burial without a prayer being said and no attendant but the driver. The grave-yards were choked. Coffined and uncoffined dead were laid at the gates in con- fused heaps to wait their turn to be deposited in the long, shallow trenches, which were hastily dug for the necessities of the occasion. Out of one family of nineteen persons, seventeen died.
The hitherto festival day, the Fourth of July, came and found the fearful pestilence abating, and was observed in the churches with mingled tears, thanksgiving, prayers, and supplications. The fell destroyer had swept over five hun- dred persons out of existence,* and the whole city was in mourning. The terrors and sufferings in Lexington dur- ing the fearful cholera season of "'33" no pen can describe.
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