The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852 Part 9

Arrangements were made at the beginning of the season for the erection of not less than five hundred substantial brick houses, and, according to the report of a prominent resident of a sister city, there was not another place in the United States which was improving and increasing in population more rapidly than this. The number of inhabitants, as ascertained by census, had reached 10,336, and was still rapidly increasing. The friends of Louisville had every reason to congratulate themselves upon her position. The pecuniary troubles which soon after involved the place were not foreseen, and, with buoyant hopes and high expectations, the citizens looked forward to a continuance of their unexampled prosperity. How these hopes were wrecked and these expectations reduced, the history of the next decade will show.

The first act to be noticed in connection with the city was an amendment to the charter, which prevented the Council from borrowing or appropriating money without the consent of a majority of their body. As the project of a bridge over the Ohio was then talked of, and as the Lexington and Ohio Railroad had been suggested, and the city in her corporate capacity had been warmly urged to make large subscriptions of stock to these enterprises, this provision was probably thought necessary to prevent too great lavishness in expenditure.

The next event of the year was the organization of another Presbyterian church under the Rev. Mr. Sawtell. It was commenced in April with 12 members who seceded from the First Presbyterian church. A building for worship was erected on Third Street, between Green and Walnut, and the church rapidly increased in numbers. It is at present in charge of Rev.

Dr. Humphrey.

The last circ.u.mstance to be noticed in this rapid sketch of the year 1830, is the establishment of the Daily Journal by Prentice & Buxton, afterward Prentice & Johnston, then Prentice & Weissinger, and finally Prentice & Henderson. It was first published on an imperial sheet at $10 per annum.

Although commenced by an entire stranger, as Mr. Prentice then was, the power of its articles and the exquisite vein of humor and irony displayed in its columns, soon gave it such popularity, that, even before its union with the Focus in 1832, it had risen to a firm and enviable position. In December Mr. Edwin Bryant became an a.s.sociate editor of the paper, but did not remain in that position for more than six months. Soon after the establishment of the Journal the newspaper war with the Advertiser, so well remembered here and so widely known abroad as having given birth to a fund of wit and of satire heretofore unparalleled in the annals of newspapers, was commenced. Even the distant English journals had each their column headed--"Prenticeana"--and the paper was sought after far and near by every lover of fun or of humor in the land. It is to be regretted that the shifting character of American politics has rendered so many of the happiest of these allusions and witticisms obscure to the unpolitical or to the distant reader; a collected volume of them would else afford a delightful compendium for a leisure hour. To the older resident of Louisville, it may be interesting to recall the commencement of this long and hard-fought battle. Mr. Penn of the Advertiser, who had deservedly maintained since 1819 the most prominent rank as an editor in the West, was kind enough to furnish the Journal, at its commencement, with all its exchanges. This favor is repeatedly acknowledged by the Journal with great courtesy, but does not blind that paper to the fact that it is about to be attacked by the opposite party. Whereupon, after some time, the following article was published: "We a.s.sure the editor of the Advertiser that we shall never under any circ.u.mstances covet a personal controversy with him. We do not believe that his readers would be willing to pay him $10 a year for dissertations upon our private character, however bad it may be; and we are quite sure that ours would be loth to pay that sum for daily disquisitions on him, whatever may be his excellencies. We have due respect for the Jackson editors in the West, but we trust to be believed when we say our respect is undebased by fear. We prefer that they should accept our hand open and ungloved, but if they would rather have it in the shape of a fist, it is still at their service." The Advertiser, seeming to prefer it in the latter form, hereupon commences anew its attack, when the war is opened in earnest by the Journal, which, at the end of a somewhat long and rather tart paragraph, let off in reply the following first _coup de canon_: "We believe he (Mr. Penn) has not had an article since we came here that was not made up of hints taken from the Journal. Well, we have one consolation--'_he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord_.'" This is followed up by a series of well directed blows, which are vigorously replied to till the eleventh or twelfth "round," when one of the parties left the field, still, however, refusing to consider himself vanquished.

With the year 1831 came another amendment to the charter, which provides that the real estate in Louisville and the personal estate of all persons dying therein shall be subject to escheat to the Commonwealth, vested in the Mayor and Council, for the use of public schools. Also that all fines inflicted in Jefferson county shall be vested in the same manner, the fund arising therefrom to be expended in the purchase of a lot and erecting buildings thereon for said schools. It also provides that Jailor's fees for commitments for offenses in Louisville shall be paid out of the city fund. These amendments to the charter are so numerous and of such frequent recurrence that we shall hereafter be content with a mere allusion to them.

It was also during this year that the present bank of Kentucky was built, with a view to the uses of the bank of the United States. A Louisville Lyceum was also established under the patronage of some of the most distinguished citizens of Louisville. This literary a.s.sociation continued in being for several years but finally was obliged, like all its fellows, to sink beneath the careless inattention of a purely commercial community.

In 1832 a new calamity came upon the city. This was an unparalleled flood in the Ohio. It commenced on the 10th of February and continued until the 21st of that month, having risen to the extraordinary height of 51 feet above low-water mark. The destruction of property by this flood was immense. Nearly all the frame buildings near the river were either floated off or turned over and destroyed. An almost total cessation in business was the necessary consequence; even farmers from the neighborhood were unable to get to the markets, the flood having so affected the smaller streams as to render them impa.s.sable. The description of the sufferings by this flood is appalling. This calamity, however, great as it was, could have but a temporary effect on the progress of the city, as will be seen hereafter.

On the 27th of May the first Unitarian church was dedicated. It is situated at the corner of Walnut and Fifth streets, and was under the direction of the Rev. Geo. Chapman, of Ma.s.s. The building of the Louisville Hotel, and the issue of the first Directory ever printed here, were also events of this period. This Directory was published by R. W.

Otis, and contains, beside much other valuable matter, a brief sketch of the history of the city, from the pen of Mr. Mann Butler, the accomplished historian of Kentucky. From it we get the following commercial table of Imports from Dec. 1st, 1831, to Aug. 4th, 1832, which will prove interesting to the reader of statistics:

Bale Rope 26,830 coils.

Bagging 33,411 pieces.

China, &c. 1,170 p'ckgs.

Coffee 18,289 bags.

Cotton 4,913 bales.

Mackerel 12,037 bbls.

Salt, Kan. and Cone 16,729 "

Salt, Turk's Island 18,146 bags.

Tea 63,500 lbs.

Flour 48,470 bbls.

Hides 19,121 Iron 631 tons.

Lead 231 "

Mola.s.ses 6,309 bbls.

Nails 10,395 kegs.

Sugar, N. O. 7,717 hhds.

" Loaf 4,318 bbls.

Tin Plate 3,108 boxes.

The inspection of whiskey during this time amounted to 14,627 barrels.

This Directory also gives the following as the statistics of manufactures:

One steam woolen factory, employs 30 hands and consumes 25,000 pounds of wool per annum.

One cotton factory, employs 80 hands and consumes 500 bales annually; works 1,056 spindles.

Two potteries.

One steam grist mill.

Two foundries, employing together 155 hands and consuming 1,200 tons of iron per annum.

Sixteen brick yards.

One steam planing mill, with two machines and two circular saws; planes, tongues, grooves, &c., about 2,000 feet of boards to each machine per day.

Three breweries.

Two white lead factories consume 600 tons lead annually.

Four rope walks, which work up 600 tons of hemp per annum.

Pa.s.sing on as rapidly as may be, we come first to the chartering of the Bank of Louisville. The books were opened for subscription to this bank in March, 1833, and closed on the third day, $1,500,000 having been subscribed in that brief period. By the act of incorporation the capital was fixed at $2,000,000, but the commissioners were allowed to close the books at any time after $500,000 were subscribed. Each director was required to take oath not to permit any violation of this charter.

The next event in order was another amendment to the city charter, which provides that no street or alley can be laid out without consent of Council--that a jury shall a.s.sess what damages shall be awarded, and what paid by persons injured or benefitted by opening streets or alleys--that it shall not be necessary for the Council to have alphabetical lists of the voters made out, except for the tax collectors and judges of the election--that those only shall be eligible to office who are house-keepers or free-holders and have paid taxes the preceding year in the city of Louisville--that the removal of a councilman from the ward in which he was elected shall cause his office to be vacant, and that any vacancy occurring either in this way or by resignation shall be sup-plied by the Council out of the said ward.

A museum was opened here at this period by a number of gentlemen as stockholders, under the direction of J. R. Lambdin; the collection of objects of natural history, of curiosity, and of vertu was extremely good.

A Savings' Bank was also established during the year, under the direction of Ed. Crow, President; and E. D. Hobbs, Treasurer.

The editor of a Frankfort paper, giving an account of his visit to Louisville about this time, says: "Whoever visits this city leaves it with the conviction that all the elements are at work, which must advance it to a great commercial town, and urge it on till it has pa.s.sed all the towns of the Ohio in the race for supremacy." It is not to be wondered at that the thriving appearance of the city at this time should have attracted the attention and notice of strangers, and the more particularly as all the neighboring towns and cities were now suffering from the visitations of that dreaded and dreadful scourge, the Cholera, while Louisville hardly knew of its presence. The causes of disease here had been in a great measure removed, and notwithstanding the fears which the approach of the plague had inspired in a city which had before suffered so severely from contagion, the cholera pa.s.sed lightly over it, not making sufficient impression to produce any effect against its prosperity. This was the more a cause of congratulation to the city as it afforded an opportunity to prove the falsity of the reports prejudicial to its health, which were still industriously circulated. But though exempt from this visitation, the city did not pa.s.s another year without its share of calamity. The government deposites which had heretofore been placed in the banks here and used by them as banking capital, were now removed, and as a consequent there arrived another disastrous period of pecuniary distress. This was so severe as to call for a meeting of the citizens, which took place at the court house in 1834, and the object of which was to memorialize the government upon the subject of their troubles. Of this meeting, T.

Gwathmey was President, D. Smith and E. Crow, Vice Presidents, and C. M.

Thruston and F. A. Kaye, Secretaries. In the words of the memorial, "all is gloom and despondence, all uncertainty and suspense, all apprehension and foreboding. Prices here have fallen beyond any former example. Flour has sunk from $4 to $3, or even $2 50 per barrel. Hemp, pork, and every other commodity has decreased in an equal degree. Real property has fallen in many instances 50 per cent. It is believed that there will not be employment during the ensuing season for one-fourth of the mechanics and working men of Louisville. Few contracts for building have been or are likely to be made. In the opinion of the memorialists, the first remedy for this state of things is the restoration of the deposites. They therefore pray that the deposites be restored, and such measures taken in relation to a National Bank as shall be most likely to afford relief to the country." This crisis does not seem to have produced very disastrous results here, but was probably more severe in antic.i.p.ation than in reality. It is even possible that, as political excitement ran very high, and as this removal of the deposites was very obnoxious to one of the political parties, that the evil was a foreboding induced by their own fears, and of such a character as actually to produce a temporary depression in business. And this opinion is supported by the fact that no material change seems to have taken place in the onward progress of the city. The policy and propriety of establishing water works had been for some time under discussion, and in this year the city went so far as to purchase a site for a reservoir on Main above Clay Street. This project was very soon abandoned, but whether from the pressure of the times or from the opposition of many of the citizens does not appear in any record of the period. The incorporation and survey of two turnpike companies, the Bardstown and Louisville, and Elizabethtown and Louisville, during the same year, would however seem to incline us to believe that it was not given up for the want of means. The state of affairs, even if as bad as represented in the memorial, does not seem to have thrown a very deep or settled gloom over the community; on the contrary an incident of the period would seem to show a light-heartedness and freedom from care not common in times of distress. This incident was the sudden appearance in the streets of the city of a very singular procession, since known as the _Comical Guards_. They were introduced as a burlesque of the militia drills, then of biennial occurrence here. The procession was headed by an enormous man, rivaling Daniel Lambert in his superabundance of flesh, mounted on an equally overgrown ox, on whose hide was painted the following descriptive motto, "_The Bull-works of our Country_." This heroic captain also wore a sword of mighty proportions, on whose trenchant blade was written in letters of scarlet the savage inscription, "_Blood or Guts_!" This leader was followed by a band of equally singular character; long men on short horses, little boys on enormous bony Rozinantes, picked up from off the commons; men enclosed in hogsheads, with only head, feet and arms visible; men encased even to helmet and visor in wicker-work armour, and a thousand other knights of fanciful costume, and all marching with heroic step to the martial clangor of tin pans, the braying of milkhorns, the shrill sound of whistles, the piping of cat-calls, and the ceaseless din of penny-trumpets and cornstalk fiddles. This procession halted in its progress through the streets in front of the residences of the officers of the militia, and after saluting them with a flourish of music, made them a speech, and cheered them with a chorus of groans. After marching bravely through the princ.i.p.al streets, this procession suddenly disappeared from public view never again to greet the sunlight.

Toward the last of June, the news of the death of Lafayette reached the city, and on the first of July a meeting was held, and resolutions pa.s.sed recommending the stores to be closed, and the day spent in exercises suitable to the occasion. A procession, in which the trades and professions were all represented, and which was the largest ever seen in the city, was formed, and after pa.s.sing through the princ.i.p.al streets, stopped in the lot occupied by Mr. Jacob, where a eulogy was delivered by Mr. M. R. Wigginton. All who had joined in the procession, wore c.r.a.pe on the left arm for thirty days. The whole proceedings of the day were highly creditable to the city, and highly worthy of the occasion. Another event of the year was the establishment of a new paper called the Louisville Notary and published weekly by D. C. Banks and A. E. Drapier. This paper however never rose to any eminence in the city.

During 1833 and 1834 two new amendments had been made to the charter. One of them authorizes some trifling change in the boundary of the city, and the other allows the borrowing of money to erect Water-Works, and compels the inspector of liquors to mark the degree of proof on the head of each barrel. The next year--1835--also shows similar amendments: first, requiring the valuation of property to be made on the 10th of January in each year; second, authorizing the city marshall to collect his bills for summoning juries; and third authorizing the city to subscribe for stock in the Lexington and Ohio Railroad Company. This road was this year opened to Frankfort. The building of the Galt House also dates from this period, as does the first movement toward lighting the city with gas.

It will be recollected that in 1830 the population was given at 10,336, in 1835 it had reached by actual census 19,967, giving an increase of nearly one hundred per cent, in less than five years! The Tax list for this year will also show a similar increase:

Real estate and Improvements valued at $10,425,446 Personal Property 644,250 Tythables, white and black, 4,960 at $150 7,440 34 1st rate stores at $80 2,720 42 2d " " 60 2,520 57 3d " " 40 2,880 62 4th " " 20 1,240 68 Hacks, 132 Drays, 53 Waggons, $4; 124 Carts $2 1,260 50 Coffee-Houses at $50 2,500 10 Taverns at $50 500 60 Groceries and Spirits at $50 3,000 96 Spirits alone at 40 3,840 20 Groceries alone, and 20 Confectioners at 15 720

A table of the imports of the city has been so recently given, that it may be more interesting to offer now a list of exports, for the six months succeeding January 1st, 1835, which is as follows:

Tobacco 1,337 hhds.

" 114 boxes.

Bacon 2,813,560 lbs.

Tallow 149 bbls.

Whisky 14,643 bbls.

Flour 19,999 "

Lard 60,713 kegs.

Hemp 38 tons.

Bagging 65,348 p's.

Bale Rope 42,030 cls.

Pork 14,419 bbl.

Linseed Oil 72 bbl.

To this list may be added the amount of goods sold during the next year--1836--by 47 of the largest wholesale dry good and grocery houses, which is officially stated at $12,128,666 16. There were also built during the summer of this latter year 110 stores and 114 dwelling houses, all of the better cla.s.s. Rents were steadily advancing on the stores, and "as for dwellings it would be impossible to rent one, finished or unfinished. And these improvements resulted from the natural advantages of the place, and not from the completion of any of the works, to which the city had always looked as the precursors of greatness." These statistics require no additional demonstration to prove the progress of the town. The first thing worthy of notice in this year was a ninth amendment to the charter, which abolishes the Mayor's Court and establishes a Police Court in lieu thereof. This court was to be a court of record; its judge to be appointed as other judges, and to receive a salary of $1200. The prosecuting attorney to be elected by the Council. The City Court, as far as it is a Police Court, should always be open, and for the trial of pleas of the Commonwealth, there were to be monthly terms of said court, to commence on the first Monday in each month. It might summon grand juries. This act also fixed the salary of the Mayor at $2,000, and compelled all insurance offices to file with the Mayor a certified copy of their charters; it also extended the city boundary 300 feet above Geiger's Ferry landing. Two more newspapers were in this year added to the growing list of the city. The first of these was the Louisville City Gazette, a daily, published by John J. & Jas. B. Marshall; and the second, the Western Messenger, a monthly, under the care of the Rev. J. F. Clark. This last was originally published in Cincinnati, but was this year transferred to Louisville.

As will be remembered a motion had been made several years before this time toward the erection of a bridge over the Ohio. This project had been discussed from time to time ever since that period, and finally in this year, the contracts were entered into and the corner stone of the bridge was laid with all due ceremony, at the foot of Twelfth Street. The work however never progressed beyond this, the contractor having failed to perform his duty, beside which the next year brought with it by far the most terrible calamity that had ever affected the city. The last few years had been years of such unexampled prosperity; confidence had become so thoroughly established, credit was so plenty, and luxury so courted, that, when the unexpected reverse came, the blow was indeed terrible. On the 19th of April, the Banks of Louisville and of Kentucky suspended specie payment, by a resolution of the citizens so authorizing them. Previous to this, the Banks all over the country had stopped; another awful commercial crisis had arrived, and one which Louisville felt far more severely than she had felt the former. Instead of pa.s.sing lightly over her, as before, the full force of the blow was felt throughout the whole community. House after house, which had easily rode out the former storm, now sunk beneath the waves of adversity, until it seemed as if none would be left to tell the sad story. A settled gloom hung over the whole mercantile community.

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

It was in the midst of this gloom and despondence which prevaded one part of the community, that the ears of another part were astonished and gladdened with a strain of melody, such as had not before stolen through the glades and groves of this western land. A young girl, modest and unpretending, unknown to all but her little circle, inspired by some unseen power, tremblingly warbled forth a few verses of melody, but of such enchanting power, beauty and harmony, that all the literary world were confounded, and all eagerly inquired who it was that under the simple signature of "AMELIA," and away off in the distant West had struck her lyre "with an angel's art, and with the power of the fabled Orpheus," and whose "strains had been caught up by melody-lovers throughout the Union, and sung in every peopled valley, and echoed from every sunny hillside of our vast domain."[14] Such genius could not long remain unknown; and soon the name of its possessor was proclaimed through the columns of the Louisville Journal, but the name gave no clue to the source whence this mighty power had been derived. For the many, the ten days wonder soon pa.s.sed away. The genius of the writer was acknowledged and forgotten by them. But the true lovers of her art followed her for many years with looks of admiration, regard and affection; and still, though her harp has long lain untouched, await with anxiety and hope for new strains from the lyre they have loved so well.[15]