History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 37

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 37

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1 counted sixty-three finished houses, thirty-seven in progress, twenty-two elevated without being enclosed, and more than a hundred cabins. All the streets have, and ought to have, sixty feet in width.

I hardly know how to describe the peculiar and new im- pression made on my mind by the sight of these streets, not long since laid out across the woods, and still full of stumps, among which men in vehicles pass with difficulty-streets which, perhaps, in the space of ten years, will be paved, or- namented with trees, with sidewalks and other conveniences. The sight of this suggestive gradation of houses finished, imperfect, just commenced, of cabins built against the trees; the aspect of the cradle of this young city, destined by its situation to become the metropolis of the surrounding coun- try-all these objects impress me with a reverence and re- spect that I cannot well define. I congratulate myself on having finally arrived on this new theater, to which my fellow- countrymen come long distances to exhibit their courage, their might, and their inventive genus. Never before have I experienced that feeling which ought, it seems to me, to at- tend those who are actively engaged in founding a great settlement or a new city, and which should compensate them for their troubles and privations.

Such is a sketch of the commencement of Louisville. " I have all the more pleasure in witnessing it, since it is industry and not accident which has guidedit, since it is geometry and the compass which daily map out the foundations of the city, and not feudal servitude and barbarian ignorance. Under what obligations is not posterity placed to the noble founders of this beautiful country !

What movement, what activity, on this little theater of Louisville ! I do not believe there is a single State in the Union not represented in its inhabitants. The country is so far from the old settlements that silver is the only money carried by the emigrants. You can hardly believe to what extent this metal animates, energizes, and accelerates the progress of all their enterprises. In spite of the incursions of the Indians, who, regretting the sale of this splendid country, continue to wage upon the settlers a midnight war and lay in wait for the emigrants in the mountain passes, they extend and carry to perfection their settlements all the more energetically. They have constructed staked forts at points most exposed, and placed in them a suitable number of armed men. In spite of distance, fatigues, and dangers, men come here from all direc- tions, as to a promised land ; and if this incentive lasts a few years longer, Kentucky will soon become rich, populous, and powerful. Already more than forty thousand inhabitants are

*Crevecœur's foot-note: "The perch, the jack, the cat-fish, weighing eighty pounds; the buffalo, weighing twenty pounds, is the best of all. Below the Falls at Louisville, the sturgeon and green turtle are taken."

*Crevecœur's foot-note : "He sells them at thirty pounds, Pennsylvania money, four hundred and twenty turnois pounds."

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counted in the three counties of Fayette, Jefferson, and Lin- coln ; already the foundation of several cities is laid, which, by their situation promise to become of considerable impor- tance.

This large settlement is not only a phenomenon of boldness, of courage, and of perseverance, but also of genius and in- dustry. Filled with men whose minds have been enlightened by a good American education, as well as by a civil war of eight years, it will have only a brief moment of infancy; their vehicles, their plows, the machines of which they make use, appear to me to be as well made as our own; the workshops, in front of which I passed in going to Danville, were as well built, though smaller, than those of Pennsylvania. Already, also, they have built and endowed churches, the pastors of which have been brought from Virginia. I hear them speak also of an establishment for the instruction of youth, that they will hasten to place in the form of a university. 1 can assure you that there are few ameliorations useful to a dawn- ing civilization that have not already been made available.

Already this little city, the metropolis of the country, con- tains articles of merchandise which contribute, on the one hand, to support the trade in skins from Venango and the peninsula of Lake Erie, by the rivers Miami, Muskingum, Scioto, etc., and on the other hand to descend the Ohio to sup- plv the wants of the farmers of Indiana [the Virginia district before mentioned], of Kentucky, of the Wabash, and even of Illinois. Cattle, provisions, iron, lime, brick, made in Pittsburg, are shipped daily for Louisville; and had not the fact actually come under my observation, 1 could hardly be- lieve that the houses of this settlement were made in part with materials coming from a distance of 235 leagues. Without all these resources, and a thousand others that I could mention, the Territory of Kentucky could not have made the progress it has in the space of twelve years, from the feebleness of an infant to the powers of a vigorous man.

The gross exaggerations in which this writer occasionally indulged, are easily detected by any one who reads attentively the remaining portions of our annals of the first decade of Louisville. The following is particularly ludicrous :

It was Sunday that we arrived in front of Louisville. We had hardly come to anchor when a boat, which carried sev- enteen persons, came alongside. I noticed that all the men had on silk stockings, and all the women had parasols."

1785-"CAMPBELLTON."

The beginnings of the village of Shippingport, now a part of Louisville, were made this year, under the name of Campbellton, from its owner, Colonel Campbell. More of its history will ap- pear hereafter.

THE TAYLORS.

Among the immigrants of 1785 was Colonel Richard Taylor, brother of our pioneer surveyor, Hancock Taylor, and a distinguished officer of the Virginia troops in the Revolution from the beginning to the end of the struggle. Distin- guished for his courage and coolness in battle,

he was said to possess that faculty, so invaluable in a military leader, of imparting to those around him the same dauntless spirit. After removing to the State of Kentucky, his frequent contests with the Indians, and his successes in these fights, caused his name to become a word of ter- ror to every dweller in a wigwam from the Ohio river to the great lakes on the north.

In the family of Colonel Taylor was a babe in arms, of but nine months old, who had been named Zachary, His boyhood and youth were spent in and near Louisville. In 1808 he was made a first lieutenant in the regular army, and, after a long and adventurous career, became "Old Rough and Ready," Major-General Zachary Taylor, who in the Mexican war became one of the most renowned captains of history, and a few years afterwards died in office, the President of the United States. He is the only Federal President that was ever a citizen of Louisville or of Kentucky.

ANOTHER VISITOR.

During this year Mr. Lewis Brantz, a young German who had been employed by persons at the East to examine the commercial resources of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and lead pro- jected German colonies to their future homes in the wilderness, came to the Falls in fourteen days from Fort Pitt, and entered these notes among his Memoranda of a Journey in the West- ern Parts of the United States of America, in 1785 :

We met fifteen canoes, with passengers, bound to Fort Pitt from the Falls. Louisville is located quite near the Falls. Some houses are already erected ; yet this lonely set- tlement resembles a desert more than a town. The Falls of the Ohio is the only landing-place [for Kentucky] at present ; and it abounds in merchandise.

Mr. Brantz staid a fortnight in and about the Falls, and then pursued his way to the Cumber- land. His description, brief as it is, seems to fix the falsity of much of that of Crevecoeur, which, at least as to the number of houses then here, has misled historians ever since.

AND YET ANOTHER.

In December of this year, General Richard Butler, and the other Commissioners of the United States associated with General Clark for the negotiation of a treaty with the Indians at Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami, took advantage of a lull in the negotia-

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tions or the collection of the Indians for that purpose, in order to visit the Falls of the Ohio. They started on Monday, the 2d, and reached here two days thereafter. We extract the follow- ing account of the visit from General Butler's journal :

We pushed on to Six-mile Island, which is also very fine ; just below this island the town of Louisville opens to view, and the appearance of the country and river beautiful beyond description. The current of the river very gentle. You come soon in view and hearing of the Falls, which has all the majesty and grandeur of one of the most delightful rivers in the world ; you are not only pleased by the appear- ance, but struck with an agreeable awe from the noise of the water rolling over the rocks, which, though somewhat terri- ble to pass, has nothing terrible in its appearance.

Pushed on to the mouth of Beargrass creek, which is the beginning of the town land, and which affords a safe and useful harbor for boats; it is about forty yards wide, and very useful. Passed by this to what is called the lower land- ing, nearly opposite to an island which in high water divides the river and forms an easy passage for boats. Here we put in and landed. Just as we were going on shore, we were alarmed by the cries of people in great distress, who in a large boat had attempted to run the Falls, but being ignorant of the proper channel, had just struck on a rock. We went up to the town, which stands on a very grand bank and overlooks the Falls, and has in view the new town called Clarksville. We told the people of the distressed situation of the unhappy men mentioned, in hopes some persons ac- quainted with the Falls would have been sent to their assistance; and I am sorry I cannot say more of their bumanity than of the carelessness shown on this distressing occasion, for, notwithstanding all our anxiety for the poor sufferers, the good people of the town diverted themselves at cards (a very favorite amusement here), while their ears were assailed with the cries of the unhappy sufferers, which seemed to create no other emotions than some ill-natured reflection on their folly ; and thus were these wretched men left to all the dangers and terrors of their distressed state, without one effort to release them, or even an expression of pity escaping the humane lips of any one in the place, as I could hear.

THURSDAY, December 8th.

The first thing heard by General Parsons and myself this morning (for we slept together), was the cries of the poor wretches mentioned above, on which we called on Captain Bullitt, an inhabitant of this place, and spoke in terms re- flecting on their want of compassion. He went out and with some little pains got a fellow who was drunk to go with another man to their relief. This brute missed them, and had like to have suffered on the Falls. Then one Mr. Davis and some others got two others to go. These succeeded and struck the logs of drift-stuff to which the poor men had waded in the night from the boat, in attempting which they lost one of their unhappy companions, who was swept down by the current. The men being discouraged from any at- tempt to make shore, was obliged to take up their dismal and solitary lodging for the night, which was very cold, and their clothes all wet. General Parsons and myself, seeing them come to shore, went to meet them and heard their story, which was really very piteous as to themselves, but when · they spoke of the loss of their companion it seemed to give them no matter of concern, but excited a laugh when they related this part of it. We passed them and went over on a

very fine rocky bottom, which is now quite dry, to an island in the Falls of about five acres. From this we passed over from the lower end to the main, to Campbell's land, thence . to where he has laid out a new town called Hebron, opposite the lower part of the Falls and Clarksville. Here we crossed over to the latter place, and was very kindly received and treated by Mr. Dallon and Mrs. and Captain George, who pressed us much to stay for dinner.

I walked about and examined the ground, which I am of opinion overflows at very high floods ; therefore I think the most useful and advantageous places for trade, etc., is above the mouth of a small creek, on which General Clark is build- ing a mill, and at a point above the draught of the Falls,* the one to receive below and the other above the Falls those persons and goods coming up and going down, as a good road may be made between the two places and the boats taken down empty with ease and safety.

We returned in the afternoon to Louisville, where we found the people engaged in selling and buying lots in the back streets, but, not liking the situation, bought none. There are several good log-houses building here, but the ex- travagance in wages and laziness of the tradesmen keep back the improvement of the place exceedingly. In truth I see very little doing but card-playing, drinking, and other vices among the common people, and am sorry too many of the better sort are too much engaged in the same manner, a few storekeepers excepted, who seem busy in land and other speculations, in which the veracity or generosity of some are not very conspicuous, being ever on the watch to take the ad- vantage of the ignorance or innocence of the stranger.

This afternoon the commissioners for drawing the lottery for the lands of General Clark's regiment met, and talk of drawing the lottery for the respective lots of land on the north side of the Falls, where they have very wisely chosen to locate it, being authorized so to do by an act of the Legis. lature of the State of Virginia, and which I think preferable in every respect as to situation to Louisville; and if the owners do not improve the advantages thrown by the gener- osity of the State in their power, I shall conclude them regardless of their true interest and void of good sense, as it is a most beautiful and advantageous place.

I find on the lower part of the Falls the greatest abundance of swans, geese, ducks, and pigeons very plenty flying over; here are also fine fish, but the people generally too indolent to catch them, though in great need.

FRIDAY, December 8th.

. . We have found many curious petrifactions, such as roots of trees, calamus, the excrescence of the locust tree, etc. We find that a good and short road may be made from Clarksville to the place described above the Falls, where I think should be another village, for the purpose of easing the navigation of the rapid. There is one beautiful spot in the middle of the river, which is a hollow in the midst of a kind of rocky island, into which the water tumbles over a beauti- ful cascade of about eight feet, and forms a pretty basin. This spot appears to best advantage from a point above a large basin between the great rapid and a small one, above the mouth of Clark's creek, and forms a grand and capacious harbor, where boats may lay below or put in from above at pleasure. This and below this to Clark's creek I think is the most proper spot for a town, which will not only rival, but deprive Louisville of all the advantages it now enjoys from travelers.

I am much disappointed in the expectation I had of the

* This subsequently became the site of Jeffersonville.

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politeness of this town, as I have been told there are a num- ber of decent people in and about it, but am sorry to say that the commissioners, instead of meeting politeness or the least degree of attention, were avoided by everybody, and even their magistrates, after asking a few impertinent ques- tions, withdrew and joined the card and speculating clubs of the lowest classes and most vulgar people I have seen, and even those who we have been of use and attentive to have forgot it and neglected us.

SATURDAY, December 10.

The morning being very foggy and dark, it hid the heads of those people who could so easily forget good treatment and served as a veil to their meanness of soul, by giving them an excuse for not seeing us come away, whilst it saved us the trouble of speaking to people whom we have reason so heartily to despise for their impolite conduct. We left the bank at half-past eight o'clock, and pushed on to the Six- mile Island, opposite to the middle of which is a cabin on the southern shore, just below George creek.

It was a democratic period, evidently, and Louisville had not yet become accustomed to receiving, dining, and wining visitors of distinc- tion.

ANOTHER SURVEY.

In this year William Shannon was engaged as surveyor, and directed to lay off the back part of the Connolly thousand-acre tract into out-lots of five, ten, and twenty acres. He seems to have made a partial map of the town-site, perhaps of his survey alone; but it cannot now be recov- ered, and his survey does not appear upon the subsequent map of Abram Hite, made in 1790.

PERSONAL NOTES. .

This year, upon the place where he finally settled on Goose creek, in this county, died Isaac Hite, companion of Boone in his earliest explorations, and one of the famous Ten Hunt- ers of Kentucky. He came from Berkeley coun- ty, Virginia, as a permanent settler in 1778. His brother, Captain Abraham Hite, came four years after, and another brother, Joseph, in 1783. Their father also came the next year, with an Episcopal clergyman named Kavanaugh. The elder Hite died in 1786, Abraham in August, 1832, and Joseph in 1831 .*

Captain James Winn removed from Fauquier county, Virginia, to the Falls this year. Three days afterwards, before the family had removed from the covered flatboat in which they came down the Ohio, William Johnston married his daughter Eliza. They were parents, as before noted, of Dr. James Chew Johnston.

1786-CLARK'S LAST EXPEDITION.

A small Western army had now been organized, as a part of the regular forces of the United States. It was stationed, almost or quite wholly, in the valley of the Ohio, where the names of Harmar, St. Clair, Wayne, and Wilkinson, its commanders successively, and of Finney, Ziegler, Harrison (afterwards General and President), Wyllys, Strong, Denny, and other subordinate officers, became familiar as household words in the pioneer history of Louisville, Marietta, Cin- cinnati, and other points. In consequence of re- newed troubles by some of the tribes, notwith- standing the treaty at Fort Finney, two compa- nies of regulars were sent to Fort Nelson, and Clark was again called into service to add a body of volunteer militia and invade the hostile In- dian country. By some time in September one thousand men were collected at the Falls, and a march to Vincennes was begun. His commissary and ordnance stores were started in keelboats down the Ohio and up the Wabash rivers; and this fact, together with the growing intemperance of the General, proved the ruin of the expedi- tion. The supplies were delayed by low water in the streams; the season was warm, and much of the food was spoiled; so that the slow march through the wilderness to Vincennes was accom- plished, nine expectant days were passed there, and when the boats finally arrived, the condition of their cargoes gave little cheer to the army. The troops became mutinous; three hundred Kentuckians deserted in a body, while on a march to the enemy's camps; the rest of the vol- unteers soon went straggling after, unmindful of the solemn and even tearful appeals of the war- worn commander, whom they had now ceased to respect or obey; and the success of the expedi- tion became hopeless. Nothing remained to Clark but to retrace his steps to the Falls, with the remnant of the regular force-if indeed that was with him at all. He never recovered from this disaster. It was almost his last appearance in military history.

LOGAN'S EXPEDITION.

Upon his return to the Falls, Clark dispatched Colonel Benjamin Logan, who had encamped with him on the Indiana shore, near Silver creek, to raise more troops in Kentucky and operate against the Ohio Indians. Logan obtained four

* Craig's Historical Sketches of Christ Church, 37, 38.

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to five hundred men, crossed the Ohio at Lime- stone, now Maysville, and made a very success- ful raid through the Mad River country.

DENNY'S JOURNAL.

The following extracts from the Military Jour- nal of Major Ebenezer Denny, then a young lieutenant on duty at Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami, supply some inter- esting details of the military occupation here:

22d [May, 1786] .- I received orders to prepare to go on command to the Falls of Ohio.

23d. -- Set out with sergeant, corporal, and twelve men, in a barge for Louisville. River very full. Landed next morn- ing at the place-distance said to be one hundred and fifty miles-run it in twenty-four hours. Four Kentucky boats, which passed Fort Finney the day before I left it, were attacked at the mouth of Kentucky river by the Indians on both sides of the Ohio, supposed to be in number two hun- dred-fortunately no other damage than a few horses killed. Four days I remained at the Falls, and every day there were accounts of men being scaiped between that and the upper counties

After many altercations between General Clark, myself, and the two gentlemen who had the artillery in charge, they agreed that I should have a piece, with a few shot, which I immediately put on board.

28th .- Having procured a brass three-pounder with a few boxes of suitable shot, left the Falls; embarked again for our Fort. River very high, and obliged to work up close along shore, giving the savages every possible advantage.

Mr. Denny was not very favorably impressed with the behavior of some of the civilians here, as he wrote shortly afterwards to General Har- mar :

If it had not been for General Clark, who has always been our friend here, 1 should have returned as I went, owing to a contentious set of men in civil office there, all of whom are candidates for something, and were afraid would be censured by the public for giving any of the military stores away, at a time when their country is suffering by savage depreda- tions.

From certain other entries in Denny's journal, it is ascertained that General Harmar, with Lieu- tenants Beatty and Pratt, were here the latter part of April, 1787; that Captain Strong, with his company from Fort Harmar, reinforced the garrison at the Falls about June Ist, of the same year ; and that he, with Captain Smith and com- pany, Ensign Sedam (founder of Sedamsville, below Cincinnati, now a part of the city), with part of Mercer's company, Lieutenant Peters, and Dr. Elliot, also came on the roth of that month. The diary proceeds:

11th .- Our commandant, with Major Hamtramck and Mr. Pratt, the quartermaster, etc., arrived in the barge. . . 18th. - Water favorable. We began to send our boats and stores over the Rapids, for fear of low water, Subalterns

command at landing below the Rapids as guard. Troops wait for a supply of provisions. When Bradshaw, the agent, is at a loss, commanding officer directs the purchase of provisions.

July 2d .- Strong's, Mercer's, and Smith's companies cross the Ohio from their encampment opposite Louisville, march down and encamp at the landing below the Falls.

3d .- Finney's and Ziegler's companies crossed and en- camped with the others. This evening Ferguson, with his company of artillery from [Fort] M'Intosh, and Daniel Britt, with a cargo of provisions on account of late contractors, arrived. *

6th .- Captain Ziegler, with a command of a lieutenant, one sergeant, one corporal, and sixty-two privates, em- barked with all the cattle and horses, and a quantity of flour, on board eight Kentucky boats and two keel-brats, with orders to proceed down to Pigeon creek, eight miles above Green river, and there wait for the arrival of the troops.

8th .- Troops embarked for Pigeon creek, one hundred and eighty miles below the Rapids.

This was a peaceful expedition to Vincennes, under command of General Harmar and Major Hamtramck, which made its march through the wilderness without serious disaster or loss, al- though hostile Indians were occasionally met. After the return, October 28th, Harmar, till then colonel, received at Fort Finney, on the opposite shore, his brevet commission as brig- adier-general and set out for Fort Harmar, with Denny, Quartermaster Pratt, and fifteen men. The companies of Captains Ziegler and Strong were to follow the next day. Major Wyllys, with Finney's and Mercer's companies, was to continue at Fort Finney, a work which had been recently erected upon the present site of Jeffer- sonville, taking its name from the same Major Finney who entitled the fort at the mouth of the Miami. It was from the former that a small gar- rison was sent fifteen months afterwards to Judge Symmes's settlement at North Bend, below Cin- cinnati. We hear no more of Denny or his companions at the Falls of the Ohio. Major Wyllys was afterwards removed to Fort Wash- ington, and was with the troops that marched from that post to defeat under General Harmar in October, 1790.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 37

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