History of Lexington, Kentucky, etc

Front matter

H ISTORY or LEXINGTON KENTUCKY Jt? and Recent INCLUDING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE PIONEER SETTLERS, NOTICES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS, ETC, ETC. By GEORGE W. RANCK CINCINNATI Robert Clarke & Co Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, By G. W. RANCK., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TO MY WIFE liekn w\% j pcli A DESCENDANT OF EARLY SETTLERS OF LEXINGTON AND FAYETTE COUNTY, AND THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED THIS WORK AND WAS THE CAUSE OF ITS COMPLETION THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

Preface

. No American city of its age has clustering around it more interesting associations than Lexington. Founded in the midst of a great revolution; built up by daring men in the heart of an almost boundless wilderness, and nur tured and protected through years of hardship and Indian warfare, she played the most prominent part in the early and tragic days of the Dark and Bloody Ground. Lexing ton then was substantially Kentucky herself. She was more. She was the Jamestown of the "West; the advance-guard of civilization ; the center from which went forth the con querors of a savage empire. During another long and eventful era, she was the polit ical, literary, and commercial metropolis of "the great Northwest." She was crowded with men who made her famous. She has now entered upon the third epoch of her exist ence, an epoch material, during which steam will give her an industrial prosperity proportionate to her great natural advantages.

Very much of the rich past of Lexington has died with her founders. Even the traditions of her pioneer days are dim, and the old landmarks are being rapidly obliterated. Realizing these sad truths, and appreciating Lexington's history, the author of this book resolved to save for those who will come after us all that could be gathered from this

PREFACE.

. wreck of time. These pages are the result of his efforts. If he has preserved something which ought not to have been lost, or if his work will encourage some abler hand to gather and perpetuate other annals of our city which he overlooked or slighted, he will have attained his object. The author has used every means to make his work ac curate. If it is not entirely so, the fault is to be attributed to the peculiar disadvantages which always surround the local historian. In the preparation of these pages, he has consulted many of the oldest and best-informed inhabitants of Lexington and Fayette county, and also every other at tainable authority considered reliable. For reasons obvious to every fair-minded person, he has ignored the many ex citing events which occurred in Lexington during the late war between the States.

It is to be hoped that they will receive attention of a chronicler in the unprejudiced future. As propriety required as little extended mention of the living as possible, the writer confined himself, in that respect, to sketches of a few aged citizens, and brief notices of ministers of the gospel and persons in some official connection. As it is the work of the local historian to furnish the first elements of general history, to record facts rather than deductions from facts, the author has contented himself with a plain statement of past events, to the neglect of or namental rhetoric and romantic conclusions. Lexington, Ky., August, 1872.

Chapter I

Ancient Lexington. The city now known as Lexington, Kentucky, is built of the dust of a dead metropolis of a lost race, of whose name, and language, and history not a vestige is left. Even the bare fact of the existence of such a city, and such a people, on the site of the present Lexington, would never have been known but for the rapidly decaying remnants of ruins found by early pioneers and adventurers to the " Elkhorn lands." But that these remains of a great city and a mighty people did exist, there can be not the shadow of a doubt. The somewhat notorious Ashe, who published a volume of travels in 1806, says : " Lexington stands on the site of an old Indian town, which must have been of great extent and magnificence, as is amply evinced by the wide range of its circumvallatory works and the quantity of ground it once occupied."

These works he declares were, at the time he saw them (1806), nearly leveled with the earth by the ravages of time and the improvements that had been made by the settlers. The testimony of the learned Prof. C. S. Rafinesque,* of Transylvania Universitj', fully corresponds with this, and proves the former existence in and about the present Lexington of a powerful and somewhat enlight ened ante-Indian nation. Other proofs are not wanting. •Western Keview, 1820. HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. The first settlers of Lexington found here a well, regularly and artificially built with stone,* a domestic convenience unknown among the American Indians, and they plowed up curious earthen vessels,f such as could only have been manufactured by at least a semi-civilized people. In 1790, an old lead mine, which had every appearance of having been once worked and abandoned, was opened near this city .J Kentucky's first historians tells us of stone sepul chres, at Lexington, built in pyramid shape, and still ten anted by human skeletons, as late as two years after the siege of Bryant's Station.

"They are built," says he, "in a way totally different from that of the Indians." Early in this century, a large circular earthen mound, about six feet in height, occupied a part of what is now called Spring street, between Hill and Maxwell. It was located between the property of Dr. Bell and the rear outbuildings of Mr. P. Yeiser. In course of time it was leveled, and was found to consist of layers of earth of three different colors. In the center was discovered an earthen vessel of curious form and a quantity of half-burnt wood.§ The mound is supposed to have served the purpose of a sacrificial altar. A stone mound, which stood not far from Russell's cave, in this county, was opened about 1815 and found to contain human bones.* These well-attested facts, together with the tradition re lated to this day of an extensive cave existing under the city of Lexington, relieve of its improbable air the state ment that a subterranean cemetery of the original inhab itants of this place was discovered here nearly a century ago.f In 1776, three years before the first permanent white settlement was made at Lexington, some venturesome hunters, most probably from Boonesborough, had their curiosity excited by the strange appearance of some stones they saw in the woods where our city now stands.

They removed these stones, and came to others of peculiar workmanship, » Morse. t Imlay, page 369. tOld Kentucky Gazette, 1790. * Prof . Rafinesque., 1 John Filson. j) Benj . Keiser. t Letter to Robt. Todd, published in 1809. which, upon examination, they found had been placed there to conceal the entrance to an ancient catacomb, formed in the solid rock, fifteen feet below the surface of the earth. They discovered that a gradual descent from the opening brought them to a passage, four feet wide and seven feet high, leading into a spacious apartment, in which were numerous niches, which they were amazed to find occupied by bodies which, from their perfect state of preservation, had evidently been embalmed. For six years succeeding this discovery, the region in which this catacomb was located, was visited by bands of raging Indians and aveng ing whites ; and during this period of blood and passion, the catacomb was dispoiled, and its ancient mummies, probably the rarest remains of a forgotten era that man has ever seen, were well nigh swept out of existence.

But not entirely. Some years after the red men and the settlers had ceased hostilities, the old sepulchre was again visited and inspected.* It was found to be three hundred feet long, one hundred feet wide, and eighteen feet high. The floor was covered with rubbish and fine dust, from which was extracted several sound fragments of human limbs. At this time the entrance to this underground cemetery of Ancient Lexington is totally unknown. For nearly three-quarters of a century, its silent chamber has not echoed to a human footfall. It is hidden from sight, as effectually as was once buried Pompeii, and even the idea that it ever existed is laughed at by those who walk over it, as heedless of its near presence as were the generations of incredulous peasants who unconsciously danced above the long lost villa of Diomedes, That Lexington is built upon the site of an ancient walled city of vast extent and population, is not only evi dent from the facts here detailed, but the opinion becomes almost a certainty when viewed in the light of the historic proofs that can be produced to support the claim, that all * Ashe.

HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. the region round about her was at a distant period in the past the permanent seat of a comparatively enlightened people. As early as 1794,* it was well and widely known that in the neighborhood of Lexington there existed two distinctly defined fortifications furnished with ditches and bastions. One of these ancient monuments was visited in 1820 by Rafinesque, the celebrated professor of natural history in Transylvania University, a gentleman whose opinions on the subject of the ancient remains in the Mis sissippi Valley are so often quoted by historians and so much respected. His map and plate of the remains near Lexington constitute one of the most valuable features of the " Smithsonian Contributions.'^ He saysj of the forti fication already named : "I have visited, with a friend, the ancient monument or fortification situated about two and a half miles from Lexington, in an easterly direction, and above the head of Hickman creek; and we have ascertained that it is formed by an irregular circumvallation of earth, surrounded by an outside ditch.

"The shape of this monument is an irregular polygon of seven equal sides. The whole circumference measures about sixteen hundred of my steps, which I calculate at nearly a yard, or three feet each ; or, altogether, four thou sand eight hundred feet — less than a mile. The different sides measure as follows : west side, three hundred and sixty feet; southwest side, seven hundred and fifty feet; south side, seven hundred and fifty feet ; east-southeast side, six hundred and sixty feet ; east-northeast side, one thousand and eighty feet ; northeast side, six hundred feet ; northwest side, six hundred feet. Total, 4,800 feet. "The angles are rather blunt. Two of the angles have deep ravines; one lies at the angle between the west and the southwest sides, and the other between the east-southeast and the east-northeast sides.

This last is the largest and deepest — it reaches to the limestone, and had water in * Imlay's Western Territory, page 368. t Vol. I, page 27. % Western Review, April, it. It forms a brook running easterly, and is formed by two rills meeting near the angle and nearly surrounding the central. Another ravine comes out near the north corner. All these originate within the circumvallation, which iucloses one of the highest grouuds near Lexington, and particularly a large, level hill which is higher than any in the immediate neighborhood, and stretches, in part, toward the northwest. "The sides are straight. The earthen walls are raised upon a level or raised ground, and are nowhere lower than the outside ground, except for a few rods toward the northeast side. The situation is, therefore, very well calculated for defense, aud it is very probable that there were for merly springs within the walls.

"The whole surface is covered with trees of a large growth, growing even on the walls and in the ditch; ex cepting, however, a small corner toward the northwest, which is now a corn-field. It may include from five to six hundred acres. " At present the heighth and breadth of the wall and ditch are variable — from eight to sixteen feet in breadth, and from two to four iu depth, the average being twelve in breadth and three in depth ; but these dimensions must have been greater formerly. The wall was probably six teen feet broad throughout, and four feet high, while the ditch was rather narrower, but deeper. The walls are made of the loose earth taken from the ditch. There is only one large distinct gateway, on the northeast side, where there is no ditch and hardly any wall." After this survey some little interest was excited in the subject, and other remains were visited and inspected.

Several in the vicinity of the one described; another, a square inclosure, west of Lexington, " near the northern Frankfort road;" many mounds and graves south of the city, and two groups lying on the south side of North Elk horn, about a mile from each other. Extraordinary as it may appear, these monuments, though so near our city, and as singular as any on this continent, were never sur veyed till as late as 1820. Soni3 months after he had examined and described the fortification at the head of Hick man creek, Prof. Rafinesque surveyed the upper group on North Elkhorn, near Russell's cave, or what is now known as the West place. "We quote his description of it, which will be read with more and more interest and wonder as time passes, and slowly but surely levels with the earth aud blots out forever all that is left to remind us of a lost race, whose stupendous structures covered the fertile tract which afterward became the favorite hunting ground of savage tribes.

He says :* " I visited this upper group of monuments, a few days ago, in company with two gentlemen of Lexington. They are situated about six miles from this town, in a north northeast direction, on the west and back part of Colonel Russell's farm, which stands on the road leading from Lex ington to Cyuthiana. "The ground on which they stand is a beautiful level spot, covered with young trees and short grass, or fine turf, on the south side of a bend of North Elkhorn creek, nearly opposite the mouth of Opossum run, and close by Hamil ton's farm and spring, which lie west of them. They ex tend as far as Russell's cave, on the east side of the Cyn thiana road. "No. 1, which stands nearly in the center, is a circular inclosure, six hundred feet in circumference, formed of four parts : 1. A broad circular parapet, now about, twenty feet broad, and two feet high. 2.

An inward ditch, now very shallow and nearly on a level with the outward ground. 3. A gateway, lying due north, raised above the ditch, about fifteen feet broad, and leading to the central area. 4. A square central area, raised nearly three feet above the ditch, perfectly square and level, each side seventy feet long and facing the four cardinal points. " No. 2 lies northeast of No. 1, at about two hundred aud fifty feet distance; it is a regular, circular, convex mound, one hundred and seventy-five feet iu circumference, and nearly four feet high, surrounded by a small outward ditch. •Western Review, 1820, page 53. " No. 3 lies nearly north of No. 1, and at about two hun dred and fifty feet distance from No. 2. It is a singular and complicated monument, of an irregular square form, nearly conical, or narrower at the upper end, facing the creek.

It consists: 1. Of a high and broad parapet, about one hundred feet long and more than five feet high, as yet, above the inward ditch on the south base, which is about seventy-five feet long. 2. Of an inside ditch. 3. Of an area of the same form with the outward parapet, but rather uneven. 4. Of an obsolete broad gateway at the upper west side. 5. Of an irregular raised platform, con nected with the outward parapet, and extending toward the north to connect it with several mounds. 6. Of three small mounds, about fifty feet in circumference, and two feet high, standing irregularly arouud that platform, two on the west side and one on the east. " No. 4. These are two large sunken mounds, connected with No. 3. One of them stands at the upper end of the platform, and is sunk in an outward circular ditch, about two hundred and fifty feet in circumference, and two feet deep.

The mound, which is perfectly round and convex, is only two feet high, and appears sunk in the ditch. An other s;milar mound stands in a corn-field, connected by a long raised way to the upper east end of the parapet in No. 3. "No. 5 is a monument of an oblong square form, con sisting of the four usual parts of a parapet, an inward ditch, a central area, and a gateway. This last stands nearly opposite the gateway of No. 3, at about one hun dred and twenty-five feet distance, and leads over the ditch to the central area. The whole outward circumference of the parapet is about four hundred and forty feet. The longest side fronts the southwest and northeast, and is one hundred and twenty feet long, while the shortest is one hundred feet long. The central area is level, and has exactly half the dimensions of the parapet, being sixty feet long and fifty wide.

It is raised two or three feet as well as the parapet. The end opposite the gateway is not far from Hamilton's spring. "No. 6 is a mound without a ditch, one hundred and ninety feet in circumference, and five feet high. It lies nearly west from No. 1. " No. 7 is a stone mound, on the east side of Russell's spring, and on the brim of the gulley. It lies east from the other monuments and more than half a mile distant. It is ten feet high and one hundred and seventy-five feet in circumference, being formed altogether by loose stones heaped together, but now covered with a thin soil of stone and grass. "No. 8 is a similar stone mound, but rather smaller, lying north of No. 7, at the confluence of Russell's spring with North Elkhorn. "Among the principal peculiarities, which I have no ticed in this group of monuments, the square area of No. 1, inclosed within a circular ditch and parapet, is very in teresting, since it exhibits a new compound geometrical form of building.

The ditch must have been much deeper once, and the parapet, with the area, much higher; since, during the many centuries which have elapsed over these monuments, the rains, dust, decayed plants, and trees must have gradually filled the ditch, etc. I was told by Mr. Martin that within his recollection, or about twenty-five years ago, the ditch in the monument at the head of Hick man's creek was at least one foot deeper. Whenever we find central and separated areas in the Alleghawian monuments, we must suppose they were intended for the real places of worship and sacrifices, where only the priests and chiefs were admitted, while the crowd stood probably on the parapet to look on ; and, in fact, these parapets are generally convex and sloping inward or toward the central area. " The ditched mound, No. 2, is remarkable, and must have had a peculiar destination, like the sunken mounds, No. 4, which differ from No. 2 merely by being much lower, and appearing, therefore, almost sunk in the ditch.

" The stone mounds, Nos. 7 and 8, are also peculiar and evidently sepulchral. But why were the dead bodies cov ered here with stone instead of earth? Perhaps these mounds belonged to different tribes, or the conveniency of finding stones, in the rocky neighborhood of Russell's cave and spring, may have been an inducement for employing them." Some of these mounds described by Rafinesque were visited in 1846, and found to be nearly obliterated ; others, however, near the dividing line between the old military survey of Dandridge and Meredith, were still distinct, and were described in 1847* as follows, viz : " The most east erly work is on the estate of C. C. Moore. It is on the top ot a high bluff, on the west side of North Elkhorn, in the midst of a very thick growth, mostly of sugar trees, the area within a deep and broad circular ditch is about a quar ter of an acre us land.

The ditch is still deep enough in some places to hide a man on horseback. The dirt taken from the ditch is thrown outward ; and there is a gateway where the ditch was never dug, some ten feet wide on the north side of the circle. Trees several hundred years old are arowinar on the bank and in the bottom of the ditch and over the area which it incloses, and the whole region about it. There is another work a quarter of a mile west of the above one. It commences on the Meredith estate and runs over on the Cabells' Dale property, and contains about ten acres of land. The shape of the area is not unlike that of the moon when about two-thirds full. The dirt from the ditch inclosing this area is thrown sometimes out, sometimes in, and sometimes both ways. An ash tree was cut down in the summer of 1845, which stood upon the brink of this ditch, which, upon being examined, proved to be four hundred years old.

The ditch is still perfectly distinct throughout its whole extent, and in some places is so deep and steep as to be dangerous to pass with a carriage. A mound connected with this same chain of works was opened in the summer of 1871. It is situated about half a mile west of the earthwork already described as on top of the bluff, and about a quarter of a mile north of the larger oval one. It is on the farm of Mr. James Fisher, adjoining the * Collins. plantation on which Dr. Bobert Peter at present resides, and is part of the old Meredith property before mentioned.* The mound has a diameter of about seventy feet, and rises with a regular swell in the center to the height of three and a half to four feet above the general level of the valley pas ture on which it is located, only about fifteen feet above low water in the North Elkhorn creek, and about three hundred and twenty-five feet south from its margin.

Mr. Fisher made an excavation into the center of this mound about four to five feet in diameter and about three and a half feet deep, in which, in a bed of wood-ashes containing charred fragments of small wood, he found a number of in teresting copper, flint, bone, and other relics of the ancient Mound Builders, which were carefully packed by Dr. Robert Peter (who resides on the adjoining Meredith farm), and transmitted to the Smithsonian Institute, at Washing ton, for preservation. The copper articles were five in number; three of which were irregularly oblong-square implements or ornaments, about four inches in length and two and one-eighth to three and three-quarter inches wide and one-quarter inch thick at lower end (varying somewhat in size, shape, and thickness) ; each with two curved horns attached to the corners of one end, which is wider and thinner than the other end.

These were evidently made of native copper, by hammer ing, are irregular in thickness and rude in workmanship, and have been greatly corroded in the lapse of time, so that they not only have upon them a thick coating of green carbonate and red oxide of copper, but the carbonate had cemented these articles, with adjoining flint arrow-heads, pieces of charcoal, etc., into one cohering mass, in the bed of ashes, etc., in which they were found lying irregularly one upon the other. The other two copper implements were axes or hatchets; one nearly six inches long, the other nearly four inches; each somewhat adze-shaped wider at one end, which end had a sharp cutting edge. * Description by Dr. Peter. With these were found nearly a peck of flint arrow-heads, all splintered and broken, as by the action of fire ; also, three hemispherical polished pieces of red hematitic iron ore about two iuches in diameter; some door-button shaped pieces of limestone, each perforated with two holes; several pieces of sandstone, which seemed to have been used for grinding and polishing purposes ; and many fragments of bones of animals, mostly parts of ribs, which appeared to have been ground or shaped ; among which was one, blackened by fire, which seemed to have been part of a handle of a dag ger ; also, some fragments of pottery, etc.

The fragments of charcoal, lying near the copper articles, were saturated with carbonate of copper, resulting from the oxidation of the copper articles, parts of which were oxidized to the cen ter, although a quarter of an inch in thickness; and many pieces of this coal and portions of flint arrow-heads remain strongly cemented to the copper implements by this carbonate. To what uses these rude, oblong-square horned copper articles were put, except for ornament, can not be conjec tured. No inscription or significant murk was found on any of them. No human bones could be distinguished among the fragments found, but only the immediate center of the mound was opened. The citizens of Lexington may, in truth, muse among the ancient ruins and awe-inspiring relics of a once mighty people. Who and what were the beings who fought with these weapons, ate from these vessels, built these tombs aud mounds and altars, and slept at last in this now concealed catacomb?

Where existed that strange nation, whose grand chain of works seemed to have Lexington for its nucleus and center? We can only speculate ! One* inclines to the opinion that they were contemporaries of the hardy Picts. An others declares them identical with the Allegha wians or progenitors of the Aztecs, and cites as proof, the remains of their temples, which are declared to be wonder- * Imlay, page 369. t Rafinesque. fully similar to those of the ancient Mexicans described by Baron Humboldt. The earthen vessels here plowed up from the virgin soil, he says, were like those used by the Allcghawians for cooking purposes. Still another writer,* dwelling upon the mummies here discovered, sees in the original inhabitants of Lexington, a people descended from the Egyptians. Other authors, eminent and learned, almost without number, have discussed this subject, but their views are as conflicting as those already mentioned, and nothing is satisfactory, except the negative assurance that the real first settlers of Lexington, the State of Kentucky, and the entire Mississippi valley, were not the American Indians, as no Indian nation has ever built walled cities, defended by entrenchments, or buried their dead in sepul chres hewn in the solid rock.

Who, then, were these mysterious beings? from whence did they come? what were the forms of their religion and government? are questions that will probably never be solved by mortal man ; but that they lived and flourished centuries before the Indian who can doubt? Here they erected their Cyclopean temples and cities, with no vision of the red men who would come after them, and chase the deer and the buffalo over their leveled and grass covered walls. Here they lived, and labored, and died, be fore Columbus had planted the standard of old Spain upon the shores of a new world ; while Gaul, and Britain, and Germany were occupied by roving tribes of barbarians, and, it may be, long before imperial Rome had reached the height of her glory and splendor. But they had no litera ture, and when they died they were utterly forgotten.

They may have been a great people, but it is all the same to those who came if they were not, for their greatness was never recorded. Their history was never written — not a letter of their language remains, and even their name is forgotten. They trusted in the mighty works of their hands, and now, indeed, are they a dead nation and a lost race. The ancient city which stood where Lexington now *Josiah Priest's "American Antiquities." stands, has vanished like a dream, and vanished forever. Another has well said : " Hector and Achilles, though mere barbarians, live because sung by Homer. Germanicus lives as the historian himself said, because narrated by Tacitus ; but these builders of mounds perish because no Homer and no Tacitus has told of them. It is the spirit only, which, by the pen, cau build immortal monuments." HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.

Chapter II

The Indian Occupation. It is a favorite theory of many that the Indians of North America migrated from Asia ; that the once noble race, which has almost melted away, was descended from the ten tribes of Israel* which were driven from Palestine seven hun dred years before the birth of Christ. But this is a theory only. The advent of the Indians and the stock from which they sprung will never be determined ; but that they came after the " Mound Builders" is evident. The appearance of the Indians was the death-knell of that doomed race whose rich and beautiful lands and spoil-gorged cities in flamed the desperate and destitute invaders. The numerous tumuli which yet remain attest the fierceness of the conflict which ensued. A great people were swept out of existence, their cities disappeared, the grass grew above them, and in time the canebrakes and the forests.