History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 45

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 45

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THE FIRST PAPER-MILL.

An additional impetus was given this year to the industries of Louisville by the establishment ot the first paper-mill, by Messrs. Jacob & Hikes. The Western Courier began at once to issue its numbers upon sheets manufactured at the home mill.

THE BAD SANITARY CONDITIONS

of the town, as serious obstacles to its growth, began now to attract special attention, and to call for energetic measures of relief. Mr. Cas- seday says:

A very great barrier to the progress of the town at this period consisted in its great unhealthiness. Owing to the vast reservoirs of standing water which still remained in and about the the town, there was a great deal of bilious and remittent fever, "often sufficiently aggravated to entitle it to the name of yellow fever." It will be recollected that refer- ence has been heretofore made to this subject. At this period a new alarm was raised, and it was found difficult to get peo- ple even to bring produce to the markets of the town. Ac- climation was considered, and indeed was absolutely neces-

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sary. The newspapers of the day teem with indignation at the course pursued by the neighboring and rival towns in circulating aggravated accounts of the progress of disease here. But even the warmest friends of Louisville did not pretend to deny that it was extremely unhealthy. One of these, writing soon after this date, says: "To affirm that Louisville is a healthy place would be absurd, but it is much more so than the thousand tongues of fame would make us believe; and as many of the causes which prevent it from becoming perfectly so, can be removed a few years bence, we may find the favorable alterations accomplished, and so do away with the general impression of its being the graveyard of the Western country." As is well known, this prediction has been verified, and from the reputation of a graveyard, Louisville has now everywhere attained the title of the most healthy city in America.

A VALUABLE IRISH IMMIGRANT.

David Ferguson and family, originally from Ire- land, came to the village this year from Pitts- burg. Among the grown children was Hugh, now a man of twenty-nine years. He became a baker at the corner of Fifth and Market streets, then went into the dry-goods and grocery busi- ness, which he maintained for more than forty years, and closed his life in the flour trade, at the age of eighty-two, dying here August 9, 1867. His father also died in Louisville October 6, 1821, and his mother the same year, November 3. - Their descendants are well-known in the city, one or two of the sons having been in official lite. A comical anecdote, in which Mr. Fergu- son and his grocery figure prominently, is related hereafter, in our annals for 1819.

THE TOWN OF PORTLAND

was laid out this year by Alexander Ralston, for the proprietor, General William Lytle, of Cincin- nati. Its further progress will be made the sub- ject of a special chapter hereafter.

ACCIDENT TO GENERAL CLARK.

During this year occurred the lamentable ac- cident to the now old and infirm hero, General George Rogers Clark, at his cabin-home in Clarks- ville, whereby he was deprived of the use of one of his legs. Indeed, it was injured so badly that it had to be amputated, which operation was performed by Dr. Richard Ferguson, who is mentioned in the last chapter. He spent the rest of his years with his sister, Mrs. Croghan, on the well-known place at Locust Grove, above the city.

1815-GROWING.

The town had now a very respectable growth,

as will appear from the following summary of its business, including in the statistics a small portion of the public buildings : Twenty-four mercantile stores, one bookstore, one auction and commission store, one clothing store, one leather store, one druggist's store, one plan maker, one carding and spinning factory, one tin shop, four bazars, four rope walks, four high schools, one theater, nve medicine shops, eight boot- makers, four cabinet-makers, two coach-makers, one gunsmith, one silversmith, two printing offices, one soap factory, one air foundry, four bakers, two tobacco factories, six brick-yards, one tan-yard, three house painters, four chair-makers, five tailors, five hatters, three saddlers, two coppersmiths, one steam saw-mill, one nail fac- tory, six blacksmiths, one brewer, one bagging factory, one stoneware factory, one Methodist church, two taverns ("inferior in none in the Western country "), and several others of less note.

TOBACCO INSPECTION.

Colonel Campbell's tobacco warehouse, which had stood on the bank opposite Corn Island for at least fifteen years, was ordered by the Legis- lature this year to be vacated as a legalized place for the inspection of tobacco, and a new ware- house to be erected at the mouth of the Bear- grass. It was put up on Pearl street, about one hundred feet from Main. The amount of annual receipts here then is estimated in widely different figures. Mr. Casseday says 500 hogsheads; a later writer 100. As the total receipt in 1837- twenty-two years afterwards-was but 2,133 hogs- heads, it is probable the latter figures are more nearly correct. The business has since become an immense one here.

GREAT FLOOD.

A great flood devastated the Valley of the Ohio in the spring, the river being higher at Louisville on the 6th of April than at any time before or since 1793.

STEAMER NAVIGATION.

It was this year that Captain Shreve made his notable trip with the steamer Washington, from New Orleans to Shippingport in twenty-five days, which is referred to in the annals of the preceding year. Upon his return he was warmly congratu- lated by the newspapers of the day upon "the celerity and safety with which his boat ascends

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and descends the currents of these mighty waters." He did not long remain so fortunate, however. The very next year, June 3d, as he was taking his fine boat down the river from Pittsburg to Louisville, she burst out a cylinder- head near Wheeling, killing seven persons and wounding Captain Shreve and several others. It was the first steamboat disaster of account on the Ohio. Mr. Casseday very justly says: "This accident elicited a degree of sympathy and occasioned an amount of alarm which a much more severe steamboat disaster would now fail to produce."

Nevertheless, the year after that, on the 27th of April, Captain Shreve was the recipient of a complimentary dinner from his fellow-citizens, given at Louisville, particularly in recognition of the speedy voyage he had just made with the Washington from Shippingport to New Orleans and back, in forty-five days. It is said that "this was the trip that convinced the despairing public that steamboat navigation would succeed on the Western waters." The committee of invitation was made up of J. Headington, Levi Tyler, and James A. Pearce. Mr. W. B. Beale was presi- dent, and Major C. P. Luckett vice-president. Captain De Hart received an invitation to be present at the dinner, accompanied by the assur- ance of the committee's highest respect and a statement that the same would have been ex- pressed previous to that date, but for apprehen- sions lest such a proceeding should be construed into an approval of the course pursued by the concern to which he was attached. The Ful- ton & Livingston company is the one here re- ferred to. It was believed that they were attempting to monopolize the navigation of the Western rivers. At this banquet toasts were drunk to the nineteen United States, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Louisiana, New York, several of the Presidents, Fulton, Shreve, De Hart, and others. The following toast shows plainly the apprehensions felt by the Louisville people about the undue advancement of some of her neighbors:

Our Sister-towns of Lexington and Frankfort-Let us have equal privileges in a fair competition, that local advantages and individual enterprise may insure pre-eminence.

At this gathering Mr. Shreve ventured the prediction that a trip from Louisville to New Orleans would be accomplished in ten or twelve

days, which prediction, wild as it seemed to people at that time, many of his heareis as well as himself lived to see more than fulfilled.

Captain Shreve's famous steamer, the Wash- ington, built at Wheeling, was the ninth con- structed in the West, the first of her size (four hundred tons) after the New Orleans, and the first to place her engine upon the upper deck- a device of Shreve's, which soon came into gen- eral use on the Western steamers. She was still running with success in the Louisville and New Orleans trade in 1852.

THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

caused great rejoicing in Louisville, when the news was received, on the 2d day of February. A day of thanksgiving and prayer was appointed and duly observed, March 24th. The honorable part which the brave and ready Kentuckians had borne in the sharp conflict was not the least in the elements of rejoicing, although all were glad with the intelligence of peace, which had been received about the same time.

1816-MORE STEAMER ENTERPRISES.

Continuing the subject of the new departure in river commerce, which had been taken by the introduction of steam navigation. we note the fact that, on the 15th of October, 1815, a com- pany was formed in Louisville to undertake the building of a steamboat to ply between this city and New Orleans. In consummation of their en- terprise, the following announcement from a local newspaper of the next year has interest :

On Monday, the 3d of July, was safely launched from her stocks at the mouth of Beargrass, into her destined ele- ment, the elegant new steamboat Gov. Shelby, owned by Messrs. Gray, Gwathmey, Gretsinger, and Ruble, of this town. The Gov. Shelby is intended as a regular trader between this place and New Orleans, is of one hundred and twenty-two tons burden, and is thought by judges to be one of the hand- somest models, which does great credit to her constructors, Messrs. Desmarie and McClary.

This was the fifteenth steamer built on the Western waters, and had a Bolton & Watt en- gine. Thirty-six years afterwards she was still doing excellent service in the Louisville trade. Two boats (the Ohio and the Volcano) were built at New Albany the next year, two, (the Napoleon and the St. Louis) at Shippingport, and one (the Exchange) at Louisville, where also the Rifleman was built in 1819, the same year

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the United States was built at Jeffersonville. Thus, within eight years after the building of the New Orleans (1811-19), eight steamers -- or about one-fifth of all constructed on the Ohio-were built at or about Louisville. It was a hopeful beginning of what rose to be an immense busi- ness.

About the last of April, a boat passed the Falls which was the only one, probably, asso- ciated with the name and devices of that in- genious man, one of the three Kentucky in- ventors of steam navigation-Mr. Edward West, of Lexington.

We read in the notices of those times that four and one-half years after the first steamboat was seen on the Ohio, one made by Bosworth & West on Mr. West's model, left the mouth of Hickman Creek, on the Kentucky River, in Jes- samine county, for New Orleans. The Kentucky Gazette, in an editorial notice, describes this boat as built upon a plan distinct from any other steamboat then in use, and says that when on trial against the Kentucky River at a high stage, it more than answered the expectations of the owners-a Lexington company-and there was no doubt in the mind of anyone concerning her being able to stem the current of the Mississippi with rapidity and ease. She did not return.

In September of this year Captain Shreve's noble steamer Washington crossed the Falls on her first trip to New Orleans, from which she did not return until the following winter. She at- tracted much attention during her stay here, and was visited by hundreds of admiring citizens.

THE CANAL.

Another incident of the year, closely related to the navigation of the river, was the visit of Mr. L. Baldwin, a civil engineer in the employ of the Government, who came to Louisville to bore the ground and make observations look- ing to the construction of the canal. His report will be found in our chapter on that great work.

OTHER EVIDENCES OF IMPROVEMENT

in Louisville were not wanting this year. The Louisville Library Association was incorporated, the first in a long line of similar undertakings for the public benefit. And Mr. Bradbury, author of a book of Travels in the Interior of America, who was here some time after, says that, "in February, 1816, land in the town of Louisville

sold at the rate of $30,000 per acre," which was certainly, if true, a handsome appreciation of town property.

In the early fall of this year, there was a fore- shadowing of the United States Branch bank to be established here, since a queer record has been handed down of a meeting September 24th, "for the purpose of nominating to the president and di- rectors of the Bank of the United States, fit per- sons to fill the offices of president and directors of the branch thereof to be established in said town."

About this time, also, the First Presbyterian church in this place was founded. There were only sixteen persons in the membership; but, as the habit then was for all liberal-minded persons in the community, of whatever religious persua- sion or of none, to contribute for the building of churches, they were able to put up a meeting- house the next year.

A DISTILLERY, TOO,

on an immense scale, was started here in 1816, by a New England company, regularly incor- porated by the Kentucky Legislature. Their capital was $100,000, with the privilege of doubling it, and their great establishment, as it was then thought to be, was called the Hope Distillery. A tract of one hundred acres was bought at the foot of Main street, where Port- land avenue begins, and huge buildings for the distillery were put up on it. It was expected that this would turn out a greater product than any other of the kind in the country; but, how- ever hopeful the enterprise may have been at the outset, as its name seems to indicate, it soon became a hopeless failure. The great expecta . tions, as well as the great buildings, were abandoned; the property long remained almost useless; and finally the flames of conflagration swept away the last vestige of Hope.

CURRENCY TROUBLES.

While population and business were increasing and the town was otherwise steadily growing, great difficulty was experienced in the effort to get a satisfactory medium of exchange. Louisville had its full share in the financial troubles which followed the War of 1812-15. This was the period when the old banking system held sway. Paper money of all kinds and denominations flooded the country. Worthless bank notes,

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

private bills, and other "shinplasters" seemed to have crowded out for the time the specie cur- rency that had been in common use. Disaster followed upon disaster, and a want of confidence limited all kinds of transactions in which money had a part. Much real distress was the result, but the spirit of merriment that accompanied it, no doubt, did something toward reconciling people to the enduring of what they had no power to cure. At one time a Spanish dollar in specie is advertised as a curiosity, and at another a great-hearted merchant offers to show gratis, four silver Spanish coins, to all who will call and purchase at his store.

The local discussions came to a focus August 26, when, in pursuance of a call, the merchants and mechanics of Louisville had a meeting at the Union hotel, in order, as the call read, "to take into consideration the measures necessary to be adopted to check the circulation of private bills, etc." The meeting was animated and energetic enough, we may be sure, but the sovereign panacea for the ills of the business community was evidently not found, since private and other shinplasters continued to circulate briskly as ever, then and for many years after- wards.

ECCLESIASTICAL.

September 3d of this year the Ohio Metho dist Conference, which included a large part of Kentucky, met in Louisville. It was the first town in the State which had thus far been hon- ored with an appointment for an annual confer- ence of this church. The session was an im- portant one, fourteen preachers being admitted on trial, of whom William Holman, Samuel Bader, Samuel Demint, and John Linville, were appointed to circuits in Kentucky. The first- named, who had been a captain of volunteers during the Indian troubles in Indiana when but eighteen years old, came to Louisville in 1833, as pastor of the old Fourth-street Church, after- wards organized the "Upper Station," so called, and built up the Brook-street (later Broadway) Church. He became Presiding Elder, and, as such or as pastor, resided continuously, except during two years, in this city,-from 1833 to his lamented death August 1, 1867. The later years of his career were devoted largely to the Bethel work, which he had founded here, and for which he had secured the erection of the Bethel build-

ing. It is said that he had solemnized more marriages, baptized more children, visited more sick, and attended more funerals, than any min- ister that had ever lived in Kentucky.

SOME NOTEWORTHY ARRIVALS.

During this year a poor and friendless young Virginian, named Joshua B. Bowles, made his way across the river from Charlestown, Indiana, where he had been clerking for Judge Shelby, a merchant and innkeeper of that place, and found temporary though unpaid employment at Major Taylor's tavern. He soon became sales- man in McCrum's store, and in a year or so bought out the entire stock and good-will of the business, though almost, if not quite, altogether upon credit. Young Bowles paid McCrum $7,000 within less than a year, and by 1829 had increased his business to that of a wholesale dry-goods house. In 1832 he was influential in securing the charter of the Bank of Louisville, of which he was a Director until 1840, and then its President for twenty-nine years. He was President of the Louisville Chamber of Com- merce about 1837, and in a masterly memorial to Congress appealed most vigorously for the de- feat of the bankrupt act, then before that body. He was also President of the Franklin Fire In- surance Company, one of the Board of Mana- gers of the Medical Institute, and had many other important trusts committed to him. He died here Independence Day, 1873, in his seventy- ninth year.

John Owen, son of Colonel Brackett Owen, a pioneer to the vicinity of Shelbyville in 1783, removed to Louisville this year, to engage in a salt adventure with the Federal Government, which proved a failure. He brought with him, however, a son, then but fifteen years of age, who subsequently became much distinguished as Dr. James Harvey Owen, one of the most eminent physicians and early regular druggists of the city. He was educated professionally by Drs. Galt, Johnston, and Ferguson, of Louisville, and, after some years' absence, practicing and engaging in commercial ventures upon the lower Mississippi, with varying fortune, he came back to the city in 1832, opened an office at Preston and Market streets, then pretty nearly the extreme southeast- ern corner of the city, and soon built up a very large practice, especially among the Germans.

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He also did a great business as a druggist, from which he did not retire until 1855. He soon after removed to his "Glendower " residence at Hunter's Bottom, and died December 1, 1857. His remains rest in the Cave Hill cemetery. He was one of the incorporators of the Louisville Franklin Lyceum, whose library was among the first to be established in the city.

1817-A HOSPITAL.

February 5th, this year, the Marine Hospital was established by the incorporation and or- ganization of the Louisville Hospital Company, being composed of twelve prominent citizens- Messrs. Robert Breckenridge, Levi Tyler, Thom- as Bullitt, Thomas Prather, David Felter, Richard Ferguson, John Croghan, Peter B. Ormsby, James H. Overstreet, William S. Varnum, Paul Skidmore, Dennis Fitzburgh. They were author- ized to raise a sum not to exceed $50,000 for the purposes of the hospital. Mr. Thomas Prather gave five acres of land for a site, to which Mr. Cuthbert Bullitt added two acres. A fund for its support was provided by the levy of two per cent. upon auction sales in the city, and the State of Kentucky likewise made appropria- tions to it to the amount of $17,500. The Gen- eral Government gave it the revenue from the custom-house at New Orleans. The original building, for one hundred and fifty inmates, is_ still used, but has been greatly changed in ap- pearance by remodeling and improvements. Much of the clinical instruction of the medical schools has been conducted within its walls.

THE SMALL-POX.

There was much need of a local hospital for landsmen this year, during which the small-pox raged nost destructively in Louisville. Its ef- fects, according to Dr. McMurtrie, were some- what lasting. He says that, "owing to the sloth- ful negligence of the civil authorities it was im- possible to prevent its inoculating the place for several years." Much suffering, especially among the poor, was caused by its ravages.

THE NEW CHURCH.

Some improvement went on, however. The first company for building a turnpike out of Lou- isville was chartered by the Legislature February

4th, the Lexington & Louisville Turnpike com- pany, and a fine church for that day was put up by the Presbyterians on the northwest corner of the alley between Market and Jefferson streets on the west side of Fourth. It was described at the time as a neat, plain, spacious building. Within there were three rows of pews, and gal- leries on three sides. It was built of brick, with a steeple, in which was a belfry containing a superb bell. Rev. D. C. Banks officiated as its first pastor. In 1836, it was destroyed by fire. All who then resided in the city will remember the event. It had its beginning during an even- ing meeting. Great efforts were made to save the building from its fate, but all were unavailing. After it was evident beyond a doubt that the building must go, attention was turned to the saving of the bell. It was the first in the city, and was venerated to a degree far exceeding that which is usually felt for inanimate things. The memories of the people associated it with all public tidings. Its clear tones had summoned them to meetings, alarmed them when destruc- tion threatened, spoken joyfully when the wed- ding day arrived, and gathered together the mourners to bury the dead. Soon the pillars which upheld the belfry were wrapped in flame, but the alarm-peal rang on. When the falling timbers and showers of fire-brands finally drove the ringer from his post, the bell continued for a time to ring. At last the flames had crept to the wheel on which it hung, when, as spoke after spoke burned away, it slowly tolled its own death-knell, till dome, tower, bell, all fell with a tremendous crash. The crowd ceased to work, and by and by, in its earnest watching for the inevitable end of the old bell, scarcely a word was spoken. Now that it had fallen, all went on as before. The follow- ing day, piece by piece was exhumed from the debris and carried away, thereafter to add to the relics of a sad and most eventful day.

THE UNITED STATES BRANCH BANK.

The business community got this year the Branch Bank of the United States, toward which they were looking earlier, as we have seen, and for which they had long and assiduously labored. Its building was at the northeast corner of Fifth and Main streets. The following-named well- known citizens composed its corps of officers: Stephen Ormsby, president; William Cochran,

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cashier; G. C. Gwathmey, Teller; Alfred Thrus- ton, first bookkeeper; Thomas Bullitt, D. L. Ward, Richard Ferguson, M. D., Norbonne B. Beall, Thomas Prather, John H. Clark, Henry Massie, Charles S. Todd, William S. Vernon, James C. Johnson, M. D., John Gwathmey, and James D. Breckinridge, directors. It went quite hopefully into operation; but those who dealt with it found in due time that, like its congeners of Cincinnati and other cities, it was by no means an unalloyed blessing. Dr. McMurtrie seems to have had its operations, of which, writ- ing in 1819, he had full knowledge, in mind when he wrote: "It is very evident that the people of this country are ruining themselves by banking institutions as fast as they cleverly can." Real estate had a tremendous boom, however, upon its establishment, lots on Main street, for example, which had sold in 1812 for $4,000 to $5,000, now bringing $30,000 apiece or $300 per front foot. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who was here in 1826, says in his book of travel: "In the year 1817 the desire to buy land and build upon it had risen to a mania in this place. Dr. Croghan showed me a lot of ground which he had then purchased for $2,000, and for which at present no one would hardly offer him $700."

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 45

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