USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 38
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THE IMMIGRATION
down the Ohio this year and the next was very great. General Harmar caused Lieutenant Den- ny to take an account of the boats and their contents which passed Fort Harmar between the roth of October, 1786, and the 12th of May, 1787, "bound for Limestone and the Rapids." Their number was 177 boats, 2,689 persons,
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1,333 horses, 766 cattle, and 102 wagons. From the Ist of June to December 9, 1787, there were 146 boats, 3,196 souls, 1,371 horses, 165 wagons, 191 cattle, 245 sheep, and 24 hogs. This promised very hopefully for the settlements down the great rivers.
THE SPANISH COMPLICATIONS.
Louisville, now becoming much the most prominent point in Kentucky, had its full share in the agitations of this period, in reference to Spanish domination in the Southwest. In May, 1786, the Hon. John Jay, United States Minister to Spain, who had been negotiating with that Government with reference to the navigation of the Mississippi below the Federal boundaries, brought the matter to the attention of Congress, with the recommendation that the United States should surrender the right of navigation through the Spanish domains, for twenty-five or thirty years. The Southern Congressmen naturally opposed this with great vigor; and rumors of the situation, reaching the Ohio valley in very dis- torted forms, aroused great indignation among the people of Kentucky and other Western settlements. It began to be proposed that Ken- tucky should set up an independent government, and effect the conquest of Louisiana from the Spanish. A hot-headed individual at Louisville, named Thomas Green, according to the Annals of the West, wrote to the Governor and Legisla- ture of Georgia, which State was involved in the boundary quarrel with Spain, that Spanish prop- erty had been seized in the Northwest as a hostile measure, and not merely to procure necessaries for the troops, which Clark after- ward declared was the case, and added that the General was ready to go down the river with "troops sufficient " to take possession of the lands in dispute, it Georgia would countenance him.
The following extract from another letter written from Louisville, professedly to some one in New England, and probably also written by Green, will serve as additional evidence to prove that the people were seriously deliberating upon their position. It reads thus:
Our situation is as bad as it possibly can be, therefore every exertion to retrieve our circumstances must be manly, eligible, and just.
We can raise twenty thousand troops this side of the Alle- ghany and Appalachian mountains, and the annual increase
of them by emigration from other parts is from two to four thousand.
We have taken all the goods belonging to the Spanish merchants at Post Vincennes and the Illinois, and are deter- mined they shall not trade up the river, provided they will not let us trade down it. Preparations are now making here (if necessary) to drive the Spaniards from their settlements at the mouth of the Mississippi. In case we are not counte- nanced or succored by the United States (if we need it), our allegiance will be thrown off and some other power applied to. Great Britain stands ready with open arms to receive and support us. They have already offered to open their re- sources for our supplies. When once reunited to them, "farewell, a long farewell to all your boasted greatness." The province of Canada and the inhabitants of these waters of themselves, in time, will be able to conquer you. You are as ignorant of this country as Great Britain was of America. These are hints which if rightly improved may be of some service ; if not, blame yourselves for the neglect.
This letter produced considerable sensation at Danville, where it was shown by Mr. Green's messenger, and copies of it were made and sent to the Governor of Virginia. Under Clark's direc- tion Vincennes had been occupied, some Spanish property seized, as stated in the letter, a few sol- diers enrolled, and preparations made to hold a peace-council with the Indians-all in the inter- est of the anti-Spanish movement. The Green letter opened the eyes of the Virginia Govern- ment to the character of the movement; Clark's conduct was condemned by the Council of the State early the next year, his powers were dis- claimed, and prosecution of the persons engaged in the seizure of property was ordered. The whole matter was then laid before Congress; and on the 26th of April an effectual wet blanket was put upon the revolutionary movement by the order of that body that the Federal troops should dispossess the unauthorized force which had seized the post at Vincennes. Clark, the re- doubtable warrior, had experienced his third se- vere reverse.
Little practical difficulty was found in the nav- igation of the Mississippi that was desired thus early by the people of Kentucky ; and the question was definitely settled a few years after, in 1795, by the concession to the United States, not only of the right to navigate the whole length of the United States, but also to deposit at New Or- leans or some other point near the mouth of the river. In 1788 General James Wilkinson, who, as well as our old Tory friend, Dr. John Connolly, had been concerned in the agitations of the pre- vious year, being then a resident of Kentucky, himself took a cargo of tobacco and other pro-
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duce to New Orleans, which he sold to excellent advantage, and had the assurance to obtain trom Miro the Spanish Governor-whom he would have overthrown by this time, had the plans suc- ceeded-a permit "to import, on his own ac- count, to New Orleans, free of duty, all the pro- ductions of Kentucky," including tobacco for the use of the King of Spain, at $10 per one hun- dred weight, which he could buy in Kentucky for $2! Considerable suspicion long rested upon Wilkinson on account of his transactions with Miro, but we believe he was ultimately vindi- cated.
AN EXTENSION OF TIME.
There are one or two points of interest in the following brief enactment, passed this year by the Virginia Legislature:
An act giving further time to purchasers of lots in the town of Louisville, to build thereon.
SEC. I. WHEREAS, The purchasers of lots in the town of Louisville, in the county of Jefferson, from frequent incur- sions and depredations of the Indians and the difficulty of procuring materials, have not been able to build on their said lots within the time prescribed by law :
SEC. 2. Be it therefore enacted, That the further time of three years from the passing of this act shall be allowed the purchasers of lots in the said town to build upon and save the same.
A similar extension, for similar reasons, was made by the Assembly in 1789, applicable to Louisville, Harrodsburg, and two other towns in the State of Virginia, as then constituted. The same places had still another extension, this time for four years, in 1793.
The General Assembly of Virginia this year passed an act constituting Colonel Richard Clough Anderson, Mr. Taylor, Robert Brecken- ridge, David Merriwether, John Clark, Alexan- der Scott Bullitt, and James Francis Moore, commissioners and trustees, in place of the original trustees, to receive from the trustees of the town of Louisville the amount of sales of lots made by them, and to bring suit for it, if payment were neglected or refused. The money received, as well as moneys arising from subse- quent sales, which the commissioners were au- thorized to make, should be applied, after deduct- ing cost of surveying and laying off the lands, to the payment, first, of the Connolly mortgage to Campbell and Simon, and then to Campbell & Simon, "for and on account of £608, 3s., and 21/2d., together with legal interest on £577, 35, part thereof, from the 4th day of June, 1776, due
to the said Campbell & Simon from Alexander McKee." Any balance left due to Campbell & Simon on either debt was to be paid upon the sale of lots in Harrodsburg, which the trustees of that town were directed to make for the pur- pose.
Subsequently, by the act of 1790, the powers vested in the Louisville commissioners were con- fided solely to James F. Moore, Abraham Hite, Abner Martin Donne, Basil Prather, and David Standiford, or a majority of them.
ARRIVALS.
John Thompson was of the immigration of 1786. He was the son of a Scotch clergyman, who was a graduate of the University of Edin- burgh, and in 1739 or '40 came to America and was made rector of St. Mark's parish, Culpeper county, Virginia. Among the numerous children of John Thompson was Mr. William L. Thomp- son, of the fine farm four miles from Louisville.
About the same time as the pioneer Thomp- son, came his brother-in-law, Captain George Gray, a Revolutionary soldier. He settled on a farm two miles south of the town, and also reared a large family. Three of his sons became officers in the Federal army.
1787.
On the last day of July was born, near the ham- let of Louisville, Dr. James Chew Johnston, descendant of the Johnstons and Chews of Vir- ginia, and son of William and Elizabeth (Winn) Johnston, who were among the earliest comers to the place, and were here married in 1784. The elder Johnston was a prisoner among the Indians of the Northwest for two years, and was subsequently clerk of the county court. His summer home was at the Cave Hill farm, the present site of Cave Hill Cemetery, where James was born. Young Johnston was educated in the local schools and in Princeton college, New Jersey, and in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1810. He practiced with great success in Louisville and vicinity for some years, but increasing wealth and the cares of his estate ultimately drew him altogether away from the business. He contin- ued to exercise a generous hospitality, and to take a fair degree of interest in public affairs. He
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was one of the first board of trustees of the first Episcopal church formed in Louisville. He lived all his life in this city, reaching his seventy-eighth year, and dying here December 4, 1864. His second wife was Sophia H. Zane, of the famous pioneer family of Wheeling, Virginia.
The first Kentucky newspaper began to be seen at rare intervals during the summer and autumn of this year. It was a small sheet called The Kentucky Gazette, published at Lexington by John Bradford. It was in the issue of this sheet for September 6, 1788, that the first publication foreshadowing a settlement upon the site of Cin- cinnati was made.
1788.
Somebody has handed down an estimate of the population of Louisville this year as thirty, which is obviously and ridiculously too low, al- though it is said to be officially reported in the United States Census Report of 1790.
It was a year, not only of exceeding cold in the winter, but of great floods. The settlement made at Columbia, near Cincinnati, in Novem- ber, was permanently ruined in reputation by be- ing drowned out soon after its cabins were built, and there were also tremendous freshets in the Ohio before and after this year, during the dec- ade. Louisville, however, on its beautiful, high plateau, passed safely and with unimpaired re- putation through all the seasons of raging waters. But the health of the place did not improve, and the troops at the garrison suffered much from sickness this year. General Harmar, writing to Major Wyllys December 9th, says: "I am sorry to observe your ill health, and that of your garri- son. The Falls is certainly a very unhealthy position."
It was in May of this year that the flat-boat laden with kettles, for the manufacture of salt at Bullitt's Lick, and manned by twelve persons, with one woman also on board, left Louisville for Salt river, and met with the startling adventure recited in our chapter on the Indians.
The first brick house in this region is said by Dr. Craik to have been built this year, on the property now occupied by Cave Hill cemetery, by William Johnston, father of Dr. James C. Johnston. It was occupied for many years as 25
the city pest-house. Mr. Johnston, it will be re- membered, was the first Clerk of Jefferson county, and he built his office here also, a small frame building directly over the Cave spring.
R. C. Anderson, Jr., son of Colonel Richard Clough Anderson, and one of the most famous in the long roll of Louisville's famous men, was born here August 4th of this year.
1789-THE FIRST BRICK.
Louisville was not to finish its first decade without seeing the red walls of at least one brick house. The pioneer in the splendid line of structures of this class within the old town-site was erected, probably as a dwelling, on the south side of Market street, between Fifth and Sixth, upon the square where the county court-house now stands. It was put up by a citizen named Frederick Augustus Kaye, from whom was de- scended the well-known Frederick A. Kaye, mayor of the city 1838-45. The brick of which it was built were brought from Pittsburg. It stood until 1835, and when it was pulled down, some of the material was preserved, and is now, says Colonel Durrett, in the pavement in front of Mr. B. F. Rudy's dwelling, on First street.
Mr. Casseday says the second brick building in Louisville was erected by Mr. Eastin, on the north side of Main, below the corner of Fifth street ; and the third by Mr. Reed at the north- west corner of Main and Sixth streets.
In the first brick house was born, in 1791, Mrs. Schwing, mother of Mrs. John M. Delph, of Louisville. She was still living in 1875, in the full possession of her faculties.
This year the Virginia General Assembly ap- pointed Bruckner Thurston, James Wilkinson (the General), Michael Lacassagne, Alexander Scott Bullitt, Benjamin Sebastian, John Felty, Jacob Reager, James Patton, Samuel Kirby, Benjamin Erickson, and Benjamin Johnston, "gentlemen," additional trustees of the town.
This year a bold Welsh pioneer, the father of Captain William C. Williams, came in a flatboat down the river, an immigrant from Philadelphia. Some aver that it was he who built the first brick house here the same season. It is pretty certain that he afterwards set up the first brewery. His son, the captain aforesaid, was born here April 4, 1802.
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William Chambers, a young man from his na- tive State of Maryland, is believed to have been here as early as this. His family had come even earlier, to the settlements in Mason county, above Cincinnati. He married Mrs. Dorsey, a widowed sister of Elias and Benjamin Lawrence, who came from Maryland about the same time, and settled near Middletown, in this county. Mr. Chambers settled eight miles from Louis- ville, and became a farmer and extensive land- owner, dying very wealthy May 8, 1848, aged eighty-seven. One of his early purchases, at $10 per acre, then near St. Louis, is now a part of the city, and immensely valuable. His only child, Mary Laurence, was wife of the late Robert Tyler, Esq., a prominent Louisville lawyer in his day, who died April 28, 1832, in the prime of his manhood.
CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND DECADE.
1790-The First Census: Population of Louisville-Too many Trustees : A New Law-The Oldest Map of Louis- ville Existing-Major Quirey-Toulmin's Notice. 1791- Expeditions Against the Indians-Dr. Benjamin Johnston. 1792-Bishop Flaget's First Visit-Beginnings of Political Distinction. 1793 - Charles M. Thruston. 1794 - The French Intrigues-Incidents. 1795-Tobacco Inspection -Winterbotham's Notice-The Spanish Troubles : Judge Sebastian-The Pioneer Speed. 1796-Andrew Ellicott's Visit-Lacassagne the Frenchman-Another Cold Win- ter. 1797 - Local Taxation -- The Falls Pilots - Louis Philippe here-Visit of Francis Baily, a King of Science- Peter B. Ormsby. 1798-Jefferson Seminary-The First Fire Company-Thomas Prather-The New State Con- stitution. 1799-Louisville a Port of Entry-Birth of John Joyes-Of James Harrison-Of Abraham Hite, Jr. -Notice in Scott's Gazetteer-A Retrospect.
1790-POPULATION, ETC.
The last decade of the eighteenth century opened with a population in the entire tract now covered by the State of Kentucky, of 73,677- 61,133 whites, 12,430 slaves, and 114 free colored persons. This great accumulation- great for that period of American history-had been made in little more than fifteen years, and represented an immigration truly wonderful. The eighth State Convention, meeting at Dan- ville in July of this year, formally accepted the act of separation of Kentucky from Virginia, as
prescribed by the Legislature of the Old Domin- ion, and the way was thus cleared for the ad- mission of the former as a sovereign State into the Union. In December of this year, President Washington strongly recommended to Congress the admission of Kentucky, and an act looking to that end passed the National Legislature February 4, 1791. In December of that year the members of the ninth and last State Con- vention were elected. It met at Danville the next April, and formed the first Constitution of the State. It was adopted by the people in May, when State officers were also elected, and on the Ist of June, 1792, all requisite conditions hav- ing been fulfilled, the State was admitted into the Federal Union.
According to the census of 1790, Jefferson county, then of great size, had a total of 4,565 inhabitants, of whom 1,008 were free white males of sixteen years and upwards, 997 free white males under sixteen years; 1,680 free white females ; 4 of all other free persons; and 876 slaves.
Louisville had in this year a population, as has been estimated in later years, of 200 people.
TOO MANY TRUSTEES.
The act of 1789, giving the town of Louisville an additional number of "city fathers," had created a rather burdensome municipal govern- ment-at least the good people of the town thought so, and petitioned the Assembly for re- lief. A new act was accordingly passed this year. Its preamble reads :
WHEREAS, It is represented to this present General As- sembly that inconveniences have arisen on account of the powers given to the Trustees and Commissioners of the Town of Louisville, in the County of Jefferson, not being suffi- ciently defined, for remedy whereof, etc.
This act deposed from office all the former trustees of the town, and substituted for them the following-named persons: "J. F. Moore, Abraham Hite, Abner M. Donne, Basil Prather, and David Standiford, gentlemen," as sole trust- ees, with power to sell and convey lots, levy taxes, improve the town by means of taxes so levied, and fill vacancies in their own body by election. There was a manifest improvement in the local government under this change of ad- ministration.
July 5th of this year, the new commissioners having ordered a sale of squares and half-acre
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lots, make a deed of the entire Square No. 6 to Colonel John Campbell, for the sum of £53, bid at the sale that day,
THE OLDEST MAP.
In this year was made the oldest plat of Louisville which is still in existence-that of Abram Hite, then a commissioner of the town under appointment of the Virginia Legislature. The official records of the place coming into his hands, he made a copy of the map-it is not known which of the four older maps-then held of authority ; and this is now owned by the Louis- ville Abstract association. It does not show the lots of five, ten, and twenty acres laid off by William Shannon in 1785, nor the old grave- yard now Baxter Square, between Jefferson and Green, Eleventh and Twelfth streets; and there- fore it is pretty certain that Mr. Hite used the map of May ordered in 1781, or Pope's of 1783. Colonel Durrett gives the following de- scription of this ancient plat :
This map of Hite lays down the city from the river on the north to the present Green street on the south, and from about Twelfth street on the west to Brook street on the east. This boundary shows three streets running from east to west not named, but known to correspond to Main, Market, and Jefferson, and twenty streets running north and south, also without names or numbers, but likewise known to be the present streets numbered from one to twelve. The whole space, besides what is taken up by the streets and the river front between the northern tier of Main street and the river, is divided into 300 half-acre lots, numbered from one to 300. The old numbering of the first eighty-six lots, as shown on the map of Bard, is preserved by horizontal figures, while the new numbering of the same lots appears in parallel fignies. The new numbering begins with one at the northeast corner of Main and Fifth streets, and proceeds easterly up the north side of Main to Brook, where number twenty is reached. tt then goes back to the northwest corner of Main and Fifth, where, beginning with number twenty-one, it proceeds west- erly to two lots below Twelfth street, where number fifty is reached. It then crosses to the south side of Main street, where it begins with fifty-one, and proceeds easterly to Brook street, where number 100 is reached. The north side of Market, within the same eastern and western extremes, takes the numbers from ror to 150, and the south side from 151 to 200. The north side of Jefferson takes the numbers from 201 to 250, and the south side from 251 to 300. No public grounds are marked on this map except lots Nos. 223, 224, 225, and 226 on the north side of Jefferson, and 275, 276, 277, and 278 on the south side, at the intersection of Sixth street. The space between the northern tier of Main street lots and the river is divided into sections numbered from two to eleven, number two being the most easterly and eleven the most westerly division. The space bonnded by the northern tier of Main street lots on the south, Eleventh street on the east and the river on the north, where the old fort stood, is neither laid off nor numbered on the map.
A NOTABLE IMMIGRANT.
One of the new-comers to Louisville in the early part of April, of this year, has come down in local history with a peculiar celebrity. This notable immigrant rejoiced in the euphonious cognomen of Major Quirey. He was a native of Pennsylvania, married at nineteen years of age, and soon afterward removed to Kentucky. Six feet two inches in height and weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, he speedily received the reverence due to strength; for in those days when muscular energy was so often in requisi- tion, a man with a large and robust body and a will to use it stood higher in his fellows' estima- tion than one endowed with the greatest mental capacity. The palm of his hand was said to have been large enough for a lady's writing-desk, and his active daring made his name scarcely less celebrated than that of Peter Francisco, of Virgin- ia. The story is it told-and we may confidently say believed-that in place of ribs, his chest was enclosed by a solid case of bone. Quirey's strong hatred for cowards and Indians is illustrated by an occurrence during his descent to Louisville on the Ohio. Recent successes had made the Indians bold in their attacks on all boats of emi- grants, and this man's boat, containing only one single individual in addition to his family and himself, met the same hostile treatment. Just above the present site of Maysville, the attack was made by a large party of these savages. Quirey fought with remarkable bravery, but his coward companion only made sure of his own safety by getting out of sight among the goods forming the cargo. The wife helped as best she could by loading the guns, and her husband's un- flinching aggression finally brought them the vic- tory. When all the danger was over, their sneaking and trembling companion came again into view, this time to receive, not the vengeance of the wild Indian, but the merited chastisement of the gainer of the battle. With one hand the miserable wretch was seized by Quirey and held high over the waves, and only the tears and en- treaties of the woman saved him the sudden death that might have met him then and there. Instead of summarily putting an end to him, he was set ashore near Limestone with the privi- lege of making his way to the fort or defending himself in a hand to hand fight with the same enemy he had so valiantly met before. His
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fate is not recorded in history. Quirey after- ward established his reputation for strength, however, in a way that could not be questioned. He had reached Louisville, and one Peter Smith, who had long held the reputation of being the strongest man and most successful fighter in the place, determined thoroughly to whip the new-comer or "leave e country " altogether. For this purpose he sought out the Pennsylvanian and proposed a trial of fisticuff. Quirey thought it a better show of skill that they bind all their efforts against the common enemy, and even of- fered to acknowledge Smith as his superior in such laudable feats of skill and power. This not meeting his antagonist's approval, he named various trials in lifting or some athletic game. All plans were refused, and the challenger finally began to make ready for an immediate fight. Having stripped the upper part of his body to the skin and tightened his belt, he ad- vanced upon Quirey, who, with one blow of the open hand upon his ear, hurled his antagonist to the floor several paces away. The blood gushed from ears, nose, and eyes, but he was not yet satisfied. He declared the blow to be accident- al, and nothing would satisfy but a new trial. Quirey warned him of what he would doubtless receive if he began a second attack, but he could not be satisfied, and the second time Smith sought to know whose strength was the greater, he received, at the same time, two terrible blows, one with the hand and the other with the foot. He fell as if dead, and was carried to Patton's tavern, where he lay for six weeks. Upon his recovery, he acted upon his experience and left the country.
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