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HISTORY OF LOUISVILLE.

CHAPTER I.

The utility and profit of the local history of cities is no longer a matter of doubt. Whether considered solely as objects of interest or amusement, or as having the still wider utility of making known abroad the individuality of the places they describe, these records are worthy of high consideration. And although in a country like ours this department of history can claim to chronicle no great events, nor to relate any of those local traditions that make many of the cities of the Old World so famous in story and song, yet they can fulfil the equal use of directing the attention of those abroad to the rise, progress and present standing of places which may fairly claim, in the future, what has made others great in the past. And in an age when every energy of the whole brotherhood of man is directed to the future, and when mere utilitarianism has taken the place of romance, or of deeds of high renown, it is a matter of more than ordinary interest and value to all, to note the practical advancement, and so to calculate upon the basis of the past, the probable results of the future of those cities in the New World, which seem to present advantages, either social or pecuniary, to that large class of foreigners and others, who are constantly seeking for homes or means of occupation among us. Nor is it to these alone, that such local history is of value. The country is beginning already to possess much unemployed capital seeking for investment; while many, having already procured the means of living well, are seeking for homes more congenial to their tastes than the places where they have lived but for pecuniary profit. To both of these, the history of individual cities is an invaluable aid in helping the one to discover a means of advantageously employing his surplus money, and in aiding the other to find a home possessing those social advantages which will render him comfortable and happy.

But it is to the emigrant foreigner that local history is of the greatest benefit. Leaving a country with whose resources, social, moral, and political, he is intimately acquainted for one of which he knows almost nothing, such works, carefully and authentically written, are to him what the guide-books of the Old World are to the wonder-seeking traveler; they present him at once with a daguerreotype view of the land of his adoption and point out to him every advantage and disadvantage, every chance of profit or of pleasure, every means of gain, every hope of gratification that is anywhere to be afforded.

Impressed with these opinions, it is proposed to present the reader with an authentic and impartial history of Louisville; one which may be implicitly relied on in its calculations and statistical details and which shall present as accurate and faithful a historical survey as can be obtained from any data known to the writer or attainable by him.

Louisville lies on the Southern bank of the Ohio river at the falls or rapids of that stream, in longitude 85° 30′ west of Greenwich, and latitude 38° 3′ north. Its position is one of peculiar excellence, situated at a point where the navigation of the stream is naturally obstructed by the rapids, and where, for six miles above the site of the city, the river stretches out into a broad, smooth sheet of water a mile in width, almost without a current, and presents a safe and beautiful harbor for a great distance along the Kentucky shore; embracing too within its limits the debouchure of Beargrass Creek, which also affords a convenient and accessible resting place for barges, keel, and flatboats, sheltering them from all the dangers to which an open harbor would render them liable, it presents advantages which at once mark it to the sagacious eye as a proper location for a town of the greatest importance. Aside from all these advantages, the immense surface of level country which spreads out on either side of the rapids for so great a distance, is of itself worthy of consideration. The term “falls” which has been and is so commonly applied to the obstruction in the river at this point, is apt to produce an incorrect idea in the mind of one who does not know exactly how to apply the term. The falls are not a precipitous descent of water, but simply “an obstruction in the course of the river caused by a ledge of limestone rock running obliquely across its bed, with channels or chutes through the mound, produced or modified by the force of the water.” This however is so serious an obstacle to the navigation of the stream as to create the necessity, which always exists, except at the highest stage of the water, for the debarkation and re-shipment of goods above and below this point, thus affording great commercial advantages to the city situated beside these rapids.

The peculiar attractions of such a location as this could not long go unheeded, and accordingly as early as 1770 parties came from Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh, probably sent by Lord Dunmore, then Governor of Virginia, and surveyed the lands adjacent to the falls, with a view of distributing them as bounty lands. The earliest account, however, which we have of anything like a settlement here is that of Capt. Thomas Bullitt, who in 1773, deputed by a special commission from William and Mary College in Virginia, came to survey lands and effect settlements in the then territory of Kentucky. His practiced eye perceived the advantages of this port and he moored his traveling barge in the safe and beautiful harbor of Beargrass, and here established a camp to protect his men from the weather and to shelter his stores. From this point he made surveys of much of the adjacent country as far down as Salt river, to which he gave its present title from his having there found the salt lick still known by his name. He estimated the advantages of his new settlement at their full worth, and purposed to return at once to his friends and procure the means of re-visiting and establishing it. But Death sought him in the midst of his well laid plans, and it was left for another to complete what his sagacity and enterprise had commenced.

To show that Bullitt’s plans had been well matured, and also to give some idea of the prudence and intelligence of the man, it is only necessary to cite, from Marshall’s History of Kentucky, the following not uninteresting facts:

“On his way to Kentucky,” says this historian, “Bullitt made a visit to Chillicothe, a Shawnee town, to hold a friendly talk with those Indians on the subject of his intended settlement; and for the particular purpose of obtaining their assent to the measure. He knew they claimed the right of hunting in the country—a right to them of the utmost importance, and which they had not relinquished. He also knew they were brave, and indefatigable; and