History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 58

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 58

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The subject of this road had for a long time agitated the city; many surveys had been made, and indeed the work had at one time progressed to the actual digging and embankment of several miles of the track. The opening of the road was finally effected by the subscription of $1,000,000 by the city herself, which was paid by a tax of one per cent. for four years on all real estate within her limits, and this tax was re- paid to the owners in shares of stock. Although sanctioned by the vote of a very large majority of the citizens, this measure was for a while a very unpopular one; but the mal- contents have lately found that the present loss was to them in the end a gain, and they are ready once more to submit to similar taxation, if by so doing other roads can be con- structed. Indeed, the subject of railroads was now eagerly taken up, and a just and most effective feeling in their favor was taking the place of the former apathy and indifference. The Louisville & Lexington railroad had opened so many new sources of wealth and developed such advantages before unthought of, that the policy of stretching out iron arms to embrace in their circle all possible resources was no longer doubted. Acting upon this feeling, the people of Louisville united with those of Jeffersonville in building a road from that point to Columbus, and with those of New Albany in uniting that growing city with Salem. The purpose had in view in the construction of these roads is the ultimate and

not very distant connection of Louisville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany with Lake Erie, St. Louis, and Lake Michigan,

THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE.

This institution was incorporated by the Gen- eral Assembly of the State February 7, 1846. The charter then granted gave it power to ac- quire and hold so much real and personal prop- erty as would yield an income not to exceed $40,000. The President and a Board of ten Trustees, elected by the General Council, two each alternate year, for terms of ten years, con- trol the University. The President is elected by the Board, and holds his office during their pleasure, or until it is vacated by his death, resignation, or removal from the county. The Board have in charge the fine property known as University Square, bounded by Chestnut and Magazine, Eighth and Ninth streets.

THE NEW THEATRE

was opened early this year by the veteran mana- ger, Mr. Bates, of Cincinnati, in the building begun by Mr. Coleman about 1843, on the south- east corner of Green and Fourth streets, where the Courier-Journal office now stands. It had been left unfinished by Mr. Coleman, but was pur- chased and completed by Bates, and was occu- pied for theatrical and operatic performances during about thirty years.

THE POST-OFFICE

presented some curious statistics this year, ac- cording to Mr. Collins's Annals, to which we are indebted for many of the notes of these and sub- sequent years. He reports, under date of No- vember 2d:

The number of inquiries, this day, at the general delivery of the Louisville post-office for letters was 1,964-of which 538 for or by ladies, and 1,326 for or by gentlemen. The name of Smith was inquired for 33 times, of Johnson 28 times, of Clark 23, Jones 21, Wilson 20, Brown 19, Williams 17, and Evans 13 times. This was believed to be an average of the daily applications at the general delivery.

A NOTABLE BREACH OF PROMISE CASE

was heard and determined the same month in a Louisville court-that of Miss Nano Hays against John Hays, in which she recovered $6,000 damages.

ANOTHER MASONIC LODGE.

Mount Zion Lodge, No. 147, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, was chartered by the Grand Lodge in September. Philip Tomppert was its first Master.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

HON. JOHN J. MARSHALL.

In June died in Louisville the Hon. John James Marshall, one of the most famous of the famous Marshall family. He was son of the elder Humphrey Marshall, Senator of the United States from Kentucky; took the first honors as a graduate of Princeton college; mar- ried in. 1809 the sister of James G. Birney, the great Abolitionist; became an eminent lawyer ; represented Franklin county in the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1815-16 and in 1833, and in the State Senate 1820-24, was an Elector on the unsuccessful Clay ticket in the Presidential campaign of 1833; was a judge of the courts for many years, and author of seven volumes of Re- ports of the Kentucky Court of Appeals; and father of General Humphrey Marshall, of the Mexican and Secession wars, James Birney Mar- shall, a journalist in Louisville and elsewhere, and a poet of some note in his day ; and of Charles E. Marshall, a former Representative from Henry county in the Legislature.

MR. MACKAY'S VISIT.

Alexander Mackay, Esq., an English barrister of the Middle Temple, London, was here the latter part of this year, and made some entertain- ing notes in his book, The Western World, from which we quote :

We had nearly completed the third day after our departure from St. Louis, when, at early morning, we arrived at Louis- ville, the largest and handsomest town in Kentucky. It is built at the point at which occurs the chief obstacle to the navigation of the river, that which is known as the rapids of the Ohio. These rapids are trifling as compared with those which occur in the course of the St. Lawrence, extending over only two miles, and not falling much above ten feet per mile. .The town is well-built, spacious, and pleasant, and has a thriving, bustling, and progressive look about it. The population is now about 35,000, to which it has increased from 500, which was all that it could muster at the commencement of the century.

The world has rung with the fame of Kentucky riflemen. Extraordinary feats have been attributed to them, some practicable. others of a very fabulous character. For instance, one may doubt, without being justly chargeable with too great a share of incredulity, the exploit attributed to one of their "crack shots," who, it is said, could throw up two po- tatoes in the air, and waiting until he got them in a line, send a rifle-ball through both of them. But, waiving the question as to these extraordinary gifts, there is no doubt but that the Kentucky riflemen are first-rate shots. As I was anxious to witness some proofs of their excellence, my friend D- in- quired of the landlord of there were then any matches going on in town. He directed us to a spot in the outskirts where we were likely to find something of the kind, and thither we hied without loss of time. There had been several matches that morning, but they were over before we arrived on the

ground. There was one, however, still going on, of rather a singular character, and which had already been nearly of a week's standing. At a distance of from seventy-five to one hundred yards from where the parties stood, were two black cocks, pacing about in an enclosure which left them exposed on the side towards the competitors. At these two men were firing as fast as they could load, and, as it appeared to me, at random, as the cocks got off without impunity. On my observing to Mr. D -- that, although I was no crack-shot, I thought I could kill one of them at the first fire, he smiled and directed my attention to their tails. One, indeed, had scarcely any tail left, unless two solitary feathers deserved the appellation. On closer inspection I found a white line drawn in paint or chalk on either side of the tail of each, close to the body of the bird, and each party taking a bird, the bet was to be won by him who first shot the tail off his, up to the line in question, and without inflicting the slightest wound upon its possessor. They were to fire as often as they pleased during a certain hour each day, until the bet was decided. One of the competitors had been very success- ful, and had accomplished his object on the third day's trial, with the exception of the two feathers already alluded to, which, having had a wide gap created between them, seemed to baffle all his efforts to dislodge them. What the issue was I cannot say, for at the close of that day's trial it remained undecided.

1847-ASSESSMENTS.

The assessment valuations of 1846 and 1847 ran very close together, and both exhibited a handsome increase (the latter nearly two and a half millions) upon that of 1845. They were, respectively, in the Eastern district, $7, 100,305 and $7,069,963, and in the Western, $8,927, 109 and $),450, 132. Totals, $16,027,414 and $16,- 520,095. The drift of valuation, it will be ob- served, was toward the Western district, which had now overtaken and passed the other. Hence- forth, steadily, the valuation of the Western will be found greater than that of the Eastern district.

BUSINESS.

The following statistics of merchandise re- ceived and sold at Louisville this year, are derived from Judge Hall's book on The West, published the next year in Cincinnati: Sugar, 9,320 hogsheads; molasses, 10,220 barrels ; cof- fee, 37, 125 bags ; cotton, 5,620 bales ; tobacco, 6,650 hogsheads; bagging (in eight months), 44,700 pieces; bale rope (for same time), 27,400 pieces.

The Bank of Louisville declared a semi-annual dividend of three per cent July I.

MORE TROOPS,

were raised in Kentucky for the war this year-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

four companies for the Sixteenth regiment of reg- ulars, and two more volunteer regiments of in- fantry. In the Fourth was one Jefferson county regiment, summoned by Captain T. Keating. The Lieutenant-Colonel of this regiment was William Preston, of Louisville. William T. Ward, of Greensburg, afterwards a Brigadier- General in the War of the Rebellion and a resi- dent of Louisville, was Major in the regiment. Three companies from the city were among the twelve shut out by the filling of the regiments before they were reported.

A TREMENDOUS FLOOD

occurred in the Ohio in February. At Louis- ville, says Collins's History, it reached a point within nine inches of the line reached in 1832, and within six inches at Maysville. The statistics published after the great inundation of 1882, however, and vouched for as "correct," gave the extreme height at the head of the Falls as 4514 feet above low water, at the foot as 6814 -in each case within 34 of an inch of the flood of 1832. Passengers were landed from steamers in the third-story of a building in Strader's Row, at the foot of Third street. Many homes were entirely undermined and became useless for further occupancy, and a large number were washed away. Not a few people were drowned, and the destruction of all kinds of property was very great.

The chief reason for this almost unpreced- ented freshet is doubtless the great rain-fall-the heaviest ever known in Kentucky, in so short a time. On the nights of the 9th and roth of December, 1847, the smaller streams rose with such rapidity as to drive people into the second stories of their homes for the preservation of their lives.

HISTORIC NOTES.

The annual meeting of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the Diocese of Kentucky was held here in the second week of May.

William Wallace died here this year, aged seventy-six. He had been a soldier of much local renown, participating in three famous battles, viz: Tippecanoe, the River Raisin, and New Orleans, and made ten barge trips in the early day to the Crescent City, walking back home each trip through the wilderness. He was

the grandfather of William Rubel, present jailer of Louisville.

The steamer Harry Hill exploded its boiler at the Louisville wharf February 12th, severely scalding the first engineer.

The Law Department of the University. of Louisville was organized this year.

1848-POPULATION, ETC.

Again we have a local census taken by Mr. Jegli, which shows a white population of 20,501 males, and 20,533 females, 4, 1 36 slaves, and 612 free colored persons; total, 45,782, an increase of 8,564 upon his census of 1845. But the Federal census of two years after this, that of 1850, could find but 43, 194 people in the city. There are more than 8,ooo names in the Direc- tory of this year.

The valuation of the Eastern District (real estate, probably,) was $6,208,607 ; Western, $6,838,907 ; total, $13,047,514. The entire val- uation was: Eastern District, $8, 284,565 ; West- ern, $10,555,461; total, $18,839,996. In the Eastern District were levied 2,774 white tithes, 1,048 black (85 free), total 3,832; in the West- ern 3,215 white, 1,226 black (81 free), total 4,441 ; grand total for the city, 8,273.

The compiler of the Directory for this year, after setting forth the real and personal property assessments, remarks as follows :

It will be seen, from the above table, that the advancement in the value of property in the city is steady-the improve- ments in the last two years have been very great. This con- tinued prosperity may be attributed not so much to the superabundance of money or the visionary schemes of specu- lators, as to the influx of capital, population, and the in- domitable enterprise and industry of our citizens. The amount of money invested in improvements, some of which are great ornaments to our city, in the last two years, will not fall short of $1,500,000. Giving to each house an area of twenty feet front, the buildings erected in the time above stated would cover rising three miles of ground.

The inspection of tobacco at Todd's ware- house had begun November 1, 1847, and by July 6, 1848, had reached 2,588 hogsheads. To the same time, from August 24th of the previous year, the inspection at the Planters' warehouse amounted to 1, 319 hogsheads.

CAVE HILL DEDICATED.

On the 25th of July, the beautiful rural ceme- tery at Cave Hill was dedicated to its sacred pur-

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poses, in the presence of a large assemblage. The establishment of a suitable "God's Acre" for the city upon the property known as the Cave Hill Farm had been in view for some time, and in February, 1848, the General Assembly passed an act incorporating Messrs. S. L. Shreve, G. W. Bayless, Jedediah Cobb, James C. Johnston, W. B. Belknap, and James Rudd, and their succes- sors, as the Cave Hill Cemetery Company. June Ist of the same year, Mr. William R. Vance, Mayor of the city, in whose hands the Cave Hill tract already was, conveyed it for a nominal con- sideration to these gentlemen. Some difficulty arose from the reservations that were made by the city for quarries, and for access to the pest- house, work-house, and other buildings that might be erected upon parts of the tract not conveyed; but they were in a measure overcome, and the cemetery, as before stated, was dedi- cated in July, with a beautiful and eloquent ad- dress of the Rev. Dr. E. P. Humphrey.

The original grant from the city was of forty and six-tenths acres only. About twelve acres were added December 12, 1849, by purchase from Mr. William F. Pettit. Another grant, of thirty-two acres, from the Cave Hill tract, was made by the city March 24, 1859, making the total amount now appropriated to cemetery uses ninety-one acres. Forty-nine acres were next bought, July 25, 1863, from Mr. George L. Douglass. A final donation was made by the city April 11, 1855, of a small strip of land on the north side of the ravine, comprising 1.45 acres, which, with the tracts previously acquired, make up a total of one hundred and forty and one-half acres. A new receiving vault was built in 1856, at a cost of $15,000. Mr. David Ross was Superintendent of the Cemetery until his death in 1856, when he was succeeded by Robert Ross, who is still the Superintendent. The cem- etery is now, it is needless to say, the most famous in or in the vicinity of Louisville, and one of the most noted in the country.

A VIRGINIAN'S VISIT.

In 1848 Mr. John Lewis Peyton, a Virginian, made a brief visit to Louisville, which gave him the opportunity for some pleasant paragraphs in his book of travel "Over the Alleghanies and Across the Prairies," published twenty-one years afterwards. He says :

At Louisville I took lodgings, Wednesday, August 9th, in

the Galt House, the most comfortable hotel I met in the West. The establishment was then under the superintend- ence of a native of Virginia, Mr. Throgmorton, who was quite a character, distinguished in the annals of Louisville for his unbounded hospitality and desperate courage, which he displayed on all occasions of election disturbances and riots. He was a decayed gentleman-1 mean decayed in his fortunes-and had thus been driven to take the management of one of those vast and complicated concerns known as the "American hotel."

Louisville is the commercial capital of Kentucky, and be- sides a large trade which she carries on by the river, is be- coming an important manufacturing centre. I was greatly struck with the natural beauty of the country around it, and indeed with the country all the way to Lexington. .

The heat of Louisville was very oppressive at this period, the temperature such as one might expect to find near equatorial Africa. Mosquitoes and all kinds of insects and bugs were abroad in countless thousands, and flayed me alive. The beds at the Galt House were provided with mosquito bars, made of a thin gauze, which furnished a slight protec- tion; but by some means or other a single mosquito was sure to make his way through this and all other obstacles, and buzz around my head during the night, stinging me to mad- ness and phlebotomizing me from head to foot, and thus making refreshing sleep an impossibility. [ was not sorry, therefore, to leave Louisville. At the period of my visit there was a short railway between Louisville and Lexington, the only road of the kind in the State, and by this I traveled over one of the loveliest countries in the world to Frankfort and Lexington.

HON. WILLIAM J. GRAVES,

member of Congress from the Louisville Dis- trict 1835-41, and slayer of Mr. Cilley in the duel at Bladensburg in 1838, died September 27th of this year, the same in which he was a candidate for the Whig nomination for Governor in the convention which selected John J. Crit- tenden.

1849-CHOLERA.

The Asiatic cholera revisits Louisville this year, in common with the rest of the State and country, and this time with seriously fatal effect in the city which had theretofore been almost exempt. In May none died, while other places were much afflicted, fourteen dying in the lunatic asylum at Lexington ; but in June sixty persons in Louisville perished of the scourge, and in July one hundred and forty-one. Yet the per- centage of population attacked or slain by the disease was much smaller than in many other cities and towns.

Mr. Deering says, in his pamphlet of 1859, that the cholera visitations of 1832-33-49 began each in identically the same square, and within a few yards of the same spot. In the latter the

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sanitary conditions of this locality were im- proved, and the cholera did not return to it.

THE FIRST GERMAN DAILY NEWSPAPER

in the city was started this year, the initial number of the Louisville Anzeiger appearing March Ist. It was conducted by Otto Schaeffer and George P. Doern, the latter a young German who came to the city in 1842, a lad of thirteen, beginning his business career as a newsboy, then becoming a compositor, and finally embarking successfully in German journalism. Their daily started with two hundred and eighty subscribers, at ten cents per week, and had a hard struggle for existence; but pluck and energy carried it through, and it remains to this day one of the most influential organs of the German nationality in the country.

THE CORNER-STONE

of the new Catholic cathedral was laid with due ceremony August 15. There were now three Roman Catholic congregations in the city.

EMANCIPATION MEETING.

At this time the subject of the gradual eman- cipation of the slaves was much under discus- sion, in public, in private, and in the newspapers, throughout the State. It was the commence- ment of a very active campaign, during which delegates to the convention called to reconstruct the State constitution were to be nominated and chosen. Meetings in favor of such emancipa- tion were held in various places, and among them one in Louisville February 12 of this year. We have no report of its proceedings, however.

PERSONAL NOTES.

The Rev. John B. Gallagher, rector of St. Paul's church, died February 9. A notice of him will be included in our chapter on the churches.

Mrs. Harriet Barney, widow of Commodore Barney, famous for his naval exploits in the Rev- olution and the War of 1812, died here October 13. Her husband had left Baltimore in 18 18, to settle with his family near Elizabethtown, in this State; but died at Pittsburg en route. Mrs. Barney removed to Louisville about 1820, and remained here till her death. She was mother of Adele, a beautiful young lady, afterwards wife of Isaac Everett, of the Galt House.

ON THE RIVER.

Steamers continued from time to time to claim

quick trips from New Orleans to the Falls. The time last reported in these chapters-that of the Edward Shippen, in 1841-was beaten by nearly fifteen hours this year by the steamer Belle Key, which arrived from New Orleans in four days, twenty-three hours, and seven minutes- not much more than half the time taken by the Lexington in 1827, which was the third quickest trip made to that time.

VISIT OF GENERAL TAYLOR,

February 11, 1849, General Taylor, hero of the Mexican war, now President-elect of the American Union, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, revisits his early home at and near Louisville, where he had lived for forty years. He was received with great distinction by his old friends and the populace. He was also entertained at Frankfort and at Maysville, near which place --- at Washington, Mason county -- his first duties, as a young lieutenant of the army on recruiting service, were performed in 1809. The vote of the State had been given to Taylor and Fillmore by a majority of seven- teen thousand two hundred and fifty-four.

THE LADY EMMELINE STUART WORTLEY,

the well-known English traveler and authoress, was also among the visitors of the year. She made the following note upon the place in her book of Travels in the United States:

We have had a very interesting expedition to the Mam- moth Cave of Kentucky. But first a word of Louisville itself.

It is a fine city, and the best lighted, I think, that I have seen in the United States. I imagine the Louisvillians are proud of this, as they have their diligences start at 4 o'clock in the winter's morning ! It is the chief commercial city of Kentucky, and lies on the south bank of the Ohio. The canal from Portland enables large steamers to come to the wharves. An extensive trade is carried on here, and there are manufactories of various descriptions, the facilities offered by the enormous water-power of the region assisting greatly in the development of this department of industry. There are numerous factories, foundries, woolen- and cotton-mills, flour-mills, etc. The population is about 47,000; in 1800 it was only 600. Kentucky is a very prosperous State.

THE VALUATION OF THE CITY

this year was $19,648,849-$8,875,259 in the Eastern District ; Western, $10,773,590.

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

CHAPTER X. THE EIGHTH DECADE.

1850-Statistics from the Census-Table of Manufactures- The Assessment-A New City Charter-The Cholera- The Earthquake-Death of Bishop Flaget and George Gwathmey-Medical Department of the Masonic Univer- sity of Kentucky-The Louisville Library-Extraordinary Case in Obstetrics-Jenny Lind in Louisville-Dr. Drake's Account of Sanitary Conditions Here. 1851-New City Charter-Cholera and Fire-Railroad Affairs-Supreme Court Decision-A Cold Spring-The Pork Business- Louisville Female Seminary-The Government Building- - The Public Schools-Masonic Lodges. 1852-Statistics of Population, etc .- History of Louisville Published-Its Ac- count of the City-Churches and Other Buildings-The Schools, Public, Professional, and Private-The Blind In- stitution-Health-Comparative Bills of Mortality-Mar- ket Houses-Newspapers and Periodicals-Trades and Professions-Commercial and Manufacturing Statistics- Quick Steaming -- Cold Winter-Printing-house for the Blind -- Kossuth Visits Louisville-Local Feeling Upon the Death of Clay and Webster-More Masonic Lodges- Foundation of the Scottish Rite. 1853-The Mechanics' Institute of Kentucky-Professor Butler Killed by Matt F. Ward-Ward's Trial-Indignation and Riot Over the Result-Municipal Affairs-More Rapid Steaming-Hot Weather. 1854-Cholera Again -- Premiums Taken in Louisville-Valuation-Pork-packing - New Bank Pro- posed-Bank Panic-Activity in Politics-River Matters -- Filibustering-Ex-President Fillmore's Visit-The Water- works. 1855-Bank Dividends-River Frozen Over- Gigantic Horse-State Conventions-Contest for the Mayoralty-Purchase of a Wharf-Assessment-Election Riot. 1856-Ohio River Closed Fifty-three Days-Death of "Old Ben Duke "-Bridge Company-Falls Channel Deepened-Candles from Cannel Coal-Medical School Burned-Assessment-Grants to Railroads-High Schools Opened. 1857-Cold Weather-Large Fire-Public Din- ner to James Guthrie-Edward Everett's Lecture-Exhibi- tion of the United States Agricultural Society-Another Bank Flurry-Musical Fund Society-Population and Other Statistics-Citizen Guards-Another Riot-Editorial Street Fight-Editorial Duel. 1858-Bank Affairs- Troops for Utah-Revival of Religion-Tobacco Show -- Fire Department-Woodlawn Race-course-The Great Artesian Well-Charles Mackay's Visit. 1859-Mr. Deer- ing's Book on Louisville: Her Commercial, Manufactur- ing, and Social Advantages-His Report of the City in Many Particulars-Fortunate Sale of Railroad Bonds-The Kentucky Giant Dies -Bank Shares Sold-" Prenticeana" Published.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 58

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