History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 35

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 35

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Rules to be observed by the Trustees of Louisville, when convened.

I. The Board shall appoint a Chairman at every stated meeting, who shall (as far as it may be in his power) see that decorum and good order be preserved during the sitting of the Board.

2. When any member shall be about to address the Chair- man, such member shall rise in his place and in a decent manner state the subject of such address.

3. No member shall pass between another addressing him- self to the C: M: [Chairman | and the Ch. M., nor shall any member speak more than twice itpon the same question (unless leave be granted by the Board for that purpose).

4. No member shall (during the sitting of the Board) read any printed or written papers except such as may be neces- sary or relative [to] the matter in debate then before the Board.

5. Any member, when in Louisville, absenting himself from a stated or called meeting of the Board, and not having a reasonable excuse therefor (which shall be judged of by the Board) shall forfeit and pay the sum of three shillings, to be collected by the Collector and applied as the Board may thereafter direct.

6. No species of ardent or spirituous liquors shall upon any pretence be introduced during the sitting of the Board. If it should be, It shall be the duty of the Ch: man to have the same instantly removed, and the person so introducing it it shall be subject to the Censure of the Ch: man for so doing.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

7. Upon the commission of the same act a second time by the same person, he shall, besides the censure af'd [aforesaid], be liable to pay the sum of Six Shillings, to be Collected and applied as af 'd, and shall moreover forfeit the liquor so brought in for the use of the Board after adjourn- ment.

8. No member shall when in debate call another by Name. If he should do so, the Ch: man may call him to order.

9. If two or more members should rise to speak at the same time, the Ch: M. shall determine the priority.

10. All personal reflections and allusions shall be avoided. Any member guilty of a breach hereof shall be forthwith Called to Order, either by the Ch: man or by any other member.

II. No person shall be at liberty to address the Chairman but at a place chosen and allotted for that purpose by the Chairman or a majority of the Board then sitting.

12. No person belonging to the Board, or immediately concerned for them or under their notice, shall make use of indecent language or shall profanely swear. Any person who shall presume to act in any manner contrary thereto shall be subject to the censure of the Chairman and all members of good Order who may at such time be one of the members of the Board, and that no person shall absent himself from [word illegible] without permission first (for that purpose) obtained front the Chairman.

A new map of the village is said to have been ordered by the Trustees this year from the County Surveyor, George May; but it has totally disappeared, if indeed, it was ever made.

VALUABLE ACCESSIONS.

An extraordinary immigration of young girls during 1781 is noted by several historians. This region abounded in unmarried young men, as all new countries do, and the pouring in of a tide of the opposite sex was a matter of great interest to all inhabitants, whether personally affected or otherwise. One chronicler of the time writes, with all the seriousness and pro- priety due a matter of greatest solemnity, that "the necessary consequence of this large influx of girls was the rapid and wonderful increase of population." Doubtless he meant that the greater morality of a country peopled by families served as an inducement for further immigration. Many of the present families in Louisville trace back to the marriages of this and the early fol- lowing years.

MILITARY MATTERS.

Near the beginning of this year, January 22d, Colonel Clark received deserved promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. This was not, how- ever, a commission in the Continental army, but rather in the State militia, under appointment of Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Virginia. His commission read: "Brigadier-general of the 24

forces to be embodied in an expedition west- ward of the Ohio." He was to take command of several volunteer corps intended to march north- ward through the wilderness and reduce Detroit. They were to rendezvous at the Falls March 15th, for organization under the personal direction of General Clark : but it was found impossible to recruit the troops, and the expedition had to be abandoned. The General confined himself to simple defensive operations, among which was building of a large galley or barge, to be pro- pelled by oars, and carrying several four-pound cannon. With this he kept up a considerable show of activity, frequently sending it to patrol the river between the Falls and the mouth of the Licking. Traditions vary greatly as to the real service done by this vessel. Some thought it of inestimable value in warning off or directly beat- ing off Indian attacks; others deemed it useless. Very likely the latter view is correct, since the General is known to have abandoned it after a few months' service. According to Casseday, "the Indians are said never to have attacked it, and but seldom to have crossed that part of the river in which it moved."

RESIDENTS OF LOUISVILLE.

A list of possible spectators of the first re- markable fight that occurred in the hamlet, of which Colonel Durrett gives a comical descpip- tion, comprising this list, enables one to get a pretty fair view of the men of Louisville in 1782. It is as follows :

Thomas Applegate, Peter Austergess, William Aldridge, Squire Boone, Marsham Brashears, James Brown, Joseph Brown, Proctor Ballard, General George Rogers Clark, Richard Chenoweth, Isaac Cox, Moses Cherry. Hugb Coch- ran, John Caghey, James Crooks, Jonathan Cunningham, John Camp, George Dickens, John Durrett, John Doyle, Colonel John Floyd, Joseph Greenwall, Willis Green, George Grundy,- Sr., George Grundy, Jr., Samuel Harrod, John Hinkston, Michael Humble, John Hinch, Samuel Hinch, Benjamin Hansberry, John Handley, Doris Hawkins, John Hawkins, Andrew Hines, Samuel Jack, John James, Mathew Jeffries, Isaac Keller, Ernest Miller, John McCar- land, Thomas McCarty, John May, George May, John Mc- Manus, Sr., John McManus, Jr., George Meriwether, William Oldham, James Pursely, Thomas Purcell, Meredith Price, Benjamin Pope, William l'ope, James Patten, Thomas Spencer, Henry Spillman, John Sellars, James Stevenson. William Smiley, William Shannon, James Stewart, James Sullivan, George Slaughter, Edward Tyler, Benjamin Taylor, Moses Templin, John Tuel, John Todd, Jr., Stephen Trigg, Jacob Vanmeter, Henry Wade, Leyton White, John Whit- acre, Abram Whitacre, Aquilla Whitacre, John Wray, Thomas Whitledge, Christopher Windsor, George Wilson, and John Young.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

THIS FIRST FIGHT,

as described by Colonel Dunett, was between the well-known citizens, Daniel Sullivan and John Carr, at an election held April 3, 1781 .. The principal issue of it was the loss of a part of Sullivan's right ear, which he finally took so much to heart, as likely to cause suspicion that he had been cropped for crime, that the next year he took Carr into the office of Meredith Price, Clerk of the county courts, and caused the following unique entry to appear of record, under date ot March 5, 1782 :

Satisfactory proof made to the Court that the lower part of Daniel Sullivan's right ear was bit off in a fight with John Carr. Ordered: That the same be admitted to record.

ANOTHER COLD WINTER.

The season of 1781-82 was also a severe one. It is described as "remarkable for the appear- ance of the original forest which then covered the country. Rains fell, and the water congealed upon the limbs of the trees until the whole forest appeared like trees of glass. The rays of the sun, when the days were not cloudy, were reflected from tree to tree, as if a forest of di- amonds were lighting up the landscape with its refractions. The weather was too cold for the ice to melt from the trees, and as other rains fell upon them, the ice grew so thick that many limbs fell with the weight, and the forest in many places appeared as if a tornado had swept over it."

1782-THE "OLD FORTS."

A much more important military measure was undertaken this year, in the erecting of Fort Nelson, as a more efficient means of protection to the growing colony at the Falls of the Ohio. Whether two forts, or but one, preceded this upon the mainland, must probably be forever a matter of doubt. "Two old forts " are distinct- ly mentioned in the transactions of the Trustees above quoted, February 7, 178r-and these must leave out of the question a work mentioned by Mr. Casseday as built the same year ; since, if already erected in January and the first week of February, it would hardly be referred to an "old fort." The historians variously give the date of the erection of a simple, rude fortifica- tion on the mainland as the fall of 1778, the spring of 1779, some time in 1780 (when Col- lins says "the first fort that deserved the name

of fort was built "), and 1781. It is altogether probable that, as the settlement extended west- ward, an additional temporary work was erected on the opposite side of the "Gut," or ravine, that put up on the east side by the movers from Corn Island in 1778-79 being the other old fort mentioned in the resolution of the Trustees. This hypothesis is not absolutely necessary, how- ever, since the old work on the island and the later one on the shore may easily have been so situat- ed that the description by the Trustees of the mouth of the ravine at the foot of Twelfth street as " between the two old forts " would be justi- fied. We incline to think that this was the ac- tual state of the case.

FORT NELSON.

However this may be, and whether three or four, or only two petty fortifications were previ- ously erected by the troops and settlers upon the island and the shore, it is certain that the time had now come for the erection of a military work more suitable for the defense of the rapidly in- creasing settlement, the quartering of the troops stationed here, and the dignity of headquarters for the new brigadier-general. A site was ac- cordingly selected upon the river-front, pretty nearly at the middle of this side of the Connolly tract, between First and Twelfth streets, upon which the original town of Louisville was laid out. It is not known how many acres were taken for this purpose; but from the indications of the line of the stockade and foundations of the block-house, observed during the excavations made in the summer of 1832, in a cellar prepar- ing for stores on Main street, below 6th, and also in 1844, for an improvement on Main, opposite the Louisville Hotel, it is pretty well ascertained that the south front of the fort came quite out to this street, and that it extended from Sixth street to and a little beyond Seventh, at least to the northeast corner of the old tobacco warehouse The lower part of the present line of Seventh street is commonly reported to have run directly through the site of the principal gate of the fort, just opposite the headquarters building. The old Burge residence, No. 24 Seventh street, is understood to stand, so far the extent of it goes, upon the tract occupied by the fort; and it is quite possible that precisely upon this slight em- inence-the old "second bank " of the river-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

stood the residence and office of General Clark. It is an interesting fact that in the Burge man- sion died Elisha Applegate, the first white child born in Jefferson county, outside of Louisville, and himself born in the simple fortification at Sullivan's, on the Bardstown road.

The fort proper is supposed to have covered but about an acre of ground. It consisted mainly of a breastwork, formed by a series of small log- pens, filled with earth thrown up from the ditch. Along the top of this work ran a line of tolerably strong pickets, or a stockade, ten feet high. This on three sides. On the fourth, or river side, less strength was necessary, owing to the natural protection afforded by the long slope of the bank. Here the log-pens were consequently dispensed with, and a row of pickets furnished the sole artificial defense. On this side, how- ever, as commanding the river approaches, it is probable that most of the small cannon brought down the river with the State troops by Colonel Slaughter in 1781 were mounted, and it is known that among the artillery was the "double-forti- fied" brass six-pounder which Clark had cap- tured at Vincennes, and which became a famous field-gun in his several expeditions. But for this piece, it is believed, the Indian fort at Piqua, Ohio, could not have been taken. All these are known to have been in the fort, but it is not re- corded where they were mounted. Haldeman's City Directory for 1845, published after the dis- coveries in the former year were made, says that the protection of pickets was extended eastward, so as to enclose a perennial spring of water, about sixty yards from Main street and a little west of Fifth, which was still running when Mr. Halde- man wrote. If so, the entire space enclosed, reaching from near Fifth to a line beyond Seventh · (and some, as Casseday, say to Eighth) street, must have been far more than a single acre. The fort was surrounded by a strongly defensive ditch, eight feet wide and ten deep, with a line of sharpened pickets on its middle line further increasing the difficulties of carrying it and reaching the breastwork and stockade. The whole must be regarded as a very formidable work to a besieging enemy, and one eminently creditable to the genius of General Clark and his counselors or engineers, and to the unspar- ing labors of the garrison.

The fort is supposed by some to have taken

its name from one Captain Nelson, who was then a prominent citizen in the village. It is far more probable, however-indeed, it may be considered as demonstrably certain-that the work was enlitled in honor of Colonel Thomas Nelson, now Governor of Virginia-just as Fort Jeffer- son, on the Mississippi, had been named by Clark the year before, in honor of the then Governor. Nelson was a native Virginian, but educated in England ; was a member of the House of Bur- gesses in 1774, and of the Continental Congress in 1775-76, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was made a regimental commander in the Virginia militia when it was re organized, in preparation for the Revolution- ary War, and afterwards commander-in-chief, with the rank of brigadier. He continued his services in this capacity, after he became Gov- ernor, and until the surrender of Cornwallis. In 1781 he succeeded Jefferson as Governor of Virginia, being the third in the State since inde- pendence was declared. Eight years afterwards he died, aged but fifty. Nelson county, formed in 1784, the fourth in Kentucky in order of erec- tion, and the first carved from Jefferson county, is also named from him.

In one of these " old forts " the first shingle- roofed house in Louisville was built by Colonel Campbell, at a very early date, but in just what year is not known.

A TERRIBLE YEAR.

This was a dreadful year for the settlers else- where in Kentucky, and for voyagers on the Ohio, though Louisville happily escaped the horrors of Indian massacre or conflict, very likely in consequence of the erection of this strong de- fensive work. It was in this one year that oc- curred Estill's defeat and death, near Mt. Ster- ling, the disasters at the Upper and a week later at the Lower Blue Licks, the siege of Bryan's Station by six hundred Indians and some British troops, the total destruction of Colonel Lochry's expedition on the Indiana shore, a few miles be- low the Great Miami, and many minor affairs with the savages here and there. Lochry was on his way in boats to the Falls, with about one hundred recruits for General Clark and some civilians, when he was attacked in an unguarded moment in his camp upon the river-bank, and every man of one hundred and eight was killed

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

or carried off into captivity. In November, the Falls City again saw something of the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, in the assembly under Colonel John Floyd, of a portion of the force collected by General Clark at the mouth of the Licking, and marched north into the Miami country, in retaliation for the outrages of the year. The punishment he inflicts is so severe that no organized band of savages thenceforth invades the Dark and Bloody Ground.

THE BEGINNING OF COMMERCE.

One of the the great victories of peace-the magnificent commerce of Louisville-must be considered also as somewhat associated with this year. It is held that the beginnings of the New Orleans trade, from the Ohio, properly date from 1782. Some time in the winter-doubtless the early part of the season, since it was a very cold one-two French traders, named Tardiveau and Honore, made the first trading voyage front Red- stone Old Fort (Brownsville) on the Mononga- hela, to New Orleans. They subsequently trans- ferred their operations to Louisville, where Mr. Honore continued to reside until near the mid- dle of this century.

According to an inscription over the grave of Captain Yoder, who is buried in Spencer county, he must have passed the Falls in the early spring of this year, in the first flat-boat, so-called, that ever passed down the Mississippi. He embarked at Redstone Old Fort, reached New Orleans in May, sold his cargo of produce, probably pro- visions for the most part, to the Spanish com- mandant, invested the proceeds in furs and hides, and sold them in Baltimore, making a great profit out of his entire trip. He repeated the trip and his purchases, but this time at a loss, and seems to have then retired from the river trade.

THE APPLEGATES.

Thomas and Mary Applegate were among the first settlers on what is now the Bardstown road, six miles south of Louisville, at Sullivan's Station. Here their son, Elisha Applegate, was born March 25, 1782, the first white child born anywhere in Jefferson county. He removed to Louisville in 1808, and became a brewer, then a dealer in tobacco-the pioneer, indeed, of that branch of trade in the city. He remained in that business more than forty years, holding also the office of Tobacco Inspector, until 1860,

when he retired from business. In 1831-32 he built the hotel on the south side of Main, be- tween Seventh and Eighth streets, called at first the United States, and then the Western Hotel. The original Louisville Hotel was built the same year. He was one of the three old citizens of Louisville whose presence at the opening of the Industrial Exposition in 1872 was a marked feat- ure of the occasion. He died May 25, 1874.

MAJOR CROGHAN.

This year came Major William Croghan, from Virginia, and settled at Locust Grove, a few miles above the town, near the river. One of his sons, Colonel George Croghan, was the re- doubtable hero of the famous defense at Lower Sandusky, in the war of 1812; another was Wil- liam Croghan, Jr., long a resident here and in Pittsburgh. Major Croghan was early appointed Register of the Land Office, and the queer little building in which he had his office was still standing in the garden at Locust Grove a few years ago. This place was the scene of the most generous hospitality, and almost every stranger of social position visiting Louisville was enter- tained there. It was here General George Rog- ers Clark, brother of Mrs. Croghan, died in 1818.

MORE COLD WINTERS.

Every winter, in these years, the settlers suffered from an intense cold rarely known in this region. The season of 1781-82 was remarkable, not only for severe cold, but for a singular sleet, which at times completely encrusted the trees and bushes, and greatly excited the wonder of the Virginians and other white settlers, who had never seen the like in their old homes. The second, third, and fourth winters from this were also sharply cold, and during the winter of 1788-89 the Ohio was frozen up and closed against navigation from Christmas till the 18th of March.

The inhabitants found it a most serious un- dertaking to obtain provisions of any kind. There was no meat excepting bear or deer, and these in limited quantities, for, during the pre- vious summer and autumn, while the Indians had been waiting to attend a treaty at Marietta, they had subsisted on the game of the country around. Weeks passed in the homes of many of the settlers without even bread-coarse meal from a rude hand-mill, and not unfrequently whole corn boiled, taking its place.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

1783-THE FIRST STORE.

Another notable commercial event occurred after navigation opened this year-the opening of the first general store in Louisville, and the second in what is now the State of Kentucky, the first having been started at Boonesborough in April, 1775, by Messrs. Henderson & Co., the would-be founders of "the Province of Transyl- vania." Mr. Daniel Brodhead was the happy man to expose, first amid the wildness of the Louisville plateau, the beautiful fabrics of the East to the linsey-clad dames and belles of the Falls city. Mr. Butler, in his History of Kentucky, says "it is believed that Mr. Broadhead's was the first store in the State for the sale of foreign merchan- dise." He transported his moderate stock in wagons from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and thence on flat-boats they were floated down to Louisville. Mr. Collins says : " The belles of our 'forest land' then began to shine in all the magnificence of calico, and the beaux in the luxury of wool hats." We add the following from Casseday's History :

The young ladies could now throw aside all the homely products of their own looms, take the wooden skewers from their ill-bound tresses, and on festive occasions shine in all the glories of flowered calico and real horn-combs.

It is not known whether it was this worthy Mr. Brod- head who was the first to introduce the luxury of glass window-lights, but it is certain that previous to this time such an extravagance was unknown, and there is an incident connected with the first window-pane which deserves a place here, and which is recorded in the words of an author who is not more celebrated for his many public virtues, than for his unceasing and incurable exercise of the private vice of pun- ning. After referring to the introduction of this innovation, this gentleman says : "A young urchin who had seen glass spectacles on the noses of his elders, saw this spectacle with astonishment, and running home to his mother exclaimed, 'O, Ma! there's a house down here with specs on!' " "This," he adds, " may be considered a very precocious manifestation of the power of generalization in the young Kentuckian."

PEACE AND PROSPERITY.

News of peace with Great Britain and the ac- complished independence of the colonies, which had been recognized by the Treaty of Paris on the last day of the previous November, did not reach Louisville until some time this spring. It naturally caused great rejoicing. Peace with the mother country was an element in the confi- dence which the inhabitants now felt against In- dian attack, and the recent successful expedition of Clark against the native towns on the Miami was a yet greater one. As Mr. Casseday says :

Something like security and confidence was now estab- lished, and consequently the immigration here was constant and large. Factories for supplying the necessities of the household were established, schools were opened, the prod- ucts of the soil were carefully attended to, and abundant crops were collected ; several fields of wheat were gathered near Louisville, and the whole country changed its character from that of a series of military outposts to the more peace- ful and more attractive one of a newly settled but rich and fruitful territory, where industry met its reward and where every one could live who was not too proud or too indolent to work,

Among the immigrants of this year was Wil- liam Rowan, a Pennsylvanian formerly possessed of wealth, but who had been nearly ruined by the war of the Revolution. He came to Louis- ville in March, but remained only a year, when, with five other heads of families, he made a settle- ment at the Long Falls of Green river, then about one hundred miles from this or any other white settlement. He was father of the distinguished John Rowan, formerly Judge of the Court of Appeals and Senator of the United States, from whom Rowan county, in this State, is named. A thrilling incident of their removal, in late April, 1784, is told in our chapter on the Indians, in the first part of this volume.

REDUCTION OF THE MILITARY.

Another consequence of the peace was prob- ably not so well relished by General Clark and other gentlemen of military proclivities, who had their subsistence in army life. The State of Virginia, like the other colonies, found herself very much impoverished at the close of the war, and immediately took steps to reduce the mili- tary establishment, on the borders, as elsewhere. Her forces were disbanded, and General Clark, with others, was honorably retired from service with the grateful thanks of the Governor and Council "for his very great and singular services." The same year the splendid land grant was made by the Virginia Legislature, to him and his sol- diers, upon his share of which he presently founded Clarksville. A sword had been voted by the State to him in 1779, but he afterwards, in a fit of petulance and anger at fancied ingrat- itude for his services, broke and threw it away. A new one, costing $400, was purchased for him by order of the Virginia Legislature in 1812, and transmitted with a very handsome letter from the Governor.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 35

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814