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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
of the
D. NEWTON BARNEY FUND

THE COMMERCIAL HISTORY

OF

THE SOUTHERN STATES

COVERING THE
POST-BELLUM PERIOD

KENTUCKY

EDITED BY
A. B. LIPSCOMB •
Under the direction of tlie Louisville Commercial Club

HISTORICAL RESUME OF KENTUCKY
BY
Colonel J. STODDARD JOHNSTON

PRESS OF JOHN P. MORTON AND COMPANY
1903

COPYRIGHTED, 1903, BY A. B. LIPSCOMB

DEDICATION

TO THE LOYAL CITIZENS OF KENTUCKY

EDITOR'S PREFATORY REMARKS

THE chief end sought by the editor in the publication of a
commercial history of the Southern States is to set forth
fc*- " in an unselfish and impartial way the story of what has been
^1^^ ' accomplished and the many advantages now existing in the
M^^^^ South along all the lines of commercial industry.
I^E^^^H Much has been written concerning Southern manners,
^^^^^^1 Southern hospitality. Southern code of honor, and the indis
putable sovereignty of' Southern society. The evolution of
the New South from the ashes of the old without the shattering of old ideals
has been well noted, and the value of the preservation of those ideals is
now recognized even by our Northern friends.
But very little, comparatively, has been written about the commercial
spirit which from the time of its incipiency has pervaded the atmosphere
of the New South and led to its industrial development. This surely can
not be accounted for b}' the fact that success in this respect has been meager.
The statistics afforded by the recent United States census confirm the
statement that not only in agriculture but in the output of Southern mills
and factories that growth has not only been highly gratifying, but has in
many instances been prodigious. To supply in some small measure this
deficiency in our literature is the purpose of this and other volumes.
For the sake of accuracy in obtaining detailed information, and unlim
ited space in arranging the matter for publication, it has been decided
to issue the history in fifteen volumes consecutively; that is, one State after
another, and a volume for each. The work will be historical as well as
commercial in its nature.
After giving an historical account of the origin of each State repre
sented, it will deal extensively with the commercial advantages offered by
the different sections and counties of each State respectively.
The fact that Kentucky appears first is partly explained by the fact
that the editor is a citizen of this State. To him it is no more than just
and expedient that Louisville, the metropolis, the "Gateway to the South "
— that vast expanse of territory rich in natural resources, fertile in every

VI COMMERCIALHISTORY
field and valley, prolific in her yield of grain and manufactures — should be
the first and chief exponent in heralding those riches to the world.
When the publication of this work was first proposed, Hon. Henry
\\'atterson, the famous editor and orator, readily consented to write an
historical preface for the same, but since that time the press of his regular
duties has demanded his entire attention, and he has therefore regretfully
given up the task. However, in securing the services of Colonel J. Stod
dard Johnston, the editor feels that he could not have done better any
where. Colonel Johnston has all his life been identified with Kentucky
and the South, and has for a long time been recognized as a writer of
marked ability, especially on historical subjects. His contribution to this
volume we believe will give to it a lasting value, and make it one of which
every Kentuckian may feel justly proud.
In the descriptive articles dealing commercially with every section of
the State, the editor acknowledges the valuable aid rendered by Mr. John
J. Gardner, the well-known statistician and editor of the Courier-Journal
Almanac. Frequent usage has been made of Colonel I. B. Nail's " Hand
book of Kentucky" and some of the current histories. Correspondence
has been conducted with many prominent and representative citizens rela
tive to the advantages offered by their respective counties.
Mr. X. R. Harper has furnished information relative to the work being
done by the colored people in Kentucky. Letters of endorsement and
approval have been received from the governor and man}- others of more
or less prominence throughout the State.
For all of these the editor expresses his grateful appreciation, and
cherishes the hope that this volume shall fitly describe the glorious deeds
of the past and prove an inspiration for the still greater commercial power
of our Commonwealth.
FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY
If Henry Grady, brilliant apostle of the rehabilitated South, could
come back, and were he permitted to address the New England Society
along the same lines as those of his famous speech of December 21, 1886,
he could choose no better text than that part of the late United States
census report dealing primarily with the industrial development of the great
and growing South.
While to some it would appear as dry reading because of its statistical
bulk, he would find in that voluminous document the unmistakable signs of

SOUTHERNSTATES Vll
the fulfillment of prophecy, and in its array of startling facts there would
occur to him a foundation for a still more eloquent address than that deliv
ered sixteen years ago. And if the story of Southern progress as Grady
narrated it then was enough to inspire his auditors, for the most part staid
representatives of Eastern business circles, bankers, brokers, and merchants
of New York City, to a high pitch of enthusiasm, what impression would
the recital of the growth and prosperity of the last ten years make .'
At that time the orator devoted his remarks primarily to the splendid
agricultural growth as manifested by his constituency. He pointed to the
soldiers "who stepped from the trenches into the furrows" and descanted
on the ' ' fields that ran red with human blood in April and were green with
the harvest in June." To-day there would be another story to tell. A few
short years have wrought a revolution in our business. King Cotton has
been in no sense dethroned; miles of waving wheat and corn still proclaim
our agricultural supremacy. But newer and not less important interests
have arisen in our history to make void and meaningless that expression,
"the prostrate South."
The Census Report tells a wonderful tale. It confirms the statement
that the South is now a manufacturer on a billion-dollar scale. It shows
that the value of the products of the South's factories in 1900 was
$1,466,669,495, greater by nearly $450,000,000 than the value of the prod
ucts of manufacturers in the United States in 1850. The total for 1900
shows an increase of $549,440,468 over the total of 1890 in the value of the
products and of $494,874,237 in the amount of capital invested, which, in
1900, amounted to $1,153,670,097.

NEW INDUSTRIES
The orator of to-day would, of necessity, expatiate upon the great
manufacturing enterprises represented by this immense outlay of capital.
He would notice the great lumber interests in Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
and nearly all of the Southern States. Almost every State in the Union is
now making use of Southern timber, and it is being exported in great quan
tities. He would not fail to observe the fact that our coal and iron are in
great demand everywhere, and that our steel finds a ready market in foreign
countries. He would not neglect to pay his respects to the various mills,
working in wool, cotton, marble, and wood, and taking advantage of the
wonderful opportunities that the South has to offer in the development of

Vlll COMMERCIAL HISTORY
raw material. He would note the fact that our rice crop is constantly
increasing. Add to this an account of the success of the extensive fertilizer
plants, the utilization of the oil found in the remarkable cotton plant, the
recent discovery of great phosphate fields in Tennessee, and. the fact that
the oil wells of Texas and Louisiana threaten to outrival in many. respects
those of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and we have a long story of uninterrupted
success, ^^'ithout going into any discussion about the fundamental causes
that have brought about this splendid growth, or making any lengthy com
parison between the two census reports, that of 1890 and 1900, suffice it to
say that the development of the South along almost ever}- line of commer
cial industry has been well-nigh phenomenal.

BETTER LEGISLATION
\\'ith this great change in our pursuits there has been revealed a corre
sponding change in the customs and ideals of the Southern people. Espe
cially is this change in evidence in the making and the forms of our legisla
tion. \'erily, the capitalists of both sections have struck hands together,
and are a unit on the subject of the South as a profitable field of investment
for capital and a Mecca for the workingman. Barriers in the way of trade
relations no longer exist between the North and the South. Laws are
being enacted with a common end in view since both have their manu
factures which must be protected.
The Baltimore Sun, whose editor has made a careful study of present
conditions in the South, thus speaks of the wonderful change that has been
recently effected:
"The South is evidently ceasing to be an exclusively agricultural com
munity, but is acquiring diversified industries, with the new modes of think
ing that such change implies. New ways of looking at things are always
evolved by contact with new interests, and new policies prevail. New
ideas of banks and banking, of money and of standards of value are hkely
to develop when more money is handled and local examples abound.
Already the orator begins to lose his preeminence in public hfe. The
lawyer takes on new varieties in the State legislatures, the corporation
lawyer helping to curb the fiery zeal of the rustic attorney. The cotton-
mill owner, the mine owner, the ironmaker, the lumberman, and the
banker and broker find their way more frequently than formerly to the
' halls of legislation ' and to State offices. The ' horny-handed farmer '

SOUTHERN STATES ix
still predominates to the public advantage, but he gets new ideas from
rubbing up against the representatives of new interests. Thus more con
servative views are taken of public questions. Discussion modifies opinions,
and rash decisions are avoided. Progress is, therefore, the striking fea
ture in the South at present, in public life as well as in industrial affairs."

THE PRESS AT WORK
No one thing is calculated to do greater good in the way of stimulating
that progress than a hearty, active interest in the affairs of the South upon
the part of the leading daily newspapers of the South and Southwest. A
significant fact to be noted is that the principal journals of the North and
East have of late been devoting column after column to an appreciation of
the peculiar advantages offered by the South to the investor. A great
trade journal, in celebrating its twentieth anniversary, has issued an elabo
rate edition, .covering several hundred pages, and the writers of the most
important articles are residents of the North and East. Outsiders can tell
our story, it seems, better than we can tell it ourselves.

MANY OBSTACLES AT FIRST
When Lord Macaulay, the most broad-minded and versatile of all
English historians, looked out upon England and saw the smoke of her
thousand factories curling upward, viewed the ever-lengthening miles of rail
roads that were forming even at that early period a network across her
lands and adding day by day to her rapidly accumulating gains, these and
other substantial proofs of a great industrial era in the progress of his peo
ple brought forth this splendid tribute, paid to the man of industry every
where: "We see in almost every part of the annals of mankind how the
industry of individuals struggling up against wars, taxes, famines, mischiev
ous prohibitions, and more mischievous protections, creates faster than gov
ernments can squander and repairs whatever invaders can destroy. We
see the wealth of nations increasing and all the arts of life approaching
nearer and nearer to perfection in spite of the grossest corruption and the
wildest profusion on the part of rulers."
Reviewing the industrial growth of the South for the last forty years in
the light of this comprehensive statement, we find that its philosophy will
apply in part — in part will not. The manufacturer of this section has risen

X COMMERCIALHISTORY
to the prominent place he now occupies in the world of business in the face
of many adverse conditions. Verily, he has had to contend with many of
the worst obstacles hinted at in this noted appreciation. He began his com
mercial career under inauspicious circumstances, to say the least. Even at
so late a period as 1880 he had little promise of obtaining anything more
than a mediocre success as a manufacturer. A comparative statement
would help us to appreciate the difficulties under which he labored. His
brother in the North and Middle West at that time had capital of his own
and foreign capital at his command. He was enjoying well-developed rail
road facilities, and had the advantage of experienced managers and skilled
operatives in his mills and factories. His success, in a commercial way, has
been the result of a hundred years' growth undisturbed.

THE EXPERIMENTAL STAGE
The manufacturer of the South, on the other hand, was in the begin
ning burdened with heavy debts, and had no means of obtaining credit.
His chiefest hope for a means of livelihood was in the soil, but recently
ensanguinated with the blood of his countrymen.
From the sale of its products alone could he expect capital with which
to invest along other lines than agricultural. Providence smiled benignly
upon his fields, and having lifted some of his debts, he began manufactur
ing on a small scale. His mills and factories were at the first no more than
experiments. These experiments he must needs conduct without the aid
of experienced managers or skilled labor, owing to his very limited capital.
In most cases, though new at the business, he became his own manager
and served an apprenticeship in cooperation with his employes. Railroad
facilities were the poorest, and in many cases were not to be had at all.
Modern machinery could not be introduced without a tremendous cost.
With these and many other obstacles in the way of his progress, he was
forced to meet competition of his more fortunate neighbors in the North
and East. After all, his experiment has met with unqualified success. The
thought of the great though dormant possibilities of his section grew upon
him from time to time as he viewed with ever-increasing pride the slow but
steady gain that was being made each year.
Finally the full value and import of his relative position as to natural
advantages and the magnitude of what his future commercial importance

SOUTHERN STATES xi
might be burst upon him intuitively, and the revelation worked its magic
charm. From the ashes left him in 1864, he has indeed lived to see "a
brave and beautiful city" emerge phoenix-like and stretch forth her hands
invitingly to the capitalist, great and small, to the home-seeker, to him who
is "on pleasure bent," and to the workingman.
The fiery enthusiasm and redoubled energy which the very prostrate-
ness of the South evoked was more than fifty years of experience to him.
THE PRESENT STATUS
The man of the South is no longer an enigma in the industrial world.
From a bare possibility in 1865 he has grown steadily, and of late years
with such remarkable gains that to-day, 1903, he finds himself a potent
factor in the making and distribution of the world's material wealth, and
not, therefore, provincial or sectional, but national in his commercial im
portance. His success, be it known, is no longer an aspiration; it is now
an accomplished fact. He no longer dreams of great prosperity; it has
come to pass. His fond ambition to be commercially great is no longer a
secret locked within his own bosom; the world has heard it, and rejoices
with him. Situated in a land whose natural advantages will outrival that
of any other corresponding region on the earth, he has learned to employ
all the agencies known to man's invention and genius to beautify and per
fect his home, better say his workshop. If once when that land was deso
late, and his eyes were dimmed with tears, and his heart sore with remorse
because his cause had been irretrievably lost, the world might have seen in
him a supplicant and an object for sympathy (though he himself would
never have admitted it), what shall we say of him now — forty years later —
with his wounds healed, his eyes bright with expectancy, his heart full with
joyous hope, his home restored, his wasted fields covered with plenteous
crops of corn, cotton, wheat, and his wide territory crossed and recrossed
with railroads that transport the products of his mills and mines and fac
tories, not only to the North and East, but to Europe and all parts of the
civilized world — is he not a conqueror and a king ?
SOME FAVORABLE CONDITIONS
All of this material growth has been attained without the use of artifi
cial methods. The advancement of the Southern manufacturer has been
steady and sure. It was due to no unnatural causes. His development

XU CO M MERCI AL HI STO RY
and ascendency along all the various lines of industry has been chiefly due
to his own efforts. In the spirit of self-reliance and practical knowledge of
his own wonderful resources, upon which he has almost entirely depended
for success, lies the inherent secret of his splendid achievements.
Not until recent years has he found capital or friends to assist him in
his mission. It has not been wholly up-hill business. We must concede
that the many adverse conditions that have confronted him during this
period of time have been offset by a series of favorable conditions not to be
found elsewhere. The first of these is found in the fact that he has had at
all times the benefit of an abundance of raw material of almost e\-ery kind
with which to work, and all of which was capable of economical operation.
The saving in the cost of importing material was no little one. Prophecy
has been made b}' no less an authority than ex-Controller James H. Eckels
that in less than ten years the greater part of the world's cotton goods will
be woven within the States where cotton is grown, and that Southern steel
furnaces, within that length of time, will be furnished entirely with South
ern iron ore and heated altogether with Southern coal. Southern men will
ship Southern products of every description only in a finished state.

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS
Climatic conditions must not be overlooked in making a summary of
the causes that have contributed wonderfully to the prosperity of this
favored section. The climate has proved a blessing to all classes, and
especially to the numerous workers in the mills and factories. More than
this, its winters afford a pleasant retreat for tourists from the rigors of the
North, and in its mountain resorts there is relief from the excessive heat
felt in large cities during the summer season. With an influx of new
capital and the application of modern ideas, the time is coming when the
South shall easily rival the East in the way of noted hotels and pleasure
resorts. In connection with the climate, it should be observed that this section
has a soil with unequaled possibilities as to the variety and character of its
products. In addition to that most suitable for corn and cotton, wheat and
tobacco, and other staples, there is a soil adapted for fruit and vegetable
growing purposes. The great fertilizer plants, that have been for the last
few years shipping large tons of their output to all parts of the world, have
not neglected their own section. A large per cent of their products have

SOUTHERN STATES

Xlll

been distributed over the South itself. This means much for the quantity
and quality of our garden products. It means that the North and East must
in the future look to the South for their choicest fruits and vegetables.
A BLESSING TO THE POORER CLASSES
The mill owner and the manufacturer in the South has taken advantage
of the large per cent of the poorer classes living in this section. He has
helped them and they have rendered him honest service. Although the
labor has not been of the most skilled sort, it has been abundant. He has
suffered but little from strikes. He has opened up, by establishing these
numerous enterprises, a means of employment for thousands of mountain
people who hitherto had no industry to interest them beyond the acquisi
tion of their simple household needs. He has taught them the value of
work. Thousands of negroes who but a few years ago were living in
apparent idleness are now regularly at work in Southern coal mines and
coke ovens, in phosphate beds and rock quarries, tempted by the sight of
the weekly pay-roll. This has been done without any great injury to the
farmer, and although it has had the effect of concentrating the greater part
of the population of the South into the cities, it has not deteriorated one
whit from the importance of agricultural pursuits. The change has been
for the social and religious betterment of all classes concerned. But
recently there has been a strong movement toward establishing training
schools for Southern boys, white and black, where they can acquire a good
literary education and get a fair knowledge of the mechanical arts. This
can be done only at a considerable outlay of money, but when we consider
what the value of it' would be to the mill owner and the manufacturer, who
represents better than any one else the greatest wealth of this section, and
who at this time can well afford to spend some of that wealth, and what a
striking improvement it would make in the social and economic conditions
of the people, no one will gainsay the right for agitation of this important
question.
A NEW MAN WITH NEW IDEAS
The man of the South to-day is a new figure in the political and indus
trial horizon of the United States. His chief hobby in politics is that which
tends toward the further development and progress of his people. He is
destined to play no httle part in the attainment of this country's commer-

xiv COMMERCIAL HISTORY
cial supremacy. It can not be truthfully said that his is precisely the same
nature and spirit that characterized the Southerner whose best days were
before and immediately after the war. The era of commercialism has not
taken away the old-time hospitality from his heart, has not removed the
latch-string from his door, nor lost for him the high sense of honor or chiv-
alric ideas that were so characteristic of the past.
With respect and deference to all the traditions of that past, one must
agree that in many respects he is a different man. The Southerner of
to-day is no longer content with spending his industrial energies wholly on
agricultural pursuits, as did his baronial father and grandfather. They
were willing to walk over hidden treasures and leave them undisturbed. He
had determined to dig them up and have the world share in his bounty. He
has discovered more than any one else perhaps how lavish Dame Nature
was in dealing with him, and he has profited much by the discovery.
Consequently the picture of the South to-day is quite different from that
one presented forty years ago. Great acres that were covered then with
forests are now open fields of waving wheat and corn. The sunny sky has
become clouded somewhat with the smoke from numerous factories. The
miner and his pick is no unusual sight. The whir of the loom and the buzz
of the saw have been mingled with the song of the darkey picking his cotton
and plowing his corn. Where there was one industry forty years ago to
attract attention, now there is a score or more. For the last ten years the
Southerner has gone about his work practically, using advanced methods
and persistent energy, and the report of the late census is something beyond
the estimate of the most sanguine of the prophets who forty years ago
dreamed of what his future might be. The man of the South to-day is
characterized by broadness in his views and liberality of thought. In his
desire for the best legislation he seeks above all things for the public good.
His views are expressed without rancor or show of selfishness. He is not
overconfident. He is keenly alive to the fact that with all of his growth in
the past and his present prosperous condition, he is to-day but laying the
foundation for greater things to come. He is sowing seed — his chil
dren shall reap the harvest. Therefore he is desirous that the rights of
capital shall be guarded as well as the privileges of the laborer. He is
providing well for a necessarily great increase of population in the South
within the next few years, and is making room for a larger consumption of
home products. He has profited by the experience of other sections, and
is trying to avoid the mistakes which were unavoidably made in the earlier
history of his industrial growth.

SOUTHERNSTATES XV

HIS CHANCES FOR THE FUTURE
What of his future.'' If the man of the South deals diligently and
prudently with the mighty resources that are laid at his door and of whose
enormous value he has just been apprised, what will the next ten years in
his history bring forth.? It is safe to say that no one is able to appreciate
exactly what changes will take place and what growth will be manifested
within that time.
Young and strong and vigorous, he stands ready to meet the mighty
opportunities of the future as fast as they present themselves. He has been
educated through a long series of countless struggles and oft-repeated fail
ures, and with ever-increasing strength has learned to fight for his com
mercial supremacy. For his present status in the business world he has
no apology to offdr. He has done his best, and the odds have not always
been in his favor. Weighed in the balance of his past achievements, we
think well of his future. He shall, with the electrical impetus offered by
this age of machinery and mechanisrn, push his way forward to his proper
place — in the fore of all competing sections.

TWO PHASES
The historian of that period of the South, from 1850 until now, will, of
necessity, discriminate between two phases of Southern life and character.
One is a Southerner whose glory was attained in war and whose deeds of
chivalry are justly accounted " the bravest ever known." His valor is best
attested by the recital of the awful tragedy of the Civil War. The other
is a Southerner whose glory was attained in times of peace, and yet it has
excited the admiration of the world.
He began his work upon a wasted, though beautiful, heritage, and
in the mills and factories that he has built and operated, in the railroads
that he has constructed, in the beds of stone and coal and iron and phos
phate that he has unearthed, in the mighty fabric of the South itself and
the evidences of its enormous growth within a single generation, one may
read at its best the story of his undying greatness.

KENTUCKY

Chapter I

CIVIL HISTORY

ENTUCKY was first organized as a State on the first day of
June, 1792, at which date it was admitted into the Union as
the fifteenth State. Of none of those which preceded or
have followed it is there so much of romance as attached to
its settlement. The older of the commonwealths had the
advantage of having been founded under the protection of
strong governments beyond the seas, with open front to the
ocean, and with the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies as barriers
against the strong and hostile Indian tribes of the West. With few excep
tions the Indians among or near them were either docile and friendly or too
weak to offer serious resistance to the occupation of their territory. The
experience of the Virginians with the Powhattan Indians, and the Pequod
war in Massachusetts, had little more consequence than to furnish themes
for romance on a small scale and illustrations for common-school histories.
The only Indians east of the mountains powerful enough for injury were
the Iroquois, or Six Nations, of New York, and in the Colonial period they
were always friendly or under control of the whites. In the war of the
Revolution, it is true, they took sides with the British, but with the excep
tion of the massacre of Wyoming, an incident of war rather than settlement,
there were few instances in which the whites suffered from the savage
instinct. As regards Kentucky, on the other hand, all the circumstances
were different. Its settlement was not the result of an organized coloniza
tion by royal or other patent, but of individual and voluntary migration, the
early settlers being chiefly from remote parts of the older commonwealths,
and with little or no scheme of co-operation. Besides this they found not
only the most warlike and powerful Indian tribes hostile to their purpose.

2 HISTORICAL SKETCH
but in time braved, first, French opposition, and later that of the British
combined with the other two.
The territory now comprised within the boundaries of Kentucky was
originally part of a grant from James I of England, in i6o6, to the Virginia
colony, of all the land from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth parallels of
latitude, and extending back from the coast westwardly to the South Sea,
as the Pacific was then called, the distance between the two oceans being
unknown or only vaguely surmised. It was more than two hundred years
after the discovery of America, and more than a century after the settlement
of Jamestown, before there was any recorded passage of the Blue Ridge.
On the other hand, the French, who founded Quebec in 1608, the
year after the English landed at Jamestown, followed the water route
of the lakes, discovered the Mississippi, traced it to its mouth, and
acquired all west of it, before there was a settler's cabin in the British
territory one hundred miles from the coast. They had even penetrated the
country watered by the Ohio, propitiated the Indians, and laid claim to all
the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi.
Such was the condition when Virginians, animated by vague reports
from hunters and French explorers of the vast territory, and inspired by the
British greed for land, as contradistinguished from that of the French for
traffic and the Spanish for gold, began to organize for the possession of part
of that domain which they claimed under the original charter. Accordingly,
in 1750, Doctor Thomas Walker, representing the Loyal Land Company,
and in 1751 Colonel Christopher Gist, representing the Ohio Land Com
pany, of which Lawrence, half-brother of George Washington, was president,
made each a trip through the eastern part of Kentucky, with little result
other than to keep a journal of each day's journey. They saw no human
being in their trips, and were the first white men of record who had
traversed the country. In 1769 Daniel Boone, a native of Buck's County,
Pennsylvania, who lived on the Yadkin River in North Carolina, accom
panied John Finlay (a hunter and trader, who had told him of the fine
country and game) to this country, and in company with John Stewart,
Joseph Holden, James Mooney, and William Cool, spent two years in
hunting and exploring. After many perilous adventures which only he and
his brother. Squire Boone, who joined him later, survived, they returned
home. In 1770 Colonel Knox and a party known as the Long Hunters
visited that part of Kentucky south of the Kentucky River and spent a year
or more in hunting and exploring. In 1773 Captain Thomas Bullitt came
to the Falls of the Ohio and surveyed two tracts of land of 2,000 acres

STATE OF KENTUCKY 3
each, covered in part now by the city of Louisville, and in the same year
the McAfee brothers, James, George, and Robert, came down the Ohio,
and passing up the Kentucky River located lands in what is now Mercer
County. In the year following, Hancock Taylor and John Floyd, deputies
of William Preston, Surveyor of Fincastle County, Virginia, came down
the Ohio, and after surveying large bodies of land near Louisville passed
up into the bluegrass region and made extensive locations there. James
Harrod and others, also in the same year, visited Kentucky and erected a
log cabin at what is now Harrodsburg. Daniel Boone also came with
Michael Stoner, bearing a message from Governor Dunmore to the survey
ors to return on account of a rising of the Indians, which culminated in the
battle of Point Pleasant and their defeat on the loth day of October by the
Virginians under Colonel Andrew Lewis. In 1773 and 1774 Sim.on Kenton
had also explored the country about Maysville.
It was not, however, until 1775 that any organized movement looking to
the settlement of Kentucky was made. In the early spring of 1775 Colonel
Richard Henderson, of North Carolina, and a number of associates came to
East Tennessee, and on March 17th made a treaty with the Cherokee Indians
at Wautauga, whereby for ;£'io,000 he purchased from them all the land
south of the Kentucky River, estimated at 17,000,000 acres. It was on that
occasion that Oconistoto, the Dragging Canoe, one of the signers, remarked
to Daniel Boone that he feared his white friends had bought a "dark and
bloody ground," or words to that effect, referring to the fact that it had long
been the scene of bloody Indian wars, as hunting ground or residence. From
this a common belief arose and remains that Kentucke or Kentake, as it
was first called, was an Indian word signifying ' ' the dark and bloody ground. "
The true explanation of it is that Kentake is an Iroquois word, meaning a
"meadow" or "grassy land," and that it was applied by the Iroquois
when, early in the Seventeenth Century, returning from the conquest of
the Cherokees in the South, they passed through that portion of Kentucky
known as the "Barrens," then a prairie of five or six thousand square
miles. They then so designated it, and it was afterward applied to the
whole territory.
Pending the conclusion of the treaty of Wautauga, the proprietors
made preparations to take formal possession of the property, and on the
loth day of March Daniel Boone was sent forward with a company of
thirty men to blaze the way through Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River,
upon the south bank of which they proposed to build a fort and form a
colony. He reached his destination March 22d, but not without having

4 HISTORICAL SKETCH
lost several of his men a few days before, from an Indian attack, in ambush.
He set to work at once to build a fort at the mouth of Otter Creek, now in
Madison County, and upon the arrival of Colonel Henderson and his party,
on the 14th of April, the fort was nearly completed. Other parties under
Benjamin Logan and James Harrod came in about the same time and built
forts at St. Asaph's, near Stanford, Lincoln County, and at Harrodsburg.
On the 23d of May, pursuant to a call by Colonel Henderson, representatives
from these settlements met at Boonesborough as the Legislature of Tran
sylvania Colony, passed law.s for its government, provided for the sale of lands
to colonists, and adjourned to meet in September. But there was no other
meeting. The governor of Virginia, claiming title both under the Colonial
grant and a treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, New York, in 1768,
whereby Virginia had purchased all the territory of Kentucky east of the
Tennessee, issued a proclamation repudiating Henderson's claim. This was
followed by a similar proclamation from the Governor of North Carolina,
and the Transylvania Colony ceased to exist as a separate government.
Later, Virginia, recognizing the services of the Henderson Company in pro
moting the settlement of Kentucky, granted it two tracts, each twelve miles
square, or 200,000 acres, at the mouth of Green River, part of which com
prises Henderson County, and North Carolina also gave to it 200,000 acres
in Powell's Valley, Tennessee, then a part of North Carolina.
In the fall of 1775 the family of Daniel Boone arrived in Kentucky,
his wife being, as he said, "the first white woman who ever stood on the banks
of the Kentucky River," and from that time immigrants began to arrive both
through Cumberland Gap and by way of the Ohio River. Of the great
hardships and dangers suffered by these sturdy pioneers through the long
years of contest with the Indians and their white allies northward for pos
session of the soil, space will not admit detail. The story of the sieges at
Boonesborough, Bryant's and other stations, in which they held out in their
rude stockaded forts, where the women molded bullets and cared for the
wounded while the men fought, the massacres at night, the ambush in the
daytime, the settler cultivating his crops with a rifle as a constant com
panion, and the privations inseparable from such life, make up a record of
fortitude and heroism unsurpassed in any annals. Heroic figures stand out
on the canvas whose names, too numerous to mention, will never die.
Historians have overlooked the part played by these pioneers in the
Revolutionary War. For, while Washington held the tidewater line facing
eastward, George Rogers Clark and the hardy hunters, facing westward, held
the line in Kentucky which protected the rear of Washington's army at the

STATEOFKENTUCKY 5
time of its sorest need. Had the assaults on Boonesborough by the Indians
and the Canadians, under British instigation, been successful in 1778, and
its defenders driven back to the Blue Ridge, as in Braddock's time, there
might have been a different result to the unequal contest. They not only
prevented this, but by his matchless strategy Clark, without the loss of a
man, captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes, disconcerting the enemy and
adding an empire to our domain. Nor did the struggle cease in Kentucky
and the West, as in the East, with the close of the Revolutionary War. It
was not until 1795, when the treaty of peace at Greenville, Ohio, termi
nated the Indian wars, which began before the Declaration of Indepen
dence, that the Kentucky pioneer was freed from the defense of his home
and of the northern frontier. Nor was it until the close of the second war
with England that he could wholly lay aside his arms.

CIVIL ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE
As soon as a sufficient number of immigrants had entered Kentucky to
suggest a civil organization, its territory, which had formed part of Fin
castle County, Virginia, was, on the 5 th of December, 1776, erected into
a county, with its present name, and given two representatives in the
legislature. On the ist of November, 1780, the County of Kentucky was
divided into three counties : Fayette, embracing the land north of the
Kentucky River, Lincoln, that south of the Kentucky and Green rivers,
and Jefferson the remainder, each with a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and
surveyor. In 1783 Kentucky was formed into a district, a district
court was opened at Harrodsburg, and eight more counties were soon after
ward established. Thus, as population increased, new counties were
organized and civil administration extended, and in 1787 a representative in
Congress was given to Kentucky as a district of Virginia. But the people of
Kentucky early aspired to a separate government, on account of its
remoteness from Virginia and because its local interests needed better atten
tion. Spain held the mouth of the Mississippi River, and notwithstanding
that under the terms of the treaty of peace in 1783 free navigation of the
Mississippi had been guaranteed, she levied heavy export and import duties
at New Orleans as tribute upon the trade of Kentucky, of which the
Mississippi was the natural outlet, as well as other exactions. Remon
strances and appeals to the parent government were ineffectual on account
of the indifference of the commercial States of the East, which controlled

6 HISTORIC A LSKETCH
the Continental Congress, and which, deaf to the appeals of Kentucky, were
in favor of surrendering the Mississippi to the control of Spain, and
inclined to limit the boundary of the States to the Alleghany Mountains.
In 1784 the people of Kentucky held a convention to make known their
grievances on this score and to secure a separate government. Successive
conventions of the same kind were held until \'irginia assented to its
organization as a State in 1786, but it was not until February, 1791, that
Congress gave its consent that it should be admitted as a State on June i,
1792. On the loth of December of that }ear the tenth convention of
the State met at Danville, where the previous ones had been held, and
adopted the constitution which went into effect June i, 1792. On the
latter day the legislature met at Lexington, and Isaac Shelby, first governor
of Kentucky, was inaugurated. On November i, 1792, Frankfort having
been in the meantime selected as the permanent capital, the legislature met
there, and it has remained the capital since. In 1799 a second constitution
was adopted making the governor elective by the people, providing for a
lieutenant-governor, and correcting some other objections to the first.
Disquietude continued in Kentucky over Spain's retention of the con
trol of the Mississippi, even to the verge of threatened hostilities. Genet,
the French Minister to the United States, presuming upon the amity which
had existed between the two countries, sought to embroil the latter in the
troubles between the new Republic, which he represented, and England,
operating not only in his diplomatic relations but by direct appeals to the
people. He was, indeed, so violent that Washington requested his recall,
and his successor arrived before he had been here a year. But he remained
in this country and continued to foment dissension. One form in which
this was manifested was in encouraging, in the West, hostile demonstrations
against the Spanish possessions. To this end, being seconded by agents
sent direct from France to Kentucky, the enlistment of troops was set on
foot with a view to wrest from Spain the control of the Mississippi. A
strong sympathy was developed in Kentucky, and General George Rogers
Clark accepted a commission as Major-general in the French army, ^^'ash-
ington had already issued a proclamation enjoining neutrality and warning
the people against enlisting for the purpose of making war upon any gov
ernment with which the United States was at peace. This had the effect
of paralyzing Genet's schemes in the East, but in Kentucky, owing to the
intensity of feeling against Spain's exercise of exclusive control over the
Mississippi River and the prominence of the local leaders, they still had a
dangerous vitality. In anticipation of an expedition down the Ohio a

STATEOFKENTUCKY 7
Federal force was sent to Fort Massac, Illinois, just below Paducah, and
every preparation made to enforce the neutrality laws. But the evidences
of a possible conflict were so strong that on the 24th of March, 1794,
Washington issued another proclamation, directed especially against the
Kentucky movement, in such strong terms that the preparations making for
the expedition were suspended and later abandoned. Just prior to the
issuing of the proclamation, James Innes, Attorney-general of Virginia,
had come to Kentucky on a confidential mission to Governor Shelby, and
explained to him that negotiations were pending between Spain and the
United States in which the latter had made the ultimatum that Spain should
limit her claim to the territory on the east bank of the Mississippi to the
31st degree of latitude and concede the free and unlimited navigation of the
river, with the right of deposit at New Orleans of all American goods free
from the control of that power. This intelligence, together with the proc
lamation of the President, put an effectual stop to all further excitement
upon the subject, and within the following year Spain signed the treaty
making all the concessions enumerated above. Thus, largely through the
persistence of the pioneers of Kentucky, maintained without abatement for
ten years, was secured a right guaranteed by solemn international treaty,
but to which the commercial Eastern States had shown an inexcusable
indifference. The earnestness with which Kentucky contended for its
enforcement aroused the East to a realization of the importance of the con
tention, and exerted a beneficial influence in promoting the acquisition of
Louisiana. Entering upon the Nineteenth Century fully organized by its more
republican new constitution, Kentucky progressed rapidly in population and
general development, finding in New Orleans and along the Mississippi a
lucrative market for its productions. In 1811 the first steamboat appeared
upon the Ohio, and by the end of the second decade the new invention had
ceased to be a novelty. Just preceding and during the War of 18 12 the
attention of her people was engrossed by military affairs, and from the
battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 181 1, to the 8th of January, 1815, at
New Orleans, her volunteers were ever to the front. Especially did they
bear the brunt of defending the frontier of Indiana and Ohio, as at the
battles of the River Raisin and the Thames, where fell the flower of her
manhood. In 18 1 8 an important addition was made to the territorial area of Ken
tucky by the purchase from the Chickasaw Indians of that portion of the
State which is west of the Tennessee. As stated, Virginia had only

8 HISTORICAL SKETCH
acquired from the Six Nations, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, the
territory east of the Tennessee, the remaining portion, as also that part of
Tennessee lying between that river and the Mississippi, belonging to the
Chickasaws, who still dwelt there. In 1818 President Madison appointed
ex-Governor Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky, and General Andrew Jackson, of
Tennessee, commissioners to treat with these Indians for the purchase of
this territory, and on the 19th of October, 18 18, a treaty was duly signed
whereby the land in question was purchased, the consideration being the
payment of $300,000, in annual installments of $20,000 for fifteen years.
The land was afterward surveyed by the United States in townships, sec
tions, and quarter-sections, the only portion of the State thus surveyed. It
is unfortunate that this system was not observed as to the rest of the
State, since it would have prevented much complication of titles, especially
in the mountains.

A CRITICAL PERIOD
With the new century began a critical period in the State's history.
Kentucky's first ventures in banking proved very disastrous. In 1802,
under the guise of establishing an insurance company for the purpose of
insuring the cargoes on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers against accident
and loss, the legislature had, in effect, incorporated a bank. Its name
was the Kentucky Insurance Company, into the charter of which was clan
destinely inserted a clause investing it with banking privileges of a danger
ous character. Later it was authorized to issue notes, payable to bearer,
equal to its capital, money in its vaults, and real and personal property. A
fictitious prosperity followed, and in time the natural result, a corres
ponding depression. In 1806 the old Bank of Kentucky was chartered,
coupling the State with its capital stock and credit as a stockholder, with
the right to name a proportional number of directors. In 18 12 it was
forced to suspend specie payments, and in 1815 the legislature authorized
an increase of its capital to $3,000,000, with the right of any debtor to
replevy his debt for one year if his creditor refused to take his pay in the
notes of the suspended bank. This was what is known as the Stay Law,
the agitation following which constitutes one of the most stormy periods of
Kentucky's history, leading to the formation of a new Court of Appeals,
contending with the old for jurisdiction and precedence, and which for a
time threatened to involve the people in a civil war. In 1818 forty more

STATEOFKENTUCKY 9
banks were chartered, with a capital of $10,000,000, notwithstanding that,
in 18 1 7, a branch of the United States Bank had been established in Louis
ville and also in Lexington. The new banks were also authorized to issue
their notes on demand to an amount equal to three times their capital
stock, less their indebtedness, and permitted to redeem them in the paper of
the Bank of Kentucky. This was banking run mad, and an experiment in
fiat money which soon culminated in inevitable disaster, and in 1822 the
new banks and the Bank of Kentucky were wiped out of existence. In
1823 the Court of Appeals, in the case of Lapsley v. Brashears, decided
the Stay Law unconstitutional, and later it was required that property sold
under execution should be valued in specie. It was in consequence of this
decision that the legislature, in December, 1825, undertook to set aside
the old Court of Appeals, and passed an act establishing a new one, but
after two years of turbulence this act was repealed in December, 1827, and
the conflict ceased. Fortunately, the large influx of thrifty immigrants
from the older States, good crops, and the growth of trade and commerce,
in time enabled the people to pay their debts without repudiation or pay
ment in depreciated paper, and the year 1830 found the State with no
banking institutions within its limits except the two branches of the United
States Bank. In 1833-34, in contemplation of the early expiration of the
United States Bank, the legislature established the Bank of Kentucky,
with a capital of $5,000,000, the Northern Bank of Kentucky, with a cap
ital of $3,000,000, and the Bank of Louisville, with a capital of $2,000,000,
and except in the period of general suspension of 1837 they continued as
the principal banks of the State, under conservative management, for more
than sixty years with unchanged names.
While the period during which the problems of banking, debt, and the
Old and New Court involved much political discord and partisan bitterness,
it was also one of great ultimate good to the State. A distinctive State
character of a higher and broader type in public affairs was evolved, and a
much more practical tone established. With the removal of these vexed
issues the legislature and the public gave attention to such practical issues
as the establishment of a system of public schools and internal improve
ments. The laws in regard to the former, which directed certain funds of
the State to be forever applied to the interests of education, and laid the
foundation of our present public school system, was engrafted upon the
Constitution of 1850, and still further improved in the present one. In
internal improvements there was established a system of turnpike roads
and slack-water navigation, which gave great impetus to the development

lO H ISTORIC AL S KETC H
of the State. One of the first railroads ever constructed in the United
States, from Lexington to Frankfort, was built by the State, 1831-35,
which experienced an era of great prosperity, notwithstanding the general
depression of 1837. The table giving the progress of population for the
several decades of that period shows that in 1850, notwithstanding the
drain Kentuck}- had suffered in emigration to newer States and territories,
she numbered nearly one million souls within her boundaries. The Mexi
can War again appealing to the martial spirit of her people, they responded
so readily that upon the call of the President for thirty companies, one
hundred and five, being seventy-three more than were needed, responded
within less than a month, and upon a second call a year later the same
spirit was shown, .-^.t Monterey and Buena Vista, and from \'era Cruz to
the City of Mexico, they fully sustained the reputation of the State.

THE Cn^IL WAR
But unforeseen disasters were alread}- brewing for a people who had as
}-et known no domestic discord greater than the excitement of hotly con
tested political campaigns. Parties had risen, ruled, and given way to rival
ones, and yet the State progressed peacefully in its social and physical
development until in i860. There was never within the compass of the
Union any State which was in more amicable relation to all its sister
States. In January, i860, the Legislature of Kentucky, on invitation of
that of Ohio, visited Columbus and received a most cordial welcome, and a
few days later that of Tennessee joined those of Ohio and Kentucky in
Cincinnati with every incident of cordial hospitality. Suddenly, after the
Presidential election of that year, a war-cloud gathered over the land,
which in the following spring burst in fury over it, and a bloody hne sepa
rated those who had been so latel}' friends. In such a contest it was evi
dent that the brunt of war would fall upon Kentucky, unless wise counsel
could avert it. Effort was made in that direction, but failed, and it was
not long until the admonition of the Cherokee Indian to Boone was realized
in all its severity, and Kentucky became in very deed "the dark and bloody
ground." Families were divided, and the hand of brother was against
brother — not, indeed, in neighborhood strife, but in the two armies which
dyed her soil with their blood. It is not proposed to enter into the details
of that dark period of her history. Suffice to say that each, as he saw his
duty, followed his convictions and gave good account of himself on the field

STATEOFKENTUCKY II
of battle. It is far preferable to dwell on the return of peace and the
revival of the ties of blood and friendship which once more were cemented
as strongly as ever when the war-cloud passed away. The victors were
generous, and from the day when General Lee gave his sword at Appo
mattox to General Grant, who returned it with no more galling terms than
that the Confederate soldiers should return to their homes and remain
unmolested until exchanged, all hostility engendered by war has ended.
There has been no exchange, and the paroled soldier has lived up
to his promise, claiming only to vie with his brother in blue in the battle
for the true greatness of Kentucky, and for himself and his children to
stand side by side with him and his at Santiago, or wherever the flag of
the country needs their services.
And thus through nearly four decades Kentuckians have gone together
hand in hand in promoting the happiness and prosperity of their State.
That their efforts have been crowned with success is shown by the fact that
the population of the State has been doubled since i860, and that in all the
elements of development, mental, moral, and physical, she has worthily
kept her place in the front rank of her sister States.

Chapter II
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The territory embraced within the boundaries of Kentucky is situated
between latitude 36° 30' and 39° 6' north, and between longitude 82° 2' and
89° 40' from Greenwich, or 5° and 12" 38' west from Washington. Its area
is given officially by the census of 1900 as 40,000 square miles, but by the
State Geological Survey as 41,363 square miles. Prior to the census of
1880 it was given as 37,680, and an accurate topographical survey would
probably show its close approximation to 42,000 square miles. Its greatest
length is 41 1, and its greatest breadth 175 miles. Its river boundary is 813
miles; by the Mississippi on the west for fifty miles, by the Ohio on the
north for 643 miles, and by the Big Sandy River on the northeast for 120
miles. The principal rivers besides these are the Tennessee, Cumberland,
Green, Salt, Iventucky, and Licking, affording thorough drainage and a
large system of navigation. Its frontage of navigable rivers is the largest
of any State in the Union. The lowest portion of the State is that along
the Mississippi, which is about 300 feet above sea level at low-water mark
of the river, except the alluvial bottom lands. The rise eastward is gradual
along the Ohio, attaining a height of 650 feet in the northeastern, but
more abrupt in the central and southeastern portions, the elevation at Lex
ington being about 1,150 feet, and becoming more abrupt easterly, until on
the extreme eastern borders the Cumberland Mountains attain an elevation
of from 2,500 to 3,500 feet. The height of the hills above the valley bot
toms is rarely greater, however, than 700 or 800 feet.
GEOLOGY
The newest geological formation in the State is that portion west of
the Tennessee River, which comprises about 2,500 square miles, chiefly of
the quaternary and tertiary formations. Eastward is the gray or subcarbon-
iferous limestone of about 10,000 square miles. It is in this formation
that occurs the cavernous limestone in which is found the Mammoth Cave,
with its 200 miles of avenues. The subterranean area includes the whole
or part of the counties of Butler, Christian, Edmonson, Grayson, Hart,

STATE OF KENTUCKY

13

and Logan. The sub-carboniferous hmestone belts upon three sides the
western coal field of about 4,500 square miles of bituminous coal, with
several workable strata of both the upper and lower coal measures, furnish
ing a good quality of domestic coal, extensively mined in a number of
counties. The central or bluegrass region of the Lower Silurian formation has an
area of about 10,000 square miles, with an elevation of from 800 to 1,150
feet above sea level. The Upper Silurian and Devonian formations, which
surround the bluegrass region on three sides, have an area of about 2,500
square miles, with less elevation on the west and greater on the east. The
eastern coal field, which comprises the mountainous portion of the State,
has an area of about 11,600 square miles, with an elevation of from 750^
feet on the Ohio River to 3, 500 feet on the Cumberland Mountains. It
abounds in bituminous and cannel coal, with as many as eight or ten strata
of workable thickness, above drainage, and except for transportation con
venient for mining.
Among the varieties is found coking coal of superior quality, large
quantities of which are now marketed from the Pineville and Middlesboro
districts. Owing to the mountainous character of the country, and the fact
that the Cumberland range constitutes a barrier which has hitherto pre
vented the construction of a railroad eastward from the State, except along
the Ohio River on the north and through Cumberland Gap on the south, the
large portion of this coal field has not as yet been developed as to its mineral
resources. In addition to the topographical obstacle referred to, there
exists another cause which has tended to retard the construction of rail
roads in this portion of the State. Under ordinary conditions it would
seem that railroads should have already been constructed for the purpose of
furnishing coal to other coalless parts of the State. But the Ohio River
furnishes cheaper transportation for the coal of the Monongahela and
Kanawha coal fields, which is floated down stream at minimum cost,
and distributed throughout the State by the ten railroads which trav
erse it from north to south, with lateral roads reaching the consumers,
at less cost than it could be supplied from home mines. As a result the
great bulk of the coal mined in Kentucky finds its way to the South and
Southwest, where it has no such competition. While the development of
the Kentucky coal fields has not proceeded with the rapidity realized in
most other States producing it, there is some compensation in the reflection
that our fields contain a great resource which will furnish fuel for posterity
long after those States, which have exceeded Kentucky in such development.

14 HISTORIC A LSKETCH
have exhausted their supply. In both the coal fields of Kentucky the
annual output of coal has increased steadily in the last decade, until it has
reached about 6,000,000 tons, making Kentucky ninth in such production.
Of other minerals, the next in point of value is iron, which is found in
both the eastern and western portions of the State. Between the Ten
nessee and Cumberland rivers are found limonite and brown hematite ores
of a good grade, which for many years have been more or less utilized.
Several furnaces draw their ore from this field, and others are projected.
On the periphery of the western coal field several kinds of iron ore are also
found, but they have not as yet been developed to any extent. About the
borders of the eastern coal fields are good bodies of both limonite and
brown hematite ores. In some portions of this area early attention was
given to the subject, iron having been made in Bath and Estill counties
long before the era of railroads. In the former, at Slate Creek furnace,
cannon balls were made which were used in the defense of New Orleans by
General Jackson, in 18 15. At .Ashland, in Boyd County, for more than a
quarter of a century the ores of that region and of Bath Count}' have been
successfully used in making commercial iron. In Middlesboro are extensive
furnaces, using, however, chiefly the ores from the south side of the Cum
berland Mountains, and Kentucky coal for their reduction. Corresponding
ores of the Oriskany belt are known to exist along the north side of the
Pine Mountain, a range wholly within Kentucky, but as yet they have not
been explored, although in immediate vicinity of fine coking coals.
Petroleum is found in Kentucky in many localities, and there is now
promise of its early utilization, ^^'herever the Devonian shale strata occur
its presence is so commonly disclosed that our State geologists have
regarded this as the source from which it is derived. In many parts of the
State this formation is found from 100 to 150 feet thick, and so rich as to
furnish oil by distillation, and to burn freely. The first oil well which
brought petroleum to public attention was found in Cumberland County,
Kentucky, in 1829, and at a depth of about 200 feet the oil flowed freely.
It became known as rock oil, but except as a liniment its value was not
recognized. Recently other wells have been bored successfully in the same
vicinity, and from the neighboring county of Wayne many thousands of
barrels of oil were shipped to market twenty years ago. Later still richer
developments have been made, resulting in the building of a pipe-line to
Somerset, Pulaski County, whence the oil is shipped by rail. In Knox
County, within the past few years, many flowing wells have been bored with
such indications of supply as have led to the projection of a pipe-line, with

STATEOFKENTUCKY' 15
branches in other counties, to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where there is a
refinery. In Bath and Rowan counties, contiguous to the Devonian for
mation, promising developments have also been made. Similar favorable
indications have been shown also in the western portion of the State,
wherever the same geological conditions prevail, and as far as theory, sus
tained by the developments already made, can be relied upon, it is highly
probable that there are oil-bearing strata underlying a large area of the
State. The incentives to further development are heightened by the fact
that all the oil so far brought to light is a high grade of lubricating oil.
Supplemental to oil, to which it owes its origin, may be mentioned
asphaltum rock, which has been found in various portions of the State,
chiefly near the border of the western coal field, but always in the Chester
group of the sub-carboniferous limestone formation, wherever the sandstone
is favorably situated for saturation by the oil. These deposits have been
successfully worked, and a good commercial quality of asphaltum rock has
been secured, and so extensively used in making asphalt streets in compe
tition with the Trinidad asphalt that their cost has been reduced quite one
half, with equally good, if not better, practical results. Other minerals
found in Kentucky are lead, which is exhibited in several of the blue-
grass counties in fissures of the limestone caused by the geologic uplift of
that now eroded region, but the extent of the deposits has not yet been
demonstrated sufficiently to make their working profitable in competition
with the richer and more easily mined deposits in Illinois and Missouri.
The same may be said of certain deposits of fluor-spar, zinc, and argen
tiferous lead formed in a more defined dike formation in the western part of
the State, particularly in Livingston, Trigg, Caldwell, and Logan counties.
West of the Tennessee River are found pottery clays of a superior quality,
suitable for making encaustic tiles and high grades of ornamental pottery,
while in Madison and other counties which include the Devonian strata
are excellent clays from which are made crockery, pottery, and tiling.
Strata suitable for making vitrified brick are also found in various parts of
the State, and are valuable also as fertilizers from the potash and soda
they contain. At Cloverport, in Breckinridge County, vitrified brick for
paving streets have been extensively made for a number of years.
There remain but two more productions of the State to refer to under
this head, and these are timber and building stones. Few portions of
the continent have as valuable timber as is to be found in Kentucky,
embracing nearly every variety of growth to be found from Nova Scotia to
the Gulf. The cypress and pecan are found in the southwestern part of

l6 HISTORICAL SKETCH
the State, and elsewhere are most of the valuable timber trees indigenous to
the temperate zone. Especially is the growth of oak, beech, hickory,
maple, and other hard woods of wide extent and variety, including twenty-
six varieties of oak. In the mountains are to be found several varieties of
pine and the hemlock, while the poplar or tulip tree, chestnut, and all
kinds of commercial timber, are well disseminated throughout the State.
Originally Kentucky, except about 5,000 square miles of prairie in the
south-central region, was covered with forest, and it is estimated that
nearly fifty per cent of it still remains so. The lumbering interest of the
State is large and prosperous.
Of building stones there are many kinds, and so generally distributed
that there is but a small portion of the State which has not an ample supply
for the use of its population within its own limits. There is no granite in
the State, the lowest formation exhibited being the magnesian limestone,
or Knox dolomite, which underlies the Trenton, and has a limited
exposure near Clay's Ferry, in Fayette County. It is a superior building
stone, and is the material of which the Clay monument at Lexington is
built. The birdseye limestone of the Trenton, found in the cliffs of the
Kentucky River, is a handsome stone with a mottled appearance, from
which it draws its name, and of which the Capitol at Frankfort is built. It
is called Kentucky marble — a misnomer, as it is not of crystalline structure.
There is no marble in the State. While in all the limestone regions good
building stone is to be found, what is known as the Bowling Green stone,
an oolite of the sub-carboniferous limestone, is the best commercial lime
stone in the State, and extensively found in many counties. It is similar to
the Bedford, Indiana, stone, and is widely used. Various kinds of sandstone
are well distributed throughout the State, and abound in the coal areas.
The best commercial quality is the Waverley sandstone, of Rowan County,
which is extensively quarried, and is similar to the Buena Vista stone, of
Brown County, Ohio, much used in Cincinnati and other cities for the
fronts of handsome houses.
Cement or water limestone is found in many parts of Kentucky, and in
various geological horizons, the most notable at the Falls of the Ohio,
where more than 1,000,000 barrels of the cement are made per annum.
This review of the geology and mineral and timber resources of Ken
tucky has been made more in detail than the scope of a history of such
limited proportions as this would suggest, but being in the nature of a
commercial history it is more appropriate than the narrative of events
common to other branches of history, to the exclusion of matters of inter-

STATE (3 F KENTUCKY

17

est to the commercial reader. It is the more opportune, since from a mis
taken policy in State legislation the Geological Survey, which had done so
much to make known the resources of Kentucky, was ten years ago
discontinued, and specific information upon such subjects is not easily
accessible. AGRICULTURE
Notwithstanding the large area of its coal formation and the extent of
its forests, Kentucky occupies a high rank in the variety of its agricultural
products and the extent of its commercial crops. It early took a leading
position among the great producing States, soon outstripping the older
ones eastward, and only yielding the supremacy it had attained in several
lines after the larger new States of the West and Northwest had become
populated. In 1840 it ranked first in the production of wheat. In 1850 it
was second in the production of swine. In i860 it was second in mules.
In 1850 it was first in corn. In 1,880 it ranked first in the production of
tobacco, as also in 1890 and 1900. The annual crop of tobacco is about
400,000,000 pounds. In hemp it has always been first, ninety per cent of
the total crop being raised in the State, while in rye, wool,, and the value
of live stock it stands high in the list.
The soil of Kentucky varies with the several geological formations.
Most of the bluegrass region, embracing about twenty-five counties, is a
rich, clayey loam, enriched by the disintegration of the marine shells in the
blue limestone. It is fertile and productive, and the land has a high market
value. By a judicious system of rotation of crops, without the use of
artificial fertilizers, its productive capacity has been so well maintained that
after nearly a century of cultivation the soil shows no deterioration in the
quantity or commercial value of its products. In the gray limestone region
of the State, which has been designated as the sub-carboniferous, while
the natural fertility of the soil and the fertilizing elements of the under
lying rocks are not as great as those of the bluegrass region, nor the land of
as high average value, its productive capacity is of an excellent grade.
Improved agriculture, rotation of crops, and the use of clover and other
grasses have demonstrated a similar capacity for keeping up production and
restoring apparently worn-out lands. Besides, this region has shown itself
especially adapted for fruit of all kinds, as have the more elevated and less
fertile lands of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations which belt the
bluegrass region. West of the Tennessee River is a fine agricultural dis-

l8 HISTORICAL SKETCH
trict for the production of tobacco and all the cereal crops, and in no por
tion of the State has there been more development within the last decade
than in this. The lands in the western coal field, not being mountainous,
contribute also an excellent agricultural region, well adapted to all the staple
crops, and embracing some of the most productive counties in the State.
The eastern portion of the State, while more rugged in topography than
the others described, with the greater part of its area still covered with
timber, and more \'aluable for the minerals beneath its surface than for
agriculture, has many fertile ^'alle}•s and a fair soil, even in its most broken
portions. Of recent }'ears tobacco has been profitably raised in the Big
Sandy and Cumberland River valleys, with results from low-priced lands
rivaling those of the best portions of the State. It is capable of support
ing a very much larger population, and with increased railroad facilities
will be an attractive field for a thrifty immigration.
One of the most conspicuous adjuncts of agriculture in Kentucky, for
which it is specially noted in several branches, is that of stock raising.
The equability of its climate and the succulence of its grasses, coupled with
care and skill in breeding from the best types, have led to the development
of the highest grades both of horses and cattle known to the continent.
For speed and endurance, both of the thoroughbred race horse and the
trotter, it has long borne the palm, while for saddle horses and those for
general utility it is equally well known. It is here, too, that that useful
branch of the equine family, the mule, has been developed to perfection
and its serviceable qualities demonstrated. It was in Kentucky, also, that
the short-horn cattle from England were first introduced and developed to a
degree not excelled elsewhere, and hence distributed throughout the West
and Southwest to improve the native stocks and become the standard type
of beef cattle. For many years annual shipments of fat beeves have been
made to England for Christmas beef, commanding even higher prices than
their native cattle. The sheep, particularly the Southdown, for mutton,
have had a similar record, and large shipments of spring lambs are annuall}'
made to the Eastern markets.
As to the manufactures and other products of Kentucky, they belong
more to the department of statistics than of history, and are to be sought
in the census reports or the exhibits of the various cities and counties of
the State. In the matter of distilled spirits Kentucky is the second
largest revenue-producing State in the Union, while for the quality, its
production has always stood unrivaled. And in general it may be said that
in the variety of its resources, its crops and products, it combines in great

STATE OF KENTUCKY

19

degree, from its geographical position and climatic conditions, the advan
tages of the States both to the north and the south of it, with less loss
from the cold of the one or the scorching heat of the other. The monthly
mean temperature of the three winter months is 27°, 30°, and 35", and for
the three summer months, 73°, 76°, and 73°, with an annual mean of 55°.
The minimum in winter is rarely below zero, and in summer rarely exceeds
90°. The four seasons are clearly defined. The rainfall is equable, and
excessive floods or excessive drouths are of rare occurrence. The average
rainfall is 46. 87 inches.
In healthfulness the State ranks very high. The census returns show
that thirty States have a higher death rate than Kentucky. The ratio of
deaths to the population is about one per cent, and no part of the State
is subject to epidemics from local causes. That the conditions are favor
able for the production of a healthful, vigorous race of men is shown by
the following official table, compiled from the measurements of United
States volunteers during the Civil War, by B. A. Gould:

NATIVITY

1: S o

"5°
t" s'.>
Tup
3 a B

50 C
'^ 5
P a

New England 
New York, New Jense}', and Pennsylvania
Ohio and Indiana 
Michigan, Miiisouri, and Illinois 
Kentuck}' and Tennessee 
Free States west of the Mississippi River
Canada 
England 
Scotland   
Ireland 
Germany  
Scandinavia 

67-8367-5268.1867.8268.6067.4167.0866.7467-2566.95 66.66
67-33

'39-39
140.83
145-37 141.78H9-85
141-35137.61 137-85
139.18140-37148.14

22.0222.1022.11
22. ig
22.3221.9722.11 22.1622.23
22.09 22-37

295237
486466 848 184177103 178 84
105
221

2.072.102.102.10
2.19 2.132. II
2.05
2.08 2.092.12
2-15

20 HISTORICAL SKETCH

POPULATION
Kentucky may be said to comprise in its population the most distinctive
body of English-speaking people of the Anglo-Saxon stock, not only of an}-
State in the Union, but of an}' civil division in the world. Out of a popu
lation of 2,147,174, as shown by the census of 1900, there are only 50,249
persons of foreign birth, most of whom are confined to the cities and a few
counties, many of the counties having none. The white population is
principally of English and Scotch descent, with a fair proportion of Irish
blood. The State has contributed largely of its population to the settle
ment of the States to the north, south, and west, and both in the emigrants
and in the home stock, as shown by the long list of distinguished names
which have filled the roll of men in all stations of life — in field, forum,
and pulpit— it has been demonstrated that the conditions in the State are
as favorable for the development of mental and moral qualities as for
physical excellence.
The following will show the population of the State for each census:
1790, 73.077- 1830, 687,917. 1870, 1,321,011.
1800, 220,595. 1840, 779,828. 1880, [,648,690.
1810, 406,511. 1850, 982,405. 1890, 1,858,635.
1820, 564,317. i860, 1,155,687. [900, 2,147,174.

COMMERCIAL GROWTH OF THE
STATE OF KENTUCKY

ADAIR COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 14,888. County Seat, Columbia.

Situated near the middle of the south-
¦ern part of the State, and is in the
Eleventh Congressional, Third Appel
late, Twenty-ninth Judicial, Sixteenth
Senatorial, and Thirty-seventh Legislative
Districts. .Adair County was formed in 1801 out
¦of a part of Green County. It was
named in honor of Gen. John Adair, a
¦distinguished soldier and statesman. The
face of the country is rolling and hilly,
soil fairly good, resting mainly on slate
and limestone foundation. The river
.and creek bottoms are quite productive.
The chief products are corn, wheat, oats,
sorghum, grass, and tobacco. Most of the
uplands are well adapted to fruit raising.
Considerable attention is given to horses,
mules, cattle, hogs, and sheep. The
country is well supplied with water.
Green River is the largest stream, runs
across the northern part, Russell's Creek
through the center from east to west;
together with Casey Creek, Glen's Fork,
Peltus Fork, Big Creek, Leatherwood
¦Creek, and Crocus, all considerable
streams, flowing through the various sec
tions of the county, furnish fine power
for machinery, and water for stock and
¦domestic purposes. The county is well
supplied with timber of all kinds except
walnut, poplar, and hickory.

The county is diversified with farm
lands and forests. The farms are largely
devoted to grasses and the raising of the
crops named above. 'Vegetables grow
in profusion and in great variety, but
are confined largely to local markets;
truck farming and dairying are not car
ried on. There are no railroads in the
county. One line of turnpike between
Campbellsville, the nearest railroad point,
and Columbia, a distance of twenty miles,
is maintained by tolls. There are no
free pikes in the county. Public roads
are maintained under the general law.
The average price of farm lands, improved
and unimproved, is about S4.30 per
acre, prices ranging from ^1.50 to J40
per acre, depending upon location and
improvements. Farm laborers can be
had at from fifty to seventy-five cents per
day; by the month, with board and lodg
ing, at eight to nine dollars, and where
the laborer furnishes his own board and
lodging, thirteen dollars.
The county has no bonded indebted
ness, and the rate of taxation is fifteen
cents on the hundred dollars of assessed
property, and a poll tax of one dollar and
fifty cents for county purposes.
Columbia, the county seat, has a popu
lation of about eight hundred, mostly
whites. The colored population in the

22

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

main live outside the corporate limits.
It has two public schools, open five
months in the year, and two high schools,
the Columbia Male and Female High
School and the Columbia Christian College,
open nine months in the year, where the
higher branches of education are taught.
There are four church organizations in the
town, and each one has a handsome church
building. The town is healthy, and its
moral and social tone is such as is found in
all educational and Christian centers.

The public schools of the county are
in good condition and improving yearly.
There are seventy-five school districts for
the whites and fourteen for the colored,
in which schools are taught. The public
schools are maintained by the school
fund, and in many districts private
schools are taught after the close of the
public school year, and in this way ex
cellent educational advantages are given
in many districts eight and ten months in
the vear.

ALLEN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 14,657. County Seat, Scottsville.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Eighth Judicial, Elev
enth Senatorial, and Twenty-second Legis
lative Districts.
Allen Count}' was formed out of the
southern parts of Barren and Warren
counties in the year 1S15, and extends to
the boundary line between Kentucky and
Tennessee. The surface is hilly, but
the soil is productive and in the valleys
is quite fertile. The county is well
watered. Big Barren River, with its tribu
taries, supply it abundantly on the eastern
and northern portions, while Big Tram
mel and Drake's creeks supply the south
ern and western portions, the central
part being supplied by Little Trammel,
Puncheon Camp, Long, Walnut, Big
Difficult, Little Difficult Sulphur Fork,
Middle Fork, Bay s Fork, Rough, and
Snake creeks, most of which are good-
sized streams. The soil is principallv
adapted to corn, wheat, oats, and tobacco.
The forest lands are well timbered with as
fine a variety as can be found anj-where.
and at present the timber industry is the
leading one in the count)', and while there

are a number of mills operating, the supplv
seems inexhaustible. \'ery fine qualities
of building stone abounds; both gas and
oil have been found, but neither have
been developed. There is some evidence
of coal and iron. Mineral waters abcund
all over the country. The Chesapeake &
Nashville railroad terminates at Scotts
ville, but the route has been surveyed to
Glasgow, Ky. .\ small mileage of turn
pike exists, but the people are now or
ganizing good roads societies and everv-
thing points to improved roads, which
will add much to the county.
The agricultural industry in the county
is improving. Farm hands are paid 75 cents per day
and board; Si. 00 to S1.25 without.
The public school system is the same
as the rest of the State. The school
buildings on an average are very good.
Scottsville is the county seat: it has a
population of about 1,200. There are
several small villages in the county, the
most important of which are Holland,
Petroleum, Gainesville. New Roe, and
.\lexander.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

23

ANDERSON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 10,051. ^Estimated 1902), 13,000.
County Seat, Lawrenceburg.

Is situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Third .-Xppellate, Twelfth Judicial, Twen
tieth Senatorial, and Fifty-seventh Legis
lative Districts.
Anderson County was formed in 1827
out of a portion of Frankin, Fayette, and
Mercer counties. The present estimated
population, almost entirely made up of
the Anglo-Saxon race, is now about
13,000. The county occupies two high and fer
tile plateaus, separated from each other
by Salt River, which flows through the
central part of the county. The land on
top of the table-lands is gently rolling,
and the slopes leading down from the up
lands to the rivers are somewhat precipi
tous. The Kentucky River, which borders
the eastern portion of the county for a
distance of about twenty miles, is naviga
ble throughout the year. Salt River, in
the central part of the county, and Chap
lain on the southern border, are not na
vigable, but all of these streams are
capable of furnishing unlimited water-
power for all purposes. Beside these
streams, the county is traversed in every
direction by smaller ones, which afford
the most ample supply of water for stock
and crops under all circumstances. The
scenery along the Kentucky River and its
tributaries is unexcelled in its boldness
and in its picturesque features. The
Salt River bottoms are famous for their
fertility. The soil of the county is of a limestone
formation, with a clay subsoil, and is
generally fertile and productive. It is
well adapted to the production of corn,
wheat, and tobacco. Oats, potatoes,
garden vegetables and fruits of all kinds
also do well in every part of the county.
The tobacco grown in this county is al

ways of the finest quality, and ranks
among the best crops to be found in the
Louisville and Cincinnati markets. The
large crops of timothy and clover that
may be produced from a given quantity
of ground, with the bluegrass which is
indigenous, makes this one of the best
counties in the State for stock farming.
The number of cattle shipped from An
derson County to Eastern markets and to
Europe is increasing rapidly every year.
The timber is principally white oak
and beech, with a fair proportion of sugar
maple. The hickory, walnut, and pop
lar has been nearly all cut off and disposed
of in the markets. Owing to the present
demand for farming lands in this county
the value has increased at least twenty-
five per cent within the last year.
Numerous and what are believed to be
valuable deposits of lead and zinc have
been found in the county, within a few
miles of the county seat. One of these
mines has been recently leased to East
ern capitalists, who will proceed at once
to work their lease to its full extent.
There is undoubtedly natural gas in
paying quantities in the county.
The people of this county are almost
entirely engaged in farming. The only
manufacturing enterprises in the county
are the numerous and famous distilleries
and the cooper shops connected with
them. The McBrayer, Searcy, and Ripy
whiskies are known the world over, and
are justly renowned for their excellence
and purity. The Saffell distillery, which
has not been in existence for so long a
time as those named above, is rapidly
acquiring a reputation second to none in
Kentucky. The flciring mills, of which
there are a number, are all doing a large
business, both local and general. The

24

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

Lawrenceburg Roller Mills, the Bond
Mills at McBrayer, and the Franklin
Mills at Orr, are well and favorably
known throughout the United States.
The shipping facilities are as good as
those of any other city of the same size to
be found in the State or in the entire
South. The Southern Railway has its
main line running entirely through the
county from west to east, and a branch
line tapping the Cincinnati Southern at
Burgin, in Mercer County. It also con
nects at Lexington with roads running
east and north as well as south; at
Louisville with the many lines running
west, northwest, and south. Louisville
is sixty-five miles west and Lexington
twenty-fi\e miles east from Lawrenceburg.
The Kentucky River is only four miles
from Lawrenceburg and is a valuable
competitor to the railroads in the mat
ter of freight rates.
.Anderson Counly has about i6o miles
of free turnpike road, which is kept in the
best of repair by the county. The county
expended S40.000 within the last eight
years for the construction of turnpikes,
and yet the entire debts of the county
will not exceed Sio.ooo.
Labor, both white and colored, is plenti
ful and can be liad at reasonable rates.

Unskilled labor here may be hired at from
gi.oo to Si. 50 per day. Mechanics and
skilled laborers receive from Si. 75 to
S2.50 per day. Farm labor may be had
for about S18.00 to S 20.00 per month
without board, and at from Si 0.00 to
Si 2. 00 per month with board.
The school facilities of the county will
compare favorably with those of any other
county of the same population and wealth
to be found in the State. The white
schools furnish employment for about
fifty teachers, the majority of whom are
women. The schools of Lawrenceburg
give employment to six regular teachers,
and have a special teacher of drawing and
also of physical culture.
Lawrenceburg, the county seat, a city
of the fifth class, with a population of over
2,000, is finely located on a plateau be
tween Kentucky and Salt rivers, cm a line
of the Southern Railway. It has five
white and three colored churches, is well
supplied with stores in all lines of trade,
a cooperage factory, a large roller mill,
two hotels, three banks (with a united
capital of S 195. 000), and one newspaper.
It has a large and commodious court
house and some of the handsomest resi
dences and business houses in the
State.

BALLARD COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 10,761. County Seai, Wickliffe.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate. First Judicial, Second
Senatorial, and Second Legislative Dis
tricts. .At the sitting of the legislature in the
winter of 184 1-2, the county of Ballard
was brought into existence by a curtail
ment of both McCracken and Hickman
counties. Blandville was at that time
made the count)' seat.
The soil of Ballard Count)- is mostly of
a black loam with yellow clay subsoil,

except the valleys, which are a black sandy
loam with generally blue-clay foundation,
and very productive. The minerals that
exist in the hills of the county are unde
veloped, and to what extent they exist is
not known. The timber resources of the
county have been greatly abused, but
good timber land can be purchased at this
time for from seven to twelve dollars per
acre. Diversified farming is carried on
to a considerable extent, but fruit grow
ing, which could be made profitable.

STATE OF KENTUCK \'

25

receives but little attention. About thirty
miles of the boundary of the county is on
the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and this,
with twenty miles on Mayfield Creek, con
stitutes all the navigable waters touching
the county. The county has no turnpike
or metal roads, but has as good graded dirt
roads, maintained by a system of taxation,
as there are to be found in the State. The
Illinois Central and Mobile & Ohio are the
railroads that touch Ballard County, and
jointly contain twenty miles of road; this,
in connection with the river frontage,
renders transportation easy of access and
freights reasonably low. Farm land will
average in price about S15 per acre, and
good white labor can be had at $18 per
month. There is a good opening for the
establishment of a wagon, plow, and im

plement factory, as well as flour mills and
canning factory. A creamery would also
do well.
Wickliffe is now the county seat of
Ballard County, and is located on the
Mississippi River six miles below Cairo,
Illinois. It has a chair and furniture
factory, two potteries, one wagon and
buggy factory, and a large flouring mill.
Blandville Baptist College, located at
Blandville, is the only institution of
learning within the county except the
common schools, which are in a flourish
ing condition, the State fund being
supplemented by local taxation. There
is no bonded indebtedness of the county,
and the tax rate for county purposes is
seventeen cents on the Si 00 of taxable
property.

BARREN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 23,197. County Seat, Glasgow.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Third Appellate, Tenth Judicial, and Nine
teenth Senatorial Districts.
Barren was taken from a portion of
Green and Warren counties in 1798. It
was the thirty-seventh county formed in
the State. The county seat, Glasgow, is
a beautiful town laid off in a square, with
broad streets and a handsome new court
house in the center. It contains two very
commodious, modemly arranged school-
houses — Liberty Female College and the
public school building. Excellent schools
are now being taught in both of these
buildings. The county is laid off in school
districts, and in every neighborhood fine
schools are being taught.
North, northeast, and northwest of
Glasgow the land is very fertile; the sur
face is smooth enough to admit of easy
cultivation and rolling enough to drain
well. The southern portion of the county
is not so well favored in fertility of the
soil and a smooth, even surface as the

northern, as it is more broken or uneven.
Yet in timber, fine running water, and in
oil productions, it greatly excels the north
ern portion. Some of the finest oil wells
in the State are found in this section of
Barren County. The natural products of
the county are oil, gas, pure water, and
a reasonable amount of timber — consisting
of oak, poplar, beech, hickory, gum, and
cherry. Agricultural products : Tobacco,
corn, wheat, oats, hay, and sorghum (in
commercial value these rank in order
named). In grasses, clover, orchard grass,
timothy, red top, and bluegrass are the
chief sorts grown. In fruits, apples,
peaches, pears, plums, cherries, grapes,
strawberries, and gooseberries, all are
grown with more or less success.
Dirt roads form the principal thorough
fares. However, there are two pikes
(known as the upper and lower L. & N.
pikes) that extend through the county.
One of these, for its entire length in the
county, has been macadamized, and the

26

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

other partially so. These, as well as all
the dirt roads, are kept up by the county
and all are entirely free from toll. The
L. & X. railroad runs through the county
about ten and one half miles, the Glasgow-
Branch railroad beginning at Glasgow
Junction, a station on the L. Jc X., termi
nating at Glasgow-, a distance of ten and

one half miles. The Mammoth Cave rail
road runs five miles in Barren Count)-.
making in all twenty-six miles of railroad
in the county. There are no navigable
streams in Barren County, but many
of them will furnish an abundance of
w-ater power to propel any kind of
machinerv-.

BATH COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 14,734. County Seat. Owingsville.

Bath County is in the Xinth Congres
sional, Seventh Appellate, Twenty-first
Judicial, Thirty-fifth Senatorial, and Xine-
ty-fourth Legislative Districts.
Bath County was organized in iMi,
out of parts of Bourbon and Montgomery.
It is situated in the northeastern part of
the State. The northern and western
portions of tbe county are undulating and
belong to the famous ••bluegrass belt."
This portion of the county is devoted to
raising short-horn cattle, com, wheat, and
tobacco, and contains some of the finest
farming land in the State. The southern
and eastern portions of the county are
somewhat broken and hilly, though all the
ceieals grow well. In the extreme eastern
portion of the county there is to be found
some of the finest timber in the State,
such as oak. poplar, and walnut. The
Licking River runs along the eastern and
northern boundan." of the county and would
be navisrable as far as West Liberty, in
Morgan County, if locked and dammed.
The Licking is a splendid outlet for the
shipments of timber, a large amount of
which is floated down the river to market
by means of "rafts. Timber lands in
this county, of which there is a great
abundance, sell for from Sio to S30 per
acre. One of the finest iron ore deposits
in the United States is found in the eastern
portion of the county, about five miles east
of Owingsville. the county seat. These
mines are at present being operated by

the Rose Run Iron Co. There are many
other ore deposits in the county that re
main undeveloped. Eight miles southeast
from the county seat is situated the famous
Olympian Springs.
White, black, and salt sulphur, chaly
beate, Epsom, alum, and soda are the
waters to be found all within a radius of
one half mile. These springs, for the past
tw o years, have been frequented by a large
number of guests. On Slate Creek, a
tributar)- of Licking River, two miles south
of Owingsville, stands the stack of the first
iron furnace built west of the Alleghany
Mountains. This fui"nace was built by
Jacob Myers, Christopher Greenup, and
others in the year 1790. The stack is in
a fairly good state of preservation. It was
at this furnace that the cannon balls were
made that General Jackson used at the
battle of Xew Orleans.
This county has but one railroad, the
C. li: O., which runs through the southern
and eastern portions of the county. There
is also a narrow- gauge road running from
Salt Lick, on the C Sc O., to the timber
and coal lands on the Upper Licking River:
this is valuable as a feeder to the C. & O.
This county has about 156 miles of turn
pike, which is now kept up bv means of
taxation. There are no toll gates on any
of the pikes. The dirt roads are good for
the most part, and indeed all the roads
are gradually improving. The average
price for farm labor in this county is

STATE OF KENTUCKY

27

from Si 2 to S15 per month, including
board. The school facilities in this county are
good. Bath Seminary, situated in Owings
ville, offers splendid inducements to those
wishing to avail themselves of a higher
education, while at Sharpsburg, that town
has a normal school that any place might
be justly proud of. The public schools
in the county, taken as a whole, are as
good as the best. Owingsville, the county
seat, is one of the prettiest and most cul
tured and wealthy towns of its size in the
State. It has a population of about
1,500, and is blessed with all modern im
provements. It has two strong banks,
two newspapers, four churches all in good
buildings, electric lights, telephone ex
change, and will soon be connected with
the outside world by telephone. She has
a citizenship equal to the very best. The
town has long needed a flouring mill, and
an industry of this character would doubt
less bring large returns. The town is

situated on a high hill and has natural
drainage and splendid water.
Sharpsburg, situated in the northwest
ern part of the county, is a town of im
portance. Bethel, five miles east of
Sharpsburg, is an important village and
is a large shipping point for cattle, hogs,
and tobacco. Wyoming, Odessa, Rey-
noldsville. Forge Hill, Olympia, and Yale
are all thriving villages. Salt Lick, on
the C. & O. railroad, in the eastern portion
of the county, is the largest shipping point
in the county. More than 500 men are
now employed in the forest south of Salt
Lick, making staves and getting out timber
for shipment East. The timber lying
adjacent to this place is of the best
quality and the quantity is almost inex
haustible. The land in the eastern portion of the
county can be purchased for from Sio to
S20 per acre, and this land is peculiarly
adapted to fruit culture, timothy grass,
and the cereals.

BELL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 15,701. County Seat, Pineville.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Seventh Senatorial, Seventh Appellate,
and Twenty-sixth Judicial Districts.
Bell County was formed from parts of
Harlem, Knox, and Whitley counties in
the year 1867, and was named in honor
of the Hon. Joshua F. Bell, who was a
member of the legislature from that dis
trict at the time of the organization of the
county. It is the impression of many people
living in western, central, and northern
Kentucky, and people living in other
States, that when one enters Bell County
he or she is in great danger of being killed
by a "mountaineer" without any provo
cation whatever. This impression is false.
When one comes to Bell County they find
the best people on earth; not many are

what may be termed rich, but they are the
most charitable people in the world. If
afflictions or adverse fortune renders one
a subject for assistance, no appeal is nec
essary other than the mere fact that they
are a fit subject. It is fact that Bell
County, up to a few years ago, has had a
bloody record, but at a recent term of the
Bell Circuit Court Judge Hall cleared the
docket of murder cases, and to-day, with
as many miners as there are in the county,
and while the character of labor all over
the country is in the greatest turmoil, will
be found a most hospitable and peaceful
people. If those who think them barba
rous and uncivilized would go into their
midst they would find school houses and
churches up every creek and hollow in the
county, and we will show them a happy.

28

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

¦church-going people who used to take a
delight in shedding the blood of their fel
low men, but have changed with the times
to righteous, law-abiding citizens.
Cumberland River and its tributaries
furnish an abundant supply of water for all
purposes for the entire county. Clear
Creek empties into the river near Pineville,
•on the south side of Pine Mountain, and
Straight Creek on the north side, affording
magnificent water power and drainage.
Yellow Creek, running directly through the
city of Middlesboro, affords sufficient
drainage for a city of 100,000 people.
The mild climate, uniform temperature,
and splendid water and drainage combine
to make this county an extraordinarily
healthy one.
Pure rhombohedral iron ore abounds in
most every section of the county. The
north side of Pine Mountain shows three
hundred feet of the best subcarboniferous
limestone, while the northern side of same
mountain is a solid mass of the finest build
ing blue-gray sandstone in the country; it
is easily worked, uniform and durable.
The best of domestic and coking coal in
the market is mined and made at Pineville,
Middlesboro, and Chenoa.
More than one half million acres of the
finest timber in the world is accessible to
the people of Pineville and Middlesboro
through the different streams and railroads
¦converging at these points; poplar, walnut,
ash, oaks of all kinds, lynn, chestnut, and
chestnut oak, the latter furnishing the
finest tanbark in the world.
New coal mines are being opened up
continuously. Coal lands are being sought
after and are being bought extensively.
The public roads are not good in this
¦county, and are kept up by the road militia,
which would indicate that the old " warn
ing out system " is getting to be a failure.
The Cumberland 'Valley branch of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad has within
this county 20.23 miles of railroad. The
Cumberland River & Tennessee Railroad
12.50 miles. The West Virginia, Pine

ville & Tennessee has 2.25 miles. The
Middlesboro Belt Railway Co. has 18.03
miles. The Knoxville, Cumberland Gap
& Louisville Railroad has 3.50 miles in the
county. The five railroads furnish ample
transportation for the products of the
county. The agricultural products of the county
are hardly sufficient for home consump
tion. Vegetables and fruits of all kinds
can be had and are produced in abun
dance. Grains are grown successfully
where interest is taken. Clover and orch
ard grass give better results than others.
Pineville, the county seat, is situated at
the base of Pine Mountain, which, at this
point, rises to a height of 2,200 feet above
the sea level, and 1,500 above Cumber
land Valley. Pineville is the central point
of distribution for Southeastern Kentucky,
and is the only water gap from Jellico to
the " breaks of the Big Sandy. '
Middlesboro Uni\ersity, a branch of the
Richmond (Ky.) University, is located at
Middlesboro, and its workings do credit
and honor to its mother institution. Of
the public schools in Bell County and the
rapid strides they have made toward the
front in the past two years too much can
not be said. The teachers have a library
of two hundred and forty volumes, eighty-
nine of which constitute the prize given by
the State to the county showing the larg
est per cent of its teachers enrolling in the
State reading circle, completing the course
and receiving certificates for the year
1895. Out of the fifty-two districts in the
county, forty- five have globes and maps
and charts, and in most all the districts
the "backless bench" has disappeared,
and desks of the very latest patent have
taken their place. No district has supple
mented the public money to extend the
term of the school beyond the term of five
months. The bonded indebtedness of Bell County
is 838,000; in 1894 this debt was S6o,ooo.
The rate of taxation for county purposes
is sixty cents per one hundred dollars.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

29

BOONE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 11,170. County Seat, Burlington.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Fifteenth Judicial,
Twenty-third Senatorial, and Seventy-
eighth Legislative Districts.
Boone County, the thirtieth formed in
the State, was organized in 1798, and
was formed out of part of Campbell
County and named in honor of Daniel
Boone. It is the most northern county in
the State. The area of the county con
tains 152,869 acres. The principal water
courses of the county are the Ohio River,
which washes its northern and western
border for forty-two miles, and Big Bone,
Mud Lick, Gunpowder, Middle, 'Woolper
and Ashby's Fork creeks. These creeks
supply an abundance of stock water, but
are not available for water power or navi
gation. The soil of Boone County along the
river bottoms is of almost inexhaustible
fertility, and the hill lands are well
adapted to the growth of all kinds of
agricultural products that can be grown in
this latitude. The crops now principally
grov\n are corn, wheat, hay, and tobacco.
There is about ten per cent of the
area of this county in timber laud, in
cluding the varieties of oak, gum, poplar,
hickory, ash. walnut, beech, sycamore,
lynn, and water and hill maple. There
are no bodies of timber land in this
county for sale.
The noted Big Bone Springs, situated
near a hamlet of the same name in the
southern part of the county, was visited
as early as 1773 by Captain Thomas
Bullitt and the McAfee party. James
Douglass, of this party, remained here
for some time to explore these springs,
examine and drink of their health-giving
waters. The right kind of a hotel, under
proper management, as a summer resort,
would beyond doubt be a money-making
investment, for this place is of national

reputation. An electric railway from Cov
ington, a distance of twenty-two miles, to-
these springs has been projected, and
doubtless will be built at no distant date.
At one of these springs salt was manu
factured by the early settlers, and this
was continued until a few years ago.
Anywhere here for acres around a well
can be sunk and these same waters
obtained. The bones of the largest mastodon ever
discovered in the world, of which history
relates, were discovered here, and are
now in a museum in London, England.
Some idea of the immensity of size of
these gigantic animals of tradition can be
realized when one has seen a tusk over
sixteen feet in length and fifteen inches in
circumference, this being the size of one
that was unearthed here just a few years
ago. Split Rock, located on the banks of the
Ohio River, three and a quarter miles
below Petersburg, and over a quarter of a
mile above the mouth of Woolper Creek,
is, in all the term implies, a natural
curiosity. Several very brilliant sapphires, almost
equaling the diamond in hardness and
brilliancy, have been picked up here.
Pleasure seekers and tourists for many
miles around visit this curiosity of nature
every summer. In the immediate vicinity
of Split Rock, and situated on Taylor's
Creek, are several caves, one of which is
an almost square room, sixteen feet each
way, in which a number of mummified
pigmies of the human race have been
found, some of which appear to be chil
dren but a few days old, petrified, retain
ing perfect form and features.
In the way of industries this county has
a large distillery, cooper shop, flouring
mill, saw and planing mill, steam and
water grist mill, numerous tobacco ware-

30

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

houses, and canning and preserving facto
ries that sell their products not only in
this country but in Europe.
The Ohio River, which runs almost
two thirds the way around the county,
and the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas
Pacific and the Louisville & Nashville
railways, which run through the eastern
edges of the county for a distance of 9. 13
and 9.48 miles respectively, furnish the
county with ample transportation facili
ties. No other roads are projected at this
time. The county has eighty-four and three-
quarter miles of macadam roads, main
tained by the statutory charges of toll. The
county has about 350 miles of dirt roads,
which are maintained by a property tax
of 10 cents on the Sioo worth of taxable
property, and the working of these roads
is supervised by overseers appointed by
the county judge. The roads are fully
up to the average for such roads through
the State. However, we do not find that
the management of the road system in
this county deserves any words of
praise.

With the exception of a few negroes,
the labor of this county is performed by
native white men. The average price per
month for farm labor, with board, is about
S I 2 ; without board, about S 1 7 per month .
The League Institute, of Verona, and
the Walton .Academy, of Walton, are
both institutions of learning that are an
honor and credit to the county. The
common schools are managed by an
efficient and worthy superintendent and
capable teachers.
Burlington, the county seat, is situated
near the center of the county, and eight
miles from the nearest railroad station,
Erlanger. The town has about 300
inhabitants, two general merchandise
stores, one drug store, a bank, a good
hotel, a printing office, which is owned
and managed by W. L. Riddell, editor of
the Boone County Recorder, one of the
best papers in the State outside the city
of Louisville; also four nice church build
ings. The town is laid off in a square,
with a beautiful court house in the center.
The town is connected with the outside
world by long-distance telephone.

BOURBON COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 18,069. County Seat, Paris.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Fifth .Appellate, Fourteenth Judicial,
Twenty-eighth Senatorial, and Seventy-
fifth Legislative Districts.
Formed in 1775 from Fayette County,
and named in honor of the famous Bour
bon family of France. Bourbon County
was one of the nine counties organized by
the Virginia Legislature before Kentucky
became a State. It is bounded on the
north by Harrison, the east by Mont
gomery, the south by Fayette, and west
by Scott, and is watered by Stoner, Hink-
ston, Houston, and Boone creeks, and
the south fork of the Licking River.
Located in the heart of the bluegrass

region, the gently undulating soil is won
derfully fertile, producing generous yields
of wheat, corn, barley, oats, hemp,
tobacco, etc. The virgin half of the soil
produces about 150,000 bushels of blue-
grass seed per year, and furnishes grazing
for sheep giving an annual wool clip
worth Si5,ooo; for valuable horse, mule,
and hog stock, and for S300,ooo worth of
fine export beef cattle every year. Scores
of the best race horses the turf has ever
known were bred in Bourbon County.
The soil furnishes an abundance of
primitive limestone for building purposes.
In the county are two undeveloped lead
mines — one in Paris, and the other near

STATE OF KENTUCK\-

31

Millersburg. Near North Middletown is
an oil well, bored during the Civil War.
Oak, ash, hickory, elm, sugar-tree, wild
cherry, mulberiy and box elder constitute
liberal timber resources. The walnut
timber is being rapidly cut away. The
fruit crop averages probably S6,ooo per
year. None of the streams are navigable.
There are two hundred and seventy-six
miles of excellent turnpikes and thirty-
nine miles of dirt roads in the county —
every mile being free. The pikes were
freed without a lawless or violent act at
an aggregate cost of S55,ooo. The
thirty-eight miles of the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad, comprising branches in
four directions — to Lexington, Covington,
Winchester and Maysville — and the
Frankfort & Cincinnati (Kentucky Mid
land) eleven miles, going to Georgetown
and Frankfort, afford railroad competi
tion and give Bourbon excellent shipping
facilities. It has been proposed to ex
tend the Frankfort & Cincinnati road to
the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.
Bourbon has no natural curiosities save
a few Indian mounds, and a buffalo trace
on Cane Ridge, but in her soil reposes the
remains of Edward Boone, the pioneer
and Indian fighter and brother of Daniel
Boone. Bones of mastodons have been
found in excavations near Paris.
The average price of farm land in
Bourbon is sixty dollars per acre. The
farm hands employed are mostly colored.

the wages being from S15 to Si 8 per
month. There are no foreign colonies
in the county. There is an excellent
opening for tobacco, hemp, broom-corn
manufacturing interests, and fruit can
ning enterprises. The county furnishes
an abundant supply of these products.
Paris, the county seat, is a beautiful
and enterprising city of about 7,500 in
habitants. The city is located on high
ground, and Stoner and Houston creeks,
which flow through the corporate limits,
offer fine advantages and locations for
factories. The city is healthy and is a
delightful place of residence, having
electric lights, water-works, electric fire
alarm system, competitive telegraph and
telephone communication, ice factory,
handsome business blocks and residences,
well appointed stores, fine theater and
school buildings, and nine churches.
The people are progressive, intelligent,
robust, and hospitable.
The Millersburg Female College, a
flourishing institution, has recently been
improved and refurnished. The public
schools are in an admirable condition.
The public fund is supplemented by local
taxation in but three of the county dis
tricts. The county has no bonded debt.
The rate of taxation is eighty-seven cents
on the Sioo, fifty-seven and one half for
revenue, nine and one half for general
purposes and twenty-five cents for turn
pikes.

BOYD COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 18,834. County Seat, Catlettsburg.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twentieth Judicial,
Thirty-second Senatorial, and Ninety-
eighth Legislative Districts.
Boyd County was taken from the coun
ties of Greenup, Carter, and Lawrence in
i860, and was organized as a county in
that year. It is situated in the extreme
northeastern part of the State.

The county is drained by the Ohio,
Big and Little Sandy and their tributaries,
which also afford an abundant water sup
ply for the county. East Fork drains the
more central and western portion of the
county, while the Big Sandy and its tribu
taries drain the eastern portion.
The soil of Boyd County is particularly
good along its rivers and creek bottoms,

32

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

being for the most part a rich sandy loam,
and produces well, the principal products
of the Boyd County farm being corn,
wheat, oats, and some tobacco. The
grasses usually grown in Kentucky grow
well ill this county. There is an abun
dant supply of good timber yet in the
county, embracing all the species and
varieties found in any of the other coun
ties in Eastern Kentucky, and large tracts
of the same can be purchased at reason
able prices. Diversified farming is not
engaged in in this county further than to
supply domestic demands. The mineral
resources of this county are very great,
being the attractive feature for human
effort here. The best of iron and coal
are found in the county, and the same has
been largely developed and a large and
very desirable class of population has been
attracted here thereby.
Boyd County has most excellent country
roads, many of them beiug good turnpikes
and are free of toll, but are maintained
and kept up by the county. .All of the
public roads are kept in good condition.
The .Maysville & Big Sand\- Railroad runs

through the eastern part of the State,
and the Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big
Sandy roads run through the northern
and western part of the county. These
roads are operated by the Chesapeake
li Ohio system, and together with the
Ohio River bordering on the northern
portion of the county, afford ample
and convenient transportation for the
countv, and also sufficienti competition in
that line. Farm labor is supplied mostly
by native -vhites and can be employed at
prices ranging from ten to twelve dollars
per month and board. The educational
facilities of the county are furnished princi
pallv by the common schools, which are well
attended and are under good management.
Ashland, a considerable manufacturing
city, is the principal town in the county,
and has a population of nearly 5,000.
Catlettsburg, the county seat, is situ
ated at the junction of the Big Sandy and
the Ohio rivers. It is a thriving town of
over z,ooo population. It has good
schools and churches, and its merchants
are wide-awake and progressive business
men.

BOYLE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 13,817. County Seat, Danville.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Fifth -Appellate, Thirteenth Judicial, Eigh
teenth Senatorial, and Sixty-fifth Legis
lative Districts.
Boyle County, the ninety-fourth in order
of organization, was formed in 1842 out
of parts of Mercer, Lincoln, and Casey
counties, and is near, if not the geographi
cal center of the State. While it is one
of the smallest counties in area (having
only a little over a hundred thousand acres
of land), its assessed valuation of prop
erty listed for taxable purposes is more
than seven million dollars. Its soil is rich,
deep, and easily cultivated, adapted to
wheat, corn, tobacco, hemp, oats, millet.

timothy, clover, orchard grass, bluegrass,
and all other crops and grasses usually
grown on bluegrass soil.
There is but little timber in the county
except the poplar, ash, walnut, cherry, and
locust scattered through the woodland
pastures of the farms.
White and gray limestone furnish an
abundance for building and road purposes.
In the southern part of the county, near
Junction City, are Linnietta Springs, of
wide renown as a health resort.
There are two lines of railroads, the
Knoxville Division of the Louisville &
Nashville running through the county from
west to east, and the Cincinnati, Xew

STATE OF KENTUCKY

33

Orleans & Texas Pacific from north to
south, crossing the L. & N. R. R. at Junc
tion City, in the southern part of the
county. The county owns about loo miles of
turnpikes and macadamized roads, all of
which are maintained by taxation. There
are no toll-gates in the county.
The county has a large negro population,
from which a large proportion of the farm
laborers are obtained. The average wages
per month with board is about Si5i and
without board about S20.
The educational facilities of the county
are all that could be desired, there being
more than fifty public schools, academies,
and colleges distributed all over the county.
Danville, the county seat, founded in
1782 by Walker Daniel, is one of the
oldest towns in the State, and is to-day a
thriving little city with about 6,000 inhabi
tants, one railroad, churches of all de

nominations, three national banks, one tri
weekly newspaper, gas and water-works,
ice factory, flouring mills, and a number
of other flourishing mercantile and manu
facturing concerns. Danville is widely
known as an educational center, having
some of the oldest and best-equipped in
stitutions of learning in the South. Among
them are the Kentucky Institute for the
Deaf, established in 1823, Old Central
College, recently consolidated with Central
University at Richmond, Caldwell Female
Institute, Hogsett Military Academy, an
excellent City High School, and a number
of other public and private schools for
both white and colored pupils.
Perryville, situated in the western part
of the county, is a wide-awake business
like little city with several hundred inhabi
tants. It was in and around this town
that the battle of Perryville was fought in
October, 1862.

BRACKEN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 12,137. County Seat, Brookville.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Nineteenth Judicial,
Twenty-sixth Senatorial, and Eighty-fifth
Legislative Districts.
Bracken County was formed out of
parts of Campbell and Mason counties in
1796. It was named in honor of William
Bracken, an early pioneer, and was the
twenty-third county created in the State.
The lands are mostly high and rolling and
contain just enough limestone to make
them fertile and especially adapted to the
growth of tobacco, corn, wheat, oats, and
hay, tobacco being the principal article of
export. Bluegrass, with timothy and clo
ver, are abundant and grow to perfection.
Also many varieties of fruits.
Such is the character of the soil that,
when seemingly exhausted, it can in a few
years be reclaimed by grassing.
The North Fork of the Licking River,
Big Bracken, Locust, Turtle, Snag, Holts,

and Big Kinkaid creeks are the prin
cipal streams, furnishing, with the Ohio
River, abundant water for man and
beast. All classes of timber usually grown in
this section, especially hard wood, are
found in this county.
There are 175 miles of turnpike free to
the traveling public. All roads of any im
portance have been macadamized. There
are twenty-nine and three fourth miles of
completed railroad in the county. Nine
teen and three fourths miles of the C. &
O. run through the Ohio valley, and ten
miles of road have just been completed
from Wellsburg to Brookville. It was
built by the citizens of the county.
None but first-class farm hands are em
ployed, at from twelve to sixteen dollars
per month.
There is one vegetable and fruit can
nery located at Augusta. There are three

34

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

good banks and two live newspapers,
which are well patronized.
There is an excellent opening for both
tobacco and shoe factories at Augusta, a
live town with an estimated population of
2,000, where a model school building,
costing S20,ooo, has just been completed
on the site of the "Old Academy Build
ing," one of the first institutions of learning
erected west of the Alleghany Mountains.
There are also excellent openings for manu
facturing enterprises at Wellsburg. Both
of these towns are well located and have ex
cellent shipping facilities by rail and water.
This county is noted for the growth of
white Burley tobacco, especially the color.

texture, and fiber of the plant when cured,
and is one of the foremost, and possibly
leads, the counties in northern Kentucky
engaged in this industry.
Brookville, the county seat, is situated
near the center of the county, and is a
thriving and prosperous town. Graded
schools are maintained in Augusta, Brook
ville, Johnsville, and Germantown, with
competent and well-paid instructors. In
some instances the public funds are sup
plemented by local taxation. In every
part of the county there are convenient
schools, mills, churches, and almost every
convenience or necessity of modern civili
zation.

BREATHITT COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 14,322. County Seat, Jackson.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-third Judicial,
Thirty-fourth Senatorial, and Ninety-sec
ond Legislative Districts.
Breathitt County was formed in 1839
from parts of Clay, Perry, and Estill coun
ties. The surface of the county is mountain
ous and hilly, but the valleys are very
fertile and productive. The North and
Middle Forks of the Kentucky River flow
through the county, and with all their
various tributaries it is well watered and
drained. The North Fork is navigable
for small steamboats as far up as Jack
son, the county seat, during the rainy
season, for about six months in the year.
Breathitt is famous for its coal fields;
It has inexhaustible fields of the finest
cannel and bituminous coals, the George's
Branch, Wilson Wedge, Buckhorn, Flint
Ridge, and Howards Fork fields. There
is also an almost inexhaustible bituminous
coal field within the corporate limits of
Jackson, the county seat, now being op
erated by the Jackson Coal Company.

The above are only a few of the vast coal
fields in this county.
The county is covered with the finest
oak, poplar, ash, cucumber, sugar-tree,
beech, birch, and hickory timber. The
poplar is being very rapidly worked out,
but the rest of the timber is comparatively
untouched, and almost inexhaustible in
quantity, and can be bought for from
four to six dollars per acre. ,. ^
The county is being dotted over with
mills used for the purpose of manufactur
ing lumber. This business is increasing
almost daily.
The soil in Breathitt County produces
fine vegetables, corn, oats, rye, wheat,
tobacco, and the various grasses, also the
finest apples are grown here. Corn and
oats are the principal products now raised.
There are two mineral springs on Cane
Creek, about four miles west of Jackson,
whose waters possess wonderful healing
qualities. There are sixty-seven public schools
taught in the county. The S. P.
Lee's Collegiate Institute, a branch of

STATE OF KENTUCKY

Central University, Richmond, Ky., is
located at Jackson and has about two
hundred pupils enrolled. This is a
splendid educational institution, and has a

manual training, domestic science, and
musical department, and offers all the
advantages to be found at any prepara
tory school in the State.

BRECKINRIDGE COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 20,534. County Seat, Hardinsburg.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Second Appellate, Ninth Judicial, Tenth
Senatorial, and Twenty-eighth Legislative
Districts. Breckinridge County was formed in
1799, and lies in the northwestern part of
the State, on the Ohio River.
Its principal water-courses are: Sinking
Creek, Hardin's Creek, Clover Creek, Tar-
fork Creek, Calamese Creek, Rough
Creek, Bull Creek, and Town Creek.
None of these streams are navigable, ex
cept for rafts at high tide.
The soil is very fertile and grows fine
crops of tobacco, wheat, corn, vegetables,
and fruits.
A great variety of timber, including all
classes usually grown in this climate, is
found in the county, which at one time
was very heavily timbered.
An abundance of natural gas is found
in certain localities.
The celebrated White Sulphur and Tar
Springs, a noted health resort, is located
four and one half miles south of Clover-
port. Numerous mills, factories, and dis
tilleries are located at different points
throughout the county.

Cloverport, one of the most important
towns, has three vitrified brick plants,
shops of the L. , H. & St. L. railroad, two
mills, a number of good stores and busi
ness houses.
Hardinsburg, the county seat, is cent
rally located, is accessible by rail and turn
pike. It has a S4o,ooo court house, a
S 12,000 jail (stone cells), several very
costly private residences, two good hotels,
two large flouring mills, one stave factory,
and the Bank of Hardinsburg, with a cap
ital of S2 5,ooo. There are about seventy
miles of railroad in the county, operated
by the L., H. & St. L. R'y Co., which
runs through some of the best portions of
the county and has been the means of
large improvement and development ; ten
miles of macadamized road in the county,
leading from Hardinsburg to Cloverport,
and more being constructed on the public
roads throughout the county.
The educational facilities are excellent.
The Breckinridge Normal College, situated
at Hardinsburg, is a first-class institution.
Cloverport has another fine school and so
has Glendean. There are good public
schools taught in every district in the
county for five months in each year.

BULLITT COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 9,602. County Seat, Shepherdsville.
Situated in the Fourth Congressional, Bullitt County, named in honor of
Third Appellate, Tenth Judicial, Twelfth Captain Thomas Bullitt, who, in company
Senatorial, and Forty-first Legislative with a brave band of hardy Virginians,
Districts. did considerable surveying in the vicinity

36

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

of Shepherdsville and Bullitt's Lick, in
1773, was carved out of Jefferson and
Nelson counties in 1796, and was the
twenty-second county to be formed after
Kentucky became an organized State.
Bullitt County is traversed from east to
west by Salt River, which is navigable for
a distance of twelve miles. Salt River has
two tributaries of importance, the Rolling
Fork, which flows into the river from the
southeast, and Floyd's Fork, which flows
from the Beargrass country on the north.
Rolling Fork is navigable for a distance
of ten miles, for small boats, and the
farmers along its banks depend upon the
river to market their crops and stock.
Wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, all kinds
of grasses, fruits, and vegetables are grown
in this county, especially wheat and corn.
The Salt River valley. Cox's Creek bot
toms. Rolling Fork bottoms, and Floyd's
Fork bottoms are equal to any land in the
State in the production of corn, and
where the uplands have been taken care
of and manured and clovered, twenty-
seven bushels of wheat have been averaged
on large fields per acre.
Hickory, ash, oak, pine, locust, linn,
poplar, cedar, cherry, and in fact all kinds
of timber indigenous to Kentucky, grow in
Bullitt. Bullitt County contains many mineral
wells, whose waters abound in medicinal

virtues. Chief among these is the well at
Paroquet Springs, famous in antebellum
days as the foremost summer resort in the
South. Shepherdsville, the county seat, lies
on the north bank of Salt River where the
main stem of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad crosses that stream, and lies about
eighteen miles south of Louisville. It is
the oldest incorporated town in Kentucky
with the single exception of Harrodsburg,
and has a population of about three hun
dred. It enjoys the distinction of having
the largest and best stores to be found in
the State outside of the large cities, a
handsome new court house which cost
817,400, good graded schools for white
and colored pupils, and in the past few
years many handsome residences have
been erected.
Gas, oil, ore, and the finest quality of
building stone is found in the county.
There is but one college in Bullitt
County, and that is for colored citizens.
It was built by Eckstein Norton, for whom
it was named, and has a large attendance.
Bullitt has twenty-six and one half miles
of completed railroad, belonging to the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company,
and ten miles of free turnpikes.
The character of labor employed by
farmers and others is as a rule high, and
wages very good.

BUTLER COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 15,896. County Seat, Morgantown.

Situated in the Second Appellate Court
District, in the Third Congressional Dis
trict, in the Seventh Senatorial District,
in the Eighth Judicial District, and to
gether with Edmonson County constitutes
a Legislative District.
In 18 10 the county of Butler was carved
out of the counties of Logan and Ohio.
Two years later Morgantown was incor
porated and established as the county seat.

The surface of Butler County is some
what broken, hills, flats, and valleys
everywhere abounding. The soils of the
uplands of the limestone section, which
are restricted to the southeastern portion
of the county, are very rich and productive,
and are well adapted to all Kentucky prod
ucts particularly to wheat and tobacco;
the sandstone uplands of the rest of the
county are hardly so fertile, but are w-ell

STATE OF KENTUCKY

37

adapted to lighter grains, fruits, and
melons. The valley lands and bottoms
are as rich as any in the State, and their
yields of corn can not be exceeded.
Poplar, oak, gum, ash, hickory, chest
nut, beech, and sycamore are the principal
timbers of value indigenous to the soil;
and these, though they have been cut and
sold in the market for many years, yet
abound. Annually thousands of dollars'
worth of logs are run down the creeks to
Green River, and thence to the local saw
mills and the Evansville market. The
cross-tie business and stave business are
now consuming more timber than perhaps
any other branch of the lumber industry.
The white oak of this, the Green River
section, is claimed to be the finest in the
world, awards to that effect having been
giving in sundry competitive exhibits both
at home and abroad.
Butler County is in the Western Ken
tucky coal field, and has some of the
finest bituminous coals in the State. The
annual output of commercial coal is more
than 30,000 tons, and finds a market in
Bowling Green, Evansville, and inter
mediate points along Green and Barren
rivers. The principal mines are those
located at Aberdeen, on Green River, and
within one mile of Morgantown. The
Aberdeen Coal & Mining Company and

the West Aberdeen Coal Company oper
ate these mines.
Nearly all freights to and from market
are shipped by river, and a fine line of
steamers ply from Bowling Green to
Evansville, affording ready and reason
able rates of transportation. A system of
locks and dams on Green and Barren
rivers permit navigation throughout the
year, and the boats not only run from Bowl
ing Green to Evansville, but go to points
far up Green River into Edmonson County
as well. The government is constructing
a lock between Woodbury and Brownsville,
which when completed will permit all-
year navigation to the latter point,
Morgantown, the county seat, has a popu
lation of more than a thousand people and
is most picturesquely situated, standing on
a high plateau overlooking the river. A
fine mill, an excellent school, a flourishing
bank, together with many first-class busi
ness concerns, contribute to make the
town a commercial and educational center.
The school system of the county will
average with that of any county in the
State of like conditions. Some of the
most prominent men in the State, and
many who have gone into other sections
of the nation and won place and honor,
have received their early education in
Butler County schools.

CALDWELL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 14,510. County Seat,, Princeton.

Situated in the First Congressional, First
Appellate, Fourth Judicial, Fourth Sena
torial, and Ninth Legislative Districts.
Caldwell County was the fifty-first or
ganized in the State, and was formed in
1809 from a part of Livingston County.
The southern portion of the county is
level, the soil very fertile, which makes it
very productive, while the northern part
is hilly and heavily timbered with the best
quality of oak, poplar, walnut, and hickory.

There is much valuable stone which is
used to advantage in different ways, such
as keeping the roads in repair, building
purposes, and in being made into lime by
the two large lime-works which are in
operation. Coal has been found in many
localities, but it is only being worked in
two or three places at present. Spar also
abounds in the county, and the mine now
in operation will likely prove a great
source of wealth to the county. The oil

^8

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

fields are abundant, and a stock company
organized in this county will begin oper
ating wells at once.
The roads are in very good condition,
and are kept so by a county fund raised
for that purpose. It has two railroads,
which intersect each other at the county
seat, one running north and south and the
other east and west. They are both of
the Illinois Central system.
Caldwell County is one of the best coun
ties in the western portion of the State for
stock raising, and large numbers of cattle,
sheep, and hogs are shipped to market
every year. Fruit grows well in all parts of
the county, consisting of apples, pears,
peaches, grapes, plums, strawberries, etc.
The Tradewater River with its tribu
taries water the northern portion of the
county, while the southern part is watered
by springs and creeks. There are quite
a number of mineral springs in various
parts of the county which are capable of
being made beautiful health and pleasure
resorts. Some streams capable of oper
ating machinery are found, the water of
which is being utilized for such purposes.
There are many natural curiosities in the
county, such as caves, hills, and project

ing rocks towering far above us and often
presenting the most beautiful scenery.
There is in the county a Spanish fort and
an Indian fortification that have many
strange historical facts connected with
them. There is an ice cave in which may
be found ice at any time of the year.
The agricultural products of the county
are corn, wheat, oats, rye, tobacco, fruits,
and vegetables. The grasses are clover,
timothy, orchard grass, and bluegrass.
The farmers use the best improved
machinery. Princeton, the county seat, a city of
about 3,500 inhabitants, is located near
the center of the county, and is the center
of a rich agricultural region. It has many
factories, foundries, and mills. It has
two of the largest tobacco factories in the
world, one of which is claimed to be the
largest. The county has splendid educational
advantages. The public schools of the
county are in thriving condition, while the
city of Princeton can boast of one of
the best colleges in Western Kentucky.
Princeton Collegiate Institute enjoys a
large and increasing patronage from a
number of the surrounding States.

CALLOWAY COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 17,633. County Seat, Murray.

Situated in the First Congressional, First
Appellate, Third Judicial, Third Senatorial,
and Fifth Legislative Districts.
Calloway County is situated in the
southwestern portion of the State, and
lies along the Tennessee State line. This
county IS abundantly watered and well
drained by the Tennessee and Blood
rivers, and the east and west forks of
Clark's River and their several tributaries,
the Tennessee and Blood rivers draining
the eastern section of the county and the
east and west forks of Clark's River drain
ing the more central and western portions

of the county. In the western portion of
this county the land is level, while in the
eastern section it is broken and hilly.
Nevertheless all the land of the county,
as a general rule, is fertile and productive.
It is especially good along the river and
creek bottoms, where most magnificent
farms are located. The labor on the farms
is performed by native white and colored
hands, whose services can be procured for
from ten to fifteen dollars per month and
board. The staple products of the Cal
loway County farms are corn, wheat, oats,
hay, and tobacco.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

39

Much good timber of oak, walnut, pop
lar, beech, and ash can be found in the
county at reasonable prices per acre.
There are no turnpikes in the county, the
public roads being the ordinary county or
dirt roads, and are under the supervision
of road overseers appointed by the county
court, and are kept in fair condition.
The Paducah, Tennessee & Alabama
Railroad runs through the central part of
the county from north to south.
School facilities are furnished by the

common school system of the State, and
in most of the districts are good and com
fortable school houses ; the schools are
well attended and are in a flourishing
condition. Murray, the county seat of Calloway
County, is situated near the center of the .
county on the Paducah, Tennessee & Ala
bama Railroad ; is a nice little town, with
a population, according to the last United
States census, of 1,822. It has churches
and schools.

CAMPBELL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 54,223. -County Seats, Newport and Alexandria.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Seventh Judicial, Twenty-
fifth Senatorial, and Eighty-third Legis
lative Districts.
Campbell County was organized in 1798,
and was the nineteenth county formed in
the State. When formed it included Ken
ton County, and is bounded on the north
and east by the Ohio River, on the west
by Licking River, and on the south by
Pendleton County. It has two railroads
running through it, the C. & O. R. R. and
L. & N. R. R., together, about thirty
miles. Fort Thomas is located in the
north end, about three miles south of
Newport, with an electric car line from
Fountain Square in Cincinnati to Fort
Thomas, and a second line running to
Evergreen Cemetery, a distance of three
miles, 'with a fair prospect of being built
to Alexandria, the county seat. It also
has located in the county the Government
rifle range on the bank of Licking River,
where every regiment in the United States
army comes to practice target shooting.
The county is about twenty-five miles from
north to south, and about seven miles
wide from east to west, and, because of
its being located between the Ohio and
Licking rivers, it is said to be the best
fruit county in the State, equal to the

famous fruit belt of Michigan; all kinds of
fruit that are suited to this climate are
raised in this country to perfection and in
abundance, some farmers having fifty to
one hundred acres in small fruit. It was
conceded at the Ohio State Horticultural
Society that the apples and peaches that
came from Campbell County had the finest
flavor and the highest and brightest color
of any that were on exhibition.
Campbell County has two county seats,
Newport and Alexandria, sixty miles of
turnpike, aud four hundred and forty miles
of county roads.
The common schools are as good as any
in the Union. As a rule the people take
a great interest in the schools and school
buildings, and fully ninety per cent of the
children at school age can read and write.
There are some foreigners in the county,
mostly Germans, and as a rule they are
good, law-abiding people and good agri
culturists and horticulturists. Our farmers
use the best of farm implements and seeds.
All kinds of grasses grow here ; Kentucky
bluegrass is indigenous to this county.
In the southern part of the county there is
regular farming and stock raising, horses,
cattle, sheep, and hogs, and all kinds of
grain and tobacco, but in the northern part
it is all tilled as a garden and fruit farm.

40

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

Campbell County is the third in the
State in point of wealth and population.
Newport has several iron plants, one large
rolling mill and bolt works, one shoe fac
tory, one pipe factory, one watch-case
factory, and has a population of about
40,000 ; has two iron bridges spanning
the Ohio River and two iron bridges span

ning the Licking River, and two suburban
towns of about 7,000 each, and the county
is as healthy as any place in the land.
The face of the county is undulating, so
no stagnant water is left. The Ohio River
is navigable the year round. The Licking
River is navigable as far as Falmouth
about six months of the year.

CARLISLE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 10,195. County Seat, Bardwell.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, First Judicial, Second Sen
atorial, and Second Legislative Districts.
Carlisle County was formed May 4,
1886. The surface is slightly rolling and
the soil very productive. Mayfield Creek,
along the northern boundary, is the largest
stream in the State called a "creek."
Obion Creek, almost as large, runs along
the south line. These streams, with their
numerous tributaries, furnish an abundant
supply of water for power aud domestic
use. Excellent water for family use can
be had from twenty to sixty feet under
ground. There are some very fine tracts
of oak and Cottonwood timber in the
county. The oak is being used extensively
for railroad ties.
By a system of taxation of twenty-five
cents on the one hundred dollars the roads
of the county are worked and are in

splendid condition. No tolls, no toll-gate
raiders. The Illinois Central Railroad and Mobile
& Ohio Railroad both cross the county.
Many farmers are giving a great amount
of attention to truck farming. The soil in
the county produces some of the finest
vegetables and berries in the State.
The farm labor is native white, and is
paid S12 to Si 5 per month, with board.
Bardwell, the county seat, is an enter
prising town of 1,600; located on the
Illinois Central Railroad, has three white
and two colored churches, public graded
school building costing 87,000, where five
teachers are employed ten months in the
year. There are also two banks, capital
stock 836,000. Hotel, opera-house, two
flouring mills, saw and planing mills, box
factory, electric lights, steam laundry; in
fact a first-class, enterprising town.

CARROLL COUNTY

PopuL-ATioN (Census 1900), 9,825. County Seat, Carrollton.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Fifteenth Judicial, Twenty-
first Senatorial, and Fifty-third Legislative
Districts. Carroll County is located on the extreme
northern border of the State, midway be
tween Louisville and Cincinnati. It was
organized in 1838, and was formed out of

portions of Gallatin and Trimble counties,
and named in honor of Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton, Maryland.
The Ohio River extends along its entire
northern boundary.
The principal streams which drain the
county are the Kentucky River, the Little
Kentucky River, White's Run, Eagle Creek,

STATE OF KENTUCKY

41

and Locust Creek. The bottom land of
the Ohio River is very wide and remark
ably fertile. The same is true of the
broad valley of the Kentucky River and
the bottom lands of the various streams
traversing the county. Corn and tobacco,
-especially, are well adapted to these low
lands and are grown in great abundance.
The uplands, which is excellent limestone
land, produces all the cereals, also hay
and tobacco, and affords fine pasturage
as well. The principal products of the
¦county are the finest quality of Burley
tobacco, wheat, corn, and hay, all of
which are produced in abundance without
the aid of commercial fertilizers.
Facilities for travel and transportation
by land are furnished by the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad, which runs through
the entire length of the southeastern part
of the county, and the Ohio and Kentucky
rivers furnish abundant cheap and con
venient transportation by water.
The county has one farmers' club, the
Carroll County Agricultural and Improve
ment Society, which is doing much toward
the promotion of agriculture.
Farm labor is supplied by both white
and black laborers, who are employed at

prices ranging from Si 2 to Si 5 per month
and board, or from S16 to 820 per month
without board.
The county has excellent roads, of
which about one hundred and twenty-five
miles are macadam and are free from toll.
The free turnpike system so far has given
entire satisfaction. ,
The public schools of the county are up
to the standard of any in the State.
Carrollton, the county seat, is situated
at the junction of the Ohio and Kentucky
rivers and is a growing business town
with about 2,800 population. The princi
pal industries are the Barker Tobacco
Company, the Carrollton Furniture Com
pany, the Carrollton Pressed Brick Com
pany, the Old Darling Distillery Company,
the Jett Bros. Distilling Company, the
Cameron Flouring Mill Company, the
Adkinson Bros. Saw & Planing Mill
Company, and Hill's Tobacco Factory.
The town has excellent schools and
churches, water-works, electric lights,
a telephone exchange, custom-house,
opera-house, a fine iron bridge across
the Kentucky River, and a number of
good stores and business houses of various
kinds.

CARTER COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 20,228. County Seat, Gray'.on.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Twelfth Judicial, Thirty-
fifth Senatorial, and One Hundredth Leg
islative Districts.
Carter County was formed in the year
1838 from parts of Greenup and Law
rence counties, and was named for Colonel
Wm. G. Carter. It was the eighty-third
county formed in the State. It is located in
the extreme northeastern part of the State.
The surface of the county is divided
into hills and valleys.
¦The county is well watered and drouths
are almost unknown. The principal water

courses are the Little Big Saniy River and
Tygorts Creek. The soil is generally very
fertile and well adapted to the growth of
corn, oats, wheat, rye, barley, millet, sugar
cane, tobacco, and all kinds of vegetables
usually grown in the temperate zone.
The timber consists of poplar, oak, and
pine. Beneath the soil is found in many locali
ties iron ore, limestone, fire clay, cannel
coal, and bituminous coal. No iron ore
is now being taken out, but a number of
excellent fire-clay mines are in operation
and are being worked profitably.

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

There are several large coal mines in
operation, and the Kentucky Cannel Coal
Company, whose mines are located on
Stinson Creek, are mining a very superior
grade of coal, all of which is exported,
Spain being the principal customer. The
greatest natural curiosity is the Carter
caves in the west end of the county, which
are grand structures and have been ex
plored for a distance of ten miles or more.
The farming lands are being more ex
tensively developed, better care is being
taken of them and the grade of stock is
being improved. Tobacco is the staple
crop. .At Olive Hill an extensive fire-brick
plant is in operation, and a stone-crushing
plant, employing a large quantity of lime
stone daily. The Chesapeake & Ohio
Railway passes through the county from
east to west, and the Eastern Kentucky
from north to south. Transportation
facilities are amply sufficient for all the
demands of the people. The public roads

are not macadamized, but are kept in fair
condition and are easily traveled except in
prolonged seasons of rain in winter.
They are maintained under the provisions
of the general law. The principal labor
is farm work, and average wages for that
class of work is about fifteen dollars per
month and board. The skilled labor about
the mines and manufacturing plants is
much higher. The common school system
is flourishing and improving all the time
as to methods and teachers. There are
excellent graded free schools at Denton,
Grayson, Olive Hill, and Willard. The
sentiment among the people is for better
educational facilities. Timothy, clover,
bluegrass, and orchard grass flourish.
Grayson, the county seat, contains about
eight hundred inhabitants, four churches,
a fine graded school employing three
teachers and in session nine months in the
year, good public buildings, and a number
of good stores.

CASEY COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 15.144. County Seat, Liberty.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Third Appellate, Tw-enty-ninth Judicial,
Eighteenth Senatorial, and Forty-third
Legislative Districts.
Casey County was organized in 1806
out of apart of Lincoln County, and has 444
square miles of territory. The surface of
the county is hilly. The soil is thin and
broken, except portions of the bottom
lands, which are very productive. This is
especially true of the valley of the Roll
ing Fork of Salt River, that portion
within the borders of Casey County con
taining as fine lands as there is in the State.
Corn, wheat, and potatoes are the chief
agricultural products, of which a surplus

is raised. The county is well supplied
with turnpikes,' kept in excellent condition,
and on all of which toll is collected. The
dirt roads are good and are kept in repair
by the general road law of the State.
The timber of Casey County is unsur
passed by any in the State, though great
inroads have been made on it of late
years. The schools are in good condi
tion, with commodious houses and an
excellent corps of teachers. There is a
school in Middleburg, in the eastern end
of the county, in which all the higher
branches are taught. Liberty is the
county seat, is on Green River, and has
about 1,000 inhabitants.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

43

CHRISTIAN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 37,962. County Seat, Hopkinsville.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
First Appellate, Third Judicial, Sixth
Senatorial, and Tenth Legislative Districts.
Christian County was named in honor of
Colonel William Christian, a noted soldier
and Indian fighter, and was formed in 1796
out of a part of Logan County. It is
situated in the southwestern part of the
State, and is a border county to the State
of Tennessee. Is one of the largest and
most productive counties in the State,
producing more wheat and tobacco than
any other county in the State. Has pro
duced the enormous amount of 17,000,-
000 pounds of tobacco in one year.
The northern half of the county is
broken, and in some parts quite hilly.
The soil, while not so rich as the south
ern half, responds kindly to modern
methods of good cultivation, and excel
lent corn, tobacco, and other farm crops
are grown. It is far better adapted to
the use of commercial fertilizers than
the southern part of the county, and with
their use makes the finest quality of
tobacco. It is also much better adapted
to the growth of fruits. The southern
half of the county is level or slightly un
dulating, has a rich clay soil, well adapted
to the growth of wheat, corn, tobacco and
all other products which will grow in this
latitude. The northern half of the county
was heavily timbered, of which there
still remains an ample supply for all
purposes, and of the best quahty, the hard
woods mostly abounding. There is also
an ample supply of building stone, bitu
minous coal, and iron ore.
In some parts of the county there are a
few Indian mounds, in which are found a
great many very rare and interesting relics.
The principal water-courses are Little
River, Pond River, Red River, West and
Little West Forks of Red River, Trade-
water, Sinking Fork of Little River, and a

few other minor streams. Excellent water
power for mills or other manufacturing
purposes is furnished by Little River,
West Fork, Pond River, and Tradewater ;
none, however, are navigable for steam
boats. The county has seventy-two miles of
railroad, operated by the Louisville &
Nashville and Illinois Central companies.
All turnpikes are owned and operated by
the county free of toll.
Farm labor, principally colored, is
plentiful and averages in price from
Si I to S15 per month, with board.
Educational facilities are good. Com
mon schools for white and colored pupils
are taught in every school district in the
county. There are several high schools
and colleges, prominent among them being
Major Ferrill's High School, South Ken
tucky College, and Bethel Female College,
all located at Hopkinsville.
Hopkinsville, the county seat, is a
handsome, well-built city of over 8,000
inhabitants, with the best-built streets
and sidewalks of any city of its size in
the State, with all modern improvements,
such as electric lights, water-works, four
banks with a capital of nearly 8500,000,
twelve large tobacco warehouses, an ex
cellent graded school system, supplement
ed with the high school and two colleges
already mentioned. The Western Insane
Asylum is located near Hopkinsville.
There are a number of other more or less
important towns, of which Pembroke, with
about 1,000 inhabitants, two good banks
and other commercial and industrial
institutions, is most prominent. Fairview,
the birthplace of the Hon. Jefferson
Davis, President of the Confederate States,
LaFayette, Gracey, Julian, Newstead,
Howel, Garretsburg, Bell, Oak Grove,
Kennedy, Bellview, Crofton, and Kelly,
are all thriving and prosperous towns.

44

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

CLARK COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 16,694. County Seat, Winchester.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fifth Judicial,
Twenty-eighth Senatorial and Seventy-
fourth Legislative Districts.
Clark County was organized by act of
the legislature in December, 1792, out of
parts of Fayette and Bourbon, and was
the fourteenth in order of formation. It
originally comprised most of the territory
between the Kentucky River and the
Middle Fork of the same, and Cumberland
Gap on the east and south. Licking River
and Pound Gap on the northeast, and
extending from Boone's Creek to the
'Virginia line. Four years later much of
its territory was taken off by the formation
of Montgomery County. In 1806 it
yielded part of its territory to the new
county of Estill, and in 1852 it contrib
uted to the formation of Powell.
The county stands on the dividing ridge
between the waters of Kentucky and Lick
ing rivers. The southern and eastern
portions are drained by Lulbegrud, Upper
and Lower Howards, Two Mile, Four
Mile creeks, and Red River, all tributaries
of Kentucky. The northern part is drain
ed by Stoner, Strode's, and Hancock
creeks, which flow into the Licking. The
Kentucky River borders the southern line
of the county for about twenty-five miles,
and the new lock at 'Valley View will bring
slack-water navigation to the border of
the county.
The soil varies much in quality. A
large portion of it is composed of the best
of the famous bluegrass lands of the
State, and is worth as much as similar
land anywhere. For many years the Bur
ley tobacco of this section of the county
has broken the record price of the year in
the Louisville and Cincinnati markets.
Other portions of the county are hilly and
broken, but produce well. In the extreme
eastern portion of the county land is

quite thin. Fine building stone and stone
for lime exists in various portions of the
county, and evidence of oil and gas are
strong in the eastern part of the county.
Very little timber is left in the county,
although some walnut lumber is still
shipped from here, most of it going to
Europe. The crops are those usually found in
the bluegrass region: corn, wheat, rye,
oats, hay, Burley tobacco, hemp, and
bluegrass seed are grown, while of late
years considerable quantities of small
fruits, principally strawberries, are raised.
More attention is also being given to fruit
growing. Owing to the natural fertility
of the soil, not much attention has been
given to the use of fertilizers in the past,
but their use is increasing rapidly. The
latest and most improved farming imple
ments are generally used.
Clark County has always stood high in
stock-raising ranks, being especially noted
for her short-horn cattle. More cattle are
sold from this county than from any other
in the State in proportion to its size. Of
late years considerable attention has been
given to the breeding of Jerseys and other
breeds of dairy cattle. Horses, mules,
sheep, and hogs receive close attention,
and of late years Winchester has been the
seat of a thriving trade in eggs and
dressed poultry, including thousands of
turkeys, which bring highest prices in
the markets of Boston and other Eastern
points. The 255 square miles in the county are
traversed by 175 miles of turnpikes and
200 miles of dirt roads, all of which are
free and are kept up by taxation.
Three independent and competing lines
of railroad run through the county, giving
Clark County more miles of railroad in
proportion to area than any county in the
State except Jefferson.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

45

Clark County's taxable wealth is about
Sio, 000,000, and the credit of the county
is of the highest class. Her bonded
debt is not burdensome and is being
steadily reduced. Clark is one of the
four richest counties in the State, outside
of the five which contain large cities.
With the exception of a few planing
mills and other manufactories, the labor
of the county is mostly unskilled. Farm
laborers receive from Sio to Si 5 per
month with board, but much of the land
is tilled " on shares."
The public schools of Clark county are
above the average and most of the dis

tricts have good schoolhouses, which are
well equipped.
Winchester, the county seat, has a popu
lation of about 7,000, with a fine sys
tem of water works, electric light, a
splendid fire department, two telephone
systems with lines running to other cities
and to many parts of the country. Sev
enteen churches, a fine system of public
schools, two colleges, fine public build
ings, and enterprising and successful busi
ness houses of many kinds. The city is
very healthful, being one of the highest
county seats in the State. The assessed
valuation of the city is over 82,000,000.

CLAY COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 15,364. County Seat, Manchester.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty- seventh Judicial,
Thirty-third Senatorial, and Seventy-first
Legislative Districts.
Clay County was formed in the year
1806. Situated in the southeastern por
tion of the State, bounded by the counties
of Laurel, Knox, and Bell on the south ;
Leslie and Perry on the east; Owsley and
Jackson on the north, and Laurel on the
west. The county has over 200 miles of
navigable water within its boundary, in
the streams of Red Bird, Big Goose Creek,
and Little Goose Creek. The two former
unite in the county and form the south
fork of the Kentucky River, at what is
known as the Buckskin Salt Works.
The soil of the river bottoms, which are
wide and extend the length of the rivers,
is as productive as any soil in the State.
The hills are productive of grass and fine
crops of corn, oats, and wheat. The hills
also contain a supply of coal, both soft
and cannel, unexcelled in any other por
tion of Kentucky. So plentiful is the
coal that it is dug and delivered at the
county seat for four cents per bushel. The
supply is inexhaustible.

The portion of the county lying on the
Big Goose Creek contains fine salt water,
and ever since the formation of the county
the salt works have been operated by the
Whites, Garrards, Combs, and Bates.
All, however, except the works owned by
General T. T. Garrard, have suspended.
His works supply this and many of
the surrounding counties with salt made
from his works, two miles from the county
seat. No county in the State has such an
inexhaustible supply of " natural gas " as
has this county. On Sexton's Creek there
are two wells, or natural gas springs,
where the gas comes through the pores of
the ground in quantities that will support
great fires for whole seasons.
The scenery along the water courses is
picturesque, and in grandeur has nothing
in the State that can excel it.
The average price of land in the county
is about 810 an acre.
The county seat, Manchester, is located
in the central portion of the county on
Goose Creek, and has about 800 popula
tion, made up of the very best citizenship
of Eastern Kentucky.

46

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

CLINTON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 7,871. County Seat, Albany.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Third .'Appellate, Twenty-eighth Judicial,
Sixteenth Senatorial, and Thirty - sixth
Legislative Districts.
Clinton County was created by an act
of the legislature approved February 20,
1836, and the territory within its limits
was taken from Wayne and Cumberland
counties. Spurs of the Cumberland Mountains
enter the county on the east and extend
to near its center. They contain veins
of excellent bituminous coal about three
feet thick.
Between these spurs are fertile valleys
which, under a proper state of cultivation,
yield crops of corn, wheat, oats, clover,
orchard grass, timothy, fruits, etc.
The western portion of the county is
undulating, and is not so fertile as the
valleys in the eastern part of the county,
except on the rivers and creeks, but yield
remunerative crops by the use of ferti
lizers. Potatoes and garden vegetables
grow abundantly in all parts of the county,
as the soil is generally well prepared by
deep plowing, pulverizing the soil, and
using stable manure.
The climate and soil are adapted to
the growth of fruit trees, which yield abun
dantly of well-matured and healthy fruit.
The peach crop never fails on the hills,
but does not do so well in the lowlands.
There is an abundance of fine timber in the
county, such as poplar, white oak, black
oak, hickory, sugar tree, cedar, dogwood,
chestnut, maple, elm, beech, etc. There
is an abundance of blue, gray, and white
limestone and other rocks suitable for
building purposes.
The county is well watered ; in addition
to the rivers and creeks there are many
bold springs of pure water in all parts of
the county.

Salt has been manufactured on Willis's
Creek, in the northwestern part of the
county, and it is believed that the county
is in the oil belt.
There is an abundance of marl, which,
if utilized, would enrich the whole county.
The climate is healthy, and the summers,
instead of being oppressive, are delightful
in the timbered valleys.
There are chalybeate springs on a high
plateau northeast of Albany, the county
seat, where a view of the surrounding
country for many miles can be had, which
gives great pleasure, as the scenery is so
varied. The Cumberland River on the north is
navigable a part of the year from Nash
ville, Tenn., to Burnside, Ky., a station
on the Cincinnati Southern Railway.
There are no railroads in the county;
the nearest station is at Burnside, which
is forty miles from the county seat.
Albany, the county seat, on the south
side of the center of the county, has a
new and commodious court house, is
abundantly supplied with water by springs
from thirty to sixty feet deep, has six gen
eral stores, two drug stores, one grocery,
one saddlery, two blacksmith shops, two
hotels, two water mills, one steam roller
mill, saw mill, planing mill and carding
factory, one high school, one bank, three
churches, and no saloons.
The public schools of the county are in
fair condition, but the State aid is not
supplemented by local taxation.
Some of the most prominent men of
the State and nation were natives of
Clinton County.
During the civil war over one half of
the male population enlisted in the Union
army, and many of the others served in
the Confederate army. On both sides
they distinguished themselves for courage

STATE OF KENTUCKY

47

and devotion to the banner under which
they enli.sted.
The price of farm labor will average
about 812 per month.
There are no foreign colonies here, but
the people of this county are hospitable.

and emigrants would be heartily received
and furnished homes at cheap rates for
lands. The resources of the county are abun
dant, varied, and valuable, but except to
a very limited extent remain undeveloped.

CRITTENDEN COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 15,191. County Seat, Marion.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, Fourth Judicial, Fourth
Senatorial and Seventh Legislative Dis
tricts. Crittenden County was formed out of
part of Livingston County in 1842, and
made the number of counties then in the
State ninety-one.
It is situated in the southwestern part
of the State, on the Ohio River. The
Ohio River forms its northern boundary,
while on the east it is bounded by the
counties of Union and Webster, on the
south by Caldwell and Lyon, Livingston
forming its western boundary. The land
is high and rolling, well watered and
drained by the Ohio on its northern
boundary and the Tradewater on the
northeast, and the Cumberland for a con
siderable distance on its southern border,
besides numerous streams flowing through
the county, principal among which are
Caney Fork and Crooked Creek, emptying
into the Ohio on the north, and Pine
Creek, Long Branch and others which
flow into Tradewater on the northeast.
The soil of Crittenden County is good,
but that attention to fertilizing which the
subject demands has not been paid to it
by our farmers, nor has the proper atten
tion to the rotation of crops been had;
nevertheless, a large surplus of farm
products are shipped out of the county to
other markets each year. Corn, wheat,
oats, rye, tobacco, and hay are the prin
cipal staples of the Crittenden County

farm, timothy being the most profitable of
all grasses grown in the county. The
high and rolling lands of the county make
it a most excellent locality for fruit culture,
and all fruits grown in Kentucky are
grown in this county most abundantly.
The timber supply of Crittenden is good
and abundant; hickory and oak most
abound, and great forests tracts of this
valuable timber can be had at reason
able prices. The Ohio Valley Railroad runs
through the county, the county seat being
situated on the same; and this railroad
and , the water courses spoken of afford
good local facilities for transportation,
either by land or water. There are no
turnpike roads in the county, the public
roads being the common dirt roads of ¦ the
county, which are maintained and kept
in repair by the road overseers, appointed
by the county court under the road laws
of the State.
Diversified farming is only engaged in
for domestic uses, saving fruit-growing,
there being more fruit grown in the
county than is sufficient for home
consumption. ,
The educational facilities of the county
are mostly confined to the common
schools, which are in good condition, well
attended, and under good management.
Marion, the county seat, is situated a
little southeast of the center of the coun
ty, on the Ohio Valley Railroad. It is a
flourishing town with a population of nearly
1,000.

48

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

CUMBERLAND COUNTY

Population (Census 1900) 8,962. County Seat, Burksville.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Second Appellate, Twenty-ninth Judicial,
Sixteenth Senatorial, aud Thirty-seventh
Legislative Districts.
This county was formed in 1798 from a
part of Green, and named for the Cum
berland River, which flows diagonally
through the county from northeast to
southwest. A small portion of this county lies on
the subcarboniferous Lithostrotion lime
stone, but the greater part of the county
is- based upon the Waverly series, which
are cut through by the rivers and creeks
so as to expose the Devonian shales and
the Upper Silurian in thin stratifications,
and the Lower Silurian blue limestones in
the beds of the rivers. There is no coal
in the county, but oil in paying quantities
has been found by wells sunk in the river
and creek bottoms. The first noted
' ' American oil " well ever bored in the
United States is situated three miles from
Burksville, on the banks of the Cumber
land River. The oil was struck while
boring for salt water, in 1830, at a depth
of 175 feet.
Salt water abounds in this section, and
some iron ores, but not in such quantities
as in several of the neighboring counties
lying to the north and east. The general
surface of the county is broken and hilly,
and abounds in knobby formations of
thin soil, but the bottoms are of great
fertility. Cumberland River, which is navigable
by steamboats the greater part of the
year, with its tributaries, drains the entire
county. The United States government
has begun a series of locks and dams on
the river, which will soon be completed up
to this point, and which will open up and
give an impetus to many new industries.
Its principal tributaries are Marrowbone,
Crocus, Big Renox, Little Renox, Willis,

Bear, and Goose creeks. The county
abounds in sulphur and chalybeate water.
The most noted of these springs are on
Renox and Sulphur creeks, and possess
remarkable health-giving properties.
The greatest wealth of the county lies
in its timber. It abounds in the best
qualities of oak, poplar, and chestnut,
besides walnut, cherry, ash, maple,
hickory, and many others. The hard
woods of the county are very valuable.
Many of the farmers have planted
thousands of young walnut trees on their
idle land, and at no distant date the trees
will be worth far more than the land.
Corn, wheat, oats, rye, and tobacco are
the staple crops, and the principal grazing
and hay grasses are clover, redtop, timo
thy, orchard grass, bluegrass, and millet,
all of which grow luxuriantly.
Stock peas for hay, and sorghum in
large quantities for fattening cattle, are
also grown.
The land is well adapted to the growth
of dark tobacco, and when there was a
demand for it this county produced more
than any other county in the United
States. The soil and climate are also
adapted to small fruits, but their cultiva
tion is limited.
The farmers pay a good deal of atten
tion to the raising of thoroughbred stock.
No prettier horses are to be found in the
State. The fattening of cattle for market
is a profitable industry; the abundant
mast all over the county affords excellent
facilities for fattening hogs, large numbers
of which are shipped to Louisville, Cincin
nati, and other points. Poultry and eggs
are shipped in immense quantities, and
bring more money into the county than
any two of the other products com
bined. Many people, during the summer
months, are engaged in pearl hunting, and

STATE OF KENTUCKY'

49

many pearls of great size and brilliancy
have been found.
Burksville, the county seat, is situated
on the north side of the Cumberland
River, and is the largest shipping point
above Nashville, Tenn. It has a good
court house, several churches, an excellent
public school building, a dozen stores and
groceries, one bank, a large roller mill,
and many handsome private residences.
It is the seat of Alexander College,

founded in 1872, which has a beautiful
building and an endowment of several
thousand dollars.
Marrowbone is a flourishing town, with
three churches, large roller mill, and
several stores. Bakertown, Peytonsburg,
Leslie, Cloyd's Landing, Amandaville, and
Waterview are wide-awake villages.
There are many beautiful churches and
public schools located throughout the
county.

DAVIESS COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 38,667. County Seat, Owensboro.

' Situated in the Second Congressional,
Second Appellate, Sixth Judicial, Eighth
Senatorial and Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Legislative Districts.
In the year of 18 15 a part of Ohio
County was cut off and made into a new
county, which was called Daviess, in honor
of that brilliant lawyer and orator and gal
lant soldier, who gave up his life for his
country on the bloody field of Tippeca
noe, Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daviess.
The county contains about 400 square
miles. It is situated in the far-famed
"Pennerile" section of the State. The
county has about forty miles of frontage
on the Ohio River and twenty-five miles
of western boundary on Green River.
The county is well watered and drained by
Yellow, Pup, Blackford, Panther, Dela
ware and Rhodes creeks.
The county is about one half level,
one fourth rolling, and one fourth hill
land. Most of the land in the county is a
rich, sandy alluvial, very deep and pro
ductive; land that it is impossible to wear
out. About one fifth of the land in the
county is creek bottom, of which there
is no richer land in the world. The soils
of the county are well adapted to the
growth of fruits and vegetables of all
kinds, corn, wheat, tobacco, timothy,
clover, and other cereals of this latitude.

In the last five years a great deal of
attention has been paid to the cultivation
of strawberries and raspberries. Many
farmers have turned their attention to
raising tomatoes, sweet corn, beans, and
peas for the canning factory, with very
profitable results. They get more money
out of these crops than any other,
and are able to get their money
immediately. Daviess County is famous
as a producer of corn, wheat, and tobacco.
The soil is well suited to the finer grades
of Burley, but it is for the heavier grades of
dark tobacco that the county is best known.
This is undoubtedly the best county in
the State for the tobacco raiser, for he
is always sure of getting the highest
market price for his tobacco.
The lands are worked both by tenants
and hired labor, for the most part white;
wages on farm S12 to S15 per month and
board, or S16 to S20 per month when
party boards himself. There is a great
deal of coal in the county, worked in
small, independent banks.
The county is in the Western Kentucky
coal and Illinois coal fields. Mines are
scattered all over the county, furnishing
fuel to every one at an average of Si. 2 5
per ton. For manufacturing purposes
fuel can be had in Owensboro for fifty
cents per ton.

50

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

There are three lines of railroad in the
county, the L., H. & St. L. R. R., the
Illinois Central R. R., and the L. & X.
R. R. These railroads, in connection
with the Ohio River and Green River,
guarantee the cheapest of shipping rates
to and from this county.
.An electric railroad is now under con
struction between Owensboro and Cal
houn, and will greatly benefit the county,
through which it will run.
Owensboro, the county seat, with a
population of 16,500, is one of the most
progressive towns in the State; it is situ
ated on the Ohio River, has gas, electric
lights, electric street cars, eighteen
churches, two daily newspapers, eight
banks, and tw-o trust companies; two tele
phone companies; two telegraph com
panies; three express companies; city
graded schools; an excellent high school;
Ow-ensboro Female College; St. Francis
Academy: Y'oung Men's Christian Associ
ation building, costing $25,000; four
large flouring mills and elevators, the
Owensboro Wagon Co., makers of the
celebrated "Owensboro" wagon; the
Owensboro Wheel Factory; three buggy

factories; two furniture factories; chair
factory; two foundries, and machine
works; five planing mills; two large saw
mills; two cooperage, and several stave
yards. The Cellulose Company, located
in Owensboro, has the largest plant of
its kind in the world. From the pith
of corn-stalks they manufacture cellulose
for packing behind the armor of war
ships; they also intend making smokeless
powder and many other articles out of
the same material. The company buys
corn-stalks from the farmers of the coun
ty, paying enough for them to net the
farmers a handsome profit for this
article, which used to be awaste.
Many distilleries are scattered over the
county, and besides having made "Daviess
County whisky " famous, they furnish a
live market for all surplus corn.
The assessed valuation of property in the
county is Sn, 788, 313. Total tax levy for
all county purposes, including roads and
bridges, twenty-five cents on the 8100.
County out of debt, with a considerable
surplus. Population according to the last
official census (1900), 33,667, which is
constantly being increased by immigration.

EDMONSON COUNTY

Population (Censls 1900), lo.oSo. County Seat, Brownsville.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Eighth Judicial,
Eleventh Senatorial, and Twenty-fifth
Legislative Districts.
Edmonson County, the seventy-ninth in
the order of formation, was formed in the
year 1825 out of parts of Warren, Hart,
and Grayson counties, and was named in
honor of Captain John Edmonson, who
was killed in the battle of River Raisin,
on January 22, 1813.
It lies on both sides of Green River.
The surface of the county is generally
uneven, part of it hilly and broken, and
most of it gently undulating. The river

and creek bottoms and valleys afford some
rich and productive soil, but the ridges
and tableland are usually thin and much
less productive.
Its principal streams are Green and
Xolin rivers. Bear and Beaver Dam
creeks, besides numerous smaller streams,
which afford some fine locations for grist
and saw mills and factories.
The county abounds with excellent tim
ber, principally poplar, oak of all kinds,
hickory, ash, walnut, sycamore, gum, and
beech, which is marketed principally in
the shape of saw-logs and cross-ties,
which are cut and rafted down the various

STATE OF KENTUCK\'

51

streams to Evansville and Henderson
markets. The county is also underlaid with exten
sive beds of coal and iron, which are as
yet undeveloped.
The navigation of Green River is being
improved by locks, and mines of coal,
asphalt, etc., are being opened up. Labor
on farm is mostly white, and wages 50
cents with, and 75 cents per day without
board; or S12 per month with, or S18
without board. Roads are worked by
calling out hands ; road tax is talked of.
Brownsville, the county seat of Edmon
son County, was established in the year
1S28, and was named in honor of General
Jacob Brown. It is located on the banks
of Green River, at the head of navigation,
and is a thriving little town of about 250
inhabitants. It has an excellent court
house and a good jail building; contains
three dry goods and a grocery store, three
hotels, two churches, one bank, one male
and female academy. Brownsville lies in
latitude 37" and 14', and longitude 9°
and 1 5'.
Edmonson County surpasses any other
county in the State in its natural curiosi
ties and strange formations. Indian Hill
lies one mile from Brownsville, is circular
at its base, and one mile in circumference;
its altitude is eighty-four feet, and except
on one side, which is easy of access on
foot, perpendicular. The remains of a for

tification are seen around the brow, and a
number of mounds and burial places are
scattered over this area. A fine spring of
water issues from the rock near the surface.
Dismal Rock is a perpendicular rock on
Dismal Creek, 163 feet high.
The Mammoth Cave is about one half
mile from Green River, twelve miles from
Brownsville, and about seventy-five miles
from Louisville, Ky. The cave abounds
in minerals, such as nitrous earth, sand
flint, pebbles, red and gray ochre, cal
careous spar, chalcedony, crystallized
carbonate of lime, crystals of quartz, sul
phate of lime, Epsom and Glauber salts.
The cave extends some ten or twelve
miles, and to visit the portions already
traversed it is said requires 150 to 200
miles' travel. It contains a succession of
wonderful avenues, chambers, domes,
abysses, grottoes, lakes, rivers, cataracts,
and other marvels which are too well
known to need more than a reference.
There are several other interesting
caves in the neighborhood, the principal
of which are the Colossal Cavern and
Grand Avenue Cave, which rival the
Mammoth Cave in the beauty and grand
eur of their chambers, and excel in the
number and variety of stalagmites and
stalactites. The Chameleon Springs and the Chaly
beate Springs are popular summer resorts
and watering places.

ELLIOTT COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 10,387. County Seat, Sandy Hook.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twentieth Judicial,
Thirty-second Senatorial, and One Hun
dredth Legislative Districts.
Formed by an act of the Kentucky
Legislature in 1869 and 1870, situated on
the headwaters of Little Sandy River.
Within the county are several water
courses navigable for floating out lumber.

staves, etc. The soil is a deep loam with
clay subsoil, well adapted to and on which
grow fine crops of clover, orchard grass,
timothy, oats, and wheat ; also excellent
corn crops. Cattle are being extensively
raised at a good profit. The county has
all varieties of lumber of this climate ;
much valuable oak and yellow poplar is
now being marketed. Bituminous and

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

cannel coal ; the bituminous coal is from
two to four feet thick ; cannel coal runs
five feet thick. This deposit is in the
southern part of the county. It is thought
to have large deposits of asphalt, as Elliott
borders on Carter, near the asphalt mines
now being developed at Soldier, Ky. ; good
saw and flouring mills. The public roads
are in fair condition, with iron bridges
across the principal streams, and the
roads are being materially improved. Av
erage price for farm labor is S13 per
month with board, S18 without board;
good common schools, with an excellent

corps of teachers, and two normal train
ing schools, where many are being prepared
as teachers.
Sandy Hook is the county seat, beauti
fully located, well watered, and healthful.
In the southeastern part of this county
are dikes, and diamonds are supposed to
be deposited. Many geologists have vis
ited these dikes, where some mining has
been done. Some silver mines with a
small per cent of silver have been found.
There is a bright future for Elliott County
when the fine deposits of black and yellow
oil on the Middle Fork are developed.

ESTILL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 11,669. County Seat, Irvine.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Judicial, Twenty-ninth Senatorial
and Seventy-third Legislative Districts.
Estill County, named in honor of Cap
tain James Estill, a noted Indian fighter,
was established by an act of the Legisla
ture of 1807, and was organized in the
year following. It is composed of por
tions of Madison and Clark counties. The
Kentucky River washes the shores of the
county for approximately fifty miles, and
receives within its course numerous tribu
taries of greater or less extent, of which
Station Camp, Miller's Creek, Buck and
Doe, Drowning and Cow creeks are the
most important. The banks of the Ken
tucky and its affluents are thickly wooded
with choice timber of both hard and soft
varieties, and the river and creeks are util
ized during the rainy season of the year
for floating millions of feet of choice tim
ber to the mills. Mill sites of the finest
character, with water power in abundance,
dot the river banks on both sides for the
entire w-ater front of the county. The
soil along the river and creek bottoms is
of remarkable fertility and admirably
adapted to the cultivation of the coarser
cereals. Indian corn is raised on these

bottoms with great success, the annual
inundations furnishing sufficient silt to
enrich and rejuvenate the soil for endless
successive crops.
No county in the State is richer in its
mineral deposits than Estill, although they
lie as yet in an almost totally undeveloped
state. Immense fields of bituminous coal;
miles of iron ore of unsurpassed quality,
which lie unused for lack of transporta
tion facilities; zinc in paying quantities;
petroleum that shows on the surface its
great extent, in one instance bubbling
from the ground in a continuous flow, so
that it can be seen in considerable quan
tity for a mile on the surface of the
stream on which it is located; building
stone, scarcely inferior to granite, in inex
haustible deposits; hundred acres of work
able clays, containing kaolin, aluminum,
and all the best material for pottery; all
these are the known minerals of Estill
County; known without any effort made to
discover, much less to develop them.
There are many mineral springs in the
county, all of the varieties of sulphur,
alum, and chalybeate being represented,
in several instances as many as five
springs in close contiguity, having no two

STATE OF KENTUCKY

53

waters alike. The Estill Springs, situated
on the outskirts of the county seat, have
been a popular watering place for nearly
three quarters of a century, and are well
patronized during the summer season.
Irvine has two mammoth saw mills that
run as long as the river will furnish them
timber; besides, scattered through the
county, there are scores or more of mills
of less capacity for sawing lumber. There
are also four stave factories, aud one for
the manufacture of excelsior. The Louis
ville & Atlantic, running from 'Versailles
to Irvine, a distance of sixty-one miles, is
at present the only railroad tapping Estill
County.

Irvine, the county seat, is located in
the Kentucky River valley, beautified and
adorned by the loveliest of nature's
scenery, and is healthful, the air being pure
and salubrious and the waters noted for
their health -restoring properties. It has
a population of nearly a thousand, and its
people are polite, courteous, and to a large
extent cultured and refined. It is quite a
lumber emporium, quite an amount of
capital being invested in that business.
Its position on the border between the
bluegrass and the mountains, the purity
of its air and water, and many other things,
make it one of the best locations for
schools of high order in the State.

FAYETTE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 42,071. County Seat, Lexington.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Fifth Appelate, Twenty-second Judicial,
Twenty -seventh Senatorial, and Sixty-first
and Sixty-second Legislative Districts.
Fayette is the central county of the
celebrated bluegrass region of Central
Kentucky. As originally constituted by
the Legislature of Virginia, it was one of
the three counties — Fayette, Lincoln, and
Jefferson — composing the district of Ken
tucky, and was named after the distin
guished General Lafayette. It then in
cluded "all that part of the county of
Kentucky 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, thence south to the
Washington line"; thus including about
one third of the present State. By the
cutting off of many other counties it has
been reduced to its present area.
The surface of the county is a rolling
upland, with the general level of the
highest portions about 1,000 feet above
sea level. The country becomes more
broken towards the Kentucky River,
which forms the southern boundary for

about fifteen miles, and falls off very
abruptly from the brink of the river hills
to the 5oo contour line. All the county
drains into the Kentucky River, the
southeastern portion by streams that have
their courses entirely within or along the
borders of the county, the rest of the
county by streams that flow outside the
limits before emptying. The former are
streams of comparatively rapid fall, and
might furnish some water power if only
they were streams of greater volume.
Streams of this class are Boone's, Elk
Lick, and Raven. The streams of the
other class are North Elkhorn, Town
Branch of South Elkhorn, South Elk-
horn, West Hickman, and East Hickman.
These are streams of more uniform flow,
and though the fall per mile is not great
furnish some power for flour and grist
mills. None of these streams are navigable.
Numerous caves and sinks abound in the
county. One of the best known is Russell
Cave, about seven miles from town on the
Russell Cave pike. A copious spring —
literally an underground stream — issues
from one side of the main entrance.

54

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

The greater part of the land of the
county is arable, and pasture land is of the
finest quality. The soil is of two princi
pal kinds : 'That with red subsoil, derived
from the Trenton limestone, and that
with yellow subsoil, derived from the
limestone of the Lower Hudson. These
soils are very similar physically, both
being rather clayey in texture, though not
containing a large proportion of true
clay, but being composed largely of
very fine sand. They are remarkably
rich in phosphates and contain a large
reserve of insoluble potash silicates, so
that they are capable of retaining their
fertility for a long time under proper till
age, and when depleted may be restored
again by clover or grass. This soil of the
second class (yellow subsoil) is peculiarly
well suited to the white Burley tobacco
and to hemp, but the growing of tobacco
has nearly superseded that of hemp in
late years. It is also productive of corn,
and is fairly good wheat soil.
"Taking the county as a whole, there
is still considerable marketable timber
remaining in woodland pastures, but it is
wisely being preserved for other purposes,
and it is to be hoped that Fayette County
may never be more completely deprived of
her nati\-e trees and shrubs than she is
at the present time. Certainly their
worth in money is trifling when compared
with their aesthetic value as a feature of
the bluegrass landscape, and their useful
ness as a partial check on the sudden and
extreme drouths with which of late this
region has been too frequently visited."
As the raising of fine stock, especially
horses, is one of the most important in
terests of the county, a'large part of the
best land is retained in permanent blue-
grass pastures. Much of this land,
however, has recently been devoted to
the production of tobacco, which is gen
erally raised by white labor "on shares."
Aside from this, most of the farming is done
by colored laborers, and the average price
for good labor is aboiit 814 per month,
with board.

Railroads. There are in Fayette
County about sixty-seven miles of rail
road, having mileage as follows: Louis
ville & Nashville, nine and one half miles;
Louisville Southern, eight and one half
miles; Cincinnati Southern, fourteen
miles; Kentucky Central, nine miles; Lex
ington & Eastern, twelve miles; Chesa
peake & Ohio, eleven miles; Lexington
Belt Line, three miles. All railroads
center in Lexington.
Turnpikes. There are from 350 to
400 miles of turnpike in the count)-,
about 200 miles being Telford and tbe
remaining macadam road.
Lexington, the county seat, is a city of
the second class, with a population of
about 35,000, and is one of the oldest
settlements in the State, the site having
been visited by a party of hunters in
June, 1775, and was named in honor of
the battle of Lexington (JNIass. ), news of
which had just been received by them.
A permanent settlement was effected in
1779, and it was incorporated as a town
in 1782 and as a city in 1832. The city
has had an interesting history, and has
long been famous as the home of many
men who have occupied high places
in the councils of the State and the
nation. Its position at the intersection of sev
eral railroad lines extending in all direc
tions, together with its extensive system
of turnpikes radiating into every part of
the surrounding country, gives it the most
commanding commercial position in the
eastern half of Kentucky, and has re
sulted in the development of many impor
tant business enterprises and in the
building up of one of the handsomest
cities of the State.
The principal streets are paved with
brick, and internal travel is further facili
tated by a very complete electric street
railway system, which reaches every
quarter of the city. The Street Railway
Company also operates the electric light
system of the city and an extensive plant
for the manufacture of ice.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

55

The water supply of the city comes from
Lake EUerslie, an artificial reservoir cover
ing 126 acres, three miles east of the city.
The business interests of the city are
extensive and varied. As a horse market
it has long been famous, and the various
racing meetings throughout the season at
the Fair Grounds bring together a large
number of horse breeders and owners
from all parts of the country.
Tobacco, hemp, and canning factories
and flouring mills convert the raw materials
from the surrounding farms into finished
products. A large brewery has recently
been added to the city's business in
terests, and a tobacco warehouse is in
process of construction by tlie Continental
Tobacco Company. Many large whole
sale and retail commercial houses serve
as distributing agents for all kinds of
food products and manufacturers.
The public buildings of Lexington are
large and imposing. The court house
was erected at a cost of 8200,000.
The government building, in which are
located the post-office and the offices of
the Seventh Internal Revenue District, is
a splendid granite structure, erected in
1889, and is well adapted to its purposes.
The Eastern Kentucky Asylum for the
Insane is located upon the northern edge
of the city.
Two splendid general hospitals afford a
refuge for those striken down by disease
or accident: St. Joseph's, conducted by
the Roman Catholics, and the Good Sa
maritan, managed jointly by the Prot
estant churches of the city.
In its educational institutions Lexington
stands pre-eminent. It has for many years
been the Mecca of Chautauquans of Ken
tucky, and the annual gatherings of the
assembly are largely and enthusiastically
attended at Woodland Park, in the east
ern part of the city. The assembly has a
large auditorium andnumerous subordinate
buildings beautifully situated in a noble
grove of Kentucky's finest forest trees.

Kentucky University and the Agricul
tural and Mechanical, or State College, as
it is called, are both large and flourishing
institutions and provide instruction for
both men and women. The former is
conducted under the auspices of the
Christian Church, and in its Bible Col
lege especially, where students meet
from all parts of the world, is an impor
tant auxiliary of that denomination. Its
College of Liberal Arts offers courses in
the usual branches of collegiate instruc
tion. The State College is a non-sectarian
institution, supported jointly by the State
and the Federal governments. While
giving instructions in the usual classical
studies it is also especially prepared to
give thorough courses in scientific, agri
cultural, and engineering lines, its labora
tories and shops being amply equipped
with the best modern apparatus for this
work. Associated with the college, the
Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station
is constantly engaged in experimental
work with farm and garden crops in the
interest of farmers.
Besides these two institutions, there
are three others for the education of
young ladies: Sayre Institute, Hamilton
College, and St. Catherine's Academy, con
ducted under the several auspices of the
Presbyterian, Christian, and Roman Cath
olic churches. The American Missionary
Association also maintains a large normal
school for colored pupils. In addition to
all these, there are several large commer
cial colleges, private schools, and the
necessary quota of public schools for the
needs of the community.
The principal villages outside of Lex
ington are East Hickman, Athens, Cen-
terville. Walnut Hill, Fort Spring,
Chilesburg, Donerail, South Elkhorn, and
Sandersville. The State Houses of
Reform are located at Greendale, a station
on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, a
few miles north of Lexington.

56

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

FLEMING COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 17,074. County Seat, Flemingskurg.

Situated in the Xinth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Xineteenth Judicial,
Thirty-fifth Senatorial, and Eighty-eighth
Legislative Districts.
Fleming County was formed in 1798
out of a portion of Mason, and was the
tw-enty-sixth county in the State; was
named in honor of Colonel John M. Flem
ing, who was head of the numerous family
of Flemings. It is situated in the north
eastern part of the State, seventeen miles
from the Ohio River, Licking River tra
verses the southwestern border, and is fed
by Fox, Fleming, and Johnson creeks, which
in early days were noted for the numerous
water mills that " cracked the corn." The
eastern portion of the county is mountain
ous and heavily timbered, poplar, pine, oak,
and chestnut prevailing. Iron ore, oil,
and building stone are found in the county
in abundance. The soil is deep and rich,
producing corn, wheat, and tobacco equal
to any in the State, and surpassed by none.
Fine turnpikes are scattered all over the
county, and are sustained by taxation.

Farm hands receive from SS to S20 per
month, and day laborers from Si to S3
per day.
Flemingsburg, the county seat, one of
the prettiest towns in the State, has a
population of 1,700, a substantial and
commodious court house, one of the finest
public school buildings in the State, elec
tric lights, telephone exchange, the best
fire department in the State outside of
Louisville, two newspapers, six churches,
two banks, three hotels, one restaurant,
one large flouring mill, three tobacco barns,
four livery stables, four drug stores, five
dry goods, one clothing, seven grocery,
two hardware, two jewelry, two furniture,
two millinery, and one agricultural supply
stores; three blacksmith, two saddlery,
and two carriage shops; two undertakers,
two dentists, seven physicians, thirteen
lawyers, and three secret societies. Flem
ingsburg is surrounded by a rich and un
dulating country, with extensive farms,
fat mules, fine horses, cattle, hogs, and
sheep.

FLOYD COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 15,552. County Seat, Prestonburg.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fourth Judi
cial, Thirty-third Senatorial, and Xinety-
seventh Legislative Districts.
Floyd County is situated in the extreme
portion of Eastern Kentucky. It was made
a county in 1 79 9 , and its territory was taken
from the counties of Mason, Fleming, and
Montgomery. It was named in honor of
Colonel John Floyd, a very prominent man
in Kentucky in the early days of the State.

It has since contributed much of its territory
to form other counties, sixteen counties
having been formed, in whole or in part,
from the original territory of Floyd. The
surface of the county is very mountainous;
it is well watered and drained by the Big
Sandy and its tributaries, which flow
through the central portion of the county.
In the valleys of the Big Sandy the
soil is fertile, and the principal crop of
the county, which is corn, is grown to

STATE OF KENTUCK\'

57

great perfection; wheat, oats, and flax are
also cultivated to some extent.
The mountains and hills of the whole
county are underlaid with coal, the supply
being practically inexhaustible, but want
of proper facilities for transporting to
market has hindered the development of
same very materially. Much of the valu
able timber of the county has been cut
and rafted out of the county on the Big
Sandy, yet there still remains much valu
able timber, oak, poplar, hickory, beech,
ash, and w-alnut. Large tracts of good
timber can be bought at reasonable prices
per acre. Diversified farming is not
carried on, this, like most of the mountain
counties, confining its principal industries
to the minerals and timber of the county.
The Big Sandy River is navigable in the
winter and spring seasons for small
steamers, and in summer for push boats.
There are no turnpikes in the county.
The public roads of the county are com
mon dirt roads, which are maintained and

kept up under the road laws of the State.
There are no railroads in the county,
though the Kentucky Midland has been
projected to run through the northern
part of the county, entering it at Need-
more, on the western boundary, running
to Prestonburg, the county seat, and
thence in a southeasternly direction into
Pike. The labor mostly employed in the
county is furnished by native whites. For
farm labor, hands can be had at 8io to
815 per month and board.
The school facilities of this county are
furnished by the common schools, which
in a general way may be said to be in
good condition; they are well attended,
and under good management.
Prestonburg, the county seat of Floyd
County, is situated in the northern part of
the county, on the Big Sandy River. It
is a nice little village, has a church and
school house, besides a few stores and
shops.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 20,852. County Seat, Frankfort.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Fourteenth Judicial,
Twentieth Senatorial, and Fifty-sixth
Legislative Districts.
Franklin County, situated in the north
ern part of the State, was organized as
a county in 1794, and is, therefore, one
of the oldest counties in the State in date
of organization.
The topography of the county is gently
rolling, with the exception of that portion
bordering on the banks of the Kentucky
River and some of its tributaries, where
the precipitous bluffs, characteristic of
that stream, rise to a height of 100 feet,
and constitute some of the finest scenery
in the State. It is credited with com
paring favorably with the Palisades of the
Hudson.

The soil is a clay loam, very produc
tive, and adapted to the growth of heavy
cereals and tobacco, and in the northern
portion especially adapted to growing
peaches and apples, to w-hich consider
able attention is paid.
The timber resources of the county are
limited, being only sufficient for local
use. The Kentucky River flows through
the center of the county from north to
south. By a system of locks and dams,
under the control of the general govern
ment, it is navigable at all seasons, and
furnishes the county cheap and reliable
transportation for its products. The
other streams of the county are Big and
Little Benson, and Elkhorn, all tributa
ries of the Kentucky River. Some lead
ore is known to exist in the county, but

58

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

has never been exploited sufficiently to
determine its commercial value. Along
the cliffs of the Kentucky River a species
of limestone, known as Kentucky marble,
is found. It is a valuable building stone,
the strata lying in even thicknesses. From
this stone the present State House at
Frankfort was built. The county has a
number of mineral springs, mostly of
sulphur impregnation.
The county has the L., C. & L. di
vision of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad running through the southern
end of the county, and the Frankfort &
Cincinnati running from Frankfort to
Paris, and connecting at Georgetown with
the C, X. O. & T. P. for Cincinnati and
the South. These lines, with the twenty-
odd miles of river transportation fur
nished by tbe Kentucky River, give the
county excellent transportation facilities.
There are a number of large saw mills
located on the Kentucky River, w-hich are
supplied with logs from the counties on
the head-waters of the river, beiug sent
down in rafts during spring and winter
tides. Kentucky River Mills, located at
Frankfort, aud utilizing the water power
furnished by Lock No. 4, is an old-es
tablished and highly prosperous factory,
using annually many thousand pounds of
hemp in the manufacture of the higher
grades of binder and commercial twine.
There are also a number of large distil
leries in the county, all of which stand at
the top in reputation of their brands.
Next in importance is the flour mill indus
try, mainly centered at Frankfort.
The macadamized roads of the county
are free to the public and are maintained
out of the general revenue.
The labor of the county is performed
by both white and colored laborers, and

the price varies from Sio to S13 per
month with board for labor on the farm.
The wages in factories and mills varies
from Si.25 per day for unskilled labor
to S3 and S5 per day for skilled mechan
ics and foremen.
The educational facilities of the county
are good, although consisting mainly of
the public schools. The district schools
are taught by progressive teachers. They
are well attended and in the matter of
educating the masses are doing a great
work. F'rankfort city school is a superb build
ing, erected at a cost of 830,000. It is
equipped with kindergarten, manual
training, and art departments. The pres
ent enrollment is some 1,300 pupils, under
control of twenty-four teachers. The
graduates from this school are fully pre
pared to enter the best colleges and
universities. So well in fact does this
school meet the educational requirements
that private institutions of instruction
have found it difficult to maintain them
selves, Frankfort, the county seat and capital
of the State, is situated on the Kentucky
River, It is one of the oldest cities of
the State, which fact, together with its
picturesque location, makes it especially
a point of interest. It has a population
of about 10,000, is favorably located,
and enjoys a considerable trade. Here
are located the public offices of the State,
the main State prison, the State Colored
Normal School for the preparation of
teachers of that race, and the Kentucky
Feeble-Minded Institute for the instruction
of children of imperfect development.
Bridgeport, Jetts, Elkhorn. Benson,
Peak's Mill, Elmville, Swallowfield, and
Flagfork are thriving villages.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

59

FULTON COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 11,546. County Seat, Hickman.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, First Judicial, First
Senatorial, and First Legislative Dis
tricts. Fulton County was cut off or taken from
Hickman County in the year 1845, from
the southwestern part of the county, and
is situated in the extreme southwestern
angle of the State, on the Mississippi River ;
contains about 184 square miles. It was
named in honor of the celebrated in
ventor of the steamboat, Robert Fulton.
The bends of the Mississippi River are so
many and extensive it gives the county
many miles of shore line. The county is
well watered and drained by the several
streams emptying into the Mississippi
River from the same, principal among
them being Bayou de Chien and Obion
Creek. Fulton's soil is good ; a large por
tion of the county is very productive, the
principal products of the farm being corn,
wheat, rye, oats, and tobacco. The
greater portion of the county is what is
known as upland and is very good, the
Mississippi bottoms being especially rich
and fertile. This county is a great
county for strawberries, and they are
grown to great perfection and in great
abundance, and thousands of dollars'
worth of them are shipped to the Chicago
market. The timber supply of the
county remains good, probably one third
of the original timber of the county yet
remaining. Oak, poplar, hickory, and
cypress are to be found in abundance.

About forty miles of shore line along the
Mississippi River is all the water trans
portation the county has, none of the
streams of the county being navigable.
Bayou de Chien and Little Ohio are na\i-
gable for rafts and small flatboats. There
are no turnpikes in the county; the pub
lic roads are the common county or dirt
roads. They are worked and maintained
under the road laws of the State. There
are about forty miles of railroad in the
county, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St.
Louis, Mobile & Ohio, and Illinois Cen
tral, southern division.
Good farm lands can be had at reason
able prices, and labor on same, which is
mostly native white and colored, can be
had for 810 to $12 per month and board.
The facilities for education are furnished
by the common schools of the county,
which are well attended and under good
and careful management.
Hickman, the county seat of Fulton
County, was incorporated in 1S34, and
called Mills Point, but was changed in
1837 to Hickman, in honor of Hon.
Edwin Hickman, of Tennessee. It is
located about fifty miles below the mouth
of the Ohio River, on the east bank of the
Mississippi, and had a population in 1890,
according to the eleventh census, of
1,652, but it is estimated now to be about
2,000. Its facilities for transportation,
both by water and by rail, are first class.
It is a flourishing town, with good schools
and churches.

6o

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

GALLATIN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 5,163. County Seat, Warsaw.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Fifteenth Judicial,
Twenty-third Senatorial, and Fifty-third
Legislative Districts.
The county of Gallatin, named after
Hon. Albert Gallatin, secretary of the
United States Treasury during President
Jefferson's administration, was organized
in 1798 from parts of Shelby and Frank
lin counties, and was the twenty-third
county organized in the State. It was at
one time one of the largest counties in
the State, but territory has been taken
from it at various times for the formation
of other counties, until now it is one of
the smallest. Owen County was formed
from it in 18 19, Trimble, in part, in
1836. Carroll took the w-estern half
in 1838, forming Carroll County, with
Carrollton as the county seat, which
originally was Port Williams, the county
seat of Gallatin County. Warsaw, for
merly known as Fredericksburg, became
the county seat of Gallatin.
(iallatin County has always been a
prosperous county, always paying into
the State treasury more revenue than it
drew- out, and being of little expense to
the State, owing to the law-respecting
citizenship it has within its borders.
Many a circuit court passes without the
return of a single indictment. The county
is situated at the lower end of the " great
bend" of the Ohio River, and is about
midway between the two great cities of
Louisville and Cincinnati. The surface
of the county is generally hilly, though
there is an extensive acreage of river bot
tom land, above high water mark. It is
limestone soil, and is very productive.
White Burley tobacco, corn, live stock,
fruit, and garden farming are given

especial attention. There is a small out
cropping of coal and lead in the western
part of the county, and a very superior
quality of tiling clay is also found. The
timber supply has been about exhausted.
there being only about five per cent of
the forests left. The county is well
watered by creeks. Eagle Creek bounds
it on the south, and the Ohio River on
the north, the river boundary being
tw-enty-one miles. The county is most
desirably situated for any kind of busi
ness. The county seat, Warsaw, has a popu
lation of over 1,100, with several facto
ries and all the reasonable conveniences,
such as first-class fire department, good
sidewalks, and streets well lighted at
night. The expenses are paid out of
liquor licenses, from three hotel saloons,
and the wharf privileges.
The county has an excellent class of
citizens, and has a population of about
6,000. The land will raise any kind of
crop suitable to the climate. The land
ranges in value from 85 to S80. Farm
labor is both white and colored; price,
from S8 to 816 per month with board,
and from 815 to 820 per month without
board. There are seventy-one miles of free
turnpike, and ninety-four miles of dirt
road, all kept up by a system of taxation.
The tax rate is 60 1< cents for all pur
poses. The county debt is only about
820,000. The county is well supplied with good
schools and churches, and the laws are
faithfully executed. The people encour
age the incoming of every good citizen,
and are willing to assist every industrial
enterprise.

STATE OF K E N T U C K -i'

6r

GARRARD COUNTY
PopuLA-rioN (Census 1900), 12,142. County Seat, Lancaster.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Thirteenth Judicial,
Eighteenth Senatorial, and Sixty-seventh
Legislative Districts.
Garrard County was formed in 1796 out
of the counties of Madison, Lincoln, and
Mercer, and was named in honor of James
Garrard, who was then governor of the
State of Kentucky. It is centrally located,
its capital, Lancaster, being within twenty
miles of the geographical center of the
State. Jessamine County, from which it
is separated by the Kentucky River,
bounds it on the north; Madison County
on the east; Lincoln and Rockcastle coun
ties on the south, and Boyle and Mercer
counties on the west. It is, therefore, a
" bluegrass " county. Part of the county
is hilly, much of it undulating — what is
called rolling land. The soil is highly
productive of corn and the small grains,
tobacco, and hemp. The "Buckeye"
section of the county is hilly, and has
been cultivated in grain for near a hundred
years and seems to have lost little, if
any, of its original fine productive quali
ties. Perhaps the best and fattest hogs
of this county, and as fine as those of
any county, are driven up out of " Buck
eye" for shipment in the fall. The tim
ber, for any but fuel and fencing purposes,
is about exhausted. There is much oak
timber in some sections of the county
suited for milling purposes. Farming is
diversified only in the usual way by rota
tion of crops, and there is no dairying or
truck farming, and very little fruit grow

ing, carried on as a specialty in the
county. There are 120 miles of turnpike
road in the county, all of which can now
be traveled free of toll, with a rate of
taxation for maintenance of about 25
cents on the Sioo worth of property.
The other public roads of the county be
long to the general statutory system of
roads, and are well kept. The Louisville
& Nashville Railroad, " Kentucky Central
Division," crosses the county, covering a
distance of fourteen miles.
The average price of farm lands, im
proved and unimproved, is about 815-
The labor employed is native, and the
average price per month is S13.
The county seat is Lancaster, with a
population of 1,500, laid off in a perfect
square, extending one half mile in each
direction from the center of the public
square. It is a fifth-class city, with a
graded school and six churches. The
business houses are nearly all new and
modern in their architecture, beautiful in
design, and are large and comfortable.
Many of the residences are handsome,
commodious, and elegant in design and
finish, and few cities have more shade
trees, which are properly located for
shading the houses and streets in the
heated term. The public schools of the
county are in good condition, with wide
awake teachers, trustees, and county
superintendent. The county has no bonded
indebtedness, and the rate of taxation for
county purposes, including the turnpike
tax, will be about 50 cents on the 8100.

62

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

GRANT COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 13,239. County Seat, Williamstown.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Fifteenth Judicial, Twen
ty-sixth Senatorial, and Seventy-seventh
Legislative Districts.
Grant County was created a county of
the Commonwealth of Kentucky on the
12th day of February, 1820, It was
created from a part of Pendleton, and
contained all of the territory now em
braced within its boundaries excepting a
small strip added from Campbell County
in 1830 and a larger strip secured from
Harrison County in 1833, and a small
cut-off from Boone County in 186S, and a
very considerable piece attached from
Owen County in 1876, Grant County
was the sixty-seventh county formed in
the State. Grant County, even in the
beginning, was a beautiful spot; fier peo
ple, though few and poor, were honest
and loyal to the flag, and suffered untold
hardships and dangers that tlieir posterity
might reap the harvest of riches and good
government these pioneers had sown.
The country is broken upland, with a
deep, rich soil on a foundation of yellow
clay, and that in turn underlaid with an
inexhaustible supply of limestone. The
timber has all been cut aw-ay, and nearly
all of the county is in the highest state
of cultivation.
Corn, wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, and
white Burley tobacco are the chief crops
cultivated. The tobacco crop frequently
reaches as much as 5,000,000 pounds,
and the quality grown in the hills of
Grant can hardly be equaled in the white
Burley belt.
Grant County is pre-eminently a stock-
raising county. There are thousands of
acres of bluegrass scattered from one
end of the county to the other, and tim
othy, clover, and all other grasses do
remarkably well on its soil. The stock

raised in Grant County are fine cattle,
sheep, horses, mules, and hogs.
During recent years the county has
been greatly improved by better methods
of- farming, and the agricultural popula
tion have increased their wealth until
most of the farmers of the county are
well-to-do. In every part of the county are to be
found lovely homes, magnificent barns,
and all of the conveniences that go to
make country life the best life on earth
to live.
No county in the State has a better
system of macadam turnpike roads than
Grant County. The mileage is a little
under 500 miles, and it all belongs to the
county. The roads were made free some
three years ago, and have been improved
each year since, untilthey are now second
to no roads in the State. E\-ery neigh
borhood and nearly every home in the
county is reached by a good turnpike road.
The county has thirty miles of railroad.
The Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas
Pacific passes along the Dry Ridge for
more than twenty miles w-ithin the limits
of the county. The Louisville & Nash
ville passes through the northern part of
the county for a distance of approxi
mately nine miles.
Grant County has no navigable streams.
Its creeks are Big Eagle, Grassy Run,
Clark's Creek, Arnold Creek, Ten Mile
Creek, Fork Lick, Grassy Creek, and
Crooked Creek.
The schools are improving from year
to year, and are now second to those in
no county in the State. At Williams-
tovvn. Dry Ridge, Corinth, and Critten
den there are free graded schools, and in
every neighborhood of the county a good
public school, presided over by a compe
tent teacher.

STATE OF KENTUCKY'

63

Williamstown is the county seat of the
county. It was founded prior to 1820,
and is a beautiful little city situated in
the center of the county, on the Cincin
nati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railroad.
Within the county there are more than

sixty church organizations, with that
many places of public worship. The
Baptist is the leading denomination, with
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
Christian, Presbyterian, North and South,
and Roman Catholic next in order.

GRAVES COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 33,204. County Seat, Mayfield.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, First Judicial, First Sena
torial, and First Legislative Districts.
Graves County, organized A. D. 1824,
is the central county in what is known as
Jackson's Purchase, which lies between
the Tennessee and Ohio rivers on the
east and north, and the Mississippi River
on the west, and borders on'the Tennessee
State line on the south. It is thirty miles
from north to south, and eighteen miles
from east to west, and is the only county
in the State with four regular, straight
lines. There are several pits of potters' brick
and tile clay in the county, which are
being worked with profit. Vast quanti
ties of this clay has been shipped to the
East for the manufacture of ironstone
china, fancy tiling, etc, A plant at May-
field is manufacturing a very superior and
handsome brick from clay found two and
a half miles east of that city.
The West Fork of Clark's River and
Panther Creek are live streams, and are
fed by springs. These streams, wells,
and cisterns, and artificial ponds, furnish
the water supply of the county. There is
also on these streams some fine timber,
which is being rapidly used up by saw
mills and other like industries.
Agriculture is the chief occupation of
the people, tobacco the principal crop,
15,000,000 to 25,000,000 pounds being
raised annually. Wheat produces from
ten to thirty bushels per acre, corn twenty-

five to fifty bushels per acre, and oats
grow fairly well. Clover, timothy, red
top, and orchard grass are all success
fully grown, and with the stock pea crop
furnish the hay of the county. Blue-
grass is grown for ornamental purposes,
and in time doubtless will be largely
raised for grazing.
Sorghum, melons, potatoes, turnips,
and all kinds of vegetables, peaches,
apples, pears, plums, berries of all kinds,
do well and are grown for market pur
poses to some extent. Sheep do well
here, barring the destructive "Cur."
There are several manufacturing enter
prises in the county, mostly at Mayfield ;
the Mayfield Woolen Mills, Merit Pants
Company, May Pants Company, Beau
mont Soap Factory, two planing mills,, ice
factory, water-works, electric lights, iron
foundry, several tobacco rehandling houses
and warehouses.
West Kentuky College, located at May-
field, affords excellent facilities for men
and women seeking a business education.
There are 105 white school districts in
the county and nineteen colored. Farm-
ington, Sedalia, and Wingo have good
graded schools.
The county has a population of 33,000,
and Mayfield, inside corporate limits, of
4,200, with very large suburban popula
tion, making at least 6,000.
The county is out of debt ; the tax rate
is 38 cents for all purposes, and 81 -50
per capita.

64

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

GRAYSON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 19,878. County Seat, Leitchfirld.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Second .Appellate, Xinth Judicial,
Twelfth Senatorial, and Twenty-seventh
Legislative Districts.
Grayson County was formed from a
part of Ohio and Hardin counties in the
year 18 10, and was named in honor of
Colonel William Grayson, of Virginia.
Rough River, Nolynn River, and Bear
Creek are the principal water- courses.
None of these streams is navigable ex
cept for rafts at high tide.
The soil is generally light, and with the
aid of commercial fertilizers, which are
used extensively, produces good crops of
tobacco, corn, wheat, uats, hay, and the
various vegetables usually grown in this
climate. Fruits grow well in the county,
and considerable attention is being given
to that industry at present. Farm labor
ers are paid from Sio to S15 per month,
including board.

The Illinois Central Railroad runs
through the center of the county from
northwest to southeast.
Leitchfield, the county seat and prin
cipal town, has a population of about
1,200, is a thriving and prosperous busi
ness community, with good public build
ings, excellent schools, telephone ex
change, numerous churches, bank, ice
plant, and a number of the best mer
cantile establishments found in this section
of the State.
Good schools and churches are found
in all parts of the county.
Grayson Springs, located four miles
from Leitchfield, one of the oldest and
most celebrated resorts in the south,
owned and operated by Mercke Brothers,
has, within the past year, been remodeled
and equipped in thoroughly modern and
elegant style, making it second to none in
the country.

GREEN COUNTY

PopuL.ATioN (Census 1900), 12,255. County Seat, Greensburg.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Eleventh Judicial, Thir
teenth Senatorial, and Thirty- eighth
Legislative Districts.
Green County, located in the south-
central part of the State, ivas formed in
1792. The surface of the county is un
dulating, in some portions extremely
rough and hilly. The valley and creek
bottom lands are quite fertile, and produce
good crops of tobacco, corn, wheat, oats,
rye, sugar cane, and the various grasses and
vegetables usually grown in this climate.
Green River, Little Barren River,
Russell's Creek, Little
Greasy Creek, Tram-
Pittman Creek are the

Caney Fork, Big
Russell's Creek,
mond Creek, and

principal water-courses.

Good churches and schools are located
in all parts of the county.
Considerable timber of all classes usu
ally grown in this climate, except walnut,
is found in the county.
The Cumberland & Ohio Railroad, a
branch of the Louisville & Xashville sys
tem, has its terminus at Greensburg.
Greensburg, the county seat, is a pros
perous town, with an excellent public
school system, good streets, five churches,
and a number of wide-awake, progres
sive business houses in all branches of
trade. Horkinsville, Gresham, Thurlow, Eve,
Pierce, Osceola, and SummersviUe are
among the most important of the business
places.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

65

GREENUP COUNTY

PopuL.ATioN (Census 1900), 15,432. County Seat, Greenup,

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Nineteenth Judicial,
Thirty-second Senatorial, and Ninety-
ninth Legislative Districts.
Greenup County is situated in the ex
treme northern part of the State. It was
made a county in the year 1803 and
named in honor of Governor Christopher
Greenup. It is well watered and drained
by Tygart's Creek, Little Sandy River,
and their tributaries, which empty into
the Ohio River. The soil of Greenup
County, particularly the river bottoms, is
fertile and strong, producing in great
abundance. The staples of the Greenup
County farm are corn, wheat, oats, hay,
and tobacco. The hill or uplands pro
duce the finest pastures, and the hillsides
also grow the most magnificent tobacco.
Stock raising is largely engaged in, and
sheep raising is particularly an important
industry with the farmers of this county.
The labor of the county is very generally
performed by the native whites, who can

be employed for Sio to Si 5 per month
and board.
Good schools and churches are located
in all parts of the county.
There are about fifty-three miles of
completed and operated railroads in the
county: the Chesapeake & Ohio and the
Eastern Kentucky railroads. The river
border gives unexcelled facilities for
transportation, both for travel and for
shipping surplus products to market.
About one eighth of the county is in
timber, principally white oak, pine, and
beech, Greenup is the county seat of Greenup
County, situated in the northeastern part
of the county, on the Ohio River and
the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. It is a
nice, flourishing town, with a population,
according to the census of 1890, of 660,
but now estimated to be about 1,000. It
has a good trade, enterprising merchants,
good hotels, good citizens, churches, and
school houses.

HANCOCK COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 8,914. County Seat, Hawesville.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
Second Appellate, Sixth Judicial, Tenth
Senatorial, and Twenty-ninth Legislative
Districts. Hancock County was organized in
1829, and named in honor of John
Hancock. It is in the northwestern part
of the State, on the Ohio River, and has
an area of about 200 square miles.
There are no navigable streams within
the county, the Ohio River, on its north
ern boundary, furnishing the only water
transportation. The county is drained by
Indian and Sandy creeks and their tribu

taries in the eastern portion, and Black
ford Creek and its tributaries in the
southern and western sections.
The Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis
Railroad runs through the county with its
northern boundary, and nearly parallel
with the Ohio River.
The bottom lands adjacent to the Ohio
River are very rich and productive.
These bottoms and creek bottoms com
prise about one third of the -area of the
county, and make most desirable farms.
These bottoms are of fine, rich, sandy
soil; the hills or rolling lands are com-

66

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

posed of clay soils. Nearly all of the
county is underlaid with bituminous coal,
and the wellknown Falcon and Hawes
coal is found in the western part of the
county, and the famous cannel coal mines
are situated in the eastern portion.
Potters' and fire clay are also found un
derlying the coal and elsew-here in the
county in great abundance. Some of the
finest red sandstone in the world is found
in this count)-. Graphite and other min
erals are known to exist, but have not
been developed. Gas and oil are both
known to abound in the county, but
neither has yet been developed. The
supply of timber is well-nigh exhausted,
but there can yet be found nearly all the

varieties indigenous to this latitude,
though in limited quantity.
The labor employed is mostly native
w-hite and colored hands, for which a good
price is paid, averaging Si8 per month.
Educational facilities are furnished
alone by the common schools of the
county, the school fund in some instances
being supplemented by local taxation.
The county has no bonded debt; the rate
of taxation for county purposes is forty.
three cents on the S loo.
Hawesville, the county seat of Hancock
County, is situated in the northeastern
part of the county, on the Ohio River
and on the Louisville, Henderson & St.
Louis Railroad, and is a flourishing town.

HARDIN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 22,837. County Seat, Elizabethtown,

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Xinth Judicial, Twelfth
Senatorial, and Thirty-first Legislative
Districts. Hardin County was named after John
E, Hardin, and was created by act of the
legislature in 1792 out of a part of
X'elson County. Several other counties
have since been formed out of a part of
this territor)-. The first settlement was
at Elizabethtown, the county seat, and
was known originally as the Severn Valley
Settlement. The county has produced some of the
leading men in the State, notably Gov.
John L. Helm, Gov. John Y'oung Brow-n,
Gen. Ben Hardin Helm, who was killed
at Chickamauga. It was also the birth
place of Abraham Lincoln, the old
Lincoln homestead having been subse
quently included in w-hat is now Larue
County, Gov, John Ireland, of Texas,
spent his youth in this county. President
James Buchanan and Judge Joe Holt lived
in Elizabethtown at one time and prac
ticed law.

The county in territory is one of the
largest in the State,
The county is watered and drained by
Salt River and Rolling Fork, with their
numerous tributaries.
Much of the land in the county consists
of rich bottoms. Most of this land has
been cultivated with corn for a hundred
years, and the yield is from sixty to one
hundred bushels to the acre. South of
the Rolling Fork valley is the range of
Muldraugh Hills, extending entirely across
the county from east to west. On the
slopes of these hills is the finest fruit
region in Kentucky. Peaches, apples,
pears, and grapes grow there to the great
est perfection.
On the southern slope of Muldraugh
Hill is Elizabethtow-n, the county seat of
Hardin, 300 feet above Louisville. It
has a population of over 3,000; has a
fine system of water-w-orks, electric
lights, two telephone exchanges, and is
in every respect an up-to-date town.
The cattle industry has grown wonder
fully in the county in the past two years.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

67

Nearly a half million dollars' worth of
cattle were shipped out of the county in
the past year. No county in the State is
in better condition financially. It is on a
cash basis, has 830,000 in the county

school fund, has spent in the past few
years $100,000 in cash on its public
roads, and owns 800 shares of Louisville
& Nashville stock. The county ranks first
in the State in its public school interests.

HARLAN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 9,378. County Seat, Harlan Court House.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-sixth Judicial,
Thirty-third Senatorial, and Ninety-third
Legislative Districts.
Harlan County was formed out of parts
of Knox and Floyd counties in 18 19, and
is situated in the southeastern part of the
State. It is the most rugged and moun
tainous of all our mountain counties. It
was named in honor of Major Silas Har
lan, a young "Virginian, a gallant and
accomplished soldier in our Indian wars.
The Cumberland River runs westward
and southward through the county, and
with its various tributaries waters and
drains the county. There are no naviga
ble streams in the county, though the
Cumberland is used for rafting and flat-
boating during the high-water season.
The county has an abundance of oak,
beech, and pine, which are most valuable
hardwood timbers.
There are no turnpikes in Harlan County,
There are no railroads in the county.

Though the surface of the county is
very bold, rugged, and mountainous, the
soil is very fertile and produces well.
Corn, wheat, oats, and hay are produced
in sufficient quantities for home con
sumption, but none for market else
where. The labor of the farm is per
formed by native whites. The people
are industrious, honest people, and as
the bloody feuds which at one time
disturbed the peace of the county have
been settled, the county is now as
quiet and as peaceful as any in the
State, The Presbyterians have estab
lished a church at Harlan Court House,
and have erected a nice, substantial
church building. The school facilities of
the county are furnished by the common
school system.
Harlan Court House, the county seat,
is situated in the western part of the
county, and is a thriving town with good
churches, schools, business houses, and
comfortable residences.

HARRISON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 19,838. County Seat, Cynthiana.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Eighteenth Judicial,
Thirtieth Senatorial, and Seventy-sixth
Legislative Districts.
Harrison County was formed in 1793
out of parts of Bourbon and Scott coun
ties, and named after Colonel Benjamin

Harrison, who was at the time a repre
sentative from Bourbon County in the
Kentucky Legislature.
From the original territory of Harrison
portions have been taken to help form
Campbell, Pendleton, Boone, Robertson,
Grant, Kenton, and Owen counties.

68

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

It is situated in the north middle section
of the State, lying on both sides of South
Licking River. The county is well watered
and drained by Main Licking and South
Licking rivers, and their numerous tribu
taries. About one half of the county is gently
undulating, rich, and very productive; the
other portion, hilly, and also quite pro
ductive. There are no longer any extensive tim
ber resources in this county. In recent
years diversified farming has been made
very profitable, both by private enterprise
and co-operative capital. Corn, wheat,
and tobacco are the principal products.
The county has always been famous for
the production of whisky.
There are no navigable streams in
Harrison County, and none capable of
being made so. The county has over
300 miles of free turnpike, and the fiscal
court has recently let contracts for the
construction of additional pikes. -A bond
issue of S50,ooo has been voted for the
purchase of all pikes in the county.
There are about twenty-five miles of
completed railroad in the county, the
Kentucky Central branch of the L. & N.
running for the most part along the banks
of South Licking, and the Cincinnati
Southern through a small section of the
western part of the county.
Most of the labor employed in the
county is unskilled labor, farm hands

receiving an avera.ge of thirteen dollars
per month.
Cynthiana, the county seat, was estab
lished December 10, 1793, and named in
honor of Cynthia and Anna, two daugh
ters of the original proprietor, Robert
Harrison. It is situated on both, sides of
South Licking River, thirty-three miles
from Lexington and sixty-five from
Cincinnati, being connected with both
cities by railroad. Its present popula
tion is estimated at 4,000. Its busi
ness men are of the most substantial
character and well known for enterprise
and thrift. A Commercial Club has been
organized to advance the interest of the
city. The Cynthiana High School was organ
ized thirty years ago and is a continu
ation of Harrison Academy, which was
chartered in 1798 and opened in 1804.
Several good private schools have always
existed, making Cynthiana's educational
facilities equal to those of any town in
Kentucky. She was the pioneer in the
establishment of a first-class graded
school. The public schools of the county
are in fine condition. The State fund is
supplemented in some districts by local
taxation and subscription. The county has
always aided liberally in public improve
ments, the bonded indebtedness being
now S 100,000, and the rate of tax
ation for county purposes fifty cents on
the Sioo.

HART COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 18,390. County Seat, Munfordsville.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Tenth Judicial, Thir
teenth Senatorial, and Thirty-third
Legislative Districts.
Hart County is located in the western
central portion of the State, its north
ern boundary line being only sixty miles
south of Louisville, on the line of the

Louisville & Nashville Railroad. It was
formed out of portions of Barren and
Hardin counties, and established by an
act of the General Assembly approved
January 28, 18 19. It was named in
honor of one of Kentucky's most dis
tinguished pioneers. Captain Nathaniel
Hart.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

69

The topography of Hart is far from
uniform, embracing considerable level
land and much that is broken and undu
lating, interspersed with numerous hills
and knobs.
The soils of the county, of which every
class and variety may be found, are
exceedingly fertile and productive, yield
ing abundant harvests of grains, grasses,
fruits, and vegetables, and are unsur
passed for the production of fine tobacco.
While much of the timber of the county
has been cleared away, there is yet in
some sections considerable timber. The
growth consists of the different species of
oak, ash, hickory, walnut, poplar, beech,
and wild cherry.
Green River is the only river of any
considerable size in the county. Nolynn
River is the next in size, but neither of
these is large enough to be available for
navigation without the aid of locks and
dams. These streams, with their numer
ous tributaries, furnish water and drainage

in all sections of the county. The
Louisville & Nashville Railroad has over
twenty-six miles of road in the county,
running through the center from north to
south. The county has about fifty miles
of free turnpike road.
Excellent schools, colleges, and churches
are located in all parts of the county.
For farm work, good reliable laborers
are paid from 815 to 818 per month with
out board, and from S12 to 814 with
board. For other classes of labor prices
vary from 815 to S25 per month.
Munfordville, the county seat, is pleas
antly situated upon a high elevation
overlooking Green River. It is seventy-
two miles south of Louisville; has a
population of 600, with three churches,
two white and one colored, a good public
school building, modern court house and
public offices, a bank, weekly newspaper,
and a good system of water-works. It is
the principal shipping point for the section
lying north of Green River.

HENDERSON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 32,907. County Seat, Henderson.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
First Appellate, Fifth Judicial, Fifth Sen
atorial, and Thirteenth Legislative Dis
tricts. Henderson County was formed out of
Christian County in 1798, was organ
ized June 4, 1799, and was named in
honor of Judge Henderson, more com
monly known as Colonel Richard Hender
son. It is situated in the southwestern
part of the State on the Ohio River.
Green River runs along its eastern and
northern border for a considerable length.
Both streams are navigable for steamboats
at all seasons of the year. The bottom
lands along these rivers embrace many
thousands of acres, the soil of which is
extremely fertile, producing corn and
tobacco and other crops in enormous

quantities. In the production of corn,
wheat, and tobacco, Henderson County
ranks among the foremost of the State.
The soil is well adapted to the growth of
all the cereals known to this latitude, the
uplands comprising about three fourths of
the area of the county, besides being well
adapted to agriculture and fruit culture.
There is an abundance of timber, and
while there is a very great variety, oak,
ash, hickory, poplar, and gum largely
predominate. There is a great disposition
of late to diversified farming, it proving
much more profitable and safer to the
ordinary farmer. This mode of farming,
taken in connection with the milling and
manufacturing industries, gives employ
ment the year round to all the laborers
of the county at remunerative prices.

^o

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

Farm labor commands from S 1 2 to S 1 5
per month, with board, the year round.
The cropping system is very much in vogue.
The county has about thirty miles of
free turnpike.
Henderson, the county seat, has a popu
lation of 15,000; excellent facilities for
transportation by rail and water; an excel
lent system of public graded schools; ele
gant churches, of all denominations; beauti
ful residences; electric light, gas, and
water-works; broad, well-made streets and
sidewalks; twenty-two tobacco stemmeries,
two cigar and two tobacco factories, two dis
tilleries, a brewery, box factory, ice and
cold storage plant, three grain elevators.

woolen, flouring, and planing mills, furni
ture factory, foundry, hominy mill, har
ness and saddle factories, and a number
of other minor manufacturing concerns;
five banks, a large number of elegant
stores and business houses in all lines of
trade; telephone exchange, three railroads,
electric street railway, and numerous other
advantages which can not be mentioned on
account of limited space. It is sufficient
to say, however, that Henderson is in
every way a prosperous, up-to-date city.
The county has good schools and
churches in every section, and several
progressive, wide-awake small towns,
doing a substantial business.

HENRY COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 14,620. County Seat, New Castle.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Fift'ti Appellate, Twelfth Judicial, Twenty-
first Senatorial, and Fifty-fourth Legisla
tive Districts.
Henry County was formed in I7g8 out
of Shelby, and was named in honor of
Patrick Henry, Governor of "Virginia.
The land is generally rolling, and along
water-courses quite hilly. The eastern
part, for more than twenty miles, lies
along the Kentucky River.
The Little Kentucky runs through the
western side of the county, and Dren.
non's Creek runs through the central por
tion and empties into the Kentucky River
near the famous Drennon Springs, which
were at one time a noted health resort.
The character of the soil varies — some
very rich and productive — producing in
abundance all of the best products grown
in the State. A large portion of the hill
land is rich, and produces as fine quality
of tobacco as is grown in the Burley dis
trict; none so inferior that it can not be
made good pasture land. These lands
are located along the "fruit line," and
produce as fine apples, peaches, and

pears as are to be found anywhere. The
bottoms along the river have been grow.
ing corn for 100 years, and are still very
productive. Sonie splendid homes are
seen along these bottoms. At one time
Henry County was one of the largest
corn-producing counties in the State, and
fattened thousands of hogs annually.
Now, corn, wheat, and tobacco are exten
sively grown, tobacco the principal crop.
Herds of cattle and sheep are increasing,
and can be made profitable owing to
abundance of pasture lands. Farm labor is
paid from Sio to Si 5 per month, with
board. The timber of the county consists of
oak, walnut, hickory, beech, locust, and
sugar-tree. The Louisville & Nashville Short Line
and the Louisville & Lexington railroads,
together with the Kentucky River, furnish
excellent transportation facilities through
out the county.
There are over 400 miles of roads, 220
of which are macadam. They are main
tained by taxation, toll system, and the
common State laws for road-working

STATE OF KENTUCKY

71

under overseers. Many good schools and
churches are located in different parts of
the county.
New Castle, the county seat, is one
among the oldest towns in the State.
Some of the old landmarks remain, giving
proof of age. New Castle has a fine

court house, beautiful residences, and
a number of substantial business houses,
doing a good business.
Eminence, Smithfield, Pleasureville,
Pendleton, Sulphur, and Turner's Sta
tion are a few of the most important and
thriving towns.

HICKMAN COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 11,745. County Seat, Clinton.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, First Judicial, First Sen
atorial, and First Legislative Districts.
Hickman County, which formerly em
braced all of the territory of Ballard, Car
lisle, and Fulton counties, w-as organized
by an act of the legislature in 1822, and
was named in honor of Captain Paschall
Hickman, of "Virginia.
The general face of the county is undu
lating, broken at intervals by hills and
valleys. The soil is very fertile, and pro
duces abundant crops of corn, wheat, to
bacco, and vegetables of all kinds, espe
cially potatoes.
Considerable timber of varieties usually
grown is found in different parts of the
county.

Clinton, the county seat, a progressive
little city with a population of 2,000, on
the Illinois Central Railroad, is in the cen
ter of the best farming section of the
county, and has two excellent colleges, a
825,000 court house, a fine system of
water-works, two churches, good common
schools, a fine new flouring mill and eleva
tor, beautiful homes, and a number of
progressive business houses and manufac
turing concerns.
Besides Clinton, there are several other
good business and manufacturing towns
m the county, among which are Columbus,
Moscow, Oakton, Spring Hill, Beelertown,
Croley, Cypress, Bugg, Halwell, Stubbs,
and Fulgham. Good churches and schools
are located in all parts of the county.

HOPKINS COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 30,gg5. County Seat, Madisonville.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
First Appellate, Fourth Judicial, Sixth
Senatorial, and Eleventh Legislative Dis
tricts. Hopkins Count)' was formed out of a
part of Henderson County by an act of
the legislature in 1806, and was named m
honor of General Stephen Hopkins.
The surface of the county is in some
places rough and hilly, but most of it

generally undulating. The soil is produc
tive, on which are grown tobacco, wheat,
oats, rye, potatoes, sorghum, and all kinds
of garden vegetables. Fruits, such as
apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, all
kinds of berries, etc., are produced in
abundance. Hopkins County is a fine agricultural
district. Nearly everything that can be
grown in the State of Kentucky can be

72

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

produced from its soil. Tobacco is the
leading staple. There are less than a
dozen counties in the world that produce
more pounds of tobacco than Hopkins
County. Oak, w-alnut, ash, poplar, hickory, and
many other kinds of timber that are valu
able abound in the forests along the
streams. It is estimated that there are
over one hundred different kinds of tim
ber grow-ing in this county.
The coal fields of Hopkins County are
almost inexhaustible. More than one
fourth of the coal mined in the State of
Kentucky is taken from the mines of this
countv. The St. Bernard Company, of
which Mr. John B. .Atkinson, a fine busi
ness man and successful financier, is the
president, with headquarters at Earling-
ton, has three large mines, one at Earl-
ington, one at Morton's Gap, and one at
St. Charles. There is the Hecla, near
Earlington, the Ilsey mines, the Carbon-
dale mines, the Stull mines, the mines at
Barnsley, and two at Madisonville, the
Rieuecke and the Monarch. -AH these
mines are in a prosperous condition. The

yearly output is more than 20,000,000
bushels. The St. Bernard Company also operates
extensive coke works at Earlington.
The county has sixty-four miles of rail
road, operated by the Louisville & Xash
ville and the Illinois Central systems.
There are no turnpikes in the county.
There are in the county about one hundred
and twenty public schools for white and
colored pupils; these, in addition to sev
eral private schools at Madisonville, fur
nish excellent facilities for education.
The county owes but a small debt, and
it will be but a few years until that is paid.
The county tax is only 50 cents on the
Sioo worth of property.
Madisonville, the county seat, is near
the center of the county, in a fine agricul
tural district: a city of the fourth class,
¦svith a population of over 4,000. It is on
the Henderson Division of the L. & X.
Railroad, fifty miles south of Evansville,
Ind. , and 107 miles north of Xashville,
Tenn. It is one of the most progressive
tow-ns in this portion of the State. It has
good churches and schools.

JACKSON COUNTY
PopuL.ATioN (Census 1900), 10,561. County Seat, McKee.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Tw-enty-seventh Judicial,
and Seventeenth Senatorial Districts.
Jackson County, named in honor of
.Andrew- Jackson, seventh President of the
United States, w-as formed .April, 1S58,
out of parts of Clay, Laurel, Rockcastle,
Madison, Estill, and Ow-sley counties, and
lies in the southeast central part of the
State. The headwaters of the Kentucky and
Cumberland rivers find their source in this
county. The main water-courses of the
county are: Terill's Creek, Moore's Creek,
Pond Creek, Laurel Fork, Indian Creek,
Horse Lick, South Fork, Middle Fork,

War Fork, and Cavenaugh Fork of Sta
tion Camp Creek. Xone of these streams
are navigable.
The character of the soil is so varied that
it is suited to most all crops, the principal
ones of w-hich are corn, wheat, oats, to
bacco, potatoes, fruits, etc.
The county at one time before settle
ment presented an unbroken forest of fine
timber, fully 70 per cent of which still
remains. The principal growth is white
oak, poplar, and pine. Other kinds of
timber are the various species of oak,
pine, beech, linden, hickory, buckeye,
cedar, maple, birch, sugar-tree, walnut,
gum, chestnut, etc.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

73

No other county in the State has finer
or better fields of mineral lands than Jack
son, comprising coal, which is as yet but
little mined, iron, copperas, saltpetre, oil,
building stones, clays, etc.
Jackson County has sixty-eight public
schools, and can boast of the best school
houses of any county in the State. The

county is well supplied with churches.
McKee, the county seat, is a small town
situated in the center of the county be
tween four hills on " Indian " Creek, about
one mile above where tradition says the
Boone and Calloway girls were rescued by
their gallant lovers July 17, 1776, some
thing of which every one knows.

JEFFERSON COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 232,549. County Seat, Louisville.

Situated in the Fifth Congressional,
Fourth Appellate, Thirteenth Judicial,
Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, and Thirty-
eighth Senatorial, Forty-fourth, Forty-
fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-
eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-
first Legislative Districts.
Jefferson County, named in honor of
Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of "Vir
ginia, was established by the legislature
of Virginia, May i, 1780. It was one
of three counties formed of the old
County of Kentucky, which had, by a
similar eliminating process, been made
out of the then County of Fincastle, in
1776. Fincastle County disappeared when
Kentucky County was carved out of it,
and Kentucky County, in turn, passed out
of existence when Jefferson and the other
two counties, Lincoln and Fayette, were
carved out of it. There were in the whole
of old Kentucky County 26,408,320
acres, and of these Jefferson got about
5,000,000, while Lincoln and Fayette
secured the rest. Eighteen counties,
having an aggregate territory of 3,717,018
acres, were carved out of Jefferson be
tween 1784 and 1848. But besides these
eighteen new counties there were twelve
other counties partly made up from it.
The county of Jefferson, as it now
stands, has 233,206 acres. Except in the
¦eastern and southern portions, where hills
and knobs occur, its surface is generally
level and well watered by Beargrass

Creek, Floyd's Fork, and Pond Creek.
Besides Louisville, the chief city of the
State, it contains some of the oldest vil
lages, such as Jeffersontown and Middle-
town, Jefferson County may be said to have
begun its political existence on March 7,
178 1, when its first county court was
held in the old fort at the foot of Twelfth
Street. There is no reliable record of the
names of the justices who held this first
court, but they are believed to have been
William Pope, John Floyd, George
Slaughter, Isaac Cox, and Andrew Hines.
Richard Chenowith was sheriff.
There is a variety of soils in Jefferson
County, some quite poor, and some as
fine as can be found in the State. Almost
all the land within six miles of Louisville is
devoted to market-gardening, and Jefferson
County likely produces more of what is
known as second crop potatoes than are
produced in any other section. Enormous
quantities of main crop potatoes (or first
crop), onion seed, onion sets, and onions
are grown extensively throughout the
county. The territory lying from eight to
fourteen miles from the city is largely
devoted to fruit-growing and truck-garden
ing. The small-fruit industry is very
extensive, and no place in the world raises
finer berries than those grown in the Mid
dletown, Jeffersontown, and Fern Creek
region. Strawberries were grown at Fern
Creek in 1899, and exhibited in Louis-

74

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

ville, seven of which would fill a quart
box. Farming proper is carried on quite
extensively in a large portion of the
county. Magnificent corn and wheat
lands are found along Beargrass Creek,
Pond Creek, Floyd's Fork, and other sec
tions, while in the southern part of the
county more attention is paid to early
corn and hay.
The people have splendid facilities for
transportation of their products in every
direction, as there are no less than ten
great railroads centering in Louis\ille, the
county seat of the count)-. There has
also been built within the last year the
Louisville, Anchorage & Pewee Valley
Electric Railroad, and in addition to the
railroads they have the Ohio River.
There are a number of turnpikes in the
county which have been built and operated
as toll roads which are now free. The
militia system of working of the county
roads was abandoned years ago, and all
roads are worked by taxation.
Timber is becoming very scarce, and
remains only in most part on the rough
and glady parts of the county. The timber
growth of the county has been mainly
oak, poplar, walnut, hickory, ash, elm,
and beech. There are several excellent
quarries of building stone, and quite a
number of brick and tile works. Farm
labor, both white and black, is largely
employed, and wages average about Si 5

per month, with board, or Si per day,
without board.
In Jefferson County are numerous relics
of the pioneer period. At Mulberry Hill,
on the Poplar Level Road, stands the two-
story double log house, built in 1874 by
John Clark, the father of General George
Rogers Clark, and at Locust Grove, on
the Ohio, may be seen the old-style solid
brick mansion house built by Colonel Wil
liam Croghan in i7og. In the family
graveyard here the remains of General
Clark reposed from 1818 to i86g, when
they were re-interred in Cave Hill Ceme
tery. On Beargrass Creek are the sites of
six original forts: Spring, Floyd's, Dutch,
Sturgis, Sullivan's, and Linn's, which
sheltered so many pioneers from the
Indians, and where lie in unknown graves
the remains of men and women who
helped to lay the foundation of the State
of Kentucky. On the bank of Long Run,
a branch of Ford's Fork, stood Hugh's
Station, where the grandfather of Presi
dent Lincoln w-as killed in 1788, and on
the same stream was routed the little army
of Colonel Floyd, who went to the relief
of I-joone's Station in 1781. On Cheno-
weth's Run yet stands the stone spring-
house in which the survivors of the mas
sacre of the Chenoweth family took refuge
in 1789. The ground itself of Jefferson
County in many places is hallowed by
recollections of the past.

JESSAMINE COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), ii,g25. County Seat, Nicholasville.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty-fifth Judicial,
Twenty-second Senatorial and Sixty-third
Legislative Districts.
The act creating Jessamine County was
passed in the Kentucky Legislature Feb
ruary 14, 1797, but took no effect until
August, 1798. Previous to this it was a
part of Fayette County. Col. John Price,

who had been the first to urge upon the
people the necessity of forming a new
county, was the first representative, and
was repeatedly elected to that position,
and was a delegate from Jessamine County
to the convention that formed the second
Constitution of Kentucky in 1799. To
Col. Price belongs the honor of giving to
Jessamine County her name, and the name

STATE OF KENTUCKY

75

was suggested to him by that flower grov/-
ing in such profusion in portions of the
county. The story related by Collins in
his history of Kentucky, and repeated
since in other publications, that the county
was named for Miss Jessamine Douglas, a
young girl killed by the Indians in 1789, is
a romance pure and simple.
The boundary of Jessamine, east, west,
and southwest, on the Kentucky River, is
very irregular, as the river has many bends
of considerable length, making a boundary
line of water ninety-two miles. Jessamine
County has no navigable streams.
Hickman, Jessamine, and Marble creeks
each afford water for propelling mills and
factory machinery, and several large flour
ing mills are located on each. There are
thirty-six miles of railroad, made up of
sections of the Cincinnati Southern, run-
ing across the county from north to south,
and of the Louisville Southern, known as
the Richmond, Nicholasville, Irvine &
Beattyville Road, which crosses the county
west to east.
Jessamine is decidedly a stock-raising
county, combined with agriculture, which

constitutes a profitable adjunct to stock
raising. Nicholasville, the county seat,
is an enterprising^ up-to-date town of
3,000 inhabitants, in the center of the
county. It can be reached by six differ
ent pikes and two railroads, the Q. & C.
and the Louisville & Atlantic. It has
two lumber yards, a large saw mill, a
first-class furniture store, two telephone
exchanges, two newspapers and job offices,
three banks, two tobacco factories, 820,000
hotel, two hemp factories, grain elevator,
splendid graded school. Jessamine Female
Institute, public library, and 830,000 be
queathed for a public library, which will
insure one of the finest in the State; train
ing track, steam laundry, carriage factory,
bakery, two clothing stores, three elegant
dry goods stores, three shoe stores, a
jeweler, gents' furnishing establishment,
two hardware stores, about fifteen grocer
ies, four livery and feed stables, a flouring
mill, three millinery and notion stores,
Noah's ark, three meat shops, a planing
mill, three drug stores, water-works, well-
paved streets, and a council that enforces
good sanitary regulations.

JOHNSON COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 13,730. County Seat, Paintsville.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fourth Judi
cial, Thirty-third Senatorial, and Ninety-
sixth Legislative Districts.
Johnson County is situated in Central
Eastern Kentucky, and was formed in
1843 and named in honor of a distin
guished son of Kentucky, Colonel Richard
M. Johnson. The county is well watered
and well drained. The Big Sandy River
flows through the eastern part of the
county. Paint Creek flows in a south
eastern direction through the central part.
Paint, Tom's and John's creeks are the
principal creeks, though there are numer
ous others.

The soil of Johnson County is probably
as good, if not better, than that of any
other county in Eastern Kentucky, and is
very strong and productive. The bottom
lands along the numerous streams are as
fertile as can be found anywhere.
Corn, wheat, oats, hay, potatoes, tobac
co and sorghum are all raised, but only in
quantities sufficient for home consumption,
excepting tobacco and sorghum, and es
pecially is the latter raised in large quan
tities for market. Fruits grow well in the
county. The labor of the county is per
formed mostly by native whites, farm
hands being paid from 810 to 815 per
month and board, while hands for timber-

76

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

ing receive from Si8 to S20. Timber is
the principal product of the county. Por
table saw mills are found all over the
county in the great timber belts. Poplar,
ash, hickory, beech, oak, pine, locust,
chestnut, and sycamore can be found in
large tracts and may be had at very reason
able prices.
The county is well underlaid with coal,
both cannel and bituminous, and the
supply is practically inexhaustible. "Veins
of bituminous coal eight feet in thickness
are found.
A cannel coal mine is in operation
about four miles south of Paintsville.
Iron ore of a superior quality is also
found in some portions of the county.
The countv is rich in mineral and tim
ber. The Big Sandy River is navigable for
steamers for about two thirds of the year.

There are no turnpike roads in the county.
There are only about four miles of com
plete railroad in the county, which is an
extension of the O. & B. S. Railroad to
Myrtle, in Johnson, and is located in the
eastern part of the county.
Good churches are found throughout
the county everywhere, and the common
schools are in good condition. All the
districts have good and comfortable school
houses. Paintsville, the county seat, is situated
on Paint Creek, just a little southeast of
the center of the county. It is a flourish
ing town with enterprising merchants, good
church buildings, and live congregations;
has good graded schools and good, new
school buildings, with ample accommoda
tions. Hotel accommodations are good,
and the citizens are quiet and law-abiding,
and hospitable to strangers.

KENTON COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 63,591. County Seat, Independence.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Sixteenth Judicial,
Twenty-fourth Senatorial and Eightieth,
Eighty-first, and Eighty-second Legislative
Districts. Kenton County was separated from
Campbell in 1840. It lies in the extreme
northern part of the State, at the mouth
of the Licking River. It is a narrow
county, being about six to twelve miles
w-ide and about tw-enty-five miles long.
The county is noted for the grandeur
and beauty of its natural scenery. The
bluffs overlooking the Licking River pre
sent one of the finest views in the State,
and the heights back of Covington look
down on half a dozen cities, a number of
towns, and five monster bridges spanning
the Ohio and two over the Licking.
The fertile valleys of Kenton are market
gardens for this population, and this in
dustry, together with the growing of small

fruits and berries, gives employment to a
large part of the population.
Wheat, corn, and tobacco are exten
sively grown on the highlands and rich
hillsides. Butter and milk dairies are
numbered by the hundred, aud a large
acreage of land is devoted to grass in
order to supply this demand. All kinds
of fruit grow well. Much attention is
paid to growing strawberries, dewberries,
raspberries, gooseberries, currants, and
blackberries. Kenton has no extensive timber tracts
left. The Ohio, skirting the northern bound
ary for six or eight miles, and the Lick
ing in fair water form all the navigable
water-courses. Black Lick Creek is the
principal affluent of the Licking. There
are numerous other small streams that
give an excellent natural water supply
for stock.-

STATE OF KENTUCKY

n

There are fifty-one miles of turnpike on
which toll is taken at moderate rates, and
one hundred and fifty-two miles of free
turnpikes in the county.
The county has about fifty-three miles
of complete railroad. The K. C. Railroad
runs the full length of the county on the
eastern border, and the Cincinnati South
ern on the western. The L. & N. Short
Line runs through the county about
twenty miles, from north-east to south
west. Laborers on the farms receive an
average price of 815 per month and
board. The hands in the various factories,
mills, etc., receive the usual wages, vary
ing with the general laws of supply and
demand. Independence, a village of about 200
inhabitants, is the county seat. The city
of Covington is the metropolis, and there

are virtually two seats of government.
Double sessions of all the courts are held.
All the business of the first district is
transacted at Independence. There are
two court houses and two clerk's offices.
The rest of the business, that within the
city corporation, is transacted at Coving
ton. The county judge, circuit clerk, and
county clerk appoint a deputy who takes
charge of the Independence clerk's office.
There are also two jails, the deputy serv
ing at Independence.
The public schools in the county are in
average condition, and the houses very
good. Covington is noted for its excellent
school system. Ludlow, Milldale, West
Covington, Central Covington, and Erlanger
have ten months' graded school. Coving
ton and Ludlow support free high schools.
Independence has five months' free school,
with two teachers.

KNOTT COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 8,704. County Seat, Hindman,

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fourth Judi
cial, Thirty-third Senatorial, and Ninety-
seventh Legislative Districts.
Knott County lies in the extreme eastern
part of the State. It was formed out of
parts of Perry, Floyd, Letcher, and
Breathitt counties in 1884, and named in
honor of the Honorable J. Proctor Knott,
who was at that time the Governor of the
State. The county is drained and watered by
the Kentucky and Big Sandy rivers and
their numerous tributaries. The char
acter of soil is rich sandy loam, and the
bottom lands along the many streams
which traverse the county are peculiarly
productive, raising magnificent corn, oats,
and vegetables. Wheat is grown on the
uplands, and also fine pastures are pro
duced there. Minerals, iron and coal,
also oil and gas are known to exist in the
county. The county has abundant forests of the

finest and most valuable hardwood timber.
The splendid poplar timber has about all
been bought up and now is in the hands
of a timber company, but other good tim
bered land in great quantities can be
bought at an average price of 85 per acre.
Diversified farming is not engaged in
further than to meet domestic uses.
There are no railroads, turnpikes, or
navigable streams in the county.
The character of labor employed in the
county is mostly native white, farm hands
getting S 13.00 a month, and hands for
timber from 75 cents to Si-oo per day.
There is one good college in the county,
situated at Hindman, known as Hindman
College; other educational facilities are af
forded solely through the common schools
of the county.
Hindman, the county seat of Knott
County, a nice little village, named after
Lieutenant-governor James R. Hindman,
is situated a little southwest of the center
of the county, on Troublesome Creek.

78

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

KNOX COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 17,372. County Seat, Barbourvillf..

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty-seventh Judicial,
Seventeenth Senatorial, and Sixty-ninth
Legislative Districts,
Knox (named in honor of Major-general
Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame)
became a county in 1799, being in that
year carved out of Lincoln, one of the
largest counties then composing the State
of Kentucky,
The village of Flat Lick, in the south
eastern part of the county, is the oldest
settlement in Kentucky, having been
peopled by the first of the emigrants from
\'irginia, who came through Cumberland
Gap ; the first house ever built in Kentucky
was erected by Dr, Walker within the
present limits of Knox, on the Cumberland
River, about three miles below Barbour-
ville. Knox lies on both sides of the divide
separating the waters of the Kentucky
River from those of the Cumberland, at
least nine tenths of the county lying on
the latter waters. Cumberland River offers
fine sport to fishermen at certain seasons
of the year. The topography of almost
the whole county is a series of mountain
ridges winding in all sorts of fantastic
curves, and separated by long, narrow, and
winding creek valleys. More than three
fourths of the territory is steep mountain
sides thickly covered with forests.
The soil is disintegrated sandstone,
except new ground, where the timber has
lately been cleared away, which is loose.

black soil, very productive. Agriculturally
Knox produces enough to feed her own
people, no more. Wool-growing is one of
the principal sources of the farmer's
income. The forests have been stripped of the
larger part of the more marketable timber,
such as poplar and walnut, but a vast
amount of timber is still left, such as oak
in all varieties, hickory, beech, chestnut,
ash, dogwood, sourwood, gum, maple,
sugar-tree, elm, sycamore, lynn, ironwood,
birch, cucumber, buckeye, service, willow,
redbud, cedar, holly, etc. The chestnut
oak furnishes the Knox county land
owner with, perhaps, his principal source
of revenue. Thousands of cords of this
bark are annually shipped. But the great
resources of Knox County are in her coal
and oil fields, in which she may be fairly
said to be unsurpassed by any county in
the State, All grades of bituminous and
cannel coals are found in this county in
great profusion.
Knox was entirely without railroad
facilities until 1888, when the Cumberland
Valley branch of the Louisville & Nash
ville Railroad was built through the county,
and soon afterward completed through
the famous Cumberland Gap to Norton,
Va. Barbourville, the county seat, is a beau
tiful mountain town, with good schools,
churches, and residences, and wide-awake,
progressive business houses in several
branches of trade.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

79

LARUE COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 10,764. County Seat, Hodgenville.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Tenth Judicial, Thir
teenth Senatorial, and Thirty-second
Legislative Districts.
Larue County was formed from a
portion of Hardin County by an act of
the legislature in 1842. Larue County
is below the average in size, but in point
of fertility of soil, the enterprise of its
citizens, and its educational progress, it is
above the average of Kentucky counties.
The principal crops of Larue County
are corn, wheat, hay, and tobacco. Three
branches of Nolin Creek run through the
county, and the farms along these branches
are fertile and produce abundantly. The
remainder of the farm land is compara
tively thin, but with the use of fertilizers
it produces wheat almost as well as the
better land. The live stock raised con
sists of horses, cattle, hogs, mules, and
sheep. Larue County has two railroads — the
Illinois Central, which has a branch road
running from Cecilian Junction and termi
nating at Hodgenville. The main stem
of the Louisville & Nashville runs through
the west end of the county, and the Knox
ville branch of the same road crosses the
eastern border.
The Bardstown and Green River Turn
pike runs through the county from north
to south, and a pike connects Hodgenville

and Buffalo, on both of which toll gates
are yet maintained.
The factories of the county consist of
distilleries of J. M. Atherton & Co., at
Athertonville, which are now the property
of the Kentucky Distilleries and Ware
house Company, and are the largest in the
State, five or six other distilleries of
smaller capacity, the Hodgenville Spoke
and Lumber Company, and the planing
mills of Daugherty Bros,, at Hodgenville.
Hodgenville is the county seat. It is
a town of 1,300 inhabitants, and is a
clean, healthful, live country town, w-ith
increasing business. The other tow-ns of
the county are: Buffalo, Athertonville,
Magnolia, Mt. Sherman, and Roanoke.
There are two splendid colleges in the
county — Kenton College, at Hodgenville,
and East Lynn College, at Buffalo, both
of which are prosperous. Magnolia has
a good high school. The district schools
of the county are in good condition.
Farm lands in the county vary in price
according to location and improvement.
Larue County contains the farm that is
now noted as being the birthplace of
Abraham Lincoln. It is situated three
miles south of Hodgenville, and is now
the property of New Y'ork capitalists.
The cabin in which Lincoln was born has
been removed to Central Park, New York
City.

LAUREL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 17,592. County Seat, -London.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty-seventh Judicial,
and Seventeenth Legislative Districts.
Laurel County is situated in the south
eastern part of the State, was formed in
1826, and was named after the Laurel

River, which flows through the southern
portion of the county, the river having
been given its name from the laurel shrub
and evergreen which line the shores of
that stream. The county is watered and
drained by the Rockcastle River and its

8o

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

tributaries. The soil of Laurel County
may be said in a general way to be neither
good nor bad. It is excellent, much of it,
for tobacco, and grows very well all such
vegetables as are grown in the State, and
produces good grass. The surface of the
county is very broken and rolling. It con
tains possibly the best coal fields in Ken
tucky, and many mines are now in active
operation within the borders of the county.
Iron ore has been discovered but has not
yet been developed. Diversified farming
is engaged in by the Swiss colonies in this
county to a considerable extent; grapes
and fruits of all kinds are raised in great
abundance. Fine cheese is made by them,
and many minor manufacturing industries
engaged in.
Good timber is still to be had in the
county; about one fourth of the original
area of woodland is still here. White and
black oak, black pine, beech, chestnut,
ash, and maple are still abundant. There
are no water-courses in or bordering on the
county that are navigable. There are no

turnpikes in the county. There are twenty-
nine miles of railroad in the county, the
Knoxville Branch of the Louisville & Nash
ville Railroad running entirely through the
county nearly from north to south.
Xeariy any or all of the streams of
Laurel County can be easily used for the
purpose of propelling machinery. No
county has water power more available
than this one. The labor on farms is
mostly performed by native whites, and
good hands can be had for Sio to 815 per
month with board. There are four flour
ishing Swiss colonies in Laurel County —
Bernstadt, East Bernstadt, Langnau, and
Strasburg, The school facilities are fur
nished by the common schools of the
county. London, the county seat of Laurel
County, is a flourishing little town, with
enterprising business men, good hotels,
schools, and churches, and is situated
nearly in the exact center of the county,
on the Knoxville Branch of the Louisville
& Xashville Railroad.

LAWRENCE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 19,612. County Seat, Louisa,

In the Xinth Congressional, Seventh
Appellate, Twentieth Judicial, Thirty-
second Senatorial, and Ninety-eighth Leg
islative Districts.
Lawrence County was formed in 1821
from the portions of Floyd and Greenup
counties, the dividing lines of those coun
ties at the time being Main Street, of
Louisa. It is located in the northeastern
part of the State.
The county is well watered. The Big
Sandy River flows along its eastern bound
ary from its northern limit to Louisa,
where it forks. The river and its forks
are navigable for steamboats for a large
portion of the year.
The principal streams, flowing into the
Big Sandy and its tributaries and through

and in the county, are Blaine, Bear, Rove,
Rush,. Two Mile, Lick Three Alile, Grif
fith's Contrary, George's, Nat's, Donothan,
and Rock Castle creeks. None of them
is navigable. The surface of the county is largely
hilly and broken, but not mountainous.
There is, however, a large acreage of bot
tom land, owing to the numerous water
courses. All kinds of crops that can be grown
successfully in the Central States can be
grown here, and with as good returns.
The principal crops are corn, oats, wheat,
hay, potatoes, sorghum, tobacco, apples,
peaches, pears, plums, small fruits, cow
peas, and tufa beans.
The adaptability of the land for grazing

STATE OF KENTUCKY

8l

purposes has stimulated the sowing of
grass seed.
An abundance of good cannel and bitu
minous coal," some iron ore, and a fine
quality of lubricating oil are found in the
county. The county has two railroads, which
furnish transportation to almost every
section. There are no turnpikes in the
county. The labor of the county is
mostly w-hite, and receives S13 per month,
with board.
There are no colleges or academies in
the county, but there is a great interest

in the public schools, which are as good
as any in tlie State outside of large cities.
After the public schools close, subscription
schools are opened in the thickly-settled
districts. Louisa, the county seat, situated on the
eastern boundary of the State and on the
Big Sandy River, at the confluence of
the Levisa and Tug forks, is a thriving
town of a little over 1,000 inhabitants,
with six churches, good graded schools for
white and colored pupils, and a large num
ber of handsome residences and thriving
business concerns.

LEE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 7,988. County Seat, Beattyville.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-third Judicial,
Twenty-ninth Senatorial, and Ninety-sec
ond Legislative Districts.
Lee County was formed in i86g, and
named for General Robert E, Lee. It is
situated in the eastern part of the State,
at the junction of the three forks of the
Kentucky River. The county is moun
tainous and is traversed by many streams.
Besides the North, Middle, and South
Forks of the Kentucky River, and the
main river, it contains many large creeks,
which are used to some extent and could
be largely used as water power for vari
ous kinds of mills and factories. The
Kentucky River is navigable to Beattyville
for steamboats during six months in the
year. The river and creek bottoms and
corn land, of which there is a great deal,
are very productive. The upland is thin,
but loose and level and pleasant to culti
vate. The soil is adapted to all the grains,
grasses, and other crops grown anywhere
in Kentucky, but corn is almost the only
crop grown in any quantity. The up
lands are wonderfully adapted to the or
chard. Apples, peaches, pears, grapes,
and all the small fruits, berries and melons,

grow to perfection when properly cultiva
ted. The average price of farm labor is
813 per month, with board.
About one third of the county is lime'
stone land. In the northern part of the
county is found a very rich ore, similar to
the noted Red River iron ore. In the
same part of the coUnty is found a very
fine cannel coal. In all parts of the
county abundant bituminous coal in veins
of from three to four feet abounds, some
of which veins are being successfully
mined. Near the eastern border of the
county abundant surface oil is found.
About two thirds of the area of the
county is covered with timber, the best
and most abundant for lumber being pine,
oak, and poplar.
There are no turnpikes in the county..
The Lexington & Eastern railw-ay trav-,
erses the northern and eastern parts of
the county for a distance of twenty miles.
The Beattyville & Cumberland Gap rail-,
road connects the Lexington & Eastern
with the county seat, a distance of six
miles. The Louisville & Atlantic has
purchased the Richmond, Nicholasville,
Irvine & Beattyville Railroad, and also the
Beattyville & Cumberland Gap.

82

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

The county seat is Beattyville, located
immediately on the Kentucky River, at
the junction of the North, South, and Mid
dle Forks, It was named for Samuel
Beatty, the original founder, and owner
of the land on which the town is built.
There is a handsome court house, situated
in a beautiful maple grove, surrounded by

a neat iron fence. Population about
i,ooo. In addition to flourishing public
schools all over the county, there is a
graded school in Beattyville, also an acad
emy under the supervision of the Epis
copal church.
There is no bonded indebtedness in the
county.

LESLIE COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 6,753. County Seat, Hyden.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-seventh Judi
cial, Twenty-third Senatorial, and Xinety-
third Legislative Districts.
Leslie County was formed out of parts
of Clay, Perry, and Harlan counties in
April, 187S, the one hundred and se\en-
teenth in the order of formation, and was
named in honor of Governor Preston H.
Leslie, then governor of Kentucky. The
county is hilly, the soil on the river bot
toms is very fertile, the hillside lands are
rough and steep
The Middle Fork of Kentucky River runs
the whole length of the county, from north
to south. Cutshin, Greasy Fork, and
Beech Fork are its largest confluents.
All of them are navigable for rafts and
flatboats, and afford ample water power
for propelling machinery.
Like most of the mountain counties, its
greatest wealth lies in its timber lands and
its minerals, which are coal and iron ; is
yet undeveloped, the coal veins ranging
from three to six feet thick and of fine
quality of cannel coal, found in many lo
calities in the county in veins ranging
from two to three feet thick. The timber
consists chiefly of poplar, ash, white oak.

chestnut oak, hickory, beech, maple, and
yellow pine; the poplar and white oak is
exported from the county in large quanti
ties, floated down the river to the markets
on the Kentucky River. At least ninety
per cent of the total area of the county
is well timbered. Land ranges in price
from three to fi\ e dollars per acre. This
being a mineral and mountainous region,
the agricultural products of Leslie are
consumed within the county, there being
no surplus for export.
The grasses best adapted to the soil are
clover, timothy, red top, and orchard grass.
The farming lands in the county are not
improving, as the farmers have not as yet
taken much interest in fertilizing either by
grasses or otherwise. The population of
the county is gradually increasing. There
are eight grist and saw mills in the county,
which supply the local market with lumber.
There are as yet no railroads in the
county. The county roads are in bad
condition, and there is not much prompt
ness in keeping them up.
Hyden, a pretty little mountain town,
in the northwestern part of the county,
with schools, churches, and several good
business houses, is the county seat.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

83

LETCHER COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), g,i72. County Seat, Whitesburg.

In the Eleventh Congressional, Seventh
Appellate, Twenty-sixth Judicial, Thirty-
third Senatorial, and Ninety-seventh Leg
islative Districts.
Letcher County is situated in the
extreme southeastern part of the State.
It was formed in 18 12 out of territory
taken from Perry and Harlan counties,
and was named in honor of Governor
Robert P. Letcher.
The surface of the county is mountain
ous, with narrow, fertile valleys between.
Pine and Black mountains form part of
the eastern and southern boundary, and
these ranges present some of the grandest
scenery on earth.
The North Fork of the Kentucky River
finds its source in the northeast, and
traverses the county to the southwest.
Other important streams are Rockhouse
and Live Oak. These streams are not
navigable for steamboats.
The soil of the narrow valleys, coves,
and most of the uplands is very rich,
producing good yields of corn, oats,
tobacco, clover, timothy, red top and
other grasses. The various vegetables
suited to this climate are successfully
cultivated, being produced abundantly
with little effort. This section is especially
adapted to apple orchards. There are

few places where the apple grows to such
perfection in point of yield and flavor.
Good veins of the finest coke and cannel
coal are found in the hills of Letcher County.
The forests of Letcher County seem
almost inexhaustible in their supply of
oak, chestnut, ash, hickory, poplar, maple,
etc. The best walnut has generally been
cut. Farming, stock raising and "logging"
are the principal industries of the county.
Logging is the most important, though a
considerable number of cattle and sheep
go to market annually.
The character of labor in the county is
exclusively native white, farm hands
receiving fifty to seventy-five cents per
day, ten to thirteen dollars per month,
and at timbering fifty cents to one dollar
per day, including board.
Educational facilities are afforded prin
cipally by the public schools. There are
sixty school districts in the county, all
provided with good school houses and
competent teachers. Other good schools
are maintained at Whitesburg and Rock-
house. There are over twenty churches
in the county.
Whitesburg, on the North Fork of the
Kentucky River, near the center, is the
county seat.

LEWIS COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 17,868. County Seat, Vanceburg.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Nineteenth Judicial,
Thirty-first Senatorial, and Eighty-ninth
Legislative Districts.
Lewis County was organized April 27,
1807, being then a part of Mason County.

Lewis County lies in the form of a
"watershed," about one half lying toward
the southwest and the other half toward
the northeast, the ' ' Polar Flat" section
being table-land and in a high state of
cultivation; fruit grows in abundance and

84

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

of the finest quality. The eastern portion
is somewhat hilly and broken, but in the
many small coves and on the hillsides
grows the finest of tobacco and millet and
sugar-cane. Along the water-courses and
that portion lying on the Ohio River is to
be found the very choicest and best lands,
producing from forty to sixty bushels of
corn per acre and every other grain and
vegetable in the same proportion.
Timber is not so plentiful as it once
was, but remains in sufficient quantities
to meet all home demands. The principal
varieties are oak, chestnut, poplar, sugar-
tree, buckeye, and lynn or basswood.
The industrial development of Lewis
County is in rapid progress, as is evidenced
by the number of portable saw and grist
mills that have lately come in, as well as
other steam machinery.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad pass
ing along the entire river front of the
Ohio, a distance of forty miles, a branch
road from Stone City to Carter City,
fifteen miles, and the Ohio for the same
distance, navigable for ten months of the

year, with over one hundred miles of
good macadamized roads, furnish ample
transportation facilities.
The character of labor employed is
principally native white. Farm hands
get from twelve to sixteen dollars per
month, with board, and day laborers from
seventy-five cents to a dollar.
The county has nearly one hundred
schools for white and colored pupils, and the
school houses will compare favorably with
those of any of the surrounding counties.
'Vanceburg, the county seat, a thriving
city of the fifth class, has in the last few
years made remarkable progress not only
in the increase in population, but in
permanent and valuable improvements as
well. Has a substantial brick court house,
built at a cost of 825,000; fine hotels,
with all the modern improvements and
accommodations; five church buildings,
twenty stores of all kinds, a lodge each of
the Masonic, Odd Fellows, and Knights of
Pythias; two large fiouring and feed mills;
three complete wagon and blacksmith
shops.

LINCOLN COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 17,059. County Seat, Stanford.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
P'ifth Appellate, Thirteenth Judicial,
Eighteenth Senatorial, and Sixty-sixth
Legislative Districts.
Lincoln County is one of the three
original counties of the State; was made
a county by an act of the Legislature of
Virginia in the year 1780. It is located
in Central Kentucky, one hundred miles
southeast of Louisville, and about the
same distance northwest of Cumberland
Gap. The lands are high, rolling table
lands, fertile and productive, and splen
didly watered, Dick's River bounding and
traversing the entire eastern portion, and
the Hanging Fork of Dick's River the

western portion. Buck Creek and Green
River both rise near the center of the
county and flow — Buck Creek south and
Green River southwest. There are many
smaller streams flowing from never-failing
springs all through the county. About
two thirds or three fourths of the land in
the county is of the best quality of lime
stone land, bluegrass growing sponta
neously. The principal crops are hemp,
tobacco, corn, wheat, rye, and oats.
The southern or mountainous portion
of the county was originally covered with
flnest timber of oak, hickory, locust,
walnut, and poplar. When cleared up
it was only second-rate land, but is well

STATE OF KENTUCKY

85

adapted to growth of fruit, apples,
peaches, pears, and, in fact, all varieties
of fruit, both large and small.
There are in the county one hundred
and sixty-two miles of macadam and
gravel roads, maintained by a direct tax
•of twenty-five cents on the one hundred
dollars of the taxable property. There
are three hundred and seventy -five miles
¦of county dirt roads, maintained partly by
taxation and partly under militia system.
There are two railroads through the
county, the Louisville & Nashville run
ning east and west, a distance of twenty-
three miles in the county, and the Cincin
nati Southern running north and south a
distance of twenty-two miles, and the
Kentucky Central from Stanford east
ward, a distance of five miles.
Incorporated towns are Stanford, Row
land, Crab Orchard, and Hustonville.
Stanford, the county seat, is situated
on the Knoxville Branch of the Louisville
¦& Nashville Railroad. In 1786, Benjamin

Logan, for a considerable sum of money,
deeded to the justices of the peace of
Lincoln County a tract of twenty-six
acres of land for a town site. In 1803,
trustees of the town of Stanford, having
been elected or appointed, had the tract
laid off into thirty-eight town lots. The
corporate limits have been extended
from time to time, now being three-
quarters of a mile square from the court
house. The town is watered by a good system
of water-works from the Old Fort springs
and other good springs, less than one
half mile from the town. It is also
lighted by electricity, generated by the
machinery of the water-works and ice
plant, Stanford contains five dry goods
stores, ten hardware and grocery stores,
three drug stores, two banks of a capital
of one hundred thousand dollars each, two
excellent flouring mills, and many other
businesses. There are four white churches
and three colored churches in the town.

LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 11,354. County Seat, Smithland.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, Fourth Judicial, Third
Senatorial, and Seventh Legislative Dis
tricts. Livingston County is situated in the
western part of Kentucky on the Ohio
River, and was organized in the year I7g8
¦ and named in honor of Robert R, Living
ston, one of the committee which drafted
the Declaration of Independence. The
¦county has an area of about 325 square
miles. Beautiful hills and valleys make
up the surface of the county. Cumber
land River flows across the county from
east to west, and empties into the Ohio at
Smithland, the county seat, giving the
county about 118 miles of navigable
streams in and bordering on it. There
.are a large number of creeks in the coun

ty, which empty into the Ohio, Cumber
land, and Tennessee rivers, giving the
county the most perfect water supply and
drainage. The soil of the uplands is
limestone and sandstone, the former being
much more fertile than the latter. The
bottom lands of the numerous rivers and
creeks are very rich and productive. The
second bottoms, which are not subject to
overflow, are not so fertile, though they
produce well and raise good crops of small
grain, grasses, and fruits.
There are found in the county baryta,
native alum, kaolin, potter's and fire-clay
and marl in abundance, besides the clays
known as ochre. In the interior of the
county are found tracts of good timbered
land, several varieties of oak, hickory,
poplar, elm, gum, ash, and walnut. The

86

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

labor is principally native white and
colored, whose services can be obtained
for 8io to 815 per month and board. The
staple products of the Livingston County
farm are corn, wheat, oats, rye, tobacco,
hay, sweet and Irish potatoes, sorghum,
melons, turnips, and fruits. Orchards
along the Ohio River netted owners about
$200 per acre in igoi, where they were
well cared for by modern methods. All
grasses grow well. This is a fine county
for stock raising, and the raising and ship
ping of fine cattle is a leading industry in
the county. There are no turnpikes in
this county, but the public roads are kept
in good condition and are worked under
the road laws of the State. Several good

iron bridges have been constructed over
the streams in the county. There are
forty-eight common schools in the county
for white children, six for colored, one
academy, and two graded schools, making
a total of fifty-seven. Thirty-eight
churches furnish places of worship. The
county is out of debt and on the high road
to prosperity.
A county farmer's club was organized
in I go I and a successful institute held,
much interest being manifested.
Smithland, the county seat, is situated
on the Ohio River in the southern part of
the county, at the mouth of the Cumber
land. It is an enterprising town, with
good churches and school houses.

LOGAN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 25,994. County Seat, Russellville.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Seventh Judicial,
Ninth Senatorial, and Twentieth Legis
lative Districts.
Logan County was one of the first seven
counties organized immediately after the
admission of Kentucky into the Union as
a State, being named in honor of General
Benjamin Logan, a Revolutionary officer
and distinguished pioneer and companion
of Daniel Boone.
Its principal streams are Clearfork,
Mud River, and Wolf Lick Creek, whose
waters find their way into Green River,
and Whippoorwill Creek, Spring Creek,
and Red River, which are tributaries of
Cumberland River. There is a diversity
of soils within its confines, which is well
adapted to raising tobacco, wheat, and
other cereals.
The northern portion of the county was
at one time very heavily timbered, but
most of the finest has been cut.
There are thirty miles of free turnpike

and eighty-five miles of railroad in the
county. Nearly all the streams in the county
can be, and are to some extent, utilized in
operating machinery, such as for furnish
ing power for mills, etc.
The county is well supplied with flour
ing mills and has one planing mill.
There are within the county two col
leges, both located at Russellville ; one,
Bethel College, is for boys and is under
the control of the Baptist denomination;
the other, Logan Female College, is under
the control of the Methodists, both of
which have an excellent faculty. The
public schools of the county are for the
most part in good condition, some of them
being supplemented by district taxation in
addition to the amounts received from the
State. Russellville, named in honor of General
Wm. Russell, a Revolutionary officer, is
the county seat, being situated near the
center of the county.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

87

LYON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 9,319. County Seat, Eddyville.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, Third Judicial, Third
Senatorial, and Sixth Legislative Dis
tricts. Lyon County was formed in 1854 out of
the southwestern half of Caldwell.
In the river bottoms there is a large
amount of level land, of very fine soil. A
large amount of the land is rolling in
character, and while not producing as
heavy crops as the river bottoms, yet,
under high cultivation, produces well, the
average farmers' production. Oats,
sorghum, millet, timothy, redtop, clover,
peas, potatoes, are grown in limited
quantities, tobacco and corn being the
principal and almost only exports of farm
products. The whole county is well
adapted to the growth of apples, peaches,
pears, plums, all kinds of small fruits of
this latitude.
This county has long been noted for its
fine timber, much of which is still stand
ing. It consists of oak, gum, poplar, elm,
lynn, black and honey locust, black and
white walnut, sycamore, and several smaller
kinds. Some of the finest iron ore known can
be found in this county, including blue
hematite. "Very fine limestone, much of
it suitable for building, is found along the
railroad and rivers.
The, Tennessee River flows along the
western border, and is navigable the year
around. The Cumberland flows through
the county, and is navigable at all times
except during long-continued drouths, and
freezes. Livingston Creek, along the
northern boundary, could be made navi
gable at slight expense.

Eddy Creek, a few miles above Eddy
ville, affords a fine stream of water during
even the dryest seasons.
In many districts a "pay" school is
conducted for three or five months after
the public school is out, it holding five
months. In each town is a high school
ten months each year.
Eddyville, the county seat, was
founded in 1799, on the north bank of
Cumberland River, forty-five miles from
its mouth, one hundred and ninety miles
from Louisville by the Illinois Central
Railroad; is a flourishing town, and seat
of the branch penitentiary, with a large
brick roller mill, a bank, newspaper,
tobacco factory, two blacksmith shops, a
full line of churches, ministers, lawyers,
physicians, stores, and hotels.
Lamasco, ten miles southeast of Eddy
ville, founded in 1864, has two hundred
inhabitants, two churches, Methodist
E. South and Baptist, three physicians,
two stores, two tobacco factories, two
blacksmith shops, and a flourishing
school. Kuttawa, one and one half miles below
Eddyville, founded in 1880 or 1881 by
Chas. Anderson, ex-governor of Ohio, lies
on the Illinois Central Railroad and
Cumberland River — a live, wide-awake
town of 1,000 inhabitants. Has three
churches, three lawyers, three physicians,
five dry goods stores, seven groceries,
three general stores, two hardware stores,
one tobacco factory, one large spoke
factory, four blacksmith shops, one
jeweler and watchmaker, one large roller
flouring mill, two hotels two saloons, one
bank, and a fine high school.

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

M c C R A C K E N COUNTY

Population (Census 1900) 28,733. County Seat, Paducah.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, Second Judicial, Second
Senatorial, and Fourth Legislative Dis
tricts. McCracken County is situated in the
extreme western part of the State, only
one county (Ballard) lying between it
and the Mississippi River,
It was organized in 1825 and named in
honor of Captain Virgil McCracken, who
was killed at the battle of River Raisin
in 1 81 3. The first county seat w-as Wil
mington, but was changed from there to
Paducah in the early 50's.
The county is generally level or rolling,
tliere being no hills of any magnitude.
The county is nearly equally divided
between bottom and upland. The bot
toms, especially the river bottoms, are
very fertile. The creek bottoms are well
adapted to the growing of any of the
crops that are raised in this section of
the State, producing the finest quality of
tobacco. The staple crops are corn,
w-heat, tobacco, oats, clover, timothy, and
stock " peas."
The county is well watered by the Ohio
¦and Tennessee rivers, w-hich wash its
shores on the north and east, and the
numerous creeks that fli.A\ through its
borders. In addition to these tliere are
several lakes in the river bottoms that
furnish fine stock water and abound in
fish. There are no navigable streams
flowing through the county.
.About one fourth of the countv is in
timber. The county has four railroads, all
terminating at Paducah: the Paducah &
Louisville branch of the Illinois Central,
the Paducah & Memphis branch of the
same system, the Paducah & Xorth Ala
bama, and the Paducah, St, Louis &
Chicago. These, with the Ohio and Ten

nessee rivers, with the Cumberland River
only twelve miles from the junction of the
Ohio and Tennessee, and the great Mis
sissippi only fifty miles below Paducah,
gives the county the very best of shipping
facilities, and competition between river
and rail at all times insures low rates of
transportation, both for- freight and
passenger traffic.
The county has about sixty miles of
free turnpike and over three hundred
miles of good dirt roads.
The labor of the county is principally
native white and colored. The price
ranges from Si3 to S15 per month, with
board. Excellent schools for both white and
colored pupils are located in all parts of
the county. Churches of all denomina
tions are numerous. There is hardly a
neighborhood in the county that is not
conveniently located to a good school or
church. Paducah, the county seat, is situated
on the west banks of the Ohio and Ten
nessee rivers, twelve miles below the mouth
of the Cumberland River and fifty miles
above the junction of the Ohio with the
Mississippi. By a census just completed
it has a population of 23,000. It is the
fourth city in the State in population and
the second in manufacturing and com
mercial enterprises. Its wholesale grocery
trade is probably the largest of any city
in the State, and its lumber plants and
woodworking establishments are, some of
them, among the largest in the country.
The railroads have large shops located
here that employ hundreds of skilled and
unskilled mechanics, and their monthly
pay-rolls run up into tens of thousands of
dollars. .As an evidence of Paducah's
solid business standing, there has not been
a single failure of any magnitude among

STATE OF KENTUCKY

89

its merchants or manufacturers for the
last ten years. There is no finer location
for the erection of manufactories of almost
any kind in the whole State than Paducah,
and its hospitable citizens extend a hearty
welcome to all good people who wish to
•come and make a home among them.
It is a good town, beautifully located.

with fine streets, elegant church buildings,
a splendid public school system, and a
warm-hearted, generous, and sociable peo
ple. The public buildings take rank with
the best in the State. The Paducah Uni
versity, which is completed, cost 875,000,
and is one of the handsomest and best
equipped school buildings in the State.

McLEAN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 12,448. County Seat, Calhoun.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
Second Appellate, Sixth Judicial, Eighth
Senatorial, aud Seventeenth Legislative
Districts. McLean County was organized in 1853-
54, and named in honor of Alney McLean,
¦Circuit Judge, who resided in the adjacent
county of Muhlenberg. It was formed
¦out of parts of Daviess, Ohio, and
Muhlenberg counties.
The surface is undulating for the most
part, the remainder level, with large and
occasionally overflowing bottoms along
Green, Rough, and Pond rivers, all of
which are rich and very productive. The
soil is fine, deep, rich loam of grayish
color, very fertile, which is well adapted
to tobacco, as well as to all the cereals,
grasses, and fruits. Perhaps all the
grain, fruits, and grasses, as well as the
products of good truck patches, grown in
Kentucky are grown here in abundance.
Large crops of the dark type of tobacco
which is well known as the ' ' Green River
fillers and wrappers " are grown in the
county. Below the surface in many places
are richly imbedded, superior veins of coal
and fire-clay.

There remain scattered over the county
large bodies of choice timber. The white
oak, poplar, and walnut are mostly cut,
yet there remains an abundance of beech,
hickory, sycamore, elm, maple, and black
oak along the numerous streams, all of
the finest quality. Saw mills are engaged
in converting the timber into lumber for
shipment or home use. Large rafts of
saw-logs are run, and an immense number
of railroad cross-ties are being put on the
banks of Green and Rough rivers for
shipment. Excellent transportation facili
ties are furnished by rail and river at all
seasons of the year. A large amount of
capital is invested in the lumbei business,
and it may be said to be a leading industry.
Excellent and well-equipped schools and
good churches are located in all parts of
the county.
Calhoun, the county seat, is located
near the center of the county on the
northern bank of Green River, a healthful
location, and one of the largest shipping
points on the river. The citizens are very
anxious and willing to lend a helping hand
to any good man or men who will start
manufactories.

90

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

MADISON COUNTY

POPUL.ATION (Census igoo), 25,607. County Seat, Richmond.

Is situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty-fifth Judicial,
Twenty-ninth Senatorial, and Seventy-
second Legislative Districts.
Madison County w-as organized in 17S6,
and taken wholly from Lincoln County,
one of the three original counties, and
only six years after the subdivision of
Kentucky County into the three counties
aforesaid. It lies on the South Fork of
the Kentucky River, Browning Creek
forming the line on the east and Paint
Lick on the w-est. The other creeks of
importance are Muddy, Otter, Tales, and
Silver, all named by Daniel and Squire
Boone. Boonesborough, the first fort in the
State, is in Madison County, and conse
quently the permanent settlement of the
county dates back a century and a quarter.
Timber of good quality is scarce. Some
walnut and poplar remain, and there is a
limited quantity of oak in various sections
of the county.
Its soil is a greater variety than any
other county in the State. Xo finer blue-

grass pastures can anywhere be found.
Considerable attention is given to rais
ing vegetables and small fruits in some
parts of the county, but the greater effort
is exerted in the direction of fine horses,
cattle, sheep, and hogs, which are the
principal products of the county.
There are about 200 miles of free turn
pike roads in the county. There are five
railroads in the county, all of them enter
ing Richmond — one from Cincinnati, two
from Louisville, one from Knoxville, and
one from Eastern Kentucky.
The public schools in the county are in
good condition. In many districts the
public money is supplemented by subscrip
tions and local taxation. The Caldwell
High School, which receives the public
money of the Richmond District, is mainly
supported by taxation.
Richmond, the county seat^ has two
good, modern flouring mills, two planing
mills, ice factory, laundry, telephone,
electricity, gas, and water.
Waco, Centerville, Berea, and Kirks-
ville are all thriving towns.

MAGOFFIN COUNTY
POPUL.ATION (Census igoo), 12,006. County Seat, Salyersville.

Is situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-third Judicial,
Thirty-fourth Senatorial, and Xinety-
second Legislative Districts.
Magoffin County, located in the south
eastern part of the State, was formed by
an act of the legislature in 1859, and
named in honor of the governor who was
serving at that time.
The county is, for the most part, moun
tainous or hilly, but there are many wide

and fertile bottoms in the valley of the
Licking River.
The principal water-courses of the coun
ty are the Licking River and its numerous
tributaries. The soil of the county is of a sandy
loam, w-hich is very fertile and productive,
being adapted to the raising of corn,
wheat, oats, and tobacco, which are the
principal crops.
The timber of the county is very exten-

STATE OF KENTUCKY

91

sive and of many varieties, such as yellow
poplar, black walnut, maple, oak, beech,
pine, lynn, ash, and chestnut.
Anthracite and bituminous coal is found
and mined in all parts of the county.
The best quality of sandstone is quar
ried for building purposes. The public
roads are rapidly improving, and are
maintained by the county.
Most of the labor in the county is
agricultural, and the average price per
month is S13, with board. There have
been several important developments,
among which is the construction of a
beautiful court house, at a cost of 815,-

000, and one of the most magnificent
school buildings in Eastern Kentucky.
The leading source of education is the
Salyersville Graded and Normal School,
which is situated at the county seat.
Salyersville, the county seat, is situated
on the bank of the Licking River, and is
a beautiful little town of about 400
inhabitants. It has an elegant new court
house, recently completed at a cost of
$15,000, several thriving business houses,
good schools and churches. It also has
the Salyersville Normal School, which is
one of the best educational institutions in
the State.

MARION COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 16,290. County Seat, Lebanon.

Is situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Eleventh Judicial,
Fifteenth Senatorial, and Fortieth Leg
islative Districts.
Marion County was carved out of the
territory of Washington County in the
year 1834, and lies near the geographical
center of the State.
The surface of the county is gently
undulating, with the exception of a chain
of " knobs," apart of the Muldraugh Hill
system, which runs entirely through the
county from east to west.
The principal water-courses are Rolling
Fork, including the main stream, and
North Fork and South Fork of same,
Hardin's Creek, Cartwright's Creek, Pleas
ant Run and Little Beech Fork.
The soil is varied in character. The
county is generally considered as lying on
the line separating the Bluegrass from
the " Pennerile." The valleys of all the
water-courses are extremely fertile. The
bottoms are broad, especially on the
Rolling Fork.
The soils of the county produce fine

crops of tobacco, corn, wheat, oats, hay,
vegetables, and small fruits. Consider
able attention is given to raising cattle,
hogs, sheep, and mules for market. The
finest sugar and cotton mules received in
the New Orleans market are the product
of Marion County.
Labor on the farm is performed by
native whites and colored hands, and the
average price, with board, is about twelve
dollars per month.
The county was once heavily timbered
with oak, poplar, beech, hickory, inter
spersed with walnut. Little of this now
remains, although there is considerable
timber in the knobs and in the south
western portion of the county.
The principal manufacturing establish
ments in the county are a number of
distilleries. These are among the best
equipped in the country, and the reputa
tion of their brands is co-extensive with
those portions of the world where
Kentucky whisky is used. Next in
importance are the flouring mills of the
county, of which there are a considerable

92

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

number conveniently located throughout
the county.
There are two colleges in the county,
St. Mary's for young gentlemen, and
Loretto for the young ladies. Both of
these institutions are old-established seats
of learning.
The county has no bonded or floating
debt of any kind, and the tax rate for
county purposes is low-.

Lebanon, the county seat, is a thriving
city of about 4,000 inhabitants, situated
on the Knoxville division of the L. & N.
Railroad, and is an up-to-date city in every
particular, being the only city of impor
tance in a wide surrounding area. It has
two flouring mills, two planing mills, one
wheel and spoke factory, two cigar factor
ies, one tobacco factory, besides numer
ous distilleries in and adjacent to the city.

MARSHALL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 13,
Is situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, Second Judicial, Second
Senatorial, and Sixth Legislative Districts.
Marshall County was formed out of a
part of Calloway County by an act of the
legislature, June i, 1842, and was named
in honor of John Marshall, who was then
Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.
The principal water-courses are Ten
nessee River, which flows along the north
and east border, and Clark River, which
passes through the county from southeast
to northwest.
The soils of the county are verv fertile,
especially the bottom lands along the
rivers, and produce fine crops of dark
tobacco, and all grasses, cereals, fruits,
and vegetables usually grown in this
latitude.

692. County Seat, Benton.
The bulk of the white oak, poplar, and
green timber has been manufactured, but
there is yet an immense quantity of red
oak and black oak of a fine quality in this
county. The Illinois Central Railroad runs
through the northern part of the county
for a distance of about twelve miles,
while the Louisville & Nashville, operated
by the Xashville, Chattanooga & St.
Louis Railway, runs through the cential
part of the county for a distance of about
seventeen miles.
There are sixty-five schools for white
and two for colored pupils and over fifty
churches in the county.
Benton, the county seat, is a prosperous
little town with good schools, churches,
and business houses.

MARTIN COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 5,780. County Seat, Eden (P. O. Inez).

Is situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fourth Judi
cial, Thirty-third Senatorial, and Xinety-
sixth Legislative Districts.
Martin County was created by an act of
the General Assembly or Legislature of
Kentucky at its session of 1869-70, and

was taken from the fractional parts of the
counties of Lawrence, Pike, Floyd, and
Johnson. Martin County fronts on the Tug Fork
of Big Sandy River, the boundary between
Kentucky and West 'Virginia, for about
forty miles. The main creeks running

STATE OF KENTUCKY

93

into Tug River are Rockcastle Creek,
Calf Creek, Turkey Creek, Big Elk and
Little Elk creeks. Buck Creek, Collin's
Creek, Wolfe Creek, Long Branch, and
Big Creek.
The soil is sandy and adapted to the
growth of corn, sugar-cane, grasses,
melons, and several varieties of small
fruits and vegetables. Coal, oil, and gas
are found in abundance and of excellent
quality. The county is in the center of
the gas belt.
Good common schools and churches
are located in all parts of the county.

There are no railroads or turnpikes in
the county. Small steamboats ply the
Tug River from six to eight months in
the year.
Eden (post-office Inez), the county
seat, is a thriving little city of the sixth
class, located near the center of the
county. It has a population of about
five hundred.
An abundance of white, black, and
chestnut oak, white and black walnut,
white and yellow poplar, ash, elm, beech,
sycamore, and lynn or basswood timber is
found in the county.

MASON COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 20,446. County Seat, Maysville.

Is situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Nineteenth Judicial,
Thirty-first Senatorial, and Eighty-seventh
Legislative Districts.
Mason County is situated in the north
ern part of the State on the Ohio River.
It is one of the nine counties formed
before the State was admitted into the
Union, having been organized in 1788 by
the legislature of 'Virginia.
The county is well watered and drained
by the Ohio and Licking rivers and their
numerous tributaries.
This county has an area of about 220
square miles. The surface of the county
along its water-courses is hilly, and as you
approach the Ohio River this feature of
the topography of the county becomes
very pronounced. Back from the streams,
however, widen out wonderful tracts of
level and very fertile lands. In the
southern part of the county the most
fertile laifd is found ; none probably in
the State better. Diversified farming is
engaged in to a considerable extent. The
Ohio River, bordering on this county for
eighteen miles, gives it good water trans
portation. The turnpikes in Mason County are

unexcelled by those anywhere, and there
are about 300 miles of free pikes in this
county, kept up and maintained by taxa
tion and the free turnpike law of the State,
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad runs
along the entire length of the northern
boundary, and the Kentucky Central, now
owned and controlled by the Louisville &
Nashville system, runs through the
central portion of the county from south
to north, giving the county the very best
of facilities for transportation.
The labor on the farm is mostly per
formed by native white and colored
laborers, and they can be had for ten to
fifteen dollars per month and board. The
staples of the farm are corn, wheat, oats,
hay, and tobacco. The very finest white
Burley tobacco is grown in this county.
All the products of the farm are largely
raised. The educational facilities of this county
are not surpassed by those of any other
county in the State. The common
schools are very superior. New and
good school houses, supplied with all
modern appliances, have been provided
within the past few years. The schools are
supplied with an excellent corps of teachers.

94

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

The county also abounds with churches,
about all of the regular orthodox denomi
nations being represented.
Maysville is the county seat. It is
situated on the Ohio River, sixty-four
miles above Cincinnati. It is also on the
Chesapeake & Ohio and the Kentucky
Central railroads. Its population now is
estimated to be about 8,000. It has

many miles of nicely paved streets and
elegant sidewalks. Has a. line of electric
street railway, fine system of water-works,
gas and electric light plants, telephone
exchange, and also connected by long
distance telephone with all parts of the
country; large manufacturing establish
ments of various kinds, fine hotels,
elegant churches, and magnificent schools.

MEADE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 10,533. County Seat, Brandenburg.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Second Appellate, Ninth Judicial, Tenth
Senatorial, and Thirtieth Legislative Dis
tricts. Meade County is situated among the
counties known as the central section of
the State. It was formed in 1823 from
the territory of Breckinridge and Hardin
counties, and named after one of the old
Revolutionary heroes. Captain Meade.
The Ohio River on the northeast and
southwest gives it a coast line of about
seventy miles. The county is well drained
and watered by numerous creeks which
empty into the Ohio River,
The soil along the river and creeks is
as rich and productive as any in the
State, and embraces about one tenth of
its area; but bordering on these streams
for several miles the land is hilly and
somewhat rough; the remainder is undula
ting only enough to drain it, making it a
splendid farming land. The hilly portion
of the county is well adapted to the rais
ing of all kinds of fruit, and abounds in
the finest orchards of apples to be found
anywhere. There are several large evap
orating establishments in the county, be
sides several apple distilleries. Diversified
farming is generally carried on, as the
soil responds generously to the various
grain and tobacco crops. Stock raising
and feeding is becoming a great industry.
All kinds of grasses grow well on the rich

limestone. Several silos have been in use
for years, both for fattening cattle as well
as wintering stock cattle. The poultry
business is looming up to be one of the
factors in the general thrift of the wide
awake farmers. Churches of all denomi
nations abound, and good, commodious
school houses are in easy reach of every
family. About one fifth of the timber still
remains, and it embraces the various oaks,
walnut, hickory, and beech. There are
two railroads running through the county,
affording every facility, with the Ohio
River, to an easy and quick market.
Petroleum, natural gas, and salt were dis
covered years ago, but only the two latter
have been utilized. Several salt manu
factories above Brandenburg were operated
for years, but the gas being more profit
able for heating and manufacturing, a pipe
line now carries it to Louisville.
The river and creek hills abound in
immense ledges of fine stone for either
building or artistic uses. Sand, oolite,
granite, cement, and lithograph stones are
found aud easily quarried. The latter
stone is now being quarried and dressed
near Brandenburg by steam machinery,
and shipped in large quantities. It is pro
nounced the finest in the world.
Telephone wires are now run along the
public highways, connecting the many
httle towns with each other, and many
farmers' homes as well.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

95

MENIFEE COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 6,818. County Seat, Frenchburg.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-first Judicial,
Thirty-fifth Senatorial, and Nineteenth
Legislative Districts.
Menifee County, named in honor of
Richard Menifee, a famous orator and
¦statesman, was formed from the counties
of Powell, Bath, and Montgomery in
1869. There are several streams flowing in
every direction through the county, the
largest of which are Beaver, Slate, Glady,
Indian, and Blackwater creeks.
Menifee County has all kinds of soil,
rich cove land, limestone benches, river
and creek bottoms, smooth uplands, all
of which produce well most any kind of
crop. The farmers raise corn, wheat,
•oats, cane, rye, timothy, red top, clover,
orchard grass, millet, and fruit such as
apples, peaches, pears, and grapes.
Beaver Creek is navigable from French
burg to Licking River, a distance of
eighteen miles. The C. & O. Railroad
runs to Rothwell, Ky., a distance through
this county of about six miles. The Red
River Valley Railroad (narrow gauge) has
a line in this county of about twenty miles.
The Scranton Railroad Co. has a line of
about twenty miles (narrow gauge), and

Lembord & Clay have a line about ten
miles in this county (narrow gauge), all of
which are large shippers of lumber, ties,
and staves.
The character of labor in this county
is white, and the average price paid is
about Si 5. 00 per month.
Frenchburg is the county seat, and is
located in about the center of the county.
The town contains about 300 inhabitants,
with three churches and one college build
ing, now owned by the Masonic Order (cost
about 82,000); one brick Odd Fellows'
Hall that cost to build about 83,000; four
merchants, two blacksmiths, six school
teachers, one doctor, four attorneys-at-
law, and two hotels.
The public schools in the county are
in splendid condition. There are in the
county fifty teachers and thirty-seven
school districts. Good churches are lo
cated in all parts of the county.
The county is rich in minerals, coal,
iron, and some lead. Various coal banks
are now opened throughout the county,
running in thickness from twenty to thirty
inches. The hills are full of iron ore.
The famous old Beaver furnace, built
back in the thirties, was located in what is
now Menifee County.

MERCER COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 14,426. County Seat, Harrodsburg.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Thirteenth Judicial,
Twentieth Senatorial, and Sixtieth Legis
lative Districts.
Mercer County was named in honor of
General Hugh Mercer, a Revolutionary
officer who fell at the head of his brigade
at the Battle of Princeton, and is one of
the nine counties created by an act of the

Virginia Legislature before Kentucky be
came a State. It was carved out of Lin
coln County in 1785, being the sixth
county in order of creation. It is situa
ted in the central part of the State, and
forms a portion of the famous bluegrass
region. The exact geographical center of
the State is within its borders, about six
miles west of the county seat. Its eastern

96

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

and northeastern boundary follows the
center of Kentucky and Dix rivers.
-Along the banks of these rivers is to be
found some of the grandest scenery on
our continent.
Mercer presents a great variety in the
character and productiveness of her soils.
The best farming lands of the county are
equal in producti\-eness and adaptability
to a variety of crops to those of any
county of this or any other State. While
wheat, oats, corn, hemp, and tobacco,
clover and timothy hay are the great
staple products of the county, rye, broom
corn, buckw-heat, potatoes, orchard grass,
millet, and H ungarian grass are also grown.
Xo county in the State is better w-atered.
In addition to the streams mentioned, com
prising about seventy-five miles in the
county, it has numerous other smaller
streams. It is also w-atered by innumera
ble springs. Xeariy every farm has one
or more sources of never-failing water. -A
number of the streams of the county
furnish excellent w-ater-pow-er, and some
are made available for flour mills and other
industries. A number of the farmers are
interested in raising short-horn cattle.
Some of its fine farms are devoted to
raising thoroughbred, or trotting and sad
dle horses. -A very prominent training-
stable is located at the county seat.
Mercer has a variety of timbers — oak,
ash, hickory, walnut, sugar-tree, cherry,
beech, poplar, lynn, pine, etc. It has
many varieties of oak, w-hich is most
abundant. Walnut, ash, hickory, and
beech are common. The price of the land
of Mercer varies from Sio to S85 per acre.
The manufacturing interest outside of
Harrodsburg is represented by eight grist
mills, tw-o distilleries, and several saw
mills. The county enjoys excellent transporta
tion facilities for its agricultural and
mechanical products. -A complete net
work of macadamized roads, comprising
two hundred miles in all, traverse every
section. .A dozen or more lead into Har
rodsburg, the county seat. Every mile of
turnpike is free and maintained by the

countv. The Cincinnati, Xew- Orleans Sc
Texas Pacific Railroad (Cincinnati South
ern Railroad) runs through the eastern
portion of the county for a distance of
eight miles, and the Louisville Southern
Railroad, entering it from the north, fol
lows the general course of Salt River to-
Harrodsburg, thence to Burgin, a distance
of eighteen miles. Since the completion
of the lock at High Bridge large steamers
now navigate the Kentucky River, afford
ing cheap transportation.
Harrodsburg, the county seat, has the
honor of being the oldest town in the
State. Here "the first house" was built
in 1774 by a company of thirty-one men,
for Captain James Harrod, for whom it
was named. However, its business houses
and most of its dwellings give no evidence
of its age, being of modern construction
and including many handsome buildings
and beautiful homes. Fifty per cent of
its dwellings and all of its business houses
are brick, metal-roof buildings. It has a
population of 4,000, It has six white and
three colored churches. In addition to its
public schools it has Beaumont College
(formerly Daughters' College) for young
ladies, the Harrodsburg .Academy for
young men and young ladies, and Wayman
College, the latter being an institution of
the colored Methodist Church. It has two
telephone systems, electric light plant,
and a fine system of water- works; a large
grain elevator, tw-o planing mills, an ice
manufactory, two large flouring mills, a
laundry, a carding factory, a large distill
ery, a turkey slaughter-pen, two coal and
lumber yards, a brick yard, one whole
sale grocery, two banks with a capital of
Sioo, 000 each, four blacksmith shops, fifty
business houses, two weekly newspapers —
the Harrodsburg Democrat and the Har
rodsburg Sayings.
Burgin, Pleasant Hill, Salvisa, and
McAfee are flourishing villages amidst a
fine agricultural country.
There are thirty-five churches in the
county. Thirty-three Sunday-schools have
an enrollment of 2,000 pupils. The
county has a good common school system.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

97

METCALFE COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 9,c

County Seat, Edmonton.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twenty-ninth Judicial,
Nineteenth Senatorial, and Thirty-fifth
Legislative Districts.
Metcalfe County was formed in i860,
the greater part of it being cut from the
eastern portion of Barren County, the
counties of Monroe, Cumberland, Hart,
and Green furnishing small additions to
same. It is situated near the center of
the southern border of the State. It was
named in honor of Thomas Metcalfe, the
tenth governor of the State.
It is drained by the Little Barren River,
which flows along its entire eastern bound
ary, and the principal tributary of same,
the South Fork, which flows through the
central part of the county. In fertility
the soil of the county may be classed in a
general way as on an average with the
best in this section of the State.
There has been no gas or oil developed
in this county, but it is considered as being
within the limits of the vast oil fleld which
has been worked with such success in ad
joining counties. The county is well tim
bered, oak and beech preponderating;
there are ash, hickory, and other hard
woods, and also some poplar.

Diversified farming is not engaged in.
The principal products of the farms are
corn, wheat, oats, and tobacco. There
are no navigable streams in the county
and no turnpike roads. There are no
railroads in the county.
The average price of farm lands is 86
per acre. The farms of the county are
cultivated mostly by native white labor,
the average price paid such laborers being
88 per month, with board.
The educational facilities of the county
are such as are supplied by the common
school system and the Edmonton Male and
Female Academy. The public schools are
well attended and conducted, and are in
good condition. The taxation for county
purposes is 10 cents on the Sioo. Poll
tax, 81.25.
Edmonton, the county seat of Metcalfe
County, is situated near the center of the
county on the south fork of Little Barren
River. It is a small town, has a nice
public square and good court house; a
church, public school house, a private
school house, several general stores,
two drug stores, and a splendid hotel ;
also one first-class roller mill and one
bank.

MONROE COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 13,053. County Seat, Tompkinsville.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Twenty-ninth Judicial,
Nineteenth Senatorial, and Thirty-fifth
Legislative Districts.
Monroe is the eighty-fifth in the alpha
betical order of counties, and is bounded
its entire length on the south by Tennes
see. The county was organized in 1820
from parts of Cumberland and Barren.

The Cumberland River runs through the
eastern part of the county, and its tribu
taries are few, notably, Meshack, Little
and Big Sulphur, Big and Little McFar-
land. Barren River and its tributaries
drain more than three fourths of the
county, the entire northern, central, and
western part.
Creeks, brooks, rivulets, and never-

98

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

failing springs are numerous. No county
in the State has a more equally distrib
uted supply of water than this. The soil,
by reason of its clay bottom, is suscep
tible of the highest degree of improve
ment. Fields that have been barren and
abandoned for many years have been re
cently refenced, and are producing abun
dant crops by the judicious use of ferti
lizer. About 40 per cent of the acreage
of the county is in its primeval state and
covered with luxuriant forest trees — such
as oak, poplar, hickory, chestnut, beech,
ash, etc.
Farming is mainly confined to the cul
ture of cereals, but in recent years farmers
are devoting some attention to fruit grow
ing. The climate is well suited to the
growth and development of all staple
fruits, viz., apples, pears, peaches, cher
ries, grapes, and plums, while the forest
usually abounds with wild fruits. All kinds
of small fruits grow in abundance in the
fields w-ithout cultivation. The Cumber
land is the only navigable stream in the
county. Farm laborers get from S7 to 8 1 2
per month, according to age and experi
ence.

Tompkinsville, the county seat, was
named for Vice-President Tompkins. It
is located near the center of the county.
It is practically a new town, as it was al
most entirely destroyed by fire some ten
years ago. It has three churches, and
there are four large dry goods stores,
three drug stores, two fine roller mills,
shops, and four newspapers. The busi
ness houses are mostly of brick, and many
fine and costly residences add to the
beauty of this splendid inland town. The
Monroe County Deposit Bank is a well-
established banking-house and is doing a
thriving business. The public buildings —
court house and county jail — are handsome
structures constructed on modern plans.
The Tompkinsville Normal School, a
chartered institution, is located here.
Other colleges are located in the county,
"The Didactic High School" at Gama
liel. The Monroe Normal School is located
at Flippin. The public schools are exceed
ingly prosperous, far above the average,
and are in the hands of an able corps of
teachers, many of whom hold State certifi
cates, and quite a large percentage hold
first-class county certificates.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 12,834. County Seat, Mt. Sterling.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh -Appellate, Twenty-first Judicial,
Tw-enty-eighth Senatorial, and Ninetieth
Legislative Districts.
Montgomery County was formed in the
year 1796 out of Clark, and was the twenty-
second in the history of the State. It was
named in honor of General Richard Mont
gomery. At the date of its formation it
comprised a very large territory, but at
various dates since then portions of it
have been repeatedly taken to form other
counties, no less than eighteen counties
having been either wholly or partly made
from the original county.

The land for the greater part is gently
rolling and well adapted for agricultural
pursuits. In the southeastern portion of
the county it is more broken and hilly.
While there are no large streams of
water, there are many creeks and small
streams which furnish an abundant supply
during the driest of seasons.
The county is all bluegrass except the
extreme southern and southeastern parts.
Being naturally rich, and having a clay
backing of six to ten feet before striking
rock, the soil is peculiarly adapted to rais
ing good crops, even during an extended
drouth.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

99

The principal crops are corn, tobacco,
wheat, oats, rye, and various grasses.
Quite an item of profit is being made in
gathering bluegrass seed.
Like most other bluegrass counties trav
ersed by railroads, most of the timber has
been cut down, though in the southern
and southeastern portions of the county
there are still standing many fine bodies
of timber. This timber is chiefly oak,
ash, walnut, sugar maple, poplar, and
chestnut. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad runs
through the county and furnishes direct
means of transportation to the seacoast.
A branch of this road extends from
Mt. Sterling to Rothwell, in Menifee
County. There are one hundred miles of turn
pikes, all free of toll, and about one hun
dred miles of good country roads.
In addition to a good common school
system, there is at Mt. Sterling a large
public graded high school, which is main
tained by local taxation in addition to the
State per capita.

There are also several private high
schools and academies, all well patronized.
The labor employed on the farm is simi
lar to that in other bluegrass counties,
and prices received therefor run from S12
to Si 5 per month.
Mt. Sterling, the county seat, is a thriv
ing and energetic city of 5,000 inhabitants,
situated on the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail
road, and is thirty-three miles east of
Lexington. It is known as the " Gate
City" from the fact that it is the general
distributing point for the mountain coun
ties beyond. It has four large wholesale
groceries, two roller flouring mills, a woolen
factory, ice and electric light plants, ma
chine shops, three banks, many large and
thriving retail stores, fine church buildings,
macadam street and brick and stone side
walks, splendid system of water-works,
magnificent new court house, a handsome
new city hall. Besides having a local
telephone exchange, it is connected with
the rest of the State by long-distance tele
phone. Mt. Sterling is one of the best
cattle markets in the State.

MORGAN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 12,792. County Seat, West Liberty.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twentieth Judicial,
Thirty-fourth Senatorial and Ninety-first
Legislative Districts.
Morgan County is in middle eastern
Kentucky, and was organized as a county
in 1822 out of territory taken from Floyd
and Bath counties.
The Licking runs through the central
portion of the county in a southeastern
direction, while its numerous tributaries
drain the county from each side of that
river. The soil of the county along the
bottoms of the Licking and other streams
is very strong and fertile, and abundant
crops are raised. This is, however, a

distinctively mineral and timber county.
The largest deposits of cannel coal in the
world are found in this county. Bitumin
ous coal and iron are also found in inex
haustible quantities, as is also the finest
building stone. The timber resources of
this county are unexcelled, and notwith
standing the large number of logs which
have been rafted out of the county fully
fifty per cent of the virgin forests yet
remain. Oak, hickory, ash, pine, beech,
walnut, and poplar are the leading species
of trees. Large tracts of valuable timbered
land can be purchased at very reasonable
prices per acre.
The Licking River is the only stream in

lOO

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

the county navigable, and that only for
small steamers. There are no turnpikes
in the county.
The inhabitants of Morgan are steady,
industrious, law-abiding, peaceful, and hos
pitable. Intemperance and crime are al
most wholly unknown now to the county.
There has not been a licensed saloon in
the county for eighteen years. There is

a good church and school house in every
district in the county.
West Liberty is the county seat of
Morgan County, and is situated near the
center of the county on the Licking River.
It is a nice, quiet little village, with enter
prising merchants, good church and school
house, and population of nearly five
hundred.

MUHLENBERG COUNTY

Population (Census igooV 20,741. County Seat, Greenville.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Seventh Judicial,
Seventh Senatorial, and Eighteenth
Legislative Districts.
Muhlenberg County is situated in mid
dle western Kentucky and was formed
out of parts of Logan and Christian in
1798. Green, Big Muddy, and Pond
rivers, with their numerous tributaries,
afford ample drainage and a fine supply
of water.
The surface of the county is rather roll
ing, though much of it is broken and even
hilly; the character of the soil, speaking in
a general way, is a sandy loam, aud quite
productive; especially in the northern por
tion of the county is good farming land.
This county is, however, more noted for
great wealth of minerals. Coal and iron
of the best quality abound in the county
in the largest and richest veins and depos
its, both of which have been largely de
veloped. The best and finest timber also abounds
throughout this county. Oak, poplar,
walnut, beech, ash, and pine are all
plentiful, and the supply is sufficient to
last many years. Diversified farming is
not engaged in to any extent, but the
same could be profitably followed if mar
kets were easier of access, for this is a

splendid county in which to raise melons
and vegetables, the soil seeming to be
especially adapted to same, and fruits of
all kinds known to our latitude do well.
Green River, on the eastern boundary,
is navigable for steamers, and being con
trolled by the Federal government is free
for navigation. Other streams within the
county and on its boundary are only navi
gable for flatboats and rafts.
There are about fifty-four miles of com
pleted railroad in the county. The Louis
ville & Nashville runs through the eastern
part and the Illinois Central Railroad runs
near the central portion of the county.
The staples of the farm are corn, wheat,
oats, hay, and tobacco, tobacco being the
principal product.
The educational facilities of this county
are good. The common schools of the
county are all well attended, are under good
management, supplied with competent
teachers, and the districts have good,
comfortable school houses.
Greenville is the county seat of Muhlen
berg County, and is located near the cen
ter of the county on the Illinois Central
Railroad; it is a flourishing town, with
enterprising merchants, good hotels and
schools, with commodious church build
ings and live congregations.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

lOI

NELSON COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 16,587. County Seat, Bardstown.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Tenth Judicial, Four
teenth Senatorial, and Thirty-ninth Legis
lative Districts.
Col. Isaac Fox, with others, in the
spring of 1775, were the first settlers of
what is now Nelson County, and located
their fort on Cox's Creek, which was called
" Cox's Station." A permanent settle
ment was made in 1778 by Capt. Samuel
Pottinger, on Pottinger's Creek, where a
fort was built, and on Simpson's Creek
Thomas Polk and his companions settled
and built a fort also. The present site of
Bardstown was settled in 1776 and named
" Salem," and in 1782 was surveyed and
regularly laid off and name changed to
Bairdstown in honor of David Baird.
John Fitch, inventor of the steamboat,
moved to Bardstown in 1778, died in
1798, and was buried in the "Town
•Grave Yard." In October, 1784, Patrick
Henry, Governor of Virginia, approved
the act to establish the county of Nelson,
the fourth county of the territory.
The northeastern part of the county is
Tolling bluegrass land, very fertile and
highly productive. The land in and
around Bardstown is a plateau, through
which the water-courses have cut deep

valleys. The western and southern parts
of the county are crossed by a range of
knobs, on each side of which flow the
Beech and Rolling forks, bordered by
broad alluvial bottoms. The knobs are
all fine timbered lands, much of which is
virgin forest. There are 46,000 acres of
woodland in the county. The Rolling
Fork is the southern and southwestern
boundary of the county, while the Beech
Fork, for a distance of fifteen miles, is the
eastern boundary, whence it turns, flows
west through the central part of the
county to join the Rolling Fork. Both
streams are capable of being made navi
gable by a system of locks and dams.
The county has about 225 miles of turn
pike roads.
Hydraulic limestone in a bed twelve to
eighteen inches thick comes in under the
lowest bench of magnesian limestone in a
hill southwest of Whitrow Creek, and also
on Buffalo Creek. Iron ore rich enough
for profitable smelting is found in the
knobs between the Rolling and Beech
forks, the kidney ore from near Nelson
Furnace showing 35.64 per cent of iron.
Farm labor may be had from S12 to
Si 5 per month. The county has no
bonded indebtedness.

NICHOLAS COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 11,952. County Seat, Carlisle.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Eighteenth Judicial, Thir
tieth Senatorial, and Eighteenth Legis
lative Districts.
Nicholas County lies on the border of
what is famed as the bluegrass section of
JCentucky. Its lands produce the finest
white Burley tobacco raised; its corn,

wheat, and other products are yielded in
abundance, and its stock interests are
large and lucrative.
Licking River runs through the north
ern portion of the county, and the various
smaller streams furnish abundance of stock
water. The churches and schools are abundant

I02

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

and prosperous. The public roads are all
macadamized, and are free. The timber
has about all been cut away.
Carlisle, the county seat, is one of the
most attractive towns in the State. The
court house is one of the most beautiful
and complete. A dozen thriving villages
dot the county.
Historically, Nicholas County is well
know-n. Lying within her borders are the
two famous " Blue Lick Springs," known
to early history as the two ' ' salt springs
of the Licking." It was at the lower lick
that Daniel Boone and his fellow- salt-
makers were captured by Indians and
carried to Detroit as prisoners, where the
French commandant offered one hundred

pounds sterling for him. It was also at
the lower Blue Lick that the disastrous
battle of August ig, 1782, was fought,
and this spot is now being made famous
again by the exhuming of mammoth bones
and indisputable evidences that civilized
man existed even before the extinguish
ment of the giant beasts of the forest.
Underneath the fossil bones and tusks
of immense animals have been lately
discovered a well-laid and much worn
stone pavement, pieces of an iron vessel,
and charcoal.
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad
runs through the center of the county, and
furnishes abundant transportation for
freight and passengers.

OHIO COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 27,287. County Seat, Hartford.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Second Appellate, Sixth Judicial, Seventh
Senatorial, and Twenty-sixth Legislative
Districts. This county is one of the largest in
territory and bids fair to soon become one
of the largest in population and w-ealth in
the State. On the south and west it is
bounded by Green River. Running through
the center of the county is Rough River,
a navigable stream which drains a large
and fertile region.
There are numerous smaller streams
and creeks, the valleys of which, like that
of the rivers, are very rich and productive
of all our staple products. The adjacent
hUls or uplands are not so enduring in
fertility. Tobacco, wheat, oats, clover, red top,
timothy and orchard grass grow well.
Hogs, horses, mules, and sheep are raised
in large numbers, of the best and most
improved breeds.
The county is exceptionally fortunate
in its supply of the cheapest and best
i3f transportation for heavy freights by

water. The county has in addition to
her water facilities 54.92 miles of railroad
within her borders, the Illinois Central
owning and operating through the entire
county between Green and Rough rivers.
The same company also operates a branch
road from Horse Branch, traversing a
fine coal field by Olaton, Fords ville, and
Deanefield, Ohio County, to Owensboro,
Daviess County. The Irvington branch
of the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis
extends from Irvington, on the main line,
for a distance of nine miles in Ohio
County to Fordsville.
The supply of timber, once so abundant,
is rapidly disappearing, and yet after
the many years of its waste there was
never so much "logging" for local and
Evansville markets as at present. Suffi
cient oak, poplar, ash, gum, hickory, and
chestnut timber remain for all purposes.
Coal exists in superior quality and
unlimited quantity, especially between the
Illinois Central and Green River. Iron
ore is also found in the same locality, and
on Rough River, near Hartford.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

103

The county is well supplied with free
schools, and in no part of it need any
family be too far removed to patronize a
good school. Hartford, Beaver Dam, and
Fordsville each have a graded school.
Hartford, on Rough River, is the county
seat, in a rich farming and timber region.

It has a population of 1,200, two banks,
tile, stave, and tobacco factories, and good
two-story brick business houses. Beaver
Dam, on Illinois Central, is an important
shipping point for Ohio and Butler coun
ties, has a fine bank and does a good
business.

OLDHAM COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 70,78. County Seat, Lagrange.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twelfth Judicial,
Twenty-first Senatorial, and Fifty-second
Legislative Districts.
Oldham was created in the year 1723
from portions of Henry, Shelby, and
Jefferson counties, and was named after
Colonel Wm. Oldham, a gallant officer in
the Revolutionary War, who came to Ken
tucky in 1779 from Beverly County, Vir
ginia, and settled near the Falls of the
Ohio. Oldham County lies in the north
middle part of the State, and is bordered
on the north by about twenty miles of the
Ohio River.
The soil is fairly good and the whole
county is well adapted to farming and
stock raising. The land produces wheat,

corn, tobacco, oats, and various grasses in
abundance. The county is very healthy,
being of a high altitude, well watered by
springs and two large creeks, Floyd's Fork
and Harrod's Creek, which flow through
the entire county, from east to west.
The L., C. & L. branch of the L. & N.
railroad traverses the county from west to
east for twenty miles.
Lagrange, the county seat, has a
population of about 1,100, with streets
well macadamized, shade trees in abun
dance, no tax license for several years;
has two banks and seven churches.
Other towns in the county are Ballards-
ville, Floydsburg, Pewee Valley, Goshen,
Brownsboro, and Westport on the Ohio
River.

OWEN COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 17,553. County Seat, Owenton.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Fifteenth Judicial,
Twenty-third Senatorial, and Sixteenth
Legislative Districts.
Was the sixty-seventh county organized,
and was formed in 18 19 out of parts of
Franklin, Scott, and Gallatin. It was
named in honor of Colonel Abraham Owen,
a distinguished citizen and soldier. The
general character of the soil of Owen is
limestone upon a clay foundation. It

produces a superior quality of Burley
tobacco, corn, all kinds of small grain,
grasses, and fruits. The county is also
well adapted to stock raising, being
admirably watered and growing all the
best grasses, bluegrass among the rest.
Owenton, the county seat, a prosperous
and growing country town, is pleasantly
situated in the center of the county.
Besides Owenton, there are some eight or
ten small towns and villages scattered

I04

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

over the county, most of which are in a
prosperous condition. The Kentucky
River bounds the county on the south,
and the Short-line Branch of the Louis
ville & Nashville Railroad runs on or near
the line of the county for some twenty-
odd miles on the northwest, and the
Cincinnati branch of the Louisville &
Nashville railroad runs along the northern
border. Quite a number of mineral springs are
found in Owen County, the waters of
which are of approved valuable medicinal
properties. Owen has a very interesting
history in connection with war and politics.
The "Jump-off" on Eagle Creek;
"Point-of-Rocks" on Cedar Creek, with its
"Deep Hole," or "Bottomless Pool," and
"Pond Branch," with its " Island Moun
tain," are all interesting objects of note
in this county. The Kentucky River,
which is the only navigable stream in

Owen, furnishes the county about thirty-
five miles (as the river runs) of navigation
for good-sized steamers and towboats.
Locks Nos. 2 and 3 are located on the
line between Owen and Henry counties,
and Lock No. i is a few miles below the
western line. Eagle Creek, a large tribu
tary of the Kentucky, forms the entire
northern border of the county, and with
Cedar, Big Twin, Big Indian, Severn,
and other creeks, furnish ample water
power for propelling machinery. There
are all kinds of timber in Owen, but it is
growing scarce. Most of the timbers
now left, valuable for sawing into lumber,
are poplar, beech, and oak varieties. The
principal agricultural products of the
county are tobacco, corn, wheat, rye,
oats, and grasses. Owen is one of the
largest Burley tobacco producing counties
in the State, much of it being of the
highest grade.

OWSLEY COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 6,874. County Seat, Booneville.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty -seventh Judicial,
Thirty-fourth Senatorial, and Seventy-
first Legislative Districts.
Owsley County is one of the middle
eastern Kentucky counties, and was
formed in 1843 and named after Governor
William Owsley.
It is well watered and drained ; the
South Fork of the Kentucky River flows
through the center of the county from
south to north.
The soil of the county is good, very
rich and productive, and yields bounti
ful crops of corn, wheat, oats, and hay,
and some tobacco. The county is well
underlaid with coal of the best quality,
the finest veins of surface coal of both
bituminous and cannel are found here, and
forty feet below the surface of the earth
are veins of the finest coal, nearly ten feet
thick. The soil is also underlaid with
the best quality of gray and blue lime
stone, suitable for building purposes.

Iron also abounds in this county; in fact,
the wealth of the county is its mineral and
magnificent timber supply. Probably
two thirds of the surface of the county is
yet covered with forests of the very finest
timber. All the varieties of timber found
in Eastern Kentucky are found here —
oak, hickory, sugar-tree, beech, yellow
pine, yellow poplar, ash, black and white
walnut, maple, and chestnut.
The common schools of the county have
been greatly improved in the past few
years and are now in a flourishing condi
tion. Good school houses are in every
district, and they are well supplied with
all the modern appliances for teaching.
Booneville is the county seat of Owsley
County, and is situated in the northern
part of the county near the middle of the
northern boundary line, on the South Fork
of the Kentucky River. It was named
for Daniel Boone, who at one time had a
camp near where the court house now
stands.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

lO:

PENDLETON COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), i4,g47. County Seat, Falmouth.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional, Sixth
Appellate, Eighteenth Judicial, Twenty-
¦sixth Senatorial, and Seventy-ninth Leg
islative Districts.
Pendleton County is situated in the
northern part of the State, about two and
one half miles of its northeastern border
being on the Ohio River. It is bounded
on the north by the counties of Kenton
and Campbell, on the east by the Ohio
River and Bracken County, on the south
by Harrison County, and on the west by
Grant County. It was organized as a
county in 1800 and is named in honor of
the Honorable Edmund Pendleton, the
Virginia statesman.
The Licking River flows through the
central portion of the county. The south
fork of this river enters the county at its
southwest corner, and flowing in a north
eastern direction joins the Licking at
Falmouth, near the center ot the county.
About one third of the county is bottom
land along the rivers and the numerous
creeks which are their tributaries, and is
very rich and productive. The other por
tion is hilly, but quite productive and well
adapted to grazing. Sheep and cattle rais
ing is extensively carried on, and a surplus
of corn, wheat, oats, and hay are raised
for shipment, but the principal product
for market is tobacco. All fruits and ber
ries grow well and in large quantities.
There is very little timber left in the
county, most of the land having been
under cultivation for years.

The Kentucky Central Branch of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad runs
through the central portion of the county.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad crosses
the northeastern corner of the county.
The county has over two hundred miles of
turnpike roads and a very good system of
dirt roads. None of the streams are now
navigable. The common schools are well conducted
throughout the county; the teachers are
efficient, and the houses and equipments
good. Falmouth and Butler have good
graded schools, and in most of the districts
the schools are maintained beyond the five-
months' term by local taxation.
There are three large rock quarries
being operated in the county, one at Men-
zies, on the Louisville & Nashville Rail
road, and two near Carntown, on the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Good lime
stone building rock is near the surface
and easily quarried in most parts of the
county. Falmouth is the county seat, situated
on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad,
forty miles from Cincinnati, at the junc
tion of and almost surrounded by Licking
River and its south fork, each of which
streams would afford ample water power
for all kinds of manufacturing establish
ments. Falmouth has a large saw mill, a
woolen factory, a cannery, two roller flour
mills, a distillery, a pickle house, and quite
a number of tobacco prizing and rehand
ling warehouses.

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COMMERCIAL GROWTH

PERRY COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 8,276. County Seat, Hazard.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-sixth Judicial,
Thirty-third Senatorial, and Xinety-third
Legislative Districts.
Perry County was formed in the year
1821, and both the county and county seat
named in honor of Oliver Hazard Perry,
the hero of Lake Erie. It is bounded on
the north by Breathitt County, on the east
by Knott, on the south by Harlan, on the
west by Leslie.
The Xorth Fork of the Kentucky River,
its principal water-course, flows through
the center of the county from south to
north. It and its tributaries form a most
perfect system of natural drainage and
furnish an abundant supply of water for
the entire county, and affords about zoo
miles of navigable water.
The soil is freestone, very fertile, and
produces fine crops of corn, wheat, oats,
potatoes, fruits, melons, and most all kinds
of grass.
There is practically an inexhaustible
supply of timber. Poplar, ash, walnut.

birch, maple, chestnut, sycamore, lynn,
hickory, cedar, etc., abounds in almost
all parts of the county, and of the finest
quality. The county is very rich in mineral re
sources, such as coal, iron, copperas, etc.
The coal veins are from three to seven
feet in thickness, and are of the very
finest quality of splint and cannel coal.
Hematite iron ores are found in abun
dance. Salt and gas are found in great
quantities. There is a natural gas well
at Hazard.
There are no educational institutions in
the county other than the public schools.
These schools are in very good condi
tion. Hazard, the county seat, is an energetic
little village situated on the east bank of
the North Fork of the Kentucky, thirty-
five miles above Jackson, the nearest
railroad station. It has a good court house,
a new jail, three good hotels, a number of
enterprising merchants, good shops and
mills, and is growing at a rapid rate.

PIKE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 22,686. County Seat, Pikeville.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fourth Judicial,
Thirty-third Senatorial, and Ninety-fifth
Legislative Districts.
The county is situated in Eastern
Kentucky, being the extreme eastern point
of the State. It was formed in 1821,
and was named after a gallant officer in
the War of 1812, General Zebulon M.
Pike. The county is drained by the two great
forks of the Big Sandy River, Tug Fork,

running along the eastern, and the Levisa
Fork, running along the western boundary
of the county, while John's Creek runs
through the center of the county.
The natural drainage of this county
can not be excelled, and the water supply
is abundant. The soil is very fine; better
bottom lands can not be found anywhere
than along the numerous streams of this
county, and the hills or uplands are
remarkably strong and productive. All
the hills are filled with the finest coal, and

STATE OF KENTUCKY

107

the supply is practically inexhaustible.
Hematite iron ores are also found in
great abundance, and natural gas and salt
exist in the county. There is still plenty
of timber in this county, though it is con
fined mostly to the several varieties of
oaks; beech, pine, and poplar still exist,
and some walnut can be found.
The agricultural staples are corn, wheat,
hay, oats, and tobacco. A surplus of all
is raised for market. Fruit grows to
great perfection.
The schools of the county, outside of
Pikeville, are the common schools pro
vided by the State under the common

school law, and they are in good condi
tion, well attended, under good manage
ment, and provided with good teachers.
Pikeville is the county seat of Pike
County. It is situated near the center of
the western border of the county, on the
Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River. It
is a most enterprising and progressive
village. It has a splendid court house,
erected at a cost to the county of over
thirty thousand dollars, and a good town
clock, costing nearly a thousand dollars;
a ten-thousand-dollar school building
affords ample accommodations for educa
tional facilities.

POWELL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 6,443. County Seat, Stanton.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-fifth Judicial,
Twenty-ninth Senatorial, and Seventy-
third Legislative Districts.
Powell County was formed from parts
of Montgomery, Clark, and Estill counties
in 1852. It is named in honor of L. W.
Powell, then govenor of Kentucky.
Red River, the principal water-course,
is not navigable except for the floating of
timber; it flows through the county, divid
ing it into nearly equal portions north and
south. There is fine water power at Clay
City, where there was once a large rolling
mill and nail factory, and also a large
flouring mill, all run by water; the water
power is not now being used. The soil in
the Red River valley is a rich sandy loam,
and very productive, yielding large crops
of corn, oats, rye, timothy, and clover.
The principal timber is poplar, walnut,
oak, hickory, beech, and pine. The wal
nut and poplar are nearly exhausted, and
the oak is being cut very fast. There are
no manufactories in the county except for
the manufacture of lumber and staves, of
which a large amount is shipped every year.

There is one roller mill in the county
for the manufacture of flour. The county
has about twenty -five miles of railroad,
the L. & E. running the entire length,
which gives good railroad facilities.
There are no turnpikes in the county,
but the roads are kept in a reasonably
good condition under the general road
law of the State.
There is an abundance of the finest
iron ore, coal, and fire-clay, but none of
them is developed. The natural scenery
is of the grandest in the State. The av
erage price of farm labor is about fifty
cents per day, with board.
There are no graded or normal schools
in the county; the public schools are well
conducted and well attended.
Stanton, the county seat, located near
the center of the county, has a popu
lation of about three hundred; contains
three hotels, two churches, and four gen
eral stores. There are several flourish
ing villages in the county. Clay City, the
most important, is larger than the county
seat; Bowden, Dundee, and Rosslynn do
a considerable business.

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COMMERCIAL GROWTH

PULASKI COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 31,293. County Seat, Somerset.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twenty-eighth Judicial,
Seventeenth Senatorial, and Sixty-eighth
Legislative Districts.
Pulaski County was formed from parts
of Green and Lincoln counties in 1798,
the first court being held at a point four
miles southwest of Somerset, about July
10, 1799. It was named in honor of Count
Joseph Pulaski, the great Polander.
Pulaski is the largest county in the
State, with a length of forty miles from
north to south and thirty miles from east
to west. Its principal streams are Cum
berland River, which flow-s through the
county from east to west, Rockcastle
River, on the east. South Fork of the
Cumberland River on the southwest, and
Buck, Pitman, and Fishing creeks, which
flow through the county from north to
south. Coal is mined in the southern and
southeastern portions of the county.
That mined in the southern is shipped by

rail, while that mined in the southeastern
finds a market down the Cumberland
River at points in Kentucky and Tennes
see. Gas and oil are known to exist.
The timber resources are practically inex
haustible. Cumberland River is naviga
ble for six months in the year as far as
Burnside. There are no turnpikes in the
county, but there is a very good system
of public roads, kept in good condition by
local taxation.
The Cincinnati Southern Railroad cross
es the county from north to south, about
forty miles.
Somerset, the county seat, centrally
located on the Cincinnati Southern rail
road, is a city of the fourth class. The
condition of the public schools is good, in
a few instances supplemented by district
or local taxation. The county has no
bonded indebtedness, and the rate of tax
ation for county purposes is twenty-two
and one half cents on the one hundred
dollars.

ROBERTSON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 4,900. County Seat, MH:. Olivet.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Eighteenth Judicial, Thir
teenth Senatorial, and Eighteenth Legisla
tive Districts.
Robertson County is one of the smallest
counties in the State; was formed in 1867
from portions of Mason, Fleming, Nicho
las, Harrison, and Bracken counties, and
was named in honor of Chief Justice Rob
ertson, of the Court of Appeals. It is in
the northeastern part of the State. The
surface of the county is generally rolling,
yet none of the land is too steep for culti
vation; along the larger streams are bot

tom lands of unsurpassed fertility. The
soil of the entire county is of a limestone
formation with a clay subsoil, enabling it
to retain moisture, and where it has not
been abused is productive. The principal
crops raised in the county are wheat, to
bacco, corn, oats, and hay. While the
yield of wheat and tobacco per acre is not
as large as in some other counties, yet their
quality is far above the average in the
State. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries,
all do well, and the damson is scarcely ex
celled anywhere.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

109

Land is worth from 88 to S50 per acre.
There are but few foreigners in the county.
Farm labor is performed by native white
and colored hands, whose services can be
obtained for from ten to fifteen dollars per
month, with board.
There are no large tracts of timber in
the county, and the supply may be said
to be limited to the necessities and demands
of the county for fuel and repairs to build
ing and fencing.
Main Licking, on the southern border of
the county, the North Fork, on the west
and north, and Johnson Creek, running di
agonally across the southern part of the
county, are its principal streams. These,
with their numerous smaller tributary
streams, afford abundant water for power
and domestic purposes. During high

waters small steamboats have ascended
main Licking from its mouth at Covington
and Newport to the Lower Blue Lick
Springs, a distance of seventy miles.
There are no railroads in the county.
There are more than eighty miles of free
turnpike traversing different parts of the
county, and all leading to the county seat.
Good schools and churches are located in
all sections of the county. There are no
saloons in the county.
Mt. Olivet, the county seat, is situated
in the northern part of the county, and has
a population of about 800. It has a
good brick court house, a good jail, five
churches, a good roller flouring mill,
lumber and coal yard, six tobacco ware
houses, two public schools, one academy,
twelve stores.

ROCKCASTLE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 12,416. County Seat, Mt. Vernon.

Situated in the Eight Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Twenty-eighth Judicial,
Seventeenth Senatorial, and Seventieth
Legislative Districts.
The county is situated near the central
portion of the State. Rockcastle River
flows along its eastern boundary, and Dick's
River flows through the western and north
ern portion of the county, by which, with
its tributaries, the county is abundantly
watered and well drained. The soil of
the county is very strong, and quite pro
ductive; its surface is varied in the north
east, and the southeast portion of the
county is rough, very broken, and hilly.
The land is level and undulating and very
rich in the western section of the county.
There are several very fine coal mines
in active operation in the eastern part of
the county. The timber supply of the
county is fairly good, there being consid
erable oak, hickory, gum, ash, sugar-tree,
walnut, and poplar.
There are no turnpikes in Rockcastle

County; the public, or county roads are
the ordinary dirt roads of the county, and
are kept in very good condition under a
special road law for the county.
The Knoxville Branch of the L. & N.
Railroad runs through the county from
west to east, and through the central por
tion of the county. The Kentucky Cen
tral runs through the northeastern part of
the county, connecting with the L. & N.
at Livingston, near the Rockcastle River.
The staple products of the farms are
corn, wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, and tur
nips. The grasses mostly cultivated are
timothy, bluegrass, red top, orchard grass
and clover.
The county has a good court house and
other county buildings; good churches are
scattered over the county, and the peo
ple are quiet, law-abiding, God-fearing
people. The common schools of the
county are well attended and have very
good teachers; the districts have fairly
good school houses in them, and we are

I lO

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

improving all along the line, in the matter
of schools, each year.
Mt. Vernon is the county seat of Rock
castle County, and is situated in the cen
ter of the county on the Knoxville Branch
of the L. & N. Railroad. It is a nice

little village with a population of five or
six hundred, enterprising merchants, and
a good hotel, churches, and school houses.
There is a handsome college building here
now, and a good school is well conducted
in it.

ROWAN COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 8,277. County Seat, Morehead.

Situated in the Ninth Congressional,
Sixth Appellate, Twenty-first Judicial,
Thirty-fifth Senatorial, and Ninety-fourth
Legislative Districts.
The county was formed in 1856, out of
parts of Fleming and Morgan counties,
and named in honor of Judge John Rowan,
the distinguished jurist. The Licking
River and Triplett Creek, with their tri
butaries, drain the whole of the county.
The Licking forms the southern and west
ers boundaries for a distance of about one
hundred miles. The Licking is navigable
for small boats during the spring season
while the water is high.
Tie soil of Rowan is generally fertile,
producing fine crops of corn, oats, and al
ways extensive crops of watermelons of
the very finest quality. Grasses are
raised in abundance; such as timothy,
clover, herd grass, and millet are the prin
cipal grasses. Where tobacco has 'oeen
raised the soil produces a very fine and
abundant quality.
In the county are located two very large
and extensive mills for sawing and dress
ing stone. There are a number of stone
quarries containing from six to eight strata
of stone ranging from three inches to three
feet thick. These quarries dress and ship
stone to all parts of the United States.
The stone produced from the quarries of
this county is the very finest for build

ing and bridge purposes, owing to its
durability. The forests of the county abound with
extensive timber of the oak, poplar, pine,
walnut, ash, and many other species of
timber valuable for building purposes.
The lumber trade is one of the most ex
tensive industries of the county, lumber
being shipped in both rough and dressed
forms. The county has a good system of public
dirt roads, kept up by the county and the
citizens living along said roads. There is
no taxation for roads in the county.
There are eighteen miles of railroad in
the county, running from east to west; also
about six miles of narrow gauge road
built in the county, known as the Triplet &
Big Sandy Railroad.
Morehead is the county seat of Rowan,
and is situated midway between Lexington
and Huntington, on the C. & O. Railroad.
It has about 1,200 inhabitants, and con
tains a number of large dry goods and
other stores. There is also a college
known as "The Morehead Normal."
Morehead has three churches, viz.. Bap
tist, M. E. South, and a union church
house. The county has no indebtedness, either
bonded or otherwise. Her rate of taxa
tion for county purposes is fifty cents per
hundred.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

I I I

RUSSELL COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 9,695. County Seat, Jamestown.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twenty-ninth Judicial,
Sixteenth Senatorial, and Forty-third Leg
islative Districts.
Russell County was formed from the
county of Adair in 1825. It lies in the
southern portion of the State. The Cum
berland River flows through the southern
part of the county for a distance of flfty
miles or more. This stream is ordinarily
navigable for steamboats four or five
months of each year.
The soil along the Cumberland River,
especially the first bottoms, is very pro
ductive; so also is that of the lower courses
of its tributaries, producing good crops of
peas, corn, sweet potatoes, and millet.
One of the most important industries

in the county is the raising of fowls, espe
cially chickens.
There is a great deal of black oak in
the county. Considerable quantities of
chestnut are still to be found on the up
lands; cedar, too, on the river and creek
hills. Perhaps the most remarkable natural
curiosity in Russell County is what is
known as the Rock House. On the Cum
berland River, about a mile below the
village of Creelsboro, there is an opening
clear through the cliff, forming an immense
chamber. Jamestown, the county seat, and Russell
Springs are the two largest towns.
The common schools of this county are
in a fairly good condition.

SCOTT COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 18,076. County Seat, Georgetown.

Scott County is situated in the Seventh
Congressional, Fifth Appellate, Four
teenth Judicial, Twenty-second Senatorial,
and Fifty-eighth Legislative Districts.
The county is situated in middle north
ern Kentucky, and was organized in 1792.
Scott County has over two hundred
miles of turnpikes. These pikes traverse
every part of the county. The roads other
than turnpikes are the common dirt roads of
the county, which are worked and kept up
under the supervision of road surveyors
appointed by the county court, under the
general road laws of the State. There
are nearly fifty miles of railroad com
pleted and in operation in this county.
The Cincinnati Southern, L. & N., Louis
ville Southern, and the Kentucky Midland
all own and operate some road in this
county. The staples of the Scott County farm

are corn, wheat, hay, hemp, oats, and
tobacco; a large surplus of all are raised
for market.
The common schools of the county are
in a flourishing condition, and are largely
attended and under superior management,
and provided with good and competent
teachers. Each school district has a
good' school house and is provided with all
the modern appliances for teaching.
Georgetown is the county seat of Scott
County. It is situated in the southern
part of the county on the bank of North
Elkhorn. It is also on the Cincinnati
Southern and the Kentucky Midland rail
roads. It is a flourishing city, a seat of
learning, with many good schools and
handsome churches. It has electric light
and gas plants, water-works and telephone
exchange, and all the modern conven
iences of a city.

I 12

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

SHELBY COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 18,340. County Seat, Shelbyville.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twelfth Judicial, Four
teenth Senatorial, and Fifty-fifth Legis
lative Districts.
Shelby County was named in honor of
the first governor of Kentucky, General
Isaac Shelby. It is one of the largest
and best counties in the State. All of
the county is good bluegrass land, and is
adapted to raising hemp ; two thirds of
the county is adapted to raising Burley
tobacco. It was one of the first counties to adopt
generally the share system. Under this
liberal system great prosperity has come
to the laboring classes.
The dairy interest is a very important
one in Shelby County. In the western
part of the county along the railroad line
there are a large number of successful
dairies. Shelby County is noted for the
interest manifested by her people in
higher education. The schools and
churches are located in all parts of the
county. There is a very fine college for

girls located in Shelbyville, which is
extensively patronized by the people of
the county.
The transportation facilities of the
county are first class. The Louisville &
Nashville, Southern, and Chesapeake &
Ohio railroads all run trains through the
county. There is also a branch railroad
from Shelbyville to Bloomfield.
Shelbyville, the county seat, is a thriv
ing city of nearl)' 5,000 inhabitants. It
is supplied with all the modern conven
iences in the way of lighting plants,
water-works, telephone exchange, etc.
Its school facilities, as well as the
school facilities of the entire county, are
first class. Shelbyville is situated in one
of the best agricultural sections of the
State, and is enjoying a steady growth in
population and business prosperity.
Simpsonville, on the Louisville & Nash
ville Railroad, is a prosperous little city of
some 600 inhabitants. Christiansburg,
Bagdad, Waddy, and Finchville are pros
perous towns.

SIMPSON COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 11,624. County Seat, Franklin.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Seventh Judicial,
Ninth Senatorial, and Twenty-first Legis
lative Districts.
The county was formed in 18 17 out of
the counties of Allen on the east, Logan
on the west, Warren on the north, its
southern boundary the Tennessee line.
Later a strip of three miles was added to
it, taken from Logan County.
Its topography is generally level or
slightly undulating, and drained by the

tributaries of Big Barren River, This
land is, indeed, valuable for the produc
tion of grass; by the use of fertilizing ele
ments it yields an abundant crop of
wheat. Corn, oats, wheat, hay, and
tobacco are the staples.
The principal stream of water is
Drake's Creek, the western fork of Barren
River. This stream runs nearly through
the center of the county, north and south,
parallel with the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad and turnpike.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

113

A variety of timber is found here.
Oak and hickory are the principal
growths. Many wells and a few springs of mineral
water, of sulphur and iron (chalybeate
water), are distributed over the county,
notably a well in the county seat, Frank
lin. This water is used largely for medici
nal purposes.
There is only one railroad in Simpson
County — the Louisville & Nashville rail
road. Only one turnpike, known as the

L. & N. pike. Both of these run through
the center of the county sixteen miles, as
intimated, parallel with Drake's Creek.
Public schools are maintained by the
State in all the school districts, mostly
for six months in the year.
Franklin, the county seat, is six miles
north of the Tennessee line, on the Louis
ville & Nashville Railroad. For its sani
tary and hygienic facilities, its location is
unexcelled. The population of Franklin
is three thousand.

SPENCER COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 7,406. County Seat, Taylorsville.

Situated in the Eighth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twelfth Judicial, Four
teenth Senatorial, and Forty-first Legis
lative Districts.
The county was created in 1824 out of
parts taken from Bullitt, Nelson, and
Shelby counties, being the seventy-
seventh county, and was so called in honor
of Captain Spear Spencer, the gallant
young Kentucky hero, who fell at the bat
tle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 181 1.
The county affords variety in soil and
location. The eastern end of the county
is rolling or quite hilly. These hill lands
are very fine for tobacco, and have placed
Spencer County in the very forefront in
the tobacco markets. For fruit they are
also well adapted, the apple tree and
grapevine being especially vigorous and
productive. About thirty per cent of
the timber remains. It consists chiefly
of walnut, poplar, oak, and beech, with
a good supply of maple, ash, elm, hickory,
cherry, etc.
The school facilities and interest in
educational matters are well up to the
State standard, the whole county work
ing under the public school system for

five months, and most of the schools
being continued for another five months by
private subscription.
Spencer's exports are principally horses,
mules, cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, eggs,
tobacco, wheat, corn, and fruit. The C.
& O. railroad (northern division) runs
across the center of the county from east
to west, a distance of twelve miles.
The county has seventy miles of turn
pikes within its borders, but did not con
tribute to their construction and does not
own any stock in them. County roads
are plentiful and kept in fairly good condi
tion without taxation for that purpose.
Salt River runs through the central
portion of the county from east to west,
and is at times navigable for flatboats and
rafts. Brasher's, Simpson, Big and
Little Beech, and Plumb creeks are large
streams, affording ample water supply
and the finest water power available for
running machinery, etc.
There has been very little immigration
to the county until quite recently.
Taylorsville is the county seat, and
has made notable progress in the last two
years.

114

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

TAYLOR COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 11,075. County Seat, Campbellsville.

Situated in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Eleventh Judicial,
Fifteenth Senatorial, and Thirty-eighth
Legislative Districts.
In the year 1848, Taylor County was
formed out of the northern portion of
Green County, and Campbellsville was
made its county seat. It is located
almost in the central part of the State, and
is bounded on the north by Marion
County, on the west by Larue County, on
the south by Green County, and on the
east by Casey and .Adair counties. The
central portion, which is in and around
the county seat, is rolling, w-hile the
extreme eastern and western portions are
very hilly. The county has an abun
dance of water, but no navigable streams.
Green River and Robinson Creek run
through the eastern part and Pitman
Creek and Brush Creek run through the
western part, and all of them in a south
erly direction. The soil along these
streams is very fertile and is especially
adapted to raising com, while in the
central portion of the county the soil is
not so strong, but is especially adapted
to wheat. But very little tobacco, com
pared with other counties, is grown in
Taylor County, because the land is so
much better adapted to corn and wheat.
There is no soil in the State more suitable
for raising w atermelons than on the waters
of Robinson Creek. In the extreme w-est
ern portion of the county the soil is suited
to sorghum.
There is a great deal of timber in

Taylor County, and it is now- being hauled
to the market in form of staves and
lumber at a very rapid rate. There is
some poplar and walnut, but the bulk of
the timber is oak. There are a number
of saw mills in the county and they are
fast cutting out the timber.
One railroad, the C. & O. Division of
the Louisville & Nashville, furnishes all
the transportation facilities. The public
road system of the county is now on a
good basis, though it has only about
fifty miles of macadamized road main
tained by toll gates, and the roads other
than macadam are maintained mostly by
appropriations. The labor of the county
is mostly white, but there are some
negroes. The average price per month
for farm hands is 810 and board and S15
without board.
No county in the State has better
educational facilities than Taylor County.
There are fifty-two common (white)
schools in the county, one college,
one academy, and five or six private
schools. The county seat, Campbellsville, is
the largest city in the county, being a city
of the fifth class, and situated in the
central portion of the county. It has
five white churches : Baptist, Methodist,
Presbyterian, Christian, and Catholic.
Three colored churc'hes : Baptist, Metho
dist, and Presbyterian ; five schools, one
cigar factory, two newspapers, and busi
ness houses that are not excelled by any
city of the fifth class in the State.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

115

TODD COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 17,371. County Seat, Elkton.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Seventh Judicial,
Ninth Senatorial, and Nineteenth Legis
lative Districts.
Todd County lies along the Tennessee
line, in the southern part of the State. It
was formed in the year 18 19, and taken
from the counties of Logan and Christian,
and named in honor of Colonel John Todd,
who fell in the battle of the Lower Blue
Licks in August, 1782.
The greatest portion of the surface of
the county is level, the central or middle
portion being broken and hilly. The
county is well watered and drained.
Cliffy Creek and Pond River drain the
northern section, and the tributaries of
Red River and the Lower Cumberland
drain the southern part of the county.
The soil is strong and productive,
especially in the northern and southern
sections. The hilly land in the central
portion of the county is not so fertile,
but all of it produces good grass for
pastures. The staples of the Todd County farm
are corn, wheat, hay, and tobacco, a
surplus of all being raised. This county
is noted for its fine tobacco, and for many
years it was the leading staple of the
farm, and while large quantities are now
being raised farmers are turning their
attention to the raising of grain much
more than formerly, and to the raising of
stock — cattle, horses, sheep, mules, and
hogs. Fertilizers are fast bringing out
the thin sections of the county, and are

used more and more each year, with the
best results. The labor of the farm is
performed by native white and colored
hands, and their services can be had for
from 810 to 815 per month and board.
The timber supply of Todd is fast
disappearing, only about one twelfth of
the original forests remaining. Oak is
found in larger tracts than other -timber;
there is also some poplar, beech, and
walnut to be found. There are no navi
gable streams in the county.
There are about thirty-two miles of
completed railroads in operation in the
county. The Memphis branch of the
L. & N. passes through the county and a
branch runs from Guthrie to Elkton.
The county has four miles of free turn
pike road. The county roads are the
common dirt roads, and they are kept in
fair repair by the old system of overseers
and warning-out hands.
The school facilities of the county are
those furnished by the common school
system. The schools are in a good condi
tion, well attended, and under good manage
ment. Each district has a good, comfort
able school house, and good teachers are
provided. Elkton, the county seat, is situated
a little south of the center of the county.
It is the terminus of the Elkton & Guthrie
railroad, which connects it with the
Memphis branch of the Louisville &
Nashville road. It is a flourishing town
with churches and good schools, business
houses, and newspapers.

Ii6

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

TRIGG COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 14,073. County Seat, Cadiz.

Situated in the First Congressional,
First Appellate, Third Judicial, Third
Senatorial, and Eighth Legislative Dis
tricts. Trigg County is situated in south
western Kentucky, and was made a
county in 1820. The county was named
in honor of Colonel Stephen Trigg, a
pioneer and Indian fighter of the earliest
days of Kentucky. The county is drained
by the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers
and their tributaries. The Tennessee
forms the western boundary of the county,
and the Cumberland River flows through
the entire county from north to south.
The soil of the county is about equally
divided between good and bad; about one
half is first-class farming land and the
other half is valuable because of its
deposits of iron ore. There is no finer
farming land to be found anywhere than
the rich river bottoms of this county,
strong, fertile, and very productive.
The deposits of iron ore are well-nigh
inexhaustible, and the quality is the very
best. There is plenty of good timber,
such as walnut, hickory, oak, cherry,
poplar, and ash, to be had in the county.
There is but little attention paid to diver
sified farming because of insufficient
means of transporting such products to
market. The Tennessee and Cumber
land rivers afford good facilities for water
transportation.

There are about thirty-five miles of
turnpikes in the county, about twenty
miles free of tolls. The public roads
other than turnpikes are the common dirt
roads, kept up by the county under the
general road laws of the State. There
are only a few miles of railroads in this
county, running across the northeast
corner of the county. The products of
the farms are corn, wheat, oats, hay, and
tobacco. All the grasses grow well in
this county, but clover is considered as
the best adapted to the soil.
Labor on the farm is performed mostly
by native white and colored hands, who
can be employed for from 810 to 815 a
month, with board furnished them. Good
churches can be found in all parts of the
county. The common schools are in a
flourishing condition and under good
management. Each district has a good
school house, provided with all the modern
appliances for teaching and under the
control of competent teachers.
Cadiz, the county seat, is situated in the
northeastern part of the county, on the
northern bank of Little River, which is
navigable for small vessels for about
twenty miles. The city of Cadiz has
recently completed a railroad from Cadiz
to Gracey, which will add materially to
the business of Trigg County. Cadiz is a
pleasant little village with enterprising
merchants, good churches, and schools.

TRIMBLE COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 7,272. County Seat, Bedford.

Situated in the Sixth Congressional,
Fifth Appellate. Twelfth Judicial, Twenty-
first Senatorial, and Fifty-second Legis
lative Districts.
Trimble County, the eighty-sixth in
order of formation, was established in

1837 from parts of the counties of Galla
tin, Henry, and Oldham, and was named
in honor of Judge Robert Trimble.
When first formed the extreme north
eastern corner extended to the Big Ken
tucky River, but quite a large portion of

STATE OF KENTUCKY

117

this section was cut off in the following
year (1838) in the formation of Carroll
County. The Ohio River forms the
northern and western boundaries of the
county, a distance of about twenty miles,
and is the only navigable stream within
or on the border of the county. The
Little Kentucky River, Corn Creek, Bare-
bone Creek, Middle Creek, Patton's Creek,
and Spring Creek are the chief water
courses. The land is either freestone or lime
stone land, the limestone portion being
more productive than the freestone, the
freestone, however, being better adapted
to fruit growing. General farm products
are raised, but the chief exports are
tobacco, wheat, and corn, tobacco being
the greatest source of income. Red
clover and timothy in the meadows, white
clover and bluegrass in the pasture lands
are the principal grasses grown. Stock-

raising is engaged in to a considerable
extent, and is a source of no little income
to the county.
Probably ten per cent of the original
timber growth remains. The principal
species of timber available for lumber
purposes are beech, oak, poplar, walnut,
ash, lynn, sugar-maple, and elm.
There are no educational institutions
in the county other than the public
schools, and usually a private school for
the higher branches, at Bedford. These
schools are in good condition, a marked
progress having been made in the educa
tional line during the last ten years. A
number of the districts supplement the
public fund by subscription.
Bedford, situated near the center of
the county, is the county seat, and owing
to its central location is quite a business
place for its size. It has a population of
a little over three hundred.

UNION COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 21,326. County Seat, Morganfield.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
First Appellate, Fifth Judicial, Fifth
Senatorial, and Fourteenth Legislative
Districts. The county in its present shape, since
a portion of Webster County was cut off,
in i860, from Half Moon Lick on Trade-
water to White Lick on Highland Creek,
contains about 210,000 acres.
Union County has forty-three miles of
border on the Ohio River, which gives
her great shipping advantages. She also
has tbe Illinois Central Railroad running
from Evansville, Indiana, to Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, and it so runs through Union
County that any one in the county is in
twelve miles of the same.
The county is rich in mineral deposits.
There are now two coal mines operated at
Uniontown, two at Spring Grove, one at

DeKoven, and some four or five in and
near Sturgis.
Lands in the county are mostly
improved, and many of the farms are as
good as can be found in any portion of
the State. Nearly all the timber is gone;
some oak, some poplar, and some cypress
yet remain.
Morganfield has been the county seat
since May, 18 11, when the county was
established. It has something over 2,000
inhabitants, a good ' graded school, with
over five hundred enrolled students. Also
eight churches (five for white and three
for colored members), two well-conducted
banks, city water-works, and ice plant of
large capacity, an electric light plant,
two hotels, blacksmith shops and machine
shops, and other manufacturing establish
ments of various kinds.

ii8

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

WARREN COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 29,970. County Seat, Bowling Green.

Situated in the Third Congressional,
Second Appellate, Eighth Judicial,
Eleventh Senatorial, and Twenty-third
and Twenty-fourth Legislative Districts.
Warren County was formed from
Logan County in 1796. It was the
twenty-fourth county formed, and was
named after General Joseph Warren,
who fell at Bunker Hill. It lies in the
southern part of the State,
The topography is gently undulating,
the altitudes run from four hundred and
thirty-two feet, the level of the rail at
Bowling Green, to more than eight hun
dred feet on the top of Chester Capped
Hills of north Warren,
It has tw-o navigable streams. Green
and Barren rivers, which communicate
with the Ohio, In addition to these it is
splendidly watered by Gasper River,
Drake's Creek, Trammel, Indian and
Bay's Fork creeks, and their numerous
tributaries. The soils are of many kinds, and vary
from the most fertile alluvial to the leaner
sandstone soils, including the calcareous
or limestone, which covers three fourths
of the county. Corn, wheat, oats, rye,
all the grasses, tobacco, together with all
the vegetables and fruit common to this
latitude, are grown here in abundance.
All the hardwood and other timbers,
amounting to one hundred and fifty
species, are found in the county.

The minerals are coal, bituminous sand
stone or Kentucky asphalt, iron ore, and
traces of lead. The Kentucky asphalt is
being largely developed. Vitrified brick
clays are found in great quantities.
There are eight hundred miles of public
roads in the county. There are nearly
one hundred and fifty miles of free mac
adamized roads running in every direction
from the county seat.
Labor ranges from fifty cents a day for
farmhands to S3. 50 for skilled artisans,
depending on the skill required. The
farm labor is principally negro.
The educational facilities are equal to
those of any part of the country. The
common schools are the best to be found
in the State, and are under the manage
ment of competent teachers. Each dis
trict has a comfortable school house, pro
vided with modern appliances for teaching.
Bowling Green, the county seat, has
nearly 10,000 inhabitants, and is a
thrifty, healthy, growing town.
Already in the immediate vicinity of
the city are to be seen large patches of
small fruits ready for the market and
factory, while in the county more remote
are most splendid orchards, capable of
producing plenty of fruit to employ
canneries. There are several progressive
villages in the county; the most important
are Smith's Grove, Woodburn, and Rich
Pond.

WASHINGTON COUNTY
Population (Census 1900), 14,182. County Seat, Springfield.

Located in the Fourth Congressional,
Third Appellate, Eleventh Judicial,
Fifteenth Senatorial, and Forty-second
Legislative Districts.
The county was the first of the nine
counties organized when Kentucky was

admitted into the Federal Union as a
State, 1792. Up to that time the county
of Kentucky had been subdivided into
seven counties of Virginia. Washington
County was the first piece of territory
named for the illustrious George Washing-

STATE OF KENTUCKY

119

ton. Its area is three hundred square
miles; population 14,182. It covers a
part of the Salt River plateau, and is
drained by Chaplin River, the Little and
Big Beech forks. Glen's Creek, Cart-
right's Creek, and Hardin's Creek and
their tributaries.
The surface of the county has a
general dip from southeast to north
and west, this determining the direc
tion of its streams; is beautifully
undulating, in localities really pic
turesque. In the native forests are
embraced nearly all the species and vari
eties of the trees of Kentucky — poplars,
oaks, ash, beech, wild cherry, walnuts,
hickories, maples, mulberries, and black
locusts. There are more than half a
hundred indigenous species, some of them
growing to a great altitude and size.
The rich alluvial surface soil, being
continually supplied with lime by natural
disintegration, has made Washington
County very productive of all the ordinary

crops and grasses ; Indian corn, white
Burley tobacco, wheat, rye, barley, oats,
timothy, bluegrass, clover, and orchard
grass are all produced in abundance.
Washington County has nearly three
hundred miles of macadamized and
graveled roads, all now free to the public
travel. She has but eleven miles of rail
road, the Bardstown & Springfield
branch, terminating at Springfield.
Her public buildings are good. The
county is dotted over with comfortable
and some of them beautiful country
homes, surrounded by orchards and gar
dens, yielding the finest quality of fruits,
berries, and all the garden vegetables
peculiar to this climate.
Springfield, the county seat, has two
banks and some as handsome and com
modious stores as are found in the
interior. Her merchants are eminently
reliable and enterprising. There are
good stores in every voting precinct of the
county.

WAYNE COUNTY

Population (Census 1900), 14,892. County Seat, Monticello.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twenty-eighth Judicial,
Sixteenth Senatorial, and Thirty-sixth
Legislative Districts.
The county was formed in 1800 from
the parts of Pulaski and Cumberland
counties. It is situated in the southeast
middle portion of the State, and is watered
by the Cumberland River and tributaries,
the south fork of the Cumberland passing
entirely through the county. The Cumber
land River forms the most of the northern
boundary. Much of the surface of the county is
broken with hills, but the valley lands,
which are extensive, are fertile and
productive, the soil very generally based
upon limestone.

No county in the State has such a
favorable distribution of mineral and
farming lands. Stock raising is very
popular among the farmers, and many
thousands of hogs, cattle, sheep, and
mules are annually marketed.
The coal fields cover about one half of
the county. Beside the five sub-conglom
erate coal veins, the large beds of the
upper coal measures show themselves in
the southeast corner of the county.
Sandstone, ripple-marked and fine
grained, in eight-inch layers, and quarry
ing in ten-foot slabs, admirably adapted
for building purposes, is found west of
Dick's Jumps in a ridge of Turkey Creek.
Iron ore is found all overthe coal region,
in some places strewn over the tops of the

I20

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

ridges, in others in belts near the coal
beds. A fine quality of lubricating oil has
been found in large quantities, and there
are now in the county a great many
producing wells.
Throughout the eastern portion of the
county much fine poplar and oak timber
is found.

Monticello, the county seat, is a beauti
ful village, situated at the junction of two
extensive and fertile valleys in the north-
central part of the county. This town is
developing a rapid and healthy growth.
It is connected with surrounding towns
by telephone and the Cincinnati Southern
Railroad, and a splendid pike connects
it with Burnside, twenty miles away.

WEBSTER COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 20,097. County Seat, Dixon.

Situated in the Second Congressional,
First Appellate, Fifth Judicial, Fourth
Senatorial, aud Twelfth Legislative Dis
tricts. The cou'jty is situated in the w-estern
part of the State, and was formed in
i860 of portions of Hopkins, Henderson,
and Union counties, and contains about
four hundred square miles.
The central portion of the county is
moderately broken, but the greater part
of the northern and southern portion is
comparatively level.
Green River, which bounds the north
ern portion of the county for a distance
of twelve miles, is a navigable stream,
and considerable business is carried on
by its means.
Tradew-ater River, which forms the
southwestern boundary of the county for
a distance of twelve miles, is navigable for
small steamers during a portion of the
year. The soil of Webster County is generally
very fertile and adapted to corn, wheat,
tobacco, etc., especially the latter, great
quantities of which are put as strips and
shipped to foreign markets.

There are vast quantities of excellent
timber in this county, consisting of white
oak, black oak, poplar, and sweet gum.
While there are large quantities of
building stone in the county, tbe principal
mineral deposit is coal.
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad
traverses the eastern portion of the county
for a distance of twelve or thirteen miles.
There is also a branch of the same road
running from Madisonville, Hopkins
County, to Providence, this county,
and a branch of the Illinois Central runs
from Blackford, on Tradewater, to Dixon,
the county seat, a distance of eighteen
miles. In addition to the public common
schools of the county there are several
graded schools at various points, viz. :
One at Providence, Dixon, Sebree,
Slaughtersville, and Claysville, all of
which have a large attendance.
Dixon, the county seat, is pleasantly
situated on a moderately elevated plateau
in the central portion of the county, and
in addition to the public buildings has a
large flouring mill, four dry goods stores,
and other business houses.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

121

WHITLEY COUNTY
Population (Census igoo), 25,015. County Seat, Williamsburg.

Situated in the Eleventh Congressional,
Third Appellate, Twenty-eighth Judicial,
Seventeenth Senatorial, and Sixty-ninth
Legislative Districts.
The General Assembly, in an act
approved February 16, i8i8, created the
county of Whitley, which was then a part
of Knox. Whitley County was the fifty-
ninth county formed in the State. Wil
liamsburg, the county seat, and the
county itself, were named in honor of
Colonel Wilham Whitley.
The surface is mountainous, the alti
tude being in the neighborhood of a
thousand feet above the sea level. The
principal mountains are Jellico Mountain,
Heckler's Knob, Pine Mountain, and
Patterson and Poplar Creek mountains.
The county is well watered by the
¦Cumberland and its tributaries.
There are about sixty miles of com
pleted railway in Whitley. The Louis
ville & Nashville runs from north to south
through the entire length of the county,
while the Cumberland Valley branch
passes through the northeast corner.
The C, N. O. & T. P. passes through
the west end of the county for a distance
of ten miles. The Jellico, Birdeye &

Northern, a road of eight miles, ex
tends from Jellico, Ky., to the mines at
Halsey. The leading resources of the county
are its minerals and its timbers. In
addition to its vast paying coal fields,
now worked by seventeen mines, immense
quantities of soapstone and blue clay are
found. It timber lands are almost inex
haustible. Schools have been established in
twenty districts in the county for both
white and colored children. Each district
has its own school house, and all are
under the ablest of management and in a
flourishing condition.
Williamsburg, the county seat, is
situated on the west bank of tbe Cumber
land River, near the center of the county.
It has a population estimated at 2,000,
with railroad facilities, six schools, besides
the academy and institute; four religious
denominations represented by churches —
Baptists, Methodists, Disciples, and Con-
gregationalists, and an energetic county
government. The court house, situated
here, is considered one of the most sub
stantial and best arranged in Southeastern
Kentucky.

WOLFE COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 8,764. County Seat, Campton.

Situated in the Tenth Congressional,
Seventh Appellate, Twenty-third Judicial,
Thirty-fourth Senatorial, and Ninety-first
Legislative Districts.
Wolfe is in middle eastern Kentucky,
and was made a county in i860. It was
formed out of territory taken from the
counties of Morgan, Breathitt, Owsley,

and Powell, and was named in honor of
Nathaniel Wolfe, a prominent attorney of
Louisville. The North Fork of the Kentucky River
flows along the western and southern
boundaries; Red River flows through the
county from east to west, and the numer
ous tributaries flowing into these two

122

COMMERCIAL GROWTH

rivers afford very perfect drainage for
the county, besides furnishing an abun
dant water supply. The Xorth Fork of the
Kentucky River is navigable for boats and
rafts or fleets of timber during a great
portion of the year.
The soil of this county is good, and
adapted to corn, wheat, rye, oats,
sorghum, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits
of all kinds.
This county is well adapted to stock
raising, especially sheep, hogs, and
cattle. It is w-ell timbered ; large areas
of it are still covered by fine timber ; the
principal kinds are oak, poplar, walnut,
chestnut, beech, pine, and maple.
The greater part of this county is
underlaid w-ith veins of bituminous and
cannel coal, ranging from two to six feet
in thickness.

This county affords many good loca
tions for mills and factories. One railroad,
the L. & E., touches this county, and
runs along just in the edge of the county
for a distance of about ten miles.
There are a great many public roads in
this county, which are excellent during the
dry season; they are maintained under
the general laws of the State.
Farm labor is performed by native
white and colored hands, and their
services can be had for from Sio to S15
per month, with board.
Cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs are
raised. Xeariy all kinds of grasses grow
well, especially clover, timothy, red top,
orchard, and English bluegrass are well
adapted to the soil.
Good schools and churches are located
in all parts of the county.

WOODFORD COUNTY

Population (Census igoo), 13,134. County Seat, Versailles.

Situated in the Seventh Congressional,
Fifth Appellate, Fourteenth Judicial,
Twenty-second Senatorial, and Fifty-
ninth Legislative Districts.
The county was named in honor of
General William Woodford, and was
formed in I78g. South Elkhorn Creek
separates it from Scott, and the Kentucky
River forms its entire south and west
boundary line for a distance of thirty-five
miles. In shape the county bears a
remarkable resemblance to the State.
Woodford embraces an area of about one
hundred and eighty-five square miles.
Its surface is generally level or gently
undulating, except near the banks of the
river. In addition to the streams already
named, the county is w-atered by numer
ous creeks and springs.
The leading crops grown are corn,
wheat, tobacco, hemp, barley, rye, oats.

clover, timothy, and bluegrass. Quanti
ties of these are exported, as also blooded
trotting, running, and saddle horses,
mules, cattle, sheep, and hogs.
The main branch of the Southern Rail
way in Kentucky, from Lexington to
Louisville, passes through the center of
the county, and at Versailles is joined by
the Versailles & Midway branch, and
taps the Cincinnati Southern Railroad at
Georgetown, Kentucky ; the Louisville &
Atlantic Railroad is in operation from
Versailles to Beattyville. The Louisville
& Xashville Railroad traverses the
northern end of the county, passing
through Midway. The Kentucky River
is navigable the entire length of the
county. Lead mines in the southwestern part of
the county, near the Kentucky River,
are being worked upon a small scale.

STATE OF KENTUCKY

123

Versailles, the county seat of Wood
ford County, is an attractive city of over
3,000 inhabitants, with a fine hotel, three
banks, modern stores, beautiful streets
and residences, handsome churches and
schools, and energetic and progressive
business men. A large flouring mill, a
carriage factory, a wagon factory, a

couple of tobacco rehandling warehouses,
and a grain elevator give employment to
a number of men. Versailles is lighted
by electric lights, has a good fire depart
ment with steam fire-engine, an ice
factory, and a steam laundry. The town
is connected with every portion of the
county by telephone.

/~~VN THE P-\GES TH.A,T FOLLOVS^ ARE PRESENTED
THE PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS OF SOME KENTUCK
IANS WHO HAVE LABORED FOR THE BUILDING UP
OF THE STATE. SOME HAVE LABORED IN HIGH
OFFICES OF PUBLIC TRUST- IN THE GUBERNATO
RIAL CHAIR, ON THE BENCH. IN THE PULPIT, AND
AT THE BAR. SOME HAVE LABORED IN PLACES MORE
OBSCURE, BUT THEIR WORK WAS NOT LESS IM
PORTANT—IN THE FIELDS, STORES, MARKET PLACES,
AND WHEREVER BUSINESS IS NAMED.
PRAISE GOD ALL HAVE LABORED WELL.

J. C. W. BECKHAM
Present Governor of Kentucky, Frankfort, Ky.

(_-HA.^. B. XOKTOX
Fri.'siilf ni- Li-aiis\-ille < '(.'mmereial Oul'. l;'02-n:

J. J. SAUNDERS
Vice-President Louisville Commercial Club, 19(Ji!-3.

J. C. VAX PELT
For six years he has remlered faithful seiTice as
Secretar\' of Louisville Ci.>mmerciaCClub.

WILLIAM LINDSAY
Lawyer, Jurist, and Statesman; member United
States Senate isuo-r.inL Frankfort, Ky.

WILLIAM O. BRADLEY
G':'vernor of Kentucky 1S95-99, Louisville, Ky.

JOHN YOUNG BROWN
Governor of Kentucky ls;)l-95, Louisville, Ky.

HENRY WATTERSON
Editor Courier-Journal; Ex-Member Congress;
^Author. Lecturer, and Statesman,; ,
Louisville, Ky.

WALTER S. ADAMS
Real Estate and Financial Broker; projected larg"e
investment j'rctperties; financed the con-
snlidatiiin of the brick comi:)anies
kn<.)wn as the H\'draulic Brick
('(1.. L(itiis\'ille. Ky.

THOS. N. ARNOLD
Christian Minister, Frankfort, Kj-.; Graduate Bethany
Collepre 1S4S: later attended Law Schnol.s in Lex-
inprtnn and Lduisville; entered Christian
Ministry is.'tl; has held pastor
ates in Richmond, Va.,
Louisville and
LexinjTton. Ky.

J. EMBRY ALLEN
i-iminent Law>er; formerly Major in Kentucky State
(,iuard; served as Major of Volunteers in War
with Spain: State Senator in sessions
of 1900 and 1902. and young-est
member of that body.

SAMUEL AVRITT
La\\-\er, Louisville, Ky.

'0^'

'^^

Dr. L. a. ARCHIBALD
Prominent Physician and President Farmers and
Merchants Bank. Slaughtersville, Ki'.

Dr. JAMES A. ACTON
Prominent Physician; formerly teacher in Public
Schools; Graduate from University of Louis
ville Medical School 1893; hard worker
and a thorough Christian gentleman.

Rev. ROBERT LEE BOWMAN
Treasurer and General Manager Theodore Harris
Institute, Pineville, Ky.; was educated in
Danville, Georgetown College and South
ern Baptist Theological Seminary;
has been pastor of churches in
Tennessee and Kentucky
for twelve years.

i'.i-:n l. kruxf
\"ice-FresidenL Hardyvilie Dej
Physician and Snvj-'--iin K<r
tiar\': First Lieut, and .-
F-urth Ky. Vol. Inf

\- B.. M. D.
it Bank; forme
ck>" Peniten-
"t Si.irgeon .-Amer

ican \A ar; Mfnibi-r Kentucky
Legislaturf. 1'.'

V' Vic

REV. L. H. BLAN-T"N.,LL. D.

Et. Rev. LE-WIS "ft-ILLI.A..M BURTON. D. D.
Episcopal Bishop (l>:-^^il of the Diocese of
Lexington, K3'.. organized 1S95.
Le.xington, K\-.

ELI H. BROWN
Lawyer. Owensltoro. Ky.

SAM STONE BUSH
Financial Agent; Successful Operator in Suburban
Real Estate; erected the Equitable Building;
organized and established "the Louis
ville Bolt and Iron Co.,
Louisville, Ky.

Rev. ROBT. W. BROWDER. B. D.
Presiding Elder Bowling Green District M. E. Church,
South; President Educational Board Louisville
Conference, and President Board of
Managers Smith Grove Train
ing School.

HORATIO W. BRUCE ^
Lawyer; Chief Attorney L. & N. R. R.,
Louisville, Ky.
'' Deceased.

J. W. BILES
President The Turney Drier Co., Manufacturers of
Drying Machinery and Filter Presses.

FRANK C. BUTTON
Principal Morehead Normal School, Morehead, Ky.
His school is one of the best of its kind
in the South.

INKERMAN BAILEY
ecretary and Treasurer Reinecke Coal Co
Madison\nlle. Ky.

R. F. BISHOP
Treasurer and General Manager Sturgis Milling Co.,
Sturgis, K\".: Graduate Valparaiso (Ind.)
School; formerly a successful Rail
road and Newspaper Man.

M. CORTEZ BENNETT
Prominent Drj- Goods Merchant,
Fulton. Ky.

'¦" JAMES BARNSFATHER. A. M.. M. D., M. P. S.
G. B.. M. P. S. K.
Member American Microscopical Society ; eminent
as a Medical Discoverer and Writer,
Dayton, Ky.
" Deceased.

Rev. I. W. BRUNER
Baptist Minister, Bowling Green, Ky.; was educated
under direction of Prof. W. B. Hayward ; in early
life he began study of Law, but later abandoned
it to enter the Ministry, where he has
proved an eminent success.

E. H. BROOKSHIER
Baptist Minister, Bloomington, Ind.; formerly
Kentuckian ; preached for churches in Ken
tucky, Tennessee, and Indiana ; served
three years as State Missionary ;
built several church edifices.

WILLIAM G. BUSCHEMEYER
Manufacturing Jeweler and Diamond Setter,
Louisville, Ky.

Baptist -Minister ausijices

F. P. BRYANT
i--Li.^ labored f'''r -;<:-\"eral ;
:•{ Ta:>--'s Creek A,-SMciaii>

JAMES T. CANNON
ars under Prominent Merchanr. Bnyd. Ky. Mr. Cannon was
educaied at >;;e'.>rffetown College, and began
busines.= in 1-rl ; he is one of the
foremost business men in
Central Kentuck>-.

Rev. B. F. CABELL
President of Potter CoUepre, Bowling Green, Ky.
Formerly President Cedar Blutf College at Wood-
burn. Ky. Potter L^.^ilege is one of the finest
colleges for higher education of young
ladies in the South.

Editor

J. GIVENS CRADDOCK
" Kentuckian Citizen "; bom August

1-25 ; Editor and Writer fift>'-five years ; Mexican
^^"ar Veteran : Secretary State Society
Mexican Veterans ; former C-on-
federate Guide. Paris, Ky.

HENRY DICKERSON CLARK
Minister Christian Church. Mt. Sterling. Ky.; served
with distinction in the Civil War; began preach
ing in 1S84. and has held charges in Illinois,
Missouri, Maryland, and Kentucky.

JAMES S. CLARK
ident J. S. Clark Monument Co.,
L()uisville, Ky.

LILLARD CARTER
La-wyer; Member of Kentucky Senate. 1898; President
of Senate, February, 1900; Acting Lieut. -Gov
ernor from the death of Gov. Goebel
until January, 1902, Lawrence
burg. Ky.

J. W. CLARKE
Prominent Physician, Faith. Ky.; graduated with
honors Hospital Medical College at Louisville
in 1889; Member of Kentucky State Medi
cal Society, and Examiner for various
Insurance Companies.

J. .^. CKE
Prominent Busin-jss Man and Manager Kentucky
Grov.-ers Insurance Cn.. McBra\-t-r. Ky.: fought
brav*.-i\- in tJen. Jc'hn Mor-j-an's (."'onin-iand dur-
]u-z L'onfe-lt-rate \"S'ar : r^loderator for sev
eral years of Kentuck\' Presbytery.

THOMAS
Ma\"or 'irai
of Public \\'-

"ger: tormer Secretar>
¦k-^. Louis\iile. K>".

H. H. CHERRY
•General Manager Southern Normal School. Bowling
Green Business College. The National School of
Telegraphy. Civil Service. Railroading, and
Express. Bowling Green, Ky.

MATT SANDIDGE COHEN
Popular Horseman and Live Stock Dealer. Richmond,
Ky. : Live Stock Agent for L. X: N. R. R. Co. : Win
ner of Championship Honors at World's
Fair Equestrian Exhibit.

D. G. COMBS
Evangelist Church of Christ. Morehead. Ky. Rev.
Combs has labored successfully in evangelistic
fields for thirty years; he has also been
noted as a Lecturer.

CLARENCE COLEMAN
Rising young Newspaijer Man, Burnside, Ky. : also
Bookkeeper for Mitchel Taylor. Manufacturer
of Staves and Heading. Mr. Coleman
served with distinction in the Span
ish-American War. and later
in the Philippines.

J. THOS. CHERRY
Prominent and Successful Merchant,
Brodhead, Ky.

ISAAC NEWTON CREECH
Prominent Business Man, Calloway,

Ky.

reers : n':'W

r..-sioing

n

Ke itucky fo

- ."-evenT;.

-h

STEPHEN COLLIER AND WIFE
aita. Te.xa?. Mr. Collier lived an^l labored as a Teaclier and Preacher in

ears, and is well kno\\"n and loved ;
vith sunie of the oldest and best famil

fr tlie State.
Ks in Kentucky.

WM. H. C'-tX
Prominent Merchant, and Sera-L-r from 31=t I'lstri
Ma\svi]le, Ky. Mr. C''>x is a grandson of (.George
Cox. who was one of Northern Kentuck>"'s
most Conspicuous commercial pioneers
and founder of the rirm of
Ge'C'TL-'-e Cox & >¦• m.

GEORGE L. COX
Prominent Merchant. Maysville. Ky.: memb.-r of the
well-kno.vn firm of Geo. Cox & Son. one
of the most i-n-gressu-e business
houses in the Slate.

Judge O. S. DEMING
Prominent Lawyer and Politician, Mt. Olivet, Ky.;
has served as County Judge and Attorney
and Presidential Elector for the State
at large, and Commander of Mt.
Olivet G. A. R. Post.

JOHN DOWLING
Prominent Business Man, Lawrenceburg. K>-.
Mr. Dowling is at the head of a lar.u'e
Cooperage Manufactor>' at Law
renceburg, anri Distiller.\'
Interests at T\-ronG.
Ky.

J. S. DICKINSON
Prominent Physician, Trenton, Ky.

P. H. DARBY
Prominent Lawyer, Princeton. Ky.

W. R. DHTSOX
Prominent Physician, Tadelia. K\-. Mr, Dotson has
had an e\'enifi-)l life, serving fait lifnll:." as a
Teacher. Postmaster, and I'li.v-irjan for
man\' \'ears. During t)ie irreat
plaeu'.- which infected I'lKe
Count\- in l---'i he did
lien-.ic servi.-e.

C. i.\ DURHA.M
>uccessful Physician. Pineville. K\".; 1^
County 1S66: moved to Bell Couniy
graduated Kentuckv Sohi-ol
:\Iedieine 1^9-1.

irn in Owen
in 187-5;

G. C. DINGUID
La^v\-er. Paducah. Ky.; was City Judge of Murray,
Ky.. for four \"ear5. and was Attorney for
Callowa\' County for eight years.

THOMAS H. DAVIS
Successful Practitioner of Medicine,
Lewisport. Ky.

Rt. Rev. THOS. UNDERWOOD DUDLEY, D. D.
Episcopal Bishop (1875) of the Diocese of
Kentucky, organized 1829.
Louisville, Ky.

WILL H. ENGLISH
Baptist Minister. Tonka wa, Okla.; for many years a
Kentuckian. He has labored successfully as
an Evangelist in several States.

Prof. J. W. DAVIS
Principal Middleburg Normal College. Middleburg,
Ky. This is one of the most progressive
Normal Colleges in the State.

ED DAVIDSON
Prominent Merchant and Farmer, Shreve, Ky. Mr.
Davidson is one of the most extensive land
holders in his section of the State.

Dr

JOHN AXDREW FREE.MAX

Prominent Ph>"sician. Beard. K\'.; foj-mer
for I'nion Pacific Railwa\ : President
Houlder County Medical S
Grand Commander :¦
A. tt.U.W. forC ¦

and Arizona; at present Mem
her of Suite and Xati<.>nal
Medical Associations.

Surgeon
.f the
¦iet>-, and Dej^uty
lect Knights
New Mexic...

S. L. FR0(;GE
Ex-Principal Lafayette High School; Ex-County
Superintendent Christian County; Ex-Super
intendent Benton Schools. Uniontown
SchiHjls. and Middlesboro Schools;
now Superintendent City
Schi.'ols, Frankfort.

H. H. FUSnX

:^uperlntendenL ''>i .^i
year.s a succe.~.-ff ul

•'.¦]^. Pineville. Ky.;forniany
cher in his native count\\

WILLIAM GGODELL FROST, Ph. D.
ident Berea Coll. -ge, Boroa, Ky.; has been Presi-
^nt sinco lr*.i3. Xo t.itl'ier (Jollege in Kentucky
has done more ffir the education of young
men and women than Berea.

Dr. T. B. GREENLEY
President Kentucky State Medical Society; Member
American Medical Association, Mississippi
Valley Medical Association, and Inter
national Association of Railway
Surgeons; also Member of
Filson Club.

D. M. GREEN
Prominent Baptist Minister, Calvert City, Ky.
Rev. Green has labored successfully in
Kentucky and Missouri for
a half century.

W. C. FERGUSON
Prominent Farmer and Merchant, Hammonville, Ky
Mr. Ferguson is one of the most extensive
land holders in Hart and LaRue
Counties.

HENRY N. GOODWIN
Organist Broadway Bai:)tist Church; Teacher
of Piano, Louisville, Ky.

Dr. JOSEPH THEODORE GREEN
Prominent Physician, Leitchfield. K\".; Member
American Medical As.soeiation. Kentucky State
Medical Association, International Railway,
Association. Muldraugh Hill Associ
ation: Surgeon I. C. R. R.. and
Member U. S. Examining
Board.

EDWARD A. GUILFOYLE
Of Firm of E. A. Guilfoyle & Co., Merchant Tailors
Manufacturers of High-Grade Uniforms.
Louisville, Ky.

Prof. HARRISON GARMAX
Naturalist, Entomologist, and Botanist Kentucky
Experiment Siation. and Stale Entomologist
State College. Lexington. Ky.

S. P. HAGER
Vice-President Merchants National Bank
Asidand, Ky.

p. S. HEAD
President Oldham Bank. Lagrange. Ky. Mr. Head
succeeded Judge S. E. DeHaven. and during his
presidency the bank has shown great pros
perity. Mr. Head is also one of
the largest real estate owners
in Oldham County.

BISCOE HINDMAN
Genei'al Agent Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New
York for Kentucky and Tennessee; Com
mander-General U. S. C. v., 1900-01.
Louisville, Kentucky.

BRUCE HALDEMAN
President Louisville Courier- Journal Co.; Member
Board of Trade, and Director of Commer
cial Club, Louisville, Kentucky.

J. SAMUEL HEAD, Jr.
Cashier Jackson Deposit Bank, Jackson, Ky.

J. G. HENDRICK
Prominent Physic'an and Contributor to Medical
Journals. Central Cit;.", K>".: Graduate Ken
tucky Sch-W of .MeJicine and Medical
Denarcment University of LliuIs-
ville. For man\- \ears Mem-
tier Kentick'\" State
M'-dica; S-ei,.ty.

Dr. SAMUEL J. HARRIS
Prominent Physician. Philpot. Ky. Dr. Harris gradu
ated from Medical Department L'niversiiy of
Louisville in 1^72. and has practiced medi
cine successfully for thirtj' years.
He did valiant service in the
Confederate Arm>-.

M. W. HINER
Minister Methodist Church. Jackson. K>"., since 1--7
Re^". Hiner has labored successfully for his
Church. As a mountain missi'.inary
he has rendered excellent ser-.ice.

JOSIAH HALE. M. D.
Prominent Physician, (jwensboro. K\'. Dr, Hale is a.
crradiiaie e.f Louisville and X'ew York Medical
(.'oliege-. He was a deleK'ate to the
International Medical Congress
in London, in 1-71.

DAVID HAM HOWERTON, A. B.
Prominent Teacher and Baptist Minister, Oakland
City, Ind. Mr. Howerton has taught in Muh
lenberg and Logan Counties, and was
formerly Principal of Lewis-
burg High School.

WILL G. HEISER
Prominent Merchant, Maysville. Ky. Mr. Heiser is a
graduate of Aheghany College (Pa.). He
is a leader in Maysville's com
mercial interests.

Dr. L. F. HAMMONDS
President Casey County Medical Society, Dunnvills
Ky. Dr. Hammonds is one of the best known
physicians and surgeons in his sec
tion of the State.

N. T. HALE
Has been for many years a prominent merchant
and farmer. Murray, Ky.

\V. J. HODGES
Well-known Physician. Pine\"ille. Ky. Diploma fn:
Medical I»epartment Un!\ersitv of Louis\ille.
I'lHV att.-nded the X.'V, York P..si.-( ;rad-
uate Sehi.H-">l of M.*.iicine in l^^*3anJ
l-:4. and X^w Y,,rk Polyclinic
SehiKiil <jf M._-iin.-ine and
Hos[.ital in l-^*9
and r.<"t..

Dr. T. O. helm
Pri.tminent Ph>'sician. Auljurn. K\". Dr. Helm i-
graduate of Medical I>epanment Louisville
L'niversity. He has always taken a
prominent ;. art in public enter
prises of his town; als^t
Truste^¦ Auburn
S^-niinan«".

MATTHEW J. HEXXESSEV
Attorney and Counselor at Law. Augusta. K\\; v,-
elected City Attome\" of Augusta in 1>99 and
County Attorney of Bracken in 19i)l.

GEORGE E. HART
One of the most successful practitioners of medicine
in Webster County. Tilden. Ky.

FRANK J. HEALINE
Superintendent Van B. Nelson Clothing Co..
Louisville, Ky.

W. C. HUTCHINSON

Rev. FRED V. HAWLEY, D. D.
Secretary Western Unitarian Conference, Chicago,
111.; formerly Pastor Church of the Messiah,
and Secretary Southern Unitarian Con
ference. Louisville, Ky.

EDMUND HARRISON
President Bethel Female College. Hopkinsville, Ky.
Graduate University of Vir.ginia ; was Pro
fessor in Southern Female Institute
(Virginia), and Richmond College
(Virginia) ; served with dis
tinction in the Con
federate Army.

\V. X. .JUREV

ea-iiriL- Merchant,
L. & N. R. R. Co.
\\-estern I

'ewee \-alle\': also -¦
.Adam.- f;xpri-^s Co
nion -reie.irraph (_'i"i.

.¦nl for
and

J. STODDARD JOHNSTON
Editor, -Author, and Historian, L(puis\ille. Ky.

Rev. STEVE P. HOLCO-MB
¦intendent Union Onspel Mis.sinn. Louisville, Ky.

BURRUS .JENKINS, A. M.. B. D.
President of Kentucky University, Lexing-ton, Ky.

S. S. JOHNSON
Prominent Dentist, Lexington, Ky.; Graduate Phila
delphia Dental College; was Member of 14th
Virginia Cavalry. C, S. A., and served
with distinction during the
Civil War.

J. B. JACKSON
Prominent Physician and Surgeon; Secretary
Christian County Board of Health,
Hopkinsville, K>'.

HARVEY JOINER
Artist, Louisville, Ky. Mr. Joiner's studies in
beeches have attracted universal
attention.

WILLIAM JAYNE
Prominent Citizen of Greenup County, Lynn, Ky.

JAMES Y. KELLY
President Iiei^o.^it Bank of Geortretuwn. Ge-jrgetown.
Ky. Hib I'unk is the oldest and strongest
bank in SeoU County. Mr. Kelly
was formerl>- Cashier.

J. T. JONES
Prominent Physician. Creelslx.ro. Ky.; has practiced
succes-sfully in Russell County for thirty years.

W. H. JUSTICE
Prosperous Merchant, Fish Trap. Ky. Mr. Justice is
a t\'pical Kentucky Farmer-Merchant who
has clin^.tied up fivim the bott'im.

W. B. JOHNSON
Enterprising Merchant. Tackett. Ky. Mr. Johnson
has done evangelistic work for the Primi-
tire Baptist Church.

ORVILLE A. KENNEDY. B. S.. M. D.
Prominent Physician; formerly Professor of Chem
istry, Central University; Lecturer on Prin
ciples and Practice of Medicine, Ken
tucky University, Louisville, Ky.

GEORGE P. KENDRICK
Junior Member Wm. Kendrick's Sons, the Leading
Jewelers, established 1832, Louisville, Ky.

C. L. KING
President Corydon Deposit Bank. Corydon, Ky.

JAMES WESLEY KRICHBAUM
Prominent Citizen, Danville, Kentucky.

B. L. LITSEY
Springfield. Ky. Elected Probate Judge of Washing-
T...n Count>". I-'."*: re-electe-J in l<-*~ and 1901;
electe-i President of Bank of Siding-
field in l-:'l!. and still holds iha:
I"jsiTion: a farmer b\-
^iccupation.

J. W. LITTLE
Capitahst. Paducah. Ky. Mr. Little operates one of
the largest Spoke Factories in the Sr.uth. and
was the builder of Little^ille, a valuable
adjunct t'-i the cit>' of Paducah.

HENRY LEVY
Prominent ^Merchant. L'"'"_jisv;lle. Ky.: Member Levy
Bros,, Clothing. Hats, Sho^-^. and Furnish
ing Goods.

CHARLES Q. C. LEIGH
"\"ice- President Leigh Fruit and S"-'"irage Co..
Paducah, Ky.

Dr. a. p. LATHAM
Manager of Sanitarium. Vine Grove. Ky. Doctor
Latham's Sanitarium is the largest in his
section of the State, and has an
extensive patronage.

JAMES E. LANGLEY
Prominent Merchant and Postmaster,
Drakesboro, Ky.

C. H. LANE
Prominent Citizen, Garnettsville, Ky.

Jailer M. L. LAWRENCE
Born in Owen County thirty-eight years ago; has
served two terms as Jailer at Frankfort. Ky.

J. L. MANRIXG
\'ice-President and General Manair^'r Fork Ridge
Coal and Coke Company. Middlesborough.
Kentuck>'.

Dr. J. BENJ. MANOR
Physician and Surgeon, Hazelwood. Ky.
Manor is a graduate of Missouri
Medical College.

Dr. C. C. MA^'XOR
Prominent Ph\-sician, Praise, K;."

ELMER MILLER
President City Transfer Co.: Coal Dealer and
Contractor, Owensboro. Ky.

p. GALT MILLER
President Bridgeford & Co.'s Stove Foundi-y. etc.;
Director Louisville Water Company,
Louisville, Kentucky.

JAMES A. MITCHELL
Lawyer; District Attorney L. & N. R. R.; Attorney
Land Director Potter, Matlock & Co., Bankers;
Member Board of Education,
Bowling Green, Ky.

JOHN MAAS. Jr.
Funeral Director; President Falls Cities Funeral
Directors' Association. Louisville. Ky.

S. A. MULLIKIN
Publisher of fine Bibles, Subscription Books, and
other high-grade publications,
Louisville. Ky.

GE'.iR

¦ E T. .M(.>UN.^EV. M. I'

InstnjcpT in P'

.iCT.ice "f Medicine and I

Ken:ucK, .-.

 :.l -f Medicine: M.,";;.^

'uckx .--.a

eM^lic-.i .-..cietv: Phvsic

p. I

;;.:-r.---AI,,n-t"rt H-me.

\^'. C'n--.-::- It S-ree-.

L-uisviiie. K:. .

PETER B. Mi.)BLEY
isT M;r.i:-:er. Kirby Kn.-b. Ky. Rev. M._.h
a I "jred fa::";". t''-:l!>" for many >'ears in J a
S'">r. and "tnt^r coun:ies. His wr^rk
iin"i-:-nir the miiuntain i>eople
is praisewi >r:h>'.

J- W. MORGAN
¦ I ^Minister. Pi'isb'_irg, Texas. Rev,
as fe'i'Tnerly a Ken:-jckian, having ra-ea
e:>;iensivel>" in (/aml">erland and
adjacent cjunties.

W. C. MOORMAN
rgan Prosperous Merchant. Glendeane. Ky. Mr. Mo-M-man

has-

if of the largesi mercantile esi.
lishments in his county.

Iffe:

Dr. W. T. MURPHY
Prominent Physician. Powers. Ky.; Graduate
University of Louisville (Medical Department);
Member United States Board of
Pension Examiners.

J. J. MARTIN
Prominent Farmer. Stock Dealer, and owner
of Mines, Sullivan, Ky.

Mrs. J. J. MARTIN
Sullivan, Ky.

/'

'^

J

1

^ Secretary Lxecutue Committee on Mmistenai l^i
^ I PresV-i>'terian ) : educated at LTnion Theolrigii.
^ Seminar\ ( \"a. i ; has held pastorates in Mi.—
¦V souri. Kentucky, am! Florida, and serveil
as Moileraior Kentucky Synod. Dele-
¦v^ gate l-< Pan-Presh>'terian Congress
^^ at Glasgow, Scotland. l^Mi'i.

JOHN O. McREYNOLDS
Elkton. Ky. Physician and Bank Director. Dr. Mc
Reynolds was mainly instrumental in founding
the Bank of Elkton, the strongest finan
cial institution in his county.

W. P. -AhCARTNEY. M. S., LL.B.
nl La-A":.er and In\-entor. Paducah. Ky.
¦arl!-i>'>' is a member of the State Bar As-
si>ciai '.m. and makes a sjjecialt>' of
Mii.in.g Ci.rjM -ra' ion Law.

J. W. .MrCULLcl.-GH
Prominent Distiller. nv,-.-nsi„,i-o. K;-. Mr McCul-
lough's io-ar,d,s received I'nghes' a^.'ard —
Gold -Medai-ai Paris in 19un.

Dr. G. W. McMILLEN
Prominent Physician, Goforth, Ky. Taught in Public
Schools of Pendleton County; graduate Ken
tucky School of Medicine; has been
successful in commercial
pursuits.

Hon. c. u. Mcelroy
Prominent Attmrney and Counselor-at-Law, Bowling
Green. Ky. Represented his county four times
in General Assembly, and served as
Presidential Elector for the
State-at-large in 1S80.

W. A. McKINNEY, M.D.
Prominent Physician, Milford, Ky. Chairman County
Board of Health: member of Bracken
County Democratic Committee.

E. LEE McINTYRE
Prominent Physician, Fredericktown. Ky. Graduate
Kentucky School of Medicine, and leader in
commercial interests of his section.

WILLIAM DUDLEY NOWLIN
Pastor L'pper .Sirot-t Bajitist Church. Le-xinjj-ton,
Graduate Southern Bapt i-i Theological Semi-
nar\-. Louisxille. and Uriivtrsii\- ...f Chi
cago. Iir. Xowlin i^ one of the
best known lecturers and
most gifted preachers
in the State.

LEWIS S. .Mc.MURTRY, A. M.. M. D.
President of the Faculty and Profess<tr of (.ibstetrics,
Gynecoli.igy-. anfi Abdominal Surgery. Hi:>s[iital
C^'llegeof McH-licine: owner Dr. McMurtr>''s
<formerl\- Jennie Cassedayl Infirmary-,
L<->uisville, Ky.

W- L. MrCARTl"
Pronvjrient Merchant, and proprietor King's Mountain
Can nery, Kingsville. Ky. He is also one of
the most successful farmers
in Lincoln County.

GEORGE C. NORTON
Member J. M. Robinson-Xo-ton Company. Wholesale
Dry Goods, Louis\i]le, Ky.

W. H. NUNN, M. D.
Graduated in Medicine at the University of Tennessee.
Nashville. Feb. 22. 1881. Practiced medicine in
Crittenden County till 1891; removed
to Henshaw. Union County, and
has built up a lucra
tive practice.

Rev. J. K. NUNNELLY
Prominent Baptist Minister. Georgetown. Kj'. Rev.
Nunnelly is Secretary Board of Trustees
Georgetown College, and Secretary
Baptist General Associa
tion of Kentucky.

Dr. WARREN E. NASH
Prominent retired Physician, and owner of Stock
Farm; member F. & A. M. Fraternity,
and L O. O. F. Worthville. Ky.

JOHN NIEHAUS
Prominent Druggist, and youngest Member of City
Council. Paducah, Ky. Mr. Niehaus is a grad
uate of Louisville College of Pharmacy.

Hon. W. E. OFFUTT
!"rankf"rt. K>". B:>rn. reare-i, and e'i'jca:e'i
C'l^un^y: ijne •.•! i:s m>>si e-xten-sive ^ar.'ihoi
prominent Dtmoci-at and Memb'er
oi the Letris^ature.

Prof. JAMES K. PATTERSiJX. Ph.D.. LL. D.
Ee:i...w Royal Historical ^^.e:^::.-, Great Britain: Felk
S':'C:e:y eif Ar.tio'-.ariar.s, Scv>:iand: President
Starf i-'o'-ieuTT- of Kenruck>" since
I't'':'. Lexingte.n. Ky.

Dr. D. X. priRTER
Pr--'n--:nent Ph^.'sician and -jne ¦:.: :he r.est knr-wn
citizens. Eminence. Ky.

Prominent Ev

R. B. NEAL
crelist. Debater.
Christ. G-av;,,r

.nd Writer, Church

J. M. POY^NTZ, M.D.
Successful Practitioner of Medicine for 40 years. Rich
mond, Ky.; Major-General Kentucky Division
U. C. v., and Member State Medical
Society; holds high rank
in Masonic Order.

IRA G. PROFITT, M. D.
Physician and Surgeon, Vortex, Ky.; served faithfully
as a Union soldier in Civil War; hns iield high
county and Federal offices, and is
a prominent Mason.

Dr. G. W. PRUETT
Prominent Physician and Druggist, Mannsville, Ky.
Dr. Pruett has been indefatigable in his
efforts to benefit his county and
has succeeded well.

ALLEN POWELL
Superintendent of Schools, Jackson County,
Alcorn. Kentucky.

PORTER PRATHER. M.D.
iminent Ph\"sician and Surgeon. Lexington. Ky.
.'r. Prather has been for several years First As
sistant Physician at Eastern Kentuck\- Luna
tic Asylum; he is a member '.if the Mis
sissippi ^'alley Medical Ass-.'^ciati^n
and several secret orders.

Dr. J. W. F. PARKER
Prominent Ph},"sician. Somerset. Ky. Member of State
Senate from 1866 to 1869; Assessor of Internal Rev
enue for 8th Congressional District from 1S69
to 1873; member of American and Ken
tucky State Medical Associations.

JESSE PHILLIPS
Cashier Earlington Bank. Earlington. Ky

J. W. PRATHER
Merchant and Minister. Valley View, Ky. Mr. Prather
is one of the best known and best
loved men in his section.

J. C. PIRTLE. A. M.
President Kenyon College, Hodgenville. Ky. Kenyon
College is the leading educational institu
tion in its section of the State.

JAMES T. PETERS
Clerk of the Bath County Court, and a leader in the
commercial interests of Owingsville, Ky.

T. W. PIRTLE. M. D.
Prominent Physician, Home Valley, Ky.

S. S. PERRY
Prominent Citizen. Talmage. Ky.

Dr.

W.

K.

PRICE

'romin^
nt
i'hvsician.
E
lenton, K
, Dr,
P
-ice
prra
lua
(¦of the K
jle
rtic
-Medic,
il Coiled
e.
ami
f.ir
man\' .vea
pntmotinff nf .M
s th
id
lias inn
been ;
'St int
Count
leader
--rests
n
O. C. QUIREY
cret:ir\' Sturgis Milling Compan>', Sturgis. Ky. Mr.
Quire\' was fornu'riy owner of Giles Elevator
Company, and is one of Sturgis'
most |irogressi\'e citizens.
J. A. QUISENBERKY
Cashier ('itizens National Bank. Dan\ille. K>-.
Rev. ULYSSES A. RANSOM
Prominent Minister. Hopkinsville. Ky.
W. K. RAYBURN EDWARD ROWLAND
Merchant, and President People's Bank; one of the Vice-President Carter Dry Goods Co. Born in Mobile,.
oldest citizens, and an official member of Ala.; came to Louisville in 1869.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Louksville, Ky.
Adairville, Kentucky.

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS RIGDON Capt. FRANCIS M. RYAN
Prominent Lawver and Merchant: Representative of Master Steamer "Morning Star," L. .^ E. Mail Line,
Bracken County in State Legislature, Loui-sville. Kentucky.
Germantown, Kentucky.

Hon. GV> W. RICHAUDS'JX
Reared in Mead.- County. Three terms in the House
of Representati\"es. State Legislature: yiresent
>:''->ii-.'i:- fr<.m the C'.Mjnties of Meade. Breek-
inridcre. anil Hanc^'^ck: ."-^---cretary D'-n."-
cralic (-""ampaien Ci)mrnitiee in l-'."'..
and Assj-tant S -'¦-¦r.--i.ary in I'.'^ii.

Ho.\. CHAS. REED
Proi.rietor Reed Hotel. Paducah, Ky. Mayor of Pa-
at present a

ducah for eight .vears
mem! ler i if tl"!e

ty Council.

C. C. RICKETTS
Cashier Lebanon -Junction Bank,
Lebanon Junction. Ky.

T. P. REED
Representative ISth District, State Legislature,
Parksville. Kentuck\-.

Hon. H. H. REYNIERSON
Democratic Representative from Marion County. Brad-
fords-ville, Ky. Mr. Reynierson is at present
traveling salesman for Grauman. Hen-
chey. Cross & Co. (Louisville),
his territory being South
ern and Eastern
Kentucky.

JOSEPH A. REARDON
Dentist, Newport, Ky. Educated in Newport Pubhc
Schools and St. Xavier's College. Cincinnati;
graduated from Dental Department
University (jf Cincinnati. 1S99;
has a large practice.

SYLVESTER RAPIER
President Sylvester Rapier & Co.. Bankers, New
Haven. Ky. This institution is one of the
strongest and most useful bank
ing institutions in the State.

Allensville. Ky. Graduated with high honors from
Medical Department Vanderbilt University.
1897 : now Practicing Physician
at Allensville, Ky.

¦;il \- F FEYNtiLDS
F

t ,irs.

R. E. SMITH
Pn mineni .M-rc: ar,:. Conners^ille, K>-.

r f ?¦ h\
ginia Cavalr%

I r

T t

4^1 i_.
r i
1 L
I

L'R. C. .1. RENFE'j
-¦"-^ -V -^ -ucce^srji Phvs:cians and S :-
¦ r.e >-.-.r. Nor^n Pieas-.,re^-^::e, Kv. L':
Kv-::- v.-ai a "
was -.'.-'O'-, r,

Dr. JOHN D. SMITH
Graduate of the Memphis Medical College, Tennessee.
Four years a Surgeon in the Confederate Army,
and now Chainnan of the Prohibition State'
Executive Committee of Kentucky: for
forty years a liberal contributor to
Medical -Journalistic Literature.

C. L. SEARCY
One of the most progressive business men in Madison
County. Widely known as a manufacturer
of first grade Tile Roofing.
Waco, Ky.

WILLIAM SIMMONS
President The Peoples Bank. Shepherdsville. Ky.

U. S. SHACKLETT
Manager and Treasurer of Shacklett-Thomas Hard
ware Company, Fulton, Ky.

Iir. J. B. SETTLE
Prominent Phy-ician. B-rea, K;. , Dr. S-::le has
taught sch'H'il with C' ¦n-i'iera!j!e success.

F. -M. SHEARER
8uj.ierinter.dent of Sehe'e'ls e>f W'l

J. X. SHEHAX
Prominent Phj.-.-sician, Maud. Ky. Graduate Me-dical
Deiiartment 'Ur_iver.~-"- of E iu:.=vi]le. i'r. Snehan
has buiit up a high rei^utatie-n as an able r>rac-
titionerand successf'-il stirge-r.. and is ais''.
a writer of gr,^a: fierce and brihiancy.

Dr. A. J. SLATl'X
Ph:."sieian and Surgeon. Leitchfield, Ky. Graduate
Eeliev-ue Hospital Mc-^iical <_"o',;e---'-e ; nolds chair
in th;e Medical Der'artm^-nt U^i^"ersiI^" of
Tenn--see. and ^s aiso Vice-President
<jra\"son Ce'Lint;.' Xaii'.'nai Bank.

J. L. SHADOAN
Prominent Dealer in General Merchandise,
Frazer. Ky.

WILLIAM LONG STORY
Prominent Druggist, Albany, Kentucky.

W. H. STROTHER. M. D.
Prominent Physician, Big Spring. Ky. Graduate
Louisville College of Pharmacy and Medical De
partment University of Louisville ; member
American Medical Association and
several State f.rganizations.

ISAAC A. STORY
Prominent Baptist Minister, Albany, Ky.: was a mem
ber of 12th Kentucky Regiment Infantr>' Volun
teers, U. S. A. He has taught successfully
and has ]:)reached extensively in Ken
tucky and Tennessee.

Rk\. J. A. SAWYER
M'-'thodist Minister. Dover, Ky. Rev. Sawyer server
under Gen. Lee during the Ci\ il War and was
wounded se\'en times. He has been
successful as a teacher as
well as a minister.

Rev. TH(-)S. J. STEVEXS<.)X
Prominent Baptist Minister, Georgetown. Ky. Grad
uate (Georgetown College; has held professorship
in (Georgetown College. Georgetown Female
S.-Tiiinarj'. and Shelbyville Female Col
lege. He is a preacher of
marked abilit>'.

Dr. S. W. sheet* 'X
ProminentDentist. Greenville, Ky. Dr. Shelton enjoys
a large practice in his owti and adjoining counties.'

EDGAR BROWX SULLIVAN
Minister of the Gospel. Wickliffe, Kv.; has done a
great deal of Missionary Work in his
section of the State.

OLIVER H. STRATTON
Lawyer; author_of "' Philosophy of American Poli
tics," " Republican Mirror," etc.
Louisville, Ky.

Rev. GEORGE GRA.NT SMITH
Assistant Rector Christ Church Cathedral (Protestant
Er>isco!.ial), and Secretary of the Council,
Lcjuisville. Ky.

EMBRY L. SWEARINGEN
President Kentucky Title Co. and Kentucky Title
Savings Bank, Louisville, Ky.

JAMES B. SPEED
J. B. Speed & Co.. Salt, Cement, Lime, etc.
Louisville, Ky.

W. J. M.
Prominent Merchant. Si-
^ucky Sehix.l .,f M^.ii.
cine StlCCe--:u'-i_ 1

a pr-.-pt

ous

¦^-MISKR."H.Lfht. K\". : graduate Ken-
ne, and jjracticed meili-
¦r se'-eral :.ears: now
v\ev arid merchant.

Mrs. FAXXIE B. TALBOT
Principal Sharpst.iurg Academ\-. one of the most
flourishing scho..,ls in the State. Sharfisburg.
Ky. .Mrs. Talbot has been princii.^al
for f.'.'ent'.--three \-ears.

F. J. SUTTERLIX
-Joint Projirietor Frankfort Ice Company; member
of City Council, Frankfort. Ky.

AXDREW E. SEIBERT
Bandmaster First Regiment Band and Orchestra ;
member B. P. 0. Elks No. s. Louisville. Ky.

THOMAS J. TOWNSEND
Prominent Physician and Surgeon, Owensboro, Ky.
graduate Medical Department University of
New York, and holds honor certilicate ;
winner of Mott medal ; member
Pubhc Board of Health.
Owensboro, Ky.

Dr. T. G. TURNER
Prominent Physician. Dunmor. Ky.

CATLETT W. THOMPSON
President of The Peoples Bank of Metcalfe County,
Edmonton, Ky. Mr. Thompson is one of the most
useful and enterprising citizens in his county.

E. H. TAYLOR, Jr.
Merchant; State Senator, representing Twentieth
District; Senior member of E. H. Taylor, Jr..
& Co., Distillers: former Mayor,
Frankfort, Ky.

J' iHX f, wagers
.¦I'ltf of Madi-s. .n i".'ount\-, Richmond, K>-.
i^-cted Jailer and =.-rved two terms. Mr. Wl
has been an exten-ive Healer in h'e stock, a
ha.- made s<-'me larue shipments.

C. F. THORNTON
Prominent Citizen. Harrisburg. K>

JUL)S<jN L. TAYLOR
Prominent Physician and Surgeon. West Plains. Ky.
Graduate Eclectic Medical Institute i Ohio) :
Member County. District. State, and
Xational Me<dical Associations:
also a successful farmer.

SAM K. VEACH
Prominent Business ilan. Promoter, and Master
Mason, Carlisle. Ky. : instrumental in organizing
the Nicholas County Building and Savings
As.cociation and is Secretary" of the
Associalii-^n. and is alsi.. member
Board of Education.

R. D. WEAVER
Prominent Physician, North Middletown, Ky.;
member of the famous Orphan Brigade
the Civil War ; graduate of Louisville
Medical College, and has had a
large practice for thirty
.\-ears.

A. B. WEAVER
Prominent Mercliant. Weavert<.in. Kj'. Mr. Weaver is
one of the oldest and most highly respected
citizens in his county.

SAMUEL M. WILSON
Lawyer, Lexington, Ky. Educated at Centre College
and Williams College (Mass.) ; was formerly Presi
dent Lexington Civic League and Editor
Kappa Alpha Journal ; at present mem
ber of Morton, Darnall & Wilson, law
firm, and active member of
State Bar Association.

W. C. WOOLRIDGE
Prominent Merchant and Minister, Tateville, Ky.
Mr. Woolridge has taught school successfully
in Missouri, Texas, and Louisiana ; he
is also a prosperous farmer and
extensive landholder.

.Ji iHN D. WHITE
E- al Estate Couns^rlor: Gru-iaa:.- Michii-an Univer-ity
La--v (-.,..-.-, l-'l: men.:"r: F-.ir-- -:'¦ - trti-i. F-itty-s^---
^r.;-. and Fi .rtv- ic->,- - Co- iri-es-,- : Jlember
K.ntur,::,- Le^:-..iv.ir.-, :•:¦-¦": I'r-ji.ibi- i. .n

(.-,

v.-ith W.

Pr:.:-t A: C-., Re
L-ai^ville, Ky.

L. .1. W-\RDEN
-- Hr.-,-.vr-C'j'-burri Vlachine Co.,
Bo-vlintr Greer, K:-.

..TOHX G. "WHITE
P--nminen; Mercl-a--. Wir.cne:^--r. Ky. Mr. White
-.'.¦a£ T'eletrate fr-"-rr, t'^e E.evertr. (.''.ir.gTes.-i'i-r.al
F)i^trict -u Nati'.-r.al F;e!.iUi;,iiean C''invent;i:,n,
l^i't.. Mr. Wti-.^r has ri.vj-.-i-it ;.--.g- stores at
.Jac'riS'jn and \\';r.cnester. Ky,

ED'WIN J. W-RIGHT
Pre.ii'ien- Bn-ant i: Stratton Business Coliege: over
r"r,irty-.--.-.-e years in .^enCH-ji wor'r:; in:r'-..^lucer of
business P'ractice in c^immercial c-jlleges
in Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky.

THOMAS J. WATHEN
Prominent Ice Cream Manufacturer. L(.)uisville. Ky.
Mr. Wathen has one of the largest
plants in the South.

U. V. WILLIAMS, A. M., M. D.
Prominent Physician, Frankfort, Kentucky.

A. H. WILLIAMS
Prominent Merchant and extensive landholder. Alcorn,
Ky. Mr. Williams has held several county and
Federal offices, and fulfilled his work
with great credit to himself.

Dr. JESSE F. WILDER
Druggist and Physician. Woodbine, Ky. Graduate-
Medical Department University of Louisville.
Dr. Wilder has also been successful
as a teacher.

Z. T-\YL0R

Yi-iuxi;,

.JR.

C
itint
.\
tlorne>" 01
R..i-v.
n Count>-
More
hea
1.
K.\
Mr.
Y.
un.iz was
precei
led in his
office
bj-
h
s
1
11 u
tri'ius la:
-er. Z
TaN-I:.r -i'
-,-;rrr.
Sr..
-ind hi- r
¦,-M i,ri
¦;,..-rs. .\11
e W.
an,
W. .\
. Yoi.-.tr-
W. S. WHITESIDE
Superintendent Whiteside's Bakery. Louisville
J. WfJOD YAi^ER
Cashier Oldham Bank. Lagrange. Ky.
JULIAN T. YAGER
Assistant Cashier Oldham Bank, Lagrange, Ky.
THE COLORED PEOPLE

THE COMMERCIAL STATUS O E T H li COLORED
PEOPLE OF R ENTUCKY

The disposition of the colored popula
tion of Kentucky toward the industrial
development of their race has increased
\-ery .greatly within the past ten years.

N. K. HARPER, LAWVER,
LOUIS\ILLI-:, KY.
For the first time in the history of
Kentucky an effort was made along this
line under State authority during the
administration of ex-Governor W. O.
Bradley, who appointed a colored man,
N, R. Harper, a lawyer of standing and
ability, in the city of Louisville, and
possessing rare qualifications for such
work, a member of the State Industrial

Bureau. The duties of his position re
quired him to investigate, organize, lecture,
and encourage the members of his race in
imliistrial ventures along all the lines of use-

J. K. POLK,
P.VSTOR PILGRIM l;APTIST CIU'RCH,
MIDWAY, KY.
fulness, and in this work he traveled o\er
the State for four years, organizing indus
trial societies among his jieople and
lecturing to them upon the advantage of
co-operation and industrial development
among themsehes.
More young colored men are engaged
ill independent business pursuits in
Kentucky, and especially along those

1^ R o W T H OF THE COLORED F C) P U L -\ T I o X

line-npjsttlieir

f trade and trafiic where the\" are
ikclv t'.' recei\-e the patronage ot
¦re, and the
While
:ch as

race.

ever

bef>

than
number i; C'.nistantly increasing
inij = t of these x-enture? are small
retail grocery =tL.res, resta'.;rant = , 1 arl'cr
.-hop-, and the like, some are more
ambitio :- and .i'j f-.rtherin -t.ick c^.^rp' -ra
tions and C'dnbines. and not a lew |-.ros-
per'.ius companies eii^ai-ed in many busi
ness pursuits are in opcrati'di in \arious
parts of the state.
In inan\- localities in the State :airly

I O H N H . S i" A N L E '1,
PRESIDING E L D E I-: ,
LE.\INGTO.\, KV,
^ood -t'ire; and business houses are thus
conducted. The city of Lihuisville lias two s-'.'-jd
drui' stores. Liv.uied and ¦ operated bv
colored coni]"'anies, taie in the east end of
the cit\-, and the 'jther in the west end.
Out of twenty ^"."jd-sized. «ell-stocked
colored st'jrer in Louis\ulle, four of tliem
are ort:anized and manaved tiv colored
co-operations. There is a coal minium company in Ohio

Countv; a brick and lime company in
Meade County : a numl'er ..4' county fair
companies, of tvhich Lexini;tedi has the
largest and oldest, altljLiU-h the Oldham
Countv Colored Fair Co'inpany own their
own fair ..-r'hr.iids,
Xearh- eterv considerable town in the
>t.Lt-:- h-ts one or more colored undertakers,
s-'ine of them havini; been in Itusmess for
man\- years ; ab.jut seveiit}- per cent of
this busiries= aiu-jni.- tl.e cti-red people is
carrivl en by cob.-red men,
Lou,is\ille, Lexin-t'di, Paducah, Hop-

E , E . L M F F. - - D
EDITOR ELUEGRASS BUGLE, THE LEAHLNG
RACE JOURNAL, FRANKEOKT. KY.
kinstuUe, \\'inehe=ter, Mayfield, and
Paris arc aniiiiig ttie foremost localities
which show tlie industrial prosres.^ of
the colored jieopie, aitb'.iugh nearlv e\"erv
tt..',\-n and city in the State having any
ci.'Usiderable percentd.ie of Colored popu
lation iias de\"eloped a ne..rL. in s._,nje
character of business on a ]ari;e or sma
scale. While many of the enterprises carried
on b\" colored n.en are maintained whoUv

STATE OF KENTUCKY

by the colored people themselves, yet
there are various branches of business
conducted by them which are supported
by all classes of citizens. In one of the
western towns of the State a negro sup
plies the whole community with coal in
the winter and ice in the summer.
There are some few, but not very many,
of the old school of negroes who were
slaves before the war engaged in inde
pendent business enterprises ; this has
been left to their children and grand
children, and what is true of Kentucky in
this respect is perhaps true of every other
State south of us, that whatever is due
the negro himself for the wonderful strides
of progress he has made belongs to the
generation which has come upon the
stage of action since the Civil War, and in
view of this fact much of the adverse criti

cism which is often given to this younger
class of negroes for the misdeeds and
shortcomings of many of their race falls
flat. Besides the many ventures into busi
ness pursuits by colored men, fully one-
half of the farm labor of the State is
supplied by negroes. They own them
selves 200,000 acres of land, valued at
$1,500,000; 8,294 town lots, valued at
$1,431,621, not including their churches,
public halls, school buildings, and like
holdings. A negro died in Harrison
County a few years ago owning fifty
tenement houses and several stores.
Another died in Christian County leaving
an estate, of half a million dollars. Quite
a number of negroes own fine residences
and farms, ranging in value from $5,000
to $15,000.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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