History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 51

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 51

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" NOW, MUSE, WE'LL SING OF RATS."

February 15th of this year, the Town Council passed the following unique ordinance:

WHEREAS, it has been represented to the Trustees of the Town of Louisville that very great losses are sustained by the citizens of the town from the increase of the number of rats; and whereas, it is thought that a bounty for the de- struction of them would in a great measure tend to remove the evil;

It is therefore resolved by the Board of Trustees of the Town of Louisville, that a reward of one cent shall be al- lowed for the killing of each and every Rat in the Town of Louisville; and it is hereby made the duty of the Town Sergeant to receive, count, and destroy all scalps which shall be presented to him, and to grant certificates to the persons producing such scalps, which certificate shall entitle the holder to receive the above reward out of the Treasury of the Town. The scalps referred to in this resolution must be taken so as to include both ears; and it is further resolved that this ordinance shall be in force from and after its pas- sage.

1829-NEW COMPANIES.

The fourth of the series of resolutions adopted at the meeting of citizens to consider the incor- poration of the city, declared in favor of a bridge across the Ohio, and asked the State Legislature to incorporate a company for its construction. This was done January 29, 1829, the same day that a charter was also granted for a company to build another bridge across this river, but from Covington or Newport to Cin- cinnati. Both projects, however, had long to wait before they were embodied in wood and iron, in the magnificent structures that now span the stream at Cincinnati and Louisville.

December 15th of this year, at the next ses- sion of the Legislature, a Louisville company was chartered for the manufacture of china and queensware-an important industry now first introduced here.

FREE SCHOOL AND SCHOOL BUILDING.

Early this year Mayor Bucklin called the at- tention of the Council to the free school provi-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

sion of the city charter, and urged the establish. ment of a free school. This issued, as will be recited more in detail hereafter, in the organiza- tion of a public school on the Lancasterian or monitorial plan, free to all children between six and fourteen years of age.

The same year the erection of the first free public school-house in the city was begun, the familiar old building at the southwest corner of Walnut and Fifth streets. It will be fully noticed in a future chapter on Education in Louisville.

THE "METHODIST REFORMED" CHURCH

was organized this year, and by and by put up a building at the northwest corner of Fourth and Green streets, occupying part of the site of the present Masonic Temple.

GREAT BANK ROBBERY.

A prodigious sensation was created on the 18th of September, by the successful robbery of the Commonwealth Bank of a large sum on the evening before. The entrance was effected be- fore 9 o'clock, while people were frequently pass- ing and repassing on the street. A false key was used to open a door admitting the robbers to an entry, whence access was easy to the rooms of the Bank. The simple iron chest or safe of that day was then opened without much difficulty, and $25,000 in signed Commonwealth Bank notes siezed and carried off. The front door was then opened from within, and the bold, skillful robbers departed at leisure. Neither they nor the money was ever heard of afterwards, though a reward of $1,000 was offered for the arrest of the one, and $1,500 for the recovery of the other.

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT

on the ship canal was squeezed through Decem- ber 21st, although the work was yet far from ready for business. It was the Uncas-a good name for an adventurous vessel.

DR. BUCHANAN.

In September Dr. Joseph Buchanan, editor of the Focus and Journal, predecessor of the pres- ent Courier-Journal, died. He was a native of Washington county, Virginia, born in 1785 ; edu- cated at Transylvania University ; author, when but twenty-seven years old, of a remarkable work entitled The Philosophy of Human Nature; an editorial writer on the Palladium and the Reporter, at Lexington, and the Western Spy, at

Cincinnati; compiler of a History of the War of 1812 and a Life of General George Rogers Clark ; lecturer to a law-school in Lexington; in- ventor of a caloric engine and an improved steam-engine by which he drove a wagon through the streets of Louisville before locomotives were known; and otherwise showed the extraordinary versatility, activity, and energy of his busy brain. He had scarcely reached the prime of his power- ers when an attack of typhoid fever ended his usefulness.

A CAPITAL NOTICE.

Mr. Caleb Atwater, the well-known antiquary of Circleville, Ohio, and the first to write a his- tory of that State, took Louisville this year in his tour to Prairie du Chien, on a mission for the Government, and filled several pages in his sub- sequent book of " Remarks" with a good ac- count of Louisville and its surroundings. We extract only the following:

The principal streets are well paved with secondary lime- stone. The paving-stones, I should suppose from appcar- ance (for I did not measure them), are about three or four inches thick and a foot or more in width, so laid on the earth as to present the edges of them uppermost. This forms the best pavement in the world, and as durable as time. . . . Main street, for the distance of about one mile, presents a proud display of wealth and grandeur. Houses of two and three lofty stories in height, standing upon solid stone foun- dations, exceed anything of the kind in the Western States. The stores, filled with the commodities and manufactures of every clime and every art, dazzle the eye; the ringing of bells and the roaring of the guns belonging to the numerous steamboats in the harbor, the cracking of the coachman's whip and the sound of the stage-driver's horn, salute the ear. The motley crowd of citizens, all well dressed, hurry- ing to and fro, the numerous strangers from all parts of the world almost, visiting the place to sell or buy goods, the deeply loaded dray cart, and the numerous pleasure car- riages rolling to and fro, arrest and rivet the attention of a mere traveler like myself.

There are at this time about one thousand two hundred dwelling houses in the town, mostly built of brick. Many of them are equal to any in the Atlantic cities. The bed of the river opposite the town supplies the stone used in building, and the crowbar is all the instrument needed to obtain then. Kentucky river and its vicinity furnish beautiful marble, and the brickyards in the suburbs of the town supply the best of brick. Boards, shingles, and scantling, manufactured from white pine, are brought down the Ohio river in rafts from the sources of the Alleghany river ; black locust posts are brought from the State of Ohio in the same manner, and red cedar from the cliffs along Kentucky river. The vast quantities brought here render these articles very cheap in this market. Stone and lime being in the immediate vicinity, bricks being made on the spot, and every article used in building always in abundance on hand, renders building cheap. It is said, though, that lots are dear- the more to be regretted, as it will prevent the immediate growth of the town, at the rate it otherwise would.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Mr. Atwater characterizes the court-house as "a very handsome structure." He found "a public library of more than five hundred vol- umes " in the south wing. Twenty-eight persons were confined in the jail for various crimes, from murder down to petit larceny. The prison at Jeffersonville, and the situation of Louisville at the head of an obstruction in the river, suffi- ciently accounted, he thought, for the prevalence of crime here. There were six churches- Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, and African-the Kentucky Marine Hospital, Mr. Butler's Academy " in a handsome brick building," and twelve common schools, besides private instructors in many families. The theater, "a handsome one of brick," three print- ing-offices, " on a large scale," six hotels, "three of them on an extensive scale," and many munu- factories, receive due notice from this intelligent observer. Ten thousand hogsheads of tobacco were now annually exported, and $80,000 worth was made up at home in various forms. The facil- ities of Louisville for manufacturing are eulogized as "unrivaled in some respects," and are other- wise noticed at some length. The soap and candle factory, so far as he knew, was the largest of the kind in the Western States, having a pro- ductive capacity of twelve thousand pounds of soap weekly and one thousand of candles daily. Of the market, Mr. Atwater said :

The market-house is a neat building and well supplied twice a week with beef, pork, ducks, chickens, eggs, venison, wild fowls, fish from the river, turkeys, wild and tame ones- indeed, with all the necessaries and not a few of the luxuries of good living, in abundance and very cheap. For apples, peaches, and strawberries in their season, this market is un- rivaled. European grapes, melons, and cherries are not wanting in their seasons. The town is well supplied with milk, and in summer ice is always at hand to give it a proper temperature. Like those of every other Western town, the tables at the inns are loaded with a vast abundance of well- prepared food. Abundance may be sometimes found in the East, but her permanent HOME is in the Western States, where the very poorest man has always enough and to spare.

This writer closes his notice of Louisville with some genial and friendly remarks about her peo- ple :

Including Shippingport, Portland, and the other villages around the Falls, the population now amounts toabout four- teen thousand. The people themselves, it will be remem- bered, who originally settled here, emigrated from Virginia. The present inhabitants are the most hospitable in the West- ern States. A worthy man will never want friends here, and it is the last place in the world for one of an opposite char- acter to visit. The constant influx of strangers has rendered the people here shrewd observers of men. If a bad man, an

active police instantly detects and punishes him for the very first offense. If the stranger be a good man, he is instantly taken by the hand, all his wishes are consulted and his inter- ests advanced. The professional gentle- men are highly gifted, and their talents are duly appreciated and rewarded. At present I should suppose, however, no addition to their number is needed.

In this town I can say with great truth, that order and good family government everywhere prevail, that the youth are trained up by their parents to virtuous habits, and the soundest moral principles are instilled into the youthful minds of both sexes. Better parental government never existed on carth than 1 found in this town.

There are, probably, more ease and affluence in this place thau in any Western town. Their houses are splendid, sub- stantial, and richly furnished, and I saw more large mirrors in their best rooms than I ever saw anywhere else. Paintings and mirrors adorn the walls, and all the furniture is splendid and costly. More attention is bestowed on dress among the young gentlemen and ladies of Louisville, than with those of Cincinnati.

There is one trait of character among the Louisville people, common, indeed, throughout the Western country, which must strike the Eastern man witn surprise; and that is the ease with which any decent stranger becomes acquainted with them. Instantly, almost, he may be said to become ac- quainted with the people, without any sort of formality. The wealthy man assumes nothing to himself on account of his wealth, and the poor man feels no debasement on account of his poverty, and every man stands on his own individual merits. The picture is true to the life.

The hospitality of this people consists not solely in furnish- ing the guest with the best of everything the house affords, but all his inclinations are consulted (I mean virtuous ones), and every art, though exhausted to do so, carefully concealed from him. He may set his day and hour to leave them, but before they arrive some new inducement is held out to him to tarry longer, and finally he will find it almost impossible to leave them. Their perceptions are instantaneous, their manners are highly fascinating, and he must be a bad man, or a very dull one, who is not highly pleased with them.

To the man of fortune, to the scholar and man of science, to the manufacturer and industrious mechanic, Louisville may be recommended as a place where as much happiness is to be attained as will fall to his lot anywhere in the world. In- dustry and enterprise here find a certain reward. This is Louisville.

MR. SEYMOUR.

George Seymour in 1829 married Charlotte Jones and settled at Louisville. Their parents with their respective families had removed from Eng- land in 1820 to Indiana-the Seymours coming from the Isle of Wight, the Joneses from Ports- mouth. Mr. Seymour became a river man, being engaged in flat-boating for a while; in 1827 he commenced steamboating on the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers, and continued in that business un- til his death in 1851, at the age of fifty-one years. He was an earnest member of the Methodist church. His widow and several of his children still reside at Louisville. He bore a high reputa-

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tion as a pilot, and was well known as a man of piety and integrity. Two sisters of Mr. Seymour, viz. Mrs. John Alford and Mrs. John Elstone, set- tled in Louisville as early as 1822, and several of their children still reside there, B. F. Alford, the druggist, being one of them.

CHAPTER VIII. THE SIXTH DECADE.

1830-The Fifth Census-The Situation and Prospects-Sep- arate Representation for Louisville -The Lexington & Ohio Railroad-Second Presbyterian Church-Education- al Matters-The Lonisville Journal Established-Tinkering the City Charter-A Destructive Tornado. 1831-More Tinkering with the Charter-United States Branch Bank Building -- The Louisville Lyceum-River Items-Metho- dist Episcopal Conference-Mr. Vigne's Remarks. 1832- The Cholera Year-The Great Flood-Business Progress -Status of the City Otherwise-Unitarian Church-The Proposed Bridge-Business on the Canal-First City Di- rectory-First Odd Fellows' Lodge-The Medical Institute Founded-St. Vincent s Orphan Asylum-Manufacture of Lard Oil Begun-Flint's, Hamilton's, and Reed's Notices of Louisville-Colonel Albert G. Hodges-Dr. Theodore S. Bell-Horatio Dalton Newcomb, and Others. 1833- The Cholera Again - Charter Amendments-The Bank of Louisville - New Banks - A Medical College -The Louisville Museum-The Canal Finished-Steamers Burnt at Louisville-Black Hawk's Party Here-A Cargo of Man- umitted Slaves - An Editorial Combat - An Editorial Prophecy. 1834 - Disaster and Gloom - Waterworks- Turnpike Companies - A Burlesque Procession - New Hotels -- Honors to the Dead Lafayette - The Notary Newspaper Started-" Amelia" Comes to Louisville- Her "Rainbow" Poem-Rev. Benjamin O. Peers-Charles Fenno Hoffman here-Another Amendment. 1835-More Amendments to the Charter-The First Railroad-A City Census-The Tax List of the Year-Exports-Mechanics' Institute Chartered-The Galt House Built-Walker's Ex- change - The Episcopal Orphan Asylum-Rev. E. P. Humphrey-The Cholera once more- Dr. Henry Miller -Remarks of the Hon. Mr. Murray. 1836-Progress- Corner-stone of the Bridge Laid-Another Railroad Com- pany-The Old Court-house Razed-The City Gazette- The Western Messenger -- City Police Court-Rev. Benja- min T. Crouch-Edward Wilson, the Florist - Grand Lodge Independent Order of Odd Fellows-Cold Winter. 1837-The Financial Crisis -- Progress of the City-Educa- tion-Government Hospital Located-The Public Schools -Louisville Manufacturing Company-Western Journal of Education - Barbecue in Honor to Webster-Rev. Richard Tydings-Remarkable Balloon Excursion-Cap- tain Marryatt Here-Likewise Professor Frederick Hall. 1838 - A Wild Estimate of Population - Statistics of Liquor-shops-Louisville's First Railroad Built-Editorial Paragraphs-The Graves and Cilley Duel-The Kentucky Historical Society Founded-The Public Schools-Bank

Robbery Attempted. 1839-Sundry Organizations and Charters-St. Paul's Church-Dr. Daniel Drake-"Amer- ica" in Louisville- Rev. Charles B. Parsons, D. D. - Various Matters-Patrick Joyes's Recollections.

1830-THE FIFTH CENSUS.

The enumeration taken by the Federal Gov- ernment this year showed the young city to have a population of 10,341. It had increased by 6,329 inhabitants, or very nearly 260 per cent. The population of the county had grown 7,369, or from 13,399 to 20,768, an increase of 55 per cent. The State had experienced a growth of nearly 22 per cent., or 123,000, and had now within her borders 687,917 people. The slaves had increased 30.3 per cent., and numbered 165,213; the free blacks 4,917, and the whites 517,787.

The property valuation in Louisville this year was more than two and one-fourth times as great as in 1820. It was $4,316,432, against $1,655,- 226 ten years before-an increase of $2,361,206, or $236, 120.60 a year added to the wealth and resources of the place.

Mr. Casseday says of the situation and pros- pects :

The opening of the next year-1830-found the young city in a highly prosperous and thriving position. The se- curity and permanence given to enterprise by the charter had its effect on all departments of business. Arrangements were made at the beginning of the season for the erection of not less than five hundred substantial brick houses, and, ac- cording to the report of a prominent resident of a sister city, there was not another place in the United States which was improving and increasing in population more rapidly than this. The number of inhabitants, as ascertained by census, had reached ten thousand three hundred and thirty- six, and was still rapidly increasing. The friends of Louis- ville had every reason to congratulate themselves upon her position. The pecuniary troubles which soon after involved the place were not foreseen, and, with buoyant hopes and high expectations, the citizens looked forward to a continu- ance of their unexampled prosperity. How these hopes were wrecked and these expectations reduced, the history of the next decade will show.

SEPARATE REPRESENTATION.

The city had now sufficient size and import- ance to demand a Representative of its own in the lower house of the State Legislature, and it was accordingly erected into a Representative District. Hon. James Guthrie, long afterwards Secretary of the United States Treasury, was the first Representative of the city under this appor- tionment.

A RAILROAD.

The era of railways had now come in, and

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Louisville was the very first city in the West, and almost the first in any part of the country, to see the great advantages of the new means of trans- portation, and to act intelligently and efficiently upon her knowledge. The Lexington & Ohio Railroad, now being surveyed and soon to be built from Lexington to Louisville, is reported to be the second steam road constructed in the United States. A fuller account of its history is given elsewhere in this volume.

A NEW CHURCH.

April 17th of this year, the Second Presbyte- rian Church was organized, by colonization from the First Church of this denomination. It had then but twelve members, but received five hun- dred and fifty during the next fourteen years, and had two hundred and forty-eight in its commun- ion by 1844. Its church building was put up on Third, between Green and Walnut streets, and the new society enjoyed a high degree of pros- perity. Its first Pastor was the Rev. Mr. Sawtell, who resigned in 1836. The Rev. Dr. E. P. Humphrey subsequently enjoyed a long and suc- cessful pastorate with this church, as also the late Dr. Stuart Robinson.

EDUCATION.

The first public school in the new school- house was opened on the first Monday of Sep- tember, with Mann Butler, the historian, at the head of the Grammar department, Rev. Daniel C. Banks of the Female Departuent, and Mr. Alexander Ewell of the Primary Department.

On the 30th of the same month, an act of Legislature was passed, authorizing and directing the Trustees of Jefferson Seminary to convey half its property to the city. This conveyance was not effected, however, until April 7, 1844.

THE DAILY JOURNAL

was among the new things of the year. Its es- tablishment will be fully considered in a future chapter.

TINKERING THE CHARTER.

Several costly projects of public improvement were now under active discussion-as the bridge across the Ohio and the railroad to Lexington- and there were fears that the city council might be induced by the pressure being brought to bear in certain quarters for appropriations, to vote away an undue proportion of the public money.

A partial safeguard was accordingly provided, in the procurement of an amendment to the city charter, which prohibited the borrowing or ap- propriation of any money from the treasury of the city, without the consenting vote of an abso- lute majority of the entire membership of the council. This would hardly be thought sufficient in later days, as regards the appropriation to public enterprises, without the confirmatory vote of the people ; but it seems to have been thought quite sufficient at that period.

A DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO

visited the vicinity of Louisville during or near this year, in the month of June. It struck and crossed the river about six miles above the city, and thence moved nearly eastward. Mr. Collins says :

Near the river it struck the table-lands between North and South Goose creek, a level plateau about three miles long. Here, passing over several farms by a path some two hundred feet wide, it twisted off or uprooted every forest or orchard tree in its way, and prostrated every fence, until it reached a lane at the northern edge of the platean; about three miles miles distant from the point it struck the south margin of the plateau. At this point its destructive force ceased.

Another disaster this year was much lamented -the explosion of the powder-mill which had been erected six years before on Corn Island. The destruction was complete, and several of the employees were killed.

CORN ISLAND AGAIN.

Mr. Hugh Hays, of Louisville, from whose communication to the Courier-Journal in Febru- ary, 1882, we derive several interesting facts, says of the renowned island at this period:

In 1830 a new set of actors appeared on Corn Island. It soon became celebrated for its barbecues, picnics, bran- dances. camp-meetings, fish parties, etc. By this time the Western country commenced to move in the way of steam- boats and "broad-horns" (or in plain English flatboats). The canal just opened, with Major Frank McHarry in charge, was now life and bustle. Steamboats going or com- ing through the canal, or ascending and descending the Falls, made it look as if civilization had just opened its eyes to progress. The disciples of Izaak Walton were frequently visitors to the island. During the summer months could often be found Chancellor George M. Bibb, Fred. A. Kaye, Phillip Meyers, Thomas Glass, William Reed, Dr. Pender- grast, and Wm. Wallace.

PROMINENT IMMIGRANTS.

In 1830 a strong, alert, enterprising young man arrived at the Falls of the Ohio, and de- termined to settle in Louisville. Robert Ayars was a native of Salem county, New Jersey, born May 22, 1804. He came here in the interest of

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

an iron-worker on the Juniata, named Schona- berger, but soon formed other connections, and by and by a partnership in the dry-goods busi- ness under the name of Raugh & Ayars. He married a daughter of George Hicks, of Two Mile Precinct in this county, and resided upon the farm which she brought for more than forty years. He was a very active Whig and promi- nent supporter of Henry Clay, then an ardent Republican, and at least for thirty years a magis- trate in his precinct. He was one of the four persons in the precinct who voted for Mr. Lin- coln in 1860. He died at his farm, on the Bardstown road, about five miles from Louis- ville, February 11, 1882, leaving Mrs. Ayars still surviving.

During this year Mr. Thomas Clayland, a native of Talbot county, Maryland, came from Pittsburg to settle in Louisville. He deserves a permanent place in history, if for nothing else, as being the first to establish here a manufactory of white lead. He died in Louisville March 19, 1847.

Also came Mr. Edward Crow, a native of Cum- berland, Maryland. He soon took a prominent place as a merchant, and was much respected as a citizen, but died some time before 1844. Mrs. Crow, a native of Baltimore and a very estimable woman, died March 27, 1855.

1831-MORE TINKERING.

With the year 1831, says Mr. Casseday, came another amendment to the charter, which pro- vides that real estate in Louisville and the per- sonal estate of all persons dying therein shall be subject to escheat to the Commonwealth, and vested in the mayor and council, for the use of public schools. Also that all fines inflicted in Jefferson county shall be vested in the same manner, the fund arising therefrom to be ex- pended in the purchase of a lot and erecting buildings thereon for said schools. It also pro- vides that jailor's fees for commitments for of- fenses in Louisville shall be paid out of the city fund. These amendments to the charter are so numerous and of such frequent recurrence that we shall hereafter be content with a mere allu- sion to them.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 51

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