History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 53

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 53

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Dr. Theodore S. Bell, the early friend of Col- onel Hodges, removed to the city this year. He had acquired a general and medical education in the face of poverty and neglect, but had finally obtained the position of librarian to Transyl- vania University, and by its advantages had obtained a high grade of scholarship and mental ability. He soon became one of the foremost phy- sicians of Louisville, and also a writer of much force, elegance, and fullness of information, for

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

the press. Many of the leading editorial articles in the Journal in its early days were from his pen, and he enjoyed the entire confidence of its editor, the late George D. Prentice. A series of articles written by the young doctor on the Value of Railroads to Louisville, attracted much attention and aided greatly in the promotion of railway enterprises here. In 1838, Dr. Bell, with two others, conducted the Louisville Medical Journal, more lately the Western Medical Jour- nal, which he edited alone for many years. Upon the outbreak of the late war he was made president of the Kentucky branch of the United States sanitary commission, and rendered very eminent service in that capacity to the soldiers of both armies. He wrote a valuable account of Cave Hill Cemetery, its history, geology, dec- oration, etc., which has been published in a neat pamphlet. To his skill in botany and taste in horticulture, it is said, Louisville owes much of her floral beauty and ornamentation with shrub- bery and shade trees. Dr. Bell is still living, in a hale and healthful old age.

In the spring of this year there came to Louis- ville a poor young fellow from near Springfield, Massachusetts, without means or personal influ- ence, named Horatio Dalton Newcomb. Be- ginning with the humble position of clerk in a small store, he advanced successively to a good trade in furs, a profitable warehouse and storage business, compounding spirits, and grocery-keep- ing, the house in the line last-named, H. D. New- comb & Brother, eventually becoming the largest of its kind in the Western country. Warren Newcomb retired from it a millionaire in 1863, and Mr. H. D. Newcomb in May, 1871, also with an immense fortune, and devoted his busi- ness energies exclusively to the interests of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company. He had been elected in the spring of 1869 to suc- ceed the late Hon. James Guthrie as president of that important thoroughfare, and now greatly enlarged its operations and influence, and carried it triumphantly through a series of financial trials that threatened total bankrupcy. In this he greatly overworked his strong and energetic brain, and in May, 1873, he suffered a stroke of paralysis, and steadily declined until August 18, 1874, when he took his leave of earth. " Died of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad " was the general verdict of the community.

Another immigrant of 1832 was Mr. W. H. Granger, at present proprietor of the Phoenix Foundry, on Tenth street, near Main. He is a native of England, but came to America when a mere lad, served seven years' apprenticeship to the foundry business in Belleville, New Jersey, and was twenty-three years old when he reached Louisville. In 1833 he opened a small shop on Water street, between Fifth and Sixth, and in a few years had accumulated a large property. Disaster overtook him, however ; and he testifies that it was the reading of Dr. Warren's remark- able novel, "Ten Thousand a Year," then new (about 1843), which inspired him to recuperate his fortune. He named one of his daughters Kate Aubrey, from the heroine of the story. She is now wife of Dr. John A. Octerlony, one of the most prominent physicians and medical profes- sors in the city. He also wrote an appreciative letter to Dr. Warren, in London, which the gifted author declared gave him more pleasure than any other of the kind he ever received.

Also came Mr. Benjamin Outram Davis, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and grand- nephew of Sir Benjamin Outram, M. D., of the British army. Mr. Davis's sons are understood to be the nearest surviving male relatives of the distinguished hero of East Indian warfare, Gen- eral Sir James Outram, M. D., of the British Army. Mr. Davis became an active business man in Louisville and leading officer in Christ church, and died here March 15, 1861.

Among the notable deaths of 1832 was that of James Hughes, a Pennsylvanian born, a prominent merchant here, and for a time Presi- dent of the Branch Bank of the United States.

1833-THE CHOLERA AGAIN.

The dreaded scourge returned this year to Ken- tucky, and raged from about May 30th to August Ist, only two months, but with great virulence and deadly effect. Beginning at Maysville, it soon spread through the State, slaying large numbers in town and country. Within nine days after its appearance at Lexington, fifteen hundred persons were prostrated by it, and fifty deaths occurred on some single days. May places altogether spared in 1832 were desolated this year. Yet Louisville, alone of all prominent places in the

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

State, almost escaped the pestilence: the people, says Mr. Casseday, "hardly knew of its pres- ence." At last the Falls City had earned a repu- tation for healthfulness and good sanitary condi- tions quite in contrast with its old and most un- fortunate fame in this particular.

CHARTER AMENDMENTS.

By an amendment to the city charter, passed February Ist, the boundaries of Louisville were reviewed and established as follows: Commenc- ing in the centre of the stone bridge across Bear- grass, on the Louisville and Shelbyville turnpike, and running thence, on a straight line, to Geiger's ferry landing on the Ohio river, opposite Jefferson- ville, and thence down the Ohio river, so as to in- clude Corn island and the stone-quarry around the same, to the upper line of Shippingport, and thence with that line to its southern termination, and thence on a straight line to the intersection of the Salt River road with the Louisville and Portland turnpike, below the brick house on the south side of said road built by Robert Tod, R. S., and thence with the Salt River road to a point on said road which will be inter- sected by the southern line of Louisville, when extended to said road, and thence with that ex- tended line continued eastwardly to Beargrass creek, and thence down the middle of Beargrass creek to the centre of the stone bridge aforesaid.

Another amendment to the city charter pro- vided that no street or alley could be laid out without consent of Council-that a jury should assess what damages should be awarded and what paid by persons injured or benefited by opening streets or alleys-that it should not be necessary for the Council to have alphabetical lists of the voters made out, except for the tax collectors and judges of the election-that those only should be eligible to office who are house- keepers or free-holders, and have paid taxes the preceding year in the city of Louisville-that the removal of a councilman from the ward in which he was elected should cause his office to be vacant, and that any vacancy occurring either in this way or by resignation should be supplied by the Council out of the said ward.

THE BANK OF LOUISVILLE.

On the 2d of February this institution was granted a charter by the State Legislature. Books were opened for stock subscriptions in 35

March, and within four days the large amount of $1,150,000 had been subscribed, about two- thirds of it by Eastern capitalists. The limit of capital was fixed at $2,000,000, but the Com- missioners for taking subscriptions were allowed to cease at any time after half a million was taken. It was required that every Director should take an oath not to allow any violation of the charter.

About the same time, in view of the certain fact that the Bank of the United States would not be re-chartered, by reason of the election of General Jackson to the Presidency in 1832, the State Legislature started two other banks with immense capital-the Bank of Kentucky with $5,000,000, and the Northern Bank of Kentucky with $3,000,000. The like was done in many other States, and Mr. McClung, in his Outline History of Kentucky, is moved to say:

The result of this simultaneous and enormous multiplica- tion of State banks throughout the United States, consequent upon the fall of the National bank, was vastly to increase the quantity of paper money afloat, and to stimulate the wildest spirit of speculation. The nominal prices of all commodities rose with portentous rapidity, and States, cities, and indi- viduals embarked heedlessly and with feverish ardor in schemes of internal improvement and private speculation, upon the most gigantic scale. During the years of 1835 and 1836, the history of one State is the history of all. All rushed into the market to borrow money, and eagerly projected . plans of railroads, canals, slack-water navigation, and turn- pike roads, far beyond the demands of commerce, and in general without making any solid provision for the payment of the accruing interest or reimbursement of the principal. This fabric was too baseless and unreal to endure.

The way was thus prepared for the general sus- pension of specie payments by the banks of Ken- tucky and the United States in 1837, and the terrible financial disasters and suffering that fol- lowed for several years.

A savings bank was also established in Louis- ville during the year, with Mr. E. Crow as presi- dent, and E. D. Hobbs treasurer.

THE MEDICAL COLLEGE

was established here about this time, under the charter which had been granted to the Centre College, at Danville.

THE LOUISVILLE MUSEUM

was founded by a number of gentlemen organ- ized as a stock company, of which Mr. J. R. Lambdin had had the general direction. Mr. Casseday says: "The collection of objects of natural history, of curiosity, and of vertu was extremely good." Some notices of the museum

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

were made by travelers visiting Louisville, and will be found in the extracts we give. The col- lection long since disappeared

THE CANAL

was finished this year. Its tolls were greatly increased for 1833, amounting to $60,737. The vessels passing through were 875 steamboats and 710 flat- and keel-boats, with a tonnage of 169,- 885. According to Collins:

The completion of the canal produced a great change in the business of the city. The "forwarding and commission" business, the operations in which formed so great a part of the mercantile transactions of Louisville, and had given em- ployment to so many persons, was, in a great measure, de- stroyed. Much of the capital and industry of the city was obliged to seek new channels, and the transition state was one of great embarrassment. But a more healthy condition of things succeeded.

STEAMERS BURNT.

A great fire occurred June 21, at the Louis- ville wharf, in which the steamboats Sentinel, Rambler, and Delphine were totally destroyed.

BLACK HAWK AND PARTY.

A short stay was made at the Falls April 13, by a party of Western Indians, including the famous Black Hawk, the principal instigator of the Indian war in the Northwest the year before, his son, Neopope "the Prophet," another Sauk chief, and a young chief of the Foxes. They were on the steamer Lady Byron, in charge of Gov- ernment officers, on their way up the river and to Fortress Monroe, to be detained there a short time as hostages for the continued peace and good faith of their tribes, which had been de- feated in the war. Black Hawk was now sixty- seven years old, and did not much longer sur- vive.

MANUMITTED SLAVES SHIPPED.

Another remarkable event on the river this year was the shipment, at Louisville, of one hundred and two freed slaves from Bourbon, Fayette, Logan, Adair, Mercer, and other coun- tries. They were sent down the river to New Orleans, under the auspices of the Kentucky Colonization Society, by which $2,300 were paid for their passage thence to Liberia in the brig Ajax, which sailed April 20th.

AN EDITORIAL COMBAT.

An the 23d of August occurred one of the several personal conflicts into which the late George D. Prentice, then editor of the Louisville

Journal and Focus, was drawn by the bitterness of political controversy. Meeting upon the street Mr. George James Trotter, editor of the Kentucky Gazette, at Lexington, with whom he had exchanged many sharp words in print, the parties opened fire upon each other with pistols, but they were separated before serious wounds were received on either side.

AN EDITORIAL PROPHECY.

The traveler-authors seem to have left Louis- ville out of their routes this year, and we have no extracts from their books to present. A Frankfort editor, however, who was here about this time, ventured the following prediction :

Whoever visits this city leaves it with the conviction that all elements are at work which must advance it to a great commercial town, and urge it on till it has passed all the towns of the Ohio in the race for supremacy.

SANDY STEWART.

Some time this year died the noted " island ferryman," Sandy Stewart, a Scotchman born, who came first to the Falls in 1775, and for many years ran a skiff ferry from the mainland at Louisville to Corn Island.

1834-DISASTER AND GLOOM.

Louisville needed all the encouragement that could be afforded at this time. It was a period of darkness and fear in the business community. In February the Federal Government had felt obliged to withdraw the deposits made in the Branch Bank of Louisville to the credit of the Treasury of the United States, and used by the bank to great advantage as capital in its business. This Branch Bank had also been ordered by the Government to call in its loans, which amounted to $226,000-$76,000 more than the Branch at Cincinnati had out. The withdrawal of these large sums was very seriously felt, and indeed caused great financial stringency and distress. It threatened so much inconvenience and disaster that at last a meeting of citizens was called at the Court-house, to deliberate upon the situa- tion. Mr. T. Gwathmey was Chairman of the meeting; Messrs. D. Smith and E. Crow, vice- presidents, and Messrs. C. M. Thenston and Fred A. Kaye, secretaries. It was resolved to memorialize the Government for a return of the deposits; and the paper drawn up contained, among others, the following expressions:

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HISTORY OF THE OIIIO FALLS COUNTIES.

All is gloom and despondence, all uncertainty and sus- pense, all apprehension and foreboding. Prices here have fallen beyond any former example. Flour has sunk from $4 to $3, or even $2.50 per barrel. Hemp, pork, and every other commodity has decreased in an equal degree. Real property has fallen in many instances 50 per cent. It is be- lieved that there will not be employment during the ensuing season for one-fourth of the mechanics and workingmen of Louisville. Few contracts for building have been or are likely to be made. In the opinion of the memorialists, the first remedy for this state of things is the restoration of the deposits. They therefore pray that the deposits be restored, and such measures taken in relation to a National Bank as shall be most likely to afford relief to the country.

Money had now to be borrowed, in many cases, at the ruinous rate of two and one-half per cent. a month. The rate of taxation was in- creased from six and one-fourth to ten cents per $100 valuation of taxable property, and forty cents per share was assessed upon the stock of the Louisville Bank of Kentucky. Shortly after, however, February 22d, a charter was granted to the Bank of Kentucky at Louisville, with six branches and a capital of $5,000,000, to which the State was to subscribe $1,000,000 in five per cent. thirty-five-year bonds (redeemable at dis- cretion after thirty years), and $1,000,000 more, payable in bank dividends as declared, unless a different mode of payment was preferred by the State. The annual State tax on the shares was limited to not less than twenty-five nor more than fifty cents per share. On the whole, as Mr. Casseday says, "this crisis does not seem to have produced very disastrous results here, but was probably more severe in anticipation than in reality." It is even possible, as political excite- ment ran very high, and as this removal of the deposits was very obnoxious to one of the politi- cal parties, that the evil was a foreboding in- duced by their own fears, and of such a charac- ter as actually to produce a temporary depres- sion in business. And this opinion is supported by the fact that no material change seems to have taken place in the onward progress of the city. The policy and propriety of establishing

WATER WORKS

had been for some time under discussion, and in this year the city went so far as to purchase a site for a reservoir on Main, above Clay street. This project was very soon abandoned, but whether from the pressure of the times or from the opposition of many of the citizens does not appear in any record of the period. The incor- poration and survey of

TWO TURNPIKE COMPANIES,

the Bardstown and Louisville, and Elizabethtown and Louisville, during the same year, would, however, seem to incline us to believe that it was not given up for the want of means. " The State affairs, even if as bad as repre- sented in the memorial, does not seem to have thrown a very deep or settled gloom over the community. On the contrary, an incident of the period would seem to show a light-hearted- ness and freedom from care not common in times of distress."

AN ANCIENT BURLESQUE. Mr. Casseday continues :

This incident was the sudden appearance in the streets of the city of a very singular procession, since known as the Carnival Guards. They were introduced as a burlesque of the militia drills, then of biennial occurrence here. The proces- sion was headed by an enormous man, rivaling Daniel Lam- bert in his superabundance of flesh, mounted on an equally overgrown ox, on whose hide was painted the following des- criptive motto, " The Bull-works of our Country." This he- roic captain also wore a sword of mighty proportions, on whose trenchant blade was written in letters of scarlet the savage inscription, " Blood or Guts !" This leader was fol- lowed by a band of equally singular character ; long men on short horses, little boys on enormous bony Rosinantes, picked up from off the commons; men enclosed in hogs- heads, with only head, feet, and arnis visible ; men encased even to helmet and visor in wicker-work armour, and a thou- sand other knights of fanciful costume, and all marching with heroic step to the martial clangor of tin pans, the braying of milkhorns, the shrill sound of whistles, the piping of cat- calls, and the ceaseless din of penny-trumpets and cornstalk fiddles. This procession halted in its progress through the streets in front of the residences of the officers of the militia, and after saluting them with a flourish of music, made them a speech, and cheered them with a chorus of groans. After marching bravely through the principal streets, this proces- sion suddenly disappeared from public view, never again to greet the sunlight.

NEW HOTELS.

The Louisville Hotel was now finished and in operation. It stood upon the site of the present hostelry of that name, and was built upon the general plan of the Tremont House at Boston, having a handsome portico, with Doric columns.

The erection of the old Galt House, upon the northeast corner of Second and Main streets, was begun soon after, and carried to completion the next year, when Louisville was equipped, for the accommodation of the traveling community, with at least two fine hotels.

HONORS TO LAFAYETTE'S MEMORY.

The news of the death of Lafayette, which oc- curred in France May 20, 1834, was received in

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Louisville something more than a month after- wards, and evoked the liveliest expressions of sympathy and regret. A meeting was held July Ist, at which resolutions were passed recom- mending the closing of stores and other places of business on a certain day, which was to be de- voted to suitable obsequies in honor to the mem- ory of the deceased patriot. The largest proces- sion ever formed in the city, with every trade and profession here practiced represented in it, was formed and moved through the principal streets of the city, halting finally in the large lot owned by Mr. Jacob. Here a eulogy upon the hero of at least two revolutions was pronounced by M. R. Wigginton, Esq. The participants in these ceremonies afterwards wore crape on the left arm for thirty days. "The whole proceed- ing's of the day," says Mr. Casseday, "were highly ereditable to the city, and highly worthy of the occasion."

ANOTHER NEWSPAPER.

The Louisville Notary was a new journalistic venture, started this year by Messrs. D. C. Banks and A. E. Napier. It was short-lived, and never attained to much influence in the city or anywhere that it circulated.

A FAMOUS AUTHORESS.

In this year came to the city a future sweet singer in verse, a young Maryland girl, who maiden name was Amelia B. Coppuck. She was born February 3, 1819, near Chesapeake Bay, and was brought to Louisville by her parents when fifteen years of age. Here she soon began to develop poetic genius; but published nothing until she was eighteen, when in 1837 a poem with the modest signature "Amelia," which soon became renowned far and wide, appeared in the Daily Journal. Mr. Prentiss, who well knew how to guage her merit, gave it a most compli- mentary and encouraging preface, which aided her to a speedy and extensive popularity. Her poems were published in a volume in Boston eight years afterwards, and in ten years passed through len editions. She was married in June, 1838, to George Welby, a merchant of Louisville, and died here May 3, 1852, aged only thirty- three. She was the most famous poetess Louis- ville has yet produced. Mr. Casseday, writing of her in connection with the financial panie of 1837 and the appearance of her first published poem this year, says:

It was in the midst of this gloom and despondence which pervaded one part of the community, that the ears of another part were astonished and gladdened with a strain of melody. such as had not before stolen through the glades and groves of this Western land. A young girl, modest and unpretend- ing, unknown to all but her little circle, inspired by some unseen power, tremblingly warbled forth a few verses of melody, but of such enchanting power, beauty, and harmony, that all the literary world were confounded, and all eagerly inquired who it was that under the simple signature of "Amelia," and away off in the distant West, had struck her lyre "with an angel's art, and with the power of the fabled Orpheus," and whose "strains had been caught up by melody-lovers throughout the. Union, and sung in every peopled valley, and echoed from every sunny hillside of our vast domain."* Such genins could not long remain unknown ; and soon the name of its possessor was proclaimed through the columns of the Louisville Journal, but the name gave no clue to the source whence this mighty power had been derived. For the many the ten-days wonder had passed away. The genius of the writer was acknowledged and for- gotten by them. But the true lovers of her art followed her for many years with looks of admiration, regard, and affec- tion ; and still, though her harp has long lain untouched, await with anxiety and hope for new strains from the lyre they have loved so well.

The readers of this work will be pleased to have in convenient and permanent shape one of the best-known and most popular poems of Mrs. Welby, which we accordingly present below:

THE RAINBOW. BY AMELIA B. WELBY.

I sometimes have thought, in my loneliest hours, That lie on my heart like the dew on the flowers, Of a ramble I took one bright afternoon,

When my heart was as light as a blossom in June ; The green earth was moist with the late fallen showers, The breeze fluttered down and blew open the flowers, While a single white cloud to its haven of rest On the white wing of peace floated off in the west.

As I threw back my tresses to catch the cool breeze, That scattered the rain-drops and dimpled the seas, Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unrolled Its soft tinted pinions of purple and gold. 'Twas born in a moment, yet, quick as its birth, It had stretched to the uttermost ends of the earth, And, fair as an angel, it floated as free, With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea.

How calm was the ocean ! how gentle its swell ! Like a woman's soft bosom it rose and it fell ; While its light sparkling waves, stealing laughingly o'er, When they saw the fair rainbow, knelt down on the shore. No sweet hymn ascended, no murmur of prayer, Yet I felt that the spirit of worship was there, And bent my young head in devotion and love, 'Neath the form of the angel that floated above.

How wide was the sweep of its beautiful wings ! How boundless its circle ! how radiant its rings ! If I looked on the sky, 'twas suspended in air ; If I looked on the ocean, the rainbow was there;

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 53

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