USA > Kentucky > The story of Kentucky > Part 15
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1814. Daniel Smith and Samuel J. Mill visited the State for the Amer ican Bible Society to distribute Bibles, form Bible societies and organize churches. Gen. Harrison resigned his commission - May 14. Henty Clay and others signed a treaty of peace at Ghent - August 6. A very daring and successful raid into the Northwest, made by Gen. McArthur and five hundred mounted Kentuckians - September 20.
1815. Maj .- Gen. Thomas and two thousand five hundred Kentucky militia arrived at New Orleans - January 4. Great victory at New Orleans - January 8. Great food on the Ohio River - April 6. Kentucky troop- arrived from New Orleans after incredible hardships - May r. Steamboat built at Louisville - October 15.
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. ERA OF DEVELOPMENT.
1816. Lottery authorized to raise ten thousand dollars for a masonic hall in Russellville - January 29. Church and seminary property and libraries exempted from taxation - January 31. Retaliatory legislation punishing Indiana lawyers for practicing in Kentucky courts - February 10. Legislature gave a vote of thanks to Gen. Adair for his connection with the battle of New Orleans.
1817. Louisville Hospital incorporated - February 5. The Kentucky Legislature proposed an amendment to U. S. Constitution aimed against salary grabs. A severe earthquake shock throughout the State - Decem- ber 12.
1818. Forty-six independent banks chartered - January 26. Legislature appointed a new board of trustees for Transylvania University - February 3. Gen. Geo. R. Clark died - February 4. Shadrach Penn published the Public Advertiser in Louisville - June 23. Treaty with the Chickasaw Indians for all their claims in Tennessee and Kentucky - October 19. Numerous Kentucky banks suspended specie payments - November 20.
1819. Center College incorporated at Danville - January 19. The initial monthly magazine of the West issued at Lexington, Ky. - August. Legislature memorialized Congress for Christopher Miller, one of Wayne's most trusted spies.
THE ERA OF DEVELOPMENT.
1820. Legislature instructed its senators and representatives to vote for the admission of Missouri - January 3. The new State House completed. More than half of the expense borne by private subscription - February 8. Five thousand dollars appropriated to buy books and apparatus for the medical department of Transylvania University - February 14. President Madison and General Jackson entertained by the Masons at Louisville -June 24. President of U. S. requested to negotiate with Great Britain regarding the restoration of fugitive slaves in Canada - November 5. State Library established at Frankfort - November 9. Legislature enacted that all fines and forfeitures be paid over to the treasurers of the county seminaries to promote education - December 25.
1821. The steamboat Post Boy arrived at Shippingport in seventeen days from New Orleans - April 29. Imprisonment for debt abolished - Decem ber 17. One half of clear profits of the Commonwealth's Bank set apart as a literary fund. One half of the profits of the Lexington branch for Tran- syivania University ; one third of Harrodsburg branch for Center College ; and one third of Bowling Green branch for Southern College -- December 18. County courts authorized to erect poor-houses - December 19. U. S. Supreme Court declared the Kentucky claimant laws unconstitutional and void - December 27.
1822. Henry Clav and Benjamin Leigh agreed upon articles of Conven- tion between Kentucky and Virginia. Terrible epidemic (probably yellow fever) at Louisville - November 19. John Symmes sought aid from Con-
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gress in exploring the interior of the earth through the poles. Charter of the Bank of Kentucky repealed - December 5. Lottery authorized to raise twenty-five thousand dollars for a niedical college at Lexington. Lunatic asylum established at Lexington. Augusta College (M. E ) char- tered. Deaf and Dumb asylum established at Danville. Lottery auth- orized for draining Louisville - December 7.
1823. Col. James Morrison bequeathed twenty thousand dollars to found a professorship in Transylvania University and forty thousand dollars for a new building - April 23. Severe laws passed against gam- bling - December 29.
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1824. Many Kentuckians emigrated to Illinois and Missouri. A Bo- tanical Garden established at Louisville - January 7. A line of stages established between Maysville and Louisville - April 17. Henry Clay given a public dinner at Lexington - June 17. Mingo Puckshunubbe, chief of the Choctaws, accidentally killed at Louisville. His funeral largely attended - October 13. Great debate on baptism between Elder Campbell and Rev. William McCalla - October 15-23. Frankfort capitol burned - November 4. Legislature invited Gen. Lafayette to pay a visit to Ken- tucky. - November 17. A new Supreme Court established. Roman Cath- olic seminary at Bardstown incorporated as St. Joseph's College. Center College put under the control of the Presbyterian Synod - December 24.
1825. Representatives requested by the Legislature to vote for Gen. Jackson for President. Portrait of Lafayette ordered for the House of Representatives. Steamboat Wm. Penn sailed from Pittsburg to Mays- ville in thirty two hours. The quickest trip to date - March. Henry Clay burnt in effigy in many places outside the State for voting for J. Q. Adams for President - April. Great fire at Washington - April 22. Gen. Lafayette enthusiastically received all over the State - May. Public din- ner to Henry Clay at Maysville. Ovation wherever he went in the State - May 24. Gen. Wilkinson died near the city of Mexico - December 25. During this year a very exciting contest between the "old" and "new " court. Public meetings held in every county.
1826. The beginning of extensive revivals lasting through four years. The Public Advertiser became a daily, the first west of the Alleghanies - April 4. Duel between Henry Clay, Secretary of State. and John Randolph. U. S. Senator from Virginia, at Washington City - April 8. Robert Trimble appointed Ju ige of U. S. Supreme Court - May. At the Mavs- ville Jockey Club races, Jenkins' sorrel mare beat all previous trotting records - October 1. A day of thanksgiving, humiliation and praver kept by the Presbyterians in Kentucky - November 17. Ohio River the lowest ever known at this season - December 14. The "court contro. versy" settled by the repeal of the act establishing the " new court" - December 30.
1827. Twenty thousand dollars appropriated for rebuilding the capitol at Frankfort. Great excitement caused by the Kanawha salt monopoly of Armstrongs, Grant & Co. Public indignation meetings held and "boy-
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cotting " resorted to - February. Three remarkable halves round the sun visible for several hours - May 17. Steamboat Tecumseh made the trip between New Orleans and Louisville in a trifle over eight days, thus beat- ing the record - June 1. Eight thousand people attended a public dinner to Henry Clay at Paris. Rain feil nearly every day for three months - July 16.
1828. Five hundred additions in one month to the two Presbyterian churches at Lexington. Henry Clay issued an "address to the public " refuting charges against himself - January. Twenty thousand dollars appropriated to complete the new capitol - February.
1829. John J. Crittenden nominated to U. S. Supreme Court. Senate rejected the nomination. Backner, Marshall and Underwood successively nominated and rejected - January 2. Twenty thousand dollars appropri- ated for the capitol. Senators and Representatives requested to secure public lands from United States for establishment of schools - January 29. The principal building of Transylvania University burned - May 10. Louisville branch of the Commonwealth Bank robbed of twenty-five thou- sand dollars. No clue - September 17.
1830. Tri-weekly packet trade established between Maysville and Cin- cinnati. Company chartered to build a railroad from Lexington to points on Ohio River - January 19. A common school law enacted - January 29. Temperance society formed at Augusta - February 17. Great enthusi- asm over the Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road company - April. The Turnpike Road Bill passed Congress - May 15. President Jackson vetoed it. Great excitement and public meetings in consequence - May 27. George D. Prentice established the famous Louis- ville Journal - November 24.
1831. Fifteen ballots on three days for U. S. Senator. No choice. Election postponed to next session - January 4, 5, 6. State subscription of fifty thousand dollars to the Turnpike Co. - January 15. First rail of the Lexington & Ohio Railroad laid at Lexington - October 22.
1832. The greatest flood ever known on the Ohio River - February. The centennary of Washington's birthday celebrated with great enthusiasth - February 22. A day of humiliation and prayer observed by proclama- tion because of threatened cholera - August 18. Asiatic cholera appeared but did not attack many - October.
1833. The State subscribed fifty thousand dollars more in the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road Co. The importation of slaves prohibited except when heirlooms and by emigrants. Legislature condemned the South Carolina nullification. Kentucky Colonization Society sent one hun- dred and two freed slaves to Liberia- February 2. Terrible scourge of the Asiatic cholera - May 30 to August 1. The Teachers' Convention at Lexington organized the Kentucky Association of Professional Teachers - November 6. A medical college was established at Louisville - December 1.
1834. Kentucky Legislative Temperance Society organized - January 14. Kentucky Common School Society organized - January 2S. Financial
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depression caused by Jackson's war upon the bank - February I. Public meetings at Frankfort and all over the State condemned President Jackson for his bank policy - April 26. Very injurious frost in Northern Kentucky - April 27. Severe drought - July 15 to September 8. A six-horse wagon drew on the Turnpike three loads weighing respectively 14,469, 14,529 and 15,724 pounds - August. Severe earthquake shock - November 20.
1835. Great enthusiasm over first railway train between Lexington and - Frankfort. Time, two hours, twenty-nine minutes. Distance twenty-seven miles - January 25. Another visitation of cholera - July 2. Kentucky annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church declared against any interference with slavery - September 23.
1836. Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railroad chartered. State appropriations made for the improvements of several rivers - February 29). First railroad accident in Kentucky near Frankfort. Three killed and sev- eral injured - March 16. Arsenal at Frankfort burned - March 19. Ken- tuckians assisted at Sam Houston's victory of San Jacinto. Through the summer six hundred Kentuckians left to fight in Texas - April 21. Gov. Morehead called for one thousand mounted Kentuckians to fight in the Southwest. Before August 3 forty-five companies reported, only ten accepted. These were ordered discharged before ready to march - July 16. Kentucky horse, Rodolph, double distanced the Tennessee mare, Rodolph, in four-mile heat - September 21.
1837. St. Mary's College incorporated - January 21. Shelby College authorized to raise one hundred thousand dollars by lottery - February 11). State stock in Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road increased from $144,200. to $213,200 - February 21. Convention of Kentucky editors at Lexington - February 22. One million dollars of surplus United State- revenue deposited with Kentucky set apart for public instruction - February 23. Transylvania Medical School reorganized. General Albert Sidney Johnston wounded in a duel with Gen. Huston - April 29. Run upon the Louisville banks - May 8. All the Kentucky banks suspended specie pa .. ments - May 9. Ohio River rose twenty-four feet in twenty-four hours - May IS. Daniel Webster received with greatest enthusiasm all through the State - May 18-30. Public meetings demanded extra session of the Legislature to relieve the money pressure - June. Legislature voted tu call a Constitutional convention - December 21.
1838. State Agricultural Society organized - February 3. Frankfort authorized to raise one hundred thousand dollars by lottery, half for schoo !. and half for city water - February 7. Common schools established - Fel. ruary 15. First Superintendent of Public Instruction appointed - February 28. Kentucky banks resumed specie payments -August 13. Great ini road festival at Lexington - Angust 27. More fevers than for forty vear. Rev. John B. Mahan acquitted of kidnaping slaves- October. Lowes! water ever known in the Ohio River. Railroad built from Louisville to Portland - November.
1839. Commissioners appointed to provide more efficient means for cap
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turing fugitive slaves - January 5. Remarkable debate in the House on the bill to charter a branch of the Southwestern Railroad bank - January if and 12. Paducah authorized to raise by lottery one hundred thousand dollars for seminaries and libraries - February 8. $923,000 appropriated for internal improvements - February 22. Four-mile race at Louisville for fourteen thousand dollars. Wagner beat Grey Eagle -September 30. The Kentucky banks suspended specie payments - October 16.
1840. Louisville College chartered - January 17. Marshall College chartered - January 23. Western Baptist Theological Institute at Coving- ton incorporated - February 5. Celebration of the first settlement of Ken- tucky at Boonesborough - May 24 and 25. Gen. Harrison enthusiastically received in Kentucky - November 16-20.
1841, 8618,coo appropriated to internal improvements - February 18. Day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer, because of President Harri- son's death - May 14. Military encampment of twenty companies near Louisville - July 1-4. Maythe and Crouch hung by a mob at Williams- town - July 10. African church at Maysville pulled down by a mob- September S. Citizens of Woodford County presented John J. Crittenden at an expense of seventeen thousand dollars with the farm on which he was born - October 7. Vickars and Brown, reformed drunkards, aroused in- tense interest in the temperance cause. Whole communities signed the pledge - December 3.
1842. Beautiful raw silk produced in Somerset - January 10. Leg- islature unanimously passed anti-repudiation resolutions - January 14. Institution for the Blind established at Louisville. Mercantile Library Association chartered - February 5. Henderson College incorporated - February 22. Four hundred and twenty thousand dollars appropriated for internal improvements - March 1. Growth of temperance reform move- ment. Over thirty thousand signed the pledge in four months - April. Charles Dickens visited Kentucky - April 6. Banks resumed specie pay- ment - June I. Twelve thousand people attended a public dinner to Henry Clay at Lexington - June 9. A great barbecue was given at Dayton, Ohio, by the Ohio Whigs, to the Whigs of Kentucky as the Whig banner State at the last election. One hundred thousand present - September 29. Ken- tucky synod ( Presbyterian) decided that the Bible fixed no rate of interest and counseled obedience to the State law in this matter - October 18.
1843. John Van Zandt forced to pay damages for rendering assistance to fugitive slaves - July 12. John Quincy Adams visited Kentucky. He was received with great enthusiasm - November 14. A great debate upon baptism and other subjects at Lexington. Lasted three weeks. Crowds attended - November 15. The Louisville Democrat established.
1844. Rev. Calvin Fairbanks was sentenced to the penitentiary for fif- teen years for abducting slaves. Louisville Courier established - February 13. General Presbyterian Assembly convened in Louisville - May 16. Greatest flood ever known in the Missouri, Mississippi, Illinois and Red rivers. Great damage - June. Kentucky penitentiary burned - August
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30. Appointed as a day of "prayer, praise and thanksgiving" - Septem- ber 26. Miss Delia A. Webster sentenced to two years in the penitentiary for abducting slaves. Pardoned out in seven weeks because of her sex.
1845. Legislature consented to the purchase of the Louisville and Port- land Canal by U. S. - February 10. The 123d Regiment of Kentucky militia sought the abolition of the existing militia system - April 9. The abolitionists at Madison, Ind., made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the arrest and delivery to Kentucky of a free mulatto who had abducted Ken- tucky slaves - April 25. The "Methodist Episcopal Church South " formed - May 19. Cassius M. Clay began the issue of the True Amer- ican at Lexington - June 4. A meeting of citizens sent a committee to Clay requesting that its publication be stopped - August 14. A general county meeting appointed a committee of sixty prominent citizens to take possession of press and printing apparatus and send it to Cincinnati. It was sent, express paid - August 18. Troops called out in Clay County to preserve order -- September 10. The committee of sixty tried as rioters and acquitted - September 18. A meeting of citizens of Mason County de. manded legislation prohibiting abolition publications. Similar meetings in other counties - October 13. Another meeting of Mason County passed stronger resolutions than those of October 13 - November 10.
1846 A colony of colored people sent out to " Kentucky in Liberia " - January 7. University of Louisville incorporated - February 7. May. ville College incorporated - February 13. War declared between [. . and Mexico .- May 13. The Loyal Legion, nine companies, offered the.r services for the Mexican War and were accepted. Louisville subscribe !! fifty thousand dollars to dispatch troops to the war - May IS. The Noul: ern Bank of Kentucky at Lexington tendered the governor two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the same purpose. Gov. Ousley called for tu . regiments of infantry and one of cavalry - May 22. The requisition up: Kentucky for troops was full - May 26. Monterey, Mexico, captured Louisville Legion displayed remarkable bravery - September 24.
1847. Legislature voted to call a Constitutional Convention - Janul! : 9. Kentucky Military Institute incorporated. Major John P. Gaines a Captain Cassius M. Clay and their troops surrounded at Emcamacion a' forced to surrender. Imprisoned in the City of Mexico - Januar .. Kentucky Female Orphan School incorporated, also Western Military : stitute. Kentucky Legislature complimented the Louisville Legion a: various officers - February 23. Kentuckians did their duty at Gen. T. lor's Buena Vista victory - February 22-23. Gen. Doniphan (a Kent ian) defeated the Mexicans at Sacramento - February 28. Chihuato. o Louisville and Frankfort Railroad incorporated - March 1. Four .. . infantry companies raised - March 10. Capt. Williams' company di: guished themselves at the storming of Cerro Gordo - April IS. In, sive services at the burial in the State cemetery at Frankfort of these " fell in Mexico - July 20. Two more Kentucky regiments called to: August 31. The victims of Buena Vista buried in the State cemetery
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ERA OF DEVELOPMENT.
September 16. The two regiments called for reported for service - Sep- tember 20. Great speech by Henry Clay at Lexington on the Mexican War - November 13. Great damage from floods in the Ohio, Licking, Ken- tucky and Cumberland rivers. State purchased the Lexington & Ohio Railroad - December.
1848. Legislature passed an act to take another vote regarding Consti- tional convention - January 15. Passed a severe law against gambling - January 29. Fifteen thousand dollars appropriated for a soldiers' monu- ment in the State cemetery - February 25. Second lunatic asylum estab- lished. Lexington and Frankfort Railroad incorporated as the successor of the Lexington and Ohio. State a stockholder - February 28. Legis- lature passed resolutions complimentary to a number of her brave soldiers -- March 1. State voted by a large majority to call a Constitutional con- vention - August 9. The bones of the victims of the Raisin massacre (1812) were brought to Frankfort and interred in the State cemetery - Sep- temiber 30. Patrick. Doyle, an abolitionist, sentenced to hard labor in the penitentiary for twenty years for enticing away slaves - October 10.
1849. Legislature passed an act to call a constitutional convention at Frankfort, October 1, IS49- January 13. The Kentucky House of Repre- sentatives passed an unanimous resolution against abolition - February 3. Emancipation meetings at Maysville and Louisville - February 12-13. Gen. Taylor enthusiastically received on his way to Washington - Febru- ary 11-17. Law of 1833 amended, making it lawful to purchase and bring slaves into the State for one's own use - February 24. State Emancipation Convention demanded in the new Constitution : 1. Prohibition of impor- tation of slaves. 2. A system of gradual emancipation - April 25. Chol- era again apppeared - May. Large emigration to California - June, July and August. Squirrels ravaged Northern and Central Kentucky - Sep- tember 28. Constitutional Convention met at Frankfort - October r.
1850. Legislature requested the governor to have a block put in the Washington Monument with this inscription: "Under the auspices of Heaven and the precepts of Washington, Kentucky will be the last to give up the Union." - January 24. A sword presented to Serg. Win. F. Gaines "the boy defender of the glorious banner of the ad Regiment of Kentucky infantry at the battle of Buena Vista " - February 20. The New Constitu- tion was adopted by a large majority - May 7. Meetings held to indicate the strong Union sentiment - June. Great Union barbecue at Lexington in honor of Henry Clay - Octobor 17. Henry Clay by an unanimous in- vitation addressed the Legislature on the Union - November 15.
1851. An attempt to secure State aid for railroads defeated - February 10. Law passed obliging slaves thereafter emancipated to leave the State - March 24. A number of Kentuckians engaged in Lopez's expedition against Cuba. Cholera again appeared - August 15. Kentucky Blind Institution was burned - September 29. An act passed regulating the re- tailing of liquors. This year many railroads were built. Louisville and Frankfort Railroad completed - December 13.
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1852. Augusta College burned - January 29. Henry Clay presented with a gold medal by the citizens of New York - February 10. Cholera in Union County - May. At Eddyville two persons fight a duel by bemg bled - May 10. Henry Clay died at Washington. Universal sorrow -- June 29. Thirty thousand people joined in the funeral procession of Henry Clay at Lexington - July 10. " Stampede" of from fifty to sixty slaves across the Ohio River - September 27. Public meeting at Louisville in. regard to the death of Webster which occurred the day before. Memphi, and Ohio Railroad begun - October 26.
1853. U. S. Military Asylum located at Harrodsburg Springs - May S. The Presbyterian General Assembly established a Theological Seminary at Danville - May 26. The prohibitory liquor law succeeded in Boyle and Gerrard Counties. In Muhlenburg the temperance ticket for all county officers was elected - August 1. Kentucky's contributions to the " World"- Fair " at New York very fine, especially in hemp and tobacco - September 5. Sixty-three more emigrants set out for Liberia - October 27.
1854. Maysville voted against license - January 2. Temperance can- didates defeated at Lexington - January 7. Twenty slaves arrived i .. Canada from different parts of Kentucky in ten days - January 14. Reso- lutions offered upon the death of Henry Clay - February 9. Legislature presented Heury E. Read with a sword for gallant conduct in the Mexican War - February 11. Much religious interest all over the State - February. Miss Delia Webster first requested, then compelled to leave the State for assisting fugitive slaves -- March 12. Four-mile race at New Orleans wos by Lexington, a Kentucky horse - April 1. Lecomte from Mississippi boat Lexington - April 8. A mob took possession of the streets of Louisville and did much damage, because of the acquittal of Ward of the murder of Butler - April 29. More colored emigrants left Louisville - May 1. Cholera again - July 10. Powder magazine at Maysville exploded by ir. cendiaries - August 13. Bank failures very frequent - October.
1855. Kentucky horse Lexington won two four-mile races at New Orleans. One against time and the other against Lecomte - April 2. Mo:« colored men go to Liberia - May 8. " Bloody Monday " in Louisville. election not accompanied by violence, bloodshed and house-burning - Au gust 6. Kentucky Military Institute buildings burned - December 9.
1856. Kentucky Colonization Society sent more negroes to Liber. : most of them set free for that purpose - May. The Covington and 1.es ington Railroad opened - May 9. State Normal School opened at Lexm. ton -September 7. Medical department of the Louisville University de stroyed by fire - December 31.
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