History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 52

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 52

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A mechanics'-lien law also passed the Legisla-

ture this year, December 22d, specially to relieve ills complained of by house-builders in Louis- ville.

A BANK BUILDING

was put up this year, expressly for the uses of the Branch Bank of the United States, though subse- quently and for a long series of years used by the Bank of Kentucky. It was erected at No. 45 East Main street, and was ornamented with a small portico of the Ionic order of architecture.

The erection of the United States and Louis- ville hotels went on about the same time, or not long after.

THE LOUISVILLE LYCEUM,

which was established this year, under the en- couragement and with the more direct aid of some of the most intelligent and prominent citi- zens of the place, on the 16th of September had the enterprise to send the sum of $roo to Gov- ernor Metcalf, at Frankfort, to be offered as a premium for a rather singular but very sensible object, described in the offer as "the best theory of education, to be illustrated by the examination of two or more pupils who have been instructed in accordance with its principles." The Lyceum started off well, and for a time did excellent work; but it was evidently ahead of its time, and did not last more than a few years.

ON THE RIVER.

The canal around the Falls was now in full operation and doing a prosperous business. During this year 406 steamers and 421 flat- and keel-boats, with an aggregate tonnage of 76,323, passed through it, paying tolls to the amount of $12,750.

The first line of steamers between Louisville and St. Louis was put on this year, by Messrs. Josephus F. Griffin, Captain French, and others. Their enterprise was a very worthy one, and seemed hopeful; but it was not a success, and the company finally became bankrupt.

Steam ferryboats were now in use between Louisville and the Indiana shore. On the 8th of November, a terrible explosion occurred upon one of them, resulting in the death of four per- sons.

THE CONFERENCE AGAIN.

The Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church returned to Louisville this year, meeting October 13th. Bishop Roberts,

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

who had presided during part of the last preced- ing conference here, was present, as also Bishop Hedding.

The third annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky was held in Christ church on the 13th of June. It was the first of the kind in Louisville. Bishop Meade, of Virginia, was present, presided part of the time, ordained three deacons to the priesthood, and confirmed twenty- one persons.

MR. VIGNE'S REMARKS.

Among the travelers of this year in the Ohio Valley was an intelligent London barrister, God- frey T. Vigne, Esq., who lingered a little at Louisville, after his visit to the Mammoth Cave, and gave the city the following notice in his sub- sequent book, entitled Six Months in America :

Louisville is about ninety miles from the cave. For the last twenty, the road runs along the banks of the Ohio, pas- sing through the most magnificent forest of the beech trees I had ever beheld. There is nothing remarkable in the ap- pearance of Louisville. It is a large and regularly built town, containing eleven thousand inhabitants. Fron this place the larger steamboats start for New Orleans. Those that come from Pittsburg are of smaller dimensions, on account of the shallowness of the water. The course of the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Louisville is about six hundred miles, and thence, to its confluence with the Mississippi, is nearly three hundred more. The length of the Mississippi, from its june- tion with the Ohio, is twelve hundred. The Falls, or rapids of the Ohio, are immediately below Louisville, and part of them may be seen from the town.

1832-THE CHOLERA YEAR.

This was a year of gloom and grief and busi- ness stagnation at Cincinnati and many other points in the Ohio valley, as well as elsewhere in the country; but at Louisville the scourge was scarcely felt, except in the fears evoked by its ravages elsewhere. The sanitary conditions and precautions were much more favorable than ten years before, when the pestilence of fever deso- lated the town. Elsewhere in Kentucky, also, the first year of the cholera left little sad memory of its passage.

THE GREAT FLOOD.

It was also the year of the tremendous inun- dation through the whole length and breadth of the valley, when the river rose at Cincinnati to the almost incredible height of sixty-two and a-half feet above low-water mark. Incalculable mischief was wrought by it, but not so much

here as in many other places. Still, the youthful city felt the visitation of flood more than ever before or since. Mr. Casseday gives the follow- ing account of it :

In 1832 a new calamity came upon the city. This was an unparalleled flood in the Ohio. It commenced on the roth of February and continued until the 21st of that month, having risen to the extraordinary height of fifty-one feet above low-water mark. The destruction of property by this flood was immense. Nearly all the frame buildings near the river were either floated off or turned over and destroyed. An almost total cessation in business was the necessary con- sequence; even farmers from the neighborhood were unable to get to the markets, the flood having so affected the smaller streams as to render them impassable. The description of the 'sufferings by this flood is appalling. This calamity, however, great as it was, could have but a temporary effect on the progress of the city, as will be seen hereafter.

Mr. Collin's figures of the rise at Louisville do not quite agree with those of Mr. Casseday. He says : " Above the crest of the Falls at Louis- ville, the flood-mark of 1832 is forty and eight- tenths feet above the low-water mark-that is, between the lowest and highest marks on record. Below the Falls, the total rise in 1832 is esti- mated at sixty-three feet-the same as at Cov- ington."

The true statement is probably that made from official observation of the marks made by the Government engineers for the purpose at the head of the canal and foot of the Falls. They showed in February, 1832, a maximum height at the head of 46 feet above low water, and 69 be- low the Falls.

BUSINESS.

A large volume of business, nevertheless, was transacted here in 1832. From December 1, 1831, to August 4th, of this year, the following importations were made: Flour, 48,470 barrels ; molasses, 6,309 barrels ; loaf sugar, 4,318 bar- rels ; New Orleans sugar, 7,717 hogsheads ; mackerel, 12,037 barrels ; salt, 16,729 barrels and 18, 146 bags ; coffee, 18,289 bags ; tea, 63,500 pounds ; china. etc., 1, 170 packages ; cotton, 4,913 bales ; bagging, 33,411 pieces ; bale rope, 26,830 coils ; hides, 19,121 ; iron, 631 tons ; lead, 231 tons ; tin plate, 3,118 boxes ; nails, 10,395 kegs. The whisky inspected during the same period was 14,627 barrels.

The City Directory, the first issue of which appeared this year, gave manufacturing statistics as follow :

One steam woolen factory ; 30 hands ; consumes 25,000 pounds of wool per annum.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

One cotton factory; 1,056 spindles ; 80 hands; uses 500 bales annnally.

Two foundries ; 155 hands; consume 1,200 tons of iron a year.

One steam planing mill ; two machines and 2 circular saws; planes, grooves, tongues, etc., about 4,000 feet of boards per day.

Two white-lead factories; use 600 tons of lead per an- num.

Four rope-walks ; 600 tons of hemp.

One steam grist-mill. Sixteen brickyards. Three breweries.

Two potteries.

STATUS OF THE CITY OTHERWISE.

According to the pioneer Directory, the court- house was on Sixth street, upon the present court-house lot; the post-office was on the north side of Market, between Third and Fourth; the poor-house on Chestnut, between Eighth and Ninth; the Marine Hospital on "Lot No. 3," Chestnut street; Washington Hall on the south side of Main, near Second; Union Hall at the corner of Main and Fifth, and Masonic Hall at the corner of Green and Fifth. The "Turnpike Toll Gate" is duly entered as at the "end of Portland avenue," of course far within the pre- sent city limits. No religious denomination except the Presbyterian had more than one society here, though the Roman Catholics had two church buildings -- the old one at the corner of Main and Tenth, the other upon the present site of the Cathedral, east side of Fifth, between Green and Walnut. The First Presbyterian was on the West side of Fourth, between Market and Jefferson; the Second on the east side of Third, between Green and Walnut (the late Theatre Comique); the Third (distinguished from the others as "a meeting-house") on Hancock, be- tween Main and Market; and the Fourth on Market, between Ninth and Tenth. The Epis- copal church stood on the east side of Second, between Green and Walnut, where it (Christ church) now stands; the Unitarian on the corner of Walnut and Fifth; the Baptist at the corner of Green and Fifth; Methodist Episcopal east side Fourth, between Jefferson and Walnut; Methodist Reformed, west side Fourth, corner Green; and the African on Centre, near Green. The Franklin seminary was on the south side of Main, between First and Brook. The Journal and Focus held forth on the west side of Wall, between Water and Main; Mr. J. W. Palmer's printing office was at or near the same place, and

his bookstore on the north side of Main, between Third and Fourth. The leading industries can be counted almost with one round of the fingers. The Jefferson cotton factory and store stood on the north side of Main, corner Preston, and the Jefferson Foundry at Ninth and Walnut. The Fulton Foundry was on the south side of Main, between Ninth and Tenth; the Louisville Woolen Factory, on Main and Brook; the Louis- ville Oil Mill, north side of Main, between Hancock and Clay; Barclay & Co.'s White Sheet Lead factory at Jefferson and Brook, and another on the south side of Jefferson, between Preston and Jackson; the Hope Distillery on Main, be- low Twelfth; and Todd's tobacco warehouse on the south side of Main, between Seventh and Eighth. There were breweries on Sixth and Seventh, between Water and Main, and on the south side of Market, between Sixth and Seventh; Gray's brickyard at Ninth and Water, and fifteen others; potteries on Jackson and Main (Lewis's), and north side of Main, between Hancock and Jackson (Dover's); Ferguson & Co.'s steam grist-mill on Washington, between Floyd and Brook; Keats & Co.'s steam planing, grooving and tonguing mill on Brook, and four rope-walks and bagging factories.

The "Theatre" was on the west side of Jeff- erson, between Third and Fourth, and "Flying Horses Exhibition" on the west of Main, between Market and Jefferson. Woodland Garden oc- cupied the old site at the end of Main ; Vaux- hall Garden at the east side of Fifth, between Main and Walnut; and Clement Pacolet's "Public Garden" on the north of Jefferson, be- tween Eleventh and Twelfth. Saloons were then "coffee-houses," and a notable feature of the town. The American was on the east of Third, between Water and Main, and the American Ex- change at Main and Seventh. The Commercial Coffee-house and Ball-room were on Fifth, be- tween Main and Market; Hyman's Altar Coffee- house (the proprietor was Hyman with an a) was on the south side of Market, between Fourth and Fifth ; the Shakespear at Market and Third; the William Tell on the east side of Fourth, near Main; the Washington on Market, between Fifth and Sixth; the Uncle Sam east side of Wall, near Water; the Napoleon on the north of Main, between Fifth and Sixth; the Union south of Market, between Fourth and Fifth, and the

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Steamboat east of Wall, between Water and Main. The Eagle Tavern was on the east side of Fifth, between Jefferson and Market; and the Columbian Inn on the north side of Main, be- tween Preston and Floyd. None of the streets were yet numbered, which accounts for the elaboration of the descriptions.

The map accompanying the Directory, "com- piled and published by E. D. Hobbs, city sur- veyor," is a large and carefully detailed chart of Louisville and its environs in 1831, admirably drawn and printed. Corn island, with its ex- tensive shoal "visible only at a low stage of water," is a conspicuous feature. Abreast of it, in the canal, is a curious picture of the steam- boat Uncas, as it appeared when passing through December 21, 1830. The Beargrass creek comes down to its old point of debouchure into the Ohio, a little below Third street, with the bridge at the foot of Second, across which the Cincin- nati steamers were reached. Along the entire front of the city, at varying distances from the water, but quite near, opposite the entrance to the canal, the only line of bluff is indicated, with other slopes at and near the river's brink and along the Beargrass. The east line of the city was a little beyond Woodland Garden, running . from a point opposite Crane's shipyard, on the Indiana side, nearly on a line with the present Ohio street, and crossing the South Fork of Beargrass at Geiger's mill. The west boundary was a projection of the east line of Shippingport across the canal and some way into the interior. Most of the city proper, however, was comprised between Floyd and Eighth streets, Green and the river. Within this space were all the public buildings, except the Marine hospital, then upon the present City Hospital tract, the Episcopal, Second Presbyterian, Catholic, and Baptist churches, the poor- and work-houses, and the powder magazines, most of which stood upon large blocks, not yet subdivided into lots. No street to the southward is delineated beyond "Prather," the present Broadway, part of which ran through "the forest primeval." A portion of the ancient "Common," partly subdivided, is shown in three lots, No. I extending from Floyd to East street, No. 2 from East to Fourth, and No. 3 from Seventh to Tenth. Green street had not yet been cut through to Floyd, but re- appeared beyond that street. Excellently en-

graved views of the Marine hospital, the public school-house, then upon the site of the present Methodist church at the southwest corner of Fifth and Walnut, and of the canal bridge, ap- pear at the corners of the map, and between the two former is inserted a small chart of the towns about the Falls, with the islands in the river,- among which, it should be noted, "Willow bar" does not appear, as it was not then in existence.

THE NEW UNITARIAN CHURCH.

was among the improvements of the year. It was erected on the corner of Walnut and Fifth streets, and was dedicated May 27th. The Rev. George Chapman, from Massachusetts, was its first Pastor.

THE PROPOSED BRIDGE

made further progress this year, at least in the plans for its construction, by the visit to Indian- apolis of a committee from Louisville, consisting of Messrs. James Guthie, Samuel Gwathmey, and Daniel McAllister, to secure the incorpora- tion of a company by the Indiana Legislature to aid in the building of the bridge. Such charter seemed necessary, in order to supplement the similar charter already granted by the Kentucky Assembly.

THE CANAL

did a large business, more than doubling its re- ceipts for tolls, which were $25,756 tolls. The number of vessels passed were six hundred and thirty-two, four hundred and fifty-three steamers and one hundred and seventy-nine flat- and keel- boats, with a tonnage of 70, 109 tons. It will be observed how much the number of inferior vessels had fallen off, there being this year only one hundred and seventy-nine flat- and keel-boats, against four hundred and twenty-one the . year before. The era of the broadhorn was passing away.

THE FIRST CITY DIRECTORY.

The publication of this in 1832 is an event well worth notice. It was prepared and published by Mr. R. W. Otis, and contains much interesting and valuable matter, including a sketch of the his- tory of Louisville, prepared by Professor Mann Butler, author of a history of Kentucky. The directories were not published with regularity every year for some time, as they were unsafe pe- cuniary ventures; but a very respectable line of publications of this kind is presented by the vol- umes of the last fifty years.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

THE FIRST ODD FELLOWS' LODGE

in Louisville or anywhere in the State of Ken- tucky was organized here December 10, of this year, and called Boone Lodge No. 1, probably in honor of Daniel Boone, the pioneer. A sketch of the local growth of Odd Fellowship will be given hereafter.

THE MEDICAL INSTITUTE

was also among the foundations of the year. It too will receive full notice in another chapter.

ST. VINCENT'S ORPHAN ASYLUM

was founded this year by the Roman Catholics, with the Sisters of Charity in charge. There were forty orphans in this institution in 1844, and one hundred and fifteen in 1852.

MAKING LARD OIL.

Patrick Maxcy began the manufacture of lard oil here this year, by pressing the fat through leather bags; but presently gave up the attempt, as being too slow and costly. It was not until ten years afterwards that the cheaper and readier manufacture on chemical principles was begun by Mr. Charles C. P. Curby.

NOTICES OF LOUISVILLE.

The city, notwithstanding its growth in wealth, population, and manufactures, was still compara- tively small in compass. On the north its build- ings scarcely reached beyond the upper edge of Market street ; on the east it was bounded by Preston street. Opposite the corner of Preston and Market was still the extensive and beautiful park occupied as the residence of Mr. James Overstreet, full of fine forest trees, which re- mained there four or five years longer, when the Germans began to fill up the East End.

The Rev. Timothy Flint's History and Geog- raphy of the Mississippi Valley, published at Cincinnati this year, while it still names Lexing- ton as "the commercial capital of the State," rather inconsistently mentions Louisville as, "in a commercial point of view, by far the most im- portant town in the State," and gives it a much more elaborate notice than the other receives. He says :

The main street is nearly a mile in length, and is as noble, as compact, and has as much the air of a maritime town, as any street in the Western country .. . This important town has intrinsic resources, which will not fail to make it a great place. More steamboats are up in New Or- leans for it than any other; and except during the season of ice or of extremely low water, there seldom elapses a week

without an arrival from New Orleans. The gun of the arriv- ing or departing steamboats is heard at every hour of the day and the night, and no person has an adequate idea of the business and bustle of Louisville until he has arrived at the town. The country of which this town is the county seat is one of the most fertile and best settled in the State.

Colonel Thomas Hamilton-brother of the very eminent Edinburgh philosopher, Sir Wil- liam Hamilton-whose book on Men and Man- ners in America, published simply as "by the author of Cyril Thornton, etc.," has been highly lauded by the critics, was here in the early spring of this year, on his way to New Orleans, and made a few notes on the place. He remarks:

At Louisville the vessel terminated her voyage. It is a place of greater trade, I believe, than Cincinnati, though with scarcely half the population. Being tired of steamboat living, we breakfasted at the inn. We were at first ushered into the bar, already crowded with about a hundred peo- ple, all assembled with the same object as ourselves. At length the bell sounded, and the crowd rushed up stairs to the breakfast room as if famine-stricken. The meat was coarse and bad. The bread was made with grease, and a sight of the dressed dishes was enough. Immediately oppo- site was a cold fowl, to which I requested a gentleman to help me. He deliberately cut out the whole body for himself, and then handed across the dish with the drumsticks.

The canal was then just about to be opened, the first boat passing through this year. Colonel Hamilton makes the following remarks upon it :

The work was one of some difficulty, and has been executed in the most expensive manner. Owing to the quantities of sediment which the river carries into it when in flood, I was sorry to learn that this fine work is considered likely to prove a failure. As the canal is only to be used, however, when the river is low and consequently free from impurity, I cannot but think that, by the addition of floodgates, the evil might be easily remedied.

This year a number of the principal cities of the country, in both East and West, were visited by Rev. Drs. Andrew Reed and James Mathe- son, as a deputation from the Congregational Union of England and Wales to the American churches. In 1835 their Narrative of the Visit was published in two large volumes, in London. The first of these contains a notice of Louisville affairs, hy Dr. Reed, from which we extract the following:

I instantly found on landing that we had indeed entered a slave State. A man of colour had offered himself to take my luggage and guide me to the inn. He was running his light barrow before me on a rough pathway. "Remember, Jacob, there are twenty-one stripes for you-twenty-one stripes, Jacob." [ asked an explanation. He said he was lia- ble to punishment for wheeling on the path. The person who threatened him was a colonel, and I believe a magistrate; and poor Jacob was evidently concerned at being detected by him, for, he said, he owed him a grudge. I do not an-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

swer for the correctness of Jacob's statement. I merely re" port what occurred.

The accommodations given to the slaves now came under my notice. Where the family is of any consideration, they have usually a distinct though attached dwelling. At our hotel they had, at the end of the courtyard, a large house, for they were numerous. The house, however, had but few rooms, and there were several beds in each room, so as to show that they were crowded, and that their habits of life were not very favorable to its decencies. I was struck, too, perhaps the more because I had just traveled through Ohio, with the attentions these people offer you. They are trained to do more for you than others, and they mostly do it with a readiness which shows kindness of heart. This certainly affords you personal gratification, and it is only checked when it is remembered that it is the price of liberty, or when it ap- proaches to the tameness of subserviency.

No remarks of more importance than these were made here by the reverend visitor. He seems wholly to have ignored the religious inter- ests of the city, to which he gave full attention elsewhere.

The second volume of Latrobe's Rambler in America-the same book from which the ac- count of the first steamer voyage on the West- ern waters is extracted-contains the following observations on the city, which was visited by Mr. Latrobe :

Our next halting place was Louisville, another large and thriv- ing city, situated on the Kentucky shore, just above the Falls of the Ohio. Its position on one of the great bends of the river, with rapids below, forms one of the most striking among all the beautiful scenes with which the Ohio abounds. Here we immediately took our passage for St. Louis, on the Mis- sissippi, seven hundred miles distant, on board another steam- boat, but were ultimately detained two or three days by some disarrangement in the machinery.

The time of our detention was as pleasantly spent as cir- cumstances admitted of, but we were anxious to proceed, having much in prospect in another region before the close of the year. The shallowness of the water in the rapids not admitting the descent of even the small steamboats, we were constrained to pass through the newly constructed canal, which, by the aid of three noble locks at the lower end, secures the tininterrupted navigation of the entire river, for vessels of moderate burden, without the delay of unloading, portage, and reloading, which was formerly necessary. All obstacles overcome, we found ourselves once more fairly afloat on the bosom of the river again, and straightway pro- ceeded on our voyage. At the lower extremity of the canal, and before the small towns in the immediate vicinity, we left thirty or forty of the most splendid steamers of the first-class, waiting for a rise in the water.

VALUABLE IMMIGRANTS.

In 1832 came to the city for the second time Colonel Albert Gallatin Hodges, for many years State Printer of Kentucky, and a very well-known personage here. He was a native of Madison county, Virginia, born October 18, 1802; was

brought to Kentucky, east of Lexington, when but eight years old; early began to learn the printing business in the Kentucky Reporter office, in that place; was often assisted in carry- ing that paper by young Theodore Bell, who is the subject of the next notice; at the age of only eighteen started the Kentuckian at Lancaster, Garrard county, but issued it only three months; walked penniless to Lexington, thirty-three miles distant, swimming the Kentucky river for lack of money even to pay ferriages; served for sev- eral years as foreman in the Reporter office; then, with D. C. Pinkham, in 1824, bought of Bullen & Hill the Louisville Morning Post, a semi-weekly, and published it something more than a year; retired and labored a short time as a journeyman on the Public Advertiser ; returned to Lexington and started the Kentucky Whig, which was published less than a year ; removed to Frankfort and took an interest in the Com_ mentator and the State printing, which he kept till 1832, when he returned to Louisville and published for a number of years the Lights and Shadows, an anti-Masonic weekly. He was also for a time official reporter to the State Court of Appeals. He was elected State printer early the next year, and soon started the Common- monwealth newspaper at Frankfort, which he published as a Whig, then successively Know- Nothing, American, and Union organ until April 5, 1872, when it was suspended. He came back finally to Louisville the same year, now seventy years old, and devoted himself mainly to Ma- sonic affairs, having become converted to Free Masonry. He was long secretary and treasurer of the Masonic Temple Company, and treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, of which, in November, 1873, he was the only surviving offi- cer of the official corps of 1845, and had con- tinuously been treasurer since that date. He died but a year or two ago.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 52

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