History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 42

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 42

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

1808-THE FIRST THEATER.

Louisville was still a small town-not more than one hundred and twenty houses in it, ac- cording to Mr. Schultz, just quoted. It was, how- ever, doubtless a little and poor one. Accord- ing to Dr. McMurtrie, it was "but little better than a barn." In the year 1818 it fell into the hands of the celebrated Mr. Drake, under whose auspices was fairly begun in the West the golden era of the drama. Through his wise managing, the tastes of the people were not only met, but their standards were placed upon a higher level, and the effect produced was lasting, in fact. To his tutorship should be credited the critical taste of our theatrical attendants of the present time. Not a few whose names are now prominent among stage artists, took their first lessons under Mr. Drake, at this place. This theatre, de- stroyed by fire in 1843, stood between Third and Fourth streets, upon the north side of Jef- ferson street. For a long time previous to its destruction, it was the resort only of the most disreputable part of society. Before the City Theater had ceased to exist, Mr. Colman began a new building for a similar purpose at the south- east corner of Green and Fourth street, but for some cause the project stopped with the erection

of the outer walls. Mr. Bates of Cincinnati purchased what then was of the building, and after completing it opened it in 1846, early in the year. A part of every year from that time, it was open, and the best performances were put within the reach of people whose tastes would lead them to desire only the best. This was the old building removed but a few years ago, to give place to the superb edifice erected by the Courier-Journal Company.

NOW COMES MR. CUMING.

May 10th of this year, Mr. F. Cuming, who was making an extensive tour through the West- ern and Southern country, rowed his boat, with which he had come seventy-eight miles down the Ohio the night before, into the mouth of Bear- grass. He recorded the following flattering ob- servations in his subsequent Sketches of a Tour:

Louisville is most delightfully situated on an elevated plain, to which the ascent from the creek and river is gradual, being just slope enough to admit of hanging gardens with terraces, which Dr. Gault at the upper and two Messrs. Bulletts at the lower end of the town have availed themselves of, in laying out their gardens very handsomely and with taste. From the latter the view both up and down the river is truly delightful. Looking upwards, a reach of five or six miles presents itself, and turning the eye to the left, Jeffersonville, a neat village of thirty houses, in Indiana, about a mile distant, is next seen. The eye, still turning a little more to the left, next rests upon a high point, where General Clark first encamped his little army about thirty years ago, when he descended the river to make a campaign against the Indians, at which time Louis- ville and almost the whole of Kentucky was a wilderness covered with forests. The rapids or falls (as they are called) of the Ohio are the next objects which strike the observer. Clarksville, a new village in Indiana at the lower end of the rapids, is next seen, beyond which Silver creek hills, a moderately high and even chain, bound the view five or six miles distant. Continuing to turn to the left, Rock Island and the same chain of hills appearing over it, finish two-thirds of a very fine panorama. The town and sur- rounding forests form the other third.

Louisville consists of one principal and very handsome street, about half a mile long, tolerably compactly built, and the houses generally superior to any I have seen in the West- ern country, with the exception of Lexington. Most are of handsome brick, and some are three stories, with a parapet wall on the top in the modern European taste, which in front gives them the appearance of having flat roofs.

I had thought Cincinnati one of the most beautiful towns I had seen in America, but Lonisville, which is almost as large, equals it in beauty, and in the opinion of many excels it. It was considered as unhealthy, which impeded its prog- ress until three or four years ago, when, probably in conse- quence of the surrounding country being more opened, bil- ious complaints ceased to be so frequent, and it is now con- sidered by the inhabitants as healthy as any town on the river. There is a market-house with a very good market every Wednesday and Saturday. The court-house is a plain two-story stone building, with a square roof and small belfry.

JOHN J. AUDUBON.

221

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

There are bells here on the roofs of the taverns, as in Lexing- ton, to summon the guests to their meals. Great retail busi- ness is done here, and much produce is shipped to New Orleans.

Louisville had now its market-house, it seems. The court-house to which Mr. Schultz refers must have been a building temporarily in use for the purpose, since the first temple of justice in the city which was public property was not erected until 1810-11. Still it must be allowed that his description appears to indicate that the building he saw was put up for the purposes of a court-house.

AN EMINENT RESIDENT.

About the middle of this year the distinguished naturalist, John James Audubon, then a splendid young man of twenty-eight and newly married, came to Louisville with a view of making it his home. He had previously lived at Mill Grove, in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and had made a visit to the West with a friend named Rosier. The Life of Audubon, edited by his widow, thus tells the rest of the story:

The journey of Audubon and Rosier to Kentucky had for its purpose the discovery of some outlet for the naturalist's energies in the shape of a settled investment which would permit of his marriage to Miss Bakewell. In Louisville Audubon determined to remain, and with this purpose in view he sold his plantation of Mill Grove, invested his capital in goods and prepared to start for the West. His arrange- ments being complete, he was married to Miss Bakewell on the 8th of April, 1808, in her father's residence at Fatland Ford. Journeying by Pittsburg the wedded pair reached Louisville with their goods in safety. From Pittsburg they sailed down the Ohio in a flat-bottomed boat called an ark, and which proved a very tedious and primitive mode of traveling. This river voyage occupied two days, and must have given the naturalist wonderful opportunities of making observations. At Louisville he commenced trade under favorable auspices, but the hunting of birds continued to be the ruling passion, His life at this period, in the company of his young wife, appears to have been extremely happy, and he writes that he had really reason "to care for noth- ing. The country around Louisville was settled by planters who were fond of hunting, and among whom he found a ready welcome. The shooting and drawing of birds was continued. His friend Rosier, less fond of rural sports, stuck to the counter and, as Audubon phrases it, " grew rich, and that was all he cared for." Audubon's pursuits appear to have severed him from the business, which was left to Rosier's management. Finally the War of 1812 imperiled the pros- perity of the partners, and what goods remained on hand were shipped to Hendersonville, Kentucky, where Rosier remained for some years longer, before going further West- ward in search of the fortune he coveted. Writing of the kindness shown him by his friends at Louisville, Audubon relates that, when he was absent on business or "or away on expeditions," his wife was invited to stay at General Clark's and was taken care of till he returned.

WILSON, THE ORNITHOLOGIST.

During his residence here Audubon made the unexpected acquaintance of the scarcely less eminent, indeed, then rather more eminent au- thor of the great work on American Ornithology, the Scotchman Alexander Wilson. He has him- self thus described their meeting:

One fine morning 1 was surprised by the sudden entrance into our counting-room at Louisville of Mr. Alexander Wil- son, the celebrated author of the American Ornithology, of whose existence I had never until that moment been ap- prised. This happened in March, 1810. How well do 1 re- member him, as he then walked up to me! His long, rather hooked nose, the keenness of his eyes, and his prominent cheek-bones, stamped his countenance with a peculiar char- acter. His dress, too, was of a kind not usually seen in that part of the country-a short coat, trousers, and a waistcoat of grey cloth. His stature was not above the middle size. He had two volumes under his arm, and, as he approached the table at which 1 was working, I thought I discovered something like astonishment in his countenance. He, how- ever, immediately proceeded to disclose the object of his visit, which was to procure subscriptions for his work. He opened his books, explained the nature of his occupations, and requested my patronage. 1 telt surprised and gratified at the sight of his volumes, turned over a few of the plates, and had already taken a pen to write my name in his favor, when my partner rather abruptly said to me, in French : "My dear Audubon, what induces you to subscribe to this work ? Your drawings are certainly far better; and again, you must know as much of the habits of American birds as this gentleman." Whether Mr. Wilson understood French. or not, or if the suddenness with which I paused disap- pointed him, I can not tell; but I clearly perceived that he was not pleased. Vanity and the encomiums of my friend prevented me from subscribing .. Mr. Wilson asked me if I had many drawings of birds. I rose, took down a large portfolio, laid it on the table, and showed him-as I would show you, kind reader, or any other person fond of such sub- jects-the whole of the contents, with the same patience with which he had shown me his own engravings. His sur- prise appeared great, as he told me he never had the most distant idea that any other individual than himself had been engaged in forming such a collection.

The two naturalists became familiarly ac- quainted. Wilson borrowed Audubon's draw- ings, hunted with him for new specimens, re- ceived an offer of all the results of the latter's researches for his work, with the proffer of ad- ditional drawings as they might be made, and the inestimable benefit of a correspondence with the Louisville scientist. And yet Wilson had the ingratitude to give Audubon and Louisville this outrageous fling in the ninth volume of his Orni- thology :

March 23, 1810 .- I bade adieu to Louisville to which place I had four letters of recommendation, and was taught to expect much of everything there; but neither received one act of civility from those to whom I was recommended, one

222

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

subscriber, nor one new bird, though I delivered my letters, ransacked the woods repeatedly, and visited all the charac- ters likely to subscribe. Science or literature has not one friend in this place.

So wrote the dour and graceless son of Scotia ! In October, 1822, Audubon returned to Louis- ville, and resided at Shippingport for a year or two, while painting birds, animals, and views of American scenery. He was but once more here, in March, 1843, an old and now very famous man, on his way to make a long-desired tour in the Far West. He died at Audubon Park, on the Hudson, January 27, 1851.

AN IMMIGRANT WHO STAID.

During this year James Rudd, a stout lad of nineteen, a native of Maryland, came to seek his fortune in the Falls city, and remained here until his death May 8, 1867. He is said to have been the first firm and outspoken Catholic to become a permanent resident here. He raised a rifle company for the War of 1812-15, which closed before he could get his command to the field. He was a member of the city council and of the State Legislature, at one time serving in the lat- ter body with his two brothers from other parts of Kentucky. In 1849, with Hon. James Guth- rie and General William Preston, he was elected to the State Constitutional convention. This was the last of his official duties. He had pre- viously, in 1848, done the community of his resi- dence an important service, in the purchase for the city of the greater part of the estate now oc- cupied by Cave Hill cemetery, and afterwards did much to make that beautiful resting. place of the dead what it is. Upon the day of his funer- al, although he was not a lawyer nor in any way connected with the courts, the chancery court of Louisville adjourned, out of respect to his mem- ory.

INCIDENTS.

On the 8th of April, 1807, snow fell in. the streets of Louisville to the reported depth of six inches.

The post-office this year yielded, as total re- ceipts, the munificent sum of $529.

1808-THE TARASCON MILL.

In 1808 the excavations were made and the foundations put in for the great flouring-mill built by the Tarascons at Shippingport. It was

during the removal of a huge sycamore tree to give room for these, that the puzzling iron hatchet mentioned by Dr. McMurtrie in 1819, and in our chapter on the Mound Builder, was found beneath the roots-indeed, immediately under the tree, which was two hundred years old.

1809-A MEMORABLE DUEL.

January 19th of this year, upon a spot on the Indiana side of the Ohio, opposite Shippingport, where the parties crossed in boats and landed a little below the mouth of Silver creek, occurred the notable hostile meeting between Henry Clay, then a young lawyer and legislator, and the elder Humphrey Marshall, a member of the same branch of the Legislature, the House of Repre- sentatives. In the course of a heated debate upon a resolution of Clay's, to encourage do- mestic manufactures by recommending the Kentucky legislators to wear home-made jeans in preference to other goods, Marshall gave Clay a deadly insult, which the latter resented on the spot. He rushed for Marshall, but General Christopher Riffe, a stalwart German member from Casey county, who occupied a seat between them, held them apart, saying: "Come, poys, no fighting here: I vips you both." A duel of course followed, after the manner of that time. On the first fire Mr. Clay received a slight wound in the abdomen-" in no way serious," as he himself described it. It was sufficient, however, to end the duel, but not until second shots had been exchanged without effect, and Clay had in- sisted on a third. The seconds, however, hold- ing that his wound now placed him on an unequal footing with his antagonist, declined to permit the contest to continue.

Clay's next duel was with John Randolph, at Washington city, in 1826.

THE FIRST CHURCH

in town was built this year, being the old Method- ist Episcopal church on the north side of Market, between Seventh and Eighth streets, which stood until quite recent years. A Methodist society is said to have been in existence here as early as 1805. Further notice will appear in the chapter on Religion in Louisville.

THE LOCAL ASSESSMENT,

or tax levy of this year, amounted to $991, or nearly ten times that ot a dozen years before.

223

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

CHAPTER VI. THE FOURTH DECADE.

1810-The Census Return-The First Policeman-Jefferson Circuit - Learner Blackman's Preaching - The County Court-house - Two Newspapers Started. 1811 - Annus Mirabilis-The First Steamboat - Fitch, Rumsey, and West-Robert Fulton-Voyage of the New Orleans-The Earthquakes-Their Effects at Louisville-An Earthquake Ordinance-The First Catholic Church-A Louisville Col- onel at Tippecanoe-John Melish, the Traveler, at Louis- ville. 1812 - More Earthquakes - Improvement of the Town-The Price of Real Estate -- The Branch Bank of Kentucky-Thomas Prather-The First Iron Foundry- Notices of Louisville-John D. Colmesnil. 1814-The Kentucky Volunteers at Louisville-The Steamer Enter- prise-Captain Shreve's Achievement-The River Com- merce -The First Paper-mill-Bad Sanitary Conditions- David Ferguson Immigrates -- Portland Laid Out-Acci- dent to General Clark. 1815 -- Growth of the Town- Tobacco Inspection-Great Flood-Steamer Navigation -Public Dinner to Captain Shreve-News of the Battle of New Orleans. 1816-More Steamboat Enterprises- The Ship Canal-Other Evidences of Improvement - The Hope Distillery-Currency Troubles - The Ohio Methodist Conference Meets in Louisville - Joshua B. Bowles-John Owen. 1817 - The Marine Hospital -The Small-pox-The First Presbyterian Church-The United States Branch Bank-Boom in Real Estate --- Mr. Fearon and Lord Selkirk Here-William P. Boone -- Another Earthquake. 1818-Notes of Progress -- Business and Commerce-Steamers Built at the Falls-Port Ward- ens Appointed-The Daily Public Advertiser Started-Rev. Henry B. Bascom-Henry R. Schoolcraft Here-Audubon as a Drawing-master-Rafinesque-Clark's Lodge, No. 51 Free and Accepted Masons-Death of General Clark- -Cold Winter. 1819-Dr. McMurtrie's Sketches of Louis- ville Published-Extended Notices of the Town-Some Other Views-Observations of W. Faux-Of Adlard Welby -Gazetteer Notices-More Notes of the Situation-Bus- iness Houses in Louisville, etc .- An Amusing Incident -- Visit of President Monroe and General Jackson - Mr. Young Immigrates.

1810-THE CENSUS RETURN.

Kentucky had experienced a very satisfactory growth during the decade-of total population 84 per cent., and of slave population very nearly 100 per cent. She now counted 406,51 1 people within her borders-324,237 whites, 80,561 slaves, and 1,713 free colored persons. Ken- tucky was now the seventh State in the Union. Louisville had had, relatively, a very great growth, bounding from 359 to 1,397-an increase of almost exactly 400 per cent., in a single decade. Her increase in population and wealth was henceforth rapid. The Falls City was on the high road to prosperity. The assessment of the year, in public taxation, was $1,300-some- thing more than double that of 1800.

The annals of the year, so far as they peer

from behind the curtain of oblivion, are very limited in amount and interest.

THE FIRST POLICEMEN,

for regular service as such, were appointed this year, in the persons of John Ferguson and Ed- ward Dowler, who were each to receive for their services the starvation salary of $250.00 per annum. And yet nearly ten years afterwards, in 1819, a resident or traveler through the place deliberately recorded: "A watchman is a char- acter perfectly unknown, and not a single lamp lends its cheering light to the nocturnal pass- enger."

THE METHODISTS

furnish another paragraph to the story of 1810. In the Official Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal church for this year, the Jefferson Circuit is first mentioned, with three other new circuits in Kentucky. Included in this circuit, of course, was the Louisville charge, by and for which a meeting-house, the first for any de- nomination erected in the city, was put up. It was a small frame building, which has been al- ready noticed. Louisville was one of but nine towns in the State in which Methodism had as yet been organized.

Learner Blackman, the able young preacher who was drowned but a few years afterwards, from a ferry-boat at Cincinnati, while returning home with his new-made bride, had been re-ap- pointed Presiding Elder of the Cumberland district, an immense tract, including parts of the present States of Mississippi, Tennessee, Ken- tucky, and Indiana. He passed through Louis- ville some time this year, tariied with Brother Biscourt, and preached to an audience of one hundred "on a very cold night, with but very little liberty," as he quaintly records.

THE COUNTY COURT-HOUSE

was begun in Louisville this year, upon a site now occupied, in part, by the county jail. The building fronted on Sixth street. It was com- posed of a main building, fronted by a lofty portico of Ionic architecture, supported by four columns and surmounted by a cupola terminat- ing in a spire. The central building was flanked by two wings, in which, and in the second story of the main structure, were the public offices, except that of the clerk, which was kept in a small brick building near the jail.

224

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

The frequenters of the old court-house must have been genuine Yankees for whittling, what- ever their nativity. To this truth the great columns gave certain evidence long before the building was torn down. Notwithstanding their great size, one of them had been actually severed by the many hackings it had received from the jack-knives of the court attendants, and there re- mained hardly enough wood in the other three, within reach of a man's hand, for a single day's whittling.

In its earlier days, there was not a finer edi- fice of its kind anywhere in the Western coun- try. In 1836 it was torn down to be replaced by a better structure. The latter, however, was never finished. Had it been possible to com- plete it on the same scale on which the begin- nings were laid, it would have been one of the most beautiful buildings the West has ever seen. In 1852 it was still a monument of the city's folly, almost a mouldering ruin-a combination of magnificent plan and miserable performance.

The former edifice was not completed until 1811. It was built after plans drawn by Mr. John Gwathmey, of the well-known hotel-keep- ing family of that era.

NEWSPAPERS SETTLE IN BUSINESS.

Two journals start hopefully in publication in Louisville this year-The Western Courier and The Louisville Correspondent. Further men- tion will be made of them in our coming chap- ter on the Press.

18II-ANNUS MIRABILIS.

To the people of the Western country, espe- cially to those upon the great Western waters, this was annus mirabilis, a wonderful twelve-month. It was the year of the earthquakes and the comet, of the Tippecanoe campaign, and of

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

This, the greatest commercial event in the history of the Mississippi Valley, commanded a four-line notice in the newspapers of Cincinnati, as the vessel passed down the river. We shall try here to do it fuller justice.

It is not generally known, although Mr. Col- lins and other historians have endeavored to make the fact somewhat prominent, that the pioneer history of Kentucky is intimately asso-

ciated with the history of steam navigation. No less than three men, who separately devised methods of moving vessels by steam, and that, too, in the last century, were inhabitants of this State, and are buried upon its soil-John Fitch, James Rumsey, and Edward West. The last- named, the least-known of all, was a watchmaker and gunsmith, and an immigrant from Virginia to Lexington in 1784 or 1785. In 1794 he pro- pelled a miniature vessel by steam on the Town Fork of the Elkhorn, in the centre of Lexing- ton, before hundreds of witnesses, and took a patent upon his invention July 6, 1802. In 1816 a steamer was built on his model, and went to New Orleans. Rumsey was also an early immigrant from Virginia to Kentucky; but we have no particulars of his life and death here. In the same year with Fitch (1783), but without any knowledge of him, he prepared a working model of a steam-vessel, and the next year exhibited it to General Washington, and made it public. In this he had the priority of Fitch, who did not propel his primitive steamer upon the Delaware until 1785, although he also had shown his model the year before to Wash- ington. The question of precedence in inven- tion was the subject of hot controversy between these worthies; but the honor certainly belongs to Fitch, if he first put the idea in Rumsey's brain, as seems probable from his statement to a friend that, on his way from Kentucky to Phila- delphia, he passed through Winchester, Virginia, and while resting there, informed Mr. Rumsey of his "firm conviction that the agency of steam might be used in navigation, and that he was then on his way to Philadelphia and Europe, to get friends to assist in carrying into effect his plans in connection therewith." The implica- tion plainly is that this opinion started Rumsey upon his career of steamboat invention.

As Mr. Fitch was a resident of the old Jeffer- son county, and is buried within its then vast limits, we shall give him larger notice in this History. The following summary of his life and singular career appeared in the newspapers of 1881. Its material seems to be derived, however, altogether from Collins's History of Kentucky:

An interesting historical fact connected with Bardstown, Kentucky, is that it was the last residence and burial place of John Fitch, the inventor of steamboats. This wonderful genius was born in Connecticut in 1743, and died here in 1798. He was clockmaker, silver- and gunsmith, and was a

225

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

lieutenant in the Revolutionary war. He made himself very useful in repairing the guns of the soldiers. For some real or supposed slight he left the service, emigrated to the wilds of Kentucky in 1778, and entered one thousand acres of land in this county. While sitting one day upon the bank of the Ohio river in 1780, he was inspired with the idea of propel- ling boats by steam, and immediately set to work to accom- plish it. He made sketches, drafts, models, and experiments, and in 1785 memorialized Congress in reference to his steam- boat. He petitioned the Legislatures of a half-dozen of the States for the exclusive privilege of navigating their waters by fire and steam. In 1788-89 he built several boats, and suc- ceeded in making trips between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, at a speed of seven miles per hour. His suc- cess was only temporary. His machinery was too light and often broken, and finally the bursting of a boiler on one of his trips compelled him to abandon his scheme.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 42

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