In May, 1780, the General Assembly of Virginia divided the county of Kentucky into three counties respectively, the counties of Fayette, Lincoln, and Jefferson. In the latter county Louisville was situated. In the month of July, 1790, the convention of Kentucky met, and determined to accede to the offers of Virginia, with respect to the emancipation of the counties of Kentucky and their elevation to the position of an independent state. On the 14th of February, 1791, the act of Independence was passed by Congress. The new constitution for the new state was prepared in 1792. About this time terminated the hostilities of the Indians. The assessment of the town in 1809 was about $991. In 1799, Louisville was declared by act of Congress to be a port of entry. This put an end to much smuggling, the city of New-Orleans then being in a foreign country. Under the protection of the legislature of Kentucky, the town of Louisville was placed upon much more efficient police regulations than formerly, and many wise and salutary enactments were passed for the improvement of the town, the building public edifices, and a new survey and plot of the town were made out by legislative authority. The town of Shippingport at one time threatened to rival Louisville in point of commercial importance. But its geographical position and the start which Louisville had already taken, were of themselves sufficient to defeat the very strenuous efforts that were made by private individuals, at great sacrifices, to build up this town. It is one of the many proofs that there is an under current regulating the business of city-making, that private wealth and enterprise cannot always govern or control. The very interesting sketches of Louisville, published by Dr. McMurtrie, in 1819, gives us the following character istic account of this Bois de Boulogne of Louisville : "This important place," says he, with that directness of detail so peculiar to the worthy Doctor, "is situated two miles below Louisville, immediately at the foot of the rapids, and is built upon the beautiful plain or bottom which commences at the mouth of Beargrass Creek, through which, under the brow of the second bank, the contemplated canal will in all probability be cut. The town originally consisted of forty-five acres, but it has since received considerable ad ditions. The lots are 75 by 144 feet, the average price of which (1819) is from forty to fifty dollars per foot, according to the advantages of its situation. streets are all laid out at right angles; those that run parallel to the river, or nearly so, are eight in number, and vary from 30 to 90 feet in width. These are all intersected by 12-feet alleys running parallel to them, and by fifteen crossstreets at right angles, each sixty feet wide. The population of Shippingport may be estimated at 600 souls, including strangers." It has greatly faded from its original promise, and is now little more than the faubourg of the city of Louisville. The canal spoken of by Dr. McMurtrie has been since completed. The The Louisville and Portland canal is about two miles in extent. The fall to be overcome is computed to be about twenty-four feet, produced by masses of lime-rock, through which the entire bed of the canal is excavated, a part of it to the depth of 12 feet overlaid with earth. The following description of this work, begun in 1826, and prepared for navigation in 1830, and costing $750,000, is taken from the Encyclopædia Americanaarticle, Louisville. It corresponds also precisely with a description given by Mr. Ben Casseday : "There is one guard and three lift locks combined, all of which have their foundation on the rock. There are two bridges, one of stone, 240 feet long, with an elevation of 68 feet to the top of the parapet wall, and three arches, the centre one of which is semi-elliptical, with a transverse diameter of 66, and a semiconjugate diameter of 22 feet; the two side arches are segments of 40 feet span, the other is a pivot bridge, built over the head of the guard lock, and is of wood, 100 feet long, with a span of 52 feet, intended to open in time of high water as McMurtrie's and Casseday's Sketches-Louisville Canal. 215 boats are passing through the canal. The guard lock is 190 feet long in the clear, with semi-circular heads of 26 feet in diameter, is 50 feet wide, and 42 feet high. The solid contents of this lock are equal to those of 15 common locks, such as are built on the Ohio and NewYork canals. The lift locks are of the same width with the guard lock, 20 feet high and 183 feet long in the clear. The entire length of the walls, from the head of the guard lock, to the end of the outlet lock, is 921 feet. There are three culverts to drain off the water from the adjacent lands, the mason-work of which, when added to the locks and bridge, gives the whole amount of mason-work 41,989 perches, equal to about 30 common canal locks. The cross section of the canal is 200 feet at the top of the banks, 50 feet at the bottom, and 42 feet high, having a capacity equal to that of 25 common canals. "The Louisville and Portland canal was completed and put in partial operation on the 1st of January, 1831, from which time up to June 1st of the same year, 505 boats of different descriptions passed its locks. A bank of mud at its mouth, which could not be removed last winter, from the too sudden rise of the water, will be removed at the ensuing period of low water, when the canal can be navigated at all times by all such vessels as navigate the Ohio. The Ohio, when the water is lowest, is not more than two feet deep in many places above and below the falls, and rises 36 feet perpendicular above the falls, opposite to the city, and 60 feet perpendicular rises have been known at the foot of the falls. An appropriation of $150,000 by the United States was made last winter (1830), by which the low places in the river are to be improved so as to give four feet of water, in low water, from its mouth to Pittsburgh. "Louisville has been allowed by travelers and strangers," this same account continues, "to be one of the greatest thoroughfares in the Union. At least 50,000 passengers arrive here annually from below, and it is reasonable to conclude half that number pass through it descending. Great bodies of emigrants from the east and north pass through it, and it is not uncommon in the autumn to see the streets filled for days together with continued processions of movers, as they are called, going to the Great West." Recurring again to the canal, it may be interesting to the curious to know that in excavating it there were found bodies of trees in a state of partial decay, many human skeletons in an astonishing condition of preservation, many implements of stone, and indeed some of wood, some of iron, are indicative of some advancement in the mechanic arts-some trees of cedar, not found anywhere in that region, together with fire-places and "charred wood, or carbon. In a particular locality there were found many hundreds of flint arrow-heads, constructed by the Indians for purposes of hunting or defence. Mr. Mann Butler informs us that many mineral springs, some of them possessing the invaluable ingredient of iron so much prized in cases of debility of the digestive apparatus, presented themselves in more places than one, during the excavation.-13,776 steamboats and 4,700 flats and keels had passed through the canal in 1843, the tolls of which amounted to $1,227,625 50. Louisville became a city by an act of the Kentucky Legislature, passed 13th Feb., 1828. Mr. Casseday informs us that "a writer in the Focus for January 20, 1829, gives an idea of the commerce of Louisville in regard to certain leading articles at this period." He says, that "from the 1st January, 1828, to 1st January, 1829, there were received and sold in this place 4,144 hogsheads of sugar and 8,607 bags and barrels of coffee, amounting in value to $584,681. He also fixes the inspections of tobacco in Louisville at 2,050 hhds. for 1826, 4,354 hhds. for 1827, and 4,075 hds. for 1828. The average price of these was-for 1826, $2 67, for 1827, $2 59, and for 1828, $1 98%. The whole value of these for the three years was $468,672 88. 1,140 of these were shipped to Pittsburgh, 3,048 to NewOrleans, 320 manufactured here, and 458 were stemmed. A writer in the Kentucky Reporter also adds to this information the following statement: "The store-rooms of the principal wholesale merchants are larger and better adapted to business purposes than any to be found in the commercial cities of the East. Not a few of them are from 100 to 130 feet in depth by 30 wide, and from three to four stories high, and furnished with fireproof vaults for the preservation of books Every city has, at some time or other, its practical jokes. The following one is very amusingly narrated by Mr. Casseday, by whom a work of considerable merit, entitled the "History of Louis ville," has been written, and from which we have drawn, quite largely, the ma terials of this article. Mr. Casseday does not think that the removal of the deposits from the banks, where they had and papers in case of fire. The whole- &c., about 2,000 feet of plank to each sale business has increased very rapidly machine per day. Three breweries. of late, perhaps doubled in the course of Two white-lead factories consume 600 two years. The original dimensions of tons lead annually. Four rope walks, the canal were upon a scale entirely too which work up 600 tons of hemp an small to admit of the passage of the nually." larger class of steamers now built and being built for the New-Orleans trade. Hence the project of a rail-road from the upper portion of the falls to the termination, to be erected upon the Indiana side of the river, where the course will be level, has been for some time in serious contemplation. The object of this rail-road is to transport the steamers and other vessels too large to navigate the river. It is to be effected by means been used as banking capital, very of a stationary engine about midway, from which pullies are to be fastened upon the boats, and in this way they are to be carried from the water above, along the line of the road, and laid upon rock, down to the water below. We may now expect this work to be completed within a short time, as all the stock has been taken and is greatly above par. From the directory published by Mr. Otis, in 1832, we obtain the following particulars, interesting to the general merchant: IMPORTS FROM DEC. 1, 1831, TO AUGUST 4, 1832. .coils...... 26,830 33,411 1,170 18,289 4,913 12,037 16,729 18,146 Bagging.. China, &c... Coffee.. bags. 63,500 materially affected the happiness or the love of fun in the citizens, although the city fathers represented, in a grave me morial to the government, that all is gloom and despondence, all uncertainty and suspense, all apprehension and fore boding. Prices here have fallen beyond any former example. Flour has sunk from $4 to $3 or even $2 50 per barrel. Hemp, pork, and every commodity has fallen in many instances 50 per cent." was the The incident alluded to by Mr. Casseday, as his proof that this derangement in the monetary operations of commerce did not "throw a very deep or settled gloom over the community," " sudden appearance in the streets of the city of a very singular procession, since known as the comical guards. They were intended as a burlesque of the militia drills, then of biennial occurrence here. The procession was headed by an enormous man, rivaling Daniel Lam bert in his superabundance of flesh, mounted on an equally overgrown ox, on whose hide was painted the follow ing descriptive motto: The bull-works of our country.' This heroic captain also wore a sword of mighty proportions, on whose trenchant blade was written in letters of scarlet the savage inscription: Blood or This leader was followed by a band of equally singular characters, long men on short ponies little boys on enormous bony Rozinantes, picked up from the commons; men inclosed in hogsheads with only head feet and arms visible; men encased even to helmet and visor, in wicker-work armor, and a thousand other knights of fanciful costume, and all marching with heroic steps to the martial clangor of tin pans, the braying of milk-horns, the Imports-Dry-goods Houses—Groceries. shrill sound of whistles, the piping of cat-calls, and the ceaseless din of penny trumpets and cornstalk fiddles. The procession halted in its progress through the streets in front of the residences of the officers of the militia, and after saluting them with a flourish of music, made them a speech, and cheered them with a chorus of groans." The following is the table of churches: Congrega. Usual at 217 The sales of queensware, less reliably taken, reach $265,000. There are thirty-nine wholesale grocery houses, whose aggregate sales reach $10,623,400, which gives an average of $272,400 each. A brief statement of some of the principal annual imports in the grocery line will, perhaps, give a better idea of this business. The figures refer to the year 1850: Value of Refined Baptist 5.... 2.200.... $80,000 Molasses. Episcopal. 3.... 1,425. 76,000 Coffee. Methodist 17.... 5,900. 109,000 Rice.. Presbyterian. 128,000 Cotton yarns. German Evangelical 4.... 1,200.. Cheese ..boxes. 21,700 25,250 66 Lutheran.. 80,650 1.... 100. 70.160 Disciples.. 18,000 Rope .coils. 65,350 Unitarians 1,200 Salt (Kanawha) Universalists "(Turk's Island).. Roman Catholic.. Jews..... Total.. .46. . . . . 19,610. . ..$590,900 The following statistical information we extract from the work of Mr. Casseday, above alluded to: Louisville contains twenty-five exclusively wholesale dry-goods houses, whose sales are made only to dealers, and whose market reaches from Northern Louisiana to Northern Kentucky, and embraces a large part of the states of Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The aggregate amount of annual sales by these houses is $5,853,000, or an average of $234,000 to each house. The sales of three of the largest of these houses amount, in the aggregate, to $1,789,000. Neither this statement, nor those which follow, include any auction houses. In boots and shoes the sales of the eight houses, of the above description, reach $1.184,000, or $148,000 to each house. The sales of the three largest houses in this business reach $630,000. The aggregate amount of sales of eight houses in drugs, &e., is $1,123,000, or $140,375 to each house, and the sales of the three largest houses amount to $753, 000. The sales of hardware by nine houses amount annually to $590,000, being an average of $65,555 to each house. The sales of saddlery reach $980,000, of which nearly one-half are of domestic manufacture. The sales of hats and caps, necessarily including sales at retail, amount to $683,000. The following recapitulatory table will enable the reader to see at a glance all that has just been stated: 103....$20,321,400....$197,295 As a tobacco market, Louisville has tion. In respect to this article, it has attracted very much of the public attennience of access, coupled with the fact some very striking advantages-convethat, in the transportation of this article, purchasers at the North and East are not the trial of a sea voyage. Holders of under the necessity of subjecting it to the article, at full prices, can be effected There were received here in 1839.... 1,295 hhds. cannot but be directed to the wonderful extract from the Report of the Commitchanges that have been, and the greater tee of Public Health of the Louisville that will yet be effected, in virtue of ar- Medical Society: "Since the year 1822 tificial channels of intercommunication. and 1823," says this report, "the enHitherto the great lines of water com- demic fevers of summer and autumn munication have given character to the have become gradually less frequent; mercantile geography, or commercial until within the last five or six years, aspect of a country. But now they are they have almost ceased to prevail, and giving place to a more potent element those months now are as free from disof commerce in railroads and canals. It ease, as those of any part of the year. now becomes a question whether the to- Typhoid fever is a rare affection here, bacco and cotton planter, who resides in and a majority of the cases seen, occur North Mississippi, in certain parts of in persons recently from the country. Tennessee and Alabama, cannot put his Some physicians residing in the interior hogshead of tobacco of the one, and his of this state, see more of the disease bale of cotton of the other, into the cities than comes under the joint observation of the East, in less time and at a less of all the practitioners of the city, if we cost by means of the now uninterrupted exclude those treated in the hospital. communication with those cities. The Tubercular disease, particularly pul lake route, during the summer months, monary consumption, is not so much is uninterrupted. The Jefferson Rail-road seen as in the interior of Kentucky. begins to attract attention. The Balti- Our exemption from pulmonary conmore and Ohio Rail-road being comple- sumption is remarkable, and it would ted to Wheeling, produce of every kind be a matter of much interest, if a re can be carried to Philadelphia and New- gistration could be made of all the York. The completion of this road will deaths from it, so that we could compare be followed by the establishment, as them with those of other places. For necessary sequences, of a regular line of the truth of the remark as to the exsteam packets from Louisville to Nash- tent and frequency of the diseases ville, and to Memphis, and to Wheeling. enumerated, we rely solely upon what Louisville is also a place of increasing attraction to the law and medical student. The University of Louisville can stand a respectable comparison with the very best in the country. It is now in high repute and in successful operation. There are names connected with the institution that have a reputation beyond the limits of the state. we have observed ourselves, and upon what we have verbally gathered from our professional friends. This exemp tion of Louisville from disease, can be accounted for in no other way than from its natural situation, and from what has been done in grading, in building, and in laying off the streets. "Louisville is situated on an open plain, where the wind has access from every direction; upon a sandy soil which readily absorbs the water that falls upon it; susceptible of adequate drainings; supplied bountifully with pure "A short time ago," says the Louisville Courier of the 24th September, "we published a statement as prepared by Thomas S. Page, Esq., Auditor of the State of Kentucky, of the number of hogs six months old on the first day of Janua- limestone water, ry, 1852, in this state. The list was incomplete, as eight counties had not sent in their assessments. We now subjoin the full returns from every county in the state except Trimble : 1,011,961 which is filtered through a depth of thirty or forty feet of sand; its streets are wide and laid off at right angles: north and south, east and west,—giving the freest ventilation, and the buildings compact, comfortable, and generally so construct27,462 ed as to be dry and to admit freely 5,918 the fresh air. It is situated upon the 21,789 border of the beautiful Ohio, and en15,643 vironed by one of the richest agricul tural districts in the world, supplying it with abundance of food and all the comforts and luxuries of life. It must under the guidance of science and wise legislation, become, if it is not 11,294 8,826 20,362 The reader, curious with respect to the health of Louisville, may receive satisfactory information from the following |