USA > Kentucky > The Commercial history of the Southern States covering the post-bellum period Kentucky > Part 12
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Lee County was formed in 1869, and named for General Robert E. Lee. It is situated in the eastern part of the State, at the junction of the three forks of the Kentucky River. The county is moun- tainous and is traversed by many streams. Besides the North, Middle, and South Forks of the Kentucky River. and the main river. it contains many large creeks, which are used to some extent and could be largely used as water power for vari- ous kinds of mills and factories. The Kentucky River is navigable to Beattyville for steamboats during six months in the year. The river and creek bottoms and corn land, of which there is a great deal, are very productive. The upland is thin, but loose and level and pleasant to culti- vate. The soil is adapted to all the grains, grasses, and other crops grown anywhere in Kentucky, but corn is almost the only crop grown in any quantity. The up- lands are wonderfully adapted to the or- chard. Apples, peaches, pears, grapes, and all the small fruits. berries and melons,
grow to perfection when properly cultiva- ted. The average price of farm labor is $13 per month, with board.
About one third of the county is lime- stone land. In the northern part of the county is found a very rich ore, similar to the noted Red River iron ore. In the same part of the county is found a very fine cannel coal. In all parts of the county abundant bituminous coal in veins of from three to four feet abounds, some of which veins are being successfully mined. Near the eastern border of the county abundant surface oil is found.
About two thirds of the area of the county is covered with timber, the best and most abundant for lumber being pine, oak, and poplar.
There are no turnpikes in the county.
The Lexington & Eastern railway trav- erses the northern and eastern parts of the county for a distance of twenty miles. The Beattyville & Cumberland Gap rail- road connects the Lexington & Eastern with the county seat, a distance of six miles. The Louisville & Atlantic has purchased the Richmond. Nicholasville, Irvine & Beattyville Railroad, and also the Beattyville & Cumberland Gap.
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The county seat is Beattyville, located immediately on the Kentucky River, at the junction of the North, South, and Mid- dle Forks. It was named for Samuel Beatty, the original founder, and owner of the land on which the town is built. There is a handsome court house. situated in a beautiful maple grove, surrounded by
a neat iron fence. Population about 1,000. In addition to flourishing public schools all over the county, there is a graded school in Beattyville, also an acad- emy under the supervision of the Epis- copal church.
There is no bonded indebtedness in the county.
LESLIE COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900), 6,753. COUNTY SEAT, HYDEN.
Situated in the Eleventh Congressional. Seventh Appellate, Twenty-seventh Judi- cial, Twenty-third Senatorial, and Ninety- third Legislative Districts.
Leslie County was formed out of parts of Clay, Perry, and Harlan counties in April, 1878, the one hundred and seven- teenth in the order of formation, and was named in honor of Governor Preston H. Leslie, then governor of Kentucky. The county is hilly. the soil on the river bot- toms is very fertile, the hillside lands are rough and steep
The Middle Fork of Kentucky River runs the whole length of the county, from north to south. Cutshin, Greasy Fork, and Beech Fork are its largest confluents. All of them are navigable for rafts and flatboats, and afford ample water power for propelling machinery.
Like most of the mountain counties, its greatest wealth lies in its timber lands and its minerals, which are coal and iron : is yet undeveloped. the coal veins ranging from three to six feet thick and of fine quality of cannel coal, found in many lo- calities in the county in veins ranging from two to three feet thick. The timber consists chiefly of poplar, ash, white oak,
chestnut oak, hickory, beech, maple, and yellow pine: the poplar and white oak is exported from the county in large quanti- ties, floated down the river to the markets on the Kentucky River. At least ninety per cent of the total area of the county is well timbered. Land ranges in price from three to five dollars per acre. This being a mineral and mountainous region, the agricultural products of Leslie are consumed within the county, there being no surplus for export.
The grasses best adapted to the soil are clover. timothy. red top, and orchard grass. The farming lands in the county are not improving, as the farmners have not as yet taken much interest in fertilizing either by grasses or otherwise. The population of the county is gradually increasing. There are eight grist and saw mills in the county, which supply the local market with lumber. There are as yet no railroads in the county. The county roads are in bad condition, and there is not much prompt- ness in keeping them np.
Hyden, a pretty little mountain town, in the northwestern part of the county, with schools, churches, and several good business houses, is the county seat.
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LETCHER COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSU'S 1900), 9, 172. COUNTY SEAT, WHITESBURG.
In the Eleventh Congressional, Seventh Appellate, Twenty-sixth Judicial, Thirty- third Senatorial, and Ninety-seventh Leg- islative Districts.
Letcher County is situated in the extreme southeastern part of the State. It was formed in IS12 out of territory taken from Perry and Harlan counties, and was named in honor of Governor Robert P. Letcher.
The surface of the county is inountain- ous, with narrow, fertile valleys between. Pine and Black mountains form part of the eastern and southern boundary, and these ranges present some of the grandest scenery on earth.
The North Fork of the Kentucky River finds its source in the northeast, and traverses the county to the southwest. Other important streanis are Rockhouse and Live Oak. These streams are not navigable for steamboats.
The soil of the narrow valleys, coves, and most of the uplands is very rich, producing good yields of corn, oats, tobacco, clover, timothy, red top and other grasses. The various vegetables suited to this climate are successfully cultivated, being produced abundantly with little effort. This section is especially adapted to apple orchards. There are
few places where the apple grows to suchi perfection in point of yield and flavor.
Good veins of the finest coke and cannel coal are found in the hills of Letcher County.
The forests of Letcher County seem almost inexhaustible in their supply of oak, chestnut, ash, hickory, poplar, maple, etc. The best walnut has generally been cut.
Farming, stock raising and " logging " are the principal industries of the county. Logging is the most important, though a considerable number of cattle and sheep go to market annually.
The character of labor in the county is exclusively native white, farin hands receiving fifty to seventy five cents per day, ten to thirteen dollars per month, and at timbering fifty cents to one dollar per day, including board.
Educational facilities are afforded prin- cipally by the public schools. There are sixty school districts in the county. all provided with good school houses and competent teachers. Other good schools are maintained at Whitesburg and Rock- house. There are over twenty churches in the county.
Whitesburg, on the North Fork of the Kentucky River, near the center, is the county seat.
LEWIS COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900), 17, 868. COUNTY SEAT, VANCEBURG.
Situated in the Ninth Congressional, Sixth Appellate, Nineteenth Judicial. Thirty-first Senatorial, and Eighty-ninth Legislative Districts.
Lewis County was organized April 27, 1807, being then a part of Mason County.
Lewis County lies in the form of a "watershed," about one half lying toward the southwest and the other half toward the northeast, the . Polar Flat" section being table-land and in a high state of cultivation; fruit grows in abundance and
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of the finest quality. The eastern portion is somewhat hilly and broken, but in the many small coves and on the hillsides grows the finest of tobacco and millet and sugar-cane. Along the water-courses and that portion lying on the Ohio River is to be found the very choicest and best lands, producing from forty to sixty bushels of corn per acre and every other grain and vegetable in the same proportion.
Timber is not so plentiful as it once was, but remains in sufficient quantities to meet all home demands. The principal varieties are oak, chestnut. poplar, sugar- tree, buckeye. and lynn or basswood.
The industrial development of Lewis County is in rapid progress, as is evidenced by the number of portable saw and grist mills that have lately come in, as well as other steam machinery.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad pass- 'ing along the entire river front of the Ohio, a distance of forty miles, a branch road from Stone City to Carter City, fifteen miles, and the Ohio for the same distance, navigable for ten months of the
year, with over one hundred miles of good macadamized roads, furnish ample transportation facilities.
The character of labor employed is principally native white. Farm hands get from twelve to sixteen dollars per month, with board, and day laborers from seventy-five cents to a dollar.
The county has nearly one hundred schools for white and colored pupils, and the school houses will compare favorably with those of any of the surrounding counties.
Vanceburg, the county seat, a thriving city of the fifth class, has in the last few years made remarkable progress not only in the increase in population, but in permanent and valuable improvements as well. Has a substantial brick court house. built at a cost of $25,000: fine hotels. with all the modern improvements and accommodations; five church buildings, twenty stores of all kinds, a lodge each of the Masonic. Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias: two large flouring and feed mills; three complete wagon and blacksmith shops.
LINCOLN COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSU'S 1900), 17,059. COUNTY SEAT, STANFORD.
Situated in the Eighth Congressional, Fifth Appellate, Thirteenth Judicial, Eighteenth Senatorial, and Sixty-sixth Legislative Districts.
Lincoln County is one of the three original counties of the State; was made a county by an act of the Legislature of Virginia in the year 1780. It is located in Central Kentucky, one hundred miles southeast of Louisville, and about the saine distance northwest of Cumberland Gap. The lands are high, rolling table- lands. fertile and productive, and splen- didly watered, Dick's River bounding and traversing the entire eastern portion, and the Hanging Fork of Dick's River the
western portion. Buck Creek and Green River both rise near the center of the county and flow-Buck Creek south and Green River southwest. There are many smaller streams flowing from never-failing springs all through the county. About two thirds or three fourths of the land in the county is of the best quality of lime- stone land, bluegrass growing sponta- neonsly. The principal crops are hemp, tobacco, corn, wheat, rye, and oats.
The southern or mountainous portion of the county was originally covered with finest timber of oak, hickory, locust, walnut, and poplar. When cleared up it was only second-rate land, but is well
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adapted to growth of fruit, apples, peaches, pears, and, in fact. all varieties of fruit, both large and small.
There are in the county one hundred and sixty-two miles of macadam and gravel roads, maintained by a direct tax of twenty-five cents on the one hundred dollars of the taxable property. There are three hundred and seventy-five miles of county dirt roads, maintained partly by taxation and partly under militia system. There are two railroads through the county, the Louisville & Nashville run- ning east and west. a distance of twenty- three miles in the county, and the Cincin- nati Southern running north and south a distance of twenty-two miles, and the Kentucky Central from Stanford east- ward. a distance of five miles.
Incorporated towns are Stanford. Row- land, Crab Orchard, and Hustonville.
Stanford, the county seat, is situated on the Knoxville Branch of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. In 1786, Benjamin
Logan, for a considerable sum of money, deeded to the justices of the peace of Lincoln County a tract of twenty-six acres of land for a town site. In 1803, trustees of the town of Stanford, having been elected or appointed, had the tract laid off into thirty-eight town lots. The corporate limits have been extended from time to time, now being three- quarters of a mile square from the court house.
The town is watered by a good system of water-works from the Old Fort springs and other good springs, less than one half mile from the town. It is also lighted by electricity, generated by the machinery of the water-works and ice plant. Stanford contains five dry goods stores, ten hardware and grocery stores, three drug stores, two banks of a capital of one hundred thousand dollars each, two excellent flouring mills, and many other businesses. There are four white churches and three colored churches in the town.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900), 11, 354.
COUNTY SEAT, SMITHLAND.
Situated in the First Congressional, First Appellate, Fourth Judicial. Third Senatorial, and Seventh Legislative Dis- tricts.
Livingston County is situated in the western part of Kentucky on the Ohio River, and was organized in the year 1798 and named in honor of Robert R. Living- ston, one of the committee which drafted the. Declaration of Independence. The county has an area of about 325 square miles. Beautiful hills and valleys make up the surface of the county. Cumber- land River flows across the county from east to west, and empties into the Ohio at Smithland. the county seat, giving the county about 118 miles of navigable streams in and bordering on it. There are. a large number of creeks in the coun-
ty, which empty into the Ohio, Cnmber- land. and Tennessee rivers, giving the county the most perfect water supply and drainage. The soil of the uplands is limestone and sandstone. the former being much more fertile than the latter. The bottom lands of the numerous rivers and creeks are very rich and productive. The second bottoms, which are not subject to overflow, are not so fertile, though they produce well and raise good crops of small grain, grasses, and fruits.
There are found in the county baryta, native alum, kaolin, potter's and fire-clay and marl in abundance, besides the clays known as ochre. In the interior of the county are found tracts of good timbered land, several varieties of oak, hickory, poplar, elin, gum, ash, and walnut. The
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labor is principally native white and colored, whose services can be obtained for Sio to $15 per month and board. The staple products of the Livingston County farm are corn, wheat, oats, rye, tobacco, hay, sweet and Irish potatoes, sorghumn, melons, turnips, and fruits. Orchards along the Ohio River netted owners about $200 per acre in 1901, where they were well cared for by modern methods. All grasses grow well. This is a fine county for stock raising, and the raising and ship- ping of fine cattle is a leading industry in the county. There are no turnpikes in this county, but the public roads are kept in good condition and are worked under the road laws of the State. Several good
iron bridges have been constructed over the streams in the county. There are forty-eight common schools in the county for white children. six for colored, one academy, and two graded schools, making a total of fifty-seven. Thirty-eight churches furnish places of worship. The county is out of debt and on the high road to prosperity.
A county farmer's club was organized in 1901 and a successful institute held, inuch interest being manifested.
Smithland, the county seat, is situated on the Ohio River in the southern part of the county, at the mouth of the Cumber- land. It is an enterprising town, with good churches and school houses.
LOGAN COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900), 25, 994. COUNTY SEAT, RUSSELLVILLE.
Situated in the Third Congressional, Second Appellate, Seventh Judicial, Ninth Senatorial, and Twentieth Legis- lative Districts.
Logan County was one of the first seven counties organized immediately after the admission of Kentucky into the Union as a State, being named in honor of General Benjamin Logan, a Revolutionary officer and distinguished pioneer and companion of Daniel Boone.
Its principal streams are Clearfork, Mud River, and Wolf Lick Creek, whose waters find their way into Green River, and Whippoorwill Creek, Spring Creek, and Red River, which are tributaries of Cumberland River. There is a diversity of soils within its confines, which is well adapted to raising tobacco, wheat, and other cereals.
The northern portion of the county was at one time very heavily timbered, but most of the finest has been cut.
There are thirty miles of free turnpike
and eighty-five miles of railroad in the county.
Nearly all the streams in the county can be, and are to some extent, utilized in operating machinery, such as for furnish- ing power for mills, etc.
The county is well supplied with flour ing mills and has one planing mill.
There are within the county two col- leges, both located at Russellville ; one, Bethel College, is for boys and is under the control of the Baptist denomination; the other, Logan Female College, is under the control of the Methodists, both of which have an excellent faculty. The public schools of the county are for the inost part in good condition, some of them being supplemented by district taxation in addition to the amounts received from the State.
Russellville, named in honor of General Win. Russell, a Revolutionary officer, is the county seat, being situated near the center of the county.
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STATE OF KENTUCKY
LYON COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900), 9,319. COUNTY SEAT, EDDYVILLE.
Situated in the First Congressional, First Appellate, Third Judicial, Third Senatorial, and Sixth Legislative Dis- tricts.
Lyon County was formed in 1854 out of the southwestern half of Caldwell.
In the river bottoms there is a large amount of level land, of very fine soil. A large amount of the land is rolling in character, and while not producing as heavy crops as the river bottonis, yet. under high cultivation, produces well, the average farmers'
production. Oats, sorghum, millet, timothy, redtop, clover, peas, potatoes, are grown in limited quantities, tobacco and corn being the principal and almost only exports of farm products. The whole county is well adapted to the growth of apples. peaches, pears, pluins, all kinds of small fruits of this latitude.
This county has long been noted for its fine timber. much of which is still stand- ing. It consists of oak, gum, poplar, elin, lynn, black and honey locust, black and white walnut, sycamore, and several smaller kinds.
Some of the finest iron ore known can be found in this county, including blue hematite. Very fine limestone, much of it suitable for building, is found along the railroad and rivers.
Tlie Tennessee River flows along the western border, and is navigable the year around. The Cumberland flows through the county, and is navigable at all times except during long-continued drouths, and freezes. Livingston Creek, along the northern boundary, could be made navi- gable at slight expense.
Eddy Creek, a few miles above Eddy- ville, affords a fine stream of water during even the dryest seasons.
In many districts a "pay " school is conducted for three or five months after the public school is out, it holding five months. In each town is a high school ten months each year.
Eddyville, the county seat, was founded in 1799, on tlie north bank of Cumberland River, forty-five miles from its mouth, one hundred and ninety miles from Louisville by the Illinois Central Railroad; is a flourishing town, and seat of the branch penitentiary, with a large brick roller mill, a bank, newspaper, tobacco factory, two blacksmith shops, a full line of churches, ministers, lawyers, physicians, stores, and hotels.
Lamasco, ten miles southeast of Eddy- ville, founded in 1864, lias two hundred inhabitants. two churches, Methodist E. South and Baptist. three physicians, two stores, two tobacco factories, two blacksmith shops, and a flourishing school.
Kuttawa, one and one lialf miles below Eddyville, founded in 18So or 1881 by Clias. Anderson, ex-governor of Ohio, lies tlie Illinois Central Railroad and Cumberland River-a live, wide-awake town of 1,000 inhabitants. Has three churches, three lawyers, three physicians. five dry goods stores, seven groceries, three general stores, two hardware stores, one tobacco factory, one large spoke factory, four blacksmith shops, one jeweler and watchmaker, one large roller flouring mill, two hotels, two saloons, one bank, and a fine high school.
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MCCRACKEN COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900) 28,733. COUNTY SEAT, PADUCAH.
Situated in the First Congressional, First Appellate, Second Judicial, Second Senatorial, and Fourth Legislative Dis- tricts.
McCracken County is situated in the extreme western part of the State, only one county ( Ballard) lying between it and the Mississippi River.
It was organized in IS 25 and named in honor of Captain Virgil McCracken, who was killed at the battle of River Raisin in 1813. The first county seat was Wil- mington, but was changed from there to Paducah in the early 50's.
The county is generally level or rolling, there being no hills of any magnitude. The county is nearly equally divided between bottom and upland. The bot- toms, especially the river bottoms, are very fertile. The creek bottoms are well adapted to the growing of any of the crops that are raised in this section of the State, producing the finest quality of tobacco. The staple crops are corn. wheat, tobacco, oats, clover, timothy, and stock " peas."
The county is well watered by the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, which wash its shores on the north and east, and the numerous creeks that flow through its borders. In addition to these there are several lakes in the river bottoms that furnish fine stock water and abound in fish. There are no navigable streams flowing through the county.
About one fourth of the county is in timber.
The county has four railroads, all terminating at Paducah: the Paducah & Louisville branch of the Illinois Central. the Paducah & Memphis branch of the same system, the Paducah & North Ala- bama, and the Paducah, St. Louis & Chicago. These, with the Ohio and Ten-
nessee rivers, with the Cumberland River only twelve miles from the junction of the Olio and Tennessee, and the great Mis- sissippi only fifty miles below Paducah, gives the county the very best of shipping facilities, and competition between niver and rail at all times insures low rates of transportation, both for freight and passenger traffic.
The county has about sixty miles of free turnpike and over three hundred iniles of good dirt roads.
The labor of the county is principally native white and colored. The price ranges from $13 to $15 per month, with board.
Excellent schools for both white and colored pupils are located in all parts of the county. Churches of all denomina- tions are numerous. There is hardly a neighborhood in the county that is not conveniently located to a good school or church.
Paducah, the county seat, is situated on the west banks of the Ohio and Ten- nessee rivers, twelve miles below the month of the Cumberland River and fifty miles above the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi. By a census just completed it has a population of 23,000. It is the fourth city in the State in population and the second in manufacturing and com- mercial enterprises. Its wholesale grocery trade is probably the largest of any city in the State, and its lumber plants and woodworking establishunents are, some of them, among the largest in the country.
The railroads have large shops located here that employ hundreds of skilled and unskilled mechanics, and their monthly pay-rolls run up into tens of thousands of dollars. As an evidence of Paducah's solid business standing, there has not been a single failure of any magnitude among
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its merchants or manufacturers for the last ten years. There is no finer location for the creation of manufactories of almost any kind in the whole State than Paducah, and its hospitable citizens extend a hearty welcome to all good people who wish to come and make a home among them. It is a good town, beautifully located,
with fine streets, elegant church buildings, a splendid public school system, and a warm-hearted, generous, and sociable peo- ple. The pubic buildings take rank with the best in the State. The Paducah Uni- versity, which is completed, cost $75,000, and is one of the handsomest and best equipped school buildings in the State.
McLEAN COUNTY
POPULATION (CENSUS 1900), 12,448. COUNTY SEAT, CALHOUN.
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