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 3
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James Masterson, after whom "Masterson's station," five miles west of this city was named, was a genuine specimen of the pioneer type. He was straight as an Indian, and de- voted to the woods and the excitements of a woodman's life. Long after Lexington had become an important town, he continued to dress in the primitive hunter style, and in- variably wore his powder-horn and carried his rifle. He loved to tell of the dangers which threatened " the fort" when he was married in it, and the number of deer and buffalo he had killed between it and the present " Ash- land."* His walking ability and powers of endurance may be inferred, from the fact that he undertook to go to a point considerably below the falls of the Ohio and return, in " a day or so," with a big bag of salt. He returned in the time specified with the bag of salt on his back. It was the first used in the fort, ; and was welcomed with a shout. He lived to a green old age.
The McConnells and Lindsays were among the first ad- venturers who followed Boone out into "the wilderness." They assisted Col. Patterson in several dangerous enter- prises, and shared in the perils of the Blue Licks disaster.
* Mccullough, S. D. t McCube.
28
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1779
William McConnell established "McConnell's station," at " Royal's spring," in 1783, but it was soon merged in Lex- ington station. McConnell's station stood on the ground lately occupied by Headley's distillery,* on the old Frank- fort road, and the fine spring there (" Royal's") was, at an carly day, the favorite resort of the people of Lexington on public occasions. Alexander, the brother of William McConnell, was the hero of the thrilling adventure nar- rated in another chapter, in which he proved himself, un- aided, a match for five Indians. The McConnells and Lindsays were buried in the " Station Graveyard," opposite the present Lexington Cemetery. The wife of Major Mor- rison, already mentioned was the first white female that set- tled in " the fort," and her son, Capt. John Morrison, who fell at Dudley's defeat, in 1813, was the first native of Lex- ington.t
One of the results of the increased immigration to Ken- tucky, in the fall of 1779, was a settlement, made at a point about five miles northeast of the Lexington "fort," and known as "Bryant's station."} The immigrants were principally from North Carolina, the most conspicuous of whom were the family of Bryants, from whom the place took its name. There were four brothers, viz .: Morgan, James, William, and Joseph, all respectable men, in easy circumstances, with large families of children, and mostly grown. William, though not the eldest brother, was the most active, and considered their leader. His wife was a sister of Col. Daniel Boone, as was also the wife of Mr. William Grant, who likewise settled in Bryant's station, in 1779. The death of William Bryant, who died of a wound received near the mouth of Cane run, so discouraged his friends that they returned to North Carolina, and the greater part of the population from that State left the fort about the same time, which would have so reduced the strength, as to compel the remainder also to remove, if the fort had not acquired new strength, in a number of families from Virginia. Robert Johnson (the father of the Hon.
*F. McCallie.
tMcCabe, page 6.
#Bradford's Notes.
29
SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON.
1779.]
Richard M. Johnson), the Craigs, Stuckers, Hendersons, and Mitchells were among the number who removed to Bry- ant's station, and kept up the strength of the place at what it had been, if not greater than at any former period.
A buffalo " trace " fortunately ran from this station close to Lexington, and the settlers of both places joined forces - in clearing it of logs, undergrowth, and other obstructions ; a wise measure, as subsequent events proved, for, owing to it, the troops from Lexington that went to the assistance of the besieged station, in 1782, were enabled to reach it much sooner than they could otherwise have done.
One day, late in September, 1779, a little caravan of armed and watchful hunters, leading their loaded and tired pack-horses, stopped for a night's rest at Lexington fort. They were all up and moving bright and early the next morning, and before the week closed had established Grant's station, in what is now called the Huffman, Ingels, and Hardesty neighborhood, five miles from Bryant's, in the direction of the present town of Paris. The settlement was made under the direction and leadership of Col. John Grant, of North Carolina, and Capt. William Ellis, a native of Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and grandfather of Mrs. John Carty, of Lexington. The station was, subse- quently, greatly harassed by the Indians; in 1780, they made pioneer life such a burden to the settlers, that they returned to Virginia. Capt. Ellis entered the Continental army, and commanded a company until the close of the Revolutionary war, when he and Col. Grant came again to Kentucky, and Col. Grant settled permanently at the old station. Capt. Ellis, Timothy and James Parrish, and a number of. other Virginians, settled a fertile tract of country on the head waters of Boone's creek, in Fay- ette county, near their old neighbor from Spottsylvania, the Rev. Lewis Craig, the most prominent of the early Baptist preachers in Kentucky. In 1786, Capt. Ellis mar- ried Elizabeth Shipp. Subsequently, he was with St. Clair in the terrible " defeat," of November 4, 1791. After arriv- ing at an advanced age, the old pioneer died, and was buried in the county he had helped to settle. He was a man of great
30
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1779.
energy, liberality, and hospitality. The strength of his mind and the integrity of his character gained for him the respect and esteem of all who knew him.
With the building of "the fort," at Lexington, came also the cutting of the cane, the girdling of the trees, and the opening of the land for cultivation; and civilization had never before demanded the sacrifice of the primeval glories and wild beauties of such a region as that of which Lexington was the center. Boone styled Kentucky "a second paradise," and if its general characteristics merited such a eulogy, what must have been the virgin charms of the country around Lexington, which is conceded by all to be the finest in the State. John Filson, the biographer of Boone, and who was himself one of the early settlers and residents of Lexington, refers to it as the most luxuriant portion of "the most extraordinary country on which the sun has ever shone." The black and deep vegetable mold, which had been accumulating for untold centuries, made it "a hot-bed of fertility," and an early traveler says of it,* "in the spring no leaves are found under the trees, for the ground is so rich and damp that they rot and disappear during the winter." It was in such a soil as this that the founders of our city raised their first crop of corn, the only grain cultivated at that time. The surrounding for- ests abounded in game, and it was an unusual thing for the fort not to be well stocked with the meat of the deer, buf- falo, bear, elk, and minor animals. The thick canebrakes, though the chosen retreat of the panther and the wildcat, were thronged with birds prized by the hunters. Provender for the horses and cattle was not wanting. They waded, up to their knees, in native clover; they reveled in waving oceans of wild rye and buffalo grass, and grew fat upon the young shoots of the nourishing cane. The earth glowed with the beauty of numberless natural flowers, many of which are now rarely, if ever, seen here. Lilies, daisies, pinks, wild tulips, and columbines delighted the eye; beds of sweet violets and fragrant wild hyacinths perfumed
*American Museum.
31
SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON.
1779.]
the air, and the brilliant cardinal flower and the admired crown imperial grew spontaneously here, in greater beauty than in any other part of the world .* A scene of wild and picturesque loveliness, such as is rarely accorded to men, must have greeted the eyes of the settlers of Lexington ; and it had not lost all of its natural charms, even as late as 1794, when visited by Captain Imlay, an officer of the Revolutionary army, if his florid language is an indication. He says, "Lexington is nearly central of the finest and most luxuriant country, perhaps, on earth. Here, an eter- nal verdure reigns, and the brilliant sun, piercing through the azure heavens, produces in this prolific soil an early maturity, which is truly astonishing. Flowers, full and perfect as if they had been cultivated by the hand of a florist, with all their captivating odors, and with all the variegated charms which color and nature can produce, here, in the lap of elegance and beauty, decorate the smil- ing groves. Soft zephyrs gently breathe on sweets, and the inhaled air gives a voluptuous glow of health and vigor, that seems to ravish the intoxicated senses. The sweet songsters of the forest appear to feel the influence of the genial clime, and in more soft and modulated tones, warble their tender notes, in unison with love and nature. Everything here gives delight, and in that wild effulgency which beams around us, we feel a glow of gratitude for the elevation which our all-bountiful Creator has bestowed upon us."
Fortunately for the settlers at Lexington, the winter suc- ceeding their arrival was a peaceful one,; and they took advantage of it. They strengthened the fort and increased its comforts, with the wise design of attracting settlers, and their efforts were rewarded.
*Imlay.
+Collins, page 388.
32
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1780.
CHAPTER VII.
The Indians-John and Levi Todd-Life in the Fort-Inci- dents and Tragedies-A Terrible Winter-Fayette County Formed-Early Cemeteries-First Schools-Transylvania University-Its Origin-Incidents-George Nicholas-Pres- idents Moore, Blythe, Holley, Woods, Peers, Coit, Davidson, Bascom, Green-Professors of the Academical, Medical, and Law Colleges-Fires, Buildings, Donations, Sectarian Contention-James Morrison, Peter, Hunt, and others- Normal School-Decline of the University-Consolidation -Kentucky University-Origin-Removal to Lexington- Regent Bowman-Organization of Various Colleges-Presi- dents, Professors, and Officers, Milligan, Johnson, Harrison, Gratz, Beck, and others.
THE spring which succeeded the peaceful winter of 1780 as usual brought with it the Indians, small parties of whom almost constantly watched the traces leading to Lexington station, and the settlers were frequently fired upon. At this time game, and particularly the buffalo, was the chief dependence of the garrison for food, bread being a rare luxury until corn was fit to make meal of; and in order to get the much-needed game, and at the same time escape the Indians, the hunters found it necessary to start early enough to get out in the woods three or four miles before day, and on their return, to travel a like distance after night .*
Colonel John and Levi Todd came to Lexington this year, where they had located large tracts of land some time before. Colonel Todd was at this time military governor
*Bradford's Notes.
33
LIFE IN THE FORT.
1780.]
of Illinois, and although he settled his newly married wife in the fort here, he was soon compelled to leave her, to at- tended to the affairs of that new county of Virginia. He managed, however, to pass a good part of his time at Lex- ington, and in 1781, made it his permanent home, and was one of its most prominent and highly esteemed citizens. He commanded the Lexington militia in the battle of the Blue Licks, 1782, and died gallantly fighting at their head, leaving his wife and one child (a daughter), who afterward became the wife of Robert Wickliffe, Sen .*
Levi Todd came from Virginia to Harrodsburg, in 1775, and some years after attempted to settle a station in Fay- ette county, but being compelled by the Indians to aban- don it, he came to Lexington. He was the first county clerk of Fayette; represented her in conventions and in the legislature, and was long one of her most useful and respected citizens.t
Life in the fort in 1780 was more picturesque than easy and delightful. The men "by turns " stood guard, and kept up a sharp lookout for the enemy ; while those off guard risked their lives in hunting to supply the garrison with food, cleared the land, planted, plowed, brought in the cows, and did mending, patching, and all manner of work. The women milked the cows, cooked the mess, pre- pared the flax, spun, wove, and made the garment of linen or linsey, and when corn could be had, ground it into meal at the hand-mill, or pounded it into hominy in the mortar. Wild game was the principal food, and that was eaten most of the time without salt, which was seldom made at the " licks" without loss of life. Sugar was made from the maple trees, coffee was unknown, but fine milk sup- plied its place as long as the Indians spared the cows.
Wooden vessels,¿ either turned or coopered, were in com- mon use as table furniture. A tin cup was an article of delicate luxury, almost as rare as an iron fork. Every hunter carried his knife; it was no less the implement of a warrior. Not unfrequently the rest of the family was left
*Collins, 536.
tCollins, page 274.
įMarshall.
34
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1780.
with but one or two for the use of all. The cradle was a small rolling trough. A like workmanship composed the table and the stool-a slab hewn with the ax, and sticks of a similar manufacture set in for legs supported both. Buffalo and bear-skins were frequently consigned to the floor for beds and covering. When the bed was by chance or refinement elevated above the floor and given a fixed place, it was often laid on slabs placed across poles, sup- ported on forks set in the earthen floor; or, where the floor was puncheons, the bedstead was hewn pieces pinned on upright posts, or let into them by auger holes. Other utensils and furniture were of a corresponding description, applicable to the time. The now famous Kentucky hunting- shirt was universally worn by the settlers. It was made either of linsey or dressed deerskin, and provided with a pocket in the bosom for tow used in cleaning the rifle. Every hunter carried a tomahawk and scalping-knife, wore deer-skin breeches, moccasins of the same material, and generally a bear-skin hat. The little money in circulation was depreciated Continental paper.
The spring of 1780 marked the beginning of an era in the history of Lexington, so rich in deeds of daring, and so fraught with thrilling adventures, experiences of intense suffering, and incidents of danger and of blood as to rival in romantic interest the days of Wallace, or the times of the hunted Huguenots. Could a record of all the forgotten events of this eventful period be gathered and combined with those that are preserved, Lexington, and the region round about it, would in time become as favorite a theme for the poet and the novelist as are now some of the story- lands of the old world.
As the spring advanced, the number of the Indians in- creased, and several parties of hunters pursued by them were compelled to take refuge in the fort. One of the set- tlers named Wymore, having ventured out alone, was killed and scalped by the Indians near where the Masonic Hall, on Walnut street, now stands, and another barely escaped a like fate near the present residence of Mr. F. K. Hunt,
35
INCIDENTS AND TRAGEDIES.
1780.]
where he had been waylaid by an Indian, who was quietly awaiting his chance to slay him. He discovered his foe barely in time to save his life; shot him just as he was preparing to throw his tomahawk, and carried his reeking scalp in triumph to the station .* One of the saddest trag- edies of the year took place about the first of May. A very young man, brave as he was handsome, and greatly beloved by the settlers, was mortally wounded by a band of the savages, who fired upon him while he was driving up the cows, and pursued him nearly to the fort. He staggered up to the gate, which a pitying and courageous woman who loved him unbarred with her own hands, and covered with blood, he died a few minutes after, clasped in her last fond embrace .¡ Closely following this was the attack on Strode's station, near the present town of Winchester, by a large body of Indians,t and the news of this event in- creased the gloom at Lexington, caused by anxiety and an- ticipations of evil. These forebodings were not without foundation, and were only providentially kept from being realized. Suddenly, in June, the settlers discovered the woods about the station swarming with Indians, who de- stroyed their corn, drove off all the horses that were not hurriedly sheltered within the walls of the fort, and then without doing further damage, disappeared as quickly as they had come. The astonishment of the alarmed garri- son at this unaccountable proceeding was increased ten-fold on hearing faint but unmistakable reports of distant artil- lery, the first sounds of that kind which had ever awak- ened the echoes of the dark and bloody ground. Anxious but determined, the little force remained closely within the stockades, with ready rifles, watching and wondering day and night until all was explained, and the dark cloud lifted by the arrival, foot sore and hungry, of the brave Captain John Hinkston, who had just escaped from the retreating Indians, who constituted a large part of the formidable force under Colonel Byrd, during this, his celebrated inva- sion of Kentucky. Captain Hinkston gave the settlers the
*Old Journal.
+Tradition.
¿Collins, 234.
36
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1780.
.
first news of the capture of Ruddell's and Martin's sta- tions,* both of which were distant only a few hours march from Lexington. The discouraged inmates of Grant's sta- tion, which was between Bryant's and the present town of Paris, dreading a like fate, abandoned it and sought refuge in the more secure fort at Lexington, where some of them remained during the winter. But the immediate danger was now over. Colonel Byrd, either from disgust and in- dignation at the barbarous conduct of his savage allies, or through fear of the sudden falling of the waters of the Licking, hastily retreated without an attempt at the capture of Lexington and Bryant's stations, though strongly urged by the elated Indians to move against them .; The effect of this invasion was the rapid formation of another expe- dition of retaliation by the Indian's dreaded foe, Colonel G. Rogers Clarke, who again swooped down upon them like an eagle. Lexington was largely represented in this campaign, which was made against the Indians of Ohio. It was secret, short, and so decisive, that no large bodies of the enemy invaded Kentucky during the whole of the next year.
The hardships and sufferings of the Puritans, in the two first years of the Plymouth settlement, were not greater than those of the founders of Lexington for a like period in her infancy. To the wearing anxieties, constant alarms, and bloody afflictions, endured by the inmates of the fort, must be added the privations of the terrible winter which fol- lowed Byrd's invasion .¿ It was a season not only of intense sufferings, but of protracted suffering. The pioneers had never known a winter in Kentucky to set in so early, and to continue so long. Snow and ice were on the ground without a thaw from November to the succeeding March. The small streams were solid ice. Snow fell repeatedly, but as it did not melt it became almost impassible for man or beast, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the hunters were able to find such of the wild animals as had not been starved or frozen to death.§ As the corn had been
*Collins, 343.
+Id. 342. ¿Boone's Nar.
¿Marshall.
37
FAY ETTE COUNTY FORMED.
1780.]
destroyed in the summer, bread was rarely seen in the fort, and when it was, a single johnnie-cake was divided into a dozen parts, distributed and made to serve for two meals .* The use of bread ceased entirely, long before the winter was over. On one occasion when Colonel Todd returned to the fort almost famished, the provisions were so nearly exhausted that his wife could offer him nothing but a gill of milk and a little piece of hard bread two inches square, and this was turned over in silence to his starving servant .; The cattle, after starving to death for want of fodder, were devoured by the inmates of the station, and from the time the cattle died until spring the settlers subsisted upon venison carefully dis- tributed, and water; clothing was insufficient, the roughly- built cabins let in the piercing cold, and the firewood was chopped from trees incased in walls of snow and ice. Freez- ing and starving-such was the condition of the heroic settlers of Lexington, through this long and fearful winter of suffering.
In the month of November of this year (1780), Virginia formed Kentucky county into a district, composed of the three counties of Fayette, Lincoln, and Jefferson .; The new county of Fayette was given the name of that dis- tinguished friend of Washington, General Gilbert Mortier de La Fayette, and was defined as "all that part of the said county of Kentucky which lies north of the line, beginning at the mouth of the Kentucky river, and up the same and its middle fork to the head, and thence south to the Wash- ington line."|| Fayette then included more than a third of the present State of Kentucky, and since that time she has enjoyed the proud distinction of being the mother of great counties and populous cities, and her sons have helped to lay the foundations of many of the empire states of the mighty West. The organization of the county was not completed until the next year (1781).§
The settlers killed by the Indians, in the summer of 1780, were sadly and reverently carried, by an armed band of
*Davidson, 62. Collins, 536. #Collins, 24. ĮMarshall.
¿Butler.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1780.
their surviving companions, along the cow-path which ex tended by the side of the fort, on to what the garrison called the " first hill," now known as the Baptist churchyard, on Main street .* A small space on this hill was cleared of cane, and here, after a silent prayer, the earliest settlers of Lexington were buried. This ground was afterward set aside by the trustees of the town for religious purposes.t This was the first cemetery used, and was for a long time the only one. During the fatal cholera season of 1833, when the citizens of Lexington were swept off by the hundreds, tier upon tier of bodies were buried in this graveyard, and it ceased to be used after that terrible time. The next earliest graveyard established was that of the McConnells, opposite the present Lexington cemetery, and between Main street and the track of the Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati Railroad, and there many of the pioneers of the city and county rest in obliterated graves. The Maxwell burying-ground, on Bolivar street, was used shortly after that of the McConnells. In 1834, the city bought the ground adjoining the Maxwell graveyard, and the two were merged in what is now called the "Old City Graveyard." Here the mother of John Maxwell was buried in 1804, his wife in 1811, and the old pioneer himself in 1819. In this neglected spot the ancient tablets are broken and crumbling, and upon one of them can scarcely be made out the in- scription :
John Maxwell, sr., Died July 13th, 1819. Aged 72 years. Emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1751, and to the wilds of Kentucky in 1774.
The Catholic cemetery, on Winchester street, was conse- crated about forty years ago. Dr. Samuel Brown, Judge Hickey, Annie Spalding, the first superioress of St. Catha- rine's Academy, are among the sleepers in this last resting place. The Episcopal cemetery had its origin in 1837. Many prominent persons are buried there, and there are few Lex-
*Old Journals.
+City Records.
39
FIRST SCHOOLS.
1780.]
ington families that have not a sad interest in its sacred ground. The same can be said of the Presbyterian burying- ground established shortly after the last mentioned. The large trees which now throw so grateful a shade over it, owe their presence to the mournful interest of Dr. Daniel Drake, whose wife was buried there. He raised the means to pay- both for the trees and their planting. For history of Lex- ington cemetery, see year 1849.
The history of education, in Lexington, dates from the commencement of the city itself ; and the germ of that which afterward made her the literary and intellectual center of the state was laid with her foundation. Because the settlers of Lexington were out on " the frontier," because their life was one of hardships, and because their rude huts were destitute of costly adornments, did not prevent many of them from being what they certainly were, men of cul- ture, education, and refinement, and endowed with all the ease and polished manners of the best society of Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The fort had its little school as early as 1780, taught by John McKinney, who had settled at Lexington the year before, at the solicitation of Colonel Patterson ; and Transylvania Seminary, which was subsequently located here, was chartered by the legisla- ture of Virginia the same year. After the close of the Revolutionary war, when the British and Indians ceased to annoy and distress the settlers, Mckinney moved out of the fort, and taught in a log school-house, erected on the site of the pump on the present Cheapside .* It was in this house that his famous fight with the wildcat took place, an ac- count of which will be found in the chapter on 1783. The first trustees of the town took an early opportunity to lay off and reserve ground for "Latin and English schools,"t and this encouragement brought to Lexington, in 1787,¿ Mr. Isaac Wilson, of Philadelphia College, who established the " Lexington Grammar School." He informs the citizens, in his advertisement, that " Latin, Greek, and the different branches of science will be carefully taught. Price of
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