CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library F 459L6 R18 History of Lexington Kentuckv : its ear olin 3 1924 028 845 993 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028845993 HISTORY LEXINGTON KENTUCKY |Tg ^ARLY ^NNALg AND f^ECENT f ROQREpg INCLUDING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE PIONEER SETTLERS, NOTICES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS, ETC., ETC. By GEORGE W. RANCK CINCINNATI Robert Clarke & Co 1872 I Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, By G. W. RANCK, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TO MY 'WIFE A DESCEKDANT OF EARLY SETTLERS OF LEXINGTON AND FAYETTE COUNTY, AND THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED THIS WORK AND WAS THE CAUSE OF ITS COMPLETION THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED PREFACE. 1^0 American city of its age has clustering around it more interesting associations than Lexington. Founded in the midst of a great revolution ; built up by daring men in the heart of an almost boundless wilderness, and nur- tured and protected through years of hardship and Indian warfare, she played the most prominent part in the early and tragic days of the Dark and Bloody Ground. Lexing- ton then was substantially Kentucky herself. She was more. / She was the Jamestown of the "West; the advance-guard/ of civilization ; the center from which went forth the con- j querors of a savage empire. During another long and eventful era, she was the polit- ical, literary, and commercial metropolis of "the great Northwest." She was crowded with men who made her famous. She has now entered upon the third epoch of her exist-' ence, an epoch material, during which steam will give her an industrial prosperity proportionate to her great natural advantages. Very much of the rich past of Lexington has died with her founders. Even the traditions of her pioneer days are dim, and the old landmarks are being rapidly obliterated. Realizing these sad truths, and appreciating Lexington's history, the author of this book resolved to save for those who will come after us all that could be gathered from this PREFACE. wreck of time. These pages are the result of his efforts. If he has preserved something which ought not to have heen lost, or if his work will encourage some abler hand to gather and perpetuate other annals of our city which he overlooked or slighted, he will have attained his object. The author has used every means to make his work ac- curate. If it is not entirely so, the fault is to be attributed to the peculiar disadvantages which always surround the local historian. In the preparation of these pages, he has consulted many of the oldest and best-informed inhabitants of Lexington and Fayette county, and also every other at- tainable authority considered reliable. For reasons obvious to every fair-minded persop, he has ignored the many ex- citing events which occurre4 in Lexington duri^ig the late war between the States. It i^ to be hoped that they will receive attention of a chronicler in the unprejudiced future. As propriety required as little extei^ded njention of the living as possible, the writer confined himself, in that re- spect, to sketches of a few aged citizens, and brief notices of ministers of the gospel and persons in some official connection. As it is the work of the local historian to furnish the first elements of general history, to record facts rather than deductions from facts, the author has contented himself with a plain statement of past events, to the neglect of or- namental rhetoric and romantic conclusions. Lexington, Ky., August, 1872. History of Lexington. CHAPTER I. Ancient Lexington, The city now known as Lexington, Kentucky, is built of the dust of a dead metropolis of a lost race, of whose name, and language, and history not a vestige is left. Even the bare fact (\f the existence of such a city, and such a people, on the site of the present Lexington, would never have been known but for the rapidly decaying remnants of ruins found by early pioneers and adventurers to the " Elkhorn lauds." But that these remains of a great city and a mighty people did exist, there can be not the shadow of a doubt. The somewhat notorious Ashe, who published a volume of travels in 1806, says : "Lexington stands on the site of an old Indian town, which must have been of great extent and magnificence, as is amply evinced by the wide range of its circumvallatory works and the quantit3'- of ground it once occupied." These works he declares were, at the time he saw them (1806), nearly leveled with the earth by the ravages of time and the improvements that had been made by the settlers. The testimony of the learned Prof. 0. 8. Rafinesque,* of Transylvania University, fully corresponds with this, and proves the former existence in and about the present Lexington of a powerful and somewhat enlight- ened ante-Indian nation. Other proofs are not wanting. * Western Review, 1820. HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. The first settlers of Lexington found here a well, regularly and artificially built with stone,* a domestic convenience unknown among the American Indians, and they plowed up curious earthen vessels,! such as could only have been manufactured by at least a semi-civilized people. In 1790, an old lead mine, which had every appearance of having been once worked and abandoned, was opened near this city.t Kentucky's first historian^ tells us of stone sepul- chres, at Lexington, built in pyramid shape, and still ten- anted by human skeletons, as late as two years after the siege of Bryant's Station. " They are built, " says he, " in a way totally different from that of the Indians." Early in this century, a large circular earthen mound, about six feet in height, occupied a part of what is now called Spring street, between Hill and Maxwell. It was located between the property of Dr. Bell and the rear outbuildings of Mr. P. Yeiser. In course of time it was leveled, and was found to consist of layers of earth of three different colors. In the center was discovered an earthen vessel of curious form and a quantity of half-burnt wood.§ The mound is supposed to have served the purpose of a sacrificial altar. A stone mound, which stood not far from Rassell's cave, in this county, was opened about 1815 and found to contain human bones.* These well-attested facts, together with the tradition re- lated to this day of an extensive cave existing under the city of Lexington, relieve of its improbable air the state- ment that a subterranean cemetery of the original inhab- itants of this place was discovered here nearly a century ago.f In 1776, three years before the first permanent white settlement was made at Lexington, some venturesome hunters, most probably from Boonesborough, had their curi- osity excited by the strange appearance of some stones they saw in the woods where our city now stands. They removed these stones, and came to others of peculiar workmanship, * Morse. t Ira'ayi page 369. J Old Kentucky Gazette, 1790. U John Filson. g Beuj. Keiser. * Prof. Eafinesque., t Letter to Eobt. Todd, published in 1809. ANCIENT LEXINGTON. 3 which, upon examination, they found had been placed there to conceal the entrance to an ancient catacomb, formed in the solid rock, fifteen feet below the surface of the earth. They discovered that a gradual descent from the opening » brought them to a passage, four feet wide and seven feet high, leading into a spacious apartment, in which were numerous niches, which they were amazed to find occupied by bodies which, from their perfect state of preservation, had evidently been embalmed. For six years succeeding this discovery, the region in which this catacomb was located, was visited by bands of raging Indiatra and aveng- ing whites ; and during this period of blood and passion, the catacomb was dispelled, and its ancient mummies, prob- ably the rarest remains of a forgotten era that man has ever seen, were well nigh swept out of existence. But not entirely. Some years after the red men and the settlers had ceased hostilities, the old sepulchre was again visited and inspected.* It was found to be three hundred feet long, one hundred feet wide, and eighteen feet high. The floor was covered with rubbish and fine dust, from which was extracted several sound fragments of human limbs. At this time the entrance to this underground cemetery of Ancient Lexington is totally unknown. For nearly three-quarters of a century, its silent chamber has not echoed to a human footfall. It is hidden from sight, as efiectually as was once buried Pompeii, and even the idea that it ever existed is laughed at by those who walk over it, as heedless of its near presence as were the generations of incredulous peasants who unconsciously danced above the long lost villa of Diomedes, That Lexington is built upon the site of an ancient walled city of vast extent and population, is not only evi- dent from the facts here detailed, but the opinion becomes almost a certainty when viewed in the light of the historic proofs that can be produced to support the claim, that all * Ashe. BISTORT OF LEXINGTON. the region round about her was at a distant period in the past the permanent seat of a comparatively enlightened people. As early as 1794,* it was well and widely known that in the neighborhood of Lexington there existed two distinctly defined fortifications furnished with ditches and bastions. One of these ancient monuments was visited in 1820 by Rafinesque, the celebrated professor of natural history in Transylvania University, a gentleman whose opinions on the subject of the ancient remains in the Mis- sissippi Valley are so often quoted by historians and so much respected. His map and plate of the remains near Lexington constitute one of the most valuable features of the " Smithsonian Contributions."t He saysj of the forti- fication already named: "I have visited, with a friend, the ancient monument or fortification situated about two and a half miles from Lexington, in an easterly direction, and above the head of Hickman creek; and we have ascertained that it is formed by an irregular circumvallation of earth, surrounded by an outside ditch. "The shape of this monument is an irregular polygon of seven equal sides. The whole circumference measures about sixteen hundred of my steps, which I calculate at nearly a yard, or three feet each ; or, altogether, four thou- sand eight hundred feet — less than a mile. The difi:erent sides measure as follows : west side, three hundred and sixty feet; southwest side, seven hundred and fifty feet; south side, seven hundred and fifty feet ; east-southeast side, six hundred and sixty feet ; east-northeast side, one thousand and eighty feet ; northeast side, six hundred feet ; north- west side, six hundred feet. Total, 4,800 feet. "The angles are rather blunt. Two of the angles have deep ravines ; one lies at the angle between the west and the southwest sides, and the other between the east-south- east and the east-northeast sides. This last is the largest and deepest — it reaches to the limestone, and had water in » Imlay's Weatern Territory, page 368. t Vol. I, page 27. X "Weatern Eeview, April, ANCIENT LEXINGTON. it. It forms a brook running easterly, and is formed by two rills meeting near tbe angle and nearly surrounding the central. Another ravine comes out near the north cor- ner. All these originate within the circumvallation, which incloses one of the highest grounds near Lexington, and particularly a large, level hill which is higher than any in the immediate neighborhood, and stretches, in part, toward the northwest. "The sides are straight. The earthen walls are raised upon a level or raised ground, and are nowhere lower than the outside ground, except for a few rods toward the north- east side. The situation is, therefore, very well calculated for defense, and it is very probable that there were for- merly springs within the walls. " The whole surface is covered with trees of a large growth, growing even on the walls and in the ditch ; ex- cepting, however, a small corner toward the northwest, which is now a corn-field. It may include from five to six hundred acres. "At present the heighth and breadth of the wall and ditch are variable — from eight to sixteen feet in breadth, and from two to four in depth, the average being twelve in breadth and three in depth ; but these dimensions must have been greater formerly. The wall was probably six- teen feet broad throughout, and four feet high, while the ditch was rather narrower, but deeper. The walls are made of the loose earth taken from the ditch. There is only one large distinct gateway, on the northeast side, where there is no ditch and hardly any wall." After this survey some little interest was excited in the subject, and other remains were visited and inspected. Several in the vicinity of the one described ; another, a square indosure, west of Lexington, "near the northern Frankfort road ; " many mounds and graves south of the city, and two groups lying on the south side of l^orth Elk- horn, about a mile from each other. Extraordinary as it may appear, these monuments, though so near our city, and as singular as any on this continent, were never sur- veyed till as late as 1820. Somo months after he had ex- HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. amined and described the fortification at the head of Hick- man creek, Prof. Eafinesque surveyed the upper group on E'orth Elkhorn, near Russell's cave, or what is now known as the West place. We quote his description of it, which will be read with more and more interest and wonder as time passes, and slowly but surely levels with the earth and blots out forever all that is left to remind us of a lost race, whose stupendous structures covered the fertile tract which afterward became the favorite hunting ground of savage tribes. He says :* "I visited this upper group of monuments, a fevr days ago, in company with two gentlemen of Lexington. They are situated about six miles from this town, in a north- northeast direction, on the west and back part of Colonel Russell's farm, which stands on the road leading from Lex- ington to Cyiithiana. "The ground on which they stand is a beautiful level spot, covered with young trees and short grass, or line turf, on the south side of a bend of North Elkhorn creek, nearly opposite the mouth of 0[iossum run, and close by Hamil- ton's farm and spring, which lie west of them. They ex- tend as far as Russell's cave, on the east side of the Cyn- thiana road. "No. 1, which stands nearly in the center, is a circular inclosure, six hundred feet in circumference, formed of four parts : 1. A broad circular parapet, now about twenty feet broad, and two feet high. 2. An inward ditch, now very shallow and nearly on a level with the outward ground. 3. A gateway, lying due north, raised above the ditch, about fifteen feet broad, and leading to the central area. 4. A square central area, raised nearly three feet above the ditch, perfectly square and level, each side seventy feet long and facing the four cardinal points. " No. 2 lies northeast of No. 1, at about two hundred and fifty feet distance; it is a regular, circular, convex mound, one hundred and seventy-five feet in circumference, and nearly four feet high, surrounded by a small outward ditch. •Western Review, 1820, page 53. ANCIENT LEXINGTON. " No. 3 lies nearly noifth of No. 1, and at about two hun- dred and fifty feet distance from No. 2. It is a singular and complicated monument, of an irregular square form, nearly conical, or narrower at the upper end, facing the creek. It consists: 1. Of a high and broad parapet, about one hundred feet long and more than five feet high, as yet, above the inward ditch on the south base, which is about seventy-five feet long. 2. Of an inside ditch. 3. Of an area of the same form with the outward parapet, but rather uneven. 4. Of an obsolete broad gateway at the upper west side. 5. Of an irregular raised platform, con- nected with the outward parapet, and extending toward the north to connect it with several mounds. 6. Of three small mounds, about fifty feet in circumference, and two feet high, standing irregularly around that platform, two on the west side and one on the east. " No. 4. These are two large sunken mounds, connected with No. 3. One of them stands at the upper end of the platform, and is sunk in an outward circular ditch, about tvyo hundred and fifty feet in circumference, and two feet deep. The mound, which is perfectly round and convex, is only two feet high, and appears sunk in the ditch. An- other similar mound stands in a corn-field, connected by a long raised way to the upper east end of the parapet in No. 3. "No. 5 is a monument of an oblong square form, con- sisting of the four usual parts of a parapet, an inward ditch, a central area, and a gateway. This last stands nearly opposite the gateway of No. 3, at about one hun- dred and twenty-five feet distance, and leads over the ditch to the central area. The whole outward circumference of the parapet is about four hundred and forty feet. The longest side fronts the southwest and northeast, and is one hundred and twenty feet long, while the shortest is one hundred feet long. The central area is level, and has exactly half the dimensions of the parapet, being sixty feet long and fifty wide. It is raised two or three feet as well as the parapet. The end opposite the gateway is not far from Hamilton's spring. 8 EJSTORY OF LEXINGTON. "l^To. 6 is a mound without a ditch, one hundred and ninety feet in circumference, and five feet high. It lies nearly west from ISo. 1. " 1^0. 7 is a stone mound, oii the east side of Russell's spring, and on the brim of the guUey. It lies east Irom the other monuments and more than half a mile distant. It is ten feet high and one hundred and seventy-five feet in circumference, being formed altogether by loose stones heaped together, but now covered with a thin soil of stone and grass. "No. 8 is a similar stone mound, but rather smaller, lying north of STo. 7, at the confluence of Russell's spring with North Elkhorn. "Among the principal peculiarities, which I have no- ticed in this .group of monuments, the square area of No. 1, inclosed within a circular ditch and parapet, is very in- teresting, since it exhibits' a new compound geometrical form of building. The ditch must have been much deeper once, and the parapet, with the area, much higher; since, during the many centuries which have elapsed over these monuments, the rains, dust, decayed plants, and trees must have gradually filled the ditch, etc. I was told by Mr. Martin that witiiin his recollection, or about twenty-five years ago, the ditch in the monument at the head of Hick- man's creek was at least one foot deeper. "Whenever we find central and separated areas in the Alleghawian monu- ments, we must suppose they were intended for the real places of worship and sacrifices, where only the priests and chiefs were admitted, while the crowd stood probably on the parapet to look on; and, in fact, these parapets are generally convex and sloping inward or toward the central area. " The ditched mound, No. 2, is remarkable, and must have had a peculiar destination, like the sunken mounds. No. 4, which difter from No. 2 merely by being much lower, and appearing, therefore, almost sunk in the ditch. " The stone mounds, Nos. 7 and 8, are also peculiar and evidently sepulchral. But why were the dead bodies cov- ered here with stone instead of earth? Perhaps these ANCIENT LEXINGTON. 9 mounds belonged to different tribes, or the conveniency of finding stones, in the rocky neighborhood of Russell's cave and spring, may have been an inducement for employ- ing them." Some of these mounds described by Rafinesque were visited in 1846, and found to be nearly obliterated ; others, however, near the dividing line between the old military survey of Dandridge and Meredith, were still distinct, and were described in 1847* as follows, viz : " The most east- erly work is on the estate of C. C. Moore. It is on the top oi a high bluff, on the west side of ]!!forth Elkhorn, in the midst of a very thick growth, mostly of sugar trees, the area within a deep and broad circular ditch is about a quar- ter of an acre of land. The ditch is still deep enough in some places to hide a man on horseback. The dirt taken from, the ditch is thrown outward ; and there is a gateway where the ditch was never dug, some ten feet wide on the north side of the circle. Trees several hundred years old are growing on the bank and in the bottom of the ditch and over the area which it incloses, and the whole region about it. There is another work a quarter of a mile west of the above one. It commences on the Meredith estate and runs over on the Cabells' Dale property, and contains about ten acres of land. The shape of the area is not unlike that of the moon when about two-thirds full. The dirt from the ditch inclosing this area is thrown sometimes out, sometimes in, and sometimes both ways. An ash tree was cut down in the summer of 1845, which stood upon the brink of this ditch, which, upon being examined, proved to be four hundred years old. The ditch is still perfectly dis- tinct throughout its whole extent, and in some places is so deep and steep as to be dangerous to pass with a carriage. A mound connected with this same chain of works was opened in the summer of 1871. It is situated about half a mile west of the earthwork already described as on top of the bluff", and about a quarter of a mile north of the larger oval one. It is on the farm of Mr. James Fisher, adjoining the * Collins. 10 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. plantation on which Dr. Eobert Peter at present resides, and is part of the old Meredith property before mentioned.* The mound has a diameter of about seventy feet, and rises with a regular swell in the center to the height of three and a half to four feet above the general level of the valley pas- ture on which it is located, only about fifteen feet above low water in the North Elkhorn creek, and about three hundred and twenty-five feet south from its margin. Mr. Fisher made an excavation into the center of this mound about four to five feet in diameter and about three and a half feet deep, in which, in a bed of wood-ashes containing charred fragments of small wood, he found a number of in- teresting copper, fiint, bone, and other relics of the ancient Mound Builders, which were carefully packed by Dr. Robert Peter (who resides on the adjoining Meredith farm), and transmitted to the Smithsonian Institute, at "Washing- ton, for preservation. The copper articles were five in number; three of which were irregularly oblong-square implements or ornaments, about four inches in length and two and one-eighth to three and three-quarter inches wide and one-quarter inch thick at lower end (varying somewhat in size, shape, and thickness) ; each with two curved horns attached to the corners of one end, which is wider and thinner than the other end. These were evidently made of native copper, by hammer- ing, are irregular in thickness and rude in workmanship, and have been greatly corroded in the Japseof time, so that they not only have upon them a thick coating of green car- bonate and red oxide of copper, but the carbonate had cemented these articles, with adjoining flint arrow-heads, pieces of charcoal, etc., into one cohering mass, in the bed of ashes, etc., in which they were found lying irregu- larly one upon the other. The other two copper implements were axes or hatchets ; one nearly six inches long, the other nearly four inches ; each somewhat adze-shaped wider at one end, which end had a sharp cutting edge. * Description by Dr. Peter. ANCIENT LEXINGTON. H With these were found nearly a peck of flint arrow-heads, all splintered and broken, as by the action of fire ; also, three hemispherieal polished pieces of red hematitic iron ore about two inches in diameter; some door-button shaped pieces of limestone, each perforated with two holes; several pieces of sandstone, which seemed to have been used for grinding and polishing purposes ; and many fragments of bones of animals, mostly parts of ribs, which appeared to have been ground or shaped ; among which was one, blackened by fire, which seemed to have been part of a handle of a dag- ger; also, some fragments of pottery, etc. The fragments of charcoal, lying near the copper articles, were saturated with carbonate of copper, resulting from the oxidation of the copper articles, parts of which were oxidized to the cen- ter, although a quarter of an inch in thickness ; and many pieces of this coal and portions of flint arrow-heads remain strongly cemented to the copper implements by this carbo- nate. To what uses these rude, oblong- square horned copper articles were put, except for ornament, can not be conjec- tured. No inscription or significant murk was found on any of them. 1^0 human bones could be distinguished among the fragments found, but only the immediate center of the mound was opened. The citizens of Lexington may, in truth, muse among the ancient ruins and awe-inspiring relics of a once mighty people. "Who and what were the beings who fought with these weapons, ate from these vessels, built these tombs and mounds and altars, and slept at last in this now concealed catacomb? Where existed that strange nation, whose grand chain of works seemed to have Lexington for its nucleus and center? We can only speculate! One* inclines to the opinion that they were contemporaries of the hardy Picts. Anotherf declares them identical with the Allegha- wians or progenitors of the Aztecs, and cites as proof, the remains of their temples, which are declared to be wonder- * Imlay, page 369. t Kafinesque. 12 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. tully similar to those of the tincient Mexicans described by Baron Humboldt. The earthen vessels here plowed up from the virgin soil, he says, were like those used by the Alleghawians for cooking purposes. Still another writer,* dwelling upon the mummies here discovered, sees in the original inhabitants of Lexington, a people descended from the Egyptians. Other authors, eminent and learned, almost without number, have discussed this subject, but their views are as conflicting as those already mentioned, and nothing is satisfactory, except the negative assurance that the real first settlers of Lexington, the State of Kentucky, and the entire Mississippi valley, were not the American Indians, as no Indian nation has ever built walled cities, defended by entrenchments, or buried their dead in sepul- chres hewn in the solid rock. "Who, then, were these mysterious beings? from whence did they conie? what were the forms of their religion and government? are questions that will probably never be solved by mortal man; but that they lived and flourished centuries before the Indian who can doubt? Jlere they erected their Cyclopean temples and cities, with no vision of the red men who would come after them, and chase the deer and the bufi'alo over their leveled and grass covered walls. Here they lived, and labored, and died, be- fore Columbus had planted the standard of old Spain upon the shores of a new world ; while Gaul, and Britain, and Germany were occupied by roving tribes of barbarians, and, it may be, long before imperial Rome had reached the height of her glory and splendor. But they had no litera- ture, and when they died they were utterly forgotten. They may have been a great people, but it is all the same to those who came if they were not, for their greatness was never recorded. Their history was never written not a letter of their language remains, and even their name is forgotten. They trusted in the mighty works of their hands, and now, indeed, are they a dead nation and a lost race. The ancient city which stood where Lexington now *Josiah Priest's " American Antiquities." ANCIENT LEJCINGTON. 13 stands, has vanished like a dream, and vanished forever. Another has well said: "Hector and Achilles, though mere barbarians, live because sung by Homer. Grermanicus lives as the historian himself said, because narrated by Tacitus; but these builders of mounds perish because no Homer arid no Tacitus has told of them. It is the spirit only, which, by the pen, can build immortal monuments." 14 BISTORY OF LEXINGTON. CHAPTER II. The Indian Ocetipation. It is a favorite theory of many that the Indians of N"orth America migrated from Asia; that the once noble race, which has almost melted away, was descended from the ten tribes of Israel* which were driven i'rom Palestine seven hun- dred years before the birth of Christ. But this is a theory only. The advent of the Indians and the stock from which they sprung will never be determined ; but that they came after the "Mound Builders" is evident. The appearance of the Indians was the death-knell of that doomed race whose rich and beautiful lands and spoil-gorged cities in- flamed the desperate and destitute invaders. The numer- ous tumuli which yet remain attest the fierceness of the conflict which ensued. A great people were swept out of existence, their cities disappeared, the_^ grass grew above them, and in time the cauebrakes and the forests. Out of all this vast extent of conquered territory, the In- dians selected a portion as a hunting-ground and called it " Kantuckee," because it had been in truth to them a "dark and bloody ground." It was a shadow-land to the Indians. In 1800, some Sacs who were in St. Louis said of Kentucky that it was full of the souls of a strange race which their people had long ago exterminated.! They regarded this laud with superstitious awe. Here they hunted and here they fought, but no tribe was ever known to settle permanently in it.J And while they hunted and roamed and paddled here their bark canoes, unknown cen- turies rolled away, Jamestown, the gerrp and herald of a * Eoger Williams, Dr. Boudinot. and others. tPriest's Antiquities t Hall's Sketches. THE INDIAN OCCUPATION. 15 mighty empire was building, and royal colonies of their future enemies waxed strong, while they sported and slept ; and even when their brethren " across the mountains " were falling like ripe grain before the reaper, while forests were disappearing, and villages, and towns, and churches, and mills, and colleges were raultipljnng, they built their camp-fires undisturbed where Lexington now stands — for even to Virginia, the vast area since called the Northwestern Territory was then an unexplored and unknown country. But the handwriting was upon the wall, and the same fate to which the Ked Men had consigned the Mound Builders was in waiting for them also. 16 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. CHAPTER III. Coming of the White Man. The genius of civilization pointed out to her chosen pioneer a savage land to be reclaimed; and on the ever memorable 7th of June, 1769 * Daniel Boone, the " Colum- bus of the land," stood upon a lofty cliff' which towered above a branch of the Kentucky river, and gazed enraptured upon the Italy of America, and feasted his eyes upon the beauty and fatness of a country celebrated now the wide world over in story and in song. The conqueror of the wilderness had come, a vast army was following at his back, and the future of the Dark and Bloody Ground was decided. In 1770,t the Long Hunters crossed the rocky barrier which shut out the old settlement from the wilderness, and pene- trated the fabled region, and in 1773 they were followed by a band of Virginia surveyors appointed by Lord Dunmore. J Parties of colonial soldiers from the Old Dominion came cut in search of homes. Cabins were erected and corn raised at Old Town, now Harrodsburg, in 1774,§ and the spring of the year following found Boone building on the Kentucky river the log fort and capital of the famous Transylvania Colony. " "With this year," (1775,) says Marshall, " begins the first permanent and real settlement of Kentucky," an event which'filled the Indians with rage. To them the white men were invaders and robbers. From their first appearance they had tracked them with torch and tomahawk and scalping knife, never doubting but that by bloodshed and cruelty they would be able to drive them from their hunting-ground ; and now when they saw them * Filson. t Annals of the West, 110. t Marshall. § Butler. COMING OF THE WHITE MAN. 17 deliberately preparing permanent settlements, their indig- nation and mortification knew no bounds. They resolved to utterly exterminate their persistent foes, to repossess every foot of soil so daringly appropriated — and from this time for many a long year after were enacted scenes of blood and horror, the recital of which is enough to sicken the stoutest soul. 2 18 EJSTORT OF LEXINGTON. [l''T6. CHAPTER IV. Discovery and Naming of Lexington. Until the year 1775, no white man is positively known to have visited the place now called Lexington, but in that year, says General Robert McAfee, in his history of the war of 1812, "Robert Patterson, Simon Kenton, Michael Stoner, John Hiiggin, John and Levi Todd, and many others took possession of the north side of the Kentucky river, includ- ing Lexington. " Fortunately the names of a few of those included in the indefinite phrase, "many others" are pre- served. They were John Maxwell, Hugh Shannon, James Masterson, William McConnell, Isaac Greer, and James Dunkin. * They were sent out from the fort at Harrods- burg. Clothed in their quaint pioneer style of buckskin pantaloons, deerskin leggins, linsey hunting-shirt, and peltry cup, and armed each with a trusty liint-lock rifle, a hatchet and scalping-knife, they toiled through the track- less woods and almost impenetrable cane-brakes in the direction of the future Lexington. On or about the 5th of June, the approach of night ended one of their solitary and dangerous marches; and glad to rest, the tired hunters camped on a spot afterward known successively as McOon- nell's Station, Royal's Spring, and the Headly distillery prop- erty. It is only a few steps from the present " Old Frank- fort road," and is nearly opposite the beautiful Lexington Cemetery.f The spring from which the pioneers drank and watered their horses still exists, with a stream as cool, clear, and grateful as then. After posting one of their number on the "look out" for the "redskin varmints," who were ever on the alert to slay the "pale-face," the^ rest seated themselves around a blazing brush-heap on logs *Bradford'a Notes. tBradford's Notes, and Observer and Beporter of July 29, 1809. 1775.] DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF LEXINGTON. 19 and bufl'alo hides, and, with hunger for sauce, supped with gusto upon the then inevitable "jerk" and parched corn. While eating their simple meal, they talked with enthu- siasm of the beautiful country they had just traveled over, and surprised and delighted with the prospect about them, they determined that their place of settlement should be ■ around the very spot where they were then encamped. And no wonder they were delighted with their new-found home, for of all the broad rich acres they had seen in all "Kan-tuck-ee, " these were the fattest and most fertile. Never before had their eyes feasted on such an untold wealth of blue grass pasture. The deer, the elk, the bear, and buffalo crowded the woods with juicy food. They forgot the skulking savage and the dangers on every hand, and glowed with the excitement which only a hunter can feel, as they surveyed the virgin glories of the red man's most cherished hunting-grounds, and realized the full truth of the wondrous tales they had heard of a distant El Dorado. The hunters assisted William McConnell to build a rude little cabin on their camping-ground as the foundation for a title, for Virginia as early as the year 1774, had offered four hundred acres of land to each person who cleared a piece of land, built a cabin, and raised a crop of Indian corn.* The name of the settlement that was to be, was discussed with animation. One suggested " York, " another " Lancaster, " but both were dropped with a shout for " Lex- ino-ton!"t as the conversation tm-ned to the strange news that had slowly crept through the wilderness, and which, after being weeks on the way, they had just heard, of how "King George's troops, on the 19th of April, had called American 'rebels,' and shot them down like dogs at Lex- ington, in Massachusetts colony." The story of Lexing- ton's christening — the historic fact of how she got her name, is as romantic as the legend of the beautiful Princess Pocahontas, and is an incident far more interesting, because more true than the fabulous one told of the founding of ancient Rome. sjnilfv. tBradford's Notes. 20 EISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [1775. So the hunters called the new settlement Lexington, in memory of that bloody field hundreds of miles away, and some of them soon after joined the Continental army, and fought long and bravely to avenge the minute men who fell that day. How strange the story of that pioneer camp ! Here almost a hundred years ago, when Kentucky was a wilderness territory of the royal province of Virginia; here, far away from civilized life, in the heart of an un- broken forest, at the dead of night, a little band of adven- turers erected the first monument ever raised on this conti- nent in honor of the first dead of the revolution ! It is true, the ceremonies of its dedication were not attended with glittering pomp or show, for the officials were only clad in buckskin and honest home-spun, and the music of their choir naught but the scream of the panther, the howl of the wolf, or the far-off yell of the savage ! But it was con- secrated by the strictest virtue and truest patriotism, and nature smiled benignantly upon it from an Eden of luxu- riant beauty. Those pioneers have long since passed away, and some of their graves are still to be seen not far from the spot where they encamped on that memorable occasion. 1776.] LEXINGTON AN INDIAN CAMPING GROUND. 21 CHAPTER V. Lexington an Indian Camping Ground. The frail and hastily-built little hut of McOonnell gave Lexington her name, and that was all, for no settlement was eflected until four years after its erection. The sum- mer of 1776 found no white man in all the length and breadth of the present Fayette county. McConneli's^ cabin was deserted and falling to pieces, and the would-be settlers of Lexington had all retired to the much needed protection of the lew log forts then in ^^istence-. The American Revolution had now fairly ope|!ed.^Ticonderoga had been captured, the battle of Bunke*.'s Hill had been fought, and one of the saddest trageSres of that eventful struggle had been enacted upon the Plains of Abraham. The Indians, consistent with the policy they ever pursued of leaguing with the strongest, had early enlisted on the side of England, and the northwestern tribes in particular were not slow to act. They came to Kentucky with the buds of spring, and summer had not commenced before all Fayette county and the adjoining region were filled with roaming bands of angry Shawanese, Cherokees and their associates.* All ideas of attempting to make new settle- ments were abandoned by the whites, personal safety was the one thing thought of, and fear and anxiety prevailed, for the savages clearly indicated that they had not aban- doned their cherished desire of driving their enemies from the country. Settlers were killed every few days ; on the 14th of July two of Colonel Calloway's daughters and one of Daniel Boone's were captured within rifle shot of Boones- borough, and about the same time Hinkston's settlement on » Western Annals, 154. 22 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. 1^^^'^^^ Licking creek was brolsen up. Dark days had come and still darker were ahead, and many even of the stoutest-hearted settlers left the country entirely.* The wilderness country heretofore a part of Fincastle county, Virginia, was formed into " Kentucky county," on December 7, 1776,t but the protection of the " Old Do- minion," whose forces were needed to lead the van of the continential army was barely felt in the newly-creaeted department. The handful of brave pioneers struggled with their savage foes alone and unaided, and to their suf- ferings were adde'd the horrors of the winter of starvation, which marked the opening of the year 1777. The succeed- ing spring and summer gave them as little encouragement. To attempt to raise corn was certain death, game was shot at the peril of the hunter's life. Harrodsburg, Booues- borough, and Logan's fort were constantly watched, and each in succession attacked by the Indians ; and at this time the whole military force of the newly-made Kentucky county amounted to only one hundred and two men.J Fortunately Colonel Bowman arrived from Virginia early in he fall with a hundred men, and hope rose again in the hearts of the almost despairing settlers. The prospect con- tinued to brighten during the year 1778. The well-planned and swiftly-executed movenients of that brilliant soldier and remarkable man. Colonel George Rogers Clark, against the British posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, met with wonderful success ; the grand attack of an overwhelming force of Indians and Canadians, under Du Quesne, upon the heroic little garrison of Boonesborough, signally failed, confidence was restored, immigration again commenced, and the settlers once more ventured out to "possess the land." *Col. Floyd's Letter. tMorehead's Address. j:Butler and Marshall. 17V9.] SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON. 23 CHAPTER VI. Settlement of Lexington — The Block-House — The Settlers — Col. Robert Patterson — John Maxwell — James Masterson — The McConnells and Lindsays — John Morrison — Lexing- ton Fort — McConneU's Station — Bryant's Station — Its Set- tlers — Grant's Station — Col. John Grant and Capt. Wil- liam Ellis — Natural Features about Lexington Station — Soil, Forests, Game, and Flowers. In the latter part of March, 1779, Col. Robert Patterson, since distinguished as the founder of two cities, was again ordered from the fort at Harrodsbiirg, to establish a garri- son north of the Kentucky river,* and this time he was successful. At the head of twenty-five men he commenced his march for the beautiful and fertile gardeu spot he had visited four years before, and which he had never forgotten. The party reuched its destination the last day of the month, and encamped, for rest and refreshment, at a magnificent spring, whose grateful waters, in an unusual volume, emptied into a stream near by, whose green banks were gemmed with the brightest fiowers. The discovery of this spring determined the location of the little garrison, and bright and early on the morning of the next day, the 1st of April,t the axes of the stout pioneers were at work; trees were felled, a space cleared, and a block-house, sur- rounded by a stockade, and commanding the spring, was soon under headway. This rude but powerful defense was quickly completed, as no unnecessary labor was spent upon it. The logs for the walls were chopped out, provided with ports, and " raised;" the long and wide clapboards, rough * McAfee. t Butler and Marshall. 24 BISTORT OF LEXINGTON. [1770. from the ax and firmly secured by wooden pins, formed the roof; trees split in two, and cut to the proper length, made the floor; a substantial slab door was provided, and these, together with openings to admit the light and carry oft" the smoke, constituted the block-house. The ground upon which this block-house was erected, and which is now so rich in historic associations, is at present occupied by the "Carty Building," on the corner of Main and Mill streets, and upon no other spot has the pro- gress of Lexington been more distinctly indicated. The infancy of our city was here shown, in 1779, by the rude block-house; this was succeeded, in 1788, by a frame one; in 1807, what was then called " a splendid two-story brick," was erected, and in 1871, this gave place to the four-story iron front which now marks the spot where the settlement of Lexington commenced, and is, at the same time, an ap- propriate monument to commemorate the beautiful char- acter of one of her greatly beloved and respected citizens — the lamented John Carty. The spring near the block- house was the principal one of the series of springs now concealed by a number of buildings on Main street, which have been erected over them. When Lexington grew to be a "station," the spring was embraced within the walls of the stockade, and supplied the entire garrison with water, and when the fort was removed, the spring was deepened and walled up for the benefit of the whole town,* a large tank for horses was made to receive its surplus water, and for many years, under the familiar name, " the public spring," it was known far and wide. As soon as the block-house was completed, it was occu- pied by Col. Eobert Patterson, John Maxwell, James Mas- terson, William and Alexander McConnell, and James and Joseph Lindsay, who proceeded to raise a crop of corn on the ground now covered by Cheapside, the court-house, and a part of Main street, and all other necessary prepara- tions were made to insure a permanent settlement, f The year 1779, thanks to the pioneer successes we have meu- * City Kecords. t Butler, Marshall, and old documents. 1779.] SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON. 25 tioned, was one of comparative peace. Immigrants came to Kentucky in increasing numbers, eager to be in time to get the benefit of the " settlement right," under which Vir- ginia guaranteed them a magnificent estate, which "right" was to cease in 1780.* A few of the bolder of these new comers ventured, during the summer, to the solitary block- house at Lexington, " the forlorn hope of advancing civil- ization," and built cabins adjoining its protecting walls. In the autumn, a little company, of which John Morrison and his wife were a part, removed from Harrodsburg, and still further additions were made to the defenses of the set- tlement. The fort, which had by this time become a place of some importance, had assumed the shape of a parallelo- gram, two sides of which were formed by the exposed walls of two rows of cabins, the extreme ends of the fort being defended by stockades of sharpened posts fixed se- curel_;: in the ground, and furnished with ports. The pickets and walls were about ten feet high. Another row of cabins stood in the center of the in- closed place, which was large enough to shelter, not only the settlers and new comers, but also all the live stock which might, at any time, have to be driven in trom the reach of their destroying foe. The fort had but one gate, a large slab one, and it was on the side of the station which extended from the block-house, on Carty's corner, to about the center of West Main street, near or on the site of the building now occupied by Celia Allen, between Mill and Broadway, where James Masterson's house once stood. t The station embraced and inclosed a part of Main street between the two streets just named, and a good por- tion of the ground now covered by business houses on East Main, included between the same streets. While this little outpost was being established on the extreme frontier of Virginia, a large part of her territory, nearer home, was being devastated by an enemy but little less savage than those who were the terror of her distant county of Ken- tucky, and great events, brilliant, disastrous, and moment- * Filson 1784. t Butler and old inhabitants. 26 BISTORT OF LEXINGTON. [I'?f9. ous, were rapidly occurring and shaping the destiny of a nation, of whose future greatness no mind was so daring as to dream, Lexington was founded in the midst of a mighty revo- lution, and her founder was a man suited to the time and born for the purpose. Col. Robert Patterson was of Irish parentage, and was born March 15, 1753, near Cove Moun- tain, Pennsylvania. He came to Kentucky in 1775, and settled at Harrodsburg,and in that year, as we have already related, he visited Fayette county. In 1776, he assisted in building a fort at Georgetown. During the years which intervened between this time and the settlement of Lexing- ton, he figured conspicuously as a gallant Indian lighter. As Captain Patterson, he served under Clark in his expe- dition against the Shawanese, on the Little Miami. He was promoted to a colonelcy for important services, and was second in command in the terrible battle of Blue Licks. He was badly wounded in 1786, while with General Logan, in his expedition against the Shawanese towns. Subse- quently, he became the owner of a third of the original town plot of Cincinnati, and may be called the founder of that city also. In 1783, Col. Patterson built him a log house, on the southwest corner of Hill and Lower streets, near or on the site of the present residence of S. T. Hayes. The large tract of land owned by Col. Patterson in that part of the city, included the present property of M. C. Johnson. The log house was, in course of time, succeeded by a substantial two-story stone one, which stood there for many years. In 1804, Col. Patterson removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he died, August 5, 1827. In person, Col. Pat- terson was tall and handsome. He was gifted with a fine mind, but like Boone, Kenton, and many others of ^is simple-hearted pioneer companions, was indulgent and neg- ligent in business matters, and, like them, lost most of his extensive landed property by shrewd rascals. Those who aided Col. Patterson in founding Lexington are not to be forgotten ; and of these, none are more wor- thy of mention than John Maxwell. He was born in Scot- land, in 1747, and was brought to America by his parents HTg.] SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON. £7 while in the fourth year of his age. He was one of the early adventurers in the wilds of Kentucky, arriving before a solitary station or even a cabin existed within its limits. In pioneer days, he owned a large part of the land now in- cluded in the city limits of Lexington, but, true to the old hunter nature, it rapidly slipped from his grasp. He and Sarah, his wife, were the first persons married within " the fort." John Maxwell was the first coroner of Fayette county ; was one of the original members of Dr. Rankin's Presbyterian church; was one of the founders of the old St. Andrew's Society, and from him "Maxwell's spring" gets its name. This useful and greatly respected citizen died in 1819, and was buried in what was then "Maxwell's Graveyard," but which now forms part of the neijlected old City Cemetery, on Bolivar street, in which stands the "Mission Church." James Masterson, after whom "Masterson's station," five miles west of this city was named, was a genuine specimen of the pioneer type. He was straight as an Indian, and de- voted to the woods and the excitements ot a woodman's life. Long alter Lexington had become an important town, he continued to dress in the primitive hunter style, and in- variably wore his powder-horn and carried his rifle. He loved to tell of the dangers which threatened " the fort" when he was married in it, and the number of deer and bufl'alo he had killed between it and the present " Ash- land."* His walking ability and powers of endurance may be inferred, from the fact that he undertook to go to a point considerably below the falls of the Ohio and return, in " a day or so," with a big bag of salt. He returned in the time specified with the bag of salt on his back. It was the first used in the fort,t and was welcomed with a shout. He lived to a green oM age. The McCounells and Lindsays were among the first ad- venturers who followed Boone out into "the wilderness." They assisted Col. Patterson in several dangerous enter- prises, and shared in the perils of the Blue Licks disaster. * McCullough, S. D. t McCabe. 28 HISTORY OF LEXIN0TON. jlltQ William McConnell established "McConnell's station," at " Royal's spring," in 1783, but it was soon merged in Lex- ington station. McConnell's station stood on the ground lately occupied by Headiey's distillery,* on the old Frank- fort road, and the fine spring there (" Koyal's ") was, at an early day, the favorite resort of the people of Lexington on public occasions. Alexander, the brother of William McConnell, was the hero of the thrilling adventure nar- rated in another chapter, in which he proved himself, un- aided, a match for five Indians. The McConnells and Lindsays were buried in the " Station Graveyard," opposite the present Lexington Cemetery. ^he _wife of Major Mo r^ rison, already^ mentioned wasjhe first white female 'tha t set- «iied in,"Jhe. fort," aiid'her smi,^apt. Johu__Morri.soft,-«ljo fell at D udiey's defeat^ in 1S13, was the first native of Lex-_^ ine-ton.f One of the results of the increased immigration to Ken- tucky, in the fall of 1779, was a settlement, made at a point about five miles northeast of the Lexington "fort," and known as " Bryant's station."! The immigrants were principally from ISorth Carolina, the most conspicuous of whom were the family of Bryants, from whom the place took its name. There were four brothers, viz.: Morgan, James, William, and Joseph, all respectable men, in easy circumstances, with large families of children, and mostly grown. William, though not the eldest brother, was the most active, and considered their leader. His wife was a sister of Col. Daniel Boone, as was also the wife of Mr. William Grant, who likewise settled in Bryant's station, in 1779. The death of William Bryant, who died of a wound received near the mouth of Cane run, so discouraged his friends that they returned to North Carolina, and the greater part of the population from that State left the fort about the same time, which would have so reduced the strength, as to compel the remainder also to remove, if the ' fort bad not acquired new strength, in a number of families from Virginia. Hobert Johnson (the father of the Hon. *'S. McCallie. tMcCabe, page 6. ^Bradford's Notes. 1779.] SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON. 29 Richard M. Johnson), the Craigs, Stackers, Hendersons, and Mitchells were among the number who removed to Bry- ant's station, and kept up the strength of the place at what it had been, if not greater than at any former period. A bufialo " trace " fortunately ran from this station close to Lexington, and the settlers of both places joined forces in clearing it of logs, undergrowth, and other obstructions ; a wise measure, as subsequent events proved, for, owing to it, the troops from Lexington that went to the assistance of the besieged station, in 1782, were enabled to reach it much sooner than they could otherwise have done. One day, late in September, 1779, a little caravan of armed and watchful hunters, leading their loaded and tired pack-horses, stopped for a night's rest at Lexington fort. They were all up and moving bright and early the next morning, and before the week closed had established Grant's station, in what is now called the Hufiman, Ingels, and Hardesty neighborhood, five miles from Bryant's, in the direction of the present town of Pe^ris. The settlement was made under the direction and leadership of Col. John Grant, of North Carolina, and Capt. William Ellis, a native of Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and grandfather of Mrs. John Carty, of Lexington. The station was, subse- quently, greatly harassed by the Indians; in 1780, they made pioneer life such a burden to the settlers, that they returned to Virginia. Capt. Ellis entered the Continental army, and commanded a company until the close of the Eevolutionary war, when he and Col. Grant came again to Kentucky, and Col. Grant settled permanently at the old station. Capt. Ellis, Timothy and James Parrish, and a number of other Virginians, settled a fertile tract of country on the head waters of Boone's creek, in Fay- ette county, near their old neighbor from Spottsylvania, the Rev, Lewis Craig, the most prominent of the early Baptist preachers in Kentucky. In 1786, Capt. Ellis mar- ried Elizabeth Shipp. Subsequently, he was with St. Clair in the terrible " defeat," of November 4; 1791. After arriv- ing at an advanced age, the old pioneer died, and was buried in the county he had helped to settle. lie was a man of great 30 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [1779. energy, liberality, and hospitality. The strength of his mind and the integrity of his character gained for him the respect and esteem of all who knew him. With the building of "the fort," at Lexington, came also the cutting of the caue, the girdling of the trees, and the opening of the land for cultivation ; and civilization had never before demanded the sacrifice of the primeval glories and wild beauties of such a region as that of which Lexington was the center. Eoone styled Kentucky " a second paradise," and if its general characteristics merited such a eulogy, what must have been the virgin charms of the country around Lexington, which is conceded by all to be the finest in the State. John Filson, the biographer of Boone, and who was himself one of the early settlers and residents of Lexington, refers to it as the most luxuriant portion of " the most extraordinary country on which the sun has ever shone." The black and deep vegetable mold, which had been accumulating for untold centuries, made it " a hot-bed of fertility," and an early traveler says of it,* "in the spring no leaves are found under the trees, for the ground is so rich and damp that they rot and disappear during the winter," It was in such a soil as this that the founders of our city raised their first crop of corn, the only grain cultivated at that time. The surrounding for- ests abounded in game, and it was an unusual thing for the fort not to be well stocked with the meat of the deer, buf- falo, bear, elk, and minor animals. The thick canebrakes, though the chosen retreat of the panther and the wildcat, were thronged with birds prized by the hunters. Provender for the horses and cattle was not wanting. They waded, up to their knees, in native clover; they reveled in waving oceans of wild rye and bujffalo grass, and grew fat upon the young shoots of the nourishing cane. The earth glowed with the beauty of numberless natural flowers, many of which are now rarely, if ever, seen here. Lilies, daisies, pinks, wild tuhps, and columbines delighted the eye; beds of sweet violets and fragrant wild hyacinths perfumed 'American Museum. 1770.] SETTLEMENT OF LEXINGTON. 31 the air, and the brilliant cardinal flower and the admired crown imperial grew spontaneously here, in greater beauty than in any other part of the world.* A scene of wild and picturesque loveliness, such as is rarely accorded to men, must have greeted the eyes of the settlers of Lexington ; and it had not lost all of its natural charms, even as late as 1794, when visited by Captain Imlay, an oiBcer of the Revolutionary army, if his florid language is an indication. He says, "Lexington is nearly central of the finest and most luxuriant country, perhaps, on earth. Here, an eter- nal verdure reigns, and the brilliant sun, piercing through the azure heavens, produces in this prolific soil an early maturity, which is truly astonishing. Flowers, full and perfect as if they had been cultivated by the hand of a florist, with all their captivating odors, and with all the variegated charms which color and nature can produce, here, in the lap of elegance and beauty, decorate the smil- ing groves. Soft zephyrs gently breathe on sweets, and the inhaled air gives a voluptuous glow of health and vigor, that seems to ravish the intoxicated senses. The sweet songsters of the forest appear to feel the influence of the genial clime, and in more soft and modulated tones, warble their tender notes, in unison with love and nature. Everything here gives delight, and in that wild eff"ulgency which beams around us, we feel a glow of gratitude for the elevation which our all-bountiful Creator has bestowed upon us." Fortunately for the settlers at Lexington, the winter suc- ceeding their arrival was a peaceful one,t and they took advantage of it. They strengthened the fort and increased its comforts, with the wise design of attracting settlers, and their eflcorts were rewarded. «Im]ay. tColHns, page 388. -^e^^^^^0^^ 32 BISTORT OF LEXINGTON. [I'^SO- CHAPTER VII. The Indians— John and Levi Todd— Life in the Fort— Inci- dents and Tragedies— A Terrible Winter— Fayette County Formed— Early Cemeteries-First Schools— Transylvania University— Its Origin— Incidents— George Nicholas— Pres- idents Moore, Blythe, Holley, Woods, Peers, Coit, Davidson, Bascom, Green — Professors of the Academical, Medical, and Law Colleges — Fires, Buildings, Donations, Sectarian Contention — James Morrison, Peter, Hunt, and others — Normal School — Decline of the University — Consolidation — Kentucky Unioersity — Origin — Removal to Lexington — Eegent Bowman — Organization of Various Colleges — Presi- dents, Professors, and Officers, Milligan, Johnson, Harrison, Gratz, Beck, and others. The spring which succeeded the peaceful winter of 1780 as usual brought with it the Indians, small parties of whom almost constantly watched the traces leading to Lexington station, and the settlers were frequently fired upon. At this time game, and particularly the buffalo, was the chief dependence of the garrison for food, bread being a rare luxury until corn was fit to make meal of; and in order to get the much-needed game, and at the same time escape the Indians, the hunters found it necessary to start early enough to get out in the woods three or four miles before day, and on their return, to travel a like distance after night.* Colonel John and Levi Todd came to Lexington this year, where they had located large tracts of land some time before. Colonel Todd was at this time- military governor *Bradford's Notes. 1T80.] LIFE IN THE FORT. 33 of Illinois, and although he settled his newly married wife in the fort here, he was soon compelled to leave her, to at- tended to the affairs of that new county of Virginia. He managed, however, to pass a good part of his time at Lex- ington, and in 1781, made it his permanent home, and was one of its most prominent and highly esteemed citizens. He commanded the Lexington militia in the battle of the Blue Licks, 1782, and died gallantly fighting at their head, leaving his wife and one child (a daughter), who afterward became the wife of Robert "Wicklifl'e, Sen.* Levi Todd came from Virginia to Harrodsburg, in 1775, and some years after attempted to settle a station in Fay- ette county, but being compelled by the Indians to aban- don it, he came to Lexington. He was the first county clerk of Fayette; represented her in conventions and in the legislature, and was long one of her most useful and respected citizens. f Life in the fort in 1780 was more picturesque than easy and delightful. The men "by turns" stood guard, and kept up a sharp lookout for the enemy ; while those off guard risked their lives in hunting to supply the garrison with food, cleared the land, planted, plowed, brought in the cows, and did mending, patching, and all manuer of work. The women milked the cows, cooked the mess, pre- pared the flax, spun, wove, and made the garment of linen or linsey, and when corn could be had, ground it into meal at the hand-mill, or pounded it into hominy in the mortar. Wild game was the prinCtpal food, and that was eaten most of the time without salt, which was seldom made at the "licks" without loss of life. Sugar was made from the maple trees, coffee was unknown, but fine milk sup- plied its place as long as the Indians spared the cows. Wooden vessels,! either turned or coopered, were in com- mon use as table furniture. A tin cup was an article of delicate luxury, almost as j-are as an iron fork. Every hunter carried his knife; it was no less the implement of a warrior. Not unfrequently the rest of the family was left »Collins, 536. fCollins, page 274. JMarshall. 34 BISTORT OF LEXINGTON. [1T80. with but one or two for the use of all. The cradle was a small rolling trough, A like workmanship composed the table and the stool— a slab hewn with the ax, and sticks of a similar manufacture set in for legs supported both. Buffalo aod bear-skins were frequently consigned to the floor for beds and covering. When the bed was by chance or refinement elevated above the floor and given a fixed place, it was often laid on slabs placed across poles, sup- ported on forks set in the earthen floor; or, where the floor was puncheons, the bedstead was hewn pieces pinned on upright posts, or let into them by auger holes. Other utensils and furniture were of a corresponding description, applicable to the time. The now famous Kentucky hunting- shirt was universally worn by the settlers. It was made either of linsey or dressed deerskin, and provided with a pocket in the bosom for tow used in cleaning the rifle. Every hunter carried a tomahawk and scalping-knife, wore deer-skin breeches, moccasins of the same material, and generally a bear-skin hat. The little money in circulation was depreciated Continental paper. The spring of 1780 marked the beginning of an era in the history of Lexington, so rich in deeds of daring, and so fraught with thrilling adventures, experiences of intense suff'ering, and incidents of danger and of blood as to rival in romantic interest the days of Wallace, or the times of the hunted Huguenots. Could a record of all the forgotten events of this eventful period be gathered and combined with those that are preserved, Lexington, and the region round about it, would in time become as favorite a theme for the poet and the novelist as are now some of the story- lands of the old world. As the spring advanced, the number of the Indians in- creased, and several parties of hunters pursued by them were compelled to take refuge in the fort. One of the set- tlers named Wymore, having ventured out alone, was killed and scalped by the Indians near where the Masonic Hall, on Walnut street, now stands, and another barely escaped a like fate near the present residence of Mr. F. K. Hunt, 1780.] INCIDENTS AND TRAGEDIES. 35 where he had been waylaid by an Indian, who was quietly awaiting his chance to slay him. He discovered his foe barely in time to save his life; shot him just as he was preparing to throw his tomahawk, and carried his reeking scalp in triumph to the station.* One of the saddest trag- edies of the year took place about the first of May. A very young man, brave as he was handsome, and greatly beloved by the settlers, was mortally wounded by a band of the savages, who fired upon him while he was driving up the cows, and pursued him nearly to the fort. He staggered up to the gate, which a pitying and courageous woman who loved him unbarred with her own hands, and covered with blood, he died a few minutes after, clasped in her last fond embrace.f Closely following this was the attack on Strode's station, near the present town of Winchester, by a large body of Indians,! and the news of this event in- creased the gloom at Lexington, caused by anxiety and an- ticipations of evil. These forebodings were not without foundation, and were only providentially kept from being realized. Suddenly, in June, the settlers discovered the woods about the station swarming with Indians, who de- stroyed their corn, drove oft" all the horses that were not hurriedly sheltered within the walls of the fort, and then without doing further damage, (disappeared as quickly as they had come. The astonishment of the alarmed garri- son at this unaccountable proceeding was increased ten-fold on hearing faint but unmistakable reports of distant artil- lery, the first sounds of that kind which had ever awak- ened the echoes of the dark and bloody ground. Anxious but determined, the little force remained closely within the stockades, with ready rifles, watching and wondering day and night until all was explained, and the dark cloud lifted by the arrival, foot sore and hungry, of the brave Captain John Hinkston, who had just escaped from the retreating Indians, who constituted a large part of the formidable force under Colonel Byrd, during this, his celebrated inva- sion of Kentucky. Captain Hinkston gave the settlers the *01d Journal. tTradition. tOollins, 234. 36 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. Ll'^O. first news of the capture of Buddell's and Martin's sta- tions * both of which were distant only a few hours march from Lexington. The discouraged inmates of Grant's sta- tion, which was between Bryant's and the present town of Paris, dreading a like fate, abandoned it and sought refuge in the more secure fort at Lexington, where some of them remained during the winter. But the immediate danger was now over. Colonel Byrd, either from disgust and in- dignation at the barbarous conduct of his savage allies, or through fear of the sudden falling of the waters of the Licking, hastily retreated without an attempt at the capture of Lexington and Bryant's stations, though strongly urged by the elated Indians to move against them.f The effect of this invasion was the rapid formation of another expe- dition of retaliation -by the Indian's dreaded foe, Colonel Gr. Rogers Clarke, who again swooped down upon them like an eagle. Lexington was largely represented in this campaign, which was made against the Indians of Ohio. It was secret, short, and so decisive, that no large bodies of the enemy invaded Kentucky during the whole of the next year. The hardships and sufferings of the Puritans, in the two first years of the Plymouth settlement, were not greater than those of the founders of Lexington for a like period in her infancy. To the wearing anxieties, constant alarms, and bloody afflictions, endured by the inmates of the fort, must be added the privations of the terrible winter which fol- lowed Byrd's invasion.J It was a season not only of intense sufferings, but of protracted suffering. The pioneers had never known a winter in Kentucky to set in so early, and to continue so long. Snow and ice were on the ground without a thaw from November to the succeeding March. The small streams were solid ice. Snow fell repeatedly, but as it did not melt it became almost impassible for man or beast, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the hunters were able to find such of the wild animals as had not been starved or frozen to death. § As the corn had been »Collins, 343. fW. 342. {Boones Nar. ^Marshall, l'?80.] FAVETTE COVNTY FORMED. 37 destroyed in the summer, bread was rarely seen in the fort, and when it was, a single johnnie-cake was divided into a dozen parts, distributed and made to serve for two meals* The use of bread ceased entirely, long before the winter was over. On one occasion when Colonel Todd returned to the fort almost famished, the provisions were so nearly exhausted that his wife could offer him nothing but a gill of milk and a little piece of hard bread two inches square, and this was turned over in silence to his starving servant.f The cattle, after starving to death for want of fodder, were devoured by the inmates of the station, and from the time the cattle died until spring the settlers subsisted upon venison carefully dis- tributed, and water ; clothing was insufficient, the roughly- built cabins let in the piercing cold, and the firewood was chopped from trees incased in walls of snow and ice. Freez- ing and starving — such was the condition of the heroic settlers of Lexington, through this long and fearful winter of suffering. In the month of November of this year (1780), Virginia formed Kentucky county into a district, composed of the three counties of Payette, Lincoln, and Jefferson.J The new county of Fayette was given the name of that dis- tinguished friend of "Washington, General Gilbert Mortier de La Fayette, and was defined as " all that part of the said county of Keutucky which lies north of the line, beginning at the mouth of the Kentucky river, and up the same and its middle fork to the head, and thence south to the Wash- ington line."|| Fayette then included more than a third of the present State of Kentucky, and since that time she has enjoyed the proud distinction of being the mother of great counties and populous cities, and her sons have helped to lay the foundations of many of the empire states of the mighty "West. The organization of the county was not completed until the next year (1781).§ The settlers killed by the Indians, in the summer of 1780, were sadly and reverently carried, by an armed band of •Davidson^ 62. tCollins, 536. JCoUins, 24. ||Marshall. ^Sutler. 38 EISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [l'^"' their surviving companions, along the cow-path which ex tended by the side of the fort, on to what the garrison called the "first hill," now known as the Baptist charchyard, on Main street * A small space on this hill was cleared of cane, and here, after a silent prayer, the earliest settlers of Lexington were hiiried. This ground was afterward set aside by the trustees of the town for religions purposes.f This was the first cemetery used, and was for a long time the only one. During the fatal cholera season of 1833, when the citizens of Lexington were swept oft' by the hundreds, tier upon tier of bodies were buried iu this graveyard, and it ceased to be used after that terrible time. The next earliest graveyard established was that of the McConnells, opposite the present Lexington cemetery, and between Main street and the track of the Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati Kailroad, and there many of the pioneers of the city and county rest in obliterated graves. The Maxwell burying-ground, on Bolivar street, was used shortly after that of the McConnells. In 1834, the city bought the ground adjoining the Maxwell graveyard, and the two were merged in what is now called the "Old City Graveyard." Here the mother of John Maxwell was buried in 1804, his wife in 1811, and the old pioneer himself in 1819. In this neglected spot the ancient tablets are broken and crumbling, and upon one of them can scarcely be made out the in- scription : John Maxwell, sr., Died July 13th, 1819. Aged 72 years. Emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1751, and to the wilds of Kentucky in 1774. The Catholic cemetery, on Winchester street, was conse- crated about forty years ago. Dr. Samuel Brown, Judge Hickey, Annie Spalding, the first superioress of St. Catha- rine's Academy, are among the sleepers in this last resting place. The Episcopal cemetery had its origin in 1837. Many prominent persons are buried there, and there are few Lex- •Old Journals. TCity Eeoords. 1780.] FIRST SCHOOLS. 39 ington families that have not a sad interest in its sacred ground. The same can be said of the Presbyterian burying- ground established shortly after the last mentioned. The large trees which now throw so grateful a shade over it, owe their presence to the mournful interest of Dr. Daniel Drake, whose wife was buried there. He raised the means to pay both for the trees and their planting. For history of Lex- ington cemetery, see year 1849. The history of education, in Lexington, dates from the comnieucement of the city itself ; and the germ of that which afterward made her the literary and intellectual center of the state was laid with her foundation. Because the settlers of Lexington were out on " the frontier," because their life was one of hardships, and because their rude huts were destitute of costly adornments, did not prevent many of them from being what they certainly were, men of cul- ture, education, and refinement, and endowed with all the ease and polished manners of the best society of Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The fort had its little school as early as 1780, taught by John McKinney, who had settled at Lexington the year before, at the solicitation of Colonel Patterson ; and Transylvania Seminary, which was subsequently located here, was chartered by the legisla- ture of Virginia the same year. After the close of the Kevolutionary war, when the British and Indians ceased to annoy and distress the settlers, McKinney moved out of the fort and taught in a log school-house, erected on the site of the pump on the present Cheapside.* It was in this house that his famous fight with the wildcat took place, an ac- count of which will be found in the chapter on 1783. The first trustees of the town took an early opportunity to lay off and reserve ground for "Latin and English schools,"! and this encouragement brought to Lexington, in 1787,t Mr. Isaac Wilson, of Philadelphia College, who established the "Lexington Grammar School." He informs the citizens, in his advertisement, that " Latin, Greek, and the different branches of science will be carefully taught. Price of «-Mi.Cabe, 9. tOity Records. tOM Guzette. 40 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [I'^O. tuition four pounds, payable in cash or produce, and board- ing on as reasonable terms as any in the district." The fol- lowing spring "John Davenport" opened in what was then known as Captain Young's house, which stood on part of the ground now occupied by Jordan's Row,* the first dancing school Lexington ever had, and from that day to this the saltatory art has had a host of admirers in this city. In 1788, Transylvania Seminary was opened in Lexington, and from this day forward schools accumulated, and the love of literature grew, gaining for the city an enviable fame throughout the country. Transylvania University was the first regular institution of learning founded in the mighty West. The influence it has exerted, both morally and intellectually, has been im- mense, and its name is not only venerated and respected in all civilized America, but is well known in Europe. Its history begins with the history of Lexington, and its estab- lishment has been attributed to t|ie enlightened exertions of Colonel John Todd, then a delegate from the county of Kentucky in the Virginia General Assembly — the same Colonel Todd who soon afterward fell at the disa,?trous battle of Blue Licks. In 1780, nearly twelve years before Kentucky became a member of the Union, the legislature of Virginia passed a law to vest eight thousand acres of escheated lands, formerly belonging to British subjects, in the county of Kentucky, in trustees for a public school ; in order, says the preamble of the bill, " to promote the dift'u- sion of useful knowledge even among its remote citizens, whose situation in a barbarous neighborhood and savage intercourse might otherwise render unfriendly to science. "f In 1783, the school was incorporated, and styled Tran- sylvania Seminary; the name "Transylvania" — a classical rendering of "the backwoods" — being the same that Co'- onel Richard Henderson & Co. applied to the proprietary government they attempted to establish in Kentucky, in 1775, regardless of the authority of Virginia. The teach- ers and pupils were exempt from military service. At the ♦McCate, 8. tActs Virginia Assembly. 1T80.] TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY. 41 time of its incorporation, the seminary was endowed with twelve thousand additional acres of land. After Kentucky was erected into a state, laws were passed exempting lands from e?cheat, the effect of which M'as to deprive Transylvania Seminary of all the escheated lands with which she had been endowed by the State of Virginia, except eight thousand acres, from the sale of which she received thirty thousand dollars. This sura of money was afterward invested in the stock of the Bank of Kentucky. The legislature repealed the charter of that bank, by which a loss is alleged to have been subsequently sustained by the "university" of twenty thousand dollars. The trustees of the seminary met at Crow's station, in Lincoln county, November 10, 1783, when the Rev. David Rice was elected chairman, and the enterprise was en- couraged by the donation of a library (the nucleus of the present one), from the Rev. John Todd, the first Professor of Sacred Literature in the seminary, and uncle of the above-named Colonel Todd. In February, 1785, the seminary was opened, in the house of Mr. Rice, near Danville, and that gentleman be- came its first teacher, the endowment being too unproduct- ive to afford more than a scanty salary for one professor, " Old Father Rice," who was one of the very first pioneer Presbyterian ministers who emigrated to Kentucky, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, December 20, 1733, and was educated at " Nassau Hall," now Princeton College. He was ordained in 1763, and came to Kentucky in 1783. He was largely instrumental in raising up both Transyl- vania Seminary and its subsequent rival, Kentucky Acad- emy. After a long life of ministerial usefulness, he died, June 18, 1816, iu Green county, Kentucky.* In 1787, Virginia further endowed the seminary with one-sixth of the surveyor's fees in the District of Kentucky, formerly given to William and Mary College. This law was repealed by the legislature of Kentucky in 1802. In 1788, the school was located in Lexington. " Tuition, *Davidson. 42 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. l^^'^^"' five pounds a year, one-half cash, the other in property. Boarding, nine pounds a year, in property, pork, corn, to- bacco, etc." John Filson, to whom Daniel Boone dictated a memoir of his life, was a zealous friend and advocate of the school. Being a northern man, he favored the em- ployment of teachers from that section, which caused a correspondent of the old Kentucky Gazette to ask him the very sensible question: "What peculiar charm have northern teachers to inspire virtue and suppress vice that southern teachers do not possess?"* The first building used by Transylvania Seminary, in Lexington, was a plain two-story brick one. It stood on the north end of the " college lawn," facing Second street, and with the present Third street in its rear. The lot on which it was erected, was donatedf by a number of citizens of Lexington, who were anxious to have the school in their midst. Isaac "Wilson, of Philadelphia, was a teacher in the seminary at this time. Another teacher was added t > the seminary upon its removal to Lexington, its course was extended, and nothing occurred to mar its prosperity until 1794, when the trustees, with John Bradford as chairman, elected as principal Harry Toul&^iiji, a talented Baptist minister, with strong inclinations to the priestly school of theology, and who subsequently became' secr'etary of state under Governor Garrard. Sectarian jealousy was at once developed. The Baptists claimed equal rights in the seminary, as a state institution. The Presbyterians claimed control, on the ground that its endowment was due to their exertions, and they finally withdrew their patronage from the school, and, in 1796, established and supported " Kentucky Academy," at Pisgah, near Lexington. Fortunately, the troubles between the rival institutions were adjusted, and, in 1798, both schools were merged in one, under the name of " Transylvania University," with Lexington as its seat. But one department of the univer- sity, the academical, was' in existence in 1798. The first *01d Gazette. tPresident's Report. 1^80.] TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY. 43 president of the united institutions was the Rev. James Moore * noticed at length in the chapter, in this volume, on ('hrist Church. His colleagues were the Rev. Robert Stuart and the Rev. James Blythe. In 1799, the institution was given the appearance of a regular university, by the addition of law and medical de- partments. Colonel George Nicholas,t who became the first profes- sor in the law department, was an eminent lawyer of Vir- ginia, who had served as colonel in the Revolutionary war, and came to Kentucky at an early day. He was an influ- ential member of the Virginia Convention which adopted the Federal constitution, and was one of the most promi- nent spirits in the convention which framed the first con- stitution of Kentucky. This able man, whose statesman- ship was long prominent in this commonwealth, was for many years a citizen of Lexington. His residence was on the site of the present Sayre Institute. He died at about the age of fifty-five, shortly after he accepted the law pro- fessorship in Transylvania University. Colonel Nicholas was succeeded in the chair of law by Henry Clay, James Brown, John Pope, and "William T. Barry (of whom see biographical sketches in this volume). In 1819, when Ur. Holley became president of the univer- sity, the law college was regularly organized with three professors, and it soon attained a reputation co-extensive with the country, and no similar college in the United States was considered its superior in reputation, the ability of its teachers, and the number of its students. Its law society was noted. Its library, donated by the city of Lex- ington, was, at that time, the best one of the kind in the West. The following professors have adorned the law department since the incumbency of those already named, viz: Jesse Bledsoe, John Boyle, Daniel Mayer, Charles Humphreys, George Robertson, Thomas A, Marshall, and A. K. Woolley. (See biograpical sketches in this book.) The earliest professor of medicine in Transylvania and •Davidson. tCollins. 44 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [1180. in the West was the distinguished Dr. Samuel Brown,* who was born, January 30, 1769, and was a son of the Rev. John Brown, and Margaret, his wife, residents of Rock- bridge county, Virghiia. After graduating at Carlisle Col- lege (Pa.), he spent two years studying medicine in Edin- burg, after which he removed to Lexington. He was pro- fessor of medicine in the university until 1806, when he resigned, but was again appointed in 1819. He died in Huntsville, Alabama, January 12, 1830. Dr. Brown was a man of unusual learning and scientific attainments. His name appears among those of the contributors to the American Philosophical Transactions, and to the med- ical and scientific periodicals of the day, in this country and in Europe. He is specially noted as the first introducer of vaccination into the United States.f The first place where medical instruction is believed to have been given to students, in Lexington, was in the orig- inal old University building. Dr. Frederick Ridgely, who was appointed a medical professor very shortly after Dr. Brown, was the first who taught medicine by lectures in the West. He was appointed surgeon to a Virginia rifle corps in the Revolutionary army, when nineteen years old, removed to Kentucky in 1780, was one of the founders of the medical college, and was one of the early preceptors of the distinguished surgeon, Dr. Ben. W. Dudley. Dr. Ridgely lectured his class at one time in a room in " Trotter's warehouse," which stood on the site of the present china store, on the corner of Mill and Main. The first president of Transylvania University, Rev. James Moore, was succeeded, in 1804, by Dr. James Blythe. Rev. James Blythe, M. D., was born in l^orth Carolina, in 1765, and was educated for the Presbyterian pulpit at Hampden- Sidney College. He came to Kentucky in 1791, and two years after was ordained pastor of Pisgab and Clear Creek churches. He continued to preach up to the time of his death. Por six years before his accession to the *Annal3 of Transylvania University. fMichaux 1802, [1780. TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITT. 45 presidency of the university, he was professor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy, and often supplied the pulpit of the First Presbyterian church. He was president for nearly fifteen years, and after his resignation, filled the chair of chemistry in the medical college until 1831, when he accepted the presidency of Hanover College (Indi- ana), which prospered greatly under his charge. He was a faithful and animated preacher and fine debater. He died in 1842. The first academical degree was conferred in 1802. In the spring of 1804, a party of Shawunese Indians placed their children at Transylvania University to be in- structed. In 1805, Rev. James Fishback, M. D., was appointed to the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. It was in the oflice of Dr. F., that Dr. Ben. Dudley studied the rudiments of physic. At this early period, the medical department met with but small success, and in 1806,* the professors resigned. An effort was made to organize a full faculty and estab- lish a medical school in our university, in the year 1809. Dr. B. W. Dudley was appointed to the chair of Anatomy and Surgery; Dr. Elisha Warfield, to that of Surgery and Obstetrics; the noted Joseph Buchanan, referred to in an- other chapter, to that of the Institutes of Medicine, and Dr. James Overton, to that of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. It does not appear, however, that any lectures were de- livered at this time. In 1815, Dr. "William H. Richardson was added to the medical faculty, and his connection with the school continued until his death in 1835. Dr. Daniel Drake was appointed to the chair of Materia Medica in 1817. Dr. Drake resigned in a short time, and afterward became a professor in the Cincinnati Medical College. He died in 1852. The class of 1817 numbered twenty pupils. The degree of M. D. was conferred, at the end of this course, in 1818, for the first time in the West, perhaps, on a *Dr. Peters' Lecture. 46 EISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [1^80. citizen of Lexington, one of this class, John Lawson McCullough, brother of our worthy fellow-citizen, Samuel D. McCullough.* In 1817, a large and handsome college building was erected in the college lawn and in front of the old edifice. The house and lot known as the Blythe property was bought and donated to the university by a number of liberal gen- tlemen, Mr. Clay being among the number. The grounds of the institution were beautified with trees, flowers, and shrubbery, and a determined eftbrt was made to greatly in- crease the usefulness of the university. The trustees of the institution and the citizens of Lexington labored to- gether in the work of its up-building, and Dr. Horace Hol- ley, then of Boston, was invited to the presidency, which he accepted, and was inducted into oflice, December 19, 1818, and voted a salary of three thousand dollars. Dr. Holley, the third president of Transylvania Univer- sity, was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, February 13, 1781.f He assisted in the store of his father (who was a self- taught and self-made man) until he was sixteen, when he was sent to Yale College, where he graduated, in 1803, with a high reputation for talents and learning. Soon after, he studied theology with Dr. Dwight, and, in 1809, accepted the pastorate of the Hollis-street church, in Boston, and such was his popularity that a larger and more elegant edifice was soon rendered necessary. In this charge he re- mained nine years, greatly admired and beloved. To a re- markably fine person was added fascinating manners and brilliant oratory. His eloquence may be inferred from the fact that, during one of his sermons delivered before the ancient artillery company of Boston, he extorted a noisy demonstration of applause, the only instance known of a staid New England audience being betrayed into forgetful- ness of their wonted propriety.J Dr. Holley was welcomed to Lexington with the most flattering attentions, and immediately set to work to make the university a success. The institution was at once thor- •Peters' Lecture. tCaldwell's Memoir. jPierpont. ITSO.] TRANSTLVANIA VNIVERSITT. 47 oughly reorganized, and the medical school in particular dates its astonishing progress from this time, when the eminent surgeon, Dr. B. W. Dudley, the apostle of phre- nology in the "West, Dr. Charles Caldwell, and the learned antiquarian. Dr. C. S. Rafinesque, were called to its chairs. These gentlemen are specially mentioned in other chapters of this hook. At this time, lectures were delivered to the medical class in a large room in the upper story of a then tavern building, on Short street, between Upper and Market, now occupied by banks. The events which took place during Dr. Holley's presi- dency are full of interest. In the year 1819, the legislature of Kentucky appropri- ated the bonus of the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank at Lexington, for two years, to the use and beneiit of Tran- sylvania Dniversity, which amounted to the sum of $3,000. In 1820 the sum of $5,000 was appropriated to the medical department. In the year 1821, an act was passed appropriating one- half of the clear profits of the Branch Bank of the Com- monwealth of Kentucky at Lexington to the university, from which it is stated the sum of $20,000, in the paper of the said bank, was received — equal to $10,000 in specie — and there was a grant of twenty thousand dollars from the state treasury in 1824. All ot which sums of money were expended in the purchase of books, philosophical ap- paratus, and in the payment of the debts of the institution. There was probably no college library in the United States superior to that of Transylvania University in 1825. In addition to the books purchased through the liberality of Lexington and the State, the library had been enriched by a handsome donation from the British government, and by contributions from many private individuals, among whom may be named Edward Everett, who presented a collection of fine classical works which he had personally selected in Europe. The medical library selected by Pro- fessor Caldwell, in Prance and England, was the best in the country at that time. The university was visited by Pres- 48 BISTORT OF LEXINGTON. ["^*- ident Monroe, General Jackson, Governor Shelby, and others, in 1819. In 1825 it was visited by Marquis de La^ fayette, at which time it was the center of attraction in the entire West to all scholars and eminent characters, both native and foreign. About this time, also. Lord Stanley, afterward Earl of Derby, made a personal examination of the institution. At the time of his visit. Judge Barry, one of the law professors, was absent. Dr. HoUey, in addition to his regular duties, temporarily filled the judge's chair, and lectured the class before the distinguished visitor, on the subject of the similarity of the governments of the United States and England as regards the responsibility of public agents to the people.* The rise and prosperity of the medical college of the university was remarkable. In 1818, the class numbered twenty, with one graduate, and in 1826, it numbered two hundred and eiglity-one, with fifty-three graduates.f In 1827, the medical college had attained such a position and celebrity as to be regarded as second only to the University of Pennsylvania. It was complete in its corps of eminent professors, and in its magnificent library and chemical and anatomical apparatus. In addition to the distinguished men already mentioned, the following professors had been connected with the medical college up to 1827, and some of them remained in it for years after, viz: Dr. John Estin Cooke, of Virginia, author of the celebrated congestive theory of fevers; Dr. Lunsford P. Yandell, editor of the Transylvania Journal of Medicine, founded in 1827; Dr. H. H. Eaton, of New York, who greatly improved the chemical department, and Dr. Charles W. Short, who re- signed in 1838. In 1823, the " Morrison Professorship," in the academical department, was endowed and established by a bequest of twenty thousand dollars from Colonel James Morrison, of whom mention will again be made in this chapter. The grand design of Dr. HoUey was to make Transyl- vania a genuine university, complete in every college, and *0b3erver and Reporter. ftJollege Eeoords. 1780.] TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY. 49 liberally sustained by a great endowment. Under great disadvantages he accomplished much of his work, but his own imprudent conduct and Jlnitarian sentiments, together with prejudice and sectarian animosity, prevented its com- pletion. His religious opinions and his love of amuse- ments were unceasingly discussed and denounced by secta- rians, who were disappointed in obtaining control of the institution. Finally, a storm of opposition was raised, which was continued with great bitterness by ministers of all denominations,* until Dr. Holley was forced to resign the presidency, which he did in 1827, to the great regret of a majority of the citizens of Lexington, and the sorrow of his pupils, a large number of whom immediately left the university. Two facts speak volumes for Dr. Ilolley's administration. When he came to the university, it was comparatively little known — when he left it, it was cele- brated all over this country and Europe. During the six- teen years before he came, twenty-two students had grad- uated in it — in the nine years of his presidency, the insti- tution turned out six hundred and sixty-six graduates.f Immediately after his resignation, Dr. Holley was en- gaged as president of the College of K"ew Orleans, and was meeting with the most flattering success when he was prostrated by fever. Upon his recovery he embarked for the North, in hopes that the sea air would benefit him. On the voyage he was seized with yellow fever, and, after sufi'ering intensely for five days, he died, and on the 31st of July, 1827, the body of this distinguished man was com- mitted to the deep. The scholar's cloak was his winding sheet, the ocean is his grave, and the towering rocks of the Tortugas are his monument. The academical department, or college of arts, of Tran- sylvania University was crowded with students during Dr. Holiey's administration. Its corps of instructors, near the close of his term, were: President Holley, Professor of Philology, Belles-lettres, and Mental Philosophy; John Eoche, Professor of Greek and Latin Languages; Eev. *I'lint's Mississippi Talley, 1826;. fCaldwell's Memoir. 50 HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. [I'^SO. George T. Chapman, Professor of History and Antiquity; Thomas J. Matthews, Morrison Professor of Mathematics; Rev. Benjamin 0. Peers, Professor of Moral Philosophy. The resignation of Dr. Holley was a heavy blow to the university; but the trustees were not idle. On the 16th of April, 1827, the corner-stone of a new medical hall was laid by the Masonic fraternity, on the site of the present City Library, on the corner of Market and Church streets. The eloquent William T. Barry delivered 'an appropriate oration before the immense crowd assembled. The trustees of the university, at that time, were John Bradford, Thomas Bodley, Charles Humphreys, Benjamin Gratz, Elisha War- field, James Pishbaek, John W. Hunt, James Trotter, Elisha I. Winter, George T. Chapman, William Leavy, Charles Wilkins, and George C. Light. In June, 1828, the trustees called to the presidency of the university the Eev. Alva Woods, D. D.,* who was then at the head of Brown Univiversity. Dr. Woods was a Baptist clergyman, and the oldest child of Rev. Abel Woods, of Massachusetts, and had a high reputation for learning and liberality. He was president of Transylvania for but two years, when he resigned, and accepted the presidency of the University of Alabama. A few years ago he was still alive and residing at Providence, Rhode Island. On the night of May 9, 1829, during Dr. Woods' admin- istration, the principal building of the university, together with the law and societies' libraries, was destroyed by fire. The exercises of the institution were not interrupted a single day, nor did a solitary student leave in consequence of the disaster. The Transylvania Literary Journal, Professor T. J. Mat- thews, Editor, was established in 1829. In 1832, Dr. Robert Peter, the present able and noted Professor of Chemistry, became connected with the univer- sity, and