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Subject: [KYBELL] excerpt from "History of Kentucky", by Lewis Collins, Vol. 1 (1841 - 1842)
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 14:59:17 EST

1841:
Jan. 2 -- Ohio river frozen over for 5 days.
-- A published communication from Bishop B.B. SMITH, superintendent of public
instruction, gives the following facts, as of date June 1, 1840:
------Persons over 20 years old unable to read: In Floyd county 673, Clay
671, Knox 512, Ohio 556, Pike 852, Barren 1,190, Mercer 747, Total in these 7
counties 5,201 and in the state 42,000.
------ In Floyd county, of 2,055 children of school age (between 5 and 15)
none were at school; in Clay, 1,180 none; in Knox, of 2,566, 46; in Ohio, 25 out
of 1,714; in Pike, 25 out of 1,066; in Barren, 859 out of 3,829; in Mercer,
1,191 out of 3,545; in the whole state, 32,920 out of 170,000.
------ It costs Kentucky $181,000 MORE per annum to educate those 32,920 than
it ought to cost, at the rate paid in New York ($1.25 per scholar) to educate
the whole 170,000. The average cost in Kentucky is $12 per scholar.
Late Jan. -- By experiments at the navy yard at Boston, Kentucky water-rotted
hemp proves stronger than either Riga Rein or Russia hemp.
Feb. 17 -- Rate of taxation raised to 15 cents on the $100 of taxable
property, of which five cents to increase the resources of the sinking fund to pay
off the public debt.
Feb. 20 -- Death of Richard H. MENEFEE, of bronchitis, aged 31.
March 9 -- Concerted attack upon Henry CLAY, in a debate in the U.S. senate,
by senators SMITH of Conn., WALKER of Miss., and KING of Ala. that of the
latter was so personal, that in a few words of reply Mr. Clay denounced "his
assault on him as discourteous, unparliamentary, rude, and cowardly." Mr. King,
saying he had "no reply to make here, sat down and commenced writing, as was
supposed, a challenge to a duel. The Mayor of Washington had them both immediately
arrested, and bound over in the penalty of $5,000 to keep the peace toward
each other. No challenge passed.
April 4 -- Death of President Harrison.
May 14 -- Day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer, because of the
death of President Harrison.
May 15 -- Duel, near Louisville, between Cassius M. CLAY and Robert
WICKLIFFE, Jr., both of Fayette county, with pistols at 30 feet, no blood shed.
May 20 -- Wm. GREATHOUSE obtains a verdict, in the Mason circuit court,
against Rev. John B. MAHAN, of Brown county, Ohio, for $1,600, the value of two
slaves whom (as was in proof before the jury) Mahan aided and assisted in making
their escape to Canada, in 1836.
June 13 -- First rain today, in northern Kentucky, for six weeks; severe
drought and great heat; thermometer 96 - 103 degrees in the shade.
June 25 -- Great hail storm in central Kentucky, remarkable for its direction
and extent, passing fro south to north and from two to five miles wide; hemp
destroyed, other crops greatly damaged.
July 10 -- "Lynch law" at Williamstown, Grant county; Smith MAYTHE (who had
been a convict in the Ohio and Kentucky penitentiaries) and Lyman CROUCH
(recently an under-jailer at Cincinnati) rob and murder (as they supposed) Wm. S
UTTERBACK, of Bourbon county, by cutting his throat, on the highway; Utterback
ultimately recovered, but was rendered speechless for life; 350 men from Bourbon
and Harrison, fearful the villains would escape justice, broke open the jail,
took them to the spot where the crime was committed, and hung and buried them
there; the gallows was left standing for some 25 years, when it rotted down.
the leaders of the mob were subsequently indicted for murder.
Aug. 7 -- Cornelius BURNETT indicted and fined $100, at Cincinnati, for
resisting the officers in the recapture of a fugitive slave from Kentucky.
Aug. 31 - Sept. 4 -- Great mob at Cincinnati; severe fighting between whites
and negroes, many wounded and some reported killed; houses and a church
occupied by negroes destroyed; press and materials of the abolition newspaper, the
Philanthropist, broken up or thrown into the river.
Sept. 8 -- African church at Maysville pulled down by a mob.
Oct. 7 -- the citizens of Maysville tender to John J. CRITTENDEN the
compliment of a public dinner, and the citizens of Woodford county make him a present,
at a cost of $17,000, of the farm in that county on which he was born.
Oct. 12 -- Arrest of Col. Monroe EDWARDS, the "great forger," in
Philadelphia; $44,000 found in his trunk; his forgeries at Louisville, Cincinnati, New
York, and elsewhere, successful, on a stupendous scale; he is a native of
Russellville, Ky., but had lived mostly in Mississippi or Texas; he is transferred to
New York for trial.
Dec. 3 -- VICKARS and BROWN, reformed drunkards, -- the former one of the
original six who initiated the movement at Baltimore -- enter Kentucky at
Maysville, in the interest of the Washingtonian temperance or total-abstinence
movement. Intense interest wherever they speak, whole communities signing the
pledge, liquor-sellers closing their shops, and they and their best customers alike
reforming.

1842:
Jan. 10 -- Beautiful raw silk produced in Somerset, Ky.; increasing interest
felt in the growth of silk.
Jan. 14 -- Legislature unanimously passes strong anti-state-repudiation
resolutions. The first one declare it "the high and sacred duty of a sovereign
state to observe the obligations of good faith in all her engagements, not only
with her own citizens, but equally and alike with those of other states and
countries."
Jan. 31 -- Louisville authorized to erect water works, and for that purse to
borrow $200,000 at 8 percent.
March 1 -- B.B. SAYRE appointed superintendent of public instruction, to
succeed Bishop B. B. SMITH; but shortly declines.
March 22 -- Lexington & Ohio railroad, now owned by the state, leased to
Phillip SWIGERT and Wm. R. McKEE.
April 1 -- Washingtonian temperance revolution rapidly extending. Over 30,000
persons have signed the pledge in four months.
April 6 -- Charles Dickens visits the west, and spends a few hours in
Kentucky.
April 26 -- Rev. Robert DAVIDSON, D.D., late president of Transylvania
university, appointed superintendent of public instruction, but declines May 15.
June 1 -- Kentucky banks resume specie payments.
Aug. 8 -- To the state senate 27 whigs, 11 democrats, are elected, and to the
house of representatives 56 whigs and 44 democrats.
Sept. 26 -- Leonard BLISS, Jr., shot in Louisville, and mortally wounded, by
Godfrey POPE, editor of the Louisville Sun.
Oct. 18 -- the synod of Kentucky (Presbyterian), by a vote of 62 to 8, adopts
resolutions to the effect that the Bible fixes no rate of interest, but
denounces all oppression and extortion; and as the law of Kentucky establishes 6
percent, declares obedience to the laws a high Christian duty, and exhorts
church members not to require or receive more than the rate of interest sanctioned
by law.
Nov. -- Isaac CUNNINGHAM, of Clark county, raises a large field of corn which
averaged 140 bushels to the acre, the season being favorable. But in 1840,
Gen. James SHELBY, of Fayette, received from an agricultural society a premium
for 5 acres of corn which yielded 550 bushels, or 110 bushels per acre. The
same year, Wm. R. DUNCAN, of Clark county, raised 120 bushels on one acre. Geo.
W. WILLIAMS, of Bourbon, raised 178 bushels from 1 1/8 acres, or 158 2-9
bushels per acre. And Walter C. YOUNG, of Jessamine county, raised a field or corn,
of which two acres, when measured off, gathered and shelled by gentlemen of
the Jessamine agricultural society, yielded 195 and 198 1/2 bushels
respectively. The season was remarkably favorable for corn, and these fields received
special cultivation and attention.
Nov. -- Friends of Daniel WEBSTER denied it, the fact is now brought out that
Mr. Webster owed his position as secretary of state in Gen. Harrison's
cabinet entirely to the active and strong recommendation of Mr. Webster by henry
Clay -- to whom Gen. Harrison, through others and in person, tendered any
position in the cabinet which he would accept; saying that he should not invite Mr.
Webster into his cabinet at all. Mr. Clay declined the offer; and urged upon
Gen. Harrison the special propriety of making such an offer to Mr. Webster, and
that he (Clay) was sincerely desirous he should do it. To Mr. Clay's positive
influence, Mr. Webster was indebted for his seat in the cabinet. (this was
made public in consequence of a "private and confidential" letter written by Mr.
Webster, Aug. 22, 1842, to John P. HEALY, of Boston, advising the whigs of
Massachusetts against committing the state to any body for next president, and
saying that a nomination of Mr. Clay now "would be sure to give the state to the
Locofocos.")

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• [KYBELL] excerpt from "History of Kentucky", by Lewis Collins, Vol. 1 (1841 - 1842) by