USA > Kentucky > Boyle County > Danville > The Political Club, Danville, Kentucky, 1786-1790. Being an account of an early Kentucky society from the original papers recently found > Part 2
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many other varieties, all evidencing the rich, strong soil beneath.
As the primeval forest of Kentucky has been so destroyed that all its original grandeur has disappeared, it is worth more than a passing mention in this work, which is intended to bring to view transactions which occurred before the destruction took place. Many writers have endeavored to present to the mind a picture of the Kentucky woods. Professor Shaler says: "This forest territory was singularly unbroken, having a continuity of woods unknown in the other States." He says: "This forest was principally of the broad-leaved tree, no great extent of coniferous woods existing then in the eastern part of the District. Fortunately for the settlers the broad-leaved trees were of old growth, and singularly open beneath, so that the early trackways and wagon roads were easily made through them." This is a cor- rect statement, as many now living, and who in their earlier years traversed portions of these forests un- broken at that date, can testify. The long stems of the trees, measuring from fifty to one hundred feet in height, and from three to six feet in diameter, sus- tained a leafy canopy, the shade of which prevented undergrowth and produced the solemn cathedral-like impression often mentioned.
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Colonel Durrett in his centennial address takes the distinction between the timber-shadowed land and the more open spaces where a lower growth was found. He says: "Over an area that millions might inhabit, of mountain and liill, and plain and valley, stands a dark forest. . . . Here and there where the trees cast not their shadow the cane and the clover and the rye and the bluegrass cover the soil like emerald isles in the forest seas."
In the singularly weird story of early Kentucky days by Doctor Robert M. Byrd, entitled "Nick of the Woods," he says: "The forest was of the grand and gloomy char- acter which the fertility of the soil and the absence of the axe for a thousand years imprinted on the western woodlands. Oaks, poplars, elms, walnuts, and beeches, with other monarchs of the wilderness, lifted their trunks like so many pillars, and swung their majestic arms far overhead."
Roosvelt in his "Winning of the West " uses very graphic expressions on this subject. He says the coun- try "had been shielded by the forest which lay over · the land like an unrent mantle. All through the moun- tains and far beyond it stretched without a break."
Speaking of the Indians, he says: "Their wars were carried on in the never-ending stretches of gloomy
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woodland. . . . To their keen eyes, trained for genera- tions to more than a wild beast's watchfulness, the wilderness was an open book; nothing at rest or in motion escaped them. They had begun to track game as soon as they could walk; a scrape on a tree or the soil, which the eye of no white man could see, all told them a tale as plainly as if it had been shouted in their ears."
Speaking of the white men, he says: "Up to the door-sills of their log huts stretched the solemn and mysterious forest. There were no openings to break its continuity; nothing but endless leagues on leagnies of shadowy, wolf-haunted woodland. The great trees towered aloft till their separate heads were lost in the mass of foliage above. . . . The sunlight could not penetrate the roofed archiway of murmuring leaves; through the gray aisles of the forest men walked always in a kind of midday gloaming. Here and there it was broken by a rare hillside glade, or by a meadow or a stream valley; but elsewhere a man might travel for weeks as in a perpetual twilight. never once able to see the sun through the interlacing twigs that formed a dark canopy above the head."
It was a true appreciation of the fearful significancy of dense forests up to the very doors of the settlers'
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cabins that inspired our Kentucky poet* to write the beautiful poem which he entitled, "The Mothers of Our Forest Land."+
The first implement called in requisition by the settler was the axe. Wherever he chose to make his wilderness home it was necessary to clear the land of heavy timber before even a few vegetables could be grown or a corn patch planted. Game was abundant in the woods, and springs and creeks were everywhere found. Generally speaking, it may be said that all parts of the country included in the lines stated were attractive to the early settlers, and, as all the soil was new, the differences as to the fertility of the first clear- ings were not so apparent as in after years, when long- continued cultivation had tested the enduring qualities of the soil.
* W. D. Gallagher.
t While this noble forest has been practically destroyed, there yet remain fine specimens here and there of the old trees. The following extract from a volume entitled "Trees and Tree-planting," by General James S. Brisbin, U. S. A., strikingly shows the impression the sight of some remnants of the Kentucky forest can make upon strangers. General Brisbin says: "For four years I had lived on the plains, surrounded by sage - brush and sand, never once seeing a mountain or a forest. Then I was ordered east with troops to Kentucky. We had been running very fast all night in the cars, and in the morning I heard the soldiers in the forward coaches cheering. I asked the conductor what was the matter, and he replied, " The soldiers are cheer- ing the trees." We all hastened to the doors and windows, and there sure enough found we were running through a grand old Kentucky forest; and
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THE TRAVELED WAYS.
Leading through this vast interminable forest under the perpetual shadow of the trees were the traveled ways or traces along which the pioneers made their toilsome journeyings. With natural engineering skill these roads were marked out along the high ground or ridges, avoiding miry places and impassable hills. The course was shaped so as to pass some ever - flowing spring, and so as to lead to the fording- places of the streams, descending and ascending from them by the easiest slopes. Along these roads stations were located, rude stockade forts into which the settlers would hastily gather in time of danger from Indians.
One of these traveled ways extended from Limestone, now Maysville, on the Ohio River, to Crab Orchard, passing through the eastern portions of the level lands,
it was indeed a most beautiful sight. It had rained the night before, and the dripping trees shone like silver in the newly risen sun; grape vines hung in heavy festoons from the arms of giant oaks; woodbines clung about their trunks; the grass on the earth was green as emerald; and so I longed to jump from the cars, lie down on it, and roll over and over, and shout for very joy.
"Thank God for noble trees! How stately strong and grand These bannered giants lift their crests O'er all this beauteous land."
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though some distance from the mountain region .* An- other was the extension of the Old Wilderness Road which led through the mountains from Cumberland Gap to Crab Orchard, and on to the Falls of the Ohio, passing the present sites of Lebanon, Bardstown, and Shepherdsville. Along its course the Muldraugh Hill range could be seen bounding the level lands toward the southwest. Another road extended from Crab Orchard through the present site of Harrodsburg, crossing Ken- tucky River near the present site of Frankfort, and thence along the great divide between the waters of Kentucky and Licking rivers to the mouth of the Licking, opposite which Fort Washington was built, at the present site of Cincinnati. Another historic trav- eled way led from Crab Orchard southwardly through the hills to the settlements in Tennessee.
It thus appears that as all the roads east of Cum- berland Gap converged to that great natural gate-way in the mountains, so when the mountains of Kentucky were passed all the roads diverged from Crab Orchard,
៛ As late as 1825, and perhaps later, goods in great quantities were hauled from Limestone through Lexington and Danville, and passing on over the Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap to be carried down the Tennessee Valley to Alabama. The goods were wagoned to Pittsburgh, thence carried by flatboats to Limestone, and thence wagoned, as stated, into Alabama. Accounts are now given by the older citizens of Danville of trains of wagons passing through, covered with canvas, drawn by six horses with bells on the
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the point of debouching from the mountains. All travel concentered upon these two points. From the Gap the travelers going castward diverged into the ways to Vir- ginia and the Carolinas, and from Crab Orchard the divergence was into the level lands of Kentucky.
Danville, which was located near Crab Orchard, soon became tlie proud little gate city, standing like the pupil in the focal point of the Crab Orchard region, which Colonel Henderson called the "eye of the level lands of Kentucky."* It is thus seen that Danville, instead of being centrally located in the area of the level lands, was situated in its extreme southeast corner.
LOCATION OF DANVILLE.
While it is true that Danville is the geographical center of the State, it was in a corner of that portion of the State first settled; yet Danville was the most important point in Kentucky in the early days. It was the first capital. It was the place where the District harness. Large droves of hogs and mules were driven over the road destined for the markets in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama.
*It is curious that upon large maps which show mountain ranges, these ranges curve at the Crab Orchard region so as to resemble somewhat a human eye.
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Court held its meetings, that being the first court estab- lished in Kentucky, and its jurisdiction was co-extensive with the entire District. It was the place where Colonel Benjamin Logan called the militia officers to assemble in November, 1784, to take into consideration the affairs of the District, and the place where all the subsequent conventions were held until Kentucky became a State and was admitted into the Union.
The lack of urban conditions and privileges in Ken- tucky is strikingly brought to the mind by the facts attending the location of the District Court at the point which became Danville. That court was first established at Harrodsburg, a station ten miles east of the site of Danville; but there being no building suit- able for the purpose, and it being necessary to erect one, it was determined to select some safe place and build a log house large enough for the purposes of the court, and also a jail of sawed or liewed logs .* The
*"The Attorney-General and Clerk were directed to fix on some safe place near Crow's Station ( near which Danville was located) for holding the court. They were authorized to procure a log house large enough to accommodate the court in one end and two juries in the other. They were likewise to con- tract for building a jail of hewed or sawed logs at least nine inches thick. This arrangement for buildings so suitable to the poverty of the mechanic arts at this time gave rise to the town of Danville, which continued the seat of the District Court and was the place of meeting for all the early public . assemblies of Kentucky."-Butler.
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place chosen was near Crow's Station, and this gave rise to the laying out of Danville in 1784.
The reason for the favorable consideration of the locality of Danville unquestionably was its situation with reference to the "Wilderness Road."
The influence of that highway upon the settlements in Kentucky was very great. More immigrants came by that route than by the Olio River. All return travel was by that way. The records of that day show that the most direct and expeditious routes from Fort Washington ( the present site of Cincinnati), and also from Limestone ( afterward Maysville), and from the Falls of the Ohio, to Philadelphia were through the country to Crab Orchard, and thence by the Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap.
Among the interesting facts of the early days were the published notices from time to time to the effect that. a party of men would, upon a given date, start from Crab Orchard to go on the journey to the East through the great wilderness. Letters and messages
# I searched in vain for some historic mention of the location of Crow's Station. I obtained from Honorable R. P. Jacob, of Danville, the information that Crow's Station was east of Danville, and within three miles of the town. His information was obtained from Mr. N. D. Logan, who was born in the neighborhood, and who knew of its location from his father, who was one of the early settlers and died at an advanced age. Mr. Jacob also learned of the location of Crow's Station from Mr. B. O. Rhodes, who derived his
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were sent from all parts of Kentucky to friends beyond the mountains by these parties, and those who wished to make the trip in person would join with them for protection and company .*
Another fact, which would scarcely be credited except that it is attested by official records, shows the impor- tance of this great highway. In 1794, Kentucky then being a State in the Union, a post-route was established, by which the mail was carried down the Ohio River to Limestone ( Maysville ), thence through Lexington to Danville, and thence by way of Bardstown to Louisville, thus following that portion of Boone's old trace which led from the Gap through Crab Orchard to the Falls of the Ohio .*
Some idea of the distribution of the first- settlers in Kentucky may be had by a consideration of the statistics found in the census of 1790 and other sources. In that year the nine counties into which Kentucky was then divided, with their populations, were as follows :
information from Mr. Wmn. Baughman, whose father once owned the Crow farm. I learned from Honorable John W. Yerkes, of Danville, that on this farm is a stone dwelling built by Mr. Crow, and that he was buried on the place. A head. stone bears the inscription, "William Crow, born March, 1755, died January 3, IS21."
* Wilderness Road.
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Bourbon,
7,830
Fayette,
IS,410
Jefferson,
4,765
Lincoln,
6,548
Madison, 5,772
Mason,
2,729
Mercer,
7,091
Nelson,
11,315
Woodford,
9,210
The only towns mentioned in that census are five, with populations as follows :
Lexington, 834
* Washington, 462
Bardstown,
216
Louisville,
350
Danville,
150
"
The counties of Fayette and Nelson had the great- est population.t Washington, then the county seat of
* The town of Washington grew up four miles from the river, on account of the difficulty of large wagons loaded with goods for the interior ascend- ing the steep road leading up to the high ground. Goods were conveyed to the top of the hill in smaller quantities and there loaded into the great wagons. The town grew rapidly, and handsome brick residences, stores, churches, schools, and banks were built. Traffic by steam power diverted the business. Washington declined, and has almost disappeared, and the river town of Maysville took its place.
t In the document transmitted by Lord Dorchester to Lord Sydney, in England, 1789, entitled "Observations Upon the Colony of Kentucky," it is said: "Danville, the seat of the convention and considered at present the capital, is situated in the interior country, upwards of eighty miles east of
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Mason, Lexington, the county seat of Fayette, Louis- ville, the county seat of Jefferson, and Bardstown, the county seat of Nelson, were the largest towns. Fayette County, being centrally located, received immigrants from all the river gate-ways above the Falls, but those who landed at the Falls proceeded along the road which led through Shepherdsville to Bardstown, and thence to Danville. This traveled way out from the Falls was, as we have seen, the extension of the Wilderness Road. The country along this way of travel was early settled, Nelson County being next in population to Fayette.
The situation of Danville with respect to early travel is illustrated by the following statement in a paper entitled "Observations Upon the Colony of Kentucky," dated 1789, found in the Canadian Archives, and pub- lished for the first time in "The Political Beginnings," by Colonel John Mason Brown :
the Ohio, in a part well inhabited and improved. It contains upward of one hundred and fifty houses, and some tolerably good buildings." The same paper says "Lexington has two hundred houses and Harrodstown one hun- dred." It also says "Bourbon is a small town thirty miles from Lexington, and Washington a long, straggling place in one street on each side of the great State road, within five miles of Limestone: " also "Limestone is on the south side of the Ohio, about five hundred miles below Pittsburgh, and is the general landing- place of all immigrants from the Atlantic States, from whence they proceed into the interior country and disperse either to the right or to the left of the great State road to form their improvements." . (See Colonel Brown's "Political Beginnings.")
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"The distance from Louisville, the mnost westerly settlement of Kentucky, to Limestone, the most easterly, is by the route of Dan- ville about one hundred and ninety miles, traveling on a large and very good carriage road, both sides of which generally speaking are tolerably inhabited and in some places good improvements."*
This shows that the way of travel from the Falls of the Ohio to Limestone was by way of Danville.
A number of pioneer stations had been built in the section of country in which Danville became a town. Within a radius of twenty miles or less they were more numerous than in any other area of like size in Ken- tucky. Among them were Harrod's, Crow's, Carpenter's, Casey's, Craig's, Gilmer's, Mckinney's, Whitley's, Wil- son's, Worthington's, St. Asaph's, Knob Lick, Dough- erty's, and others.
Danville was laid out as a town near Crow's Station in 1781 by Walker Daniel, who was killed three years later by Indians. Its location gave it an importance more than commensurate with its populousness. The country about it could hardly be surpassed in beauty and fertility by any in all that magnificent body of land bearing the proud designation of "The Bluegrass." The locality was perfect in soil, timber, and water. Twenty miles away in a southeast direction lay Crab Orchard,
* Political Beginnings.
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the rendezvous and starting-place, as we have seen, for all return travel to the States; but Crab Orchard was not sufficiently advanced from the rough country to be favored like Danville with the best features of the best Kentucky land. Ten miles nearer was Logan's Fort, or St. Asaph's, the halting-place of Benjamin Logan when he came into Kentucky with Daniel Boone in the spring · of 1775, lie building this station at the same time Boone established Boonesboro on the Kentucky River. The town of Stanford is now situated at this place. Only ten miles distant in another direction lay Harrodsburg, founded, about the same time as Boonesboro, by James Harrod and the McAfees, who came by the Ohio River route, entering the mouth of the Kentucky River and pursuing their search for an eligible location up the waters of that stream until they came so nearly up to Danville's favored site.
This early settled section first came to be recognized in a public manner in 1779, when the Virginia Land Commissioners, William Flemming, Edmond Lyne, James Barbour, and Stephen Trigg, held their sessions at St. Asaph's Station. In the year 1783 Kentucky was formed into a District by the Virginia Legislature, and a District Court was opened at Harrodsburg, with Samuel McDowell, George Muter, and John Floyd as
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judges. During the year, however, this court was re- moved to Danville, which we have seen was selected as the most eligible place for its sittings. The following year the threatening attitude of the Indians impressed the people of Kentucky with the importance of con- certed action on their part to resist an expected inva- sion. Colonel Benjamin Logan assumed the responsi- bility of assembling the militia officers of the District of Kentucky, and issued a call for a general meeting. The place selected for this consultation was Danville. The conference of these officers developed the fact that Kentucky was sadly in need of a local government of its own. They therefore issued a call for a more formal convention of militia delegates to assemble December 27, 1784. The place selected for this meeting was Dan- ville. It in turn provided for a civic convention to be held in May, 1785. It was also held at Danville. It was succeeded by the convention of August, 1785. An- other was held in September, 1786. Others succeeded, in all nine being held before Kentucky became a State of the Union in 1792, and all were held at Danville.
A noticeable fact in this connection is that Danville was the first location of Transylvania Seminary, after- ward removed to Lexington and known as Transylvania University. In the years 1780-83 the Virginia Legisla-
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ture endowed this seminary, giving it twenty thousand acres of land, exempting it from tax, and exempting the professors and students from militia duty. Two of its first trustees were men who afterward were members of The Political Club, Christopher Greenup and James Speed. The act establishing Transylvania Seminary provided that the first meeting of the trustees should be at Crow's Station, near Danville. It was there held in November, 1783. In the most valuable account of education in Kentucky, prepared by Professor William Chenault and read before the Filson Club December 7, 1885, he says:
"This meeting was a memorable one in the early educational history of the State. The whole subject of establishing a public institution of learning in the District was discussed by earnest men in all its bearings upon the welfare of the future State of Kentucky. The foremost lawyers, doctors, ministers. and military officers of the District were there. The meeting was presided over by the vener- able David Rice. Walker Daniel, Robert Johnson, Caleb Wallace, John Craig, Isaac Shelby, Samuel McDowell, James Speed, Christo- pher Greenup, and Willis Green were among the prominent speakers. Future governors of the State, founders of synods and presbyteries, judges of the Appellate Court, and judges of Circuit Court were alike present."
The conclusions reached were that the prosperity and happiness of the rising young State were intimately connected with liberal education, and that the people of the District should increase the endowment. On the
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25th of May, 1785, the seminary was opened at Danville, and it continued there until 1789, when it was removed to Lexington.
Professor Chenault says:
"Transylvania Seminary was thus opened and continued during the scenes of the separation conventions at Danville. The quietude of the school-house must have been often broken by the stormy debates occurring in the old log court-house in Danville. The students must have often seen the manly form of Isaac Shelby and the tall, contemplative figure of Benjamin Logan as they rode into Danville to tliese successive conventions. Frequent visits to Dan- ville by General George Rogers Clark must have furnished occasions to the students for seeing this Hannibal of the West. They must have frequently looked upon the person of General James Wilkinson, and have heard his inflammatory and eloquent speeches upon the navigation of the Mississippi, and also listened to the appeals of George Muter and Colonel Thomas Marshall for a constitution in accordance with the laws of Virginia."
The transfer of the Transylvania School to Lexing- ton, however, did not extinguish the light of learning at Danville. For a number of years Lexington was the social and literary capital of the West. But in 1819 the Danville embers again burst into flame, and since that day Center College has given a wide celebrity to the place as a seat of learning. For more than seventy years, under the presidencies of Chamberlain, John C. Young, Green, Breckinridge, Beatty, and W. C. Young,
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it has held aloft the torch of science, and for the future the promise is that of a perpetual luster. Danville has also been made memorable by the establishment there, in 1853, of the "Danville Theological Seminary," an institution of the Presbyterian Church, in which the instructors at one time were Robert J. Breckinridge, Edward P. Humphrey, Stuart Robinson, and Stephen Yerkes-men whose names are more enduring than any monument.
It may be further said of this interesting section of Kentucky that, having come to the front in the early days when travel overland by the Wilderness Road was preferred, in later years, when steam navigation made the Ohio River the great highway for travel and com- merce, the peculiar advantages of Danville's location were taken away. But the railroad has in turn super- seded the river travel, and now trains of cars running out from the Falls of the Ohio over Boone's old trace,* through Danville and Crab Orchard and Cumberland Gap, are bringing back the days of overland travel, and Danville is regaining something of her pristine supremacy.
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