KEY TO KENTUCKY TOURS
1936
LEGEND
< MAIN TOUR
INDEPENDENT SIDE TOUR
DEPENDENT SIDE TOUR
END OF MAIN TOUK SECTIONS
O TOWN OR CITY
HORSE CAVE
CAVE CITY
CENTRAL BROWNSVILLE
CITY Q MAMMOUT
CAVE
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E N N E S S
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CITY
V A.
OR. THOMAS WALKER
STATE PARK
HENDERSON
SETTLEMENT
SCHOOL
KENTUCKY
A Guide to the Bluegrass State
KENTUCKY
A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers 9 Project
of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Kentucky
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
ILLUSTRATED
Sponsored by the University of Kentucky
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1939, BY THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
All rights are reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
parts thereof in any form.
first published in October,
PRINTED IN U.S.A. BY QUINN & BODEN COMPANY, INC.
FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
F. C. HARRINGTON, Commissioner
FLORENCE KERR, Assistant Commissioner
GEORGE H. GOODMAN, Administrator,
Kentucky Work Projects Administration
Foreword
The American Guide Series, when completed, will include a guide-
book for every State in the Union. As each State studies and describes
its history, natural endowments, and special interests, the paradox of
diversity and homogeneity will become apparent. For each State has
a special personality due to its topography, people, and culture, while
certain qualities and interests bind all the States together.
These guidebooks will find place in schools, colleges, and libraries;
and private individuals will consult them for information available
elsewhere only in word-of-mouth tradition or obscure archives and
files. For these volumes are more than simply guidebooks: they are
wide-angle reference books as well. And this is not to say that the
guide aspect has been neglected to be reassured on this point one
needs only to read with attention one of the many tours included.
The account of Kentucky's settlement and of the brave adventure
of its great men has brought romance and charm to novels, poems,
and stories which have carried the name of Kentucky far and wide
and have endeared the State to many who live beyond its borders.
Readers have been harrowed by details of poverty and hard living,
or soothed by the picturesque. In the present guidebook they will
learn things about the State that will give them a more rounded and
balanced picture. Kentucky's culture, only a century and a half old,
has been enriched by the customs and traditions of other regions and
other lands. Kentucky was the crossroads of migration, both from the
seaboard and from Europe, as the pioneers moved west or south.
People flowed into the State, some to remain, some to continue their
journeys, but in either case they made a contribution. The traveler
today will find evidences not only of earlier white culture and of the
progress that has been made in the past fifty years, but also traces of
prehistoric occupation.
For many years I have been thinking about a book on the subject,
"Why are Kentuckians as they are?" I have thought of the early
pioneers, their contributions to Kentucky, the settlements they estab-
lished, the houses they built, and the civilization that was erected on
vii
Vlll FOREWORD
these foundations. It is a complicated and fascinating subject. The
present book furnishes a broad basis for knowing the State that every
Kentuckian loves so devotedly; moreover, it suggests again and again
the courtesy, the graciousness, and the charm of Jiving that are tradi-
tional here.
The articles in this book have described Kentucky scenes, resources,
and attitudes. Photographs and maps strengthen the written word.
The traveler will rejoice that touring routes have been planned to re-
veal the most significant aspects of the State, and the interest of his
journeys into Kentucky will be greatly enhanced if he has this book.
While the reader turns the pages let him remember that it is impos-
sible to say everything that he would wish said, or to say it as he would
wish it said. Anyone who knows the difficulty of bringing unity to a
guidebook will be pleased by the accomplishment of the State director
and of the staff writers. We are thankful that the Kentucky Guide is
a reality, and we are grateful to all those who have contributed their
time and talents to add to our pleasure and our understanding.
FRANK L. McVEY,
President, University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
July 1, 1939
Preface
A commonwealth, in its most vital aspects, expresses itself through
its people, whose characteristics distinguish but do not separate them
from their neighbors. The differences need not necessarily be ethnic,
but it is likely that speech and customs and points of view may be
traced to an ancestry, itself marked and enduring. This is evidently
the case with the people of Kentucky. It is not by idle chance that
they admit with pride, sometimes with arrogance, that they are not the
same as those who face them on the northern side of the Ohio River.
It follows that a guidebook to Kentucky should be something more
than pages devoted to its natural wonders, climate, products, and his-
tory. It should seek to catch that spirit, indefinable but very real,
which has transformed Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home"
into something like a national ballad, poignant and tender, with per-
sonal appeal for Kentuckians. To retain that atmosphere, to make
the Kentuckian, his land, and his background more understandable to
those outside the State, has been one endeavor in the present volume.
Another, and perhaps more useful purpose, has been to tell the Ken-
tuckian himself of the natural resources that are his heritage, to invite
him to take stock, as it were, of the opportunities which lie at his door.
But the State is well worth the attention of the visitor who travels
to enjoy and to learn. It is primarily rural, and its one large city,
Louisville, lies on the northern boundary. It has its "rocks and rills"
of surpassing beauty, the remains of an untamed wilderness. It is for
this reason most of all that this book, like its forty-seven companions,
includes numerous meticulously detailed tours through the State, care-
fully traveled and checked for accuracy. This section of the Guide
should be helpful to visitors and instructive for stay-at-homes.
The research and the industry which have gone into this work, can-
not be too gratefully acknowledged. The book is submitted with mod-
esty, and also with intimate satisfaction in the co-operation without
which it could never have been completed.
Specialists, many of whom volunteered their services, read and criti-
cized all copy prepared by the editorial staff; in some cases they pre-
ix
X PREFACE
pared the more technical articles. State representatives, formally ap-
pointed by several organizations, have been consulted in the prepara-
tion of the Guide. These include the Kentucky Chapter of the Ameri-
can Institute of Architects, the Association of American Railroads, and
the National Bus Traffic Association with the concurrence of the Na-
tional Association of Motor Bus Operators, and the American Hotel
Association.
The editors acknowledge with gratitude the help given by specialists
in various fields: Rexford Newcomb, Dean of the College of Fine Arts
and Applied Design, University of Illinois, who wrote the article Ken-
tucky Architecture; T. D. Clark, Department of History, University
of Kentucky, for the article Kentuckians , Who and What They Are;
C. J. Bradley and S. E. Wrather, Department of Agriculture, Univer-
sity of Kentucky; Grant C. Knight, Department of English, University
of Kentucky; Frank T. McFarland and Hansford T. Shacklette, De-
partment of Botany, University of Kentucky; Gordon Wilson and L. Y.
Lancaster, Western Kentucky State Teachers College; H. J. Thornton,
editor of the Louisville Board of Trade Journal; Andrew K. Rule,
Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville; and Kincaid Herr, asso-
ciate editor, L. & N. Magazine.
Acknowledgment for assistance in securing and preparing material
is also made to Joe Hart, Louisville Courier -Journal; C. W. Jackson,
Louisville Central Negro High School; M. E. Ligon, Department of
Education, University of Kentucky; Neil Plummer and Victor Port-
mann, Department of Journalism, University of Kentucky; Edward
W. Rannells, Department of Art, University of Kentucky; Lucien
Beckner, formerly a member of the State staff of the Federal Writers'
Project; Adele Brandeis, State Director of the Federal Art Project;
the Standard Printing Company, publisher of Mammoth Cave and the
Cave Region of Kentucky, for permission to use material; David W.
Maurer, Department of English, University of Louisville; Preston
Hinebaugh, Ohio Horse Breeders' Association; and Donald Kays, De-
partment of Animal Husbandry, Ohio State University. Many others,
too numerous to list, have assisted in various ways.
It is our hope that the interest and pride that all have taken in the
preparation of the Kentucky Guide will be justified.
U. R. BELL,
State Director
Contents
.FOREWORD BY FRANK L. MC VEY, President, University of Kentucky vii
PREFACE: State Director, Federal Writers' Project ix
GENERAL INFORMATION xxiii
CALENDAR OF EVENTS xxvii
Part I. Kentucky: The General Background
KENTUCKIANS 3
NATURAL SETTING 7
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 28
HISTORY 35
AGRICULTURE SO
TRANSPORTATION 56
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 60
LABOR 66
THE NEGRO 72
RELIGION 77
EDUCATION 83
FOLKLORE AND FOLK MUSIC 89
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 94
PRESS AND RADIO 102
THE ARTS HO
Part II. Cities and Towns
ASHLAND . 139
COVINGTON I 47
FRANKFORT 157
HARRODSBURG 168
LOUISVILLE 175
LEXINGTON i97
PADUCAH 221
xi
Xll CONTENTS
Part III. Highways and Byways
TOUR 1 (Portsmouth, Ohio) South Portsmouth Ashland Catlettsburg
Paintsville Prestonsburg Pikeville (Norton, Va.) . [US 23] 233
2 Winchester Stanton Jackson Hazard Junction with
US 119. [State 15] 242
3 (Cincinnati, Ohio) Newport Cynthiana Paris Lexington
Nicholasville Lancaster Somerset (Chattanooga, Tenn.) .
[US 27] 246
Section a. Ohio Line to Lexington 246
Section b. Lexington to Tennessee Line 253
4 (Cincinnati, Ohio) Covington Georgetown Lexington
Richmond Corbin Williamsburg ( Jellico, Tenn.) .
[US 25 and US 25W] 261
Section a. Ohio Line to Lexington 262
Section b. Lexington to Tennessee Line 266
4A Junction with US 25 Pineville Middlesboro Cumberland
Gap (Tazewell, Tenn.). [US 25E] 274
4s Corbin Cumberland Falls State Park Parker's Lake. [State 90] 279
5 Warsaw Frankfort Lawrenceburg Harrodsburg Danville
Jamestown Albany (Chattanooga, Tenn.). [State 35] 280
6 (Indianapolis, Ind.) Louisville Bardstown Hodgenville
Glasgow Scottsville (Nashville, Tenn.) . [US 31E] 288
7 (New Albany, Ind.) Louisville Elizabethtown Munfordville
Horse Cave Bowling Green Franklin (Nashville, Tenn.).
[US31W] 296
7A Cave City Mammoth Cave National Park Mammoth
Cave. [State 70] 309
8 (Evansville, Ind.) Henderson Madisonville Hopkinsville
Guthrie (Nashville, Tenn.). [US 41 and US 41E] 315
9 (Metropolis, 111.) Paducah Mayfield Fulton
(Martin, Tenn.). [US 45] 322
10 (Cairo, 111.) Wickliffe Bardwell Clinton Fulton
(Memphis, Tenn.). [US 51] 324
11 South Portsmouth Vanceburg Maysville Alexandria.
[State 10] 329
12 (Cincinnati, Ohio) Covington Warsaw Carrollton
Louisville. [US 42] 334
12A Junction with US 42 Butler Memorial State Park Owenton
Junction with State 40. [US 227] 341
13 Willow Falmouth Owenton New Castle Junction with
US 60. [State 22] 344
CONTENTS xiii
TOUR 14 (Aberdeen, Ohio) Maysville Georgetown Versailles Bards-
town Elizabethtown Central City Paducah. [US 62] 351
Section a. Ohio Line to Elizabethtown 351
Section b. Elizabethtown to Paducah 355
15 (Aberdeen, Ohio) Maysville Lexington Harrodsburg Bards-
town Hodgenville Cave City Bowling Green Paducah.
[US 68] 362
Section a. Ohio Line to Lexington 362
Section b. Lexington to Bowling Green 374
Section c. Bowling Green to Paducah 382
16 (Huntington, W. Va.) Ashland Owingsville Mount Sterling
Winchester Lexington Versailles Frankfort Louisville Hen-
derson Paducah Wickliffe ( Charleston, Mo.). [US 60] 387
Section a. West Virginia Line to Lexington 387
Section b. Lexington to Louisville 396
Section c. Louisville to Missouri Line 400
17 Warfield Paintsville Mount Sterling Georgetown
Junction with US 60. [State 40] 414
17A Paris Boonesboro Richmond. [US 227] 419
18 Junction with US 23 Hindman Somerset Columbia
Glasgow Junction with US 31W-68. [State 80] 424
19 (Williamson, W. Va.) Pikeville Jenkins Junction with
US 2SE. [US 119] 433
20 Burnside Monticello Albany Burkesville Glasgow. [State 90] 441
Part IV. Appendices
CHRONOLOGY 451
SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 462
INDEX 471
List of Illustrations
I. The Natural Setting 14
BREAKS OF SANDY (Caufield & Shook)
CUMBERLAND FALLS (Caufield & Shook)
CUMBERLAND GAP (Caufield & Shook)
KNOB COUNTRY (Caufield & Shook)
KENTUCKY RIVER PALISADES (Caufield & Shook)
SKYLINE NATURAL BRIDGE, CUMBERLAND NATIONAL
FOREST (Caufield & Shook)
LOOKING UP THE OHIO TOWARD CLOVERPORT (Caufield &
Shook)
THE KENTUCKY RIVER AT CAMP NELSON (Lafayette Studio)
ECHO RIVER IN MAMMOTH CAVE (Caufield & Shook)
GOTHIC AVENUE IN MAMMOTH CAVE (Caufield & Shook)
RUINS OF KARNAK IN MAMMOTH CAVE (Caufield & Shook)
CHIMNEY ROCK, NEAR DANVILLE (Caufield & Shook)
II. Historic Pages 28
DANIEL BOONE'S ARRIVAL WITH NORTH CAROLINIANS;
MURAL IN POST OFFICE, LEXINGTON (Painting by Ward
Lock-wood)
LINCOLN MEMORIAL, NEAR HODGENVILLE (Caufield &
Shook)
PIONEER MEMORIAL, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MEMORIAL (Caufield
& Shook)
OLD CAPITOL, FRANKFORT (Caufield & Shook)
THE CAPITOL, FRANKFORT (Aero-Graphic Corporation)
OLD FAYETTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LEXINGTON (La-
fayette Studio)
XV
Xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
INTERIOR FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME,"
NEAR BARDSTOWN (Caufield & Shook)
FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME" (Caufield &
Shook)
ASHLAND, HOME OF HENRY CLAY, LEXINGTON (Lafayette
Studio)
JOHN HUNT MORGAN HOME, LEXINGTON (Lafayette Studio)
JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LOUISVILLE (Caufield
& Shook)
III. Architecture 42
DIAMOND POINT, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
SHROPSHIRE HOUSE, GEORGETOWN (Lafayette Studio)
LIBERTY HALL, FRANKFORT (Cusick)
WILMORE GARRETT RESIDENCE, NEAR LEXINGTON
(Lafayette Studio)
MCAFEE HOUSE, NEAR HARRODSBURG (Simmons studio)
OLD KEENE PLACE, NEAR LEXINGTON (Lafayette Studio)
FAIR OAKS, NEAR HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
SCARLET GATE, HOME OF JAMES LANE ALLEN, NEAR
LEXINGTON (Lafayette Studio)
CLAY HILL, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
MANSION MUSEUM, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
CARNEAL HOUSE, COVINGTON (Rolsten Photo Service)
WICKLAND, BARDSTOWN (Caufield & Shook)
THE ORLANDO BROWN HOUSE, FRANKFORT (Caufield &
Shook)
STAIRWAY, OLD CAPITOL, FRANKFORT (Caufield & Shook)
IV. Industry: Transportation 56
WATER FRONT, LOUISVILLE (Caufield & Shook)
COAL MINER (Farm Security Administration)
MODERN COLLIERY (Bureau of Mines)
STRIP MINING (Caufield & Shook)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Xvii
COAL MINE (Farm Security Administration')
MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT COLUMBUS (Caufield & Shook)
ALONG THE PINEVILLE-HARLAN ROAD (Caufield & Shook)
DIX DAM, HERRINGTON LAKE (Aero-Graphic Corporation)
BARDSTOWN DISTILLERY (Caufield & Shook)
TOBACCO MARKET (Caufield & Shook)
MULE DAY (WPA Staff Photographer)
CHAIR MAKERS (Caufield & Shook)
V. Education and Religion 86
OLD CENTRE, CENTRE COLLEGE, DANVILLE (Simmons
Studio)
MOUNTAIN SCHOOL OF NATURAL STONE, A WPA PROJECT
(WPA in Kentucky)
BEREA COLLEGE, BEREA (Caufield & Shook)
KENTUCKY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, DANVILLE (Caufield &
Shook)
THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, AIRVIEW (Aero-Graphic
Corporation)
TRAPPIST MONASTERY, GETHSEMANE (Aero-Graphic Cor-
poration)
AUDUBON MUSEUM, HENDERSON (WPA in Kentucky)
GIDDINGS HALL, GEORGETOWN COLLEGE (Lafayette Studio)
GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN (Caufield & Shook)
DOORWAY TO GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN (Caufield &
Shook)
SHAKER CEREMONIES (Harrodsburg Herald)
SHAKER CEREMONIES (Harrodsburg Herald)
ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, BARDSTOWN (Caufield & Shook)
MUD MEETING HOUSE (c. 1806), NEAR HARRODSBURG
(Simmons Studio)
XV111 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VI. In the Bluegrass 244
ARISTOCRAT (Cau field & Shook)
CHURCHILL DOWNS, LOUISVILLE (Caufield & -Shook)
WAR ADMIRAL, WINNER OF THE 1937 KENTUCKY DERBY
(Caufield & Shook)
MAN O' WAR (Caufield & Shook)
COMING OUT OF PADDOCK, CHURCHILL DOWNS (Caufield
& Shook)
BLUE GRASS TROTTERS IN ACTION (Lafayette Studio)
ON DIXIANA FARM (Caufield & Shook)
STABLES AT ELMENDORF (Lafayette Studio)
IDLE HOUR STABLE (Lafayette Studio)
SPRING IN THE BLUE GRASS (Lafayette Studio)
BLESSING OF THE HOUNDS CEREMONY BY IROQUOIS
HUNT CLUB (Lafayette Studio)
GRIME'S MILL HOUSE, HEADQUARTERS OF IROQUOIS HUNT
CLUB (Lafayette Studio)
ROAD THROUGH THE BLUE GRASS COUNTRY (Lafayette
Studio)
A KENTUCKY PIKE (Caufield & Shook)
VII. Along the Highway I 274
GOLD DEPOSITORY, CAMP KNOX (Caufield & Shook)
FORT KNOX (Caufield & Shook)
INDIAN BURIAL GROUND, WICKLIFFE (Murray Hite)
BRYAN STATION SPRING, LEXINGTON (Caufield & Shook)
FORT HARROD, HARRODSBURG (Caufield & Shook)
FLOOD WATERS REACH STATUE OF CHIEF PADUKE,
PADUCAH (1937) (WPA in Kentucky)
COVERED BRIDGE, CYNTHIANA (Lafayette Studio)
OLD CANE RIDGE MEETING HOUSE (1792), NEAR PARIS
(Lafayette Studio)
WOOLRIDGE MONUMENTS, MAYFIELD (Murray Hite)
MT. LEBANON, NEAR PARIS (Lafayette Studio)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix
MINING TOWN (Farm Security Administration)
THE FAITH HEALER (U. S. Forest Service)
MINER'S HOME (Farm Security Administration)
CUMBERLAND FALLS LODGE (Caufield & Shook")
ELKHORN CREEK, NEAR LEXINGTON (Caufield & Shook)
VIII. Along the Highway II 304
TROUBLESOME CREEK DAM (Caufield & Shook)
IN THE LICKING RIVER VALLEY (Rolsten Photo Service)
SHEEP GRAZING (Caufield & Shook)
MOUNTAIN ROAD (Caufield & Shook)
THE PASTURE (Caufield & Shook)
CUTTING BURLEY TOBACCO (Caufield & Shook)
TOBACCO CURING (Caufield & Shook)
GRINDING SORGHUM CANE (Caufield & Shook)
BOILING SORGHUM (Caufield & S.hook)
MOUNTAIN CABIN (Caufield & Shook)
HOME IN CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS (Caufield & Shook)
HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK (Caufield & Shook)
HOME (Farm Security Administration)
BULLETIN BOARD OF FARMERS EXCHANGE, OWENSBORO
(Farm Security Administration)
List of Maps
KEY TO KENTUCKY TOURS front end paper
KENTUCKY STATE MAP back pocket
TRANSPORTATION reverse of State map
EASTERN MOUNTAINS 9
BLUEGRASS AND KNOB COUNTRY 17
PENNYRILE AND WESTERN COAL FIELDS 20 and 21
THE JACKSON PURCHASE 23
ASHLAND 145
COVINGTON 153
FRANKFORT 163
LOUISVILLE 187
LEXINGTON 203
LEXINGTON HORSE FARM TOUR 211
PADUCAH 227
General Information
(State map showing highways, and maps giving railroad, air,
bus, and water transport routes, in pocket inside back cover)
Railroads: Baltimore & Ohio R.R. (B&O); Chesapeake & Ohio Ry.
(C&O); Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. (Big Four,
N. Y. Central System) ; Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry.
(Monon Route); Frankfort & Cincinnati R.R. (F&C); Flemingsburg
& Northern R.R. (F&N); Illinois Central R.R. (1C); Louisville &
Nashville R.R. (L&N); Mobile & Ohio R.R. (M&O); Nashville,
Chattanooga & St. Louis Ry. (NC&St.L); Pennsylvania R.R. (PRR);
Southern Ry. (Southern) (see Transportation map).
Bus Lines: Blue Ribbon Lines, Gibbs Bus Line, Greyhound Lines,
Meadors & Allen, Mohawk Stages, and Southern Limited furnish
scheduled interstate service. Many other lines furnish intrastate
service.
Air Lines: American Airlines (Cleveland, Fort Worth, Los Angeles);
Eastern Airlines (Chicago, Miami) (see Transportation map).
Highways: Fifteen Federal highways. Even numbers run east and
west; US 60 is transcontinental. Odd numbers run north and south.
State highway patrolled. Gas tax 6#. (See State map for routes.)
Motor Vehicle Laws (digest): Maximum speed, 40 m.p.h., not en-
forced; greater speed permitted when practicable; residential sections
and curves, 20 m.p.h.; congested areas, 15 m.p.h. No licenses required
for nonresidents over 16 yrs. of age provided driver has a home State
license. Hand signals must be used.
Warning: Persons charged with operating motor vehicles in Louisville
while drunk or under the influence of liquor upon conviction will be
fined $19 and sentenced to nine days' imprisonment. From such penal-
ties the law allows no appeals, age, sex, color or social pretensions not-
withstanding. Sternly enforced.
xxiii
XXIV GENERAL INFORMATION
Prohibited: Operation of automobiles by persons under 16 yrs. of age
unaccompanied by person over 21 yrs. of age. Parking on highways
(see General Information for large cities for local traffic regulations).
Recreational Areas and Accommodations: Mammoth Cave National
Park (see Tours 7 and 6): two new modern hotels, rates from $1;
guides compulsory, available day and night, fee of $2 covers admission,
no tax; open all year; temperature in cave remains 54 F. throughout
year. Cumberland Falls State Park (see Tours 3 and 4), open
May 15-Oct. 1, overnight camping, 25^; State-owned DuPont Lodge,
rate per day from $2; Moonbow Inn, per day from $1.50; 15 cabins,
rate per day per couple $2, 75^ for extra lodgers; modern conveniences.
Butler Memorial State Park (see Tour 12), May 15-Oct. 1, boating
on Lake Butler 25^; fishing 25^; overnight camping 25^; cabins.
Columbus-Belmont State Park (see Tour 10): recreational facilities
and cabins. Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park (see Tour 4):
overnight camping 25^; fishing and swimming 25^; cabins, picnic
grounds, camping, all improvements. Pine Mountain State Park (see
Tour 4 A): open-air auditorium, picnic grounds, observation tower.
Natural Bridge State Park (see Tour 2): Hemlock Lodge, cabins, auto
bridge. Audubon Memorial State Park (see Tours 8 and 16): shelter
houses, picnic tables, tearoom and lake. Dawson Springs State Park
(see Tour 14): picnic grounds, trails, shelter house. Blue and Gray
State Park (see Tour 20): golf links, cabins, shelter houses, picnic
tables and ovens, lake. Pioneer Memorial State Park (see Tours 5
and 15) : museum, cabins in the fort, Lincoln Chapel. Blue Licks Bat-
tlefield State Park (see Tour 15): overnight camping 25^, museum,
open-air auditorium, trails. Cumberland National Forest: 992,605
acres; camps. Admission to recreational areas, adults 10^, children
S#, except Pioneer Memorial State Park adults 25^, children 10^ and
Blue Licks Battlefield State Park adults 1S#, children 5#; Cumber-
land National Forest, no charge.
General Accommodations: Few in eastern Kentucky except in larger
towns; adequate elsewhere in State.
General Service for Tourists: AAA in larger towns, also Courier- Journal
in Louisville. When road conditions are doubtful, information should
be obtained at nearest filling station, especially in eastern Kentucky.
GENERAL INFORMATION XXV
Poisonous Snakes and Plants: Rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cotton-
mouth moccasins are uncommon except in southern and northwest sec-
tion of the State and in cypress swamps. Poison ivy and poison sumac
common in wooded areas.
Climate and Equipment: Summer travelers should be prepared for very
warm weather, especially in July and August. Spring days are inter-
mittently cool and warm, with frequent showers and late snow flurries.
Topcoats needed. Winters generally cold, with heavy frosts and some-
times snow. In mountainous areas the snow glazes into dangerously
slippery ice and extreme caution is necessary, especially on the north
side of hills. Frozen dirt edges of mountain roads should be avoided.
Fish and Game Laws (digest) : Game fish defined as black bass, trout,
crappie, rock bass or goggle-eye.
Open Season for Fishing: All months except May.
Fishing License: Nonresident, $2.50. Seven-day nonresident fishing, $1.
Limits: Black bass and trout limit, 10 per day, not more than 20 in
possession at one time; unlawful under 11 in. Crappie limit IS per
day; not more than 30 in possession at one time; unlawful under
eight in.
Open Season for Hunting (dates inclusive): Quail, Nov. 24- Jan. 9;
wild turkey and imported pheasant protected at all times, no open
season; doves, 12 M. to 6 P.M., Sept. 1-Dec. 15; woodcock, Nov. 15-
Dec. 3 1 ; jacksnipe, wild duck, and wild geese, State law in conflict
with Federal regulations comply with Federal regulations. English
sparrows, great horned owl, sharp-shinned hawk, crow and crow-
blackbird, not protected; deer and elk protected at all times, no open
season; rabbit, Nov. 25-Jan. 9; squirrels, Aug. 1-Nov. 1; woodchuck
or ground hog, not protected; beaver, raccoon, mink, otter, skunk and
opossum lawful to kill Nov. 15-Dec. 31.
Hunting License: Nonresident, $10.50. Resident, $1.00.
Limits: Quail, 12 per day, season limit 75, penalty for violation $15
to $50 per quail; doves, 15 per day; woodcock, 6 per day, not over
24 in possession at one time.
Calendar of Events
(nfd means no fixed date)
Jan.
4th Mon.
nfd
nfd
Princeton
Louisville
Louisville
Feb.
3rd Mon.
Mayfield
Mar.
4th Mon.
Murray
Apr.
nfd
Bowling Green
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd Lexington
nfd Morehead
nfd Murray
last wk or 1st
wk of May Louisville
May 1st Sun.
Istwk
2dwk
2d Sat.
4th Sun.
Scottsville
Lexington
Louisville
Louisville
Benton
Farm Bureau Meeting
Band and Orchestra Clinic
Louisville Art Association
Exhibition
Mule Day
Mule Trading Day
Academic Music Festival
Physical Education Festival
Boy Scout Circus
Easter Monday Charity Ball
Junior League Fashion Show
Kentucky Education Asso-
ciation Meeting
State Spelling Bee (in con-
nection with K. E. A.
meeting)
Keeneland Races
Foster Festival
Academic Music Festival
Spring Meet at Churchill
Downs
Allen County Singing Con-
vention
University of Kentucky Gar-
den Day
Kentucky Derby Festival
Kentucky Derby, Churchill
Downs
Old Southern Harmony Sing-
ing Festival
XXVll
XXV111
CALENDAR OF
May
30
Paducah
nfd
Kentucky
nfd
Bowling Green
nfd
Lexington
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Pineville
late May or
early June
Pineville
June
7
Frankfort
12
Springfield
15
Parksville
July
Aug.
2d Sun.
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
4
16
Near Ashland
Covington
Paducah
Beaver Dam
Louisville
Bardstown
Harrodsburg
2d or 3d wk Louisville
nfd Louisville
nfd
nfd
nfd
Crestwood
Louisville
Near Henderson
Sept. 2d or 3d wk Louisville
last wk
nfd
Quicksand
Louisville
Boy Scout Circus
State Federation of Music
Clubs Meeting
Music Festival
High School Music Contests
Garden Tours
Kennel Club Spring Show
Music Festival and Band
Concert
Mountain Laurel Festival
Boone Day Celebration
Lincoln Marriage Festival
"Blessing of the Berries"
(festival in connection
with the raspberry crop)
American Folk Song Fes-
tival: Traipsin' Woman's
Cabin
Latonia Races
Strawberry Producers' Revel
Strawberry Carnival
Annual Board of Trade Out-
ing
Stephen Collins Foster Fes-
tival
Kentucky Pioneer Memorial
Celebration
Boat Regatta
State Tennis Tournaments
Kavanaugh Camp Meeting
Fall Market Week
Dade Park Races
State Fair, State Fair
Grounds
Fall Festival
Junior League Fashion Show
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
XXIX
Sept. nfd Middlesboro Tri-State Fair
nfd Stanford Historical Pageant
Oct. 1st wk Louisville No- jury Exhibition of Fine
and Practical Arts (for
Kentucky and Southern
Indiana)
1st Sun. Scottsville Allen County Singing Con-
vention
last wk Louisville Fall Meet at Churchill
Downs
nfd Barbourville Dahlia Show
nfd Lexington Annual Trotting Races
Nov. 11 Louisville Armistice Day Parade and
Celebration
last wk Lexington Tobacco Festival
Dec. nfd Louisville Associated Industries of
Kentucky Meeting
nfd Richmond Oratorio Music Festival
Parti
Kentucky: The General
Background
KENTUCKIANS
KENTUCKY is far from being a unified region. Though known
as the Bluegrass State, it divides into three sections which
differ as sharply in geography, culture, economic activity, and social
habit as if they were widely separated areas. These are the Blue-
grass, the Eastern Mountains, and Western Kentucky. Each is popu-
lated by people who have adjusted themselves to their environment,
and who in the process have developed habits and attitudes differing
markedly from those of their fellows in the other divisions. Literature
concerning Kentucky often fails clearly to identify the section which
forms its locale, and readers unacquainted with local conditions are
apt to mistake a single section for the State as a whole.
Except for Louisville, Kentucky has no large industrial centers. Most
of its 2,900,000 people dwell in small rural communities. Like other
agrarian folk they bear the mark of their association with the soil. The
rural Kentuckian, whether clad in faded overalls or imported woolens,
is an individualist. The rustic lolling at the street corners of towns and
villages may give every evidence of being lost or out of place; but try
to get the better of him in a trade and often he will prove master of
the situation. He may be ragged, dirty, and ignorant, but he is still
endowed with something of the unawed self-reliance and resourceful
wit of the pioneer.
Wherever a Kentuckian may be, he is more than willing to boast of
the beauties and virtues of his native State. He believes without reser-
vation that Kentucky is the garden spot of the world, and is ready to
dispute with anyone who questions the claim. In his enthusiasm for his
State he compares with the Methodist preacher whom Timothy Flint
heard tell a congregation that "Heaven is a Kentucky of a place."
After describing the material and cultural well-being of the State, the
Kentuckian is likely to begin on its brilliant history. But, unless he is
engaged in historical research, the native son's history of Kentucky does
not chiefly refer to the part played by the State in the westward expan-
sion of the Nation, to the frontier democracy established by pioneer
3
4 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
statesmen on Kentucky soil, or to the State constitution that was
framed at a time when it was difficult to gain majority approval for
any act of polity. The native son has not pursued his subject through
the trying decades of the nineteenth century, nor has he given much
thought to the State's role in the twentieth. History, to him, centers on
his family. When his ancestors crossed the Appalachians, the family
was the core of community life, and the Kentuckian has never lost sight
of the importance of his family attachment. His main personal concern
is his family's welfare. Many Kentuckians., especially women, spend
much time searching genealogical records, not to prove themselves
descended from prominent persons, but from sheer love of becoming
familiar with their personal pedigrees.
The Kentuckian's love of family is often illustrated in the way in
which politicians elected to office give public jobs to their kinsmen. In
many instances the victorious Kentucky politician honestly fails to
understand why there is anything blamable in such conduct. When a
kinsman needs a job, "nepotism" is only a word. And it is difficult to
place a limit on a Kentuckian's sense of kinsmanship. Parents, grand-
parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins are part of any
family pattern; but to the list of a Kentuckian's cousins there seems
no end. There are not only first and second cousins ; there are cousins
even to the tenth degree removed. It is sometimes said that every
mountaineer is related to every other mountaineer; but the same ob-
servation applies to a considerable extent to people everywhere in the
State.
Next to his family, a Kentuckian's home community occupies the
place of importance in his fancy. When viewed from a national stand-
point the State itself is of major importance, but on his home ground
a Kentuckian never forgets his native county. He may move to Lexing-
ton, Bowling Green, or Louisville during his mature years, but he con-
tinuously looks with reverence upon the place of his birth. Visitors to
many Kentucky communities will be impressed in finding there some
of the important relics of American history. Not only have local his-
torians and anthropologists collected important historical relics, but
they have also armed themselves with much historical information con-
cerning their community's place in history. A traveler can, if he is
lucky, locate the places where "D. Boon cilled a bar on this tree in
1760"; where John Fitch "invented" the steamboat; where Kit Carson
was born; where Joseph Bruen built a locomotive; where the first rail-
road of the West was built ; where scores of battles were fought ; where
KENTUCKIANS 5
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born; where "Uncle Tom"
was sold; where courthouses were scarred by bullets from feudists'
guns, and innumerable other points of interest. All of this colorful
background is grist to the local historians' mill, and it is used to good
advantage.
The average Kentuckian may appear a bit confused in his knowledge
of history, but he is firmly certain about current politics. Kentucky
cannot claim first place in political importance, but it tops the list in
its keen enjoyment of politics for its own sake. It takes the average
Kentuckian only a matter of moments to dispose of the weather and
personal health, but he never tires of a political discussion. Perhaps the
most obvious thing about Kentucky politics is the fact that there it is
a continuous campaign. Telegraph poles, fence posts, and trees are
seldom free of political posters. It is not at all unusual to see cam-
paign workers pulling the tacks out of old posters and using them in
nailing up new ones. If politics ceased to be practical, Kentuckians
would lose an excellent excuse for having community picnics, fried
chicken dinners, and fish fries. Even the famed Kentucky burgoo
would lose much of its flavor. Perhaps few indoor pastimes yield such
keen enjoyment as predicting the future turn of political affairs.
Notwithstanding the fact that its white population, like that of most
Southern States, is "Nordic," Kentucky's course in the Civil War was
unlike that of the South in general. The State persisted in remaining
neutral, while at the same time it contributed many soldiers to both the
Northern and the Southern armies. When the war ended, Kentucky
was left in a sharply divided state of mind. Where other Southern
States were unanimously Democratic, Kentucky's voters were divided
between the Democratic and Republican parties. This division still
prevails in varying degree, and at times lends an interesting complexion
to State politics.
In matters of culture Kentucky has been forced, with other Southern
States, to change its course completely. It was slow to adopt the idea
of public education, and it was not until after the Civil War that the
idea of common schools became thoroughly entrenched in the Kentucky
mind. There was no real antagonism to this idea before the war, but a
convincing precedent was lacking. When pioneer parents were rearing
large families on the frontier, they accepted the idea that their family
was solely their own responsibility, and that, if it was educated, they
had to pay the bill individually. Even yet there is opposition to public
schools on this ground. However, Kentucky has progressed to the
6 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
point of accepting common schools as a necessity. Not only has the
public school experienced its most progressive years since the war, but
so, likewise, have institutions of higher learning. The University of
Kentucky is a post-war institution, and so are teachers' colleges. Dur-
ing the past three decades the number of illiterates has been greatly
reduced. Where communities were once denied the privilege of public
education, they now have fairly well-equipped schools.
Where public schools have made rapid strides, other cultural agencies
have thrived. Towns and villages are establishing libraries and are
making available, through local and State agencies, literature which
heretofore had been denied to isolated readers. There are several insti-
tutions engaged in collecting and preserving historical materials and
Kentuckiana. These agencies are beginning to make up for the losses
which Kentucky has experienced in the past. Never before have Ken-
tuckians been so conscious of the cultural possibilities of their State.
Kentuckians have never neglected the pleasures of life. From the
time when his forebears hunted through the woods by day and danced
about the campfire at night, the Kentuckian has been a sporting,
pleasure-loving individual. Following the Civil War, travelers through
the State remarked that the trains were forever crowded with light-
hearted passengers either going to, or coming from, a dance. Racing,
baseball, and football have enjoyed considerable prestige. Horse racing
is accepted as a matter of fact. When natives of other States see Ken-
tuckians poring over racing forms on Saturday and crowding into
churches on Sunday, it is hard for them to understand the apparent
incongruity. Yet it is this devotion to both piety and pleasure which
is, perhaps, the most distinguishing characteristic of the people of
modern Kentucky.
NATURAL SETTING
KENTUCKY, lying on the western slope of the Alleghenies, is
bounded on the north by the northern bank of the Ohio River,
on the northeast and southeast by West Virginia and Virginia, on the
south by Tennessee, and on the west by the Mississippi River. Its
greatest length, east to west, is 425 miles; its greatest breadth 182
miles. The total area is 40,598 square miles, including 417 miles of
water surface.
"A peculiar situation exists at the extreme southwest corner," the
U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 817 states, "where, owing to a double
bend in the Mississippi River, there is an area of about 10 square miles
belonging to Kentucky that cannot be reached from the rest of the
State without passing through a part of Missouri or Tennessee."
The State's topographic variations are mainly the result of slow or
rapid erosion, according to the degree of resistance encountered in par-
ticular rock strata. The mountains in the sandstone region, the occa-
sional deep gorges or underground drainage systems in the limestone
area, and the swamp flats and oxbow lagoons in the far western part
of the State, indicate the force, extent, and direction of erosive proc-
esses. Reelfoot Lake, in the far southwest, resulted from the earth-
quake of 1811-12. It is the only lake of importance in Kentucky,
although the edge of the Highland Rim Plateau in the southwest is
pocked with numerous small bodies of still water. These are sinkholes
which have choked with vegetable matter and retained the water that
drained into them.
The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers flow west and south, and form the
State's main drainage channel. The Cumberland River, except for a
small portion in the south-central region, the Big Sandy, the Licking,
the Kentucky, the Green, the Tradewater, and the Tennessee Rivers
follow the general northwest slope of the Allegheny Plateau. About
3,000 miles of river course are navigable.
Kentucky has six natural physiographic regions: (1) Mountain, (2)
7
8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Knobs, (3) Bluegrass, (4) Pennyrile, (5) Western Coal Field, and (6)
Purchase.
The Mountain region, containing 10,450 square miles, is the remains
of a great westerly sloping plateau which has been cut by streams into
a region of narrow valleys lying between sharp ridges. The Cumber-
land and Pine Mountain ranges, near the southeastern border, are
"erosion" mountains carved from the upturned edges of hard sand-
stone. Between them lies the Middlesboro Basin, in which are the
State's highest mountains. Here are the Cumberland and Pine Moun-
tain ranges, with the Little and Big Black Mountain ranges between.
The highest point in the State is at Big Black Mountain, 4,150 feet
above sea level, in Harlan County on the southeastern boundary line.
To the west and northwest the mountain crests gradually lower until
they merge with the uplands of the Bluegrass and the Pennyrile; the
elevation drops from about 2,000 feet in the southeast to less than 800
feet along the western rim. The lowest point in the State is 257 feet
above sea level, near Hickman in Fulton County, at the extreme south-
west.
The larger streams in the Mountain region have some wide flood
plains with alluvial and rock terraces. Wind gaps, such as Cumberland
Gap, and the water gaps, like the Breaks of Sandy, are of frequent
occurrence. The surface rocks are sandstones and shales, with practi-
cally no limestones. The valley soils are deep and yield excellent crops.
Soils on the ridges are thin and easily washed away during cultivation.
The Knobs region is bounded on the inner side by the rolling Blue-
grass downs, and on the outer by the escarpments at the edge of the
mountain region in the east, and of the Pennyrile in the west. It has
the appearance of an irregular plain out of which rise many erosive
remnants of the Mountain and Pennyrile plateaus. The knoblike
shapes frequently seen in these remnants have suggested the name of
the region. The escarpments, also considered part of the Knobs, rise
from 200 to 500 feet above the drainage and cover an area of about
2,200 square miles. The Kentucky and the Ohio Rivers are the only
navigable streams here. The soils, composed largely of weathered
shales, erode rapidly when cultivated, and for this reason large areas
remain wooded. While not rich, they will yield good crops under
proper cultivation. The larger part of the Cumberland National Forest
lies in the eastern Knobs.
Within the encircling arms of the Knobs on one side, and the Ohio
River on the other, lies the Bluegrass region, about 8,000 square miles
io KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
in extent. It is a gently rolling upland, from 800 to 1,000 feet above
sea level. Almost everywhere it is cleared of its original forests and is
either cultivated or in pasturage. A few open, grass-swarded wood-
lands remain, especially around the more pretentious manors ; and there
are uncleared glens and dells where the smaller streams fall rapidly
from the high downs to the main streams.
This region is divided into three sections, differentiated by their un-
derlying Ordovician limestone : the inner Bluegrass, the Eden shale belt,
and the outer Bluegrass. The first, about 2,400 square miles, has the
richest soils due to the underlying limestones with their high phosphate
content. Its surface is very gently rolling. The second, about 2,500
square miles, lies as a broad belt around the inner Bluegrass, and is
underlain by limestone not so rich in phosphorus, and with a large
shale and silica content. Its soils, while good, are easily eroded, pro-
ducing steep slopes and V-shaped valleys. The third is like the first,
but the soils on the whole are not quite so rich.
The large area lying at the southern end of the central plain, of which
the Bluegrass region is the northern section, is known as the Pennyrile.
Pennyrile takes its name from the local pronunciation of Pennyroyal,
an annual plant of the mint family, which grows luxuriantly in this
region. It comprises about 7,800 square miles, and is separated from
the valleys of the western Knob and southern Mountain regions by an
escarpment which, in the Knob area, is called Muldraugh's Hill. The
eastern portions of the region rise 600 and 700 feet above sea level, but
they drop gradually on the west to about 400 or 500 feet, as they ap-
proach the Purchase in the southwest and the western coal fields along
the Ohio. The streams cut broad valleys except in the karst or sink-
hole areas, where only the larger streams flow on the surface.
The scenery of the Pennyrile is varied from gently rolling farm lands
to cliffs and scarps, and from open fields to forested rocky hillsides.
The sinkhole part of the region was originally known as the Barrens,
because the first settlers found it almost completely lacking in trees and
were unable to discover water for themselves and their stock. The lack
of trees was the result of continual forest burnings by the Indians to
make grasslands upon which the buffalo might feed, and the water
scarcity was caused by underground drainage. Neither condition re-
sulted from any barrenness of soil. After white men gained control of
the region, it was reforested.
Waters, either surface or underground, are abundant. In the under-
ground drainage courses are thousands of miles of subterranean pas-
NATURAL SETTING II
sages including Mammoth Cave. The soils are principally residual,
varying from sandy and silt loams in the east to the limey, phosphorous
soils in the west. Frequent coatings of loess or windblown deposits are
found on the uplands, and alluvial clays or gravels along the Tennessee
and Cumberland Rivers.
The Western Coal Field, an area of about 4,680 square miles, is
bounded on the north by the Ohio River and elsewhere by the Penny-
rile. The region is characterized by sandstone and wooded ridges, rock
shelters, and cliffs. However, the proportion of level lands is so much
greater that the Western Coal Field in some places resembles the prairie
States. Some valuable timber remains and there are large areas in
which second growth timbers are flourishing. On the uplands the soil
is a yellow silt loam, thin where hilly, but deeper elsewhere. Trans-
ported soils cover the bottom lands.
The Purchase (2,569 square miles), so named from the fact that it
was bought from the Chickasaw Indians, is bounded by the Tennessee,
Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, and the Tennessee State Line. The gen-
eral topographic relief is the lowest in the State. Gently rolling up-
lands and wide flood plains are the rule along the larger streams.
Stream bluffs, cypress swamps, oxbow lagoons, and an occasional deep
erosive gully are common sights. The soft rocks of the region erode
rapidly. Transported soils cover the Purchase except in a narrow strip,
just west of the Tennessee River, where residual soils are found.
Yellow-brown silt loam is prevalent.
The average annual rainfall in Kentucky is about 45 inches, which
places the State within the humid belt so important for agriculture
and manufacturing. The climatic changes from north to south account
for a difference of approximately one week in the growing seasons. Pe-
riods of excessive rainfall or drought are rarely great enough to effect
serious damage to crops.
The climate of the whole State is temperate and healthful. The
mean annual temperature is around 60 F. In the summer months it
ranges from 75 F. in eastern Kentucky to 78 F. in the west; and in
the winter around 36 F. in all sections. Temperatures of 100 F. are
very rare, but marks of 80 F. and above have occurred even in mid-
winter. Below-zero temperatures occur with moderate frequency in
December, January, and February, and 28 F. has been experienced
twice in the eastern half during the past 60 years.
The last killing frosts generally occur from April 15 to 23 and the
first from October 13 to 21. The growing season is from 174 to 189
12 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
days. In the eastern part of Kentucky the average number of rainy
days is about 118 a year 5 to 9 in each of the fall months from Sep-
tember to November, inclusive, and 10 to 13 for each of the other
months. The average number of rainy days in the west is about 104,
of which the months from September to November inclusive have 5
to 8, and the other months from 8 to 12.
Prevailing winds are from the south and southwest, with north and
northwest winds frequent in winter. Seven to ten miles is the average
hourly wind velocity.
Animal Life
The animal life of Kentucky is representative of areas as far apart
as the marshes of Louisiana and the forests of New England and
southern Canada.
Two large groups of fauna that once were common to the State have
now disappeared: prehistoric, or Pleistocene mammals, skeletons of
which have been found in various parts of the State but chiefly at Big
Bone Lick in Boone County; and species that were killed off or driven
away in the course of the settlement of the State. In the first class
were mastodons, mammoths, giant wolves, beaver, elk, and moose.
Early travelers and explorers were greatly impressed by the giant bones,
and often wrote extravagant stories about them. Even more interest
attaches to the animals that were almost fabulously plentiful when the
settlers came. The bison, or buffalo, grazed the central plains of the
Barrens and Bluegrass in numbers comparable with those of the Great
Plains west of the Mississippi. It is thought that this species disap-
peared from the State about 1820, soon after the settlement of the
Jackson Purchase. The beaver was less abundant here than farther
north, but it survived in small numbers until a generation ago. Hair-
raising stories are still told about the panther or puma (locally called
"painter"), once fairly common but now extinct in the State.
The wild turkey, still found in small numbers in remote places, par-
ticularly in the eastern mountains and other wooded sections, may be
re-established in the State and National parks and the larger forests
under proper protection. The area considered most suitable for this
NATURAL SETTING 13
purpose in western Kentucky is the Coalings, a wild, wooded tract be-
tween the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, now taken over by the
Federal Government.
Stories told about the passenger pigeon a hundred and more years
ago sound impossible today although "pigeon roost" is found in place
names in practically every part of the State. Alexander Wilson, in the
Shelby ville area, estimated in 1810 that he saw millions of birds in one
day. Audubon, in 1813, on his way to Louisville from Hardinsburg,
counted 163 flocks in 23 minutes. Enormous areas in the various parts
of the State were used by this species for nesting places. Wilson de-
scribed one on the upper part of Green River, above the site of Greens-
burg; Audubon pictured another near the mouth of Green River not
far from Henderson.
Another species, long a mark for hunters and therefore almost de-
stroyed, was the Carolina Louisiana parrakeet, which the Audubon
societies are protecting in the Everglades of Florida. In earlier days
this beautiful little parrot was found in abundance around sycamore
groves, salt licks, and fields of cockleburs. The ruffed grouse, hunted
intensively from the very beginning of the settlement, still exists in
small numbers. The prairie chicken, once found in many sections, dis-
appeared after the Barrens and the Jackson Purchase were opened to
settlement.
While game birds like the prairie chicken and the wild turkey soon
became scarce around the settlements, most of the songbirds have in-
creased enormously. In earlier days ravens also were common; now
only the wildest areas of the mountains harbor them. The chimney
swift and the nighthawk, on the other hand, have greatly profited by
the coming of civilization. The swift, formerly nesting in hollow trees,
has thoroughly adapted itself to chimneys, and the Kentucky Ornitho-
logical Society has no record of any nesting in trees within the memory
of the present generation.
Almost 300 species of birds have been observed in Kentucky, most
of them in land habitations. The great marsh country on the Ken-
tucky-Tennessee border, north of Reelfoot Lake, is the breeding ground
of American egrets, great blue herons, snakebirds, double-crested cor-
morants, and other waterfowl. Huge flocks of waterfowl pass over
the State in their migrations, and can sometimes be seen on streams
and ponds. On a "wet-weather lake" near Bowling Green, observers
have counted 36 species of waterfowl.
Of the 150 to 175 species of birds found in Kentucky in an average
14 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
year, about IS are winter residents, including the white-throated and
white-crowned sparrows, the slate-colored junco, the golden-crowned
kinglet, and the yellow-bellied sapsucker. Numbered among the sum-
mer residents are the catbird, brown thrasher, bronzed grackle, crested
flycatcher, Bachman and grasshopper sparrows, and Kentucky and
yellow warblers. The shy warblers are represented by more than a
dozen types that spend the summer here. The mockingbird, bluebird,
cardinal, bluejay, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, and towhee are
among the 35 to 40 well known species that remain throughout the
year.
The United States Bureau of Biological Survey states that "ob-
servers in the Mississippi Valley probably witness the passage of greater
numbers of varieties of birds than can be observed in any other river
valley of the world." The area south of the mouth of the Ohio River
is part of the great wintering grounds of the waterfowl; the Ohio
River from Louisville up as far as Catlettsburg is another concentration
area. Ornithologists at the Falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, have re-
corded in recent years nearly all the species of waterfowl that visit the
State. The migration routes follow the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennes-
see Rivers; land birds, particularly the warblers, have another great
route through central Kentucky, a little to the east of Mammoth Cave,
along what the geologists call the Dripping Springs Escarpment.
Small mammals exist in surprisingly large numbers, especially in the
rocky areas. Red and gray foxes, minks, muskrats, raccoons, opossums,
red and gray squirrels, cottontail rabbits, marsh rabbits (in the Pur-
chase), and hosts of smaller species are found nearly everywhere. In
the Jackson Purchase the large marsh rabbit and an occasional otter
are still seen and in central Kentucky the woodchuck is common. The
caves are thickly populated with bats and many kinds of rodents.
Over a hundred species of fish have been found in Kentucky. Of
the game fishes, the one most closely identified with Kentucky (par-
ticularly the Barren and Green River section) is the muskallonge, known
locally as jackfish or jack salmon. Three of the bass group, the large-
and small-mouth and the Kentucky, are found throughout the State.
Many other fishes are widely distributed: the crappie, bluegill, rock
bass, drumfish or white perch, red horse, white sucker, and buffalo.
Two kinds of catfish channel and blue are often taken; some are
very large specimens. Among the species of interest principally to
ichthyologists are the eel, the spoonbill, the sturgeon, minnows of many
I. THE NATURAL SETTING
BREAKS OF SANDY
is
CUMBERLAND FALLS
CUMBERLAND GAP
KNOB COUNTRY
KENTUCKY RIVER PALISADES
SKYLINE NATURAL BRIDGE, CUMBERLAND NATIONAL FORES1
LOOKING UP THE OHIO TOWARD CLOVERPORT
THE KENTUCKY RIVER AT CAMP NELSOIs
iii
ECHO RIVER IN MAMMOTH CAVE
GOTHIC AVENUE IN MAMMOTH CAVE
RUINS OF KARNAK IN MAMMOTH CAVE
CHIMNEY ROCK, NEAR DANVILLE
NATURAL SETTING 15
species, darters, and the several blind and semi-blind species of cave
fish.
The efforts of the State game and fish commission to safeguard and
restore wild life resources have met with much success. Stationed
everywhere are vigilant wardens, who not only protect game, but also
educate the people in the proper uses of woodland and streams.
The State has introduced deer, quail, and fish wherever conditions
seem favorable, and the Federal Bureau of Fisheries maintains a sta-
tion and breeding pond at Louisville, from which thousands of fish
are distributed annually throughout the State. In eastern Kentucky
the State has 12 game refuges where deer, bear, fur bearers, turkey,
ruffed grouse, and quail are propagated; and two fish hatcheries where
the species best adapted for the region are produced. In central Ken-
tucky are 22 game refuges for upland game birds, pheasants, and fur-
bearing animals, and one fish hatchery for black bass. The bass
hatchery at Herrington Lake was one of the first to produce black bass
under artificial conditions. In the near-famine years fish are seined
from the overflowed lands in the Purchase and distributed where
needed.
Amphibians, numerous and widely distributed, include the congo
snake or blind eel (Amphiuma means), several species of waterdogs
and salamanders, including the wicked-looking hellbender; bullfrogs,
green frogs, leopard frogs, many varieties of tree frogs, and two species
of toads. Common turtles are numerous, as are the alligator, snapping,
soft-shelled, pond, and land varieties, and the well-known box or
Carolina terrapin. Only four poisonous species of snake have been
recorded: the timber rattler, copperhead, cottonmouth, and coral. Of
these, the first two are widely distributed; the cottonmouth is appar-
ently confined to the Purchase, and the coral, a southern species, is
found only along the Tennessee border. Nonpoisonous snakes are
much more plentiful. The blacksnake and its near relatives, the pine,
the bull, and the chicken snake abound, and this is true also of the
king snake and several species of water snakes. The brown or fence
lizard, like the six line lizard or scorpion, is known everywhere. Less
known are the several varieties of skinks and the fabulous glass or
joint snake, which can shed its tail when attacked. All the lizards are
useful and harmless. Several species of crawfish, clams, and snails
are known to most fishermen and hunters.
16 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Plant Life
Kentucky flora ranges from sub-boreal in the Eastern Mountains to
semi-tropical in the Mississippi River bottoms'. Each of the State's six
topographic and geologic regions has its peculiar type of flora; and in
each of these regions are minor floral divisions, resulting from varia-
tions in elevation, moisture, soils, exposure, and the work of man.
The most varied plant life occurs in the Eastern Mountains, where
clearing and cultivation have not disturbed the native flora. Here are
found the large-leafed rhododendron, azalea, blueberry, huckleberry,
ferns in great profusion, and the magnolia. Throughout the highland
region the rhododendron is at its loveliest in June; and in this month,
over all the rockier parts of the mountains, the mountain laurel or
calico-bush is in bloom. Perhaps the loveliest flower in the mountains
is the great laurel, or mountain rosebay (Rhododendron catawbaiense) ,
which covers hill and cliff with bell-shaped, rose-purple flowers, seen in
full bloom only in the protected ravines of the Pine Mountains.
Four species of magnolia the great-leafed, the small-leafed cucum-
ber tree, the ear-leafed, and the umbrella tree bloom in late May or
early June. The waxy gloss of their leaves and their huge, but delicate,
pure white, sweet-scented blossoms give them a tropical appearance.
Again in the fall they catch the eye with their crimson seed cones.
An aberrant member of the magnolia family, the tulip tree, called
yellow poplar in Kentucky, grows in all parts of the State. In May
and June it produces dainty chalices of green, tinted with orange.
Because of its value for lumber, the supply of larger specimens has
been depleted.
In May and June the mountains bloom with trillium, bloodroot,
bluebell, wildginger, dogtooth violet, sour-wood, firepink, mosspink,
groundpink, violet, bluet, dogwood, crab apple, dwarf-iris, yellow and
pink lady-slipper, and dozens of other species. From early summer
to the first frosts, the long growing season brings from blossom to
maturity the wild strawberry, serviceberry, haw, wild grape, persim-
mon, and papaw. Edible nuts for winter consumption include the
i8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
chestnut, chinquapin (both rare today), beechnut, hazelnut, walnut,
and hickorynut.
Visitors to the Bluegrass region who expect to find the color of its
famous grass blue in the summer months are disappointed. Only in
May do the blue anthers of its blossoms give the grass a distinctly
steel-blue tint. It grows luxuriantly in the limestone phosphorus soils
of the Bluegrass region and sporadically in the limestone soils of the
Pennyrile but does not prosper elsewhere. In its chosen habitat blue-
grass is unequaled as turf and for pasturage, but it is rarely cut for
hay. On many farms in central Kentucky it is grazed every month of
the year.
Few untouched wild spots are left in the Bluegrass region. Park-like
lawns and open, grassy woodland patches surround the farm houses;
but along steep banks and in the deep dells much of the original flora
of the region survives. Here, in spring, are hidden the purple trillium,
springbeauty, dwarf-iris, pink catchfly, bloodroot, stonecrop, columbine,
and ferns of every sort. Dogwood and redbud spread their lacy, tinted
draperies over the vernal slopes. Later in the summer, purple, white,
and blue asters and hosts of other blossoms cover the rocks and find
foothold in every pinch of soil between them. In the fields and open
places goldenrod vies with bridal-wreath aster in the autumn. Along
the streams the artichoke, a sunflower with edible roots, and the golden-
glow, very like the artichoke in size and color, cover the bottom lands
and banks with gold. Tall purple composites, the ironweed and
meadow beauty (deer grass), grace the open woodlands or low meadows.
In the Eden shale soils of the Bluegrass several species of red-haw
flourish; these are white with blossoms in the spring, and in the fall
are hung with the red berries that children string into long necklaces
and belts. When unmolested the red-haw grows from ten to twenty
feet high, but cattle browse it to the size of bushes, a fact that suggests
their usefulness as hedges.
Old fields in the acid soils and even in the more alkaline soils of the
Pennyrile are sometimes covered with clumps of broomsedge, a grass-
like plant that grows green in the spring and brown in autumn. When
growing thick, it looks like a field of grain and is eaten sparingly by
the livestock. Farmers consider it a pest, however, and often burn
over patches of the weed.
Everywhere are the climbing vines grapes, wistaria, trumpetvine,
Virginia creeper, and poison ivy. Poison ivy, which smothers fence
posts along the highways, grows rankly wherever it finds support. Its
NATURAL SETTING 19
three-fingered compound leaves, greenish flowers, and white berries are
easily identified, especially in the morning when the plant is covered
with dew.
Western Kentucky may be divided into two broad floral grounds: the
upland division, represented by hill or knob land; and the lowland or
river valley division. The upland flora, although more widely dis-
tributed, is less luxuriant than that of the lowland. Extensive ranges
of oak forests cover many of the knobs, their rich green foliage making
a shady habitat for herbaceous plants. Early spring bedecks these
forests with the golden yellow buttercup, the toothwort, springbeauty,
and the delicate rue anemone. The birdsfoot violet, the most beautiful
native kind, often carpets a gravelly knoll.
Deep, moist ravines are canopied by sugar maple and beech, where
the rich humus yields the trim wake-robin, in tones of brown and
green, and the ever popular Indian turnip (Jack-in-the-pulpit). The
bloodroot, bellwort, Solomon 's-seal, Greek valerian, waterleaf, wild
sweet William, butterfly weed, trout lily, numerous violets, and other
plants furnish a continuous sequence of blossom in the spring. Perhaps
the greatest beauty of these woods is at the flowering time of the
dogwood and redbud, everywhere abundant.
In summer the dryness of the soil in this area reduces the number
of flowering plants. For the most part, plants either make their growth
and flower in the spring, or wait until the approach of autumn. Then
the roadsides are bordered with goldenrod, the royal purple ironweed,
and the sky-blue wild ageratum. Entire fields are covered with a sea
of gold as the yellow tickseed comes into flower. Several species of
asters herald the approach of frost, as the hills are transformed almost
overnight into masses of glowing color.
The overflow lands of the lowland area support a tropical luxuriance
of vegetation, particularly in the wooded parts. Trees attain a larger
growth here than in the uplands. Nearly all the eastern North Ameri-
can oaks are represented, even the southern willow oak, and there are,
in addition, several varieties of hickory (including the pecan), species
of ash, besides the maple, willow, cottonwood, sycamore, sweetgum,
blackgum, and many others. The picturesque river birch, with its thin,
papery bark hanging in shreds, stands out in bold contrast to the
smooth silver maples with which it often grows.
Early spring flowers are not abundant, but summer and fall bring a
wealth of color as the Indian pinks, the milkweeds, ruellia, cardinal
flower, great blue lobelia, spider lily, and aster and goldenrod come into
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WESTERN COAL FIELDS
1938
22 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
prolific flower. Marshy places are fringed with the swamp rose, hal-
berd-leafed hibiscus, swamp privet, and button bush, and covered with
yellow pond lily and lotus. The Ohio, Mississippi, and lesser rivers, by
their meanderings, have formed numerous oxbow lakes that furnish
ideal conditions for the spread of the bald cypress. These beautiful
trees, with their "knees" protruding from the surface of the water,
often cover large areas. Festoons of catbird grape hang from the
lower branches and climb over the smaller shrubs, extending to the
water's edge.
Kentucky lies in the great hardwood forest region between the Alle-
ghenies and the western prairies. Before white settlement, three-fourths
of the State was covered with forests unsurpassed in eastern North
America for the size of individual trees and the density of the cover.
Giants six, eight, and ten feet in diameter were not uncommon. The
larger varieties were yellow poplar (tulip tree), sycamore, oak, chest-
nut, and walnut. It is told that some of the hollow sycamores were
so large that families were known to have camped in them until they
could build cabins. Today not over one-fourth of the State can be
called forested and very little of this is primeval, nearly all having
been cut over for timber.
Their attractiveness and the ease of settlement upon them led to the
early clearing of limestone lands in the Bluegrass region. Today
about 90 percent of these lands are denuded. The western limestone
lands of the Pennyrile and the delta lands of the Purchase are about
30 percent forested. The most densely forested areas, amounting to
60 or 70 percent of the area, are in the valleys of the Big Sandy, Upper
Licking, Kentucky, and Cumberland Rivers, all in eastern Kentucky.
In the latter area the timber is chiefly composed of oak, chestnut, and
yellow poplar; in the rest of the State it runs to oak and hickory,
except along the lower Ohio and the Mississippi flood plains, where
hardwoods peculiar to river bottoms prevail.
Kentucky's forests have brought their owners considerable wealth,
but commercial exploitation was practically at an end by the close of
the last century. Today the State's forests are still producing mod-
erately, but not as they did when great sawmills stood on all the
larger streams and logs by the millions floated down in the spring and
fall freshets. As most of the steeper land in Kentucky is better adapted
to the production of trees than to other uses, the tendency is to con-
serve forest stands and to cut the timber scientifically, but no thorough
State-wide system of conservation has been adopted. Only in one or
24 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
two small areas is reforestation being attempted, where some of the
private landholding companies and individual owners have begun to
reforest their cut-over lands. The establishment of the Cumberland
National Park in eastern Kentucky offers the greatest promise of forest
conservation. This park will contain over a million acres, of which
much is forested, and the rest already is being replanted. The Federal
example points to the necessity for a State forest policy that will in-
crease timber resources, offer a measure of protection against the too
rapid run-off of storm water, and restore the natural balance in wild
life which reckless exploitation has destroyed.
Geology and Paleontology
The oldest outcropping rock formations in Kentucky are of the
Mid-Ordovician period, an early division of the Paleozoic era, hun-
dreds of millions of years ago when only the simplest forms of marine
life existed. Cambrian rocks, those from the earliest period of the
Paleozoic, are exposed nowhere in the State, but from a deep well
drilled at Nicholasville in Jessamine County fossil remains of trilobites,
small oval-shaped marine animals, known to have lived in the Cam-
brian, have been taken.
The Ordovician period, when shell-forming sea animals flourished,
is well represented in both surface and subsurface formations. In the
vast ocean covering this region lived sponges, corals, moss animals,
brachiopods, sea lilies, chambered shells (cephalopods), primitive forms
of snails (gastropods), clams (pelecyrods), and buglike creatures, the
trilobites. Tiny gastropods, Cyclora minuta, were so numerous that
their fossil remains in the limestone have been mined as phosphate
rock. The lime and phosphorus of these shell-forming sea creatures
account in large measure for the fertility of Kentucky soils, especially
of the Bluegrass region, with which the Ordovician deposits are prac-
tically co-extensive. The limestone and shales of this area are esti-
mated to be half a billion years old.
Through the massive limestone of Central Kentucky the Kentucky
River and its tributary, the Dix River, have cut deep gorges. Gently
NATURAL SETTING 25
rolling hills, occasional caverns, sinkholes, and countless springs are
phenomena resulting from erosion and internal water drainage.
At the beginning of Silurian time following the Ordovician age and
lasting a relatively brief twenty-five million years an ancient sea in-
vaded Kentucky from the Gulf of Mexico, permitting the immigration
of southern types of corals, crinoids (a class to which sea lilies be-
long), and simple shellfish. About the middle of that age the waters
of the North Atlantic invaded the area, bringing many new forms.
In this complex of older life forms and newer developing ones are
found chain corals, honeycomb corals, cup corals, and organ-pipe corals
all named for peculiarities of shape, crinoids of many kinds, and
new species of shellfish. Trilobites were on the decline and disap-
peared during the Pennsylvanian period.
The limestones of the Devonian, the next period, have preserved
about the same number of genera of corals, crinoids, and brachiopods
as are found in the Silurian. Cephalopods, with chambered shells, and
the mosslike and branching bryozoans are common. During this age,
which is marked by the rise of fishes and the appearance of am-
phibians, there were sharks in Kentucky's waters; the ostracoderm,
a great fishlike creature, has left its remains. The oldest known land
flora also made its appearance on Devonian lands.
Considerably more than a fourth of Kentucky is underlaid by lime-
stones, shales, and sandstones of the Mississippian system. These
formations date from the beginning of the Carboniferous period,
which was to last somewhat over one hundred million years and ex-
hibit a flora of primitive scale trees, tree ferns, huge mosses, early
forms of flowering plants and, from this world of luxuriant vegeta-
tion, the development of amphibians. Among the new creatures was
a genus called Archimedes, so named from its resemblance to the
screw of Archimedes. From the stem of this living screw, lacy cur-
tains extended, inhabited by thousands of microscopic bryozoan ani-
mals. Fossils of the decorative Pentremites, the so-called fossil "hick-
ory nut," are found in abundance in some of the limestones in the
Pennyrile. Fossil sharks' teeth are the only evidence of vertebrates
of the period in Kentucky.
The limestones of the Mississippian period are responsible for the
odd feature of the landscape known as the Land of Ten Thousand
Sinks, with its extensive subterranean drainage. From the evidence
of existing river channels, cutting deeply through Mississippian strata
and subsequently filled with sandstone of the Pennsylvanian period, it
26 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
may be deduced that the Mississippian period witnessed a vast uplift
followed by a subsidence of the region.
The Pennsylvanian, or great coal age, is represented in the surface
formations of both the eastern and western coal fields of Kentucky.
These are sandstones, shales, occasional limestones, and numerous coal
seams. The lower sandstone outcrops along the outer edges of both
areas and has been sculptured by erosion into natural bridges, rock
castles, and water falls. Natural Bridge and Cumberland Falls are
notable among these. The Pennsylvanian shales in places bear the
imprint of the abundant plant life of the period. The shale roofs of
some of the coal mines are decorated with fossil tree trunks, showing
bark patterns and the traces of leaves. The sandstones also exhibit
the Lepidodendrons, Sigillaria, and other coal-forming trees, a flora
that vanished with the end of the Carboniferous period in its last
stage, the Permian. The animal fossils of the Pennsylvanian resem-
bles those of the Mississipian.
The close of the Paleozoic era, an eon of some 350 million years,
saw the rise of the ancient lofty Appalachian Mountains, of which the
ancestral Pine and Cumberland Mountains formed western outposts.
So far as Kentucky is concerned, there is a hiatus in the rock rec-
ord, extending from the end of the Paleozoic to the last period of the
Mesozoic. Triassic, Jurassic, and Commanchean rocks do not occur,
and those of the Cretaceous period show no marine fossils. Dinosaurs
or other spectacular creatures of this age of reptiles may have wan-
dered into the area during this time, but neither fossil remains nor
footprints have been found.
The Tertiary period, which introduced the age of mammals, found
the Purchase Region of coastal plain bordering an enlarged Gulf of
Mexico. Cassias, figs, maples, laurels, oaks, walnuts, willows, papaws,
gums, yews, hickories, and other contemporary flora thrived. In
these forests roamed the giant ground sloth, giant wolves, and other
carnivora.
The Quaternary includes the quite recent glacial period, traces of
which (in the Illinoian stage) are found ten to twenty miles south of
the Ohio, from the Big Sandy to the Kentucky Rivers. Louisville, in
part, and other cities of the northern border are built on a glacial Ohio
River outwash of sand and gravel. Big Bone Lick in Boone County
is named from the leg bones of mammoth and mastodon that mired
down at this place. It is possible that cave dwellers lived and hunted
NATURAL SETTING 27
at the edge of the slowly retreating ice cap. In any event, within a
few thousand years man made his appearance in the forests of this
region and the modern era was ushered in.
There are geological and paleontological collections in the Univer-
sity of Kentucky at Lexington, in the Louisville Free Public Library,
and in many other Kentucky institutions of higher learning.
ARCHEOLOGY AND
INDIANS
THE MANY mounds, forts, cave shelters, and burial fields in Ken-
tucky show that the prehistoric population must have been fairly
large for savages. It was diverse in culture and probably had many
separate origins.
Aboriginal remains are found in every county in the State. The
eastern mound area covers the heart of the Bluegrass region and ex-
tends northeastward to the Ohio River. This fertile and well watered
land was heavily timbered in prehistoric times. It is characterized
archeologically by the great number and large size of its Indian mounds,
many of them associated with village sites, and by other structures
which have been called forts. The popular notion that the mound
builders were a race differing from the American Indians has no facts
to support it. They were doubtless the ancestors of some of the his-
toric Indians.
The mounds were originally of various shapes and sizes but have
been altered through weathering and the changes caused by agriculture.
This is especially true of mounds which were not high and stand in
cultivated fields. With each plowing the earth has been removed from
the top and spread out at the base until the original shape has been
destroyed. Often the surface for many yards around is strewn with
flints, bones, and broken pottery upturned by plow and harrow.
Some of these mounds were constructed centuries ago; others are
quite recent. Certain tribes of modern Indians were building mounds
when the first whites arrived. Sometimes intrusive burials indicate
that later tribes used the mounds after the original builders had dis-
appeared. All mounds were not used for the same purpose they were
erected for ceremonial or sacrificial purposes, or for the burial of the
dead; and some perhaps represent nothing more than the dirt roof of
a lodge or the gradual accumulation of camp refuse.
The remains of camp and village sites, usually found in the vicinity
of mounds, are often extensive and show long occupancy. The fea-
tures by which a site is recognized is the sporadic occurrence of broken
28
II. HISTORIC PAGES
\
V,
/r
I
/0^^
DANIEL BOONE'S ARRIVAL WITH NORTH CAROLINIANS
MURAL IN POST OFFICE, LEXINGTON
LINCOLN MEMORIAL, NEAR HODGENVILLE
11
ll
PIONEER MEMORIAL, HARRODSBURG
BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MEMORIAI
OLD CAPITOL, FRANKFORT
THE CAPITOL, FRANKFORT
OLD FAYETTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LEXINGTON
INTERIOR FEDERAL HILL, MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME/ NEAR BARDSTOWN
FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME'
ti
I I
M 1 J
ASHLAND, HOME OF HENRY CLAY, LEXINGTON
JOHN HUNT MORGAN HOME, LEXINGTON
m
"
5
JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LOUISVILLE
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 2Q
bits of flint artifacts, potsherds, or bone fragments scattered over the
surface. The midden of a village is usually one foot deep, though it
may attain a depth of several feet.
The life of the mound builders may be reconstructed, to some extent,
from the artifacts found in the mounds. Agriculture is shown in the
hoes; fishing in the fishhooks and fish scales; hunting in the bones of
many a beast; sports in the almost obliterated race tracks and play-
grounds; child-like vanities in the personal ornaments; industry in
the laboriously fashioned tools and in the carved pipes and gorgets.
The rock shelter area extends throughout the knobs and eastern
mountains and swings south and west of the Bluegrass to portions of
west central Kentucky having a similar topography. In this area
erosion has formed many vertical cliffs from 50 to 200 feet high in
which are rock shelters, known locally as rock houses. Numbers of
these shelters are several hundred feet long and from 30 to 60 feet
high, and many are quite dry. Into these, primitive man carried wood
for fire and animals for food. Ashes and bones have accumulated in
layers sometimes 10 feet deep. Each layer contains a record of con-
temporary life and is well preserved, for no water has entered the
shelters and the dry ashes have prevented bacterial action. Bone,
shell, gourd shards, textiles and leather have been found in excellent
condition.
Not all the sites are of the same age, nor do all have the same amount
of accumulated debris; but the series of artifacts, burial customs, and
apparent steps in the development of culture are so nearly identical
in the shelters investigated that it is reasonable to suppose that all
have a similar story of occupancy.
The western Kentucky rock shelter area embraces the headwaters
of the Green River and extends northward to the Ohio River. The
cliff shelters found here differ from those in the cliff dwelling area.
They are merely overhanging rock strata or ledges of sandstone or
limestone, offering protection over a relatively small space. The cliffs
are usually not more than 30 feet high, and the actual shelters, while
numerous, are individually small no larger than would meet the need
of a single family. The shelters were often so small that the ashes had
to be periodically swept out, and their accumulation formed a talus at
the foot of the cliff below, which grew deeper and broader as occupancy
continued. Burials of men, women, and children were often made in
the ashes and debris swept from the shelter. There is no known evi-
dence of cremation. Bone and shell were used extensively; a few slate
30 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
pendants, shell and bone beads, and other ornaments have been found.
The distinguishing feature of the sandstone sites is the hominy hole
used for grinding corn. At every site, from one to^ five or six of these
conical holes are found either in the shelter floors or in large sand-
stone boulders. A hominy hole is from four to ten inches in diameter
at the top, tapering to perhaps three inches at the bottom and varying
in depth from one to three feet. Associated with the hominy hole is
a bell-shaped pestle, lashed to a staff several feet long, and used pointed
end downward, with which the corn was ground by percussion. A
number of pestles were left in these hominy holes by their users. Crude
hoes, the hominy holes, and pestles suggest a horticultural people.
They are not to be distinguished from the rock shelter dwellers of the
eastern mountains, and their cultural connections are uncertain.
The cliff dwellings were in continuous use from a remote period until
the advent of white men. The lowest ash beds have no pottery of any
kind, no flint implements, and only the crudest forms of hammer-
stones; large broken animal bones, mingled with mussel shells, nut
hulls, and fish scales, form a considerable portion of the refuse. Upper
or later levels show gourd shards, grooved axes, and very crude lime-
stone hoes, indicating the beginning of agriculture. Woven textiles and
moccasins of both textiles and leather have also been found in the
upper layers. Crude potsherds occur only in the top six inches of the
ash, and a few sites have yielded paddle-marked shards. The cliff
dwellers used shells as spoons and scrapers, and made a characteristic
bone awl from the shoulder blade of the deer.
Many burials of women and children occur in the ash beds, but such
burials did not prevent later occupancy of the site. Although dozens
of ash beds have been investigated and scores of bodies of women and
children have been found, there is no evidence of a burial of an adult
male. The question of what was done with deceased adult males may
have been answered by the discovery, in one site in Wolfe County, of
some 57 artifacts associated with the almost entirely burned bones of
what appears to have been an adult male. These bones and artifacts
are preserved, just as found, in the museum of the University of Ken-
tucky. Future investigation may show that adult males were cremated.
In the southeastern mountain area are many mounds, but they are
not as numerous as in the neighboring central mound area. Here, too,
are rock shelters in which the aboriginal people lived and left artifacts.
Plowed fields have yielded artifacts of flint and other stones and
vestiges of villages may be seen in a few places. The soil was capable
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 31
of producing maize abundantly but the roughness of the country doubt-
less interfered with settlement.
An area embracing a portion of north central Kentucky includes
evidence of aborigines of unknown cultural affinities. This occupation
is indicated by burial sites containing stone cists of two to six burials,
usually situated on high hill crests. The graves are covered with a
double row of flat stones set on edge and touching each other at the
top. Other stones are then leaned against this first row, and some-
times an area of 10 feet square is covered with sloping stones.
Along part of the Ohio River in Kentucky are a few larger mounds
associated with village sites, some of which have yielded material of
Fort Ancient culture; this would be expected from its contact with the
Fort Ancient area in Ohio and with the eastern mound area in Ken-
tucky, to the eastward. The Fort Ancient culture is probably Siouan.
Kentucky caves were inhabited by prehistoric man, but how far he
dates back in time is, at present, an unanswerable question. The term
"cave dwellers" is used to designate those ancient people whose remains
are found in caves and who apparently lived in them. Primitive man
could hardly have found a more satisfactory type of shelter. The part
of the cave near the mouth was commonly occupied, and caves which
had good rooms close to the entrance were favorite dwelling places.
The inhabitants also used the most remote passages, for in the deepest
and most inaccessible chambers they left evidence of their presence.
The caves, like the mounds, represent more than one group of people.
After one group deserted them, a new group would move in.
The reason for burial in the caves may have been religious belief,
or long-established custom, or a desire to protect the graves, or merely
the fact that the floor of the cave was never hard or frozen, and was
easy to excavate when the outside ground was not. Whatever the
reason, its existence is fortunate, for cave burials have proven con-
ducive to preservation of remains, and thus they give illuminating
glimpses of ancient life.
Ash beds are found on the floors of caves, but it is often difficult
to tell whether they were made by ancient residents or modern hunters.
On the walls are marks and decorations; since weathering is very slow
in such protected places, these marks may be ten or a thousand years
old. Hidden in crevices are pots containing paint or pigment, but little
is known of the men who left them there.
South and west of the western Kentucky rock shelter area, along
Green River in its passage through McLean, Muhlenberg, Ohio, and
32 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Butler Counties, is the Shell Mound area. It is distinguished by great
shell heaps near the riverbanks, consisting of gastropod and mussel
shells mixed with animal bones and camp refuse. The size and number
of these mounds suggest a large population or a long-continued occupa-
tion. The shell beds are often ten to twelve feet deep, and many of
them are several acres in extent. The most important archeological
investigation within this area was made by C. B. Moore at Indian
Knoll, where many skeletons and certain characteristic artifacts were
discovered. The circular pattern of graves at this site is unlike that in
the surrounding territory. The artifacts indicate a people living
wholly by fishing and hunting. There is no evidence of agriculture
and, beyond the mounds themselves, no evidence of permanent occupa-
tion. It is possible that these shell mounds are evidences of the oldest
human occupancy in this area of the State.
The stone grave area, lying between the Tennessee and Green Rivers,
is very rich in prehistoric remains earth mounds, large village sites,
and cemeteries. Stone grave cemeteries are fairly numerous, and some
are fairly extensive. A stone grave is made by setting six to eight
stones on edge, carefully joined to form a box; in this the body in the
flesh is buried at full length. Usually the stone graves were lined at
the bottom and covered at the top with flat stones. At one site they
were found under mounds which contained crematory pits and ossuaries
of a group of unknown culture.
These stone graves are generally devoid of artifacts, although some-
times they contain small mortuary vessels of pottery. At the head
or foot of the individual within the stone grave are extended burials
and many burials of bones. Thus on such sites there is evidence of at
least two methods of disposal of the dead. Because of a dearth of arti-
facts the cultural connections of these people are uncertain.
Within this area, built upon a stone grave cemetery seemingly at a
later date, a village site has been found and a group of sixty or more
mounds, many of which have proven to be crematory pits for burning
the bones of the dead. Remains show the practice of cremation,
strongly suggestive of some members of the Siouan linguistic stock, and
collections of jumbled human bones are found, often within the same
mound. Such ossuaries often contain the bones of hundreds of indi-
viduals, packed into small, stone, chimney-like vaults, similar to the
crematory pits. Here again were two methods of dealing with the
dead. Artifacts found in this association are few, the most character-
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 33
istic being pottery "elbow" pipes. These pipes and burial customs
are similar to those described by Gerard Fowke in Missouri.
The third culture within this area has been called the Gordon or
Tennessee-Cumberland aspect, first described by Meyer in the Cum-
berland River region of Tennessee. This culture is distinguished by
the erection of earth mounds over the sites of buildings or temples.
The remains of these buildings, which were made of wattlework be-
tween posts driven into the earth, show that they were destroyed by
fire and covered with earth while the fire was yet burning. Over this
a new structure was erected which, in time, went the way of the first.
Generally the mounds show several levels of occupation. Remains
of maize are found in the temple sites, indicating that the people of
this culture practiced agriculture. They made pottery, producing dis-
tinct and attractive types, many of which show outside influence. One
characteristic form is a textile-marked vessel of large size, commonly
called a salt pan. Shards of such vessels are found in great number
in the dirt forming the mounds that cover the sites of burned build-
ings.
While, in places, these earth mounds are found near the stone grave
cemeteries, not all are so situated. Some of the larger sites show full-
length burials in the flesh, accompanied by a variety of artifacts. The
occupancy of this area by so many different peoples complicates the
problem of identification; on the other hand it has increased the
stratification of artifacts and culture customs.
The Jesuit Relations recounts that the Five Nations, or Iroquois, in
New York, got guns from the Dutch about 1630 and turned on their
less advanced neighbors to the north, south, and west with such fury
that by 1690 the present States of Ohio and Kentucky were depop-
ulated, their inhabitants having fled across the Mississippi River or
to the southeast.
About 1645-1650 a group of these fugitives from the upper Ohio
began to cross the present State by the Athiomiowee, or Warriors'
Trace. They were overtaken by their Iroquoian foes, but fortified
themselves and drove them back. In Virginia they defeated Colonel
Howard Hill and killed the chief of his Indian allies, Totopottomoi, a
successor to Powhatan. The Virginia records call these fugitives
Rickohockans and later Occaneechos. Others of these same people
turned down the Ohio called the Acansea River on early French maps
and the Mississippi, and finally settled on the Missouri and Arkansas
Rivers.
34 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Between 1715 and 1725 a number of the Piqua band of Shawnee
returned from the South and built a town, Eskippakithiki, in the south-
eastern part of Clark County. There they remained for some time
until they moved to Ohio and took sides with the French in the cam-
paign against Braddock.
In 1736 the French took a census of the Ohio Valley and credited
the Shawnees, in the Carolina region, with a strength of 200 men.
This was probably only for the Shawnee town of Eskippakithiki, for
the Van Keulen map of 1720 shows a trail from the present Illinois,
crossing the Ohio near the mouth of the Kentucky River, and passing
by the site of Eskippakithiki, to Cumberland Gap, which is labeled,
"The route which the French take to trade with Carolina."
Peter Chartier, a half-breed Shawnee trader, the son of Martin
Chartier, was in Kentucky in the late seventeenth century. He had
his chief post at the Shawnee town on the Pequea Creek in Pennsyl-
vania, and probably reached out for trade with his Shawnee kinsmen
in Kentucky. In 1745, he was reprimanded by the Governor for sell-
ing liquor to the Indians, and accepted a captaincy in the French
service and fled down the Ohio River, taking with him 400 Shawnee
warriors and their families. Having robbed all the English traders
they met, they went to their kinsmen at Eskippakithiki, where they
stopped until the fall of 1747. After making trouble in the South for
several years, they drifted back, stopping at the present Shawneetown,
Illinois, until they were allowed to return to their British allegiance
and their old homes. Chartier fled to the French in Illinois.
About 1729 Shawnees, Delawares, and Mingoes built Lower Shaw-
neetown on the western side of the Scioto River at its mouth. A
suburb of this backwoods capital was built on the Kentucky side, now
Fullerton, and some trading posts were established there by Colonel
George Croghan, and others. This town and its Kentucky suburb
were deserted just before the French and Indian War. Eskippakithiki
and Lower Shawneetown were the last Indian settlements in Kentucky.
HISTORY
KENTUCKY was the first State to be organized west of the Ap-
palachian Mountains. At the mountain barrier the westward
movement of American immigrants had come to its first halt, but there
was a lively curiosity about the land beyond to the west.
In 1642 a company of English adventurers, Walter Austin, Rice
Hoe, Joseph Johnson, and Walter Chiles, petitioned for "leave and
encouragement to explore westward." Whatever their intentions may
have been, they failed to use their grant. Twenty-seven years passed
before the subject of western exploration was again discussed in the
Virginia Assembly. A permit was granted in 1669 to John Lederer, a
German adventurer and personal friend of Governor Berkeley, to ex-
plore westward. He made three trips into the Blue Ridge, passing
through the neighborhood of what is now Lynchburg, but accom-
plished little. In 1671, Colonel Abram Wood, commandant of Fort
Henry at Petersburg, Virginia, sent Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam
into the western ranges to find the "ebbing and flowing of the rivers
on the other side of the mountains in order to reach the South Seas."
This expedition reached the Ohio Valley, but the English were not
much impressed with the findings. Two or three years later, however,
they discovered that the French were active in the western country
beyond the mountains. The English became intensely interested when
the French, by virtue of the Mississippi voyages of Jolliet and Mar-
quette in 1673 and of La Salle in 1682, claimed all the region drained
by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. James Needham and
Gabriel Arthur were sent into the West in 1673. Needham was killed,
but Arthur made his way into northeastern Kentucky with the Indians
and may have been the first Englishman on Kentucky soil. English
interest in the trans-Allegheny region lagged for 70 years and was
confined to the cis-Allegheny frontier.
In 1742 John Peter Salley (or Sailing) led a party from Virginia to
the banks of the Ohio River. One or two of the men were killed, and
Salley was captured by French adventurers and sent to prison, first at
35
36 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Natchez, and later in Cuba and France, He finally returned to
Charleston, South Carolina. Salley's adventure stimulated a fresh
interest on the part of the English in the Ohio Valley. Seven years
later Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville, set out from Quebec
to lay claim for the French to all the land between Quebec and New
Orleans. The news of this expedition aroused the English whose
Colonial officials took steps to make counter claims. Land companies
were organized and plans were made at once to send surveyors beyond
the mountains to lay out claims to large tracts of lands for prospective
settlements. The Loyal Land Company at Charlottesville, Virginia,
secured a grant of 800,000 acres and dispatched an expedition west-
ward under Dr. Thomas Walker in 1750. The party left Charlottes-
ville on March 6 and came to a wide pass in the Allegheny wall on
April 13. Walker refers to the pass in his journal as "Cave Gap"
through which his party passed on their way to within a short distance
from what is now Barboursville. Here the expedition established its
base for operations, explored the eastern mountain range of Kentucky
for several weeks, and left the country on June 20, 1750.
The next year Christopher Gist, a frontier scout and explorer, was
employed by the Ohio Land Company to visit the West. He traveled
through passes in the neighborhood of modern Pittsburgh and made
his way through Indian trading villages down the Ohio River to the
Kentucky country. In March 1751 he visited Big Bone Lick, and
headed for the great Falls of the Ohio River, now Louisville, but
friendly Shawnee Indians warned him of hostile tribes encamped about
the falls. Gist turned back, passing over the mountains to North
Carolina.
The settlement line along the Virginia and Carolina frontiers grew
more and more populous from 1751 to 1786. The settlers were anxious
to move westward to new and more fertile lands, but the country was
involved in the French and Indian War from 1755 to 1763 and it was
dangerous. It appeared for a time that the land which is now Ken-
tucky would fall to the French, but the tide turned at last, and on
February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed. The English got
possession of the land east of the Mississippi River, but to the disap-
pointment of the frontiersmen, King George III issued the proclama-
tion of 1763 forbidding settlers to move beyond the line of watershed
in the Appalachian highlands.
Despite the King's proclamation, scouts of one kind or another
brought back from the West thrilling stories of the new country. Mrs.
HISTORY 37
Inglis, with a German woman companion, came into the northern Ken-
tucky country as captives of the Indians, from whom they escaped
almost miraculously. The so-called silver miners, led by John Swift,
were in Kentucky from time to time during the 1760's. A legend pre-
vails to this day that Swift and his companions mined large quantities
of silver in Kentucky and many communities yet claim the site of the
Swift silver mines.
The "long hunters," so called because of long periods of time spent
by men of the eastern frontier settlements in hunting across the moun-
tains, began to invade the Kentucky country. Among them were John
Raines, Uriah Stone, John Finley, Henry Skaggs, and Daniel Boone.
Boone's fame has grown with the passage of time until he has become,
in legend at least, the chief figure of the early Kentucky frontier days.
His life is symbolical of the western movement in American history.
Born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1734, Boone had moved with
his parents in 1750 to the western part of North Carolina, on the
Yadkin. He was restless by nature, and in 1766 entered upon a career
of exploration that first took him as far south as St. Augustine,
Florida. Returning to North Carolina, he was influenced to go West
by John Finley's stories of Kentucky, and crossed through Cumber-
land Gap. But instead of reaching the Bluegrass country he spent
the winter of 1767 in the tablelands of eastern Kentucky, and returned
to North Carolina. In May 1769, Boone, Finley, and several com-
panions started for Kentucky. They spent the summer hunting in
the cane lands and before they realized it winter was upon them.
When their stores were broken into by the Indians in December and
a number of horses were stolen, the party broke up, and Finley with
three of his companions returned to North Carolina.
Meanwhile, Squire Boone, a brother of Daniel, and a companion
had come out to Kentucky. The two brothers hunted for a year, and
wandered over the country from the Big Sandy to the Cumberland
Rivers. It was during these years, 1769-1771, that Daniel Boone
acquired information about the Kentucky country that later made him
a valuable scout.
The next whites to appear in Kentucky were the land surveyors sent
out by land companies and speculators. Captain Thomas Bullitt led
one such party to the Falls of the Ohio River in June 1773, where he
made a survey of the lands where Louisville now stands. At the same
time the McAfee brothers were surveying lands up the Kentucky
38 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
River. James Harrod led another surveying party in 1774 to the
neighborhood now known as Harrodsburg.
No settlement had been established as yet, but immediately after
the Indian disturbances had been settled by the Dunmore War, specu-
lators laid plans to claim vast surveys in the West. The best known
of these speculative ventures was the Transylvania Land Company,
organized in 1773 as the Richard Henderson Company, under the
leadership of Judge Richard Henderson of North Carolina. He and
his associates, Colonel Nathaniel Hart and others, made a treaty with
the Cherokee Indians on March 17, 1775, at Sycamore Shoals on the
Watauga River, granting the whites possession of all the land south of
the Ohio River, north of the Cumberland River, and west of the Ap-
palachian ranges. Henderson also purchased a tract that reached from
Cumberland Gap to the south bank of the Cumberland River. Daniel
Boone and thirty companions were dispatched immediately to Ken-
tucky to blaze the trail, and locate suitable river fording places.
Henderson and his party followed and in May 1775, the settlement
at Boonesboro was begun.
Harrodsburg, of Virginia origin, was also settled in early 1775. The
founding of St. Asaph Station and Boiling Springs followed immedi-
ately. Judge Henderson issued a call on May 23, 1775, to all these
forts to send delegates to Boonesboro for the purpose of making laws
to govern the settlements. The nine laws passed by this meeting are
sometimes called the first legislative acts passed by a Kentucky Legisla-
ture, though this is not strictly true.
Rivalry soon developed between the Virginia and North Carolina
settlements. George Rogers Clark, a young Virginian who had re-
cently come West, called a meeting at Harrodsburg on June 6, 1776,
of all the Kentucky forts to discuss a course of procedure. Clark and
John Gabriel Jones were selected as delegates to go to Williamsburg
and present their problems to the Virginia Legislature, but they ar-
rived too late to go before the assembly. Clark, however, was able to
secure an appropriation of 500 pounds of gunpowder for the protection
of Kentucky.
Clark and Jones learned, while in Williamsburg, that Richard Hen-
derson and his associates were attempting to secure recognition of their
colony. The Harrodsburg delegates, thereupon, decided to remain in
Virginia until the assembly convened in the fall in order that they
might protect the rights of the Harrodsburg settlers. It was largely
through their influence that the Transylvania Land Company was de-
HISTORY 39
clared illegal, and that Kentucky County was created out of Fincastle
County on December 6, 1776. The name Kentucky was first used
officially by Virginia at this time.
When Clark and Jones returned to Kentucky they found many
settlers moving into the West. The Indians, however, were a constant
menace, and Clark realized that if the Kentucky settlements were to
survive, a military drive would have to be made beyond the Ohio.
He therefore sought the permission and assistance of the Virginia As-
sembly and Governor Patrick Henry to attack the Indians and the
English in their stronghold beyond the Ohio River, and won approval
of his plans in December 1777. Starting out from Virginia, Clark went
to the Redstone settlement near Pittsburgh to recruit troops for his
western expedition. At the same time he dispatched an agent to the
Watauga settlements in Tennessee for the same purpose. Both Clark
and his agent were disappointed in the number of troops secured. In-
stead of 350, which he wanted, he got less than 200, and many of them
objected to fighting beyond the Ohio River. Clark, nevertheless, pro-
ceeded to Corn Island in the Ohio, opposite the site on which Louis-
ville stands today.
The expedition started secretly in June 1778 for Kaskaskia, and
took the town by surprise. This successful coup was followed by a
similar one against the town of Cahokia. In the fall Governor Hamil-
ton arrived at Vincennes, the main French post in the northwest, with
a large force of British and Indian troops, and the British flag was
raised over the village. Hamilton thought he was perfectly safe in
Vincennes, but in February 1779 Clark and his troops took Vincennes
by surprise and captured the fort. The Indians were thus driven back
temporarily from Kentucky and the American frontier was extended
to the Mississippi River.
In the meantime Kentuckians were having Indian troubles at home.
Daniel Boone and his salt-making companions were captured at the
Lower Blue Licks February 7, 1778, and carried away to Detroit where
he was adopted as a son of Chief Black Fish. He lived happily with
the Indians for a time, but when he heard that the French-Canadian,
De Quindre, was plotting with the Indians to attack Boonesboro, he
returned to that settlement to prepare for the attack. The Indians
under the command of De Quindre appeared before the fort and de-
manded its surrender; the demand was refused and the attack re-
pulsed. The Kentucky settlements were saved.
The British and Indians made a second major attack in 1782, strik-
4o KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ing at Bryan Station on August 15. Four days later the Kentuckians
pursued them to the banks of the Licking River. On a limestone road
in a ravine at Blue Licks occurred one of the bloodiest battles ever
fought on the frontier. Though the Americans were defeated, this was
the last battle of any significance fought against the Indians on Ken-
tucky soil.
As the Kentucky country became^ more settled and Indian skirmishes
became less frequent, the settlers grew tired of living in stockades.
County organizations and taverns began to spring up. The Falls of
the Ohio, which became Louisville, was surveyed in 1773 by Thomas
Bullitt; Boonesboro was incorporated in 1779; Washington and Mays-
ville soon followed; the plan for the town of Lexington was adopted
in 1781. The Kentuckians soon began to consider separating their
territory from Virginia and becoming one of the States of the con-
federation. They first met in Danville December 27, 1784, to discuss
the matter formally; ten conventions were called before an independent
State was created. (In the meantime the Constitution of the United
States was written and ratified.) Many reasons for a separation were
discussed in these conventions: objections to Virginia taxes, inability
of Kentuckians to adapt Virginia laws to local situations, the refusal
of Virginia to permit Kentuckians to pursue Indians beyond the Ohio
River, and the fact that all cases appealed to higher courts had to be
carried back to Richmond for trial. Some people demanded that Ken-
tucky become simply an independent State and have nothing to do
with the Union, some wished to become a part of the Spanish Empire,
some to remain a part of Virginia. Others demanded recognition as
one of the States of the Union. The long, bitter struggle finally came
to an end in the framing of a constitution at Danville in April 1792.
On June 1, 1792, Kentucky was admitted as a State into the Union.
The new government was inaugurated June 4, 1792, in Lexington.
General Isaac Shelby, by common consent, was chosen to be the first
Governor. The Sheaf of Wheat Tavern in Lexington became tem-
porarily the statehouse, and the legislature met for its first session in a
capitol building of logs. Its first task was to select a permanent site
for the State Capital; December 8, 1792, Frankfort was so designated.
Kentucky's first constitution was modeled to some extent on the
National Constitution. All white males over 21 years of age were
permitted to vote, the Governor and senators were elected by an elec-
toral college, slavery was protected, and a bill of rights of 27 divisions
was attached. It failed, however, to provide for a public school system.
HISTORY 41
In 1799 a second constitutional convention was held, and a new con-
stitution was adopted. It created the office of Lieutenant Governor,
and made all State officers subject to direct election by the people. An
interesting provision prohibited a minister of the Gospel from serving
in the capacity of a lawmaker. Slave owners were afraid that ministers
would attempt to pass abolition legislation.
Kentucky became deeply involved in the famous French conspiracy
at this time. When Charles Edmund Genet landed at Charleston,
South Carolina, on April 8, 1793, he dispatched his agents to the west-
ern country. George Rogers Clark was given a high commission in the
French Army of the Mississippi Valley. Liberty poles were erected in
many towns and Kentuckians hailed one another as "Citizen." Al-
though the conspiracy was put down, the citizens of the State continued
to favor the French. In 1798 they protested against the Alien and
Sedition laws passed by the Adams government in Philadelphia. John
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, in co-operation with Thomas Jefferson,
drafted the famous series of resolutions setting forth what they be-
lieved to be State rights. There was much public debate on the ques-
tion and popular opinion became overwhelmingly Republican. George
Nicholas, of Lexington, a keen constitutionalist, vigorously attacked
the Federalist laws. Henry Clay delivered his first significant speech
in Kentucky politics on the question of States' rights. But when
Jefferson was elected President of the United States, Kentuckians for-
got their attack upon the National Constitution.
Between 1800-1804, the issue of trade rights on the lower Missis-
sippi River was settled by the Louisiana Purchase. Kentuckians had
lived in constant fear that the temperamental Spanish officials would
remove the American right of deposit, and that Kentuckians would be
unable to sell their products southward. In 1802 their fears were
realized, and the Spanish canceled the right of deposit. The situation
was relieved, however, when Louisiana passed into American hands in
1803.
Hardly had Kentuckians ceased rejoicing than they were involved,
innocently, in another national scandal. Aaron Burr, who had killed
Alexander Hamilton in a duel, came to the State and plotted much
of his proposed independent republic in the Southwest. Many promi-
nent Kentuckians became involved in the plot. Burr was twice brought
to trial in the Federal Court of the District of Kentucky, but was re-
leased both times as not guilty of the charges of treason preferred
against him.
42 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
When the excitement about the Burr conspiracy had somewhat sub-
sided, Kentucky became agitated over the possibility of a war with
England. News reached Kentucky in 1807 of the Chesapeake and
Leopard affair. Public opinion in favor of war ran high, and the local
press cried out loudly against England. The State legislature passed
laws forbidding the use of certain British laws and citation of British
cases in court. Realizing the temper of the public mind, the politi-
cians who sought office began to agitate the question of expanding
American territory. Henry Clay and Richard M. Johnson were elected
to Congress on an expansionist platform. Henry Clay even went so
far as to advocate the annexation of Canada. By 1811 Kentuckians
virtually demanded war with England. When war was formally de-
clared in 1812, Kentuckians advanced rapidly to the area about De-
troit. A large part of the American forces at the Battle of the Thames
consisted of Kentucky militiamen under the command of Gov. Isaac
Shelby and Congressman Richard Mentor Johnson. When Gen. An-
drew Jackson defeated the British forces at New Orleans on January 8,
1815, 5,500 Kentuckians were present, under Generals Thomas and
Adair.
After the War of 1812 Kentuckians turned their attention to more
constructive interests. Western manufactures were increasing because
British goods were off the American market from 1805-1815. Ken-
tucky hemp, cloth and rope manufacturers especially enjoyed a flourish-
ing trade, and butchers, distillers, salt-makers, and cabinetmakers were
prosperous. Land prices advanced and Louisville, Lexington, Mays-
ville, Covington, Carrollton, Paducah, Henderson, and Hickman were
rapidly becoming busy trade centers. River boatmen began to clamor
for a canal around the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. A company
was chartered by the State legislature in 1805 for this purpose, but the
work was delayed and the canal was not completed until 1829. The
first successful steamboat trip on western waters was taken by the
New Orleans to New Orleans in 1811 by Captain Nicholas Roosevelt.
About 1815 a steamboat, the Enterprise, came up the river from New
Orleans and thereafter the steamboat business began to thrive. By
1860 Kentuckians were supplying the Southern States with the most
of their manufactured goods.
With prosperous conditions, there came a demand for improved bank-
ing facilities. Kentucky at the time had a system of State banks to
which was entrusted the responsibility of issuing currency, but the
amount issued was insufficient for the successful conduct of business.
III. ARCHITECTURE
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HISTORY 43
By 1818 the demand for an increase in the number of banks was so
great that the Bank of Kentucky was expanded to include more than
40 branches. Each branch bank was given the authority to issue its
own currency. In a short time, however, the lack of control over the
volume of currency issued led to general financial confusion, and to
depreciation in value of currency. The situation became so acute that
in December 1819, the general assembly passed a law granting a stay
of execution for 60 days. This relief was not sufficient to stem the
tide. In February 1820, all debtors were given a moratorium of two
years. A test case was carried to the courts, and the circuit court of
Bourbon County declared the law unconstitutional. Later, the State
court of appeals upheld the local court and the legislature declared that
the courts were thwarting the will of the people. A struggle between
the legislative and the judicial branches of the government continued
until 1829, when the court was finally absolved of all the charges made
against it.
The legislative-judicial struggle over the banking question created
two political parties in Kentucky. In the Presidential campaign of
1824 one of the four candidates in the field was Henry Clay of Ken-
tucky, who was defeated; but, as Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives, he was a powerful factor in deciding whom Congress should select
for the next President. The Kentucky General Assembly had in-
structed Clay to support Jackson, but he disobeyed instructions and
supported John Quincy Adams. This brought about another break in
Kentucky politics ; the Clay supporters became Whigs and the Jackson
supporters became Democrats. This alignment prevailed until 1860.
The institution of slavery was a political issue in Kentucky from
1792 to 1865. Slavery had been transferred to the West as a part of
the social organization of the State, but it was not an economic suc-
cess. Lack of transportation facilities made large-scale tobacco culture
unprofitable in the early years; and the cultivation of hemp and grain
and the breeding of livestock were not adapted to slave labor.
After 1820 many Kentucky farmers moved to the Cotton Belt where
they could employ their slaves with profit. Others sold off their sur-
plus supply of Negroes to the southern planters. When the War be-
tween the States broke out, Kentucky had approximately 225,000
slaves. The State was divided into two distinct economic units. The
Bluegrass counties, in which slavery existed to the greatest extent, quite
generally favored the southern economic system. The poorer counties
and the larger urban centers were quite generally opposed to slavery.
44 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Originally the chief criticism of slavery came from the churches and
the clergy. The slaveholders were constantly on guard against this
opposition, and since they exercised more political influence than the
clergy, they succeeded in building a wall of protective legislation about
the system of slave labor. Between 1820 and 1835 the American
Colonization Society, of which Henry Clay was president, made con-
siderable headway in Kentucky. At the same time outside abolitionists
began to attack Kentucky slavery; this caused much hard feeling in
the State, and probably did more immediate harm than good. The
institution of slavery also found severe critics within the State. Cassius
M. Clay, a native of Madison County, and publisher of the True
American, a newspaper in Lexington, condemned Kentucky slavery
very bitterly.
Other live issues were at stake in antebellum days. When Henry
Clay died in 1852 he left behind him the wreckage of the Whig party,
and no leader to take his place. Local politicians began to inject into
their speeches the questions of religion and nationalities. Catholics
were condemned along with all foreigners. The Sons of America, or
Native Americans as they called themselves, attempted to keep posses-
sion of the reins of local government. A riot in Louisville in 1855,
known as "Bloody Monday," resulted.
In the Presidential election of 1860 Kentucky voted against its two
native sons, Abraham Lincoln and John C. Breckinridge, and gave its
majority support to John Bell of Tennessee, who proposed to save the
Union at any cost. Unlike her southern neighbors the State refused
to be stampeded into secession. Although Kentucky was a slave State
and considered itself Southern, it leaned toward the idea of maintaining
the Union intact. Commerce and agriculture had become the chief
interests. When war broke out, both sides looked upon Kentucky as
a valuable prize, and both sides disregarded its neutrality.
During the early part of 1862 western Kentucky was the scene of
most important operations between Northern troops under the com-
mand of Grant, McClellan, and Thomas, and the Southern troops
under the command of Johnston, Polk, Buckner, Crittenden, and Zol-
licoffer. Union victory at Mill Springs, where Zollicoffer was killed
January 19, opened the way into Eastern Tennessee. In 1863 the
Confederates under Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith made a drive into
central Kentucky. Bragg received the surrender of the garrison at
Munfordville on September 17. He then moved northeastward through
Bardstown, and at Perryville stumbled into one wing of the Union com-
HISTORY 45
mand under General Don Carlos Buell. Here on October 8 was fought
the battle of Perryville, the bloodiest encounter in Kentucky history.
The result was a draw. Bragg retreated, leaving Buell in possession
of the field. This marked the end of any serious attempt by the Con-
federates to gain possession of Kentucky.
Guerilla warfare was carried on in many sections of Kentucky. The
famous bushwhacker, Quantrill of Missouri, transferred his activities
to Kentucky and kept local communities in a state of excitement. So
vicious did this guerilla warfare become that Governor Bramlette was
compelled to organize a home guard for the protection of local com-
munities.
When peace came in 1865 Kentucky firmly believed that it would
resume its peaceful pursuit of developing agriculture and industry, but
such was not to be the case. The carpetbaggers realized that the Ne-
groes, many of whom were concentrated in Louisville in the Federal
camps, offered a good opportunity for political advantage. Farmers
were frightened into believing that they would be completely robbed of
labor. Pamphlets were issued inviting foreigners to come to the State.
Even Chinese coolies were sought as a solution to the labor problem.
The State refused to ratify the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments.
By 1871 conditions had become more or less normal; Kentuckians
gradually forgot the war and turned to the problems of industry, agri-
culture, politics and temperance.
The lower South, which had been Kentucky's most important market,
had been depleted by the war. Louisville merchants were the first to
realize the situation, and sent ex-Confederate soldiers as salesmen into
the South to help re-establish the crossroads stores. These drummers
were instructed to sell goods at all cost. Wholesale houses were gen-
erous in their credit to southern merchants. They not only thoroughly
canvassed the South, but Louisville financiers backed the extension of
the L. & N. R.R. into the South. Consequently Kentuckians soon re-
covered much of the trade which they had lost in the war, and the
State's industry once again became an important factor in the economic
development of the South.
Agriculture presented a more difficult problem. Many Kentucky
farmers depended upon a single cash crop, tobacco, and with each suc-
ceeding panic following 1865, Kentucky tobacco farmers, like southern
cotton farmers, became virtually bankrupt. This difficulty led to the
organization of various farmers' movements granger organizations, the
Farmers' Alliance, and finally the Populist party. The Populists de-
46 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
manded tariff reforms, regulation of transportation agencies, establish-
ment of agricultural schools, a more satisfactory distribution of the na-
tional medium of exchange, more reasonable farm credits, higher agri-
cultural prices, and the framing of a new State constitution in 1890.
This constitution, in effect today, reflects the philosophy of the Ken-
tucky Populist party of 1890.
Agricultural issues in the State were not all settled peacefully. From
1907 to 1909 there raged in the dark tobacco, belt a "night-riders" war
which resulted in many fatalities. The reign of general lawlessness pre-
vailed in the State for more than a year, until it was ended by the State
militia, called out by the Governor. Agrarian troubles were largely
back of bitter partisan politics that prevailed in Kentucky the latter
part of the nineteenth century. The gubernatorial election of 1899 was
fiercely fought. William Goebel of Covington opposed William Syl-
vester Taylor, a western Kentuckian, and John Young Brown. When
the votes were counted it was found that Taylor had won by a ma-
jority of more than 2,000 votes. The supporters of Goebel contested
the election. While the legislature was considering the matter, Goebel
was shot by an assassin (January 30, 1900). The legislature at once
declared Goebel Governor, but he died on February 3. Kentucky
was almost in a state of civil war ; for several months it had two Gov-
ernors and two governments. The Democrats won in the end, and
J. C. W. Beckham succeeded the assassinated Goebel as Governor.
Several years were required to allay the bitter partisan feeling that was
engendered by this affair.
Since 1909 Kentucky has pursued a fairly steady and progressive
course, in spite of the fact that Democrats and Republicans have
fought each other bitterly and alternated in political power.
Kentucky did its part in the World War by furnishing 75,043 men
and meeting its quotas in money subscribed. Men were encamped and
trained at Fort Thomas, Camp Zachary Taylor, and Camp Knox. The
latter was not dismantled after the war and on January 30, 1932, it
became a permanent post of the U. S. Army and officially named Fort
Knox. The gold vault of the U. S. Treasury is located on the reserva-
tion. Capt. Samuel Woodfill, a Kentuckian, was cited by General
Pershing as the outstanding soldier of the war; Woodfill and Willie
Sandlin were awarded Congressional medals of honor for heroism. Of
the men who were drafted and enlisted, 70 to 80 percent passed their
physical examinations and were accepted for Army service.
One of the outstanding achievements of the twentieth century in the
HISTORY 47
State is the development of good roads, under a State highway commis-
sion. By 1920 the highway system was well enough organized to take
over a large primary system of highways. The effects of improved
highways in Kentucky upon the general character and welfare of the
people cannot be overestimated. Not only have the highways speeded
up commerce and travel, but they have tended to break down section-
alism. With primary roads in every county, it is no longer strange to
see people from the remote eastern and western sections of the State
strolling the streets of Louisville as nonchalantly as if they had lived
there all their lives.
In the 50 years following the first census of 1790 the population
increased more than tenfold from 73,677 to 779,828. It numbered
1,858,635 in 1890 and 2,614,589 in 1930. Only 30.6 percent of the
1930 population was classified as urban.
Kentucky's government has recently been completely modernized,
but this has been done without touching the constitution itself and with
only a few optional alterations in the county structure. Increasing diffi-
culties with a government that tried to operate in an industrial era, on
a constitution descended from Kentucky's former slave-owning agricul-
tural status, led to the appointment of an efficiency commission in 1926.
This body made a two-year study of the State's governmental needs,
and recommended widespread changes, but controversies over their
adoption disrupted the State for another ten years. In 1934 the execu-
tive offices were reorganized under Governor Ruby Laffoon, but this
reorganization proved too cumbersome. After two years another ex-
haustive study was made that resulted in the Shields-Nickell Govern-
mental Reorganization Act, approved March 7, 1936.
The important changes in this reorganization were the creation of a
department of welfare, expanded powers of the department of health,
consolidation of the State tax commission and the department of
revenue and taxation into a single department of revenue, added powers
of the efficiency department to improve the civil service, and the crea-
tion of a new department of conservation. Finally, there was added to
the State government the legislative council, a modern unit in American
government in operation now only in a few States. The function of
this council is purely advisory. It examines and reports on the working
of the existing legislative machine, prepares and submits programs for
the general assembly, and promotes interstate comity.
The present Kentucky government follows the traditional American
system of three branches executive, legislative, and judiciary all re-
48 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
sponsible directly to the votes of the citizens. Citizenship qualifications
are simple. Any person not an idiot or insane, who is over twenty-one
years of age and has resided in the State one year, in the county six
months, and in the voting precinct sixty days next preceding election,
is qualified to vote; except that any person convicted of a felony for-
feits his right of franchise, unless he is pardoned by the governor.
There are no other qualifications.
The two units of local government are the county and the city. The
county government today is an interesting survival from Colonial
times, when its forms were borrowed more or less directly from Eng-
land. Counties have their own courts which administer governmental
functions ; they collect and spend their own revenues and in general
regulate their affairs as they please, subject only to the restrictions of
the general assembly which, as has been pointed out, is restricted by
the constitution from interfering with major phases of local adminis-
tration. The government is administered entirely by courts with the
county judge as the executive. He is elected by the county at large
and presides over the county court. Beneath this court the county is
divided into magisterial districts, each with a justice of the peace in
authority. These justices compose the fiscal court of each county,
with rather indiscriminate legislative and judicial powers.
Kentucky cities have their own government, independent of their
surrounding counties, and responsible only to the State. The legisla-
ture divides the cities into six classes, according to population, and
provides debt limits and general forms of government for each. Three
forms of city government are established, and variations from these are
allowed by special legislative enactment: the standard mayor-council
form, commission government, and the city manager plan.
The constitution of Kentucky, which covers all forms of government
and of legislation throughout the State, is subject to alteration through
two methods. An amendment may be proposed in either branch of the
general assembly at a regular session, and if agreed to by a three-fifths
vote of both branches, may be submitted to the voters of the State for
adoption. Ninety days must elapse between the legislative adoption of
the amendment and its submission to popular vote; and not more than
two amendments may be voted on at any one time. If a widespread
revision of the constitution is demanded, a general constitutional con-
vention of delegates, equal in numbers to that of the house of repre-
sentatives, may be authorized by the general assembly. The conven-
tion remodels the constitution and submits it to popular vote.
HISTORY 49
Kentucky has its State flag, its State flower, its State bird, and its
State song. The flag is Kentucky blue with the seal of the Common-
wealth encircled by a wreath of goldenrod in the center. The State
flower is the goldenrod, the bird is the Kentucky cardinal, the song
is "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night," by Stephen Collins Foster.
AGRICULTURE
THE EARLY development of Kentucky was entirely agricultural,
and at first only those trades incidental and necessary to farming
received attention. Lumbering, mining, and manufacturing had to
await the development of agriculture. Isolated from markets and
sources of manufactured goods, farmers produced nearly everything
consumed by their families, and each farm was largely a self-contained
and self-supporting economic unit.
Sugar and hardware had to be imported from the beginning, and at
first were paid for with pelts. When farm production began to exceed
consumption, farmers sought. means of exchanging their surplus prod-
ucts for the articles they had to buy. A system of country merchan-
dising based upon exchange of products developed, and farming for
the market began.
Prohibitive freight costs over the Appalachian Mountains made east-
ward shipment uneconomic for all except commodities of high value in
proportion to bulk and weight. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers,
which border Kentucky for more than 700 miles, and tributaries of the
Ohio that flow across and through the State, give Kentucky more miles
of major navigable streams than any other State. With a mountain
barrier to the east and a water route down the Ohio and Mississippi to
New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, river transportation reached a
high stage of development, especially after the coming of the steam-
boat. This profoundly affected agriculture, and partly accounts for
the high rank of Kentucky as an agricultural State for approximately
seventy-five years preceding the War between the States. In 1839
Kentucky was first in the production of hemp, second in the production
of both corn and hogs (with Tennessee ranking first), fourth in the
production of oats and rye, and one of the leading tobacco, wheat, and
beef producing States. The influence of Kentucky farmers, repre-
sented in Congress by Henry Clay, contributed to the establishment
of a protective tariff. Competition of imported fibers with hemp in-
duced Kentucky farmers to endorse the policy of protection.
50
AGRICULTURE 51
Properly speaking, commercialized farming dates from about 1825,
when the first market for tobacco in hogsheads was opened at Louis-
ville. Before this time Kentucky tobacco was shipped direct from the
farm to New Orleans. Naturally, production was confined to areas
adjacent to navigable rivers. Western Kentucky, with an abundance
of navigable streams, enjoyed transportation facilities superior to other
parts of the State, and consequently became the State's center of to-
bacco culture. Subsequently, tobacco production of the dark type
was so concentrated in this area that it became known as the "Black
Patch."
Even before Kentucky became a State, tobacco shared with hemp the
distinction of being one of the two crops grown commercially. Tobacco
had long been the leading money crop in North Carolina and Virginia,
and settlers from these States continued its culture. The variety
grown was dark and heavy, similar to the present-day dark-fired type.
It was believed in the early years that only virgin ground would grow
good tobacco. Common practice, therefore, was to clear fresh acreage
for the crops each year. Practically all land used for tobacco was
originally covered with hardwood forests; but there was no market at
that time for timber cleared to make room for tobacco, and great quan-
tities of walnut, cherry, chestnut, hickory, oak, and poplar timber
were cut and burned as waste.
Tobacco production increased rapidly after 1825, and by 1865 Ken-
tucky was producing more of this crop than any other State in the
Union. White burley was first raised near Higginsport, Brown County,
Ohio, in 1864, from seed produced in Kentucky. Rapid spread of
this tobacco throughout central Kentucky more firmly fixed tobacco
as the key product in the farm economy of the State. Until the com-
ing of white burley, tobacco had not been grown to any extent in cen-
tral Kentucky. Development of railway facilities, high content of
calcium and phosphorus in the soils of central Kentucky, and the fact
that burley found a good market as both smoking and chewing to-
bacco, stimulated the rapid increase of tobacco raising in that area.
Tobacco production grew rapidly after 1865, and until recent years
Kentucky ranked first among the States in its culture. Lexington is
the world's largest loose-leaf tobacco market.
Formerly grown exclusively in the Bluegrass region, burley is now
raised in 110 counties of the State. The 1933 crop, the last which
preceded production control, was 250 million pounds. In addition to
burley, four types of dark tobacco Dark-fired, One-sucker, Green
52 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
River, and Stemming are grown in 33 western counties. Dark to-
bacco, with the exception of the finest dark-fired, used in the manufac-
ture of snuff, is largely exported.
One-third to one-half of the annual cash income of Kentucky farmers
is derived from tobacco. The ease with which it lends itself to a one-
crop system of farming has had much to do with establishing it as a
chief product of the State. Because of long-continued dependence on
tobacco as their major money crop, Kentucky farmers are reluctant to
diversify their crops or to adopt more modern practices in tobacco cul-
ture. But there has been an economic collapse in the dark-tobacco
areas in Kentucky since the World War, because of curtailed foreign
demand ; and as a result, dairying, poultry farming, small fruit orchard-
ing, and legume production are developing in those areas.
Cotton, the chief crop produced with slave labor, was never grown
to any large extent in Kentucky. Hemp growing, the second farm
enterprise in point of time, and tobacco production afforded the most
profitable opportunity in Kentucky for the use of slave labor.
The first crop of hemp was grown near Danville in 1775. When it
was found that hemp grew so well in the Bluegrass region, its growth
was discontinued in the Eastern States, and from 1840 to 1870 prac-
tically all of the hemp produced in the United States was grown in
Kentucky. In pioneer days hemp fiber was used for the homespun
cloth woven by the wives and daughters of early settlers. Soon the
fiber was used in making rope, twine, and sacking, particularly to bind
cotton bales; in the War of 1812 rigging and even cables were made of
it for Perry's fleet on Lake Erie. A lively export trade, in addition to
the healthy domestic demand, developed, clearing through New Or-
leans. As has already been pointed out, protection demanded by hemp
growers in Kentucky resulted in the adoption of the protective tariff
system in the United States. The replacement of sailing vessels by
steamships and the free import of various substitutes for hemp fiber
caused rapid decline in hemp culture after 1860, and the crop is now
not commercially important. Practically the entire national supply of
hemp seed for fiber is now produced in the narrow valleys of the Ken-
tucky River and its tributaries near High Bridge. The story of hemp
and the significance of its production to Kentucky has been fasci-
natingly described in a novel, The Reign of Law, by James Lane Allen.
Not only did the early settlers know how to grow tobacco, they also
knew how to make whisky. Because of its high value in proportion to
bulk and the ready market for it at New Orleans, whisky early became
AGRICULTURE 53
a favored product in the rye and corn regions of Kentucky. Probably
the bulk of the State's rye grown before 1860, and a large part of its
corn, were utilized in whisky making. Water from Kentucky springs
and wells was found to be especially suitable for liquor, and the result
is that the distilling industry, in several ways, has affected agricultural
practice. Distilleries afforded a local market for small grains, and from
year to year farmers hoped to sell all or part of their grain to distil-
leries at a profitable price. Thus the distilling industry tended to per-
petuate the growing of small grains in many localities long after farmers
might have turned to other crops. Since the repeal of prohibition, dis-
tilleries have again become consumers of local grain and are also im-
portant sources of slop feed for beef cattle and hogs.
Horses were used as work stock in the American Colonies long before
mules. In 1783, George Washington, believing that mules were supe-
rior to horses for work on southern farms, imported jacks from Europe
and sent them on a stud tour of the South. Henry Clay was promi-
nent in establishing and developing the mule industry of Kentucky, and
in 1827 and 1829 made significant importations of jack stock from
Spain. Until the end of the century, Kentucky led in raising mules.
Tennessee and Missouri, also important mule-producing States, ob-
tained their foundation stock from Kentucky.
Every American knows of Kentucky bluegrass which thrives in pe-
culiar soil conditions, particularly in the Bluegrass region, where the
soil contains phosphorus, lime, and other minerals in such combination
as to make the grass especially excellent food for livestock. As soon as
the superior feeding qualities of pastures in central Kentucky were rec-
ognized, the region became the center of light horse breeding.
Exclusive of horses, it is estimated that $30,000,000 is invested in
Bluegrass horse farms and improvements; that employees are paid
$1,500,000 annually, and that $2,000,000 of supplies are purchased.
Bluegrass pastures contributed to the early development of improved
breeds of beef cattle. The Shorthorn in particular received attention,
and outstanding specimens, often selling for thousands of dollars, were
shipped to foreign countries as well as to other sections of the United
States. A somewhat similar improvement developed in sheep breed-
ing, particularly with the Southdown and Cheviot breeds. The Blue-
grass specializes in furnishing quality spring lambs for early market-
ing; these command a high price, since competition for them is keen.
Dairying, during the past decade, has grown almost phenomenally
in Kentucky. Though there has been a national decrease in the num-
54 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ber of cows, the number in Kentucky has increased. Condenseries have
been built at several points, and full advantage has been taken of mild,
open winters and long grazing seasons. Collapse of dark-tobacco prices,
urban population growth, increasing appreciation of the value of milk
as a food, and other factors have contributed to the growth of dairy-
ing. In several very commendable respects Kentucky dairymen have
shown marked initiative. Union was the first county in the United
States to rid itself of scrub bulls. A State-wide campaign to test and
weed out tubercular dairy cows has been so successful that all the 120
counties are rated tubercular-free. A State campaign to eradicate
Bang's disease, or contagious abortion, among dairy cows is now well
advanced. The United States Department of Agriculture actively co-
operates in the campaign against tuberculosis and Bang's disease by
partially reimbursing farmers for cattle which have to be killed.
Corn is normally the crop of greatest value grown in the State, but
little is usually marketed as such, since the bulk is fed to livestock.
Hay, which is also a high value crop, is mostly fed to livestock. Jef-
ferson County is one of the most important agricultural counties, rank-
ing with Aroostook County, Maine, in the production of potatoes; it
leads all Kentucky counties in onions and onion sets, and is a large
producer of orchard and small fruits. McCracken County leads in rais-.
ing strawberries, other small fruits, and peaches; while in Henderson
and a few other counties are several large commercial apple and peach
orchards.
Kentucky leads in the production of bluegrass, orchard grass, and
lespedeza seed. Poultry and pork production are important, and Ken-
tucky hickory-cured hams enjoy a reputation that is becoming nation-
wide. The production of sorghum molasses holds promise of future
development. In northern, southeastern, and selected areas of western
Kentucky, honey is produced on a commercial scale. Some cotton and
sweet potatoes are grown, chiefly in the Purchase; and large quantities
of vegetables and truck crops are produced around Louisville and the
Kentucky area near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kentucky farmers, attempting to speak collectively concerning agri-
cultural problems, have subscribed to a series of farm movements. The
Grange reached its peak in Kentucky in 1875, at which time there were
1,493 granges with a membership of 52,463. The Agricultural Wheel,
active in Kentucky in the late eighties and early nineties, established
co-operative stores, a co-operative mill, and a co-operative tobacco asso-
ciation in Webster and Henderson Counties. During the existence of
AGRICULTURE 55
the American Society of Equity, 1904-1914, a large percentage of the
tobacco of the State was marketed co-operatively. Kentucky farmers
have also participated in the work of the Farmers' Alliance, the Farm-
ers' Union, and the Burley Tobacco Growers Co-operative Association,
which was organized in 1920 but later abandoned. The Farm Bureau
is organized in sixty counties with a membership, in 1937, of 13,500.
Of the total population (2,614,589) in 1930, almost 70 percent was
rural, and two-thirds of this number, or 1,174,232, were actually living
on 246,499 farms. Farm value of crops and livestock produced in 1929
was approximately $275,000,000; in 1935 gross income from farms was
$166,433,000, including Government benefit payments of $7,259,000.
The ten leading farm products are corn, tobacco, dairy products, poul-
try, vegetables and truck, hay, hogs, sheep, beef cattle, and fruit. Al-
though statistics are not available, it is probable that production of
horses and mules should be listed as one of the ten most important
farm enterprises.
Since its establishment in 1885, the Kentucky Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, co-operatively maintained at Lexington by the State and
Federal Governments, has vitally influenced the agricultural and rural
life of the State. No valuation in dollars can be placed on the worth
to farmers of improved agricultural practices initiated upon recommen-
dations of this agency. Nor can any estimate be made of the addi-
tional farm income resulting from improved varieties and breeds of
plants and animals, control and prevention of diseases of animals and
plants, eradication and control of insect pests, and marketing and farm
organization. All these activities have been developed by the experi-
ment station. The increasing significance of this organization's work
is indicated by the maintenance of branch stations at Princeton and
Quicksand, and five experimental fields at other points in the State.
Farmers have become increasingly conscious of the need for conserva-
tion. Work in this field is carried on by the State department of agri-
culture, Smith-Hughes teachers of vocational agriculture, various State
boards, commissions, and agencies, and, lately, through the Agricul-
tural Adjustment Administration and the agricultural conservation pro-
gramthe Tennessee Valley Authority, Farm Security Administration,
Civilian Conservation Corps, Farm Bureau Federation, and other
bodies.
TRANSPORTATION
OWING largely to natural barriers, and partly to the demands of
interstate commerce, Kentucky's lines of trade and communica-
tion by land developed north to south rather than east to west.
Pioneer Kentucky lay in the path of the great migrations from Vir-
ginia and the South to the West, and commerce between Lakes and
Gulf was borne along its bordering waterways. But mountains formed
an effective barrier to trade and transport eastward.
For nearly a century, except for the Wilderness Road through Cum-
berland Gap, the only transport route common to the three sections of
the State mountains, Bluegrass, and western hills and downs was the
Ohio River, tributaries of which reach back into the hills. So com-
pletely was the eastern third of the State cut off from the central and
western sections that within its isolation developed a type of Ken-
tuckian who was an enigma to the lowlanders. In the 1890's and
1900's rails were laid into the coal country in the eastern part of the
State, and many extensions of the coal-carrying lines were made there-
after. In the course of this development the Chesapeake & Ohio con-
nected Ashland and Lexington with a branch line. But even today the
only direct rail route from Kentucky to the eastern seaboard is that of
the main line of the C. & O., which follows the valley of the Ohio to
Cincinnati.
As motor highway transport has advanced, progress has been made
in penetrating the eastern section. Two U. S. highways now traverse
the area, and a growing network of modern roads is steadily reducing
its former isolation. Transportation in its motorized form is making
Kentucky a homogeneous State.
Waterways and trails, naturally, were the first travel routes. The
southern section of the trail, or trace, from Maysville to Cumberland
Gap was the route by which most early white settlers entered the
present State of Kentucky. Known in pioneer days as the Wilderness
Road, this section today forms part of US 25E, extending southeast
56
IV. INDUSTRY: TRANSPORTATION
WATER FRONT, LOUISVILLE
COAL MINER
I
MODERN COLLIERY
II
STRIP MINING
COAL MINE
.
iwtt: *
r
4> * . -^"S
If"
r
11
MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT COLUMBUS
ALONG THE PINEVILLE-HARLAN ROAD
DIX DAM, HERRINGTON LAKE
BARDSTOWN DISTILLERY
iff!
TOBACCO MARKET
MULE DAY
CHAIR MAKERS
TRANSPORTATION 57
from Corbin to Cumberland Gap. North of Corbin the Federal high-
way roughly follows the old trace to Maysville.
The waterways served well as commercial routes to the West and
South, but trade with the East was developed laboriously. Drovers, in
the early days, found it profitable to collect cattle and hogs, herd them
over the mountain routes to the East, and return bearing supplies in
demand among Kentucky settlers.
The trails were improved slowly and unsatisfactorily, mostly through
the construction of toll roads by private enterprise. Maintenance was
poor, and a writer of the early nineteenth century was frank in declar-
ing that it was easier for an immigrant to reach Kansas from the east-
ern seaboard than to reach Kentucky. Nonetheless, stagecoach traffic
had an early beginning. An advertisement in the Kentucky Gazette of
August 9, 1803, announced that John Kennedy had started a stage line
from Lexington, Winchester, and Mount Sterling to Olympian Springs,
a famed resort in Bath County.
Toll roads persisted in the State until late in the century, when users
began to protest with threats and later with organized raids to destroy
the tollgates. "Shun" pikes, too, were constructed, over which traffic
might detour to avoid the gates.
Many migrants from Pennsylvania or Virginia found it feasible to
float down the Ohio River to their new homes at Limestone (Mays-
ville), the Falls (Louisville), Yellowbanks (Owensboro), or other set-
tlements. Most of the larger cities of the State are situated on the
Ohio, partly as a result of the impetus given their growth when the
river was the main artery of trade and travel, and partly because of
the natural advantage of their position as centers of interstate traffic
by rail, and as markets and distribution points.
The Kentucky boatman of the early nineteenth century belonged to
a distinct social class. Tradition pictures him as a robust, rowdy brag-
gart, inured to drudgery and danger, and much given to snorting, slap-
ping his thigh, and proclaiming himself a "half-horse, half-alligator
man," a "snapping turtle," or a "child of calamity." He was schooled
in disaster, so there was some truth in the last term; at one time the
term "Kentucky boatman" had to be pronounced with a smile if no
hard feelings were implied.
The flatboats, keelboats, and "broadhorns" used in the river trade
gradually gave place to the steamboat, which first stirred western waters
in 1811. Within a few decades the steamboats dominated as cargo car-
riers as well as passenger carriers on the Ohio and Mississippi; and
58 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
broadhorns, flatboats, and rafts appeared for the most part at floodtime,
when back-country folk took advantage of the freshets to float crops or
lumber to market on craft of their own making.
One of the earliest railroads west of the Alleghenies was the Lex-
ington & Ohio, now part of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. It
was chartered January 27, 1830, and was opened for traffic August 15,
1832. At its opening, it was a line six miles long, extending from
Lexington to Frankfort, with rolling stock hauled by horses; a terminus
on the Ohio had purposely been left unsettled. It was 1851 before the
L. & O. reached the river, and by that time it had undergone sev-
eral reorganizations. However, it initiated railroad construction in
Kentucky.
On March 5, 1850, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad secured a
charter for a route between the cities designated in its corporate name.
The first train over the route ran on November 1, 1859. The line
proved extremely useful to the Federal forces during the War between
the States.
Following the war, railroads became an obsession with numbers of
Kentucky towns. Some of the lines built in the flush of railroad fever
have been abandoned and their names forgotten. Others, planned to
serve a functional need, have endured either as independent lines or
as links or branches of larger systems. Today the Lexington & Big
Sandy forms part of the Chesapeake & Ohio, and several short lines
operate as part of the L. & N.
Unusual in character among railroads is the Cincinnati, New Orleans
& Texas Pacific Railway, constructed and owned by the city of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. Chartered in 1871, by 1881 it had constructed 340 miles
of track connecting Cincinnati with Chattanooga, extending through
Kentucky and Tennessee. At present it is operated under lease by the
Southern Railway System.
A glance at a railroad map of Kentucky shows that most of the major
transportation systems in Kentucky touch it only along the Ohio River.
Further examination reveals, however, that the State is quite adequately
served, except for a comparatively small part of the south central sec-
tion, by the systems named above, together with the Illinois Central
and a number of smaller lines. Although some counties are completely
without rail facilities, the railroad and the motor bus in combination
leave few areas without modern transport of some kind. There are
today in Kentucky approximately 3,821 miles of track, owned or oper-
ated by more than twenty railroads. Of this mileage all but about 165
miles is either owned or operated by class 1 railroads.
TRANSPORTATION 59
Electric railroads, or interurbans, as they were more generally called,
enjoyed a brief prosperity at the beginning of the present century.
With the exception of the electric lines connecting Louisville and New
Albany, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and its sister cities of northern
Kentucky included in the Greater Cincinnati area, there are no inter-
urbans in Kentucky today. The appearance of the private automobile
foreshadowed their end, the motor bus made it certain, and the depres-
sion delivered the final blow.
As the railroads gradually evolved into the present-day efficient car-
riers of freight and passengers, river traffic languished. Passenger
travel by river has almost entirely disappeared, although some excur-
sion boats are still operated. Volume-freight traffic on the Ohio and
Mississippi is gaining, however, under the program being carried out by
the Corps of Army Engineers and the Inland Waterways Corporation,
operating the Federal Barge Lines.
The introduction of the automobile intensified, in Kentucky as else-
where, the demand for better roads. The constitution adopted in 1890
had prohibited the State from expending funds on highways, but this
provision was removed in 1909. In 1912 a State highway commission
was created, and in 1914 the legislature authorized a system of roads
connecting county seats. This act was modified in 1920 by an act pro-
viding for a primary system of State highways aggregating 4,000 miles.
There are now (1939) 62,633 miles of roads within the State. Ap-
proximately 500 miles of improved roads are being added annually by
the State highway commission, in addition to improved mileage added
by the various counties.
Since 1920 improved highways have encouraged the growth of a net-
work of bus lines that covers the entire State. Interstate buses are
well designed and equipped, and local buses are becoming more com-
fortable and modern. The largest bus center in Kentucky is Lexington,
which is the hub of a system of fine highways in all directions, over
which local and interstate coaches carry hundreds of passengers daily.
Air travel in Kentucky is still in the embryonic stage of development.
The only important commercial airport in Kentucky is Bowman Field,
in Louisville, used by American Airlines and Eastern Airlines. It is an
important stop on the American Airlines route from Cleveland to Los
Angeles, by way of Louisville, Nashville, Dallas, and Fort Worth; and
on the Eastern Airlines route from Chicago to Miami, by way of In-
dianapolis, Louisville, and Jacksonville. Many municipalities maintain
airports for local air traffic, chiefly of the air taxi type.
MANUFACTURING AND
MINING
KENTUCKY'S industries are widely distributed. Much the greater
part of the State's factory output issues from the towns along the
Ohio River but both eastern and western Kentucky are rich in minerals,
though the east far outyields the west in tonnage. Yet Kentucky is
rightly regarded as being primarily an agricultural State. The value
of factory and mine products is nearly three times that of crops and
livestock, but, according to the U. S. Census of 1930, more than 340,000
Kentuckians were gainfully employed on farms, while about 203,000
were gainfully employed in mines, shops, and factories. Interest in
agriculture is strong even in the State's industrial centers ; and the Ken-
tuckian becomes more excited over a killing frost or a rainy spring
than over Dow- Jones averages or the Bedeaux system, and takes more
interest in thoroughbred foals than in the latest model punch press.
Something of the native temperament seems to have found expression
in Kentucky's favorite industries, for the Bluegrass State is most popu-
larly known as a producer of fine rye and bourbon whiskies, and of
rich, sweet smoking and chewing tobacco. In quantity of whisky pro-
duced it leads the Nation, and in tobacco it is outranked by only two
States.
Colonization of Kentucky involved transplanting not merely people
but an economy capable of serving community life. Men of numerous
trades, professions, and businesses joined the rush to the West, bring-
ing with them their tools and experience.
Isolated from markets and sources of supply, Kentucky was not slow
in putting to use the abilities of its pioneer craftsmen. Activities essen-
tial to life in the new settlements developed with the clearing of the
land. Salt-making, tanning, gristmill construction, gunpowder manu-
facture, lead molding, iron smelting, and the production of nails, rope,
linen, woolen cloth, and paper were among the early industries. The
trade in furs, first product of the region, expanded into an exchange and
60
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 6l
export business that warranted highways across the mountains, and that
became a potent argument in favor of the Louisiana Purchase and the
opening of the Mississippi.
Tools and equipment for replacement had either to be made on the
spot, in the early days, or packed in over long, difficult trails. This
accounts for the early development of smelting and forging, antedating
by nearly a century the rise of the State's present steel industry. In
the 1800's Lexington was a thriving industrial town with 58 manufac-
turing establishments representing 13 industries. Twelve of the plants
were cotton mills, four were hat factories, and four were carriage works.
The difficulty of transporting unprocessed grain to market was an incen-
tive to distilling. Georgetown had a distillery as early as 1789, and in
1810 two thousand stills were operating in the State. By that time
Kentucky also had nine linseed oil mills, 63 gunpowder plants, and 267
tanneries. Small enterprises and trade limited to the immediate locality
were the rule, but every town was eager to outdo the rest. Among the
aspiring commercial and industrial centers Lexington early established
its leadership.
Rapid settlement created a demand for manufactures that for a time
ran ahead of production, and this stimulated plant expansion to a point
where surpluses became a plague. The clamor for free navigation of
the lower Mississippi grew stronger. In 1803 the United States pur-
chased the Louisiana Territory. The opening of the river sent an in-
creased flow of goods toward New Orleans, and loosed forces which in
time were to disrupt and reorganize the economy of the Republic.
When, in the second decade of the nineteenth century, the first steam-
boat appeared on western waters, the Ohio's importance as an artery
of commerce was vastly increased. The river towns began to flourish
as centers of manufacture and trade after 1820, and inland towns
correspondingly declined. The Bluegrass, forced to move its goods
over highways, could not compete with the river towns, with navigable
waters for heavy freight transportation at their doors. Louisville, at
the Falls of the Ohio, prospered as the transshipping point for cargoes
from both up and down the river, and had the added advantage of
cheap power from the falls.
Hemp, cotton, woolen, and linen mills prospered in early times.
Even in the 1860's American sailing ships were equipped with rope
from the Bluegrass, and Great Lakes schooners provided a market for
a considerable time after. The great cause of decline in the State's
hemp industry was the replacement of sailing ships with steamships in
62 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
the final decades of the century, and the decline was accelerated when,
after the war with Spain, sisal and other fibers were placed on the free
list of imports. A single hemp factory continued to operate at Frank-
fort as late as 1937. Cotton, woolen, and linen factories underwent a
similar decline.
The extension of railroad lines into the interior of the State in the
final half of the century stimulated lumbering, mining, and manufacture
in some of the more retarded areas; but elsewhere they failed to stimu-
late the expansion of established industries or promote the development
of new ones. Mainly, the railroad strengthened the dominant economic
position of the best-situated river towns. One by one the small fac-
tories of the interior towns moved or ceased operation. Today only a
few remain. Portable lumber mills now work the cut-over lands for
stock for barrel staves and similar special forms. Industries in which
proximity to raw supplies is important, like quarrying, brick and tile
making, and mining, are represented by plants here and there.
The few small factories surviving in the interior have profited, like
the local merchant, from improved highways and motor-truck transpor-
tation. The motor truck has made it practicable for manufacturing
plants in large industrial centers to maintain branch supply houses at
well-chosen points in the interior, through which local dealers may be
restocked frequently with goods in quantities suited to their needs. At
the same time the motor truck has enabled the local manufacturer
greatly to extend his market area. Livestock, tobacco, horticultural
and dairy products, and a variety of other local commodities now find
their way to market by highway.
The concentration of large-scale industries along the Ohio makes the
economic map of the State a wide agricultural zone, with an industrial
fringe along its northern border. The State's tobacco crop is processed
in major part in the factories at Louisville, and this city also produces
the bulk of Kentucky's whiskies. A number of distilleries, however,
making brands that have been established in the market for many
years, continue to operate at their original locations in the Bluegrass
and Pennyrile, and west as far as Owensboro.
Most Ohio River towns prospered during the War between the States
as supply centers for the armies of the North; this was especially true
of Louisville and Covington. The railroads brought prosperity mainly
to the already flourishing river cities, which became division terminals
and distribution and transshipment points because of the natural ad-
vantages of their locations. Kentucky capitalists chose to invest in
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 63
further development of their home territory, and this tendency still
persists, serving in a degree to stimulate legitimate industry and re-
strain wildcat speculation. The results of this policy are evident today
in the wide variety of the small-scale industries in the river towns.
Cabinet making, organ building, shoe production, and the manufacture
of wire cloth are but a few of the many industrial activities of the
valley. Often the plants were started as small shops by craftsmen who
landed from river boats in the 1830's or 1840's with little baggage
except the tools of their trades.
Following the War between the States Louisville became Kentucky's
leading industrial city, and first among cities east of the Mississippi
and south of the Mason and Dixon Line in volume and total of manu-
factured products and wages. Ashland and Newport have become
minor centers of steel manufacture. Covington's industrial pattern is
characterized by variety. Owensboro and Henderson, distribution cen-
ters for the western Kentucky coal fields, have developed extensive
marketing connections for their agricultural and horticultural products
as well as for their manufactured specialties, which include textiles and
electrical supplies. Paducah, like Louisville, a rail-terminal town, is
known chiefly for its locomotive repair shops and as a river-boat con-
struction center.
Kentucky's manufacturing establishments in 1933 numbered about
1,700. Wages paid totaled about $62,000,000, and the value of product
was about $500,000,000. Approximately three-fifths of the output by
value issued from Louisville. In all, about 70,000 wage earners were
employed.
Kentucky's liquor distilleries in 1935 produced about 197,000,000
gallons of spirits, mainly bourbon, corn, and rye whiskies, with a value
of approximately $60,000,000. Total wages to 7,500 distillery workers
were $4,825,806; more than $11,000,000 was spent for grain supplies;
and the bill for cooperage was more than $4,500,000. The industry
maintains a stock of between four hundred million and five hundred
million gallons in process of aging, representing an investment of
$150,000,000. The State's 57 active bonded distilleries produced 43
percent of the Nation's distilled liquor output in the fiscal year 1937.
Kentucky's tobacco industry, first in dollars-and-cents importance in
the State's economy, processed 343,865,000 pounds of leaf, grown
mainly in the central, southern, and western sections, in 1937. Of this
total, about 270,000,000 pounds were burley which forms the bulk of
the average American cigarette and 55,000,000 pounds were dark to-
64 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
bacco, used in cigars, pipe and chewing tobaccos, and snuff. The value
of the crop to the producers was $64,990,000.
Considerable quantities of Kentucky's dark tobacco are exported.
Cigarette production in the State was 11,742,614,000 in 1937 an in-
crease of 140,000,000 over that of 1936. This placed the State third
in cigarette output. It is first in burley production and third in pro-
duction of processed tobacco.
Meat packing in Kentucky centers around the Bourbon Stock Yards
in Louisville. In this industry Kentucky leads the southeastern area
of the Nation. Livestock and other raw supplies valued at more than
$13,000,000 were processed in Kentucky packing plants in 1935. Flour
and grain processing, railroad rolling-stock repair, petroleum refining,
and bread making are other major industrial activities in Kentucky,
and more than sixty other industries contribute to the total annual
product value of $300,000,000 to $500,000,000.
Kentucky's mineral production is at present confined to coal, petro-
leum, natural gas, fluorspar, limestone, rock . asphalt, and a number of
minor substances like the finer plastic and refractory clays and clays
commonly utilized in tile making.
In earlier times a number of other minerals were produced locally
which are now supplied from more economical sources outside the State.
Early settlers in the Kentucky area obtained their salt from the licks
frequented by deer, boiling the water from the salt springs until only
the solid content was left. In Mammoth Cave and elsewhere deposits
of saltpeter were processed for gunpowder by leaching. Lead was found
in quantities sufficient for local purposes, and iron ore of good quality
was mined in the eastern part of the State. Commercial iron mining
was carried on near Ashland as late as the 1870's.
Early in the nineteenth century coal began to be mined in the moun-
tains and shipped by barge to Lexington, Louisville, and other towns
for use in both forging and heating. The western fields early developed
a trade in coal with New Orleans. Limestone from cliffs along the
Kentucky River "Kentucky marble" was used to construct both
public and private buildings; the old capitol at Frankfort exhibits the
natural beauty of this stone. Plastic clays found in scattered deposits
in central and eastern Kentucky provided the settlers with material for
earthenware, and brick and tile clays found everywhere in the State
served for the construction of many homes.
Modern coal mining began to develop in the 1870's, when a blast
furnace was blown in at Ashland, now important for iron and steel,
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 65
using ore and fuel of local origin. Cheaper ores from Missouri and
later from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota made iron mining uneco-
nomical in Kentucky, but coal mining in the Big Sandy Valley devel-
oped steadily. Coal mines in both the eastern and western parts of the
State found a market in the growing industries along the Ohio. Rail
connections with Great Lakes ports later widened the market for Ken-
tucky coal.
Mining operations in the later industrial period were at first carried
on in the crude style traditional of development by individuals of lim-
ited means. Farmers or lessees opened small tunnels, leaving pillars of
coal for supports to save the expense of timbering. Coal was hauled
by wagon to the barges. But gradually the railroads penetrated the
mountainous coal country, and after 1900 coal mining became a big-
capital industry (see Labor).
Coal production in Kentucky rose from 169,000 tons in 1870 to an
average of more than 30,000,000 tons between 1916 and 1920, mainly
because of expanding markets and rail transportation. Production in
the eastern fields mounted to more than 60,000,000 in 1929, and
dropped to 35,000,000 tons at the low point of the depression starting
in 1930. In 1936 production had risen to an estimated 47,570,000
tons, with a value at the mine mouth of $65,956,000. One-ninth of
this total tonnage is utilized for coke production, mostly outside the
State.
Kentucky petroleum production was 5,628,000 barrels in 1936, with
a value of $6,000,000. The value of natural gas produced was
$17,730,000 at the point of consumption.
The output of fluorspar, from which fluorite necessary in modern
steel manufacture is obtained, is about 80,000 short tons a year. This
is about half the national total. Total annual production of Kentucky
minerals, by value, is about $100,000,000.
LABOR
KENTUCKY labor, both white and Negro, has always been almost
wholly native born. Its development has been essentially rural
and ties in closely with lumbering and river transportation.
In early times, settlers from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Maryland
dominated the Bluegrass and the Pennyrile. Many of their slaves were
skilled craftsmen, who worked, when not employed at home, for people
who paid their masters for their services. Thus they were a source of
income to their owners, and as such were assured a degree of security
against sale.
Coincidentally, the use of white labor was developing. Many early
settlers, especially those from Pennsylvania and other Northern States,
took up land in the mountains, where slavery was impracticable. Re-
stricted by nature in its agricultural development, the mountain area
soon had an excess of white labor that migrated to the lowlands and
competed there with the labor of slaves, which was never sufficient to
meet the demand. In earlier times white labor was largely engaged in
logging in the great river valleys, and in clearing and farming the cut-
over lands. The two processes went hand in hand; and the disappear-
ance of marketable timber left a surplus of white laborers who, when
they did not settle down to farming, either " followed the timber" or
migrated to other parts of the State. Such was the general situation
after the War between the States, when coal mining, oil production,
and other industries widened the field of labor and extended it through-
out Kentucky.
Of great importance in the developing labor situation was the early
rise and subsequent decline of industrial centers. Lexington, a thriving
manufacturing center in the 1800's, was plagued with piled-up surpluses
and a lack of outlets. The decline of the city's manufacturing, which
began about 1825, is illustrative of a process then taking place through-
out the State: small community industries were being relocated at
places convenient for land-and-water transfer, and in such places a
population was growing which was essentially urban in outlook.
66
LABOR 67
With the development of the Ohio River as a major artery of com-
merce between the Ohio Valley States and the West and South,
trading and industrial river ports grew up in which the older Kentucky
tradition had little part. The Middle East and the South fought for
Kentucky's developing trade, and for a time the South prevailed. But
between 1830 and 1860 the Middle East, by weight of numbers, in-
creased its influence and won out. Migrants pouring down the Ohio
settled in the river towns, and to their northern traditions were added
the traditions of craftsmen who emigrated from Germany in large num-
bers after the Revolution of 1848.
The labor traditions of Covington, Newport, Louisville, Paducah, and
other river towns are largely of such derivation. The late-comers first
as journeymen, later as the owners of shops set the pattern of labor
conditions that prevailed up to the time of the War between the States.
Long hours were the rule. Most workmen supplied their own tools.
Employers furnished space and materials and found a market for the
goods. Wages, affected in many cases by slave competition, were low,
but the prospect of a worker's becoming head of his own shop tended
to head off union agitation.
The pre-war record of labor unionism is short and vague. In the
1830's seven trade unions were in existence in Louisville. The tailors
organized in 1835. Sometime in the 1850's the carpenters of Hopkins-
ville formed a union along co-operative lines, and those at Ashland
and Paducah followed suit. There is no further record of union activi-
ties until after the war. Out of the chaos of the War between the
States rose the unionism of modern times.
Disbandment of the armies sent masses of men into the labor market
to seek work. Kentucky had its full quota, and in addition had the
problem of employing the masses of freed Negroes.
Many Negroes collected in Louisville and other industrial towns,
competed for jobs, and by their numbers depressed wages. They found
work in semiskilled pursuits, or served as doormen, porters, cleaners,
servants, hotel attendants, and the like. In more recent times the
Negro's field of occupation has widened, and there are Negroes today
who own small industries or are members of the professions. But the
problems of Negro employment, housing, and wages in the main are
still unsolved.
The war was followed by the decline of the hemp industry, which
formerly had given off-season work in the mills to farm labor. The
slack in employment was taken up by an expansion of tobacco growing,
68 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
a development that entailed an expansion in curing, warehousing, and
marketing. White and Negro labor was attracted to the tobacco cen-
ters, where it found quarters in the low-rent areas, worked in the ware-
house in the fall and winter, and hired out in the growing season to
planters who collected and delivered their daily quota of field hands.
The pattern is the same today. Their gregarious habits of living and
working have resulted in little or no movement to organize on the part
of the farm laborers, who form a large proportion of the working popu-
lation of the State. The total farm population in Kentucky is
1,307,816, according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States
for 1936; persons classified as family labor number 414,222, and those
classified as hired help number 36,915. Many farmers belong to co-
operative organizations, but there is little if any organization among
farm workers, Negro or white.
The movement toward labor unionism in Kentucky, feebly defined at
best, disappeared during the war period 1861-65. In the war years
labor was in demand, wages were high, and betterment through co-
operative effort, the working principle of the early unions, lost its ap-
peal. It took a depression that of the 1870's to bring to life the
idea of group action among the workers. The Kentucky union move-
ment took form in local craft unions, the aim of which was mutual
self-help for the immediate benefit of workers and their families. At
first the unions of the 1870's gave no special emphasis to collective bar-
gaining, but tried instead to resume action on co-operative lines. Efforts
were made to provide employment for jobless workers by co-operative
means, and the Knights of Labor established stores (in 1880) and at
least one tobacco company (at Earlington), the profits of which were
divided equally among capital, labor (the laborer usually supplied the
capital by stock purchases), and the Knights of Labor (as the promot-
ing and fostering organization). Failure of the Knights of Labor to
live up to its promise as an instrument for bettering conditions resulted
after 1886 in loss of membership, and it disappeared from the scene.
The American Federation of Labor then came to the fore, with a pro-
gram of better working conditions, shorter hours, and fair wages; most
local unions, whether affiliated with the Federation or not, followed the
same line.
Most labor disputes during this period hinged on wages, but union
recognition grew in importance as an objective. Employers' associa-
tions were forming and growing, and the fight against unionism was
carried on ruthlessly. According to A. E. Suffern, during a coal strike
LABOR 69
starting in November 1900, in Hopkins County, operators secured an
injunction forbidding the United Mine Workers of America to supply
strikers with food.
The change in union aims, noted above, was made in response to
technological and organizational changes in industry out of which de-
veloped the present industrial order.
After the southward expansion from the Ohio River of railroads con-
necting the Deep South with the North, the river towns, notably Louis-
ville, Covington, and Paducah, became centers of labor unionization
activity. A wage cut early in the summer of 1877 provoked a railroad
strike, in which demonstrations were suppressed by police action. The
strike, which coincided in time with others throughout the Nation, was
apparently under local leadership and was fought out over issues in-
volved in the relations between the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
and its employees. Other strikes, local in significance and effect, at
times have interrupted the generally amicable relations of labor and
capital, but persuasion and appeal to reason have often ended a dispute
peaceably.
The period of industrial expansion ending with American entry into
the World War was marked by the passage of laws fostered by the
unions. Among these laws were measures widening the field and limit-
ing the hours of women's labor, specifying the industries and limiting
the hours of labor for minors, and providing protection for workers in
hazardous occupations and compensation for workers injured in the line
of duty. The influence of the unions has continued to grow, but the
State as a whole is far from unionized, largely because of the peculiar
characteristics of many of its industries, chief among which is the pro-
duction of tobacco. Besides this deterrent factor, the tradition of self-
sufficiency operates outside the Ohio River towns against active labor
organization based on current union conceptions of the relation between
capital and labor.
Especially striking has been the expansion of Kentucky's coal indus-
try. The State's coal production in 1870 was only 169,000 tons; in
1900 it reached 5,182,000 short tons. Coal mining gave work to men
of the mountain areas, where lumbering had become a minor industry
and where farming, above the subsistence level, was difficult. But until
the end of the century the mines were small, individually owned, and
manned by local labor. Many operators worked side by side with their
men.
After 1900 mining rapidly became mechanized, especially in the east-
7o KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ern part of the State. Railroad branches were built into the coal coun-
try and large capital investments and corporate ownership became the
rule.
Shortly after the World War, with living costs increasing, the workers
in Kentucky, as elsewhere, began to organize for higher wages. Wage
strikes of steel workers in Newport and of coal miners in the western
part of the State during the 1920's, and the bitterness engendered by
the struggles, are still remembered in those areas. In the steel industry
the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers did little
more than collect dues. If union men displayed militancy, as they did
in Newport when the militia appeared with a tank and enforced a cur-
few law, that was their own affair. The Newport Rolling Mill Com-
pany (since absorbed by Armco) and the Andrews Steel Company
drove the unions from their mills, membership dropped, and many
locals ceased to exist. Events in Harlan County since 1931 emphasize
a condition unlike that prevailing generally in Kentucky industry or
elsewhere in the Kentucky coal industry.
Natural advantages favoring cheap coal production in Harlan were
seized upon in 1910 by local enterprise. Capital was secured, a rail-
road was built, and in 1911 the first coal was shipped. Men flocked
in from the surrounding hills to work at the mines, and the population
of the county increased at an extraordinary rate. Mountaineers, drawn
from their hill farms by the high wages, or what seemed so to them,
came to the mines to work, to live in company shacks, to trade in com-
pany stores, and to be policed by company guards.
Limitations imposed on workers became irksome, but it was not prac-
ticable to resist the rulers of the county, who were mainly intent on pro-
tecting their income and on blocking all organization that might
threaten it. Labor unions were told peremptorily to keep out, and the
Harlan County Coal Operators' Association showed that on this point
it meant business. In the course of five years of operator rule Harlan
County became known as "Bloody Harlan," and labor conditions there
became popularly identified with those in Kentucky as a whole.
After two years of increasing unemployment, unionization of large
numbers of miners was effected by the United Mine Workers of
America. Strikes that developed were met with the usual strikebreaking
tactics, including intimidation and worse by company police and the
importation of non-union employees. One strike brought the "Battle of
Evarts" on May 5, 1935, in which two deputy sheriffs in the employ
LABOR 71
of mine owners were killed and a dozen or more miners were killed or
reported missing. Something like civil war followed.
Attempts by private organizations to learn the facts and provide re-
lief for out-of-work miners were repressed by the operators and authori-
ties. Beginning in 1931 the violation of the rights of miners, organizers,
investigators, and relief workers resulted in many protests, but no action
was taken by the Government until the La Follette Civil Liberties
Committee started an inquiry in 1935. This inquiry was still in prog-
ress when the Wagner Labor Relations Act, affirming the right of
workers collectively to bargain through a union of their own choosing,
became law. The National Labor Relations Board subsequently issued
an order to "cease and desist" from interference with unionization
against the operators' association.
The order was ignored by the mine owners, and indictments on
charges of conspiracy to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights
were returned against 23 members of the operators' association, against
a like number of individual heads of the companies involved, and
against 21 deputy sheriffs allegedly in company employ. Feeling in
Harlan ran so high that venue in the case was changed to near-by
London, Laurel County. The trial began May 16, 1938, and ended
August 1 with a disagreement of the jury. Action for retrial was halted
when the operators signed an agreement on September 1 which sub-
stantially satisfied the miners' demands.
The years since the World War have brought difficult problems to
the unions. A policy of working constructively with business organi-
zations and with State and Federal Governments has lessened the im-
pact of depression. Organized labor in the State today is for peace in
the labor movement, improvement of labor and social laws, and a more
comprehensive educational program within the ranks of labor.
THE NEGRO
A PPROXIMATELY 226,240 or 7.8 percent of the 2,900,000 people
\^ in Kentucky are Negroes. They live for the most part in the
inner Bluegrass area, of which Lexington is the center, and in the better
farming sections of the Pennyrile around Hopkinsville. Despite their
relative numerical unimportance, Kentucky Negroes are an integral
part of the State's life and have contributed notably to its development.
In 1751, when Christopher Gist came into the Kentucky country in
search of lands for the Ohio Company, his only attendant was a Negro
servant. Fifteen years later a mulatto slave was one of a party of five
exploring this region. A few of the pioneers from Virginia brought
their slaves when they migrated to the West, but as a rule the earliest
settlers did not own slaves, since they were poor and slave property
was a luxury. Such slaves as were brought into the Kentucky country
in the early days were usually affectionately attached to the household
through long years of service. In accounts of Indian raids slaves are
reported as loyal and daring. One of them, Monk, owned by Colonel
William Estill, was an expert in making gunpowder and a preacher of
ability, listened to by both Negroes and whites.
Though slavery, as an institution, was slow in becoming established,
there were more than 12,000 slaves by 1790, and their number in-
creased during the next 40 years. In 1833, when a quarter of the total
population was Negro, it was thought prudent to legislate against fur-
ther importation of slaves. Thereafter the proportion of Negroes to
whites decreased.
This was partly because of the profitable traffic with sections of the
Deep South where cotton, cane, rice, and other crops dependent on
slave labor were raised. Another factor was the Underground Railroad,
so named according to one version of the origin of the term by a
Kentuckian. Fostered by Northern money, directed by shrewd, re-
sourceful men, it spirited fugitives across the Ohio River into the
friendly shelter of Ohio and Indiana. Despite the reputedly mild and
patriarchal character of slavery in Kentucky, Negroes took advantage
72
THE NEGRO 73
of the opportunity thus offered to gain their freedom. The State's loss
in slave property has been placed at not less than $200,000 annually,
in the decades immediately preceding the War between the States.
Since the State did not secede from the Union, its slaves were not
freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, but by the Thirteenth Amend-
ment, enacted on December 18, 1865. The State legislature passed a
civil rights act, repealing the old slave code, in February 1866.
In reality the slave system was not ended by legislation but by enlist-
ment. Negroes deserted from the fields, or were forcibly taken, to serve
in the Union Army. The historian, E. Merton Coulter, states that
"10,000 slaves left the State during the year 1863; slaves enlisted at
the rate of a hundred a day, and after the war, were freed at the rate
of 500 a day." The 1860 census showed 236,167 Negroes in the State,
of whom 10,684 were free; the census of 1870 showed 222,210
Negroes.
Though losing steadily in ratio, Negro population has gained in num-
bers and changed in distribution. During the World War there was
considerable migration to the North, where labor was at a premium.
Then and later a shift set in from the poorer farms to the State's in-
dustrial centers principally to Louisville, Covington, Newport, and
Ashland and to the mining regions. In 1930 approximately half of
Kentucky's Negro population was urban. Of the 109,479 Negroes on
farms, 9,104 were listed as operators; 4,175 of these owned their farms,
4,914 were tenants, and 15 were managers.
The proportion of those gainfully employed is high, and their occu-
pations are varied. The 1930 United States Census lists a total of
106,572 gainfully employed, including 7,346 in coal mines, 3,414 in
railroads, 2,239 in building construction, 2,226 chauffeurs and truck
and tractor drivers, 1,473 laborers, porters, and helpers in stores, and
1,222 waiters (men and women).
In the "white collar" class, the census lists 39 Negro college presi-
dents and professors, 86 trained nurses, 25 lawyers, 37 dentists, 129
doctors, 727 clergymen, and 1,615 teachers. The need for expansion of
Negro activities in these occupations is shown by the fact that there is
1 trained nurse for every 2,828 Negroes, 1 lawyer for every 9,142
Negroes and 1 doctor for every 1,752 Negroes in the State.
Two large Negro insurance companies are located in Louisville, fac-
ing each other on Walnut Street. There are three Negro newspapers
in the same city: the American Baptist, the Louisville Leader and the
Louisville Defender.
74 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
In ante bellum days most of the free Negroes lived in Louisville, and
attempts were made to provide education for them. The Freedmen's
Guild took charge of such efforts after the war, and in a short time
established 35 schools with 58 teachers, many of them Negroes. There
was, however, no public provision for financing these schools and tui-
tion fees were necessarily low. Private generosity had to be depended
on for funds, and northern Negroes contributed a great share of the
donations.
In 1866 a law was passed providing that the proceeds of all Negro
taxes should be divided equally between Negro schools and Negro
paupers. The principle of equality in education was incorporated in
the constitution of 1891, perhaps as a result of agitation in 1873 and a
threat of appeal to the State and Federal courts for equal school ad-
vantages. During the present century educational facilities for Negro
children have improved.
In one institution only Berea College have Negroes in Kentucky
been permitted to attend school with whites. But this practice was
discontinued in 1904 when the law prohibiting "mixed" schools was
passed. A division of property and endowment was effected, and Lin-
coln Institute, a high school for Negroes, modeled on Berea, was es-
tablished in Shelby County.
The Louisville Municipal College for Negroes is an outgrowth of
Simmons University, founded in 1873 by the General Association of
Colored Baptists of Kentucky as the Kentucky Normal and Theological
Institute. In 1920 a proposal for a million-dollar bond issue for the
University of Louisville was defeated, largely because it did not have
the support of the Negro electorate. The proposal, with provisions
for earmarking $100,000 of the issue for the advancement of higher
education for Negroes in Louisville, was resubmitted in 1925 and
passed. Simmons University was purchased, renamed the Louisville
Municipal College for Negroes, and opened as part of the University
of Louisville on February 9, 1931. The institution is now recognized
as a four-year college, and has the highest scholastic rating of any
Negro institution in the State.
The only other State-supported institution of higher learning in the
State is the Kentucky State Industrial College at Frankfort. Since
no State institution granting master's and higher degrees admits
Negroes, the Anderson-Mayer Aid Act, passed in 1935, requires the
State to defray expenses of Negro students wishing to secure ad-
vanced degrees in institutions outside the State.
THE NEGRO 75
The church is to a considerable degree the center of social life for
the Kentucky Negro. The first Negro church in Kentucky was the
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, organized in Louisville in 1816. It
was not until after emancipation, however, that the Negro church de-
veloped, for the Negro slave generally attended his master's church,
worshiping in a gallery set aside for the purpose. Sometimes separate
Negro services were held in schoolhouses and vacant church buildings,
and gave rise to preachers who achieved more than local fame. Josiah
Henson, a slave in Davies County, preached widely in both America
and England after escaping from bondage. He is best known as one
of the many prototypes of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom."
Total State membership of Negro churches today is 127,126; the Bap-
tist, with 83,837 members, the African Methodist Episcopal, with
10,492, and the Colored Methodist Episcopal, with 7,715 are the three
major denominations.
In politics the Kentucky Negro has been traditionally Republican,
but in recent years he has supported the Democratic party. In Louis-
ville, Lexington, Hopkinsville, and Paducah the Negro vote is often a
decisive factor. As has been noted above the Negro vote was largely
responsible for the establishment of the Louisville Municipal College
for Negroes, and other advances for Negroes in the educational field
have been won through the ballot box. Phil Brown, Kentucky's out-
standing Negro in politics, was appointed Commissioner of Conciliation,
in the United States Department of Labor in April 1921 and served
in this capacity until November 1923. Representative C. W. Ander-
son, Jr., a Negro of Louisville, has served in the State legislature since
1933.
Housing facilities for Negroes, long a reproach to property owners
and to those in authority, are improving. Many fine homes, well main-
tained, are owned and occupied by Negroes. The Federal Housing
Administration completed one Negro project, College Court in Louis-
ville, in 1937 and has others under immediate consideration.
In all the wars fought since Kentucky became a State, the Negro
has played his part with credit and distinction. Approximately 23,700
Negroes served in the War between the States; hundreds saw service
in the Spanish-American War, and 12,580, or more than 14 percent
of the Kentuckians in the World War, were Negroes.
Among Kentucky Negroes who have won distinction in their chosen
fields are Bishop Alexander Walters, civic and political leader; Allen
Allensworth, chaplain of the Twenty-fourth Infantry; Charles Young,
76 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Twenty- fourth Infantry; Isaac Murphy, famous jockey; Roland Hayes,
the singer, a native of Georgia, but resident in Louisville; Stephen
Bishop, one of the explorers of Mammoth Cave; Joseph Seamon Cotter,
the poet, and his son, Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr., also a poet; Ernest
Hogan, showman and one of the popularizers of "jazz"; and H. C.
Russell, Negro specialist in the United States Office of Education.
RELIGION
CHURCH membership in Kentucky has increased at a rate faster
than that of the population. Almost one-half of the people of
the State approximately a million are church members today, while
only about one person in 12 claimed membership in 1800.
The different religious sects, of which there are nearly 60, show
great disparity in size and represent divisions and subdivisions within
some of the major denominations. The Baptists, the largest single
group, have a total membership of 425,000, of which 300,000 are in the
Southern Baptist Convention and the remainder in nine other Baptist
divisions. The Catholics come next in point of numbers, with 180,000
members, followed by the Methodists with 170,000 members dis-
tributed among eight subdenominations. The Disciples of Christ
(better known in Kentucky as the Christian Church) have a member-
ship of 122,000, and the Presbyterians (subdivided into five groups)
number 52,000. The remaining 50,000 church members are found in
more than 50 smaller organizations.
The religious history of the State falls roughly into four periods:
the time of pioneering, the decades of the Great Revival beginning in
1797, the period dominated by the slavery issue and the War between
the States; and what may be considered the modern epoch, following
reconstruction and extending to the present. As the story unfolds,
the growth of the different denominations and their relative status
today, as well as the underlying causes of their schisms, become clear.
Pioneering days were marked by the missionary zeal of the first
pastors and circuit riders and, conversely, by a general indifference
to religious matters on the part of the general populace. An Epis-
copalian minister, the Reverend John Lythe, preached the first sermon
of which there is any record in 1775. The first recorded preaching by
a Baptist minister took place at Harrodsburg the following year, but
Baptist services were probably held before that. Increasing religious
activity came in the 1780's. Three Baptist churches were established
in 1781 at Severn's Valley (now in Elizabethtown), Cedar Creek, and
77
78 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Gilbert's Creek; the first Methodist church west of the Alleghenies
was organized near Danville in 1783; and during the following year
Reverend David Rice settled there to take charge of three associations
with about twenty churches. By this time the Presbyterians had or-
ganized their first presbytery with twelve churches, and a Roman
Catholic church had been built at Holy Cross near Rohan Knobs. In
1789 there were three Methodist circuits; the first annual conference of
Methodists was held near Lexington in 1790. When Kentucky be-
came a State in 1792 there were forty-two churches with a combined
membership of 3,095.
But despite this apparent activity of organized religion, morals were
at low ebb at the end of the eighteenth century, according to the ac-
counts of eyewitnesses. Frontier conditions and general religious in-
difference throughout the country at this time would seem to give
credence to these contemporary estimates. The time was ripe for the
Great Revival.
The first signs appeared in 1797 when James McGready, a Presby-
terian minister, came from South Carolina to take charge of three
churches in Logan County. By 1800 the revival spirit had swept over
the entire State and the adjoining territory. The period was marked
by a wave of religious excitement that found expression in the re-
vivalist or camp meeting type of service and led to a dramatic in-
crease in church membership.
One striking psychological phenomenon associated with the revival
meetings (and indeed with similar meetings today) is known as the
"jerks." People were seized with violent convulsions, the head jerking
spasmodically from side to side. Some fell into a coma-like state;
others rolled on the ground, jumped and ran, danced, barked, gave
way to hysterical laughter, or had trances and visions. A high tide of
emotionalism swept over the meetings and kindled a flame of religious
fervor.
The Presbyterians, among whom the revival movement first showed
itself, failed to profit by it. Instead, they split on the rock of doc-
trinal and practical differences. The revival spirit, as it spread through
the State, created a demand for preachers that could not be met by
the number of trained ministers available. Opportunities opened up
by the awakening religious interest had to be lost, or men who lacked
the formal qualifications for the task had to be licensed to preach. The
Cumberland Presbytery, immediately responsible for carrying on the
revival, took the latter way out of the dilemma, and was dissolved by
RELIGION 79
its synod. Appeal was made to the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church in 1809 without success, and as a result the Cumber-
land Presbyterian Church was formed as an independent denomination
in 1810. By 1829 it had grown so rapidly that it organized a general
assembly of its own with eighteen presbyteries.
Matters of doctrine offered an even more formidable stumbling block
and led, indirectly, to the formation of the Church of the Christian
Disciples (the Christian Church). Barton W. Stone, minister in
charge of two Presbyterian churches in Bourbon County, visited the
Logan County revival in 1801 and was so impressed that he decided
to organize a similar meeting of his own. Held at Cane Ridge in
August, it drew crowds variously estimated all the way from 10,000
to 25,000. Excitement and emotional fervor rose to a high pitch, and
the Cane Ridge meeting is commonly regarded as the peak of the
Great Revival. Stone and his followers (the Stonites) found it dif-
ficult to reconcile the part played by human reaction in salvation with
the Calvinistic emphasis on the doctrines of election and predestina-
tion, and this got them into trouble with the Presbyterian Synod of
Kentucky. Suspended in 1803, they first formed the independent
Springfield Presbytery, but almost immediately threw over the back-
ground of allegiance to the parent denomination and adopted the
simple name "Christian."
The Baptists, unlike the Presbyterians, took full advantage of the
Great Revival to add to their ranks. In the three years, from 1800
to 1803, they enrolled 10,000 members, and by 1820 had more mem-
bers than all other denominations combined. But trouble was brew-
ing. Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander, originally Presby-
terians, had joined the Baptists when differences of doctrine forced
them out of the Presbyterian fold in 1813. They became an influential
force among the Baptists of Kentucky and by 1830 had drawn as
many as 10,000 adherents away from the Baptist ranks. Their fol-
lowers (the Campbellites) held the Armenian views and sought to
promote a simple evangelical Christianity. In 1832 two men repre-
senting the Stonites and the Campbellites were sent through Kentucky
to bring these two groups together. They were largely successful and
effected a union resulting in the organization of the Christian Church
which may be regarded as a sect formed of members of the Presby-
terian and the Baptist Churches.
Methodism was peculiarly open to the influence of the Great Re-
8o KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
vival. Its numbers grew rapidly and it prospered; not until later did
it, too, suffer dissensions and divisions.
The Catholics were untouched by the revival^ but were perhaps
affected by the general awakening of interest in religion. The first
diocese, which originally included Tennessee and all the Northwest
Territory, was organized at Bardstown in 1808. The first bishop,
Benedict Joseph Flaget, had his residence in a log cabin (still pre-
served) at St. Thomas, near Bardstown, and began building the first
cathedral west of the mountains at Bardstown in 1819. It was not
until 1841 that the see was transferred to Louisville.
The Shakers, though they did not come directly under the influence
of the revival, were drawn to Kentucky by it. Organized as an off-
shoot of Quakerism in England, the Shaker Society had been brought
to America in 1775 by "Mother Ann" Lee, and was first centered in
New York. Its members believed in strict and simple living, in
prophecy, and direct spiritual guidance. Thus they were attracted by
reports of the revival, and thought, probably, that Kentucky would
offer congenial soil for Shaker beliefs and practices. For a time the
Shakers prospered in their new home, and had two establishments of
which one, known as Shakertown or Pleasant Hill, is still well pre-
served. By about 1850, however, the society began to decline.
Shakerism in Kentucky is of historic interest but it is not part of the
present-day picture. There are still a few Shakers in America, but
none are left in the State.
What may be considered the third period in Kentucky's religious
history reached its climax during the War between the States. It saw
divisions over the slavery issue within the major denominations, and
reflected the trend of secular events which so bitterly divided the
Nation.
The Presbyterians, already disorganized by the revival, were further
divided in 1837 by a general schism of the Presbyterian Church over
doctrinal matters into Old School and New School Presbyterians. The
latter organization was confined largely to the North and became out-
spokenly antislavery. But there were enough Southern members, in-
cluding the Kentucky Presbytery of Lexington, to cause these to with-
draw in 1857 to form the United Synod of the South, with six synods,
twenty-one presbyteries, and about 15,000 members. In 1864 the
United Synod of the South joined the Presbyterian Church of the Con-
federate States (which had split off from the Old School Church in
1861) to form the Presbyterian Church in the United States, now pop-
ularly known as the Southern Presbyterian Church. Since Kentucky
RELIGION 8l
was a border State, the war divided the Presbyterians cruelly, and
created chaos in their ranks. The Southern churches cut themselves
off completely from Northern affiliations, and this wound has not yet
been entirely healed.
The Baptists and Methodists also split on the slavery question. As
early as 1844 the Baptist associations of the South, including those
in Kentucky, withdrew from the triennial convention to form their own
organization, the Southern Baptist Convention. In the same year the
Methodists decided on an amicable separation, and the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South (Southern Methodist Church) was organized
in Louisville in May 1845. Of its 460,000 members in 1846 in the
entire South 125,000 were Negro. But by 1860 there remained
fewer than 50,000 Negroes, and ten years later these withdrew to form
the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
With the slavery issue settled and the War between the States be-
hind them, the denominations which split on these national issues have
shown a growing tendency, not yet altogether successful, to mend the
schisms of that period. A gradual development of tolerance, and of
social and philanthropic activities, mark the fourth (or present) period
of Kentucky's religious history.
The picture of religious life today may be drawn briefly. There
are, all told, more than 7,000 churches in the State. Though only
about 16 percent are urban, these claim approximately 40 percent of
the entire church membership. More than 50 percent of all Negroes in
Kentucky are church members; the Baptist group numbering 90,000
is larger than all other Negro church groups combined.
The Baptists, as stated above, are the largest single religious group.
They are found in every county except those of the extreme north-
eastern section. In many counties they constitute half (or more) of
the church membership, and are especially strong along the southern
border and in the southeastern section. The Southern Baptist Con-
vention has as yet shown no inclination to reunite with other Baptist
groups, possibly because of the fundamentalist issue.
Catholic church membership is unevenly distributed. Thirty-four
counties in the southwest and along the southern and eastern borders
report no Catholics, while 115,000 of the total 180,000 are in Jeffer-
son, Campbell, Nelson, and Kenton Counties.
Of all the denominations divided by the slavery issue, the Method-
ists have shown the strongest tendency toward reconciliation with
the Northern Conference. In 1925 a plan for the organic reunion of
the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church,
82 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
South failed by a narrow margin of the combined votes of lay and
ministerial members of the Southern Church, while the vote in the
Methodist Episcopal Church itself was overwhelmingly in favor of
union. In April 1938, at a meeting of the general conference in Birm-
ingham, Alabama, a plan of union was adopted by a majority of 334
affirmative votes to 26 opposing votes. The plan provided for a unit-
ing conference to be held on April 26, 1939, for the purpose of har-
monizing and combining provisions now existing in the disciplines of the
uniting churches. At a conference held in Kansas City, Missouri, in
June 1939, the three branches of Methodism were united under the
name "The Methodist Church."
The Presbyterians are still divided into the Presbyterian Church in
the United States with 22,000 members; the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America, with 16,000 members; the Cumberland
Presbyterians with 11,600 members; and the Colored Cumberland
Presbyterians and the United Presbyterians with 1,370 members.
There are, however, many indications of effort to unite northern and
southern elements.
The Protestant Episcopal Church is comparatively small. More
than half of its 13,000 members are in Jefferson and Breckinridge
Counties and 75 of the 120 counties report no members. Jewish con-
gregations are likewise small. Of the 15,500 Jews in the State, 12,500
are concentrated in Louisville.
Camp meetings, revivals, baptisms, and other outdoor religious
gatherings, which formerly were an important factor in the religious
life of the State, have almost entirely disappeared except in the Ken-
tucky highlands. Here customs change slowly, and, even with better
roads and churches, these activities are still conducted with great
fervor. One of the oldest institutions of its kind in the Southern
Methodist Church is the Kavanaugh Camp Meeting near Crestwood,
18 miles from Louisville. Founded more than 60 years ago by Bishop
H. H. Kavanaugh, the meeting has been held here annually except
for a short period when the camp was closed. Before there were any
buildings on the grounds everything was of a primitive nature. Benches
were built in a grove of oak and beech trees; tents were used to lodge
those who wished to remain for the entire meeting. Later a pavilion, a
dining hall, dormitories, and about twenty cottages were added. Today
the camp is equipped with modern conveniences. Speakers of na-
tional prominence deliver addresses at the meetings, which are inter-
denominational .
EDUCATION
PIONEER Kentuckians were often unlettered, according to the
standards of formal education, but they respected learning. Wher-
ever stockades were erected, cabins within them were set apart as
schools in which the more literate members of the community taught
the "three R's," often from memory.
In 1775, before the first church and the first court of justice were
established, the first school was opened in the fort at Harrodsburg.
The teacher, Mrs. William Coomes, taught the beginners to read and
write from paddle-shaped pine shingles inscribed with the alphabet,
and from Bible texts. At McAfee's Station, near Harrodsburg, there
was a school in 1777. John McKinney taught at Lexington " between
fights" with wildcats and Indians. At Boonesboro, at Logan's Station
wherever a cluster of cabins appeared schools were established,
presided over by teachers who sometimes knew little more than their
pupils. With low pay, often in tobacco which was legal tender
bear bacon, buffalo steak, or jerked venison, these pioneer teachers
eked out a precarious existence.
The schoolhouse was a cheerless log hut, lighted through oiled paper
stretched over an opening that served for a window. Books were
few, but there was always the Bible, supplemented by hand-written
texts.
Numerous private schools were established between 1780 and 1800.
At Lexington, John Filson, Kentucky's first historian, conducted a
private academy until his death in 1788; Elijah Craig, a pioneer Bap-
tist minister, established a school for his congregation at Georgetown;
and Salem Academy at Bardstown, under John Priestly, became one
of the leading schools in the State. Schools at this time were primarily
for boys, who were taught arithmetic, surveying, geometry, bookkeep-
ing, a smattering of English grammar, and a little Latin if they were
destined for the law or medicine. The private schools opened by the
French immigrants offered languages, music, deportment, and "fancy"
dancing.
83
84 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
There were also "female" academies, which corresponded to finish-
ing schools and specialized in such subjects as "ornamental" literature,
poetry, and fancy and practical needlework, in addition to reading,
writing, and grammar. Girls were considered cultured if they were
accomplished dancers, and could make samplers and speak a little
French.
Early efforts at elementary education were definitely individualistic,
and followed the motto that governed Indian fighting: "Every man
to his man, and every man to his tree." The first constitution, adopted
in 1792, made no mention of education. On the other hand, higher
education was recognized as the responsibility of the State soon after
the Revolution. In 1783 the Virginia Legislature set aside confiscated
Tory land in the County of Kentucky "for a public school or seminary
of learning." As a result, Transylvania Seminary, later to become the
first university west of the Alleghenies, was opened as a grammar
school at Crow's Station, afterward Danville, in the double log cabin
of "Father" David Rice. He was the school's first teacher at a salary
of three pounds sterling a year one-half to be in cash and the rest in
corn, tobacco, and pork. In 1788 the seminary was moved to Lexing-
ton, which was at that time the most important frontier settlement of
the West. Transylvania later developed and prospered sufficiently to
make Lexington the literary capital of the region. A large majority
of the influential men in the early history of Kentucky and the West
are related to this institution in one way or another.
In 1788 there came the first suggestion, from an anonymous Lexing-
ton correspondent, that a public school system should be established.
The system proposed the division of counties into districts, in each
of which a public school was to be located. The opposition of the
private academies, however, prevented the materialization of the plan.
At Georgetown and Bardstown, and in Mercer and Madison Counties,
new private schools were opened.
In 1794 Kentucky Academy, the first public school authorized and
incorporated by the Kentucky Legislature, was established through a
State endowment of 6,000 acres of land at Pisgah, near Lexington.
George Washington and John Adams each contributed $100 to this in-
stitution. Bethel Academy, the first Methodist institution of learning
in the Mississippi Valley, opened in Jessamine County in 1798. The
precedent set by the Methodists was quickly followed by other de-
nominations. The legislature then provided endowments of 6,000 acres
of land to each county in the State for the purpose of establishing
EDUCATION 85
seminaries that were somewhat more restricted in educational scope
than colleges. In order to raise $1,000 with which to meet preliminary
expenses, each county was allowed to operate lotteries.
Notwithstanding the development in higher education, common
school instruction still followed the pioneer principle that education
should be diffused downward from college to the masses. By the end
of the second decade of the nineteenth century, fifty-nine county
academies, favored by generous legislatures, were chartered. The
majority of Kentuckians, however, failed to give adequate financial
support to the State-endowed county academies, and by the outbreak
of the War between the States, only one of them was left.
The period 1820-1850 was one of extremes in the development of
education. Incompetent trustees of academy endowments frittered
away assets; visionary legislatures set up educational funds, only to
raid them for any emergency which arose ; forward-looking men wagged
an admonishing finger at those in places of responsibility; Governors
addressed legislatures, and the press at times vigorously argued in be-
half of the uneducated masses. Meanwhile, religious denominations
were establishing or getting control of colleges, seminaries, and acad-
emies throughout the State; but this contributed little if anything to
elementary education.
The general educational level in 1830 was revealed in a school re-
port from 78 out of 83 counties. Of a total of almost 140,000 children
in the State between the ages of five and fifteen years, only 31,834
were attending school. In the county with the best record only one-
half of the children were at school.
The State's leaders, concerned over the situation, organized the
Kentucky Educational Society in the early 1830's to arouse public
sentiment. Realization of the need for education spread, and when
the Federal Government adopted the policy of distributing surplus
land revenues among the States in 1836, education shared in Ken-
tucky's $2,000,000 windfall. A fund of $850,000 was set aside to
found and sustain a general program of public education. A law,
sponsored by Judge W. F. Bullock, of Louisville, was passed by the
legislature on February 16, 1838, establishing the first public school
system. The income from the fund was to be distributed among the
counties according to the number of children of school age, and school
districts were empowered to tax citizens to an amount equal to the sum
received from the State. The system also provided for a State board of
education, division of the State into districts containing 30 to 50 chil-
86 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
dren, appointment of five commissioners of education for each county
and five trustees for each district.
The cause of general education was retarded by the fact that the
prosperous patronized private schools and the poor were indifferent.
Agitation continued. One writer suggested that not only should the
poor be educated, but poor parents who needed the labor of their
children should be compensated for the time their children spent in
school.
By 1840, two years after the public school system had come into
existence, the first real public school census was made. Only 32,920
children were reported in school, while the school-age population had
increased by more than 40,000. There were 42,000 persons over 20
years of age in the State who were unable to read. Counties with as
many as 2,000 children of school age reported none in school attend-
ance, while the best records again showed only one-half the children
in school. Still the legislature and elected officials bickered over school
funds and policies.
In 1847, when Robert J. Breckinridge became superintendent of
education, the situation changed. Due to his efforts the new constitu-
tion, adopted in 1849, contained a clause protecting educational funds.
By 1853 the common-school law was in operation in every county of
the State, even though first-class teachers could not always be obtained
with the funds available.
Then came the War between the States, and much of the ground
gained was lost.
In 1869 there were 4,447 schools with 169,477 children in attendance
out of a total of 376,868 of school age. Nine years later there were
still 226,323 children out of school. In 1883 more than 250,000 peo-
ple 15 percent of the Commonwealth's population could not read.
But it must be remembered that Negroes had not been classed as
citizens until after the emancipation of slaves; that Negroes almost
without exception had no schooling during slave days and that ade-
quate school facilities for Negroes did not exist for many years there-
after. With this great group of illiterate children added to the popula-
tion it appeared that the list of illiterate citizens in the State had
grown alarmingly when such was not the case.
Increasing funds went into common-school education and the citizens
fought illiteracy under such slogans as "We Want a Pen in Every
Hand in Kentucky." At one time as many as 100,000 illiterates were
being instructed by volunteer teachers.
V. EDUCATION: RELIGION
OLD CENTRE, CENTRE COLLEGE, DANVILLE
MOUNTAIN SCHOOL OF NATURAL STONE, A WPA PROJECT
BEREA COLLEGE, BEREA
KENTUCKY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, DANVILLE
THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, AIRVIEW
TRAPPIST MONASTERY, GETHSEMANE
AUDUBON MUSEUM, HENDERSON
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GIDDINGS HALL, GEORGETOWN COLLEGE
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GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN
DOORWAY TO GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN
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SHAKER CEREMONIES
SHAKER CEREMONIES
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ST. JOSEPH S CHURCH, BARDSTOWN
MUD MEETING HOUSE (c. 1806), NEAR HARRODSBURG
EDUCATION 87
Kentucky's educational system received its most progressive boost
in the "Educational Legislature" of 1908 and 1909. Funds were in-
creased for the support of schools, and State and county funds were
combined and distributed on a basis which equalized opportunities for
each county. From 1908 to 1936 important changes were made in
the whole school system: the school laws were clarified and placed in a
single codification in 1934; the Council of Higher Education was or-
ganized; the University of Kentucky was made head of the educa-
tional system and given responsibility for graduate training; the other
State colleges were entrusted with the responsibility of teacher training
and undergraduate work in general. Today (1939) Kentucky has the
lowest rate of illiteracy of any of the southern States, and State sup-
port to its public schools compares favorably with that of the Nation.
Keeping pace with the development of common-school education,
facilities for higher education have also progressed. The University
of Louisville, the oldest public institution of higher learning in the
State, was founded by the city council in 1837. A branch of the uni-
versity, the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes, offers a regular
four-year college course. The Kentucky State Industrial College is the
only other State-supported institution of higher learning for Negroes
in the State.
The University of Kentucky was founded as the Agricultural and
Mechanical College in 1866, under provisions of the Congressional
Morrill Land-Grant Act. It opened with an enrollment of 190 stu-
dents. The present resident enrollment is 3,825, not counting students
in correspondence and extension courses.
There are four State teachers colleges, at Richmond, Moorehead,
Murray, and Bowling Green. Among the privately endowed institu-
tions are Transylvania, Centre, Asbury, Union, Georgetown, Win-
chester, Kentucky Wesleyan, and Berea. Most of the fifteen junior
colleges in the State are supported by religious denominations.
Not until 1911 was a concentrated effort made to establish a pro-
gram of adult education. In that year Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart
founded the "moonlight schools" in which adults were taught to read
and write. Her project led to the appointment of Governor Mc-
Creary's "illiteracy commission" in 1920.
The public school system is now supported by State appropriations
amounting to approximately $11.65 per capita, in addition to county
appropriations and funds derived from taxes on public properties for
schools. Approximately 655,186 Kentucky children, or 86 percent of
88 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
those between the ages of six and eighteen years, were enrolled in
public and private schools in the school year 1934-1935. In 1935
there were 848 high schools in the State, 773 for white children and
75 for Negroes.
In co-operation with the Works Progress Administration and the
Public Works Administration, modern school buildings have been con-
structed and old buildings have been improved in practically every
county in the State. The adult educational program of the Works
Progress Administration has done much to solve the problem of il-
literacy.
FOLKLORE AND FOLK
MUSIC
>HpHE CONVENIENT and pithy term for the mountain people of
JL Kentucky, "our contemporary ancestors," does not indicate the
origin of the customs, beliefs, and peculiarities which persist among
them. For they too had ancestors. These were, for the most part,
British, and of the soil. Just as today many a mountaineer has never
been ten miles from his birthplace, so also his forebears remained at
home. They were sturdy men and women, steeped in traditional ways,
independent and as little humble as possible. The mountaineer is that
way too. He cares neither for ease nor for soft living. He is hospita-
ble. "Welcome, stranger, light and hitch," is the salutation, and the
stranger is bidden to take "d n near all" of whatever the table offers.
A hunter by race, he is first of all a poacher, in arms against such as
would deny him the right to take game where he may find it, a trait
dating back to the time of Robin Hood in England. His speech is remi-
niscent of this older land and people. Labeled as "a survival," the
mountaineer in reality is on the defensive, protecting himself against
later comers and strange ideas. "I wouldn't choose to crave this new-
fangled teachin' and preachin'," he says. "All I ask is to be let alone.
I was doin' middlin' well. The hull kit and bilin' can go to the devil."
Mountain dialect reflects the Anglo-Saxon origin of the mountain
people; obsolete forms found in Shakespeare and the King James
version of the Bible are in common use. "dumb," "writ," and "et"
for climbed, wrote, and ate are sound enough if you go back a few
centuries. "Buss" for kiss, "pack" for carry, and "poke" for pocket-
bag and the like are pure Elizabethan.
Shakespeare said "a-feared," as does the mountaineer today, and
"beholden" is common to both. "His schoolin' holp him mighty," says
the proud mountain father; King Richard of England said, "Let him
thank me that holp to send him thither." "Hit's right pied," shouts
the mountain boy when the snake he has stoned puffs up and mottles.
go KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
But he probably never read of "meadows trim with daisies pied/' or
heard of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. When he sings, the mountaineer
"rolls a song," and his expression, "he looks like the hind wheels of
bad luck," is so expressive that only the carping student would seek to
trace its heritage.
Folklore is found not only among the mountaineers but in every
county in the State, in town and in city. In the mountains, however,
because of close-knit family and community ties, it is part of everyday
life. Songs and sayings are more than quaint and queer; they have
living reality. How much of the folklore is Scotch or Welsh, English
or Irish, cannot readily be known.
The sense of something evil pervades mountain superstition; the
devil is a personage, as real as he is malicious, as easily foiled as in
Faust. The formula is common, and Satan is sent packing as surely
by the sacred words "in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost" as, in European story, by the sign of the Cross. Stories
of people seeing the devil are accepted, and such an experience might
almost be described as normal. It does not appear that belief in the
"little people," so widespread in Ireland, was carried to Kentucky;
few cases of children being "fairy-struck" exist. There is bedevilment
rather than enchantment.
Hard by the headwaters of Hell-fer-Sartain is the Devil's Jump, a
small branch, its course cluttered throughout by a confused mass of
boulders and rocks. Here the devil, skipping in haste from hilltop
to hilltop, his apron loaded with rocks with which he proposed to
burden the land, "busted" his apron string and dropped the cargo into
the stream below. To the present day an unusual scattering of rocks
will be met with the exclamation: "The Devil must have broken his
apron string hereabouts."
Leslie County has the usual legend, based on a common Old World
theme, of a wager for the soul of a human being. The devil chal-
lenged a gunsmith to a shooting match with the soul of the craftsman
as prize. Singularly enough, the gunsmith won. He had the scare
of his life, however, and never after could he be persuaded to return
to his bench and fashion fine guns.
Among these people, who are not of the twentieth century, nor want
to be, strange things are everyday happenings, and witchcraft is taken
as a matter of course. Witches, however, are quite another story;
they no longer belong. But they are feared just the same. From
FOLKLORE AND FOLK MUSIC QI
ante bellum days come superstitions given to white children by their
Negro mammies. This is the origin of the wholesome dread of "hoo-
doo" or "voodoo" signs.
Weather signs are deferred to and planting determined by the phases
of the moon. If you don't hang a bread-sifter on the doorknob at
night, you'll find witches in the bread in the morning. "If it comes,
it no comes; if it no comes, it comes" means that if the crow comes
the corn will not grow; if the crow doesn't come, the corn will. Along
the Upper Middle Fork of the Kentucky River every hamlet and
county seat has its ancient teller of tales, grateful for a good listener.
Old World backgrounds and traits of Kentucky's pioneers are reflected
in the tunes and songs handed down from generation to generation
historical and sentimental ballads reminiscent of a time long past.
"Queen Jane" tells how Henry VIII followed Jane Seymour to the
grave: "Six went before, four carried her along. King Henry fol-
lowed with his black mourning on." Dating back to the fifteenth
century mysteries is the "Cherry Tree Carol," built around the story
of Joseph and Mary in the Apocrypha. This song was discovered
by Josephine McGill of Louisville, one of the first to collect and har-
monize songs in this particular field. "Lord Randal" tells the story
of the poisoned lover, a universal theme; the "Maid and the Gallows
Tree" brings in the ransom motif; while "Barbara Allen," "Lord
Thomas," "Fair Annet," "Sweet William," and "Lord Lovel" lament
the girl who loved and died.
There is a more contemporary, defiant note to the well-known lines:
Way up on Clinch Mountain I wander along;
I'm as drunk as the devil
Oh, let me alone.
A variant is more plaintive:
Go away, old man, and leave me alone,
For I am a stranger
And a long ways from home.
With a Miles Standish touch, another ballad tells of a young fellow
in love who, going to sea, leaves a friend to kiss his sweetheart good-by.
Eventually he returns to find friend and sweetheart married:
Jack, you selfish elf,
The very next girl I learn to love,
I'll kiss her for myself.
92 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
A distinctive type of song was characteristic of the camp meetings,
the literary form resembling the popular ballad or song. "Old-Time
Religion" of indefinite length and "The Old Ship of Zion" are
typical camp meeting songs, sung by both white people and Negroes
in Kentucky.
One of the earliest of Kentucky's social and educational activities
was the singing school. No place was too remote for the singing class
that met in the church or schoolhouse. The songs were always re-
ligious and were usually found in a book for sale by the teacher. Two
of the earliest singing schoolbooks were the Kentucky Harmony, in
use by 1816, and Supplement to Kentucky Harmony, published in 1820.
Both were written in four-shape notation and compiled by Ananias
Davisson, a singing-school teacher, born somewhere on the border line
of Maryland and Virginia; they contained a large number of songs
popular in the rural South. The first fifteen pages of Kentucky
Harmony were devoted to Preface, Rudiments, General Observation,
"A Remark or Two at the request of several Refined Musicians,"
"Lessons for Tuning the Voice," and directions for the construction
of a metronome. The 144 pages of tunes were all in four-part har-
mony. Part I contains "plain and easy tunes commonly used in time
of divine worship"; Part II, "more lengthy and elegant pieces," used
in "singing schools and private societies."
The Kentucky Harmonist, published about 1817, was compiled by
Samuel Lytler Metcalf (1798-1856) whose home was Shelbyville, Ken-
tucky. He began teaching singing school when a mere boy, and the
proceeds of several editions of the Kentucky Harmonist enabled him
to complete his medical education.
In 1835 appeared the first edition of Southern Harmony, written
and published by "Singin' Billy" Walker perhaps the most widely
known of the shape-note song books and still used at "Benton's Big
Singing." The last of its many editions, which appeared in 1854, has
recently been reproduced in facsimile.
Kentucky Negro spirituals resemble those of other Southern States,
but nearly every section has its own slight variations of the same songs
as well as actual new ones. So characteristic are the Negro's own
harmonic arrangements and words, that his songs may be considered
native folk music. His ability to convey emotion in a few powerful,
one-syllable words is unparalleled. Beautiful, simple, and generally
plaintive, the spirituals are the unique expression of the Negro's ex-
FOLKLORE AND FOLK MUSIC 93
perience, and a distinct contribution to the development of Kentucky
music.
Another type of Kentucky song is known as a play-party game.
Singing is unaccompanied; clapping of hands and stamping or patting
of feet are often added. Such games as "Chase (or Shoot) the Buf-
falo," "Skip to My Lou," "Pig in the Parlor," and "Over the River
to Charley" are good examples. These folk games have died out of
general usage in Kentucky, but have been revived at school, community
gatherings, and camps.
Breakdowns, or dance tunes, are known everywhere. There are two
kinds, sung and instrumental. The former is often the same as the
play-party game, except that it is used as a square dance. The second
type of breakdown calls for a fiddler, usually with the accompaniment
of a banjo picker or guitarist. The string band, now known to the
radio as a "Hillbilly" band, is made up of a variety of instruments:
fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass viol, mandolin, accordion, castanets, or any
available musical contrivance. Old songs and ballads are sung regu-
larly by students at Berea College, Hindman Settlement School, Pine
Mountain Settlement School, and elsewhere. Several public events in
the State are held annually with the primary object of preserving Ken-
tucky's folk music. Among these is the American Folk Song Festival,
sponsored by the American Folk Song Society, founded by Jean
Thomas of Ashland. On the second Sunday of June of each year, in
front of the "Traipsin' Woman's" cabin in a picturesque hollow of the
foothills of Kentucky, mountain people gather to present a program
of primitive songs and dances. The annual singing convention at
Benton, Marshall County, held on the fourth Sunday of May, recently
celebrated its fifty-fourth meeting. Kentucky folk music is now reach-
ing an audience outside of the State, through the radio and activities
of musicians such as John Jacob Niles, who gives concerts and lecture
recitals in Europe as well as America.
KENTUCKY THOROUGH-
BREDS
XT7THEN Daniel Boone in 1775 brought to the Virginia Legislature
\^ a resolution to improve the breed of horses over in Kentucky
County, he was voicing a determination that has persisted in the Blue-
grass. And the Bluegrass has made Kentucky celebrated throughout
the world for its fine horses.
The resolve alone would not have been enough, however, if the
Bluegrass did not have a mild climate and 1,200 square miles of
cherished land around Lexington peculiarly fitted to be the nursery
of thoroughbreds. The long, easy roll of the land, with its firm, dry
turf undisturbed by plows and harrows, with its pools of water and its
clumps of open woods, seems to please the eyes and feet of both
horses and men. Underneath this Bluegrass turf is a layer of rare
Ordovician limestone, a shell deposit laid down millions of years ago
when the region was an ocean floor. This limestone gives to the water
and grass a high phosphorus and calcium content which builds light,
solid bones, elastic muscles, and strong tendons in the horses that feed
and drink here. Under these ideal conditions are developed the prime
requisites of the Thoroughbred strength and fleetness. As a result,
Kentucky-bred horses make up one-half of the winners on first-class
American tracks, and a large majority of Derby firsts.
Kentucky has always been interested in horse racing and horse
breeding. The first settlers in the Bluegrass were men from Virginia
and the Carolinas, who brought with them over the mountains and
down the rivers on flatboats strong, fast horses, tended affectionately
and with care. As early as 1788, six months after the first edition of
the Kentucky Gazette was printed, there appeared the first Kentucky
stallion advertisements. One of them reads, in part:
The famous horse Pilgarlic, of a beautiful colour, full fourteen hands three
inches high, rising ten years old, will stand the ensuing season on the head of Salt
94
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 95
River at Captain Abe Irvins, Mercer County, and will cover mares at the very
low price of ten shillings a leap, if the money is paid down, or fifteen at the expira-
tion of the season; and twenty shillings the season in cash, or thirty shillings in
good trade. . . .
None of these first stallions was good enough to improve the breed;
but after about fifty years of importing sires and brood mares, Ken-
tucky began to produce great Thoroughbreds.
The first Thoroughbreds were English products. In England the
strong, heavy Norman horses that had carried armored knights into
battle were relegated by changing times to the fields, and the qualities
of the light, fleet animals from the East were sought. Three great
Eastern sires were imported into England the Byerly Turk about
1685, Barley's Arabian in 1704, and the Godolphin Arabian in 1730.
Crossed with native mares, they produced the English Thoroughbred,
a peerless runner. In England the Thoroughbred was improved until
there were the three great stallions, Herod (1758), Eclipse (1764),
and Matchem (1748), who established the three dominant male lines
to which all Thoroughbreds belong.
America imported its first thoroughbred, Bull Rock, son of the
Byerly Turk and grandson of the Arabian, in 1730. Within the next
thirty years Virginia and the Carolinas had excellent Thoroughbred
stock. Messenger was brought to America in 1768, and Diomed,
winner of the first English Derby, in 1799. Messenger was crossed
with American Thoroughbreds and native mares to produce the stand-
ard-bred, or light-harness horses trotters and pacers which, like the
Thoroughbred, found their best home in the Bluegrass. The third of
the light breeds for which the State became renowned is the American
Saddle Horse, which developed after Denmark (an American thorough-
bred foaled in 1839) was crossed with standard-breds and thorough-
breds. This breed, known for beauty, intelligence, and show qualities,
is Kentucky's own.
During the War between the States Kentucky horses were demanded
by both factions. Owners subsequently found their stables empty, and
interest in breeding at a low ebb. Since it was costly to ship horses
East and South for big money, Colonel Lewis Clark was sent to Eng-
land to study breeding methods and to investigate the Derby, Eng-
land's great sporting event. The result was the first Kentucky Derby,
held at Louisville in 1875. Aristides galloped home for a purse of
$2,850. The mile-and-a-half event (now a mile-and-a-quarter) was
worthy of the Kentucky product. Succeeding Derbies focused attention
96 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
on the State, and several wealthy Eastern owners, Milton Sanford and
August Belmont among others, bought large estates and moved their
stables to the Bluegrass where some of the best-known sires in America
Man o' War, The Porter, Sir Galahad III, Blue Larkspur, and many
others are spending their last days in the velvet. Every year about
15,000 people follow the arrow from Lexington to pay their respects
to "Big Red," as Man o' War is affectionately called. Though insured
for half a million, and guarded day and night, he likes nothing so much
as retrieving a hat thrown across the paddock. His 25-foot strides
soon discouraged competition and he was retired early. He once was
clocked at 43 miles an hour during a workout, and his size and strength
were such that he seemed never to tire. "Chicago" O'Brien, one of the
greatest of plungers, once bet $100,000 on him to win $1,000.
Smasher of five world records, his "get," including War Admiral, Cru-
sader, Mars, American Flag, Edith Cavell, and Scapa Flow, are near-
ing the two-and-a-half million mark in winnings on the American turf.
From the Bluegrass have come many of the great moneymakers of
the track, among them Equipoise (d. 1938), the third highest stake
winner in America, who earned $338,000; Gallant Fox, who took
purses of more than $328,000; and Seabiscuit, who in 1938 passed
the $340,000 mark.
The horse farms range in size from less than a hundred to two or
three thousand acres. Many of the larger ones are financed by in-
dustrial fortunes. Despite spectacular individual earnings, such es-
tablishments rarely enrich their owners. Ten thousand dollars is a
fair price for a yearling colt of distinguished parentage, and two thou-
sand more each year will keep him in the pink; but even if he shows
the stuff Derby winners are made of, he may never return his invest-
ment. The hazards of disease, injury, lack of speed, and tempera-
mental obstacles, all unite to keep Thoroughbred breeding a sporting
proposition.
A visitor in the Bluegrass sees stone walls and white plank fences
rising and falling on an ocean of dark rich green to enclose paddocks
and fields and formally beautiful homes, immaculate barns and Negro
cabins as precisely arranged as in a blueprint. Great elms, and maples
trees that sheltered early settlers as they made their way across the
Great Meadow interrupt the endless flow of green pasture. An in-
genious device on the gates makes it possible to open them from an
automobile. The driver, if he is lucky, may be asked by a grinning
stable boy to wait a few moments; then he sees a group of colts
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 97
coming over a hill on their spindly legs. Prancing along, they are
ushered gently on to a felt carpet that has been laid across the hard
rock. "Horses first!" is the primary rule on the horse farm.
The larger stables maintain a Tack Room, which is decorated with
ribbons and silver cups and may have a bar. The Tack Room
actually is designed to contain halters, stirrups, spurs, reins, and other
horse equipment.
The story is told of a man who, seeing one of the thoroughbred
stables for the first time, suddenly removed his hat and said in awed
tones, "My Lord! The cathedral of the horse." The varnished stalls
with polished metal trim and the tanbark aisles without a wisp of
fallen hay are as neat as the cabin of a steamship. A stable boy leads
out his royal charge. His attitude is that of a colored mammy toward
the "white chile" in her care. He croons and chuckles, argues and
cajoles, but never uses a whip. It is generally conceded that the horse
"knows more than a pin-headed boy." Yet the stable boys and exer-
cise boys have been carefully selected for their tact, skill, and disposi-
tion. Usually one man to every three horses is employed in the rac-
ing stables and one to ten on the breeding farms. There may be ex-
ercise boys, grooms who rub down the satin coats, jockeys, foremen,
blacksmiths, veterinarians, bookkeepers and cooks, as well as a man-
ager and trainer.
Methods of training and stable routine vary, but precision is the
keynote of all stables. Colonel E. R. Bradley, of Idle Hour Farm,
has a record sheet posted on the door of each stall where twice daily
the horse's temperature, the amount of food he has eaten, and other
facts of his behavior are recorded. The record is discussed with the
veterinarian each night.
During the spring about 70 per cent of the brood mares on a farm
will foal. Each receives the care of a maternity ward patient, for
nothing must go wrong with the Thoroughbred baby. He spends his
first summer in carefree fashion near his mother, and very soon his
slender legs have grown sure and he loves to run. His feet are
trimmed and watched for the slightest injury. He has been weaned
at about 5 to 6 months, and is now becoming accustomed to a diet con-
sisting mainly of crushed oats, with corn, bran, salt, and flaxseed in
judicious quantities. Doses of cod-liver oil give him resistance to colds
and help to build up his strength.
His first lessons begin early; he is broken to the halter when a few
weeks old; as a yearling, about July, he learns the feel of bit, bridle,
98 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
and halter shank. Slowly he becomes accustomed to the tack he
must carry as a race horse. When he can be led around the stall thus
equipped, he is ready for the paddock, where he learns to obey the
commands of his rider.
New Year's Day is always his first birthday, though he may be
actually only seven or eight months old. He may make his exciting
debut any time after his second birthday. Since he is born to race,
he may instinctively know the procedure. At first the boy lets him
go along easily and observes his reactions to the track. By this time
it is known whether the colt is calm or nervous, high-spirited or digni-
fied, stubborn or tractable.
On a cool autumn day the yearling goes to work. For a few weeks
he walks, trots, and canters up to as much as three and a half miles a
day. He gets a few speed trials, generally at one-quarter mile. After
his trials, he is let down until February 1, unless he is going to winter
racing.
If the Thoroughbred comes from a long line of sprinters, he will
probably never be nominated for the Derby, but he has plenty of op-
portunities at distances shorter than that famous mile-and-a-quarter.
By his second winter, perhaps the most important molding period, he
has usually given some indication of his racing possibilities. Some-
times he is three before all these things are determined. His speed,
action, and conformation (the extent to which he approaches the level
of excellence for his breed) do not always explain his performance;
authorities agree that there are traits bequeathed him in the con-
glomerate blood of his forebears. Awkward little colts are often pur-
chased on their pedigrees and on the expectation of development. The
training period usually places the Thoroughbred in the company he
shall keep; only a few are stars, but almost all take their places some-
where between Belmont and the "leaky-roof" circuits. More and
more Thoroughbreds are seen in polo teams; some are sold for saddle
horses or hunters. Before being placed at stud, regardless of his bril-
liant ancestry, a stallion has usually established his reputation on the
race track, for his own capabilities should be proved to avoid per-
petuating any possible weakness in the line.
Some weeks before the seasonal sales, the breeder selects the most
attractive colts and fillies for a regime of diet and grooming that will
enable them to appear to the best advantage. Picking a great race
horse out of a string of yearlings is a gamble. Samuel Riddle paid
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 99
$5,000 for Man o' War because the youngster "had a look"; today
he stands at stud for that amount.
The new owner is usually given the privilege of naming the colt
which must be done before March 1 of his two-year-old year. This
is no simple matter. There can be no duplicates within a 15-year
period, and with approximately 5,000 foals registered annually in the
American Stud Book, ingenuity is taxed strenuously. Any number
of names may be submitted to the Jockey Club; the owner is notified
of the one allowed. Colts may be given names inspired by their an-
cestry, or associated with speed, courage, stamina, supremacy, luck,
heroism, or plain whimsy. When Colonel Bradley bought the colt
Bad News, he inquired why that name was attached to the animal.
Said the owner, "I've always heard that bad news travels fast." Brad-
ley had such good luck with his first two horses, Bad News and Bri-
gade, that he gave all the others "B" names. In the colorful history
of the Kentucky Derby he is the only owner who has taken four
Derby firsts. Many Kentuckians will bet on the Bradley entries as
a matter of course. Once a Negro admirer of the Colonel declared he
would name his expected baby for the Derby winner. After two
Bradley horses came down the track to take top honors, twin off-
spring in Louisville were promptly named Bubbling Over and Baggen-
baggage Jones.
The language of the horse barns is simple. The size of a horse is
measured in "hands"; a "hand" is four inches. An average horse of
the light breed stands between 15 and 16 hands, as measured at the
wither. A "foal" is a suckling colt or filly. "Filly" applies to a
female four-year-old or less; "colt" applies to a male of the same
years. A "maiden" is a race horse that has never placed first in a race.
The term "stud" applies to the entire plant of a horse-breeding farm
land, buildings, and livestock. "Imp." before a horse's name means
that it is not American-born, but imported. Racing time is written
"1:34 2/5," and is read "one minute, thirty-four and two-fifths sec-
onds." Twenty years is considered a ripe old age, but many exceed
that term by years, and a few have been known to live into their
thirties.
Jargon of the track is extensive and baffling. A "high school horse"
wins when the odds are high ; he is suspected of being able to read the
board. If a horse is "pitched up," he is running in better company
than usual. A jockey who "hand-rides" makes a rousing finish with-
out resorting to whip or spurs. A "grafter" is a pet kept in a racing
ioo KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
stable. A Kentucky horseman is called a "boot"; a "chalk eater" plays
favorites; a "throat-latcher" consistently finishes second and seldom
wins; a "tumble-bug" is a horse that likes to roll in his stall.
Kentucky owners, like all American Thoroughbred breeders, are
hoping for a repeal of the so-called Jersey Act, a rule set up in Eng-
land in 1913, which declared some American Thoroughbreds "half-
bred." Horses whose lineage cannot be traced in every line to horses
already in the British Stud Book fall into this category. Since the
blood of the illustrious Lexington (foaled in America) carries through
a great many American Thoroughbreds, it automatically outlaws the
strain. The rule was made to hamper our export trade with England
at a time when racing reached a low ebb in the United States and own-
ers were shipping their Thoroughbreds abroad. It has been suggested
that a committee of experts select certain superior American horses
and register them in the British Stud Book to redeem this country's
Thoroughbreds from unfair discrimination.
Producing a Derby winner is the dream of every thoroughbred owner
and trainer in Kentucky. When Colonel Bradley came to Kentucky
to raise horses, he was told that it would take 15 years to breed a
Derby winner; it took him just that long. The procedure starts sev-
eral years before the Derby "in the imagination of some sportsman
when he decides to match his knowledge of breeding and bloodlines
against that of other horsemen." Joseph E. Widener knows the haz-
ards that obstruct entrance into that exclusive society. In 1927 his
colt, Osmand, was thought unbeatable, but he lost to Whiskery by a
head. In 1935 one of his favorites, Chance Sun, broke down in train-
ing. In 1934 Peace Chance set a mile record before the Derby, but
finished far behind Cavalcade. In 1936 Brevity, widely accepted as
the favorite, lost to Bold Venture, a 20-1 shot.
The Derby is about the most popular sporting event in America.
Since Matt Winn took over the management of Churchill Downs in
1902, the Derby has become a national fiesta with an economic im-
portance that can hardly be estimated. In the dark spring of 1908
when Stonestreet and Sir Cleges seemed likely to languish in their
stalls because of a ban against illegal betting, Colonel Winn dug down
into the archives of Kentucky legislation and produced an old law
permitting pari-mutuel betting. The day was won; the system became
popular not only in Kentucky but also throughout the Nation. Winn
encouraged bookmakers to open a winter book, which gave the Derby
nationwide publicity. Land used for pasture rose in price the value
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS IOI
per acre is three times that of the best Burley tobacco land the
value of horses increased, and interest in breeding ran high. Winn's
dream of attracting brilliant three-year-olds from all parts of the
United States came true. Although there are older and larger stakes
than the Derby, none attracts a more cosmopolitan crowd. It is the
dramatic climax to the Kentucky legend, or, in the words of a well-
known sports writer, " 'My Old Kentucky Home' acted out before
your eyes."
All roads lead to Louisville where 70,000 people spend more than
a million dollars. Sleeping quarters cost all the way from one dollar
for a room to a thousand dollars for a large house over the weekend.
Justice relents, and rash and noisy revelers are smilingly indulged.
All the juleps served in Churchill Downs Club bar on Derby Day
would make a long, long drink. Ambassadors, Governors, and screen
stars enter the stands with collegians and stenographers from border-
ing States, and all suddenly wish they had been born in Kentucky.
Occasionally julep-husky baritones of city "big shots" can be heard
when the crowd stands to sing "the sun shines bright ..." A million
radios throughout the country are tuned to give the richest two-minute
suspense of the year. A blanket of roses awaits another champion.
PRESS AND RADIO
IN MAY 1785 the second convention to discuss "separation from
Virginia and the formation of a new state," in session at Danville,
passed a resolution to establish a printing press in the western ter-
ritory for the purpose of "giving publicity to the proceedings of the
Convention."
A committee was appointed to negotiate with a printer and start a
paper. But for some reason the West had not appealed to printers,
and none could be found among the settlers in the territory. Finally
a young surveyor and soldier of the Revolution, John Bradford of
Fauquier County, Virginia without any previous experience as a
printer or editor, but a man of unusual common sense approached
the committee with the proposition that he would undertake the estab-
lishment of a newspaper if the convention would assure him of public
patronage when the new State came into existence. His terms were
met and the Kentucky Gazette was launched.
The citizens of Lexington were more generous in their support of
the new movement than the citizens of Danville, and when the town
council of Lexington granted Bradford lot number 43, free of cost as
long as the press continued, Lexington became the birthplace of the
first newspaper published in Kentucky.
An antiquated press, type, ink balls, and ink were secured in Phila-
delphia in the summer of 1787. This equipment was hauled over the
mountains to Pittsburgh, loaded on a flatboat and transported to
Maysville, then taken by pack horse to Lexington. Some of the type
was set by Bradford's brother, Fielding Bradford, as they drifted down
the river, but most of it was reduced to "pi" on the journey from
Maysville to Lexington. Nevertheless, on August 11, 1787, Bradford
issued the first edition with an editorial apology. It was a small sheet
about 8 x 10^2 inches, folded once, making a four-page paper of news
collected by the Bradfords on their journey to and from Philadelphia.
No copies of this first issue of about 180 papers are in existence. Local
news was given little consideration in the early editions, but partisan
102
PRESS AND RADIO 103
editorials attacking political opponents of the idea of statehood filled
its columns. About the only news preserved for posterity in the
existing issues of the Gazette is what may be gleaned from paid ad-
vertisements and notices.
Bradford became one of Lexington's leading citizens. He served
several terms in the town council, was for many years a trustee of
Transylvania University, and at the time of his death was high sheriff
of Fayette County. He not only published the Gazette but issued
many books and pamphlets. In 1788 he published the first Kentucky
Almanac, and later the first acts of the legislature and Bradford's Laws.
The second newspaper to appear was the Kentucky Herald, published
in 1793, also at Lexington, by James H. Stewart. It had a short life,
but was revived in 1797 at Paris and became the first newspaper of
Bourbon County. The Kentucky Mirror, published at Washington
under the editorship of William Hunter, appeared in the same year.
Hunter was elected State printer in 1798 and moved the Mirror to
Frankfort, where it was published by the Kentucky Journal, begun
in 1795 by Benjamin J. Bradford. Hunter and Bradford established
the Palladium in 1798, and the Mirror was discontinued in 1799. Dur-
ing the next thirty-five years dozens of newspapers sprang up in vil-
lages and towns throughout the State. Many of them lived for only
a short time and were of no consequence. The only factual evidence
that some of these papers actually existed is found in the proceedings
of the early legislatures, which authorized the publication of State ad-
vertisements in them.
The first newspaper that can be considered a success was the Ad-
vertiser, established in Louisville in 1818 and edited by Shadrach
Penn. In 1826 it became the first daily paper in the West. Politically
it was Democratic and supported Andrew Jackson for the Presidency
in 1828. Penn was an able and virile editor, feared by his enemies.
But in 1830 he encountered his equal in George D. Prentice, a young
New Englander, who had been sent to Kentucky by the Whigs to
write a biography of Henry Clay for campaign purposes. Prentice
attracted the attention of the Kentucky Whigs and was persuaded to
accept the editorship of the newly established Whig organ, the Louis-
ville Journal. An editorial battle began at once between the Demo-
crats, represented by Penn in the Advertiser, and the Whigs, repre-
sented by Prentice in the Journal. Penn went down in defeat in 1841,
discontinued the Advertiser, and moved to St. Louis.
The Journal from its beginning in November 1830 enjoyed a large
iO4 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
circulation, and for more than forty years Prentice edited it and fought
consistently and courageously for the Whig Party. He was indifferent
to the institution of slavery, but bitterly opposed k when war threat-
ened, since he was a strong advocate of the Union. Throughout the
War between the States, Prentice stood steadfastly by the Union. In
1868 he sold his interest in the Journal and was succeeded by Henry
W. Watterson.
The Louisville Courier, a successful newspaper more interested in
news than editorials, was established in 1844 by Walter N. Haldeman.
Although ordinarily without strong editorial convictions, it took sides
against the North in the War between the States, and was suppressed
by Union forces in 1861. For four years it was published in different
places and under many names; in 1865 it was brought back to Louis-
ville by the original owner and re-established.
A third important Louisville paper, the Louisville Democrat, spon-
sored by the Democratic leader of his time, James Guthrie, was also
established in 1844. It was first edited by Phineas Kent, later by
John H. Harney, and existed until 1868. In that year the Journal,
Courier, and Democrat were merged into one paper, the Courier-
Journal, under the able editorship of Henry Watterson. Under his
editorial leadership the Courier- Journal became the outstanding news-
paper of the State and one of the foremost of the South.
Henry Watterson (1840-1921) was born in Washington, D.C., the
son of a Tennessee Congressman. He began his journalistic career on
Harper's Weekly, the New York Times, and Horace Greeley's New
York Tribune. When the storm of the War between the States began
to gather, Watterson went back to Tennessee, his father's native State,
to become associate editor of the Nashville Banner. During the war
he served as a staff officer and as chief of scouts in the Confederate
Army. He then spent a year in Europe, and returned to revive the
Banner. His success in this undertaking attracted the attention of
Prentice of the Louisville Journal; although they had supported op-
posite sides in the War between the States, Prentice chose the young
man as his successor. Watterson soon became the dean of southern
journalism, as Prentice had been before him.
Affectionately known as "Marse Henry," Watterson was active in
Democratic party affairs, a pleasing and forceful public speaker, and
progressive in thought and action. His literary style was polished and
forceful, and his keen, sometimes caustic, pen roved from heated
political diatribes to scholarly essays. One of his favorite topics was
PRESS AND RADIO 105
the authorship of Shakespeare's works, which he attempted to prove
were written by Christopher Marlowe. Although opposed to the saloon,
he did not think prohibition enforceable and considered it an infringe-
ment of the liberties of the American people. He favored a restriction
rather than an extension of suffrage, believing that there already
existed an excess of uninformed voters. Watterson won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1917 for editorials celebrating the entrance of the United
States into the World War. Although a staunch, at times militant,
Democrat, Watterson opposed the League of Nations. On March 5,
1919, he wrote, "Government is a hard and fast and dry reality. At
best statesmanship can only half do the things it would. Its aims
are most assured when tending a little leeward; its footing safest on
its native heath. We have plenty to do on our own continent without
seeking to right things on other continents."
In 1884 Walter N. Haldeman established the Louisville Times, with
Emmet Garvin Logan and E. Polk Johnson as editors. Logan's edi-
torials were short and pithy, usually without headlines, and although
not finished and well organized like the editorials of Watterson, they
appealed to a large constituency. The Times succeeded, and it is
now the only afternoon paper published in Louisville.
Judge Robert W. Bingham purchased the Courier- Journal and the
Times in 1918. Watterson retired from the editorship of the Courier-
Journal and was succeeded by Harrison Robertson. Arthur Krock,
subsequently (1923) compiler of Watterson 's Editorials and in 1935
and 1938 a Pulitzer award winner, became the editor of the Times and
was later succeeded by Tom Wallace.
The Courier- Journal and the Times have aggressively supported the
Democratic Party. In 1935 Judge Bingham was made Ambassador to
the Court of St. James's, where he served until his death.
In Lexington the first successful newspaper was the Kentucky Re-
porter, established in 1807 by William Worsley and Samuel Overton.
As its name implied, it stressed local news and was less concerned about
foreign affairs than its predecessor, the Gazette. In 1832 the Reporter
merged with the Lexington Observer and continued the policy of em-
phasizing local news. In politics it was Whig and supported Henry
Clay. After the War between the States it became a staunch Demo-
cratic organ, edited by W. C. P. Breckinridge. Another Democratic
paper emerged during the Reconstruction period, the Lexington Press,
that city's first daily, established by Colonel Hart Foster and Major
Henry T. Duncan in 1870. It was later consolidated with the Lex-
io6 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ington Transcript and was called the Lexington Herald, with Desha
Breckinridge, son of W. C. P. Breckinridge, as editor from 1897 to
1935. The Herald became an outstanding and aggressive mouthpiece
of the Democratic Party in the Bluegrass.
The Lexington Leader was founded in 1888 as a Republican daily by
Samuel J. Roberts of Canton, Ohio. It was one of the pioneers in the
field of specialized news and departments for family reading. In 1937
its owner purchased the Herald and published both papers from the
same press without disturbing the political policy or integrity of either.
Many newspapers in Kentucky such as the Owensboro Messenger,
established by Urey Woodson in 1881, and the Frankfort Daily and
Weekly Commonwealth, published by Albert Gallatin Hodges have
had brilliant careers editorially. In most instances the newspaper was
the editor, and the editor was the newspaper. A Kentuckian, for
example, can hardly think of the Courier- Journal without thinking of
Henry Watterson. These editors were born writers without formal
training in schools or colleges of journalism. They fought for ideas and
issues with their pens, and seldom yielded any ground. They had no
press associations where they exchanged views and contributed to each
other's welfare.
This situation was characteristic of the Kentucky press until very
recent years. The newspaper business, however, has become more and
more complex and demands specialized training. In response to this
demand, the University of Kentucky has developed its school of jour-
nalism and sponsors the well-organized Kentucky Press Association.
In addition to its annual meetings, sectional gatherings, where editors
and business managers discuss their mutual problems, are held in
various parts of the State from time to time.
Radio
Anxious listeners in both America and Europe, hearing over the air
waves the incessant plea "Send a boat" during the 1937 flood disaster,
realized that radio, in that tragic hour, was an integral part of Ken-
tucky life.
On Sunday, January 24, 1937, Louisville lay submerged, with only
PRESS AND RADIO IO7
a skeleton telephone service, and in near darkness. The order had
been issued that what remained of electric power must be rationed.
Hospitals and broadcasting stations awaited from moment to moment
the interruption of all power. Station WHAS must be kept on the air
until a hook-up with WSM could be completed, and Nashville was
ready to take up broadcasting with the least possible delay. Marooned
people heard that an equipment truck from Nashville had gone astray,
that power was failing rapidly; they listened to offers of aid from all
over the country; at last came word that Nashville was standing by.
A few moments before 1 A.M., in the middle of a sentence, the tired
voice of Louisville's announcer halted. Nashville took up the call
"Send a boat."
During the emergency period Station WHAS never left the air, put-
ting on approximately 115,000 broadcasts in 18 7^ hours of uninter-
rupted service. It served as nerve center of the volunteer network that
carried official flood news. All relief work was directed through WHAS.
The chain included WAVE of Louisville, WCKY at Covington, WPAD
at Paducah, WLAP at Lexington, WOMI at Owensboro, and WCMI
at Ashland, in addition to WSM at Nashville, Tennessee, and WFBM
at Indianapolis, Indiana. Bulletins sent out calls for doctors, medical
aid, food, and resources.
On January 25 a three-way telephone conversation among WHAS,
Columbia Broadcasting System, and National Broadcasting Company,
resulted in the formation of a network covering the United States and
Canada. The British Broadcasting System and, later, other foreign
networks were included. This tied in approximately 5,000 short-wave
stations throughout the world, the largest network ever established in
the history of radio. All directions emanated from Station WHAS.
Volunteer sound equipment units went as near the flooded areas as pos-
sible to amplify directions to rescue workers through loud speakers.
The resultant saving in life and property cannot be estimated.
The flood reached its crest on January 27. The waters receded;
reconstruction work commenced; life resumed its normal course. On
the second Saturday of May sports commentators at Churchill Downs
were broadcasting the Kentucky Derby.
Radio experimentation in Kentucky began in the late nineteenth cen-
tury. About 1892, in the little town of Murray, a wireless telephone
was successfully demonstrated before an audience of 1,000 persons.
The crude radio consisted of a rough box, some telephone equipment,
io8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
rods, and a coil of wire, and was the invention of a farmer, Nathan
B. Stubblefield.
In 1902 Stubblefield went by invitation to Washington, where he
broadcast for a group of prominent scientists from the steam launch
"Bartholdi." The same year he gave a demonstration in Philadelphia
from Belmont mansion and from Fairmont Park, projecting his voice
more than a mile by wireless.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch, in a full-page article on January 12,
1902, said: "However undeveloped his system may be, Nathan B. Stub-
blefield, the farmer inventor of Kentucky, has accurately discovered
the principle of telephoning without wires."
Through an attorney, Rainey Wells, he secured patents in the United
States, Canada, England, France, Spain, and Belgium. To raise capital
for marketing his invention he had sold stock, in 1900, to a small group
of friends. The end of Stubblefield's business career is shrouded in
mystery. He advised his friends to withdraw such funds as they had
invested, hinting darkly of the rascality of certain eastern associates.
But to none of them did he give concrete information. An old trunk,
in which he kept the invention and the documents concerning it, was
not with him when he subsequently returned from the East, broken and
embittered, to Murray. Whether it was a case of open theft, or
whether he had been the dupe of unscrupulous manipulators, was never
known. He continued his experiments with wireless in a two-room
shack of his own construction. Cornshucks provided protection against
rain and cold. Offers of neighborly aid were refused, an estranged
family was spurned. On March 28, 1928, the body of Stubblefield was
found in his shack; he had apparently been dead about forty-eight
hours.
The State's present radio stations have all developed since 1922,
when an amateur station was licensed as WLAP (now in Lexington),
and WHAS, now part of the Columbia System, went on the air in
Louisville. The National Broadcasting System is represented by
WAVE, in Louisville. Station WCKY is in Covington, WPAD in
Paducah, WOMI in Owensboro, and WCMI in Ashland. WGRC,
the George Rogers Clark Station, has studios in Louisville, as well as
in New Albany and Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Kentucky, because of its topography, offers unusual opportunities for
radio experimentation. Although it was known by 1923 that the human
voice, without the aid of wires, could encircle the earth, there remained
doubt as to whether radio could penetrate the depths of the earth as
PRESS AND RADIO IOQ
well. Radio history was made on July 21, 1923, when a successful
broadcast was sent out from Mammoth Cave at a depth of 378 feet.
That morning a junior operator, with assistant and guide, entered the
cave. The personnel of Station WHAS in Louisville was standing
ready to send vocal signals at given hours. The first attempts were
complete failures. The crust of century-old dust made it impracticable
to drive the ground spike. Walls and ceilings dripping with moisture
became natural conductors with a tendency to absorb the signals be-
fore they reached the aerial. At length a spot was found where walls
were dry and the path slightly moist. By mid-afternoon WHAS came
in with surprising volume and complete absence of static.
The mountains and remote country sections also provide territory
for radio development. One of the most interesting experiments is that
of the Mountain Listening Centers. Broadcasts arranged by the Uni-
versity of Kentucky and made possible by private contributors, with
the co-operation of the National Youth Administration, supplement
other forms of educational work among the Kentucky mountaineers.
On October 21, 1934, a series of Sunday morning broadcasts from
the Jefferson County Jail was inaugurated by the Volunteers of
America, with Major W. O. Ulrey in charge, and Lillian B. Ulrey as
soloist. A tiny organ was used at first, but has since been replaced by
a larger electric organ. These broadcasts are heard in jails and penal
institutions in 101 Kentucky counties and in seven State prisons, in-
cluding those in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan. Thousands
of prisoners, their friends, and relatives have written to the broad-
casters who perform this service.
Interest in television was evident in Kentucky as early as 1929, when
Station WHAS began experimentation, though it had at that time a
power of only a fifth of its present 50,000 watts.
THE ARTS
The Theater
E FIRST record of public amusement in Kentucky, was an ad-
L vertisement of May 31, 1797, in the Kentucky Gazette, a Lexing-
ton paper. It announced that "a room for exhibition purposes" had
been erected adjoining Coleman's Tavern for "an exhibition of tum-
bling, balancing on slack wire, slack rope walking and dancing. Admis-
sion to pit, 2 shillings, to gallery, 2 shillings, 2 pence. Doors open at
sunset, performance beginning at dark."
Not until January 1, 1802, however, did theater items begin to ap-
pear in the Gazette, nor was the location of the building, corner of
Spring and Vine Streets, given until June 25, 1811. The owner was
Luke Usher, who was probably the first theatrical manager in central
Kentucky; he also controlled houses at Frankfort and Louisville and
sent his actors from one town to the other, as business justified. Noble
Luke Usher, nephew of the theater owner and a Shakespearean actor
of some standing, joined the company in 1812 with his wife, Harriet
L'Estrange, an actress of unusual attainments and charm. Both were
from the south of Ireland and had been members of a theatrical com-
pany which included the parents of Edgar Allan Poe. It may be that
Poe's story, "Fall of the House of Usher," was based on some tradition
of this family.
The theater of Kentucky was of little consequence until the coming
of the Drake family and their company. The story opens in Albany,
New York. In 1814 Noble Luke Usher arrived at the Albany Theater
to recruit actors for his houses in Kentucky, then regarded as "the
Far West." The adventure appealed to Samuel Drake, stage manager ;
he agreed to get a company together and start for Kentucky the fol-
lowing spring. But the task was difficult, for experienced actors hesi-
tated to make the hazardous journey into "the unknown." However,
members of Drake's own family, all actors, and young N. M. Ludlow,
who had recently joined the company to play small parts, were eager
for the adventure.
no
THE ARTS III
The party including Samuel Drake; his sons, Samuel, Jr., Alex-
ander, and James; his daughters, Martha and Julia; and Frances Ann
Denny, N. M. Ludlow, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, and Joe Tracy, a man
of all work set out in wagons from Canandaigua, New York, late in
July 1815. They traveled across New York State, thence by boat to
Pittsburgh where they played for some time. In November they
started on their 400-mile journey in a flat-bottomed boat, known in
that day as an "ark" or a "Kentucky broadhorn." Floating down the
Ohio River to Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky, they made the re-
mainder of the trip in wagons to Frankfort. Here, in December 1815,
Kentucky's first real theatrical season opened with The Mountaineer
by Coleman, followed by a farce, The Poor Soldier. The season was
a good one and lasted until March. The players then proceeded by
private conveyance to Louisville, a distance of 50 miles, making the
trip in two days.
"On arriving in Louisville," wrote Samuel Drake, "we found the peo-
ple on the tiptoe of expectation, and anxious for the opening of the
season; but the theater was not in a position to be occupied; it was
dark, dingy and dirty. The scenery was badly painted, the auditorium
was done in the most dismal colors, and the house badly provided with
means for lighting. In about two weeks the theater had been turned
into passable condition for the opening, and we commenced our season
with Coleman's comedy, The Heir at Law, and the comic opera, Sprig
of Laurel. The performance went off with great applause, and the
people appeared delighted with the company. This season of ours in
Louisville, I understand, was the first that had been made by any the-
atrical company. It lasted ten or eleven weeks and was undoubtedly
profitable to the management, for the house was well filled every
night. The season closed with benefits for the company, all of them
being well attended, and this in a town of less than 3,000 inhabitants.
But these people were gay, prosperous and fond of theatrical enter-
tainment."
Drake's company met with similar success in Lexington, where they
opened with Speed the Plough. The old theater building, 80 feet long
by 30 feet wide, had a lower floor with pit and boxes in the London
style ; the seats, built up the side of Spring Street hill and rising gradu-
ally from the stage, were covered with canvas and without backs. The
interior was plain, the scenery limited and badly painted, judged by
modern standards. The Kentucky Gazette in 1812 announced that
ii2 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
"hereafter the smoking of segars" in the theater would be prohibited;
but a coffee-room and bar "near the stage," offered consolation. The
most popular actors were those who could "hold their liquor like gen-
tlemen."
John Palmer, in Travels in the United States in 1817, mentions at-
tending a performance at Limestone (Maysville), given by a company
of strolling players from England. The plays, Honeymoon and 'Tis All
a Farce, were presented in a frame building "appropriate for theatrical
purposes. . . . The scenery and performance were miserable," he re-
ported, "but the buffoonery of the farce and the orchestra of Negroes,
who performed two tunes with two fiddles and two triangles, kept the
audience in good humor; segar smoking during the performance was
practiced by most men."
Dr. H. McMurtrie, in his Sketches of Louisville, described the Louis-
ville theater of 1819 as a a handsome brick building of three stories."
Drake's playhouse, called the old City Theater, "was a very creditable
one and had some features not excelled by its successors," wrote
Colonel John T. Gray. "It had a row of private boxes occupying the
whole front of what is now the dress circle, as in the French Opera
House in New Orleans. They were closed in the rear, having doors for
entrances, and open at the front. The second tier was open and cor-
responded to the latter day dress circle, while the third was low priced
as now. The pit was not the choice place, as now, but was occupied
by men, veteran theater-goers and critics. The theater was lighted
with a grand chandelier swung from the dome, and with side lights, all
of sperm candles, and there was never a dripping one."
Samuel Drake successfully managed theaters in Kentucky until 1830.
(He then purchased a farm in Oldham County, where he died October
16, 1854, at the age of eighty-six.) His company remained together
until about 1835 after which some returned East, while others joined
N. M. Ludlow, author of Dramatic Life as I Found It, and head of a
company which held a prominent place in the theatrical world of the
Midwest until the 1850's. Ludlow's "Kentucky Comedians" played
in Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, Harrodsburg, Danville, Cincinnati
and adjoining towns. They also ventured as far afield as Nashville,
Natchez, St. Louis, Mobile and New Orleans.
The customary program of this period consisted of a three- to five-
act drama, followed by a two-act farce or comedy; sometimes comic
dialogue or musical solos were added for good measure. Most in de-
THE ARTS 113
mand, judging by advertising and requests for return performances,
were: The Soldier's Daughter, The Rivals, The Wheel of Fortune,
Animal Magnetism, or the Doctor Outwitted, Matrimony, or the
Happy Imprisonment, Love a la Mode, or Humors of the Turf, and
Raising the Wind, or How to Live Cheap. Romantic dramas such as
Blue Beard, or Female Curiosity, Abeallino, or the Venetian Outlaw,
Rudolph, or Robbers of Calabria, were enthusiastically received time
and again. The tragedies most frequently advertised were The Re-
venge, The Roman Father, Barbarossa, or Tyrant of Algiers, and
Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Richard III.
Sol Smith, author of Theatrical Management in the South and West,
and member of a traveling company which played in the villages
throughout central Kentucky as early as 1829, calls attention to
Drake's singular propensity for adding second titles to plays. "To the
Honeymoon he would add, or The Painter and His Three Daughters.
He always announced the Hunter of the Alps with this addition: Or
The Runaway Horse that Flung its Rider in the Forest of Savoy."
Benefits for the actors were given at the end of the season to pro-
vide funds for idle months ahead. On these nights, friends bought
large blocks of tickets, and added to the success of the performance
by applause. On February 6, 1850, Julia Dean, best remembered as
Lucretia Borgia, took a benefit at the old City Theater in The Wreck-
er's Daughter, and Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady. The crowd
was tremendous; many were turned away and the occasion made the-
atrical history, setting a mark often referred to later. The Daily
Journal went into raptures. "She is not a mere machine," said the
critic, "moving first one arm and then another, uttering mechanical
things, but a creature of fiery genius and passion, pouring forth her
emotions from the depths of an unburdened heart." When Mrs. Kent
took her benefit on April 11 of the same year in Katherine and Pe-
truchio, an arrangement of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, bou-
quets and baskets of flowers were thrown at her feet, with money
hidden among the flowers.
The City Theater was destroyed by fire in May 1843, and Louisville
remained without a theater until February 9, 1846, when the new
Louisville Theater, built on the old site, opened. Douglas Jerrold's
Time Works Wonders was presented, with Julia Dean, granddaughter
of old Samuel Drake, playing Florentine; The Widow's Victim and
The Stagestruck Chambermaid were played as after pieces. Until it
was abandoned in 1873 the Louisville Theater housed the favorite ac-
ii4 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
tors and actresses of their day. Junius Brutus Booth appeared there
in December 1848 in a number of his characterizations, his Richard III
being spoken of as "full of genius, truth and nature." The great
Macready played a week's engagement in April 1848 and was said to
have drawn the largest audience ever seen in the theater. The 1860
season closed with Charlotte Cushman's performance in The Stranger.
Laura Keene, the resourceful actress-manager, played here with her
company for three weeks in 1863, presenting -such plays as She Stoops
to Conquer, School for Scandal, and Our American Cousin, in which
the elder Sothern later rose to glory. James E. Murdock, James K.
Hackett, John McCulloch, Mr. and Mrs. James Wallack, Frank Mayo,
and Clara Morris appeared year after year. In 1872, when the pres-
tige of the old house was already waning, Cooper and Pyne, Harrison,
and the New Orleans English Opera Company presented a series of
operas, and Strakoscn's company with Christina Nilsson filled a short
engagement.
The Louisville Theater was abandoned in 1873 when Barney Ma-
cauley, who had come to Louisville from Memphis, Tennessee, about
the time of the War between the States, offered his first play in the
new $200,000 theater which bore his name. An old "dodger" de-
scribed the building as "constructed and finished in the highest style
of modern art ... and one of the most substantial and elegant the-
aters in the world." The opening performance on October 13, 1873,
given before a fashionable crowd in the high hats and pompadours of
the period, was the play Extremes, with Marie Bates starred as Lady
Cosby. This marked the beginning of a series of notable productions
that won for Macauley a national reputation.
Colonel John T. Macauley succeeded his brother Barney as manager
in 1879 and retained the management until his death in 1916. Here
on the night of November 27, 1875, Mary Anderson, Louisville's best
beloved actress, made her first appearance as Juliet. Sarah Bernhardt
came to Macauley 's in 1880 during her first American tour. It was at
Macauley's on December 7, 1883, that Helena Modjeska, talented Po-
lish actress, appeared in Ibsen's A Doll's House, the first presentation
of Ibsen in America. Given under the title of Thora, the name of the
heroine, now known as Nora, the Ibsen ending was replaced by a
"happy" one. The Courier- Journal critic reported a brilliant audience.
The production, he observed, "was a novelty, curiosity to see Modjeska
in a new role as well as admiration for the great actress" brought it
together. He thought the tragic ending more consistent and predicted
THE ARTS 115
the play, which "lived through Modjeska," would never "be very
popular." Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Fanny
Davenport, Mrs. Fiske, Maggie Mitchell, Lotta, Ada Rehan, and such
foreign celebrities as Bernhardt, Salvini and Langtry, appeared time
after time at Macauley's until Louisville audiences knew them well
and loved them all. The final chapter was written at the closing per-
formance of the Malcolm Fassett stock season on August 25, 1925.
Macauley's was then torn down to make way for the Starks office build-
ing; with its passing, Louisville lost one of its most colorful and
glamorous historical landmarks.
Other theaters in Louisville came and went, but none ever attained
the prestige of Macauley's. In the nineties Colonel Norton built a
huge, sprawling auditorium on Fifth Street, where prize fights and
Italian opera were housed indiscriminately. Mozart Hall, on Fourth
Street near Liberty, renamed Woods in 1863, was an early amateur
enterprise, one of the first theaters to inaugurate matinees. Later this
theater became the Academy of Music, flourished briefly as the Theatre
Comique, and then passed out of existence. Among the other houses
were the Hopkins, the Masonic Temple, the Buckingham (now the
Savoy) and the Gayety a vaudeville house. The Brown Theater on
Broadway took the place of Macauley's for a brief while.
The glamorous days of stock companies and road shows are over,
and today Louisville has no legitimate theater. The few noted actors
who still tour the country such as Katharine Cornell, Helen Hayes
and Walter Huston play at the Memorial Auditorium.
The little theater movement, however, has had a phenomenal growth
in Kentucky, dating from a performance by the University of Louis-
ville Players in 1911. The initial production of this group was given
in the old clinic of the medical school, with a stage measuring eight by
twelve feet. The first regular season began in 1913. At the present
time practically all the State colleges, the larger high schools, churches,
and many independent organizations have active groups producing
plays regularly. The Little Theater, of Louisville, the Guignol Thea-
ter Company, of Lexington, which owes much of its success to Carol
Sax, and a club at Bowling Green, all give productions of real merit.
The yearly productions at the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes
encourage dramatic activity in Kentucky's Negro schools.
Boyd Martin, dramatic director of the University of Louisville for
the last 25 years and dramatic critic of the Courier -Journal, is in
great measure responsible for the activity of three groups of players in
n6 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Louisville: the University of Louisville Players, The Players Club, and
the Alumni Players. These clubs have been recently combined as the
Little Theater Company of Louisville. Five plays^are presented each
season at the Playhouse on Belknap Campus, University of Louisville.
Dedicatory services for the Playhouse, a small Tudor Gothic building
recently remodeled, were held November 12, 1925, the same year in
which Macauley's Theater was razed. Here is housed the gallery of
theatrical pictures formerly a feature of Macauley's lobby, a gift to the
University from Macauley's heirs. The collection, begun when the old
theater opened its doors, contains 3,000 pictures of famous actors and
actresses, many of them autographed. The Guignol Theater in Lex-
ington, under the direction of Frank Fowler, is sponsored by the Uni-
versity of Kentucky and offers five or six plays during the school term
and usually one during the summer.
The newest and one of the most ambitious adventures in theatrical
entertainment in the State is the open air theater in Iroquois Park,
Louisville, built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration.
Ground was broken on April 18, 1938, and the theater opened with a
performance of Naughty Marietta. The seats are in the open and are
placed on natural terraces with a garden wall across the back. The
permanent structure consists of stage, dressing rooms, and offices. The
Park Theatrical Association, a non-profit organization, accepts from the
Park Board responsibility for providing attractions, underwriting the
project against loss, and at the end of each season, turns over profits,
if any, to the city for further improvement of the property. It is note-
worthy that the initial season (1938) showed a profit of $900. The
operas presented were: Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie, The Mikado,
and Rio Rita.
Painting and Sculpture
The pioneers who penetrated the Appalachians could carry but
little equipment; and when they settled on the land they were com-
pelled to rely upon their manual skill for a home and its furnish-
ings. During the early days handicrafts supplied almost all necessary
articles. Furniture, utensils, brooms, rugs, quilts, coverings, cloth,
THE ARTS 117
baskets, were woven, spun or tooled by hand. The pioneer women
picked, washed, carded, and spun wool and cotton, and colored them
with dyes made from clays, roots, and bark.
Although utility is the primary aim of the crafts, they stimulate by
their very nature the development of the arts of decoration. The
homespun fabrics were woven according to both new and traditional
designs. The carving of chairs, stools, tables, benches, and bedsteads
produced in time an indigenous style. Coverlets and quilts, objects of
special regard among pioneer women, were ornamented with colored
flowers and stitching which often reached a high level of creative
design.
The pioneer crafts declined with the advance of roads and machine-
made goods, and by the end of the nineteenth century they had all
but disappeared. A few "pockets" in the mountains and valleys of
eastern Kentucky continued, however, to preserve the remnants of the
old skills. Recently a broad movement, in which Berea College took
the lead in 1893, has developed to revive and stimulate the local
crafts. Schools and centers have been set up in many parts of the
State to encourage their practice and to carry them forward in new
directions. Besides furniture and textiles, ironwork, poppets (mountain
dolls), dulcimers, toys, and whittled animals and figures are among the
products of the "contemporary ancestors."
The early history of the State was not, however, solely one of fron-
tier hazards. Some of the pioneers who settled in the soft lands of
central Kentucky soon built fine homes, lived in comfort, and even
with a degree of luxury, entertained visitors from the East, and fos-
tered whatever fine arts were accessible. Here the collection of silver-
ware was popular, and knives, spoons, forks, pitchers, ladles, and
mint julep cups were fashioned from coin metal. Asa Blanchard
and Samuel Ayres are among the silversmiths whose names have sur-
vived. A good deal of this early work is still to be found in Kentucky,
including a teapot and pitcher made for Isaac Shelby, first Governor,
and a service (dated 1819) for General Green Clay.
By 1825 Lexington, then the cultural center of the State and proud
to be known as the " Athens of the West," ranked with New Orleans
as a center for portrait painters. John Neagle, who came from Phila-
delphia in 1818, found himself in competition with a native Kentuckian
already firmly established as one of the leading portrait painters of his
day. This was Matthew H. Jouett (1787-1827), called "the best
painter west of the Appalachians."
n8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Jouett had been a student of Gilbert Stuart for several months, but
was largely self-taught. Showing a keen sense .of character, firm draw-
ing and brush work, and a feeling for strong composition, his work set
a standard for the Kentucky portraitists who followed. Though but
fifteen years of his brief life were devoted to painting, he left hundreds
of portraits, which today constitute a roll call of the notable figures of
early-Republican Kentucky. The J. B. Speed Memorial Museum in
Louisville includes in its collection ten Kentucky portraits by Jouett;
Transylvania College in Lexington has his painting of Henry Clay; and
the Kentucky State Historical Society has a number of his canvases,
including a full-length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, painted
as a memento of his visit to Kentucky in the spring of 1825.
A contemporary of Jouett, William Edward West (1788-1857), son
of a Lexington inventor and silversmith, studied under Sully in Phila-
delphia, and later continued his education abroad, where he received
attention for his portrait of Byron. West also made a sketch of Shelley,
and was commissioned for portraits by many well-known figures of his
day. In Paris he formed the acquaintance of Washington Irving and
became his close friend, illustrating his The Pride of the Village and
Annette Delabre. The career of West is a Kentucky example of the
early tendency among American artists to seek education and a con-
genial life in the cities of Europe.
In sculpture Italy was the chief influence in the first half of the nine-
teenth century. Joel T. Hart (1810-1877), who was born in Win-
chester, spent many years in Florence. His Triumph of Chastity is
typical in style and theme of the sculpture of the period. He is per-
haps most popularly known for his statue of Henry Clay at Richmond,
Virginia, a copy of which stands in the rotunda of the Jefferson County
Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. Hart was associated with Gideon
Shryock (1802-1880) in the building of the Old Capitol at Frankfort.
In contrast with these expatriate artists, John James Audubon (1779-
1851) and Chester Harding (1792-1866) established wide reputations
through their paintings of local subjects. Audubon lived at Henderson
and at Louisville for several years, and gathered material on the Ohio
River for his monumental Birds of America. The J. B. Speed Museum
has five portraits by him, and there are numerous collections of Audu-
bon 's prints in Kentucky, the largest of which is housed in the Museum
in Audubon Memorial Park at Henderson.
Chester Harding, who achieved a tremendous reputation during his
lifetime, was born in Massachusetts, but spent much of his early life
THE ARTS
wandering in the newly settled territories. He arrived in Paris, Ken-
tucky, about 1818 when portraits were much in demand. Later he
went to Missouri and painted the picture of Daniel Boone, which hangs
in the Filson Club in Louisville.
Other Kentucky painters of this epoch were Joseph H. Bush (1794-
1865); John Grimes (1799-1837), a pupil of Jouett; Oliver Frazer
(1808-1864); and E. F. Goddard, who settled in Georgetown about
1840. Edward Troye (1804-1874), a Swiss who arrived in America in
1828, achieved much renown as a painter of horses. James Reid
Lambdin (1807-1889), famous for his portraits of American Presi-
dents, moved to Louisville in 1832.
Frank Duveneck (1848-1919), outstanding American painter, sculp-
tor, etcher, and teacher, was born in Covington. During a prolonged
period of study at Munich, he absorbed the new brushwork technique
of that school, and on his return to America became a leading influence
of the latter half of the nineteenth century. In his later years he
served as Dean of the Cincinnati Art School and made his home per-
manently in Covington. In St. Mary's Cathedral in Covington are
some large murals by Duveneck, Crucifixion, Christ at Emmaus, and
others painted about 1910.
Alfred L. Brennan (1853-1921), born in Louisville, was known for
his illustrations. Charles Courtney Curran, winner of many prizes and
medals both in America and abroad, was born in Hartford, Kentucky,
in 1861. Charles Sneed Williams (b. 1882) is represented at the State
Capitol, the Kentucky State Historical Society, and the Speed Memo-
rial Museum. Enid Yandell (1870-1934), whose work in sculpture is
well known, was a native of Louisville. Her Daniel Boone, a character
study, first exhibited at the Chicago Fair in 1893, stands in Cherokee
Park in Louisville. Near by is Hogan Fountain also designed and
executed by her.
Paul Sawyier (d. 1917) painted views along the Kentucky and Dix
Rivers above Frankfort. His water colors and oils are subjective in-
terpretations, rich in atmosphere and feeling. Dean Cornwell, who has
achieved a reputation as an illustrator and mural painter, was born in
Louisville in 1892 and received his first instruction in art there; his
work has been exhibited at the Speed Museum. Charles Warner Wil-
liams, an example of whose work is to be seen at Berea College, was
born in Henderson in 1903.
In recent years a number of public monuments have been dedicated
in the State. A. A. Weinman's (b. 1870) seated Lincoln is in the
120 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
public square at Hodgenville, and another Lincoln, in a standing pos-
ture, by the same artist, is in the rotunda of the State Capitol at Frank-
fort. A replica of George Gray Barnard's colossal Lincoln at Cincin-
nati, Ohio, stands in the grounds of Louisville's Public Library. The
statue of William Goebel in front of the Capitol grounds in Frankfort
is by Charles N. Niehaus (1855-1935), and one of James Kennedy
Patterson on the campus of the University of Kentucky is the work of
Augustus Lukeman (1871-1935). A bronze statue of Thomas Jeffer-
son, a work of much imagination by Moses Jacob Ezekiel (1844-1917),
stands in front of the Jefferson County Courthouse in Louisville.
George Rogers Clark's departure from Fort Harrod on the expedition
that was to win the Northwest Territory is commemorated at Harrods-
burg, the site of Fort Harrod, by a high-relief done in granite by Ulric
Ellerhusen (b. 1879). Other Kentucky monuments are the statue of
John B. Castleman by Roland Huston Perry, a memorial to Governor
H. Clay Egbert by John Carlisle Meyenberg, and the Charles J.
Duncan Memorial by George Julian Zolnay all in Louisville.
Of major interest is the current revival of mural painting. The
Marine Hospital in Louisville has a series of panels by Henrick M.
Mayer, executed under the section of painting and sculpture of the
Federal Treasury Department, dramatizing the Ohio River steamboat
trade of half a century ago. In the lobby of the Seelbach Hotel,
Louisville, is a series of murals by Arthur Thomas, depicting the pio-
neer life and history of Kentucky and Northwest Territories. In the
Federal Building at Louisville, the postal service and Kentucky indus-
tries are shown in a group of decorations by Frank Long, whose two
murals at the University of Kentucky Library are a vigorous interpre-
tation of rural and mountain life. In the foyer of the University's
Memorial Hall is a fresco by Ann Rice, the only example of this me-
dium in the State. In Louisville two murals by Ferdinand G. Walker
are in St. Peter's Church, and the State Capitol at Frankfort has
murals by Gilbert White.
Several nationally known cartoonists and caricaturists including
Fontaine Fox, Wyncie King, and Paul Plaschke are from Kentucky.
In the field of "popular" art, paintings, prints, tombstones, and monu-
ments of horses are among Kentucky's interesting contributions. A
life-size bronze stands over the grave of Fair Play, great sire of the
Elmendorf Farm, the central Kentucky estate of Joseph Widener. At
Hamburg Place, the property of Ed Madden, is a graveyard enclosed
by a gray stone fence, horseshoe-shaped; here are buried many famous
THE ARTS 121
Madden runners, including Nancy Hanks, champion trotting mare. At
Colonel E. R. Bradley 's place, near Lexington, a small bronze statue
has been erected over the grave of North Star III.
The Federal Art Project, started in February 1936, has worked to
promote the development of native talent. Besides its other activities,
the project has made valuable reproductions of old furniture and de-
signs with the aim of perpetuating the tradition and accomplishments
of early Kentucky craftsmen.
Literature
Since Kentucky was admitted to the Union as early as 1792 it
might be assumed that its literary development would, in a gen-
eral way, parallel that of the new Nation, moving through a protean
romanticism to an equally protean realism. And that, up to a certain
point, and with modifications imposed by its sectional character, is pre-
cisely what Kentucky literature has done.
To a population whose booklovers had been reared pretty largely in
the traditions of Walter Scott and Lord Byron, a love for historical fic-
tion, for florid oratory, for the passionate expression of emotion, came
without much effort. Its liking for the Gothic elements of narrative
has not yet been wholly satisfied, and from Catharine A. Warfield's
The Romance of Beauseincourt (1867) through Robert Burns Wilson's
Until the Day Break (1900), down to the detective novels of the late
Foxhall Daingerfield, Kentuckians have enjoyed the stock materials
which arouse horror and mystery. This sensationalism, growing out
of an essentially aristocratic attitude, is a minor trait of Kentucky lit-
erature, to be sure. The spread of democratic feeling in a State which
was, despite any pretensions to the contrary, founded upon a midwest-
ern democracy, was inevitable ; by the middle of the nineteenth century,
books which had the best chance to succeed in Kentucky were those
which had not a little relation to actualities books which preserved
the homely manners, the homely humor, and the homely dialect of its
people. Out of this regionalism qualified, it is important to note, by
a gentility which survived from the height of the romantic movement
came the impetus for the most noted of Kentucky's novelists.
122 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
The first of these, and the one that should be read first by the visitor
to Kentucky, is James Lane Allen. Born near Lexington in 1849, he
located the scenes for fifteen of his nineteen books in the Bluegrass of
his native State. His second volume, The Blue-grass Region of Ken-
tucky (1892), was an account of Kentucky landscapes, houses, people,
and manners, with a nostalgic longing for a culture which had died
during the War between the States. In his fiction Allen made the cen-
tral plateau of Kentucky as familiar to the national public as any other
section popularized by any author. If the name of Kentucky is today
an alluring one, it is chiefly because of the legends and facts that
cluster about the figure of Daniel Boone, because of the fading con-
vention of resounding public speech, because of the genuine balladry
of the mountains and the simulated balladry of Stephen Collins Foster,
and because James Lane Allen wrote such novels as A Kentucky Car-
dinal (1895), The Choir Invisible (1897), and The Reign of Law
(1900).
Allen began by following in the steps of the local colorists. Before
the opening of the twentieth century he passed on into a realism in-
spired by his reading and by a maturing philosophy, a realism which
eventually shocked and alienated his readers, especially his Kentucky
readers. Disturbed by the antagonism and condemnation he had in-
spired, Allen turned back briefly to romance, then experimented with
a realism deeply colored by symbolism, and ended with narratives
which he intended to transcend all schools. Much of what he wrote
is now forgotten; much will never have value save for the student and
historian. But Allen did preserve, in a style which became progres-
sively imposing and artificial, many scenes and people, and customs
which anyone who wishes to know the Bluegrass must read. Note, for
example, what tinges of romance his early "The White Cowl" and
" Sister Dolor osa" add to the Trappist monastery of Gethsemane and
the convent at Loretto. One should read The Choir Invisible for an un-
matched re-creation of the idealism of the best Bluegrass blood of a
former age. A reading of "King Solomon of Kentucky" and "Two
Gentlemen of Kentucky" will add sentimental interest to any stay at
Lexington. Allen's writing after 1910 failed to win critical or popular
approval; today it is little known and probably on the way to oblivion.
This decline was owing, as intimated, to the fact that he became the
victim of his precious style, and to the additional fact that he was un-
willing to throw off his mantle of gentility. Before he died in 1925 he
had outlived both his fame and his once sizeable earnings.
THE ARTS 123
Influenced at the outset by James Lane Allen, John Fox, Jr., man-
aged to combine romance and realism more shrewdly, more palatably.
Born near Paris in 1863, Fox later made his home in the highlands
which meet on the borders of Virginia and Kentucky at Big Stone Gap.
Here he found the material which put two of his novels among the
best-selling American books of all time: The Little Shepherd of King-
dom Come (1903) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908). The
material, of course, was the mountaineer and his manners. In narra-
tive these novels, perhaps, surpass anything Allen wrote; indeed, The
Trail builds a climax which most novelists would be glad to equal. A
pupil of the regional writers, Fox met the demands of his generation
by idealizations of character which now provoke skepticism. Commen-
tators are likely to complain of the romanticism which made the primi-
tive mountaineer a nobler individual than the inheritor of Bluegrass
civilization. On the other hand, the mountain people protest that his
representations of them are unfair and untrue, particularly as he em-
phasizes feuds, lawlessness, and moonshining. Like Allen, Fox found
his literary reputation waning before he died in 1919. Authors who
put their trust in regionalism are likely to find their material limited,
their themes repetitious.
This is the peril confronting Elizabeth Madox Roberts, born near
Perryville in 1885, who writes not of the mountaineers, as most eastern
reviewers take for granted, but of the farmers southward from Louis-
ville. Miss Roberts is at her best when most subjective; perhaps no
living American writer has more truthfully explored the consciousness
of the adolescent girl, of the lonely and poetic woman. Her first
volume was verse, Under the Tree (1922), now very rare. She has also
attempted the historical novel in The Great Meadow (1930), which in-
troduces Boone and what is now Harrodsburg, and satire upon the
contemporary scene in the obscure but not doctrinnaire Jingling in the
Wind (1928) and He Sent Forth a Raven (1935). Her latest story,
Black is My Truelove's Hair (1938), is a tragi-comedy of the Ken-
tucky countryside. No well-read person will be unacquainted with her
first novel, The Time of Man (1926), which in its universality has the
earmark of a classic.
Irvin S. Cobb, also an offspring of the regionalists, will escape their
fate by virtue of his humor and because he has created one of the most
lovable heroes, the canny, benevolent Judge Priest. Cobb describes a
still different section of Kentucky the Purchase, whose capital is
Paducah, where he was born in 1876. He captures and reveals with
124 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
sometimes irrelevant details the era of steamboat traffic on the Ohio,
of leisurely and kindly living in southern provinces. One of the best-
paid of present-day story writers, he is usually represented in antholo-
gies by "The Belled Buzzard" and "Words and Music," the latter per-
haps his finest narrative so far.
Another Kentuckian to produce a book ranking among the best
sellers of all time is Alice Hegan Rice, of Louisville, whose Mrs.
Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1901) taught the favorite American
gospel that poverty can be supported with courage and honor. The
scene is laid in Louisville. Widely read, too, have been the "Emmy
Lou" stories of Mrs. George Madden Martin and the "Little Colonel"
series of Annie Fellows Johnston, both of Pewee Valley.
Kentucky regionalism found a virile, lyrical voice in 1935 when Jesse
Stuart (1906 ) surprised the literary world with his Man with a
Bull-Tongue Plow, a prodigal book of more than 700 sonnets about
"birds, cornfields, trees, wildflowers, log shacks, my own people, val-
leys and rivers and mists in the valleys." Often crude in form and
mediocre in content, these musical sonnets have a refreshing spon-
taneity and a ringing sincerity. Stuart resorts to poetry to celebrate
the beauties of nature and an ancestral way of life that he finds good,
but uses prose to tell about the people of the foothills of eastern Ken-
tucky. Something of their angularity is portrayed in some of the
casually grim or profanely humorous stories in Head o' W-Hollow
(1936). In these stories, with their odd characters and episodes of
frustration and tragedy, Stuart achieves a form of implicit criticism not
often found in his poetry. His autobiography, Beyond Dark Hills
(1938), first written while he was attending college, is an understand-
ing account of the more representative folk of his region the hill
farmers who have wrestled with a tough, stingy soil for generations, and
faced sickness, hardship, isolation and death with equanimity.
It is difficult to account for the absence of first-rate poets among a
people fundamentally romantic. The explanation probably lies in the
lack of critical guidance, in a hampering conservatism, and in the lack
of local encouragement. Madison Cawein, for example, blinded by the
magic of Keats and Spenser, could do no better with Kentucky than
populate the woods near Louisville with fays, elves, pixies, oreads, and
the like; in this process he was too prolific, too oblivious to things
human. Sometimes called the greatest nature poet of his day, he died
disappointed, convinced that his world of dreams had been shattered
by pressing poverty and illness. A less melodious poet is Cale Young
THE ARTS 125
Rice, of Louisville, who carries on the classical tradition of English
verse and resents recent experiments in versification. It must be said
of Kentucky poets, as of the prose writers, that they have failed, either
through lack of vision or of courage, to give the State the epical treat-
ment in literature which it deserves.
Architecture
Kentucky, like most of our western States, passed through a pio-
neering period the period of the "clearing" in the timber, the stock-
ade fort, and the Wilderness Road. Forests had to be cleared;
land had to be broken; a new domain had to be brought under the
hand of the plowman. The story of those early parties, of their settle-
ments here, of grim days of privation and Indian peril, are eloquently
recorded in the architecture of the old stockade forts like Fort Harrod,
so admirably reconstructed at Harrodsburg.
As soon as the country had been made safe for settlement, Ken-
tucky's virgin acres had to be made to produce, and produce abun-
dantly, before anything like a real competence could be won from the
soil. But the sturdy pioneers did conquer the soil and did establish
in the wilderness the foundations of a commonwealth as early as the
last quarter of the eighteenth century.
With the establishment of an agricultural economy there came a
second architectural expression the log cabin. These staunch and
rugged four-square old houses, with rough-hewn walls and dirt floors,
are emblematic of the type of life which was lived in them, and sym-
bolic of the men and women who inhabited them. Good examples of
the house of this period are the Marriage Place of Tom Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks in Pioneer Park at Harrodsburg, and the old Creel
Cabin (see Tour 6) on the Lincoln birthplace farm near Hodgenville.
Beginning with stockade forts and log cabins, architectural expres-
sion in Kentucky passed through successive phases, eventually culmi-
nating in the great porticoed brick mansions which lend so much charm
to the countryside.
Thus Kentucky architecture parallels the course of architecture upon
the Atlantic seaboard with this difference; a style or a fashion well
126 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
known in the maritime States will often not make its appearance in
Kentucky for from 10 to 30 years later. Once acclimated, however,
such vogues are as likely to persist here as in other areas. It is, there-
fore, not feasible to set down the chronology for seaboard architecture
and expect it completely to apply to the course of the art in Kentucky.
Chronologically it must be pointed out that the term "Colonial," so
far as Kentucky architecture is concerned, can have no historic con-
notation and is employed only to refer to that variety of architecture
which arose upon the Atlantic seaboard during the Colonial period and
belatedly reached Kentucky. Because of this fact one should be care-
ful in the use of the word. The term is generally very loosely applied
to Kentucky architecture, being used to designate not only the true
Colonial but also the porticoed house of the Greek Revival, so common
in the State. "Liberty Hall" in Frankfort, "Federal Hill" (see Tour
15) near Bardstown, and the Benjamin Gratz House in Lexington are
perfect examples of the Georgian phase of Kentucky Colonial and
should not be confused with such Greek Revival examples as the Or-
lando Brown House in Frankfort, Beaumont Inn (Daughters' College)
in Harrodsburg, or old Centre College at Danville, Morrison College
of Transylvania, and the Old Statehouse at Frankfort.
After the advent of railways and the accompanying facility in the
exchange of ideas and materials, the development of architecture in
Kentucky, particularly in the towns and cities, more nearly paralleled
that of the eastern part of the United States. This was especially true
after the reconstruction period that followed the Civil War.
The first phase (the log cabin) of early Kentucky architecture dates
from 1767 to 1786. Although Gabriel Arthur, of Virginia, appears to
have traversed territory now within Kentucky as early as 1674, nothing
that can even remotely be termed architecture was erected in the State
for nearly a century. What purports to be the ruined chimney of the
"first house in Kentucky," built by Dr. Thomas Walker (see Tour 4 A)
about 1750, is today preserved at the Walker State Park near Barbour-
ville. The exact form of this house is not known, but a log cabin in
the accepted style of the day has been erected to give the visitor some
notion of Kentucky's "first home." At the time that Kentucky was
being settled the log cabin built of horizontal logs had long since be-
come the recognized type for the pioneer woodsman. These houses
could be built of the timber taken from the lands which the settlers
cleared for cultivation and were, when well "chinked" with mud or
plaster, warm in winter and cool in summer. The simpler cabins
THE ARTS 127
usually consisted of one room, sometimes of two. Often two portions
of a house were separated by an open passageway or "dogtrot" porch,
as it was sometimes locally called. This passageway often served as a
washroom, where extra wood for the kitchen fire and a bench with
water pail and wash basin were kept.
Such cabins were usually constructed of round logs flattened upon
two sides in order to make a better joint. These were halved into
each other at the corners, the ends left to project about a foot. If a
foundation was used, it was of stone and the massive fireplace was of
the same material. Above the throat of the fireplace the chimney was
constructed of "stocks" or logs carefully chinked, at first with clay but
later with mortar. In time the "stock" chimneys, always in danger of
burning, were replaced with stone. The roofs were at first covered
with "shucks," later with bark "shingles," and finally with hand-split
"shakes" held in place by long poles secured at the ends. Often the
floors were of dirt, but these were in time replaced with "puncheons"
or split logs, usually very uneven and sometimes full of splinters. Be-
fore glass was available windows were protected by skins or heavy shut-
ters. Upon occasion oiled paper was used in lieu of glass, this being
protected by wooden slats. Kentucky has a wealth of examples coming
down from pioneer days, the old Creel cabin on the Lincoln Birthplace
farm being a good example of the more elaborate type. Old Fort
Harrod at Harrodsburg, reconstructed in 1926, forms an easily acces-
sible exhibit of the pioneer stage of Kentucky architecture.
Succeeding the earliest cabins just described there appeared a more
refined variety of log house. This was constructed of beautifully hewn
squared logs carefully jointed and calked. Stone foundations and stone
or brick chimneys were usual, and in general plan such houses resem-
bled the more adequate types left behind by the settlers who came from
the Atlantic seaboard. Many comfortable and respectable looking
Kentucky houses of this type of construction are still standing, an
excellent example being the Wilmore Garrett place not far from Lex-
ington. It is a well proportioned two-story house of Georgian Colonial
lines, resembling in general character the architecture of Tuckahoe in
Virginia. The stairway ascends from a central hallway, the more im-
portant rooms flanking the entry. This house, like many another, was
covered with clapboards and, with the addition of a classic portico,
attained a real gentility. At the rear of this house a fine stone wing,
the next step in the utilization of materials, is to be seen.
Stone, where it was readily available, early became a favorite ma-
128 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
terial. As a matter of fact, stone as an architectural material really
came into prominence before the cabin type went out of use. There
are still extant many smaller stone houses, now long used for Negroes
or servants, that were the habitations of the original landowners.
More genteel and commendable examples of stone construction, how-
ever, are the fine old structures at Shakertown (see Tour 15), the rear
wing of the Garrett house above mentioned, and the old DuPuy farm-
house below Versailles in Woodford County; This latter house is of
two stories with a central hall, a quaint front porch, and simple but
dignified mantels. Built of cream-gray Kentucky "marble" with white
wood trim and green shutters, this staunch old house has real distinc-
tion.
Georgian and Federal architecture in Kentucky prevailed from 1786
to 1825. In a sense the advent of brick as a structural material may
be said to signalize the arrival of Georgian forms in Kentucky. The
William Whitley House (see Tour 3) in Lincoln County, built in 1786,
was one of the earliest of the Georgian types, and the "first brick
house" in the State. In mass this structure is not unlike the simpler
two-story houses of old Virginia and, as in these, the brick work is in
Flemish bond with dark headers. It was followed by a brilliant com-
pany of noble houses, the general arrangement of which, following the
models of Virginia, provided a broad central hall with a stairway up to
a landing from which it returned to the second floor. Ceilings were
high and windows double-hung with 12- or 16-paned sashes.
Often Palladian windows, an invention of the Italian Renaissance
introduced through England to America, were used either over the prin-
cipal portal, as at "Liberty Hall" in Frankfort, or for the regular open-
ing, as at the old Muldrow farm (see Tour 14) near Milner, and at the
Eliza Cleveland house in Versailles. Each important room had a beau-
tiful mantel, while an arch, spanning the central hall and supported
upon delicately fluted columns, often divided the hall into "front" and
"back."
Perhaps no single example of Georgian architecture in Kentucky is
better known than "Federal Hill" (see Tour 15) near Bardstown.
Built in 1795 by John Rowan, this sedate but graceful home was
constructed of native brick with stone foundations, the brick laid in
Flemish bond but without the dark headers. The main house, con-
sisting of two stories and a low attic, would present the typical
Georgian plan were it not for the fact that what would ordinarily be
a rear room, on the west side of the hall, is here replaced by a service
THE ARTS 129
court which intervenes between the dining room and the one-story
detached kitchen wing. The house is nobly proportioned, both inside
and out. The windows are of the generous 12-paned variety, while
long side windows, fitted with double-hung six-paned sashes, flank
the simple, classically enframed portal.
A broad central hall, spanned by a beautiful arch carried upon deli-
cately fluted colonnettes, leads through the house. At the right, be-
yond the archway, the stairway ascends to a landing above the rear
door, from which it returns on the left of the hall to the second floor.
At the right as one enters is the dining room; at the left the parlor,
behind which is a lower bedroom. Above, a similar arrangement pro-
vides three bedrooms with a library over the front hall. The parlor,
dining room and bed chambers are provided with mantels, which con-
nect with chimneys that go up through inside walls. Each of these
mantels is a splendid example of the carver's art.
A Georgian house quite similar in plan to "Federal Hill" is "Liberty
Hall" in Frankfort. In this notable house, built by the Honorable
John Brown in 1796, the plan suggested in the remarks about "Federal
Hill" is realized; that is, the central hall with spanning arch and stair-
way is flanked by two rooms on either side. Moreover, the kitchen
wing, which at "Federal Hill" is upon a lower level, is here upon the
same level and is better related to the house proper. "Liberty Hall"
therefore represents the full-blown Georgian plan.
Here also the general mass of the house has received greater thought
and presents, in its pediment-crowned frontal bay, a motif quite usual
in the Pennsylvania and Virginia houses of its day. The portal is of
noble lines and above it is the handsomest Palladian window in Ken-
tucky. The interior woodwork, particularly the doors, windows, and
wainscots, are chaste in proportion and classic in detail.
A charming Federal example is the fine old house in St. Matthews,
now owned by Judge Churchill Humphrey (see Tour 16). This house
has a well-designed central mass flanked by outlying wings connected
by lower links. In massing, this structure recalls the Maryland plan-
tation houses and bears a striking resemblance to "Homewood," the
old Carroll mansion now on the campus of Johns Hopkins University
at Baltimore. The beautiful tetrastyle portico, with its delicate attenu-
ated columns, makes a splendid entrance to the spacious arched front
hall, which leads into a cross corridor giving access to the wings. In the
central mass just beyond the cross corridor are the high-ceilinged
living room at the left and the dining room at the right. The wood-
130 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
work throughout the house is as refined as the frontal portico, the
whole constituting an excellent example of that simplicity, lightness,
and delicacy in carving that characterizes the "Federal" era at its best.
Lovely mantels grace each room.
Other outstanding examples of Georgian and Federal architecture are
the Crittenden house in Frankfort, "Wickland" near Bardstown; the
Eliza Cleveland and Lyle houses in Versailles; "Clay Hill" and the
Vaught (Burford) house, in Harrodsburg; "Castlewood," "Woodlawn"
(see Tour 4), and "Woodstock" at Richmond; "Rose Hill," "Eothan,"
the John W. Hunt house, "Loudoun," Bodley House, and the Benjamin
Gratz house, in Lexington; Xalapa Farm near Paris; the "Grange" and
the Clark farm on the Paris-Maysville Pike, various brick houses in
Shakertown (see Tour 15) ; the Colonel Andrew Muldrow house (see
Tour 14) near Milner; and various lesser, though often as interesting,
structures throughout the State.
The Greek Revival was tardy in reaching Kentucky. By 1825, how-
ever, Greek details were beginning to make their appearance upon
otherwise Georgian structures and by 1830, largely through the instru-
mentality of Gideon Shryock, the style was well established in Ken-
tucky.
Shryock, who was born in Lexington where he learned the practical
art of building from his father, Mathias Shryock (1774-1833), pur-
sued the study of architecture with William Strickland of Philadelphia,
who, in turn, had been trained by Latrobe. Perhaps Shryock's most
notable work is the Old Capitol (now the State Historical Society
Building) in Frankfort. This beautiful and well proportioned edifice,
built of Kentucky "marble," immediately set a precedent for elegance
and dignity in public buildings in the State, and did much to stimulate
interest in classic design. Other important public structures, designed
by Shryock, are Morrison College, Lexington, the old Bank on Main
Street, the Blind Institute and the Jefferson County Court House, all
in Louisville.
The Greek influence in Kentucky was first apparent in classical
porches, mantels, and other details, which were used to adorn masses
otherwise reminiscent of the past vogue in architecture. Soon, however,
the masses themselves took on more and more of the Greek temple and
all details doors, windows, and stairways became completely Hel-
lenized. It was at this period that the stately columned porticoes,
usually of the Doric or Ionic order, made their appearance. Gleaming
white, these classic portals, seen across a bluegrass greensward or dis-
THE ARTS 131
covered at the end of a shady tree-lined drive, are among the most de-
lightful sights in the older sections of the State.
One of the earliest true Greek Revival houses in Kentucky is the
Orlando Brown House in Frankfort, built in 1835 by John Brown of
"Liberty Hall" for his son. Gideon Shryock, architect of the Capitol,
was called to execute this task and here showed himself as much a
master at the design of private buildings as of public structures. The
simple four-square mass of this brick structure is crowned by a low
pediment fronting the street and pierced by a fanlight reminiscent
of the Georgian. A one-storied tetrastyle Ionic portico shelters a sim-
ple rectangular doorway and forms a "support" to a triple-membered
unshuttered window in the upper hall, similar to the windows at
"Mansfield" described below. The four other windows of the fagade
have six-paned Georgian sashes, flanked by slatted blinds.
A full-blown Greek Revival example is "Mansfield," the Thomas
Hart Clay house, just east of the famous "Ashland" on the Richmond
Pike in Lexington. Like the Churchill Humphrey house, it has a dig-
nified central mass with low attic and ridge paralleling the street,
flanked at either end by lower masses with gable ends. Still lower,
links join the three masses and complete the ensemble. A feature of
the central fagade is a graceful tetrastyle Ionic portico sheltering a
Greek pilastered entrance, which is capped with transom and entabla-
ture. The walls of the fagade are relieved by pilasters in brick with
membering at the corners and triple windows enframed in the same
style as the doorway. These Greek windows are not shuttered.
Throughout this house, inside and out, the chaste sobriety of the Greek
Revival at its best is exemplified.
While the typical Greek Revival house is fronted by a two-storied
portico of Doric or Ionic design, many examples in Kentucky exhibit
variations therefrom as charming as they are unusual. An excellent
and unique portico is that of the old Adam Childers House on the high
school campus at Versailles, where a splendid effect has been obtained,
not by the use of columns at all, but by the use of square piers sim-
ply molded and decorated by a necking embodying a simple Greek
fretwork.
At "Diamond Point" in Harrodsburg a two-storied portico with
Doric columns, set between square end piers, shelters a rich and elabo-
rately carved doorway and a narrow lacy balcony that crosses the
fagade at the second story level.
Sometimes the use of a portico is dispensed with altogether and the
132 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
fagade is decorated with a two-storied recessed entrance, as in the Dr.
Robert Alexander Johnston house in Danville. Here simple fluted
Doric colonnades, set distyle in antis, form the entrance on the first
floor, while a similar arrangement above, provided with a balcony rail,
makes a small recessed porch. An important portal of this type, but
under a portico, is to be seen at the Moberly house in Harrodsburg.
Windows enframed with simple Greek architraves often exhibit
Greek anthemion and "honeysuckle" motifs as applied decoration.
Good examples of these are seen at the Stephenson house in Harrods-
burg.
The plan of the Greek house in the main followed Georgian lines, an
arrangement which in the preceding period had been found admirably
adapted to living in Kentucky. Often Georgian details were retained
inside the house, an excellent example being the staircase, which seems
to have remained steadfastly Georgian even in the late Greek house,
as at "Scotland" on the Frankfort-Versailles Pike. But alongside the
Georgian staircases one finds heavy Greek enframed interior doors and
windows, mantels, and woodwork. Often Ionic and upon occasion
Corinthian columns carried a cornice, which, at the wall, rested upon
pilasters to form effectively trimmed openings between rooms. The
Doctor Carrick residence in Lexington, "White Hall," and the Helm
Place, south of Lexington, show good examples. At the latter, sliding
doors, encased by recessed wing walls, made their appearance. Interior
doors may have horizontal or vertical panels and may be enframed by
a splayed casing with Greek "ears" at the top, or by a rectangular
casing resting upon simple plinths and carved with fret or key designs
and including recessed corner blocks at the top. A prominent interior
feature of this period was the elaborate decorative plaster work in the
form of deep cornices and central medallions in the ceilings. The latter
were decorated with the Greek "water leaf," anthemion, acanthus, and
other motifs executed exquisitely in plaster of Paris, and were tinted
in delicate pastel colors; they formed the motif from which crystal
chandeliers were suspended.
Fine old examples of Greek Revival architecture are the McClure,
Barbee (Adams), and Chestnut houses in Danville; "Aspen Hall" and
the Ben Lee Harden House in Harrodsburg; the Showalter, Brooker,
and Shropshire houses at Georgetown (see Tour 4) ; the Colonel James
Marshall Brown and Carrothers houses in Bardstown ; the James Wier-
Duncan (Dr. Carrick) home in Lexington; and Helm Place, south of
THE ARTS 133
that city. Certain of the buildings at the Kentucky School for the
Deaf at Danville, old Centre College (see Tour 5) in the same city,
Daughters' College (now the main hall of Beaumont Inn) at Harrods-
burg.
A number of churches and residences in Kentucky are excellent
examples of the Gothic Revival style (1835-1860). The First Pres-
byterian Church of Louisville (organized in 1816) erected a Gothic
church edifice with a square English tower, while St. Paul's Episcopal
Church in the same city built one of Gothic design with tower and
spire. An interesting church of this era is the fine old First Presby-
terian at Danville. Another very choice example is the little sexton's
house in the abandoned Episcopal Cemetery in Lexington, designed
just prior to the War between the States by John McMurtry, a promi-
nent architect of the city. The Gothic continued to be the popular
ecclesiastical style up to the war, and so strong was its momentum
that it survived as "Victorian Gothic" in the post-war period.
There are five typical examples of the Gothic Revival residences left
in Kentucky, four of brick and one of wood. Three of these the
Alexander-Alford house, "Ingleside" and "Loudoun," in Lexington
may be attributed to McMurtry, who made a trip to England to study
the details of the Tudor Gothic style of that country. The date of the
building of "Ingleside" is generally given as 1852. "Loudoun," on the
Bryan Station Pike (Loudoun Avenue) at the northern limits of Lex-
ington, now beautifully overgrown with English ivy, is a handsome
Gothic Revival house. "Mound Cottage," in Danville, said to have
been built in the late fifties, is another splendid example constructed
of brick; while "Woodland Villa" on the Paris-Maysville Pike is an
interesting example, built of wood.
The War between the States and the reconstruction period were gen-
erally very discouraging eras for architecture in America. The blight
that settled over building in the Nation was, if anything, more pro-
nounced in the border States than elsewhere. Kentucky was a part of
the battleground, and many a fine ante bellum structure was pressed
into wartime service. As a result a number of fine old buildings, like
Bacon College at Harrodsburg and the "second" Medical Building of
Transylvania University at Lexington, both in the Greek style, were
burned during the war. Not until the expansive industrial period which
followed reconstruction was there a revival of building activity in Ken-
tucky, and by this time eclecticism, which has since characterized art
in America, had begun its riotous career.
134 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
During the reconstruction period American architecture reached its
depth of degradation. Indeed the country did not awaken to the ugli-
ness of its art until the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876
gave us some notion of the art of other nations. The period between
this exposition and that of Chicago in 1893 was a backward one, but
during this interim American students who had been studying architec-
ture abroad, particularly at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, returned
to give a new impetus to architectural design in America.
One of these students, Richard Morris Hunt, who had gone to Paris
in 1843, had returned home just prior to the War between the States.
During the seventies and eighties he was at the height of his profes-
sional career and, being a champion of the French Renaissance, gen-
erated a great vogue for this style through the example of his works.
Following his precedent, buildirigs throughout the Union were conceived
and erected in the mansard-roofed style, capitols, courthouses, city
halls, post offices, and large residences in particular being adapted to
this manner. The Louisville City Hall and the old Post Office (1886-
1892), at the northeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, together
with other buildings in the city and elsewhere in the State, were part
of this movement.
Just at the close of the War between the States, Henry Hobson
Richardson, a native of Louisiana, returned from his architectural
studies in Paris. Soon he was in practice, and, although he died at
the age of forty-eight, his influence upon American architecture was
most pronounced. He espoused the Romanesque manner of the south
of France and the north of Spain, and designed many buildings
throughout the Union in a manner so highly personalized that it has
since been called the Richardsonian Romanesque. This vogue, although
highly eclectic, so captivated the American people that Montgomery
Schuyler, an architectural critic and writer of the time, hailed it as the
"American National style." Trinity Church in Boston is, perhaps,
Richardson's most beautiful building. Kentucky, in common with
other States, exhibited considerable enthusiasm for the Romanesque
and within the State there are a number of examples in this manner,
among them the post offices at Lexington (1886-89), Owensboro
(1888-89), Paducah (1881-83), and Richmond (1893-97); the Lex-
ington City Hall; and the Central Christian Church in the same city;
the Christian Church in Cynthiana, and the State Street Methodist
Church in Bowling Green. Essentially a style adapted to construction
THE ARTS 135
in stone or brick, the Romanesque is still popular in some sections for
hospitals, schools, and churches.
Once eclecticism had set in, the architect felt free to examine Old
World styles and to adopt any that seemed appropriate to the task at
hand. This led to an infusion into American architecture of Italian,
English, French, and Spanish ideas and motifs, and most cities show
the personal predilections of the architects who designed their struc-
tures. Not finding a better style than the Gothic for church build-
ings, architects generally reverted to this manner for ecclesiastical
work. Certainly the influence of Ralph Adams Cram and his associates
in the East has helped to fix upon America the Gothic as a church
style; upon occasion, other structures have been built in this manner.
A good example is the old post office in Covington (1875-79), which
is an American adaptation of the Italian Gothic popular at the time it
was built. In a sense the continuity of the Gothic Revival has never
been broken, except for the interlude of the War between the States,
when most architectural activity ceased. Thus by 1872 Cincinnatus
Shryock, brother of Gideon, was constructing the First Presbyterian
Church in Lexington of brick in Gothic style. St. Rose Church at St.
Rose, Kentucky, and the church of Gethsemane Abbey (see Tour 6)
belong also to this continuation of the Gothic Revival, which we gen-
erally call Neo- Gothic. Kentucky is well supplied with churches of
this type, many of them, like the Chapel of the Good Shepherd in
Lexington, being of very excellent design.
American architecture, with the exception of the Romanesque and
Gothic infiltrations, has derived its inspiration largely from the Classic.
Therefore, when the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 blossomed forth in
forms almost exclusively classic, the country was very ready to accept
them; and, as a result, American architecture for the past forty years
has remained decidedly classic in flavor. This classicism has been at-
tained at times through the adoption of the Greek or Roman forms, at
other times through a skillful rendition of American utilities in the
spirit of the Italian Renaissance, as in the new State Capitol at Frank-
fort. An interesting example of the adaptation of Italian Renaissance
architecture was the famous Gait House, on Main Street in Louisville,
which showed unmistakable inspiration from the Palazzo Farnese in
Rome.
Henry Whitestone was the architect of a great number of commend-
able structures in the city of Louisville, which, in general, may be said
to be of classic design. In addition to structures with a decidedly
136 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
antique flavor, like the new Post Office in Louisville and the Lincoln
Memorial (see Tour 6), on the Lincoln Farm at Hodgenville, there
has been a recent tendency to revive another style of classic derivation,
the American Georgian. The Christian Church in Harrodsburg, the
new Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, and many residences
throughout the State indicate a growing regard for indigenous American
types.
Part II
Cities and Towns
ASHLAND
Railroad Stations: Carter Ave. and 12th St., for Chesapeake & Ohio Ry.; N. end
Interstate Bridge, for Norfolk & Western R.R. ; Kenova, W. Va. 6 m. E. for Balti-
more & Ohio, and Norfolk & Western R.R's.
Bus Station: Union Depot, 13th St., near Winchester Ave., for Greyhound and
Sparks Bros. Lines.
Local Buses: Local, interurban, and jitney buses; fare 5tf and 10^.
Airport: L. from Winchester Ave. on 34th St.; no scheduled service.
Taxis: 25$ minimum.
Toll Bridge: Kentucky-Ohio Interstate Bridge: autos, 25$; pedestrians, Stf.
Traffic Regulations: No U-turns or left-turns on business street intersections.
Accommodations: Two hotels; rooming houses and private homes cater to tourists.
Information Service: Eastern Kentucky Auto Assn., Henry Clay Hotel.
Radio Station: WCMI (1310 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Four.
Swimming: South Side Pool, off Blackburn Ave., E., 10^ and 25#.
Golf: Hillendale Club, Division St.; 18 holes, greens fee SOtf and $1.
ASHLAND (555 alt., 29,074 pop.), largest and most important city
in Eastern Kentucky, is concentrated on a rather high and wide flood
plain of the Ohio River. The river makes a great bend around the
southernmost tip of Ohio, receives the waters of the Big Sandy at the
border between West Virginia and Kentucky, and then sweeps north-
west with slow, easy curves past the long waterfront of Ashland. The
city stretches up the river to Catlettsburg at the mouth of the Big
Sandy, and down to the rolling mill plant, a distance of seven miles,
widening and narrowing with the contour of the river bluffs overlook-
ing the town.
Ashland is the chief Kentucky unit of an industrial area that in-
cludes Huntington, Ceredo, and Kenova, West Virginia; and Coal-
grove, Ironton, and Portsmouth, Ohio. The river bank at Ashland is
uncommonly high, acting as a wall against all but the superfloods that
ravage most river towns year after year. This protected river front is,
however, strictly utilitarian. Along it are strung the steel and iron
mills, the sawmills, the coke plants, and brickyards. In front of the
city fleets of barges pass, pushed by stern-wheeled tugboats, carrying
thousands of tons of freight far more than in the heyday of river
boats. In the decade before the turn of the century the Ohio River
peak was 12 million tons, whereas in 1936 it was in excess of 24 mil-
lions of tons. The Gordon Greene, last of the packets making the
run up-river to Pittsburgh, periodically sweeps by with the old grace.
Down near the river front, too, are many of the warehouses, whole-
sale houses, packing houses, the livestock market, and a few of the
retail stores. But this part of the city is caught by high floods, and
139
140 CITIES AND TOWNS
the modern business district has centered along Winchester Avenue
and intersecting streets, three blocks inland on a higher plain. Here
are the banks, hotels, modern office buildings, churches, and depart-
ment stores, and, immediately adjoining them, the downtown resi-
dential section, all showing the marks of the boom in the 1920's. On
a third and still higher terrace, from Carter Avenue to the hill, and
well above even the 1937 flood level, is the chief residential area, with
the 52-acre Central Park, only five minutes' walk from the shopping
district. Near the park are the fine houses of Bath Avenue, built by
the iron masters, the lumber men, and the "wholesale" families. To
the south the town has spread, up the river bluffs and over the irreg-
ular, wooded plateau where the new, winding streets follow the contour
lines, and buses and jitney service connect the residents with down-
town business and industry. These terraces provide natural zoning for
the city and account in part for the unusual attractiveness of Ashland.
It is a steel, coal, iron, and railroad center, free of the appalling grime
and ugliness that disfigure so many American steel towns.
The population of the city is divided into four rather distinct groups.
The first of these is made up of the old families that have been here
for three or four generations the people who made their money from
iron, clay, coal, and lumber, and the professional people. Next to them
are the workers of the older generation who used to live in a kind of
feudal relationship to the owners of the mills and factories. In the
last three decades, as Ashland doubled its population and the small
mills grew large and were absorbed by outside interests, two new
elements were added the clerks, managers, technicians, and white
collar workers who poured into town, and the hill people who came
down to find work. There are very few foreign-born, and the rather
small Negro settlement has its own educational plants and community
life.
Eighty percent of the homes are owned by those who live in them.
Small business and "corner groceries" thrive in the newly incorporated
neighborhoods. Education and the schools are the object of a zeal
that is almost a crusade. In the last few years new elementary school
buildings like the Hager and the Hatcher, and junior high school
buildings like the recently completed Putnam, have sprung up in the
downtown area and the suburban hills, and a city library has been
erected in Central Park. Churches are well attended and play a large
part in the spiritual and social life of the community.
From the very beginning the rich natural heritage of the region has
been the dominant factor in its growth. Natural resources determined
where white men first would settle in this eastern section of Kentucky,
and then dictated the types of industrial enterprise in which they
would engage.
Even the Indians placed a special premium on this section and were
extremely loath to give it up. Of all the choice hunting grounds in this
area, the red men held on to the timbered valley of the Big Sandy and
the neighboring banks of the Ohio long after white settlers had forced
ASHLAND 141
them out of surrounding territory. While the local deposits of coal,
iron ore, fire clay, sandstone, limestone, oil, and gas meant little or
nothing to the Indians, they did value highly the fine hardwood timber,
the convenient watering places, and the abundance of wild game.
Also, they favored the high bench on the site of Ashland as a con-
venient place to bury their dead, as evidenced by the number of
burial mounds that remain in the heart of the city.
Eastern Kentucky did not beckon to white pioneers until the Indian
power north of the Ohio was broken at the Battle of Tippecanoe in
1811. The first pioneers to come to the high flood plain and establish
the forerunner of Ashland brought with them a fixed determination,
and a willingness to fight an attribute that quickly found expression
in disputes over land claims growing out of inaccurate surveys. These
disagreements cluttered the local courts and some of the disputants
"lawed" each other for years, settlement in many cases coming long
after the original contestants had died. True to the early feudist's
code, a number of the belligerents chose a more expeditious method
of settling arguments and disposed of their opponents in the orthodox
frontier fashion.
When three Poages George, Robert, and Robert, Jr. came from
Virginia in 1815 to settle in the fertile lands now occupied by Ashland,
they chose a spot that is included in the present downtown section,
and there established "Poage Settlement." As other pioneers moved
in from the East and erected log cabins, the settlers' attention was
focused on the industrial potentialities of the fine forests and the trans-
portation facilities of nearby streams. The great stretches of timber
already had made the Big Sandy Valley the scene of much activity, and
Catlettsburg, five miles up the Ohio, was becoming widely known as a
lumber town.
Naturally, therefore, lumbering was the first and most important
industry of the new village which developed from Poage Settlement.
Soon, however, with the discovery of iron ore and other mineral de-
posits, much of the hardwood in the vicinity of Ashland was being
converted into charcoal for use in the production of iron. The Belle-
fonte furnace, first in Ashland and Boyd County, was set up in 1826;
it consumed millions of feet of Kentucky's best timber, but produced
thousands of tons of iron. By the time Ashland was formally laid
out in 1850, most of its inhabitants had been attracted by the promise
of the vicinity's valuable mineral deposits and hardwood timber. The
village took its name from Henry Clay's home, "Ashland," in Lexing-
ton.
Industrial development came rapidly. The new village was only one
year old when the State legislature authorized incorporation of the
community's first railroad, now the Kentucky division of the Chesa-
peake & Ohio. Ashland welcomed its first bank in 1856 and imme-
diately assumed a more important commercial standing when the bank
established a branch in Shelbyville. The first railroad was completed
in 1857, and the next year Ashland became an incorporated village.
142 CITIES AND TOWNS
During the War between the States, Ashland's iron production in-
creased. However, it was not until after the conflict, when iron be-
came a vital factor in reconstruction, that the community gained the
dominant Kentucky position in the industry. With the basic requisites,
coal, limestone, and iron ore, immediately at hand in the hills just
south of the town territory that now is included in the city it was
only a short time until many furnaces were erected, and Ashland and
its environs vied with the iron-producing towns of Hanging Rock and
Ironton on the Ohio side of the river. Notable among the new plants
was the Star Iron Works, which was built along the river front in
1868. This plant, in 1870 the year in which Ashland became an
incorporated city was taken over by the Ashland Furnace Company,
owned by the Ashland Coal & Iron Company Railroad. From March
1871 through June 1874 the furnace produced an average of more
than 1,000 tons of pig iron per month, or a gross of 40,527 tons, a
record that was not broken until 1916.
The Norton Iron & Nail Works, established in 1873, built a blast
furnace, a rolling mill, and a nail mill; and in the same year "Big
Etna," at that time the largest blast furnace in the West, added to
Ashland's prestige as an iron center. Of all its iron family, Ashland's
Bellefonte furnace probably had the most colorful history, although
later ones outstripped it in production. In the days before the Ohio
was alive with big steamboats, the Bellefonte's products were shipped
down the river in barges. In the same manner, coal was brought down
the Big Sandy to the furnace, and the fire clay and ore were taken
from the hills at what was then Ashland's back door.
As iron and steel forged to the front in Ashland, the community
began to mine the clays of Boyd County. Brick- and tile-making be-
came an important industry, and when, within a few years, nearby oil
and natural gas deposits were developed, Ashland embarked upon a
well-rounded, modern industrial era. Although the source of iron ore
supply soon shifted to the head of the Great Lakes, relegating Ken-
tucky ores to the background, the vast supply of other crude essentials
and the advantageous transportation facilities of the Ashland area
enabled the town to improve its position as a steel center. With the
opening of the Ashland Steel Company's Bessemer mill in 1891, the
town definitely assumed its modern industrial role; the climax came
with erection of a big plant of the American Rolling Mill Company
in 1920. Ashland still looks to its own community for the major
part of its basic industrial materials, and the hills of the immediate
region are the great storehouses from which its rolling mills, coke
ovens, fire-brickworks, and lumber mills draw their supplies.
The comparatively high plain on which the town sits saved it from
a most disastrous experience during the Ohio River floods in 1937.
Although the flood waters went to an unprecedented high mark, inun-
dating the lower streets, and reaching Winchester Avenue in the mod-
ern business section, actual losses in Ashland were slight in comparison
ASHLAND 143
with those in river towns less fortunately situated. During the flood
period, 2,200 residents were evacuated; and property loss, resulting
largely from damage to industrial plants, wholesale and retail estab-
lishments, and to household furnishings, was estimated by local officials
at less than $1,500,000. Ashland cared for 600 refugees from other
flood areas until they could be rehabilitated. The city's recovery from
the river's onslaught was so rapid that within six months few marks
of the flood's ravages remained and Ashland resumed its role of a
busy industrial spot where substantial homes, excellent educational
institutions, and a culture befitting a sizeable community provide an
even balance with steel, coke, brick, and lumber.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. AMERICAN ROLLING MILL ("ARMCO") PLANT (open on
special occasions or by appointment), Winchester Ave., West, was
begun in 1920, when the city had a population of 14,000. Five years
later, due chiefly to the growth of this plant and its associated activi-
ties, the population had doubled, and Armco was employing a force
of 3,200. Its present monthly payroll approximates $400,000. Here
are seen the processes by which the major raw materials entering into
the steel industry iron ore, coal, and limestone become, by reduction
and intricate chemical processes employing less well known but essen-
tial metals, the specialized steels used in modern manufacture. These
raw materials enter at one end of the works, go through the conversion
process en route, and emerge at the other end in the forms of steel
adapted to the factory requirements of automobile and other manu-
facturers.
The floor space of the Armco plant, which extends to the west of
the business section along the Ohio River, exceeds 1,600,000 square
feet. Twenty-two miles of standard-gauge side track serve this shop
area. Two steam and five oil-electric locomotives, more than 30
freight cars, 60 electric cranes and 15 tractors are employed in shift-
ing materials in and about the plant.
2. NORTH AMERICAN REFRACTORIES PLANT (open), 701
Winchester Ave., a branch of the nationwide concern with offices in
Cleveland, Ohio, manufactures locomotive fire boxes, furnace linings,
gas retorts, and similar articles capable of withstanding intense and
long continued heat. Eastern Kentucky, especially the vicinity of
Ashland, is rich in non-plastic clays that possess the unusual quality
of resistance to temperatures up to 3,000 degrees F. The plant was
built in 1886, and gives employment to an average of 200 men.
3. CENTRAL PARK, Central Ave. and 17th St., is a 52-acre native
woodland area in the heart of the city. Within the park are six
Indian mounds, conical in shape, where the red men buried their dead.
On the north side of the park entrance, head of 17th St., is the
CITY LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekdays). The building, completed in
144 CITIES AND TOWNS
1937, was erected with government funds. It is a one-story-and-base-
ment, T-shaped structure of Georgian Colonial design, built of dressed
local sandstone. The reading room is furnished simply and supplied
with current magazines. The stack room provides adequate space for
the development of a fiction, reference, and general purpose library.
In the basement are conference rooms and an auditorium provided with
a small stage and picture screen. The exterior is dominated by a
Classic Revival portico of restrained proportions and a belfry tower
surmounting the roof.
4. LAWRENCE LEATHER BELTING PLANT (open), Central
Ave. and 25th St., manufactures leather belting of all kinds. Hides
are transformed by intricate processes into the continuous belting that
drives a threshing machine or the fly-wheel of a great power plant, and
the plant extends its search for materials into the hide markets of the
world.
5. SCRAP IRON YARDS. Skirting the N. side of Winchester
Ave., E. of the downtown business section, are great yards where old
iron gathered from the farms, back yards, and refuse heaps of a wide
region throughout Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia is concentrated
preliminary to its movement to the steel mills. The "old iron" is
stripped of everything undesirable, sheared into workable sizes, and
then caught up by electro-magnets and loaded into cars for transfer
to local or perhaps far-distant steel furnaces. At the furnace it be-
comes an important part of the white-hot mixture that is drawn off
into huge mechanically controlled ladles from which is poured the ingot
steel that, under the tremendous pressure of huge rollers, is flattened
out into whatever rough form may be required by the manufacturer.
6. ASHLAND LIVESTOCK MARKET (open Hon.), 36th St. and
Winchester Ave., is the scene of an activity of considerable interest to
visitors. The hilly region adjacent to Ashland is not generally adapted
to field crop production, but the field and wood pastures of the area
feed a very considerable quantity of livestock, principally cattle and
hogs. These are concentrated for sale and shipment on Mondays at
the livestock yards. Picturesque in garb and speech, drovers from
the hills come in with their offerings, to barter and haggle. After the
sale the stock goes by rail to the great midwest packing houses.
7. SEMET-SOLVAY COKE PLANT (not open to the public),
40th St. and the river front, presents a spectacular sight by night
when the flames from the ovens light up the whole countryside. Coke
making is an adaptation, applied to coal, of the long known process
of burning wood under conditions that allow insufficient oxygen, with
the result that a high-efficiency fuel remains after the moisture and
gases are driven off. In similar fashion certain grades of coal are
"baked" in great ovens. After the volatile materials are driven off and
captured (later to be employed in industry), the residue forms the
ordinary coke of commerce. Coke has a thermal efficiency, ton for
ton, approximately equal to the best anthracite, and is widely em-
ployed both in industry and in the heating of dwellings.
146 CITIES AND TOWNS
8. GOVERNMENT LOCK NO. 29, Riverside, opposite Clyffeside
(E. end), includes one of the dams that control the low-water stage
in the Ohio River at a minimum navigation depth of nine feet, the
draft necessary for barges. The location of these dams, designed to
provide for navigation rather than power, is determined by the slope
of the stream bed. They divide the river, from Pittsburgh to Cairo,
Illinois, into "pools" that can retain sufficient water for navigation
purposes at all times. The Ashland dam illustrates the entire river-
control system, and the manner in which barges and their tows are
passed through the locks. Government dredges remove the silt that
accumulates, and the maintenance of a nine-foot minimum stage pro-
vides, for Ashland and for all cities along the Ohio, a low cost route
for the movement of iron, coal, limestone, oil, timber, and other basic
commodities, as well as for the finished manufactured products in
transit to key distribution points.
COVINGTON
Railroad Station: Union Depot, Pike and Russell Sts., for Louisville & Nashville
R.R., and Chesapeake & Ohio Ry.
Bus Station: 6th St. between Scott Blvd. and Madison Ave., for Greyhound,
Fleenor, and Blue Ribbon Lines.
Airport: Lunken Field, (5.5 m., via Cincinnati on US 50 (River Road), for Ameri-
can Air Lines.
Taxis: 15# and upward according to distance and number of passengers.
Toll Bridges: Suspension, N. end of Court Ave., passenger autos 10^ and 15^,
pedestrians free; Covington-Newport, E. end of 4th St., passenger autos 10^ and
15tf, pedestrians 2#.
Traffic Regulations: Right turn on red light only at intersection of Starrett St.
and Madison Ave. Watch signs for parking limitations.
Accommodations: Nearest hotels in Cincinnati; private homes cater to tourists.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, SW. corner Pike St. and Madison
Ave.; Kentucky Motor Club, 417 Scott St.
Radio Station: WCKY (1490 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Seven.
Swimming: Rosedale Park, entrance Carroll St., near 45th St.; Y.M.C.A., Pike St.
and Madison Ave.
Golf: Devou Park, entrance on Western Ave. between 6th and 7th Sts., 9 holes,
greens fee 50tf, 75<J and $1; Twin Oaks Country Club, E. end of Baltimore St.,
18 holes, greens fee 75<? and $1.
Tennis: Dixie Court, Madison Ave. and 2d St., 20tf per hour; Goebel Park, 5th
and Philadelphia Sts., free; South Covington Court, W. end of 45th St., SOtf per
day.
Riding: Sunny Side Riding Club, Park Hills, 75(* and $1 per hour; Pleasure Isle,
$1 per hour.
Racing: Latcnia Race Track, S. and Latonia Ave. car line; spring and fall meet-
ings (pari-mutuel betting). See local papers for schedules.
Annual Events: Egg Fight, Easter Sunday, Devou Park.
COVINGTON (513 alt., 65,252 pop.), second largest city in Ken-
tucky, lies on a flood plain of the Ohio River at the foot of suburban
hills that reach back to a high plain of the Bluegrass. Highways from
Louisville and the hills of central Kentucky sweep rather suddenly
into position for a fine view of the city. To the east the Licking
River separates old Covington residences from Newport; to the west
the Ohio River bends away past scattered suburbs and the long Cin-
cinnati waterfront; and to the north most of Covington's business
houses, factories, churches, parks, and homes are clustered against a
magnificent backdrop, where five bridges cross the Ohio to Cincinnati
on the opposite side of the river.
In this setting Covington looks like a city on the Rhine. The im-
pression is heightened by the spires of many churches Covington has
more than threescore that taper up from among compact business
148 CITIES AND TOWNS
and factory buildings and the plain brick structures put up by German
immigrants of the mid-nineteenth century.
Though the Germans have stamped the pattern of the city indelibly,
other influences have been almost equally strong. The early settlers
came mainly from the South, and they brought slaves and plantation
culture with them. They built the walled- and fenced-in homes lining
the streets that criss-cross the angle formed by the intersection of the
Licking with the Ohio. When the Negroes were freed, they went to
live in what were then the outskirts of the city, farther up the Licking
and beneath the bluffs toward which the industrial areas were expand-
ing. The neglected homes of the Negroes in Covington are small, but
the Negro's contribution to the city, especially in the way of education,
is large. Through the good work of their public and parochial schools,
Covington 's Negroes have reduced the more than 90 percent illiteracy
of the 1860's to almost zero. In 1930 only 501 Covington residents
(and many of these white) were illiterate.
Covington does not have skyscrapers, huge photoplay palaces,
gigantic department stores, or bulky hotels, because it has geared its
economic and social life to that of Cincinnati, only a bridge toll away.
Each weekday morning Covington empties motorcars and little green
trolleys full of people into Cincinnati; each weekday afternoon Cin-
cinnati sends the steady, noisy stream of traffic back to Covington.
In the evening Covingtonians generally relax in their homes or recross
the river for entertainment, while their city plays host to many Cin-
cinnatians who find Kentucky less restricting than Ohio.
On St. Valentine's Day in 1780, George Muse, a soldier of Virginia
in the French and Indian War, swapped for a keg of whisky his scrip
for 200 acres of land allotted him for military service. The new
owner of the land traded it for a quarter of buffalo that Gen. James
Taylor offered him. Taylor dickered it off to Col. Stephen Trigg, who
got rid of it to John Todd, Jr., who unloaded it onto James Welch.
Welch kept the land long enough to get it surveyed, and in 1801 sold
it to Thomas Kennedy for $750. Kennedy erected a huge stone house
overlooking the Licking near what is now the approach to the Sus-
pension Bridge, and lived there as a tavern-keeper and ferry-man
until 1814. Then he sold 150 acres of his property to John S. Gano,
Richard M. Gano, and Thomas Carneal. In the following year, the
three men chartered a town and named it for Gen. Leonard Covington
of Maryland, a hero of the War of 1812 who died of wounds received
during the Battle of Chrystler's Field.
Covington's growth was negligible during the years of national de-
pression following 1819, but in 1830, with a population of only 715,
the town had a log church, several inns, and a schoolhouse which was
also a meeting place for a light infantry troop, the town trustees, and
the Social Polemic Society. A few streets were paved; those running
east and west were numbered, those north and south were named for
notables. The town also had a fire brigade, a steam ferry, and the
COVINGTON 149
store of Benjamin J. Leathers, who issued so much scrip in hard times
that "paid in Leathers" became Covington argot.
Beginning with the 1830's, as settlers headed West over Kentucky
land routes and the Ohio River, Covington became a trade center for
livestock, grain, and other products of the countryside. An influx of
people from over the Appalachians (principally Pennsylvania, Mary-
land, and Virginia) was succeeded by the large German immigration
of 1840-1860.
By 1847 there were two leading educational institutions in Coving-
ton the Western Baptist Theological College and Dr. Orr's Female
Seminary. The seminary stressed good manners and deportment.
One teacher, a Miss Robb, dismissed her class one by one, and exacted
from each girl a Victorian curtsy the spreading of the skirt and mak-
ing a low bow, not one of the "silly bobs" as of later days.
In the 1850's the Kentucky Central Railroad was begun from Cov-
ington to Lexington, a high school opened, the seat of a Roman Cath-
olic bishopric established, a local Turnverein organized, and gas first
used for lighting. In 1860 the first hospital, St. Elizabeth's, was
established. Covington people made furniture, farm tools, rope, and
cloth, and brewed beer, packed meat, and participated in the growing
river commerce.
Covington commuted to Cincinnati by ferry. But service was inter-
rupted during flood times, and it sometimes took a whole day to make
a business trip to Cincinnati and back. The State of Kentucky had
already bought the macadamized highway coming up from Lexington
over an old Indian trail. Elimination of road tolls drew Covington
and interior Kentucky together, but the city was more closely asso-
ciated with its big neighbor to the north, and it needed better means
of getting across the Ohio. In 1846 the State legislature authorized
the building of a bridge over to Cincinnati, but work on the structure
was postponed periodically. When actual construction finally began,
along came the panic of 1857, followed by the War between the States
four years later, and work was stopped.
Although Kentucky wanted to be neutral in the war, neutrality was
impossible. The State became a battleground, and Covington an
armed camp, half its citizens Northern, half Southern, in sympathy
and enlistment. Actual warfare, however, came only as close to Cov-
ington as Morgan's and Kirby Smith's raids in north-central Kentucky.
One threatened raid, however, had beneficial after-effects. When
a detachment of Kirby Smith's men was detailed to terrorize the Cin-
cinnati region, Gen. Lew Wallace declared martial law in Cincinnati,
Newport, and Covington, and laid a pontoon of coal barges across the
Ohio so Cincinnati troops could hurry over to Covington and help
build earthworks on the southern border of the town. The Con-
federates skirmished with a few pickets, and then withdrew.
The pontoon bridge, however, had proved its value. After the War,
work on the Suspension Bridge was resumed, and this solid symbol of
commercial and political union between North and South was com-
150 CITIES AND TOWNS
pleted in 1866. During the years that followed, new industries, such
as brewing, yeast making, and distilling were established and old ones,
such as the manufacture of tobacco products, were enlarged. Real
estate boomed phenomenally. In 1870, although the taxable value of
the city's property was 700 percent greater than it had been 30 years
before, suburbs were laid out rapidly and many newcomers settled in
new homes. All this growth was stunted, however, by the panic of
1873.
Covington aroused itself quickly following the panic years. By the
end of the decade the present Federal Building was completed. During
the next few years the Maysville and Big Sandy Railroad came through
from Ashland, and in 1888 a bridge was built across the Ohio River.
In 1899 the. city waterworks (in Fort Thomas) was completed. In
the 1890's the chamber of commerce was organized; an electric power
and light plant built; and the streetcar system, acquired by Cleveland
capitalists, fitted with single-trolley electric cars.
During this long middle period, characterized industrially by the
establishment of "one man" shops, the genius of Covington flowered.
John G. Carlisle and William Goebel grew to national stature polit-
ically; Archbishop Maes inaugurated the construction of huge St.
Mary's Cathedral; and Frank Duveneck painted murals in Covington
homes. When the twentieth century arrived, Dan Beard, raised in
Covington on the banks of the Licking, began his program of young
character building by helping to found the Boy Scouts of America.
As the Nation emerged from the depression-ridden 1890's, Coving-
ton industry expanded. The "one man" businesses grew into small but
substantial industrial concerns. The outstanding Covington example
of this change is the firm that supplies X-ray equipment to hospitals
and to private manufacturing industries. Another company that grew
up within the last 40 years, makes the machinery that wraps razor
blades and other goods into small packages. Still another builds cell
blocks for prisons. Many more produce specialties such as signs,
ornamental fences, locks and safes, and a host of other things not
subject to mass production. In addition, several packing houses, mill-
ing establishments, distilleries and breweries, brick and tile works,
tobacco warehouses, and rope-making plants are in the city.
From time to time the Ohio and the Licking Rivers have overrun
their banks and pillaged Covington. The flood of 1832 taught a
lesson that was not well learned, for the floods of 1883 and 1884
brought great ruin and that of January 1937 was even worse. Two-
thirds of the business section was submerged. Lights and power were
shut off, transportation was at a standstill, and schools were closed.
Hospitals were badly damaged, but their staffs worked on heroically.
Property loss ran into the millions. By summer of 1937, however,
debris had been cleared away and buildings repaired, and the city was
back to normal. Immediate help was given by the American Red
Cross, and Covington citizens quickly rehabilitated their homes and
business places.
COVINGTON 151
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. SUSPENSION BRIDGE (tolls 10$ and 15$; pedestrians 2$)
across the Ohio River, N. end of Court Ave., connects Covington with
Cincinnati. Designed and built by John A. Roebling of New York,
and completed at a cost of $1,871,000 in 1866, this is the first of
America's great suspension bridges. It is 36 feet wide and 2,252 feet
long, and its towers are 100 feet high.
2. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK MEMORIAL PARK, Garrard St.
and Riverside Drive, is a small square of landscaped ground on the
Ohio River bank, from which the Cincinnati waterfront seems but a
stone's throw away. Near the alleyway that runs behind the park is
the SITE OF THE THOMAS KENNEDY HOUSE, marked by a boulder and
inscribed plaque. Kennedy operated a ferry across the river and was
a congenial host in the stone tavern, called Kennedy's Ferry, which
he erected here in 1801.
3. The CARNEAL HOUSE, now the ROTHIER HOME (private),
405 E. 2nd St., was built in 1815 by Thomas D. Carneal, of Coving-
ton and Ludlow. The two-story mansion, set above the street level,
is designed in the late Georgian Colonial manner, with such Italian
Renaissance detail as the loggias that break the wide front of the
structure on the first and second stories. The main doorway is a fine
example of the Georgian Colonial style, but the door itself is of a later
date. Tradition says that Carneal aided Negroes to escape by giving
them asylum in his home and helping them to cross the Ohio into free
territory. Eliza, heroine of Uncle Tom's Cabin, is said to have been
aided in this way.
4. DAN CARTER BEARD BOYHOOD HOME (private), 322 E.
3rd St., a comfortable two-story brick residence dating from the mid-
nineteenth century, bears a plaque on the side facing Licking River
stating that here lived, in his boyhood, the founder of the Boy Scouts
of America. As a boy Beard (b. 1850) consorted with the soldiers at
Newport Barracks. Later he became well acquainted with stories and
legends of Kentucky pioneer life, and formed a band called the Sons
of Daniel Boone. The youngsters took oath and named themselves
for Boone, Kenton, and other noted pioneers. They became adept at
making dugout canoes, brush shelters, and other woodcraft necessities.
When Sir Robert Baden-Powell formed the Boy Scouts of England in
1908, he made use of Beard's plan of organization. In 1910, when
the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated, Beard merged the Sons
of Daniel Boone with the Boy Scouts. Today (1939) the American
branch of the world-wide organization, of which Beard is still an active
member, has an enrollment of about a million and a half.
5. The JOHN W. STEVENSON HOME (private), 318-320 Gar-
rard St., built about 1820, is a two-story brick structure fronted by a
portico of white fluted columns. The large windows have the original
152 CITIES AND TOWNS
mullioned panes. The house is connected by a large brick tunnel with
a private home at Seventh and Garrard Streets. According to local
tradition, a second tunnel once ran from a mansion on Second Street
up along the river bank into the backyard of the Stevenson home.
Beneath the house and in the yard are huge subterranean cellars, with
thick brick walls, said to have been used for concealing slaves during
the War between the States. Stevenson was Governor of Kentucky
from 1867 to 1871.
6. The CLAYTON HOUSE (private), 528 Greenup St., a story-
and-a-half white frame structure built of ship's timbers, was put up
in 1839 by John W. Clayton, and is now the residence of his grand-
daughter. During the War between the States it housed a private
school, kept by Clayton's daughter, among whose pupils was Frederick
D. Grant, son of Gen. U. S. Grant.
7. The BAKER HUNT FOUNDATION and the WILLIAMS'
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (open 1-3 weekdays, 1-6 Sun.),
620 Greenup St., are housed in simple brick buildings adapted to edu-
cational work. The dual organization is the result of two gifts to the
city of Covington. Margaretta W. Hunt provided in her will for the
establishment of the foundation (1931), and Archie J. Williams gave
the rare insects he collected in the course of wide travels and research.
The foundation offers after-school classes in the arts and crafts for
adults and children.
The Natural History Museum, which includes the Williams' collec-
tion and later accessions, has about 200,000 insect specimens and
more than 5,000 natural history volumes, including what is said to be
the largest collection of books on insects. Kentucky plant and animal
life is particularly well represented.
8. COVINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekdays), SE.
corner Robbins St. and Scott Blvd., established through an act of the
Kentucky legislature in 1898, was inadequately housed in a room on
Seventh Street until a gift by Andrew Carnegie made possible the
present two-story concrete building (1901). The library has about
50,000 volumes for adults and 15,000 for children, and a great deal of
miscellaneous Kentuckiana. In the building is an auditorium seating
750 persons.
9. ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, Madison
Ave. between llth and 12th Sts., is the seat of the Diocese of Coving-
ton. The plan of the nave, transept, and apse, designed by Leon
Coquard, begun in 1895 and finished in 1900, follows that of the
Abbey of St. Denis, France; while the fagade, designed by David
Davis in 1908 and completed two years later, is patterned after that
of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The bas-relief above the
main portal is Clement J. Barnhorn's portrayal of the Ascension of the
Blessed Virgin. The two front towers (now 128 feet high, eventually
to be 180) are surmounted by gargoyles.
Within the massive hand-tooled doors tall graceful columns line the
Suspension Bridge
3eorge Rogers Clarlc Memorial Pork
^arneal House
Jan Carter Beard Boyhood Home
lohn W. Stevenson Home
Dayton House
taker Hunt Foundation ond.Willioms
Natural History Museum
^ovington Public Library
>t. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral
: rank Duveneck Birthplace
.inden Grove Cemetery
.atonia Race Track
Mother ol God Cemetery
Monte Casino
Devou Park
3oebel Pork
<elley-Koett Manufacturing Plant
Kenton Tobacco Warehouse
COVINGTON
1938
154 CITIES AND TOWNS
aisles. Among the high windows of the nave and apse, that in the
north wall, 24 by 67 feet, depicts the Coronation of the Virgin, the
Council of Ephesus, and the Fathers of the Church, in stained and
leaded glass.
The mosaics on the Stations of the Cross are the work of Italian
artisans. The pulpit, altar, and other wooden fixtures were hand-
tooled by Swiss craftsmen. In the right end of the transept is the
Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, on the walls of which are three
frescoes by Frank Duveneck, Covington-born artist. Divided into
three parts like the medieval triptych, these frescoes have as their
central theme Christ's sacrifice on Calvary, and on either side are
shown priests of the Old and the New Law.
10. The FRANK DUVENECK BIRTHPLACE (private), 1226
Greenup St., is a simple frame house marked by a plaque. Duveneck
(1848-1919) worked for several local church decorators and later
studied art in Munich. In 1875 he exhibited a group of sensational
paintings in Boston, and became famous in this country overnight.
After his wife died at Florence, Italy, in 1888, Duveneck came to
Cincinnati to teach at the Art Academy, and became the dean of Ohio
Valley artists. As teacher and exemplar, Duveneck was one of the
pioneers of modern American art. He executed the murals in St.
Mary's Cathedral as a gift in memory of his mother. Some of his
paintings are on the walls of the State Historical Museum (Old
Capitol) in Frankfort. The best collection is in the Cincinnati Art
Museum, to which Duveneck donated a large group of his works in
1915.
11. LINDEN GROVE CEMETERY, Holman St. between 13th and
15th Sts., one of Covington's oldest burial grounds, contains graves of
men who fought in the Revolution and in all wars of the United States.
Toward the rear of the main driveway (R), a simple stone marks the
GRAVE OF JOHN GRIFFIN CARLISLE, Secretary of the Treasury under
Cleveland. Carlisle, who was born in Kenton County in 1835, dis-
tinguished himself as a lawyer, State legislator, Lieutenant Governor,
Congressman, and Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1893
Cleveland selected him as a member of his cabinet, and his efforts to
avert the panic of that year won him wide acclaim.
12. LATONIA RACE TRACK (gate open the year around), S. end
Latonia Ave., opened in 1883 by the Latonia Agricultural Association,
is one of the great running tracks of America, second in Kentucky only
to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. The spring-summer
racing season follows the May meet at Churchill Downs with a 31 -day
schedule. A similar late fall schedule succeeds the autumn season at
Churchill Downs. The Latonia Oaks, Latonia Cup, and Latonia Cham-
pionship stakes are among the regular events, but the greatest attrac-
tion is the Latonia Derby, a mile-and-a-quarter event carrying an
added purse of $15,000. Latonia has been dubbed "Death Valley"
by some Kentucky "hard boots" (chronic backers of Kentucky horses)
because they believe the best of horses are beaten here.
COVINGTON 155
13. MOTHER OF GOD CEMETERY, 27th St. and Latonia Ave.,
is the resting place of many who have brought fame to Covington.
The GRAVE OF FRANK DUVENECK, marked by a rose-colored granite
tomb, is to the right of the driveway, near the center of the grounds.
14. MONTE CASINO (open all hours), off Highland Pike (entered
over a twisting road), is a two-story gray brick building, constructed
about 1850, on a farm owned and rented out by the Benedictine
Fathers of St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa. The building was a
family residence before the War between the States. The estate once
contained a vineyard yielding grapes for the sacramental Benedic-
tine and Red Rose wines produced by Brothers of the Order of St.
Benedict. Wine making by the brothers and their hired help was
begun soon after this property was bought, and continued until Pro-
hibition in 1919. The brothers then returned to Latrobe.
About 1878 Brother Albert Soltis, for his private devotions, erected
what is widely referred to as the TINIEST CHAPEL IN THE WORLD (ac-
commodating only three persons), in front of the home atop the cliff.
Except for the wood in the door, window casing, and sash, and the
glass in the one small leaded window, it is entirely of native limestone.
The interior is decorated with religious emblems.
15. DEVOU PARK, entrance Western Ave. between 6th and 7th
Sts., donated to the city in 1910, is a 550-acre rolling wooded park
that looks down from the Knobs directly upon Covington, Ludlow, and
the Ohio River. Thirty miles of bridle path, athletic and picnic
grounds, and a lake, public golf course, target range, and natural
amphitheater are distributed among the hills and valleys. From LOOK-
OUT POINT Cincinnati's western and northern hills and its downtown
office buildings appear above the smoke and fog that often hang over
this populous section of the Ohio Valley.
16. GOEBEL PARK, SW. corner 5th and Philadelphia Sts., is a
14-acre civic recreation center purchased about 1906 from the late
Gov. William Goebel. It has swimming pools, baseball and football
grounds, and a shelter house. Band concerts, furnished by the city
throughout the summer, are attended weekly by thousands.
17. KELLEY-KOETT MANUFACTURING PLANT (open by
permission), 212 W. 4th St., is one of the world's largest producers of
X-ray equipment. During the years when Roentgen was developing
the X-ray, a Virginia boy, John Robert Kelley, was experimenting
with methods for its use. He came to Covington and became ac-
quainted with Albert B. Koett, who backed him financially. This
partnership was the basis for a concern (1903) that supplies X-ray
apparatus to industrial and clinical laboratories throughout the world.
18. KENTON TOBACCO WAREHOUSE (open during winter
sales season, Dec.-Feb.), SW. corner 2nd St. and Scott Blvd., one of
the largest loose-leaf tobacco warehouses in northern Kentucky, covers
more than a city block. It is a typical one-story brick structure
156 CITIES AND TOWNS
equipped to handle the tobacco that the growers haul here to be sold.
Sales begin on or about the first of December and continue through
February.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Fort Thomas Military Reservation, 5 m. (see Tour 3).
FRANKFORT
Railroad Station: Union Station, Ann St. and Broadway, for Louisville & Nash-
ville R.R., Chesapeake & Ohio Ry., Frankfort & Cincinnati Ry.
Bus Station: Ann and Main Sts. for Greyhound and Nunelly Lines.
Local Buses: Fare 10^. Service from downtown to all residential districts, inclu-
sive of New Capitol.
Taxis: 25$ to any point in city; $1 an hour with a 10-mile maximum distance.
Traffic Regulations: No right turn on red lights. Restricted parking areas so
marked. Two hours parking on unmarked streets.
Accommodations: Three hotels. Convenient, reasonably priced rooming houses
open to tourists.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, Capital Hotel.
Motion Picture Houses: Four.
Fishing: Forks of Elkhorn (see Tour 9), 4 m., for bass.
Baseball: Hoge-Montgomery Park, State 37, 1 m. N.
FRANKFORT (504 alt., 11,626 pop.), capital of Kentucky, lies
within the S-loops of the Kentucky River as it thrusts first against the
eastern and then against the western bluffs that border its deep and
narrow valley. Upon the alluvial plain, through which meanders the
navigable stream, stands the city, separated by the river into north
and south sides which are connected by three bridges.
The north side embraces the older residential section of the city, the
Old Capitol, and the downtown business section. The south side,
chiefly residential, is expanding southward to and beyond the New
Capitol, that lifts its dome high above the roofs and spires of the town.
To the eastward, beyond the city limits, where US 60 traverses the
rolling Bluegrass highland, an addition is steadily extending the urban
area, which, inclusive of the overflow of population beyond the borders
of the city proper, covers approximately four square miles.
Along Main Street and the intersecting business streets, old buildings
of brick and stone, having the impression of earlier generations, are in-
terspersed with substantial and imposing modern structures. Loungers
and passers-by represent a cross-section of every phase of Kentucky life.
For a portion of each year politics dominates the scene, and Frank-
fort is then the gathering place of legislators and of others materially
interested in legislation. Year in and year out the city is the home of
a fluctuating group of officeholders and State employees.
Workers, white and Negro, from the factories within the city and
from the distilleries in its environs, throng the streets on holidays or
when the work of the day is over, and farmers from the rich agricul-
tural lands in the vicinity come in, especially on Saturdays, to do their
trading. At such times the city assumes the air of an old-fashioned
country town, its streets filled with a leisurely moving crowd, colorful,
i57
158 CITIES AND TOWNS
chattering, parcel-laden. Daily, among all these, move men and women
whose traditions root deeply in the past, who live on quiet streets, in
old houses rich in history.
It is probable that Christopher Gist was the first white man to view
the lovely valley in which Frankfort lies; his journal tells of being in
this region in 1751. More than twenty years later, in 1773, Governor
Dunmore of Virginia sent a survey party into the West to look into
the land; Robert McAfee and his group surveyed and claimed some
600 acres, including the site of the present Capitol. In the following
year land-hungry adventurers accepted the opportunity, and "squatted"
in miserable shelters on the land, seeking thus to get by the law which
required "settlement and improvement." The Indians were not slow
to sense the menace. Shawnee, Miami, Delaware and Wyandotte
went on the warpath, murdering and burning at large. So grave was
the situation that Virginia was compelled to send militia and "Regulars"
to restore peace and protect the settlers, Lord Dunmore himself head-
ing one regiment.
In 1773 Hancock Taylor had surveyed, in behalf of Robert McAfee,
lands that are now within the downtown section of the north side.
The following year it was discovered that the McAfee claim, always
shadowy, had lapsed, and Humphrey Marshall, while working as at-
torney for the estate of Francis McConnell, secured a grant from the
Province of Virginia. The McConnell heirs considered this a breach
of trust and a lawsuit resulted, which the court settled by giving the
heirs half the profits Marshall had realized from his title to the land.
Prior to the settlement of this suit, known as Patrick vs. Marshall, Gen.
James Wilkinson, friend of Washington and one time commander of
American armies in the West, later involved in the Burr conspiracy,
purchased the lands from Marshall for the present-day equivalent of
$433. This purchase, made in 1786, gave Wilkinson a not-too-clear
title to the major portion of that part of Frankfort lying north of the
river the downtown district.
Wilkinson immediately set about organizing the new town. He se-
cured passage of an act of the Virginia Legislature (1786) which set
aside 100 acres as a town site, provided a ferry and fixed its rates.
When he found the Kentucky River flooding parts of the city as
planned, he put in a drainage system. The town as platted extended
from the present site of the New Capital Hotel westward to the river,
and from Fort Hill, the height that overlooks the north end of the city,
to the old bridge connecting the downtown district with the south side.
The name Frankfort was chosen by Wilkinson in memory of a pioneer
who, some years earlier, had been shot by Indians, and whose surname,
Frank, had already been given to a ford within the area chosen as the
town site. By a slight change the name "Frank's Ford" became
"Frankfort." Within this tract streets were laid out and named in
honor of the general and his friends. Ann Street, running north and
south on the west side of the New Capital Hotel was named for his
wife, and Mero Street for the Spanish Governor General of the Prov-
FRANKFORT 159
ince of Louisiana who was involved with Wilkinson and others in the
historic Burr conspiracy. The name of Wapping Street, on which the
post office is now, was suggested by a visiting Englishman, for a street
in London famous in that day but now only a memory recorded in
song. Other streets bear names familiar in early American history.
Wilkinson visioned Frankfort as a port of the Bluegrass country,
connected directly with the rising towns on the Ohio also with New
Orleans, with the West Indies and with the Atlantic Coast. The ad-
vent of steamboating encouraged these early ambitions, but the Lex-
ington and Ohio railroad entered Frankfort in 1835, concentrating
transfer and wholesale business at Ohio River points. Nevertheless
the town prospered; tobacco, salt pork, skins, and hemp gave place in
business importance to livestock and lumbering. About the middle of
the nineteenth century Frankfort again became an important primary
tobacco market but today the last tobacco-floor has disappeared. The
vast timberlands of the upper Kentucky River and its tributaries made
Frankfort a leading sawmill town during the period 1865-1900. The
industry also has vanished, but furniture and shoe manufacturing, once
incidental to lumbering and local Bluegrass livestock slaughtering, still
survive. The accessibility and quality of the crystalline limestone of
the adjacent bluffs, known as "Kentucky marble," not only provided
the material out of which the statehouse was built in 1827-1830 (see
Point of Interest No. 2), but for many of the earliest business build-
ings and homes. The bluffs still furnish building stone for the more
enduring structures, and materials for extensive road-building about
Frankfort.
June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth State of the Union, and
the first west of the Alleghenies. The first session of the legislature
convened in Lexington on November 5, "to fix on a place for the per-
manent seat of government." Five commissioners were appointed to
consider applications from various points that included Ledgerwood's
Bend, Delaney's Ferry, Petersburg, Louisville, Lexington, Danville and
Leestown. The commissioners demanded a free site and the expense
of erecting necessary buildings. December 5, Frankfort was adjudged
to be "the most proper place" and on December 22 the legislature
adjourned "to hold its next session in the house of Andrew Holmes, at
Frankfort, on the Kentucky River." Holmes, in behalf of Frankfort,
agreed to convey to the government:
(a) For seven years, the house and tenement lately occupied by Gen. James
Wilkinson; (b) Absolutely, the lots marked Public Ground, Nos. 58, 59, 68, 74,
75, 79, 83, and 84; (c) Choice of 30 lots yet unsold, or alternate-choice of half
of all the unsold lots, and if more space is requisite will lay off into half-acre lots
50 acres more and convey one-half of them; (d) The rents of the warehouse for
7 years; (e) 10 boxes 10 x 12 window glass, 1,500 Ibs. nails, 50 worth of locks and
hinges, stone and scantling for building to an equivalent value, all delivered upon
the Public Ground Or, in place of the latter, stone that will build 1,590 perches
of wall in any part of Frankfort, and the use of Holmes's sawmill, carriage, wagon,
and two good horses until a sufficiency of scantling for a statehouse is pro-
160 CITIES AND TOWNS
cured, and the privilege of timber from any part of his tract; 2d, The bond, dated
Aug. 9, 1792, of 8 citizens of Frankfort Harry Innes, Nat Sanders, Bennett Pem-
berton, Benj. Craig, Jere Craig, Wm. Haydon, Daniel James, and Giles Samuel
to pay to the commissioners $3,000 in specie (gold or silver).
The choice of the little village on the Kentucky River midway be-
tween the two, settled amicably, if not to their individual satisfaction,
the claims of Lexington and Louisville, chief contenders for the Capitol
site. The fact of its central location satisfied the remainder of the
State for the time only, however. Twice the Capitol burned, 1815
and 1824, and each time Frankfort's availability was challenged before
the structure was rebuilt.
Perhaps, when "Jim" Mulligan told in his ballad how politics were
"the damnedest in Kentucky" he was thinking of Frankfort and the
General Assembly. There, just the same, leaders have been developed
and history made. As far back as 1811, a European traveler passing
through Frankfort heard that the legislature was in session and thought
he would drop in and look it over. "Backswoodsmen," he supposed,
were less competent at such a game than their Eastern rivals. Thus
he reports: "There was a silver-tongued orator speaking. . . . 'Gentle-
men, we must have war with Great Britain War will ruin her com-
merce Commerce is the apple of Britain's eye There we must gouge
her!' " He was convinced of his error.
Since 1825, when Lafayette was entertained here, the presence of
the State Capitol has flavored the social life of Frankfort throughout
the years. From all parts of Kentucky have come men and women to
live beside its quiet streets and bring distinction to the city by their
part in the shaping of State policies and development. The effect has
been to develop a distinguished political and social atmosphere. Henry
Clay, John J. Crittenden, Ninian Edwards, John G. Carlisle, John M.
Harlan and many others have trained in Frankfort for the national
scene. The social tone is quiet and somewhat reserved; a typically
southern city where what one is takes precedence over what one has.
The early settlers of Kentucky, notably those who left western Penn-
sylvania about the time of the "Whisky Rebellion" (1791-1794), were
acquainted with the methods employed in the British Isles in the dis-
tilling of whisky. The low price of corn and wheat on western markets
favored their conversion into whisky, a product that improved with
age, and that was readily transportable. Out of this economic situa-
tion developed "corn liquor" for which Kentucky is famous. From the
Civil War era, Frankfort began the commercial development of its dis-
tilleries at points near the city where flowing springs furnish limestone
water, a prerequisite to a first-class product. During the prohibition
era the distilleries about Frankfort, with one exception, were closed;
they resumed operation on repeal (1933) of the Prohibition Amend-
ment.
Only once, in 1862, has war invaded the peace of Frankfort. Bragg's
Confederate forces swept northward out of Tennessee, seized the city,
FRANKFORT l6l
and set up a Confederate State Government. Before the ceremonies
of installation had ended, the guns of the North were hammering from
the crest of the bluffs west of town. The Confederates withdrew, and
the new Governor, Richard J. Hawes, hastily retired to Lexington.
The years of reconstruction and those that have followed have wit-
nessed the modernization of the city, the development of its schools, the
upbuilding of the newer section of the city adjacent to the New Capi-
tol ; but the city as a whole retains the quiet charm of its earlier years.
The Capital Bridge is the most recent of many civic improvements that
include a modern system of public schools, an excellent hospital, play-
grounds, and churches.
The Ohio Valley Flood of 1937 brought great property loss to Frank-
fort. The swollen Ohio formed a dam at the mouth of the Kentucky,
causing that river to rise out of its banks; then torrential rains within
the valley inundated the city, cut it in two parts, flooded cellars, inter-
rupted light, gas, and water service, and swirled through the lower
streets, carrying smaller homes and business houses off their founda-
tions. The damage to properties, personal and civic, was estimated at
$5,000,000. Within the State Reformatory, one of the oldest penal in-
stitutions in the Nation, the water rose to a depth of six feet, and the
inmates were evacuated to the heights on the east side of town. Later,
steps were taken for the abandonment of the old stone-walled enclosure
for a less restricted and more healthful site near LaGrange.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. The NEW CAPITOL (open 9-5 weekdays), S. end of Capitol
Ave., encircled by a broad drive, stands within an extensive grassy
plot on a gentle slope overlooking the Kentucky River. The main, or
north, entrance is approached from Capitol Avenue by a walk and
flights of steps that accentuate the elevation of the building above the
surrounding area. The superstructure, gleaming white in the sun, is of
Bedford stone on a high granite base. Surrounding the lower story is
a broad paved terrace with balustrade. Designed with majestic sym-
metry, the exterior is adorned with Ionic colonnades, entablature and
crowning balustrade; its simple rectangular lines are broken only by
the massive pedimented central section and smaller end pavilions.
The dominant feature of the exterior is the high central dome, raised
on a graceful Ionic peristyle, or drum, and crowned with a slender lan-
tern cupola.
The designer of the richly sculptured pediment, above the north
entrance, was Charles Henry Niehaus, of New York. It was executed
by Peter Rossack, of Austria. Frank M. Andrews was the architect of
the building completed in 1909 at a cost of $1,820,000.
Beyond the vestibule, where visitors register and guides are provided,
is the central corridor. The floors are of Tennessee marble, the wain-
l62 CITIES AND TOWNS
scoting and pilasters of Georgia marble; monolithic Vermont granite
columns, 36 in number, ornament the interior. Among the paintings
that adorn the interior are the LUNETTES in the east and west ends of
the corridor. These murals, executed by T. Gilbert White, of Michigan,
portray events in the early history of Kentucky.
On the first floor, directly beyond the vestibule and beneath the mas-
sive dome, is the HALL OF FAME, where stand four memorials to noted
Kentuckians. In the center is a bronze figure of Abraham Lincoln by
A. A. Weinmann. Nearby is the statue of Jefferson Davis, President
of the Confederacy, the work of Frank Hibbard, and a plaster facsimile
of C. H. Niehaus' marble statue of Henry Clay, the conciliator. A
marble statue of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, by Niehaus, honors the great
pioneer in the field of abdominal surgery.
The chambers of the senate and the house of representatives are on
the third floor. Visitors are admitted to the galleries when the legis-
lature is in session.
On the grounds of the Capitol, and overlooking the Kentucky River,
is the EXECUTIVE MANSION, residence of Kentucky's Governors. It
harmonizes in architectural detail with the Capitol.
2. OLD CAPITOL (open 9-12, 1-4:30 weekdays), St. Clair St. and
Broadway. Twice, in the early days of statehood, the Capitol burned.
The edifice, now known as the "Old Capitol," is an excellent example of
the Greek Revival style of architecture, and first of the many notable
buildings designed by Kentucky's early-day architect, Gideon Shryock.
It was built (1827-1830) out of the native rock of the bluffs of the
Kentucky River. This rock, a durable white limestone, was sawn at
nearby quarries, and the timbers were hewn out of the native forest.
The entire cost of this statehouse that served the State for eight decades
was $95,000.
Set into the concrete walk to the portico is a bronze tablet that marks
the spot where, in 1900, William Goebel, contender for the governor-
ship, fell, shot by an assassin whose identity never has been divulged.
Three days later Goebel died, after having been proclaimed Governor
by the legislature then in session. He was succeeded in office by
Lieutenant-Governor J. C. W. Beckham. At once a number of sus-
pects were apprehended and put on trial. One turned State's evidence
whereat three were convicted; Secretary of State Caleb Powers was
given the death penalty. In course of time all were pardoned and
Powers was later sent to Congress.
The front fagade of the building is dominated by a hexastyle portico
of the Ionic order. The columns, each four feet in diameter and 33
feet high, carry the weight of the massive, severely plain pediment.
The walls and stone window casings are also unadorned. Above the
copper roof rises the cupola, a pedestal 25 feet square, on which stands
a circular lantern 22 feet in diameter, surmounted by a dome. Inside
the great double doors are floors of "Kentucky marble," polished and
mellowed in color by more than a century of use. A broad corridor
extends back to the rotunda beneath the dome, where a transverse cor-
KEY
1. New Capitol
2. Old Capitol
3. Liberty Hall
4. Frankfort Cemetery
5. State Arsenal
6. Capital Bridge
7. State Industrial Insti-
tute
FRANKFORT
1938
164 CITIES AND TOWNS
ridor leads to exits on either side of the building. On the right of the
entrance are the offices of the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY (open 9-12,
1-4:30 weekdays), custodian of a rich collection of Kentuckiana. Left
is the LIBRARY (open 9-12, 14:30 weekdays), a treasure-house of Ken-
tucky history.
From the main floor to the balcony rises the beautifully executed
double stairway of self-supporting stones designed by Shryock. In its
construction the architect made free use of the principles that govern
the construction and support of the Roman arch.
On the second floor are the large, simply-designed rooms where the
houses of the legislature met. These two rooms have collections of
historic value. On the walls of the building hang paintings that recall
the history of the State from earliest days. Among these is Oliver
Frazer's copy of Stuart's Washington, the Historical Society's most
valued possession.
3. LIBERTY HALL (open 9-5 weekdays, adm. 25$), 218 Wilkinson
St., was originally the home of John Brown, first United States Senator
from Kentucky, who, with his family, occupied it in 1796. Since that
time until 1937, when it was taken over by the State, it remained in
possession of his heirs. It stands in the corner of a large lawn and
garden that extends back to the river. Late Georgian Colonial in
architecture, it is simple and dignified in its lines. A short walk leads
from the street to an entrance above which rises a fine Palladian win-
dow. Within the entrance a broad hall opens on either side into spa-
cious, high-ceilinged rooms, heated by huge fireplaces. Mantels and
other interior woodwork are hand-carved.
At the rear of the main hall a stairway rises to the second floor where
in early days a large ballroom was the scene of many entertainments.
The remainder of this story was originally divided into guest rooms and
sleeping rooms for the family; it is now somewhat altered. In the attic
and in the great basement, other rooms provided space for the liberal
entertainment that was part of the family scheme of living. Monroe,
Lafayette, William Henry Harrison, Jackson, Taylor, "Teddy" Roose-
velt, among others, were entertained in this home. The furnishings are
the former personal possessions of the Brown family. A portrait, by
Gilbert Stuart, of one of the members of the family hangs on a down-
stairs wall. The piano and some music that belonged to Margaretta,
wife of the builder, remain.
The area bounded by Wapping, Wilkinson, Washington and Main
Streets is known as the CORNER OF CELEBRITIES. Brown owned the
entire block on which Liberty Hall stands. For his son Orlando he
built the house that stands on the opposite corner. Around this nucleus
developed a remarkable neighborhood. During the five generations
since the Browns first made their home in Frankfort, the little neigh-
borhood has been the birthplace, or the later home, of two Justices of
the Supreme Court, nine United States Senators, six Representatives,
seven Ambassadors, and three Admirals of the United States Navy.
FRANKFORT 165
Two other residents Marshall M. Bibb and John J. Crittenden
served in the Federal Cabinet.
4. FRANKFORT CEMETERY, E. Main St., lies along the edge
of the bluff that overlooks Frankfort from the east. Within its rolling
acres are the graves of distinguished Kentuckians. Near the entrance
(R) is the GOEBEL MONUMENT, where is buried the man who in 1900
was assassinated on the steps of the Old Capitol.
At a point where the drive closely skirts the edge of the bluff (R),
is the BOONE MEMORIAL. A footpath winds downward from the drive
to the single grave beneath the trees where lie Daniel Boone and Re-
becca Boone, first of the pioneers. The monolithic limestone memorial
that stands above their grave was quarried from the Kentucky River
cliffs at Boonesboro, where in 1775 Daniel helped establish the first
seat of government in the West. On the four sides of the monolith are
inset panels of Italian marble, representing scenes from the life of the
frontiersman.
After the settlement of' Kentucky began in earnest Boone, unfortu-
nate in his business enterprises, moved his family into the wilderness
west of the Mississippi which was then a Spanish possession. In 1820
he died at the home of his son Nathan Boone, in the southern section
of St. Charles County, Mo. In 1845 the Legislature of Kentucky
brought his remains to Frankfort and erected the memorial.
From the center of an oval plot, known as STATE CEMETERY, rises
the tall Carrara marble shaft of the monument, dedicated by the State
in 1850 to the memory of Kentuckians who fell in foreign wars. Sur-
mounting the shaft is the figure of Victory designed by Robert E.
Launitz of New York. He also executed the monument. The Victory
and the four eagles seen at its feet were made in Italy from detail de-
signs by Launitz. Inscriptions on the four sides of the shaft tell the
part that Kentucky has played in the wars of the Nation. Encircling
the base are the graves of soldiers whose remains were brought here
from the battlefields of the Mexican War.
Within the oval, just outside the circle of soldier dead, is the TOMB
OF THEODORE O'HARA, citizen of Frankfort, editor, soldier of the
Mexican War and of the War between the States. Engraved upon his
tomb are verses from his ode, the Bivouac of the Dead, memorializing
his comrades of the Mexican War.
Beyond the O'Hara tomb, at the southern tip of the oval and screened
by heavy foliage, is the COL. RICHARD M. JOHNSON TOMB. Johnson
led the Kentucky troops who in 1813, at the Battle of the Thames,
helped break the Indian power north of the Ohio. He is credited with
killing Tecumseh, the Indian leader, in this battle.
5. STATE ARSENAL (not open to public)^ E. Main St., at foot of
hill, attracts attention by its commanding position, rather than from its
size or style of architecture, which with its ornamental battlements and
turrets is suggestive of the Tudor. It was erected in 1850 as a storage-
house for equipment and materials belonging to the State Militia and
it still serves that purpose.
166 CITIES AND TOWNS
6. CAPITAL BRIDGE, E. Main St. and Capitol Ave., is dedicated
to the memory of those who fell in the World War. It unites north
and south Frankfort, crossing the Kentucky River at a level that assures
uninterrupted highway communication in the event- of a flood similar to
that of 1937, when all highway travel by way of Frankfort was sus-
pended.
The area between Capital Bridge and the intersection of East Main
and Ann Streets (L) is one of the oldest business blocks in the west.
The STONE HOUSE, the first abutting the street on the left, was built
by John Hampton, an early settler. A few doors beyond an old build-
ing reveals itself as a clapboarded LOG HOUSE, one of the first in the
growing village. First built as a home, it has served several uses since.
The largest building in the row, formerly a livery stable, is used as a
garage. The buildings between the old barn and the Ann Street corner
are of the same early period. The great hewn timbers, doorways, win-
dows, worn thresholds, chimneys, weathered siding between the build-
ings all attest their age. At the southeast corner of Main and Ann
Streets, a BRONZE MARKER attached to the Ann Street wall of the
building tells that a few feet from the corner, and toward the river at
a jog in the building line abutting the street, the first stake was driven
of the original survey of the town site.
7. STATE INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE (Kentucky Negro College),
E. Main St. and City Limits, is a teachers' training school for Negroes.
The plant is on a 35-acre campus overlooking the northwestern section
of Frankfort and consists of six modern, well-equipped school build-
ings, together with dormitories provided for students and faculty. A
farm of 265 acres, owned and operated by the school, lies immediately
south of the highway and serves as an out-of-doors laboratory for stu-
dents in agriculture. It is equipped with barns, a silo, cattle and hog
sheds, and a poultry building. Training for steam and electrical engi-
neering, manual training, dressmaking and domestic science is stressed.
Students also may receive a thorough training in teaching, for which
purpose there are maintained elementary courses that any Negro child
may attend. The institution possesses the finest library of Negro lit-
erature in Kentucky.
Under the laws of Kentucky white and Negro children are separately
educated. Negro children receive training under Negro teachers. An
impartial pro-rata division of school funds assures to children of both
races their full share of school equipment and of teacher-service. To
meet the demand so created with trained men and women, the State
Industrial Institute was founded by an act of the legislature in 1886.
The Negro illiteracy, estimated at 96 percent in the late 1860's, now
averages 5 percent for the State as a whole.
FRANKFORT 167
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
8. US LOCK 4, N. end of Kentucky Ave. (open), part of the engi-
neering improvement by which the Kentucky River is made navigable.
9. HEMP MILLS (Kentucky River Mills), Wilkinson St. extended,
N. of City Limits.
10. O.F.C. (Frank Stagg) DISTILLERY (open weekdays on appli-
cation), Leestown Pike (Wilkinson St. extended), where Bourbon (corn)
whisky is manufactured.
HARRODSBURG
Railroad Station: Depot and Office Sts., for Southern Ry.
Bus Station: Main and Lexington Sts., adjoining post office, for Greyhound and
Fleenor Lines.
Taxis: 25^ within city limits; 10# per mile outside city.
Accommodations: One hotel; inns, and tourist homes.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, in Hotel Harrod.
Motion Picture Houses: Two.
Annual Events: Historical pageant, usually June 16; Mercer County Fair, last week
in July; Fox Hound Show, second day of fair.
HARRODSBURG (824 alt., 4,585 pop.), first permanent white set-
tlement in Kentucky, is on a hill of the Bluegrass just west of the upper
Kentucky River.
Set on a lawn facing the main street, the Mercer County Courthouse
lifts a white clock tower and cupola high over the countryside. Around
it hurries the vigorous life of this tourist city. Along College Street
old families live in homes designed in early nineteenth century styles.
Around the city in all directions cluster horse farms, tobacco farms,
and chicken farms with their distinctive houses in the southern planta-
tion manner.
Harrodsburg's fine homes and mineral springs are less cherished than
the historic shrines assembled here in Pioneer Memorial State Park.
Kentucky looks to Harrodsburg for reminders of long struggles dur-
ing surveying and settlement; and great deeds of men like James Har-
rod and George Rogers Clark are commemorated here.
Early in 1773 Governor Dunmore of Virginia sent surveyors into
Kentucky to survey public land, to be used in paying off veterans of
the French and Indian War. One of these surveying parties, led by
Thomas Bullitt and James Harrod, left Fort Pitt in the spring of 1773
and descended the Ohio River to the mouth of the Kanawha. Here
the party met the McAfee brothers Robert, William, James, and
George who had left Virginia on a similar mission. The two parties
joined forces and continued down the Ohio River to Big Bone Lick,
where they camped July 4 and 5. On July 7 they separated. Bullitt
and his followers went to the Falls of the Ohio where they laid out the
site of Louisville. Harrod accompanied the McAfees up the Kentucky
River beyond the present site of Frankfort, where they crossed over
into the valley of the Salt River. At its headwaters they located two
proposed settlements, one by James Harrod where Harrodsburg now
stands, the other by the McAfees a few miles north. They then re-
168
HARRODSBURG 169
turned to Pennsylvania and Virginia to plan for a migration in the fol-
lowing spring.
Early in 1774 James Harrod and 31 other men returned to the site
of Harrodsburg. On June 16, 1774, a settlement called Harrodstown
was laid out near Boiling Springs, three miles east of the later Harrod's
Fort. A half-acre town lot and a 10-acre out-lot were assigned to each
man. All the men took shares, but only five or six cabins were built
that summer.
On July 20, 1774, while resting near a spring, four Harrodstown men
were fired on from the underbrush. One was killed. Two fled through
the woods to the Ohio River; they went down the Mississippi to New
Orleans, and took ship for Philadelphia. The fourth ran to the settle-
ment and told of the attack.
The Indians were on the warpath! Early that summer they attacked
surveyors and settlers north of the Ohio River, and Lord Dunmore sent
Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner to order the return of Kentucky sur-
veyors until the Indian war was over. By the end of 1774 the cabins
at Harrodstown were deserted and few white men remained in Ken-
tucky.
While Daniel Boone, in the employ of the Transylvania Company,
was blazing the trail across the mountains to the site of Boonesboro,
James Harrod and 30 men in March 1775 occupied cabins built the
previous year. On higher ground they constructed a palisaded village.
It was a defensive arsenal and fortified town, the residents serving as
a garrison ready to protect settlers living on the outside. Women and
children arrived in September 1775.
Late in the summer of that year, James Ray, a boy of 16, was hunt-
ing near the fort. He had just killed and roasted a blue-winged duck
when a "soldierly looking" man stepped from the forest. The boy
offered to share his duck. "The man seemed starved and ate all of it,"
Ray said later. The stranger asked a great many questions about the
settlement, and Ray offered to lead him to the fort. In this way, ac-
cording to old accounts, George Rogers Clark introduced himself to
Harrodstown (later Harrodsburg), and became its leader.
Besides the usual pioneer troubles, Harrodstown settlers soon faced
the problem of proving title to their land. The Transylvania Company
claimed a large tract of Kentucky land through purchase from the
Cherokee. The company attempted to exert authority over the terri-
tory settled by Harrod and others. Clark called a meeting of the set-
tlers in June 1776. The settlers authorized Clark and Gabriel Jones
to go to Virginia to re-establish their claims.
The two men set out over the Wilderness Trail, but in the Cumber-
land foothills were halted by an acute case of "scaldfeet." They were
delayed just long enough to prevent their arrival at Williamsburg, Vir-
ginia, before adjournment of the assembly. Clark went to Governor
Henry, who gave him a letter of approval to the council of state. The
council offered to lend him 500 pounds of powder if he would defend
and settle the country across the mountains. Clark refused, saying that
I7O CITIES AND TOWNS
a country not worth claiming is not worth protecting. Clark was then
given the powder, with the assurance that Virginia would back him.
As Clark returned to Kentucky he was hotly pursued by Indians
along the Kentucky River and was forced to land^at Limestone (now
Maysville) to hide the powder. On the way to Harrodsburg he met
a group of surveyors. They returned to the powder cache, recovered
the explosive, and took it to Harrodsburg. Clark evidently conceived
the idea of attacking the British in the northern territory either before
or while he was at Harrodsburg, for he obtained permission from Gov.
Patrick Henry to attack wherever he thought advisable.
Throughout the Revolutionary War, Harrodsburg was the seat of
Kentucky County, which was organized in December 1776. According
to the census, the town had a population of 198 persons, of whom 81
were eligible for military duty. The first court held in Kentucky con-
vened January 16, 1781, in the blockhouse at Harrodsburg. One of the
first cases tried was that of Hugh McGary, charged with playing the
races. He was found guilty as charged, and the court proclaimed him
"an infamous gambler . . . not [to] be eligible to any office of trust
or honor within the State."
Harrodsburg people were industrious and thrifty. In 1775 John
Harman raised the first corn in Kentucky in a field at the east end of
Harrodsburg. The first woolen mill and the first gristmill in the West
were operated here, and pottery, plows, flour, and textiles were manu-
factured.
The first school in the State was conducted within the fort in 1778.
The teacher had no textbooks, and the children used smooth boards for
paper and juice of ox galls for ink. They learned to write and read,
and studied the Bible and hymnals.
By 1800 the community was prosperous. Rich farm lands surround-
ing the town encouraged cultivation of flax, hemp, tobacco, and other
money crops. Harrodsburg's industries thrived. Then the development
of roads to other Kentucky settlements and the coming of the steam-
boat in 1811 shifted Kentucky's major trade routes. Harrodsburg fell
back on agriculture, and developed a tourist trade at first because of
its sulphur springs, later because of its historic interest. Harrodsburg
was the summer resort of plantation owners in the Deep South, and
Graham Springs alone is said to have had more than a thousand guests
at one time.
Despite its industrial collapse Harrodsburg so profited from tourist
business and marketing that the period 1820-1860 was one of steady
growth. Log cabins gave way to more genteel houses modeled after
the mansions on the Potomac and James Rivers. Bacon College was
removed from Georgetown to Harrodsburg in 1839, and remained here
until destroyed by fire in 1864, when it was merged with Transylvania
College at Lexington. Greenville Female College, later known as
Daughters' College, now Beaumont Inn, began in 1840. In 1847 there
were two female academies: one, under the management of the Chris-
HARRODSBURG 171
tian Church, enrolled 60 to 70 students; the other, under the care of
the Presbyterian Church, 100 to 120 students.
During this period many men of distinction were born or lived in
Harrodsburg. Gabriel Slaughter (1818-20), John Adair (1821-24)
(see History), and Beriah Magoffm (1859-62) became Governors of
Kentucky; George S. Houston took the same high office in Georgia.
John B. Thompson was a United States Senator (1853-59). William
Marcus Linney (1835-87) was a pioneer Kentucky botanist and
geologist.
This era of prosperity was seriously interrupted by the War between
the States. Nearly all nearby farmers were slave owners. Their slaves
were liberated, their fields laid bare, their livestock and horses taken,
and their estates impoverished. Property built up through three gen-
erations passed into other hands. The family ownership of practically
all the old homes of Harrodsburg can be traced back no further than
1870, when the population was 2,200.
In the decades that followed, rehabilitation and growth were slow.
Competition from imported sisal and jute, because of practically no
tariff protection, caused the hemp industry to fail. Prices of grain
were uncertain, and tobacco gradually became the chief money crop.
Little by little, farms restocked sheep and beef cattle, and by 1900
Harrodsburg had regained some of its prosperity.
During the last 30 years Harrodsburg has become the trade center of
a farming region producing exceptional trotting horses, poultry, and
white burley tobacco; its few industries operate on power furnished by
the Dix Dam hydro-electric plant. Its tourist and resort trade is enor-
mous. Throughout the warm season beginning in May, a number of
people come from all parts of the country to "take the water" at its
sulphur springs and visit its historic shrines.
POINTS OF INTEREST
PIONEER MEMORIAL STATE PARK, Lexington and War-
wick Sts., is a tract that occupies the site of Old Fort Harrod and
its immediate environs. Before 1923 only a neglected graveyard
marked the place and quarrying operations threatened the site. One
of America's historic landmarks was going to ruin, and Kentucky citi-
zens undertook to restore the fort and beautify the grounds. The old
Taylor Mansion was acquired for a museum; Congress provided funds
for the erection of the Clark Memorial; the Thomas Lincoln Marriage
Cabin was set up in a building especially erected to house it; the pali-
sades and fort buildings were reconstructed as nearly as possible like
the originals. On November 16, 1934, President Franklin D. Roose-
velt and Gov. Ruby Lafoon joined in dedicating the park. It is fenced
by a brick wall on Warwick Street, and a gateway opens on a wide
road running through a bluegrass lawn to a parking space at the foot
of the memorial, the fort (directly in front), and the cemetery.
172 CITIES AND TOWNS
OLD FORT HARROD (open 8-6 in summer; 8:30-6 in winter; adm.
adults 25$, children 10$, including adm. to Mansion Museum), end of
drive in the park, is a reconstruction of the original fort that occupied
this site. It is 64 feet shorter than the 264-feet-square original. Block-
houses at the southeast and southwest corners are connected by cabins
with roofs sloping inward. The remainder of the enclosure is a pali-
sade of upright logs 12 feet high. The outside chimneys are of clay-
chinked logs set on stone foundations. In former times each cabin had
a pole to push over the chimney in case it caught fire. The spring,
still flowing, furnished sufficient water for the inhabitants.
Within the cabins and blockhouses are pioneer relics homemade
wooden utensils, hand-made furniture, crude agricultural tools, lanterns,
dishes, spinning wheels, copper kettles, pioneer beds, and many other
items preserved by descendants of early settlers.
Within the fort is a reproduction of the FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE, where
Mrs. William Coomes taught reading and writing to the children of the
settlement.
In this fort Ann McGirty operated the first spinning wheel in the
West; John Lythe preached the Gospel; Squire Boone, brother of
Daniel, walked about with a Bible in his hand; the first white child in
Kentucky was born; and George Rogers Clark prepared to march into
the Old Northwest.
LINCOLN MARRIAGE TEMPLE, R. at Warwick St. entrance, is a red
brick building, cruciform in plan, its 12 angles representing the 12
Apostles. In the central tower is the bell, rung twice each year on
the marriage anniversary of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and
on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death. The floor plan of the
temple was suggested by an old Baptist church in the neighborhood
where the pulpit was in the center of the church. The LINCOLN MAR-
RIAGE CABIN stands where the pulpit would be ordinarily. It was re-
moved from its original site in the Beech Fork Settlement, where
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married June 12, 1806. The
cabin resembles the one in which Lincoln was born (see Tour 6).
PIONEER CEMETERY, N. side of the park, oldest in the West, is the
burial place of more than 500 early settlers and soldiers. Few names
appear on the gravestones. A coffin-shaped stone, near the middle of
the cemetery, marks the grave of the first white child who died in the
settlement.
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK MEMORIAL, SE. of entrance to the fort, is
a heroic granite bas-relief, the money for which was appropriated by
Congress. The central section shows Gen. George Rogers Clark stand-
ing beside his horse. To the right is a young pioneer and an old one;
to the left, a frontier soldier bids wife and child good-by. The memo-
rial was designed and executed by Ulric Ellerhusen, sculptor, and
Francis Keally, architect. In a granite stone, lying flat before the
sculptured figures, is chiseled an illustrated map of the Northwest Ter-
ritory.
HARRODSBURG 173
The MANSION MUSEUM (open 8-6 in summer; 8:30-6 in winter),
Warwick and Poplar Sts., built by Maj. James Taylor in 1830, is a
post-Colonial two-story brick house built close to the sidewalk. It was
acquired by the Harrodsburg Pioneer Memorial Park Association in
1925.
Portraits are hung around the front hallway. The Lincoln Room
contains Lincolniana. The Confederate Room has battlefield relics and
paintings and prints of many Southern leaders. The George Rogers
Clark Room preserves prints and papers about Clark and his conquest.
There is a collection of firearms in a room on the second floor. Next
to it in the music room are many old instruments, some of them rare.
In another room are old costumes, Indian relics, and historic books.
The DOCTOR SHOP, Warwick St. S. of the main entrance, was dedi-
cated in June 1924 by the Kentucky State Medical Association in
memory of pioneer physicians. This small one-story brick building
contains a museum of early medical books, surgical instruments, and
pictures pertaining to the medical profession.
GRAHAM SPRINGS (open), in the extreme SW. section of the city
(roadway marked), is a mineral spring in a grove once occupied by a
famous resort. The SPRING SHELTER is near the site of the old resort
building burned during the War between the States. Wealthy Ken-
tuckians and planters from the Deep South, accompanied by their
slaves, menservants and maids, came here in great numbers during the
years before the war.
At the FAIRGROUNDS (adm. to fair 50$), adjoining Graham
Springs, the Mercer County Fair Association holds its annual exhibits
and meetings. The fair has agricultural and industrial displays com-
mon to rural fairs, but emphasizes its horse shows, and has stables for
300 show horses. The annual Fox Hound Show is held on the second
day of the fair.
MORGAN ROW (private), Chiles St. opposite Courthouse Square,
is a compact series of four two-story brick buildings set flush with the
street, constructed between 1807 and 1836. They are separated by fire
walls that extend some distance above the roof level. Seven doors in
the houses open on limestone steps leading down to the original brick
sidewalk. At the north end of the row is a post-Colonial structure
built by John Chiles, an innkeeper and stagecoach operator of the
1830's. The buildings were operated by Chiles as an inn and as a
rendezvous for gamblers. One of the doors still has the peephole used
by the suspicious doorman.
DIAMOND POINT (private), Price Ave. and College St., is a two-
story Greek Revival brick home built in 1840. The deep Doric portico,
with two central columns and corner pilasters, protects the long French
windows and the richly carved doorway. Across the fagade extends an
iron balcony with diamond-shaped tracery, one of the first of its kind
in the State.
BURFORD HILL (private), W. of cemetery at N. city line, is a
one-and-a-half-story late Georgian Colonial house built in 1820. The
174 CITIES AND TOWNS
original west wing was destroyed by lightning. The bricks, burned
locally, are laid in Flemish bond. The arched, fanlighted doorway is
protected by a small Doric portico topped with a steep pediment. The
gable roof is broken by small dormers.
AVALON INN, Main, Maxwell, and Chiles Sts., was originally the
home of a Presbyterian academy for girls. In the Main Street fagade
four massive Doric columns rise two stories to support an entablature
and cornice which carry out the Greek Revival design even to the
dentils, triglyphs, and simple metopes. The doorway, with rectangular
side lights and transom, is severely plain.
CLAY HILL (private), Beaumont Ave., late Georgian Colonial in
style, was built in 1812 by Beriah Magoffin, father of the Kentucky
Governor (1859-62) of the same name. This two-story brick structure
with one-story wings is noted for its handsome carved mantels and the
loggia in the rear.
BEAUMONT INN (open), Danville St. near the city line, is a Greek
Revival brick building erected by John Augustus Williams in 1845, and
was for some years the home of Daughters' College. Six tapering Ionic
columns of the impressive entrance portico support a plain entablature.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
McAfee Station, 8 m. (see Tour 5). Old Mud Meeting House, 3 m.; Shaker-
town, 8 m.; Herrington Lake, 11 m.; Perryville Battlefield, 12.4 m.; High Bridge,
16.4 m. (see Tour 15).
LOUISVILLE
Railroad Stations: Union Station, Broadway and 10th St., for Louisville & Nash-
ville R.R., Pennsylvania R.R., and Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville R.R. (Monon
Route). Central Station, N. 7th St. and Ohio River, for Baltimore & Ohio R.R.,
Chesapeake & Ohio R.R., New York Central R.R., Illinois Central R.R., and
Southern Ry.
City Ticket Offices: Starks Bldg. Arcade, 4th and Walnut Sts., for all railroads.
Bus Stations: Union Bus Depot, Sth and Broadway, for Greyhound, Blue and
White, Chaudoin (Carrollton division), Meadors & Allen Lines; 403 S. 3rd St. for
Blue Motor Coach Lines; 240 W. Jefferson St. for Chaudoin Bus Lines, all divi-
sions; 502 S. 3rd St., Interstate Bridge Transit Co. (inter-city) for Jeffersonville,
Ind.
Airport: Bowman Field (Municipal), Taylorsville Rd. E. of Bon Air Ave., 5 m.
from business section, for American and Eastern Air Lines. (Ticket ofhce, Ken-
tucky Hotel.)
Taxis: Separate systems for white and Negro patrons, 15^ for the first % m., $$
for each additional % m.; maximum capacity for a single cab 4 passengers.
Streetcars and Buses: Fare 10^ or three tokens for 25^; transfers interchangeable.
Toll Bridges: Kentucky and Indiana Terminal R.R. Bridge (Louisville to New
Albany, Ind.), 31st St. and Western Parkway (US 31 W and US ISO, Ind. 63, and
Ind. 64), toll 25^ for vehicles and all passengers; 5^ for each pedestrian; Municipal
Bridge (Louisville to Jeffersonville, Ind.), 2nd and Main Sts. (US 31 E and US
150, Ind. 60 and Ind. 62), toll 25^ for vehicle and all passengers, 5^ for each pedes-
trian.
Traffic Regulations: Strictly enforced. Right turns against a red light may be
made from curb lane after a full stop anywhere outside the area between S. 1st and
S. 6th Sts., from Broadway to the river. Left turns in the downtown area only
at intersections indicated by large signs painted on the street. U-turns prohibited
at intersections and boulevards, on through streets, and in central traffic district.
Hand signals required. Pedestrians observe traffic lights.
Street Order and Numbering: Main St. divides the city's N. and S. street number-
ing, and 1st St. the E. and W. numbering.
Accommodations: Forty-one hotels (three for Negroes) ; many boarding houses and
tourist homes. During week of Kentucky Derby rates are much higher.
Information Service: Louisville Board of Trade, Lincoln Bank Bldg., 421 W. Mar-
ket St., Louisville Automobile Club (AAA), 800 S. 3rd St.
Radio Stations: WHAS (820 kc.) ; WAVE (940 kc.) ; WGRC (1370 kc.).
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Five first-run motion picture houses down-
town, 25 second-run and community houses (two for Negroes). Road attractions
and local musical and dramatic productions occasionally at Memorial Auditorium,
S. 4th and Kentucky Sts.; Columbia Hall Auditorium, 820 S. 4th St.; Playhouse,
Belknap Campus, S. 3rd and Shipp Sts.; Jefferson County Armory, Liberty St.
between Armory Place and S. 6th St.; and the Woman's Club Auditorium, 1320
S. 4th St.
Baseball: Parkway Field, Eastern Parkway and Brook St., for Louisville and
American Assn. teams.
Swimming: Public outdoor pools: Reservoir Park, Frankfort Ave. and Grinstead
Dr., 25^; Shelby Park, Oak St. between Hancock and Shelby Sts., 25^; Shepard
Park (for Negroes), 16th and Magazine Sts., 25^. Indoor public pools:
Y. M. C. A., Broadway and S. 3rd St., 25tf; Y. W. C. A (medical examination
175
176 CITIES AND TOWNS
required before entering pool), Broadway and S. 2nd St., 25^; Henry Clay Hotel,
S. 3rd and Chestnut Sts., 25tf.
Golf: Public courses in Shawnee Park, W. end of River Park Dr., 18 holes, greens
fee 50^; Crescent Hill Golf Course, Brownsboro Rd. and Lueile Ave., 9 holes, 35^;
Seneca Park, Taylorsville Rd., E. of Bon Air Ave., 18 holes, 50tf.
Tennis: All major public parks, free. Reservations required.
Steamer Excursions: Up Ohio River at least once daily during summer.
Annual Events: Kentucky Derby 1st or 2nd Sat. in May. Kentucky State Fair,
2nd or 3rd week of Sept.
LOUISVILLE (Loo-i-vil, 463 alt., 307,745 pop.), noted for its fine
whisky, beautiful women, and the Kentucky Derby, lies across the Ohio
River from New Albany and Jeffersonville, Indiana, on a low, level
plain that curves for eight miles along the river. Midway in the adjoin-
ing river are the Falls of the Ohio, which determined the location of the
original settlement and provided it with a name (Falls of the Ohio)
until, as a gesture of gratitude for the aid given by Louis XVI and the
French Nation to the American Revolution, the name was changed to
Louisville. It is the largest and most important city, commercially and
industrially, in the State.
The main portion of Louisville is built on a flood plain, about 60 feet
above the Ohio River, surrounded by the river on the north and west
and by low hills on the south and east. The residential area spreads
into the Highlands. Northeast of the city the Ohio stretches in a bent
swath nearly a mile wide and six miles long, forming one of the finest
harbors in the whole course of the river. Passenger steamers, ferries,
and tugs fill the harbor. An excursion boat, which periodically plies
the tree-banked stream, plays its steam calliope. Across the river the
low skylines of New Albany and Jeffersonville bespeak a more rural
existence than that of their metropolitan neighbor.
The business section extends east and west from Fourth Street, which
runs from the Ohio River southward into the Highlands. Like a giant
chessboard, the taller buildings along this street stand like castles,
knights, and bishops, while the lower business buildings and dwellings
in the downtown area are pawns in the background.
In general, the city has the form of a letter T with the top approxi-
mately three miles wide, extending from the Highlands about nine
miles westward along the south shore of the Ohio River. A southward
projection of this urban area, forming the stem of the T, extends about
seven and one-half miles from the river into the Highlands. Near the
river front are tobacco warehouses, mills, livestock yards, distilleries,
and the wholesale district that make Louisville one of the South's great
distributing centers.
In the downtown area old homes suggest the social prestige of their
owners, and indicate that the city was important even at an early date.
On the highways leading into the city are mansions of plantation days,
reminders that this early prosperity depended largely upon agriculture.
Between Jefferson Street and the Ohio River are a number of brick
LOUISVILLE 177
homes in the Greek Revival style sandwiched between business prop-
erties. Conspicuous among them are the three-or-four-room brick cot-
tages with pretentious classic fagades. Substantial homes of French
and Italian Renaissance and Georgian design, built after 1835, are set
far back from the street on spacious grounds south of Walnut Street
between Floyd and Sixth Streets. With southward expansion of the
city, continued until the middle 1870's, came the houses of gingerbread
Victorian styles, many of which are still standing.
Louisville's parks ring the city in a loose half-circle. Shawnee Park,
on the west, is formally arranged on flat land near the Ohio River.
Iroquois and Cherokee Parks, thickly planted with trees, climb the hills
that skirt the city on the south and east. Thirty-two miles of boule-
vard wind through the parks.
Louisville is a border metropolis that blends the commerce and in-
dustry of a Northern city with a Southern city's enjoyment of living.
The result is an attractive compromise. Louisville is too busy making
and selling things to have the languor of a town in the Deep South;
but it does have its special graces. Its people are friendly and hos-
pitable. The phalanx of clothing shops on Fourth Street north of
Broadway contributes to the reputation of Louisville women for being
well-dressed. Bourbon and water or a cocktail after work is popular;
amusement and relaxation are nearly as important as work. Downtown
theaters, restaurants, and hotel lobbies are invariably crowded; and it
is still a favorite custom to drive or walk "in Fourth Street" of an
evening.
Horse racing is by all odds Louisville's most exciting sport. The
Racing Form is sold on the downtown streets like a newspaper. At
nearby Churchill Downs 29 days of each year are given over to races.
The spring and fall meets provide something to see, and add an extra
fillip to conversation. During Derby Week in May, Louisville is the
most feverish city in the Nation. Highways entering the city carry a
steadily increasing number of automobiles and buses into the down-
town area, hotels are "all out," and the streets teem with thousands of
happy, hysterical townsmen and visitors. "A Kentucky girl," Irvin S.
Cobb has said, "does not consider that she has been properly launched
into society until she has seen a Derby run off." Seventy thousand
people pack the stands, bleachers, and infield at Churchill Downs to
see, in slightly more than two minutes, the start and finish of America's
most celebrated horse race.
When the Kentucky State Fair is held in early September, Louisville
again plays host to Kentuckians and out-of-Staters. The horse show
and the livestock exhibit are outstanding attractions.
Many early planters who later became associated with the life of the
city were large slaveowners, and the residents of Louisville kept house
servants who, after the manner of the time, assumed the family name.
This transplanted Negro stock is the foundation of the city's present
Negro life and culture. Despite his background of decades of slavery,
the Negro in Louisville has adapted himself remarkably to the envi-
178 CITIES AND TOWNS
ronment of freedom. Illiteracy among Negroes has dropped from about
96 percent in 1865 to a percentage level only slightly above that of the
whites. Illiterates, white and Negro, reported by the U.S. Census of
1930 reached a low of 2.2 percent. The first free public library for
Negroes with Negro attendants was opened at Louisville in 1905 as a
branch of the city Free Public Library. Louisville is the only city in
the State that has two Carnegie branch buildings for Negro readers.
Local Negroes have a complete system of primary and secondary
schools in addition to the Louisville Municipal College part of the
University of Louisville which, in October 1937, had an enrollment of
224 students working toward the A.B. degree. Opened in 1931, it is
the only institution of its kind in the Nation.
Negro neighborhoods have their own stores, hotels, restaurants, news-
paper publishing houses, and theaters. The 1930 census figures record
45.6 percent of all Negro families as homeowners. This slightly exceeds
the white ownership percentage, but because of the low economic status
of the Negro the individual value of these homes is still sub-standard.
The voting power of the city's 47,354 Negroes is a factor in the prog-
ress of the race in Louisville.
The Ohio River commonplace enough today played a vital part
in the development of Louisville and the surrounding country. The
French were the first to explore the river they called "La Belle Riviere"
(the beautiful river). During the next hundred years a long line of
adventurers, explorers, traders, and surveyors saw the Falls of the
Ohio, stopped here for a time, and passed on.
In 1773, after England had won the Ohio Valley from France, the
first permanent settlement was attempted at the falls. In the summer
of that year Capt. Thomas Bullitt, commissioned by Lord Dunmore,
Governor of Virginia, to locate land warrants granted to Virginia sol-
diers of the French and Indian War, camped on the Ohio River shore
near the present interstate bridge. He surveyed 2,000 acres of land,
for which Dr. John Connolly, a native of Pennsylvania who had served
in the war, received a patent from the British Crown. Col. John
Campbell became joint owner of the land with Dr. Connolly, and they
issued proposals for the sale of lots. Before they could establish set-
tlers here, Connolly was charged with being a Tory and his land was
confiscated by Virginia.
In May 1778 young George Rogers Clark, with 150 volunteer sol-
diers and about 20 families, left the Redstone settlement (now Browns-
ville, Pennsylvania) on the Monongahela and came down the Ohio.
His purpose was to establish a military base along the lower Ohio be-
fore starting his campaign for the conquest of the Old Northwest, then
held by the British. When the party reached the falls they landed on
an island, long since swept away by floods, where they built blockhouses
and planted corn; Clark and his raw recruits then pushed on into the
wilderness to capture the British posts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and
Vincennes. In the fall, Clark sent some of his men back to the settle-
ment to establish a fort on the mainland. This fort, built during the
LOUISVILLE 179
winter 1778-79, near the present junction of Twelfth Street with the
river opposite Corn Island, became the nucleus of the settlement and
headquarters of General Clark until Fort Nelson was completed in
1782. The falls, which interrupted navigation except in periods of
high water, determined the site of the settlement. Downstream boats
had to be piloted, and upstream boats towed by men familiar with the
dangerous rapids.
That winter was a hard one, with food and wild game scarce; but
great preparations were made for the first Christmas party. The men
brought in venison. The women made "hoecakes, hominy, and other
frontier fancies." Old Cato, a Negro fiddler, was distressed because
he had only one string for his fiddle. On Christmas Eve a canoe landed,
and in it was a Frenchman with a fiddle. Old Cato traded him coon-
skins for new fiddle strings, and gave him an extra skin to say nothing
about the trade, because he wanted to surprise his white folks. To
Cato's chagrin the Frenchman was asked to play for the dancing. He
tried to teach some of the dances of his own country, but they were
too complicated. He gave it up in disgust, and yielded the honors to
Old Cato and the Virginia Reel.
News of Clark's victories in the Northwest lured many settlers to
this region. Three hundred arrived in the spring of 1780, and in May,
Col. George Slaughter and 150 soldiers came from Virginia to protect
the fledgling community. In the same month the legislature of Vir-
ginia passed an "Act for establishing the town of Louisville at the Fall
of the Ohio."
The appearance of the little town was not inviting. A large fort,
and a number of log cabins, occupied by several score families who had
cleared and cultivated garden plots, stood not far back from the river
front. The roar of the falls was sometimes broken by the howl of
wolves and the yell of savages. Indians sometimes attacked the fort,
and usually made their escape across the river. In 1781 such an attack
occurred, and the whites, thinking that the Indians had fled across the
river, started in canoes to pursue them. They were fired upon from the
Kentucky side, and nine were killed. The Indians often fired at the
flatboats of the whites as they plied the river.
The first court convened here on March 7, 1781, and one of its
first official acts was to fix the charges for the "necessities of life."
These included whisky, which could not be sold for more than $15 a
half-pint, and shelled corn, not to sell for more than $10 a gallon. A
man might object if a hotel keeper charged him more than $18 a day
for board or more than $6 a night for a feather bed; the stabling of
his horse was not to exceed $4 a night. These prices were computed
in terms of the depreciated Continental currency.
In 1781-82, Fort Nelson, named in honor of Governor Nelson of
Virginia, was erected north of Main Street between Seventh and Ninth
Streets, covering an acre of ground along the Ohio shore. General Clark
had his headquarters here and the fort served as courthouse and jail.
With the westward expansion Louisville assumed the character of a
180 CITIES AND TOWNS
commercial city. At the opening of the new century, it had 600 people,
and soon it had sanitary laws and police and fire protection.
The New Madrid earthquake of 1811-12, which shook the greater
part of the continent, and formed Reelfoot Lake (see Tour 10), rocked
Louisville. The first shock, lasting four minutes, was felt here on De-
cember 16, 1811, at 2 P.M. It was accompanied by thunder and was
followed by "complete darkness and saturation of the atmosphere with
sulphuric vapor." Eighty-seven shocks occurred during the following
week and temblors continued through part of ,1812. One very fright-
ened and penitent person rushed in on a group of card players, exclaim-
ing, "Gentlemen, how can you be engaged in this way when the world
is so near its end?" The party rushed into the street, where, from the
rocking of the earth, the stars seemed to be falling. A member of the
group was constrained to remark, "What a pity that so beautiful a
world should be thus destroyed." Public morals improved noticeably
during this period.
The steamboat New Orleans, first successful steamer on the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers, stopped at Louisville on its way to Natchez in Oc-
tober 1811. Latrobe describes the occasion in his Rambler in America:
Late at night on the fourth day after quitting Pittsburgh, they arrived in safety
at Louisville, having been but 70 hours in descending upwards of 700 miles . . .
and it is related that on the unexpected arrival of the boat before Louisville, in
the course of a fine, still, moonlight night, the extraordinary sound which filled the
air, as the pent-up steam was suffered to escape from the valves on rounding to,
produced a general alarm, and multitudes rose from their beds to ascertain the
cause. I have heard that the general impression among the Kentuckians was that
a comet had fallen into the Ohio.
This trip inaugurated the steamboat era, which vitally affected Louis-
ville. In 1815 the Enterprise steamed upriver from New Orleans to
Louisville in 12 days, less than half the time it took broadhorns and
keel-boats to make the journey downstream. Talk revived about build-
ing a canal around the falls in front of Louisville.
From 1820 to 1870 this river town's prosperity was measured by its
boat traffic. During the first three decades of the nineteenth century
portaging cargoes around the Falls of the Ohio was Louisville's chief
concern. Shipments were unloaded, carted overland to Towhead Island
above the falls, and put on boats for the upriver journey. Except in
periods of high water, when the falls were navigable, the same transfer
of goods took place in moving cargoes downstream.
In 1825 a private company was organized to construct the long-
deferred canal project, and in December 1830, the Uncas passed
through the locks of the completed Portland Canal, which ran laterally
across Louisville's river front. The canal opened through navigation on
the Ohio from Pittsburgh to its mouth. The movement of commerce
picked up. Less than a decade after it was completed, 1,500 steamers
and 500 flatboats and keel-boats entered the canal annually, bearing
300,000 tons of produce for Southern markets. Today, along Fourth
and Fifth Streets, near the river, are many landmarks of the gilded
LOUISVILLE l8l
days when river trade brought Louisville its first prosperity; and to the
foot of Fourth Street occasionally comes the Gordon Greene, the only
packet now making the journey upriver to Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, in 1828, Louisville was incorporated and received its first
city charter. The makeshift village government was superseded by
a mayor and a board of aldermen elected by the voters. The loss of
the portage business following the opening of the Portland Canal
brought on a temporary local depression, made more acute by the
cholera epidemic of 1831.
By the middle 1830's Louisville had two noted hostelries the
Louisville Hotel, still standing at Main and Sixth Streets, and the
Gait House. The spacious architectural design of the Louisville Hotel,
built in 1832 of native limestone, was for many years a model for
hotel building throughout the South and Middle West. The Gait
House, razed in 1920, for 75 years had a reputation for fine Southern
cooking and service. Charles Dickens was a visitor in 1842: "We
slept at the Gait House, a splendid hotel, and were as handsomely
lodged as though we had been in Paris, rather than hundreds of miles
beyond the Alleghenies."
Caleb Atwater, in Remarks Made on a Tour to Prairie Du Chien,
written in 1831, said of Louisville:
Main St., for the distance of about one mile, presents a proud display of wealth
and grandeur. Houses of two and three lofty stories in height, standing upon solid
stone foundations, exceed anything of the kind in the Western States. The stores
filled with commodities and manufactures of every clime and every art, dazzle the
eye ... the ringing of the bells and the roaring of the guns, belonging to the
numerous steamboats in the harbor, the cracking of the coachman's whip, and the
sound of the stage driver's horn salute the ear. The motley crowd of citizens, all
well dressed, hurrying to and fro the numerous strangers from all parts of the
world almost, visiting the place to sell or to buy goods the deeply loaded dray
cart, and the numerous pleasure carriages rolling to and fro, arrest and rivet the
attention of a mere traveler like myself. . . . There are at this time about 1,200
dwelling houses in the town, mostly built of brick. Many are equal to any in the
Atlantic cities. . . . There are probably more ease and affluence in this place than
in any western town their houses are splendid, substantial, and richly furnished.
Louisville in its early years drew its population mostly from Vir-
ginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. Louisville early became an im-
portant outstation in the expanding New Orleans commercial empire.
Men of wealth, character, and influence came up from that city, entered
the Louisville scene, and left the imprint of their early training and
social environment.
By way of Pittsburgh and down the Ohio came another, larger
stream of men seeking their fortunes in the expanding West. Among
them were New Englanders and people from the Middle Atlantic States.
This group added materially to the business caution of the roaring
river town and much to its diversity of opinion. Their active participa-
tion in political life explains the fact that Louisville, a Southern city,
was vocally Northern during the War between the States.
l82 CITIES AND TOWNS
During these first few decades, Louisville was influenced by a num-
ber of French emigres. Michel Lacassagne, the first postmaster, re-
produced a French garden at his home on the river front; Tarascon
built mills and utilized the water of the falls; Audubon painted birds
and taught drawing; the young Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis
Philippe, King of France, was among the first musicians in the city;
the Barbaroux brought mercantile and manufacturing skill; the
Berthouds and Honores, like Tardiveau, were pioneers in navigation
and commerce. Some traces remain of their architectural contribu-
tions. Tradition remembers their graceful living and dancing feet.
The 1840's started off with a fire that burned a large part of the
business district. It was rebuilt, and the town continued to grow.
In this decade many Germans came to Louisville. They brought little
of tangible wealth but much practical education and industrial skill.
They founded stores and industries, and in time exercised a definite in-
fluence upon the social and commercial life of the community. Some
of the firms they established are still doing business under the German
names of the founders.
By 1850 Louisville had a population of 43,194. A new charter,
granted March 24, 1851, provided for election of all city officers.
On election day, August 6, 1855, the Know Nothing Party pre-
cipitated a riot in Louisville. A mob with a cannon went fighting and
burning through the streets. Several lives were lost and a number of
houses were burned. The day is known as "Bloody Monday."
The 1850's were years of general prosperity, and Louisville inaugu-
rated street railways and witnessed the completion in 1851 of the
Louisville, Frankfort & Lexington Railroad. The Louisville & Nash-
ville Railroad, actively promoted by Louisville, was completed to
Nashville in 1859.
Louis Kossuth, Hungarian exile, visited Louisville. A member of
his entourage wrote: "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 houses substantial, with neat front
and back gardens; carriages are numerous; Negro footmen wear livery;
everything looks more aristocratical than economical."
The outbreak of the War between the States brought a bitter division
of opinion in Louisville. The predominant Union sentiment within
the city vied with the pro-Confederate temper of the adjoining rural
section. Many residents with Southern sympathies were compelled to
espouse the cause of the Union as a matter of self-preservation.
Louisville was military headquarters and supply depot for the Armies
of the North throughout the war.
The end of the conflict found the South's traditional plantation
economy bankrupt. Louisville, one of the most important distributing
centers for the Southern States, had to adjust to changed conditions.
It pressed new merchandising methods and established railroad con-
nections with Memphis, New Orleans, Mobile, Atlanta, and other
Southern cities. Louisville merchants sent salesmen in two-horse rigs
LOUISVILLE 183
to all parts of the South with instructions to get orders at any cost.
For two decades Louisville and Cincinnati waged an intense struggle
for Southern trade. Eventually it was divided between them.
Louisville's third charter was approved March 3, 1870. Local pop-
ulation reached 100,753, an increase of 41 percent in 10 years. The
decade from 1870 to 1880 was marked by the completion of a railroad
bridge across the Ohio and the erection of a new city hall.
In the spring of 1890 a devastating wind swept through the western
part of the city, causing the loss of 106 lives and extensive property
damage. In 1893 Louisville again approved a new charter, with
changes to conform to the State constitution adopted the previous year.
A system of bureaus was created, which took charge of business details
previously administered by the city council.
The census of 1900 showed Louisville with a population of 204,731.
Since the World War a new sewerage system has been installed at an
outlay of $8,000,000; the municipally owned water company has spent
$5,000,000 in expansion and improvements; and the elimination of
grade crossings within the city limits (to cost $21,000,000) has been
undertaken.
Louisville boomed through the 1920's. The downtown skyscrapers
that give Fourth Street and Broadway an elevated skyline have all
been built since 1920. In 1925 the Falls of the Ohio were harnessed
for the production of electricity. The depression did not affect it as
severely as many other American cities because of the diverse char-
acter and wide distribution of its industries. Through the lean years
its tobacco trading and manufacturing maintained most of their normal
prosperity, and the revocation of the eighteenth amendment set in
motion the long-idle distilling business. In spite of these material
advantages, unemployment became a pressing problem in an industrial
city, and municipal officials, co-operating with the Federal Government,
began construction and improvement of parks and parkways, the
building of model homes for whites and Negroes, the extension of
street paving, and the construction of a municipal boat harbor.
The city was carrying increased expenditure, with good promise of
lessening its relief load, when in January- February of 1937 the Ohio
swept out of bounds in the greatest flood ever recorded for this river.
Boats patrolled Broadway from the Highlands to Shawnee Park. Ex-
cept for a small downtown district, the entire lowland area was in-
undated. Transportation of all kinds came to a standstill. . Basements
were flooded. Heating plants shut down. The city was placed under
emergency control. Thousands were evacuated to the Highlands and
neighboring cities. For a month and more the ordinary processes of
living ceased to function, but by rigid enforcement of sanitary regula-
tions and because of warm weather, an epidemic was avoided. By
April daily life over the major part of the city had returned to normal.
Losses within the city amounted to more than $52,000,000, and neces-
sitated costly renovation and replacement of goods. With the assist-
184 CITIES AND TOWNS
ance of rehabilitation loans and Red Cross aid the city by mid-summer
of 1937 had resumed its usual way of life.
Throughout its history, Louisville has contributed to the intellectual
and cultural life of the Nation. Its press has voiced the sentiments
of the early West, the Middle West, and the renewed South. The
first newspaper was the Farmer's Library, which appeared in 1801 as
a four-page, 11- by 19-inch sheet having little more than foreign news
and advertisements. The Public Advertiser was established in 1818
by Shadrach Penn; it began as a weekly, but on April 24, 1826, it
became the first daily published in the West. The Louisville Journal,
edited by George D. Prentice, began in 1830. In 1868 it merged with
the Louisville Morning Courier and American Democrat, started in
1844 but suppressed by the Federal Government in 1861. Henry Wat-
terson (1840-1921), the South 's most noted editor of the last century,
edited the newspaper for the next fifty years, and made the Courier-
Journal influential in Southern and national affairs through its vigorous
editorials (see Press and Radio).
John James Audubon (1785-1851), the naturalist, lived here from
1808 to 1812. Mary Anderson, born in California in 1859, was Louis-
ville's contribution to the stage, and Enid Yandell (1870-1934) was
the city's most notable sculptor. Madison Cawein (1865-1914), Cale
Young Rice (b. 1872), and David Morton (b. 1886) are leading
Louisville poets. Alice Hegan Rice (b. 1870) has refreshed readers
everywhere with Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch and other stories.
(Mrs.) George Madden Martin (b. 1866), dean of Louisville writers,
is best known for her delightful chronicles of Emmy Lou. Ellen
Churchill Semple (1863-1932) attained international prestige with
American History and Its Geographic Condition and other scientific
works. Josephine McGill added to Kentucky's published treasure of
ballad material with her Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains
(1917). Louisville was also the birthplace (1856) of Louis Dembitz
Brandeis, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court (1916-1939) and the
author of several important books (see Literature).
Since the War between the States, industrial development has cen-
tered about the manufacture of farm implements, tobacco products,
meat-packing products, leather goods, flour, and whisky. Tobacco is
the leading cash crop in the neighboring area. Prior to about 1918
the burley tobacco sold here was packed in great hogsheads, each
containing about a thousand pounds. These containers were broken
open for inspection, and a handful of tobacco determined the grade
of the entire hogshead. From this custom originated the name
"Breaks" for tobacco market floors. Louisville is still the leading
"hogshead market." Principal marketing activities run from about
Thanksgiving to Easter. Approximately one-fifth of the Nation's
cigarettes are manufactured here.
Two-thirds of Kentucky's wealth from manufactures is concentrated
in Louisville and Jefferson County. Livestock receipts and the meat-
LOUISVILLE 185
packing industry are vital factors in the city's business. Since repeal
the old distilleries on Main Street have awakened to new life and made
the city once more one of the Nation's ranking distributing centers for
liquor, especially Bourbon whisky. Plumber's supplies, sanitary equip-
ment, and mill and factory supplies are extensively produced; and
Louisville is outstanding in the manufacture of reed organs, baseball
bats, boxes, mahogany veneering, nicotine products, hickory handles,
minnow buckets, wagons, and the milling of soft winter wheat.
Local deposits of alluvial sands and glacial gravels, with clays and
some sandstone, have provided the materials for many of Louisville's
residences and business buildings. Underneath this downtown area
once ran the channel of the Ohio River. Long since silted up with
sand and gravel, this channel provides an unlimited supply of cold
sanitary water used in air-conditioning hotels, theaters, factories, and
office buildings, and to some extent in manufacturing processes, par-
ticularly distilling.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION
(open daily), 435 S. 5th St., was consecrated in 1852, the year of its
completion. Constructed of brick trimmed with limestone, in Gothic
Revival style, the building is the work of William Kelly. The spire
with its 24-foot cross rises to a height of 287 feet. Within the lofty
tower is a 4,500-pound bell, given to the cathedral by the Right
Reverend Monsignor LaBastida, an Archbishop of Mexico. The tower
clock was made in Paris by Messieurs Blin. Among the treasures of
the cathedral is an old painting that depicts St. Bernard with the
Sacred Host. In its bold conception, brilliant coloring, and general
composition, the painting recalls the work of Rubens and Van Dyck.
2. The GRAYSON HOUSE (private), 432 S. 6th St., a broad,
nearly square structure of one-and-a-half stories with outer walls 17
inches thick, is the oldest brick house in the city. It was built not
later than 1810 by John Gwathmey, a Virginian, on an Indian burial
mound. The brick, laid in Flemish bond, was brought from the East
and shipped down the Ohio in keel-boats. The house has 17 rooms
and a large central hall. Slave quarters and a kitchen formerly oc-
cupied the basement level. The earthquakes of 1811-12 and the
tornado of 1890 did no serious damage to this robust house.
3. COLLEGE SQUARE, W. Chestnut St. between S. 8th and S.
9th Sts., was set aside by the city in 1837 as the site for a college.
The Medical Institute, from which the University of Louisville ulti-
mately developed, opened here in the year 1839. In 1838 Gideon
Shryock, Lexington architect, designed and built the Greek Revival
building on the corner of Eighth and Chestnut Streets. With the
exception of the inner two, the Corinthian columns supporting the
severely plain pediment are square in design. Shryock also designed
l86 CITIES AND TOWNS
the building at the corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets. A third
structure, midway between the others, and like them in plan, has been
added in recent years. In 1852 a fire gutted the original building at
the corner of Eighth and Chestnut Streets, and subsequent alterations
of the reconstructed building left little of the interior plan. However,
the fagade and exterior, which emerged whole from the flames, are
designed in the best Shryock manner. The property is occupied by
the Central Colored High School, which emphasizes training in the
manual arts.
4. FORT NELSON MONUMENT, NW. corner N. 7th and W.
Main Sts., is an irregular slab of Georgia granite bearing a bronze
tablet; it commemorates a fort, built in 1782, which extended from
this point west approximately two blocks along what is now Main
Street, and north to the river shore. Fort Nelson was a Revolutionary
fort built by George Rogers Clark as a military base and as a refuge
for Louisville's first settlers. The monument, presented to the city by
the Colonial Dames of America, was dedicated in 1912.
5. JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, W. Jefferson St., be-
tween S. Sth and S. 6th Sts., designed in the Greek Revival style with
an impressive Doric portico, is a characteristic work of Gideon Shryock,
designer of the Old Capitol at Frankfort and of the Bank of Louisville
building. The limestone structure was begun in 1838-39, but was not
completed and occupied until 1850. In the center of the rotunda is
a life-size white marble STATUE OF HENRY CLAY by Joel T. Hart, un-
veiled in 1867. It is a replica of the original at Richmond, Virginia.
In front of the courthouse is a THOMAS JEFFERSON STATUE by Moses
Ezekiel, the gift of I. W. and B. Bernheim.
6. OLD BANK OF LOUISVILLE BUILDING (open 9-5 week-
days), 320 W. Main St., occupied by the Louisville Credit Men's As-
sociation, is popular with artists who come to sketch the stately fagade.
The structure was designed in the Greek Revival style by Gideon
Shryock and erected in 1837. The fagade is of dressed limestone and
incorporates a portico with a pediment supported by two Ionic columns
and, at either end, a tapered pylon. Within, an elliptical dome and
skylight, supported by four classic columns, forms the major part of
the building.
The WHARF AND WATERFRONT, N. end of N. 3rd St., are
closely associated with the history of Louisville. Visible (L) along the
water's edge is the upstream end of the LOUISVILLE AND PORTLAND
CANAL, rebuilt in 1927 to provide a nine-foot navigation stage. The
original canal, dug by slave labor in 1830 at a cost of $740,000, opened
a new era in inland navigation. The canal was twice rebuilt before
the present locks and dam were completed. U.S. GOVERNMENT DAM
41 floods the rapids and eases a drop of 37 feet in the river level.
The dam, largest on the Ohio River, is constructed of reinforced con-
crete and was completed in 1928. Backwater from the dam floods
Corn Island, site of the original settlement of Louisville. In the im-
{lift J,
l88 CITIES AND TOWNS
mediate foreground, at the water's edge, is the only inland U.S. COAST
GUARD STATION, established in 1881 to protect life at the Falls of the
Ohio. Up to 1937 more than 9,000 persons had been rescued from
drowning. Directly across the river is the Jeffersonville, Indiana, plant
of the Colgate Company, bearing a great illuminated clock that tells
time for people in Louisville. To the right is Towhead Island, so
named because, prior to the building of the canal, it provided the up-
harbor on the river between it and Shippingport harbor below the
falls. Goods were transferred overland and boats were towed, except
when periods of high water permitted navigation of the river channel.
Four bridges span the Ohio River at Louisville; one of them, gen-
erally known as the K. & I. (Kentucky and Indiana) bridge, is just
over the falls and connects New Albany, Indiana, with Louisville, near
North Thirty-second Street. It is a combined highway, trolley, and
railroad bridge. The Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, built in 1870, is
exclusively for railroad purposes. The Big Four Railroad bridge was
rebuilt in 1928 to accommodate railroad and trolley traffic to Jefferson-
ville, Indiana. The MUNICIPAL BRIDGE, a giant steel structure 5,750
feet long, built in 1930 for highway traffic, runs from North Second
Street to Jeffersonville. At the Kentucky end of the bridge tall stone
pylons are surmounted by large wrought-iron lamps. In front of each
of these fluted pylons is a lower pylon bearing in bas-relief the seal
of Kentucky surmounted by an eagle. They were designed by Paul
Cret of Philadelphia, who planned the Folger Shakespeare Library in
Washington, D.C. A marker, erected in 1935 by the Colonial Dames
of America on the Kentucky approach to the bridge, records La Salle's
alleged discovery of the Ohio River in 1669.
7. BANK OF THE UNITED STATES BUILDING, 231 W. Main
St., was built by the Government in 1832 to house the Louisville branch
of the Bank of the United States. It is a brick structure two stories
high, chiefly Greek Revival in design, now used as an office building.
8. The SITE OF CROWE'S LIVERY STABLE, 224 S. 3rd St.,
is occupied by a deserted brick building. About 1825 Thomas Crowe,
a retired stagecoach driver, operated a livery on this plot, near which
was the stage entrance to the old City Theater on Jefferson Street.
Crowe had several slaves who were stable hands, among them one
called Jim Crow. Jim was a jovial, elderly Negro, much deformed,
with a high right shoulder and a stiff left leg as bowed as a new moon,
which gave him an odd limp. One day in the spring of 1828 when
the Drake Stock Company was playing at the City Theater, Thomas D.
Rice, a member of the company, was standing at the theater entrance
watching the old Negro and listening to him singing at work. At the
end of each verse Jim gave a queer little jump, and when he came
down, he set his "heel a rockin'."
The words of the refrain were:
Wheel about, turn about,
Do jes so ;
LOUISVILLE 189
An' every time I wheel about
I jump Jim Crow.
Rice was cast as a Kentucky cornfield slave in The Rifle, then playing
at the theater. Drake reluctantly consented to let Rice insert the Jim
Crow song. Rice made himself up like Jim Crow, sang his song, and
did his queer little dance. The audience went wild. It is said that
he was recalled 20 times the first night. The play ran for many nights
to crowded houses. After that Thomas Rice was nicknamed "Jim
Crow" Rice, and even as late as the forties he was still playing Jim
Crow and other Negro impersonations. Jim Crow terminology, with
its many variations dealing with the Negro, has developed from this
character.
9. The COURIER- JOURNAL BUILDING, SW. corner S. 3rd and
W. Liberty Sts., is a plain four-story dressed limestone structure built
in 1858 by the U.S. Government as a post office and Federal building.
It later became the home of the Courier- Journal, established in 1868
by a merger of the Daily Journal with the Courier, and Henry Watter-
son was made editor-in-chief (see Press and Radio). In August 1918
R. W. Bingham purchased the Courier- Journal and Times from the
heirs of W. N. Haldeman. As editor emeritus, Henry Watterson con-
tinued to direct its policy until his death in 1921.
Robert Worth Bingham (1871-1937) was born in Orange County,
N.C., and was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1888.
In his early twenties he became a resident of Louisville, where he was
admitted to the bar, and received his degree in law from the University
of Louisville in 1897. In Kentucky, Judge Bingham was best known
as a publisher, though he served as mayor, chancellor of Jefferson
Circuit Court, and county attorney before acquiring the two news-
papers associated with his name. He was appointed U.S. Ambassador
to Great Britain in 1933.
10. SEELBACH HOTEL, SW. corner S. 4th and W. Walnut Sts.,
has murals in the main lobby depicting the pioneer life and history of
Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. This work was completed in
1904 by Arthur Thomas. The central panel shows Colonel Henderson
calling to order the first legislature of Kentucky. Adjoining panels
portray scenes in the life of Daniel Boone and Gen. George Rogers
Clark in the march on Vincennes. Smaller panels of a pioneer distiller,
a tobacco field slave, a pioneer farmer, and an Indian chief complete
the series.
11. CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL (Episcopal), 419 S. 2nd
St., oldest church in the city, was built in 1822 after plans by Graham
and Ferguson. It was originally a two-story building, almost square,
with two tiers of windows. In 1872 the front wall was removed and
the building extended west to Second Street. Two towers, one topped
with a spire and cross, were included in the later Gothic Revival
fagade. Although the diocese of Kentucky was established in 1829,
Christ Church was not consecrated until 1894.
CITIES AND TOWNS
12. The BENJAMIN SMITH HOME (open 10-5 daily), 114 E.
Jefferson St., now headquarters of the Union Gospel Mission, was
built in 1827 by a retired Southern planter. It is a three-story house
of Classical Revival design. Its massive walls are 6f brick with rusti-
cated limestone trim. The facade is also of limestone and the four
fluted monolithic columns of the portico were carved by hand. The
rear and side walls are plastered and marked off to simulate stone.
The original hand-wrought ironwork and light standards at the en-
trance are still in use. The rooms are finished in solid mahogany wood-
work, Italian marble mantels, and finely etched glass. An oval spiral
stairway winds from the first floor to the third.
13. The HAYMARKET (open day and night throughout the year),
E. Jefferson St. between S. Brook and S. Floyd Sts., in the 1880's was
an abandoned railroad yard where farmers congregated to sell their
hay and other produce. In order to protect the market place against
intrusion by city buildings, the farmers formed a stock company in
1891, which today owns and administers the property. Stalls are
rented to actual producers who, under the charter, pay no license to
the city. No discrimination is made between near and distant pro-
ducers so long as they can certify that the produce offered for sale is
of their own raising. The market sells vegetables, fruits, honey, and
other home-grown products.
14. The MEDICAL SCHOOL (open 9-5 weekdays), 101 W. Chest-
nut St., is a three-story stone structure of Renaissance design, erected
in 1893 for the Louisville Medical College. In 1909 it became the
home of the original unit of the University of Louisville. Behind the
older building is a modern four-story brick addition, built in 1935.
15. SCOTTISH RITE TEMPLE, 200 E. Gray St., neo-classic in
design, is a huge building constructed of dressed Bedford stone. The
pediment of the portico is supported by six thick Doric columns. The
interior contains an auditorium seating 500 and a room paneled with
cedar of Lebanon. The cedar, pronounced genuine by the Smithsonian
Institution, was obtained from the estate of a French officer, who had
taken it from the ruins of an ancient Syrian building.
16. PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY (open 9-4
weekdays), 109 E. Broadway, forms an open quadrangle fronting on
Broadway. It consists of several contiguous Tudor-Gothic style halls,
the general mass resembling that of Balliol College, Oxford, England.
The battlemented walls are faced with machine-tooled Bowling Green
limestone, and the traceried windows are designed in the English per-
pendicular style. The seminary owns the Palestinian Archeological
Collection of antiquarian articles from Palestine. In 1938 the institu-
tion had an enrollment of 62 students.
17. FORD MANSION, SW. corner W. Broadway and S. 2nd Sts.,
now occupied by the Y. W. C. A., was built in 1858 for James Ford,
a retired Mississippi planter. The building was designed by the Louis-
ville architect, Henry Whitestone, in a modified Italian Renaissance
LOUISVILLE 191
style. Additions have been made, but the beauty of the original
dressed stone fagade is unchanged. Spaciousness and excellent decora-
tive detail, carried out in finely carved rare wood, marble, and plaster,
characterize the interior.
18. LOUISVILLE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekdays,
2-6 Sun.), W. York St. between S. 3rd and S. 4th Sts., was designed
by Tilscher and Tachau and opened to the public in 1908. The two-
story building, French Renaissance in style, is T-shaped in plan and
has a full basement. A wing to the right of the entrance is used as a
reference room and that to the left for open bookshelves and general
reading. Directly opposite the entrance is the circulation room dec-
orated in the Louis XVI style. Its walls are finished in ivory and
embellished with murals symbolizing the advance of civilization. Two
stairways lead from this room to the balcony above, at one end of
which is the original of Canova's Hebe, and at the other, Joel T. Hart's
copy, of the Venus de Medici. On the balcony is a room housing
Henry Watterson's private library, which he bequeathed to the city.
Adjoining it is the Civics Room, where files of the leading Kentucky,
national, and foreign papers are on racks open to the public. In the
basement is the MUNICIPAL MUSEUM, which contains collections of
minerals, birds, butterflies, and fossils. On the grounds facing Fourth
Street stands Barnard's heroic LINCOLN STATUE, and immediately in
front of the building is Bouly's PRENTICE STATUE.
19. The FILSON CLUB (open P-5 weekdays), 118 W. Breckin-
ridge St., a square, three-story red brick structure, has served since
1929 as the home of the historical society, which collects Kentuckiana.
The eleventh volume of its magazine, The Filson Club History Quar-
terly, was completed in 1937. The Quarterly publishes current find-
ings of society members and staff workers. The club was founded in
1884 and named for John Filson, first historian (1784) of the State
of Kentucky. The library contains a large collection of books and
manuscripts pertaining to the State.
In the MUSEUM on the second floor, which exhibits pioneer relics,
are mementos of James D. (Jim) Porter, the Kentucky Giant, includ-
ing his rifle, 7 feet 10 inches long, and his leather boot, 14^ inches
long. Other Porter relics are preserved by descendants living in Ship-
pingport.
Porter, the second tallest man in the world at the time he lived,
was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1810. A year later his parents
moved to Shippingport where he remained the rest of his life. His
phenomenal growth began at about the age of 1 7 and, as he said, while
he was growing his mother had to sew an extra foot of cloth on his
pantaloons every night. It was a favorite pastime of local people to
measure Big Jim. An inch a week was his greatest record, and at the
age of 24 he had achieved his full stature of 7 feet 9 inches, or "6 feet
21 inches" as he expressed it. Apprenticed to a cooperage, he outgrew
his task of making barrels, then that of making hogsheads, and for a
time he tried hack driving. Annoyed by the curious public, he gave
CITIES AND TOWNS
that up to go into business as keeper of the Lone Star Tavern. After
two years as a tavern proprietor, Porter built an 18-room house with
doors, ceilings, and furniture on a scale to accommodate his stature.
Charles Dickens, who visited him in 1842, described Porter "among
men of six feet high and upwards, like a lighthouse walking among
lamp-posts." Big Jim, a "powerful drinker," was joined in his sprees
by little Elisha Reynolds, 5 feet 4 inches tall, his partner in the Tavern,
which they ran until Porter's death in 1859. He was buried in Cave
Hill Cemetery, Louisville.
20. LOUISVILLE MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM (open by permis-
sion), NW. corner S. 4th and W. Kentucky Sts., is a massive neo-
classic building of Bedford stone opened in 1929 as a memorial to
Jefferson County soldiers, sailors, and marines who died in the World
War. Ten fluted Doric columns support the entablature of the broad,
shallow front portico; behind them are four huge entrance doorways.
Above the colonnade is a high attic, adorned with classic bas-reliefs
and surmounted with decorative tripods at the corners. Beneath the
skylighted dome is the auditorium, seating 3,151. The interior is
decorated in soft shades of blue and gray. Spanish marble surfaces
the lower walls. Lectures, dramas, and occasional operas are presented
on the stage. On the second floor is the Trophy Room where flags
of the Allied and Associated Nations are displayed. Another memorial
of the World War, set within a bit of the soil of France, is a weathered
wooden cross that was erecteS above an American killed in battle and
buried as a Soldat Fran^ais Inconnue. When the "unknown soldier's"
nationality was determined by some trinket, he was returned to his
native land, and with him came this graying cross.
21. CENTRAL PARK, S. 4th St. and Magnolia Ave., a 17-acre
tract, contains several huge specimens of tulip poplar, survivors of the
virgin forest. The natural amphitheater here is the scene of occasional
pageants and civic gatherings. West of Central Park, extending along
the railroad tracks for several blocks, is the locale of Alice Hegan
Rice's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. The land was originally
used as a cabbage field. Then a sub-division was laid out, but the lots
did not sell. Squatters came in and built shacks of materials salvaged
from the nearby city dump. Comfortable homes now fill the area.
22. KENTUCKY STATE FAIRGROUNDS (open throughout the
year), 1400 Cecil Ave., were acquired in 1908, when the State Fair
became a permanent institution, and the $100,000 livestock pavilion
was built. The MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURING BUILDING, erected
in 1921, is devoted to industrial and commercial exhibitions. A LOG
HOUSE, built and furnished in pioneer style, memorializes the pioneer
home. In front of the grandstand is a half-mile track on which saddle
racing is held daily during the State Fair in September. The feature
of the fair is the Kentucky Horse Show, where native and foreign
horses vie for honors. The standards of excellence include the breed-
ing and quality of the horses and the showmanship of the trainers.
23. BOURBON STOCKYARDS (open 9-2), SE. corner Main and
LOUISVILLE 193
Johnson Sts., received its name because it is on the SITE OF BOURBON
HOUSE, a drover's tavern of the early days where, according to tradi-
tion, Louis Philippe, later King of France, stayed for a time. Spring
lamb marketing is one of the stockyards' most important activities.
24. AMERICAN PRINTING HOUSE FOR THE BLIND (open
9-4:30 weekdays), 1839 Frankfort Ave., one of the largest and oldest
establishments of its kind, prints Braille books for the blind. It was
established in 1858, and was supported by individual subscription and
by the State until Congress in 1879 made an annual appropriation of
$10,000. In 1919 this grant was increased to $50,000. This publish-
ing house, occupying a three-story brick building, supplies books for
the blind in the United States and abroad. Its catalogue of published
works lists more than 5,000 volumes, including standard works on the
arts, sciences, history, travel, fiction, poetry, and general information.
25. KENTUCKY SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND (open 9-4:30 week-
days), 1867 Frankfort Ave., designed in 1855 by F. Costigan, is Greek
Revival in design. All outer walls are of stuccoed brick with stone
trim, except the first story of the main building on the south elevation,
which is of dressed stone, and is dominated by a graceful Ionic portico.
Its three domes are visible from many points in the city.
TOUR 1
The tour 26 m. begins at Third Street and Broadway in down-
town Louisville, covers a portion of the boulevard system that prac-
tically encircles the city, passes through the older residential section,
and into the more recently developed Highlands. It includes three of
the city's finest parks and Cave Hill Cemetery, burial place of many
distinguished former residents of the city.
S. from Broadway on S. 3rd St.
26. CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL, S. 3rd and Shipp Sts., is a
large, tapering, Georgia granite shaft erected by the Kentucky
Women's Confederate Monument Association in honor of Confederate
soldiers. Cavalry and artillery groups are on two sides of the shaft.
A medallion in the center depicts a mounted cavalryman. At the top
is a square decorated with palm leaves, wreath, and crossed swords, on
which stands a sentinel-like figure facing the North. His knapsack,
canteen, and long rifle are characteristic of the Confederate infantry.
This memorial, unveiled in 1895, was designed by the Louisville-born
sculptress, Enid Yandell.
27. UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, on 55-acre Belknap Campus,
S. 3rd and Shipp Sts., running to Eastern Parkway, is the oldest
municipally owned university in America. The 1937 enrollment ex-
ceeded 3,500 students. The university started in 1837 as the Louisville
Medical Institute. In 1846 the Institute and Louisville College were
merged as the University of Louisville, and a law school was added.
For half a century law and medicine were the only courses offered by
the university. In 1907 the College of Liberal Arts was established
IQ4 CITIES AND TOWNS
through a private fund. Since 1910 appropriations have been made by
the city. In 1911 five medical schools amalgamated as the Medical
School of the university. The School of Dentistry -was added in 1918.
In 1922 co-operation was arranged between the City Hospital and the
university, and in the same year summer terms were initiated. In 1925
the present main campus was purchased and the Speed Scientific
School established, and two years later the College of Music was or-
ganized.
On the left of the entrance is SPEED MEMORIAL MUSEUM (open 10-5
Tues.-Sat., 2-5 Sun.), an Indiana limestone structure erected in memory
of James B. Speed, prominent Louisville resident. The building con-
tains a collection of pottery and porcelain by English, German, and
Austrian artisans. Miniatures by English, American, French, Swedish,
Russian, Austrian, and Persian artists of the past three centuries are
also on display, among them Lord Byron, by C. Q. A. Bourgeois.
Paintings of more than 100 artists include The Arrival at the Inn, by
Vincent Augustus Tack, and portraits by Peale, Sully, Healy, and
Matthew Harris Jouett.
Immediately beyond the Museum is a group of buildings housing
many of the activities of the university proper. The Schools of Medi-
cine and Dentistry and the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes
are in downtown Louisville.
R. from S. 3rd St. on Central Ave.; L. on S. 6th St.
28. CHURCHILL DOWNS (open), S. 7th St. and Central Ave.,
the 180-acre park-like tract of the Kentucky Jockey Club, provides
one of the fastest tracks in the world for the 19-day spring and 10-day
fall race meets and the Kentucky Derby, usually run the first or
second Saturday in May. The green-trimmed white clubhouse and
grandstands and the landscaped grounds have changed little in ap-
pearance since the course was opened in 1875. It was a l l /2 mile
track until 1896, when it was shortened to 1^4 miles. Under the
main grandstand are pari-mutuel betting machines, pay-off windows,
offices, and the cafe. To the right is the clubhouse, and to the left
the Negro grandstand. Directly in front of the grandstand, the blue-
grass lawn of the infield, broken by beds of flowers, shrubs, and low-
growing trees, is enclosed by the white guard-rail of the mile oval.
Beyond and facing the oval is a group of one-story green and white
horse barns against a background of forest trees.
The Kentucky Derby, America's supreme racing event, open to the
three-year-olds, was inaugurated in 1875 and has continued without a
break. In 1912 Sotemia established a world's running record at
Churchill Downs by doing 4 miles in 7:10%, and in 1931 Gallant
Knight clipped another world's record for 6^ furlongs in 1:16%.
Famous winners of the Derby include Bubbling Over (1926, time
2:03%) and War Admiral (1937, time 2:03%). The largest Derby
purse was $55,375, won by Reigh Count in 1928. Lawrin was the
LOUISVILLE 195
first "winter horse" to win the Derby, being first over the line in
1938.
Retrace S. 6th; R. on S. 3rd, which at Kenton St. becomes Southern
Parkway.
29. IROQUOIS PARK, Southern Parkway and Taylor Blvd., con-
tains 676 acres of heavily wooded land acquired by the city in 1890
as the nucleus of the present park system. A roadway and footpaths
wind from the base of Burnt Knob, center of the park, to its summit,
from which the countryside can be seen for miles. Point Lookout has
an elevation of 720 feet and looks down on Louisville, the Ohio River,
and the Indiana hills to the north.
Retrace Southern Parkway; R. on Eastern Parkway to Cherokee Rd.
30. CHEROKEE PARK, Eastern Parkway at Cherokee Rd., is a
rolling tract of 409 acres in the eastern section of the city. The
Middle Fork of Beargrass Creek, winding through the area, is fed by
springs from limestone cliffs above.' The BIRD OBSERVATORY houses a
large collection of mounted native Kentucky birds. In a wild spot is
Enid YandelFs DANIEL BOONE STATUE, placed so that Boone, clad
in his traditional hunting garb, seems to be stepping out of a thicket.
The statue was presented to the city by C. C. Bickel.
Follow Cherokee Park Trail beside headwaters of Middle Fork of
Beargrass Creek, past Big Rock to entrance of Seneca Park, just be-
yond the city limits.
31. SENECA PARK is a continuation of the city's park system.
The trail climbs from the valley of Middle Fork and passes through a
region of rolling green hills.
L. from Cherokee Trail on Beal's Branch Rd.; R. on Garden Dr.;
L. on Lexington Rd.
32. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY (open
9-4:30 weekdays), 2825 Lexington Rd., a group of Georgian Colonial
buildings of red faced brick with dressed Bowling Green stone trim,
is situated in a 55-acre grove of huge beech trees. NORTON HALL,
three stories high, contains administration offices, museum, and library.
The MUSEUM (open by appointment) has exhibits of the Depart-
ments of History, Religion, and Missions. An eleventh century Greek
parchment of the Four Gospels and a reprint of the 1587 "Breeches
Bible" are among the rare items. The seminary was first opened in
Greenville, S.C., in 1859. It closed during the War between the States,
re-opened in 1865, and in 1877 was moved to Louisville, where it oper-
ated in its own buildings on Fifth Street and Broadway until 1926,
when it was moved to the present location. The 1937-38 attendance
was more than 400.
196 CITIES AND TOWNS
L. from Lexington Rd. on Grinstead Dr.; R. opposite head of Ray
Ave., through rear entrance to Cave Hill Cemetery.
33. CAVE HILL CEMETERY, main entrance at Baxter Ave. and
E. Broadway, is a 291 -acre burying ground containing the graves of
famous men and women, among them Gen. George Rogers Clark and
George Keats, brother of the English poet. Six miles of driveway,
planted with trees, shrubbery, and flowers, wind through park-like
grounds that overlook downtown Louisville. Near the main entrance
stands a lofty campanile, its clock tower surmounted by a life-size
white marble copy of Thorwaldsen's Angel. Lower, in a niche, is a
copy of the same sculptor's Christ.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Fort Knox, 32 m. (see Tour 7). Monument and Tomb of Zachary Taylor,
72 m. (see Tour 12). My Old Kentucky Home, 39.6 m. (see Tour 15).
LEXINGTON
Railroad Stations: Union Station, Viaduct and E. Main St., for Louisville & Nash-
ville R.R., and Chesapeake & Ohio Ry.; S. Broadway and Angliana Ave. for South-
ern Ry.
Bus Station: Union Station, 244 E. Main St. for Greyhound, Fleenor, Nunnelly,
Phillips and Cooper Lines.
Airport: Municipal, 6 m. N. on Newtown Pike; chartered planes, no scheduled
service.
Buses: Fare 5^.
Accommodations: Five hotels.
Information Service: Lafayette Hotel, E. Main St. at Union Station Viaduct;
Phoenix Hotel, Main and Limestone Sts. ; Board of Commerce, Main and Upper
Sts. ; Bluegrass Auto Club, Esplanade.
Radio Station: WLAP (1420 kc.).
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Little Theater, Transylvania College and
Guignol Theater, University of Kentucky, monthly civic talent plays; six motion
picture houses.
Swimming: Municipal Pool, Castlewood City Park, 25tf; Clay's Ferry, 15 m. on
US 25; Valley View, 15 m. S. on Tates Creek Rd.; Boonesboro, 25 m. S. via US
25; Joyland Park, 3 m. N. on US 27; Johnson's Mill, 12 m. N. on Newtown Rd.
Golf: Picadome, S. Broadway extended, 18 holes, greens fee 50tf Mon.-Fri., 75#
Sat. and Sun.
Tennis: Woodland Park, Woodland and High Sts., free; Duncan Park, Limestone
and 5th Sts., free; University of Kentucky, Rose St., lOtf per hour; Castlewood
Park, Bryan Station Rd. and Castlewood Drive, free.
Riding: 123rd Kentucky Cavalry Club, Henry Clay Blvd., 75^ per hour. Lexing-
ton Riding School, Tates Creek Pike, 75tf.
Racing: Keeneland, 5 m. W. on US 60, running races (mutuel betting), April and
October.
Trots: Kentucky Trotting Horse Breeders' Association, S. Broadway extended,
June and September.
Polo: Iroquois Hunt and Polo Grounds, 6 m. E. on US 60, June through Septem-
ber.
Annual Events: Blessing of Hounds, beginning of hunt season, November Iroquois
Hunt Club; May Day Festivals, University of Kentucky and Transylvania Col-
lege; Junior League Horse Show (Saddle Horses), latter part of July; Tobacco
Carnival; Farm and Home Convention, University of Kentucky, November.
For further information regarding this city, see LEXINGTON
AND THE BLUEGRASS COUNTRY, another of the American
Guide Series, published April 1938 by the city of Lexington, Ky.
LEXINGTON (957 alt., 45,736 pop.), third largest city in Kentucky,
lies on a rolling plateau in the heart of the Bluegrass Country. The
golden stallion weathervane on the Fayette County Courthouse sym-
bolizes an aristocracy of horses. An early law passed in this county
197
IQ8 CITIES AND TOWNS
just after the Revolution was designed to keep the blood of race horses
pure. The law was superfluous. The city has few industries except
those that have to do with tobacco and horses; and it preserves and
advances education and culture.
Lexington draws shoppers and sightseers from the farms and small
cities of the Bluegrass, and from the more distant hills. It is unusually
busy on Saturday nights when farmers and horse breeders and Negro
farm hands come to town. In early fall about 4,000 students of the
University of Kentucky and of Transylvania College pour into the
city.
In December, January, and February, the tobacco auctions are held.
By wagon, bus, and truck, a-horse and in limousine, on shanks' mare
and thoroughbred, come tobacco growers, buyers, auctioneers, ware-
housemen and officials of billion-dollar cigarette companies, all bound
for the 26 huge tobacco warehouses. Often $40,000,000 is exchanged
over the baskets of sorted tobacco leaves in this important loose-
leaf light burley tobacco mart. During this season Lexington's Main
Street (the Dixie Highway through the city) is a particularly active
shopping thoroughfare. Stores in old and new buildings are concen-
trated on Main Street between Broadway and Rose, and on intersect-
ing side streets. There are few modern buildings most of them date
from the War between the States, and they bear their age with dignity.
Just north of Main Street are the churches, the public buildings, the
old Georgian Colonial houses with gleaming white doorways, highly
polished door knockers, and ivy-clad walls. Just south of Main Street
are the railroad tracks flanked by livestock, wool, bluegrass seed, and
grain warehouses and markets, and a rooming house, pawnshop, and
saloon district.
The University of Kentucky is only a few blocks farther south on
Limestone Street, and the university boys and girls overflow into Main
Street, where comfortable and well-dressed Bluegrass folk stroll, rub-
bing elbows with hill people in less fancy clothes, city business men,
tobacco men, horse breeders and horse buyers.
Scattered through all the better sections of town are some of the
big old homes, set back among trees and shrubs and well-kept lawns.
Local industry has never driven the old families out of their early
homes.
The Negroes make up more than a third of the population, and live
in their own sections in the northeast and the southwest. Partly be-
cause they are integrated in Lexington life, their place is fixed and
fairly secure; they are cooks, horse trainers, farm hands, servants,
and local laborers. They have their churches and burying societies,
their choirs and their parties, and they have made substantial progress
in education and home ownership.
The city was named after the Battle of Lexington by Robert Patter-
son, Simon Kenton, and others who in June 1775 were camped nearly
opposite the present Lexington Cemetery while on their way to build
a fort near the Kentucky River. Four years later the town was
LEXINGTON
founded when a blockhouse was put up at Main and Mill Streets and
in 1782 the General Assembly of Virginia granted it a charter.
In 1784 Gen. James A. Wilkinson, friend of Washington, entered
his checkered western career by opening a store in the village. The
next year the first tavern hung out its hospitable sign on West Main
Street: "Entertainment for man and beast, by James Bray." In 1787
Transylvania Seminary was removed here from Danville. The first
issue of John Bradford's Kentucky Gazette appeared in the same year.
Merchants brought wares from Philadelphia and Baltimore, accept-
ing in payment ginseng, homespun linens, and cured meats. Hemp, a
fine cash crop, and lumber, tobacco, and whisky were exported. Money
was scarce, barter common. Change was made by cutting coins into
halves, quarters, and eighths.
Raw materials were made into shoes, hats, woolen goods, ducking,
white lead, and other commodities. Most important of all was the
making of hemp rope for ships' rigging. Lexington was the chief in-
dustrial city of Kentucky until about 1820 when the paddlewheeler
began industrializing the Ohio Valley and attracting inland industrial
plants to the river bank.
One early industry that the Ohio River had nothing to do with was
the breeding of light horses thoroughbreds, trotters, and saddle horses.
"They may race 'the ponies' at Louisville, Santa Anita, Paris, France,
or Timbuctoo," says the staunch booster of Lexington, "but they breed
them, and they rear them, and they train them at Lexington." It was
a horse named Lexington, foaled in 1850 at The Meadows, an estate
nearby, that founded the family of Fair Play, Man o' War, and War
Admiral, and men say there are others here as good.
The men from Virginia and Maryland who settled the city rode
their best horses over the mountains, or floated them on flatboats down
the Kentucky River. The first impromptu Lexington races were held
in 1787, and the first jockey club was organized 10 years later. In
the early years of the next century breeding stallions were imported
from England and Arabia. From these came the modern race horse
(see Kentucky Horses).
By 1800 schools of medicine and law had been added to Transyl-
vania, making the town one of the most important academic centers
in the West. Notables came to the town and college: Henry Clay
led a group of men who for fifty years spread the fame of the college
and Lexington across the Nation.
In 1830 Lexington started to build the Lexington and Ohio Railroad,
which was finished in 1832 to a point six miles west of the town. That
year the town became a city.
Despite a cholera epidemic that swept the Bluegrass in 1833, killing
500 in the city alone, the young metropolis at the end of the decade
was riding high on increased farming and light horse and livestock
breeding. The richest money crop of those days was hemp, which
went into the rigging of Yankee clippers. The soil was also fine for
tobacco, which became much more important to the city.
200 CITIES AND TOWNS
The nation-wide panic of 1837 stifled Lexington business. Then,
as the city was getting back on its feet, North and South came to
blows. Although it gave a cavalry general, John Hunt Morgan, to
the South, and Jefferson Davis went to school here, Lexington also
spilled its blood for the Union.
The War between the States, however, established the cigarette
market. Before the war, men were content to chew tobacco or smoke
an occasional cigar; but soldiers began "rolling their own" with bits
of tobacco, and unconsciously started one of America's biggest in-
dustries. When the war was over they carried a craving for cigarettes
to all corners of an expanding Nation. It was a good thing for Lexing-
ton, because steam was driving the clipper from the seas, and Lexing-
ton's hemp lay unsold.
Lexington after the war, however, concentrated primarily on horses.
In the 1870's, when the bookmakers appeared and betting became an
industry, racing again revived and with it Lexington's favorite work
of breeding, rearing, and training thoroughbreds. The great horse
farms began to revive; wealthy easterners, attracted to the Bluegrass,
started to buy land, build estates, and raise horses. Neighborly dash
races were held, and stallion shows were feature events just outside
of town.
During the war, the State-supported University of Kentucky was
started in the city. It took over much of Transylvania's work, whose
faculty and students were scattered by the war. Transylvania later
affiliated with the College of the Bible and specialized in religious
teachings. Growing swiftly after 1900, the university was modernized
and expanded, and today it ranks high among State educational in-
stitutions.
The World War boomed the cigarette industry. Tobacco sales and
prices went so high that Lexington did not suffer much when prohibi-
tion came and closed the distilleries. With record crops and soaring
prices, tobacco money became plentiful in the Bluegrass and its capital.
When Lexington celebrated its sesquicentennial with a round of speech-
making and pageantry in 1925, it was a wealthy and going city.
The 1929 crash hit the city hard for a while. Poverty-stricken
farmers in other States and in Kentucky all began to grow tobacco.
Prices held up until excess production cut them sharply in 1932. They
lay at rock bottom until the great drought in the middle thirties, and
then began to rise gradually. In 1937 Lexington markets, which open
before any others in the Burley Belt, cashed in on a record crop which
sold at the high average of $22.45 a hundredweight.
The University of Kentucky is one of the most important sources of
business in the town. Each year thousands of school children, farmers,
ministers, and others flock into Lexington to attend conferences and
athletic contests conducted under the auspices of the university. Hun-
dreds of research people come annually to the town to use the rare
materials contained in the two university libraries and the Lexington
public library. The combined facilities of these libraries constitute a
LEXINGTON 2OI
notable collection of Americana, especially that relating to the Ohio
Valley.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. ASHLAND (private), SE. corner Sycamore and Richmond Rds.,
was the home of Henry Clay (1777-1852). The present house, recon-
structed by Maj. T. Lewinski, Lexington architect, dates from 1857
and although it follows the same plan as the original designed by
Latrobe and built for Clay in 1806, the architectural detail is greatly
changed. Set back from the street among trees planted by Clay, the
two-story central mass of this great brick house is flanked by one-
story wings. The main entrance projects in the form of a bay; the
simple doorway has a half-circle fanlight and plain molded architrave
and cornice. The Palladian window above is accentuated by a small
eave pediment that relieves the straight cornice line of the roof.
Beside the house is a thick pine grove, and the path Clay liked to
pace as he composed his speeches. Mrs. Clay's garden, laid out by
L'Enfant, is behind the house. Beyond the south lawn were the slave
quarters and barns, with the great estate, on which Clay bred fine
cattle and horses, spreading away to the south.
Clay lived here from 1797 until his death in 1852. Becoming a
United States Senator at 29, he formulated and championed the "Amer-
ican System" based on a protective tariff. He advocated aggression
in the War of 1812 and was one of the commissioners who concluded
the peace. Clay was Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senator,
and Secretary of State, but he failed in his life's ambition to reach
the Presidency.
2. CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD (Episcopal), E. Main
St. and Bell Court, neo-Gothic in style, dedicated in 1926, is known as
the "Horseman's Church" because Bluegrass horsemen gave generously
toward its building. In the interior are carvings by Gustav Lang,
brother of Anton Lang, famous Christus in the Passion Play of
Oberammergau.
3. The SENATOR POPE HOME (open by appointment), 326
Grosvenor Ave., a two-story red brick structure built soon after the
War of 1812, is now an apartment house. The balcony above the
deeply recessed, arched entrance is part of the original design, but the
porches that flank it are of later date.
John Pope, for whom the house was built, was United States Senator
from Kentucky, 1807-13. At this house on July 3-4, 1819, he enter-
tained President Monroe, Gen. Andrew Jackson, Gov. Isaac Shelby,
and others.
One-armed Senator John Pope was a strong political opponent of
Henry Clay. During one of their races for Congress, Clay approached
an Irishman and asked him why he was going to vote for his opponent.
The Irishman replied, "Och, Misther Clay, I have concluded to vote
for the man who has but one arm to sthrust into the sthreasury."
202 CITIES AND TOWNS
4. The JOSEPH FICKLIN HOUSE (private), SW. corner High
and S. Limestone Sts., is a plain red brick late Georgian Colonial house.
Here in the 1820's lived Lexington's postmaster, Joseph Ficklin, and
with him Jefferson Davis during the three years (1821-24) that he
was a student at Transylvania University.
5. BOTHERUM (private), 341 Madison PL, was designed and
built in the 1850's for Maj. Madison C. Johnson by architect John
McMurtry. The trees on the lawn and a profusion of vines veil the
Greek Revival one-story stone mansion. Massive stone steps lead up
to the four entrances, one to a side. White Corinthian columns sup-
port low porticos on each fagade. A deep-sunken brick walk leads
out from the north fagade to the property line, beyond which stands
a giant ginkgo tree, sent from Japan to Henry Clay, who gave it to
his friend. Major Johnson is said to have been the prototype for
Col. Romulus Fields in James Lane Allen's story, Two Gentlemen of
Kentucky.
6. LEXINGTON CEMETERY, W. Main St. at city limits, is the
burial place of many of Lexington's illustrious men, including James
Lane Allen, John C. Breckinridge, John Hunt Morgan, and Henry
Clay. The HENRY CLAY MEMORIAL (1857) has a large square base
from which rises a lone Corinthian column supporting a statue of
Clay. The original, designed by Joel T. Hart and cast by John
Hailey of Frankfort, was destroyed by lightning in 1903. The statue
now in place, copied from the Hart design, is the work of Charles J.
Mulligan. Within the base of the monument are the sarcophagi of
Clay and his wife.
7. GLENDOWER or PRESTON PLACE (private), W. 2nd St.
between Jefferson and Georgetown Sts., now a nurses' dormitory con-
nected with St. Joseph's Hospital, was built early in the nineteenth
century. Here Robert Wickliffe, Col. John Todd's son-in-law, enter-
tained lavishly. After William Preston, aide on the staff of Confederate
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and son-in-law of Wickliffe, became
owner of the property, its reputation for hospitality was equaled only
by that of Col. David Meade's La Chaumiere.
8. The MARY TODD LINCOLN HOME (open by appointment),
574 W. Main St., is the Georgian Colonial red brick house where Mary
Todd lived as a child and at the time she married Abraham Lincoln.
It is now a rooming house, and a grocery store occupies half of the
first floor.
Mary Todd was born December 13, 1818, on West Short Street
where the Roman Catholic parish house now stands. Her mother died
when Mary was seven years old. An older sister, Elizabeth, married
the son and namesake of Gov. Ninian Wirt Edwards, and moved to
Springfield, Illinois. Completing her education in the private schools
of Lexington, Mary went to live with Elizabeth, at whose home she
met a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. They kept company,
quarreled to the breaking point in 1840, married in 1842, and made
Springfield their home. From Springfield Mary went to the White
1. Ashlond
2. Church of the Good Shepher
'/ / \ 3. The Senator Pope Home
/ . 4. The Joseph Ficklin House
< 5. Botherum
6. Lexington Cemetery
\\ /. 7. Glendower or Preston Place
\\S/ 8. The Mary Todd Lincoln
First Presbyterian Church
The Thomas Hart Home
Hopemont
The Benjamin Gratz'Home
Transylvania College
4. Lexington Public Library
5. The Bodley House '
6. Christ Church
7. Courthouse Square
^ The Tobacco Markets.
19. The Trotting Track
20. University of Kentucky
21. Lexington's Westminster At
22. The William Morton Home
LEXINGTON
1938
204 CITIES AND TOWNS
House. After Lincoln's assassination, she traveled about, and then
sought sanctuary at the home of her sister Elizabeth, where she died
in 1882. She was buried beside her husband in Springfield.
9. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 174 N. Mill St., designed
by Cincinnatus Shryock and completed in 1872, is the home of a
church congregation organized in the late eighteenth century.
10. The THOMAS HART HOME (private), 193 N. Mill St., a two-
story Georgian Colonial brick house, was built in 1794 for Thomas
Hart, whose daughter, Lucretia, married Henry Clay here. The young
couple lived in the attached house on North Hill Street until Ashland
was ready for them. In this building lived John Bradford, editor of
the Kentucky Gazette, John Hunt Morgan, Confederate leader (who
also was married here), and Cassius M. Clay, the emancipationist.
11. HOPEMONT (open 10-5 weekdays; adm. 25$), 201 N. Mill
St., the John Hunt Morgan home, is a post-Colonial white-painted
brick mansion built in 1811 by John Wesley Hunt, grandfather of
John Hunt Morgan. House and grounds are about as they were on
the day in 1861 when grandson Morgan rode away at the head of the
Lexington Rifles to join the Confederate Army. An extensive Con-
federate museum has been installed in the home, filled with treasures
of five generations of Hunts and Morgans.
The house is entered through a doorway capped with an elliptical
fanlight and flanked by traceried side lights. Immediately within is
the reception hall and the room that John H. Morgan used as a busi-
ness office, which contains many of his personal belongings. To the
rear of the reception hall is the dining room, off which a long living
room looks out upon the flower garden.
Above stairs and below are Morgan family portraits and prints. In
the basement are the kitchens, storerooms, and servants' quarters of
slavery days, and in the rear of the main structure is a wing with
additional living quarters for the household. Behind this wing are
the carriage house and the stable where Morgan's Black Bess was kept.
John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864), born in Huntsville, Alabama,
grew up in Lexington. He saw service as a first lieutenant in the
Mexican War, and in the War between the States became a Confed-
erate general with a roving commission to hamper the southward ad-
vance of the Union Armies. Early in July 1863 he raided Indiana and
Ohio, and on July 26 was captured near New Lisbon, Ohio. On
November 27 he escaped from the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio,
rejoined the Armies of the South, took command in the department of
southwestern Virginia, and later at Jonesboro, Georgia. On September
4, 1864, he was killed in Greeneville, Tennessee. His grave is in Lex-
ington Cemetery.
12. The BENJAMIN GRATZ HOME (private), 231 N. Mill St.,
is an excellent example of the late Georgian Colonial style. The exterior
is distinguished by a fine hand-wrought iron railing on the entrance
stoop and a wide arched doorway with paneled door, flanked by side
lights, and surmounted by an elliptical fanlight of leaded glass. This
LEXINGTON 2O5
house was built for Mrs. Mary G. Maton in 1806. In 1824 Benjamin
Gratz, brother of Rebecca, came to Lexington from Philadelphia and
bought the property. Members of the Gratz family have lived in this
house continuously since that date. In the rear, abutting a side street,
stands what is said to be the OLDEST BRICK BUILDING in Lexington,
used as a laundry for the household.
13. TRANSYLVANIA COLLEGE, W. 3rd St. between Upper St.
and Broadway, with an enrollment of 500 students, is maintained by
the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Its several red brick ivy-
covered buildings and Greek Revival Morrison College are distributed
over a small campus.
Transylvania College, oldest educational institution west of the
Alleghenies, grew out of an act of the Virginia Legislature of 1780
setting aside 8,000 acres of confiscated Tory land in Kentucky for the
development of higher education. Twelve thousand acres were added
in 1783, and in 1785 Transylvania Seminary was opened in the home
of "Old Father Rice," near Danville. Three years later this seminary
was removed to Lexington, where the first building was erected in
1794. Following a dispute over doctrinal matters, Presbyterians on
the board seceded and set up a school known as Kentucky Academy
at Pisgah, 11 miles west of Lexington. In 1798 Transylvania Academy
and Kentucky Academy were merged as Transylvania University.
Transylvania took high rank among early educational institutions.
In its Law College, where Henry Clay was a professor (1805-07),
were trained many of the early leaders of the legal and political life
of the West. Dr. Samuel Brown, pioneer in smallpox vaccination,
founded the College of Medicine (1799), which in its first 60 years
graduated more than 2,000 physicians. Affiliated with Transylvania
is the College of the Bible, a post-graduate theological school.
MORRISON COLLEGE is a Greek Revival brick building designed by
the Lexington architect Gideon Shryock and completed in 1833. The
three-story structure has a massive two-story Doric portico with fluted
columns, approached by a broad flight of steps. In one of the vaults
flanking the steps are the remains of Constantine Rafinesque. Born
in Turkey, of French and German descent, Rafinesque settled in
America in 1815. He was one of the strangest and most brilliant
figures of the middle frontier, an authority on natural history, espe-
cially botany, shells, fishes, banking and political history. At Transyl-
vania he was professor of modern languages, practically founding that
subject in America, and was possibly the first to give illustrated lec-
tures. In 1824 he published Ancient History: or Annals of Kentucky,
and his later works on American flora were authoritative for their day.
Traversing the wilderness hunting specimens, bearded and oddly clad,
with a pack on his back, he was often taken by the natives for an
itinerant peddler, and many pranks were played on him by John James
Audubon and other wilderness men. The LIBRARY (open 8-4 Mon.-
Fri., 8-12:15 Sat.) was long rated one of the best in the United States.
Its collection of medical books is especially notable. RUSH MUSEUM
206 CITIES AND TOWNS
(open by appointment) has good collections of bird specimens and
classroom apparatus used a century ago in natural science classes.
14. LEXINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 8:30-9 weekdays;
2-6 Sun.), W. 2nd St. between Market and N. Mill Sts., was organized
in 1795 as a pay library endowed by annual subscriptions, and is the
oldest circulating library west of the Alleghenies. In 1903 Andrew
Carnegie gave $60,000 toward the construction of the present build-
ing. The library has numerous volumes on the history of Lexington
and the Bluegrass, and a file of rare newspapers, including issues of
the old Kentucky Gazette.
On the second floor, at the head of the stairs, is a case containing
a collection of coins, State money, "shinplasters," and other early
curios; and in another is a collection of stuffed Bluegrass song birds,
among them the Kentucky cardinal, "redbird" of the South.
15. The BODLEY HOUSE (private), 200 Market St., an old post-
Colonial house once the property of Col. Thomas Bodley, War of 1812
veteran, was built soon after that war. During the War between the
States this home was a headquarters for Union troops, and Dr. Ben-
jamin Winslow Dudley, surgeon and Transylvania professor, owned it
for a time.
16. CHRIST CHURCH (Episcopal), NE. corner Church and
Market Sts., a Victorian Gothic structure designed by Maj. T. Lewin-
ski, stands on a site occupied by Episcopal churches since 1796. The
cornerstone of the present brick building was laid in 1847. The chimes
in the tower were given by Mrs. Rosa Johnson Rhett in memory of
her mother, Rose Vertner Jeffrey, Bluegrass poetess.
17. COURTHOUSE SQUARE, W. Main St. between Upper St. and
Cheapside, is in the center of downtown Lexington. Within the park-
like area stands FAYETTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, a massive three-story
stone building designed in the Romanesque style, surmounted by a
dome above which swings the golden stallion weather vane.
On the east lawn of the square is the equestrian STATUE OF JOHN
HUNT MORGAN, showing him sitting in full uniform upon his charger.
Among the names on the plaque of the SOLDIER'S MEMORIAL, World
War monument before the Main Street entrance, is that of a woman,
Curry Desha Brickinridge, Red Cross nurse. On the west side of the
square in CHEAPSIDE PARK is the BRECKINRIDGE STATUE, erected by
the State of Kentucky in memory of John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-
1875), Lexington lawyer who at 30 was elected U.S. Representative,
and at 35, Vice President of the United States. At the Baltimore Con-
vention of 1860 he was nominated for the Presidency by pro-slavery
seceders from the convention. With the outbreak of the War between
the States, Breckinridge joined the Confederate army, was put in com-
mand of the Kentucky Brigade under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston,
and in January 1865 became Confederate Secretary of War.
Throughout the years Cheapside has been an open-air forum where
men with causes, or no causes at all, air their opinions. Statesmen and
office seekers harangue the passing crowd. The strolling ballad singer
LEXINGTON 207
finds a sympathetic audience. An occasional group of worshipers
gather about the fountains for prayer and praise. Perched on the base
of the Breckinridge Memorial, a lanky religious exhorter sometimes tells
his little circle of listeners about death and judgment to come.
18. The TOBACCO MARKETS (open from first Mon. in Dec. until
about March 1) are held in southwestern Lexington, in the heart of
the tobacco warehousing district. Here, in 26 handling houses, called
"sales floors," the "brown gold" crop of the Bluegrass is sold. Several
times during each winter these sales floors are cleared, filled with new
deliveries from the farms, and cleared again, until the last of the crop
has moved on to processors.
The tobacco, known to the farmer and the tobacco merchant simply
as "white burley," comes to the sales floor cured and graded by the
farmer. His entire crop is arranged, according to quality, in baskets
upon each of which an agent of the warehouse has placed a starting
bid. Down the narrow aisle between the high-piled baskets pass auc-
tioneer, bidders, and gallery. The auctioneer, sing-songing a sales
jargon, unintelligible to the visitor, tries to drum up the bid. The
jew's-harp chant goes on continually, interrupted only by a nod, a wink,
or a word spoken by competing buyers. An unsatisfactory bid can be
rejected by the owner, whose lot is then held for a subsequent sale.
Close on the heels of the main actors shuffles the gallery, straining
forward to catch every shift in the action, for upon these sales depends
the good or ill fortune of the year.
19. The TROTTING TRACK (1873), S. on Broadway in the rear
of Tattersall's Sales Stables, is the mile oval of the Kentucky Trotting
Horse Breeders' Association. Spring and fall meets on the Grand Cir-
cuit are held here on what horsemen believe to be the fastest trotting
strip in the world. Twenty American trotting and pacing records have
been made on this track. In 1937, Alma Sheppard, 11 years old, drove
Dean Hanover over the track in 1:58^. This horse was given to the
girl by her father, when no one else seemed to be able to do anything
with him. She trained him herself, entered him in the race, and set
one of the track records, only 2*/2 seconds from the world's record.
Other records made on this track include the fastest three heats, by
Rosaline in 1937; trotting record with mate against time, Uhlan
( 1:541/2) 1913; trotting record by team, Uhlan and Louis Forest, 1912.
One of the two world records broken in 1938 was the mile pacing time
of Dan Patch in 1905, shattered by Billy Direct (1:55).
20. UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY (buildings open daily except
Sun. and holidays), S. Limestone St. and Euclid Ave., was established
in 1866 as a land-grant college (following the passage of the Morrill Act
in 1862) and became part of Kentucky University, formerly Transyl-
vania University. The Agricultural and Mechanical divisions were
located on the Henry Clay farm, Ashland, but due to unfavorable finan-
cial arrangements the Agricultural and Mechanical college was trans-
ferred to its present location, and completely separated from Kentucky
208 CITIES AND TOWNS
University. The university has been on its present 94-acre campus
since 1878.
The plant, excluding the experimental farm, consists of forty-eight
buildings located somewhat at random on the campus. On the left of
the north gate entrance is the NEW STUDENT UNION BUILDING, which
houses all the offices of the student activities, the ball and assembly
rooms, the cafeteria and other shops. Beyond and immediately to the
left is FRAZEE HALL in which are the departments of Sociology, Phi-
losophy, History, and University Extension.
The oldest classroom building now in use is the classic revival ADMIN-
ISTRATION BUILDING, at the top of the hill facing the parade ground
and Limestone Street, which houses the administrative offices. East
of the Administration Building are the Archeological Museum (Old
Library), the Faculty Club (Patterson home), Lafferty Hall, and the
Library. The Faculty Club building is typical of the homes built in
Kentucky during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Lafferty
Hall is modern in design and typifies the plan of the buildings which
have been constructed since 1935. The LIBRARY, the first unit of which
has been completed, was constructed in 1931 and is Georgian in design.
It houses the university's collection of approximately 270,000 books and
pamphlets. This is the largest and most complete library collection in
the State.
East of the Library is MAXWELL PLACE, the home of the President
of the university. The house, Italian Renaissance in design, was for-
merly the home of James Hilary Mulligan.
West of the library is a hall which houses the State department of
Mines and Geology, and the university department of Botany. To the
south beyond the library are the Physics and Chemistry buildings.
Across the open court to the south is McVey Hall, a classroom build-
ing. At the end of the quadrangle is the new 1939 Biological Science
Building.
West of McVey Hall in the center of the large commons is the
MEMORIAL HALL, of Greek Revival design with a Christopher Wren
tower. The building was erected by public subscription as a memorial
to Kentucky's World War dead. On the left and right of the foyer are
memorial plaques and on the wall facing the entrance is a large mural
depicting the growth of the State. The auditorium seats eleven hun-
dred. Immediately west of Memorial Hall is the College of Agriculture
Building.
North of Memorial Hall is the Engineering College quadrangle. Di-
rectly west of the quadrangle is Neville Hall and farther west, facing
the front circular drive, is the building which houses the university dis-
pensary and the classrooms of the department of Hygiene.
To the north and rear of Neville Hall is the Natural Science Build-
ing, which houses the geological library and exhibits. West of the Ad-
ministration Building, across Limestone and Upper Streets, is the Col-
lege of Education and Associated Schools, a Greek Revival building of
LEXINGTON 20Q
three units. East on Euclid from its intersection with Limestone are
other buildings of the university.
Across Graham Avenue to the south are some of the experimental
buildings of the College of Agriculture, and at Graham Avenue and
Limestone Street is the Agricultural Experiment Station with its labora-
tories and offices. The UNIVERSITY FARM of 620 acres is on the east
side of Rose Street beginning at Graham Avenue.
The university is composed of seven colleges, the Experiment Station,
and the Department of University Extension. The enrollment is ap-
proximately 3,700 and about 2,000 students attend the summer sessions.
The Experiment Station has associated with it the sub-station of
15,000 acres at Quicksand, and the sub-station of 600 acres at Princeton.
21. "LEXINGTON'S WESTMINSTER ABBEY," E. 3rd St. be-
tween Walnut and Deweese Sts., is a local name for several old ceme-
teries dating from the years immediately after the 1833 cholera epi-
demic. Within this area lie members of the Bradford family; John
Grimes, the artist whose portrait by Jouett hangs in the Metropolitan
Art Museum; John Postlethwait, early innkeeper; and many other old-
time residents. The SEXTON'S COTTAGE, designed by John McMurtry,
is an excellent example of a Tudor cottage. The little GREEK TEMPLE
was erected by Gideon Shryock as a memorial to his parents.
22. The WILLIAM MORTON HOME (Duncan Park Day Nurs-
ery), NE. corner N. Limestone and 5th Sts., was built and furnished on
a lavish scale in 1810 by William ("Lord") Morton, younger son of a
titled English family. After the death of "Lord" Morton in 1836, the
place became the home of Cassius M. Clay.
23. LOUDOUN (open 8:30-5:30 weekdays)^ Bryan Ave. and Cas-
tlewood Dr., now the city's Castlewood Community Center, was erected
in 1850 by Francis K. Hunt, son of a pioneer Lexington industrialist.
Architect John McMurtry designed the building in the Gothic Revival
style, and embellished it with pointed-arch windows, a battlemented
turret, hand-carved woodwork, and Jacobean chimneys.
24. SAYRE COLLEGE (open weekdays on request, during school
year), 194 N. Limestone St., preparatory school dating from 1854, was
among the first schools in America to offer women a full college cur-
riculum. It is housed in three red brick buildings, each three stories
high.
In the basement of Sayre is BARLOW PLANETARIUM, invented in
1844 by Thomas Harris Barlow of Lexington. Designed to illustrate
the activity of the solar system, this invention so simplified the teach-
ing of astronomy that 300 like it were manufactured and sold to the
United States Government, public institutions, and colleges throughout
the world. Only a few are still in use.
25. WHITEHALL (private), NE. corner Limestone and Barr Sts.,
a two-story white brick structure in the Greek Revival style, designed
by Gideon Shryock and built 1834-36 for the Wear family, stands well
back from Limestone Street. Here in the 1850's lived Thomas Mar-
shall, a descendant of Chief Justice John Marshall.
2IO CITIES AND TOWNS
26. ROSE HILL (private), 461 N. Limestone St., a low, rambling
Georgian Colonial structure, was built in 1818 by John Brand, hemp
manufacturer. The entrance is copied after that of the Temple of
Minerva in the Maison Carree of Nimes, France.
27. PHOENIX HOTEL, 120 E. Main St., stands on the SITE OF
POSTLETHWAIT'S TAVERN. In the lobby hang pictures of great Ken-
tucky thoroughbreds. The dining room behind the lobby is finished in
early English tavern style. The coffee shop displays medallions of
prominent Kentuckians.
In 1790 Capt. John Postlethwait, Revolutionary officer, came to Lex-
ington and for 43 years put his finger into every Lexington pie. He
was trader, merchant, innkeeper, and generous citizen. His first tavern
was built in 1797. He gathered the horsemen of his time about the
huge fireplace of his tavern, and talked up the breeding of light horses.
The tavern caught fire twice, and thenceforward the name Phoenix was
attached to the hotel. The old section of the present structure dates
from the third fire, which occurred during a race in 1879.
HORSE FARM TOUR 1
Lexington to Lexington, 22.5 m.; US 60 (Winchester Pike), Hume Rd., Bryan
Station Pike, Johnston Rd., US 27-68 (Paris Pike), Ironworks Pike, Newtown
Pike.
Hard-surfaced throughout.
Horse Farms on this route open to public; permission to visit stables must be
obtained at farm offices. Visitors are required to refrain from smoking and to shut
all gates that they open. Many of the gates are of the patent type that can be
opened and shut from motor cars. Numbers in parentheses correspond with num-
bers on Horse Farm Tour map.
East on US 60 from the Zero Milestone, at the corner of Main St.
and Union Station Viaduct on Walnut St., to Midland St. ; L. on Mid-
land St. to 3rd St., here called Winchester Pike.
The entrance to (28) PATCHEN WILKES STOCK FARM (L), is
at 3.2 m. (open 9-4 on request). This once busy horse place, now
devoted to the raising of cattle and sheep, was owned a century and
more ago by Capt. Benjamin Warfield on land granted to the Warfield
family by the colony of Virginia before the Revolution. Prior to 1825
he built the one-story brick house with rooms opening on a porch
enclosing three sides of a flower-bordered rear court. The white house,
sheltered by a grove of trees, the large barn and other buildings are in
a striking position on the brow and crest of two sweeping slopes half
a mile from the highway. For years the horse farm was operated by
W. E. D. Stokes, of New York.
The farm was named for the blooded sire, Patchen Wilkes. Peter
the Great, purchased as a nine-year-old stallion with a track record of
2:07^, having stood here for more than a decade, sold at the age of
21 for $50,000.
At 3.6 m. is the entrance to (29) HAMBURG PLACE (R), acquired
212 CITIES AND TOWNS
in 1897 by John E. Madden, and since owned and operated by his son
J. E. Madden, Jr. The estate, consisting of approximately 2,700 acres
and extending several miles along the highway, was named for Ham-
burg, a great thoroughbred, which, after being successfully campaigned
30 years ago, stood after his retirement with pronounced success. Since
1929 Hamburg Place has been important for the breeding of polo
ponies.
At Hamburg Place have been foaled and bred six Kentucky Derby
winners the largest number to come from any one nursery. Plaudit,
the first of these, won the Kentucky Derby of 1898 (l l /\. m.) in what
was then the creditable time of 2:09.
Behind the unpretentious green-trimmed white frame residence is the
old-fashioned barn in which were foaled and bred the other five Ken-
tucky Derby winners. Old Rosebud, the second Madden Derby win-
ner, after establishing a reputation when a two-year-old, went to the
post in the 1914 Derby as a favorite and ran the distance handily in
2:03%, a new track record. Old Rosebud was a frequent winner in
high class company after taking the purse at Churchill Downs, until,
as an aged horse, patched up and returned to the turf following a
breakdown, he met with a fatal accident during a race in the East. Sir
Barton, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1919, was the last of the
great Star Shoots and the only maiden performer ever to win this stake.
Although Sir Barton's time was slow (2:09%) due to an off track, he
demonstrated his class later in the month by winning the Preakness in
Maryland. Paul Jones, a fine mudder, won the Kentucky Derby in
1920 over a heavy track (2:09). Zev, the fifth Derby winner, was
by the successful Madden sire, The Finn, from the good race mare,
Miss Kearney. Zev, possessed of a high flight of speed, was also a
superior mud runner. For the Derby of 1923 he turned in the fair
time of 2:05%. Zev defeated the great English colt, Papyrus, in
their $100,000 match race in the East in 1924, and In Memoriam at
Churchill Downs later. Flying Ebony, another son of The Finn also
ridden to victory by the much-publicized jockey, Earle Sande, won the
Kentucky Derby of 1925 over a sloppy track in 2:07%.
The stables of Hamburg Place are empty except in winter when polo
ponies are quartered here.
NANCY HANKS HORSE GRAVEYARD (30) 4.1 m. (R), sur-
rounded by a horseshoe-shaped field-stone fence, is the burial ground
of a dozen horses that made John E. Madden famous as a breeder.
Nancy Hanks, considered one of the greatest trotters that ever lived,
is buried in the center of the plot. A stone monument, topped with a
miniature statue of the great mare, stands over her grave. Eleven other
noted harness horses and thoroughbreds are buried in a semicircle
around the Nancy Hanks monument. Of these Plaudit is perhaps the
best remembered. The others are Hamburg Belle, noted trotting mare,
Ida Pickwick, Imp. Star Shoot, famed mostly as a successful sire of
brood mares, Lady Starling, Ogden, Major Delmar, Siliko, Silikon,
and Imp.
LEXINGTON 213
At 4.5 m. is the junction with Hume Rd. The main route of the tour
turns L. here.
Right (straight ahead) on US 60, 0.6 m. to (31) the IROQUOIS HUNT AND
POLO CLUB (open May or June to September 1) entered (R) through iron
gates bearing silhouetted figures of polo players. The landscaped grounds of the
club include four polo fields one for exhibition matches, another as a practice
field for men, a third for women, and the fourth field for children.
Polo ponies are drawn from the best blooded and mixed stock obtainable, using
sires and dams of all three light horse breeds. Nimble, intelligent native mares,
bred to thoroughbred, trotter, or saddle horse sires, produce a high proportion of
colts having the desired qualities, and Western ponies have been crossed upon thor-
oughbreds. Polo ponies range in weight up to 1,400 pounds, and the qualities de-
manded are good bone, intelligence, quick action, and sure-footedness. Matches,
open to the public, are frequently played here.
Left on Hume Rd., at 7 m. is the junction with Bryan Station Pike;
R. on Bryan Station Pike to the junction with Johnston Rd., 9.3 m.;
L. on Johnston Rd.
On Johnston Rd. is (32) (L) LLANGOLLEN (Welsh, pronounced
Thlangothlen), 10 .3 m., which has a color motif of white trimmed in
black. This 273-acre farm, owned by John Hay Whitney, is one of the
three Whitney horse farms in the Bluegrass. At the head of this stud
for seven years was Imp. Royal Minstrel, a gray, many of whose get
are of that color. This horse, returned to England in the latter part
of 1938, was campaigned in America and is said to have won more for
his American owner than his purchase price of $75,000. His victories
on English courses include the Eclipse, Craven, Cork and Orrery Stakes,
and the Victoria Cup. Here also is standing the Bonnie Scotland
thoroughbred, The Porter. This horse, a small chestnut and a superior
performer in "sloppy" going, was owned when in training and for some
time after his retirement by E. B. McLean of Washington. Somewhat
like Ferdinand the Bull, The Porter, a dignified old gentleman, is fasci-
nated by butterflies, but despises dogs, cats, and roosters. It is esti-
mated that his get have won more than $1,350,000. The Porter sired
Toro, a bay from Imp. Brocatelle, in 1925, who as a three-year-old was
just about the shiftiest of his age. Although Toro's turf career was
short his winnings amounted to $142,530.
Johnston Rd. runs to a dead end at its junction, 10.8 m., with US
27-68, which is here called the Paris Pike. Right on US 27-68.
The C. V. WHITNEY FARM (33) 11 A m. (open 11-4, February-
June 20: no specific hours at other times), its yellow buildings (R)
forming a striking contrast with the green landscaped grounds, is
entered from the Paris Pike. The 900-acre estate has 11 well-built
and ventilated barns including three for stallions (one of them floored
with cork), a two-story frame cottage, and a two-story stone farm office
building (L), and a one-mile training course. About a mile from the
entrance, in a wooded area near one of the stallion barns, is the ceme-
tery where Broomstick, Peter Pan, Whiskbroom II, Prudery, Regret-
only filly ever to win the Kentucky Derby Pennant, and the great
Equipoise (d. 1938) are buried.
214 CITIES AND TOWNS
Broomstick, favorite stock horse of James (Jimmy) Rowe, head
trainer for so many years for Harry Payne Whitney, was a consistent
winner regardless of the fields in which he competed. Through his sire,
Ben Brush, he came of the hardy Bonnie Scotland line. Broomstick
headed the stud founded by William C. Whitney, and, among a goodly
number of superior performers, he sired Regret, Dam, Jersey Lightning,
by Hamburg. In the Kentucky Derby, over a track thought to have
been fully a second and a half on the slow side, he won easily by two
open lengths over Pebbles in 2:05%. Whiskbroom II, a chestnut foaled
in 1907 by Broomstick- Audience, could run fast and far, even under
high imposts. Among the successful performers sired by him is the Ken-
tucky Derby winner, Whiskery. Prudery, a filly rated good enough to
be started in the Kentucky Derby (1921), finished third to the Bradley
pair, Behave Yourself and Black Servant. Prudery, by Peter Pan-Polly
Flinders, was a fine race mare, and in the stud she produced Victorian
and Whiskery, winners respectively of $253,425 and $103,565. Peter
Pan, by Commando-Imp. Cinderella, was owned and raced by James
R. Keene. A son of one of America's truly great horses, Peter Pan, a
fine performer and a stock horse of more than usual merit, won above
$100,000, and among his get were Pennant, sire of Equipoise, outstand-
ing performer of recent years, and the noted race and brood mare,
Prudery. Pennant, best remembered as the sire of Equipoise, was a
good thoroughbred race horse.
Equipoise, by Pennant-Swinging, one of those thoroughbreds that
breeders, large and small, live from year to year in the hope of pro-
ducing, was one of the outstanding performers of all time. Campaigned
by C. V. Whitney, he was retired in 1937 and put at stud after winning
stakes and purses of $300,000 or more. Only Sun Beau, W. S. Kilmer's
champion handicapper, with winnings of $338,610, has exceeded those
of Equipoise. A brown chunk of a horse, on the small side, Equipoise
completed his two-year season by finishing an eyelash behind Twenty
Grand in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at one mile, in time that
broke the record for horses of his age at the distance, under scale
weight. He was handicapped by a bad hoof, and failed to train for the
Kentucky Derby of 1931. He died unexpectedly from an intestinal ail-
ment after standing little more than a year.
Chicle, of fashionable blood line (Spearmint-Lady Hamburg) foaled
in 1913, has sired horses that have won more than a million dollars.
At stud here are such excellent performers during their days on the turf
as Peace Chance, one of the fastest running horses America has pro-
duced, Halcyon, Whichone, and Firethorn, a good thoroughbred race
horse (by Imp. Sun-Briar-Baton Rouge) campaigned actively since
1935.
Peace Chance, a bay by Chance Shot-Peace, was foaled in 1931.
Although his career was shortened by a leg ailment, his winnings
amounted to almost $50,000. Possessed of blinding speed and a stout
heart, this young stallion promises to be a successful stock horse.
Halcyon, a bay foaled in 1928, is by Broomstick, from Prudery, both
LEXINGTON 215
of which are dead. Halcyon, a shifty performer in good company and
now at stud on the C. V. Whitney farm, has the making of an excellent
stock horse, and choice mares are being sent to his court. Whichone,
one of the fastest two-year-olds of record, is a bay horse, by Chick-
Flying Witch, foaled in 1927. Although he went amiss early and was
retired, his winnings amounted to $192,705, most of it earned during
his first season on the turf.
At 11.5 m. is the junction with the Ironworks Pike. The main tour
route turns left on Ironworks Pike.
Right (straight ahead) on US 27-68, 0.2 m. to (34) ELMENDORF (L) (open
8-4 weekdays), owned by Joseph E. Widener. This 1,300-acre estate, through
which North Elkhorn meanders, has a natural beauty enhanced by landscaping.
Four Corinthian columns and two marble lions on a hilltop are all that remain
of the marble palace built in 1897-1900 by James B. Haggin, copper magnate,
for his bride. The house was razed in 1929 to avoid payment of taxes on so
costly a building. Mr. Haggin built up an estate of 13,000 acres from the orig-
inal 564 acres, which he acquired in 1891.
Among the many barns at Elmendorf the red brick Norman French barn (L)
is the most striking, its slate roof decorated with models of animals and birds.
Above it rises a two-story tower with a clock from Normandy and a bell that
strikes every half-hour. Another barn is in two parts with the 30 stalls facing
an enclosed oval tanbark track. Among the thoroughbreds housed here are
Brevity, Chance Shot, son of Fair Play, dam, Imp. Quelle Chance, Imp. Sickle,
and Haste.
Brevity, a bay by Chance Shot, or Imp. Sickle, dam, Imp. Ormando, was the
best of the 1935 two-year-olds, and his brilliant performances at that age were
followed by an equally impressive race or two at Miami the following winter.
He came north to fulfill his engagement in the Kentucky Derby of 1936, the odds-
on favorite in a smart field. Knocked to his knees at the start, he got away
tenth in a field of fourteen, and worked his way up to finish a head behind
Bold Venture, the winner. He went amiss in his three-year-old season, and has
since been at stud. Chance Shot, a bay foaled in 1924, has been a consistent sire
of winners, among them no less a performer than Peace Chance, turf winner of
$142,277. Imp. Sickle, an English thoroughbred by Phalaris-Selene, she by
Chaucer, is a brown foaled in 1924 and imported for breeding purposes. A
prolific sire, he has sent to the races such performers as Brevity, Stagehand,
Reaping Reward, and others of stakes caliber. Haste, a bay thoroughbred by
Imp. Maintenant-Miss Malaprop, foaled in 1923, was an excellent performer and
has sired a number of good horses, usually with high flight of speed and ability
to excel over muddy going. As a two-year-old he won the Saratoga Special and
the Grand Winner Hotel Stakes, and at three years old the Withers and Fair-
mount Derby.
In the Elmendorf cemetery is a large bronze statue of Fair Play which, even
as an aged stallion in 1919, brought $100,000. Fair Play, by Hastings-Fairy
Gold, sired Man o' War. In front of the statue are the graves of Fair Play and
of Mahubah, dam of Man o' War, with huge gravestones bearing wreaths.
Mahubah, by Imp. Rock Sand, was the dam of Fair Play's greatest sons, the
peerless Man o' War, often called a super-horse, and of My Play, a pronounced
success on the turf and at stud.
The Paris Pike (US 27-68) continues to (35) GREENTREE (R), 0.6 m., a
750-acre breeding farm owned by Mrs. Payne Whitney. The Whitney colors,
white and black, are used on buildings that dot the estate and on fences that
divide the farm into fields and paddocks.
Mrs. Whitney's Imp. St. Germans, a French horse foaled in 1921, spends the
sunset of his life in a pasture all his own with his companions, Lum and Abner,
two bewhiskered goats. St. Germans is the sire of Twenty Grand, holder of the
2l6 CITIES AND TOWNS
record (2:01%) for the Kentucky Derby (1931) and the Churchill Downs three-
year-old record for that distance. Twenty Grand in 1930 also set the record
(1:36%) of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, a one-mile race for two-year-olds
run in the fall. St. Germans also sired St. Brideaux, and -Bold Venture, winner
(1936) of the Kentucky Derby (2:03%) and of (1936) the Preakness (1:59).
Also at stud here is Questionnaire, by King-Miss Puzzle, foaled in 1927.
Left from US 27-68 on Ironworks Pike, now the main route.
At 13 A m. is the junction with the George Widener farm road.
Right on the Widener road; at 0.1 m. is back entrance (L) of (36) DIXIANA
FARM, one of the showplaces of the Bluegrass, owned by Charles T. Fisher,
manufacturer of motor car "bodies by Fisher," who acquired it after the death
of James Cox Brady (1882-1928) of New York. The 1,100-acre estate is a
prominent Kentucky nursery, known at a much earlier date as the Hamilton
Stud, and was once part of the 13,000-acre estate of James B. Haggin. Maj.
B. G. Thomas, who once owned it, named the place Dixiana in 1877 in honor
of his favorite brood mare. Mr. Fisher has a fine stable of running horses. In
addition to numerous modern barns, the farm has an excellent one-mile training
track.
Sweep All, Peter Hastings (sold), and High Time (dead) lived in the small
barn (R) near the office. The stable hands insist that when any performer sired
by High Time was winning a race, he sensed it and kicked and "raised sand."
Sweep All, Peter Hastings, and High Time were all excellent performers on the
turf but their fame rests chiefly upon their value at stud. High Time was for
years a steady producer of winners, among them the great gelding, Sarazon, one
of the fastest thoroughbreds that ever came up, and the American which defeated
Epinard, leading French performer of his day. Mata Hari, a filly adjudged smart
enough to be sent in the Kentucky Derby of her year (1934) is one of the leading
brood mares at Dixiana. Near by are the large barns where 24 American Stand-
ard Bred horses, each a familiar figure among the winners of its class in the show
rings, lived until 1938, when the stables were broken up.
At 1.2 m. is the junction with Russell Cave Pike; L. on this road.
On Russell Cave Pike opposite the Junction is (37) MT. BRILLIANT
(private), a two-story brick mansion built in 1792, home of Louis Lee Haggin.
The wide veranda is noteworthy for its four massive Doric columns.
Left from the Dixiana front entrance on Russell Cave Pike to a junction with
Huffman Mill Pike, 1.8 m. Right on Huffman Mill Pike 3.3 m. to (38) FAR-
AWAY FARM (R) (open 7:30-4:00), owned by Samuel Riddle. This is the
home of Man o' War (1917- ), greatest thoroughbred race horse of his day
and by some authorities ranked the greatest native performer of all time in
this country. Man o' War was by Fair Play, dam Mahubah. Bred by August
Belmont, he was put for sale as a yearling at the annual Saratoga auction and bid
in by Mr. Riddle for $5,000. As a performer, he was started 21 times and won
19 stakes and purses and the match race at Windsor, Ontario, in 1920 against
Sir Barton. Man o' War is a strapping fellow, in color a dark chestnut. He
was not raced after completion of his season as a three-year-old. Insured for
$500,000, he was put at stud on Mr. Riddle's estate, where he is constantly under
guard. Man o' War has sired 236 horses (November 1938) and of these 176
have been winners. Around $2,500,000 has been won by his get, and the great
sire took approximately $250,000 on the turf, in only two seasons at a time when
purses were not so large as today.
American Flag, at stud here, is one of the several high class thoroughbred race
horses sired by Man o' War. He was campaigned in the East, where he won a
substantial sum in stakes and purses. War Admiral, foaled and bred here, is, per-
haps, the greatest son of Man o' War. Lightly campaigned and running not a
little green as a two-year-old, he became the recognized champion of the three-
year-olds (1937), when he joined the select circle whose few members have won
LEXINGTON 217
in succession the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. In winning
the Belmont, he shaded his sire's time. War Admiral, a five-year-old in 1939,
was retired after fulfilling a final engagement in November 1938.
Russell Cave Pike continues southward from its junction with Huffman Mill
Rd. to the junction with the Ironworks Pike, 2.4 m.
The Ironworks Pike continues northwestward (straight ahead) from
the junction with the Widener farm road, crossing Russell Cave Pike,
at 13 A m., the junction with the side tour to the home of Man o' War.
Northwest of the junction with Russell Cave Pike, the Ironworks Pike
passes the entrance (R), 152 m., to (39) CASTLETON, 1,132 acres,
owned by David M. Look. This was once the estate of the Castleman
family, which earlier was known as Cabell's Dale, home of John Breck-
inridge (1760-1806), sponsor of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798-99,
and U.S. Senator from Kentucky, 1801-05. Breckinridge left the
Senate to become Attorney General of the United States and died in
office.
Beyond the two-story, green-shuttered, white brick house, built in
1806, is a large yellow barn occupied by Standard Bred horses, and
in a building near by are the stables of Castleton's stallions: Guy Cas-
tleton, Spencer, Rutherford, Schuyler, Lee Tide, and Moran. Among
the great winners foaled and bred at Castleton were Colin, Domino,
Commando, Peter Pan, Pennant, and numerous others. Colin, a brown
by Commando-Imp. Postorella foaled in 1905, raced in the colors of
James R. Keene, and, although there were some shifty horses in his
day, none ever got near him. He was retired, an unbeaten winner of
$181,610. At stud Colin failed to measure up to expectations. Domino,
also a brown, by Himyar-Mannie Gray, was foaled in 1891. During
his brief career on the turf, his winnings totaled $193,550. The Negro
who proudly exhibits the horses to visitors sometimes sleeps in the barn.
He is roused promptly at 4 A.M. by a disturbing clatter. The culprit
is a spotted pony, rattling his empty bucket until breakfast is served.
At 15.8 m. on Ironworks Pike is a junction with the Newtown Pike.
Right on Newtown Pike to (40) the WALNUT HALL STOCK FARM (L),
0.9 m.; L. through the farm. This estate of 3,500 acres, having the appearance
of a large well-kept park, is one of the world's foremost trotting horse nurseries.
The farm, established in 1892 by Lamon V. Harkness of Pittsburgh, is owned
by Dr. Ogden M. Edwards. Near the large Colonial-style yellow brick residence
(Walnut Hall) stands the main barn. Peter Volo, which died in 1937 at the
ripe age of 25, was at stud here. His son Protector, sold for $1,200 and later
repurchased for $25,000, heads the stud. Volomite and Guy Abbey are also on
this farm. On the morning of a race, when the stable routine is changed, the
horses, like those in other racing stables, become very restless. In the cemetery,
where 11 famous horses are buried, is a life-size statue of Guy Axworthy.
The Walnut Hall Farm road turns L. and reaches a junction with the Iron-
works Pike, 3.4 m. Left on Ironworks Pike.
At 4.3 m. is (41) SPINDLETOP (R), owned by Mrs. M. F. Yount, with
826 acres of almost treeless land. The palatial residence was built in 1936. The
stable houses some beautiful American saddle horses, among them Beau Peavine
and Chief of Spindletop. The latter was one of the winners of the $10,000
award annually offered by the Kentucky State Fair for championship form in the
2l8 CITIES AND TOWNS
three- and five-gaited classes. These two sires are Standard Bred American
Saddle Horses, perhaps the most notable breed of its kind of purely American
origin. These horses are bred for gaits and action from beautiful and enduring
foundation stock.
Southeast of the entrance to Spindletop, Ironworks Pike reaches its junction,
52 m., with Newtown Pike, the point at which the loop to Walnut Hall Farm
and Spindletop started.
The main route turns L. from Ironworks Pike on Newtown Pike.
On the Newtown Pike is COLDSTREAM STUD (42), 18.5 m., bor-
dered by a limestone wall four miles long. The 1,8 5 5 -acre estate (R)
has been owned since 1915 by C. B. Shaffer. The main barn remodeled
from a dairy, contains 32 stalls for thoroughbreds, including Bull Dog,
sire of many winning performers. There is a tradition that Price Mc-
Grath, the first owner, hid a fortune in the walls of the barn, but search
has not revealed it.
Newtown Pike continues south to a junction with Main St. in Lex-
ington; L. on Main St. to the Zero Milestone, 22.5 m.
HORSE FARM TOUR 2
Lexington to Lexington, 18 m.; US 60, Rice Pike, Elkchester Pike, Old Frankfort
Pike.
Four-lane concrete highway to Rice Pike; asphalt roads from Rice Pike into
Lexington.
West on US 60 from Zero Milestone (Main and Walnut Sts. at the
Union Station Viaduct) on Main St. to Jefferson St.; L. on Jefferson
St. over Viaduct to W. High St.; R. on W. High St., which becomes
Versailles Pike (US 60).
On US 60 is (R) CALUMET FARM (43), 4.7 m. (visiting hours
9-4 throughout year), originally known as Fairland when owned by
Joseph W. Bailey, Senator from Texas. Calumet Farm was the home
of W. M. Wright, whose fortune was made in Calumet baking powder.
It is now (1939) owned by his son, Warren Wright of Chicago.
Calumet is important as a stud, with such successful younger sires as
Hadagal, Bostonian, and Chance Play. Hadagal, a bay by Imp. Sir
Galahad III out of Imp. Erne, foaled in 1931 was a stakes winner
at two, and as a three-year-old broke the track record to win the Gov-
ernor Green handicap at 1^ miles. Bostonian, a black by Broomstick-
Yankee Maid, was foaled in 1924. He was raced only two seasons, yet
won a number of stakes, including the Preakness. Chance Play, a
chestnut horse by Fair Play-Imp. Quelle Chance and a half brother to
Man o' War, was foaled in 1923. His winnings totaled nearly $138,000
and among his get are such sterling performers as At Play, Grand Slam,
Good Gamble, and Psychic Bid. Galsum, a gelding, Nellie Flag, a filly,
and Nellie Morse, dam of Nellie Flag and Count Morse, are also housed
at Calumet. Nellie Morse, filly winner of the Preakness, was cam-
paigned by Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt and Jeff. The 1,000-acre
LEXINGTON 2IQ
Calumet Farm, its color motif white and red, was purchased by the
senior Wright in 1924 in the hope of breeding a winner of the Hamble-
tonian the most desired stake in the harness horse field. He won this
stake in 1931. The air-conditioned stallion barn with classic portico
and turret has a cork floor and handsome woodwork. Behind the barn
is an outdoor track. There is an estate house, 18 barns, and cottages
for employees. In November 1938, there were three stallions, 65
mares, and 30 weanlings in the stables.
KEENELAND RACE COURSE (44), on US 60 at 6.4 m. (R), held
its inaugural meeting in 1936. This track, which supplants Lexington's
century-old Association Course, is patterned after the great English race
courses where the chief considerations are the sport of racing and the
improvement of thoroughbred stock. The grandstand seats 2,500 peo-
ple. The l% 6 -mile oval track here is considered one of the fastest in
America. In the three-story stone clubhouse are photographic murals
by the best photographers of the Bluegrass, in the stag-room, on the
second floor, are Currier and Ives lithographs of events on the tracks.
The offices and facilities of Keeneland, including pari-mutuel wagering,
a restaurant, bars, and private dining rooms, are all in the clubhouse.
There is a Currier lithograph of Lexington, the great thoroughbred
stallion of the Bluegrass which held the running record of four miles
at 7:19^4. As a performer Lexington was matchless, and for about a
quarter of a century the turf's most tempting prizes fell largely to mem-
bers of his family. He was light bay of 15 hands, 3 inches, by Boston,
himself the greatest performer of his day; dam, Alice Carneal, she by
Imp. Sharpedon. He was bred by Dr. Elisha Warfield, master of the
meadows near Lexington, and was named Darley. Richard Ten
Broeck acquired and renamed him Lexington. A horse of stout heart,
superb muscular development and action, Lexington never broke down,
but shortly after his last race, in which he defeated Lecompte, his eyes
failed, and Mr. Ten Broeck sent him to Kentucky, where he made his
first season at W. F. Harper's place, near Midway. His get won nearly
$1,000,000, despite the War between the States during his day at stud.
For 14 consecutive years, and in all 16, he led American thoroughbred
sires in earnings of their get, a record never equaled. Lexington's
health was excellent until his death in 1875. Buried in his paddock,
his bones were later placed in the Smithsonian Institution, Washing-
ton, B.C.
The Keeneland Race Course occupies about 150 acres of the old
Keene Place, founded on a tract of approximately 8,000 acres granted
by Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, to his kinsman, Francis
Keene.
West of the race course is the junction with Rice Pike, 7.1 m.; R.
from US 60 on Rice Pike to a junction with Van Meter Pike, 8.7 m.;
L. on Van Meter Pike to a junction with Elkchester Pike, 9.9 m.; R.
on Elkchester Pike to a junction with the Old Frankfort Pike, 11.7 m.;
R. on the Old Frankfort Pike.
220 CITIES AND TOWNS
IDLE HOUR FARM (45), 12.5 m. (open 9 AM.-3:30 P.M.;, owned
by Col. E. R. Bradley, covers 1,300 acres on both sides of the Old
Frankfort Pike. Miles of white fences divide the farm into paddocks
and pastures. An underground passageway connects the paddocks on
each side of the pike. White and green, the racing colors of Bradley's
horses, give the many buildings a neat and striking appearance. The
private race course was the scene of an annual Charity Day program
for the benefit of Kentucky's orphans. The farm has a tiny Catholic
chapel, a solarium for yearlings, a large brick -residence, and numerous
barns. Colonel Bradley had four Kentucky Derby winners Behave
Yourself, 1921 (2:04y 5 ); Bubbling Over, 1926 (2:03%); Burgoo
King, 1932 (2:05%); and Broker's Tip, 1933 (2:06y 5 ).
Behave Yourself, a big gangling colt, was a surprise winner. Colonel
Bradley sent Behave Yourself and his crack colt, Black Servant, his
chief dependence, to the post. Black Servant took the track and led
until, half way down the home stretch, Behave Yourself came along
to challenge and finally to nose out his stable mate in a whipping finish.
As a green two-year-old Bubbling Over scored in his maiden effort at
nearly 50-1, by coming from behind down the home stretch. Burgoo
King, whose total winnings are well above $100,000, was by Bubbling
Over. Broker's Tip, by Black Toney, won the Derby by a nose over
Head Play.
To the left of the residence are the stables where Burgoo King and
Bubbling Over are kept, together with such racers as Blue Larkspur,
Balladier, and Black Servant. Blue Larkspur, a bay by Black Servant-
Blossom Time, foaled in 1926, won $272,000 in the short time he stood
training. Now at stud, he is sending some fine performers to the races.
Black Servant, Black Toney's best son, dam Imp. Padula, was foaled
in 1918. He was an excellent thoroughbred race horse in fast company,
and has now replaced his sire at stud. Black Toney, foaled in 1911
and head of the stud for so many years, died in 1938. He was a thor-
oughbred by Peter Pan and was himself a great race horse. Black
Toney sent winner after winner to the races, among them Black Gold,
winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1924, Black Maria, Black Servant
and Miss Jemima.
It is said of Colonel Bradley, who purchased the estate in 1906, that
the name of any employee who dies in his service is never removed
from the payroll as long as there is a surviving dependent. Since most
of the thoroughbreds bearing the Bradley colors were named with
words starting with "B," his string is known everywhere as the "B"
stables.
The Old Frankfort Pike continues eastward into Lexington over the
viaduct to Jefferson St.; L. on Jefferson St. to Main St.; R. on Main
St. to the Zero Milestone, 18 m.
PADUCAH
Railroad Station: Union Depot, Brown and Caldwell Aves., 2 m. from downtown
section, for Illinois Central R.R.; Chicago, Burlington and Quincy R.R.; Gulf,
Mobile and Northern R.R.; Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis R.R.; Paducah
and Illinois R.R.
Bus Stations: 220 S. Sth St. for Greyhound, C. Ray, and Ohio Lines; Broadway
and 2nd St. for Cardinal and Mohawk Lines; Arcade Bldg., Sth and Broadway,
for Southern Limited Line; 4th St. and Kentucky Ave., for Chaudoin Bus Lines.
Airport: Cairo Rd. 4 m. W. ; no scheduled service.
Street Buses: Fare 5#.
Taxis: 25$ and upward; $2 per hour.
Traffic Regulations: Right turn on red light. Parking restrictions indicated by
signs.
Accommodations: Eight hotels, three for Negroes; tourist camps 4 m. south on
US 68 and 5 m. W. on US 60.
Information Service: Irvin Cobb Hotel, Broadway and 6th St.
Radio Station: WPAD (1420 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Swimming: Noble Park, Park Ave. and 28th St., adm. to pool 25#.
Golf: Noble Park Municipal course, Park Ave. and 28th St., 9 holes, greens fee
15$; Lakeview Country Club, 4 m. S. on Lovelaceville Rd., 18 holes, greens
fee SOtf.
Tennis: Municipal courts in Noble Park, entrance 28th St. and Park Ave.
Annual Events: Strawberry Festival, movable date varying with crop season,
usually early in June.
PADUCAH (326 alt., 33,541 pop.) is the seat of McCracken County,
and the most consequential port and distributing center for the extreme
western section of Kentucky. It lies on the flood plain of the Ohio
River at the point where the Tennessee, pouring down from the
Southern Highlands, joins the larger stream before it goes on fifty
miles to the Mississippi. Cypress and sycamore trees thrive in the low,
moist land, giving Paducah the appearance of an Old World town sur-
rounded by rivers and trees.
The city is laid out in a rectangular plan, its streets running parallel
to and at right angles with shorelines of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.
Numbered streets, parallel with the river, begin at the waterfront with
1st Street. Except for Broadway and three streets named for Ken-
tucky and neighboring States, the rest, for the most part, honor Presi-
dents and statesmen.
Paducah seems on first sight to be peaceful and unhurried; actually
it is a rather busy place. The waterfront, built up for utility rather
than beauty, is still active in a modest way. Paducah pioneers dis-
covered very early that in winter the mouth of the Tennessee River
was usually free of ice because of its warm waters from the south, and
221
222 CITIES AND TOWNS
that it offered a winter haven for Ohio River boats. Today the left
shore of the Tennessee, sheltered by a low-lying island that separates
it from the Ohio, is lined with boatyards, fuel storage tanks, and ware-
houses, remnants or expansions of the once lively river traffic; and
Paducah is still the center of boatbuilding and boat repairing for the
Ohio Valley.
Farther down the Ohio and extending through much of the older
section of the city are the various factories, the extensive railroad
shops five lines serve Paducah and the vast tobacco warehouses
which have grown up in this principal dark-tobacco market of the coun-
try. Four blocks inland from the river is the business center of brick
structures, largely dating from the last century, packed into a few
blocks along Broadway and 4th Street. Commerce has invaded the
old residential section in the downtown areas, leaving the homes and
lawns looking bedraggled and forlorn.
The newer homes have reached out over the flood plain into higher
ground back of the river, from which the eastern foothills of the Ozarks
in Illinois, lying low beyond the bend in the Ohio, are visible on clear
days. Playgrounds and parks are scattered over Paducah's nine square
miles, and to the south are small farms devoted to livestock, tobacco,
dairying, and berry culture. Peach and apple orchards front the many
State and Federal highways that lead into the city.
The Negroes represent about 20 percent of the population of Pa-
ducah. They have their own schools, churches, and social life.
Friendly co-operation between the races is maintained in all business
and labor relations. The older generation of Negroes engages in the
unskilled labor of various Paducah industries. Among the younger
generation are many skilled mechanics and tradesmen who enjoy the
better economic conditions given by industrial training, and the Negro
students of Paducah are taught by members of their own race, in
Negro public schools and the West Kentucky Industrial College for
Negroes. The more than 90 percent Negro illiteracy of 1865 dwindled
to less than 4 percent in 1930.
In 1778, when George Rogers Clark advanced upon the British mili-
tary posts in the Old Northwest, his last base before striking into the
wilderness was at the mouth of the Tennessee River. In 1795 the State
of Virginia gave Clark, in compensation for his services, 72,962 acres
of land along the southern shore of the Ohio between the Tennessee
and Mississippi Rivers. Though claimed by Virginia under its Colonial
Charter from the British Crown, this area was not included in the agree-
ments by which the rights of the Indians to the balance of Kentucky
had been upheld, and Clark derived no benefit from the grant; it was
still the property of the Chickasaw Indians. On October 19, 1818, a
special commission headed by Gen. Andrew Jackson and Gov. Isaac
Shelby negotiated a settlement known as the Jackson Purchase, follow-
ing which the Chickasaw evacuated the region and moved into northern
Mississippi.
PADUCAH 223
News of the impending purchase spread, and in 1817 a migration to
the area began. Settlers poured in by flatboat and wagon from North
Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky settlements
already established for some years. James and William Pore built the
first log cabin in Paducah (then known as Pekin) at the foot of Broad-
way. James Davis who came with his family down the Licking River
from Harrison County, Kentucky, to Cincinnati, then by way of the
Ohio to Paducah, built a hut at the northwest corner of First and
Broadway, and later erected a house where Riverside Hospital now
stands.
When George Rogers Clark died in 1818, his claim passed into the
hands of his brother William, of the famous Lewis-Clark expedition
along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. William Clark, who was
made Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Missouri (1822-1836), re-
vived his brother's claim and in 1827 laid out the town site, and
named it for his Chickasaw friend, Chief Paduke. Paducah was incor-
porated as a village in 1830, and as a city in 1856.
The growth of Paducah has been slow, continuous, and at no time
spectacular. In early steamboating days its proximity to four great
navigable rivers made it convenient for the transshipping of goods and
passengers. This fact lured merchants and business men to the new
town. The first store, in which furs were used for money, was erected
in 1826 at the northeast corner of what is now First and Broadway.
Opposite this store Albert Hays in the same year built the first frame
house. Although it was not a hotel, the three rooms, considered elabo-
rate in that day, often housed traders overnight.
When the logs began to come down from the Tennessee and Cumber-
land Valleys during the mid-nineteenth century, there arose a thriving
lumber industry, with its attendant mills and factories. As this indus-
try declined, its place was taken by the handling and transshipment
of agricultural products down the river to the seaports, and of goods
from the Atlantic Coast and from Europe destined for the interior
towns and cities of the Cumberland and Tennessee Valleys.
Because of its location Paducah was a strategic point during the War
between the States. For a brief time in the earlier months of the war,
Kentucky, striving to be neutral, served as a no man's land between
North and South. Both sides rushed their armies into this area, for
mastery over it would give the victor control of western Kentucky,
Tennessee, and a good-sized portion of Alabama. In September 1861,
General Grant took military possession of Paducah. Thereafter, until
the close of military operations in the West, the city was one of the
important depots of supply that linked the farms and storehouses of
the North with the Union Armies in the field.
During this occupation by Federal troops, Gen. Lew Wallace, later
the author of Ben Hur, for a time commanded the garrison. In 1864,
after the main theater of action had been moved southward, Gen.
Nathan Forrest, Confederate cavalry leader, trying desperately to turn
224 CITIES AND TOWNS
back the Northern invasion by destroying Union Army bases, struck
savagely at Fort Anderson, which controlled the Ohio River from its
position at the west end of 5th Street. The attack, known as the Battle
of Paducah, was from the south along Lovelaceville Road and down
Broadway toward the river. After burning Union supplies stored along
the river front, Forrest retired. In his report to President Jefferson
Davis, he explained that he withdrew because of an epidemic of small-
pox in the city, rather than because of the formidable nature of the
Union entrenchments. This raid ended operations in western Kentucky
for the remainder of the war.
After the war the city resumed its customary place in river transpor-
tation. The great steamboating era that continued in its prime to about
1880 gave life to its shipbuilding and ship repair industries, and those
depending upon lumbering and farming adjusted themselves to the
dwindling of the lumber trade and the expansion of agriculture. South-
ward extension of rail lines connecting the Great Lakes region with the
Gulf Coast, which took place shortly after the conclusion of the War
between the States, made Paducah an important river-and-rail junction
point, and the Illinois Central Railway located its locomotive rebuilding
and repair shops in the city. Revival of river transportation since 1920
has brought about the establishment, on the ice-free Paducah shore of
the Tennessee, of a Government plant for the building and repair of
boats, barges, and other river equipment used by the Inland Waterways
Corporation. Other important industries that have survived from early
days or have developed since the War between the States are the manu-
facture of textile machinery and textiles, garments, hosiery, leather
goods, furniture, barrels, and sundry other products depending on a
plentiful supply of workable timber. The volume of Paducah industry
is indicated by bank clearings that average about $80,000,000 a year.
Paducah is the center of dark tobacco growing. The tobacco in "the
Purchase," known to the trade as "dark fire-cured," is brought to the
loose-leaf floors, where it is auctioned off chiefly for the export market.
A steady movement of livestock from the Jackson Purchase country to
Middle West packing houses goes through the local yards, and the ship-
ping of fruit apples, peaches, and strawberries is lucrative in Pa-
ducah. The localized cultivation and co-operative shipping of a straw-
berry known as Dixie Aroma is the basis for the Strawberry Festival,
held usually in June. Business men and farmers alike join in the fes-
tivities, that usually include a street parade.
Like other river towns, Paducah has had its battles with floods. The
most damaging was the Ohio River flood of January 1937, which swept
with full fury over low-lying Paducah. The flood crest of the Missis-
sippi River, reached before that of the Ohio, acted as a dam to retard
and spread out the waters of the Ohio, which backed over the low
grounds in the vicinity of Union Station, and ran through the entire
downtown area. Water rose into the elevated first floor of the City
Hall. Government barges steamed up Broadway and rescued refugees
from the second story of the Irvin Cobb Hotel. Stocks of goods, trans-
PADUCAH 225
ferred to supposedly safe altitudes, were soaked by oily waters. Ninety-
three percent of the buildings in the city were made untenable. Pa-
ducah's damage bill totaled $30,000,000. Prompt relief work, however,
reduced disease to a minimum, and by midsummer of 1937 few visible
effects of the disaster remained.
Irvin S. Cobb was born at Paducah in 1876, and up to the age of
17 was a shorthand reporter, a contributor to comic weeklies, and a
reporter on a local paper. At 19 he edited the Paducah Daily News.
He was in the town off and on, and from 1901 to 1904 served as man-
aging editor of the Paducah News Democrat. The first collection of
his Judge Priest stories, Old Judge Priest, was published in 1915; the
last volume, Judge Priest Turns Detective, in 1936. The list of his
writings is too long for mention, but in 1922 he won the O. Henry
Award for the best short story of that year; has been starred and fea-
tured in movies; wrote and collaborated in plays; and is a Chevalier
of the Legion of Honor (France, 1918).
The New York Times, reporting a movement in August 1938 to name
a bridge across the Ohio River for Cobb, printed the following char-
acteristic comment:
There is a brass marker in the sidewalk before the house where he was born
sixty-two years ago. A cigar has been named for him, a beauty shop, a barber
shop. Even a Kentucky mint julep honors Irvin S. Cobb.
This son of Paducah has sometimes been cited as an authority on different
kinds of alcoholic beverages. To the Distillers Code Authority, back in the NRA
days, he gave this description of corn liquor: "It smells like gangrene starting in
a mildewed silo ; it tastes like the wrath to come, and when you absorb a deep
swig of it you have all the sensations of having swallowed a lighted kerosene
lamp. A sudden violent jolt of it has been known to stop the victim's watch, snap
both his suspenders and crack his glass eye right across all in the same motion."
POINTS OF INTEREST
Much of Paducah 's early history was made within an area of four or
five squares in either direction from the Ohio river front. Poorly made,
poorly placed markers and crumbling old buildings do not tell a great
deal about the city's past, and sites are not always definite. The best-
informed people therefore usually say "about here," and point with a
moving finger to places where great events happened.
1. The SITE OF CLARK'S LANDING, Ohio River shore and Ken-
tucky Ave., is recorded by a sidewalk marker. Local tradition has
fixed this as the point where Gen. George Rogers Clark, after leaving
his base at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), paused to reorganize his
forces for their successful campaign in the Illinois wilderness. Clark's
journal, however, seems to indicate encampment on Tennessee Island,
visible offshore.
2. The GRANT MARKER, 1st St. and Broadway, designates the
place where Gen. U. S. Grant landed his Union forces in the fall of
226 CITIES AND TOWNS
1861 and proclaimed martial law. Paducah then became the base for
extensive Union operations.
3. The CONFEDERATE FLAG MARKER, 3rd St. between Broad-
way and Kentucky Ave., is a sidewalk slab telling that here, early in
the summer of 1861, was unfurled the first Confederate flag publicly
shown in Paducah.
4. FORT ANDERSON SITE, Trimble St. between 4th and 5th Sts.,
is the place where the fort's Union guns commanded the Ohio River,
and Confederate soldiers stormed the breastworks (see History).
5. The SOUTHERN HOTEL, NW. corner 1st St. and Broadway, a
three-story brick building, was one of the leading Western hotels in the
1850's. This old structure, which shows plainly the marks of time and
recurring floods, is used by temporary occupants for various commer-
cial purposes. It stands upon the SITE OF THE FIRST INN, a log build-
ing erected by John Field in 1830 on a lot costing $12.
6. MARINE WAYS (open by permission), 101 Washington St., is
a shipyard where river craft are built or reconditioned. Boats to be
overhauled are floated into a "cradle" resting on inclined tracks that
run down from the Tennessee River bank into the water. Resting side-
wise, boats to be repaired are carried ashore on these tracks, and ves-
sels built ashore are launched down them from the cradles. Here are
boats ranging from the old "floating palace" to the newest self-propelled
barge boats.
7. INLAND WATERWAYS CORPORATION SHIPYARDS (open
by permission), Meyers St. between Island Creek and E. City Limits,
build and repair power barges, tow barges, dredges, and tenders.
8. The OLD BRAZELTON HOME (private), NW. corner 6th and
Clark Sts., erected in 1858, was originally a comfortable two-story
frame structure designed to house a large family. During the War
between the States its ten rooms served as headquarters for Gen. Lew
Wallace, for a time commandant of the Union forces quartered in the
city. In it Wallace entertained Grant when the Union chief of staff
came to Paducah on one of his wartime visits.
9. The McCRACKEN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 6th St. between
Clark and Washington Sts., extending to 7th St., is a two-story gray
brick building erected in 1857. Judge Bishop, prototype of the Judge
Priest in Irvin Cobb's stories, sat on the bench in its courtroom.
10. The FEDERAL BUILDING, NW. corner Broadway and 5th
St., is a modern building which replaced the old post office structure
(1883). The present building houses not only the post office, but also
the Federal District Court and Government offices.
11. IRVIN COBB HOTEL, Broadway and 6th St., opened in 1929
with Paducah-born Irvin S. Cobb as the first registered guest. The
fagade is a combination of stone, brick, half-timbers, stucco, turrets
and broken parapets characteristic of medieval English castles. The
romantic feeling of Old English architecture is carried out more fully
in the interior by the elaborate paneling and decorative balconies in
the main lobby.
228 CITIES AND TOWNS
12. LOOSE-LEAF TOBACCO SALES FLOORS (open, sales daily
during marketing season), between Madison and Harrison Sts., and
extending from 8th to 10th Sts., is the center of intense activity during
the marketing season, which begins in mid-December and lasts until
May. The tobacco crop from "the Purchase," prepared for sale on the
farm by a process known as "fire-curing," is offered on the floors, and
sold at auction to the highest bidder. The yield varies widely, depend-
ing upon the season and the prospective market demand at the time
of planting.
13. The FOWLER HOME (private), 619 Kentucky Ave., a two-
story house with 15 rooms, built by R. C. Woolfork about 1830, has
been the home of the Fowler family for five generations. During the
War between the States it served as headquarters for Col. S. G. Hicks,
of the Union Army.
14. The WHITFIELD HOUSE (private), corner 7th St. and Ken-
tucky Ave., built in 1857, was the home of Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, Con-
federate leader. Later it was occupied by Sgt. William G. Whitfield,
said to be the model for the Sergeant Jimmy Bagby of Irvin Cobb's
Back Home Stories.
15. The LANGSTAFF HOME (private), 800 Broadway, is a Vic-
torian Gothic structure erected in the 1850's. It has an ornamental iron
porch across the front, and a railing runs around the roof. The main
fagade is broken by the straight lines of the entrances, projecting sev-
eral feet in bays. Its otherwise plain wall surfaces are relieved by
broad, shuttered windows with dog-eared trim. In the rear of this
home is a BOMBPROOF SHELTER built by residents of the neighborhood
in the 1860's.
16. The ILLINOIS CENTRAL SHOPS (open by permission), Ken-
tucky Ave. and 15th St., are mainly engaged in rebuilding engines.
The 38 separate units, covering 21 acres, take care of all the repair
work on the Illinois Central Railroad south of the Ohio River. The
shops, one of the four largest industrial plants in Kentucky, represent
an investment of $11,000,000 and sometimes employ as many as 2,500
men.
17. The TILGHMAN STATUE, 17th and Madison Sts., unveiled in
1909, was erected by members of the Tilghman family and by Daugh-
ters of the Confederacy to honor Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, C.S.A., who
served with distinction through the Mexican War and later helped
build the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and other important lines through
the South. At the time of the War between the States, Tilghman or-
ganized the Third Kentucky Regiment, C.S.A., and was assigned to the
defense of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. In 1863 he was
killed during the Battle of Champions' Hill. The statue, by Henry
Kitson, of Boston, shows him standing in field uniform.
18. CHIEF PADUKE STATUE, 18th and Jefferson Sts., by Lorado
Taft, was given in 1909 to the city by the Paducah chapter of the
D.A.R. The statue shows the Indian chieftain sitting, staring into
distance.
PADUCAH 229
19. GARLANDS (private), 1710 Kentucky Ave., is a two-story yel-
low brick structure erected in 1833. A spacious porch of much later
construction almost conceals the simple lines of the original dwelling.
This was the home of Linn Boyd, Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives (1851-1855). Mrs. Boyd (nee Anna L. Rhey) was the cousin
of President Millard Fillmore.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Fort Massac State Park (Illinois), 10 m. N. on US 45 (see ILLINOIS GUIDE).
Ballard Lakes, 29 m.; Buried City, a prehistoric Indian center, 33 m. (see Tour 2).
Part III
Highways and Byways
Tour 1
(Portsmouth, Ohio) South Portsmouth Ashland Catlettsburg
Paintsville Prestonsburg Pikeville (Norton, Va.) ; US 23, the Mayo
Trail.
Ohio Line to Virginia Line, 194.6 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed in most places; remainder graveled.
Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. parallels route throughout.
Accommodations chiefly in towns.
This route follows the low bluffs along the curving Ohio River; the
Big Sandy Valley, and the Levisa Fork, a tributary of the Big Sandy
River. In the southern section it passes between a cordon of small
hills that increase in height toward the south until, at the Kentucky-
Tennessee border, they are stopped by the great purple and green wall
of the Cumberland Mountains. Veined by the river and its tributary
creeks and locked on three sides by hills and mountains, the Big Sandy
country was the last part of Kentucky to be surrendered to the white
man by Indians. Game abounded here and salt licks were plentiful;
until 1795 this common hunting ground was regularly visited by Creeks,
Choctaws, and Cherokees from the South, and by Shawnees, Miamis,
Delawares, Wyandottes, and Illinois from the North.
The rest of Kentucky had already been cleared before this section
was settled, and in the 1820's population in the Big Sandy Valley aver-
aged only about six inhabitants to the square mile. But hardy, inde-
pendent men continued to come into the valley by way of the four gaps
through the Cumberlands and along the Indian trails, or down the Ohio
and up the Big Sandy Rivers to the dark hills beyond. These men
established farms in open hollows; the loggers arrived later, to "bring
daylight in the swamp" and send millions of logs floating down the Big
Sandy; little towns arose in some of the more accessible pockets of the
region ; and to the long-sounding toot of the packets that plied the river
was added, in the 1870's, the clear sharp whistle of locomotives an-
nouncing the coming industrialism. The hills were tapped for their min-
eral resources and coal mining became a major industry in the valley;
in some of the larger towns small factories developed. Today the Big
Sandy Valley has hard-surfaced roads, modern hotels, schools, and
churches. As seen from US 23, it has a settled appearance. Just across
the hills from the river, however, the isolation still continues. Side
roads leading off from the highway are few; in the remote hollows, or
on the steep slopes of countless hills, are lonely little cabins where the
spinning wheel is kept busy and the wagon carries the family to
"buryin's," "meetin's" or "foot-washin's." This is Jesse Stuart's coun-
233
234 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
try (see Literature) and the locale of Jean Thomas' stories about
the hill people of the Big Sandy region.
US 23 crosses the Ohio Line m. at Portsmouth, Ohio (see Ohio
Tour 21), by way of a bridge (autos 25$, pedestrians 5$) over the
Ohio River.
SOUTH PORTSMOUTH, 0.4 m. (660 alt., 500 pop.) (see Tour 11),
is at the junction with State 10 (see Tour 11).
Between FULLERTON, 2.4 m. (1,239 pop.), and Greenup the high-
way closely parallels a long right-angle bend- of the near-by Ohio and
crosses fertile bottoms behind the dark, squat bluffs that border the
river. Fruit growing is the chief activity in this level region.
GREENUP, 18.7 m. (478 alt., 1,125 pop.), seat of Greenup County,
was named for Christopher Greenup, Governor of Kentucky (1804-
1808). The town was known as Greenupsburg until 1872 when the
name was changed to avoid confusion with Greensburg in Green County.
The old brick GREENUP COUNTY COURTHOUSE was erected in 1811 to
replace an earlier one built of logs with puncheon floor and benches.
Greenup is no longer an important river port, and only a few farmers
use the old ferry between this point and Haverhill. But the town still
attracts the hill folk so colorfully pictured in the autobiography and
short stories of Jesse Stuart. Greenup was almost obliterated by the
disastrous flood of 1937 when the entire population was suddenly ma-
rooned, and desperate efforts had to be made to prevent destruction.
During his later years Daniel Boone (see Tour 17 A) is said to have
made his home on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River near Greenup.
About 1799 he removed from Kentucky to West Virginia by going up
the Ohio in a canoe made of the trunk of a tree.
Right from Greenup on State 2, an improved road, to RACCOON IRON FURNACE
(R), 6.5 m., not operated since 1872. The final charge of ore has never been
removed.
East of Greenup as US 23 passes through some of the best eastern
Kentucky bottom lands, there are occasionally fine views of the sweep-
ing Ohio River.
RACELAND, 26.2 m. (1,088 pop.), has a track that is the center for
horse racing in eastern Kentucky.
RUSSELL, 28.1 m. (549 alt., 2,084 pop.), named for John Russell of
Ashland, one of the region's former ironmasters, lies directly opposite
Ironton, Ohio, with which it is connected by a highway bridge (autos
20$, pedestrians 5$). The town has grown up around the large rail-
road yards, containing 147 miles of track, owned and operated by the
Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Company. A modern car shop with a capacity
for rebuilding 45 cars daily is also here.
In the vicinity of Russell are a few ivy-mantled ruins of old blast
furnaces that are the sole reminders of the iron industry that flourished
here and on the opposite side of the Ohio from about 1812 until the
closing decades of the nineteenth century. These silent and ghostly
structures sprang up as enterprising capitalists began exploiting the rich
TOUR I 235
iron, coal, clay, stone, and timber resources of the region. The pioneer
furnaces were called "salts" because the iron they produced was cast
in 40-inch pots used for evaporating salt. The Ohio River offered con-
venient transportation; shortly pots and pans, fireplace implements,
waffle irons, trivets, and the like were being made here and sold up and
down the Ohio and Mississippi. With the coming of the industrial
period and the building of railroads, dozens of furnaces in the iron fields
bordering both sides of the river roared with activity. Plumes of pale
blue smoke curled skyward and then films of wood ash settled on the
hillsides as the tapped furnaces surrendered the molten metal that was
to become cannon and rails and plowshares and machines. A special
class of men arose, the ironmasters, mostly Scots and Englishmen, who
gave flavor and excitement to the entire region as they compelled their
men and their furnaces to produce more and better iron and large per-
sonal fortunes for themselves. They were the lords of the country
living in regal mansions in the larger towns and visiting Maysville or
Cincinnati for week-end jollities, yet they mingled freely with their
workers and cared for them paternally in hard times.
The opening of a new furnace meant a holiday celebration attended
by the ironmaster, his family, and all his workers. Old songs were
sung, and after the sun was up (there was a superstition about this)
a lady, often the betrothed of the ironmaster's son, lighted the first fire
in the furnace. At noon a prodigious feast was served, consisting of
quarters of barbecued beef, sweet potatoes, large loaves of bread, and
burgoo large pieces of prime steer, vegetables, and imported spices
boiled in a large kettle. The blast was applied and the ironmaster, cer-
tain that he had another successful furnace, mingled with the crowd and
received their congratulations. Young couples stood upon the runners
and pressed their initials in the pig iron mold; if the initials of a young
man and woman were broken off in the same piece of iron from the first
cast, they would be married and the bonds of matrimony would be as
strong as bands of iron. When night came, square dances were per-
formed in the spacious commissary until a horn blast ended the fes-
tivities as the next shift came on duty at the furnace.
The furnaces had their greatest activity about the time of the War
between the States. The discovery of superior metal in the Upper
Great Lakes region and the depletion of the local ores caused iron
making to decline in this area; the rise of the Youngstown-Pittsburgh
region brought it to an end. The furnaces still standing have been cold
and silent for decades, and the steel mills at Ashland look elsewhere
for their iron.
Through Ashland and southeast of it, the highway continues for 10
miles through the concentrated industrial area of eastern Kentucky.
ASHLAND, 33.4 m. (552 alt., 29,074 pop.) (see Ashland).
Points of Interest: American Rolling Mills, Ashland Coke Company Plant, Cen-
tral Park.
236 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Between Ashland and CATLETTSBURG, 39.3 m. (552 alt., 5,025
pop.) (see Tour 16), US 23 and US 60 (see Tour 16) are united.
Between Catlettsburg and Louisa US 23 abruptly leaves the Ohio and
Big Sandy Rivers (the latter flows into the Ohio just east of the town),
and makes a short cut back through the hill country with its frame
houses in the good bottoms, log cabins up narrow hollows, small patches
of tobacco, one-room schoolhouses, and an indefinable sense of isola-
tion.
At 51.6 m. is the junction with an unmarked graveled road.
Right on this road to the TRAIPSIN' WOMAN'S CABIN (open by request), 1.6 m.,
owned by Jean Thomas, founder of the American Folk Song Festival (adm. free).
On the second Sunday of June each year a large audience gathers here to hear
the ballads and see the folk dances presented by the mountain people. The songs
and dances are performed with strict attention to appropriate costuming, steps,
and music. Women in linsey-woolsey, slat bonnets, and homespun shawls dance
to the tunes of "Chimney Sweeper" and "Prince Charley." Mrs. Thomas, whose
home is in Ashland, Ky., was born of mountain folk and early became interested
in the folk customs of her people. Traveling through the mountains, sometimes in
a jolt wagon, sometimes on foot, she made a study of the legends, ballads, and
dances of the Kentucky mountaineer. Her works include Devil's Ditties, a collec-
tion of songs, and the Traipsin' Woman, an account of her experience in the Cum-
berland Mountains.
Mrs. Thomas' log cabin is a reproduction of the type occupied by the more pros-
perous settlers of 100 years ago. It is on an eminence among wooded hills. Jilson
Setters, the left-handed fiddler from Lost Hope Hollow, who journeyed to London
to sing for the English Folk Song Society, sings ballads of his own creation about
his travels. He helped Mrs. Thomas found the folk pageant. It was the moun-
tain people who first called Mrs. Thomas the "traipsin' woman," for they described
her journeyings from county to county as "considerable spells of traipsin'."
LOUISA, 75.7 m. (526 alt., 1,961 pop.), seat of Lawrence County,
was named for Louisa, Duchess of Cumberland. It is a pleasant old
town, dating from the flatboat era, and is in a region of considerable
natural beauty at the head of navigation on the Big Sandy River. Dur-
ing the Napoleonic wars thousands of bearskins were collected along the
Big Sandy and Kanawha Rivers and sent from Louisa down river to
the Ohio, then down river to New Orleans, and thence to Europe, where
they were made into headpieces for Napoleon's grenadiers. Big Sandy
has been used for transportation for more than a century. Packets and
barges superseded the crude early flatboats; down Tug and Levisa
Forks came millions of logs from the forests of the upper valley, bound
for Louisa and the sawmills along the Ohio River; the Chesapeake &
Ohio Ry. built a terminus here decades ago. Today an occasional
steamboat continues to carry traffic between this point and Catletts-
burg.
At the northern end of Louisa along US 23 is the BIG SANDY
DAM (L), the first movable needle-type dam built in the United
States. This dam was erected in 1896 at a cost of $396,305.
The old FREESE HOUSE (private), at the end of Sycamore St. over-
looking the Big Sandy, is the only old Georgian Colonial home in
Louisa. This two-story brick structure, with walls 13 inches thick, was
TOUR I 237
built about 1840. A front porch and a rear ell have been added, and
the house has been painted red with white trim. The original yellow
poplar woodwork, all of it hand-whipsawed, is still in place. This was
first the home of Capt. Milton Freese, who operated packets on the Big
Sandy and Ohio Rivers for 50 years.
According to a tradition, believed by many, George Washington,
before the Revolution, had a tract of 2,084 acres surveyed on both sides
of the Big Sandy River, including the present town site of Louisa. The
story is supported by the fact that a cornerstone on this survey bears
the initials "G.W."
Another tradition concerning the selection of the Kentucky- Virginia
boundary relates that three commissioners, selected by the Governors
of the two States, arrived late one evening in October 1799 at the point
where Louisa now stands. Rains had been falling and the waters of
both forks of the Big Sandy were rising. After the commissioners had
enjoyed the refreshments and conviviality of pioneers, it was decided
that the boundary should follow the larger fork of the Big Sandy. The
next morning the Tug Fork, which had been rising steadily during the
night, appeared to be much larger than the Levisa Fork and forthwith
became the boundary. The commissioners departed before the slowly
rising waters of the Levisa, normally the larger of the two, reached the
junction of the forks. Satisfaction with the result was widespread;
many years later it was realized that, had the Levisa Fork been selected,
the rich bottom lands and extensive mineral resources of the Big Sandy
Valley would have remained a part of Virginia.
There is a story that in 1760 John Swift left Alexandria, Va., with
a party and came through the mountains to some place in Kentucky
where they knew of a silver mine. They worked the mine that summer
and returned to Virginia in the fall ; a program they repeated each year
until 1769. A manuscript of their travels and operations gives the dates
of the various trips and the names of Swift's companions. It asserts
that they also had some interests in piratical enterprises along the
Atlantic Coast, and gives an account of money coined and treasures of
thousands of dollars hidden when either Indians or the weather made
it difficult to get the money out. Although the journal seems to point
to the region around Paint Creek in Johnson County as the place where
Swift's party camped and worked and the Mine Fork of Paint Creek
was so named for their mine, nearly every county in eastern Kentucky
has a tradition linking it with this romantic story; searching for the
lost treasure has long been a favorite pastime in Kentucky, Virginia,
North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Left from Louisa on State 37, a paved road, to the center of the FORT GAY
BRIDGE (toll 15$ for auto and driver, 15^ each additional passenger), 0.5 m.,
over the point where the Levisa and Tug Rivers converge to form the Big Sandy.
This bridge connects two States (West Virginia and Kentucky), two counties,
two towns, crosses two rivers, charges two tolls, and has three approaches. There
is an excellent view here of the Big Sandy River.
238 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Right on State 3, from the center of the bridge, a short distance to the so-
called "Point" section, between the forks of the Big Sandy. The first settlement
in Lawrence County, consisting of three cabins connected by palisades, was
founded here in 1789 by Charles Vancouver of London, England, who had re-
ceived a grant of land from King George III in 1772; the patents were issued by
Governor Randolph of Virginia in 1768. William M. Fulkerson, an attorney of
Louisa, has in his possession this old parchment document with the official seal
of the Lord Mayor of London.
South of Louisa the highway (now graveled) follows Levisa Fork
through mountain farm lands typical of the Big Sandy Valley. There
are a few small villages, but most of the region appears to be unin-
habited as the hills near the highway conceal more distant hills in the
hollows and bottoms of which are trie cabins and farms of the moun-
taineer. Hard put though he is to scrape a living from his steep and
sometimes unfertile patches, the mountaineer has a deep attachment
for his farm and his home; he would not think of forsaking them (as
long as they are his) to go out to "the level land" beyond the moun-
tains. Proud and sensitive, he is quick to resent the flouts of outsiders,
and contemptuous of any of his own kind who "git above their raisin'."
He is unfailingly kind and hospitable because he holds individuality in
high esteem; his cabin often has a place set at the table for a chance
visitor, he is "mighty proud" to meet someone he likes, and his tradi-
tional invitation is, "Drag up a cheer and sit a spell."
In these hollows bearing such names as Lonesome, Troublesome, and
Peevish, the traditions, songs, customs, and handicrafts of the original
settlers still survive among their descendants who continue to live in
the same way and often in the same places as their great-grandsires.
The pattern of life is simple but tenacious. The typical mountaineer
owns a cow, a couple of mules, hogs, chickens, geese, turkeys, and
ducks. His house is usually a log cabin. He raises corn and tobacco
for a "money crop," an acre of cane for sorghum, and potatoes, turnips,
and sometimes pumpkins and apples for winter use. Wild berries,
game, and fish in the mountain streams also provide him with food.
The material with which he clothes his family is still woven on hand
looms and he needs money chiefly for taxes; many of his possessions he
acquires by barter. Paths and old creek beds join hollow to hollow and
serve in lieu of roads. The ham a traveler eats at one of the town
hotels in this region quite likely comes from a Chicago packing house
because the mountaineer cannot bring in his hogs from his farm four
miles away.
Music is second only to religion in the hearts of the mountain peo-
ple; and while the women have preserved the handicrafts of their an-
cestors, it is the mountain men chiefly who have cherished their songs.
The fiddle, the dulcimer, the banjo, and the guitar are met with at
infares (weddings), dances, frolics, and impromptu gatherings; and to
this day there is found in the mountains of Kentucky the wandering
minstrel who trudges along quiet creeks and into lonely hollows to
bring cheer with his "sure-enough fiddle" (as contrasted with the chil-
TOUR I 239
dren's gourd fiddle) and his songs. Religious extremists call these lively
jigs or sweet romantic ballads "devil ditties." But it delights most of
the mountain people, from the "leastuns" (youngest children) to the
grandsires, to gather about the minstrel who can sing and play these
old, sometimes Elizabethan, songs that their ancestors knew in the
shires of England or the highlands of Scotland; a "right ditty singer"
means as much in their lives as a "mighty knowin' " doctor or a good
preacher. Some of the more famous mountain minstrels are said to be
able to carry on for days without repeating themselves. Old favorites
include "Lord Lovell," "The Dying Knight's Farewell," "Lady Isabel
and the Elf Knight," "Barbara Allen," "Thread the Needle," "Rickett's
Hornpipe," "Give the Fiddler a Dram," "Lord Dannel," "Pa's Done Et
the Shotgun," and "My Gal is Billy-be-Damned."
The mountaineer's life is hard but self-contained, and the sense of
independence is his most prized trait. His psychology is still that of
the frontier; he is suspicious of outsiders, takes strong measures against
real or fancied wrongs, yet withal is extremely sociable. He describes
his neighbors as sometimes "contrarious," sometimes "witchy" (claim-
ing power to bewitch people) ; others are "flighty" and some are
"drinlin" (frail). He respects "larnin'," even though he may not be
able to read or write himself, so long as it does not make the possessor
flout the ways of his people. Rooted to the soil and ancestral tradi-
tions, the mountaineer's concern with elemental things gives him a
strength of character and a basic permanence that is not found else-
where in the United States; to find his like, one must look to the Eng-
lish yeoman.
At 106.5 m. is the junction with State 40 (see Tour 17); between
this point and Paintsville, US 23 and State 40 are united.
PAINTSVILLE, 108.3 m. (620 alt., 2,411 pop.), seat of Johnson
County, was named for PAINT CREEK which flows through the
town, and along which early settlers found many of the large trees
stripped of their bark and embellished with drawings of birds and
animals, painted in red and black on the smooth undertrunk of the
trees. There were found also odd figures of buffalo and deer painted
in red and black on the clifflike sandstones of the creek gorge. Various
undecipherable hieroglyphs were once visible near the drawings, but
these have become obliterated by the weather during the last 40 or 50
years.
The town is on the SITE OF PAINT LICK STATION, an old trading
post. Indian traditions cling to this part of the valley, which was ap-
parently a favorite burial ground of the Indians. On the hills surround-
ing Paintsville many graves and burial mounds have been found; and
artifacts, such as pipes, tomahawks, pottery, and beads, have been
taken from them. The ROCK HOUSE, a natural rock formation with a
circular opening cut to provide entrance, stands on a hill facing the
river just north of Concord Baptist Church. Such shelters, bearing
evidence of Indian occupation, replaced wigwams in times of danger.
Paintsville is at the junction with State 40 (see Tour 17).
240 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
EAST POINT, 114.5 m. (627 alt., 265 pop.), lies directly across the
Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River from Blockhouse Bottom, the
SITE OF HARMON'S STATION. This, the first fort, in the Big Sandy
Valley, was founded in 1787 by Matthias Harmon and a party of set-
tlers from Draper's Meadow. Attacked by Indians in 1788, the station
was abandoned and burned, but a year later rebuilt.
In the fall of 1787, while practically all the men from Harmon's
Station were on a hunting trip in the Big Sandy Valley, a band of
Cherokee and Shawnee attacked the home of Jennie Wiley at the settle-
ment of Walker's Creek. With Mrs. Wiley were her 15-year-old brother
and her four children. Realizing from the actions of the two leaders
that they had mistaken her home for that of Matthias Harmon, who
had defeated the Indians a few days before, Mrs. Wiley tried to fight
them off only to see three of the children and her brother tomahawked
and scalped. After setting fire to the cabin, the Indians, with Mrs.
Wiley and her 15-month-old baby as captives, left the settlement.
During the 11 months in which she was held, Jennie Wiley saw them
kill her baby by dashing its brains out against a tree.
During the winter the Indians camped near the head of Cherokee
Creek. While they were on one of their hunting trips, Mrs. Wiley,
bound with rawhide thongs, crawled to the corner of the cabin; she
allowed the rain to drip through the roof and to fall on the leather
until it stretched. Then she freed herself and escaped down Little Mud
Lick Creek and up another small stream, which the settlers later named
Jennie's Creek in honor of this brave pioneer woman. At East Point
she crossed the river on a log and reached Harmon's Station just before
the Indians who were pursuing her appeared on the opposite side.
The Bottoms between East Point and Prestonsburg were used as
camping grounds during the War between the States by Union forces
under Gen. James A. Garfield.
PRESTONSBURG, 121.2 m. (643 alt., 2,105 pop.), between the
river and the hills, was first known as Preston Station, named for Col.
John Preston, a surveyor from Augusta County, Virginia, who camped
here in 1791. The erection of John Spurlock's house on this site in
1791 distinguishes Prestonsburg as the oldest settlement in the Big
Sandy Valley. The building stood here for many years as a landmark.
On Second Ave., north of Court St., is the house used as COLONEL
GARFIELD'S HEADQUARTERS (open by request) during his Big Sandy
campaign. The building, facing the river, is a rambling two-story
frame structure with brick end chimneys and a two-story veranda across
the front. Soldiers camped 300 yards north of the house.
During the War between the States the Big Sandy Valley was the
scene of an important military campaign. The Battle of Middle Creek,
fought on January 10, 1862, within three miles of Prestonsburg, deter-
mined the control of eastern Kentucky and drove a Union salient into
the broken Confederate line that cut across southern Kentucky. Col.
James A. Garfield, who commanded a brigade of Ohio and Kentucky
troops under General Buell, planned and executed the campaign. In a
TOUR I 241
month he succeeded in driving the Confederate forces under Gen.
Humphrey Marshall from the Big Sandy Valley, causing them to re-
treat into southeastern Virginia, thereby preventing them from descend-
ing the Ohio River to Cincinnati. The Battle of Middle Creek was the
first substantial victory for the Union cause. It was the success of
Garfield's campaign in the Big Sandy that gave him the general's star
and started him on the road leading to the Presidency.
A story is told that illustrates some of the difficulties of the cam-
paign. The Big Sandy was in flood, the roads deep in mud, and the
brigade in need of supplies. Garfield, with one other soldier, descended
in a skiff from Pikeville to Catlettsburg where they found the steamer
Sandy Valley. He loaded the boat with supplies and commanded the
captain and crew to pilot him back to Pikeville. The captain refused,
so Garfield took the wheel himself, and after a perilous trip reached
Pikeville.
Between Prestonsburg and Pikeville the highway winds along the
east side of Levisa Fork, much of the distance in plain sight of the
river.
At 130.5 m. is the junction with State 80 (see Tour 18).
US 23 passes through several little towns whose men work irregularly
in the numerous hillside coal mines of the area (see Tour 19). Since
the highway has opened this region to products from the South, the
farmers, living a mile or two back from the road, are no longer able to
sell the garden products with which they formerly paid their taxes;
their situation is desperate. In this region dwell many relatives and
descendants of the Hatfield and McCoy families, whose feuds were
notorious for several generations (see Tour 19).
Back from the highway are isolated little graveyards usually perched
on hilltops under a cluster of oak trees. Many of them have "grave
houses" rude log and clapboard shelters that the mountaineers cus-
tomarily erect over and around the graves of their relatives.
PIKEVILLE, 152.2 m. (680 alt., 3,376 pop.), with its long narrow
streets, is surrounded by thickly timbered countryside that ranges from
the hilly to the mountainous; neighboring roads reveal scenes of wild,
almost breathtaking, beauty. Although the Levisa, which flows through
the town, no longer carries its once heavy burden of logs and other
freight, Pikeville is still a lumbering and coal mining center. It is also
the administration office of the Pikeville terminus of the Chesapeake
& Ohio Ry. It was named for Zebulon M. Pike, the explorer, and was
developed chiefly by the younger sons of the Rees family of Virginia
who took up thousands of acres here.
The HOTEL JAMES HATCHER, Main St., completed in 1931, has an
odd assortment of relics on display in its lobby ox-yokes, hoop skirts,
cannon balls, ox-shoes, chain dogs, cant hooks, bootjacks, spinning
wheels, looms, and flintlock rifles. On the walls are popular bits of
rural humor: "To live a long life, reside in Pikeville the only city
on the map where an undertaker ever failed in business"; "There is a
noticeable increase in population in these mountain counties. Why?
242 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
True mountaineers obey the commandments and never allow a twin
bed in their homes"; "Visiting Pikeville is like making love to an old
maid. You'll have to do it all over again"; and "We serve free beer if
you are over 95 years old and accompanied by your parent."
Pikeville is at the junction with US 119 (see Tour 19); between
Pikeville and JENKINS, 191.5 m. (1,527 alt., 8,465 pop.) (see Tour
19), US 23 and US 119 are united (see Tour 19).
South of Jenkins the route leads over continuous elevations to the
crest of Pine Mountain, thence through historic POUND GAP, 194.6 m.
(2,366 alt.), a mountain pass that connects the South with the Big
Sandy Valley. It is called a wind gap because water no longer flows
through it. Pound Gap, like many mountain passes, has been a high-
road of adventure and romance. The Kentucky, the Cumberland, and
the Big Sandy head near it; Indian trails passed through it; pioneers
eventually utilized it. At first called Sounding Gap because the rocky
formation seemed to give back a hollow sound, the name was corrupted
to Pound Gap.
A marker on the Kentucky side of the gap lists important dates in
the early history of the State and of this pass.
Pound Gap is on the Virginia Line, 20.5 miles west of Norton, Va.
(see Virginia Tour 15).
Tour 2
Winchester Stanton Jackson Hazard Junction with US 119; 161.9
m. State 15.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Louisville & Nashville R.R. roughly parallels entire route.
All types of accommodations in larger towns; limited elsewhere.
This route, between Winchester and the junction with US 119, passes
from the fertile fields and spacious farmhouses of the Bluegrass region,
along Indian and pioneer trails and winding streams, to the wooded
hills of the mist-hung Appalachians.
WINCHESTER, m. (981 alt., 8,233 pop.) (see Tour 16), is at the
junctions with US 60 (see Tour 16) and US 227 (see Tour 17A).
Southeast of Winchester State 15 winds through rolling country to
INDIAN OLD FIELDS (R), 11 m., the SITE OF ESKIPPAKITHIKI, an
Indian village that was here from about 1718 to 1754, and is believed
to have been the last one in Kentucky. Early Scottish traders, referred
to the Piqua, a band of Shawnee who lived here, as Picts, and their
TOUR 2 243
village as Little Pict Town. The first white settlers found remnants
of Indian cornfields, cabins, and a palisade here.
At 12 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Left on this road to OIL SPRINGS, 0.5 m., a once popular resort marked by
an abandoned hotel and a few servants' quarters. There are both sulphur and
chalybeate springs here. Like others in the vicinity, they contain traces of
petroleum.
The overflow from the springs forms LULBEGRUD CREEK, beside which
John Finley, Daniel Boone, and several others camped in 1769. They had been
reading Gulliver's Travels at night by the campfire, when one evening one of the
men returned to camp and reported that he, like Gulliver, had been to Lorbrulgrud,
capital of Brobdingnag, and had killed two of the inhabitants. He had in reality
been to near-by Oil Springs and had killed two buffaloes. The name, twisted into
Lulbegrud, is still applied to the creek.
Left 4 m. from Oil Springs on a trail, passable in good weather, to PILOT
KNOB, 800 feet above the plains. The superb view from this point includes
the towns of Winchester and Mount Sterling, 20 miles distant. From this summit
John Finley and Daniel Boone (see Tour 17 A) first glimpsed the Bluegrass up-
lands in 1769. Pilot Knob had been a landmark to Indians passing up and down
the great Warriors' Trace many years before the first pioneers arrived in Ken-
tucky.
CLAY CITY, 19.5 m. (628 alt., 528 pop.), is the site of the once
prosperous Red River Iron Works, known as early as 1802 for the
superior quality of the nails, stoves, plowshares, cannon balls, and
other products manufactured in its blast furnace and forge. Tradition
states that many of the cannon balls used in the War of 1812 were
made here.
STANTON, 24.3 m. (562 alt., 423 pop.), seat of Powell County, is
on the flood plain of Red River. Stanton, first called Beaver Pond
for a small lake created by a beaver dam in the swampy lowlands just
east of the town, was renamed in 1852 to honor Richard H. Stanton
of Maysville, Representative in Congress from 1849 to 1855. Hunting
is a popular sport during the fall season in the extensive woodlands
of the mountainous region surrounding Stanton, where small game, in-
cluding fox, raccoon, opossum, rabbit, and squirrel are plentiful.
SLADE, 36.4 m. (890 alt., 418 pop.), is a hamlet lying in rugged
uplands.
Right from Slade on graveled State 11 to NATURAL BRIDGE STATE PARK,
2.6 m. (adm. adults 10$, children 5$; overnight parking, 25$; lodge, shelter houses,
hotel and cabins; boating and bathing facilities). NATURAL BRIDGE, a reddish
rock-span of the Paleozoic era, forms a dividing ridge between Wolfe and Powell
Counties. Contrary to the popular impression, it was not carved by stream
erosion but by the disintegrating action of wind, mist, rain, and frost on the
softer conglomerate limestone under the hard capstone. This vast arch has a
clearance of 92 feet, a width between abutments of 76 feet, and a roadway breadth
of 24 feet. Trails lead to the top of the bridge, from which there is a magnificent
view of the surrounding countryside. In the park's 1,127 wooded, hilly acres
are cliffs and huge balanced rocks, as well as a profusion of wild flowers, rhodo-
dendron, and mountain laurel.
244 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Between Slade and Jackson the route is through a deep gap in Holly
Ridge, the mountain on the south side of which the highway follows
a small ravine which is cool even in the hottest weather. The surround-
ing hills are covered with shrubs and vines and in the spring and early
summer they fairly glow with mountain laurel and rhododendron. At
intervals the waters of mountain streams can be heard plunging against
rocks.
South of this peaceful valley the highway winds in and out, making
sweeping curves and sharp turns to the top of FROZEN MOUNTAIN
(1,500 alt.) . From this point is a panorama of jagged cliffs rising above
wide expanses of woodland. In late fall the varicolored foliage of the
deciduous trees chiefly scrub oak contrasts pleasingly with the green
of the conifers. South of Frozen Mountain the highway follows the
devious course of the North Fork of the Kentucky River.
JACKSON, 77.9 m. (790 alt., 2,109 pop.), the seat of Breathitt
County, straggles over a hillside around which the North Fork curves.
Houses in this town face a narrow valley through which the river flows
toward a towering mountain. Jackson, named by admirers of Andrew
Jackson, was formerly so isolated that its inhabitants retained for many
years the customs and peculiarities of speech of their pioneer English
ancestors. Since 1890, when the railroad was extended from Lexing-
ton, Jackson has become a distributing point of merchandise for the
remoter mountain regions and its residents have abandoned not only
the feuds (see Tour 19) which caused the county to be called Bloody
Breathitt but also most of their distinctive mountain customs and
occupations. One of the latter, "senging," or the gathering of ginseng,
was an important source of income of the early settlers. The roots
of this herb were dried, baled, and shipped to China where they are
valued for their medicinal properties. The hillspeople especially the
womenfolk used to troop into the mountains at dawn with sacks and
small hoes. There they worked busily all day filling their bags with
roots which they dragged wearily home at twilight. At the end of each
week all of the dried ginseng was exchanged at the country store for
" factory" gingham and calico, salt, soda, coffee, and other necessities
that could not be produced on the little hillside farms. There was
keen competition among "sengers" for the award given to the digger
who had brought in the greatest quantity by the end of the season.
The prize, often a pair of coarse shoes or only a bright ribbon, was
eagerly coveted, and the winner was lauded throughout the county.
LEE'S JUNIOR COLLEGE, at Jackson, established in 1864, is main-
tained by the Presbyterian Church of Kentucky. The school is co-
educational and has an enrollment of approximately 100 students.
In QUICKSAND, 82 m. (673 alt., 90 pop.), is a substation of the
forestry division of University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. A
tract of 15,000 acres here is devoted to experiments in reforestation.
On the top of a ridge in Quicksand overlooking the river is a large
MOUND of unknown origin and purpose. It consists of an immense
VI. IN THE BLUEGRASS
. :
I I
CHURCHILL DOWNS, LOUISVILLE
WAR ADMIRAL, WINNER OF THE 1 93 7 KENTUCKY DERBY
V
MAN 0' WAR
COMING OUT OF PADDOCK, CHURCHILL DOWNS
:
II
BLUE GRASS TROTTERS IN ACTION
ON DIXIANA FARM
i.
STABLES AT ELMENDORF
IDLE HOUR STABLE
m
, , m
V I
A %
m ^
>v
-"'*i:
SPRING IN THE BLUEGRASS
BLESSING OF THE HOUNDS CEREMONY BY IROQUOIS HUNT CLUB
GRIME'S MILL HOUSE, HEADQUARTERS OF IROQUOIS HUNT CLUB
ROAD THROUGH THE BLUE GRASS COUNTRY
A KENTUCKY PIKE
TOUR 2 245
heap of stones, many of which are believed to have been brought from
a considerable distance. In a neighboring valley is an Indian village
site that has yielded some artifacts.
Quicksand is the scene of the annual Robinson Harvest Festival
(last Thurs. and Fri. of Sept.), during which products of the fireside
industries of the mountain people are displayed and sold, and contests
in folk singing and dancing are held.
RIVERSIDE INSTITUTE in LOST CREEK, 89 m. (40 pop.), is de-
scribed as a "small Berea" (see Tour 4). Here about 70 mountain
boys and girls are given vocational training. The school is conducted
by the United Brethren in Christ. This Protestant sect was founded
in the United States by Philip W. Otterbein (1726-1813).
Between DWARF, 114.3 m. (900 alt., 118 pop.) (see Tour 18) and
120 m., State 15 and State 80 (see Tour 18) are united.
HAZARD, 121.6 m. (833 alt., 7,021 pop.), seat of Perry County,
was named by men who served under Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle
of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813. Shortly after the close of the War
between the States, natural gas was discovered in this region, and in
1917 oil was found. In 1910 Hazard had only 537 inhabitants, but
after the Louisville & Nashville R.R. tracks had been extended from
Jackson into the Perry County coal fields one of the finest in the State
Hazard grew steadily. Because of the ready accessibility of fuel, a
large steel mill has been erected in the town. Large quantities of
timber are still available in this vicinity and numerous sawmills are in
operation.
The French-Eversole feud, which began in 1882, was principally con-
fined to Perry County. The worst conflict occurred in Hazard (1888)
where members of one faction barricaded themselves in the courthouse
and the other faction occupied nearby dwellings and stores. Twelve
men were killed and several were wounded in this battle.
Between Hazard and Whitesburg the highway leads through rugged
hills and short fertile valleys. Lonely little cabins with their small
patches of corn perch on the ridges or nestle in the coves. This is the
region of Chaucerian English, old ballads, and the dulcimer (see Tours
1, 18, and 19).
WHITESBURG, 160.2 m. (1,146 alt., 1,804 pop.), seat of Letcher
County, is named for C. White, a member of the legislature when the
county was formed. Before the coming of the railroad in 1912, Whites-
burg with a population of 300, was the only town in Letcher County,
and lumber milling was the chief industry. Between 1880 and 1890
great quantities of timber from the vast forests along the headwaters
of the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers were floated downstream to
the mills here from which lumber was shipped to many parts of the
world.
At 161.9 m. is the junction with US 119 (see Tour 19).
246 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Tour 3
( Cincinnati, Ohio ) Newport Cynthiana Paris Lexington Nicho-
lasville Lancaster Somerset (Chattanooga, Tenn.); US 27.
Ohio Line to Tennessee Line, 221.4 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific R.R. parallels route between Eubank
and Tennessee Line.
All types of accommodations in larger towns; limited elsewhere.
This route crosses rolling hills, fertile Bluegrass lands, and the foot-
hills and mountains of southeastern Kentucky. US 27, bordered by
white rail fences or old stone walls, passes fine farms in central Ken-
tucky with their stately old mansions; great stables kept with the tidi-
ness of a Dutch kitchen ; sleek horses, purebred cattle, and sheep brows-
ing in blue-tinted fields; and broad acres of waving grain, tobacco, and
hemp.
Section a. OHIO LINE to LEXINGTON; 98.3 m. US 27
US 27, the Lookout Mountain Airline, crosses the Ohio Line, m.,
at Cincinnati, Ohio (see Ohio Tour 26), on the Central Bridge (toll
10$ to 75$) over the Ohio River.
NEWPORT, 1 m. (512 alt., 29,744 pop.), directly above the con-
fluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers, is within the Cincinnati met-
ropolitan area. Seen from a distance on winter days when the city
is blanketed with Cincinnati's smoke, Newport seems to be a gray
lake buoying up church spires and chimneys. Most of the buildings,
erected in the days of chimney pots, coal stoves, and open fires, are of
brick and are utilitarian in workmanship and design. The town is
quiet on weekdays, when so many of its citizens have gone over the
river to work in Cincinnati, but on Saturdays farmers from the nearby
fertile farm lands come to do their trading or discuss crops and politics.
A young soldier by the name of Hubbard Taylor came here in 1790
with the Kentucky troops from Lexington, on their way to join St.
Clair at Fort Washington. When young Taylor saw the lush vegeta-
tion here, he went no farther. Acting as agent for his father in Vir-
ginia, he bought holdings and roughly planned the town, naming it
Newport in honor of Christopher Newport who had come to America
in 1607 as commander of the first ship to reach Jamestown.
There is no record of what became of Hubbard; two years later
when his brother James came to visit the family holdings, he found
TOUR 3 247
little except the name and the fine land. James returned to Virginia
and the following spring came back to Newport with Robert Christy,
an Englishman. He also brought his wife, two slaves, a pair of blooded
horses, and farming and household equipment.
During the first two years the place continued to be little better than
a clearing in the wilderness, though in 1 796, a year after its incorpora-
tion as a village, Newport became the county seat. In 1798 William
Kennedy and other prominent citizens of northern Kentucky estab-
lished Newport Academy, a school that soon became famous throughout
the region. In spite of early steps in education and the building of
churches, more than one citizen protested through the Cincinnati papers
against the practice of staining Newport's riverbanks with gore from
frequent duels. Others spoke against the custom of burning useless
flatboats on the riverbanks; still others complained of disturbances
made by inebriates.
By 1835 Newport had again been incorporated, this time as a city.
The mayor and the trustees seem to have been men of dignified man-
ners and strict morals, judging from the laws they passed. Hallooing
was declared illegal, day or night; swearing was likely to cost five
dollars; swimming was prohibited within the town limits between
4 A.M. and 9 P.M.; and four trustees had to give permission for the
interment of any body within the public burying ground.
Like other Kentucky towns, Newport was caught between the North
and the South during the War between the States. A mob of Southern
sympathizers in 1856 destroyed the office and equipment of the True
South, an abolitionist newspaper. Many secessionists were arrested;
prominent men were found hiding from Union sympathizers in the
cellars of their homes; female Southern sympathizers insulted Union
soldiers.
By the eighties and nineties, Newport was enjoying a mild boom
the only one in its history. The coming of Germans in large numbers,
the completion of bridges over the Ohio to Cincinnati, and the growth
of the county agricultural population, were all contributing factors.
The many small industries gave place to a few large ones such as
breweries and a steel mill; while quick, cheap transportation tempted
more and more of its citizens to go over the river for work. In 1921
steel workers in Newport began a strike that lasted for seven years
(see Labor).
Newport has grown little within the past 40 years. Many who might
settle here prefer the higher elevation at Fort Thomas; others who must
work in Cincinnati move there in order to save time and carfare.
THE SOUTHGATE HOUSE (visit by appointment), 24 E. 3rd St.,
now a clubhouse, was built by Col. Wright Southgate about 1821. This
20-room brick mansion later passed into the hands of the Talliaferro
family. The house is Southern Colonial in design and has a winding
staircase of mahogany and a small observation tower with four win-
dows, each less than one foot square.
248 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
The JAMES TAYLOR MANSION (visit by appointment), 3rd and
Overton Sts., is now a funeral home. It occupies the site of the frame
building erected in 1812 by James Taylor. A discontented slave burned
the first home in 1837, and soon after, Taylor built this four-story brick
and frame mansion. The pillared veranda originally faced the river,
and a winding driveway formed a semicircle through the shade trees
surrounding the house, but in 1888 the house was remodeled so that
the back became the front. The name Taylor is still legible on the
front door, while his love of horses is shown by the figure of a brown
horse standing on the spread wings of an eagle above the motto "Ready
and Faithful."
The interior of the house has wide halls, a winding stairway, and
spacious rooms with ceilings 16 feet high that are supported by wooden
columns of Corinthinian design. The basement, which was used to
house the slaves, has stone walls that are two feet thick, low ceilings,
and small windows heavily barred. The basement dining room still
contains the plank dining tables, scarred by countless jackknife blades
of restless slaves. Many notables were served by these slaves; among
them Lafayette.
The TAYLOR METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 123 E. 3rd St., is a
simple red brick building with plastered walls, cherry pulpit, and hand-
made wooden pews. It was erected in 1831. In the deed to the lot
appears the name of Henry Ward Beecher, then a student at Lane
Theological Seminary in Cincinnati.
From the NEWPORT CITY PARK, a six-acre wooden tract on the point
between the mouth of the Licking River and the Ohio, is a view of
downtown Cincinnati. The U.S. Government acquired part of this
area in 1803 by gift and purchase from James Taylor. Between 1806
and 1884 this was the site of Newport Barracks, the headquarters in
1812 of the 5,000 militia under Col. Isaac Shelby (see Tour 5) that
later marched to reinforce General Harrison against the British. The
drills, parades, and Sunday band concerts grew to be a colorful part
of the town life, and on summer Sundays attracted barge-loads of
Cincinnatians. After the great Ohio River flood of 1884 had inundated
the barracks, the post was moved to what is now Fort Thomas, and all
that remains today are a part of the brick wall and a bronze cannon
captured from the Spanish at the battle of San Juan Hill.
At the NATIONAL BAND AND TAG COMPANY PLANT (no admission),
720 Orchard St., are manufactured metal and celluloid identification
bands for poultry, game, and livestock. Since each band must bear
the name and address of the animal's owner, all work is done to order
and a large percentage of the business is carried on by mail, orders
being secured through advertisements in national farm papers and
magazines.
The CAMPBELL COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SW. cor. 4th and York Sts.,
a brick structure of Tudor design with stone trim, stands on the plot of
ground deeded to the city by James Taylor for one shilling in 1795.
The first log courthouse built here the following year was replaced in
TOUR 3 249
1815 by a brick building called the Palace of Peace. The present
building, erected in 1884, has a large window of colored glass, a
rotunda, and a clock tower. On the elm-shaded grounds are two
cannon.
About 3,000 men are employed at the ANDREWS STEEL COMPANY
PLANT (no admission), 9th and Lowell Sts. There are about 30 build-
ings in which are manufactured such varied steel products as refrigera-
tors and truck bodies, and heavily galvanized sheet metal for South
American ranchers who use them to protect their crops against hordes
of grasshoppers.
Between Newport and Cynthiana, US 27 traverses the outer Blue-
grass. The land is quite hilly in some places, gently rolling in others.
Valleys and creek beds are cut deeply into the limestone; there are
occasional stands of second- or third-growth timber, and in spring the
wild plum, dogwood, and redbud are much in evidence. Outside the
towns the homes are usually modest farmhouses, frequently backed by
tobacco or cattle barns.
FORT THOMAS, 4.3 m. (852 alt., 10,008 pop.), is an attractive
residential city of secluded streets and landscaped lawns and gardens
on a rolling ridge that rises between the Ohio and Licking Rivers.
Most of its people are connected with the business and industrial life
of the metropolitan area.
In the COVINGTON WATERWORKS, occupying an extensive area in
Fort Thomas, water drawn from the Ohio River is filtered and pumped
through supply mains to reservoirs. The reciprocal agreement by which
Fort Thomas draws its water supply from the Covington reservoirs in
return for the space occupied by the waterworks has been in effect for
many years.
A 90-foot water tower, of rough-hewn Kentucky limestone, South Fort
Thomas Ave. at the entrance to Fort Thomas Military Reservation,
was presented by citizens of Covington, Cincinnati, and Newport as a
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR MEMORIAL. It commemorates members of
the U.S. Infantry who lost their lives in that war and Brig. Gen. Harry
Clay Egbert, colonel of the 6th Infantry during the Cuban campaign,
who was killed in action in the Philippines. The two cannon near the
tower, excellent specimens of the workmanship of Spanish gunsmiths
of the eighteenth century, are trophies of the Cuban campaign.
The FORT THOMAS MILITARY RESERVATION (open with restrictions)
was named for Gen. George H. Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga."
The site was selected in 1887 by Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, and the first
building, the commanding officer's quarters, was completed in 1888.
The present development of the fort represents an investment of nearly
$4,000,000. The post has been garrisoned continuously since its estab-
lishment, except for a period in 1911 and 1912. The 10th U.S. In-
fantry (drills daily at 8:00 and 11:45 A.M.; parades Tues. and Thurs.
at 4:30 P.M.,) is now stationed here, and this is the headquarters of
the eastern Kentucky district of the CCC, which, consists of approxi-
250 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
mately 5,000 men. From the driveway as it circles the parade ground
and drill field is a wide-spreading view of the Ohio River Valley.
ALEXANDRIA, 14.2 m. (845 alt., 424 pop.), in a rich agricultural
area, is an old village with sturdy brick homes and many trees. On
the highest promontory of the county, in the heart of the village, is
the old brick CAMPBELL COUNTY COURTHOUSE, whose clock tower and
dome are visible for miles. Many valuable old records are housed
here. When Kenton County was formed from the western half of
Campbell County, the seat of government was transferred from Visalia
to Alexandria. Through the years this little town has clung tenaciously
to the honor of being the county seat, though Newport has its own
courthouse and criminal and chancery courts, and keeps the records
relating to northern Campbell County.
Alexandria is at the junction with State 10 (see Tour 11).
In GRANT'S LICK, 22.4 m. (1,293 pop.), a village originally set-
tled by the Grant family, relatives of Daniel Boone, salt was manu-
factured at the old salt lick as early as 1793.
The old COVERED BRIDGE, 30 m., across the Licking River, is 500
feet in length, one of the longest wooden bridges in existence.
The Licking River is a narrow, deep-flowing stream whose canal-
like lower course is now the scene of commercial activity. Barges from
the Ohio enter it and discharge their cargoes at private landings along
its banks. The Licking rises near the Virginia border and flows in a
northwesterly course across the State, traversing the "big bend" region
and forming the dividing line between Kenton and Campbell Counties.
Long before the white man came, it was the route by which the Indians
who lived north of the Ohio River entered the Bluegrass region abound-
ing in deer and buffalo. On August 19, 1782, on the banks of the
Licking occurred the fierce Battle of Blue Licks (see Tour 15), and
from the spot where the Licking joins the Ohio, George Rogers Clark
launched his avenging drive against the Indians on the Little Miami.
Again, at the outbreak of the War of 1812, it was from the mouth of
the Licking that the soldiers of Kentucky marched against the allied
British and Indians. When the war with Mexico broke out, Newport
Barracks was a rallying point of volunteers who helped form the con-
quering armies that crossed the Rio Grande. In a later day, when the
Union was torn by the struggle between North and South, the banks
of the Licking, at this point, were again a center of military activity.
At 36 m. is the junction with State 22 (see Tour 13); between this
point and Falmouth, State 22 and US 27 are united.
FALMOUTH, 39.3 m. (525 alt., 1,876 pop.), known as the Island
City, is at the confluence of the Main and South Licking Rivers. Its
tree-shaded streets and well-kept old houses create an atmosphere of
hospitality. First settled in 1776, the town was established in 1799
by Virginians who named it for Falmouth, Virginia. Until 1854, when
the railroad was extended to this point, Falmouth was a village of
"mud roads, tin lanterns, and tallow dips." All merchandise had to
be hauled in covered wagons from Foster's Landing, 13 miles distant,
TOUR 3 251
on the Ohio River. The stores were "swapping posts," where feathers,
rags, tallow, hides, furs, beeswax, ginseng, ax handles, and whisky
were exchanged for calico, sugar, coffee, gunpowder, and lead.
One of the earliest sawmills in the State, established at "Fallsmouth"
(Falmouth) in 1793, was advertised in 1794 in the Cincinnati Centinel
of the North-Western Territory:
Plank and scantling of every kind, delivered at the mill or in Cin-
cinnati, on the shortest notice. Orders will be thankfully received and
pointedly attended to. T
JOHN WALLERE.
Fallsmouth, Forks of Licking, Dec. 15, 1794.
N.B. The subscriber will be down with a quantity of planks as soon
as the water of Licking will admit.
In June 1780 Captain Bird of the British Army, with a Canadian
and Indian force of 600 men, ascended the Licking River to the con-
fluence of its forks at Falmouth. Here he landed his cannon and con-
centrated his forces. From this point he proceeded on his march to
the attack of Ruddle's Station, about seven miles north of the present
town of Paris; his trail can be distinguished in many places by the
blazes that still mark the trees.
Pendleton County, of which Falmouth is the seat, is sometimes called
"the county that came back." At one time a third of its population
moved away because of the decreasing productivity of its land. Even-
tually the remaining residents adopted new methods of cultivation and
planted clover and other soil-enriching crops on the barren wastes.
Today beekeeping is an extensive business, annual shipments of honey
approximating 2,000,000 pounds. A queen-rearing plant is in operation
in the region in which 4,000 queen bees are bred and shipped to various
parts of the State.
Falmouth is at the junction with State 22 (see Tour 13).
CYNTHIANA, 64.7 m. (718 alt., 4,386 pop.), lying in the outer
Bluegrass region, on the banks of the South Fork of Licking River,
is a residential town with a leisurely social life, and a background of
tradition, culture, and wealth. Established in 1793 and incorporated
in 1806, Cynthiana was named for Cynthia and Anna, two daughters
of the first settler, Robert Harrison. The stately old red-brick HAR-
RISON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Main St., was built in 1851 in Greek
Revival style, with an octagonal clock tower. Preserved in this build-
ing are valuable county records, many of them bearing the handwriting
of prominent statesmen, including Henry Clay who in 1801 was ad-
mitted to the bar of the Quarter Sessions Court at Cynthiana.
Directly back of the courthouse square is an old log house, built in
1790 and used successively as a courthouse, law office, printing office,
photograph gallery, and residence. In this house Bishop H. H.
Kavanaugh and Ambrose Dudley Mann, later special commissioner of
the United States Government to the German Spates (1846), special
252 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
agent to Hungary (1849), and to Switzerland (1850), served as ap-
prentices. The Guardian of Liberty, Cynthiana's first newspaper, was
also published in this old building. A left wing, also built of logs, has
been added recently.
The JUDGE BOYD PLACE, on Pike St. R. from Main St., faces the
river. This mansion, built in 1807 and designed in the late Georgian
Colonial manner, is still in excellent condition. On the outskirts of
town, on N. Main St., is a BURYING GROUND established in 1793; it
contains many old gravestones.
Cynthiana was the scene of a severe battle during the War between
the States. On July 17, 1862, Gen. John H. Morgan, with about 800
men, captured the town which was defended by a Federal force under
Col. John J. Landrum. Much of the fighting was around the old
covered bridge over the Licking River.
Again in 1864 General Morgan, with 1,200 men, captured the town
after two days' fighting. Federal forces, under the command of Gen.
E. H. Hobson, surrendered. On Sunday morning, June 12, 1864, the
day after the battle, General Morgan's troops, fatigued from the fight-
ing, were suddenly attacked by Gen. Stephen G. Burbridge and a force
of 5,000 fresh troops. This surprise attack resulted in the retreat of
General Morgan's troops. Most of the business section of Cynthiana
was destroyed by fire during the fighting and the loss of life on both
sides was unusually heavy.
Cynthiana is at the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14).
Left from Cynthiana on Millersburg Rd. to BATTLE GROVE CEMETERY,
1 m., the site of the second day's battle on June 12, 1864. A Confederate monu-
ment, erected in 1869, memorializes the spot. A monument here to the memory
of Harrison County soldiers who lost their lives in the Mexican War was erected
in 1848 on the Courthouse Square, but was moved to Battle Grove in 1868.
Between Cynthiana and Stanford the route, bordered with old stone
walls and shaded by rows of honeylocust trees, goes through the inner
Bluegrass, one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the country.
It was a landowner in this region who, upon hearing one night from a
guest that there was a weed in one of his 10-acre pastures, got up and
went hunting with lights and lanterns until he found it. Judging from
the neatness of the pastures, the story might well be true; barns and
stables in the Bluegrass are clean as can be, the old elms and beech
trees in the pastures show signs of careful pruning, and the stone walls
are neatly and strongly built, some having stood for more than 150
years with no help from cement. In many places the mansion with its
attendant barns, trainers' and laborers' quarters, stables, and paddocks
has the look of a small prim village.
In the early days, settlers on this fertile land used it to produce
almost all of their needs corn, wheat, hogs, sheep, cows, horses, blue-
grass for pasture, clover for hay, and oats for feed. Hemp and tobacco
were grown to be sold, and from the beginning the horse was an im-
portant product. But as the western corn and wheat lands were opened
TOUR 3 253
to settlement, the functions of the Bluegrass farms decreased in num-
ber. Cultivation of tobacco and the breeding of horses are predominant
now, the Bluegrass farmer often finding it cheaper to buy his oats and
corn than to use precious tobacco land and pasturage for their cultiva-
tion.
PEAVINE'S HIGHLAND CHIEF STUD, the well-known saddle horse farm
(L), at 68.1 m., is typical of many in the Bluegrass region. Harrison
Chief, the prize winner admired by all lovers of the Kentucky saddle
horse, was bred here; his stall is still preserved.
Across the Licking River from the tiny settlement of LAIR, 69.2 m.,
is the LEWIS HUNTER DISTILLERY (open), still producing the same
brand of whisky it made in the 1860's.
The EWALT HOUSE (open), 75.2 m., was built (R) in 1794 by Henry
Ewalt, a soldier in the Revolutionary War. On a 200-acre tract, for
which he paid 110 pounds sterling, he erected a two-story frame house
with a stone chimney, seven feet wide and three feet deep at the base,
at each end. About 1808 a stone ell of four rooms was added to the
house; its walls are 22 inches thick. The interior walls are paneled in
ash and walnut and decorated with hand-carved moldings. This site
has belonged to the Ewalt family since 1788. In the old burying ground
near the house are graves of several members of the Ewalt family.
At 78.8 m. is the junction with State 40 (see Tour 17); between this
point and PARIS, 80.3 m. (826 alt., 6,204 pop.) (see Tour 15), US 27
and State 40 are united. Paris is also at the junction with US 68 (see
Tour 15) and US 227 (see Tour 17A).
Between Paris and Lexington, US 27 and US 68 are one route (see
Tour 15).
LEXINGTON, 98.3 m. (957 alt., 45,736 pop.) (see Lexington).
Points of Interest: Homes of Henry Clay, Gen. John Hunt Morgan, Mary
Todd Lincoln, and John Bradford; Transylvania College, University of Kentucky,
loose-leaf tobacco market.
Lexington is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), US 25 (see
Tour 4), and US 68 (see Tour 15).
Section b. LEXINGTON to TENNESSEE LINE; 123.1 m. US 27
South of Lexington, m., US 27 passes through several towns of the
Bluegrass, towns that draw their life from the surrounding country
rather than from industrial establishments. They are centers of market
for tobacco and stock, and distributing points for farmers' needs.
Many wealthy farmers live in town, and rent their two or three farms
to others. Busy days in spring or a good spell of tobacco-stripping
weather find the towns almost deserted, for the farmers do not have
time to loiter on the courthouse lawn. On Saturdays the streets are
crowded with farm folk and gay with Negro laborers who have come in
from their jobs of stock tending or field work. The tobacco season
254 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
comes in late fall and early winter ; it is then that the town is crowded
with sellers and buyers whose trucks and wagons, canvas-covered, creak
along the country lanes and highways under loads of cured, stripped,
and tightly pressed white hurley.
ALLEGHAN HALL (R), 2.7 m., with its massive Ionic columns and
fine proportions, is a good example of the Greek Revival type of archi-
tecture in Kentucky. A stone fence covered with honeysuckle and roses
encloses the tree-shaded lawn, and iron gates guard the circular drive-
way. This site was part of a 2,000-acre tract that formerly belonged
to John Campbell of Louisville. Ownership of the land changed several
times before William Pettit bought it and built Alleghan, just before
the outbreak of the War between the States. During the war Pettit
was driven out of the State, and his home was occupied by Federal
forces. There is a story that upon the outbreak of hostilities Pettit
drove to Lexington, withdrew his money from the bank in gold, and
buried it on his place. He died shortly after his return from his war-
time exile, and in his last hours is said to have made repeated but
futile attempts to reveal the hiding place of the treasure.
NICHOLASVILLE, 12.5 m. (947 alt., 3,128 pop.), seat of Jessamine
County, resembles a Kentucky town of earlier days. Many old houses
border its quiet, tree-shaded streets. It was first settled in 1798 and
named for Col. George Nicholas, a native of Williamsburg, Virginia,
and a member of the convention that met in Danville in 1792 to frame
a State constitution. A geography, written by Jedidiah Morse and
published in 1789 at Elizabeth town, New Jersey, contains the following
description of this region:
"Elkhorn River, a branch of the Kentucky, from the southeast,
waters a country fine beyond description. Indeed, the country east and
south of this, including the headwaters of Licking River, Hickman's and
Jessamine Creeks, and the remarkable bend in Kentucky River, may
be called an extensive garden . . . The banks, or rather precipices, of
the Kentucky and Dick's (Dix) Rivers are to be reckoned among the
natural curiosities of this country. Here the astonished eye beholds
300 or 400 feet of solid perpendicular rocks in some parts of the lime-
stone kind and in others of fine white marble, curiously checkered with
strata of astonishing regularity. These rivers have the appearance of
deep artificial canals. Their high rocky banks are covered with red
cedar groves."
Right from Nicholasville on the Old Frankfort Pike to the JOSEPH DRAKE
HOUSE, 5 m., which, according to legend, was built prior to 1770 by Joe Drake,
described as a descendant and heir of Sir Francis Drake, the English admiral.
The red brick house contains seven rooms with beams and sills of hand-hewn
logs and massive walnut mantels and cabinets. Parts of the house are joined by
large crude iron spikes, instead of the wooden pegs found elsewhere. The use of
brick and iron makes its alleged age questionable. Across the road on land belong-
ing to the estate is an old burying ground in the midst of a clump of trees. In
the center stands a reproduction of the original gravestone, bearing this inscription:
TOUR 3 255
JOSEPH DRAKE
of
Buckland, Monaghorum England
Born 1694
Died 1777
Beloved Husband of Rebecca Hamble of
Bodwin Cornwall, England.
In a primitive setting is GLASS'S MILL, 6 m., erected in 1782, and said to have
been the first gristmill in Kentucky. It later became a paper mill, and in 1849
was converted into a distillery which is no longer in use.
South of Nicholasville the highway descends gradually along the
banks of Hickman Creek to the Kentucky River.
The CAMP NELSON UNITED STATES MILITARY CEMETERY (L),
19.8 m., contains the graves of more than 500 soldiers who lost their
lives at the Battles of Perryville and Richmond during the War between
the States.
FORMER CAMP NELSON (L) 21.3 m., is at the mouth of Hickman
Creek; this was one of the leading concentration camps for Federal
troops and munitions during the War between the States. It was also
the main camp in the State for the enlistment of Negro troops and a
refuge for Negro slaves. Established in 1863 and named for Gen.
William Nelson, it remained a military camp until the close of the war.
The highway crosses the new concrete bridge over the Kentucky
River. Nearby are the stone abutments of an old covered bridge re-
cently torn down. It was considered an engineering triumph at the
time of its construction in 1838, being then one of the longest wooden
bridges in the United States. The length was 240 feet and no metal
was used in the construction.
At 24.9 m. is the junction with State 152.
Right on this road to the junction with an unmarked graveled road, 2.6 m.
Right on this road to CHIMNEY ROCK, 5 m., a remarkable formation 125 feet
high, carved by slow erosion from the limestone of the Kentucky River cliffs.
At 7 m. is HERRINGTON LAKE (fishing, swimming; motorboats, $1 an hour
or $3 a day ; furnished cabins). This lake was formed in 1925 when the Kentucky
Utilities Company completed the construction of a dam across Dix River near its
confluence with the Kentucky River (see Tour 15). Herrington Lake, 35 miles in
length, covering 3,600 acres and ranging in depth to 250 feet, has a picturesque set-
ting amid cliffs, rolling hills, upland farms, and forests.
In BRYANTSVILLE, 26.2 m. (150 pop.), is (R) BURNT TAVERN
(open), a popular roadhouse in stagecoach days; it was so named be-
cause it was twice destroyed by fire. One wing, which was saved, is
now (1939) more than 100 years old. The porch across the front of
the present two-story brick building is a later addition. This tavern
was the birthplace of Henry Smith, Provisional Governor of Texas
(1824 and again in 1837-38), who was a son of the original owner,
Edward Smith of Virginia.
CAMP DICK ROBINSON, 28.4 m., established in 1861 over the protest
of Beriah Magomn, then Governor of Kentucky, was the first Federal
256 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Recruiting station south of the Ohio River. Gen. William Nelson,
who was in command of the camp, had his headquarters in (L) the old
DICK ROBINSON HOUSE (open), a very long two-story frame building.
In the central third, which is recessed, is a two-story galleried porch,
topped with a gabled pediment.
Right from Camp Dick Robinson on State 34 to a junction, 1m., with an un-
marked road; right on this road to the BIRTHPLACE or CARRY NATION (open),
4 m., at Pope's Landing on Herrington Lake. The long one-story house of logs,
now clapboarded, has outside end chimneys and rear additions. The house has a
pedimented Doric portico of Greek Revival design.
Carry Amelia Moore Nation, the temperance agitator, was born here November
25, 1846. George Moore, her father, was a prosperous stock dealer and her mother
a descendant of Alexander Campbell, founder of the Christian Church. About
1853 the family moved to Glen Artney in Woodford County (see Tour 14) and
two years later to Cass County, Mo., where for a few years Carry attended a
boarding school. She was married in 1867, but because of her husband's excessive
drinking the marriage proved to be an exceptionally wnhappy one and was of
short duration. In 1877 she was married to David Nation, a lawyer, minister of
the Christian Church, and editor of the Warrensburg Journal. After 25 years of
married life, he divorced her in a spasm of revolt against her saloon-smashing activ-
ities. Between 1900 and 1910 Carry, an ardent member of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, became internationally known for her hatchet -wielding against
saloons, in which she indulged until a short time before her death in 1911.
BURDETT'S KNOB (1,090 alt.) 28.9 m., is (L) a monadnock a
hill of resistant rock projecting from a plain that has been greatly
reduced by erosion. It was used in pioneer times by settlers as a look-
out.
The FORK CHURCH, 29.2 m., is (L) a small brick structure, on the
site of the log church, built in 1782 by Lewis Craig and other Baptist
pioneers.
LANCASTER, 35.6 m. (1,032 alt., 1,630 pop.), seat of Garrard
County, like many southern towns, is built around a public square in
the center of which is a small park. On one corner is the red-brick
GARRARD COUNTY COURTHOUSE designed in the Greek Revival style.
The business section encircles the park, from which the tree-shaded
streets radiate. The home demonstration agents of the Department of
Agriculture have been reviving the art of rug-hooking in the county
and some of the women are now placing their products on sale. (Apply
Home Demonstration office in courthouse for Information.) The re-
turns from this home industry are very low but the housewives are
willing to work at it for the sake of bringing in even a small amount
of cash. The town was settled in 1798 by pioneers from Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, who designed and named it for their native city. When
the town founders met to choose a site, Capt. William Buford persuaded
them to build on his land at the crossroads, promising to donate land
for a public square and courthouse, and to provide water for all those
attending court during his life. The numerous public wells that sur-
rounded the square until a few years ago were the result of this promise.
The first courthouse, built in the center of the square in 1798 by
TOUR 3 257
Stephen Giles Letcher and Benjamin Letcher for the sum of 410 pounds
sterling, was torn down in 1868 and the present courthouse erected.
The BRADLEY HOUSE (L), on a spacious lawn on Main St., opposite
the high school, is a red brick Gothic-style structure with seven gables.
This was formerly the home of William O. Bradley, Governor of Ken-
tucky (1895-99).
The old LETCHER HOUSE (open), on Maple Ave., is (R) a one-and-
one-half story clapboarded structure remodeled from a double log house
that was erected in 1789 by John Boyle, who later served as Chief
Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (1810-26) and U.S. Repre-
sentative (1803-09). When Boyle vacated his log cabin home here,
Samuel McKee, who succeeded Boyle in Congress (1809-17), moved
in with his bride. George Robertson, elected to the U.S. Congress in
1817 and Chief Justice of Kentucky from 1829 to 1843, later brought
his bride to this little house. Robert P. Letcher, a young lawyer of
Garrard County, moved in when Robertson left for Washington.
Letcher served as a Member of Congress from 1823 to 1833 and Gov-
ernor of Kentucky from 1840 to 1844; in 1850 he was appointed Am-
bassador to Mexico by President Zachary Taylor.
1. Left from Lancaster on State 52, an improved road, to the junction with the
Walker Pike, 8.4 ra.; R. 1 ra. on this road to the SITE or THE KENNEDY HOUSE.
So many parts of the building have been carried away by antique dealers and
souvenir hunters that only the foundation remains. Harriet Beecher Stowe is said
to have visited this place when she was in Kentucky gathering material for Uncle
Tom's Cabin, which was published (1851-52) first as a serial in The National Era.
Her trips to Kentucky were made while she was a resident of Cincinnati (1832-50).
Gen. Thomas Kennedy owned 200 slaves and 15,000 acres of land, one of the largest
plantations in the South. General Kennedy's daughter, Nancy Kennedy Letcher,
who lived in this house and reared a family of 10 children, is said to have been
the inspiration for the little Eva of the story. Lewis Clark, a Negro slave owned
by General Kennedy, was the George Harper of the story. After the death of
General Kennedy, Clark, who feared that he would be sold on the New Orleans
slave market, fled to Cambridge, Mass., where he lived for many years in the
family of Mrs. Stowe's sister; his descriptions of old slaves are said to have sug-
gested to Mrs. Stowe the character of Uncle Tom.
At 11.6 m. on State 52 is PAINT LICK (250 pop.), a hamlet near the site of
Paint Lick Station, which was established in 1782 and so named because the first
settlers found Indian symbols painted in bright colors on trees and stones along
the creek and around the near-by salt lick.
PAINT CREEK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, designed in the Gothic manner, was
erected in 1872 to replace the second church on this site. The original meeting
house was built of hewn logs in 1782, immediately after the pioneers had reached
Kentucky. Among the prominent clergymen of the period who occupied the pulpit
of this little meeting house were James Blythe and the Rev. David Rice, a min-
ister of the Presbyterian Church. A communion cup with gold markings, easily
mistaken for a shaving mug, and a grease lamp belonging to the first church are
kept in the present building. The BURIAL GROUND adjoins the church. In the
shade of its maple trees are the graves of several veterans of the Revolution, in-
cluding the GRAVE OF GEN. THOMAS KENNEDY.
2. Left from Lancaster on State 39, an improved road, to the SITE OF GIL-
BERT'S CREEK MEETING HOUSE, 2.8 m., erected by members of the Traveling Bap-
tist Church. In 1781 about 600 people left Spotsylvania County, Virginia, under
the leadership of Capt. William Ellis and Lewis Craig, a devout young minister
258 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
who had long chafed against what he considered the injustice of the church laws
of Virginia. On reaching the Gilbert's Creek settlement, the company organized
their church and erected the little log meeting house that became the first Baptist
Church in the State. The building was loopholed and the- settlers brought their
rifles with them when they came to worship. When they bowed in prayer two of
the men stood armed at the door to guard against surprise attacks by Indians.
This building was used by various denominations. Alexander Campbell, founder
of the Disciples of Christ or Christian Church, and the Reverend David Rice, a
pioneer Presbyterian minister, both preached here.
In 1783 Lewis Craig and a part of his congregation moved to South Elkhorn,
about five miles southeast of Lexington, where they established the first Baptist
church in central Kentucky. The church at Gilbert's Creek declined and by 1865
the brick building that had succeeded the little log church had become a ruin.
The foundation of the church and its adjoining graveyard, with a few stately old
walnut and cedar trees standing watch, are all that remain on the hill overlooking
Gilbert's Creek.
The WILLIAM OWSLEY HOUSE (R), 36.5 m. f was built in 1813 on
an eminence overlooking the Wilderness Road. The house is a two-
and-one-half story brick structure of Georgian Colonial design with a
two-story portico. William Owsley, Governor of Kentucky (1844-48),
lived here until 1843 when he moved to Boyle County. This house was
also the home of Robert P. Letcher for a few years.
STANFORD, 44.6 m. (1,032 alt., 1,544 pop.), an attractive resi-
dential town with a leisurely life, has many old houses bordering its
quiet tree-shaded streets. It is the seat of Lincoln County, one of the
three original counties of the Kentucky District of Virginia formed in
1780. The red brick LINCOLN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Main St., built
about 1915 to replace an earlier structure, has Ionic porticoes on the
front and sides and a tall clock tower which dominates the town. The
courthouse contains sheepskin documents dating back to the pioneer
era of the State.
Stanford, founded by act of the Virginia Legislature in 1786, is near
the SITE OF ST. ASAPH or Logan's Fort, established by Col. Benjamin
Logan in 1775. When their efforts to capture it proved unsuccessful,
Indians named the settlement Standing Fort, which was later con-
tracted to Stanford. On the morning of May 20, 1777, when the
women of the fort were outside of the gate milking the cows, and the
men were acting as a guard, they were fired upon by more than a
hundred Indians who had concealed themselves in the thick canebrake.
One man was killed and two were wounded; the remainder made their
escape into the fort and closed the gate. Harrison, one of the wounded
men, ran a few paces and fell. Colonel Logan, ignoring the danger,
dashed out of the gate to the spot where the wounded man lay, threw
him on his shoulders and, amidst a shower of rifle balls, made a safe
retreat into the fort which was now vigorously assaulted by the Indians.
When the scarcity of powder and balls made additional supplies essen-
tial, Logan and two companions, under cover of darkness, slipped
through the Indian lines and with almost incredible rapidity made the
journey over the mountains and through the valley to the Holston
River settlements, returning on the tenth day with the ammunition.
TOUR 3 259
A few days later Colonel Bowman with a party of men arrived at St.
Asaph's and compelled the Indians to retire.
1. Right from Stanford on US 150, an improved road, to BRIGHT'S INN (open
on request), 1.5 m., a two-story brick and stone building (R). The brick ell was
added in 1916 to replace a log house built in 1816 and was operated as a tavern
by Capt. John Bright, son of a Revolutionary soldier. Captain Bright's business
flourished; in 1820 he added the stone building that still stands. On the premises
he built a blacksmith shop, stables, slave cabins, coach house, and a horse-powered
gristmill. A cave served as a cooling plant.
The stone section of Bright's Inn has a central hall 10 feet wide and 100 feet
long, with 10 rooms on each side. This hall, with its huge fireplace, was a favorite
gathering place and re-echoed to the dance music of several generations. The
cuisine of the old days was famous for its corn pone baked in a Dutch oven, and
roasts of venison, pork, and beef cooked on the spit. Meals were 25^ with whisky
thrown in, or metheglin, a drink made of honey and vinegar, for the temperate.
Captain Bright, the jovial host, weighed 340 pounds, but in spite of his size often
rode horseback, and insisted that his horse, Nigger, was the fastest in Kentucky
considering the weight it carried.
2. Left from Stanford on US ISO to the WHITLEY HOUSE (open) 10 m., stand-
ing (R) well back from the highway. This structure, built about 1783 by Col.
William Whitley, is said to have been the first brick house in Kentucky; it is now
(1939) being restored and is to be included within a State park.
This tall two-story structure, with walls laid in Flemish bond and with small
windows placed high above the floor, is an interesting example of pioneer archi-
tecture. Restoration of the house has included removal of a comparatively enor-
mous two-story pedimented Doric portico that was probably added after the
family had prospered. Over the simple entrance door are the initials of Colonel
Whitley in brick; the initials of his wife are over the rear door. The interior ex-
hibits much more elegance than the exterior. Over the mantel in the parlor are
13 small panels symbolizing the Thirteen Colonies, and one entire side of the room
has elaborately carved paneling. The handrail of the stairway balustrade is curved
downward and outward to form the newel. Other unusual features of the house
include the high placement of the first floor windows to prevent the Indians from
seeing the occupants and a third floor ballroom, once furnished as a courtroom,
which contained a secret hiding place for women and children. Records show that
Whitley paid for the bricks and masonry with one farm, for the liquor furnished
to the laborers with another, and for the carving (done by a man named Swope)
with still another tract.
William Whitley, born in Amherst County, Va., August IS, 1749, was a skilled
Indian fighter. In this home, a favorite with the important persons of his day,
George Rogers Clark and Gov. Isaac Shelby were guests. Theodore Roosevelt, in
his book, the Winning of the West, describes this house as the center of the reli-
gious, political, and social life of the Transylvania region, and the aristocratic home
of the Wilderness Road (see Tour 4A). Though he was more than 60 years old
when the War of 1812 broke out, Colonel Whitley, disregarding his previous service
and rank, enlisted as a private and was killed in the Battle of the River Thames
in 1813.
At 11.8 m. on US ISO is CRAB ORCHARD (919 alt., 576 pop.), on the old Wil-
derness Road (see Tour 4A), early noted as a watering place because of the num-
ber, variety, and excellence of its mineral springs. The friendliness, hospitality, and
old-fashioned manners in this quiet resort are in keeping with its old buildings.
Crab Orchard Salts, a highly valued medicinal remedy, were produced here by
evaporation.
3. Left from Stanford on the Ottenheim Pike, a graveled road, to the village of
OTTENHEIM, 6 m., a tiny settlement established in 1885 by Jacob Ottenheim,
steamboat and railroad passenger agent. The community, composed of the de-
260 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
scendants of Swiss, Austrians, and Germans the latter predominating has been
noted for the production of wine and Swiss cheese.
South of Stanford, US 27 again penetrates the outer Bluegrass,
though the terrain differs from the outer Bluegrass to the north in that
it is flatter and has low abrupt knobs instead of shaggy hills. There
are fewer horses and more sheep here than in the inner Bluegrass; and
the fields are not so fine. Violets, wild roses, and daisies bloom in
spring and early summer; the yellow-white of honeysuckle and scarlet
of trumpet vine are frequently seen on the 1 fences, and in the fields
bloom Queen Anne's Lace, wild aster, and goldenrod.
Through HALL'S GAP, 51.5 m. (1,200 alt.), on the dividing line
between the Bluegrass area and the mountains, an important road has
run since pioneer times. An observation tower (L), 1,000 feet from
the highway, affords a view on a clear day of five counties. The view
embraces mile upon mile of bluegrass rolling away to the north, and
toward the south and east the first foothills of the mountains are out-
lined against the sky.
EUBANK, 65.9 m. (1,172 alt., 334 pop.), is in an agricultural re-
gion noted for the quantity of buckwheat grown.
SOMERSET, 80.1 m. (879 alt., 5,506 pop.), a growing railroad town,
was named for the Duke of Somerset and made the seat of Pulaski
County by court order in 1801. Built on the sunny side of a sloping
ridge, where surrounding terrain embraces characteristics of both knobs
and mountain areas, Somerset is known as the Gateway to the Moun-
tains. Along its main street are small shops, motion-picture houses,
and a $250,000 hotel, opened in 1930. MEMORIAL SQUARE, Main St.,
is dedicated to Somerset's distinguished citizens, one of them was
Edwin P. Morrow, Governor of Kentucky (1919-23). Somerset has
one of the outstanding school plants of the State; the group of build-
ings, which include CARNEGIE LIBRARY, SOMERSET HIGH SCHOOL, and
SOMERSET GRADE SCHOOL, form an imposing block in this secluded
mountain town. Cyrenius Wait is credited with producing in Somerset,
about 1840, the first raw silk in Kentucky.
Somerset is at the junction with State 80 (see Tour 18).
PISGAH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 86 m,, on an eminence about 200
yards R. of the highway, is one of the State's oldest churches. The
small brick structure is rectangular in shape, with a low square bell
tower. A well-kept cemetery adjoining the church is the resting place
of pioneers.
US 27 crosses the Cumberland River, 89.5 m. t on a bridge (toll 30$).
BURNSIDE, 89.6 m. (705 alt., 914 pop.), straggling along the banks
of the Cumberland River and its confluent South Fork, clings to the
steep slope of a hill. The business section of the town lies at the hill's
base. Here the route crosses the old corduroy road, built and used by
Federal troops during the War between the States. Originally known
as Point Isabel, the town was renamed for the Union general who made
TOUR 3 26l
this his headquarters. GENERAL BURNSIDE'S HEADQUARTERS (R) is a
rambling two-story frame building with a two-story porch.
Burnside is at the junction with State 90 (see Tour 20).
The highway, following a ridge that rises at times to an altitude of
1,300 feet, leads through rugged, wooded hills and along winding
streams.
PARKER'S LAKE, 104.3 m. (1,256 alt., 200 pop.), is at the junc-
tion with State 90 (see Tour 4B).
WHITLEY CITY, 112.2 m. (1,322 alt., 1,200 pop.), seat of Mc-
Creary County, is one of the highest county seats in the State. Until
the formation of the county in 1912, this was one of Kentucky's most
isolated regions; the people, dwelling in log cabins, led a primitive life
in their small self-sufficing communities. Hostilities frequently de-
veloped, and feuds (see Tour 19) were common. With the building of
US 27, Whitley City developed rapidly into a progressive community
with modern schools, churches, and a new fireproof brick courthouse.
STEARNS, 114.9 m. (2,176 pop.), is the center of a thriving lumber
industry and a shipping point for both the coal and timber of the
region.
PINE KNOT, 118.4 m. (1,410 alt., 500 pop.), until 1913 the seat
of McCreary County, lies in the foothills of the Cumberland Moun-
tains. There is little arable land in the surrounding region except that
along the creek bottoms and on top of the level plateaus.
US 27 crosses the Tennessee Line, 123.1 m., at a point 146 miles
north of Chattanooga, Tenn. (see Tenn. Tour 6).
Tour 4
( Cincinnati, Ohio ) Covington Georgetown Lexington Richmond
Corbin Williamsburg (Jellico, Tenn.); US 25 and 25W Ohio
Line to Tennessee Line, 223.7 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas-Pacific R.R. roughly parallels route between Cin-
cinnati and Lexington, and Louisville & Nashville R.R. between Richmond and
Jellico.
All types of accommodations in cities; limited elsewhere.
US 25, locally called the Eastern Dixie Highway, reveals a typical
cross-section of Kentucky. It crosses the low wooded hills of the
Ohio River, passes rolling orchard land and prosperous country estates
with waving bluegrass meadows, and between the great gorge cut by the
Kentucky River and the rugged foothills of the Appalachians, follows,
Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road.
262 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Section, a. OHIO LINE to LEXINGTON; 84.1 m.
US 25-42 crosses the Ohio Line, m., on the southern outskirts of
Cincinnati (see Ohio Tour 22), on the OHIO RIVER SUSPENSION BRIDGE
(toll 15$). This bridge with its 1,057-foot middle span was built in
1867 by John A. Roebling, who also designed New York's Brooklyn
Bridge.
COVINGTON, 0.5 m. (513 alt., 65,252 pop.) (see Covington).
Points of Interest: Carneal House, Devou Park, Monte Casino Chapel, St.
Mary's Cathedral, Latonia Race Track, Baker-Hunt Foundation, and William's
Natural History Collection.
Covington is at the junction with US 42 (see Tour 12).
Right from Covington on Main St. to the junction with State 20, 0.2 m.; L. on
State 20 to LUDLOW, 2.3 m. (6,485 pop.), overlooking part of Cincinnati's indus-
trial waterfront from its slightly elevated position before the high Kentucky hills
that press it against the Ohio River. Ludlow had a few settlers in the 1790's, but
was not chartered as a village until 1864. Today it is an industrial city that manu-
factures furniture, compressing machines, and brass and electrical apparatus; the
shops of the Southern Railway are also here.
MASONIC LODGE HALL (open to Masons), on Closson St., Greek Revival in style,
was built in 1832 by Simon Kenner of Baton Rouge, La., as a summer residence.
The story-and-a-half brick structure has a central hall, 44 feet long, flanked on
either side by spacious rooms, trimmed in fine woodwork. In 1885 this property
was bought by A. B. Closson, from whom the Unity Lodge of Freemasons pur-
chased it in 1924.
ELMWOOD HALL (open weekdays, 8-6), 244 Forrest Ave., is a low, compact, stuc-
coed building, built of stone and brick in 1819 by Thomas Carneal. Its hip roof
is topped with an observation deck 16 feet square. The building, now occupied
by the Eda E. Thomas Candy Company, originally faced the narrow driveway
that leads from the street. The fagade, with its recessed Doric portico and its
small-paned windows, is still handsome. (The original portal, with fanlights and
side lights, is gone.) The central room on the north side was formerly a recep-
tion hall. Most of the fireplaces, with brick hearths, marble borders, and mantel-
pieces, remain.
In its early days Elmwood Hall estate, stretching down-river for 2.5 miles, was
densely covered with beech, oak, walnut, and elm trees; it became a vast park
and bird sanctuary, and tame deer, bison, and elk grazed on its 1,000 acres. Bril-
liant parties and receptions took place here. In 1827 William Bullock, owner of
the Piccadilly Museum in London, bought the place as a site for a dream city,
which he wanted to call Hygeia. Bullock went back to England for awhile and
wrote a book about his American travels that featured an account of the model
city it was to have "cultural" gardens along the river, streets with imposing
names, inns, theaters, baths, and even a brewery. He then returned to Elmwood
Hall and gave a long series of balls and gatherings, in honor of such personages
as Mrs. Frances Trollope, Henry Clay, New York Governor De Witt Clinton, and
President James K. Polk. When his model town idea died, Bullock sold Elmwood
to Israel J. Ludlow, son of one of the three founders of Cincinnati, who continued
to uphold Elmwood's tradition of hospitality.
BROMLEY, 3.6 m. (489 pop.), a Ludlow suburb of small workers' cottages, is
squeezed tightly against the river by the dark hills behind it. Garden patches are
strung along the river opposite the few steamers usually offshore on the Cincin-
nati side, where houses and some industries fill the bottom land. In Bromley,
houses clamber, stairstep fashion, up the steep, rugged heights. On a slight rise
TOUR 4 263
sloping down to State 20 (L) is the LANDMARK, a two-story house that, tradition
relates, was built in 1765 it was probably built later. About 2,000 pieces of stone
went into the construction of this dwelling whose walls are almost two feet thick.
White pine was used for the flooring ; ash trees, split in half and still showing their
woodland bark, made the cellar rafters; and black walnut was used for door sills
and other purposes. Hand-wrought nails and wooden pins hold the structure to-
gether. A keystone on the east wall of the house bears the head of an Indian in
stone. The present owner has installed hardwood floors on the first story, mod-
ernized the large open hearths and the old narrow, enclosed stairways, and built
a frame addition. The small, one-story frame structure east of the house formerly
stood to its rear and was a slaves' quarters.
The route continues westward over a narrow shelf of land continually flanked
by dark hills and the broad quiet sweep of the Ohio. Plain little frame houses
having garden patches, cornfields, and some livestock around them stand by the
road or near the river; an occasional summer house of the lodge type is seen.
The Cincinnati suburbs are in view across the river. On State 20 is CONSTANCE,
7.4 m. (87 pop.), a river village whose old FERRY HOUSE (R), a large and sub-
stantial structure, did a bustling trade before the turn of the present century. The
little steam ferry operated for many decades by the Anderson family still plies
back and forth on the Ohio River at this point and a few shantyboats sometimes
tie up here ; but Constance's real river life is gone. Fleets of long, low, steel barges
pushed by blunt-nosed stern-wheelers commonly called towboats sweep by with
never a pause, bound for the big industrial cities up or down the Ohio. Steamers
pass by once in awhile, and occasionally the Gordon Greene, last of the packets
making the trip up-river to Pittsburgh, is seen, a graceful white creation.
Between Covington and Florence US 25 and US 42 are one route,
traversing the hilly orchard land of the Ohio River's north bend, with
a fine view of Cincinnati and the winding river.
FORT MITCHELL, 4.4 m. (359 pop.), is a residential suburb.
During the War between the States, when Confederate forces, in 1862,
were threatening an invasion of the North, Gen. Lew Wallace the
author of Ben Hur and the commander of the Union forces assigned to
the defense of Cincinnati led 15,000 men across the Ohio River on a
hastily constructed pontoon bridge formed of coal barges. He erected
a series of defensive earthworks reaching from the Ohio River at Brom-
ley on the west to the banks of Licking, then to the Ohio near Fort
Thomas. These temporary defenses were under the direction of Pro-
fessor Ormsby Mitchell, and were called by his name. The FORT
MITCHELL COUNTRY CLUB, Mitchell Ave., has a nine-hole golf course
and is the local center of social life.
ERLANGER, 8.4 m. (905 alt., 1,854 pop.), is a residential town of
the Cincinnati-Covington metropolitan area.
FLORENCE, 9.8 m. (935 alt., 450 pop.), provides the locale for
one of John Uri Lloyd's best-known stories, Stringtown on the Pike.
Here US -42 turns R. (see Tour 12), leaving US 25.
Right from Florence on State 18, an improved road, to BURLINGTON, 6 w.
(848 alt., 600 pop.), seat of Boone County, incorporated in 1824. Burlington is a
prosperous farm trade center. Cereals and a fine grade of white burley tobacco
are the main agricultural products of the surrounding countryside.
In CRITTENDEN, 26.3 m. (908 alt., 265 pop.), is (R) the LLOYD
RESERVATION, founded in 1918 by Curtis Lloyd, professor of botany
264 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
at the University of Cincinnati, for the preservation of native plant life ;
it covers more than 400 acres. The Wild Flower Preserve, in a wood-
land on the reservation, contains every known species of this region.
On the preserve is a community house, built by Professor Lloyd, and a
log cabin containing fine old furniture.
Near the southern limits of Crittenden on US 25 is (R) the SHERMAN
TAVERN, a one-story frame structure, 26.7 m., once the most popular
inn on the stagecoach route between Cincinnati and Lexington. It had
the first plastered interior walls in this section of the country, one of
the first pianos in the State, and its proprietor dispensed free bourbon
to guests. The bar still occupies a room in the rear of the house.
Lafayette is said to have spent a night here in 1825, while traveling by
stage from Cincinnati to Lexington, Kentucky.
DRY RIDGE, 33.4 m. (929 alt., 97 pop.), first called Campbell's
Station, was settled before 1792 near a mineral spring later valued for
its medicinal qualities. Between Dry Ridge and Williamstown, US 25
and State 22 (see Tour 13) are united.
WILLIAMSTOWN, 36.5 m. (943 alt., 917 pop.), a lively town and
the seat of Grant County, is in the fertile agricultural region. It was
named for William Arnold, who in 1820 gave the land for the public
buildings, and free timber to all who purchased lots from him.
South of Williamstown the gently rolling highway is flanked by fields
of tobacco and corn, and pastures in which cattle browse.
CARDOME (open by permission), 70.2 m., was built (R) in 1821
by Maj. Benjamin Stuart Chambers, an officer in the War of 1812.
After having passed through the hands of various owners, this fine old
estate, first called Acacia Grove, became a Catholic school for girls.
In 1896 a four-story brick building with a tall square bell tower above
the entrance was added to the original mansion.
GEORGETOWN, 70.4 m. (866 alt., 4,229 pop.), with its many large
trees and old houses, is a college town and the seat of Scott County.
Incorporated by the Virginia Legislature in 1790, and named for George
Washington, the town grew up around and still obtains its water supply
from ROYAL SPRING (R), one block from the highway on Water St.
The spring was discovered and named, in 1774, by Col. John Floyd, a
pioneer adventurer and surveyor, who was impressed by the volume
and crystal clearness of its water and by the beauty of its setting.
In 1775, John McClelland, a landowner residing near Pittsburgh,
accompanied by his family and several frontiersmen, floated down the
Ohio River in flatboats to Salt Lick Creek, now in Mason County.
Here they were joined by Simon Kenton (see Tour 15) and Thomas
Williams. When they reached the Royal Spring in 1776 they built
here. This became an outpost of civilization in the wilderness where
pioneers, passing to and from the larger settlements south of the
Kentucky River, found refuge and shelter. McClelland's Station suf-
fered from frequent Indian attacks; one of these, in December 1776,
was led by the famous Mingo chief, Pluggy, who was killed during
the fight. After the Indians had been driven off, Pluggy was buried
TOUR 4 265
on the bluff that overhangs the spring. For many years superstitious
inhabitants of the settlement believed that the echo in the spring was
the death cry of the Indian chief.
On College St. is GEORGETOWN COLLEGE (L), a Baptist institution,
established in 1829; it has a campus of 20 acres, an enrollment of ap-
proximately 600 students, and awards the bachelor of arts degree.
GIDDINGS HALL, the oldest building on the campus, was erected in
1839 as a monument to Dr. Rockwood Giddings, a former president
of the college. This structure was designed by Dr. Giddings and
erected entirely by student and faculty labor. The bricks, burned and
laid by the students, are of clay dug from a corner of the campus. It
is said that a quart of bourbon reposes under each of the six Ionic
columns of the portico. This stately building is one of the most notable
examples of Greek Revival architecture in the State. The one-story
red brick gymnasium has an Ionic portico between the wings.
An old one-story house at 140 E. Washington St., now in poor con-
dition, has a fine Palladian doorway with carved frame and a well-
modeled cornice, and stands on a stone-paved terrace.
The SHROPSHIRE HOUSE on Main St., has a Greek Revival portico
and an elliptical-fanlighted doorway with side lights. The window
openings on the first story, with long narrow side lights and hinged
panels below the sashes, open on the terrace. Within, a graceful arch
supported by Ionic columns ornaments the hall.
The charming SHOWALTER HOUSE, on W. Hamilton St., of brick
painted white, is designed in the Greek Revival style with four Ionic
columns supporting the pediment of the two-story portico. The house
is on the site of a slave market whose auction block still stands in the
yard.
Georgetown is at the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14) and State
40 (see Tour 17).
Between Georgetown and Lexington US 25 crosses the Bluegrass
the world's finest pasture for the rearing of blooded horses, as is dem-
onstrated by the large number of notable breeders who maintain farms
in it. The highway passes one estate after the other with trim white
fences or old stone walls covered by vines, with large well-kept farm
buildings particularly stables and with tree-shaded country houses,
some of which belong to ante bellum days.
HURRICANE HALL (R), 76.8 m., is an old Georgian Colonial style
house of whitewashed brick, built prior to 1801; it stands at the head
of an avenue of locusts and wild cherry trees, with an aged, vine-
covered end turned to the highway. The wallpaper of the hall and
the parlor was hung in 1817. The old parlor paper, depicting the ruins
of Rome and scenes along the Tiber, was hand-blocked. Roger
Quarles, who built the house, brought his family, slaves, and furnish-
ings in wagons from Virginia.
The house of EOTHAN (L), 81.8 m., was built in 1798 by the Rever-
end James Moore, organizer and first rector of Christ Church Episcopal
parish, later president of Transylvania University. From the gate a
266 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
road winds through a meadow to the house which is concealed from
the road by trees and a hedge of syringa and roses. The one-story
brick structure, painted white, of Georgian Colonial design, has a fine
paneled door and fanlight. On both sides of the doorway is an arched
window. This was the home of the music master, described by James
Lane Allen in his story, Flute and Violin. It was long the home of
Miss Fanny Frazer Redd, granddaughter of Oliver Frazer, the lovable
artist, who purchased the place during the War between the States.
Many portraits painted by him, as well as those by his teacher, Mat-
thew Jouett, adorn the walls.
LEXINGTON, 84.1 m. (957 alt., 45,736 pop.) (see Lexington).
Points of Interest : Homes of Henry Clay, Gen. John Hunt Morgan, Mary Todd
Lincoln, and John Bradford; Transylvania College, University of Kentucky, Loose-
leaf Tobacco Market.
Lexington is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), US 27 (see
Tour 3), and US 68 (see Tour 15).
Section b. LEXINGTON to TENNESSEE LINE, 139.6 m.
South of Lexington, m., US 25 passes through the Kentucky River
gorge, widely known for its scenic beauty, and crosses the KEN-
TUCKY RIVER on a bridge at Clay's Ferry. From a parking space
near the top of the bluff is a splendid view of the palisades and the
winding river.
Between Clay's Ferry and Richmond is a fertile, undulating upland
plain where farming and stock raising are the outstanding occupations
and fox hunting a favorite sport. Hunters in pink mounted on thor-
oughbreds, and those in overalls on farm horses and mules, mingle and
ride to hounds side by side. Young and old, rich and poor, gather at
dawn on a frosty morning at the casting grounds. The master calls
the roll and each handler answers to the number that has been assigned
to his hounds. After the master has instructed the judges, he gives
the word to turn the hounds loose. Without a sound they trot out
of sight.
When the strike is made, the hounds advance in full cry a crescendo
of deep and high shrill tones. Suddenly the beautiful little quarry is
seen in the open, loping speedily and easily over the ground with the
full pack following, each hound baying with every bound. In a flash,
fox, hounds, and hunters are gone the sound grows fainter and dies
away. Kentuckians have inherited a love of this sport from their Eng-
lish forebears. It is said that when "Pidgeontail" Bedford, an in-
veterate follower of the hounds, married and took his bride home, the
house he had built for her had been completed except for the hanging
of the front door. After carrying her over the threshold in the tradi-
tional manner, he set out on his horse to borrow a pair of hinges from
a neighbor. In the snow he saw the track of a fox, and, forgetting his
TOUR 4 267
errand, he and his hound gave chase. It is said that three days elapsed
before he returned with the brush as a present for his bride.
One of the most notable fox hunters of the State, and one of the
most picturesque characters of his time, was Gen. George Washington
Maupin (1807-1868) of Madison County. He is described as having
been primarily a fox hunter, secondarily a trader in Negroes and mules,
and last a planter. With his high peaked cap, flowered waistcoat, and
garish scarf, he was conspicuous at every hunt. The noted Maupin-
Walker foxhound traces its pedigree to his dogs. Foxhounds bred in
this section of Kentucky are shipped to many parts of the world and
many of the field trials of the National Foxhunters Association are
held in this area.
At 22 m. is the junction with Whitehall Lane.
Right on this road to WHITEHALL (open on request), the home of Gen. Cassius
M. Clay, noted abolitionist and, in 1861, Minister to Russia. The tall two-and-one-
half -story building, designed in 1864 in the General Grant manner by T. Lewinski,
a Pole living in Lexington, contains 22 rooms and three wide hallways. It was
built about the original mansion, said to have been the first brick house erected in
Madison County, constructed in 1787 by Brig. Gen. Green Clay, who represented
Madison County, Ky., in the Virginia convention called in 1788 to ratify the Fed-
eral Constitution. It was he who unsuccessfully attempted to raise the siege of
Fort Meigs by the British and Indians in 1812.
RICHMOND, 26.8 m. (926 alt., 6,495 pop.), named for Richmond,
Virginia, and referred to in early writings as a a manufacturing little
log village," is an old town with majestic trees bordering the streets
and many dignified old houses. The first settlement was made in 1784
by Col. John Miller, who served at Yorktown. When Richmond was
made the seat of county government in 1798, the first court was held
in Colonel Miller's barn. The beautiful MADISON COUNTY COURT-
HOUSE (L), on Main St., is on the site of the Miller barn. The build-
ing, completed in 1849, has a pedimented Doric portico surmounted
with a clock tower having two octagonal stages. The flanking wings
are lower than the central unit.
From the spring of 1861, when Federal forces took control of Madi-
son County, to the end of the War between the States, Richmond was a
scene of conflict. Many of its buildings bear the scars of the engage-
ment between Gen. William Nelson's Union forces and Gen. Kirby
Smith's Confederates that took place August 29-31, 1862. The battle,
which began six miles south of Richmond at Mount Zion Church, and
developed into a sharply contested retreat through Richmond and
along the highway north toward Lexington, resulted in the first Con-
federate victory in Kentucky.
In Richmond is the EASTERN KENTUCKY STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE,
which in 1906 took over the buildings and campus of old Central Uni-
versity, established in 1874 and united with Centre College at Danville
(see Tour 5) in 1901. Among magnificent trees is UNIVERSITY HALL,
built in 1874, a three-story brick structure with a Greek Revival portico.
Memorial Hall, built in 1883 to commemorate the 100th anniversary
268 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
of the founding of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, is a men's
dormitory. Outstanding among new buildings is the Coates Adminis-
tration Building, designed in the Renaissance style. It contains the
Hiram Brock Auditorium which has a seating capacity of 1,760. The
library of John Wilson Townsend, historian and author of Kentucky in
American Letters, was purchased by the school in 1930. This includes
one of the largest and best collections of books and pamphlets written
by Kentuckians about Kentucky. Many of the works are autographed
first editions, accompanied by letters relating .to the contents.
In the Courthouse Square is the PIONEER MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN,
erected 1906. Surmounting the tapering shaft is a bronze bust of a
pioneer wearing the traditional coonskin cap. The fountain was the
gift of David R. Francis, Governor of Missouri (1889-1893), a native
of Richmond.
In the RICHMOND CEMETERY (R), on US 25, is the GRAVE OF GEN.
GREEN CLAY, that of his son, Cassius Marcellus, and of his grandson,
Brutus J. The Irvine Monument marks the GRAVE OF CAPT. CHRIS-
TOPHER IRVINE, the Indian fighter, and the GRAVE OF COL. WILLIAM
IRVINE, his brother who was the hero of EstilPs Defeat, 1782. The
Miller Monument stands at the GRAVE OF COL. JOHN MILLER, donor
of the site of Richmond.
IRVINETON (open), Lancaster Ave., was built in 1820 by Dr. A. Q.
Rollins and came into the possession of the Irvine family in 1829.
Mrs. Elizabeth Susan Irvine, at her death in 1918, left the house to
the Medical Society of Kentucky which, in conjunction with the U.S.
Public Health Service, uses it as a hospital for the treatment of
trachoma. Old paintings and heirlooms of the Irvine family remain in
the building, whose bay windows and other alterations belie its age.
Crowning a wooded hill at 27.9 m. is WOODLAWN (R), a brick house
of Georgian Colonial design built in 1822 by Gen. Green Clay for his
daughter, the wife of Col. William Rodes. A small one-story balus-
trated porch is flanked by four Palladian windows, two on each side.
The doorway, with fanlight and side lights, opens into a wide hall. A
carved arch, supported by twin columns, spans the hall, and the chair
rail, carved in flowers, still shows old colors faded rose and gray. The
semicircular headings of the cupboards on each side of the mantel in the
back parlor are exquisitely carved. The cut glass doorknobs resemble
old bridle buttons. John Fox, Jr., wrote a description of this house
in his novel Crittenden. Woodlawn was occupied by both Federals and
Confederates during the War between the States.
Richmond is at the junction with US 227 (see Tour 17 A).
Left from Richmond on State 52 to the WACO AND BYBEE POTTERIES,
8 m. (open to public), established almost a century ago by John Corneilson to
supply his neighbors with brick, tile, and earthenware; the enterprise continues to
employ old-fashioned methods of production. The present owner, Webb Corneil-
son, specializes in the production of blue earthenware of his own design and color-
ing. The local clay used for this pottery is mixed by mule power, fashioned by
hand on the potter's wheel, and then "fixed" a process taking in all about a week.
TOUR 4 269
CASTLEWOOD (L), 30.1 m., was designed and erected in 1820 by
Gideon Shryock, Kentucky architect, for James Estill, Jr., on a part
of the 15,000-acre tract surveyed and owned by Capt. James Estill, a
Revolutionary soldier and pioneer. This two-story house of modified
Georgian Colonial design and built of brick, contains some of the finest
hand-carved woodwork in Kentucky; the mantels, especially, illustrate
the skill of the pioneer craftsman.
On US 25 at 31.1 m., is the point where Boone's Trace (see Tour
4 A) from North Carolina turned to follow Otter Creek to the south
bank of the Kentucky River, where Fort Boonesboro (see Tour 17 A)
was built. The trail entered Madison County over the crest of Big Hill,
the landmark on the Jackson County line, and went down the hills to
the headwaters of Otter Creek.
MOUNT ZION CHURCH (R), 32.7 m., is a small rectangular brick
building erected in 1852. It has two small entrances and lacks orna-
mentation but its simplicity is attractive. The Battle of Richmond
in 1862 began at this point.
BEREA, 41.6 m. (943 alt., 1,827 pop.), in the foothills of the South-
ern Highlands, is the seat of BEREA COLLEGE (student guides at Boone
Tavern), founded in 1853; this is the oldest and largest of the moun-
tain schools in Kentucky. The 85 well-equipped brick and stone build-
ings of the college, and its unusually beautiful campus of about 300
acres, comprise a large part of the village. The FEE MEMORIAL
CHURCH, of Greek Revival design, stands almost in the center of the
campus. People of 23 denominations worship together in this church.
The BEREA COLLEGE CHAPEL, a red brick building with Greek Revival
features, was presented to the college in 1904 by an anonymous donor
on condition that it be erected by student labor. In the chapel tower
are the WILLIAM GOODELL FROST MEMORIAL CHIMES, which honor
a former president of the college, and were presented in 1917 by the
same benefactor. John G. Lee, Cassius M. Clay, and John A. R.
Rogers, cofounders of Berea, were opposed to slavery, and the college
admitted both white and Negro students till 1904, when the State
enacted prohibitive legislation. The school's endowment was then
divided; Lincoln Institute (see Tour 16), near Louisville, was pro-
vided for Negro students and Berea became a co-educational school for
white students. Berea's purpose is to contribute "to the spiritual and
material welfare of the mountain region of the South, affording to young
people of character and promise a thorough Christian education, ele-
mentary, industrial, secondary, normal, and collegiate, with opportuni-
ties for manual labor as an assistant in self-support." Berea, now
(1939) under the leadership of Dr. William James Hutchins, had an
enrollment of 1,692 in 1937.
While the college entrance requirements are high, lack of pre-college
training is no barrier to the ambitious student. Both boys and girls
live under a dormitory system that provides comfortable living condi-
tions at the minimum cost. All students pay at least Dart of their
270 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
expenses by labor in some of the schools. Varied activities include
weaving, spinning, the manufacture of furniture, and the operation of
a broom factory, a college laundry, a bakery, a store, a printing shop, a
farm, and a hotel.
On the outskirts of Berea are (L) the CHURCHILL WEAVERS (loom
house and display room open to public). Since 1922, when it was
founded, this institution has grown to be one of the largest of its kind
m the country, operating more than 40 looms. After D. C. Churchill,
the founder, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
as an engineer, he spent some time in India, where he studied the art
of weaving. He designed a loom and took first prize for both speed
and quality of cloth in an all-India competition. He came to Berea,
at the invitation of President Hutchins, to take the chair of physics and
motor mechanics. Three looms, including one he had designed for his
wife who soon displayed unusual ability in combining and blending
colors and a hastily constructed loom-house were the first plant of
the present Churchill Weavers, now working in well-equipped, well-
lighted buildings. The looms are all of Churchill's design and were
made in the plant shop. Many of the designs used follow the patterns
traditional among the Kentucky mountaineers.
Left from Berea on State 21, an improved road, to INDIAN FORT MOUN-
TAIN, 3 m., a prehistoric stronghold with more than 200 acres inside its defenses.
Seventeen stone walls and barricades defend the summit. Caves and rock houses
contain the graves of warriors who once held this mountain.
Left 0.5 m. from Indian Fort Mountain to BASIN MOUNTAIN, another pre-
historic fortification on a smaller flat-topped knob. Two stone walls guard the
summit, which is 18 acres in extent. This mountain is named for the two basins
that were hollowed out on its crest to hold water for the defenders of the fort.
Both fortifications are in a strategic position near the Warriors Path (see Tour 4A),
which passed through Boone's Gap, three miles south of the present site of Berea.
A marker (L), 45.1 m., commemorates Daniel Boone's Trail (Boone's
Trace) which was blazed from North Carolina into Kentucky in 1775
(see Tour 4 A).
MOUNT VERNON, 59.6 m. (1,150 alt., 939 pop.), seat of Rock-
castle County, was incorporated in 1817 and is in the foothills of the
Cumberland Mountains, a region in which isolated knobs and ridge tops
rise to a height of 1,500 to 2,500 feet.
Immediately back of the courthouse is the old LANGFORD HOUSE
(open), built in 1790 as a blockhouse for defense against the Indians.
Although the front of the building has been weatherboarded, and win-
dows have been cut where there were formerly only loopholes, the
interior is little changed. This house became a hotel in stagecoach
days, and later was a station on the Underground Railroad.
On court day, which is observed regularly in Mount Vernon, country-
folk from the surrounding region come in wagons and on horseback
to trade, talk, and drink a little.
Fox, coon, and 'possum hunting are favorite sports in this region
where most farmers own three or four hounds apiece. Each hunter
TOUR 4 271
bets on his own dogs, and the hunt usually lasts from one to three days.
According to a local sportsman, when the dogs announce by loud barks
that a coon has been "treed," the hunters gather under the tree to wait
till morning when they "either chop the tree down or shoot the coon
out."
At 65.7 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to the GREAT SALTPETER CAVES, 4 w., which were mined exten-
sively for material to manufacture gunpowder during the War between the States.
LIVINGSTON, 69.7 m. (858 alt., 912 pop.), on Rockcastle River,
is a weather-beaten hamlet in a setting of natural beauty. It was
formerly a shipping center for coal mined in the surrounding region.
South of Livingston is a rugged, hilly area, where the scenery is
particularly attractive.
US 25 crosses Rockcastle River, 77.4 m. t so named because of its
characteristic large rocks and cliffs. In the NARROWS extending for
half a mile near the mouth of the river the water is 10 to 100 feet deep
and so blocked with enormous rocks that in many places a canoe cannot
pass. This river is a favorite hunting and fishing ground, and has long
been celebrated for the wild, romantic character of its surroundings.
Mineral springs, for which therapeutic value was claimed, occur near
the lower waters of Rockcastle.
LONDON, 92.4 m. (1,209 alt., 1,950 pop.), in a mountain valley,
is the seat of Laurel County and the shopping center for owners of
small mines and for corn and tobacco farmers, many of whom still live
as did their ancestors in eighteenth century England (see Tours 1, 18,
and 19). It has a five-block business street, a Federal building where
court is held, a Methodist college, hotels, and a motion picture house.
County court day here is the second Monday of each month, and at
this time every man in the county who can comes in to "Jockey Lot"
to talk and trade. Near election time politicians are everywhere.
Guns, watches, knives, harness, wagons, horses, mules, dogs anything
and everything that can be "swapped" or sold is "fetched in." One
can trade extensively on court day without a cent of money; the best
currency is a young filly or a foxhound. The story is told of a penni-
less young farmer who arrived afoot one court day, leading a pair of
well-matched foxhounds. Late in the evening he returned home in
state, riding a frisky two-year-old, with sugar and coffee for his family
in the saddlebags. In explaining the situation to his admiring neigh-
bors, he exclaimed, "Y6u see hit's all erlong ov my bein' sich er dog-
goned good jedge uv er anermule." In small Kentucky county seats
women seldom appear on the crowded streets on court day, though
occasionally a farm-wife comes to exchange her butter and eggs for
coal oil and calico, and, if she dares, to keep an eye on "pa." The
farmer tells his wife, "Court day hain't no fit'n time f'r women folk
to be draggin' roun' town nohow."
272 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
SUE BENNET COLLEGE (co-educational), within the corporate limits
of London, was established in 1896 by the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. It has six modern red brick buildings on a 26-acre campus and
is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges.
In the FEDERAL BUILDING is the office of the district Forest Ranger
who is in charge of Sublimity Farms.
London is at the junction with State 80 (see Tour 18).
Right from London on a hard-surfaced road to the Forest Service's SUBLIMITY
FARMS, 2.1 m., a 583-acre area divided into 52 part-time and 14 full-time farm
units, a community pasture, and a community woodlot. Designed as a demonstra-
tion in proper land use, this project contains 59 new houses and 7 renovated
houses all with modern plumbing and electricity, root cellars, barns, and coal
sheds. These units are rented by the Government under contracts which encourage
the homesteaders to follow the scientific farming and home managing plans worked
out for them by an agronomist and a home economist whose headquarters are in
London. The adjacent Cumberland National Forest supplies employment for those
living on the part-time farms.
The entrance (L) to LEVI JACKSON WILDERNESS ROAD
STATE PARK (adm. 10$, overnight camping 25$; fishing and swim-
ming, 25$ each), is at 95.6 m. In 1784, 40 pioneers, traveling over
the Boone Trail, stopped for the night here on the Little Laurel River.
They were attacked by Indians in what has been called the Defeated
Camp Massacre, and all but three of the company were slain or taken
captive; two of the survivors hid in a hollow tree. The grandchildren
of Levi Jackson, Revolutionary soldier who received land here for war
services, gave the State more than 300 acres of this site to commemorate
the slain pioneers. Improvements made by the National Park Service,
utilizing CCC labor, include water, sewerage and lighting systems;
roads, foot and bridle trails; a reproduction of a pioneer's two-story
log dwelling housing a museum ; shelter houses ; picnic facilities ; a look-
out tower ; a bridge across the Laurel River ; and the planting of several
thousand trees and shrubs.
At 105.8 m. is the junction with US 25W, now the route, and with
US 25E (see Tour 4 A).
CORBIN, 107.5 m. (1,046 alt., 8,026 pop.), a busy railroad center
in a level part of the Cumberland Plateau, is surrounded by a generally
mountainous area with large tracts of timber. Coal mining is the chief
occupation with farming and stock raising second in importance. In
1775, when Daniel Boone cut his trace, which later became a part of
the Wilderness Road (see Tour 4 A), into Kentucky, he turned north
at this place. The land on which the town stands was granted to Alex
McClardy, one of Boone's associates, in 1798, but remained little more
than a wilderness until 1883 when the main line of the L. & N. R.R.
was built. It is now one of the three major supply points of the system
and furnishes such materials as coal and timber.
Corbin is the junction with State 90 (see Tour 4B).
The GATLIFFE FISH HATCHERY (R), 124.6 m., was built in 1929,
and operated by the Kentucky State Fish and Game Commission.
TOUR 4 273
Eleven of the plant's 30 acres are in ponds supplied with water from
Watts Creek by means of a levee. Largemouthed, smallmouthed, and
Kentucky bass are raised here at the rate of 1,000,000 a year for dis-
tribution into streams throughout the State.
Approaching Williamsburg from the north the highway winds down
cliffs in a succession of curves that reveal fine views of the town.
WILLIAMSBURG, 209.1 m. (975 alt., 1,826 pop.), as well as
Whitley County, of which it is the seat, is named for Col. William
Whitley, a pioneer renowned as an Indian fighter. Surrounded by a
coal-mining and agricultural region it is on a low spur merging into the
flood plain of a wide meander of the Cumberland River, and is walled
in by steep winding ridges that rise to a height of 1,900 feet. To the
southwest, uplands adjacent to Pine Mountain rise to an elevation of
2,500 feet. In this region, which is on the Indians' great southern
trail, scientists have found numerous remains of towns and mounds.
The artifacts include .unusually fine specimens of flints, commonly
known as "chunkee stones."
Williamsburg 's site was selected at the county's first term of court
held in 1817 at the house of Samuel Cox, who agreed to give the county
half the proceeds from the sale of lots for the town, if a site on his land
which included a fine spring were chosen for the county seat. The
records of this offer and its acceptance are stored in the old brick
WHITLEY COUNTY COURTHOUSE in the center of the public square.
CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, founded in 1889 by the Baptist Church, has
an endowment of $500,000. It is a co-educational junior college offer-
ing vocational and preprofessional courses. The school owns a 15-acre
campus with nine buildings, including a library, and has an enrollment
of 500 students.
KING'S MILL, on the Cumberland River, 300 yards from the court-
house, has been in use for more than 100 years. Its dam is a popular
fishing hole.
Participants in the annual community "sing" (1st Sun. in July)
bring basket dinners and spend the whole day at the gathering. Local
and visiting choral groups contribute to the program of hymns and
spirituals.
South of Williamsburg US 25W winds near the towering JELLICO
MOUNTAINS (R) and through quiet river valleys.
In JELLICO, 139.6 m. (937 alt., 405 pop.), US 25W crosses the
Tennessee Line, 67 miles north of Knoxville, Tenn. (see Tenn. Tour 5).
274 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Tour 4A
Junction with US 25 Pineville Middlesboro Cumberland Gap
(Tazewell,Tenn.); US 25E.
Junction with US 25 to Tennessee Line, 54.4 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Louisville & Nashville R.R. parallels route throughout.
All types of accommodations in towns; limited elsewhere.
Through Cumberland Gap at the southern end of US 25E, and over
the route now followed in part by US 25E, came the first western surge
of Kentucky pioneers, singly or in small groups, attracted by tales of
fertile land yet unclaimed, of springs and brooks and rivers, of plentiful
game and endless adventure.
Daniel Boone and his companions, sponsored by Col. Richard
Henderson, became the advance guard for this westward movement,
when in 1775 they marked the way to the site of what was to become
Fort Boonesboro (see Tour 17 A). Boone's Trace was not a new trail
through the wilderness; it was a combination of paths long used by the
buffalo and Indians, and later by French hunters and trappers. North
of Cumberland Gap, for about 50 miles, Boone followed the Warriors
Path which extended from the Shawnee villages on the Ohio and
Scioto Rivers to the Cherokee country of the south then selected a
buffalo trace that took him westward to Rockcastle River, up Round-
stone Creek, through the gap in Big Hill, and down Otter Creek to
the Kentucky River.
In the same year Benjamin Logan marked and improved a trail to
the site of St. Asaph (see Tour 3), a track that branched westward
from Boone's Trace at Rockcastle River, extended to the site of present
Crab Orchard, and on to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville). Logan's
trail, which became more important than Boone's Trace, was referred
to as "the road through the great wilderness," and finally the Wilder-
ness Road. As early as 1779 the Virginia Assembly passed an act
providing for improvement of the Wilderness Road. Similar acts were
passed by the Kentucky Legislature in 1795 and 1797, but it remained
little more than a pack road until 1818, when definite steps were taken
to widen it and to improve the fords.
The southern section of the Wilderness Road (paved US 25E) still
passes through a land of mountains veined with mineral deposits, of
rivers and ravines, of woods and flowers. But generations of white
men have cleared and cultivated much of its fertile land and mined its
VII. ALONG THE HIGHWAY I
GOLD DEPOSITORY, CAMP KNOX
FORT KNO>
INDIAN BURIAL GROUND, WICKLIFFE
BRYAN STATION SPRING, LEXINGTON
FORT HARROD, HARRODSBURG
FLOOD WATERS REACH STATUE OF CHIEF PADUKE, PADUCAH (1937)
I
HP
COVERED BRIDGE, CYNTHIANA
OLD CANE RIDGE MEETING HOUSE (1792), NEAR PARIS
m
\i II JP~1
Ji IB
WOOLRIDGE MONUMENTS, MAYFIELD
MT. LEBANON, NEAR PARIS
ffi
HI
III
MINING TOWN
THE FAITH HEALER
\
mm
i
MINER S HOME
CUMBERLAND FALLS LODGE
.
f
ELKHORN CREEK, NEAR LEXINGTON
TOUR 4A 275
ore. Their rail fences trail along the highway, enclosing cornfields that
interspace the timber; cabins are perched on the hillsides; and busy
manufacturing cities or drab mining towns deface the mountains and
valleys.
US 25E branches southeast from its junction with US 25 (see Tour
4), m., on the northern outskirts of CORBIN (1,046 alt., 8,026 pop.)
(see Tour 4), and, passing between rugged cliffs and towering moun-
tains, traverses an area in which coal mining is the chief industry.
At 16 m. is the junction with old US 25E.
Right on old US 25E to BARBOURVILLE, 1.4 m. (975 alt., 2,375 pop.), seat
of Knox County, in a broad valley of the winding Cumberland River. It is sur-
rounded by thickly forested ridges that rise in the southern part of the county
to a height of 2,000 feet. The soil, a sandy loam and clay, is productive and well
adapted to agriculture. When Knox County was created in 1799, it included 5,000
acres belonging to Richard Barbour, a Virginian. By 1800 the land had passed
into the possession of James Barbour, a kinsman, who gave this town site to the
county and persuaded it to donate half the proceeds from the sale of lots to a
fund for erecting public buildings. The town was named in his honor.
UNION COLLEGE (co-educational), a Methodist institution housed in plain red
brick buildings, was founded in 1879. It is accredited by the Southern Association
of Colleges, and has an enrollment of 400 students. The college library contains
approximately 11,000 volumes. Dahlia growers from a wide area participate in a
Dahlia Show, held each October in the Union College Gymnasium.
The GEORGE OWENS COLLECTION (open on request), Knox St., contains arrow-
heads, pipes, tomahawks, beads, bone objects, fossil remains, pottery, and other
Indian relics and objects of archeological interest.
In an old frame building (open) on Liberty St. (R), built in 1846, were the
LAW OFFICES OF SAMUEL F. MILLER and SILAS WOODSON. Miller (1816-1890) was
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1862-1890). Woodson was Governor
of Missouri (1873-1875). This small, one-story building has never been altered
and is (1939) in need of repair.
Joseph Eve, a circuit judge and the only American minister sent to the Republic
of Texas (1841), lived in Barbourville.
Right 0.1 m. from Barbourville on State 6 to junction with State 11; L. 4.6 m.
on State 11 (Thomas Walker Memorial Highway) to the 12-acre DR. THOMAS
WALKER STATE PARK. A REPRODUCTION OF DR. WALKER'S LOG CABIN marks
the site of the dwelling built in 1750 by Dr. Walker, a surveyor and physician,
who was born in Virginia in 1715. He and several companions had been sent on
an exploration into Kentucky by the Loyal Land Company of London. They
cleared the land near the site of Barbourville and built a cabin here on this roll-
ing hill that overlooks the river named by Dr. Walker for the Duke of Cumber-
land, son of George II. The park acreage was acquired and the memorial cabin
built by the Barbourville Post of the American Legion. The reproduction of the
old one-room cabin is built of round logs with wide chinked joints and a small end
chimney, curiously "framed in" at the base with notched logs.
On State 6 is DISHMAN SPRINGS HOTEL (R), 6 m., a summer resort on a moun-
tain lake in the foothills of Cumberland Mountains. (Golf, tennis, fishing, swim-
ming, canoeing for hotel guests; small fee to others.)
At 2.7 m. on old US 25E is the junction with 25E.
At 18.5 m. on the new US 25E is the junction with State 225.
Right on this road to (L) the MINTON HICKORY FARM AND STABLES (open on
request), 0.4 m., where the Minton Hickory saddle horses are trained. From this
stable have come such champions as the Feudist, Vendetta, Mountain Echo, Etta
Kett, Mountain Laurel, Fiery Crags, and Maiden Blush.
276 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
The MINTON HICKORY MILL (R), 1.1 m., manufactures golf shafts, broom han-
dles, and canes. Hickory grown in the Kentucky Mountains is a standard material
for golf clubs. This factory, which has become widely known, has a yearly output
of 1,500,000 shafts.
FLAT LICK, 27.9 m. (986 alt., 500 pop.), straggling along the road,
was one of the old salt licks and a center of life in pioneer times.
PINEVILLE, 36.9 m. (1,025 alt., 4,000 pop.), a growing mining
town and the seat of Bell County, lies within a bend of the Cumber-
land River at a gap in Pine Mountain called the Narrows. In 1797
the Kentucky Legislature appropriated 500 pounds sterling for the
repair of the Wilderness Road and for the erection of a tollgate at the
Narrows. This tollgate, around which early Pineville developed, was
the first ever established in the State and the first to be abandoned
(1830). The newer part of the town is built around CUMBERLAND
FORD (L), where the trail crossed the Cumberland River.
The Indians who visited this region and camped here for long sea-
sons left many remains. Near Cumberland Ford is an INDIAN MOUND,
10 to 15 feet in height and 100 feet in circumference, which was a pre-
historic burying ground.
An Indian effigy carved out of yellow pine was found on a cliff near
Pineville in 1869. This, believed to be the only thoroughly preserved
wooden prehistoric image found in Kentucky, is now in the Museum
of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York City.
Pineville is now a shipping point for lumber and for four large coal
fields that are within a short distance of the town.
Schools, bands, and bugle corps, representing a large section of coun-
try around Pineville, meet here for the annual Cumberland Valley
Music Festival (May). Contests as well as concerts feature the pro-
grams.
A winding foot path leads from Pineville to one of the best-preserved
INDIAN ROCK SHELTERS in Kentucky. This enormous structure, tradi-
tionally an ancient habitation, is near the top of the mountain (R)
overlooking the town.
At 37.3 m. is the junction with US 119 (see Tour 19).
At 38.2 m. is the entrance (R) to 4,000-acre PINE MOUNTAIN
STATE PARK (adm. y 10$; overnight camping, 25$; lodge; picnic
facilities, boating and swimming). Established in 1928, this was the
first State park in Kentucky. Within the park the PINNACLE OF
PINE MOUNTAIN (2,200 alt.) is accessible by a road. The plant
life is characteristic of the Cumberland Range; on the uplands are
holly, spruce, pine, wahoo, dogwood, scarlet chestnut, oak, red maple,
spicebush, wintergreen, mountain laurel, rhododendron, azaleas, and
many varieties of wild flowers and ferns. Black willows, river birch,
blue beech, and giant sycamores grow along the banks of Clear Creek,
which winds through about 60 acres of the lowlands. Chimney Rock,
Sharktooth Rock, and Candlestick Rock are among the most interest-
ing of the park's geologic formations.
TOUR 4A 277
Near the center of the reserve is LAUREL COVE, a natural amphi-
theater in which the Mountain Laurel Festival is held annually (two
days in May or June). A stone cliff is the backdrop of the stage
constructed of local stone and banked on each side with laurel and
rhododendron bushes and giant wahoo trees. Mountain ballads are
played and sung, original plays presented, and folk dances performed
by the mountain people. A queen selected from the college girls of
the State is crowned with mountain laurel by the Governor of Ken-
tucky. With the exception of the Kentucky Derby, this festival is
the most important annual event in the State.
At 38.6 m. is the junction with State 190.
Right on this road to CLEAR CREEK SPRINGS 2 m., a recreational center
and religious resort within Pine Mountain Park. It was established by members
of the Baptist churches of Pineville and Middlesboro who hold encampments and
schools here during the summer months.
MIDDLESBORO, 50.9 m. (1,150 alt., 10,350 pop.), trading center
and largest town of southeastern Kentucky, was named for the iron
city of the English Midlands. Though the first settlers had entered
Kentucky through near-by Cumberland Gap, they were seeking fertile
lands easy to cultivate, and this deep circular valley, surrounded by
mountains seamed with coal, limestone, and deposits of iron, was ig-
nored for nearly a century. In 1885 Col. Alexander Allen Arthur, a
Scottish-Canadian mining engineer, surveyed the region and realized
its industrial possibilities.
British investors supplied the capital, a large tract was bought, and,
in 1889, settlers began to arrive. Within a year 6,000 people were
leveling forests and clearing fields, and two railroads, the Louisville &
Nashville, and the Southern, were being built to the new city whose
wide streets bore the names of English shires. By 1890 Middlesboro
had 10,000 inhabitants. Hotels, stores, and churches had been com-
pleted as well as an artificial lake and one of the first golf courses in
the United States.
But with the fall of the great London banking house of Baring
Brothers and Company, in 1893, Middlesboro, as well as its other proj-
ects, was abandoned. At the same time money was tight in this coun-
try and the banks nearly paralyzed. Middlesboro's streets were de-
serted, its hotels and stores empty. Recovery was slow, but eventually
the coal mines brought about prosperity. Today there are modern
schools, fine homes, handsome churches, theaters, clubs, and banks.
The importance of coal in the development of Middlesboro is pub-
licized by the COAL HOUSE (open), on Cumberland Ave., the office of
the Middlesboro Chamber of Commerce, built of solid blocks of local
coal.
BARTLETT-RHODES PARK (R), near the southern outskirts of
the town, has a recreation hall, a swimming pool, and tennis courts.
FERN LAKE (boating and fishing $1), 20th St. extended, approxi-
mately one mile south of the business center of Middlesboro, is the
278 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
source of the city's water supply. The lake is surrounded by mountains
whose gentle slopes, rising from the water's edge, are covered with a
dense growth of hardwood trees and shrubs, interspersed with pine,
spruce, and hemlock. Ferns grow in great profusion along the banks
which are gay in the spring with the snowy white, deep rose, and lilac
blooms. The winding lake is two and one-half miles long and is fed
by mountain springs and streams issuing from massive sandstone ledges,
along a seven-mile watershed. It has been converted into a wild-game
sanctuary.
The MIDDLESBORO COUNTRY CLUB (open for a small fee), at the
western outskirts of the city, has an unusually sporty golf course that
is kept in excellent condition. The view from the veranda of the club-
house is unsurpassed in this section.
Right from Middlesboro on State 74, hard-surfaced, to a junction with an im-
proved road, 12 m.; R. here to HENDERSON SETTLEMENT SCHOOL, 20 m., founded
by H. M. Frakes. This school has transformed the surrounding isolated region
from one notable for lawlessness to a quiet, peace-abiding community. Here both
boys and girls from an inaccessible mountain region receive training, part of which
they earn by manual labor. Activities include cooking, farming, dairying, weav-
ing, spinning, woodwork, and allied crafts and occupations.
CUMBERLAND GAP, 53.8 m., on the dividing line of Virginia and
Kentucky on the north, and Tennessee on the south, is a trough be-
tween hills thickly covered with laurel and rhododendron. It was
through this pass in the Appalachians, called by the Indians Quasioto
(pronounced Wah-see-o-to ; the mountains where deer are plenty) that
Dr. Thomas Walker entered Kentucky in 1750. Hunters, explorers,
and pioneers followed Dr. Walker, and in 1769 John Finley led
Daniel Boone into this uninhabited western region. Two years later
Boone, in his own words, Returned to my family, being determined to
reside in Kentucky which I esteemed a second paradise." He returned
in 1775, and behind him, through Cumberland Gap and over the brow
of Pinnacle Mountain, came pioneers from the settled East with toiling
oxteams and horses laden with household goods for their new homes
in the wilderness. It is recorded that as many as 20,000 passed through
in one season.
About 1850 Henry Clay, riding from his home near Lexington to
speak to the mountain people, halted at the gap. Someone asked him
why he lingered. "I am listening," he said, "to the tread of the coming
millions."
In the gap is the junction with the Skyland Highway.
Left on Skyland Highway (adm. 40$ each person; 40$ each car), which reveals
alluring vistas at every turn as it gradually ascends to the PEAK OF PINNACLE
MOUNTAIN (2,860 alt.), 2 m. From this point on clear days is a view extending
for 50 miles over a sea of blue-crested timbered ridges, jagged cliffs, ravines, and
Fern Lake. Here also are the RUINS OF FORT LYON. During the War between
the States this was one of the strategic points held in turn by the contending Con-
federate and Union Armies, and, as the tides of battle moved eastward, abandoned
by both.
TOUR 4B 279
Left from the saddle of the gap on a trail that leads to SOLDIERS' CAVE (permis-
sion to visit obtained at L.M.U., at Harrogate, Tenn., 2 m. S. of Cumberland
Gap), 0.5 m., now owned by Lincoln Memorial University. Soldiers' Cave, said
to have been discovered by Confederate soldiers while digging a rifle pit, has war
reminiscences cut on the walls and into the stones.
KING SOLOMON'S' CAVE (permission to visit obtained at L.M.U. ), 3 m., has a
series of apartments or smaller caves that follow the contour of the mountain in
a horizontal direction. Within, a river rushes over a cataract 20 to 30 feet high.
Among the many smaller caves in this section are LEWIS CAVE, WELL HOLE, and
SALTPETER CAVE where early inhabitants obtained saltpeter for making gunpowder.
At 54.4 m. US 2SE crosses the Tennessee Line, 14 miles north of
Tazewell, Tenn. (see Tenn. Tour 3).
Tour 4B
Corbin Cumberland Falls State Park Parker's Lake; 30.2 m. State
90.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Good accommodations at Cumberland Falls State Park.
State 90 branches west from US 25 (see Tour 4) at CORBIN, m.,
(1,046 alt., 8,026 pop.) (see Tour 4), and passes through a primitive
sparsely settled region of great natural beauty. The road, winding
over low hills, offers far-reaching views of purple and blue-green moun-
tains and short fertile valleys.
From LOOKOUT POINT (R), 15.6 m., an elevation surrounded by
walls of natural stone, is a wide view of row upon row of distant blue
peaks and deep, thickly wooded gorges.
CUMBERLAND FALLS STATE PARK, 18.6 m. (open May 15-
Oct. 1; adm. 10$; hotel accommodations, $1.50 and up; furnished
cabins, $1 a day; overnight camping 25$; bathhouses, picnic facilities).
This park, covering 500 acres of virgin forest, was the gift in 1930
of T. Coleman duPont, a Kentuckian. It is rough mountainous coun-
try cut by the Cumberland River, which threads its way over a rocky
course through the rugged hills.
CUMBERLAND FALLS, 68 feet high and 125 feet broad, has an
average flow of 3,600 cubic feet of water a second. Immediately be-
hind the falling sheet of water is a recess in the rock wall, which makes
it possible to go almost across the river through the arch formed on one
side by the rock and on the other by the flashing waters. Below the
falls are many whirlpools and rapids in the river as it flows for seven
miles through a boulder-strewn gorge, whose cliffs are 300 to 400 feet
high.
280 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
A winding trail leads from the falls, half a mile down the river to
LITTLE EAGLE FALLS, small but picturesque, surrounded by heavily
wooded hills. It is said that this spot was regarded as a sacred place
by the Indians who guarded it day and night and even fought a battle
(the Indian Battle of Shiloh) in its defense. On the south side of
the river is a CLIFF WALK, a narrow ledge high above the water, which
winds around the shoulders of the hill until it reaches a shelter house
at the top.
A fine growth of yellow pine crowns the ridges, while on the steep
slopes and ravines leading down to the river is a mixed forest growth
of hemlock, tulip, magnolia, oak, sweetgum, dogwood, and holly, the
latter especially abundant and of large size. Azalea, rhododendron,
spicebush, Stewartia, blueberry, St.-John's-wort, and strawberry bush
are among the many plants.
The old MOONBOW INN, on a ledge above the falls, is so named be-
cause in the full of the moon Cumberland Falls has a moonbow, a
spectrum formed in the mist one of the few to be seen on this conti-
nent. Moonbow Inn is a rambling two-story frame structure, erected
in the 1860's, and later restored. The main building forms an ell that
faces the falls. A two-story porch extends entirely across the fagade
next to the river.
DuPoNT LODGE, named in honor of T. Coleman du Pont, stands on
a ridge overlooking the Cumberland River, one mile from the falls.
It is built of wood and stone.
The 900,000-acre CUMBERLAND NATIONAL FOREST, encir-
cling Cumberland Falls State Park, contains thousands of acres of
virgin timber and a variety of wild game including deer, black bear,
and smaller fur-bearing animals, as well as wild turkey, quail, and
waterfowl.
A thickly wooded region of hills lies between the Cumberland River,
crossed by a ferry (free), and PARKER'S LAKE, 30.2 m. (1,256 alt.,
200 pop.), which is at the junction with US 27 (see Tour 3).
Tour 5
Warsaw Frankfort Lawrenceburg Harrodsburg Danville James-
town Albany (Chattanooga, Tenn.); State 35.
Warsaw to Tennessee Line, 187.7 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed between Warsaw and Liberty, graveled between Liberty
and Jamestown, and graded between Jamestown and Tennessee Line.
Southern Ry. parallels route between Lawrenceburg and Danville.
All types of accommodations in larger towns; limited elsewhere.
TOUR S 28l
This route runs through a sparsely settled hilly area, fine stock farms
of the Bluegrass, many small old towns, and the wooded foothills of the
Cumberland Mountains.
WARSAW, m. (459 alt., 800 pop.) (see Tour 12), is at the junc-
tion with US 42 (see Tour 12).
South of Warsaw State 35 winds across the outer Knobs area, which
borders the Ohio Valley. Small farms lie in the fertile bottom lands,
and along the hillsides flocks of sheep graze on the abundant grass
and clover. The wool produced in this region is of fine quality.
On almost every farm are patches of burley tobacco, usually two
acres or larger. The cultivation of tobacco requires such a large
amount of hand labor that acreage is limited by the amount of help
obtainable. The average tobacco field, cared for by one man and his
family, rarely exceeds 10 or 12 acres. Cultivation begins as early as
February with the burning over of the seedbed to destroy parasites
and weeds. In March and April the seeds are planted in cold frames
and protected from wind, hail, and sudden changes in temperature by
thin white muslin stretched above the beds. In May or June the
young plants are set in rows in ground that has been fertilized and
brought into good tilth by plowing and harrowing. The planting is
usually done with a horse-drawn transplanter that opens a furrow,
releases water at set intervals, and covers up the roots of the young
plants, which a man drops into the ground. While the crop is growing
it is sometimes dusted (though there is danger of the poison remaining
on the leaves), the worms are removed, and tops and suckers are broken
off by hand. When the crop is ready for harvesting in August or Sep-
tember, the tobacco plants are cut by hand and placed six on a stick
either by splitting the stalk almost to the base and inverting it over
the stick or by piercing the stalk near the base. To protect the leaves
from bruises, the tobacco plants are carried to the barn on trucks or
wagons equipped with frames that hold the sticks horizontally so the
stalks hang in a vertical position several inches apart. In the barns
it is hung up to dry, without the aid of artificial heat. After curing,
the tobacco is stripped and graded into "hands," the term used for a
marketable unit. The hands are sorted, according to grade, into
baskets, each of which is sold separately on the tobacco sales floor.
Droning monotonously in a jargon that is understood by only the
initiate, the auctioneer walks between the rows of baskets. Buyers
stand among the crowd of spectators and when ready to buy give a sign
to the auctioneer who promptly announces, "Sold!" Prices vary widely
according to grade and general demand. The yield may exceed $500
an acre, or may not even compensate the farmer for his labor. After
the auction the purchaser packs the tobacco in hogsheads and stores
it for aging, a process that sometimes requires two years. The aged
tobacco is again carefully graded to meet the standards required by
various brands and purposes.
282 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
In SPARTA, 9 m. (500 pop.), are nurseries specializing in ever-
green trees and shrubs. Here, too, are the remains of old EAGLE
CREEK COVERED BRIDGE.
At 15.5 m. is the junction (R) with US 227 (see Tour 12 A). Be-
tween this point and Owenton, State 35 and US 227 are united.
OWENTON, 22.8 m. (1,000 alt., 975 pop.) (see Tour 12A), is at
the junction with US 227 (see Tour 12 A) and State 22 (see Tour 13).
Between Owenton and 23.4 m. State 35 and US 227 are united.
South of Owenton the highway winds down steep hills and around
sharp curves to the valley of the Kentucky River, frequently affording
wide views of blue-green hills and deep waters.
MONTEREY, 32.9 m. (203 pop.), nestled at the foot of the hills
in a valley between towering green palisades, is at the confluence of the
Kentucky River and Eagle Creek (fishing; camp sites). Near Monte-
rey is POND BRANCH, where the water, rising from springs, flows
through an old channel of the Kentucky River.
At 45.9 m. is the junction with a private roadway.
Left on this road 5 m. to the old INNES HOUSE, on the farm of Joe D. Bradburn,
Jr. (inquire at farmhouse for permission to visit). This two-story hewn-log house,
on a stone foundation, was built by Harry Innes during the last quarter of the
eighteenth century. Innes subsequently became first U.S. District Judge of Ken-
tucky.
The house, now dilapidated, stands on a ridge between two dry forks of Elkhorn
Creek a vantage point from which the approach of Indians could easily be ob-
served. Shortly after its completion, Indians went on the warpath in this region
and the settlers gathered at Innes' Station, as the house was then called, for pro-
tection. The house was besieged for several hours but its occupants withstood the
attack without loss of life. Loopholes are plainly visible between the logs of the
second floor.
CEDAR COVE SPRING, 51 m. (R), was the source for the first public
water-supply system in Kentucky, established in 1804. The water was
transported to Frankfort and the penitentiary in wooden pipes laid by
Richard Throckmorton.
FRANKFORT, 52.6 m. (512 alt., 11,626 pop.) (see Frankfort).
Points of Interest: Old State Capitol, State Cemetery, Liberty Hall, and others.
Frankfort is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16).
South of Frankfort State 3 5 ascends a hill from which is an excellent
view (L) of the town lying in the Kentucky River Valley, the new
State Capitol, and the Governor's mansion.
The STEWART HOME TRAINING SCHOOL (open), 56 m., is (L) a
private institution for the education of backward children. Its main
buildings, surrounded by a spacious lawn and landscaped gardens, are
set in 500 acres of bluegrass and forest.
ALTON, 62.3 m. (112 pop.), was originally named Rough and
Ready in honor of Zachary Taylor.
LAWRENCEBURG, 66.7 m. (788 alt., 1,763 pop.) (see Tour 14),
is at the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14).
TOUR 5 283
At 69.2 m. is the junction with the McBrayer Rd.
Right on this road to BOND'S MILL COVERED BRIDGE, 2.5 m., over the Salt River.
This is one of the few century-old covered bridges in the State.
In SALVISA, 75.2 m. (500 pop.), is (R) the SAMUEL McAFEE
HOUSE (private), built in 1790 by Samuel McAfee. The house, now
called the Gabe Hall Place, stands on a spacious lawn through which
a little creek flows. The clapboarded log structure has a deep two-
story portico and vine-covered end chimneys.
The NEW PROVIDENCE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (L), 78.5 m., is a
rectangular brick structure with gabled roof, the gable end being pierced
by a half moon "sentinel" window that is now boarded up. The long
rectangular windows and high pilasters accentuate the severe lines.
This structure, whose construction was begun in 1861 and completed
in 1864, is the fourth occupied by the congregation since it was founded
in 1784 by the Reverend David (Father) Rice, a circuit rider, who for
many years conducted services here at intervals. The McAfee brothers,
Scotch Presbyterians, contributed the site and erected the first church,
a log structure, which they opened in 1785, as an offering to Providence
for saving them in the Indian attack of 1781.
McAFEE, 79.7 m. (100 pop.), was named for the adventurous
McAfee brothers.
Right from McAfee on the Talmadge Pike to the JAMES McArEE HOUSE (open
by request), 1.2 m. (R), built in 1790 by James McAfee, oldest of the brothers.
It is a two-story gable-roofed house, said to have been modeled after the builder's
home in Armagh, Ireland. The walls of the house are built of partly dressed field
stone in random sizes and are 30 inches thick. The interior woodwork is hand-
carved. Some of the strap hinges, badly worn, appear to be those on which the
doors originally swung.
On the fagade of the McAfee house is a bronze marker erected in tribute to the
founders of McAfee Station James, George, and Robert McAfee, and James Mc-
Coun, James Pawling, and Samuel Adams. These pioneers came in July 1773 from
Botetourt County, Virginia, and surveyed land in Kentucky. Indian wars kept
them in Virginia during the succeeding year, but 1775 found them again among the
canebrakes, where they cleared the ground and planted an orchard along Salt River,
returning the same year to Virginia because of Indian hostilities.
In 1779 the McAfees returned with their families to Kentucky and built a for-
tified hamlet on Salt River. The stockade, on the south side, was little more than
a barricade, and there were but 13 men in the garrison. On May 4, 1781, ignoring
the uneasiness of the dogs and cattle domestic animals reacted to the smell of an
Indian as they did to that of a wild beast the stock was turned loose, and four
of the men went out to work. Two of them with a horse started towards the
corncrib. About a quarter of a mile from the stockade their path dipped into a
hollow; here they suddenly came on Indians. At the first fire one of the men was
killed, and the other who had started running toward home, was intercepted by
an Indian who leaped into the path directly ahead of him. Though both fired at
once, the Indian's gun missed and he was killed. The survivor reached the fort in
safety.
When the other two men, who had gone to work in the turnip patch, heard the
shooting they seized their guns and ran toward the sound but were alarmed by
the number of Indians and turned back to the fort, trying to drive the frightened
284 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
stock in as they went. One of the men reached the gate safely; the other, being
cut off, took a roundabout route through the woods. He outdistanced all but one
of his pursuers, a Shawnee chief whom he finally killed after jumping a fence in
the cleared ground around the fort and crouching in the weeds till the Indian
peered over the fence and thus exposed himself to the settlers' fire.
Those inside the stockade had closed the gate and grasped their rifles the mo-
ment the first shots were heard. One man who hid under a bed was found by his
wife, dragged out, and made to run bullets with the women and children. When
the Indians rushed the fort, they were driven off at once, one of their number
being killed and several badly wounded, while but one of the defenders was slightly
injured. In a short time 45 horsemen, headed by Captain McGarry, galloped up
from Harrodsburg where they had heard the firing. The Indians retreated immedi-
ately. McGarry halted long enough to allow the McAfee men to bridle their
horses, then began pursuit. In the fight that followed, the white men dismounted,
and both sides took shelter behind tree trunks. After two more Indians had been
killed, the others scattered.
HARRODSBURG, 86.5 m. (871 alt., 4,029 pop.) (see Harrods-
burg), is at the junction with US 68 (see Tour 15).
Between Harrodsburg and Danville the gently rolling highway
traverses a fertile agricultural region containing many fine old homes.
It is in this region that the male elite of the villages once gathered
in the fall of the year, after a few heavy frosts, to enjoy 'possum or
coon suppers a long-established Kentucky institution. The prepara-
tion of these dishes was an especial achievement of the old-time black
mammy who boasted that she could make anybody eat 'possum or
coon and like it.
FAIR OAKS (R), 87.6 m., was built about 1845 by Dr. Guilford D.
Runyon, a Shaker who renounced his vows of celibacy and erected the
house in anticipation of his marriage to Miss Kate Ferrel, who died
before the house was completed. Doctor Runyon remained a bachelor
until his death in 1873. The house, of Georgian Colonial design, is a
two-story brick structure, with two-story porches on each side. The
ends of the porches are sheltered by screens; those of the second floor
are beautifully carved with a willow leaf and tendril motif. A six-
room wing at the rear and a Greek Revival portico with four massive
Ionic columns have been added. The doorway is flanked by columns
of similar order and the fagade is embellished with elaborately carved
lintels. The two-room brick cottage, still standing, served as the
kitchen and dining room for the "big house" during the life of Doctor
Runyon.
The CALDWELL HOUSE (R), 93.4 m., erected in 1823 by Jere-
miah Clemens for his daughter, Elizabeth Caldwell, is constructed of
local limestone. A spacious front porch with massive Ionic columns is
formed by recessing the central portion of the fagade. Some years
after completion the outer walls were stuccoed and painted white.
DANVILLE, 96.4 m. (955 alt., 6,279 pop.), on the southern edge
of the Bluegrass region, is the seat of Centre College and of the State
school for the deaf. It has wide tree-shaded streets and fine old homes,
built in the Greek Revival style. It was founded in 1775. Ten years
later the Supreme Court of Virginia made it the seat of government
TOUR 5 285
west of the Alleghenies and ordered court buildings erected here. At
Danville were held the nine conventions preceding the admission of the
State into the Union. The most noted of Kentucky's pioneers served
as delegates. A center of culture in pioneer days, Danville dropped
from political leadership upon the removal of the seat of government,
June 4, 1792 the day on which Isaac Shelby was inaugurated as first
Governor of Kentucky but regained a small measure of prestige by
the establishment of a district court that operated here from 1 796 until
1803. From the latter date the town was without a court until Boyle
County was formed from parts of Mercer and Lincoln in 1842. Dur-
ing the years of political eclipse, the citizens of Danville turned to
educational affairs, and early in the nineteenth century established the
institutions for which it is now noteworthy.
CENTRE COLLEGE, in the western part of town, a liberal arts school
endowed for more than $1,000,000, was chartered in 1819, and is under
the joint management of the northern and southern synods of the Pres-
byterian Church. The administration building of the college (L) on
Main St. is a striking example of Greek Revival architecture. Among
the graduates of Centre are some of Kentucky's illustrious sons, in-
cluding Beriah Magoffin, Governor of Kentucky, class of 1834; Maj.
Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Vice President of the United States (1856),
and defeated by Lincoln for the Presidency, class of 1839; Robert C.
Wickliffe, Governor of Louisiana, class of 1840; and George A. Vest,
Senator from Missouri, class of 1848. The Centre College football
team, known as the "Praying Colonels," astonished the sports world
in 1920 when it defeated some of the strongest teams in the country.
The students' annual year-end festival arouses State-wide interest be-
cause of the age and prestige of the institution and the elaborate char-
acter of the celebration. The crowning of a carnival king and queen
is accompanied by a number of allied events covering several days.
Although Centre College is not co-educational, its president and board
of trustees also direct in the eastern section of the town a school for
women formerly called Caldwell College.
The old DANVILLE COURT SQUARE (R), on Main St. between 1st
and 2d Sts., was once Virginia's western capitol.
In the MCDOWELL HOUSE, 123 S. 2d St., on December 25, 1809,
before the discovery of methods of anesthesia, Dr. Ephraim McDowell
performed the first successful ovariotomy.
Doctor McDowell, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was born in Augusta
County, Virginia, November 11, 1771. His father, Samuel McDowell,
one of the judges of the first Kentucky court in 1783 and president of
the convention that framed the first constitution of Kentucky, took his
family to Danville when Ephraim was 12 years old. Ephraim studied
anatomy and surgery with Dr. Alex Humphreys of Staunton, Virginia,
and in 1793-94 attended the University of Edinburgh, where he was
for a time the private pupil of Dr. John Bell. He left the university
without his degree, and returned to Danville, where he began the prac-
tice of medicine. In December 1809, called to treat Mrs. Jane Todd
286 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Crawford of Greensburg, Doctor McDowell told his patient an exam-
ination had convinced him that her only chance for relief was a dan-
gerous internal operation that he had never before ^performed, but was
ready to undertake if she would come to his home in Danville. Mrs.
Crawford, frantic from pain, set out immediately and made the journey
of 60 miles on horseback in a few days.
The doctor improvised an operating room in his home. The patient
was placed on a long wooden table covered with a blanket. She was
fully dressed and perfectly conscious of every movement of the surgeon
and his assistants. To restrain her involuntary muscles, and permit
the surgeon to work, men held down her arms and legs with force.
During the operation Mrs. Crawford repeated the Psalms. Later Doc-
tor McDowell reported, "In five days I visited her, and much to my
astonishment found her engaged in making her bed. I gave her par-
ticular caution for the future and she returned home as she came, in
good health, which she continues to enjoy." Mrs. Crawford was 47
at the time of the operation and died at the age of 78. This operation,
the first ovariotomy performed in this country, was not considered im-
portant by McDowell himself. However, after seven years, he was
persuaded to publish in the Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review,
Volume VII, an account of this operation and of several others of
similar nature which he had performed later. The announcement met
with indifference, incredulity, and even ridicule, and many years passed
before his work began to receive recognition. Doctor McDowell con-
tinued to practice medicine until his death, June 20, 1830. The resi-
dence, a simple two-story clapboarded structure with its 24-paned win-
dows and transomed doorway, and the adjoining one-story brick apoth-
ecary shop, have been restored with the aid of Federal funds. The
house and grounds were given to the State by the Kentucky Medical
Association to be administered through the State Park Commission as
a memorial to Doctor McDowell and to Jane Todd Crawford, his
patient.
MCDOWELL PARK, 5th St., between Main and Market Sts., contains
a monument to Doctor McDowell and one to Jane Todd Crawford.
The KENTUCKY DEAF INSTITUTE was founded in 1823. Many
trades are taught here, including printing and domestic science, as well
as academic subjects.
The PHILLIP YEISER HOUSE, 135 Lexington Ave., designed in the
Classic Revival style and built early in the nineteenth century, is con-
structed of brick covered with plaster. The house is on a wide, shady
lawn that is slightly above the street level. The older central unit of
two stories is flanked by high one-story wings, which have balustraded
roofs. There is a pedimented portico.
Central Kentucky's FIRST POST OFFICE, established in 1798, oc-
cupied the corner of a room in the old house at 310 W. Walnut St.
This building, now used as a dwelling, has been weatherboarded and
has an addition of a one-story wing. Originally built of hewn logs, the
structure was rectangular in plan and a story and a half high. The
TOUR 5 287
dormers seem to be part of the original plan. Gen. Thomas Barbee
was the first postmaster.
Left from Danville on State 34, an improved road, to PARKSVILLE, 8 m. (228
pop.), is one of the most important berry -growing sections of the State. Here
the residents of the village and neighboring farms follow an ancient Indian custom
of holding a religious ceremony early in the spring to pray for bountiful crops.
The ceremonial as revived by the Berry Growers' Association, includes music,
prayer, and scripture reading. The extent to which raspberries are grown in this
region is a result of several years' effort on the part of the county farm agents,
who recognized that the hilly, rocky land, on which many of the farmers were
attempting to make a living, was not suited to the crops they were trying to grow.
WARRENWOOD (R), 99.3 m., was built approximately in 1847 on part
of a tract of land owned by Capt. William Warren, who came from
Virginia in 1776. The two-story house, of brick burned on the grounds,
is of the Gothic Revival type. Practically all the work was done by
the slaves of John F. Warren ; he and his brother, Samuel Warren, were
the first owners and builders.
JUNCTION CITY, 101.4 m. (731 pop.), is a railroad crossing.
Left from Junction City on the Stanford Pike, an improved road, to the SITE
OF TRAVELER'S REST, 3 m., home of Isaac Shelby, first Governor of Kentucky
(1792-96) who served again in 1812-16. The old house, constructed of stone by
Thomas Metcalf in 1786, was destroyed by fire a number of years ago and has
been replaced. The graveyard, in which Shelby and members of his family were
buried, is near by.
HUSTONVILLE, 110.1 m. (504 pop.), an old town lying in a rich
agricultural section, was first called New Store, later renamed Huston's
Villa, and then Hustonville.
LIBERTY, 125.1 m. (549 pop.), seat of Casey County, is at the
headwaters of the Green River in the eastern section of the Pennyrile
and on the southern edge of the Knobs belt. Liberty was named by
veterans of the Revolutionary War who came to this section from
Virginia in 1791. Col. William Casey, a pioneer in whose honor the
county was named, established a station near Green River for protec-
tion during the Indian wars. Associated with Colonel Casey was
Christopher Riffe, who in 1793 bought from the grandfather of Abraham
Lincoln 800 acres of land in what is now Casey County.
RUSSELL SPRINGS, 147 m. (1,080 alt., 500 pop.), a resort long
known as Big Boiling Springs, was ifor many years operated by mem-
bers of the family of Sam Patterson, first settler. When the spring was
found to have a high iron and sulphur content, a dozen log cabins,
called Long Row, were built for the accommodation of visitors. In
1898 Long Row was replaced by a frame hotel that is still in operation.
The old cylindrical sandstone capping of the spring has been replaced
with concrete.
Russell Springs is at the junction with State 80 (see Tour 18).
JAMESTOWN, 154.1 m. (950 alt., 410 pop.), seat of Russell
County, was first called Jacksonville in honor of Andrew Jackson. By
288 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
1826 the Whigs came into power and, resenting the tribute to their
opponent, changed the name to Jamestown, honoring James Wool-
dridge who had donated 110 acres for a town site. Along Water and
Main Sts. in Jamestown are numerous old clapboarded log houses.
Outstanding among these are the J. R. MCFARLAND HOUSE and the
OTHA WELLS HOUSE, the oldest structures in the town. An annual
community singing contest is held in the courthouse on the last Sunday
in August.
1. Right from Jamestown on the Greasy Creek Rd., unimproved, to the GREASY
CREEK WOOLEN MILL, 1 m., an old water-power mill that manufactures cloth and
knitting yarns. Many farmers bring their fleeces to be processed here, paying for
the work with a part of the raw wool. Near by is the KARNES GRISTMILL, one
of four in operation in the county. The mills here were established before the War
between the States.
2. Left from Jamestown on the Somerset Rd., unimproved, to INDIAN CAVE, 3
m., in a bluff 75 feet high. Its entrance pierces the mountain side to a depth of
about 20 feet in a straight line and then continues in a meandering path for more
than 300 feet. Several large chambers branch from the main passageway. A
stream near the cave pours into the Narrows, a gorge that is only two feet wide
at some points. Near by is the SHINBONE, a peculiarly shaped hill that is about
100 feet high and averages 30 feet in width at its base. Its rocky sides are covered
with low-growing bushes. Big and Little Lily Creeks meet about 300 yards above
the Narrows through which Lily Creek cascades to the Shinbone, which it encircles.
South of Jamestown the route continues through a hilly region, cross-
ing Cumberland River by way of a free ferry.
The name of SEVENTY-SIX FALLS (L), 178.1 m., indicates the
number of feet down which Indian Creek drops perpendicularly. Near
the basin into which the creek plunges it sinks into the earth but
emerges again after a subterranean flow of about one-half mile, only
to fall another 10 feet into a watermill pond, the dam of which adds
an additional 15-foot drop.
The route passes SEWELL MOUNTAIN (1,720 alt.), a spur (L)
of the Cumberland Mountains.
ALBANY, 181.9 m. (964 alt., 852 pop.) (see Tour 20), is at the
junction with State 90 (see Tour 20).
South of Albany JENNY'S KNOB (L) is visible for miles along
the highway.
State 35 crosses the Tennessee Line, 187.7 m.
Tour 6
( Indianapolis, Ind. ) Louisville Bardstown Hodgenville Glasgow
Scottsville ( Nashville, Tenn.) ; US 31E.
Indiana Line to Tennessee Line, 147.8 m.
TOUR 6 289
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Louisville & Nashville R.R. parallels route between Louisville and Bardstown, and
between Scottsville and the Tennessee Line.
All types of accommodations in cities ; limited elsewhere.
US 3 IE, the Jackson Highway, winds over the central part of the
State, which is rolling or hilly for the most part. Towns of any size
are far apart, and except for some truck gardening near Louisville, the
farms along this highway hold to the typical Kentuckian pattern in
that they chiefly produce corn and tobacco, or are given over to the
raising of livestock. The winter scene is flat in tone except for the
evergreens and the orange of sage grass; but in April and May, the
woods are gay with the bloom of redbud and dogwood, and brilliant
through the fall with the contrasting colors of the frosted leaves.
US 3 IE crosses the Indiana Line, m., the north bank of the Ohio
River, and crosses the river itself on a toll bridge (toll 25$), eight miles
south of Sellersburg, Indiana (see Ind. Tour 13).
LOUISVILLE, 0.8 m. (525 alt., 307,745 pop.) (see Louisville).
Points of Interest: Speed Museum, Memorial Auditorium, Presbyterian Theo-
logical Seminary, Churchill Downs, Cave Hill Cemetery, Cherokee Park.
Louisville is at the junction with US 31W (see Tour 7), US 60 (see
Tour 16), and US 42 (see Tour 12).
The flat country immediately south of Louisville is bare and brown
in winter, but green with potato plants and other truck-farming vege-
tables in summer. Farther south the land is rolling and clumps of
evergreens, fields of corn, and grass pastures appear by the roadside;
then, at 17.4 m., a series of rounded hills, darkened by a notched
plume of evergreens, appear on both sides of the highway. These are
the Knobs that rim the Bluegrass plains. Red cedars and old oak or
gum trees, the latter often entwined with mistletoe, are common along
this route.
FARMINGTON (L), 5.2 m., is the house built in 1810 by John
Speed who came with his father over the Wilderness Road from Virginia
to Kentucky in 1782. A long avenue bordered with trees leads to the
one-and-one-half-story house of brick. The wide recessed entrance
provides additional space under the portico which has an elliptical
window in the pediment. The doorway is ornamented on each side
with four reeded pilasters, side lights, and it has a segmental arched
fanlight above, all beautifully executed. The wide central hallway
opens into two large front rooms and into two octagonal rooms behind
them. The ceilings of the first floor are 15 feet high, the windows
have nine-paned sashes and in the octagonal rooms are hand-carved
wooden mantels identical in design and ornamentation, one of the fea-
tures of which is a gleaming metal eagle. A short distance from the
house stand the brick smokehouse, the remains of an old stone stable,
and a stone spring house. James Speed, one of the sons of John Speed,
was Attorney General under Abraham Lincoln and Joshua, another
son, was Lincoln's intimate friend at Springfield,. Illinois. In 1841,
2QO HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Lincoln, after an early love affair turned out unhappily, spent most of
the summer and fall here.
MOUNT WASHINGTON, 20.9 m. (686 alt., 350 pop.), was a flour-
ishing community on the stage turnpike from Louisville to Nashville
as early as 1800. The settlement was first known as The Crossroads,
then as Mount Vernon ; finally, by order of postal authorities, as Mount
Washington.
The two-story BRIDWELL HOUSE (R), built in 1797 of rough hewn
poplar logs, has been little altered since it was constructed.
In the vicinity of the Salt River, 26.1 m., US 3 IE suddenly comes
alongside of a great bottom land (L) far below the highway. The
bottom is zoned out like a model city into neat, flat fields of corn and
soil-building crops. In the center are two small stands of second-growth
timber, rivulets cross the entire area, and here and there are a few
farmhouses and barns. An ornamental stone wall by the roadside
forms a parking space for those who wish to enjoy the view.
COX'S CREEK, 32.5 m. (40 pop.), was named for Col. Isaac Cox,
who, with a small band of settlers, built a fort here in 1775.
At 37.4 m. is the junction with a road.
Right on this road to the entrance, 0.3 m., to NAZARETH JUNIOR COLLEGE AND
ACADEMY (R), a Roman Catholic school established in 1814. The administration
building, with its imposing portico, is approached by an avenue shaded with oaks
and maples. The school has a library of more than 15,000 volumes, including sev-
eral rare ones; a museum with an extensive collection of geological specimens; and
a number of old paintings, one, ADORATION OF THE MAGI, is a copy of the one in
Madrid by Peter Paul Rubens and may have been made in his workshop.
BARDSTOWN, 39.8 m. (637 alt., 1,767 pop.) (see Tour 15), is at
the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14) and at the northern junction
with US 68 (see Tour 15). US 3 IE and US 68 are united for 58.5
miles.
The route passes the TOM MOORE DISTILLERY, 40.4 m. (permission
necessary to mew plant), whose large, silver-painted warehouses range
along the road (R). AsUS31E climbs a plateau, the land levels back
from the highway in wide, treeless spaces distantly edged with timber;
and miles away the dim hills throw a straight dark line against the sky.
The road then spirals down through a low, attractive group of hills
green with stands of cedar, sycamore and pine, and passes more knobs
pointing their cones to the sky.
NEW HAVEN, 53.7 m. (444 alt., 445 pop.), a quiet, tree-shaded
town founded in 1820, was first called Pottinger's Landing. Harrod's
company had established a station on Pottinger Creek in 1781 and
Col. Samuel Pottinger, one of its members, envisaging this as an im-
portant shipping point, built a large landing and warehouse here for
the storage of whisky and other products that were to be shipped on
flatboats down the Rolling Fork, Salt, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to
New Orleans. Pottinger renamed his town, it is said, because he ad-
mired New Haven, Conn. While this village never achieved the posi-
TOUR 6 2QI
tion its founder had hoped for, large quantities of whisky, cured meat,
and timber were shipped from the area. The production of whisky
remains its foremost industrial activity.
Left from New Haven on State 52, an improved road, to the ABBEY OF OUR
LADY OF GETHSEMANE (open to men only, adm. free), 4 m. This Trappist monas-
tery was founded in 1848, when the chapter of the monastery of Melleray, France,
fearful of the revolution of that year, determined to find a home in America for
a part of their crowded community. The Trappists are Cistercians of an order
that came into existence in 1664 after a housecleaning by Armand J. le B. de Ranee
at the abbey of La Trappe. The Cistercians themselves were founded after a re-
form in the Benedictine order, the oldest of the Roman Catholic Church. Various
independent congregations of Trappists arose after 1664 but all were united in the
Reformed Order of Strict Observance in 1892. This order fasts continually and
accepts the discipline of silence. The vow of perpetual silence holds except during
conference with superiors, when in choir, or on other very special occasions. They
greet each other in silence, with a bow, and use sign language for any necessary
communication. One monk, as host to the many who visit the abbey, is released
from this vow.
Through the efforts of the Rt. Rev. Joseph Flaget, first bishop of Louisville, a
1,400-acre tract of land, subsequently enlarged, was purchased, and 40 members
under the leadership of Dom Proust crossed the Atlantic and began the difficult
work of clearing land and building a home for the order.
The abbey, a rambling white stuccoed structure of Gothic design, was completed
and consecrated in 1866. The buildings form an immense quadrangle, one side of
which is the church, also of Gothic design; this building, 226 feet long, has a white
spire rising 166 feet. Within, sharply pointed, cross-ribbed vaults are supported by
octagonal columns with delicately molded and foliated Gothic caps.
The porter's building has a wide arched entrance. Within this long low struc-
ture are a small museum, a post office, and a dressing room for the only women
ever admitted the wife of the President of the United States and the wife of Ken-
tucky's Governor. Two walls connect this building with the abbey proper and
enclose a quadrangular garden.
Behind the guest house is the cloister garden, containing many rare shrubs and
plants. In its center is a statue of Our Lady of Gethsemane above a circular
roofed shelter.
The library consists of more than 60,000 volumes, including ancient manuscripts
and rare old liturgical writings. More than 40,000 of its volumes were donated
in 1901 by Monsignor Batz of the archdiocese of Milwaukee. In the abbot's office,
adjoining his cell, is a small collection of handwritten and illuminated books.
The monks are divided into two groups, lay brothers who wear brown cassocks
and choir religieuse who wear white. Morning devotions begin at 2 A.M. and last
until 6 o'clock, when there is an hour for meditation, followed by a one-hour mass.
From 8 until 11:30 the monks do manual labor. Then the one meal of the day is
served, the food consisting usually of vegetables and milk. The afternoon program
includes both labor and devotions, and the day is brought to a close by vespers
at 6. At 7 P.M. the brothers retire to their cells. The lay brothers devote eight
hours a day to physical labor, the choir religieuse but four. In addition to the
monastery's market, there are a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright shop, a carpenter
shop, a tinsmith shop, and a steam sawmill.
This community is described in James Lane Allen's White Cowl. In 1933 there
were 44 choir religieuse and novices, 40 lay brothers and oblates.
Also on State 52, in the part of Kentucky that early became a field of Roman
Catholic immigration to the West, is LORETTO CONVENT AND ACADEMY (open),
13 m., the outgrowth of a little school opened on Hardin's Creek, Marion County,
by Anne Rhodes early in 1812. She, with four other women who soon joined
her, became the nucleus of the Sisters of Loretto, founded by the Reverend Charles
Nerincx. The first home of the order, about six miles from the present mother-
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
house, was a log cabin furnished with a table and wooden benches. Sister Anne
Rhodes became the first mother superior; by 1816 the Sisterhood had grown to 26
members. In 1824 the convent was moved to St. Stephen's Farm, former home of
the Reverend Theodore Badin, cofounder with Father Nerincx of Roman Catholi-
cism in Kentucky. In 1888 the institution completely outgrew its quarters, so new
buildings were erected, quite in contrast with the original log houses of pioneer
days. Brick buildings at the mother house stand in the midst of a large farm,
with orchard, gardens, and fields for raising grain and other food products. The
Sisterhood has numerous branches throughout the South and West. Teachers for
these are provided by a normal school at Loretto. This convent is the locale for
James Lane Allen's "Sister Dolorosa," contained in his book, Flute and Violin and
Other Kentucky Stones.
South of the Rolling Fork of Salt River, 56 m., the terrain is con-
siderably broken, though there are many areas of good farm land.
On the SITE OF THE KNOB CREEK FARM (open), 57 m., where the
Lincoln family lived between Abraham's fourth and eighth years, is a
REPRODUCTION OF LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE; the original log cabin is
now at Lincoln Memorial National Park.
In 1813 Thomas Lincoln and his family moved from the barren
Sinking Spring farm to this region, where fish and game were plentiful
and the soil unusually fertile. In a letter written in 1860 to Samuel
Haycraft, Abraham Lincoln said: "My earliest recollections are of the
Knob Creek place." For approximately three months of the sojourn
here Abraham Lincoln trudged to school with his sister, Sarah, but
his teachers were inadequately qualified and the schooling was of little
practical value. At other times the boy helped his father with the
farming (sometimes carrying corn seven miles to Hodgen's mill to be
ground), hunted rabbits, fished, and climbed the rugged hillsides with
his companions.
HODGENVILLE, 65.1 m. (720 alt., 1,104 pop.), seat of Larue
County, is one-half mile below the confluence of the three branches of
Nolin River. In 1789 Robert Hodgen erected a mill on his land. In
addition to operating his mill and farm, he conducted a tavern or
"ordinary," in which many notables were entertained, including the
French botanist Michaux, in January 1797, and the royal travelers,
Louis Philippe and his brothers, in April 1797. Hodgen died in 1810,
and soon afterward the settlement that had sprung up near his tavern
was named for him. In the public square is a bronze STATUE OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Adolph A. Weiman, erected in 1909 through
National and State appropriations.
The LINCOLN MEMORIAL NATIONAL PARK, 67.9 m., is on
the old Sinking Spring Farm (R), the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.
Crowning an eminence within the park is the LINCOLN MEMORIAL,
an austere square structure approached from a plaza by a long flight
of steps, 30 feet wide, flanked by hedges and trees. SINKING SPRING,
its waters still sweet and clear, is protected by stone walls and flagging
at the foot of the knoll.
The memorial, designed by John Russell Pope, is built of Connecti-
cut pink granite and Tennessee marble. Across the front are six
TOUR 6 293
granite Doric columns; similar columns frame three grilled openings on
each side. Over the entrance is carved "With Malice Toward None
with Charity for All." On the rear inside wall are inscribed the life
stories of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks.
Marble tablets bear quotations from Maurice Thompson and Edwin
Markham and Lincoln's simple one-paragraph autobiography.
In the center of the building stands the log cabin that is believed to
have been the BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. When the cabin
was restored and placed within the walls of the Memorial Building, its
size was reduced slightly. It is now 12 feet wide and 17 feet long and
its walls are 11 logs high. The spaces between the logs are chinked
with clay, and a clay-lined log chimney stands at one end. A small
window gives the only light, and the doorway is so low that a man of
average height must stoop when entering.
Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather, came to Kentucky from Virginia
between 1782 and 1784 (see Tour 16). His son, Thomas Lincoln, and
Nancy Hanks were married at Beechland in Washington County in
1806 (see Tour 15 and Harrodsburg), and set up housekeeping at Eliza-
bethtown (see Tour 7).
In December 1808 Thomas Lincoln purchased this farm on the South
Fork of Nolin River, and came here with his wife and daughter. In
the short time he lived on it, he farmed a few acres, hunted, and did
carpentry work for other farmers. Hardin County tax records show
that he was taxed for possession of a few horses. On February 12,
1809, Abraham Lincoln was born, and in 1811 another son, Thomas,
was born and died. In 1813, possibly because of a dispute over title to
the land, the Lincoln family moved to a Knob Creek farm where they
lived until they moved to Indiana.
In 1894 Alfred Denett of New York purchased 110^ acres of land,
including the site of the log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln is believed
to have been born. This was all but 10 acres of the Lincoln tract. The
log cabin was moved from place to place for exhibition purposes ; it was
shown at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at Nashville, in New
York City's Central Park, and at the Pan-American Exposition in
Buffalo. About 1904 it was stored in the basement of the Poffenhaufen
mansion at College Point on Long Island.
These exhibitions aroused widespread interest, and, as a result, the
Reverend Jenkin Lloyd Jones of Chicago proposed that the Federal
Government buy the farm. His son, Richard Lloyd Jones, who was
managing editor of Collier's Weekly, interested Robert Collier, the pub-
lisher, in the proposal, and other publications took up the cause. The
Lincoln Farm Association was organized to raise money for buying
both the farm and the cabin and to erect a memorial to Lincoln. By
1905 the organization had obtained sufficient contributions, mostly in
small amounts, to purchase the farm and cabin. The cornerstone of the
memorial was laid by former President Theodore Roosevelt on February
12, 1909, the centenary of Lincoln's birth, and the completed structure,
2Q4 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
containing the log cabin, was dedicated by former President Taft on
November 9, 1911.
A company, including former President Woodrow Wilson, gathered
here on September 14, 1916, when the property, together with an en-
dowment fund of $50,000, was received by the Secretary of War, New-
ton D. Baker, on the part of the United States, as a gift to the Nation.
In 1933 the property was transferred to the control of the Department
of the Interior.
South of Knob Creek Farm for about 15 miles, the land is roughly
level or mildly rolling, with occasional stands of timber by the roadside
and fields of corn or tobacco between large pastures. Sage grass makes
a green or orange ripple (depending on the season) across the open
fields and hillsides. A few small frame shacks are passed, and some old
log cabins. The road then winds through and around some high hills
well covered with woods, and crosses, at 86.2 m., the Green River whose
deep emerald waters are bordered by low corn bottoms and large
sycamores.
The Green River country, of the subsistence farming type, is often
poor or depleted, and a Kentuckian who is trying to describe an angular
woman will say, "She's as bony as the hips of a Green River cow."
Natives add to their income through the sale of handicraft articles.
Along US 3 IE in the vicinity of Green River are roadside displays of
baskets, colored pottery, quilts, bedspreads, and embroidered cushions.
The quilts and bedspreads have designs in bright colors.
South of the Green River, US 3 IE winds through hills overlooking
small valleys, meets several small trading centers where blue-shirted,
overalled school boys play along the highway, and then enters open
rolling country. This is a cave region and sinkholes called "goose
nests" by the natives small caves, and sinking streams are prevalent.
At 98.3 m. is the southern junction with US 68 (see Tour 15).
ADAIRLAND (R), 104.7 m., is a large stock farm whose rolling pas-
tures spread back from the highway for a considerable distance, latticed
at regular intervals by the white fences enclosing a dozen or more grass
fields. A long, white-fenced lane leads straight to a two-story frame
house, also painted gleaming white, with a high portico. Large white
barns stand nearby. The red roofs of the house and the barns contrast
pleasantly with the green of the pastures and the white of the buildings
and paddocks; landscape and architecture combine to form a scene of
geometrical orderliness and beauty. Adairland is more suggestive of
the Lexington horse farm area than any other farm along this route.
GLASGOW, 112.1 m. (780 alt., 5,042 pop.), a lively, bustling town,
is the business center of a petroleum-producing field. It was named
for Glasgow, Virginia, in 1799. This area was settled by Virginians
who, after the Bluegrass section of Kentucky had been filled, moved
farther west into the Barrens, then an almost treeless plateau. Long
before the advent of the white man, the forests of this region had been
burned; the abundance of grass on this prairie provided an excellent
grazing ground for big game. The trees of the area are younger and
TOUR 6 295
therefore smaller than those of the eastern section of the State. Maj.
John Gorin, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, was the first to settle
here on a land grant awarded for Revolutionary services. A good
spring was the deciding factor in his selection of a site for his home-
stead. Soon other settlers, most of them veterans of the Revolutionary
War, came to take up land grants. After the formation of the county
Major Gorin gave a 50-acre tract, including the spring, as a town site
and the settlement grew up about the courthouse square. Early in
1800 the Kentucky Legislature authorized a State road between Lex-
ington and Nashville, Tennessee, passing through Glasgow. The first
stage traversed this road in 1836.
Among early settlers from Virginia was Alexander E. Spottswood, a
general in the Revolutionary Army and the first lawyer to live here.
He was the grandson of a Colonial Governor of Virginia who married
Elizabeth Lewis, niece of Martha Washington. In addition to the
land grant that General Spottswood received for his war services, he
purchased land in Glasgow, where he built (L) the SPOTTSWOOD HOUSE,
N. Race St., two blocks from the courthouse. It was said to have
been the town's first brick building; it is Georgian Colonial in style,
has 28-inch walls, and contains eight rooms and a basement that was
used as slave quarters. During the War of 1812 much saltpeter was
produced in Barren County. In 1813 a powder mill was erected on
Coon Creek and the manufactured product was transported by wagon
through Lexington to Philadelphia. An old battery, erected during the
War between the States, is on the western edge of the town.
Glasgow is at the junction with State 90 (see Tour 20) and State 80
(see Tour 18).
South of Glasgow, US 3 IE continues through a countryside that is
rolling to hilly. Many excellent farms skirt the highway. In this
section much land is devoted to the culture of berries and other fruit
for northern markets. Cotton has been grown successfully.
After crossing Peters Creek, 124.7 m., with its old frame mill and
dam (L), the highway passes a file of sycamores (R) and then crosses
Barren River, 126.7 m., flush with a low corn bottom. As Scottsville
is approached, gray, dilapidated two- or three-room board shacks of
poor farmers are seen by the roadside.
SCOTTSVILLE, 137.3 m. (750 alt., 1,867 pop.), seat of Allen
County, looks like many other county seat towns in southern Ken-
tucky. It is spread over a central hill surrounded by other hills. The
old red brick courthouse stands in the center of a round public square
encircled by the highway; on its outside bulletin board are pasted
numerous legal notices. Dozens of overalled farmers or workingmen
mill about the place, exchanging small talk or laying down their opin-
ions. Scottsville was named for Gen. Charles Scott, fourth Governor
of Kentucky; the county's name was selected as a tribute to Col. John
Allen, who fell in the Battle of the River Raisin. Scottsville was
raided by guerrillas in December 1863.
296 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Opie Read, lecturer and writer, was once editor-owner of the Scotts-
ville Argus (see Literature).
US 3 IE crosses the Tennessee Line, 147.8 m., -51 miles north of
Nashville, Tennessee (see Tenn. Tour 7).
Tour 7
(New Albany, Ind.) Louisville Elizabethtown Munfordville Horse
Cave Bowling Green Franklin (Nashville, Tenn.); US 31W, the
Dixie Highway.
Indiana Line to Tennessee Line, 150.9 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Louisville & Nashville R.R. parallels route throughout.
Accommodations chiefly in cities.
Taking a course through west central Kentucky, US 31W runs near
the river for a time, approaches it, and then goes up the Salt River
Valley. It enters the Knobs region where the countryside lumps up
into small round hills streaked with ravines. Near the south-central
part of the State the route makes a great elbow curve through the
cavernous limestone region containing Mammoth Cave and many other
subterranean wonders, then, below Bowling Green, runs through the
Pennyrile. Few cities or towns line this highway. Corn, tobacco, and
livestock production is the chief interest of the countryside.
The route follows the general course of the old Louisville-Nashville
stagecoach road. Prior to the completion (1859) of the Louisville &
Nashville R.R., travel over this road was greater than over any other
road in Kentucky. Stephen McMurtry, a Vine Grove farmer who
lived within sight of the pike, often had as many as 25 freight wagons,
stagecoaches, and other vehicles rolling by in view at the same time.
In 1825 Bayard Taylor made a journey over this road to Mammoth
Cave, admired the scenery at the mouth of the Salt River, and picked
up an explanation of the phrase, "going up Salt River." The story he
got was that in earlier days, when the saltmakers up Salt River were
the terror of the countryside, the steamboat captains subdued unruly
members of their crew by threatening to send them up Salt River
among the rowdy saltmakers. According to other sources, the phrase
originated in 1832 when Henry Clay, who had an engagement to speak
in Louisville during his campaign against Andrew Jackson, was per-
suaded by a Jackson man to take a packet trip up Salt River. While
the boatman was delaying the excursion so that Clay could not arrive
in Louisville until the day after the rally, Jackson apologists for Clay's
TOUR 7 297
absence were explaining to the crowd at Louisville that he had gone
up Salt River and had been unavoidably detained. After Clay had
been beaten by Jackson in the election, defeated candidates were said
to have gone "up Salt River."
US 31W crosses the Indiana Line, m., eight miles south of Sellers-
burg, Indiana (see Ind. Tour 13), by way of a bridge (toll 25$) over
the Ohio River.
LOUISVILLE, 2 m. (525 alt., 307,745 pop.) (see Louisville).
Points of Interest: Speed Museum, Memorial Auditorium, Presbyterian Theo-
logical Seminary, Churchill Downs, and others.
Louisville is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), US 3 IE
(see Tour 6), and US 42 (see Tour 12).
Between Louisville and TIP TOP, 30.6 m. (793 alt., 50 pop.), US
31 W and US 60 are united (see Tour 16). US 31W branches south-
west from the junction at Tip Top.
FORT KNOX, 34 m. (760 alt., 500 pop.), is a 33,000-acre military
reservation on both sides of US 31W. The tract, including the town
of Stithton, was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1917 for a
World War training camp and named for Henry Knox, an artillery
commander during the Revolutionary War. In 1932 the War Depart-
ment designated the camp a permanent military post and changed the
name to Fort Knox. In 1933 the 1st U.S. Cavalry, mechanized, was
stationed at the post, and two years later work on the first permanent
structures was completed. Subsequently the 13th Cavalry, mechanized,
has been stationed here, the two regiments forming the 7th Cavalry
Brigade, mechanized.
In 1936 the Treasury Department built the GOLD BULLION DE-
POSITORY (R) in which to store about nine million pounds of the
Federal gold reserve. The treasure house, 100 feet square, is of bomb-
proof construction ; its walls and roof are faced with huge granite blocks.
Atop each corner of the building are machine-gun turrets where guards
keep vigil against intruders who might attempt the risk of scaling the
high iron fence. Interlaced steel coils with openings too small to admit
a man's hand are set in the concrete of the walls as an added protec-
tion. Constant inspection of the interior of the two-story vault, which
is 60 feet long and 40 feet wide, is maintained by means of an open
space under the floor and one over the ceiling; mirrors and brilliant
lights make every corner visible. Supersensitive microphones in the
vault are connected with the central guardroom. In addition to the
vault, the building contains offices and dormitories.
Bird-dog field trials are held in the vicinity of Fort Knox semi-
annually on varying dates in March and November. The trials last
three days, usually at a week end; the spring meets are generally more
popular than those held in the fall.
South of Fort Knox, US 31W lopes off among tall, ragged cliffs and
gorges. It winds through countryside splotched with stands of cedar,
298 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
pin oak, and scrub pine. Daisies line the roadside, and gentian and
trumpet vine break the pattern of the near-by fields. This is good
country for hunting rabbit, squirrel, and quail.
At 41 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.~
Left on this road to MILL CREEK CEMETERY, 7 m., in which are the LINCOLN
FAMILY GRAVES ; here lies the dust of Bersheba Lincoln, Abraham's paternal grand-
mother, and of Mary Lincoln Crume and Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, his aunts.
At 52 m. is the junction with an unmarked, road.
Left on this road to a PREHISTORIC MOUND, 10 m., which has never been exca-
vated. Near by in a line of cliffs along Rough Creek are two ROCK SHELTERS (R)
on the Hugh Yates farm. The dirt-and-pebble floors of these shelters have yielded
IS human skeletons and hundreds of artifacts arrowheads, tomahawks, beads,
pottery, and utensils. Most of these objects are in the Museum of Archeology of
the University of Kentucky (see Lexington).
ELIZABETHTOWN, 52.5 m. (708 alt., 2,590 pop.), is a county
seat laid out in wheel pattern. The hub is a red brick courthouse that
looks like a modern rural school building. Around it runs a narrow,
traffic-packed street broken at four places by the highways that enter
the town amidst the two-story shops that surround the circle. Beyond
this central business section the radiating streets pass neat, well-spaced
dwellings with spreading old trees on the roomy lawns.
Elizabethtown is a busy trading center for a rather large rural area
in which livestock, tobacco, and grain are produced. On county court
days, if the Hardin County farmer has caught up with his chores, he
generally comes to town to listen in during the court sessions. On
Saturdays he puts the family into the old car, or the jolt wagon, along
with farm products he wants to trade, and they all come to town and
spend the day selling their wares, buying groceries and dry goods, and
wandering around with their neighbors.
In the fall of 1780 Capt. Thomas Helm, Col. Andrew Hynes, and
Samuel Haycraft arrived from Virginia and built three stockades a
mile apart at the points of a triangle. In 1793 Colonel Hynes had a
town plat made of his land, and named it in honor of his wife.
A familiar figure on the streets of Elizabethtown in its early days
was "Old General Braddock," a Negro belonging to the Vanmeter
family. Soon after their arrival, a band of Indians began to snipe at
the settlement. The slave took down a rifle and killed nine of them.
His good aim discouraged the other Indians, who fled. The Vanmeters
were so grateful that they gave him his freedom.
During the War between the States several skirmishes took place
here and on December 26, 1862, the town was shelled by the Con-
federate cavalry leader, Gen. John Hunt Morgan. The town was
strongly garrisoned with a regiment of Illinois troops, and its defenses,
brick warehouses with loopholes, seemed adequate; but Morgan took
Elizabethtown without much trouble.
According to local tradition, Thomas Lincoln lived here as early as
TOUR 7 2Q9
1796. However that may be, county records show that in 1804-05
he served on juries here, guarded prisoners, and was assessed for a
horse. He found time to court Sarah, daughter of Christopher
Bush, but she preferred Daniel Johnston to Thomas Lincoln. So in
1806 he married Nancy Hanks (see Tour 15 and Harrodsburg), and
they set up housekeeping in a log cabin and here their first child,
Sarah, was born. In 1808 Lincoln bought Sinking Spring Farm (see
Tour 6) and moved his family there. Following the death of Nancy
Hanks in 1818, Lincoln came back to Elizabethtown to see whether
his former love, Sarah, now a widow, would reconsider her refusal of
him. The widow Johnston accepted the widower Lincoln, and, ac-
cording to records in the Hardin County Courthouse, they were married
on December 2, 1819. Sarah Lincoln was a kind and devoted step-
mother to Thomas Lincoln's children, and Abraham cared for her lov-
ingly after his father's death.
There is a story that in 1813, when Thomas Lincoln was living on
his Knob Creek farm, 20 miles away, a man destined to precede his
son Abe in the Presidency stayed awhile in Elizabethtown. James
Buchanan, Sr., had a lawsuit pending in the local courthouse, and he
sent for his son, James, Jr., a vigorous young lawyer practicing in
Pennsylvania, to come West and assist him. James, Jr., represented
his father through several months of litigation. It was the younger
Buchanan who became fifteenth President of the United States.
As early as 1806 Elizabethtown, with 22 lawyers, had a reputation
as a legal center. Of the 22, Felix Grundy later became a United
States Senator from Tennessee (1829-38); Thomas Buck Reed, United
States Senator from Mississippi; John Rowan, United States Senator
from Kentucky (1824-30); Ninian Edwards, Territorial Governor of
Illinois (1809-18); and W. P. Duvall, Territorial Governor of Florida
(1822-34).
Duff Green, later of Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet, arrived here
from Fairfax County, Virginia, and became the merchant-partner of
Maj. Ben Helm, son of Capt. Thomas Helm. As a child, Abraham
Lincoln often helped his stepmother do her shopping in the Green-
Helm store. They were served by John B. Helm, a nephew of Ben
Helm who was to become a Hannibal, Missouri, judge. When Lincoln
visited Hannibal in 1860 he searched out Judge Helm. After remark-
ing about the changes 40 years had made, Lincoln introduced Judge
Helm to his companions simply as "the first man I ever knew who
wore store clothes all the week . . . who fed me on maple sugar, when
as a small boy I sat upon a nail keg in his uncle's store."
Another member of the local Helm family, John L. Helm, was Gov-
ernor of Kentucky (1850-51, re-elected in 1867). Gen. Ben Hardin
Helm commanded the 1st Kentucky Cavalry, dubbed the "Orphan
Brigade" of the Confederate Army because so many of its officers were
killed in action. General Helm became Abraham Lincoln's brother-in-
law by marrying Mary Todd's sister, Emily. At the outbreak of the
300 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
War between the States, Lincoln offered to appoint General Helm
Paymaster of the U.S. Army, but Helm declined, and became instead
a brigadier-general in the Confederate Army. He was killed at the
Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863, while leading an infantry
brigade" in Gen. J. C. Breckinridge's division.
Elizabeth town's last contribution to the list of successful sons was
John Young Brown, Kentucky Governor from 1891 to 1895.
The city has two outstanding private collections of Indian artifacts
found in Kentucky; one is owned by Bell Smoot, on Public Square, and
the other by Ben Ailes, of Poplar Street. These collectors also have
about 3,000 old firearms.
In the HARDIN COUNTY COURTHOUSE is a room (adm. free) housing
Lincolniana. These records escaped the fire of 1932 which partly de-
stroyed the old courthouse. After the structure was rebuilt in 1936,
they were collated and placed in the new building by WPA workers.
In the SMITH HOTEL, formerly the old Eagle House, erected early
in the nineteenth century, Jenny Lind appeared on April 5, 1851. The
crowd that gathered to hear her sing was so large that gracious Jenny
went to Aunt Beck Hill's Inn, now the Brown-Pusey Community House,
where she sang to the townspeople from the stone steps.
The BROWN-PUSEY COMMUNITY HOUSE (open), cor. N. Main and
Poplar Sts., was presented to the city by Drs. W. A. Pusey and Brown
Pusey of Chicago. It was a stagecoach inn and called the Hill House;
Aunt Beck Hill, great-aunt of the community house donors, was the
proprietor. The simple two-story brick building, erected in 1818, has
a low-pitched gable roof and inside end-chimneys. The lower two-
story ell in the rear borders the side street. The front of the building
has long 18-light windows in the first story with segmental arch head-
ings, a deeply recessed paneled entrance door with square transom and
simple frame, and a small entrance stoop with twin transverse flight
of steps and a simple wrought iron railing. The interior of the house
has been little changed and many of the furnishings have been restored.
The garden behind the house is planted in flowers particularly popular
in pioneer days.
Gen. George Custer lived next door to the community house (1871-
73) while writing My Life on the Plains. His stay was comparatively
quiet but in memory he was having a stirring time. As his biographer
remarked, "All rifles were trusty to Custer, all comrades gallant, and
a horse was always a noble steed."
Elizabeth town is at the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14).
South of Elizabethtown the road winds between the knobs; some of
these lumpy outcroppings are denuded of everything except grass,
others have small stands of timber near their crowns. In summer-
time the light green of tall cornstalks blends with the darker green
of the tiny tobacco patches and rough fields; but with fall's coming,
dun-colored wigwams of shocks stretch across the fields of stubble, the
truncated tobacco plants make a dark brown stain upon the clay, and
large plots of broom sage ripple over the fields and hillsides.
TOUR 7 301
South of the Nolin River 62.5 m., is a small area of livestock farm-
ing with substantial houses and multiple fodder ricks bunched in the
fields that are separated from the highway by dense clusters of honey-
suckle.
The thick, dark shadow of a sizable evergreen woods falls across
US 31W as it winds up and around hills to UPTON, 69.8 m. (402
pop.), a trading center that looks to the Louisville & Nashville R.R.
for its life. Some quarrying is carried on in the vicinity.
Just south of Upton a few ramshackle frame houses appear one-
story affairs with one or two rooms, feebly lit through small-paned
windows. They suggest a farm's outbuildings rather than dwelling
places. The small plots surrounding these places are littered with
sundry articles, and the hand plow is sometimes seen in use. Here
live poor white families who eke out a borderline existence. They
are not representative of the region, and their number is small.
The highway dips up and down as it penetrates a cheerless country
with jumbled contours, veined by steady erosion. Cornfields and pas-
ture lands are plotted irregularly over the terrain; here and there a
bared stretch of dark red soil stands on a drab hillside. The railroad
tracks along the road (R) seem like an intruder in this nearly primi-
tive landscape where the dwellings are log cabins and big, black mules
take the place of horses.
At 73 m. is the junction with Ridge Rd., unimproved.
Right on this road to WILLIAM CAVE FARM (L), 13 m., on which are many
rocks pitted with holes, several feet deep, made when the Indians used them as
mortars in grinding corn. In the vicinity are beds of flint fragments splintered off
during the making of weapons and implements.
BONNIEVILLE, 77 m. (846 alt., 27 pop.), consists of a few old
frame houses, on whose porches are displayed the split white oak,
hickory and willow baskets often found on sale in the South.
South of Bonnieville the road occasionally moves close to the hills,
where rocks jut forward like crude gargoyles. In other places strug-
gling corn patches waver over the rolling land ; a tangled thicket spreads
along a section of the route; and the roadside embankments, stripped
of grass, are red clay. The road passes log cabins and frame shacks,
peopled by families who till their poor acres for all they will yield.
They also make excellent baskets and chairs from split white oak; for
several miles south of Bonnieville, all kinds of basketry are displayed
by the road or on the little porches of the houses. Near Munfordville,
Negroes are seen strolling up or down the road. They live in the
raffish cabins and box-like houses near the highway.
At 82 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Left on this road to GLEN LILY (visitors welcome) 9 m., the birthplace of Simon
Bolivar Buckner (1823-1914), standing solitary in the woods alongside Green River.
The crude two-story rectangular house is of hewn logs, with a tin roof and a nar-
row gallery extending along three sides. The front faqade is broken at the center by
a clapboarded section probably a closed-in breezeway, or dog-trot. It stands on
302 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
what was formerly a farm of 1,000 acres. Near by on the riverbank are the moss-
covered ruins of the old IRON FOUNDRY built by General Buckner's father in 1823.
For two years after his graduation from West Point, in 1844, Simon Buckner
served as an instructor at the institution. He resigned to take part in the Mexican
War; when the War between the States broke out, he was made commander of
the Kentucky Militia and soon espoused the Confederate cause, rising to the rank
of lieutenant general. After the Battle of Fort Donelson he surrendered to General
Grant, who had been his friend for many years before the war. During Grant's
last illness General Buckner visited him, and he was a pallbearer at Grant's funeral.
Buckner was a Governor of Kentucky (1887-91) and a candidate for the Vice-
Presidency in 1896.
MUNFORDVILLE, 83.8 m. (571 alt., 649 pop.), named for Richard
I. Munford, member of the House of Representatives in 1820, 1822,
and 1827, is high on the northern bank of Green River. It is the seat
of Hart County, named for Capt. Nathaniel G. T. Hart, a Revolution-
ary officer. The courthouse, of the familiar red brick schoolhouse
type, is on one of the knolls that crop up on the rough ground that
is the town site.
The major event in the history of the town was the so-called Battle
of Munfordville. The Union fort here and 4,000 men under Colonel
Wilder, together with supplies, artillery, and ammunition, were cap-
tured by Confederate General Bragg on September 17, 1863, three
days after an abortive attempt to take the town. Bragg succeeded
in reaching Munfordville in advance of Union General Buell, who was
racing towards Louisville to protect it from the advancing Confederates.
Having captured Munfordville, Bragg was in a position either to fight
the oncoming Union forces or to march into Louisville ahead of them.
He did neither; instead he marched away to the east, leaving Buell
free passage to Louisville. The withdrawal from Munfordville, and
the indecision shown by Bragg from that time until his final retreat into
Tennessee, were strongly condemned by the Southern press and public.
OLD FORTIFICATIONS (R) are visible from the highway. The MUN-
FORD INN, Main St., is a two-story frame structure erected in 1806
along an old buffalo trace that had become a highway.
1. Right from Munfordville on State 88, a partly improved road, to CUB RUN,
14 m. (760 alt., 89 pop.). Left from Cub Run 1 m. on an unimproved road to
the CASTLE, a curiously shaped rock shelter. The presence of a hominy hole,
kitchen midden, arrowheads, flint chips, and flint and bone tools attest Indian
occupancies. Practically all of these relics are in the Museum of Archeology of the
University of Kentucky.
Right from State 88 at the Castle, 4 m., on a road that leads to the GEORGE
WADDLE FARM, near which is a row of 15 ROCK SHELTERS, high above the valley
of Little Dog Creek. The dirt floors have yielded flint chips, arrowheads, scrapers,
and human bones.
In a line of cliffs on the W. A. Bracher farm, across the road, similar relics were
uncovered. The arrowheads from this site have serrated edges and unusually broad
shoulders. A sandstone hominy hole rock weighing two tons was moved from
here to the University of Kentucky.
2. Left from Munfordville on State 88 to CUB RUN CAVE, 2 m., in which lay
three human skeletons. One was that of a child about 10 years old.
TOUR 7 33
The highway runs on a long trestle, 84.1 m., high above a broad
corn bottom before crossing Green River. Floored with rough, loose
planks that rattle loudly every foot of the way, and weakly guarded
along the sides by low wire fencing, this rickety structure calls for
slow driving.
At 85.9 m. is the junction with State 335, an improved road.
Left on this road is MAMMOTH ONYX CAVE (adm. $2), 3 m., containing some
of the most beautiful formations in the cave area. The entrance is practically on
a level with the surrounding terrain, and the floor slopes almost imperceptibly.
Among the many huge high-ceiled chambers is Paradise Garden, in which are onyx
trees, flowers, human figures, and porticos. A giant Tree of Life, in onyx of many
hues, translucent and fine-grained, covers one whole wall of another chamber.
At 4 m. in the corner of a lonely pasture is a lone, unmarked GRAVE OF AN UN-
KNOWN CONFEDERATE, a 16-year-old Mississippi boy who served under General
Bragg. While marching to Munfordville to reinforce the main body of Bragg's
troops, a detachment of Confederates stopped for a drink of water at a cool spring
near by. Worn out by the pressed march, a young soldier scarcely of shaving age
sat down to await his turn at the water. By accident he kicked the trigger of
his gun, shooting himself.
A wide, saw-toothed sweep of hills rims the horizon at 88.8 m. Trees
scallop their crests above small cultivated fields.
HORSE CAVE, 91.4 m. (603 alt., 1,259 pop.), most of which is
scattered away from the road and from a curious L-shaped business
section, is said to have been so named because Cherokee used a near-by
cave as a corral for stolen horses. Another story is that the cave
gained its name when a horse fell into it. A part of the town is built
over HIDDEN RIVER CAVE (adm. $2), which has a continuously flowing
underground river with pearly white "eyeless" fish, and the largest
known domes in the area. Its entrance is more than 250 feet wide
and 450 feet long. Hidden River Cave has never been extensively
explored.
Between Horse Cave and Bowling Green US 31W and US 68 (see
Tour 15) unite.
A dozen or more WIGWAMS (R), 94.7 m., arranged in an oval, offer
a novel variation from the usual tourist cabins.
CAVE CITY, 95.5 m. (613 alt., 775 pop.), is at the junction with
State 70, leading to Mammoth Cave (see Tour 7 A).
Between Cave City and Bowling Green, US 31W bears west-south-
west with the hills (R), a third of a mile away, a series of humps. As
the route progresses southward, the hills (R) are darkly green with
thick masses of evergreens, striped in summer by the lighter green of
oak trees brownish in the winter. The land gradually levels out for
a long stretch with hills furrowing the skyline (R).
Scores of signs, arrows, and billboards southwest of Cave City in-
sist that it is only so many miles to this or that cave. This is cave
country, and dozens of cave-owners, in spite of the near-by Mammoth
Cave, do a good business. Roadside stands sell large and small rock
formations from the caves.
304 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Though the land may seem poor to out-of-Staters, farming is the
occupation of most of the people in this region. Corn, tobacco, and
livestock are the principal products. There is a cornfield every few
hundred yards, on a low, level stretch when possible, but otherwise on
rolling swells. Every farm has its tobacco patch of one to six or eight
acres. While maturing in summer, the oblong leaves of the plant make
a green spread across the fields; after harvest, the stalks, left in the
ground, remain upright, richly brown through the winter. Large pas-
tures hold grazing cattle, a few horses, mules, and sometimes sheep in
large numbers. Each farmer usually raises a few hogs for home con-
sumption. Most farms have a water pond near the road, 15 to 50 or
more feet in diameter, where the animals drink, and several low hay
stacks, with an exposed center pole, where they can chew when the
pasturage is poor. A farmer in this region may own 400 or 500 acres
of land, but timber stands and unproductive sections prevent the cul-
tivation of a good part of it. Barns, seldom painted, take on a gray,
weather-worn appearance, that deepens with the years. Most of them
are substantial enough, but here and there a barn along the way is a
good subject for a woodcut romanticizing decay, and the narrow dirt
lanes that sometimes spiral their way across a hilly farm make good
backgrounds. Farming, however, is relatively prosperous, and the
houses are the typical two-story frame structures.
GLASGOW JUNCTION, 101.8 m. (623 alt., 374 pop.), another
town whose chief concern is the tourist and his interest in caves, was
first called Three Forks, then Bell's Tavern. The second name came
from an inn built in the 1820's and operated by Col. William Bell
of Virginia.
Within sight of the highway, near the railroad station, stand the
RUINS OF BELL'S TAVERN (L). The first structure, a rambling wooden
affair, built in the 1820's and added to from time to time as patronage
grew, was noted for the hospitality dispensed by its owner, Col. William
Bell, a Revolutionary officer from Virginia. The service was lavish and
the fare testified to the epicurean taste of the owner. Colonel Bell
himself prepared his favorite appetizer, peach brandy and honey, a
beverage of exhilarating potency, and he was generous in dispensing
it. Coffee was served from a silver coffeepot that was carried from
table to table by Shad, the "blackest little Negro with the whitest
teeth anyone had ever seen." Shad is buried under an apple tree in
the old orchard.
Bell's Tavern was a favorite meeting place for the leading politicians
of the day. Henry Clay, the Marshalls, the Humphreys, Judge Rowan,
and Aaron Harding were among the frequent guests. Nathaniel
Silsbee, Senator from Massachusetts (1826-35), wrote to a friend who
contemplated the journey to Nashville:
"Stop for a day or two at the famous Bell's Tavern. Should you
arrive late at night and find the yard filled in with rough carts and
wagons, with perhaps uncouth men or maybe Indians stretched upon
VIII. ALONG THE HIGHWAY II
m m l ^ I
TROUBLESOME CREEK DAM
IN THE LICKING RIVER VALLEY
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SHEEP GRAZING
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gy*
&
MOUNTAIN ROAD
THE PASTURE
CUTTING BURLEY TOBACCO
TOBACCO CURING
GRINDING SORGHUM CANE
BOILING SORGHUM
1 1
I. I *
MOUNTAIN CABIN
HOME IN CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS
JFp H ^x^7
HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK
FARMERS EXCHANGE
k
NAME ADDRESS
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BULLETIN BOARD OF FARMERS EXCHANGE, OWENSBORO
TOUR 7 305
porch and hall floors, keep up good heart; there will be a comfortable
bed for you, and at breakfast such a breakfast as you have seldom
sat to you will have for company men, learned men, not unlikely a
prince or a potentate, a world famous actor or a prima donna; it may
be all of these. But mark you, should none of these fall to your share
you will find in your host a cultivated, charming gentleman who can
keep up his end of the conversation with even you. There is no other
hostelry of its like upon the length of the continent."
After the death of Colonel Bell, his son's widow, Mrs. Robert
Slaughter Bell, maintained the tavern's reputation until it was de-
stroyed by fire about 1858. Mrs. Bell planned to build a magnificent
stone structure, whose proportions and appointments would be worthy
of the tavern's reputation, and she began construction though friends
warned her of the gathering war clouds. The building, which was never
completed, was to be 105 feet in length and about 60 feet wide. The
massive walls of dressed stone had reached a height of 15 feet or so
before the work was stopped. The vine-covered walls, arched windows,
and moss-grown steps attest the magnificence of Mrs. Bell's plans.
Right from Glasgow Junction on a graveled road to DIAMOND CAVERNS (adm.
$1 to $2 including guide service), 2 m., one of the smaller caves of the area but
one of the most beautiful. It is illuminated with floodlights and the trip through
it requires from one to two hours.
At 107.3 m. is the junction with State 65.
Right on this road, across which scamper many animals from the near-by Mam-
moth Cave National Park Game Refuge, is BROWNSVILLE, 11 m. (537 alt., 359
pop.), seat of Edmonson County, on the left bank of Green River in an area of
mediocre farm lands where nature has lived untouched and its wild-life flourishes.
Brownsville's old homes stand beneath magnificent trees, and in almost every yard
are beds of hollyhocks, larkspur, and asters. The town still lives along the grooves
of the 1850's. Everybody hereabouts is a good story teller. Barn-raisings, quilt-
ing parties, bran-hullings, apple peelings, logrollings, and singing parties are a major
part of its social life. Square dances are as common as the tales of "hants" in
Edmonson County, which is rich in folklore. Brownsville is so quiet that the tinkle
of the cow bells going to pasture in the morning and coming back to the barn in
the evening is as significant to its residents as reveille and taps are to soldiers.
In Brownsville is the CARMICHAEL COLLECTION or PREHISTORIC RELICS (free; by
appointment). Practically all of the specimens were found within the county.
At Brownsville is the junction with Indian Hill Road.
Right on this road to INDIAN HILL (628 alt.), 1 m., below which slide the
waters of Green River, Indian Creek, and Nolin River. Indian Hill continues to
yield flint artifacts.
At 111.4 m. is the junction with State 101.
Left on this road to SMITH'S GROVE, 4 m. (607 alt., 718 pop.), where a Gov-
ernment emergency landing field is maintained. In the Smith's Grove Cemetery is
the GRAVE OF SUSAN MADISON, sister of Patrick Henry and wife of Thomas Madi-
son, a brother of George Madison former Governor of Kentucky.
At 118.7 m. is the junction with State 80 (see Tour 18).
306 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
BOWLING GREEN, 125.4 m. (469 alt., 12,348 pop.), seat of War-
ren County, rides the uplands along the Barren River. The city rises,
in a series of narrow streets, up to a central square with a thinly
planted park as its core; it rises farther to the top~of a hill on which,
occupying a fort site, is the Western State Teachers' College. On an-
other hill is a reservoir. From these elevations it is seen that the
city is speckled with quite large and ornate houses among the trees
and shrubs that tone down the industrial color of Bowling Green.
The city has taken full advantage of surrounding natural resources.
Asphalt rock from along Barren River is brought here by barge,
crushed, and reshipped to various points for road building. Near-by
oil pools, in the decade after the World War, gave Bowling Green its
one boom era; although these pools still produce, the output has
dropped off appreciably. Tobacco, both dark and burley, is a cash
crop that contributes much to the prosperity of the city; the tobacco
warehouses are the most interesting places in town during the auction
sales in the late fall and early winter. Strawberries are prominent
among the products produced for the market; Bowling Green was
formerly the foremost strawberry market in the State, and still attracts
numbers of pickers during berry season. Men, women, and children
arrive on freight trains, in mule-drawn buggies, in model-T Fords, in
jolt wagons, and afoot, to tent in the strawberry fields for a fort-
night or so, and then move northward to continue the work in other
berry-growing areas.
In 1780 Robert and George Moore, with some associates from Vir-
ginia, established a settlement here in the Barrens, a treeless plain.
The town site was chosen because of its proximity to an excellent
spring, and the navigability of the Barren River up to this point.
The Moore brothers provided land for the first log courthouse.
Until its erection in 1797, the county court had held its sessions in the
home of Robert Moore. The visiting lawyers and court officials long
used the yard about Moore's house as a green for playing bowls, as
did many people in the town. From this custom Bowling Green de-
rived its name. The growth of the town was gradual and constant
until the War between the States. Immediately after the outbreak of
the war, the town became a center of attention because of its impor-
tance as a railroad center and river shipping point, and because of its
position on the chief western wagon road between the North and the
South. Further hardship was faced by the city because of the divided
sympathy of its people a large part of whom favored the Union.
In November 1861 Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, in command of a
body of Kentuckians from Camp Boone in Tennessee, occupied the
town. He was followed by a division of the Confederate Army led by
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate commander in the West,
who immediately commenced to fortify the place as a permanent head-
quarters from which to operate in Kentucky. These plans were shat-
tered by the reduction of forts Henry and Donelson in 1862. The
TOUR 7 307
Confederates evacuated the city and Federal soldiers moved in and
completed the fortifications.
The WESTERN KENTUCKY STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE, 5th St., is on
the eminence occupied by the fort. Earthworks and some of the
equipment are preserved on the campus. In 1813 the General Assem-
bly established Warren Seminary in Bowling Green. Six years later
legislative approval was given for the establishment here of the South-
ern Normal School, a private institution. A few years later Potter
College for young ladies was opened. These schools were highly suc-
cessful until the War between the States; afterwards Warren Seminary
became Warren College, and was later renamed Ogden College. In
1928 Ogden College leased its property to the Western Kentucky
State Teachers' College which had developed from the Southern Nor-
mal School and ceased to function.
On the campus of the college, which covers 60 acres, are cottage
dormitories, a model rural school, and athletic fields. Honeysuckle
Lane, a broad flagstone walk, winds through what was the fort. All
buildings of major importance are on College Heights from which
there is an excellent view of the beautiful Barren River Valley with
hills behind it to the north and west. The Administration Building
is constructed of red face brick with limestone trim. The Cedar House
Club, a broad one-story structure of cedar logs, is the center of social
life on the campus.
The Kentucky Building, faced with brick and trimmed with lime-
stone, is of Georgian Colonial design. In it is the KENTUCKY LIBRARY
OF FOLKLORE (open) and a museum containing Indian and early Ken-
tucky relics and collections of old furniture, papers, documents, and
oddities of natural science.
An Italian Garden, on the old Ogden Campus, contains a group of
Florentine statuary and a heroic statue of Apollo. Near by is the Ex-
perimental Farm of 149 acres, used for demonstration.
BOWLING GREEN BUSINESS UNIVERSITY, College St., a privately
owned institution, is an accredited senior college that offers a four-year
course in business, administration, finance, and commerce. Its gray
brick building contains an auditorium, classrooms, and offices. The
library, a frame structure immediately back of the main building, con-
tains about 16,000 volumes.
Bowling Green is the home of Mrs. Eliza Calvert Hall Obenchain
(1856- ), author of Aunt Jane oj Kentucky, and Sally Ann's Ex-
perience.
Bowling Green is at the junction with US 68 (see Tour 15).
Right from Bowling Green on State 67 to the junction with a dirt road, 3 ra.;
R. on this road to the C. A. SMITH FARM, 4 m., where large beds of flint frag-
ments and numerous artifacts have been found. The quantities of kitchen midden
near by on the same farm indicate that this was long an Indian village site.
At 128.4 m. is (L) LOST RIVER CAVE (adm. 10^), a large rock
chamber whose ceiling forms a natural bridge on which the highway
308 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
runs. The cave was so named because of the short, deep stream that
starts 350 feet above the mouth of the chamber, tumbles in a water-
fall at its entrance, then disappears entirely. A gristmill was operated
here prior to the organization of Warren County^ in 1796. On the
levels now used as dance floors Indian skeletons and relics have been
found, indicating that this place was once an Indian burial ground.
Soldiers camped here during the War between the States, and John
Morgan hid in the cave while Federals were looking for him when
he burned the depot at Shakertown. The notorious James boys are
said to have made their hideout here in 1868 after they had robbed
the Russellville bank. The cave has been developed as a night club
and picnicking spot, with tourist cabins available near the entrance.
Between Lost River Cave and Franklin, the land levels out into broad
fields used for pasturage and the production of corn, tobacco, straw-
berries, and livestock. Ponds are by the roadside, and broom sage
waves greenly across the fields until frost turns it russet. All through
this region, fine Georgian Colonial homes with gracious porticos alter-
nate with ordinary frame farmhouses and gray, weathered shacks; jolt
wagons drawn by plodding mules share the road with automobiles.
FRANKLIN, 145.8 m. (717 alt., 3,058 pop.), tightly hugs a central
courthouse square rimmed with low brick buildings, each of which has
a hitching post. It was founded in 1820, named for Benjamin Franklin,
and is the seat of Simpson County, which was named in honor of Capt.
John Simpson, whose company of riflemen joined the first Kentucky
troops that marched to reinforce General Hull at Detroit during the
War of 1812. Captain Simpson was killed in the Battle of the River
Raisin.
The ONE-SUCKER TOBACCO MARKET here is unusually large. The
growing plant is trimmed of all except a single sucker on the main
stem, thus producing a superior quality of tobacco. A municipally
owned MINERAL WELL in the public square has water of a high sulphur
content.
The people in this remote hilly region have songs, superstitions, and
customs that belong to eighteenth-century England (see Tours 1, 18,
and 19). Children are admonished never to pluck mistletoe from an
oak. Though it is believed to attach itself naturally to any other tree,
it is supposed to be held in place on an oak by the druids, and to break
their hold would bring calamity upon the "hull relation." An expres-
sion often heard here, "as thick as fiddlers in hell," undoubtedly sprang
from the mouths of early reformers.
South of Franklin is rolling farm country, where the highway passes
orchards and fields of corn. Honeysuckle and brier mesh the fences.
A favorite legend of GEDDES, 149.3 m. (688 alt.), a roadside com-
munity, is a variant of the popular Barbara Frietchie story. It is said
that when Gen. John Hunt Morgan crossed the Tennessee Line near by,
a few days before Christmas in 1862, his command encountered a Union
flag flying over the farmhouse of an aged widow. A member of the
TOUR 7 309
advance guard started to climb to the roof to haul down the colors, to
the ire of the old lady who soundly berated him, telling him that she
loved the flag and would rather die than see it in the hands of "rebels."
Morgan had ridden up during the altercation, ordered the man to come
down, and told the woman to take the flag down; he allowed her to
keep it. This courtesy from the much dreaded "raider" so impressed
the Union sympathizer that she offered to serve all the food she could
"rake and scrape" and all the "parched corn coffee they could hold."
But Morgan declined, saying that his men would feast at Christmas on
the pigs and turkeys held by the Union commissaries, which they were
going to capture.
At 150.9 m. US 31W crosses the Tennessee Line, 37 miles north of
Nashville.
Tour 7 A
Cave City Mammoth Cave National Park Mammoth Cave; 9.6 m.,
State 70.
Accommodations at Mammoth Cave National Park: Open day and night through-
out year ; guides compulsory ; adm. (includes any chosen route through the old
cave) adults, $2; for each route thereafter, $1; children, 8-12 yrs., $1; children
under 8 yrs., no charge. De Luxe Route, adults, $4, children 8-12 yrs., $2; Star
Chamber and Mummy Combination Route, $3; children $1.50; lunch in Snowball
Dining Room, 60^. Two modern hotels, rates from $1 ; horseback riding, boat-
ing, hiking, tennis, croquet, and dancing.
State 70 branches west from US 31W (see Tour 7) at CAVE CITY,
m. (613 alt., 773 pop.) (see Tour 7).
MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK ENTRANCE, 9.6 m.,
introduces the visitor to a 49,000-acre area of forested rolling hills,
deep valleys, and streams, with Mammoth Cave as the chief attraction.
The profusion of local flora is well illustrated by the fact that here are
more than 180 varieties of plant life, of which 109 are shrubs and trees.
A project now under way (1939) will make this park part of a scenic
loop route embracing the Great Smoky Mountain National Park of
North Carolina and Tennessee and the Shenandoah National Park of
Virginia.
Mammoth Cave is a product of geologic action and of erosion, a
process that began many million years ago. In the ancient period a
shallow sea covered the region that is now central Kentucky. Within
these waters coral shellfish and other forms of marine life grew in pro-
fusion. The sea floor gradually sank, and as it sank reefs, built up
in the same manner as those off the coast of Florida, grew to a thick-
ness at this point of more than 325 feet. Then the subsidence stopped.
310 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Sand was deposited over the marine sediments. Finally the waters
receded and Green River began cutting its present valley, a process that
took millions of years. Underground water, coming in contact with
the limestone strata, acted physically, as an erosive agent, and chem-
ically, as a solvent, and over periods of time inconceivable to the mind
of man, carved out the giant tunnel.
The rock mass, within which the cave has been carved, is now above
the stream level of Green River, into which the subterranean waters
of the cave flow. The cave itself, with its five levels, covers an area
approximately 10 miles in circumference. Its explored passageways,
325 of which have been mapped, extend to an estimated length of 150
miles. These passageways lead visitors to three rivers, a lake, and
numerous rooms and domes.
The principal attractions are reached over six routes, some of them
electrically lighted and all free of danger. A natural phenomenon is
the "in-breathing" or movement of air from the outside when the sur-
face temperature is below the cave's constant temperature of 54 F.,
and the "out-breathing" when the surface temperature is above that of
the cave.
The cave has six entrances, two natural, the other four man-made.
The natural entrance, called the Historic Entrance, is 194 feet above
the level of the valley and 118 feet below the crest of the overhanging
bluff. The other principal entrance has a man-made stairway descend-
ing to the level of Frozen Niagara.
Mammoth Cave was first discovered by white men about 1800;
claims have been made for 1794, 1802, and 1809. Since 1811, when
the nitrate deposits in the cave were first mined, explorations, some
planned and some accidental, have broadened knowledge of the cave
to its present but still incomplete extent. During the second war with
Great Britain, two men, one named Wilkins and another Benjamin
Gratz, were owners of the property. The latter was prominent in early
Kentucky history (see Lexington). They sent Archibald Miller from
Philadelphia to take charge of the saltpeter works. After the conclusion
of the war the property was sold to James Moore of Philadelphia.
Later a man named Gatewood, who had previously owned the prop-
erty, came into possession of it again and he opened it to the general
public as a commercial attraction. In 1837 Frank Gorin purchased the
land surrounding the single natural entrance and began development
of the cave as a tourist attraction. Stephen Bishop, the first guide,
and Matt Bransford, who, upon Bishop's death in 1859, succeeded
him as chief guide, spent their lives exploring the passages and caverns.
Both were slaves and men of unusual daring. Their knowledge of the
cave has been transmitted in direct line to the guides who now con-
duct visitors through the underground wonders.
The fame of Mammoth Cave early spread to Europe where a young
physician of Louisville, Dr. John Croghan, was traveling. In 1839,
when he returned to America, he purchased the property and 10 years
TOUR 7A 311
later it passed to his heirs, the sons and daughters of Col. George
Croghan and Gen. T. S. Jesup.
ROUTE 1
The Historic Entrance is the natural opening through which the cave was first
found. It is reached by a path that leads from the summit of the bluff. Stone
steps lead to the vestibule.
The SALTPETER VATS are relics of the operations carried on during the War of
1812, when saltpeter was in great demand for the manufacture of gunpowder. The
cave is rich in this mineral. The material was placed in these vats, hopper-like
structures similar to the vats used in early days for the leaching of ashes to make
the potash used in soap making. Water was poured over the material and the
solution containing saltpeter in suspension was filtered into containers. It was
boiled and again leached, this time through wood ashes. The saltpeter in crystalline
form was shipped, by boat and wagon, overland to powder factories.
The CORKSCREW EXIT is a short and narrow but rough and winding passage to
the surface discovered in 1870 by William Garvin, the guide. It makes unnecessary
the physical difficulties of a return journey through the 18-inch passageway known
as FAT MAN'S MISERY. Garvin noticed the bats inhabiting the cave disappear,
and by following them he reached the surface of the earth.
GORIN'S DOME is over the spot where an exciting adventure of F. J. Stephenson,
an English visitor, ended in 1863. Accompanied by Nick Bransford, he descended
to the water level where today, filled with sand, lies the flatboat they used on their
journey. They descended the sluggish stream to a point where Stephenson left the
guide and boat and went on alone. Records say that when he was attempting to
catch some "eyeless fish," his lamp went out, his matches became wet, and he was
left in utter darkness. Despite that fact, he returned safely three hours later. The
next day, his appetite for exploration still strong, Stephenson again descended the
stream with Nick. Again Stephenson left the guide and went exploring alone, and
again he returned safely.
The BOTTOMLESS PIT, discovered a century or more ago, was long believed to
deserve its name. Actually it is about 200 feet deep. Above it, rising 140 feet, is
SHELBY'S DOME, named for the first Governor of Kentucky.
The BRIDGE OF SIGHS is a stone arch so named because of a fancied resemblance
to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy.
FAT MAN'S MISERY is a 200-foot passage that narrows in places to 18 inches. It
is the only way by which the visitor can go farther into the cave.
RIVER HALL, believed to extend for miles underground, is the place where the
waters from various caverns and galleries gather. The DEAD SEA is a still pool
beneath a 60-foot cliff.
The RIVER STYX was named for the mythical Greek river across whose dark
waters Charon transported the spirits of the dead.
ECHO RIVER, first crossed in 1837 by the guide and cave explorer, Stephen
Bishop, flows at the lowest cave level, 360 feet below the earth's surface, on its
way to near-by Green River. Here are facilities for a subterranean water journey
on a stream like Coleridge's, which flowed "through caverns measureless to man,
down to a sunless sea." Along this underground stream sounds are echoed with an
unusual lengthening and blending. Echo River contains a translucent blind fish
best known of the Amblyopsidae family interesting illustrations of evolution under
unusual conditions of life. This underground fish, mistakenly spoken of as "eye-
less," has vestigial eyes, but is totally blind.
Nathaniel P. Willis (1806-67), the journalist, described one of these fish: "In
size, he was like the larger size of what boys call a 'minim' say an inch and a
half long but very different in construction and color. His body was quite white,
translucent, and wholly without intestinal canal. His stomach (what there was of
it) was directly behind the brain (if brain there was) and all the organs of the
312 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
system were forward of the gills, the head alone having blood or other discolora-
tion. Under the chin he disposed of what was superfluous in his nourishment. He
was curiously corespondent indeed to the poetized character of the place like was
a fish in process of becoming a fish in spiritland. Nothing could be more purely
beautiful and graceful than the pearly and spotless body which had 'heavenlified'
first, leaving the head to follow." These fish apparently derive all nourishment
from the chemical content of water. In the course of an experiment a captive
blind fish lived a year in a bowl of water without food. When a few crumbs were
introduced the fish died within 24 hours.
ROUTE 2
The FROZEN NIAGARA ENTRANCE is a man-made opening cut in 1924, at a point
about 3.5 miles southeast of the main entrance.
RAINBOW DOME has a wide range of color in its walls and ceilings. To the left
is the huge stalactite called Onyx Pyramid.
CRYSTAL LAKE (boats), a body of clear water, is 2 to 38 feet deep. The boat
landing is called Plymouth Rock. A stairway leads to a higher level affording a
view of the lake.
The RADIO ROOM has had a radio since 1925. No aerial is used and the recep-
tion is unusually good.
FROZEN NIAGARA, 75 feet high, is a deposit of onyx bearing a striking resemblance
to a waterfall. Indirect lighting creates a spectacular effect. Fancy has vested its
immediate surroundings with names. One formation is thought to resemble a to-
bacco leaf, others are the Golden Fleece, the Arizona Giant Cactus, the Chinese
Idol, and the Chinese Family.
From the ceiling of THANKSGIVING HALL hang stalactites that are supposed to
resemble turkeys and other viands that grace the Thanksgiving board.
ROUTE 3
The ROTUNDA, a vast hall about 1 mile from the Historic Entrance, is beyond
the iron gates that exclude unguided visitors. Flares are employed to demonstrate
the extent of this underground chamber.
AUDUBON AVENUE recalls the memory of John James Audubon, noted Kentucky
ornithologist to whose life clings the legend that he was in reality the son of Louis
XVI, the Lost Dauphin of France, who disappeared during the Reign of Terror.
The METHODIST CHURCH, with its resemblance to a chancel, at one end of which
is a formation resembling a rostrum and pulpit, was occasionally used in early days
by itinerant ministers or so the legend runs.
BOOTH'S THEATER is a natural auditorium from the stage of which it is recorded
that Edwin Booth once recited his favorite "To be, or not to be," from Hamlet.
Someone believed that the PILLARS OF HERCULES resembled the rocky headlands
that face each other across the Strait of Gibraltar.
The BRIDAL ALTAR, bearing a striking resemblance to a small temple, was formed
by the union of four pairs of stalactites and stalagmites. Numerous marriage cere-
monies have been performed here.
ELBOW CREVICE is a water-fluted dome from which the musical murmuring of
unseen waters is heard.
The GIANT'S COFFIN is a block of stone, 40 feet long, beside the trail.
The CONSUMPTIVES' CABINS recall a tragic delusion of medical science during the
1840's. Some doctors believed that conditions within the cave were favorable to
recovery from "consumption," as pulmonary tuberculosis was then called. In this
belief, these stone cabins were built, and for a considerable time a group of tuber-
cular people lived here in a vain quest for health.
The STAR CHAMBER is a vast room in the ceiling of which are crystals of black
oxide of manganese that under artificial light look like stars. For the diversion of
TOUR 7A 313
visitors, the guides extinguish all lights. The intense darkness is broken as the stars
appear one by one. As an added touch, the twittering of birds is reproduced.
The MARTHA WASHINGTON STATUE, apparently a female figure in silhouette, is
created in part by the use of lights.
ROUTE 4
This tour begins at FROZEN NIAGARA (see Route 2).
The large ROOSEVELT DOME, named in honor of former President Theodore
Roosevelt, is 130 feet from apex to base.
GRAND CENTRAL STATION is so called because of the many routes that intersect
here.
The NEW YORK HIPPODROME, a room 200 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 68 feet
high, is said to be directly below Frozen Niagara Hotel.
FAIRY CEILING, 100 feet long, is notable because of its smooth surface.
COLLEGE HEIGHTS AVENUE is named in honor of Western State Teachers' College
in Bowling Green, Ky.
Thanksgiving Hall, September Morn, Crystal Lake, Onyx Colonnade, and Rain-
bow Dome (see Route 2) are also included in this tour.
ROUTE 5
This route combines Routes 1 and 2, the chief points of Route 3, as well as the
following:
OLE BULL'S CONCERT HALL named for the Norwegian-born violinist who played
in it.
The PASS OF EL GHOR marks the point from which three early-day cave ex-
plorers, Charles and Abraham Merideth and F. M. De Monbrum, made their way
into a vast cavern that no one has since been able to re-discover.
MARY'S VINEYARD has a stalactite that winds from ceiling to floor and resembles
a grapevine. Nodules of limestone coated with black oxide of iron heighten the
resemblance to a vine loaded with grapes.
The SNOWBALL DINING ROOM, 267 feet below the surface, is a lunch room for
cave visitors. Its ceiling is festooned with "snowballs" of gypsum.
BOONE AVENUE is a rough pass, noted for the coloring of its walls.
The MAMMOTH GYPSUM WALL, bordering Kentucky Ave., contains formations
resembling celery stalks and flowers.
The GRAND CANYON, a large water-eroded channel, was so named because of a
fancied resemblance in miniature to the great gorge of the Colorado River.
The remainder of the route is Route 2.
ROUTE 6
This route is Route 2, with the addition of the following:
PROCTOR'S ARCADE is an enlargement of the main cave that, in early days, was
coupled with the avenue known as Kynney's Arena. It has passages with high
ceilings and well-proportioned arches.
The INDIAN RELICS torches made out of bundles of reeds, wooden bowls, woven
sandals, and the ashes of fires were found in a room of the cave and attest to
the presence of the natives long before the white man discovered these wonders.
Archeologists agree that these relics are those of a race that preceded the Indians
living in Kentucky when the earliest whites appeared.
WRIGHT'S ROTUNDA was the name first given to Chief City. It is now applied
to this T-shaped hall, and honors Dr. C. A. Wright, a Louisianian who published
one of the earliest histories of the cave.
314 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
CHIEF CITY, a single room two acres in extent, is awe-inspiring. Its ceiling, un-
supported by pillars, is smooth. In this room were found a large number of relics
of prehistoric man. Archeologists believe that both the Indian of historic times
and his predecessor used this room for special purposes, as a tribal gathering place,
or as a place for religious ceremonies.
The CATARACTS is a cascade where waters seeping through the porous rocks
gather into a stream that plunges downward over a cliff. Following heavy rains,
or the melting of deep snows, the cascade becomes a noisy torrent.
WALDACH'S DOME commemorates Charles Waldach of Cincinnati, Ohio, an early
photographer whose pictures gave the cave wide publicity.
The BODY OF PREHISTORIC MINER, near Waldach's Dome, is preserved in a glass
case where it was found in 1935. The so-called miner had been caught beneath
a slab of stone.
On MUMMY LEDGE was found the mummified body of a woman about five feet
ten inches tall, who was killed by a stab beneath the heart. The body was dis-
covered by the miners of 1812. According to legend, her skin was dark and her
close-cropped hair had a reddish tint; she was dressed in clothing woven from
linden (basswood) fibers and a robe of deerskin bearing traces of formal designs.
Feather headdresses, one for each day in the week, were found beside her body,
and a tiny musical instrument resembling a flute lay in her hand. Small beads and
a necklace made of fawn's hooves, together with the claws of an eagle, adorned
her. The exceptional care with which the body had been prepared for burial indi-
cates that the woman had been a person of importance. This find, which has dis-
appeared, passed into the possession of a Bostonian, who, according to the tale,
gave it to a museum. No museum has reported such a possession.
HAINES' DOME was named in honor of Ben Haines, an early photographer of
New Albany, Indiana, who devoted much of his time and effort to exploration of
the cave and to photographing its features.
In the SNOW ROOM deposits of Epsom salts hang like hoarfrost from the walls
and ceiling. The slightest vibration of the air will cause a shower of this snow-
like substance to fall. Early settlers collected the salts for medicinal purposes.
ULTIMA THULE was named before the beginning of the twentieth century, when
it was supposed to be the end of the cave.
VIOLET CITY was discovered in 1918 by Max Kaemper, a German scientist, who
with Edwin Bishop, a guide, found the "crawl-way" connecting Ultima Thule with
Kaemper's Hall and all that part of the cave now called Violet City. Kaemper's
Hall is 160 feet long, 120 feet wide and 60 feet high. ELIZABETH'S DOME was
named, according to local legend, for Kaemper's sweetheart. GRAND PORTAL, 60
feet wide and 50 feet high, is reached by an imposing stairway. The MARBLE
TEMPLE, its wall studded with many-colored onyx, glows under electric lights. The
CHIMES are slender reeds made in the meeting of hollow stalactites and stalagmites,
and resemble organ pipes. When struck, they emit musical tones.
The man-made exit at this point is 3.5 miles southeast of the Historic Entrance.
At Mammoth Cave archway is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to GREAT ONYX CAVE (adm. $2, combination route $3, guides;
hotel, rates Jrom $1); 3 m., one of the principal caves in this region. Great Onyx
Cave contains miles of avenues leading into corridors and spacious chambers with
great fluted columns of onyx, draperies of translucent alabaster, and a gleaming
garden of lilies, daisies and chrysanthemums reproduced from snow white gypsum.
Near the entrance to the cave a winding pathway bordered with ferns and
flowers leads among stately trees to the shores of Green River, an ideal place for
swimming, boating, and fishing.
At 4.3 m. is FLOYD COLLINS CRYSTAL CAVE (adm. $2), within the Mammoth Cave
National Park. This cave, one of the largest in the area and only partly explored,
was discovered in December 1917 by Floyd Collins while making a round of the
traps on his father's farm; it has two well-defined routes. In them is a dazzling
display of delicate formations of gypsum, crystal, and onyx, resembling lilies,
TOUR 7A 315
chrysanthemums, peonies, and asters white, gold, pale yellow, and pink. Many of
the rare bush-like helectite formations, as yet of undetermined origin, ornament
small alcoves on each side of a passage more than a mile long. GRAND CANYON
AVENUE, an imposing chamber 200 feet high, 110 feet wide, and 700 feet long, con-
tains the tomb of Floyd Collins, who lost his life in 1925 in an effort to discover
a new entrance to Crystal Cave from the highway at Sand Cave. During the
period when searchers were frantically trying to find the lost man, the whole Na-
tion waited for daily reports.
Tour 8
( E vansville , Ind . ) Henderson Madisonville Hopkinsville Guthrie
(Nashville, Tenn.); US 41 and 41E, Dixie B-Line.
Indiana Line to Tennessee Line, 114.5 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Louisville & Nashville R.R. roughly parallels US 41 throughout.
All types of accommodations in larger towns; limited elsewhere.
This route follows an old Indian trail that ran between the Great
Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. It was first made by the great herds
of buffalo in their seasonal migrations from South to North and back
again. Their trails, always following the least difficult routes, have
become main roads throughout the State. Meriwether Lewis, while
Governor of Upper Louisiana Territory, once had occasion to traverse
this trace and recorded that he and his companions were so engrossed
with its rugged beauty as to relax from their eternal lookout for lurking
Shawnee and Wyandotte.
Between Henderson and Nashville this route was long a post road,
called the Buttermilk Road, because farmers along the route set aside
crocks of buttermilk and dippers, from which travelers might freely
drink.
In Kentucky, US 41 passes throughout the entire Pennyrile, a region
whose name was derived from pennyroyal, a herb of the mint family.
The Pennyrile has rather vague boundaries but extends from the low
wooded hills of the Ohio River on the north to the rich coal fields of
southwestern Kentucky, a pastoral land cut through by deep winding
streams.
US 41 crosses the Indiana Line, m., 2 miles south of Evansville,
Ind. (see Ind. Tour 16).
BADE PARK (L), 1 m., was built by James Ellis in 1922, on the
part of Henderson County that was cut off on the north when the Ohio
River changed its course. Races are held here for a period of 28 days,
usually in August.
The highway crosses the Ohio River on the Henderson-Evansville
(Audubon Highway) Bridge, 2 m. (toll 30<j>).
316 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
AUDUBON MEMORIAL STATE PARK (L), 4.1 m., is a 400-acre
tract donated by citizens of Henderson County in memory of John
James Audubon (1785-1851), the ornithologist, who roamed through
Kentucky from 1808 to 1826. It includes one of his favorite haunts,
Wolf Hill, where he hunted, studied the birds, and sometimes cut his
name on trees. Here, too, though the exact spot is unknown, is the
GRAVE OF LUCY AUDUBON, his little daughter. Shelters, roads, sanitary
facilities, and offices have been built; trails have been developed, some
of them following old trails probably used by Audubon.
A reproduction of a FRENCH NORMAN INN, with a cobbled courtyard
for tables, serves as a gatehouse just off the 100-foot road that traverses
the park. It contains, in addition to a lunchroom, a banquet hall,
dormitories for hikers, and quarters for the caretaker. In the FRENCH
GARDEN is a small stone pavilion; also two bird baths formed from the
old millstones found on the site of Audubon's "infernal mill" on the
Ohio at Henderson. These millstones, called French burr, were brought
from France.
The AUDUBON MUSEUM houses a collection of Audubon prints. On
the second floor is a collection of stuffed birds, books, and portraits.
Also on the first floor is a Kentucky Room holding relics of Daniel
Boone and other pioneers, and a Transylvania Room. The French
Norman style of architecture was chosen for this building because of
Audubon's French ancestry, and because it permitted the round tower
that contains holes in the masonry for nesting birds.
At 5.2 m. is the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), which is united
with US 41 between this point and HENDERSON, 6.6 m. (382 alt.,
11,686 pop.) (see Tour 16).
Between Henderson and Dixon the road passes through rolling lands
covered with orchards and tobacco fields.
The highway passes HARPE'S HEAD ROAD (R), 29.6 m., so
named because Big Harpe, a notorious outlaw of early days, was slain
here July 22, 1806, and his head placed on a pole near an oak tree by
the roadside. The initials, H. H. ( Harpe 's Head) cut into the bark of
the tree, were legible for more than 60 years.
The Harpes Micajah (Big Harpe) and Wiley (Little Harpe)
traveled with three women, two of whom were described as the wives
of Big Harpe. The gang is believed to have come into Kentucky from
North Carolina in 1802. Their appearance was first noted near Stan-
ford in Lincoln County. A few days later came the first of the crimes
with which they blazed their way to the Green River country. In the
Rockcastle hills along the Wilderness Road a young Virginian named
Langford disappeared. A posse caught the Harpes near by and carried
them into Stanford; in their possession were the Virginian's fine shirts,
one of them bullet-pierced and stained with blood. After the bandits
had been transferred to Danville for trial, they broke jail and escaped.
Rumors of atrocities flew thick and fast through the settlements, and
when the small son of Captain Trabue disappeared in Adair County
TOUR 8 317
the parents and neighbors blamed the gang; many years later the bones
of a small child were found in a sinkhole near which the child was last
seen. Terror mounted, however, and all the murders and robberies that
were common at the time on the frontier, were laid to the Harpes.
One night the Harpes arrived at the home of a man named Stigall;
they said they were Methodist preachers and asked for a night's
shelter. Another traveler was already there but Mrs. Stigall felt no
fear in her husband's absence and, with the usual frontier hospitality,
took them in. The next morning Stigall returned to find his home in
ashes; in the ruins were the bodies of his wife and children and that
of a stranger, all showing evidence of murder. Stigall ran to the home
of his neighbor, Capt. John Leeper, who immediately called out other
men to help find the Harpes, who were suspected of being in the
vicinity. It was agreed that Leeper should have the honor of killing
Big Harpe and Stigall should shoot Little Harpe. The party soon
found the women who traveled with the Harpes; the men had left
them behind when they fled. The Kentuckians continued the chase and
at length caught up with the bandits at this place. Leeper fired at
his chosen target, who was on horseback. Both man and horse went
down, the horse on top. Harpe screamed for release and mercy, but
Leeper waited until Stigall arrived, then shot Big Harpe, cut off his
head, and placed the trophy on a tree as a warning to other outlaws.
Little Harpe escaped and when next heard of had joined two land-
pirates, Mason and Mays, who were terrorizing travelers on the Natchez
Trace. A price had been set on Mason's head; one day when Mason
was dividing a particularly large amount of loot, Little Harpe and Mays
shot him, cut off his head, carried it into Natchez, and attempted to
claim the reward. They were recognized and arrested but managed to
escape. They were again captured at old Greenville and hanged ; their
heads were placed on poles along the trace, one at each end of town.
There is the usual legend in the neighborhood of Harpe's Head Road
that large sums of "treasure" were buried here by bandits; none has
ever been found.
DIXON, 31.8 m. (544 alt., 650 pop.), seat of Webster County, is a
quiet town named for Archibald Dixon, Lieutenant Governor of Ken-
tucky 1844-48, and member of the United States Senate 1852-55, when
he filled the unexpired term of Henry Clay after Clay's death.
Many large Revolutionary War bonus-grants lay in this vicinity.
Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution who speculated so dis-
astrously in soldiers' grants, held a tract of several thousand acres be-
tween Dixon and the Tradewater River. These grants were allowed
to lapse, and some years later the land was regranted to settlers. The
town of Dixon was laid out on the land of Ambrose Mooney, who gave
the land on which the courthouse stands.
What is left of what was the HALFWAY HOUSE, on Dixon St., once
a stagecoach inn, has been weatherboarded and is now a filling station.
In 1794 William Jenkins, the town's earliest promoter, constructed the
318 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
log hostelry within the stockade "for the shelter of those who may
become residents of this rich and beautiful land, and for the rest and
comfort of travelers passing over the main trail leading from the great
trading posts of the North to Natchez Trace, far to the South." Soon
after its erection, Jenkins was captured by a band of Cherokee who
came to like him and kept him for several years. They were so fearful
of losing him that they plucked his hair out to keep a neighboring tribe
from scalping him. When Jenkins at last returned, he enlarged the inn,
in 1816 built the first frame house here, and yet later established a
cotton gin. The rates of the Halfway House appear in an old day
book: "Meals, 4.s each; bed, 4.s, for each person; whisky, l.s the
drink. Exchange 1 bu. corn for 1 gal. whisky." The menu was game,
corn pone, pork, and hominy. Shuck mattresses were used on the
beds, and the rule of the inn was that not more than four persons might
occupy one bed. The only guest who did not sleep on a shuck mattress
was Meriwether Lewis. The Governor, in spite of his military and
exploring experiences, liked his feather bed and deep pillows; so, when
he arrived, the slaves went scurrying about the village to borrow these
comforts.
Alfred Townes, eccentric friend of Audubon, was the first to mine
and use coal in Webster County. This coal was an outcropping on a
hillside at the edge of town, just off the old Indian Trail. During his
development of the coal industry, Townes made an attempt to build a
railroad into the section. In the enterprise he utilized the labor of his
slaves and spent $125,000 of his own money but he failed because his
financial backers withdrew their support. Audubon described it as a
"fine dream that will some day be true."
On the court square is the SITE OF THE PRISON PEN where Confed-
erate prisoners were confined after the skirmishes of Slaughters (1862)
and Providence (1864). As the story goes, after the Providence skir-
mish 30 Confederate prisoners, who happened to be clad in unusually
good uniforms, were stripped of their garments, clothed in odds and
ends, and placed in this log pen, from which they promptly escaped.
At the close of the war, when the survivors of the group marched
through Dixon on their way home, and saw their uniforms on the home
guards, they were so amazed that they not only took the uniforms but
compelled the guards to carry the logs from the pen to the county jail,
where several Confederates were still held. The prisoners were freed
and the logs were used to set the jail on fire.
The RICE HOUSE, on Main St., at the southwestern end of town, is
the birthplace (1872) of Cale Young Rice, the Kentucky poet. In
1934 the Webster County Historical Society planted a FRIENDSHIP
GARDEN around the house. Each tree, shrub, and flower bed is a
tribute from some Kentucky admirer.
Between Dixon and Madisonville US 41 passes through farming and
mining country.
TOUR 8 319
MADISONVILLE, 55.6 m. (470 alt., 6,908 pop.), named for James
Madison, is in the center of the plateau between the Pond and Trade-
water Rivers, a region of hills, rivers, and creek bottoms, where it is
said "any thing grown in the temperate zone will grow." Tobacco is
the money-crop, this town being one of the principal loose-leaf tobacco
markets in western Kentucky. Large quantities of hardwood timber
are also shipped from here.
In this section a great many Indian artifacts and relics have been
found along the creeks and rivers. It is believed that in the group of
HOMINY HOLES near Government Schoolhouse, milling was carried on
by mechanical means. As archeologists have decided, six of these round
holes in the hard sandstone, which are 30 to 40 inches in diameter and
10 to 14 inches deep, were used to hold corn that was crushed by large
stone pestles, operated by spring poles and counterweights.
The DANIEL McGARY HOUSE, built of brick in 1817, is a one-story
structure with a gabled roof and an ell. Facing the street and occupy-
ing a large part of the angle of the ell is a vine-hidden porch, added in
recent years.
South of Madisonville US 41 traverses coal fields.
EARLINGTON, 59.7 m. (422 alt., 3,309 pop.), a railroad junction,
is the heart of the coal fields. On Saturday the streets are filled with
miners and their families from near-by settlements. On the southern
outskirts of the town is the ATKINSON ARBORETUM (open), containing
a variety of trees and shrubs.
EARLINGTON LAKE, 60.7 m. (open to public), offers excellent
boating, swimming, and fishing.
In MORTON'S GAP, 63.4 m. (451 alt., 1,068 pop.), is the THOMAS
MORTON HOUSE, built by the town's founder in 1804. It is a rectangu-
lar, two-story, gable-roofed structure with two rooms on each floor;
various additions, including a porch, now give it a rambling appearance.
The different colors of the brick, which range from light yellow to deep
red, are the result of the differences in the amount of heat used in the
process of burning. The crack between the front windows was made
by the earthquake in 1811.
At NORTONVILLE, 66.7 m. (429 alt., 829 pop.) (see Tour 14), is
the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14).
South of the coal fields of Hopkins County the highway passes
through stretches of level pasture lands and rugged picturesque hills.
HOPKINSVILLE, 91.4 m. (541 alt., 10,746 pop.), one of the lead-
ing dark-fire tobacco markets of the country, gives evidence of long
prosperity in its large comfortable old houses on wide lawns and in
its tree-shaded streets and many stores. In 1797 Bartholomew Wood
gave some of his land to the county to bring the county seat to the
settlement here; court opened in November in a log house 20 feet
square quite large enough for the business of the very thinly settled
region. The town was incorporated in 1804, about the time the rush
of settlers from Virginia and North Carolina began. The settlement,
320 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
renamed to honor Gen. Samuel Hopkins, a hero of the War of 1812,
grew slowly but steadily, serving the people of a wide section of the
southern Pennyrile. In the early days, a visit to Hopkinsville was a
visit to a great city for those who lived on the scattered farms and in
the hills.
The town is still the center of business and culture in the region. On
Saturday the downtown streets are filled with dusty cars and slow-
moving streams of shoppers or those who make shopping an excuse
to visit the movies and to see crowds. During November, December,
and January, however, farmers are seen on the streets every day of
the week. It is then that the trucks and wagons bring in dark-fire
and burley tobacco to the 21 large warehouses, and stand in long lines
as the farmers wait their turns to unload. After the unloading the
trucks stand empty along the streets for hours as their owners celebrate
their relief after the months of toil, exchange gossip and surmises on
prices, pay their accumulated bills, and buy the necessities whose pur-
chase has been deferred for want of cash.
Hopkinsville is the headquarters of the Farm Security Administra-
tion's Christian-Trigg Farms, a project covering more than 8,000 acres
in Christian, Trigg, and Todd Counties. It was designed to provide
small farms they average 67 acres for a selected group of tenants
and sharecroppers in these counties as well as families removed from
near-by areas that were submarginal for farming. Each unit includes a
house, barn, smokehouse, and poultry house. Forty-eight of the 103
farms planned were occupied in October 1938 and the homesteaders,
advised by Federal agents, had worked out a diversified crop plan by
which the families raise the major portion of their food and the feed for
their stock (chickens, hogs, and milk cows), plant legumes to enrich
the soil, and produce tobacco and cotton for cash crops.
The KNIGHT HOUSE, 1810 S. Main St., is a one-story brick house
of the Classic Revival style built about 1832 on a high basement. The
structure has had numerous alterations and additions that have changed
its original lines. When first built it was apparently a one-story dwell-
ing with a recessed entrance in the front gable end. The sill of the old
entrance is now several feet above the floor of the simple pedimented
portico, which has five square columns and a rectangular window in its
pediment. A new entrance has been built in one corner of the fagade
at a much lower level than the old one. On one side is a frame wing
and on the other a porch entered from the higher floor level and set
on tall brick pillars.
The STITES HOUSE, 714 E. 7th St., is a spacious two-story low-roofed
frame structure built about 1850. Its two-story pedimented central
portico of modified Greek Revival style has only two square columns.
The corners of the structure are pilastered and the enframement of the
windows and side-lighted entrance has a restrained elegance.
The Ross DILLARD HOUSE, corner of Main and 14th Sts., built about
1856, is known as the "steamboat house" because of its resemblance to
TOUR 8 321
the river craft of the mid-nineteenth century, left high and dry. It is
of frame construction, two stories high. At the corners of the low
fagade heavy white pilasters rise to a classic frieze. A long, shallow,
one-story semicircular porch, its floor only slightly above ground level,
has a paneled balustrade around its deck roof, which is supported by
five round tapering columns on high square bases. Two large windows
in the low second-story opening onto this deck give the illusion of a
pilot house. The low sloping roof is pierced by two stack-like chimneys
some distance from the low gable ends.
Tradition is that prior to the War between the States, Dillard, a
farmer, was so impressed by the steamboat in which he traveled to New
Orleans that on his return he had an architect build this house for him,
a memorial to the floating palace. During the War between the States
this home became for a time military headquarters of the Federal forces
of occupation.
The WALTER DOWNES HOUSE, 15th and Main Sts., is a large two-
story brick structure built in the 1840's. It has brackets under the eaves
and tall chimney pots possibly later additions but the details of the
trim and the four tall, fluted, Ionic columns of the broad pedimented
portico have a Greek Revival refinement. An unusual feature is the
paneled balustrade of the small balcony over the side-lighted entrance
doorway.
The main building of BETHEL WOMEN'S JUNIOR COLLEGE, a Baptist
institution founded in 1854, is three stories high, built of brick in the
Greek Revival style.
The STATE ARMORY, corner Main and 5th Sts., is owned jointly by
the State, county, and city.
Hopkinsville is at the junction with US 68 (see Tour 15).
1. Right from Hopkinsville on State 107 to SWALLOW SPRING, 5 m. (open to
public), an ordinary-looking sinkhole in a field by the side of the road, sur-
rounded by fertile land. At intervals, sometimes several years apart, this sinkhole
becomes a boiling spring that fills the valley with a lake several acres in extent.
After remaining for months, the water eventually subsides, often leaving a large
number of fish. The roadway has been raised at this point to avoid the overflow-
ing waters.
2. Right from Hopkinsville on US 41 W to EDGETON, 16.7 m., on the Ten-
nessee Line, 59 miles north of Nashville, Tenn. (see Tenn. Tour 8A).
South of Hopkinsville US 4 IE, now the route, crosses many meander-
ing streams as it traverses a region with great stretches of level pasture
lands, spacious homesteads surrounded by orchards, gardens, and groves
of beech, walnut, and oak.
GUTHRIE, 114 m. (1,272 pop.), is a railroad center named for
James Guthrie, president of the Louisville & Nashville R.R. in 1867,
when the town was incorporated. The LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE TIE-
TREATING PLANT is here.
US 41E crosses the Tennessee Line, 114.5 m., 52 miles north of Nash-
ville, Tenn. (see Tenn. Tours 8 and 9).
322 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Tour 9
(Metropolis, 111.) Paducah Mayfield Fulton (Martin, Tenn.);
US 45. Illinois Line to Tennessee Line, 53 Am.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
Illinois Central R.R. parallels route throughout.
All types of accommodations in towns, limited elsewhere.
This route crosses the western section of the State, which is called
the Jackson Purchase because the United States, on October 19, 1818,
through its commissioners, Gen. Andrew Jackson and Gov. Isaac Shelby,
purchased from the Chickasaw Indians, for the sum of $300,000, 8,500
square miles of desolate wilderness, west of the Tennessee River. Today
that territory comprises eight counties in the westernmost section of
Kentucky and 20 counties in Tennessee, and is among the most fertile
sections in both of these States. The surface of the region is gently
undulating with a few ridges along the highway. The area yields such
a quantity of fruits and vegetables that huge trucks loaded with straw-
berries, dewberries, apples, peaches, and tomatoes, lumber over the high-
ways day and night during the growing season. Tobacco and corn are
also raised in quantities and, in the southernmost section, cotton is
grown. In the southwestern part are still many fine stands of poplar,
hickory, and oak. Near the Tennessee Line trees and shrubs border the
road.
US 45 crosses the Illinois Line, m., 13 miles southeast of Metropolis,
111. (see III. Tour 3), on the Brookport-Paducah Bridge (toll 50$) over
the Ohio River.
PADUCAH, 4.5 m. (341 alt., 33,541 pop.) (see Paducah).
Points of Interest: Paduke Statue, Tilghman Memorial, Irvin Cobb Hotel, Mc-
Cracken County Courthouse, Nobel Park, and others.
Paducah is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), US 62 (see
Tour 14), and US 68 (see Tour 15).
MAYFIELD, 30 m. (421 alt., 8,177 pop.), seat of Graves County,
like many other Southern cities, is built around the courthouse which
is in the center of a block known as Court Square.
A man named Mayfield, according to local legend, journeyed from
Mississippi to Mills Point (now Hickman) in 1817 to attend the races.
There he was captured by a band of ruffians who carried him to the
banks of a near-by creek to rob him. After carving his name on a tree
near the stream, Mayfield attempted to escape by crossing the creek
TOUR 9 323
on a log, but was shot and fell into the water. Afterward the creek was
called Mayfield, and when this town was organized in 1823 the name
was applied to the town.
In MAPLEWOOD CEMETERY (L), within sight of US 45 in the north-
ern outskirts of the city, are the WOOLRIDGE MONUMENTS. These me-
morials were erected by Henry C. Woolridge, who accumulated a large
fortune in Mayfield as a horse trader and breeder. All facing toward
the east and surrounding the vault, where the body of Woolridge now
lies, are the life-sized stone statues. The standing figure of Woolridge
was carved in Italy of marble. Those of his mother, his brothers, two
girls who were friends of his youth, his favorite dogs, a deer that heads
this procession, a fox, and a sculpture of Woolridge mounted on his
favorite horse, Pop, are the work of a stonecutter from Paducah. At
the rear of the lot are figures of his sisters made by a third sculptor.
Near the northern limits of Mayfield is (L) the PET MILK COMPANY
PLANT (open), which employs 50 men, and pays to farmers an average
of $37,000 monthly for milk. The MERIT CLOTHING COMPANY FAC-
TORY (open) and the CURLEE CLOTHING COMPANY FACTORY (open)
together employ 1,800 men and women in the manufacture of men's
and boys' suits and overcoats.
On Mule Day ( 3rd Mon. in Feb.) mules are brought to the city in
droves or by truck and offered for sale in the "swapping ring," a re-
served portion of the street around the public square. The ring pre-
sents a lively scene, thronged with mules and buyers, traffickers, and
speculators who dicker for anything from a mule to a pocketknife.
Mayfield is in the center of a large area that produces dark fire-
cured tobacco. During the loose-leaf sales season (Dec.-May) from
15 to 20 million pounds of tobacco are sold from the sales floors here
(see Tour 5). Representatives of manufacturing and exporting firms
from many parts of the country attend these sales.
Thousands of tons of clay are dug annually between Mayfield and
the Tennessee Line an area noted for the variety of its clays and
sent from Mayfield to other parts of the country for utilization in the
manufacture of ceramic ware. The largest of these mines, the KEN-
TUCKY-TENNESSEE CLAY COMPANY MINE (open), 32 m. (L), has been
continuously worked for more than 40 years, and produces ball clays
of high type. The production of ball clays in the United States began
in 1891, when a deposit of exceptional quality was revealed near this
mine by the digging of a water well.
At 44 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to a monument, 1 m., marking the SITE OF CAMP BEAUREGARD,
named in honor of Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, commander of the western depart-
ment of the Confederate Army. This camp was established in August 1861 as a
recruiting station and assignment base for the Confederate troops. In November
1861, 6,000 Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi troops arrived
here; inclement weather and lack of accommodations brought on an epidemic of
measles, meningitis, typhoid, and pneumonia. During the month over 1,500 burials
were made, and the survivors were removed. Camp Beauregard continued to be
324 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
used as an assignment base until January 7, 1862, when it was captured by Gen.
C. F. Smith and his Union forces.
WATER VALLEY, 46.3 m. (351 pop.), contains a canning plant
that furnishes employment to a large number of people during the
season.
Between Water Valley and the Tennessee Line is the northern border
of the South's cotton-growing region.
FULTON, 52.5 m. (357 alt., 3,503 pop.), named for Robert Fulton,
consists really of two towns, being on the border line between Kentucky
and Tennessee. The Tennessee section, with a population of 2,000, is
called South Fulton. Each has its own city government and school
system, but the single post office is on the Kentucky side. Three lines
of the Illinois Central System converge at Fulton, attracting numbers
of people from the North as well as the South. The average monthly
payroll of employees in the railroad yards is approximately $40,000.
Poultry and milk plants belonging to Swift & Company also provide
employment. The city also has a COTTON GIN.
Fulton is at the junction with US 51 (see Tour 10).
US 45-51 crosses the Tennessee Line, 53.4 m., 10.8 miles north of
Martin, Tenn. (US 45, see Tenn. Tour 10) and 10.9 miles north of
Union City, Tenn. (US 51, see Tenn. Tour 11).
Tour 10
( Cairo, 111. ) Wickliffe Bardwell Clinton Fulton ( Memphis,
Tenn.); US 51.
Illinois Line to Tennessee Line, 45 m.
Illinois Central R.R. parallels the route.
Hard-surfaced roadbed.
All types of accommodations in towns ; limited elsewhere.
US 51, in crossing the westernmost tip of Kentucky, passes through
an area rich in agricultural products and replete with historical asso-
ciations. Along the roadside are level fields of grassland interspersed
with tobacco, corn, and, in the southern extremity, cotton. Back from
the highway, extending from the Ohio River to Tennessee, is a chain of
attractive small lakes fringed with cypress. Along the high bluffs over-
looking the Mississippi River are ancient barrows, remains of stone
forts, fortified towns, and a paved canal, last traces of the prehistoric
people who preceded the Indians in this region.
US 51 crosses the Illinois Line, m., on the west bank of the Ohio
River, almost a mile south of Cairo, 111. (see III. Tour 4), on a bridge
TOUR 10 325
(toll, 75$; combination toll for this and Mississippi River bridge, $1)
over the Ohio River.
Between this point and Wickliffe, US 51 and US 60 are one route
(see Tour 16).
WICKLIFFE, 5.1 m. (332 alt., 1,108 pop.) (see Tour 16), is at the
junction with US 60 (see Tour 16).
The SITE OF OLD FORT JEFFERSON (R), 5.9 m., is on a hill overlook-
ing the Mississippi River. In 1780 Gen. George Rogers Clark, under
orders of Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, constructed a
stockade at this point. It was later abandoned because of its isolated
position.
BARDWELL, 14 m. (390 alt., 1,139 pop.), seat of Carlisle County,
last established county of the Jackson Purchase, derived its name from a
bored well here, which supplied trains with water. The town is a retail
center.
Right from Bardwell on State 123, an improved road, to COLUMBUS, 11.5 m.
(513 pop.), first seat of Hickman County, and COLUMBUS-BELMONT MEMO-
RIAL STATE PARK (adm. 10$, picnic grounds, shelter houses), 12.1 m., on the
bank of the Mississippi River at the old town site of Columbus.
The site was named Iron Banks by early French explorers, who discovered the
iron deposits that made the great bluffs rust-colored at this point. In 1784 when
Virginia, in order to pay off its soldiers in the Revolutionary Army, issued warrants
for lands along the Mississippi River, a group of Gen. George Rogers Clark's vet-
erans took up land in this area. A military post was here in 1804, when Federal
troops were rushed to this place at the time of the Burr conspiracy. A settlement
grew up and a courthouse and jail, the first in the Purchase, were built in 1823.
The purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803 and the burning of the Capitol at
Washington in 1814 caused real estate speculators to proclaim this place as the ap-
proximate center of the Nation and to start propaganda to remove the seat of the
national government to this less vulnerable spot. Engineers laid out plans for a
city to be named Columbus. The promoters were unsuccessful, but the name re-
mained. The plan of the development is among the early records in the court-
house.
During the War between the States, Columbus again sprang into the national
picture. The Northern program for conquest of the South involved, as its major
Western feature, the opening of the Mississippi. To checkmate that strategy Gen.
Leonidas Polk, C.S.A., seized and heavily fortified the bluff at the point known as
Iron Banks. Although this act was the first official violation of Kentucky's avowed
neutrality, both sides had been recruiting and propagandizing in the State from the
very beginning of the war. General Polk's move was dictated by the fear that
Union troops might forestall them in seizing this strategic position. A great chain
more than a mile long was stretched across the river to prevent further passage
southward of the Union gunboats. Its links weighed 15 pounds each; the chain
was attached on the Kentucky shore to a six-ton anchor bedded deep in the side
of the bluff. One hundred and forty guns, so placed as to sweep the river, were
arranged at four elevations 40, 85, and 97 feet above water, and crowning the
200-foot top of the bluff. This formidable array of artillery was protected by mas-
sive earthworks against the gunfire of the fleet, and, by an intricate system of
trenches, parapets, redoubts, and abatis, against attack by land. The Missouri
bank of the river at Belmont was also held by a small Confederate force.
In November 1861 Gen. U. S. Grant moved south from Cairo and landed his
army on the Missouri side of the river. He overwhelmed the Confederate forces,
and burned the Confederate camp at Belmont. General Polk sent troops across
the river that struck at the Union force, driving it back to its transports, and a
326 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Union disaster was narrowly averted. Realizing that Columbus was impregnable,
Grant swung eastward, captured the Confederate position at Fort Henry, forced
the surrender of General Buckner at Fort Donelson, fought the bitter battle of
Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, and by this surrounding movement forced the evacua-
tion of Columbus. Some of the guns were spiked and thrown into the river;
others were taken to the next Confederate defensive position at Island Number 10.
The battle of Belmont was the beginning of the great Western struggle that con-
tinued without interruption until Vicksburg had fallen, and the armies of the
North swept eastward to the sea.
When, in 1927, the high water of that year forced the citizens of Columbus to
abandon their homes, the American Red Cross built a new town on the higher
land to the east. All persons securing home sites in the new town, conveyed their
former lands back to the city, which in turn deeded these lands, together with the
streets and alleys, to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Other lands were acquired
by purchase and a total of 331 acres was made available as a site for the present
State park, built since July 1934 by CCC labor, to commemorate the struggle that
took place here between Union and Confederate forces.
The restored FORTIFICATIONS AND TRENCHES approach, in their completeness of
detail, those built during the World War. The great SEA ANCHOR with links of
the huge chain are among the show pieces of the park. A blockhouse, similar to
the one erected in 1780 by Gen. George Rogers Clark, houses many of the smaller
relics gathered from the trenches. Roads and a lookout tower afford views of the
winding river and fortressed hill.
CLINTON, 29.2 m. (389 alt., 1,204 pop.), seat of Hickman County
since 1829, and retail trade center for a fertile agricultural region, is an
attractive small town with beautiful homes and spacious lawns. The
town was platted in 1826 by James Gibson and incorporated in 1831
after the seat of county government had been moved here from Co-
lumbus. Cotton growing and cotton ginning early occupations have
steadily grown in importance. An article by Don Singletary, M.D.,
gives an excellent picture of Clinton in the early nineteenth century:
"When I first saw Clinton it was a very small crossroad village. . . .
Professors George and Marion Ray had built Clinton Academy and had
filled it with pupils from four or more States. Up to 1850 our county
was mostly wooded where grew great oaks, whose acorns fed and fat-
tened our hogs, and we lived on hog and hominy the fat of the land.
Cattle kept fat in the woods all summer and early fall, and even did
fairly well by nosing under great beds of dry leaves and getting dry
green grass and acorns in winter. We lived well: Milk and butter,
chickens and eggs were abundant. Eggs were sold at 5 and 6 cents a
dozen, and large fat hens at 25 cents each. Money was scarce, but we
did not need much. Our clothes grew by special hand work. I re-
member well our cotton and flax patches, and sheepfold. We picked
and de-seeded our cotton by hand and carded and spun our thread for
sewing, and wove our own cloth. We cut, fitted and made beautiful
clothes. Women folks were also experts in cloth dyeing. Walnut, oak,
and hickory bark and elder berries made a variety of lovely colors.
The spinning wheel and the old loom come back in memory. I see the
shuttle fly and hear the wheel hum right now. We also treated our
wool in like manner. We were warmly dressed in winter, and also had
TOUR 10 327
blankets galore. Our shoes grew up at home and were home-made,
after a year's tanning."
Along the entire course of Bayou De Chien Creek, which runs
through Hickman County and a corner of Fulton County, is a series
of mounds, camp sites, and burial fields that have yielded unusual and
beautiful artifacts covering a wide range of subjects and designs.
At 39 m. is the junction with State 94, a paved road.
Right on this road to the CASEY JONES MONUMENT, 6.9 m., a limestone slab that
bears a bronze tablet showing a bas-relief of the Cannon Ball the engine Jones
was driving at the time of his death. John Luther Jones, later known to fame as
"Cayce" or "Casey" Jones, was born March 14, 1864, at Jordan, Kentucky, the
son of a schoolteacher. At the age of 17 he grew restless, walked the ties to Cayce
and there got his first job. Promotion came rapidly: before he was 30 Jones had
passed successively from helper for a Mobile & Ohio telegraph operator through
all the steps to passenger engineer on the Illinois Central, an important job in those
days.
He settled in Jackson, Tennessee, while still with the Mobile & Ohio, and his
proud boast was that he always got his train through on time. Casey had been
given the crack assignment, Old 382, the Cannon Ball, in the early morning of
April 30, 1900, and while driving through a thick fog near Vaughn, Mississippi, he
saw a freight train a few feet ahead on his track. He ordered his Negro fireman
to jump, stuck to his cab, and though he was unable to prevent a crash, kept his
load on the rails, and saved the passengers in the 12 coaches. His scalded body
was removed from the tangled wreckage and buried at Jackson, Tennessee. It be-
came the custom for engineers to salute his grave with a whistle as they passed the
cemetery. Before long doggerel celebrating the engineer was being recited and
sung. It is believed that a Negro worker in Memphis first gave the ballad wide
popularity. Eddie Newton scored it and had it published. Every singer felt free
to add a verse or two, some of which were none too complimentary to Casey's
widow who at length appealed to law to restrain public performers from singing
the slanderous additions.
CAYCE, 7.3 m. (131 pop.), was the boyhood home of "Casey" Jones.
At 14.3 m. on State 94 is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road, 2 m., to the junction with an unimproved dirt road beside
an Indian fortification, on a high bluff known locally as Indian Hill, and to arche-
ologists as O'Byam's Fort. It is believed to be one of the most ancient mounds in
the Mississippi Valley. This site, from which many artifacts have been taken, has
been partially obliterated by cultivation and by the grading of a road.
Right 4 m. from the Indian fortification on the unimproved dirt road, which
follows Bayou De Chien Creek, to the FORT BAYOU DE CHIEN MOUNDS, locally
known as the Roberts Mounds and believed to be very old. The seven large
mounds that form the group average IS to 20 feet in height, 50 to 100 feet in
diameter, are grouped rather closely together in an area of about five acres, and
are built upon an elevated artificial plateau rising 10 to IS feet above the surround-
ing plain. The largest three mounds are quadrangular, while the others are cir-
cular. One high mound stands like a sentinel dominating the entire scene.
A short distance from the mound group a PREHISTORIC CANAL, locally
known as Lake Slough, connects Bayou De Chien Creek with Obion Creek, at the
northern end of which is another group of mounds representing a prehistoric vil-
lage site locally known as McLeod's Bluffs Mounds. The canal, approximately five
miles in length, is believed to be entirely artificial and to have been used as a
waterway for the passage of canoes between the two ancient cities that were sepa-
rated by an almost impenetrable jungle. The ancient Bayou De Chien, unlike the
present stream whose course was changed by the earthquake of 1811-12, found its
way to the Mississippi by way of Reelfoot Lake at a point southwest of the lake.
Canoes making the river trip had to make a dangerous 100-mile voyage in order
328 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
to reach a point five miles away. Within a primeval forest here are unexplored
mounds and fortifications which, according to scientists, present the richest oppor-
tunity for archeological research in southwestern Kentucky. This site was men-
tioned by Rafinesque in his Ancient History of Kentucky, written in 1824.
In HICKMAN, 15.9 m. on State 94 (306 alt., 2,321 pop.), is one of the two
seats of Fulton County, a river town that serves the surrounding agricultural re-
gion as a shipping point. In the town are some small manufacturing plants includ-
ing several cotton gins. Hickman is built on three levels of a great bluff over-
looking the Mississippi River; the bottoms contain the business section; on top
of the bluff, 200 feet above the second level of the town, is the main residential
section with churches, schools, a library, and a courthouse, from which there is an
exceptionally fine view. In his Life on the Mississippi, Samuel L. Clemens men-
tioned Hickman as one of the most beautiful towns along the river. A concrete
sea wall, erected by the U.S. Government in 1934 to protect the low-lying business
district, withstood the flood of 1937. This site, known first as Mills Point, was
settled in 1819 by James Mills whose cabin home became a shipping point for the
Mississippi River trade. Long ox trains rolled laboriously over the roads to Mills
Point bearing the produce of farms to be shipped to the markets. Returning, they
carried merchandise to the inland towns and supplies to the settlers. To Mills
Point pioneers came in their covered wagons and ferried over the Mississippi to
settle Missouri and Arkansas. In the days of the great Ohio and Mississippi river
packets, this was the metropolis of an extensive area. In 1834 a large part of the
area was purchased by a Tennessee settler who named it Hickman in honor of his
wife's family. Early accounts of the village reprinted in the Hickman Courier in
1885 record that in 1840, when the town's population was only 500, its exports
included 50,000 bushels of wheat, 200,000 bushels of corn, 3,000 hogsheads of to-
bacco, 2,000 bales of cotton, and 30,000 dozen turkeys and chickens.
Fulton County, especially the rich flat alluvial land south and west of Hickman,
raises much of the cotton grown in Kentucky. The land in this region is held
mostly in large tracts, still called plantations, and is worked mainly by Negro ten-
ants and sharecroppers (see Labor). The landowners live in town and drive to
their plantations each day. Groups of pickaninnies play about the doors of the
tiny cabins scattered along the roadside and in the fields of cotton, corn, and
alfalfa. During the cotton-picking season, in September, the snowy fields are full
of Negro men, women, and children, often dressed in bright colors; they pick the
fleecy bolls, which are dropped into long canvas bags that are dragged behind
them across the hot fields. The picking is often done to the drone of the tradi-
tional songs.
The northern end of REELFOOT LAKE (hunting and fishing) is on
State 94 at 29 m. This lake, most of which is in Tennessee, was created
by sudden inundation by the Mississippi River during the New Madrid
earthquake of 1811-12. Twenty miles in length, and varying from one
to five miles in width, the lake covers a submerged forest that lifts
skeleton arms above the surface of the water. Wild game, ducks, geese,
and other waterfowl inhabit the region, and the deep pools abound with
game fish. In Tennessee the lake is a part of a State preserve.
FULTON, 44.1 m. (357 alt., 3,503 pop.) (see Tour 9), is at the
junction with US 45 (see Tour 9).
At 45 m. US 51-45 crosses the Tennessee Line, 10.8 miles north of
Martin, Tenn. (US 45, see Term. Tour 10) and 10.9 miles north of
Union City, Tenn. (US 51, see Tenn. Tour 11).
TOUR II 329
Tour 11
South Portsmouth Vanceburg Maysville Alexandria; 109.7 m.
State 10.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Chesapeake and Ohio R.R. roughly parallels this route.
Hotels chiefly in cities.
State 10, called the Mary Inglis (or Ingles) Trail, runs along the
Ohio River most of the way between South Portsmouth and Vanceburg,
makes a detour to the outer Knobs plateau, comes back to the river at
Maysville, and then relegates itself again to the back country, though
at several places it is fairly close to the Ohio in point of miles.
At one time the slopes of the billowing plateau that rears up beside
the Ohio were densely wooded. Besides the common maples and syca-
mores, this region had a good deal of poplar and some scrub pine.
Then, in the early nineteenth century, lumbering took away the best
timber, leaving the land scraggly and subject to erosion. All the top-
soil was soon carried off down the river. Attempts to till the badly
wornout land have almost completely ruined it, and today it climbs
bare to a meager tree line.
Except for Vanceburg and Maysville, the communities along the
route are tiny, and cluster beside the highway or along the railroad
tracks. The road is seldom out of sight of habitation, which is usually
a frame house that has somehow managed to remain erect. The people
eke out a slender existence by farming and have a few mangy dogs,
cattle, and horses, but they go out hunting 'possum and rabbits during
the fall season and at all times seem less unhappy than the stranger
expects them to be.
Life along the route is closely tied up with the river and the road;
the traveler is conscious of one or both throughout his journey. From
1780 to 1815, the period when the wave of Western settlement crossed
the Alleghenies and penetrated the Ohio River region, the river brought
boatloads of restless immigrants down to Limestone (now Maysville),
then picked them up again and took them westward. Some people re-
mained in Limestone and along the Kentucky shoreline. Except at
Limestone, Vanceburg, and Augusta, the succeeding era of great river
traffic brought little prosperity to the immigrants scattered along the
river and among the near-by knobs.
When the Maysville & Big Sandy R.R. rushed up to compete with
the steamers in the early 1880's, the towns became sprightly and hope-
ful. But the C. & O. R.R. bought the Maysville & Big Sandy in 1888,
330 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
and made it merely a coal-bearing branch of the main road terminating
at Russell, Ky. When the development of the steel industry in north-
eastern Ohio shifted importance to roads cut through eastern Kentucky
to the coal fields, Russell became a great freight terminal and Ashland
a steel center; the rest of the Kentucky side of the river languished.
SOUTH PORTSMOUTH, m. (660 alt., 500 pop.), a scattering of
frame houses looking at Portsmouth on the Ohio side of the river at
the mouth of the Scioto, is on THE SITE OF LOWER TOWN, the first
white village in Kentucky. The group of log cabins was established by
French traders with the help and protection of Shawnee many years
prior to the French and Indian War (1753). An entry in Christopher
Gist's journal of 1751 tells of his visiting the French traders who lived
in the Shawnee town built on both sides of the Ohio at the mouth of
the Scioto River. In July 1765 Col. George Croghan, then an agent of
the British Government, also visited the place and noted in his journal:
"On the Ohio, just below the mouth of the Scioto, on a high bank,
near forty feet, formerly stood the Shawneese town called Lower Town
which was all carried away, except three or four houses, by a great
flood. I was in the town at the time. Although the banks of the Ohio
were so high, yet the water was nine feet over the top, which obliged
the whole town to take to their canoes and move with their effects to
the hills. They returned to the south bank of the Ohio, but abandoned
the settlement because of fear of the Virginians during the French and
Indian War."
South Portsmouth is at the junction with US 23 (see Tour 1).
Between South Portsmouth and Vanceburg the road crawls along at
the foot of the Kentucky hills, usually not far from the river and the
railroad. Sometimes the river is lost beneath an intervening terrace,
but it always comes in sight again, its muddy waters spreading toward
the Ohio shore. For most of the distance the traveler sees more of Ohio
than of Kentucky, because the Kentucky hills crowd the road.
In the summer, back from the river a short distance, the wild straw-
berry shines like red tufts on a new green carpet; the wild blackberry
grows in great, thorny tangles; the pawpaw is plentiful in hillside
thickets; and the persimmon bears fruit for the coon and 'possum,
which boys hunt at night.
The road passes houses scattered in the hills and "hollers" and along
the railroad tracks. The farms are ravined and water-cut, and the farm-
yards littered with discarded objects for which the farmer still hopes to
find some use. A few scraggly cornfields labor up the slopes.
The people back in the hills here still prefer the square dance, play
the fiddle, and sing songs such as:
There was an old nig in Kentuck brake,
He made the woods all 'round him shake,
And this was the song he used for to sing,
'Ree, raw, my Dinah gal,
Can't you git along, my darlin'?
TOUR II 331
The highway closely follows the trail taken by Mary Inglis in her
escape from Indians in 1756. During that year a war party of Mingos
living on the north side of the Kanawha attacked a settlement within
the present limits of Westmoreland County, Virginia. Mrs. Inglis, two
of her children, and a sister-in-law were captured and taken to the
Mingo villages. Her children were taken away, and her sister-in-law
was forced to run the gauntlet, but Mrs. Inglis, because of her skill in
cooking, won the respectful interest of the natives. When a band of the
Indians set out for Big Bone Lick (see Tour 12) to make salt, they
took with them Mrs. Inglis and an old Dutch woman also a prisoner
who thus became the first white women to step into what is now the
State of Kentucky.
At Big Bone Lick, the two women escaped from the Indians, traveled
through what is now Kenton County to the southern shore of the Ohio,
and finally reached Big Sandy River. They crossed this stream on a
floating log and continued up the Ohio until they reached the Kanawha,
which they followed toward Mrs. Inglis' home in the mountains. Be-
fore reaching civilization, the Dutch woman, crazed by her privations,
attempted to kill Mrs. Inglis, who swam the Kanawha and escaped.
Finally, after 40 days of wilderness travel, Mrs. Inglis reached her
friends in the frontier settlement.
At 19 m. the road leaves the river and cuts into the hills. The scene
changes swiftly; tall hills rise suddenly with great topsy-turvy stretches
of slope etched haphazardly by trees and hillside fences. Then again
the route comes out to the river, affording a sweeping view up and down
stream.
VANCEBURG, 22.4 m. (523 alt., 1,388 pop.), stretches finger-like
along the river beneath a barrier of steep hills. The town presses
tightly against the road, which passes rickety frame houses, then more
substantial dwellings before reaching a compact business section along
one side of which is a line of similar two-story brick buildings connected
with the curb by a porch roof supported by hitching posts. Old wooden
signs, nearly all white lettered on black, announce the wares hard-
ware, furniture, dry goods, clothing, shoes, groceries. The store selling
sodas, powders, and patent medicine has no sign. On the opposite side
of the street are a bank; the office of the county agricultural agent,
with a dentist's office above; a barber shop; a feed, grain, and farm
tools establishment; a garage; a restaurant; and a poolroom. Just
across the rail tracks is a hotel. Here in a capsule is the economic
center of the average small Kentucky town, in an area small enough to
be photographed in a single picture.
Vanceburg was a port of entry in pioneer days for hunters from Penn-
sylvania and the East who came down the Ohio in search of game in
the wild hills and well- watered valleys to the south. Later, as the
packets plied the Ohio River, Vanceburg started to take on the propor-
tions of a town. Since it was never an important steamboat stop, the
community saw a good deal more of the sad aspects of river life than
332 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
of the gay. For example, on June 2, 1832, it saw the paddlewheeler
Hornet, captained by a man named Sullivan, struck broadside by a
southwest gale. When it capsized, 20 passengers drowned. The over-
turned boat was pulled ashore by the Guyandotte. -
Vanceburg took on life in 1865, when a legislative act made it the
seat of Lewis County and lawyers, adventurers, and business opportu-
nists arrived.
Left from Vanceburg, on State 59, a graveled road, to KINNICONNICK (fur-
nished camps, $10 per week), 6 m., where there is excellent fishing, swimming, and
boating. Kinniconnick Creek, whose clear waters are well stocked with bass, winds
for many miles past old mill sites and through quiet green valleys.
At Vanceburg, the road cuts back into the hills again, to ride the
ridges, coast down into hollows, and make whiplash turns; when snow
and ice cover it in winter, the road is as dangerous as a toboggan slide.
Small, unpainted houses are visible on the hills and in the valley
notches, and here and there a high catwalk over a creek gives access to
a remote farmhouse. The soil is fairly good for pasturage, and mul-
tiple hay stacks, nosed by cattle and sheep, squat in the fields.
HUNTER HOUSE, 25 m., a small log structure now weatherboarded,
was built by W. B. Parker for use on his annual hunting expeditions in
the early nineteenth century.
Tips of far-off hills make a hedgerow on the horizon as the route
twists through several villages bent by the road. The complete lack of
filling stations and roadside advertisements is conspicuous.
At 36.8 m. is CABIN CREEK, spanned by an old covered bridge.
From the mouth of the creek, marauding Indians once forded across the
Ohio River. Leading out from the creek mouth to the Upper Blue
Licks were a lower war road and an upper war road, along which the
trees were marked with crude drawings of wild animals, the sun, and
the moon.
MAYSVILLE, 52.1 m. (448 alt., 6,557 pop.) (see Tour 15), is at
the junction with US 68 (see Tour 15) and US 62 (see Tour 14).
Above Maysville, State 10 rises to a point offering a fine view of the
river, its boats, the lanky new steel bridge connecting Maysville with
Aberdeen, Ohio, and flat bottomland along the Ohio shore. Most of the
Ohio River is under Kentucky jurisdiction. When the Northwest Ter-
ritory was carved out by the United States, the low-water mark was its
southern limit. After Kentucky and West Virginia were split from Vir-
ginia, the Ohio River bordering Kentucky was included in its territory.
This stretch of the river was at one time crowded with river craft
(see Tour 12). In those days a river steamer was a floating palace,
glistening with white paint and gilding. It had thick carpets, tiny white
beds, glittering chandeliers, fine music, and an elegant table, set with
all the delicacies of the season in lavish profusion. Eating went on all
day. At the bar, mint juleps and planters' punch were mixed by wiz-
ards with shiny black faces and white aprons. Always lolling near by
was the cardsharp.
TOUR ii 333
Defective boilers and a mania for speed often ripped open the boat
hulls, set them afire, and took many lives. The races between the
Handy and the Phaeton led up to such calamity. On June 28, 1881, as
both boats were running side by side for Brook's Bar near the Mays-
ville bend of the river, the boiler of the Phaeton blew up, tore off the
pilot house and smokestacks of the Handy, threw the pilot onto the
Ohio shore, and killed several deckhands. A few years later one of the
through mail packets, the Bostonia, took fire while discharging cargo at
the Maysville wharf. Its cargo of cattle stampeded. Cut loose, the
boat drifted to a near-by bank and burned to the water's edge. These
mishaps sometimes had comic relief. Some panicky passengers even
took life-belts to bed with them. After a false alarm one buxom lady
in a white nightgown constrained by a deflated belt, burst breathlessly
from the ladies' cabin. "Blow me up," she shrieked. "For God's sake,
won't somebody blow me up!"
At 56.9 m. is the junction with State 8, a graveled road.
Right on this road to MINERVA (127 pop.). In an old cemetery here is the
GRAVE OF LEWIS CRAIG (1737-1825), pioneer Baptist minister, who brought the
Traveling Church from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, to Kentucky in 1781 (see
Tour 3). The BRACKEN CHURCH at Minerva was built by Craig, who was a
stonemason as well as a preacher. Craig was the pastor of this church from 1793
through 1807.
The FRAZEE HOUSE (open on request), 64.8 m., is a one-and-a-half
story gray-painted brick house (R) with outside chimneys and a long
veranda built in 1795 by Samuel Frazee, Indian fighter and scout under
Gen. George Rogers Clark. The land upon which the building stands
was said to have been bought from the Indians for several hundred
bushels of salt.
GERMANTOWN, 65.2 m. (490 alt., 283 pop.), is a sizable town
drawn out along several sharp turns in the highway. It was laid out
by Whitfield Craig in 1784, called Buchanan Station, and later settled
by Pennsylvania Germans. The Germantown Fair and Horse Show
has been held annually since 1854 during the last week in August.
Livestock, horses, poultry, and many kinds of farm products and handi-
crafts are exhibited, and prizes awarded to the winners.
Between Germantown and Brooksville the road runs through open
hilly terrain punctuated by tree clumps. Most of this is pasture land,
but a few frugal fields of tobacco vary the monotony of the agricul-
tural pattern.
BROOKSVILLE, 72 m. (925 alt., 615 pop.), seat of Bracken County
since 1832, centers about a small row of shops with hitching post
porches, a larger row strung along a sidewalk several feet high, and a
huge open space on which stands the yellow brick courthouse with its
clock tower. The region about Brooksville, first known as Woodward's
Crossroad, chiefly produces burley tobacco.
Right from Brooksville on State 19, a paved road, to AUGUSTA, 9.5 m. (444
alt., 1,675 pop.), beautifully situated on a high bank of the Ohio River. It has an
334 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
excellent harbor and is an important shipping point for tobacco. Augusta College,
one of the first Methodist schools, was here as early as 1799. When the large
forest trees were cleared for the village site in 1792, numerous skeletons and arti-
facts were found, indicating that this was a prehistoric burial ground.
During the War between the States, Augusta was the scene of a battle between
Morgan's cavalry, led by Gen. Basil W. Duke, and Federal Home Guards under
Col. Joshua T. Bradford. Many of the Home Guards were Southern sympathizers
who had been impressed for service by Colonel Bradford. Since the Home Guards
were using the brick houses of the town as garrisons, the fighting took place in the
streets. General Duke had to burn many of the buildings to dislodge the Federal
troops, who finally surrendered. Two gunboats had been stationed at the landing
for the protection of the town, but as soon as General Duke's guns were turned
on them, they steamed off upriver. This was a Pyrrhic victory for Duke: the
heavy loss in officers and men defeated his original purpose to ford the Ohio
River below Augusta and march toward Cincinnati.
POWERSVILLE, 75.4 m. (103 pop.), a mere sprinkling of houses,
was settled about 1783 by Capt. Philip Buckner, soldier of the Revo-
lutionary War. The GRAVE OF CAPTAIN BUCKNER, near the western
limits of the town, has been enclosed with an iron fence.
At WILLOW, 76.1 m. (500 alt., 12 pop.), is a junction with State 22
(see Tour 13).
The route wanders about among hills that fall into gullies; the land
stretches away in endless wrinkles to a far horizon.
As the highway goes north, it touches the outer Bluegrass, and at
105.5 m. leads down between hills flanked everywhere by spare, softly
molded hills with long slopes. Clumps of trees decorate a landscape
green in summer, bleak and brown in winter.
ALEXANDRIA, 109.7 m. (513 alt., 424 pop.) (see Tour 3), is at
the junction with US 27 (see Tour 3).
Tour 12
(Cincinnati, Ohio) Covington Warsaw Carrollton Louisville; US
42. Ohio Line to Louisville, 106.9 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Accommodations of all kinds available ; hotels chiefly in cities.
US 42, the down-river route between Cincinnati and Louisville,
swings cross-country at Covington and does not meet the Ohio River
again until Warsaw is neared. In most places between this point and
a short distance beyond Carrollton, highway and river run side by side
accompanied by the rolling Kentucky hills with their masses of foliage
and, across the river, by the low bottomlands and low hills of Indiana.
TOUR 12 335
The route once more strays away from the river, though closely parallels
it all the way to Louisville.
Numerous villages and a few small county seats lie along the route.
But pastures, corn fields, patches of tobacco, livestock, and grass- or
tree-covered hills are seen more frequently.
US 42 and US 25 (see Ohio Tours 16 and 22) are united as they cross
the Ohio Line, m., at the north side of the Ohio River, by way of the
Suspension Bridge (toll 15$).
COVINGTON, 0.5 m. (513 alt., 65,252 pop.) (see Covington).
Points of Interest: Carneal House, Monte Casino, Devou Park, Birthplace of
Frank Duveneck, Latonia Race Track, and others.
Covington is at the junction with US 25 (see Tour 4).
Between Covington and FLORENCE, 9.8 m. (935 alt., 450 pop.),
US 42 is united with US 25 (see Tour 4).
The highway crosses a countryside with low, sloping hills tumbling
back on both sides of the road. Cornfields alternate with clumps of
elms, maples, and oaks.
At 20.4 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to BIG BONE LICK, 3 m. (20 pop.), whose few scattered
houses, a church, a deserted hotel, and a somewhat bedraggled lake in a 100-acre
valley, is one of the Nation's outstanding prehistoric boneyards. Long ago the
sulphur springs and salt formations of this valley attracted hordes of mastodons
and other gigantic mammals. Many of them mired in the soft soil of this area,
or died otherwise, and their bones were preserved through millenniums. Later,
Indians from as far north as Lake Erie came here to kill the deer, buffalo, and
other game that habitually visited the lick in large numbers; the place was appar-
ently a neutral hunting ground for many tribes, as no relics of Indian battles have
ever been found here. In 1739 the French-Canadian explorer, Charles de Langueil,
arrived at the lick, probably led by Indian guides. Celeron de Blainville is thought
to have stopped here in 1749, while engaged in his mission of burying lead plates
at various points along the Ohio River, claiming the Ohio Valley for France. It
was from Big Bone Lick that Mary Inglis and an old Dutch woman made their
successful escape from the Indians in 1756 (see Tour 11). When Col. George
Croghan made a trip here in 1765, he wrote in his Journal of the large quantities
of bones scattered about the springs. James Douglas, a Virginian, who visited here
with a party in 1773, found the valley covered with the bones of huge animals,
some of them half buried in the bog, others lying in a heap where they had fallen.
The visitors used mastodon ribs for tent poles, and vertebrae for seats. When
they left they carried with them mastodon teeth weighing 10 pounds each, tusks 11
feet long, and four- and five-foot thigh bones.
As the fame of the great bones spread, more and more expeditions came here
to collect them. In 1805 Thomas Jefferson, as an official of the American Philo-
sophical Society, had a party gather one of the most complete collections ever
taken from the lick (an ignorant servant later caused the entire collection to be
ground into fertilizer). A Dr. William Goforth of Cincinnati, at his own expense,
dug up a number of notable specimens, among them the bones of an enormous
three-toed sloth. In 1840 it was estimated that the bones of 100 mastodons, 20
Arctic elephants, and numerous other mammals had been removed. Specimens
were still plentiful two years later when the English geologist, Lyell, came here;
but the hunt for bones went on until they were all gone. Museums in Europe
and America now exhibit some of Big Bone's ancient visitors.
In the period preceding the War between the States, Big Bone Lick became a
336 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
fashionable watering place for young ladies who had gone into "declines" and for
men and women who ate too much and exercised too little. A hotel was built to
accommodate those who came here to drink sulphur water. Other fads and more
fashionable resorts caused the local spa to disappear; the abandoned hotel is its
only relic today.
US 42 now runs a course between high hills whose long slopes have
cornfields staggering up to their tops. Here and there phalanxes of
young, slim trees march down from the hillcrest to the road. For a
mile the route crosses the top of the plateau, then sinks down between
the hills once more. At 30.6 m. the road moves to the bank of the Ohio
River, which makes a big bend at this point. The Kentucky hills bare
occasional rock outcroppings above the highway. With a few brief in-
terruptions, road and river move side by side, paced by low, broad bot-
tomlands on the Indiana side that run back to a continuous chain of
far hills.
WARSAW, 35.6 m. (459 alt., 800 pop.), on a level terrace overlook-
ing the Ohio River, was once a prominent river port. A little coal is
brought here by boats, and a side-wheel ferry makes cross-river trips to
the Indiana shore; but the Warsaw of today depends upon its position
as a trading center and county seat for its life. The town boasts that
poverty is unknown in it and that its county jail is seldom occupied.
The JAIL (L), on the second floor of a small brick building, with thick
vertical bars of stone across the front, is sufficiently forbidding to dis-
courage the most obstinate wrong-doers.
In the center of the public square is the dun-colored, two-story GAL-
LATIN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, erected in 1838, with a bell tower. It was
remodeled in 1938-39. PAYNE MANOR, at the western end of town
(R), overlooking the river, is a brick Greek Revival structure of two
stories, painted white, that was built in 1850 by the son of Gen. John
Payne, an officer of the Revolutionary War. Four Corinthian columns
ornament the small portico, and a balcony is below the front upper
story windows. In the hall hangs a painting of the steamer, Jacob
S trader, which plied the Ohio in the fifties.
Warsaw is at the junction with State 35 (see Tour 5).
At 36.1 m. is (L) an EMERGENCY LANDING FIELD for airplanes. The
broad, level grass plot runs back from the road to the rim of hills.
Between Warsaw and Carrollton US 42 twists and turns with the
Ohio, sometimes dipping out of sight of it for a brief period; the hills
are always near.
The towns along the way Warsaw, Ghent, and Carrollton are
called river towns because they once depended on the Ohio for their
existence. Today steamers and barges loaded with steel, sand, or stone
pass them but do not stop; dredges sometimes pause to clean the river
channel of its silt and debris, then move on ; even the shanty boats make
a brief stay. Main St. is now the paved highway back from the river
front several blocks, and only some old houses along Front or River
St. remain to show the once-intimate relationship of town and river.
TOUR 12 337
These old houses, or their predecessors along the banks, saw the pag-
eantry of river traffic in all its mutations: the canoe used by the In-
dians, trappers, and explorers; the flatboat or Kentucky "broadhorn,"
carrier of cargo and settlers downriver for fifty years; the keel-boat that
could go up-stream as well as down; after 1811 the steamboat, which
became more magnificent with each new decade. Individual steamers
acquired distinct personalities up-river and down, based on their speed,
showiness, captain, crew, cuisine, musicians, the splendor of the ball-
room, and the gaiety of the entertainment. There were also floating
stores, stocked with groceries, dry goods, and endless bric-a-brac, tieing
up at cobblestoned levees to be met by a bevy of excited women. And
by the river bank was the wharf boat, which served as a wharf, freight
house, exchange, and gathering place for the lusty roustabouts. When
the showboats came, life along the river reached its height.
Before the railroads finally took over the river's commerce, towns like
Warsaw, Ghent, and Carrollton each had landing places, warehouses,
creaking drays, odorous drinking taverns. All the river towns received
their foodstuffs, clothing, furniture, raw materials, from the boats, and
by them shipped out their farm and garden produce, livestock, lumber,
and whatever products they manufactured. They became so identified
with the river that they took on some of the color and light-heartedness
characteristic of the rough men who manned the boats and rousted the
freight. A small cannon was fired when a steamer, often racing with
another boat beside it, was approaching a town. On his deck would be
the captain, preening himself in a fancy suit. In half-an-hour or an
hour the freight would be taken care of and the boat would be off, hell-
bent for the next stopping place. Not until their boat put up some-
where could the rivermen resume their boasting, their drinking of
whisky that was like greased lightning, and settle old scores with wres-
tling and gouging matches.
Mike Fink was one of them. "I can hit like fourth-proof lightnin'
an' every lick I make in the woods lets in an acre o' sunshine. I can
out-run, out-jump, out-shoot, out-brag, out-drink, an' out-fight rough-
an'-tumble; no holts barred ary man on both sides the river from
Pittsburgh to New Orleans an' back ag'in to St. Louie," Mike said.
The river encouraged boasting. Every boatman liked to think that his
was the fastest boat, under the finest captain, manned by the best crew.
The boats were so light in draft that, as one captain said, "we can pass
over a heavy mountain dew." The shallowness of the river in places
was the reason.
GHENT, 44.9 m. (389 pop.), lies below a rim of hills on a small
plain looking down at the river. Its houses reflect its age and settled
ways of life. Ghent was founded in 1809 by 13 families from the Rap-
pahannock River region of Virginia, and named in 1814 by Henry Clay
for the Belgian city where the peace treaty between the United States
and Great Britain was signed.
338 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
The BAPTIST CHURCH (L), erected in 1843, is the fifth church the
congregation has had since its organization in 1800 as a result of the
great revival at the mouth of the Kentucky River. The red brick, story-
and-a-half structure is Greek Revival in style and has curved brick
columns on its portico. When subscriptions were being taken to erect
the present church, the donations included sheepskins, bags of wool,
bales of hay, and several barrels of whisky. It is said that in the early
years of the church, whenever the preacher "went for dinner," the
whisky bottle was always set on the table. The FOURTH BAPTIST
CHURCH, now a residence, is on Sanders Pike (L), opposite the ceme-
tery. It is a small story-and-a-half brick structure, painted white.
John Taylor who attended the revival meeting at the mouth of the
Kentucky River was constrained to write:
"From the dull feelings of my heart, I took the text which suited
my own state 'Lord, help me." I continued but a short time, for I
felt myself very worthless. After which they continued on, in prayer,
praise, and exhortation, with much noise, at times, till late at night.
Some were rejoicing, having lately obtained deliverance; others groan-
ing in tears, under a pensive load of guilt. My own heart was so barren
and hard, that I wished myself out of sight, or lying under the seats
where the people sat, or trodden under their feet. Many of the people
tarried all night."
At the western limits of the village is (L) a three-story brick building
with tall, narrow windows, the FORMER GHENT COLLEGE, once a well-
known institution. An elementary school is here now.
RIVERVIEW (L), 48.6 m., is a two-story Greek Revival house over-
looking the river from a hill. Built in 1805 from brick burned on the
place, the handsome white structure has Ionic columns in front of its
small recessed portico.
In 1781, when Benjamin Craig I came from Virginia with his
brother Lewis and members of the congregation who formed the Trav-
eling Baptist Church (see Tour 3), he brought with him his wife and
three small children. In the journey across the mountains some of the
men usually traveled ahead to clear the trail and scout for Indians.
The older children drove the cattle and tried to prevent them from
straying off the trail. Next came the women on horseback; the chil-
dren and bedding were strapped with willows in panniers on the sides
of the horses.
One morning Mrs. Craig laid the baby on a bed of leaves while help-
ing to make ready for the day's journey. After she had mounted her
horse, her four-year-old daughter asked if the baby might ride in the
basket with her. This the mother granted and went on her way. After
an hour's journey through the forest, Mrs. Craig looked back and saw
only two children in the panniers. She quickly gave the alarm, and the
baby's father with several of the men hurriedly rode back in search of
the baby. After several hours, the child was found sleeping on the bed
of leaves. This child was Benjamin Craig II, for whom Riverview was
built.
TOUR 12 339
The GEORGE CRAIG HOUSE, directly across the Ohio River in Indiana,
and plainly visible from the highway, was built in 1807 by the brother
of Benjamin Craig II.
At 51.6 m. is the junction with US 227 (see Tour 12 A).
CARROLLTON, 52.6 m. (484 alt., 2,409 pop.), stretching along the
river bank, is a quiet old town of tree-shaded streets and old houses of
considerable charm. The town was incorporated in 1794 under the
name of Port William. In 1838 it was renamed in honor of Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence. The town was platted by Benjamin Craig I, who donated the
land upon which the courthouse was built. The tiny stone CARROLLTON
JAIL (R), with a high iron fence around it and vertical stone bars across
its front, looks like something out of Dumas.
High on a slope (R) overlooking Highland Ave. (US 42) is the
BUTLER HOUSE, a one-story Georgian Colonial structure of brown brick
with a foundation of Kentucky marble. Front and side entrances have
gracious fanlighted doorways with side lights. A large central hall leads
back to a spacious library with windows overlooking a court from which
there is a fine view of the river. The house was built in 1825 by
Charles Stringfellow for Maj. Gen. William Orlando Butler (see Tour
12 A), who, with other members of the Butler family, is buried in the
Butler Memorial State Park (see Tour 12 A).
On Highland Ave. (L), standing close to the sidewalk, is the DAR-
LING HOUSE, erected prior to 1850. Pilasters ornament the fagade of
this gray-painted brick house.
The road crosses the KENTUCKY RIVER at 53 m., near its con-
fluence with the Ohio, on a high-arched bridge. An advertisement from
the Cincinnati Centinel of the North-West Territory tells of the open-
ing of business on the Kentucky River:
Notice the subscriber informs the gentlemen, merchants, and emi-
grants to Kentucky, that he will be at the mouth of the Kentucky River
on the first day of February next, with a sufficient number of boats to
transport all goods, etc., which they may think proper to entrust him
with, up the river. He will also keep a store-house for the reception of
any goods which may be left with him. Carriage of goods to Frankfort
50 cents per hundred, to Sluke's warehouse 75 cents, to Warwick 100
cents, Dick's River 125 cents.
Mouth of Kentucky, Jan. 15, 1795. ELIJAH CRAIG, JR.
At 54.2 m. is the junction with State 36, a paved road.
Left on this road, which follows the course of the Ohio River, to the HOAGLAND
HOUSE, 6.9 m., a one-story structure, Georgian Colonial in style, erected in Hunt-
er's Bottom in 1838. This time-mellowed house contains many old furnishings.
MILTON, 11 m. (450 alt., 347 pop.), was established in 1789 by the Virginia
Legislature, three years before Kentucky became a State. Milton is opposite Madi-
son, Indiana, with which it is connected by a bridge (toll 20$).
34O HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Right from Milton, 5 m., on Peck's Pike, an unimproved road, to the PRESTON
HOUSE, a Greek Revival structure built by Col. John Preston. This structure,
among fine old trees, faces the river; it is of brick, later plastered and weather-
boarded, and contains 15 rooms. A spiral stairway leads to the second floor. The
woodwork is embellished with a narrow stripe of gold leaf, -which still glistens with
its former luster. On the walls are the original painted decorations. The SMOKE-
HOUSE, in the yard, is a tall brick building with four tiers of poles, designed to hold
100 hogs. In the center of the dirt floor is a pit where hickory logs were kept
burning until the meat was satisfactorily cured. NORFOLK SCHOOL, the brick build-
ing now a tenant house, was built by Mrs. Preston as a chapel and school.
Left from Milton on State 37, which becomes the main side route, to LOOKOUT
POINT on MILTON HILL, 12 m., which affords a sweeping view of the Ohio
River, Hunter's Bottom, and of Madison, Indiana.
At 23.2 m. on State 37 is Bedford.
West of Carrollton US 42 breaks away from the river and winds be-
tween high hills, close to the highway, that are dotted with sparse clus-
ters of trees. This is farming country and cattle and sheep are seen on
hillside pastures. The road climbs up to a plateau, a rolling highland
presenting spacious vistas of fields, farmhouses, and ravines with ever-
greens.
BEDFORD, 65.1 m. (892 alt., 286 pop.), seat of Trimble County,
was incorporated in 1816. The town is surrounded by valley farms
producing tobacco, grain, and livestock.
Bedford is at the junction with State 37.
Still crossing the plateau that reveals tiers of hills rising to a wide,
tree-hazed horizon (L), the highway makes a sweeping curve and passes
(L) KENTUCKY TAVERN, 70.1 m., a long, low story-and-a-half structure
that was an important stopping place in stagecoach days. Half frame
and half brick, the white building has dormers.
SLIGO (10 pop.) is met at 73.8 m.; then tourist cabins soon appear
along the way, some of them of whitewashed logs. The route continues
over high, choppy terrain, passing farmsteads, pastures, little log pig
pens, and clumps of oak, evergreen, and sycamore.
US 42 descends into PROSPECT, 93.9 m. (484 alt., 30 pop.), in the
Louisville metropolitan area. The place was settled in 1783 by people
from Virginia. It is said to have received its name about 60 years ago,
when the narrow gauge railroad, which was being built along the river,
seemed a long time in reaching the community.
Between Prospect and Louisville, a four-lane highway runs through
a well-to-do metropolitan area with many new houses.
The TOMB OF ZACHARY TAYLOR, 99.7 m., is in a parklike area (R),
once part of the Taylor farm and now in the custody of the Federal
Government. Adjoining the park is (R) the TAYLOR HOUSE (private),
where the twelfth President of the United States grew to manhood.
The two-and-a-half-story house, built of brick, is on ample grounds
extending along the west side of the TAYLOR MEMORIAL CEMETERY,
where members of the Taylor family are buried. A driveway, bordered
with shrubbery and century-old pine, maple, and walnut trees, leads
around the house to the entrance. Across the front and sides of the
TOUR 12 341
building are wide porches, evidently later additions. Two paneled
doors give entrance to a wide central hall with two rooms on each side.
A winding stairway leads to four bedrooms on the second floor. The
original four-inch ash flooring is still in good condition.
In 1785 Col. Richard Taylor, a native of Virginia and soldier of the
Revolution, brought his family to this place, where he built a log house.
Several years later the present building, designed in Virginia, was built
and the log cabin was moved to the rear to house slaves. This building,
painted white, still stands.
Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), born in Virginia, was nine months old
when the family came here. As a boy he roamed the fields near by and
hunted along Beargrass Creek. He went to school in a little log school-
house near his home before entering William and Mary College. In
1808 he was appointed a first lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of the
United States Infantry. Except when he was away on military duty
and in the White House, the farm here was always his home. General
Taylor's daughter, Knoxie, much against her father's wishes, became
the wife of Jefferson Davis, later President of the Confederacy.
LOUISVILLE, 106.9 m. (525 alt., 307,745 pop.) (see Louisville).
Points of Interest: Speed Museum, Memorial Auditorium, Presbyterian Theo-
logical Seminary, Churchill Downs, Cave Hill Cemetery, Cherokee Park, and
others.
Louisville is at the junction with US 3 IE (see Tour 6), US 3iW
(see Tour 7), and US 60 (see Tour 16).
Tour 12A
Junction with US 42 Butler Memorial State Park Owenton Junc-
tion with State 40; 61.1 m. US 227.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Branch of Louisville & Nashville R.R. parallels route between Carrollton and
Worth ville.
All types of accommodations in towns; limited elsewhere.
This route runs between the Ohio River and the Bluegrass region,
traversing hilly farm lands and fertile green valleys.
US 227 branches southeast from its junction with US 42, m. (see
Tour 12), 0.5 miles east of Carrollton.
BUTLER MEMORIAL STATE PARK (adm. 10$, boating, fishing,
overnight camping 25$ each; furnished cabins, couple, $2), 2 m., 350
acres of hills and valleys on both sides of the road, was named for
342 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
William Orlando Butler (1791-1808). A native of Carroll ton, Butler
served as a captain in the War of 1812 and was breveted a major for
distinguished service in the Battle of New Orleans. He later practiced
law at Carrollton, and was a member of the Kentucky House of Repre-
sentatives, 1817-18, and a Representative in Congress 1839-43. In
June 1846 he was appointed major general of volunteers raised to sup-
port General Taylor in his invasion of Mexico. In 1848 he succeeded
General Scott in the chief command of the United States forces in
Mexico. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the
Democratic Party in 1848, and in 1855 declined appointment as Gov-
ernor of Nebraska Territory.
The work of developing the park, begun in 1934, has been carried on
by the Civilian Conservation Corps. A 30-acre lake has been created
by construction of a dam in the upper stretches of the valley. There
are two lodges of stone for the caretakers, shelter houses, cabins, and
many winding roads and trails. The majority of the one- and two-room
cabins are of stone; a few are of logs with stone chimneys.
LOOKOUT POINT, a rough stone tower built in irregular terraces, com-
mands a sweeping view of the Ohio River. Within the park is the
THOMAS BUTLER HOUSE (adm. 25$), now a museum. It is a two-and-
one-half-story brick structure shaded by tall elms and surrounded by
a terraced wall of stone. The house was designed in the Georgian
Colonial style with wide central halls upstairs and down, flanked on
each side by two large square rooms. A winding stairway leads to the
upper floor. The kitchen wing is separated from the rest of the house
by a dog-trot. The house is furnished in the style of the 1860's. It
was originally the home of Thomas L. Butler (1789-1879), the eldest
son of Percival Butler, and aide to General Jackson at the Battle of
New Orleans.
In the little BUTLER CEMETERY near the house are the graves of
members of the Butler family. Thomas Butler, born in Kilkenny, Ire-
land, April 8, 1720, had five sons, all of whom attained eminence in
America. The five brothers and their immediate descendants saw mili-
tary service in all of the contemporary wars of this country. General
Lafayette said of the family, "When I wanted a thing well done, I
ordered a Butler to do it." Among others is the GRAVE OF GEN.
PERCIVAL BUTLER, one of the five sons of Thomas Butler and the father
of William Orlando and of Thomas L. Butler.
South of the park, the road passes through an undulating, well-
watered region whose limestone soil is well suited to stock raising. Pas-
tures with grazing sheep and cattle alternate with fields of tobacco,
buckwheat, corn, and barley.
From the top of the hill at 13 m. is a widespreading view of the
countryside and of the Kentucky River valley.
NEW LIBERTY, 19.7 m. (190 pop.), once an important trading
center for a productive farming area, has been decreasing in population
for many years because of the impoverishment of the soil in the region.
TOUR I2A 343
The BAPTIST CHURCH (L) was established here in 1801, 18 years be-
fore the county was formed. The old bell in the tower has been in
constant use since 1841.
At 23.1 m. is the junction with State 35 (see Tour 5) ; US 227 and
State 35 are united for 7.9 miles.
OWENTON, 30.4 m. (1,000 alt., 975 pop.), and Owen County, of
which it is the seat, are named for Col. Abraham Owen, an early settler
who was prominent in the War of 1812. He was killed in the Battle
of Tippecanoe. The stately old OWEN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, built of
brick in the Greek Revival style in 1850, was occupied by Federal
troops during the War between the States.
Owenton is at the junction with State 22 (see Tour 13) and State
35 (see Tour 5). State 35 and US 227 are united for 2.1 miles south
of Owenton.
1. Right from Owenton on an unmarked road to the THOMAS LAKE FISHING
CLUB (open), 2 m. The clubhouse, of logs taken from another building, has an
appearance of age. The lake and the building, erected as a PWA project, are
municipally owned.
2. Left from Owenton on an improved road to LUSBY'S MILL, 10 m. (30
pop.), on Eagle Creek. A FISHING CAMP (open) provides fishing, swimming, and
tennis. During the War between the States a recruiting station was established
at this place by Gen. Humprey Marshall.
At 31 m. State 35 (see Tour 5) leaves US 227, and at 32.4 m. State
22 (see Tour 13) leaves US 227.
In BEECHWOOD, 43 m. (540 alt., 32 pop.), are mineral springs
of asserted therapeutic value, from which water is bottled and shipped.
The hotel that formerly stood on the grounds was burned down several
years ago and has never been rebuilt.
STAMPING GROUND, 55.6 m. (341 pop.), was so named because
the herds of buffalo that came here for salt water, tramped or stamped
down the soil for a great distance around the lick. Lindsey's stockade
was built here in 1790. BUFFALO SPRINGS (R), a new modern dis-
tillery, has been built on the site of the old spring, again bringing pros-
perity to the little town.
At 58 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road to BLUE SPRING, 0.5 m., named for Blue Spring Creek, and
formerly the estate of Col. Richard M. Johnson (1781-1850), distinguished states-
man and soldier in the War of 1812. Colonel Johnson was a Representative in
Congress from 1807 to 1819, United States Senator for two terms beginning in
1819, and was elected Vice President of the United States in 1836. Blue Spring
is the SITE OF A CHOCTAW INDIAN SCHOOL, established by Johnson in 1825 and
operated by the Federal Government for 40 years. Several of the old buildings
still stand.
GREAT CROSSINGS, 60.6 m. (80 pop.), was named for the buffalo
trace from the interior of Kentucky to the confluence of the Ohio River
and Elkhorn Creek. Johnson's Fort was built here in 1783 by Robert
344 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Johnson, an early Kentucky statesman. CROSSINGS CHURCH belongs
to a Baptist congregation organized here May 28, 1785; this was the
mother church from which sprang the religious organizations at McCon-
nell's Run (later Stamping Ground), Dry Run, and Georgetown.
At 61.1 m. is the junction with State 40 (see Tour 17), 2.6 miles
west of Georgetown.
Tour 13
Willow Falmouth Owenton New Castle Junction with US 60;
116.4 m. State 22.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Accommodations limited.
The route, following roughly the base of a triangle, two sides of
which are formed by the Ohio River, passes through a rolling-to-hilly
region that frequently affords superb views of the hills and river valleys.
Tobacco of especially fine quality is produced in this area.
State 22 branches west from State 10 (see Tour 11) at WILLOW,
m., and at 12.1 m. passes the forks of the Licking River.
FALMOUTH, 12.4 m. (525 alt., 1,876 pop.) (see Tour 3), is at the
junction with US 27 (see Tour 3).
Between Falmouth and 15.5 m. State 22 and US 27 are united.
WILLIAMSTOWN, 29.3 m. (943 alt., 917 pop.) (see Tour 4), is at
the junction with US 25 (see Tour 4).
Between Williamstown and DRY RIDGE, 33.2 m. (929 alt., 500
pop.) (see Tour 4), State 22 and US 25 are united.
At 52.3 m. is the junction with US 227 (see Tour 12 A) ; between
this point and OWENTON, 54.4 m. (1,000 alt., 975 pop.) (see Tour
12 A), State 22 and US 227 are united. Owenton is also at the junction
with State 35 (see Tour 5).
GRATZ, 63.5 m. (139 pop.), a deserted river town on the western
bank of the Kentucky River, was once a bustling and important ship-
ping point. For more than 50 years steamers stopped at this landing
to load and unload produce and receive passengers for Louisville or
Cincinnati. A SULPHUR WELL (R), near the river, is 1,200 feet deep.
Right from Gratz on a dirt road to an old LEAD MINE, 1 m., which has not been
worked for many years.
At 64 m. on State 22 is the junction with State 83, an improved
highway.
TOUR 13 345
Right 0.4 m. on this road to a lane leading to CASA BIANCA (Ital., white house),
the home of Adjt. Gen. Charles E. Marshall, great-grandson of Chief Justice John
Marshall. The one-and-a-half -story house, of Greek Revival style, is on a 1,000-
acre farm and commands a wide view of the Kentucky River and adjacent valleys.
At 6.8 m. on State 83 is DRENNON SPRINGS, 7 m., in the center of an
amphitheater of hills. Indians and buffalo had worn paths from every direction
to the lick many years prior to July 1773, when Jacob Drennon and Matthew
Bracken, directed by an old Delaware Indian, reached this place. Drennon gave
his name to the creek and the spring, but neither he nor Bracken ever attempted
to secure title to the property. In 1779, George Rogers Clark obtained a deed to
a 400-acre tract that included the spring. In the closing years of the eighteenth
century, salt was made here in large quantities, but the crude, slow process of boil-
ing the water in huge iron kettles over wood fires lasted only as long as the price
of salt (20 shillings a bushel) made the manufacture profitable. The reputed
medicinal quality of the water began to attract invalids, and by 1840 a popular
summer resort, a few crude log cabins, had been established; a large hotel known
as the North and South House was later erected, with cottages adjoining. The
resort was honored by the attendance of 13 State Governors at one notable social
function. In the 1850's the Western Military Academy was established here; James
G. Blaine was one of the instructors in this school. During the War between the
States the buildings were used as a recruiting station for the Federal Army. In
1864 all of the buildings were destroyed by fire and never replaced.
West of the Kentucky River Valley the highway follows an undulat-
ing upland plateau.
At 78.8 m. is the junction with State 146, an improved road.
Left on this road to EMINENCE, 2.6 m. (1,323 pop.), an enterprising town
known for the registered breeding stock produced on neighboring farms. Many of
the Hereford cattle in this country can be traced to sires owned within a few miles
of Eminence. Beau Donald, Perfection, Prince Rupert, Beau Roland, Britisher,
and Acrobat, names familiar to stockmen throughout America, were raised here,
and today their progeny are being shipped to South and Central America, Cuba,
and the Hawaiian Islands.
The ODD FELLOWS AND DAUGHTERS OF REBEKAH HOUSE, on the outskirts of Emi-
nence, is a spacious, two-story brick structure erected in 1916. It cares for the
aged and infirm members of the two orders. The entrance to the farm is through
a tree-banked stone gateway.
At Eminence is the GRAVE OF ZACH F. SMITH, educator and historian, born in
Henry County in 1827. He served as president of Henry Female College, New
Castle, and was State superintendent of public instruction and curator of Transyl-
vania University for 50 years.
Left from Eminence on State 55, an improved road, to the HAYS HOUSE, 5 m.,
a two-story frame structure, erected early in the nineteenth century by John F.
Hagan for Squire Helm. The eight-room house, designed in the Greek Revival
style, has hand-carved woodwork and a paneled stairway. The doors have the
original brass knobs and locks, and the floors are of white ash.
The POLLARD HOUSE (R), 79.4 m., erected about 1790, is built of
brick and is a story and a half high. The long slope of its roof is
pierced by dormers, and in recent years a front porch has been added.
Originally the structure had two-story wings, but these have been razed
as have the stone barns that once stood behind the house. This section
of State 22 was once a part of the old Frankfort-Milton Post Road,
and at that time the house with its spacious wings was a tavern.
James G. Blaine was a frequent guest here while he taught at the
Western Military Academy (1850-51) in Drennon Springs.
346 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
On the night of December 1, 1863, Pollard, the owner, admitted two
strangers who appeared to be cattle buyers. One of the men saw on
the table a copy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, considered a "Copperhead"
publication, that bore headlines announcing the escape of Gen. John H.
Morgan and other Confederate officers from the Ohio Penitentiary at
Columbus. Pollard's possession of this paper revealed his sympathy for
the Confederacy and prompted the younger of the two guests to men-
tion his having heard that General Morgan and Captain Hines were on
their way south through Kentucky. "And you are Captain Hines?"
Pollard asked. Hines admitted his identity and introduced General
Morgan. The two officers spent the night there, and after breakfast
the following day, Pollard arranged to take them to Judge W. S. Pryor
of New Castle for assistance.
NEW CASTLE, 83.5 m. (825 alt., 447 pop.), is the third oldest in-
corporated town in the State. Many old houses border the quiet streets
radiating from the public square.
Confederate Gen. Kirby Smith conducted a military school in a house
here, still standing, built in 1800. The Henry County Male and
Female College, a popular school for several decades, attracted stu-
dents from many southern States.
Near the center of New Castle is the THOMAS SMITH HOUSE (L), a
two-story structure of red brick. Designed in the Georgian Colonial
style, it has a fanlighted doorway and a wide entrance hall with a
winding stairway of cherry. All of the woodwork is hand-carved, and
the walls of the hall are decorated with murals. The house was built
in 1818 by Thomas Smith, who made his money in Henry County in
the produce business. Smith is said to have owned 40 percent of all
the land in Henry and Shelby Counties and was one of the builders of
the Louisville & Nashville R.R. in 1830-35. When he died in 1850, at
the age of 51 years, he left an estate valued at more than a million
dollars.
The PRYOR HOUSE, a two-story brick building, is Georgian Colonial
in style. Its interior trim of cherry and white pine is elaborately
carved. Ornate plasterwork lends much to the charm of the first floor
rooms, which are high, with 10-foot doors. Judge W. S. Pryor, who
built this house in 1859 and lived in it until his death in 1914, was an
ardent Confederate. During the War between the States the Union
soldiers who came to New Castle to buy cattle and hogs and stayed
overnight in the town's hotel were invariably tormented or frightened
by the pranks of Judge Pryor 's slaves, acting under his instructions.
Pryor, made chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals on Sep-
tember 6, 1871, was the first Confederate named to the court after
the War between the States.
On Main St., standing flush with the sidewalk, is an old gray brick
house (R) known as BUCKLEY TAVERN, which was a popular place in
stagecoach days.
TOUR 13 347
Reuben T. Durrett, Kentucky historian and eminent lawyer of Louis-
ville, was born near New Castle in 1824. From 1857 to 1859 he was
editor of the Louisville Courier and he founded the Filson Club of
Louisville and the Louisville Public Library.
On the outskirts of New Castle is the one-and-a-half-story GRAVES
HOUSE, built of gray brick in 1820. A fanlighted doorway gives en-
trance to a wide hall in which is a circular stairway with balustrade of
cherry. William Jordan Graves was a Member of Congress from 1835
to 1841, and a prominent lawyer of Louisville. On February 24, 1838,
he fought a duel at Bladensburg, Maryland, with Jonathan Cilley, a
Member of Congress from Maine. The weapons were rifles, and the
distance was 80 yards. Cilley was killed at the third shot. The duel,
which created a Nation-wide sensation, was the last in which men of
prominence were involved, and was partly responsible for the outlaw-
ing of this custom. Cilley had risen in Congress to denounce an anony-
mous gossip article accusing a colleague of immorality; he had blamed
the article on a Member of Congress from Virginia. Graves had chal-
lenged him in defense of the Virginian.
LA GRANGE, 96.5 m. (850 alt., 1,121 pop.), seat of Oldham
County, was named for the French estate of General Lafayette.
The ROBERT MORRIS HOUSE (open), 110 Washington St., a simple
two-story frame house (L), is preserved as a memorial to the man who
established the order of the Eastern Star in 1850. Born in Massachu-
setts in 1818, Morris became a traveler and writer often referred to as
the "Poet Laureate of Free Masonry." He died here in 1888.
The D. W. GRIFFITH HOUSE (L), cor. 4th and Madison Sts., is a
spacious, two-story frame house built by the motion-picture producer.
David Wark Griffith, son of Confederate Lt. Col. Jacob Wark Griffith,
was born in this town on January 16, 1880. He was educated in the
local public school and in time became a reporter on the Louisville
Courier- Journal. He left this position to join the Louisville Stock Com-
pany. After a succession of theatrical engagements, he went to work
in a foundry at Tonawanda, New York. In 1908 he was engaged by
the Biograph Company of New York City to write scenarios and that
same year directed the highly successful picture, The Adventures of
Dollie. As a producer Griffith has been notable for the spectacular and
sentimental character of his films; his most popular pictures are The
Birth of a Nation and Hearts of the World.
The new MEDIUM SECURITY PRISON (R), 98.3 m., is being erected
(1939) on a 200-acre tract to replace the antiquated prison at the State
capital (see Frankfort). When completed this prison will comprise a
hospital, gymnasium, library, industrial buildings, and dormitories,
erected according to modern standards of penology, with emphasis on
corrective treatment.
CRESTWOOD, 105.3 m. (300 pop.), is a residential village.
1. Left from Crestwood on an improved road to FLOYDSBURG, 1 m. (200
pop.)> named for Col. John Floyd, who was sent out in 1774 by Patrick Henry
348 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
and other prominent Virginians to hunt choice lands in this vicinity. In the ceme-
tery is the DUNCAN MEMORIAL CHAPEL, erected in 1937 by a former resident, Alex-
ander Edward Duncan, a banker of Baltimore, Maryland, in memory of his wife,
Flora Ross Duncan. The chapel, at the entrance to the Duncan family burial
ground, now a public cemetery, is of stone with white oak interior trim; it is
Gothic in style and has an unusually slender central spire. The stone, gray from
age, came from old buildings and fences in the neighboring countryside. An ell-
shaped extension at the rear, connected with the chapel by a loggia, contains living
quarters for the caretaker. The interior of the building is lined with cut Indiana
limestone. The altar carving, suggested by Da Vinci's The Last Supper, was exe-
cuted by F. Pescosta, formerly of Oberammergau, Germany. A grapevine motif
is carved on the pews, lectern, pulpit, and around the altar. The stained-glass win-
dows are outstanding examples of modern work ; the two lower medallions over the
altar were designed by Henry Lee Willett of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and were
exhibited in the 1937 Paris Exposition. The electrically operated chimes play every
half-hour during the afternoon on Sunday and holidays. Around this chapel, which
is non-sectarian and for the use of the community, are old tombstones, trees, and
a landscaped garden with a lake, carefully tended walks, and rose beds.
2. Right from Crestwood on an improved road to the CLORE HOUSE, 1 m., built
by Richard Clore and his wife, Narcissa, early in the nineteenth century. The old
one-and-a-half-story house, of brick burned on the place by slave labor, is on the
site of the cabin that was the first Kentucky home of Richard Clore. The slave
quarters stand in the yard.
PEWEE VALLEY, 106.6 m. (582 pop.), is a quiet suburban village
with attractive old homes on spacious lawns. The streets are tree-
shaded. In 1852 this was Smith's Station; the name was changed to
Pewee Valley because of the great number of phoebes or pewees in
the region.
The BEECHES (open on request), a large two-story white frame struc-
ture (R) with a wide porch across the front, was the home of Annie
Fellows Johnston (1863-1931), author of the Little Colonel stories for
children; it is now occupied by the author's daughter, Mary Lee John-
ston. Annie Fellows Johnston acquired this property in 1911 on the
death of the widow of Gen. Henry W. Lawton, captor of the Apache,
Geronimo, and division commander at El Caney in the Spanish-Ameri-
can War. After General Lawton's death in the Philippine campaign,
this house had been purchased by Nation-wide subscription and given
to Mrs. Lawton. Practically all of Mrs. Johnston's writing was done
here, and many of her characters were neighbors. Hattie Cochran,
granddaughter of the Confederate Col. George Weissinger, was the
Little Colonel, and Craig and Billy Culbertson were the Two Little
Knights of Kentucky.
The CRAIG HOUSE (L), directly opposite the Beeches, is a two-story
gray brick structure built in 1861 by Walter N. Haldeman (1821-
1902), founder of the Louisville Courier and Times. This house is the
locale of Two Little Knights of Kentucky.
The JENNIE CASSEDAY REST COTTAGE (R), 107.1 m., a vacation
home for young working women, was established in 1897 by Jennie
Casseday of Louisville. The rambling plantation-type house is of wood,
painted white, and has an ell with broad porches and several bays; it
TOUR 13 349
is surrounded by a large shady lawn, part of the 56-acre tract owned
by the institution. Miss Casseday, who inherited a considerable for-
tune from her father, was an invalid for more than 40 years. She pro-
vided a small legacy for Rest Cottage, the maintenance of which was
then undertaken by the King's Daughters. It is now under Community
Chest supervision. The 40 young women who can be accommodated
at the cottage are allowed to stay two weeks, at a total cost of $5. There
is a large recreation room, a library, and equipment for volleyball,
tennis, ping pong, croquet, and other games.
In the 1860's Rest Cottage was the home of Catherine A. Warfield,
best known as the author of Feme Fleming and its sequel, Cardinal's
Daughter.
ANCHORAGE, 111.5 m. (564 pop.), with beautiful estates and
winding lanes, shaded by giant trees, is a residential suburb of Louis-
ville. It was first called Hobb's Station in honor of E. D. Hobbs,
president of the Louisville & Lexington R.R. When the town was in-
corporated, in 1876, it was renamed for the estate of Capt. J. W.
Goslee, a steamboat pilot, who, when he retired and built his home at
Hobb's Station, said he wished "to anchor there for life." An ANCHOR
(R) on the lawn of the Louisville & Nashville R.R. station is said to
have been presented to the town by Captain Goslee. The anchor, sur-
mounted with a gilded eagle, was used for many years as a fire alarm.
The alarm was sounded by striking the anchor with an iron instrument.
The CAPTAIN GOSLEE HOUSE, Evergreen Ave., is a two-story, red brick
structure with a steep gable roof, built before the War between the
States. The slave quarters remain in the yard.
In 1916 the offices of the Southern Pacific R.R. were moved to
Anchorage, and the little village suddenly found itself the home office
of a corporation controlling 13,000 miles of track, not one foot of
which was near Kentucky. When corporation laws in the State were
made more stringent, the railway offices moved away.
In LAKELAND (R), 112.2 m., is the CENTRAL KENTUCKY STATE
HOSPITAL, founded in 1870, largest State institution for the insane.
Two farms are maintained. One here, comprising 900 acres, is worked
in part by patients. The other, a 375-acre farm at Pine Bluff, Shelby
County, includes a large dairy and is operated by about 40 patients
who live there on a cottage plan. An average of 2,000 patients are
cared for here.
The hospital was erected here because of the water supply, the lake
for which the place is named being fed by a spring.
The HITE HOUSE, adjacent to the institution, now a dormitory for
employees of the hospital, was erected about 1800 by Jacob Kite. The
house, built of local brick, has walls 18 inches thick and carved wood-
work. An old brick walk near the house leads down to a cave, which
contains a spring and was formerly used for cold storage.
ORMSBY VILLAGE (L), 113.1 m., the Louisville and Jefferson
County Children's Home, is a model institution built and conducted on
350 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
the cottage plan. The wards of the village are committed to its care
in cases of neglect, ill treatment, delinquency, or undesirable home con-
ditions. The home has evolved from the old House of Refuge, later
the Industrial School of Reform, which was established in 1865 at
Third and Shipp Sts. in Louisville on what is now the campus of the
University of Louisville. The institution was moved to this place in
1925.
The KENTUCKY CHILDREN'S HOME (R), 114.2 m., is conducted by
a society founded in 1895 by Judge R. H. Thompson of Louisville.
The work began in a modest frame house- in Louisville. By 1922,
through State, county, and municipal aid as well as private gifts, the
society was able to erect this $500,000 plant. Approximately 8,000
children have been sheltered here and many of them have been placed
in homes in the State under supervision of the society. An average of
350 children are cared for in the home at one time.
KENTUCKY MILITARY INSTITUTE (R), 114.3 m., a private military
academy, was founded in 1845 by Robert .T. P. Allen, graduate of
West Point and veteran of the Seminole War. A broad macadamized
driveway, bordered on both sides by maple trees and bluegrass meadows,
leads to the entrance, a massive arch, supported by ivy-covered columns
of limestone. Along the driveway is a lake (L), fed by springs, which
is used for recreational purposes. The campus is noted for its fine
old trees, thick hedges, and grassy lawns. Facing a drive-encircled
oval of grass, trees, shrubbery, and flowers, is the Administration Build-
ing, once the home of Stephen Ormsby (1765-1846), brilliant Ken-
tucky statesman. This stately two-story building is of stuccoed brick,
in the Greek Revival style. The pediment of its broad portico is sup-
ported by four massive columns of the Ionic order. Edison Science
Building, named for Thomas A. Edison, is a two-story rectangular
brick building with gable roof. The two are of Georgian Colonial
design. Railed porches extend the entire length of each floor. The
gymnasium, also of Georgian Colonial design, erected in 1928, is of
white brick veneered over a reinforced concrete wall. The junior school
is in Fowler Hall, a white one-story hipped-roof structure, forming an
open quadrangle at the rear of the campus.
During the War between the States the institute furnished both the
Federal and Confederate Armies with officers. After the Christmas
holidays the entire cadet corps goes into the institute's winter quarters
at Venice, Florida. Student enrollment during 1936-37 was 225.
LYNDON, 115.2 m. (250 pop.), is a small suburban village.
Right from Lyndon on Herr Lane to the junction with Wesport Rd., 1 m. Here
is the HERR HOUSE (L), built in 1789 by Captain Edwards, and sold in 1814 to
John Herr, a settler from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The house, one of the earliest
built of brick in the State, is shown on the map of John Filson, published in 1784.
The bricks were burned on the place and laid in Flemish bond; the walls
are 24 inches thick. The ash and walnut used in the construction came from the
estate. The Herr homestead became a center of social life in the old German set-
tlement; quilting parties and corn huskings were frequently held here. John Herr
TOUR 13 351
is said to have been the best shot and the best corn shucker in the community.
This home also played an important part in early religious life, for it was here
that Alexander Campbell and Elder John Smith ("Raccoon John") conducted some
of the first meetings of the Christian Church (see Tour 15).
At 116.4 m. is the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), 8 miles east
of Louisville.
Tour 14
(Aberdeen, Ohio) Maysville Georgetown Versailles Bardstown
Elizabethtown Central City Paducah; US 62.
Ohio Line to Paducah, 358.9 m.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Illinois Central R.R. roughly parallels route between Elizabethtown and Paducah;
Southern Ry. between Georgetown and Versailles.
All types of accommodations in larger towns; limited elsewhere.
This route, a pleasant alternate to the more congested and commer-
cialized highways across the State, traverses the steep hills along the
Ohio River, the rich bottomlands of the Licking River Valley, and
the rolling pasture lands of the Bluegrass. Between Springfield and
Leitchfield it winds through the Knobs area; between Leitchfield and
the Cumberland River it skirts undulating farm lands of the Pennyrile
local variant of pennyroyal, a pungent, aromatic plant of the mint
family that grows in abundance along the banks of the streams. Be-
tween the Cumberland River and Smithland the route passes through a
semibarren region that forms a watershed between the Cumberland and
Ohio Rivers. These diverse physical features have produced a cor-
responding diversity of modes and conditions of life.
Section a. OHIO LINE to ELIZABETHTOWN; 170 m. US 62
US 62 crosses the Ohio Line, m., on the north bank of the Ohio
River; the river is crossed on a toll bridge (toll 25$), at Aberdeen,
Ohio (see Ohio Tour 3).
MAYSVILLE, 0.5 m. (448 alt., 6,557 pop.) (see Tour 15), is at the
junction with US 6& (see Tour 15) and State 10 (see Tour 11).
Between Maysville and WASHINGTON, 4.6 m. (500 pop.) (see
Tour 15), US 62 and US 68 are one route (see Tour 15).
Southwest of Washington US 62, extending along one of the high,
rolling ridges that jut northward from the Bluegrass plateau, affords
frequent far-reaching views of quiet green valleys and wooded hills,
deep blue in the distance. The road winds through a sparsely settled
352 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
agricultural area, where tobacco and fruit are the principal crops and
stock raising is a leading occupation.
The SITE OF MCKINLEY'S BLOCKHOUSE (L) is at 7 m. The first
wheat in Mason County was grown on the McKinley farm. It is said
that half the men of the station stood guard to ward off Indian attacks
while the remainder harvested the wheat.
The SHANNON METHODIST CHURCH (R), 9 m. t a small rectangular
brick structure, belongs to a congregation formed in 1801. The burying
ground contains many headstones with old-fashioned inscriptions, some
bearing dates as early as 1824, and a large Indian burial mound. The
size of the two tall pine trees growing on this mound indicate that its
origin was in prehistoric times.
In MOUNT OLIVET, 23.8 m. (419 pop.), a quiet village, is the
ROBERTSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, erected in 1867. This was, until
recently, the only brick building in the county. At the old tobacco
house in Pinhook, an early settlement in Robertson County, originated
the term "pinhooker," which is applied to the tobacco brokers who
refuse to buy until the prices are low and the farmers are at their
mercy, then resell to the warehouse for a higher price.
KENTONTOWN, 29.7 m. (100 pop.), established in 1795, was
named in honor of Simon Kenton (see Tour 15), one of the first to
explore and hold land in this region.
Right from Kentontown on an unimproved road to two METCALF HOUSES, 1 m.,
built prior to 1829 by Thomas Metcalf one for himself and one for his son (see
Forest Retreat, Tour 15). These story -and-a-half houses, still in good condition,
are of stone ; they are basically Georgian Colonial in design, though they lack many
of the Georgian details.
CLAYSVILLE, 35.7 m. (75 pop.), on the Licking River at the
mouth of Beaver Creek, was laid out by Alex Curran about 1800. In
its early years it was a flourishing commercial village and shipping
point, but since the building of the railroad the population and com-
mercial activity have steadily declined. A COVERED BRIDGE just out-
side the town spans Middle Fork of Licking River. Built in 1874, it
is still in excellent condition.
CYNTHIANA, 50.6 m. (718 alt., 4,386 pop.) (see Tour 3), is at the
junction with US 27 (see Tour 3).
An OLD COVERED BRIDGE, 50 m., over the South Fork of Licking
River, is 275 feet long. Erected about 1837, it has been in constant use
ever since. The piers are of stone, the timbers oak and poplar, held
together with hand-wrought spikes. The original wood shingles of
the roof were made by hand. An old county court order book in the
courthouse at Cynthiana records that:
"In January 1837 Samuel McMillain, James Finley, Wm. Stephenson,
Wm. Moore and Josephus Perrin were appointed commissioners to draft
a plan for a Bridge across South Fork of Licking, opposite the Town
of Cynthiana, to fix on the eligible place for said bridge to cross said
fork, for the materials of which it shall be made, and to open sub-
TOUR 14 353
scriptions to raise money to defray a part or the whole of the expense
of erecting said Bridge."
In July 1837 a report was made showing subscriptions amounting to
$500. Bids for building the bridge were "advertised in the Palladium
and such other places as seemed proper," the "undertaker" being re-
quired to keep the bridge in repair for seven years after completion..
The structure, built at a cost of $1,594, was ready for the passage of
wagons in December 1837. This bridge played an important part in
General Morgan's raid on Cynthiana during the War between the
States.
At 71.4 m. is the junction with State 40 (see Tour 17) ; between this-
point and Georgetown, US 62 and State 40 are united.
GEORGETOWN, 72.5 m. (866 alt., 4,229 pop.) (see Tour 4), is at
the junction with US 25 (see Tour 4) and State 40 (see Tour 17).
Between Georgetown and a point at 73.6 m. US 62 and State 40 are
united.
Between Georgetown and Versailles are undulating fields, covered
with either bluegrass or tobacco ; in season wild roses and trumpet vines,
hide the old stone fences, and in many places rows of honey locusts
form an arch over the roadway.
PAYNES DEPOT, 76 m. (50 pop.), is a railroad junction and ship-
ping point.
MIDWAY, 83.7 m. (830 alt., 808 pop.), with its tree-shaded streets,
old houses, and well-kept lawns and flower gardens, gives an impression,
of gracious living. The name refers to General Francisco's log house
built here in 1795, midway between Lexington and Frankfort. Chief
Justice John Marshall referred to Midway as "the asparagus bed o
the garden spot of Kentucky," and the sobriquet has survived. Ac-
cording to tradition this place furnished local color for Mary J. Holmes'
Tempest and Sunshine.
NUGENTS' CROSSROADS, 87.7 m. } is named for members of the
Nugent family who operate the general store (L) on the corner. Op-
posite stands (R) an OLD TAVERN (unoccupied) built of red brick;
in stagecoach days this was one of the important stopping places for
rest and refreshment on the journey between Cincinnati and Louisville.
STONE WALL (L), 88.7 m., is the stock farm of the Viley family.
The wall that suggested the name of the farm was built in 1863 of
field stone without mortar, like many of the older walls throughout
the Bluegrass region. During the reconstruction period (1865-75) the
grove of walnut trees, near the house, was the scene of political meet-
ings and barbecues, attended by such men as James D. Beck and
J. C. S. Blackburn, who was United States Senator from Kentucky,
1885-97 and 1901-07. After service in the Senate, Blackburn was.
made Isthmian Canal Commissioner.
The old-fashioned barbecue was attended by people from the entire
countryside, who gathered to hear fiery political speeches and consume
quantities of burgoo. This delectable concoction is still regarded as a
requisite to every large gathering in Kentucky; no political campaign'
354 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
can be launched or thoroughbred sale conducted without this as the
main dish. Burgoo is a rich, thick soup or broth made with beef,
chicken, and vegetables. Huge caldrons containing the highly seasoned
mixture are fitted snugly over ditches in which wood fires have been
built. Burgoo must be stirred continuously, and the process of making
it requires 24 hours.
There is a tradition that Gus Jaubert, a French member of Gen.
John Morgan's cavalry, originated burgoo at a time when food was so
scarce that all men but the officers had to eat blackbirds. He prepared
a mixture with blackbirds as the main ingredient, and the story is that
the officers, upon sampling the dish, liked it so much that very little
was left for the troopers.
The secret of the seasoning of burgoo was passed on by Jaubert to
J. T. Looney, named the Burgoo King by Col. E. R. Bradley (see
Lexington). Looney always prepared the burgoo served at Col. Brad-
ley's annual Charity Day race meet, held for the benefit of Kentucky
orphans. To honor Looney, Colonel Bradley gave this name to a colt
that won the Kentucky Derby in 1932.
GLEN ARTNEY (R), opposite Stone Wall, was for a time the home
of Carry Moore (1846-1911), who, as Mrs. Carry Nation, became a
notable prohibition crusader (see Tour 3). Her father, George Moore,
owned the farm, called Lota Wana at the time.
At 90.4 m. is the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16) ; between this
point and VERSAILLES, 91.7 m. (923 alt., 200 pop.) (see Tour 16),
US 62 and US 60 are united.
At 91.9 m. is the junction with the McCoun's Ferry-Soards Ferry
Turnpike.
Right on this road to the SCOTT HOUSE, 7.1 m., built of logs in 1784 and now
weatherboarded. This was the home of Gen. Charles Scott, Revolutionary soldier,
commander of Kentucky troops in the War of 1812, and Governor of Kentucky
(1808-12). The house was built on Kentucky River and was known as Scott's
Landing.
At 95.7 m. is the junction with the Shryock's Ferry Rd., hard-sur-
faced.
Left on this road to Grier's Creek, 2 m., from which an unimproved road and
a footpath wind up a high hill to the MULDROW HOUSE (open on request). This
late Georgian Colonial style house, which has been much admired by architects,
was built in 1817 by Col. Andrew Muldrow, a leading citizen of his day, who was
by turns a miller, distiller, legislator, and churchman. Colonel Muldrow served in
the Kentucky Legislature (1822-29).
The graceful arched portico is reached by seven semicircular steps. The front
door is flanked by. side lights and topped with a fan transom of frosted glass in
scroll design. There are handsome Palladian windows on each side of the portico
and in each end of the second story. The house is two rooms in depth with a
central hall 20 feet wide; a kitchen is connected with the main house by an open
passage. The carved woodwork of the interior, notably the chair rails, the man-
tels in the two front rooms, and the arch that divides the hall with its twin reed
columns and pilasters, are of unusually fine craftsmanship. The caps of the col-
TOUR 14 355
umns and pilasters are lightened by pierced work in graceful design; the trim of
the arch, embellished with a classic egg-and-dart motif, stars, and dentils, is
crowned with a reeded keystone.
JOE BLACKBURN BRIDGE (toll 50<f), 97.7 m., spanning the Kentucky
River, is a concrete structure 175 feet in height. The approaches are
curved, giving it the appearance of a huge S. The bridge was dedicated
in June 1932 and the name honors J. C. S. Blackburn, United States
Senator (1885-97, 1901-07). It affords an exceptionally fine view of
the river and palisades.
The center of YOUNG'S HIGH BRIDGE (L), visible from the Joe
Blackburn Bridge, is 265 feet above low water; the bridge is 1,665
feet long and carries railroad tracks.
TYRONE, 98.7 m. (120 pop.), named for County Tyrone in Ire-
land, is primarily dependent on the T. B. RIPY DISTILLERY (L).
LAWRENCEBURG, 101.8 m. (788 alt., 1,763 pop.), seat of Ander-
son County, was named in honor of Capt. James Lawrence, commander
of the Chesapeake, whose last words were "Don't give up the ship."
It has wide, tree-shaded streets and comfortable homes with well-kept
lawns. The ANDERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE (L), with its tall clock
tower, is constructed of local limestone and designed in the French
Renaissance style. The first settler of Lawrenceburg was a Dutchman
named Coffman, who arrived in 1776 with his family from western
Pennsylvania. He built a double log house, which later served as a
stopping point between Harrodsburg and Frankfort and became known
as Coffman's Station. Lawrenceburg, incorporated in 1820, prospered
early, chiefly by the production of fine whisky.
The song "Oh, Mr. Johnson, Turn Me Loose" was written by Ben
Harney while he was a prisoner in the Lawrenceburg jail. Harney's
plea was meant for Jesse M. Johnson, the mayor.
Lawrenceburg is at the junction with State 35 (see Tour 5).
WALNUT GROVE FARM (open on request), 104 m., is a stock farm
widely known for its saddle horses.
SINAI, 111.6 m. (45 pop.), is the post office for the little settlement
of Shiloh, called Dogwalk in pioneer days. The little community was
renamed to commemorate the Battle of Shiloh.
BLOOMFIELD, 132 m. (455 pop.), on Simpson Creek, was founded
in 1799 by Dr. John Bemiss of Rochester, N.Y., but was not incor-
porated until 1819. The section of the town lying on the western
side of the dividing creek was known as Gandertown because in early
days the young men in this region indulged in gander pulling. A post
set in the ground had a revolving crossbar from which a gander with a
soaped neck was suspended by the feet. The men, mounted on horse-
back, rode at full speed past the post, attempting to seize the gander's
neck as they went by. The prize was awarded to the contestant who
succeeded in jerking off the head.
The D. Y. DAVIS HOUSE (L), on Main St., built of brick and de-
signed in the Georgian Colonial style, has a recessed doorway with
356 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
hand-carved woodwork and silver doorknob. The MINOR HOUSE (R),
on Main St., an unusual Georgian Colonial house with a recessed two-
story portico, stands on an eminence overlooking Simpson Creek. The
house, of brick painted white, was built in 1813. -
WICKLAND (small fee), 142.5 m., known as the "Home of Three
Governors," (R) stands among stately trees. The estate once belonged
to Dr. Walter Brashear, the Bardstown and Lexington surgeon who
performed the first successful hip-joint amputation of record. On
moving to Lexington in 1813, Dr. Brashear sold the property to Charles
A. Wickliffe, who at once built the present house on the designs of the
architects John Marshall Brown and John Rogers, to whose skill Ken-
tucky owes many of its fine old homes.
The two-and-a-half -story house, has a low two-story ell and contains
14 rooms. The foundation is of limestone and the walls are of locally
burned brick. Especially noteworthy are the fine doorways with side
lights and large fanlights, the hand-carved woodwork, and the carved
mantels, showing in their decoration the Adam influence. A graceful
stairway rises from the well-proportioned entrance hall. A wide window
on the stairs offers an excellent vista of the rolling landscape.
Charles A. Wickliffe, Governor of Kentucky (1830-40), was first of
three Governors to reside here. The second was Robert Charles Wick-
liffe, Governor of Louisiana in 1855, and one of the leading criminal
lawyers of the South. The third Governor was John Cripps Wickliffe
Beckham, grandson of Charles A. Wickliffe; he was born here, and
was the chief executive of his State (1900-07).
At 143.8 m. is the junction with US 68 (see Tour 15), which unites
with US 62 between this point and Bardstown.
BARDSTOWN, 144.1 m. (637 alt., 1,767 pop.) (see Tour 15), is at
the junction with US 68 (see Tour 15) and US 3 IE (see Tour 6).
West of Bardstown, US 62 proceeds gradually into the Knobs belt,
a region of rounded hills.
ELIZABETHTOWN, 170 m. (708 alt., 2,590 pop.) (see Tour 7),
is at the junction with US 31W (see Tour 7).
Section b. ELIZABETHTOWN to PADUCAH; 188,9 m., US 62
US 62 turns (R) at the courthouse in ELIZABETHTOWN, m.,
and runs southwest through the Knobs.
CLARKSON, 25.9 m. (356 pop.), is at the junction with State 88.
Left from Clarkson on State 88 to GRAYSON SPRINGS, 2 m., a collection of
numerous white sulphur springs that vary in temperature.
LEITCHFIELD, 30.4 m. (635 alt., 950 pop.), was named for Maj.
David Leitch, who owned the land on which this county seat was set-
tled. Leitch's land was adjacent to a 5,000-acre tract claimed by
George Washington.
West of Leitchfield the land is much dissected by the tributaries of
TOUR 14 357
Rough and Nolin Rivers, the most crooked waterways in the State.
The general course of the highway is over the watershed between these
two streams. Along the roadside are coal mine workings.
At 66.3 m. is the junction with State 71.
Right on State 71 to HARTFORD, 4 m. (425 alt., 1,106 pop.), seat of Ohio
County, on the bank of Rough River, surrounded by hills that rise 650 to 700 feet.
At the time of its founding in 1790, Hartford was called Deer Crossing, from
which "hart-ford" was evolved. The COMMERCIAL HOTEL in Hartford, established
in 1797, was first known as the Lyon Inn.
BEAVER DAM, 67.2 m. (1,036 pop.), is an important mining center
of the western Kentucky coal fields. Excellent strawberries are grown
in this region, and in early June at the close of the picking season
Beaver Dam is the scene of an annual strawberry festival.
A ferry (toll 50$) crosses the GREEN RIVER at 77 m. (good
muskellunge fishing), the narrowest stream in the State that can be
navigated for any distance by steamboats; six locks and dams provide
a constant five-foot channel. Its stillness, deep color, and closely over-
hanging trees produce a peaceful effect. It is believed that Green
River was once a subterranean stream, and that through the ages the
ceiling above wore away and caved in, bringing the stream to the sur-
face. In this region have been found numerous shell mounds of a type
exceedingly rare in Kentucky.
At 77.4 m. is the junction with Paradise Rd., unimproved.
Left on this road to the SITE OF AIRDRIE, 4 m., a ghost town. On the nar-
row strip of land between Green River and the hill upon which Airdrie was built,
is a vine-covered furnace stack among the cedars and sycamores. More than 50
feet in height, the stone stack has a cylindrical section on a square base. Near by
is the old fortlike, three-story machinery house of dressed sandstone, now without
floors, roof, or window frames. On the wall is a stone bearing the legend, "Air-
drie, 1855." Shaded by trees and covered with Virginia creeper are 60 stone steps
on the SITE OF THE ALEXANDER HOUSE, destroyed by fire in 1907.
Robert Alexander, founder of Airdrie, was born in Frankfort in 1819. He was
educated in Scotland and, upon the death of his uncle, Sir William Alexander, suc-
ceeded him to the title. Several years later Alexander came back to Kentucky and
bought about 17,000 acres of land along this section of Green River, where a de-
posit of ore had been discovered. Here he built an iron furnace, a mill, a large
stone house, a hotel, and a number of houses for the iron workers that he had
brought from Scotland. He called the place Airdrie, for his Scotch home. The
venture was unprofitable, and, in 1857, Alexander abandoned the furnace and re-
tired to his estate near Lexington.
In 1866 Gen. Don Carlos Buell bought 1,000 acres of land, including the Airdrie
furnace, to prospect for oil. He found more coal and iron than oil, however, and
began to work those deposits. But freight rates on Green River, his only outlet,
were so high that he also abandoned the works. Buell lived here until his death
in 1898.
West of the junction with Paradise Rd., US 62 continues through a
comparatively desolate broken area, much dissected by the many small
tributaries of Green River.
358 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
CENTRAL CITY, 85.6 m. (462 alt., 4,321 pop.), a mining town
in a basin among the hills, has an air of industrialism because of the
smoke and noise from its railroad yards. The community was long
known as Morehead's Horse Mill, having been built on land once
owned by C. S. Morehead, who operated a gristmill propelled by horse
power. After the building of the Illinois Central R.R. in 1870, the
name was changed.
At Central City is the junction with State 81.
Right on State 81, which passes through a region -where large amounts of coal
are produced. The ruins of many old furnaces are evidence that mining and the
smelting of iron ore was formerly a flourishing industry here.
BREMEN, 9 m. (255 pop.), is a community settled by German immigrants, who
named it for the German seaport.
In 1861 SACRAMENTO, 14 m. (327 pop.), was the scene of an engagement be-
tween Confederate troops under Col. Nathan B. Forrest, and a company of Fed-
erals under Capt. Robert G. Bacon. The Confederates were victorious.
RUMSEY, 25 m. (392 alt., 262 pop.), mainly a residential village, is connected
with Calhoun by the JAMES BETHEL GRESHAM MEMORIAL BRIDGE (toll 25$), which
spans Green River and was named in honor of one of the first three American
soldiers to fall in the World War. Gresham, a corporal in the 16th Infantry, was
killed at Batelmont, France, on November 3, 1917.
CALHOUN, 26 m. (392 alt., 683 pop.), seat of McLean County, on the north
bank of Green River, was known as Fort Vienna in 1788, when it was founded by
Solomon Rhoades. A granite marker (L) commemorates the SITE OF FORT VIENNA
and indicates the hillside where the early settlers dug caves for refuge during In-
dian attacks.
John Calhoun, for whom the town was named, was the first circuit judge of
old Fort Vienna, and United States Congressman for one term (1835-39).
Right 8 m. from Calhoun on State 138 to LIVERMORE (1,573 pop.), on the
north bank of Green River. Logs are rafted down to Livermore for use by two
chair factories. The industry exists also on a home production basis, and new
rattan-bottom chairs are displayed on porches and in the yards of many dwellings.
South of Central City, US 62 traverses a country of scrub timber,
denuded hillsides, and areas heavily brush-grown. There are many
small coal mines along the highway; one of them, now abandoned, is
the Dovey Mine. To it in the summer of 1881 came a stranger, appar-
ently in search of employment. He casually inquired as to when the
railroad pay train was due in Central City, was informed that it had
passed through the morning before, and that William Dovey, who had
gone for the money, would return some time during the night. The
next morning three strangers appeared at the Dovey store. Two of
them stood outside as guards ; the third, with cocked pistol, entered the
building and demanded the contents of the safe. Their holdup was
successful, but because William Dovey had been delayed in bringing
back the pay-roll money, the only loot was $13 in cash and a gold
watch engraved with John Dovey 's name. When Jesse James was
killed a year later, the Dovey watch was among the things found in
James' possession and was returned to its owner.
GREENVILLE, 93.1 m. (538 alt., 2,451 pop.), is the seat of Muhlen-
berg County, named for Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-
TOUR 14 359
1807), a Lutheran minister of Virginia, who left his pulpit at the be-
ginning of the Revolutionary War to become a military officer. Al-
though General Muhlenberg made two trips to Kentucky in 1784, he
never visited the section that bears his name. Greenville is the un-
official capital of the Black Belt, an area that produces a large quantity
of coal and most of the State's output of dark tobacco. Substantial
dwellings with wide verandas and spacious, shady lawns reflect the
leisure of the retired farmers who live here.
The WEIR HOUSE, 206 Main St., a two-story brick structure, built
in the early 1840's, incorporates many Georgian Colonial features. Its
entrance has an especially fine fanlight and side lights containing the
greenish glass that was in common use when this house was built. The
HENRY C. LEWIS HOUSE, a two-story Georgian Colonial style structure,
was erected for the Presbyterian Academy in 1852 and used by it until
1873. In 1856 this school was placed under the supervision of Dr.
James K. Patterson, who subsequently became president of the Uni-
versity of Kentucky. The Greenville school district now owns and
uses the two large brick buildings that formerly housed Greenville
College, a school that flourished from 1875 to 1890.
At 93.6 m. is the junction with State 107.
Left on this road to the RUINS OF BUCKNER FURNACE, 5 m., erected in 1837 by
Aylette H. Buckner, father of Gen. Simon B. Buckner (see Tour 7), to refine the
surface iron ore of southern Muhlenberg County. A pile of dressed rock in a
thicket is all that remains of the stack, which stood intact until 1907, when it was
dynamited by people seeking the iron that remained in it. The stack, a conical
tower 80 feet high, 40 feet wide at the base, and 25 feet across the top, had a
double wall of sandstone, hooped with six iron bands. To the north of the stack
were the cabins of Buckner's miners and wood choppers, but all traces of these
have now disappeared.
The three large stone chimneys about 300 yards east of the stack are the ruins
of the two-story log house used by Buckner as a residence, office, and store. It is
said that it took three yoke of oxen to haul Buckner's private library from Glen
Lily (see Tour 7) in Hart County to this place. Opposite the southern end of the
house in the hillside was the stone milk house over a spring. The spring still
flows from under the crumbling walls.
West of Greenville there is a gradual improvement in the quality of
the farm lands and the character of farm buildings.
On the bank of POND RIVER (R), 104.5 m., near the highway
bridge, is a ledge of rock bearing the imprint of horses' hoofs. Sections
of this rock have been taken to the St. Louis Museum.
NORTONVILLE, 111.5 m. (429 alt., 829 pop.), a coal-mining com-
munity, is on the site (R) of a prehistoric village from which many
artifacts have been recovered. These have been widely scattered, but
good specimens are preserved in the museum of the University of Ken-
tucky (see Lexington).
Nortonville is at the junction with US 41 (see Tour 8).
DAWSON SPRINGS, 125.7 m. (436 alt., 2,311 pop.), on the west-
ern edge of the coal fields, has noted mineral springs and resort hotels.
360 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
At the southern edge of Dawson Springs is a fine view of the meander-
ing Trade water River.
Left from Dawson Springs on State 109 to DAWSON SPRINGS STATE PARK,
3 m. This 500-acre tract, which has been reforested, includes a custodian's lodge,
water system, trails, bridges, shelter houses, picnic areas, and improved roads.
In OUTWOOD, 4 m., is the UNITED STATES VETERANS HOSPITAL (open daily 9-4),
in a densely wooded reservation of 5,000 acres. The 27 modern buildings, chiefly
of brick, stone trimmed, occupy a landscaped plot of about 20 acres. These were
erected at a cost of approximately $2,250,000. Reforestation and the reclamation
of eroded tracts has been carried on.
West of Dawson Springs US 62 crosses the Tradewater River.
PRINCETON, 137.8 m. (484 alt., 4,764 pop.), an industrial and
retail center and the seat of Caldwell County, is widely known for its
beautiful tree-shaded streets and well-kept old homes. Fluor-spar min-
ing is carried on in the vicinity. Underneath the town flows a sub-
terranean stream that is the town's water supply. At BIG SPRING
BOTTOMS, two blocks from the courthouse, the stream comes to the
surface, and here the first settlers built their rude log cabins.
On county court day (see Tour 4), held the third Monday of each
month, the streets are filled with county folk visiting and trading. A
farmer was once heard to remark that in "his best trading days" he
had often taken a horse or mule to Jockey Street, "swapped around a
spell," and at evening had gone home with the same animal and $100.
West of Princeton, tobacco fields dominate a countryside in which
are some coal mines and old workings.
The old FLOURNOY HOUSE (R), 138.1 m., a two-story frame dwell-
ing of eight or nine rooms, has been unoccupied for nearly 20 years,
but is kept in excellent condition. It was built early in the nineteenth
century by the first of the Flournoys to settle here. Though weird
stories of ghosts in the house began to circulate in 1890, the site and
the splendid construction of the building attracted buyers who scoffed
at "hants" but never remained long. Several groups of the most skep-
tical persons in the community each determinedly spent a night in the
house but never cared to repeat the experience. Some asserted that
they had heard the rattling of chains and soft footfalls that approached
and passed; others insisted that they had heard the slow music of a
funeral march. Verses were written in blue crayon on the walls by
unseen hands. The verses were always about battles of the War be-
tween the States, the Spanish-American War, and the assassination of
Gov. William Goebel. During the gubernatorial election of 1899 (see
History) William Goebel, Democratic contestant, had been shot by an
assassin whose identity was never learned. Among the doggerel that
appeared on the walls was:
Remember the Maine
Goebel the same,
A humble man of moral ways,
TOUR 14 361
Lies murdered in his greatest days.
As long as they stand these walls proclaim
The glory of his shining name.
Who disturbs these lines shall find
The bounty of this curse in rhyme . . .
Chains shall bind thee, bats shall tear
Out your eyes, nest in your hair:
Oh guard thee well these thoughts of mine,
Ye haunts that lived in Goebel's time.
EDDYVILLE, 150.7 m. (436 alt., 1,990 pop.), seat of Lyon County,
on the bank of the Cumberland River, was so named because of eddies
in the river above and below the city.
The STATE PENITENTIARY (visited by application 9-3 daily), often
referred to by prisoners as the Castle on the Cumberland, has a grim,
feudal appearance accentuated by the central entrance tower and the
stone wall that encloses 12 of the 37 acres in the prison tract. The
old stone structure received its first prisoners in 1885. Since then
several wings have been added, including two cell blocks, a mess hall,
and in 1938 a recreational center. Between 1911 to 1935, 84 prisoners
were electrocuted here. In May 1938 the prison held 1,473 convicts.
KUTTAWA, 153.4 m. (436 alt., 833 pop.), is chiefly remembered
for the beautiful trees that border the highway.
Right from Kuttawa on State 93 to the ruins of KELLY'S IRON FURNACE, 1 m.,
where William Kelly (1811-88) invented the air -boiling process, later known as the
Bessemer process of making steel. Kelly was born in Pennsylvania and about 1846
settled in Eddy ville where he engaged in the iron business ; here he accidentally dis-
covered the revolutionary process of converting pig and cast iron into steel, but
because of insufficient blast pressure he was only partly successful in making steel.
From 1851 to 1856 he built experimental converters and worked secretly; through
his tests he learned that when an air blast blew directly on the molten iron a
greater heat was produced as a result of the more rapid decarbonization of the
cast iron. Although his family and friends feared he was losing his mind, and at-
tempted to persuade him to abandon his work, two Englishmen, whom Kelly had
hired to assist in the experiments, greatly encouraged him. He therefore concealed
nothing from them. When both Englishmen, who were familiar with his processes,
disappeared one night, Kelly traced them to Pennsylvania, then to New York,
where he learned that they had taken passage to England. In 1856 Sir Henry
Bessemer of England was granted a United States patent on the perfected process.
Upon hearing this, Kelly also applied for a patent and convinced patent officials of
the priority of his process. On June 23, 1857, he was granted the patent and de-
clared the original inventor. Fourteen years later Kelly's patent was renewed for
seven years, while Bessemer was refused a renewal.
The contest between Kelly and Bessemer was settled by the formation of a
corporation that united an ironworks company near Detroit, which manufactured
iron under Kelly's process, with another in Troy, New York, which used Bes-
semer's patents. Kelly retired soon afterward, and only Bessemer's name be-
came identified with the process.
KUTTAWA MINERAL SPRINGS PARK (amusement charges 5$ to 25$), 2m.,
is a well-shaded tract of 165 acres. Kuttawa's seven springs produce crystal-clear
tasteless mineral water. Within the park are a hotel, cafe, cabins, open-air audi-
torium, tennis courts, ballground, and a swimming pool that is supplied with water
362 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
from the spring at the rate of 150,000 gallons a day. A D.A.R. monument near
the hotel commemorates Cobb's Battery, an artillery organization prominent in
the War between the States.
At IUKA, 160.9 m. (381 alt., 55 pop.), US 62 crosses the Cumber-
land River by ferry (toll 50$) and passes through the narrow hilly
strip of land that forms a watershed between the Cumberland and Ohio
Rivers. Here tobacco and corn are the chief products.
Between SMITHLAND, 172.8 m. (286 alt., 519 pop.) (see Tour
16), and Paducah, US 62 and US 60 are one route (see Tour 16b).
PADUCAH, 188.9 m. (341 alt., 33,541 pop.) (see Paducah).
Points of Interest: Paduke Statue, Tilghman Memorial, Irvin Cobb Hotel, Mc-
Cracken County Courthouse, Noble Park, Marine Ways, Brazelton House, Illinois
Central House.
Paducah is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), US 68 (see
Tour 15), and US 45 (see Tour 9).
Tour 15
( Aberdeen, Ohio ) Maysville Lexington Harr odsburg B ardstown
Hodgenville Cave City Bowling Green Paducah; US 68.
Ohio Line to Paducah, 381.8 m.
Louisville & Nashville R.R. parallels this route between Maysville and Lexington
and between Cave City and Paducah.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Accommodations chiefly in towns.
Section a. OHIO LINE to LEXINGTON; 63.8 m. US 68
Between the Ohio and the Licking Rivers, US 68 follows an old
buffalo trail that was used by Simon Kenton and other early travelers.
It was known as Smith's Wagon Road, because in the summer of 1783
a Lexington man named Smith took a wagon over it for the first time.
The route by 1816 was a part of a national post road between Zanes-
ville, Ohio, and Florence, Ala.
New scenes unfold along the way at almost every turn. From the
hills along the Ohio River there is a gradual transition to the rolling
bluegrass meadows, where the farms are larger and the houses, stand-
ing back from the road at the end of avenues bordered with fine old
trees, are more spacious. Along the roadside are stone fences, some-
times old and crumbling but usually, in the Bluegrass region, trim and
TOUR 15 363
smooth. Behind them splendid stallions or complacent mares with
their long-legged colts graze under tall oaks. Stretching for miles along
the highway in the vicinity of Lexington, the Bluegrass capital, are
broad estates with stately pillared mansions the property of some of
the leading horse breeders and racers of America.
US 68 crosses the Ohio Line, m., at the edge of Aberdeen, Ohio
(see Ohio Tour 23), passing over the Ohio River on a bridge (toll 25$).
MAYSVILLE, 0.2 m. (448 alt., 6,557 pop.), as seen from the Ohio
side of the river, resembles an Italian hill town, having been built on
the steep slope of the riverbank, terrace on terrace, with gray walls and
red roofs against a green background. The town, at the mouth of Lime-
stone Creek, on a narrow flood plain, is leisurely and mellow, preserving
the atmosphere of the old river days. Many of the handsome well-
kept homes, on the sides of the bluffs, command a wide view of the
sweeping bends of the river and the green hills and fields of southern
Ohio. The town, first known as Limestone, was established by the
Virginia Legislature in 1787, and by 1792, had become the leading
port of entry of the State "well laid out and flourishing." Maysville's
wealth was not in its land-property, but in the steamers on the river
and the traffic they brought to it; and its industrial activity was en-
tirely confined to shipping and ship building. In those days mer-
chandise came down the Ohio on barges to Maysville and most of it
was hauled into central Kentucky, where the settlements were. The
town changed its name from Limestone to Maysville to honor John
May of Virginia, on whose land it had grown up.
At one time, probably in the spring of 1786, Daniel Boone and his
wife opened a tavern here. They remained for three years, Mrs. Boone
conducting the hostelry, while Daniel hunted and trapped as usual, and
traded up and down the Ohio.
Maysville has been the seat of Mason County since 1848, when the
growth of river traffic caused it to forge ahead of Washington, the first
county seat.
The MASON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Court and 3d Sts., is an imposing
building, erected in 1838. It was built as a city hall and served as
such until 1848, when the seat of county government was moved to
this place. The clock in the tower of the building, made by a black-
smith of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, in 1850, was constructed almost
entirely of wood and is still in good condition.
The small one-story brick building at the corner of 2d and Wall Sts.
was the FIRST MAYSVILLE THEATER. John Palmer, in Travels in the
United States in 1817, said that the building was adequate but "the
scenery and performance were miserable." Junius Booth and many
other important actors trod its boards.
The PUBLIC LIBRARY, Sutton St., contains a curio room in which are
kept many relics of early settlers. Back of the library is the town's
first graveyard.
As a boy, Ulysses S. Grant attended the Rand and Richardson School
364 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
here for one year. The library has a minute book of the school debat-
ing society bearing his name. In his memoirs he speaks of making
frequent trips to this place during his youth from his home at George-
town, Ohio, 17 miles away.
The COCHRAN HOUSE, 16 W. 3d St., the home of Federal Judge
A. M. J. Cochran, was built in 1838 by Judge Cochran's grandfather,
Andrew McConnell. The two-story building is constructed of brick
with stepped gable ends and a small Doric portico.
On top of a hill overlooking the Ohio stands the REED HOUSE, the
summer home of Supreme Court Justice Stanley F. Reed (1938).
Erected prior to the War between the States, this spacious two-story
building, constructed of logs and stone, with great stone chimneys, was
formerly a tavern.
Maysville is at the junction with US 62 (see Tour 14) and State 10
(see Tour 11). US 68 and US 62 are united between this point and
Washington.
Left from Maysville on State 11, which winds and twists around the tops of the
river bluffs with widespread views of fertile creek bottoms and distant blue-green
hills. Along the roadside are scattered small farms, with fields of corn, wheat, and
tobacco, and hillside apple orchards. The soil is generally rich and productive but
much of it is used for grazing, because the wool of the sheep raised here brings a
good price.
FLEMINGSBURG, 18 m. (850 alt., 1,265 pop.), is a quiet, secluded village in
the Knobs area. Flemingsburg and Fleming County, of which it is the seat, were
named for John Fleming, a Virginian, who, with his half-brother, George Stockton,
came down the Ohio in a canoe to Maysville in 1787. Both built stations in Flem-
ing County, Stockton here and Fleming five miles to the west. Fleming died here
in 1794, as the result of a wound received in a skirmish with Indians at Battle Run.
As an infant, Stockton, also a native of Virginia, had been taken captive by In-
dians. His years among the natives had given him a liking for the wilderness and
when he left the tribe he determined to come to Kentucky. In 1790 Stockton and
a companion, Beacham Rhodes, left the station Stockton had established here for
a hunting trip along Fox Creek, where game was abundant. One night, when both
men were asleep, two Indians happened on their camp, killed Stockton, and
wounded his companion in the leg. Fiercely attacked by the dogs, the Indians
jumped upon the hunters' horses the main objects of the attack and fled.
Beacham, who was unable to walk, crawled back to the fort, a distance of 14
miles, to warn the occupants of danger. Friends found Stockton's body, guarded
by his dog who had worn a path around it in an effort to keep wild animals away,
and they buried it where it lay. A cairn, which still remains, was placed above
the spot.
The spring (R) from which settlers obtained their water, and the old graveyard
(L), opposite the spring, are at the northern end of town.
The STUCCOED COURTHOUSE, on an eminence at the head of Main St., is believed
to be the oldest in constant use in the State. Its clock tower, which is surmounted
with an octagonal cupola and low spire, dominates the town; except for the tower
the structure looks like a house with a high veranda. The red-brick WILLIAM
FLEMING HOUSE (L), on W. Water St., was built by slaves. The woodwork is
hand-carved and the rafters are of cherry.
In Fleming County were born four Governors Alvin Saunders (1817-99), the
last Territorial Governor of Nebraska (1861-67) ; Claiborne F. Jackson (1807-62),
Governor of Missouri in 1861; Willis A. Gorman (1814-76), second Territorial
Governor of Minnesota (1853-57); and Richard M. Bishop (1812-93), Governor
of Ohio (1878-80).
TOUR 15 365
1. Left from Flemingsburg 10 m. on the Wallingford Rd., improved, to FOX
SPRING, formerly a well-known summer resort that became popular about 1840.
In the valley below the springs is PARK LAKE, a summer resort. The lake,
which covers 20 acres, is well stocked with fish.
2. Left from Flemingsburg 5 m. on an unmarked, improved road, to BLUE-
BANKS, where the road passes through a bowl-shaped depression in the earth,
100 yards in diameter. The sides of the bowl, 16 to 18 feet in height, are com-
posed of a blue clay.
3. Left from Flemingsburg 8 m. on the Hillsboro Rd., improved, to a group of
unusual STONE BOWLS, locally called Indian kettles. These formations, in sand-
stone and having definite rims, are 6 feet in diameter and 9 to 12 inches in depth.
Near the bowls are sandstone discs, 6 feet in diameter and 5 inches thick, resem-
bling covers. Their purpose and origin are entirely conjectural. Kitchen middens
and an abundance of artifacts, found in the immediate vicinity, indicate that this
was the site of an Indian village. The surrounding region has yielded additional
artifacts and well-preserved skeletons.
South of Maysville the highway rises steeply in curves from the river
to the rolling Bluegrass downs.
The MAYSVILLE COUNTRY CLUB (open to public), 1.8 m., on top of
a high hill (R), overlooks the Ohio River and has a nine-hole golf
course (greens jee, $1).
A granite marker (R), 2.5 m., erected in 1925 by the Washington
Study Club, commemorates KENTON'S STATION, a stockaded trading
post built by Simon Kenton.
Simon Kenton (1755-1836) ranks with Jim Bridger of the later West
as a typical frontiersman. When he was 16 he believed he had killed
a rival in a fist fight and fled into the wilderness. Managing to survive
without supplies or weapons, he was soon beyond the country of law
and order. When he next bobbed up at a frontier post he called himself
Samuel Butler and, before long, had joined George Yeager and John
Strader on a hunting expedition down the Ohio, which ended when
they were attacked by Indians. He made another trip or so down the
Ohio and then in 1774 entered the service of Lord Dunmore as a spy.
In 1775 he was once more down the Ohio hunting for the cane lands
of Kain-tuck-ee, of which he had heard from the Indians. On this
trip he met Daniel Boone on the Limestone and for a time joined the
little settlement at Boonesboro, where he was very useful during the
Indian attack. But, like the trappers of the later West, domesticity
irked him, so in 1778 he joined the expedition led by George Rogers
Clark against Kaskaskia and Vincennes. When that expedition ended
he joined Boone in the attack on Chillicothe. Then for a period he
was in continual trouble with the Indians; he was captured, saved by
a white renegade, condemned and then reprieved through the inter-
ference of a Mingo chief and a Canadian trapper. But his troubles
were not over; the British held him a prisoner at Detroit until he
escaped. Still unable to keep away from danger, in 1780 he joined a
company of volunteers from Harrod's Station for the attack on the
Indians that ended at Piqua. About this time he learned that the man
366 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
he believed he had killed was still alive, so he went back to Virginia to
visit his parents.
His stories of the fertility of Kentucky soil persuaded them to come
West with him. But the arrival of his family did~not hold him here;
in 1787 he joined another expedition against the Indians, and in 1793
yet another. In 1799 he settled as much as he was able to in Ohio,
where he was soon in the militia. In the War of 1812 he was again
fighting with Kentuckians. Like everyone else of his day, he dreamed
of holding vast quantities of land and no one had a better chance
than he to discover the best. But, like Boone and most other trappers
and scouts, he was never able to master the game of making his claims
stick; he died in poverty at the age of 81. Before his death his prowess
had assumed almost legendary proportions and numerous people of
importance liked to boast of their acquaintance with him.
Town and counties carry the name of Kenton; the Ohio and the
Kentucky Legislatures voted money for monuments and quarreled over
his body, which was finally reinterred at Urbana, Ohio. There in 1884
a monument, designed by John Quincy Adams Ward, was erected to
his memory.
WASHINGTON, 4.1 m. (500 pop.), a charming village with slow-
moving tempo, was once a "center of fashion and education," and the
second largest town in the State. Created a municipality by the Vir-
ginia Legislature in 1786, the town was laid out on a well-selected sec-
tion of the 700-acre tract of cane land belonging to Simon Kenton.
Among the streets of Washington, which retain their early names, is one
called Kenton's Line.
Washington came into existence because the hill at Maysville was
so long and difficult that it required an entire day sometimes to bring
heavily loaded wagons to the top. Travelers and teamsters usually
spent the night at the crest of the hill or at least stopped there for
refreshments. Until 1793, when Indian raids in Kentucky ceased, the
place had been a rendezvous for volunteers led by Kenton to forestall
attacks by the Indians, who often crossed the Ohio at this point. The
town grew rapidly during the early years of its existence, when it was
the principal place of trade for a wide area. The Mirror, third news-
paper in Kentucky, was established here in 1797.
The first county court in Mason County met in the house of Robert
Rankin, May 26, 1789. Among other acts, it adopted the following
rates for tavern keepers:
s.d.
A warm dinner 13
A cold dinner 13
A warm breakfast, with tea or coffee, etc 13
A cold breakfast, with tea or coffee, etc 10
Lodging, with clean sheets . 09
Stablage and hay, per night 13
TOUR 15 367
s.d.
Pasturage, per night 06
Corn, per gallon 08
Whisky, per half pint 09
West India Rum, per half pint 10
Continent Rum, per half pint 09
Apple or Peach Brandy per half pint 09
Madeira Wine, per qt 09
(A Kentucky shilling was 12% cents.)
The first courthouse, a massive stone building erected in 1794 by
Louis Craig (see Tour 3), the Virginia minister who brought the Travel-
ing Baptist Church to Kentucky, was destroyed by fire in 1909. It
had not been used as a co.urthouse since 1848, when the county seat
was moved to Maysville. On Main St. is (L) the clapboarded log
building that was the FIRST KENTUCKY POST OFFICE, the distributing
point for mail for Kentucky and the Northwest Territory (now the
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin). Near by
is the old building (R) that was the BRANCH BANK OF KENTUCKY,
first bank in northern Kentucky. Gen. Henry Lee, farmer and sur-
veyor from Virginia, was its first president.
The MARSHALL KEY PLACE (open on request), a two-story brick
house (L), has a recessed entrance at one side of the front and a
beautiful old stairway. During a visit here, Harriet Beecher (later Mrs.
Stowe), who was a schoolmate of Key's daughter in Cincinnati, wit-
nessed sales on the SLAVE BLOCK that still stands on the courthouse
green.
CEDAR HILL, a two-story house with wide veranda across the front,
was built in 1807 by John Chambers, who was appointed Territorial
Governor of Iowa (1841-45) by President William Henry Harrison.
It stands among tall cedars on a hill overlooking Washington. Cham-
bers (1780-1852) was brought to Washington from Lexington by his
family when he was 14 years old. He later studied law, was admitted
to the bar, and began practice in this town. In the War of 1812 he
was aide-de-camp to General Harrison. He served in Congress as a
Whig from 1828 to 1829, and from 1835 to 1839. He is buried in the
family burial ground near his old home.
Another dignified house, THE HILL (open), was built in 1800 by
Thomas Marshall, Jr., brother of Chief Justice John Marshall. In 1785
Col. Thomas Marshall, who had become Surveyor General of Ken-
tucky in 1780, came down the Ohio River in a flatboat "with a numer-
ous family" and established a home in these cane lands. The two-
story brick house, Georgian in style, has a pedimented central bay and
a simple one-story central porch. In the family burial grounds near by
is the GRAVE OF THOMAS MARSHALL, SR., and that of his wife. The
inscription on the tombstone marking the GRAVE OF MARY MARSHALL,
mother of the Chief Justice, reads: "Mary Randolph Keith b. 1737.
368 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
She was good, not brilliant, useful, not ornamental, and the mother of
IS children."
The JOHNSTON HOUSE (L), a two-story clapboarded structure with
lean-to porch at one side, was the birthplace of Albert Sidney Johnston
(1802-62), Confederate leader whose father, Dr. John Johnston, came
from Cincinnati in 1785 and was the first physician in the town.
Albert Sidney Johnston was graduated from West Point in 1826.
He served in the Black Hawk War, later enlisted in the service of
Texas, and was made commander in chief of its forces. In 1839 he
became Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas.
When the war between the United States and Mexico broke out in
1846, Johnston was engaged in cotton growing in Texas. He at once
organized the 1st Regiment of Texas Infantry, and was soon afterward
made inspector general of Butler's division. In 1849 Johnston was ap-
pointed paymaster of the United States Army on the Texas border,
and in 1854 became colonel of the 2d United States Cavalry, with
Robert E. Lee as lieutenant colonel, commanding the Department of
Texas.
In 1858 Johnston commanded the United States expedition into
Utah, which spent an unpleasant winter near Fort Bridger before mak-
ing peace terms with the Mormons. Johnston was then assigned to
the command of the Department of California. In 1861 he resigned
from the U.S. Army to join the Confederate Army.
General Johnston was placed in charge of the Confederate Army of
the West in 1861 and the following year was killed at the Battle of
Shiloh while leading a charge against the "Hornets' nest."
On Duke of York St. was the old Franklin Academy, no longer in
existence; it was established soon after Transylvania. Another early
school, which taught young ladies a all the arts suited to their sex,"
was conducted here by Carolyn Warburton Fitz-Herbert Keats, whose
husband was a cousin of John Keats, the English poet. The vine-
covered two-story brick McMuRDY SCHOOL (L) was attended not
only by Kentuckians but also by girls from other States.
COVERED WELLS at regular intervals in the center of the sidewalks
of Washington are remnants of the "first waterworks west of the Alle-
ghenies." Early in the history of the town the legislature voted the
sum of $1,000 for "adequate water protection" for the rapidly growing
town, and 22 wells were dug, some of which have been restored by the
Washington Study Club.
Washington is at the southern junction with US 62 (see Tour 14).
MAYS LICK, 12.1 m. (327 pop.), was named for John May, a Vir-
ginian who was first surveyor of Kenton County, and claimed land here,
as well as a salt lick near by. The place was first called May's Spring,
because of the large spring on what became a noted camping ground in
early days and "one of the finest places on the north side of the Lick-
ing," according to an old chronicler. It numbered among its early
TOUR 15 369
settlers some whose families were later among the most influential of
the State.
South of Mays Lick the road winds down to the valley of the Licking
River on which, after spring freshets, logs are still floated down from
the mountains.
BLUE LICKS BATTLEFIELD STATE PARK (R), 23.3 m., is the
site of the bloody battle of August 19, 1782, that ended the Revolu-
tionary War in the West. A granite shaft bears the names of those who
fell in this battle; the PIONEER MUSEUM (adults 15$, children 5$)
houses many relics, including the Hunter Collection of prehistoric re-
mains unearthed at the licks. An improved road and trails wind
through the park.
In the spring of 1782 the British Capt. William Caldwell collected
nearly 1,000 Indians and about 50 whites in southern Ohio for a raid
upon the comparatively unprotected and weak settlements in the Blue-
grass region of central Kentucky. Quarrels broke out among the In-
dians and numbers deserted, but Captain Caldwell, with the notorious
renegade, Girty, were still supported by the whites and several hundred
Indians. Moving swiftly, this force crossed the Ohio and on August
16, 1782, struck the feeble little frontier outpost of Bryan Station
about six miles northeast of Lexington. Caldwell and his allies met
stout opposition. Two days time sufficient to arouse the settlers on
farms and villages to the southward were lost in a fruitless effort to
storm the little stockaded fort, where men, women, and children deter-
minedly fought on, waiting for the help they knew was coming. Aware
that further penetration into the Bluegrass country would lead only to
disaster, Caldwell's army retreated toward the Ohio. The garrison of
Bryan Station, reinforced by volunteers to a total of nearly 200
mounted men, followed the retreating enemy. Within 24 hours this
pursuing force, under command of Major Todd, overtook the invaders
at this place.
A council of war was held by the pioneers at the ford; Boone advised
that they delay the attack and wait for reinforcements. Todd, Trigg,
and most of the other leaders agreed with him; but it is said that the
hot-headed Maj. Hugh McGary, who possessed little military training,
dared the young men to follow him and spurred his horse into the river.
The younger men followed, leaving the leaders of the band no choice
but to accompany them. The Kentuckians, outnumbered three to one,
were ambushed and cut down. In a fierce battle, lasting but 15 min-
utes, 60 of the 176 combatants were killed and 7 were taken prisoners;
the rest escaped. Todd, Trigg, and Boone's son, Israel, were among
those killed ; Boone escaped by swimming the river. But it was a boot-
less victory for the invaders. Volunteers from all the Bluegrass set-
tlements were racing northward. Before the pioneers could strike,
Caldwell and Girty fled across the Ohio, and Kentucky soil was clear
of the invaders. George Rogers Clark's seasoned veterans, who had
been massed at the Falls of the Ohio, took up the uncompleted work
37O HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
of the militia. With 1,100 Kentuckians he swept up the Miami Valley,
burning Indian villages, laying waste their cornfields, clearing out the
natives to make way for the white invaders who soon arrived to settle
the north bank of the Ohio.
Near by is (R) the SITE OF BLUE LICKS SPRINGS TAVERN, once a
popular stop on the stagecoach route between Maysville and Lexington
as well as a resort. People journeyed to this place from the North and
the South in order to drink the health-giving waters. In April 1862
the main building, which could accommodate from 400 to 600 guests,
was destroyed by fire. Later it was replaced by a smaller structure,
but the prestige of the old resort died with the passing of the stage-
coach era.
The old BLUE LICK CHURCH (R), 23.8 m., built in 1864, is a rec-
tangular frame structure with twin doors in the fagade. It is sur-
rounded by pine trees.
FOREST RETREAT (R), 31.7 m., was the home, during his later years,
of Thomas Metcalfe (1780-1855), tenth Governor of Kentucky (1829-
33). He had been a captain in the War of 1812, a Representative in
Congress from 1819 to 1828, and United States Senator from 1848 to
1849. Metcalfe earned his sobriquet, "Old Stone Hammer," because
of his vehemence as an orator and his skill as a stonemason ; he erected
stone buildings throughout the State, including the courthouse at
Greensburg, which is still standing, and the Governor's mansion at
Frankfort. THOMAS METCALFE'S GRAVE is in the family burial ground
here.
Forest Retreat is old, though the actual date of erection is not known.
It is a low, gabled, story-and-a-half dwelling of stone with gabled front
dormers and small wings. Its center hall plan is typical of the southern
Colonial architecture of the seaboard States. The shallow pedimented
portico on the front, with its slender turned posts, is of a later date
than the house. Many noted visitors stopped here, glad to accept the
hospitality of the genial host in those days when inns were not always
comfortable along this single road between the Ohio River and central
Kentucky. Andrew Jackson, who visited here in 1829 while on his
way to Washington for his first inauguration, remarked that Metcalfe
fed him better than anyone he had ever met. Gen. William Henry
Harrison also stayed at Forest Retreat for some time in 1840, while
campaigning for the Presidency, and Henry Clay often stopped for
"refreshments" from the barrel of old bourbon, kept under the stair-
way for convenience. When James G. Blaine, an unsuccessful candi-
date for the Presidency in 1884, was teaching at the military school at
Lower Blue Licks Spring, Forest Retreat was his home.
In MILLERSBURG, 37.6 m. (770 pop.), tree-shaded streets are
lined with comfortable houses on large lawns. Established in 1817,
the town was named for the Reverend John Miller, founder of Millers-
burg Female Seminary. The MILLERSBURG MILITARY INSTITUTE (R)
is a privately owned secondary school.
TOUR 15 371
South of Millersburg is the heart of the Bluegrass, with gently un-
dulating surface and fertile soil.
The GRANGE (L), 42 m., built in 1818, is a one-and-a-half-story
house having a Doric portico, handsome dormers, and a deep-set door-
way with fan- and side-lights. An unusual feature is the slightly curved
front walls of the pavilions, pierced by Palladian windows with fluted
frames and with shutters designed to cover side lights as well as the
central window. The stairway has delicate balusters, newel post, and
handrail. This house was built for Ned Stone, a slave dealer, who was
slain during a mutiny aboard a slave ship bound for New Orleans.
A short distance from the house is the old brick house used for slaves.
Beneath its central hall is a dungeon with walls of solid stone, in which
unruly captives were kept.
At 44.7 m. is the junction with State 40 (see Tour 17).
The highway crosses STONER CREEK, 45.7 m., a tributary of
Licking River, named in honor of Michael Stoner (1748-1812), a com-
panion of Daniel Boone. The first bridge over this creek was built
in 1795.
PARIS, 45.9 m. (826 alt., 6,204 pop.), is the seat of Bourbon County,
an unusually fertile agricultural area. The town, known as Hopewell
when it was established in 1789, was later called Paris in appreciation
of French aid during the Revolutionary War. The first court was held
in May 1786 in the old rock house, Fairfield. In the same year a
courthouse was erected with a jail 16 feet square. Among the old
records, preserved in the courthouse, are those of several suits for debts
against Daniel Boone, then a resident of Maysville, and against Simon
Kenton, a resident of Washington. At that time both of these were
in Bourbon County.
At Paris in 1790 Jacob Spears and others from Pennsylvania erected
one of the State's earliest distilleries. The whisky made here was
called bourbon for the county. Later the name bourbon was applied
to any whisky made of corn according to this distillery's formula which
produced a heavy-bodied, mellow liquor of a deep amber color. In
the crude early distilleries all the work except grinding was done by
hand. These plants were always near a good spring, and the use of
limestone water contributed to the distinctive flavor of Kentucky
whisky. Only the five general steps grinding grain, mashing, ferment-
ing, distilling, and aging were commonly known. The actual formulas
were guarded carefully and bequeathed by their owners to their heirs.
Many Kentucky distillers continue to employ the hand processes, be-
lieving the unusual flavor and bouquet would be lost if they should
adopt modern methods.
Paris, a leading bluegrass-seed market, has four seed-cleaning plants.
A yearly average of 700,000 bushels of bluegrass-seed are bought,
cleaned, and sold, much of it being exported.
A granite shaft marks DOYLES SPRING (R), on 2d St., about which
the little log-cabin settlement that was to become Paris developed, as
372 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
wagoners, traveling with supplies between Maysville and Lexington,
stopped here for the pure water and pasturage. The expression of the
drivers, "Hope we'll get there before night," is said to explain the first
name of the settlement, Hopewell.
The Indian Queen, first hotel in Paris, was erected in 1804, and
served travelers on the Maysville-Lexington stagecoach route. It has
been incorporated in the WINDSOR HOTEL (L), on Main St.
The BURR HOUSE (R) on High St. was the birthplace of Joseph
Duncan, Governor of Illinois (1834-38). The roof of this stone two-
and-a-half-story building is pierced by two dormers; a front gable has
a half -moon window. For a time the house was an inn conducted by
the Widow Burr. Here in the long dining room the youth of Hopewell
gathered to dance the Virginia reel, and here the first dramatic per-
formances of the town were given in 1807.
William Holmes McGuffey (1800-73), compiler of the famous read-
ers, taught school in Paris about 1822.
Paris is at the junction with US 27 (see Tour 3), State 40 (see Tour
17), and US 227 (see Tour 17 A). Between Paris and Lexington US 68
and US 27 are united.
1. Right from Paris on the Peacock Rd. to MOUNT LEBANON (L), 3 m., sur-
rounded by century-old cedar trees, is the home of Gov. James Garrard (1796-
1804) ; it was built in 1786. The exterior walls of the tall, angular structure are
of stone. The S-shaped anchor heads on the front wall mark the reinforcing tim-
bers embedded by Governor Garrard after the house had been damaged by the
earthquake of 1811. Much of the framework is hand-hewn and held together by
wooden pegs; all the woodwork is of ash, and in excellent condition.
Across Stoner Creek on the same tract is the old rock house, FAIRFIELD, the first
house built by Garrard. In it the first court in Bourbon County was held. Gar-
rard and his wife and daughter are buried in the family burial ground here.
2. Left from Paris on the Cane Ridge Pike, an improved road, to the BREST
TAVERN (open), 4 m., built (L) early in the nineteenth century. The story is told
that Brest kept his accounts written on his whitewashed walls and when on one
occasion his wife, while spring-cleaning, applied a fresh coat of whitewash, he re-
garded himself as ruined until his patrons voluntarily paid their debts.
CANE RIDGE MEETING HOUSE (open), 6 m., though built in 1791 by Presbyte-
rians from North Carolina, is the parent church of the Christian denomination in
Kentucky, otherwise known as the Disciples of Christ. After the major part of
the congregation and their pastor, the Reverend Robert W. Finley, had migrated
to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1796, the Reverend Barton W. Stone became pastor of the
Cane Ridge Meeting House. This was about the time that the "profound awak-
ening" or religious revival swept Kentucky. The movement first took root in
western Kentucky, centering in Logan County where Stone went, in the spring of
1800, to attend a meeting conducted by the McGhee brothers, one a Presbyterian
and the other a Methodist. This joint occupancy of the same pulpit by two min-
isters with differing denominational views attracted such large crowds that the
services had to be held out of doors. In August 1801 the Cane Ridge Meeting
led by Stone held a revival that was described as the "most remarkable religious
assemblage ever known on the continent." The congregation, numbering between
twenty and thirty thousand, met outside the church in the flickering light of
torches, to chant hymns, pray, and listen to five or more men preach simultane-
ously. During the impassioned exhortations the people sobbed, shrieked, and
shouted until the whole throng reached a hysterical pitch of fervor and excitement.
TOUR 15 373
Many were seized by spasms that caused them to fall to the ground, where they
lay as if dead. Others jerked, danced, barked, laughed, or sang. After the con-
verts had revived, they shouted joyously that they had been saved.
The established churches did not welcome these converts graciously, and as a
consequence churches were often split or new congregations were formed. Barton
W. Stone found himself involved in a controversy with the presbytery of which he
was a member. In 1804 he and his congregation at Cane Ridge withdrew from
the Presbyterian fellowship and organized an independent church to which they
gave the name Christian. Similar splits and the organization of other independent
churches followed all over the State. Thus a new Protestant sect, now ranking
fifth in membership in the State, was born in Kentucky.
A similar movement later took place in Pennsylvania under the leadership of the
Reverend Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander, who came to Kentucky and
organized churches to which he gave the name Disciples of Christ. Stone and
Campbell found themselves in essential agreement and finally merged their organi-
zations in 1832, but the Kentucky churches that entered the merger retained the
name Christian, though they are officially affiliated with the denomination known
as the Disciples of Christ.
The Cane Ridge building is constructed of ash logs chinked with mud on a foun-
dation of local stone. The flooring is of oak, and hand-split oak shakes, four feet
long, cover the roof. In 1829 the building was weatherboarded, lathed, and plas-
tered. Originally it contained a massive balcony that was almost half as large as
the main floor and was reached from the outside by a ladder. This balcony, with
its cherry railing, was torn down in 1829 and the timbers were used in the con-
struction of a barn near by. An attempt has been made in recent years to restore
the meeting house. It is planned (1939) to use some of the timbers that have
been preserved in the old barn in reconstructing the balcony.
Between Paris and Lexington the route is through a corner of Ken-
tucky's horse-breeding area. Here fine country mansions stand far back
from the road at the end of avenues lined with trees. The white-fenced
paddocks, green grazing lands, and landscaped grounds combine to make
this 17 miles resemble a large park.
GREENTREE (L) is at 56.7 m. (see Lexington).
At 57.1 m. (R) is ELMENDORF (see Lexington).
Across the road from the Widener estate at 57.5 m. is the C. V. WHIT-
NEY FARM (see Lexington).
At 58.1 m. is (L) LLANGOLLEN ( see Lexington) and the junction with
Johnston Rd., improved.
Left on this road to BRYAN STATION, 5 m., where there is a memorial, a
stone wall four feet in height, octagonal in form, around the spring that supplied
water to the defenders of the station when it was besieged in 1782 by a band of
Indians under the leadership of Capt. William Caldwell and the renegade Simon
Girty. Sweeping westward toward Lexington, the invaders, on the evening of
August IS, 1782, secretly surrounded Bryan Station, anticipating an easy victory
when they should attack on the morrow.
There is a story, the authenticity of which is disputed, that the little company
found itself with too little water to withstand a long siege and determined to risk
sending the women out in the early morning to obtain a supply; they were to act
as though they did not know that the enemy was in the canebrake around the
spring. According to the story, the women carried out the plan, walking out and
back again without undue haste. There is no explanation of why the enemy failed
to attack at this time. Later about 100 Indians appeared openly and a group of
settlers came out and fired on them. Immediately the hidden Girty and the re-
374 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
mainder of the band attempted to take the station by storm. They were met by
gunfire from the post.
All that day and the next the siege continued. On the first afternoon reinforce-
ments arrived from Lexington and Boone Station and fought their way into the
fort. Girty's men, failing to take the fort within the twor days, and fearing the
arrival of more troops, retreated toward the Ohio River, pursued by the defending
garrison and other troops. At the Battle of Blue Licks the Kentuckians were am-
buscaded and cut down. In spite of this disaster the defense of Bryan Station
halted the invasion of Kentucky and resulted in the withdrawal of the British
allies.
Just beyond the memorial and across the railroad is BRYAN STATION HOUSE, on
a hill above fields and woods. The excellent condition of this white-painted, brick
dwelling, erected in 1797, belies its age. It is a story and a half high. The half
story is formed by a steep shingled roof, the severity of which is relieved by three
dormers. A wide porch, added in recent years, extends across the front. At the
right is the original porch, which has square columns of hickory. From this porch
is an excellent view of the Elkhorn Creek Valley. In the yard is the outline of
the stockade surrounding the station for which the house was named.
A private driveway (L), 59.6 m., leads to the LEXINGTON COUNTRY
CLUBHOUSE, on a knoll surrounded by an extensive, well-kept, shady
lawn. It commands a broad view of the meadows around the head-
waters of North Elkhorn Creek.
Opposite the clubhouse is the entrance (through Swigert Lane) to
HAYLANDS (grounds open) (R), owned by Miss Elizabeth Daingerfield.
Haylands is the home of Morvich, winner of the Kentucky Derby in
1922.
LEXINGTON, 63.8 m. (957 alt., 45,736 pop.) (see Lexington).
Points of Interest: Homes of Henry Clay, Gen. John Hunt Morgan, Mary Todd
Lincoln, and John Bradford ; Transylvania College ; University of Kentucky ; loose-
leaf tobacco market, and others.
Lexington is at the junction with US 60 (see Tour 16), US 25 (see
Tour 4), and US 27 (see Tour 3).
Section b. LEXINGTON to BOWLING GREEN 173.5 m. US 68.
Southwest of LEXINGTON, m., US 68 runs through a varied
country. Parklike grounds and wide bluegrass meadows contrast with
the tree-crowned cliffs of the Kentucky River's majestic gorge. Along
the route are towns containing fine old mansions and State parks and
battlefields.
At 2.8 m. is the junction with the Lane Allen Rd.
Right on this road to SCARLET GATE 1 m., now a stock farm but formerly the
home of James Lane Allen. The two-story house has one-story wi 
