History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 54

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 54

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* Gallagher's Review of " Amelia" in the Hesperian for 1839.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Thus forming a girdle, as brilliant and whole As the thoughts of the rainbow that circled my soul. Like the wing of the Deity, calmly unfurled, It bent from the cloud and encircled the world.

There are moments, I think, when the spirit receives Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves, When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose, Like the innermost leaves from the heart of a rose. And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky, The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by; It left my full soul, like the wing of a dove, All fluttering with pleasure and fluttering with love.

1 know that each moment of rapture or pain But shortens the links in life's mystical chain; I know that my form, like that bow from the wave, Must pass from the earth, and lie cold in the grave; Yet O ! when death's shadows my bosom encloud, When I shrink at the thought of the coffin and shroud, May Hope, like the rainbow, my spirit enfold In her beautiful pinions of purple and gold.

The Rev. Benjamin Orr Peers, of the Episco- pal church, was another notable arrival of the year, coming hither from Lexington. He was a son of Major Valentine J. Peers, an officer of the Revolution, who settled in Maysville in 1803. He became a successful teacher, was President of Transylvania University two years, opened a select school for boys in Louisville, and was the first rector of St. Paul's church upon its forma- tion in the spring of 1835. Three years after- wards he went to New York city, to take charge of the educational interests of the church, but returned to Louisville and died here August 20, 1842.

Lawrence P. Maury probably came from Bath county, Kentucky, where he was born, this year. He was Deputy Postmaster for a number of years, and his devoted labors in this responsible post are believed to have shortened his life. He died in September, 1852, aged thirty-nine.

MR. HOFFMAN HERE.

In March Louisville entertained for an hour a distinguished visitor, in the person of the gifted poet, Charles Fenno Hoffman, author of the drinking song parodied by the temperance soci- eties-

Sparkling and bright, in its liquid light, Is the wine our goblets gleam in; With hue as red as the rosy bed The bee delights to dream in-

but now alas, and for nearly fitty years, an inmate of an insane asylum in Pennsylvania. In his beautifully written book, entitled A Winter in the West, he gives the following paragraph to this region:

The Falls of the Ohio, once so dangerous to the river-craft, are no longer among the objects which meet the eye of the passing traveler on the route. They are now wholly avoided by the steamboat canal, which, commencing two miles below Louisville, terminates at the wharves of that flourishing city. The work is a very complete one, and the solid finish of the masonry in the locks exacts a tribute of admiration from every one that avails himself of this great improvement in the navigation of the river.

Our steamboat stopped for an hour at Louisville, and I seized the opportunity to ramble through the town. It is handsomely laid out, with broad and well-paved streets, com- pactly built with brick and stone. Some of the private dwellings have a good deal of style about them, and among the numerous hotels there is one much superior in external appearance and interior arrangements to any establishment of the kind we have in New York. The shops, which are large and airy, offer a very showy display of goods, and the spacious and substantial warehouses, with the numerous drays continually passing to and fro, the concourse of well- dressed people in the streets, and the quantity of river-crafts in front of the town, give Louisville the appearance of being the greatest place of business upon the Western waters. There were several steamboats that arrived and departed even in the brief time that our boat lay-to; and when we again got on our way, it was in company with several others.

Mr. Hoffman adds the principal statistics of the place and a statement of its leading material facts in a foot-note, which presents nothing of special interest.

AN AMENDMENT

to the city charter was made this year, one sec- tion of which permitted the raising of money on the city's credit for the erecting of water-works, and the other required the inspector of liquors, an officer now on duty here, to mark upon the head of each barrel inspected the degree of proof of the liquor it contained.

1835-MORE AMENDMENTS,

made this year, prescribed the annual valuation of property for taxation by January ro, author- ized the city marshal to collect bills for duties performed in summoning juries, and granted power to the city to vote a stock subscription in aid of the Frankfort & Ohio Railroad Co.

The first train on this railroad reached Frank- fort January 25 of this year, from Lexington, in two hours and twenty-nine minutes, and was welcomed with great enthusiasm.

GAS WORKS.

The city was also authorized, February 28, to levy and collect a tax of $25,000 a year for four years, or $100,000 in all, for the construction of gas works.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

THE FIRST RAILROAD

in the city of Louisville was set in operation this year. It was a part of the old Lexington & Ohio arrangement, but at this end now ran only from the corner of Main and Sixth streets to Portland, a distance of about three miles. At the other end cars were running from Frankfort to Lexington ; but they did not reach Louisville from that direction until 1851, when the depot here was established at Jefferson, above Brook street. Mr. Casseday says :

This road was intended to connect with the Lexington and Ohio railroad. It was kept in employ but a very short time. The citizens on Main street, below the depot at Sixth, were violently opposed to the road, and used every effort to impair its usefulness. After the establishment of the Blind Asylum here, the profits of this road were transferred to that institu- tion; but it did not long enjoy the advantages so offered, for the road was discontinued by an application to court from some of the citizens, as offensive to some and unprofitable to all.

Fuller particulars of the earlier railways have already been given, in a chapter in our General Introduction to this work.

A CENSUS.

The population of the city, as ascertained by a special census taken this year, was 19,967. It had increased 9,631,-that is to say, had nearly doubled,-in five years. As, however, the census taken by the Federal Government five years after- wards showed but 21,210 inhabitants, it is al- together probable that, as in the case of other enumerations taken under similar circumstances, there was a decided tendency to inflation in the special census. But there can be no doubt of a good, healthy, steady growth during all these years. Filling the ponds, draining the city, and other sanitary measures, together with compara- tive exemption from cholera, had contributed greatly to attract immigration hither, notwith- standing the hard times were beginning to set in.

THE TAX LIST

of the year shows a considerable increase in the value of city property. The leading items are as follow :

Real estate and improvements, valued at. . .$10,425,446 Personal property. 644,250

Tythables, white and black, 4,960 at $150 .. 7,440 34 first-rate stores at $80. 2,720

42 second-rate stores at $60.

2,520

57 third-rate stores at $40. 2,880

62 fourth-rate stores at $20. 1,240

68 hacks, 132 drays, 53 waggons, $4; 124 carts, $2 1,260 50 coffee-houses at $50. 2,500

Io taverns at $50. 500

60 groceries and spirits at $50. 3,000

96 spirits alone at $40. 3,840

20 groceries alone, and 20 confectioners at $15 ... 720

THE EXPORTS

from Louisville for the six months from January Ist to June 30th were given in these figures: Tobacco, 1,337 hogsheads ; tobacco, 114 boxes; bacon, 2,813,560 pounds; tallow, 149 barrels; whiskey, 14,643 .barrels; flour, 19,999 barrels ; lard, 60,713 kegs; hemp, 38 tons; bagging, 65,- 348 pieces; bale rope, 42,030 coils ; pork, 14,419 barrels ; linseed oil, 72 barrels.

THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE

of Louisville was incorporated by the Legislature this year, and a beginning made of intellectual and professional improvement among the artisans of the place. Unfortunately, the society did not become permanent, while the Ohio Me- chanics' Institute, started at Cincinnati a few years before, has grown to be one of the most successful and important institutions of the Ohio Valley.

THE ORIGINAL GALT HOUSE

was built in 1835, at the corner of Main and Second, upon ground occupied for many years by the residence of Dr. Galt, and which was pur- chased by him. The new hotel was a small af- fair, compared with the present Galt House. con- taining only sixty rooms. It was opened by Major Aris Throckmorton, long proprietor of the leading hotel here, the "Washington Hall," on Main, between Second and Third streets, and by Isaac Everett. They conducted it for several years, and the house became famous under their administration. It was burned in 1865, when the erection of the present Galt House was begun.

WALKER'S FAMOUS EXCHANGE

was established this year, by William H. Walker, on the subsequent site of the National Hotel, Fourth street, near Main. He was encouraged to open this by the leading Whigs, who had abandoned for some reason a neighboring public house, which they had long frequented. They transferred their patronage to this place, which · became very notable and successful, and reaped for its owner a large fortune. About twenty years afterwards, in 1855, the Exchange was re. moved to Third street, between Main and Market.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

THE ORPHAN ASYLUM,

founded by the Episcopalians of the city, opened October 1, 1835, with six orphans, on the north side of Market, between Ninth and Tenth streets.

A NEW PASTOR.

The Rev. E. P. Humphrey, afterwards Doctor of Divinity, began his labors in November of this year, as pastor of the Second Presbyterian church, on Third street. He remained in this relation until 1853, when he retired and went to the Theological Seminary at Danville as Pro- fessor of Church History. He returned to Louis- ville in 1866, organized the College Street Pres- byterian church, and remained engaged in useful and honored public labors here, which have not ceased even to this day.

THE CHOLERA,

making its annual return, as it did in one part of the country or another for several years about this time, caused a few deaths in Louisville in July. Elsewhere in the State, in both July and August, it was very destructive, in one place (Russellville) nearly decimating the population, taking one hundred and twelve, or one in twelve of the whole number of inhabitants. In Ver- sailles, about the middle of August, one in every fifteen of the people was taken off within ten days. The continued and extraordinary exemp- tion of Louisville from severe visitation was the subject of general remark, and is a peculiarly bright spot in her history.

DR. MILLER COMES.

This year came to Louisville Dr. Henry Mil- ler, an eminently successful practitioner at Har- rodsburg, who had been induced to remove hither by the hope of founding a medical school in the young city. The attempt did not then succeed, but upon the reorganization of the Med- ical Institute two years afterwards, he took in it the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, and remained in the professorship for the long term of twenty years, when he re- signed, May 14, 1858. Nine years thereafter, he was recalled to the University, with which the Institute had long before been incorporated, by the creation for him of a special chair on the Medical and Surgical Diseases of Women. In 1849 he published an important Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Human Parturition, the re-

vised edition of which appeared ten years after- wards under the title Principles and Practice of Obstetrics. He wrote much also for the medical and public journals. He died February 8, 1874, having been a successful practitioner for more than fifty years, especially in the diseases of women, who came from far and near to receive his treatment. He was the first physician in Louisville to use anesthetics in obstetrical prac- tice.

THE HON. MR. MURRAY HAS HIS WORD.

The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, a scion of British aristocracy, included Louisville in his tour of this year in America. His remarks, in part, are thus given in the first volume of his book of Travelş in North America :

Louisville is a very active, busy town, containing about 20,000 inhabitants. In the spring and early part of the sum- mer it is crowded with fugitives from the neighborhood of New Orleans, on their way to their various places of refuge from heat and disease. The hotel is a spacious building, and might be called handsome, had it not been finished in so slovenly a manner that, although I saw it only a year after it was opened, the plaster was soiled, and in some places broken up, and the house itself looked as if it had been built more years than it had seen months. In front there is a large portico, supported by ten columns, behind which are the lounging-rooms for the guests ; and in summer the shade of the portico renders it both a tempting and agreeable re- sort. The proprietors were very attentive, and one of them, a good-looking, gentlemanly man, about thirty years old, was so much more smartly and gaily dressed than any of the company (myself included) that I thought he must be a Frenchman from New Orleans, and thus inquired his name and occupation.

I went out to the race-course, as the spring race-meeting was going on, and saw one or two heats in very good time. There was but a small attendance, either of beauty or fash- ion, and I did not stay long enough to avail myself of the opportunity which such a scene offers, for making observa- vations on the more rough and unpolished portion of so- ciety. Indeed, the swearing of some of the lower orders in the West, especially among the horse-traders and gamblers, would shock ears accustomed to the language of Billings- gate or a London gin-shop, so full is it of blasphemy, and uttered in a deliberate and determined tone, such as to in- duce the belief that the speaker really wishes the fulfilment of the curses which he imprecates. I have heard the vulgar oaths of many countries, as the French, the English, the Irish, and Scotch (which last three have different safety-valves of wrath), the Dutch, the German, the Italian, and the Portu- gnese. Of course they are all vulgar, all more or less blas- phemous and disgusting to the ear ; but I never heard them so offensive, or so slowly and deliberately uttered, as in the mouths of the Western and Southwestern Americans. It is but justice to the United States to say that this is a vice not generally prevalent, and is held in the same estimation there as it is in Britain.

Louisville is an active and thriving town; but like all the others in the West, wretchedly lighted and paved at present.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

It is necessary to mark these two words, as in this most wonderful portion of this wonderful continent observations of a condemnatory nature are not likely to be true for more than twelve months.

1836-PROGRESS.

During the summer of this year one hundred and ten stores and one hundred and fourteen dwelling-houses, all of a respectable and some of a superior class, were put up in the city. The cost of store-rents was steadily going up; and, says a contemporary writer, "as for dwellings, it would be impossible to rent one, finished or un- finished. And these improvements resulted from the natural advantages of the place, and not from the completion of any of the works to which the city had always looked as the precur- sors of greatness."

A new school building was erected on Jeffer- son street, between Floyd and Preston, and another on the corner of Grayson and Fifth. Both were occupied in the fall of this year.

The aggregate of sales by the forty-seven largest wholesale dry-goods and grocery houses during the year was officially stated at $12, 128,- 666. 16-from which may be inferred the im- mense total of all the business of the year.

The taxable property of this city this year, in round numbers, was officially valued at $14,- 000,000. Upon this a tax of fifty cents on the $100, or one-half of one per cent., was to be col- lected. The municipal expenditure of the year was estimated at $135,000.

THE BRIDGE, TOO,

made apparent progress. After long discussion, it had been decided to use the charter bestowed by the Legislature some years before, and con- tracts for the construction of the bridge were made. The corner-stone of the great work was laid with due solemnity and ceremony Septem- ber 7th, at the foot of Twelfth street, near the site of the old fort upon the shore, and only two squares above the present Kentucky terminus of the bridge to Jeffersonville. Wilkins Tanna- hill, Esq., was the orator of this occasion. The stock was reputed to be fully subscribed, and high hopes of the enterprise were entertained, but they were completely dashed by the failure of the contractor to go forward. Increasing financial difficulties checked the making of new

contracts; no further work was done, and the project waited forty years for its full embodi- ment.

A RAILROAD COMPANY

was also chartered, to construct a railroad from Cincinnati to Charleston, South Carolina, with a capital of $6,000,000 and a branch, among others, from Cincinnati to Louisville. This scheme, although never consummated, was really the germ which has flowered and fruited in the present Cincinnati Southern railroad.

THE OLD COURT HOUSE

was razed to the ground this year, in prepa- ration for the immense and costly building whose construction was commenced, in the very face of the financial disasters, the next year.

NEW JOURNALS

were started in 1836, to the number of two. One was the City Gazette, a daily newspaper, whose publication was begun by Messrs. John J. and James B. Marshall. The other was a liter- ary and religious monthly, which had been pub- lished for some time in Cincinnati, but was brought to Louisville this year and conducted by the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, then the young Pastor of the Unitarian church here, and now one of the most distinguished divines and au- thors in Boston. This publication, the Western Messenger, was, we believe, the first monthly magazine in the city.

A CITY POLICE COURT.

By the ninth amendment to the city charter, passed February 28th of this year, the Mayor's Court, which had theretofore been the tribunal for the punishment of offenders against the city ordinances, was abolished, and a Police Court constituted instead. It was a court of record, with a judge appointed by the same authority as selected judges of other higher courts, and to re- ceive a salary of $1,200 per annum. The City Prosecutor was to be appointed by the Mayor and Council. The court might summon grand juries, was always to be open as a police court, and also hold a monthly term, beginning on the first Monday in each month, for the trial of pleas of the Commonwealth.

The same act of the Legislature provided amendments fixing the salary of the Mayor at $2,000 a year, extending the eastern and north- ern boundary of the city three hundred feet

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

above Geiger's Ferry landing, and obliging all offices of insurance in the city to file with the Mayor a copy of the charter of any company represented by them.

ARRIVALS.

The Rev. Benjamin T. Crouch, one of the most remarkable men then in the Methodist ministry in Kentucky, came to the Fourth Street and Eighth Street Methodist Episcopal churches this year. Full notice of him, with characteristic anecdotes, will be comprised in the chapter on Religion in Louisville.

The noted English florist, Edward Wilson, came to Louisville in 1836, bought the small business of Jacob Berkenmyer, and opened a large florist's establishment on the north side of Jefferson, between Preston and Jackson streets. His business finally became a great success, and one of the notable industries of Louisville. He sold his stock in 1860, and his green-houses, residence, and grounds in 1865, the whole for $25,000. It is said that the sash he bought trom Berkenmyer, more than fifty years old, and the first under which flowers were grown in the city, is still in use as the covering of one of George Walker's green-houses.

1. O. O. F.

The Grand Lodge of the Order of Odd Fel- lows, for the State of Kentucky, was organized in Louisville September 13th of this year.

THE COLD WINTER

of 1835-36 registered during at least one short period the low degree, for this latitude, of eight- een below zero. In had gone to 15° below the previous winter.

1837-THE FINANCIAL CRISIS.

The great event of 1837 in Louisville, as in every other city, town, village, hamlet, and coun- try neighborhood of the United States, was the monetary panic. We have already exhibited some of the causes of it. Mr. Casseday says further:

The next year brought with it by far the most terrible calamity that had ever affected the city. The last few years had been years of such unexampled prosperity, confidence had become so thoroughly established, credit was so plenty, and luxury so courted, that, when the unexpected reverse came, the blow was indeed terribie. On the 19th of April, the Banks of Louisville and of Kentucky suspended specie payment, by a resolution of the citizens so authorizing theni. 36

Previous to this, the banks all over the country had stopped ; another awful commercial crisis had arrived, and one which Louisville felt far more severely than she had felt the former. Instead of passing lightly over her, as before, the full force of the blow was felt throughout the whole community. House after house, which had easily rode out the former storm, now sunk beneath the waves of adversity, until it seemed as if none would be left to tell the sad story. A settled gloom hung over the whole mercantile community.

Main street was like an avenne in some deserted city. Whole rows of houses were tenantless, and expectation was upon the tiptoe every day to see who would be the next to close. Each feared the other; all confidence was gone; mercantile transactions were at an end, and everything, be- fore so radiant with the springtime of hope and of promise, was changed to the sad autumn hues of a fruitless year.

The day previous to the suspension of the Kentucky banks-which Mr. Collins fixes upon May (not April) 19-there had been a run upon the Louisville banks, and $45,000 in specie were drawn out. When the banks shut their doors, they had in their vaults $1,900,000 in specie, and but $3,300,000 in their bills in circulation; so that it was quite practicable for them to have continued the transaction of business, had it been deemed expedient. The next month a great public meeting was held in the city, and resolutions were passed calling upon the Gov- ernor to convene the Legislature in extra session, in the hope of relief by statutory provisions of some kind from the daily tightening pressure. The Governor was urged upon all sides to call the Assembly together, but declined to do so. When that body met in regular session, it legal- ized the suspension of the banks in the State, and refused either to compel them to resume specie payments or to forfeit their charters. The Rev. Mr. McClung, in his Outline History, thus continues the narrative :

A general effort was made by banks, government, and in- dividuals, to relax the pressure of the crisis as much as pos- sible, and great forbearance and moderation was exercised by all parties. The effect was to mitigate the present pressure, to delay the day of reckoning, but not to remove the evil. Specie disappeared from circulation entirely, and the smaller coin was replaced by paper tickets issued by cities, towns, and individuals, having a local currency, but worthless be- yond the range of their immediate neighborhood. The banks in the meantime were conducted with prudence and ability. They forebore to press their debtors severely, but cantiously and gradually lessened their circulation and increased their specie, until after a suspension of rather more than one year, they ventured to resume specie payment. This resumption was general throughout the United States, and business and speculation again became buoyant. The latter part of 1838 and nearly the whole of 1839 witnessed an activity in busi- ness, and a fleeting prosperity, which somewhat resembled the feverish ardor of 1835 and 1836. But the fatal disease still lurked in the system, and it. was the hectic flush of an

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

uncured malady, not the ruddy glow of health, which deluded the eye of the observer.

THE PROGRESS OF LOUISVILLE

did not altogether stop, however. The village of Portland, which had become a legalized town only three years before, was this year annexed to the city, by common consent of its people and those of Louisville.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 54

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