History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 44

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 44

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1812 .- MORE EARTHQUAKES.

The shocks of earthquake continued during a large part of this year, not wholly ceasing until the lapse of several months. During the week ending January 5, 134 were noticed by Mr. Brooks, 161 during the next; then, in successive weeks, 65, 91, 209, 175, 86, 292, 139, 58, and 221. During thirteen weeks 1,874 shocks and tremors were recorded-most of them, however, 1,667, being of the sixth rate-eight of the first, Io of the second, 35 of the third, 65 of the fourth, and 89 of the fifth. The hardest, of either 1811 or 1812, was noted on the 7th of February. The following record was made of it and of the day by Mr. Brooks:

7th .- 3h. 15m. A. M. The most tremendous earthquake yet experienced at this place, preceded by frequent slight motions for several minutes, duration of great violence at least four minutes, then gradually moderated by exertions of lessening strength, but continued a constant motion more than two hours; then followed a succession of distinct trem- ors or jarrings at short intervals, until Ioh. A. M., when, for a few seconds, a shock of some degree of severity, after which frequent jarrings and slight tremors during the day, once at least in each ten minutes; morning cloudy, or appar- ently a dry vapor lay high and unbroken; dead calm; began to rain at 2 o'clock P. M., small; + P. M. snow in large feather flakes continues till dark-temperature, morning 31, noon 42, evening 42. 8h. rom. P. M .- Shock of second rate vio- lence, and during some minutes two others at equal periods, connected by continual tremor of considerable severity. The last shock was violent in the first degree, but of too short . duration to do much injury; subsided suddenly, and is fol- lowed by constant trembling for five minutes, then at inter- vals till one is tired of counting. The character of these last shocks differs from others, the first shoving in slower time and uniformly, the second more rapid, but not so quick as usual (direction by northwest and southeast), the third sud- den, of angry violence and broken, irregular motion. roh. Iom. P. M .- After frequent considerable motions, the shock comes on violent in the second degree, strengthens to tre-

mendons, holds at that about seven seconds, then trembles away; severe about five minutes, frequent tremors follow, and a shock of third rate violence, five minutes after 12 at night; cloudy, some snow on the ground melting fast, calm.

January 23d, the same faithful chronicler, after recording several shocks, one of them "awfully violent and prolonged," and a rain of "transparent ice in drops of the size of pigeon-shot," for two hours, sadly remarks :

This is a disastrous time for navigators of the Ohio who happen to be hereabout upon the river. Seven boats have been seen passing the Falls to-day, some with and some with- out crews on board. [There had been a break-up in the river the day before. ] No human power can afford relief to the sufferers, nor can they help themselves, but dritt on until chance may decide their fate. Fortunately, the water is in pretty good state. Much howling and lamentation were heard from a boat entering the Falls this night, voices of men, women, and children."

Some singular effects of the earthquake were observed a few days afterwards:

Day one might say fair, but the sun sheds a whitish dusky light; gloomy; evening overcast; high, dry, vapor, half-trans- parent; smooth, vertical stars only are seen, they display a brilliant radiance; wind not sufficient for these forty-eight hours past to have blown out a candle, had it been exposed on the top of a house; smoke rises in erect columns to an uncommon height; the animal system disposed to relaxation, much complaint on that account.

Again, March 5th :

Morning very dark and gloomy, dense vapor; sound {as often of late) seems, as it were, to have lost its rotundity, and matter its sonorous properties. The peal of the bell, the beat of the drum, the crowing of the cock, the hu- man call, although near at hand, seem to be at a distance, and the different reports seem to steal, in a manner silently, separately, and distinctly upon the ear, not breaking upon or being lost or confused in each other.

Many other unwonted phenomena are noted from time to time during this reign of terror; but these are perhaps the most remarkable. February 17, Mr. Brooks writes :

These tremors or jarrings are so frequent that it is tiresome to count them as they pass, but it is believed that the number exceeded one to each ten minutes, from last evening to sun- down to-day (or last twenty-four hours).

IMPROVEMENT OF THE TOWN.

This went on vigorously in 1812, the people of the place seemingly having lost their fear of the world coming to an end through earthquake. Jared Brooks made a fresh survey of the plat, which, in view of the loss or destruction of the records of all previous surveys, has ever since been the official standard of survey. It is some- what described in a previous chapter of this book, but we wish to add here, at the risk of some repetition, the precise words of the first and

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most intelligent commentator upon his work. Dr. McMurtrie gives the following description and criticisms upon it :

The out-courses of this survey are from thirty-five poles above the mouth of Beargrass creek, on the bank of the Ohio river, south eighty-three, west thirty-five poles to the mouth of the creek, thence north eighty-seven, west one hundred and twenty poles, north fifty, west one hundred and ten poles to a heap of stones and a square hole cut in the flat rock, thence (the division line) south eighty-eight, east seven hundred and sixty-nine to a white oak, poplar, and beech, north thirty-seven, west three hundred and ninety to the beginning, no variation. Main, Market, and Jefferson streets, * which run nearly east and west, are each ninety fect wide, all others sixty, except Water street, which is but thirty.

The different squares formed by the intersection of these streets are divided into half-acre lots, as far as Green street, but those of the extension south of that are laid off in five, ten, and twenty acres, through which the cross streets are to be continued as they may be wanted. Although the lots north of the extension are said to be half-acre ones, they all exceed it, as will appear by the following statement : Those between Water and Main streets measure two hundred and ten feet by one hundred and five, exceeding half an acre by two hundred and seventy square feet, between Main and Market streets, two hundred and eleven by one hundred and five, exceeding it by three hundred and seventy-five square feet, between Market and Jefferson two hundred and ten feet ten inches by one hundred and five, exceeding it by three hundred and seventy-five and a half square feet, and between Jefferson and Green streets two hundred and ten by two hun- dred and five, exceeding it by two hundred and seventy square feet.

A slip 180 feet wide, south of the Jefferson street range of lots, extending the whole length of the town, had been re- served for a common, which the Trustees subsequently had laid off in lots, and with the exception of a strip sixty feet wide (Green street), caused to be sold. Whether this sale be valid or not the law must hereafter determine, as the question will most certainly be agitated, it being a matter of moment to the public in general, which is deeply interested, not merely as regards the actual loss sustained by it in the de- privation of this property, but on account of the stretch and usurpation of power in the Trustees, which occasioned it ; they had no more authority to sell that slip than they had to expose to public auction the persons of the citizens and knock them down to the highest bidder. The public is col- lectively an individual, and the property of an individual is, or ought to be, as sacred as his person.

Two great faults in the plan of this town must be evident to the most superficial observer. The one is a want of alleys, the other that of public squares. With respect to the first, much inconvenience is already the consequence, and what that will increase to when the population will amount to 20,000 souls (a period not far distant), may be readily con- ceived. It is not yet, however, too late to correct this error ; and as the sacrifice of a few feet of ground in each lot would

add greatly to the present and future value of it, self-inter- est will, f have no doubt, soon cause it to be attempted.

The total want of public squares is an evil of much more serious cast, and one that promises hereafter to furnish full employment to the sons of Esculapius and their suite. Rap- idly as this town augments its population, a few years will find every foot of ground- within its precincts covered with houses, forming ramparts that will keep without that minis- tering angel of health, a pure and circulating atmosphere, and keep within the demon of contagion, who draws his very existence from the foul and pestilent airs of a pent-up city.

As to the flagrant want of taste exhibited in the mode of improving the banks of the river, nothing but the great value of the ground can be urged as an excuse. Had the first or Main street been laid off so as to have extended ninety feet from the brink of the second bank, forming an avenue front of the town, and had no houses been permitted to exist north of that avenue, those to the south all fronting it, and of course the river, Louisville, would have exhibited a coup d'œil surpassed, in point of beauty, by few in the world. As it is, the town has turned its back upon the varied and interesting prospects presented by the Ohio and its Falls, here and there studded with islands, beautiful and verdant country extending six miles beyond bounded by the Silver Creek hills, whose majestic tops, crowned with leafy honours of varied hues, ter- minate the scene.

The reservation noted by Mr. Brooks, between Green and Grayson streets, had been sold in four pretty large lots-number one to William John- son, number two to William Croghan, number three to Colonel R. C. Anderson, and number four, a triangular tract of forty to fifty acres west and north of Green street, to Colonel Campbell.

February 7th of this year, the trustees of the town were authorized by legislative enactment to assess and collect annually a tax not to exceed two thousand dollars for local improvement. An act was passed authorizing and directing the paving of Main street from the crossing of Third to the crossing of Sixth street, at the expense of the adjoining lot-owners. The improvement seems to have been very greatly needed, accord- ing to an anecdote related by Mr. Casseday in the following words :

While the paving was progressing agreeably to this order, an honest Scotchman came by from the vicinity with a loaded wagon. "What'll ye be doin' there?" was his salutation to the superintendent of the work. "Paving the street," was the answer. "Pavin', do ye say? Weel, weel, when it's done, I'll willin'ly pay my peart o' it, for 1 hae had awfu' work gettin' through it a' before." It is not recorded whether this honest gentleman was called on for his "peart," but it is presumed he was enabled to enjoy these advantages gratis.

THE PRICE OF REAL ESTATE

on Main street advanced very rapidly, partly in consequence of this improvement, and partly from the establishment this year of the Branch Bank of Kentucky in Louisville. Lots on Main

* The names of the principal streets running in that direc- tion are Water, Main, Market, Jefferson, Green, Walnut, and South. These are all intersected by twelve others, sixty feet wide, that are named First, Second, Third, etc., commencing at the castern extremity of the city, and continuing west to Twelfth street, which is the last.

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street sold at $4,000 to $5,000 each, and prop- erty in other parts of the town experienced a material advance.

THE NEW BANK.

A private institution known as the Louisville Bank, but incorporated, had been in existence for some time, and had now a capital of about $75,000. It was determined by the authorities of the Bank of Kentucky to establish a bank at this point, which was done. The owners of the older bank were enlisted in the project, and turned their institution and capital into the new affair. The additions made to the capital stock mounted the entire capital of the Branch Bank to $100,000. The office of the Bank was on Main street, north side, near the corner of Fifth. Thomas Prather, of the well-known Louisville family, was made President, and John Bustard Cashier.

THOMAS PRATHER.

This eminent citizen emerges now for the first time prominently into recorded local history. He appears to have exerted a very marked influ- ence in his time, which has not altogether died to this day. We find him chronicled as among the most distinguished of Louisville's early citi- zens. A person of fine mental ability, honest and energetic, he became a leading spirit in whatever position he was placed. A simple re- mark of his serves as an index to the character of the man. The directors of the Bank, the Presidency of which Mr. Prather held had de- termined to stop payment. With these memor- able words the place was resigned: "I can pre- side over no institution which fails to meet its engagements promptly and to the letter." Mr. Prather was connected in business many years with Mr. John I. Jacob, whose death in the year 1852 was so much a subject of great sor- row. The house of Prather & Jacob was one of the best-known firms of the early days of this city.

THE FIRST IRON FOUNDRY

was also established this year, by Mr. John Skid- more. It was on a very modest scale, its chief labors being expended upon odd oven-lids, dog- and smoothing-irons, and gudgeons for water- and horse-mills. From this small beginning arose that branch of industry now so extensive and having such vital relations to the entire city.

Mr. Joshua Headington followed Mr. Skidmore in the same business until 1817. At that time Messrs. Prentiss & Bakewell, who were successors of Mr. Headington, introduced the building of steam engines, The machinery was procured in Philadelphia and Pittsburg, but the best results were not obtained until some engines for small boats, built in 1825, brought them more credit. The following year Mr. Prentiss continued the business alone, his partner having gone out of the firm, but half of the interest was soon after- ward purchased by Jacob Keffer, who was to become superintendent of the foundry. In 1831, when this foundry ceased operations, a new one began its existence, the firm being Messrs. D. L. Beatty, John Curry, and Jacob Beckwith. Here the casting and steam engine business was carried on successfully. The first air furnace of any value was erected by them. They also built the first regular boring-mill, and substituted the blowing cylinder instead of the common wood and leather bellows. This has since become a very prominent and successful industry in Louisville. In 1852, when Casseday wrote, there were six foundries for the building of steam-engines and all kinds of machinery, besides as many large stove foundries. In 1873 similar industries in the city employed 1,550 hands, and a capital of $2,651,000, with a product of $5,000,000, and $927,000 annual payment of wages.

NOTICES OF LOUISVILLE,

Captain Cutler, who published this year a Topographical Description of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana, after some reference to Jeffersonville and Clarksville, gave the Kentucky shore this notice :

On the opposite bank, about midway between these two villages and opposite the Rapids, is Louisville, which is much larger, and bids fair to become a flourishing town. It is situated on an elevated plain, and contains about one hundred and fifty-two houses, a printing- and a post-office. It is a port of entry, and has a considerable number of mer- cantile stores and several warehouses for storing goods, Shippingport is on the same side, at the foot of the Falls. Here hoats generally make a landing after passing the Rapids. Ship-building was begun and carried on with considerable spirit here, until it received a check by the late embargo law. Having an excellent harbor, the situation appears eligible for prosecuting the business to advantage.

In Thompson's London edition of the Geo- graphical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies, translated from the Spanish

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of Colonel Alcedo and published this year, Louisville is noticed as "a port of entry and post-town of Kentucky, and chief of Jefferson county, pleasantly situated on the east side of Ohio, on an elevated plain at the Rapids, nearly opposite Fort Fenny [ Finney]. It commands a delightful prospect of the river and the adjacent country, and promises to be a place of great trade ; but its unhealthiness, owing to stagnated waters back of the town, had considerably re- tarded its growth. It consists of three principal streets, and contains about one hundred houses, a court-house, and gaol." This description, how- ever, is taken almost verbatim from Morse's American Gazetteer of 1798, and adds nothing to the information given fourteen years before the publication of Thompson's Alcedo. It is a fact of some interest that the map of the United States prefixed to this Gazetteer of Morse's ex- hibits Lexington, but not either Louisville or Cincinnati.

JOHN D. COLMESNIL.

This year came Mr. John D. Colmesnil, form- erly the largest and wealthiest merchant in the city. He was the son of a rich planter, born in Hayti, July 31, 1787. He was related to the Tarascons, of Louisville, and in 1811 paid a visit to them here, returning the next year and going into business with John A. Tarascon. He was then a partner in the firm of Stewart, Tyler, & Co., in the dry goods business, and also en- gaged in the river-trade, particularly to New Orleans. To this point he made the shortest trip then known with a barge-sixty-three days. He finally went exclusively into steamboating, and owned a number of profitable vessels. In 1838, under the operations of the bankrupt law, he lost very heavily by the failures of others, in one case $150,000, and was at last compelled himself to succumb to the pressure of the times, but paid every dollar of his indebtedness. In later years he was agent of the Treasury Depart- ment, under the Secretaryship of his friend, the Hon. James Guthrie. He had bought the fine estate known as the Paroquet Springs in 1833, for his own residence, but in the spring of 1871 came back to Louisville and died here July 30, of that year, within one day of the comple-

tion of the eighty-fourth year of his age. His five children are all residents of the city.

1813-MAJOR WILLIAM PRESTON

removed from Wythe county, Virginia, this year, to his place on the Briar Patch Grant, in Louis- ville, the place long known as Preston's Lodge, where his grandson, Preston Rogers, lived in later years. The Major's father, also William Preston, was a soldier in the Revolution, and received from the Government a grant of a thousand acres at the Falls of the Ohio, begin- ning a little above the mouth of the Beargrass, and running for quantity thence east and south, immediately adjoining the Connolly forfeited tract. It was patented to the elder Preston July 17, 1780. This came to be called the Briar Patch Grant, and upon it the additions to the old plat of the town were laid off above First street. He left it to his sons William and Francis, who made the "Preston Enlargment." Major Preston was also in the army for many years and served in the West under Wayne. He was father of Josephine, wife of Colonel Jason Rogers, a graduate of West Point and soldier in the Mexican War, who died here in 1848. She died November 6, 1842. Preston Rogers was their son. Another grandson is General William Preston, long a noted resident of Louisville.

1814.

Two Kentucky Regiments of Volunteers in the last war with Great Britain rendezvoused in or near Louisville this year, before departing for the Mississippi country. They were the same commands which fought so effectively the next year under Jackson, at the battle of New Orleans.

THE STEAMER ENTERPRISE

was the fourth vessel built on Western waters, to be propelled by steam-power. She was con- structed at Bridgeport, opposite Brownsville, on the Monongahela, by Daniel French, father of a subsequently prominent merchant in Jefferson- ville. She was a small vessel, of only forty-five tons' burthen, and had been taken out by the elder French. After two trips to Louisville in the summer of 1814, under the command of

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Captain H. M. Shreve, she was loaded at Pitts- burg with ordnance stores for the troops at New Orleans, and started down under command of the same Captain. This voyage was cele- brated in the river annals of that day, as having made the return trip, from New Orleans to Ship- pingport, in twenty-five days (May 6th to 30th), and as being the first steamer to arrive at this place from New Orleans. She was lost about a year afterwards in Rock harbor, at Shippingport, being sunk, it is suppose, by jealous barge- and keelboatmen, who feared their occupation would presently be gone.

This voyage of the Enterprise to New Or- leans, and a succeeding one by the Washington, were notable in a more important particular. To Captain Shreve, then and afterwards a prominent citizen of this place, the commercial interests of the West, very likely of the whole country, were indebted for relief from the monopoly in steam- boat-building, which threatened to be a terrible incubus in the early day of steam navigation. Dr. McMurtrie thus tell the story :

Having been long convinced that the overpowering patent of Fulton & Livingston, which granted them the exclusive privilege of navigating by steamboats all the rivers of the United States, was illegal, and consequently of no effect, he determined to bring the point to issue, and accordingly, on the Ist of December, 1814, he embarked in the Enterprise for New Orleans, where he arrived the 14th of the same month. Immediately on landing, he applied to counsel and procured bail in case of seizure, which took place the ensuing day. Bail was entered, and a suit commenced against the vessel and owners by the company in an inferior court, where a ver- dict was found for the defendants. The cause was now re- moved by a writ of error to the supreme court of the United States, at which time the Enterprise left New Orleans and ar- rived at Shippingport.

Before the question was decided by this tribunal, Captain Shreve returned to New Orleans with the Washington, a beautiful boat of four hundred tons, which, as expected, was also seized by the company, to whom she was abandoned without any difficulty. Upon application, however, to the court, an order was obtained to hold it (the company) to bail, to answer the damages that might be sustained by the deten- tion of the vessel. To this it demurred, and, beginning to feel the weariness of its case and foreseeing the downfall of its colossal patent, it repeatedly offered, both through the me- dium of its attorneys and by its members personally, to admit Captain Shreve to an equal share with itself in all the privi- leges of the patent right, provided he would instruct his counsel so to arrange the business that a verdict might be found against him. In vain this tempting bail (I had almost said bribe) was proffered. It was rejected with scorn and indignation, and the affair left to justice, whose sword, at one blow, forever severed the links of that chain which had en- thralled the commerce of the Western waters. Had Captain Shreve been weak enough to have accepted of this offer, the result is obvious. No one would have dared to embark his 30

fortunes in vain endeavors to promote the best interests of his country, by adding the wings of commerce to the feet of ag- riculture, because ruin would have been the inevitable conse- quence; the carrying business would have remained in the hands of the company, who would have continued just as many and no more boats in the trade than was sufficient to keep up the price of trade, and consequently, instead of pay- ing two and one-half cents per pound for every article of im- port, the merchant, and ultimately the consumer (for upon his shoulders, such things always bear at last) would have been compelled to have paid six, seven, or eight, as best suited the interest or convenience of the company.

THE RIVER COMMERCE,

however, was still almost exclusively confined to barge, keel, and flat-boats. The following statis- tics of arrivals at the port of Louisville during three months ending July 18, 1814, have been preserved : Barges 12, total burthen, 524 tons. Keel-boats, 7, total burthen 132 tons. The aggregate of cargoes delivered by these is par- ticularized as follows : 813 bales cotton, 26 bar- rels and kegs fish, 28 cases wine, I barrel wine, 1 bag and i barrel allspice, 6 ceroons cochineal, 1 demijohn and i barrel lime juice, 1 bale bear skins, 28 boxes steel, 438 hogsheads sugar 1,267 barrels sugar, 12 boxes sugar, 1 barrel fish oil, 2 bags pepper, 28 bales wool, 21 bales hides, 453 bales dry hides, 1 barrel rice, 5 barrels molasses, 128 barrels coffee, 339 bags coffee, 5 cases pre- serves, 29 barrels indigo, 2 ceroons indigo, six tons logwood, 18,000 pounds pig copper, 1 box crockery. The probable value of these articles was estimated at $266,015.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 44

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