|
HISTORY OF |
|
|
PREFACE |
|
|
In Pursuance of an Act of Congress of the United
States, recommending that a Historical Sketch of every County and Town
in the United States be prepared and read on the 4th day of
July of our Centennial year, copies of which were to be filed in the
Clerk’s offices of the respective counties, and also in the
Librarian’s office in Washington City, to furnish historical data and
incidents from which to write a correct General History of the United
States, the people of Grant County held a meeting at the Court House on
the 12th day of June, 1876, to determine in what manner they
would celebrate the approaching 4th of July, and to arrange a
programme in accordance with said Act, they decided to have a “good
old-fashioned basket picnic” about one quarter of a mile south of Dry
Ridge, in the Anderson Grove, now owned by Judge O. P. Hogan, to which
all were invited to attend and bring their “baskets well filled.”
Urial Harrison was chosen to read the declaration of Independence, Judge
J. M. Collins and I. L. Schwabacker to deliver Orations, and the author
to prepare and read a Historical Sketch of Grant County. For our part of the exercises we have an apology.
Our sketch is necessarily and materially incomplete, from the fact that
only a few days were allowed us, and from which we could only snatch a
few stray hours now and then from other business, to gather the
historical data of a county fifty-six years old; and further, from the
fact that the forty or fifty minutes accorded to us for the reading,
would not permit a full and detailed history, and forbid the recording
of many incidents that interestingly claimed our attention while engaged
in the work, and especially forbid all biographical sketches or notices. To Chas. W. Porter, Wm. Conrad, J. J. Daniels, Robt.
Elliston, sr., Judge O. P. Hogan, and Mrs. Mary A. Fenley, all of whom
have lived in the county since its formation, we gratefully acknowledge
our indebtedness for much information we could not otherwise have
obtained, and to whom we are more than thankful for the warm interest
they manifested in our behalf. We are also indebted to the personal kindness of
Richard H. Collins, author of the History of Kentucky, for the dates
used in the beginning, from 1772 until the formation of Pendleton
county.
|
|
|
R. H. E.
|
|
|
The History of Grant County
|
|
|
Ladies and Gentleman: It is always a pleasant and an agreeable task to
acknowledge a favor, hence it is a very great pleasure in acknowledging
our obligations and gratitude for the favor and compliment in promoting
us to the position of historian on this occasion, but our duty to say
that the responsibility and amount of labor required in so short a time
as was given us, are too great for one whose acquaintance with the
history of the county was so limited as ours.
|
|
|
In the Beginning, Part of Virginia
|
|
|
All the present State of Kentucky, one hundred
years ago, was a part of a single county of Old Virginia, named
Fincastle. In 1776 this matronly old county of Fincastle, that enclosed
within her boundry lines the territory upon which States were destined
to be formed, was extinguished by the division of that territory into
three counties, Washington, Montgomery and Kentucky. In 1780, the county
of Kentucky was subdivided into three divisions, each taking the name of
a county, Jefferson, Lincoln and Fayette. In June, 1792, this territory
was formed into a State, having been previously further subdivided into
counties. So that while the territory of Kentucky was a part of the
State of Virginia, what is not Grant county was first a part of
Fincastle county, formed 1772; then a part of Kentucky county formed
1776; then a part of Fayette county formed 1780; then a part of Woodford
County formed 1789. Before another change was made Kentucky was admitted
into the Union as a State, and in September, 1792, the territory of
Grant became a part of Scott county, of the State of Kentucky. Then a
part of Bracken and Campbell counties, the latter formed 1794; then a
part of Pendleton county, formed in 1798, in which latter connection it
remained for twenty-two years. Thus it appears that Grant county is the child of many foster mothers. But the time came at last when she attained her majority, so to speak; not with the secret, shrinking reluctance of the maiden, who sees the last roseate summer of her “blushing teens” receding from her, but with all the gushing, animating pride of the ambitious youth, who counts the last minutes of the last hour that free him from parental restraint and allow him to go forth in the world and manage his own concerns.
|
|
| Grant
was once part of Pendleton County
|
|
| We all seem to know by intuition that Grant was
taken from Pendleton. Her identity does not seem to extend further back,
and hence it was not uncommon formerly, when Grant, from any political
or sectional cause, showed symptoms of waywardness, for Pendleton to
assume the old responsibility of a good mother and urge her, by much
kindly advice from her abundant store, to follow, and learn from the
example of her maternal friend and guide; but Grant, be it said to her
credit, has always had a will of her own, and has reared sons and
daughters with capacity and energy to execute that will. The formation
of Grant county was talked of long before the people then inclosed
within the Territory realized the bright dream that constituted them an
independent people. It was exceedingly inconvenient for them to attend
their courts at Falmouth and transact all the business of so large a
territory, necessary to be transacted at the county seat. And if there
is an alleviating circumstance which the historian can now discover for
the onerous responsibility in the discharge of their duty as citizens
and loyal subjects of their county, it is the romance connected
therewith. At this day it was a circumstance that was probably animating
and gratifying to the heart of a good citizen whose patience and
endurance were trained by the hardihood of pioneer life, to accouter
himself in his buck-skin trowsers, his moccasins, his coon-skin cap,
sling over his shoulder, his bullet pouch and powder-horn, take up his
rifle and start upon his journey to Falmouth through the long, dismal
woods, a distance of perhaps thirty miles, to answer the suit of Mr. A.
or Mr. B. in some trivial matter or controversy; or perhaps this long
tour had to be made in order to have spread upon the Books of the Court
of Record, to be known by all men that his stock-mark was a “crop and
under it out of the right ear and a swallow fork out of the left ear.”
This was romance; but people weary of romance as well as of other good
things when protracted too long.
|
|
| Formation
of New County not without controversy
|
|
| Upon the issue of the formation of a new county a very
strong and heated contest was made for the Representative in the year
1819. Those desiring a new county brought out for their candidate, Mr.
William Littell, a clear and worthy gentleman, and a brother of James
Littell, now one of our oldest citizens. The opposing candidates were,
Elijah McClannahan and Dr. John Bennett. Mr. Littell was very warm in
behalf of the new county and pledged his very ears to his people that
should he be elected, to never let the Legislature rest until the
fondest wish of himself and his friends was realized. The people knowing
that Mr. Littell thought a good deal of his ears, and believing that he
would work to the last moment to save them, elected him by a majority of
about forty votes. True to his promise, no Legislature was ever more
frequently and earnestly reminded of a local bill than was this
Legislature of Mr. Littell’s bill for the new county. After much delay
and opposition the bill was finally passed by the Lower House and sent
up to the Senate. Here it met with opposition from Jesse Bledsoe, a
Senator from Bourbon county. Mr. Bledsoe was a prominent member and had
a pet bill of his own for an appropriation to Transylvania University,
which has been bitterly opposed by Mr. Littell. Being a bluff, humorous
old gentleman, he told Mr. Littell that if he would “vote for the
appropriation in the Lower House, the bill for the new county should be
pushed through the Senate, but if he wouldn’t vote for it Grant county
might go to h---, and he (Mr. Littell) could go home and be cropped.”
Mr. Littell, realizing the terrible dilemma in which he was placed,
concluded to vote for the appropriation, which he did. His bill was then
passed through the Senate, and on the 12th day of February,
1820, was approved by the Governor. This was the sixty-seventh county
formed in the State and contained then all the territory that it now
has, except a small strip added from Campbell county in 1830, a larger
strip (about twelve square miles) from Harrison in 1833, another small
strip from Boone in 1868, and that territory which was cut off from Owen
and annexed to Grant at the last session of the Legislature. The county
is now a parallelogram in shape, nearly square, and contains about four
hundred and sixty square miles. In the bill creating the county it was
provided that the new county should be called and known by the name of
Grant. As to the reason it took the name of Grant there are various and
conflicting opinions. It is said by some of the oldest inhabitants that
owing to Mr. Littell’s repeated efforts with the Legislature to grant
him al hearing on his pet bill, that the word “Grant” became in
connection therewith quite a stereotyped phrase or saying, and hence
when the bill was finally called up, out of a facetious spirit some
member had “Grant” inserted for its name. But the best founded
opinion, in our judgment, is that it was named in honor of General
Squire Grant, a prominent citizen of Boone county and who was a very
particular and warm friend of Mr. Littell.
|
|
| First
Court; Tavern Rates Established
|
|
|
In the bill it was provided that the county should
have seven Justices of the Peace, who should meet at the house of Henry
Chiders, still standing on the west side of the turnpike, about one
hundred and fifty yards below the Old Childers Farm, now owned by Judge
O. P. Hogan, and hold the first Court. The new county was to still vote
with Pendleton in the election of a Representative. It was further
provided that John H. Rudd, of Bracken county, John Curry, James R.
Curry, and Robert Huston, of Harrison county, Garrett Wall, and John T.
Johnson, of Scott county, act as Commissioners to locate and fix upon a
permanent site for the new county seat. It was now that the people of Grant county began to
taste some of the bitter of the proposition that was so dear to their
hearts. A large territory has been cut off to them—the western half of
Pendleton county—the most remarkable featured of which were its
boundless forests and scattering population. They were without a Court
House, without a Jail, without any public building, and the most
significant of all, without wealth. “Tis true that there were owners
of large bodies of land, but that did not then constitute wealth, as it
now does, for it could be bought in any quantities for the pitiful price
of 12 ½ c per acre. But our rough old pioneer fathers had lived in the
woods too long, as the saying is, to be scared at an owl, and they did
not fear or try to shirk a responsibility. They fought through their
financial difficulties with a courage that was truly surprising.
Contrary to the present custom of all counties, towns and corporations,
they did not issue bonds upon which they borrowed money to meet the
financial demands before them, but true to their sturdy, iron-willed
principles, levied a poll tax of four dollars per tithe the first year,
at the expiration of which time there was sufficient money in the hands
of the Sheriff to pay almost two thirds of their present and prospective
indebtedness for the erection of public buildings and the completion of
public improvements. According to the best information we can get from
the public records, there were in the first year of the county’s
existence about three hundred and fifty tithesmen. This number,
multiplied by five, (being the rule generally adopted by statisticians)
would give a population of 1750.
|
|
| First
Circuit Court
|
|
| The first Circuit Court was held at the house of
Henry Childers on the 5th day of May, 1820, Hon. John Trimble
presiding. The Grand Jury of this Court were John Marksbury, foreman;
Dixon Tongate, John Crook, Daniel Seward, Robert Childers, Richard
Lucas, Perry Chipman, Bennett Williams, Zachariah Hogan, Lewis Gregory,
John Norton, Ichabod Ashcraft, James Reed, Absalom Skirvin, John
Rowland, and Thomas Thomas. This Court adjurned on the day it convened,
having transacted all the business, the Grand Jury making three
indictments—one against the County Court for not having the County
divided into road precincts and overseers appointed.
|
|
| New
Court House
|
|
| The new Court House was built by William Arnold
for the sum of $2,199, paid in three equal annual instalments. It was a
brick building, two stories high, thirty four feet long by thirty feet
wide. The first floor twelve feet high, and the second eight feet. The
bar was elevated eighteen inches above the lobby or audience floor, and
the “Judge’s Bench,” as it was called, two feet higher than this.
The lobby floor was made of brick, closely laid and cemented together.
From the bar ascended the flight of stairs to the jury rooms above. This
was held to be an ample and commodious building—the sanctum over which
the goddess of Justice was to preside and inspire the long successive
line of law interpreters and dispensers with the knowledge of the
distinction between right and wrong.
|
|
| First
Jail
|
|
|
The first jail was built by Absalom Skirvin for $220. It was sixteen feet square, and was built of hewed logs, dovetailed and let down one upon the other. This jail was two stories high, and had two small windows in each story. There was also a “stray pen” built on the public ground for the purpose of holding all the stray stock that was taken up. This was thirty feet square, and inclosed by a post-and-rail fence. Williamstown, at this time, could boast of but three houses except the Court House and jail—that of Wm. Arnold, situated near where Robert McDuffee now live; the small log house of P. B. Hume, standing near the present post-0ffice, in which there was a tavern kept by Wm. Mt. Joy; and another log house, built by James Conyers, just below. The principal settlements in the county extended from Williamstown north to below Dry Ridge. Almost all the land in the county was owned by non-residents, who held the same under large patents. John Fowler, of Lexington, had a patent that covered all the land from just south of Williamstown to the residence of Lewis Myers, and extending east and west to within a few miles of the Pendleton and Owen county lines. The northern part of the county was covered by the patent of John and Jordan Harris’ forty-four thousand acres survey. The extreme western, and all the southern part of the county from Fowler’s survey, was covered by the patents of—Leach, May, Banister & Co. and Josiah Watson; and the eastern part of the county was covered by the Moody patent. These patents were not well defined, but overlapped each other, which afterwards gave rise to many large suits in the Courts that furnished rich food for the lawyers and gave to the county a noted reputation for land litigation. It was this character of litigation that gave Lewis Myers, who was a citizens of this county from its formation until his decease in April, 1870, the most extensive reputation as a land-jobber in Northern Kentucky. His correct knowledge of the multitudes of old lines of surveys, and his clear and positive memory of numbers and dates were wonderful, and though he was constantly enrolled upon the docket of the Courts for many years, as either plaintiff or defendant, in almost all the important land suits, he was warm-hearted and generous to a fault, and much beloved by his people, representing them as many as four times in the Legislature of Kentucky. But while the central part of the county was settled sparsely by men who had either bought or leased the land on which they lived, almost all the rest of the county was settled only by “squatters,” or families who owned no land, but took up their residence where they chose, erected small cabins in which to live, cleared and cultivated as much ground as they thought proper. These little patches of cleared land were called “improvements,” and were bartered and sold with as much freedom as cattle and hogs.
|
|
| Hunting
is the Chief Enterprise
|
|
|
It is not strange, under these circumstances, that
the people cultivated and displayed but little taste in their dress and
in the erection of dwelling houses. The chief occupation, of many of
them, was hunting, in which they found a peculiar delight and pleasure,
and when wearied and worn out with their pursuit of the deer, which
abounded plentifully in the hills and valleys now covered by luxuriant
meadows and cornfields, they cared but little what kind of houses
received them on their return so they were sheltered from the wolves and
storms. If the hunter’s cabin was large enough to contain a pallet for
himself, his wife and his children, a few chairs, a table, (perhaps on
which he venison was spread), and more than all, if sitting away in one
corner there was a jug or even a barrel of “Old Bourbon,” it was a
home of luxury to him. Grant county, like all pioneer counties, had famous hunters, the bullets of whose unerring rifles never failed to bring down the “deer” or the “turkey.” It is amusing to think now how fond they were of these old flint-lock hunting pieces. They held them in their hearts as something a little less dear than their wives or their children, and fondled them and called them by pet names as though they were objects with life and could talk and smile when their masters would jump to their feet for “Old Sally” or “Old Betsey” as a deer would go bounding by. The popular ambition of that day was not cultivating fields, erecting fine houses, raising fine cattle, hogs and sheep, and training blooded horses, but to satisfy their innate love for hunting and sporting, and to excel in personal attainments, such as foot-racing, wrestling, pitching quoits, etc. And if there was a personal difficulty to be settled between two or more persons, it was generally adjusted by the very pleasant and satisfactory way of knocking each other down a few times, and then “drinking each other’s health over the result; for this was a day when whiskey made men drunk without giving them delirium tremens, and they got sober again without being poisoned, and before the deadly Derringer was used to murder him who had offended his murderer.”
|
|
| Early Development of Williamstown | |
| But we must now notice briefly some of the
material improvements of the county. In 1822 there were twenty-five
acres of land condemned by Mr. Arnold for the town of Williamstown,
which was surveyed and laid off in one fourth acre lots, and Wm. Arnold,
William Littell, Wesley Williams, James Collins, Samuel Williams, Thomas
Watson, and Absalom Skirvin were appointed the firs Trustees of the
town. In 1827 the jail was removed to the place where it now stands, and
put up in a manner similar to the first one, only the walls were double,
and the space of six or eight inches between the logs was filled with
broken stone. Several small wooden houses had now been erected in
different parts of the town. The merchant had come, and a new era was to
dawn upon the people of old-fashioned ideas and pioneer notions. This
great man—the merchant—had a very limited supply at first, only dry
goods, coarse cotton and calico, arranged on puncheon shelves, supported
by wooden pins driven in auger holes that were bored in the wall, and a
jug or two of that same “Old Bourbon” could be hid away under the
puncheon floor, or just outside the door in the bushes, until a customer
would indicate that he wanted a pint or so for family use. Better taste
was now displayed by the people in their dress. The hunting-shirt was
gradually laid aside; coarse shoes took the place of moccasins, and
tow-linen breeches and the dresses of the ladies, made of home
manufactured material, were displaced by fabrics of a more costly
character. People began to settle here who had been trained by different
manners and accustomed to different scenes, and they infused into the
pioneers a spirit of improvement.
|
|
| Early
Development of Crittenden and Dry Ridge
|
|
|
Crittenden had now attained sufficient proportions
to be called a town. The first settler there was David Cooper, who lived
there, near where the Sechrest Hotel now stands, at the time of the
formation of the county. The first store in the town was built by
Captain John W. Fenley, in which goods were sold by Dr. Samuel
Singleton. A carpenter by the name of ----- Groom, who lived there, and
who was of a drinking, waggish disposition, gave the town the name of
“Pin-Hook”—a name that it bore until the year 1834, when Mrs. Mary
A. Fenley, wife of Capt. John W. Fenley, gave it the name of Crittenden,
after the Hon. John J. Crittenden, who was then Kentucky’s most
popular statesman. The history of Crittenden is that of a pleasant and
enterprising little village of refined and cultivated people. Like
almost all other country towns, it has been several times partially
destroyed by fire. It now has a population of about 400, and, perhaps,
the largest and best assorted dry goods store in the county. R. L.
Collins has a large steam corn and flouring mill that is second to no
other institution of the kind in the county.
|
|
| Further
Development of Williamstown
|
|
| The growth of Williamstown contains no event of
special interest until the year 1856. At that time there had been
erected a row of wooden buildings on either side of Main
street—scarcely a brick edifice to be seen in town. A child of Mr.
Samuel Marksbury was amusing himself in the basement story of his
father’s house, then standing where Mr. Lucas has his grocery, by
burning some combustible material, when the building took fire. The
flames spread up and down the street, destroying every house and
tenement on the west side from where P. T. Zinn’s store now stands to
Mill street, and on the east side from John H. Webb’s store to several
houses below the residence of E. H. Smith. This was the first fatal
disaster to the county seat, and thirty families were in a few minutes
rendered destitute and homeless by this terrible fire-fiend.
Contributions were raised for the sufferers, and the people all over the
county contributed liberally. Judge O. P. Hogan made speeches in
Georgetown, Frankfort and Lexington, whose people subscribed as much as
seven hundred dollars to the unfortunate ones in our midst. Three
thousand dollars were soon raised in their behalf, and it was not long
until the clink of the hammer was heard and the mason and carpenter were
busy in erecting new and better houses on the burnt ground, so that in a
few years all the lots on Main street, once covered by old wooden
buildings—excellent rat harbors and food for flames—were now
occupied by good and substantial houses.
|
|
| Fire
|
|
|
In 1864 a second fire destroyed the wooden tavern
building of James Collins, on the corner of Main and Cynthiana streets;
also destroying many small tenements connected therewith. The old stable
and a few stock pens and corn cribs connected with the building, and
that were not burnt, were torn down, and upon the lots thus made vacant
were erected by the present owners and occupants the “Johnson House”
and the residence of Dr. J. M. Wilson, the one a well-planned and
commodious hotel, and the other a convenient and handsome mansion. Still another fire, in 1867, swept away the wooden mill of Cunningham & Harrison, on Second Cross street, which was replaced by the present brick building of D. L. Cunningham, as a steam corn and flouring mill and carding machine, the first of the kind built in the town. The spirit of utility and enterprise thus awakened prompted the erection of the Town Hall. It is a handsome three-story brick building, and was built in 1870. On the Public Square stands the Court House, which was built in 1852, and which took the place of the first one we described. The present Clerks offices were erected in 1866, and the present jail in the same year, all of which buildings have been subsequently carefully and conveniently repaired. Various other improvements have been made, among the number we have a steam planning mill, and a High School or Academy, until Williamstown is now one of the most thorough, energetic, and thriving little cities in Northern Kentucky.
|
|
| Grant
County Newspapers
|
|
| The first newspaper printed in Grant county was the
Williamstown News, published by E. S. Moore in the year 1872. After an
existence of six months, for want of support and proper management, it
was found necessary to suspend its publication, and the News ceased to
exist. The next step taken looking to the establishment of a newspaper
in the county was the resuscitation of the old News office and the
presentation to the public of the Grant County Bulletin. For a short
time the Bulletin enjoyed a liberal support and was considered a
permanent institution. Pecuniary embarrassment, however, rendered its
suspension unavoidable, and after a life of one year it followed its
predecessor. The next paper established was the Williamstown Sentinel,
by Chas. B. Bradley, in 1874.The Sentinel was afterward transferred to
W. N. Hogan, who transferred it to E. H. Eyer and Chas B. Bradley.
Within the last year E. H. Eyer, by another transfer, has become the
sole editor and proprietor, under whose energetic management it has
become quite a newsy little sheet, receiving the hearty support of the
people and is now, we hope, a fixed institution of the county.
|
|
|
Religious History of Grant County
|
|
|
In respect to the early religious and educational
history of the county we have been able to gather only the following
facts: For two or three years previous to the organization of the
county, Elder Jerard Riley, of the Old Baptist Church, had been
preaching to a congregation in a meeting-house which stood near the late
location of the Free Will Baptist Church, one-fourth mile south of Dry
Ridge. One of the earliest of his converts was the venerable Wm. Conrad,
who is still living, and is well known throughout the county for the
earnest zeal which he has for more than fifty years manifested. The first itinerant Methodist preacher was Jesse
Robinson, who lived on Crooked Creek, and for several years traveled
over the county and preached in private houses. He organized the first
Methodist congregation at the house of Clement Theobald, at or very near
the present residence of John W. Clark. Christian Tomlin, father of
Elder Asa Tomlin, first proclaimed the doctrine of the Free Will Baptist
to the early inhabitants. About the year 1827 one Barton Stone, of the sect
then denominated New Lights, came down from Bourbon county several times
and preached in the Court House at Williamstown. He was soon after
followed by Elders John T. Johnson, a brother of Vice President R. M.
Johnson, and John Smith, well known to many still living in the county
as “Raccoon” John Smith, so-called from an anecdote which he loved
to tell of having, on one occasion, been paid a marriage fee of $1.00 in
coonskins at ten cents each! The sect for which they preached is now
known as Christians, or Reformers. At the time of the organization of the county there were only two meeting houses in its boundary—the Old Baptist Church near Dry Ridge, and the Methodist Church that is still standing on Forklick Creek.
|
|
|
The First Schools in Grant County
|
|
|
But two school-houses were in the county at this
time. One of these was on Forklick Creek, near where Chas. W. Porter now
lives. This house was built of small round logs, 14 x 16 feet, and
covered by clapboards, which were retained in their position by heavy
“weight poles.” It had a rough puncheon floor, and was profusely
ornamented with puncheon benches, supported by legs made of round
saplings driven in auger holes bored in them. Long wooden spikes or pins
were driven in the logs around the wall on which the children hung their
dinner baskets. The roof of this house was just high enough to admit the
teacher and “big scholars” to walk under without striking their
heads against the boards. There was no window, and but one doorway to
which there was no door. James Williams taught school in this house. He
had from twelve to sixteen scholars, and charged one dollar and a half
per quarter. This was paid, one-half money and one-half in current
produce—coonskins generally. The other school-house was situated a little down
the ridge from the residence of Esau Conrad. In this house Wm. Littell
reigned as chief pedagogue for several sessions. What his emoluments
were we have been unable to ascertain. Previous to the formation of the county the Legislature of Kentucky had made an appropriation of a large number of acres of Green River land for the benefit of County Seminaries. When Grant county was formed she became entitled to a portion of this, and Mr. Arnold, always ready to promote the interest of the county and prompted by his true and laudable spirit of enterprise, undertook and built for the county her first Seminary for the consideration of that part of the Green River land to which the county was entitled. It was a brick building, one story high, and stood at or near the present residence of E. H. Smith. Schools were taught in this building for several years. Mr. L. Abenathy was one of the principal teachers. He had from thirty to forty scholars, and in the winter this number would be increased to sixty. The first debating society of the county was organized and held in this building. It was largely attended by the people of the county for many miles around, most of whom participated in the debates. This was kept up for several years, and many an evening the walls of this old building were made to echo with the ringing reverberations of pioneer eloquence. There are a few old persons now living in the county who made the first speeches of their lives in this building. After it had stood for about fifteen years the walls began to give way, and it was torn down, and Williamstown never again had another school that approached to the dignity of a High School or Seminary until 1874, when, through the energy of Messrs. J. H. Webb, W. F. Webb, T. M. Coombs, and Dr. J. M. Wilson, the present Academy was erected. This is a two-story frame building, constructed upon a modern plan, and well and conveniently furnished. The first school was taught in this, during the last school year, by Prof. L. V. Ware, of Georgetown, as principal, and Miss Katie Coombs, of Williamstown, as assistant teacher. Very Much credit is due to these two popular and efficient teachers in securing for this school in its infancy a brilliant reputation, and enhancing its bright prospects to a degree of certainty for a success in the future. The first and only chartered school in the county was in Crittenden. This school was chartered in 1868 as the Crittenden Seminary, under the direction of Littleton Fenley, R. M. Ratcliff, F. T. Mansfield, A. F. Hogsett, J. Poor, Thomas Rouse, and their successors, as Trustees. Competent professors were employed for three or four years, but for some cause, it was suspended, and the building is now used by R. L. Collins for a steam flour mill, of which we have before made mention.
|
|
|
School Districts Established
|
|
|
The first division of the county into school
districts was made in April, 1822, by an order of the County Court. The
land of the Militia Company of Capt. Wm. Harrison composed District No.
1; of Capt. Wm. Hogan, District No. 2; of Capt. W. P. Thomas, District
No. 3; of Capt. Chas. Ruddell, District No. 4; of Capt. James Elliston,
District No. 5; of Capt. Andrew Myers, District No. 6. The school-houses
and the schools taught in these several districts were similar to the
first one we have described. In February, 1838, an Act was passed by the
Legislature of Kentucky establishing a State system of Common Schools.
This Act directed that the several County Courts appoint five
Commissioners to lay the counties off into school districts, to contain
not less than thirty nor more than one hundred children between the ages
of seven and seventeen. In pursuance of this Act, Thomas Clark, James H.
Robinson, R. L. Clements and T. J. Daniels, were appointed to assist the
County Surveyor in laying off our county into school districts. Since
this division many changes have been made in the boundaries, and several
new districts formed. There are now fifty-three school districts and
four thousand four hundred and seventy-three children, between the ages
of six and twenty, reported by the Trustees. Our common schools are now in a good working
condition under the systematic and careful management of our present
efficient Commissioner of Common Schools, H. D. Stratton.
|
|
| The
Big Tree and the Poison Spring
|
|
|
Among the notable objects of Grant county was a
large poplar tree, near Dry Ridge Baptist Church. It was nine feet in
diameter, its magnificent trunk and branches towering far above the
surrounding trees as the giant of the forest. Before it was cut down, in
1831, it was known by everybody as the “big tree.” Another object of note was the “Poison Spring,”
situated about one hundred yards north of Sherman. A family by the name
of Wheeler, living at the place where Joseph Wayland now lives, and who
used the water out of the spring, all took sick and died from some cause
unknown then, but since supposed to have been milk-sickness. Many
believed it was the water from the spring that killed them, and hence it
took the name of the “Poison Spring,” and for many years it was
regarded by the more superstitious and less enlightened people as a
dangerous and even fatal place to pass.
|
|
| General
Marquis Lafayette comes to Grant County
|
|
| We must not here forget to state that in the year
1824 General Marquis Lafayette, who, next to the Father of our Country,
is dear in the hearts of the American people, passed through our county
on his way from Lexington to Cincinnati in company with his son and
private secretary, and Hon. W. T. Barry, the Postmaster General of the
United States; Hon. Geo. M. Bibb, formerly Chief Justice of Kentucky,
and afterward reporter for the Court of Appeals, and other distinguished
persons, whose names we could not get. The party took breakfast at the
house of Mr. Arnold, who was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and
who received a severe wound at the battle of Yorktown at the time of the
surrender of Lord Cornwallis. General Lafayette and Capt. Arnold know
each other personally and were so overcome by emotion at their meeting
that they fell upon each other’s necks and wept like brothers. After
remaining with Capt. Arnold for several hours they passed on through the
county and took dinner at the house of Littleton Robinson, about
one-quarter of a mile above Crittenden, and now known as the widow
Henderson Farm. The General greeted the people, who thronged to meet him
along the road, with much cordiality and friendship. This is remembered
by our oldest people as one of the proudest and happiest incidents in
the history of our county.
|
|
| The
Lynching of 1841
|
|
|
In 1841 one of the most horrible attempted murders,
and also one of the most severe examples of lynching, occurred in this
county, of which history makes mention. John Utterback, a stock drover
in the employ of some Bourbon county trader, was passing from Covington
to his home in Bourbon when the horrible deed transpired, of which he
was the victim. He had been secretly followed from the city by two
desperadoes named Smith Maythes and Lyman Crouch, and was overtaken by
them about three miles south of Williamstown on the Cynthiana road.
Utterback was riding horseback and they were in a buggy. They drove up
by his side and caught the bridle and demanded his money. Seeing he was
attacked by two desperate looking men he attempted to force his horse
by, when he was struck a heavy blow on the head either with the gun,
which they had, or a heavy stick. This felled him from his horse, but he
recovered in an instant, and then commenced a struggle for life and
death. One of the men attempted to shoot him, but the gun
“miss-fired.” Utterback was a man of powerful physical strength and
endurance, and the struggle continued for several minutes before they
were able to overcome him. Finally one of them succeeded in striking him
again over the head with the gun, this time knocking him senseless. This
was many yards from where the struggle commenced. One of them now drew a
large knife and inflicted gash after gash across Utterback’s throat
from ear to ear, until their most fiendish and wicked minds convinced
them he was thoroughly dead. They found no money or valuables on his
body. He was not the man, it was supposed, they had thought he was. While the struggle was ensuing a Jew peddler
happened to pass on horseback. As soon as he discovered the terrible
fighting, and supposing his time was to come next, put spurs to his
horse, never once halting or turning his head to learn the cause or
nature of the struggle. Tam O’Shanter, in his fearful flight from the
witches, did not urge his faithful mare, “Meg,” with more terrible
anxiety and fear that did this son of Ishmael his panting steed. On he
came, through Williamstown, and down the pike, holding to his wares as
best he could with one hand and whipping with the other. From whence he
came and whither he was bound he gave to the astonished people not the
slightest indication. Maythes and Crouch seeing this man start upon his
precipitous journey, and supposing he had gone to give information of
what he had witnessed and fearing they would soon be overtaken, left
their buggy and fled to the woods. In about an hour afterward Utterback
was discovered. He was not dead, but had crawled up by the side of a
tree, and was endeavoring to write in a small note-book the particulars
of his attempted murder. In a few hours the whole country was aroused
and in pursuit of the dastardly villains. About four o’clock the next
evening they were found and captured in Pendleton county and brought to
Williamstown and lodged in jail. Utterback was taken home, where he
recovered from his wounds, and, it is said, is still living. The would-be murderers became still more
desperately infuriated when they were informed that Utterback was not
dead; especially Maythes, who was the oldest and most wicked in crimes.
He made many bitter threats while in jail—that he would burn the town
and assassinate every man who aided in his capture. These threats were
soon communicated over the county, and it needed but a breath of this
kind to kindle in a positive and angry determination the disposition of
the people to lynch them. One evening, after the prisoners had been in
jail about three months, a crowd of about four hundred persons, composed
of men from Pendleton, Harrison, Bourbon, Scott and Grant counties,
assembled about one mile south of town, and there formed into a regular
column, four abreast, and marched into town. The jailor hearing of their
coming buried the keys. They marched into the Court House yard without
saying a word. The people of the town attempted to dissuade them from
their determined purpose, and eloquent speeches were made to them by
Major James O’Hara, Edward Burthell and John W. McCann, pleading in
the cause of justice, to allow her take her course in the courts, and
that she would be sure to mete out to men guilty of such crime a just
and rigid punishment. But these speeches were of no avail. A calm,
unwavering determination sat brooding upon the countenance of every man.
They asked if there was any one else who wishes to speak to them, when
Rev. Josiah Whittaker came forward and knelt in their midst and offered
up a fervent prayer, in which a last appeal was made that the prisoners
might be spared a fate not contemplated by law and justice. Still they
were unmoved. When he had finished they deliberately marched to the jail
door and broke it down, took out the prisoners and conveyed them to the
place where their crime was committed. Here a scaffold was erected and
the prisoners were told they could have a short time to confess their
crime, if they wished to, and to make peace with their God. They did
confess the full particulars of the outrage, but their crime was too
black and their hearts too keenly steeped in infamy to permit them to
raise their voices and ask the forgiveness of a merciful Heaven. They
stood mute, and ropes were placed around their necks, and they swung to
the scaffold immediately over the place where their struggle with
Utterback had ended. When the last vital spark of life had fled from
their bodies, they were cut down and buried in graves dug by the
roadside. That night they were taken up by unknown persons and their
heads severed from the bodies and carried away, the bodies being
restored to the graves. Maythes was born and raised near Maysville, Ky.
He had been a bold and desperate highway robber for many years. Crouch
was young in his wicked calling and lived in Cincinnati, where he was
respectably connected, having at one time been a member of the police
force of that city. In a few days after the lynching his wife and some
friends came out and got his headless body and conveyed it home, where
it was buried in a manner befitting his former relations as a man of
respect.
|
|
| Conclusion | |
|
Grant county, in respect to its population, wealth,
fertility of soil, and agricultural produce, is far above an average
county in the State. Its population, taking the same method we did at
first, is 14,775. In the northern part of the county there are some fine
mineral springs, the water being composed of iron, magnesia and salts. Out of a large number of soldiers of the war of the Revolution and war of 1812, the following are living: Chas. W. Porter, Larkin Webster, John Ferguson, Elijah Sturgeon, James Wilson, and Jeremiah Morgan. |
|