USA > Kentucky > The Commercial history of the Southern States covering the post-bellum period Kentucky > Part 3
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
of the State. One of the first railroads ever constructed in the United States, from Lexington to Frankfort, was built by the State, 1831-35. which experienced an era of great prosperity, notwithstanding the general depression of 1837. The table giving the progress of population for the several decades of that period shows that in 1850, notwithstanding the drain Kentucky had suffered in emigration to newer States and territories, she numbered nearly one million souls within her boundaries. The Mexi- can War again appealing to the martial spirit of her people, they responded so readily that upon the call of the President for thirty companies, one hundred and five, being seventy-three more than were needed, responded within less than a month, and upon a second call a year later the same spirit was shown. At Monterey and Buena Vista, and from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, they fully sustained the reputation of the State.
THE CIVIL WAR
But unforeseen disasters were already brewing for a people who had as yet known no domestic discord greater than the excitement of hotly con- tested political campaigns. Parties had risen, ruled, and given way to rival ones, and yet the State progressed peacefully in its social and physical development until in 1860. There was never within the compass of the Union any State which was in more amicable relation to all its sister States. In January, 1860, the Legislature of Kentucky, on invitation of that of Ohio, visited Columbus and received a most cordial welcome, and a few days later that of Tennessee joined those of Ohio and Kentucky in Cincinnati with every incident of cordial hospitality. Suddenly, after the Presidential election of that year, a war-cloud gathered over the land, which in the following spring burst in fury over it, and a bloody line sepa- rated those who had been so lately friends. In such a contest it was evi- dent that the brunt of war would fall upon Kentucky, unless wise counsel could avert it. Effort was made in that direction, but failed, and it was not long until the admonition of the Cherokee Indian to Boone was realized in all its severity, and Kentucky became in very deed "the dark and bloody ground." Families were divided, and the hand of brother was against brother -- not, indeed, in neighborhood strife, but in the two armies which dyed her soil with their blood. It is not proposed to enter into the details of that dark period of her history. Suffice to say that each, as he saw his duty, followed his convictions and gave good account of himself on the field
STATE OF KENTUCKY
of battle. It is far preferable to dwell on the return of peace and the revival of the ties of blood and friendship which once more were cemented as strongly as ever when the war-cloud passed away. The victors were generous, and from the day when General Lee gave his sword at Appo- mattox to General Grant, who returned it with no more galling terms than that the Confederate soldiers should return to their homes and remain unmolested until exchanged, all hostility engendered by war has ended. There has been no exchange, and the paroled soldier has lived up to his promise, claiming only to vie with his brother in blue in the battle for the true greatness of Kentucky, and for himself and his children to stand side by side with him and his at Santiago, or wherever the flag of the country needs their services.
And thus through nearly four decades Kentuckians have gone together hand in hand in promoting the happiness and prosperity of their State. That their efforts have been crowned with success is shown by the fact that the population of the State has been doubled since 1860, and that in all the elements of development, mental, moral, and physical, she has worthily kept her place in the front rank of her sister States.
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CHAPTER II
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The territory embraced within the boundaries of Kentucky is situated between latitude 36° 30' and 39° 6' north, and between longitude 82° 2' and 89° 40' from Greenwich, or 5° and 12º 38' west from Washington. Its area is given officially by the census of 1900 as 40,000 square miles, but by the State Geological Survey as 41,363 square miles. Prior to the census of 1880 it was given as 37,680, and an accurate topographical survey would probably show its close approximation to 42,000 square miles. Its greatest length is 411, and its greatest breadth 175 miles. Its river boundary is 813 miles; by the Mississippi on the west for fifty miles, by the Ohio on the north for 643 miles, and by the Big Sandy River on the northeast for 120 miles. The principal rivers besides these are the Tennessee, Cumberland. Green, Salt, Kentucky, and Licking, affording thorough drainage and a
large system of navigation. Its frontage of navigable rivers is the largest of any State in the Union. The lowest portion of the State is that along the Mississippi, which is about 300 feet above sea level at low-water mark of the river, except the alluvial bottom lands. The rise eastward is gradual along the Ohio, attaining a height of 650 feet in the northeastern, but more abrupt in the central and southeastern portions, the elevation at Lex- ington being about 1, 150 feet, and becoming more abrupt easterly, until on the extreme eastern borders the Cumberland Mountains attain an elevation of from 2,500 to 3,500 feet. The height of the hills above the valley bot- toms is rarely greater, however, than 700 or 800 feet.
GEOLOGY
The newest geological formation in the State is that portion west of the Tennessee River, which comprises about 2, 500 square miles, chiefly of the quaternary and tertiary formations. Eastward is the gray or subcarbon- iferous limestone of about 10,000 square miles. It is in this formation that occurs the cavernous limestone in which is found the Mammoth Cave, with its 200 miles of avenues. The subterranean area includes the whole or part of the counties of Butler, Christian. Edmonson, Grayson, Hart,
.STATE OF KENTUCKY 13
and Logan. The sub-carboniferous limestone belts upon three sides the western coal field of about 4,500 square miles of bituminous coal, with several workable strata of both the upper and lower coal measures, furnish- ing a good quality of domestic coal, extensively inined in a number of counties.
The central or bluegrass region of the Lower Silurian formation has an area of about 10,000 square miles, with an elevation of from 800 to 1, 150 feet above sea level. The Upper Silurian and Devonian formations, which surround the bluegrass region on three sides, have an area of about 2,500 square miles, with less elevation on the west and greater on the east. The eastern coal field, which comprises the mountainous portion of the State. has an area of about 11.600 square miles, with an elevation of from 750 feet on the Ohio River to 3.500 feet on the Cumberland Mountains. It abounds in bituminous and cannel coal, with as many as eight or ten strata of workable thickness, above drainage, and except for transportation con- venient for mining.
Among the varieties is found coking coal of superior quality, large quantities of which are now marketed from the Pineville and Middlesboro districts. Owing to the mountainous character of the country, and the fact that the Cumberland range constitutes a barrier which has hitherto pre- vented the construction of a railroad eastward from the State, except along the Ohio River on the north and through Cumberland Gap on the south, the large portion of this coal field has not as yet been developed as to its mineral resources. In addition to the topographical obstacle referred to, there exists another cause which has tended to retard the construction of rail- roads in this portion of the State. Under ordinary conditions it would seem that railroads should have already been constructed for the purpose of furnishing coal to other coalless parts of the State. But the Ohio River furnishes cheaper transportation for the coal of the Monongahela and Kanawha coal fields, which is floated down stream at minimum cost. and distributed throughout the State by the ten railroads which trav- erse it from north to south, with lateral roads reaching the consumers, at less cost than it could be supplied from home mines. As a result the great bulk of the coal mined in Kentucky finds its way to the South and Southwest, where it has no such competition. While the development of the Kentucky coal fields has not proceeded with the rapidity realized in most other States producing it. there is some compensation in the reflection that our fields contain a great resource which will furnish fuel for posterity long after those States, which have exceeded Kentucky in such development.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
have exhausted their supply. In both the coal fields of Kentucky the annual output of coal has increased steadily in the last decade, until it has reached about 6,000,000 tons, making Kentucky ninth in such production.
Of other minerals, the next in point of value is iron, which is found in both the eastern and western portions of the State. Between the Ten- nessee and Cumberland rivers are found limonite and brown hematite ores of a good grade, which for many years have been more or less utilized. Several furnaces draw their ore from this field, and others are projected. On the periphery of the western coal field several kinds of iron ore are also found. but they have not as yet been developed to any extent. About the borders of the eastern coal fields are good bodies of both limonite and brown hematite ores. In some portions of this area early attention was given to the subject, iron having been made in Bath and Estill counties long before the era of railroads. In the former, at Slate Creek furnace. cannon balls were made which were used in the defense of New Orleans by General Jackson, in 1815. At Ashland, in Boyd County, for more than a quarter of a century the ores of that region and of Bath County have been successfully used in making commercial iron. In Middlesboro are extensive furnaces, using. however, chiefly the ores from the south side of the Cum- berland Mountains, and Kentucky coal for their reduction. Corresponding ores of the Oriskany belt are known to exist along the north side of the Pine Mountain, a range wholly within Kentucky, but as yet they have not been explored, although in immediate vicinity of fine coking coals.
Petroleum is found in Kentucky in many localities, and there is now promise of its early utilization. Wherever the Devonian shale strata occur its presence is so commonly disclosed that our State geologists have regarded this as the source from which it is derived. In many parts of the State this formation is found from 100 to 150 feet thick, and so rich as to furnish oil by distillation, and to burn freely. The first oil well which brought petroleum to public attention was found in Cumberland County. Kentucky, in 1829, and at a depth of about 200 feet the oil flowed freely. It became known as rock oil, but except as a liniment its value was not recognized. Recently other wells have been bored successfully in the same vicinity, and from the neighboring county of Wayne many thousands of barrels of oil were shipped to market twenty years ago. Later still richer developments have been made, resulting in the building of a pipe-line to Somerset, Pulaski County, whence the oil is shipped by rail. In Knox County, within the past few years, many flowing wells have been bored with such indications of supply as have led to the projection of a pipe-line, with
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STATE OF KENTUCKY
branches in other counties, to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where there is a refinery. In Bath and Rowan counties, contiguous to the Devonian for- mation, promising developments have also been made. Similar favorable indications have been shown also in the western portion of the State, wherever the same geological conditions prevail, and as far as theory, sus- tained by the developments already made, can be relied upon, it is highly probable that there are oil-bearing strata underlying a large area of the State. The incentives to further development are heightened by the fact that all the oil so far brought to light is a high grade of lubricating oil.
Supplemental to oil, to which it owes its origin, may be mentioned asphaltum rock, which has been found in various portions of the State, chiefly near the border of the western coal field, but always in the Chester group of the sub-carboniferous limestone formation, wherever the sandstone is favorably situated for saturation by the oil. These deposits have been successfully worked, and a good commercial quality of asphaltum rock has been secured. and so extensively used in making asphalt streets in compe- tition with the Trinidad asphalt that their cost has been reduced quite one half, with equally good, if not better. practical results. Other minerals found in Kentucky are lead, which is exhibited in several of the blue- grass counties in fissures of the limestone caused by the geologic uplift of that now eroded region, but the extent of the deposits has not yet been demonstrated sufficiently to make their working profitable in competition with the richer and more easily mined deposits in Illinois and Missouri. The same may be said of certain deposits of fluor-spar, zinc, and argen- tiferous lead formed in a more defined dike formation in the western part of the State, particularly in Livingston, Trigg, Caldwell, and Logan counties. West of the Tennessee River are found pottery clays of a superior quality. suitable for making encaustic tiles and high grades of ornamental pottery, while in Madison and other counties which include the Devonian strata are excellent clays from which are made crockery, pottery, and tiling. Strata suitable for making vitrified brick are also found in various parts of the State, and are valuable also as fertilizers from the potash and soda they contain. At Cloverport, in Breckinridge County, vitrified brick for paving streets have been extensively made for a number of years.
There remain but two more productions of the State to refer to under this head, and these are timber and building stones. Few portions of the continent have as valuable timber as is to be found in Kentucky, embracing nearly every variety of growth to be found from Nova Scotia to the Gulf. The cypress and pecan are found in the southwestern part of
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
the State, and elsewhere are most of the valuable timber trees indigenous to the temperate zone. Especially is the growth of oak, beech, hickory. maple, and other hard woods of wide extent and variety, including twenty- six varieties of oak. In the mountains are to be found several varieties of pine and the hemlock, while the poplar or tulip tree, chestnut, and all kinds of commercial timber, are well disseminated throughout the State. Originally Kentucky, except about 5,000 square miles of prairie in the south-central region, was covered with forest, and it is estimated that nearly fifty per cent of it still remains so. The lumbering interest of the State is large and prosperous.
Of building stones there are many kinds, and so generally distributed that there is but a small portion of the State which has not an ample supply for the use of its population within its own limits. There is no granite in the State, the lowest formation exhibited being the magnesian limestone, or Knox dolomite, which underlies the Trenton, and has a limited exposure near Clay's Ferry, in Fayette County. It is a superior building stone, and is the material of which the Clay monument at Lexington is built. The birdseye limestone of the Trenton, found in the cliffs of the Kentucky River, is a handsome stone with a mottled appearance, from which it draws its name, and of which the Capitol at Frankfort is built. It is called Kentucky marble-a misnomer, as it is not of crystalline structure. There is no marble in the State. While in all the limestone regions good building stone is to be found, what is known as the Bowling Green stone, an oölite of the sub-carboniferous limestone, is the best commercial lime- stone in the State, and extensively found in many counties. It is similar to the Bedford, Indiana, stone, and is widely used. Various kinds of sandstone are well distributed throughout the State, and abound in the coal areas. The best commercial quality is the Waverley sandstone, of Rowan County, which is extensively quarried, and is similar to the Buena Vista stone, of Brown County, Ohio, much used in Cincinnati and other cities for the fronts of handsome houses.
Cement or water limestone is found in many parts of Kentucky, and in various geological horizons, the most notable at the Falls of the Ohio. where more than 1,000,000 barrels of the cement are made per annum.
This review of the geology and mineral and timber resources of Ken- tucky has been made more in detail than the scope of a history of such limited proportions as this would suggest, but being in the nature of a commercial history it is more appropriate than the narrative of events common to other branches of history, to the exclusion of matters of inter-
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STATE OF KENTUCKY
est to the commercial reader. It is the more opportune, since from a mis- taken policy in State legislation the Geological Survey, which had done so much to make known the resources of Kentucky, was ten years ago discontinued, and specific information upon such subjects is not easily accessible.
AGRICULTURE
Notwithstanding the large area of its coal formation and the extent of its forests, Kentucky occupies a high rank in the variety of its agricultural products and the extent of its commercial crops. It early took a leading position among the great producing States, soon outstripping the older ones eastward, and only yielding the supremacy it had attained in several lines after the larger new States of the West and Northwest had become populated. In 1840 it ranked first in the production of wheat. In 1850 it was second in the production of swine. In 1860 it was second in mules. In 1850 it was first in corn. In 1880 it ranked first in the production of tobacco, as also in 1890 and 1900. The annual crop of tobacco is about 400,000,000 pounds. In hemp it has always been first, ninety per cent of the total crop being raised in the State, while in rye, wool, and the value of live stock it stands high in the list.
The soil of Kentucky varies with the several geological formations. Most of the bluegrass region, embracing about twenty-five counties, is a rich, clayey loam, enriched by the disintegration of the marine shells in the blue limestone. It is fertile and productive, and the land has a high market value. By a judicious system of rotation of crops, without the use of artificial fertilizers, its productive capacity has been so well maintained that after nearly a century of cultivation the soil shows no deterioration in the quantity or commercial value of its products. In the gray limestone region of the State, which has been designated as the sub-carboniferous, while the natural fertility of the soil and the fertilizing elements of the under- lying rocks are not as great as those of the bluegrass region, nor the land of as high average value, its productive capacity is of an excellent grade. Improved agriculture, rotation of crops, and the use of clover and other grasses have demonstrated a similar capacity for keeping up production and restoring apparently worn-out lands. Besides, this region has shown itself especially adapted for fruit of all kinds, as have the more elevated and less fertile lands of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations which belt the bluegrass region. West of the Tennessee River is a fine agricultural dis-
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
trict for the production of tobacco and all the cereal crops, and in no por- tion of the State has there been more development within the last decade than in this. The lands in the western coal field, not being mountainous. contribute also an excellent agricultural region, well adapted to all the staple crops, and embracing some of the most productive counties in the State. The eastern portion of the State, while more rugged in topography than the others described, with the greater part of its area still covered with timber, and more valuable for the minerals beneath its surface than for agriculture, has many fertile valleys and a fair soil, even in its most broken portions. Of recent years tobacco has been profitably raised in the Big Sandy and Cumberland River valleys, with results from low-priced lands rivaling those of the best portions of the State. It is capable of support- ing a very much larger population, and with increased railroad facilities will be an attractive field for a thrifty immigration.
One of the most conspicuous adjuncts of agriculture in Kentucky, for which it is specially noted in several branches, is that of stock raising. The equability of its climate and the succulence of its grasses, coupled with care and skill in breeding from the best types, have led to the development of the highest grades both of horses and cattle known to the continent. For speed and endurance, both of the thoroughbred race horse and the trotter, it has long borne the palin, while for saddle horses and those for general utility it is equally well known. It is here, too, that that useful branch of the equine family, the mule, has been developed to perfection and its serviceable qualities demonstrated. It was in Kentucky, also, that the short-horn cattle from England were first introduced and developed to a degree not excelled elsewhere, and hence distributed throughout the West and Southwest to improve the native stocks and become the standard type of beef cattle. For many years annual shipments of fat beeves have been made to England for Christmas beef, commanding even higher prices than their native cattle. The sheep, particularly the Southdown, for mutton. have had a similar record, and large shipments of spring lambs are annually made to the Eastern markets.
As to the inanufactures and other products of Kentucky, they belong more to the department of statistics than of history, and are to be sought in the census reports or the exhibits of the various cities and counties of the State. In the matter of distilled spirits Kentucky is the second largest revenue-producing State in the Union, while for the quality, its production has always stood unrivaled. And in general it may be said that in the variety of its resources, its crops and products, it combines in great
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STATE OF KENTUCKY
degree, from its geographical position and climatic conditions, the advan- tages of the States both to the north and the south of it, with less loss from the cold of the one or the scorching heat of the other. The monthly mean temperature of the three winter months is 27°, 30°, and 35°, and for the three summer months, 73°, 76°, and 73°, with an annual mean of 55°. The minimum in winter is rarely below zero, and in summer rarely exceeds 90°. The four seasons are clearly defined. The rainfall is equable, and excessive floods or excessive drouths are of rare occurrence. The average rainfall is 46.87 inches.
In healthfulness the State ranks very high. The census returns show that thirty States have a higher death rate than Kentucky. The ratio of deaths to the population is about one per cent, and no part of the State is subject to epidemics from local causes. That the conditions are favor- able for the production of a healthful. vigorous race of men is shown by the following official table, compiled from the measurements of United States volunteers during the Civil War, by B. A. Gould:
NATIVITY
Height in inches.
Weight-pounds.
Circumference
around forehead
and occipnt, inches.
Proportional
numberof tall men
in each 100.000 of
same nativity.
to stature, pounds
to inch.
New England
67.83
139.39
22.02
295
2.07
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
67.52
140.83
22.10
237
2.10
Ohio and Indiana
68.18
145.37
22.II
486
2.10
Michigan, Missouri, and Illinois
67.82
141.78
22.19
466
2.10
Kentucky and Tennessee
68.60
149.85
22.32
848
2.19
Free States west of the Mississippi River
67.41
21.97
184
2.13
Canada
67.08
141.35
22.11
177
2.11
England
66.74
137.61
22.16
103
2.05
Scotland
67.25
137.85
22.23
84
2.09
Germany
66.66
140.37
22.09
105
2.12
Scandinavia
67.33
148.14
22.37
221
2.15
1
4
1
1
66.95
139.18
2.08
Ireland .
Ratio of weight
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
POPULATION
Kentucky may be said to comprise in its population the most distinctive body of English-speaking people of the Anglo-Saxon stock, not only of any State in the Union, but of any civil division in the world. Out of a popu- lation of 2, 147, 174, as shown by the census of 1900, there are only 50, 249 persons of foreign birth, most of whom are confined to the cities and a few counties, many of the counties having none. The white population is principally of English and Scotch descent, with a fair proportion of Irish blood. The State has contributed largely of its population to the settle- ment of the States to the north, south, and west, and both in the emigrants and in the home stock, as shown by the long list of distinguished names which have filled the roll of men in all stations of life-in field, forum, and pulpit-it has been demonstrated that the conditions in the State are as favorable for the development of mental and moral qualities as for physical excellence.
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