History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 46

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 46

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EMINENT VISITORS.

Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, a foreign gen- tleman, deputed by thirty-nine English families, as he says upon the title-page of his Narrative of a Journey, "in June, 1817, to ascertain whether any and what part of the United States would be suitable for their residence," visited this place, and says of it in his book :

Louisville, at the Falls of the Ohio, is daily becoming a most important town, being the connecting link between New Orleans and the whole Western country. It must soon take the lead of Lexington in extent of population, as it has already done in the rapid rise of town property. the increase of which during the last four years is said to have been two hundred per cent. Mechanics can have immediate employment, and are paid 405. 6d. to 54s. per week. Shoes that are very inferior in wear, though not in make, to English, are from 155. 3d. to 18s. a pair. Best hats 36s. to 45s. each, and every other article of clothing in pro- portion. The population of this town is from four to five thousand. Good brick buildings are fast increasing. One of the hotels (Gwathmey's) is said to be rented at $6,000 per annum; from one hundred and fifty to two hundred persons dine at this establishment daily. About every tenth house in the main street is a doctor's.

Louisville is said to be improving in health. The preva- lent diseases are fever and ague; besides which the common disorders of this State are consumption, pleurisy, typhus, re-

mittent and intermittent fevers, rheumatism, and dysentery. 1 do not feel myself competent to confirm or deny the general claim of the Kentuckians to generosity and warmth of char- acter; of their habits I would wish to speak with equal diffi- dence. Society is unquestionably improv- ing, and Lexington [Louisville?] probably already possesses inhabitants who are polished and refined.

The price of boating goods from New Orleans to Louis- ville (distance 1,412 miles) is from 18s. to 225. 6d. per hun- dred. The freight to New Orleans from hence is 8s. 41/2d. to 45. 6d. per hundred. The average period of time which boats take to go to New Orleans is about twenty-eight days ; that from New Orleans ninety days. Steam vessels effect the same route in an average of twelve davs down and thirty-six days up, when their machinery does not meet with accident.

Having been twice at Louisville, I boarded at both the ho- tels, (Allen's Washington Hall and Gwathing's [sic] Indian Queen). They are similar establishments, both upon a very large scale, the former having an average of eighty boarders per day, the latter of one hundred and forty. Their charges are-breakfast, Is. 8d .; dinner, 25. 3d .; supper, rs. 8d .; bed, 13d .; if fire in room, an extra charge of 634d. per night; board and lodging, per day, 6s. 9d .; ditto per day for three months certain, 45. 6d. These charges, with such an im- mense extent of business, must insure to a man, moderately careful, a large fortune. The place for washing is in the open yard, in which there is a large cistern, several towels, and a negro in attendance. The sleeping room com- monly contains from four to eight bedsteads, having mat- tresses, but frequently no feather beds ; sheets of calico, two blankets, a quilt (either a cotton counterpane or made of patch-work). The bedsteads have no curtains, and the rooms are generally unprovided with any conveniences. The public rooms arc a news-room, a boot-room, in which the bar is situated, and a dining-room. The fires are generally surrounded by parties ol about six, who gain and keep pos- session. The usnal custom is to pace up and down the news- room in a manner similar to walking a deck at sea. Smok- ing segars is practiced by all without an exception, and at every hour of the day. A billiard table adjoins

the hotel, and is generally well occupied. 1 have not seen a book in the hands of any person since I left Phila- delphia.

At Gwathmey's hotel Mr. Fearon met Lord Selkirk, who upon his return from his un- successful expedition in the Northwest Territory. The noble lord, unlike his countryman, does not seem to have left any memorial of his visit to the Falls. Mr. Fearon obtained for him some of the latest Boston papers, which were two months old; and as he had not had intelligence from the Old World for nine months, he "was, therefore, much pleased with the novelty," as Fearon re- cords. Few people in Louisville, travelers or residents, would nowadays take much pleasure in Boston advices of sixty days' age.

WILLIAM P. BOONE.

Some time during this year a poor lad of six- teen came to the town from his native place in Mason county, Kentucky, became a blacksmith,

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

then an engineer on one of the lower-river steamers, and in 1838, being then in company with Lachlan McDougall and William Inman in the foundry business, they were builders of the first steamboat engines made in the city-the pioneers in what speedily became a very active and profitable industry. He was for thirty years a foundryman and engine-builder, and in 1840 built the first gas-works operated in Louisville. When the late war came on, he turned his work- shops into the great tobacco mart long and familiarly known as the Boone warehouse. He held many important posts in the city, as mem- ber of the Council, Trustee of the University of Louisville, and bank director; and was for a time a Representative in the State Legislature. He died here October 1, 1873, in his seventy- second year.

JOHN L. SNEAD ..

During this year Mr. John L. Snead came to Louisville and began a mercantile business with Mr. James Anderson, on the north side of Main, between Fourth and Fifth streets. He was after- wards a silent partner in the grocery firm of An- derson, Duncan & Co., and the queensware house of Bruce & Casseday. When the Bank of Louisville was founded, he became its president, and remained such until his death, which oc- curred in November, 1840. He was a native of Accomac county, Virginia, born in 1784.

ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE.

A slight return of earthquake was felt through- out Kentucky, December 12, but no permanent local record has been made of it.

1818-NOTES OF PROGRESS.

The value of real estate in the big village this year, upon the basis of the assessment of the year for taxation, was $3, 131,463-a very hand- some showing since our last figures of local valua- tion were shown.

January 30th, another company was chartered by the Kentucky Legislature for the construc- tion of a canal around the Falls. The enter- prise had revived under more hopeful auspices than ever before.

January 26th, no less than forty-six independ- ent banks were chartered by the same body, with an aggregate capital of $8,720,000. Among them was one at Louisville, with an authorized capital of $1,000,000. This, the Commercial

Bank of Louisville, was opened about the 24th of the next November, with Levi Tyler as presi- dent ; Abijah Bayless, cashier; and J. C. Blair, clerk. Dr. McMurtrie says its paper was as good as that of the United States Bank, although the more recent testimony is not quite so compli- mentary.

On the 31st of January were incorporated "The President and Directors of the Louisville Insurance Company." They had a capital of $100,000 under the charter, in $100 shares, which might be increased to $200,000. The funds were safely deposited in the keeping of the Commercial Bank. That exceedingly con- venient and useful business man, Thomas Prather, was president of the company. Dr. McMurtrie, writing the next year, says: "Al- though as yet no dividend has been declared, it doubtless yield a handsome percentage."

The Louisville theater was this year recon- structed and refitted by Mr. Drake, as foreshad- owed in our notes on 1807. It was now a fine brick structure, of three stories' height. The audience-room had a pit, two tiers of boxes, and a gallery, according to Dr. McMurtrie's descrip- tion, all together capable of containing about eight hundred persons. "Attached to the prem- ises," says the Doctor, "are a retiring room for the ladies, and one containing refreshments for the company in general"-a department which the frequenter of the old-time theater will easily recall and understand.

BUSINESS AND COMMERCE

were steadily looking up. A single pork packer shipped from the place this year 9,000 barrels of pork, or 2,880,000 pounds. It is estimated that at least half as much was shipped by other parties, making a total shipment for 1818 of 13,500 barrels, or 4,320,000 pounds. The freight tariff on the river (to New Orleans, prob- ably), was $1.50 per barrel for flour, $2 for whis- key, I cent per pound for tobacco, 412 cents for heavy and 6 cents for light freights. Wheat brought 60 @ 75 cents a bushel, corn 42 @@ 62 cents, and oats 42 @ 50 cents. Sugar was 16 @ 18 cents per pound ; coffee, 35 @ 37 cents; teas, $2.25 @ $2.50; molasses, $1.50 per gallon; whis- key, 62 @ 75 cents; tobacco, $4.75 @ $5.00 per cwt .; cotton, 33 @ 35 cents a pound; bagging, 30 cents; glass, 8 x 10, $14 @ $15; white lead, $6.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

STEAMERS BUILT AT THE FALLS.

The Exchange, a vessel of two hundred tons burthen, was built here this year, for David L. Ward, of this county, to run in the Louisville trade. The Ohio, four hundred and forty-three tons, for the same trade, was built at New Albany by Captain Shreve and a Mr. Blair; also the Volcano, two hundred and fifty tons, by John and Robertson DeHart, one of whom is referred to in the preceding account of the dinner given to Captain Shreve. The Napoleon, three hun- dred and thirty-two tons, was constructed at Shippingport, by Messrs. Shreve, Miller & Breck- enridge, of Louisville. This was a very respect- able beginning of steamer-building at the Falls.

Louisville also saw this year the first steamer from out the Kentucky river-a little affair of eighty tons, called the Kentucky, and built at Frankfort for Messrs. Hanson & Boswell, to ply between that place and Louisville.

PORT WARDENS APPOINTED.

The growing river interests of the town by this time demanded additional protection; and, by an act of the State Legislature, passed this year, port wardens were appointed, to be stationed at Louisville and Shippingport- one for the former, and two for the latter-to inspect boat and cargoes, and determine in the case of the one whether they were sound and otherwise "river- worthy," and in the case of the other whether they were properly stowed, no heavy articles be- ing placed over light and brittle ones, and other regulations for the safety of the cargo being ob- served. If all was satisfactory, a certificate to that effect was given to the master or owner of the vessel, which was to be received as prima facie evidence in his favor, if any dispute arose between him and the consignee or owner of the goods, concerning brokerage or any other dam- age or loss. This was characterized by Dr. Mc- Murtrie as "a highly useful law, and will serve to settle and prevent many disputes between the shippers of goods and the owners of boats."

A DAILY NEWSPAPER,

The Public Advertiser, and the first of the kind in the city, was started this year by Shadrach Penn. We shall hear more of it in the chapter on the Press.

REV. HENRY B. BASCOM,

the eloquent young Methodist divine, began his 31

labors here in 1818. He will receive fuller notice in this volume by and by.

SCHOOLCRAFT.

In the spring of this year Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, then on his way to begin the thirty years' residence among the Indians, which, with his writings upon the aborigines, gave his name permanent renown, came down the Ohio in a skiff from Cincinnati. In his Personal Mem- oirs, published thirty-three years afterwards (1851), he says :

Louisville had all the elements of city life. I was much in- terested in the place and its environs, and passed several weeks at that place. I found organic remains of several species in the limestone rocks of the Falls, and published anonymously in the paper some notices of its mineralogy.

When prepared to continue my descent of the river, I went to the beautiful natural wall which exists between the mouth of the Beargrass creek and the Ohio, where boats usually land, and took passage in a fine ark, which had just come down from the waters of the Monongahela.

. A fine road existed to the foot of the Falls at Shippingport, a distance of two miles. which my new ac- quaintances pursued ; but when I understood there was a pilot present, I preferred remaining on board, that 1 might witness the descent of the Falls: we descended on the In- diana side. The danger was imminent at one part, where the entire current had a violent side action ; but we went safely and triumphantly down, and, after taking our owners on board, who were unwilling to risk our lives with their prop- erty, we pursued our voyage. It was about this point, or a little above, that we first noticed the gay and noisy paroquet, flocks of which inhabited the forests.

This bird long since disappeared from this part of the Ohio Valley. It formerly abounded as well in the interior as along the river. Paro- quet Springs, near Shepherdsville, is named from this beautiful chatterbox of the woods.

AUDUBON AS A DRAWING-MASTER.

The mention of birds easily recalls the mem- ory of the great ornithologist, who was now again residing here, while his son-then, prob- ably, but certainly for a number of years-was engaged as a clerk in N. Berthoud's store, at Shippingport. The Western Courier for Feb- ruary 12th of this year contains an advertisement from Audubon, for pupils in a class in drawing. He also announced his desire to secure commis- sions in portrait painting, and promises that the counterfeit presentments shall be "strong like- nesses."

RAFINESQUE.

Another remarkable naturalist was here in the spring of 1818, but only for a fortnight or so, in

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

the person of Constantine S. Rafinesque, a na- tive of Galata, near Constantinople, in 1784. He devoted himself very early to botany, but in time became a good general scientist. After botanizing and making drawings of fishes, shells, etc., here for about two weeks, he went down the river in the "ark " he owned and occupied jointly with another, and spent some days with Audubon, who was at the time there. Return- ing to Shippingport, he was enabled by the good offices of his friends, the Tarascon brothers, to send his collections to Pittsburgh, and went on to Lexington. To this place he came back the next year, as Professor of the Natural Sciences and other branches in Transylvania University, and remained there seven years. During this time, in 1824, he published a very singular little work, entitled Ancient History, or Annals of Kentucky. It was republished the same year, as an introduction to Marshall's History of Ken- tucky, and is well worth inspection as a literary curiosity, if for nothing else. Rafinesque died in Philadelphia September 18, 1840.

A MASONIC LODGE,

reputed by some to be the first one founded in the city, was chartered in September of this year, and named Clark's Lodge No 51, in honor of General Clark. It had been working for some time previously, under a special dispensation. Charles B. King was the first Master of this Lodge.

DEATH OF GENERAL CLARK.

The greatest and saddest event of the year in this region we have reserved until the last-the death of the veteran hero, the savior of the Western country from the, perhaps, permanent domination of England, General George Rogers Clark. He died at the home of his sister at Locust Grove, near the city, February 13th, of paralysis, induced by a long-standing rheumatic affection, which had disabled him for several years. He was in his sixty-sixth year. On the 15th of the same month, the remains of this dis -- tinguished man were buried at the residence at Locust Grove. The assemblage was a large one, and included the members of the bar in a body, Rev. Mr. Banks officiating, and John Rowan, Esq., delivering the funeral oration. At inter- vals minute guns were fired, of which Captain Minor Sturgis took charge. The members of

the bar of the Circuit Court, and the officers of the Revolution who still remained in the neigh- borhood, met and resolved to wear crape on the left arm for thirty days, as a testimony of respect to the deceased hero.

INTENSELY COLD WINTER.

The year 1818 was the first in which ther- mometrical observations were recorded at Louis. ville. From that time to this the records are consecutive and complete. It was fortunate that the records began with this year, as serving to inform us that the cold of the winter of 1818-19 reached the extreme degree of 22° below zero.

1819-DR. MCMURTRIE'S BOOK.

This year of grace was signalized by the ap- pearance of the first History of Louisville, a small but highly creditable volume, modestly entitled "Sketches" by its author, Dr. McMurtrie. Louis- ville was not yet a town of four thousand people (for the good Doctor overestimated its popula- tion by half a thousand), and that it should have a book written about it, and wholly printed and bound in its own offices, is a fact well worth at- tention and record. That part of his book which refers directly to the city lies within one hundred pages. The book entire extends to only two hundred and fifty pages, 16 mo. Mr. S. Penn was the publisher. The book, in large part, is filled with scientific researches, an appendix con- taining an account of earthquakes by Jared Brooks, Esq. There is also a catalogue of plants growing in the vicinity of the city, and a history of the geological and antiquarian remains of this portion of the State. What the value of this information is from a scholar's standpoint we cannot say; that it gives the reader a correct notion of what Louisville was to the ordinary ob- server in 1819, we have not a doubt. The book is no longer in print, and the following extracts may therefore be interesting to the reader of to- day :

There are at this time in Louisville six hundred and seventy dwelling houses, principally brick ones, some of which would suffer little by being compared with any of the most elegant private edifices of Philadelphia or New York. It was calcu- lated pretty generally that from two hundred and fifty to three hundred brick dwellings would have been erected during the last summer, 'but such was the scarcity of money that not more than twelve to fourteen were completed ; preparations, however, are making to proceed rapidly in the business in

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

243

the ensuing season, the influx of strangers being so great that many of them can scarcely find shelter. The popula- tion now amounts to four thousand five hundred souls; so rapid is the increase of this number that in all probability it will be trebled in less than ten years.

Commercial cities of all newly settled countries, whose in- habitants are gathered from every corner of the earth, who have immigrated thither with but one single object in view, that of acquiring money, are stamped with no general char- acter, except that of frugality, attention to business, and an inordinate attachment to money. Absorbed in this great in- terest of adding dollar upon dollar, no time is devoted to literature or the acquirement of those graceful nothings which, of no value in themselves, still constitute one great charm of polished society. Such is the character of the in- habitants of this place in general, ma ogni medaglio ha li suo reverso. There is a circle, small 'tis true, but within whose magic round abounds every pleasure that wealth, regulated by taste or urbanity can bestow. There the " red heel " of Versailles may imagine himself in the emporium of fashion, and, whilst leading beauty through the mazes of the dance, forget that he is in the wilds of America. The theater, public and private balls, a sober game of whist, or the more scientific one of billiards, with an occasional reunion of friends around the festive board, constitute the principal amusements; and it is with pleasure I am able to assert, without fear of contradiction, that gaming forms no part of them. Whatever may have been the case formerly, there is hardly at the present day a vestige to be seen of this ridic- ulous and disgraceful practice ; and if it exists at all, it is only to be found in the secret dens of midnight swindlers, within whose walls once to enter is dishonor, infamy, and ruin.

We continue the extract from the "Sketches" as follows :

The market-house is a neat structure, kept in good order, and well supplied, two days in the week, with everything that can be desired in a similar place. There is, however, no great variety of vegetables, which is owing to the want of proper gardening establishments, a few of which, well con- ducted, would yield a great revenue to any persons who would engage in them. Fish, of which there are abundance in the river of a most delicious flavor, are seldom to be had for want of fishermen ; and wild fowl, geese, ducks, trout, etc., which abound in the neighborhood of the Falls, are rarely presented for sale, and there is not a single person who makes it his business to procure them. Beef and mut- ton is in great plenty, equal in quality to any of the Eastern States. Venison is common and extremely cheap, fifty cents being the usual price of a ham weighing from fifteen to twenty-five pounds. Pork, veal, poultry, including turkeys, wild and tame, rabbits, squirrels, etc., are common ; in fine, although not quite equal to that of Philadelphia, it contains all the luxuries of a good market, and with respect to fruit, it is perhaps unequaled by any in the United States. Peaches of great size and beauty, such as bring six and one-half cents each in the Philadelphia market, are sold here for fifty cents per bushel, inferior ones in proportion. Apples, without exception the finest I have ever seen, are sold at the same price in fall, and at $2 per barrel in the winter. European grapes, melons of various kinds, cherries, raspberries, and strawberries, are to be had in their respec- tive seasons.

The principal articles of export are steam-engines, beef, pork, bacon, lard, flour, whiskey, tobacco,, and formerly hemp. Large droves of cattle, beeves, and horses are annu-

ally taken from the surrounding country to the Atlantic Stales, which are much more indebted to Kentucky on this score than their inhabitants are generally aware of.

In addition to the articles above mentioned may be added various pieces of household furniture, such as bedsteads, tables, sideboards, chairs, etc., numbers of which are manu- factured for the several towns between Louisville and New Orleans.

European goods are imported directly from that continent; those from the East Indies and from the Atlantic States are received from Philadelphia, Baltimore, or New Orleans, and, owing to the facility of transportation by means of steam- boats, principally from the latter. By the same way we have the coffee and other products of the West Indies, as well as the rice, sugar, cotton, molasses, etc., of Louisiana. A great change, however, is about to take place in the importa- tion of East India goods, which (I speak prophetically) ere ten years will be brought to Louisville direct from China and Bengal via Columbia.

Dr. McMurtrie's prophecy is substantially veri- fied in our day; but he placed the Western terminus of his American line much too far to the northward. He says of the Prentice & Bakewell works :

During the last twelve months there have been made and fitted up at their factory eight engines for steamboats and two for land manufactories, equal to $100,000, besides cast- ings to the amount of $25,000, the greater part of which were used as materials for their own engines and castings for the neighboring country, of the value of $5,000. They are under contract to deliver engines and steamboats, in the ensuing six months, to the amount of $70,000, and which, from the number of hands employed, they will be enabled to comply with. There are employed in the different shops about sixty workmen, whose wages are $600.00 per week, all of which is, of course, immediately spent in the town. From a rule they have adopted of dismissing every cne that is drunken or worthless in any way, they can exhibit a set of men who, by their decency of deportment, form a striking contrast to those of many similar establishments.

Pauperism, according to the doctor, was very rare: "I have never yet seen, in the streets of Louisville, what is properly denominated a beg- gar."

There were three church buildings, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic, " neither of which," says the Doctor, with a sublime disregard of modern grammar, in both his nominative and his verb, "are remarkable for their appearance, with the exception of the latter, which is a neat, plain, · and spacious building, on which a steeple is about to be erected. It is furnished with gal- leries and an organ-loft, the interior being divided into pews, intersected by three aisles, and, upon the whole, though no chef d'œuvre of architectural design, it reflects much credit upon the place." This, of course, was the Fourth Street church.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 46

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