USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 61
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The assertion that Louisville is destined very soon to be- come distinguished also as a cotton market may excite some surprise among those who have not had their attention called to this matter. But that this is a fact can readily be shown to the most skeptical.
Louisville also deserves consideration as a market for pork. This market, though perhaps less in extent here than in some other Western cities, is steadily increasing in the amount of its operations and rapidly growing into favor with dealers. . . The meat put up here is surpassed in quality by none in the world, and when the facilities of transportation referred to in the above remarks upon cotton are established, the growth of this city as a pork market will be yet more rapid than it has before been. There are at present eight large pork-houses in the city. The importance of Louisville as a pork market is well enough known to need no further elaboration of its merits in these pages.
The manufacturing interests of Louisville come now to claim their share of attention. And it is somewhat singular that, with the resources and capacity of this city as a place for manufactures, there should be so little to boast of in this regard. Of her commercial statistics, as has already been shown, Louisville has abundant cause to be proud, but she has at the same time reason to regret the little use which bas
heretofore been made of her immense advantages as a manu- facturing point. It is not to be denied that there are many excellent manufacturing establishments in and around the city, but the number is greatly below what is needed and greatly disproportioned to the advantages offered here. There are many reasons why this city should hold prominent rank as a place for manufactures. The facilities in the way of water-power, the immense surface of level and highly pro- ductive country by which it is surrounded, the cheapness of rents and of building lots, and the advantages for placing the manufactured article in market, are among the most proni- nent of these reasons.
May 18th of this year, the largest business in tobacco ever transacted in any one day to that date was done. The sales amounted to two hun- dred and forty-four hogsheads, at $1.80 to $7.05 per hundred weight, the latter price being paid for the superior Mason county product.
The same month the steamer Eclipse eclipsed all other runs from New Orleans to Louisville by reaching the Falls in four days and eighteen hours running time. Soon afterwards the Rein- deer arrived, having made the same trip in four days, twenty hours, and forty-five minutes. May 27th a trial-trip was made by the Allegheny, of the Pittsburg and Cincinnati packet-line, from Louisville to Cincinnati, in ten hours and five minutes. The run to Madison was made in three hours and twenty minutes.
THE WINTER
of 1851-52 was severely cold. On the night of January 19th snow fell so heavily as to create a blockade on the Louisville & Lexington railroad. The Ohio closed that night for the second time during the season-the first instance of the kind within civilized memory. The thermometer was below zero all day, and at midnight was reported 30° below. Colonel Durrett's historical essay on the cold seasons of the past century, however, does not allow more than 11º below for the se- vere cold of this winter.
PRINTING-HOUSE FOR THE BLIND.
A beginning was made this year of the Ameri- can Printing-house for the Blind, located at the Blind Institution. It has since become an im- portant establishment, supplying books for Eu- ropean as well as domestic sales. In 1878 the General Government made it an appropriation of $250,000 in United States securities, the inter- est alone to be applied to its support and gradual increase in usefulness.
AN ORPHAN ASYLUM.
The German Protestant Orphan Asylum was
31I
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
founded this year, in a building upon the south side of Jefferson street, between Nineteenth and Twentieth.
KOSSUTH'S VISIT.
During most of this year the Hungarian pa- triot and would-be liberator, Louis Kossuth, was in this country. He spent two weeks of Febru- ary in and about Cincinnati, during which time several attempts were made to prevail upon the Louisville authorities to tender him a public re- ception here. On the 26th of that month the Board of Aldermen refused for the fifth time to extend him an invitation to visit the city. He came, nevertheless, and the following is an ac- count of the visit, from the book, Sketches of American Society in the United States, after- wards published by his traveling companions, Francis and Theresa Pulzsky :
From Madison we went down the Ohio to Louisville, the flourishing commercial metropolis of Kentucky, and arrived amongst the sons of those mighty hunters who snuffed a can- dle with a ball of their rifle at fifty yards distance, and when shooting a squirrel, on the oak trees, shivered the bark imme- diately underneath the animal, so as to kill it by the concus- sion without injuring the skin. The Kentuckians are known as a hearty, bold, and disinterested people, fond of sport, and in love with their State. The New Englanders and New Yorkers say that they never met a Kentuckian who did not think his State a terrestrial paradise; his wife is always the prettiest, his horse the best, his house. the most comfortable in the Union. They certainly are the most amiable compan- ions, and their healthy and athletic appearance leaves no doubt that on the turf and the battle-field they are ahead of either the Westerners or Southerners. The estates are here larger than in the neighboring Western States, and the "almighty dollar" seems to have fewer worshippers than in the East, but of course the dollar is also scarce.
Kossuth was not invited to Louisville by the civic authori- ties. The common council had drawn up an invitation for him, but the aldermen and the mayor did not share its opin- ions; they were "Silver Greys," and, though frequently appealed to by the common council, they withheld their assent to a step which might imply that they approved of revolutions. The "peculiar institution" makes people strongly conservative. But Kentuckian cordiality could not bear that Kossuth should pass through the United States without visiting the "dark and bloody ground." A popular meeting was held; Colonel Preston, a wealthy planter, took the lead, and the people of Louisville at large invited us to the "Falls City." Though the civic authorities took no part in the proceedings, the militia turned out, cannons were fired, and the firemen's bells pealed when we arrived. We saw that the people is accustomed here to act for itself.
In the hotel we were waited upon by slaves of all colors. One of them was nearly black, yet his hair was glossy like that of an Indian, and I saw that he was proud of his distinc- tion; he had braided it like a lady. Another was almost white, but his fiery red hair was woolly. To give him pleas- ure I asked him if he was an Irishman, but he replied proud- ly, "I am an American." The mistress of the house told me
that they had seven slaves and four little ones, for her hus- band never separated families. I immediately perceived that she was English, for she refused to sit down in our presence. This is striking here in America, where the hotel-keepers are nearly all colonels and generally behave as if they bestowed hospitality on their guests, not as if they were paid for their trouble.
On the 5th [March] we heard a very creditable concert in the Mozart's Hall, and when we returned to our lodgings, we had again a serenade of the Germans. But lo ! bells are ringing, the alarm is given, the firemen rush through the streets, con- fusion ensues, The serenaders, however, are not disturbed; they merrily sound their trumpets and horns-people are accustomed to seeing their houses burnt; they are insured !
On the 6th we took a ride with Colonel and Mrs. Preston, and Mr. and Mrs. Holt, who, during our stay, were hospit- ably kind to us. We were astonished at the expanse of Louisville, which, we were told, twenty-four years ago was but an insignificant town. The streets are broad, the brick houses substantial, with neat front and back gardens, car- riages are numerous, negro footmen wear liveries ; everything looks more aristocratical than economical.
We proceeded to the churchyard. It is the promenade of Louisville, very prettily laid out. The American cities rarely contain square or public gardens, but the churchyard is gen- erally hke a park, and used as such. The Romans also buried their dead along the roads, but not before having pre- viously burnt the corpses. The people of Louisville, how- ever, seem now to become aware that a promenade on the burial-ground is not conducive to health. Close to the churchyard, on a slight elevation, there is a lovely little wood, with a very fine view of the city, the Ohio, and the hilly coun- try around. The spot is the property of Colonel Preston, who told us that the city authorities are likely to buy it for a public resort.
The house of Mr. Holt, where an elegant breakfast awaited us, is a snug home in the English style, with European pic- tures, French china, and New York furniture, much more comfortable than any of the abodes we had visited since we left Baltimore. Great many people live here in their houses, not in their offices.
CLAY AND WEBSTER DIE.
A profound sensation was created in Louis- ville on two occasions this year, by the death of the great Whig leaders, Clay and Webster-the former at Washington City June 29th, and the latter at his Marshfield home October 25th. The obsequies of both were suitably observed in Louisville. On the 29th of September the Hon. John J. Crittenden delivered a thrilling eulogy on Mr. Clay in the Frankfort railroad depot here to an immense audience, of whom it is computed three thousand were ladies. On the 26th of October, the day after Mr. Webster's death, a large meeting of citizens was held, at which suitable resolutions were passed, and an invitation was extended to Rufus Choate, the eloquent Boston orator and intimate friend of the Great Expounder, to visit Louisville and pronounce a eulogy upon his life and character.
312
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
MORE MASONIC LODGES.
In August, 1852, Tyler Lodge, No. 241, Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered. Mr. S. W. Vanculin was the first Master. In August of the next year Excelsior Lodge, No. 258, and Robinson Lodge, No. 266, were chartered. James C. Robinson was first Master of the latter, and J. A. Hutcheson of the former.
August 20, 1852, is the date of the foundation of the Ancient and Accepted or Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which occurred in Louisville at that date. Its originators, who composed the first corps of officers, were: Henry Weedon Gray, grand commander in chief; Henry Hud- son, first lieutenant commander ; John H. Howe, second lieutenant commander; Isaac Cromie, grand treasurer; Fred Webber, grand secretary; Lewis Van White, grand chancellor; C. Boer- wanger, grand guard.
Mr. Collins adds, in the sketch of Free Ma- sonry in his History :
These composed the Grand Consistory of 32°, or Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret-which body supervises and con- trots the subordinate bodies of the Rite, viz: Lodges of Per- fection, 14º, Councils of Princes of Jerusalem, 16°, Chapters of Rose Croix, 18°, Councils of Knights Kadosh, 30°; and is itself subordinate only to the Supreme Council of 33 . . degree.
The membership in Kentucky is small-not quite two hundred in 1873-and its progress has been slow, but sure.
THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.
The Mechanics' Institute of Kentucky was or ganized in Louisville this year, March 25, with its office and library on Fourth street, between Market and Jefferson. It was regularly char- terd March 8, 1854. Mr. William Kaye was President, George W. Morris Vice President, J. B. Davis Recording Secretary, J. O'Leary Cor- responding Secretary, and George Ainslie Treas- urer. In 1857 it had accumulated a library of about 5,000 volumes, which had 1,200 readers. The Institute supported a course of lectures and a school, gave annual exhibitions, and was in its time a useful adjunct to culture and lit- erary entertainment in the city.
PROFESSOR BUTLER KILLED.
One of the saddest and most startling trage- dies that ever occurred upon any part of the Dark and Bloody Ground was enacted in Louis-
ville this year at a private school-building upon Chestnut street. Professor William H. G. But- ler, Principal of the school, had disciplined a young brother of Matthew F. Ward, a high- spirited youth belonging to one of the most prominent families in the city. The two broth- ers went together to the school the next day, November 2, 1853, to discuss the matter with Butler, and in the altercation which ensued Ward shot the schoolmaster with a pistol in the left breast, causing his death the ensuing day. A prodigious excitement was produced in the city by the affair, and such was the current of feeling that the attorneys of Ward thought a change of venue advisable, and the case was accordingly tried in the Circuit Court of Hardin county, at the spring term of 1854. A large and notable array of counsel was present upon both sides. For the Commonwealth appeared the Public Prosecutor, Alfred Allen of Breckenridge county, T. W. Gibson of Louisville, Sylvester Harris of Elizabethtown, and Robert B. Carpenter of Covington. For the defendant appeared John L. Helm, James W. and R. B. Hays of Elizabeth- town, George Alfred Caldwell, Nathaniel Wolfe, and Thomas W. Reiley, of Louisville, and Thomas F. Marshall, of Versailles. The de- fense derived chief strength, however, and very likely success, from the volunteered services of the eminent Whig lawyer and statesman, the Hon. John J. Crittenden, who gave his great powers freely and devotedly to the procurement of a verdict of acquittal. The Commonwealth's attorney, Mr. Allen, in his closing address to the jury, remarked that he thought no one man in a whole lifetime could make two such speeches as that just before heard from Mr. Crittenden's lips. The result, after a trial of more than a week, be- ginning April 18th, and closing on the 27th, at- tended by overwhelming crowds from the begin- ning, was a verdict of "not guilty." The second day after this finding an immense indignation meeting was held in Louisville. We give its proceedings in the words of Mr. Collins :
April 29th, over eight thousand people, in a public meet- ing at Louisville, in resolutions read by Bland Ballard, chairman of the committee on resolutions (John H. Harney, Dr. Theodore S. Bell, William D. Gallagher, William T. Haggin, Edgar Needham, and A. G. Munn) denounce "the verdict of the jury in the Hardin Circuit Court, by which Matt. F. Ward was declared innocent of any crime in the killing of William H. G. Butler, as in opposition to all the evidence in the case, contrary to our ideas of public justice,
HAIDEN T. CURD.
1
313
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
and subversive of the fundamental principles of personal security, guaranted by the Constitution of the State." After the committee had left the room, other resolutions were car- ried, requesting Matt. F. Ward and his brother (indicted with him, as accessory) to leave the city, and two of their counsel (Nat. Wolfe, Esq., and Hon. John J. Crittenden) to resign their seats in the Senate of Kentucky and the United States Senate, respectively. In the streets, a mob burned the effigies of John J. Crittenden and Nat. Wolfe, of George D. Prentice, editor of the Journal (who had testified in court as to the character and manners of Ward), of Matt. F. Ward himself, and of the Hardin county jury which had acquitted him. It then surged to the elegant mansion of Robert J. Ward (father of Matt. F. Ward), which was stoned, the windows destroyed, the beautiful glass conservatory, full of the rarest plants and flowers, demolished, and the house set on fire in front; the firemen soon arrested the flames, despite the resistance of part of the mob. It then surged to the Journal office and to the residence of Nat. Wolfe; but the determined efforts of a few leading citizens succeeded in checking its fury before much damage was done. The Mayor had announced to the crowd in the Court-house that the persons against whom popular feeling was directed, had left the city with their families, and their houses and property were under the protection of the city authorities. Nohle Butler, brother of the deceased, had issued a card to the people of Lonisville, appealing to them in strong terms to stay the thought and hand of violence, and to act calmly and prudently.
The case was widely discussed in the news- papers of the country, and for a time even the venerable Mr. Crittenden was treated with marked disrespect wherever he appeared away from home. He was nevertheless re-elected to the United States Senate the next January. Mr. Ward found a temporary refuge at New Orleans, whence he issued a card May 15th, "to the ed- itors of the United States," asking them not to prejudge his case, but to wait until the testimony and the arguments of counsel, officially reported, should be laid before the country. They were printed shortly after, in a thick pamphlet, by the Appleton publishing-house, of New York. July IIth, during another session of the court at Elizabethtown, four of the jurymen in the Ward case were indicted for perjury by the grand jury ; but were never convicted of the crime.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
On the 12th of May the City Council passed an order submitting to a vote of the people a proposition to endorse in the name of the city the bonds of the Louisville & Frankfort Railroad Company to the amount of $500,000, for the construction of a branch line from Frankfort to Harrodsburg. The Council voted to subscribe $300,000 to aid the extension of the line beyond Harrodsburg towards Knoxville, Tennessee.
In December the Hon. James Guthrie, of Louisville, now Secretary of the United States Treasury, says in his Annual Report that the ten thousand shares constituting the capital stock of the Louisville & Portland Canal Company have been so far bought up that only three thousand seven hundred and twelve remain, of which two thousand nine hundred and two belong to the United States and eight hundred and ten to private parties. He thought that in one year more these would be absorbed, and the United States become the sole stockholder. Only enough tolls were now to be collected to pay ex- penses and repairs of the canal.
April 4th of this year, school bonds of the city, to the amount of $75,000, were bought by August Belmont, of New York, American agent of the Rothschilds, at ninety-eight and one-half cents on the dollar.
The valuation of the year was $17,936,301 for the Western District, $13,847,048 for the East- ern, and $31,783,349 for the whole city, an in- crease, against the assessment of the year before, of $6,036,565, or nearly twenty-four per cent.
The semi-annual dividend of the bank of Louisville, declared January 3, was four and one- half per cent. and two and one-half extra. The Bank of Kentucky declared five per cent. The stock of this bank sold in Philadelphia the next week at $1.09 on the dollar, and in Febru- ary at $1.1012, the Northern Bank of Kentucky stock at the same time bringing $1.1172 and $1.14.
MORE QUICK STEAMING.
May 18th, the steamer Eclipse, which made the quick run from New Orleans to Louisville the preceding May, surpassed her former time by reaching the Falls in four days, nine hours, and thirty minutes, running, too, against a rise in the Mississippi river. Four days afterwards the A. L. Shotwell reaches Louisville in four days, nine hours, and twenty-nine minutes, only one minutes less than the time of the Eclipse.
Mr. Collins, in his Annals, presents the fol- lowing tabular view of voyages from New Orleans to Louisville, reputed quick, between 1817 and 1868:
YEAR.
D.
H. M.
1817-Enterprise
25
2 40
1817-Washington
25
. . ..
1819-Shelby
20
4 20
1828-Paragon
18
10 ..
40
.
314
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
YEAR.
D. H. M.
1834-Tecumseh
8
4 . .
1837-Tuscarora
7
16
1837-Sultana
6
15
1837-Express
6
17
. .
1840-General Brown
6
22
1842-Ed. Shippen
5
1.4
1843-Belle of the West
5
14
. .
1844-Duke of Orleans.
5
23
. .
1849-Sultana
5
I2
1851-Bostona
5
8
. .
1852-Belle Key
4 20
1853-Reindeer.
1
45
1853-Eclipse
4
9
40
1853-A. L. Shotwell
1
9 29
1853-Eclipse
4
9
30
1868-Dexter
4
22 40
HOT WEATHER.
The people of Louisville suffered much from warm weather this year. On the 29th of June the thermometer ranged from ninety-eight to one hundred and three degrees in the shade.
1854.
There was a slight revisitation of the cholera in October, eight persons dying of it in Louis- ville on the 28th and 29th of that month.
Among the premiums awarded to Kentucky exhibitors at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of the previous year in New York, was one to Messrs. Hayes, Craig & Company, of Louisville, for their display of hats and caps; one to Robert Usher, of the same city, for his exhibit of beef, hams, and spiced meats ; and one to Miss Ellen Anderson, also of Louisville, for a remarkable patchwork quilt. These were first premiums in all cases, no second ones being awarded.
The valuation of the year, for the tax levy, was: In the Western District, $18, 156, 123; Eastern District, $14, 125,231 ; total, $32,281,354.
The pork-packing of the season, 1853-54 was very large, amounting in the aggregate to 407,- 775 hogs and 124,879 barrels, or 15,847,284 pounds. That of 1854-55 amounted to 283, 788 hogs, or 65, 102 barrels, equal to 8,915,546 pounds.
A bill was passed by the Legislature in Febru- ary, granting a charter to the Planters' and Man- ufacturers' Bank at Louisville, with a capital of $2,600,000, and privilege of increasing it to $3,- 600,000, also to establish branches at Eddyville, Hawesville, Glasgow, Elizabethtown, Shelbyville, Cynthiana, Winchester, Barboursville, and Cat-
lettsburg. It was vetoed by the Governor, and its friends were not strong enough to secure its passage over the veto, though the vote was close.
The latter part of October there was a great bank panic in the West, accompanied by many failures. On the 27th the banking house of Messrs. G. H. Monsarrat & Co., of Louisville, suspended payment, as it alleged, "in conse- quence of the perfidy of a confidential agent." Within four months the Kentucky banks -with- drew more than half their notes in circulation. A single broker in Louisville drew from the Bowling Green, Russellville, Princeton, and Hop- kinsville branches of the Bank of Kentucky, the total amount of $140,000 in specie. It was a genuine financial flurry, during which, however, most of the Kentucky banks stood firm, and their notes became the standard bank funds throughout the West.
It was an active year in politics. At the Au- gust election for county officers the Know-Noth- ing ticket was successful in Louisville, as well as in some other Kentucky cities and towns. A State convention of the same organization is understood to have been held secretly in the city in early November. The State Temperance con- vention met at Louisville December 14, and nominated George W. Williams for Governor and James G. Hardy for Lieutenant-Governor.
The steamboat Jacob Strader made a notable run from Louisville to Madison May 6, getting over the distance in three hours and nineteen minutes, the quickest ever made between the two points. A few days before, this steamer and the Alvin Adams, eager rivals in the Cincinnati trade, left Louisville together at 3 P. M., and reached Madison in three hours and thirty-nine minutes, with their guards overlapping each other. The river was lower in September than at any time since October, 1838, when it was lower than was ever before known to the white man.
A filibustering expedition against Cuba was quietly organized in Louisville this year, number- ing about fifteen hundred men; but on the 19th of October Colonel John Allen, in a published card, announced that it had been disbanded for want of means.
April 25, a proposition to subscribe $250,000 to the stock of the Newport & Louisville railroad was voted down at the former place.
. .
315
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
The Hon. Millard Fillmore, of Buffalo, ex- President of the United States, visited Louisville March 16th. He was escorted by a great proces- sion from the depot to the Louisville Hotel, where the Mayor tendered him the freedom of the city, and where he subsequently partook of a public dinner.
October 25th, Mr. George D. Prentice, of the Louisville Journal, receives a public dinner at Memphis, Tennessee.
Madam Sontag, the celebrated prima donna, gave her first concert in Louisville January 17th.
Preston Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Masons, named in honor of the Hon. William C. Preston, was chartered in August. Smith Gregory was its first Master.
In May, forty-four freed blacks are shipped from Louisville down the river, en route to Liberia.
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