Elizabethtown, Kentucky - History (part 4 of 5)

Rev. John Pirtle was born in Berkley county, Virginia, on the 14th day of November, 1772 ; was married to Amelia Fitzpatrick, a native of Hampshire county. He determined at once to come to Kentucky. Here I will take the liberty of quoting a paragraph from Redford's History of Methodism in Kentucky.

"In those days it was the habit of persons who intended coming to this country to rendezvous for more than fifty miles around, at some place appointed, and travel in company with arms in their hands. Mr. Pirtle and his wife, both young and recently married, had come to one of these points of meeting, and found they had mistaken the day - that the company had gone two days before. But as they had determined to come to Kentucky, and had received the blessing of their friends at the home they had wept for at parting, they resolved that they would not go back, they would come to Kentucky, and accordingly he with his rifle on his shoulder, on one horse with a pack under him, and his wife on another horse with a pack under her, traversed the solitary wilderness, and crossed the mountains alone ; not on the old wilderness road, but on the old wilderness path, till they came to Crab Orchard. Then every rustle of the leaves or crack of a stick in the deep woods, might well have been taken for the whereabouts of the prowling savage.

He settled in Washington county, Kentucky, and in the year 1799 removed to Elizabethtown, where he taught a school a short time, and acted as deputy clerk for Major Ben. Helm.

I was then quite young, and had an idea that it was the duty of every school master to slash every boy he met, and as I have previously remarked, always passed in double quick on the other side of the street.

Mr. Pirtle removed back to Washington county in 1802. In the year 1809 he connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal church, and became a powerful preacher. He was a man of natural eloquence, and of impressive personal appearance. And the celebrated Barnabas

McHenry said that he had the best voice he ever heard, and the late Rev. Marcus Lindsay, who was himself an able divine, in preaching his funeral after his (Pirtle's) death in 1826, said he was of the clearest intellect and strongest mind he had ever known.

He was a man of expansive and vigorous mind - well trained and methodical. He had remarkable talents in mathematics and especially delighted in astronomy, and so profound was his knowledge of that abstruse science, that he could make his calculations in it as easily and rapidly (says his son, Judge Firtle), as he could in arithmetic.

After settling in Washington county the second time, says Mr. Redford, he raised a large family of children, all of whom except one became members of the Methodist church.

Chapter Xxxvi

In my last number I spoke considerably at length of that remarkable man, John Firtle. When he removed to this town, his son, the Hon. Henry Firtle, was a small babe, and as he was once an infant citizen of our town, I take the liberty of saying a few words about him. He was born in Washington county, Kentucky, on the 5th day of November, 1798, and was carried in his mother's arms to Elizabethtown in 1799. When he approached manhood he studied law under the Hon. John Rowan, at Federal Hill, Bardstown, Ky., commenced the practice of law at Hartford, Ohio county, and soon after removed to Louisville. After becoming established, he was appointed Judge of the Circuit Court and General Court, and held that office from October. 1826, to January 2, 1832, when he resigned. Again, 1846, he was appointed Circuit Judge, but held the office only one term, and resigned. Gov. Crittenden then appointed him Chancellor of the Louisville Chancery Court in March, 1850. He was then elected under the new Constitution, and held the place until 1856, was re-elected in 1862, and held this office until 1868. All the time he was Judge or Chancellor he devoted to the practice of law. He was a State Senator from 1840 to 1843, being the only political office he ever held.

After this history it will be needless to say that Judge Pirtle is a profound lawyer and able jurist, and through a course of many years, has deservedly held the high esteem and confidence of the community, well befitting the descendant of the Rev. John Pirtle, whose advent into Kentucky with his heroic young wife entitled them to a niche in the temple of fame second only to the immortal Daniel Boone.

And as the old house in which he resided in Elizabethtown has become classic, I must be indulged in giving a short history of it and its occupants. The lot containing one half an acre was originally purchased of the trustees on the loth day of September, 1798, at the Statutory price of an oath, five shillings. Rawlings hastily put up a hewed log house, about twenty feet square, without a chimney, the timber of which, or most of it, being cut down upon the lot. That was done in 1798-99. In 1799 John Pirtle rented it and moved into it, and lived in it until 1802. After passing through several hands, on the 8th day of March, 1804, it fell into the hands of Samuel Patton, who married a daughter of Major Wells, of Revolutionary fame. Patton lived in it until 1806, during which time he put up a brick chimney, and on the back of the chimney inscribed these letters: "S. P. 1806," and that chimney to this day fixes the locality of the alley running by it.

In 1806 Patton sold it to John Davidson, from Virginia. He resided in it until 1809, and during that time weatherboarded the house and hid the "S. P. 1806" ; so that it did not see the light of day for sixtyfour years, and then only looked out for one day, and was shut up again. In 1809 John Davidson sold it to his brother Thomas, who only lived in it one year; and in 1810 he sold it to John Eccles, Esq., who was originally a shoe and boot maker, but was then a lawyer of some note.

Eccles resided in it until the 19th day of February, 1814, when he sold it to Gen. Dufif Green, who resided in it until 181 7. He has since become known world-wide.

In 181 7 Gen. Green sold the premises to Elias Rector, of Missouri. Rector never lived in it, but sold the property to the late Hon. Benjamin Chapeze, a distinguished lawyer. He resided in the house until the 14th of April, 1828, when he sold it to Thomas J. Walker, a soldier, who resided in it until shortly before his death. The house has had numerous tenants in it of short periods. One of them was Montgomery Mason, a hatter. On the 17th day of June, 1835, the present occupant, Dr. Harvey Slaughter, purchased the property of Wathen's executors, and resided in it ever since. The Doctor at various periods, made several additions and alterations but it still had an antiquated appearance, by no means suited to the Doctor's taste, he being an eminent physician, a literary man, and fond of the poets; but still his house was on a par with those of most of his neighbors, and he philosophically submitted to its rural appearance, with the majestic locusts before the house, \\hich embosomed the building and lent something of majesty and the grandeur of the feudal times of old England and sometimes pallisading or entrenching himself behind the poet who sang:

"I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled Above the green elms, that a cottage was near ; And I said, if there's peace to be found in the world, The heart that is humble, might hope for it here." So it stood for thirty-five years. But it so turned out, in the course of human events, that in August, 1869, a great portion of the town was burned down ; and upon the ruins sprang up, like a Phoenix, new and tasty houses, and many houses, such as Dr. Warfield's, Dr. Short's, Hewitt's, Prof. Heagan's, Judge Gofer's, Capt. Bell's and Commissioner Gunter's, in addition to the fine business houses in the popular part of the town.

The Doctor looked out upon this, it became the last feather on the camel's back, and he determined to stand it no longer, and called in the aid of Architect Turner, and off came the old weather-boarding. And such a remodeling and demolishing of tlie old place, and such a metamorphosing has not been witnessed in the town for seventy-eight years. The tall windows, weighted sashes, magnificent doors, splendid Venetian blinds, chaste and heavy cornices - the whole matter rear^ ranged, renovated and renewed - walls painted a dazzling white, window blinds a heavy drab, sash cherry color, with French glass ; nothing gaudy about it, but presents a sober, chaste and classic appearance.

The Doctor still retains and protects the venerable trees before his domicile with all the sacred care that the ancient Druids did their grand old oaks in their mountain fastnesses.

Thomas W. Nicholson, a schoolmaster, came to Elizabethtown about the year 1805. He wrote a splendid hand, was a tolerable English scholar, a strict disciplinarian, and understood the use of the birch to perfection. He was rather a dandy for that day, and wore a fine blue cloth coat and rufifled shirt, and buckskin pants of elaborate finish. These pants he regularly covered with yellow ochre on every Saturday, and usually spent half the day drying them, and he considered them the height of gentility. He preserved strict order in his school ; and as it was the custom in those days for boys to walk several miles to school, they brought their dinner in baskets, which were all put on a bench, and each boy or girl stood in front of his or her basket. Thomas Kennedy, being the largest, stood at the head, and repeated with solemn face, these words: "Sanctify, we beseech Thee, O Lord, these creatures to our use, and ourselves to Thy service, for Christ's sake. Amen."

Nicholson brought with him a fine black horse. At the end of nine months a report reached the town that the horse had not been fairly obtained. This report coming to Nicholson's ears, he departed one night with his horse, leaving a trunk of clothing and his tuition fees uncollected, and has never been heard of since, now 65 years.

Samuel Stevenson was about the next in order of succession of teachers in Elizabethtown. He came about the year 1806, and, on the old system, was a good teacher. He taught about two years quite a large school. His course was mostly spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography. He, however, had a class of seven in Latin. I was one of that class ; and although I passed inspection in parsing lessons, yet it was all mechanical, and I do not now profess to know anything about it ; and I feel confident that the same class, under the improved method of instruction, would have acquired a better knowledge of the language in three months at Lynnland Institute or Cecilia College, than our class did in two years.

Mr. Stevenson next took up tavern-keeping and then merchandising, and I think served one year in the Legislature. He was a quiet, well conducted gentleman, and a worthy man. He lived in our town perhaps ten years or more. After he left I lost sight of him.

regret that my sketch of him must be very imperfect, and cannot expect to do justice to him; he was an aspiring, ambitious man, and changed his residence so often, and occupied such a conspicuous position in this world that I am not able to trace him.

He was the son of William Green, then of Cumberland county, Ky. When quite a young man, perhaps not fully of age in the year 1811, he came to Elizabethtown and made up a fine school - and perhaps followed that occupation for about two years - he was a strict disciplinarian, and in accordance with the custom of that day, made free use of the rod. He was very decisive in his measures, and used no partiality between the children of the rich and the poor - order and discipline at all hazard had to be observed. John L. Helm, the future Governor and distinguished politician was one of his pupils, and on one occasion did violate, or was supposed to violate some of the rules of the school. Mr. Green called him up, and young Helm having already developed some of the firmness which marked his future course, refused to apologize or explain - the consequence was a severe flagellation which was borne withoiit flinching, and was the more severe on account of what Green took to be stubbornness.

Helm bore it in mind and determined in his own mind if he ever reached manhood to return the flogging with interest. It was many years after Green left before they met again. Then matters had changed ; Green was high in the world, and the Governor had also attracted much public attention. When they did meet Green was the first to recognize his old pupil, and met him with such open armed cordiality that it was an affectionate embrace instead of a fight. At the time Green came to Elizabethtown I was a boy writing in the clerk's office under Major Ben Helm. Green boarded with the Major and slept with me in the office. I was then in very straightened circumstances, enjoyed the extravagant salary of forty dollars per year and board, but as I was a deputy clerk, I felt some pride in the position. But my means were so limited I was ill prepared for anything but a very scanty wardrobe. But by some means I managed to get a coat of cotton goods ratlier fancy colored. My father had an orchard near the office. Rather imprudently I visited the orchard with my new coat on, climbed up the tree and filled my pockets full.

and jumping out, the pockets caught m the forks, splitting my coat, and yet not to the ground - hearing the noise of the tearing, I supposed it was a rattle-snake and clapping my feet to the tree I made a desperate effort which severed my coat at the waist, leaving the apples and tail of my coat in the tree. I soon found that I was ruined, and returned to the office in a sorrowful state of mind. Green soon came in and discovered my distress, kindly offered to sell me one of his cotton coats at a nominal price.

Now, Green was nearly two feet taller than I was, but I donned the coat, which as a matter of course gave me the ludicrous appearance of a boy going to mill with his daddy's coat on. At supper time Mrs. Helm discovered the unfitness of things, and changed a coat she was making for uncle Ben and gave it to me. I considered myself a made man.

Shortly after this, date not recollected, Green volunteered in a company called the Yellow Jackets, commanded by Gov. W. P. Duvall, and went on a campaign up the Wabash against the Indians. In an Indian fight Green showed great gallantry and the horse he rode was shot in the neck. Green soon after married Miss Lucretia Edwards, sister of Gov. Ninian Edwards. She was a very handsome and admirable woman.

Shortly after he formed a partnership in the mercantile business with Major Ben Helm. Green soon received an appointment as surveyor of public lands in Missouri, and while in Missouri he was commissioned a general in the militia.

The General sold out in 1817 and went to Washington City, and soon became a favorite of General Jackson, President of the United States, and it was generally believed that he was the confidential adviser of the President and thus in an indirect mariner exercised an influence in the Government. He was afterward elected to Congress and shared a good deal of Government patronage. During his residence at Washington, he visited London, and on his own hook, had an interview with a portion of the British Cabinet and suggested many items of international policy, but whether they were adopted by the Government I never learned. He is now at an advanced age if living. I have not heard of him for two years past.

Daniel Waide

was a resident of Elizabethtown about the same time that General Duff Green resided here. He kept a tavern at the same old stand where the Lion was the sign. He commenced in a log house ; after some time he put up the center part of the brick building which now constitutes the Eagle House. He married one of the daughters of the late Alexander McDougal and saying that is sufficient proof that the table was

After his death Samuel Martin, Esq., purchased the house, and kept a hotel in good style. Martin was a natural quiz, and would try his hand upon any guest at his house even if he was the President. He is a Justice of the Peace. At the time a man was confined in jail for stealing - an acquaintance of the prisoner came to visit him and got up into the window opposite the prisoner's room, and as it afterward appeared, had implements for the prisoner to saw himself out. The jailer being absent, his wife requested the man to go away - he refused - she sent for Squire Martin - he came and took the man by the neck and pulled him down and led him to his office. He could not make out an offense for merely sitting in the window, but decided that he was a man of bad behavior in not obeying the lady, required him to give security for his good behavior, and failing to give it, he committed him to jail with the thief, but forgot to search him ; so the next night the prisoner and his friend both walked out of the jail and were never retaken. ]\Iartin afterward became Sheriff" by seniority under the old Constitution.

John Shackleford at one time kept the same house in good style, and afterward removed to Palmyra, in Missouri, where he kept a good hotel until his death.

Philemon Bibb also kept the Eagle House in first-rate style. Bibb and his energetic lady seemed to be natural hotel keepers. At West Point he held forth for a season and then removed to Louisville and kept the old Exchange on Sixth street for years, and no house in Louisville, for a time, surpassed it for a fine table. In those days Bibb was a very polite, obliging landlord.

Lloyd Harris

also kept a hotel in this town and kept it well - was an active, energetic man. He was a moving man - lived in Hodgenville for a time and afterward removed to Louisville, where he kept at least half a dozen hotels and boarding houses, and lives there now. I cannot tell what he will go at next, for although he is growing in years and heads a large family, he will not and cannot be idle.

Robert Hewitt

a teacher, came to Elizabethtown in 1834. He was induced to come to this place by the late John Morris, who remained his fast friend for life. Mr. Hewitt was born in Bedford county, Virginia, on the 1st day of July, 1803, and came to Kentucky soon after his majority. His first teaching was at Hodgenville, LaRue county. As soon as he removed to Elizabethtown he took charge of the Hardin Academy and continued in charge of it until his death, February 13, 1850, and during that period of sixteen years he turned out more good scholars than any teacher before or after him. He was a ripe scholar and, according to the custom of that day, was compelled to use the rod liberally, as he had under his tuition a considerable number of hard cases, and none but a man of his determination could have governed them. He was remarkable for his modesty and unobtrusiveness - so much so that among strangers he would have passed for half his worth. But with those who knew him he was held in high esteem for his moral worth and integrity.

He was a man of clear intellect and judgment, and with intimate friends fluent in conversation and thoroughly posted on all subjects interesting to sensible men. He was of such retiring habits that he rarely sought company outside of his books, but company sought him for the purpose of enjoying the rich treat his conversation offered. He married a daughter of the late Rev. Lewis Chastain, a Methodist preacher of considerable note, who hailed from the Old Dominion, Virginia, the mother of States.

His clear judgment was so relied upon that on the occasion of a debate between the Revs. Fisher and Clark he was selected to preside as one of the moderators. He never held or sought any political office. He raised and educated several sons, and at his death left an excellent, amiable and intelligent widow, who still resides (1870) in Elizabethtown.

The Hewitt Sons

Lafayette Hewitt, the eldest son, at the age of 18, after the death of his father, was placed by the trustees at the head of the Hardin Academy, which position he occupied with great credit for two years, when he established an independent school, which he taught until 1857. His health then became so delicate that he could not bear the confinement and went South. In 1859 he received from General Joseph Holt, postmaster general, an appointment in that department, and was assigned the superintendence of the Dead Letter Office, and resigned that position on President Lincoln's coming into power. And the war breaking out, he espoused the cause of the Confederacy and went to Richmond to engage in the war. The postmaster general of the Confederate States, learning his whereabouts, immediately telegraphed him to come on to Montgomery to aid in getting the postoffice department in working order. Accordingly he went and received the necessary appointment and went to work in earnest. When the department got into successful operation he resigned his position in order to take part in the arduous duties of the field.

On the first day of December, 1861, he received the appointment of adjutant general. A full detail of his miUtary services is given in the "History of the First Kentucky Brigade," by Ed. Poter Thompson. That history shows that labors may be performed by a man of slender frame and feeble health when combined with a strong will and determined purpose, sustained by a brave heart.

At the end of the war he returned to Elizabethtown, May 18, 1865. He was offered the position of principal of the Elizabethtown Female Academy, of which he took charge in September, and was thus engaged for five months. He then commenced the practice of law in the courts of Hardin.

Shortly after Governor Stevenson came into office, in October, 1867, he was appointed quartermaster general of the State of Kentucky, which position he still holds.

The duties devolving upon the Captain were onerous and highly responsible, involving the settlement of four millions of dollars between the Commonwealth and the General Government, and he has acquitted himself in a manner highly satisfactory.

Virgil Hewitt

familiarly called Day Hewitt, was another son of Robert Hewitt. He also was a well-educated young man, of singularly modest habits, and was withal so quiet and easy in his deportment that no one would have suspected him of wishing to engage in the toils and dangers of war. But his sympathies- were decidedly with the Confederacy, and although of delicate and slender frame, he buckled on his armor and went out as quietly as if he were going into a company of ladies.

He did not go shouting and singing as some of the soldiers in the war of 181 1 did. For some of them sang a song not quite up to doggerel - it hardly amounted to PUP EREL. It ran thus :

Not so with Day. He went off decently, but he had fight in him. During the first year of the war he served with Gen. Ben Hardin Helm, and was attached to Company H in the Sixth Regiment. September i8, 1862, he was elected second lieutenant; January 12, 1863, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and October, 1863, he was made adjutant of the Sixth Regiment.

He fought at Murfreesboro, Jackson, Chickamauga, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca and Dallas. He was wounded at Dallas, but recovered in time to take part in the battle at Intrenchment Creek, at which place he was so severely wounded as to be disabled from further service during the war. At the return of peace he came home, determined to be peaceable, and was elected county clerk of Hardin county for four years, having served in a clerk's office before the war. He made so good an officer that he has just been elected for a second term of four years.

Hannibal Hewitt

the second son, was also a well educated man and partook much of the modesty of the family, and was a popular young man. He was postmaster at one time and occasionally taught school. He has been out of my sight more than the other boys, and I am not prepared to speak fully of him.

Fox Hewitt

After Fayette went to Washington, Fox followed him. About the 1st of December, i860, he was appointed clerk in the Treasury Department, which office he resigned in March, 1861, when President Lincoln came into office. He then went to Richmond, Virginia, and was appointed clerk in the Treasury Department of the Confederacy; this was in November, 1861.

In May, 1863, he joined the 25th Virginia battalion, and until the close of the war was in service with this battalion on the fortifications of Richmond. After the war he returned home and has acted assistant clerk of the Hardin County Court ever since that office was held by Virgil, his brother.

Thus ends a very imperfect sketch of the family of that excellent man, the late Robert Hewitt, who was one of the bright ornaments of Elizabethtown.

Chapter Xxxix Thomas Johnson, Esq

was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and came to Elizabethtown about the year 1824. He commenced the practice of law, and finding it not sufficiently remunerative, got the appointment of principal of the Hardin Academy, which position he held for several years. He was an ardent man in temperament, kind and social in his intercourse, as quick as powder to resent an insult, pure in morals, but subject to low spirits. He related to me an instance of his moody habits.

One evening in winter he was walking out to relieve ennui and a heavy spirit, warmly clad, but as miserable as he could be - that is, completely in the blues. He met a negro on the road, barefooted and miserably clad. The negro was singing a corn song, as gay as a lark. Johnson said he was tempted to knock the negro over for pure envy, and he philosophized upon the matter. If that negro, barefooted and nearly naked, was happy, why should he, well clad and in a profitable business, indulge in such moody reflections? It cured him for that time. Johnson married a very estimable lady and removed to Texas, where he occupied a prominent position for years. Whether living or dead I cannot tell, as I lost sight of him.

Rev. Robert L. Thurman

was also a teacher in Elizabethtown. He was born November 19, 181 5, at a point half way between Springfield and Lebanon. In the year 1819 or 1820 his father, the Rev. David Thurman, removed to Hardin county and settled at Nolynn, now LaRue county. R. L. Thurman was brought up to hard farm work - that is, while he was a boy - going to school in the winter season. He received his early education under the late Robert Hewitt, first in the country, and then followed Mr. Hewitt to Elizabethtown and was under his tuition five or six years. He then went to Georgetown College in the spring of 1839 and continued there three and a half years, and graduated in June, 1842, with the highest honors of that excellent institution.

On the 25th day of July, 1843, ^^ was ordained to the ministry, and was pastor of Severn's Valley Church, located at Elizabethtown. The Presbytery was composed of Elders Colmore Lovelace, Thomas J. Fisher, A. D. Sears and A. W. LaRue. He continued as the faithful pastor of that church for six years, and on the day after his ordination he baptized two candidates, rather a rare occurrence. During his ministry the church had a very pleasant revival. He was assisted by Dr. Gardner, then a young preacher and now located in Russellville as professor of theology at Bethel College. The last three and a half years of his pastorate he had charge of the Elizabethtown Female Seminary. For some time he had the Rev. Samuel Williams, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, as his partner, and after Mr. Thurman resigned the same school was continued by Mr. Williams for about nine months.

Mr. Thurman was married in October, 1845, to a daughter of Mr. Freeman, near Frankfort, and is now (1870) a grandfather. He removed to Louisville, and with Elders A. W. LaRue, Thomas J. Fisher and John L. W^aller, the latter as senior editor, in 1852 took charge of the Western Recorder.

In 1 85 1 he was appointed agent for Georgetown College and continued in that employment for four years. He then was appointed State agent for the Board of Foreign Missions and has been in that service ever since.

He is a man of untiring energy and has performed Herculean labors and done much in building up Georgetown College and in sustaining the Foreign Mission enterprises. He resided in Franklin county many years and then removed to Bardstown, where he now resides. His whole course so far has been without a blemish, and he may emphatically be termed a Christian gentleman of the first water.

Rev. J. W. Heagen

Mr. Heagen was born in Gettysburg-, Virginia. He received his education in W^estern Pennsylvania, and removed with his w'ife in 1858 to Daviess county, from thence to Breckinridge county, from thence to Bullitt county, and in 1867 he removed to Elizabethtown and took charge of the Female Seminary, which afterward became a mixed school under the title of Hambleton College.

He has proved to be an excellent and successful teacher, a strict disciplinarian, and advances his pupils rapidly. He is a man of great decision, and but very few cases of disorder have occurred in his college. He has in one Or two years had as high as 120 pupils and has averaged 100 or more annually. His success has determined him to be a permanent citizen, and as an evidence of that he purchased ground and erected a large and handsome house in town, capable of accommodating many boarders.

Rev. Samuel Williams

I have run a little ahead of my history and will drop back to the Rev. Samuel Williams, a Presbyterian preacher, who also was a teacher for a limited period. He was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, and was principally educated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, where he graduated.

He was the partner of Rev. R. L. Thurman, in charge of the Female Academy, and after the resignation of Mr. Thurman he continued the school alone for nine months and was considered an excellent teacher. During the most of the time of his pastorate he held services in his church every Sabbath, and finding his salary inadequate to a comfortable support, he bought a farm adjoining Elizabethtown and became rather a model farmer and had a taste for the cultivation of fruits.

During the war it was a trying time on churches and church services, yet he kept up the services regularly except for a short time, when the churches were all taken by the military and soldiers quartered in them, and the sound of a church bell was not heard for some months. It was a gloomy time for Christians. During the time of the occupation of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches, by the special request of the wife of the writer, a prayer meeting was appointed and held in the writer's house on every Thursday night by Mr. Williams and the Rev. Dr. W. W. Lambuth, a very worthy Methodist preacher, for some months. Their punctuality in attending and their devotions at these

Very few men have passed through twenty-five years of active duties and trying circumstances with a more blameless life and Christian-like deportment.

Chapter Xl

As for the disciples of ^sculapius not one of them trod the soil of this town or neighborhood from the year 1780 until about 1800. It may be asked liow sick folks got along in the twenty years or more. In the first place men who lived a great deal in the open air, and got their meat from the forests and glens, tender venison, the juicy bear, the substantial buffalo, the delicate turkey, pheasant, partridge, squirrel, and in place of pork, the fat possum, and these all taken in the hunt, with the rifle and hunting dogs, and all this food sweetened by toil made men healthy and they rarely got sick. In these days if a man took a cold the remedy was to drink down a half pint or pint of bear's oil - the quantity depended upon the capacity of a man's stomach, then lay down before a log fire in the woods, wrapped up in his blanket and if it snowed three or four inches deep on him in the night it was all the better, and when he awoke in the morning and shook the snow off of his blanket as the lion would the dew drops from his mane, the man was well of his cold, and fully prepared to take up his rifle and renew the hunt. If a man was taken sick in his fort or cabin the women were the doctors. Then the Elecampaign and Comfrey and Ditny tea were the sovereign remedies successfully used, and occasionally the comb of a hornet's nest was scorched before the fire and a tea was made of it, and drank without scruple, and the patient was covered up in a blanket or buffalo rug, which produced a copious sweat and worked wonders. If the hornet's nest was not to be had, sage tea was used. But a good sweat was an indispensable thing. In case of measles, which did not hurt much in those days, all the patient had to do was to keep out of the wet, unless the case was more severe than usual. Then sheep-nannie tea was prescribed ; about a quart of that condiment swallowed down at night was certain to effect a cure. In case of the bloody flux, very uncommon in those days, a sovereign remedy was used, and is to this day the best of all. It was a simple remedy and always successful, and for the benefit of the present generation I will record it in my history.

Recipe

Take about two pounds of the inner bark of the white oak tree, taken ofif near the root on the north side, the bark there being the thickest and strongest ; put the bark in an iron vessel with a gallon of water, boil it down to a quart, then take out the bark and add a quart of new milk and a lump of sugar about the size of a duck egg, boil that down to a quart ; when cooled a little it is fit for use.

Dose

Half a common teacupful, and every two hours after two large tablespoons ful, and continued until the pains in the rectum or lower bowel cease, then hold on. But if after that the pains should return, commence again with the same treatment. But the first course generally produces the desired efifect. Then let nature do her perfect work, and in a day or two the bleeding ulcers in the rectum would slough ofif and all pass off in the natural way, and the patient is well. Don't want to cleanse the bowels by putting calomel down the throat, for if you do unlock the liver and let down bile upon the bleeding ulcers then you might as well speak for your coffin. This course, in a practice of seventy years, always cured the disease if taken in time.

It is true some of the old ladies were a little tinctured with a superstitious notion that the bark had to be peeled upward and the water dipped upstream. But in the fullness of time that notion has been exploded. However, to do so did no harm.

One of the earliest physicians who settled in our town was Dr. Ebenezer E. Goodletter, who exercised the healing art several years in this town, and then left for parts unknown to the writer.

Then came Dr. Thomas Essex from England ; he settled in Elizabethtown about the year 1809. He purchased property and was a resident for some years, and had a remarkably genteel family, and was doing a fine business until Dr. William Sulcer, a big fat Dutchman, came in the neighborhood and proclaimed himself to be the Dutch doctor, skilled in the Indian practice. He was a very illiterate man, but had a good share of common sense by nature, and he took Hke wildfire and swept everything in the way of practice before him, and made the natives beHeve that these college bred doctors were regular man killers. Dr. Essex's practice, of course, went down and he removed, if I remember right, to Tennessee.

About the year 1811 Doctor Daniel B. Potter, a regular graduate, came to Elizabethtown. On his arrival he soon heard of Sulcer's fame, and he lost no time in making the acquaintance of Dr. Sulcer, and managed to get in partnership with him. They rode and practiced together. Potter flattered Sulcer and gained his good will and confidence, and Sulcer puffed Doctor Potter as a none-such and the only college-bred doctor that was worth a snap in all the land.

Those were the days of company musters and whenever a militia company was mustered in town Potter would get one or two large buckets of sweetened whisky and have the captain to parade his men before his shop, and let the whole company swig to their heart's content. This practice in addition to Sulcer's puffing and blowing about Dr. Potter soon established Potter as the King-cure-all of all the pains, aches and diseases with which the human family was prone to be afflicted. Then practice was immense, and men and women came to the conclusion that it was necessary to get sick, in order to avail themselves of his superior skill in the healing art. When firmly established he proposed a dissolution of the partnership. The consequence was that Sulcer went down like a falling star and suddenly faded away, and Dr. Potter kept the ground. Sulcer left in a short time after for a more congenial clime.

Potter soon after married Miss Hackley, a lady of surpassing beauty, and was rapidly acquiring wealth, for he was in reality well skilled in his profession, but in 1814 he fell h. victim to an epidemic called the "cold plague." The writer sat up with him the night of his death, and helped to lay him out, and his death was justly considered a real loss to the community. His death left an opening which was filled by Dr. Richard A. Taylor, who enjoyed a fine practice for several years. He married a Miss Sally McGee, a very amiable lady, and after some years removed to Green county, and is now represented as a man of considerable wealth and a deserving citizen. About the time of his removal Doctors John Churchill and Christopher L. Jones, commenced the practice in partnership. Dr. Churchill was a polished gentleman, and married a Miss Percefull, who lived but a short time after her marriage. He removed to Greensburg and married a Miss Akin. Some years after his health failed and he died.

Dr. Jones removed to Harrodsburg and married a Miss Lucy May. She was a daughter of David May, a man of high respectability, and once the clerk of the Hardin Quarter Session Court.

Dr. William S. Young then commenced the practice in this town. He was a native of Nelson county, Kentucky, studied medicine with Dr. Bemiss, of Bloomfield, and was a partner of his preceptor for several years. He settled in Elizabethtown in 1814, and stood deservedly high in his profession. He was a very modest, worthy gentleman, and the late Ben Tobin, Esq., once remarked of Dr. W. S. Young, that he was the most immaculate man he ever knew. He acquired a considerable estate, was elected to Congress in 1824, and was re-elected in 1826, and died much regretted in 1827.

Chapter Xli Dr. Bryan R. Young

is a brother of the late Dr. W. S. Young, named in the last number. He was also born in Nelson county, Kentucky, where he was also educated. He came to EHzabethtown in 1818, and studied medicine with his brother ; after graduating with honor, he was partner in practice up to the time of his brother's death, in 1827, and then continued the practice alone. He was a ver>' successful practitioner, and had a large field to operate in, and is also a very skillful surgeon. The Doctor's skill in medicine and the healing art, and his moderate bills, made him very popular, and consequently in almost every part of the county can be found children and youths called by his name ; indeed, so numerous are they, that had the Doctor thought it a duty to bestow a suit of clothes on each name-sake, it would have been a strong pull at his purse-strings. In the year 1845 the Doctor was elected to Congress, and served two sessions ; and was also elected to the Legislature of Kentwcky in the year 1858-59, and in 1861-62 and 1863-64, in which various positions the Doctor acquitted himself with much credit.

The Doctor is also an enthusiastic pomologist and horticulturist, and purchased a farm on Muldraugh's Hill, in Hardin county. But he has lately retired from his farm, and again has taken up his residence in Elizabethtown, and continues his practice only in special cases.

Doctor Harvey Slaughter

born in Nelson county, on Cedar Creek, is the son of the late Judge Slaughter, who was one of the finest specimens of an old Virginia gentleman. He resided within four miles of Bardstown, a place justly celebrated for its educational institutions, and the home of some of the most eminent lawyers in Kentucky - Judge Rowan, Hon. Ben Hardin, Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe, Hon. Benj. Chapeze, Philip Quinton, Hon. James Guthrie, and the celebrated orator, John Hays, and many others. Dr. Slaughter received his early education in Bardstown, and graduated at Transylvania University, in Lexington. He tTien studied medicine in the same town, under the celebrated Dr. Burr Harrison. He made his first attempt at practice at Big Spring, in 1828. But by the persuasions of our late fellow -citizen, Horatio G. \\'intersmith, he removed to Elizabethtown in the year 1829, and has remained here ever since and enjoyed a lucrative practice. It was the custom in this town when any man was given up by the resident doctors, to send to Bardstown for Dr. Harrison. He became tired of being sent for only to see a man die, and remarked publicly, that if Dr. Slaughter could not cure them, it was useless to send for him.

The Doctor is a man of fine education and refinement, and eminent in his profession ; has a fine appreciation of the poets, and is a good public speaker. He has also for a few years been engaged in horticulture, and can show as fine grapes and apples as any man in the State. In a few numbers back I have spoken of the Doctor's taste in improving his residence, rendered classic by the distinguished men who have occupied it since 1798.

Thomas S. Crutcher

may be considered one of the oldest residents of Elizabethtown, nowliving, except myself. He was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, on the 28th day of August, 1798, just fourteen days after I was born in Elizabethtown.

family to Elizabethtown, and up to the time of his death acted a prominent part as merchant, tavern-keeper, Justice of the Peace, Judge of the Quarter Session Court, trustee of the town, trustee of the Academy, and Representative and Senator in the Kentucky Legislature. The same Thomas S. Crutcher of whom we now speak, received his early education in the same schools as myself and Thomas W. Nicholson, Rev. Ben Ogden, and Samuel Stevenson, but completed his education at Nashville, under Dr. Priestly, and boarded with Mr, Hume and roomed with John Bell and Ephraim Foster. After his collegiate course, he went as a volunteer on Gen. Hopkin's campaign on the Wabash, about Tippecanoe. He afterwards merchandised in Bowling Green, Ky., but has been for many years retired to private life, except a short period, during which he was clerk of the Hardin County Court.

Hon. A. H. Churchill

another old citizen, was born near Louisville, on the 19th day of October, 1796, was educated at a school in the neighborhood, except about four months in the year 1807, in Elizabethtown, under Samuel Stevenson. In 1813 he entered Transylvania University, at Lexington, and remained there two years ; settled in Elizabethtown as a law practitioner in 1818. He was elected to the Senate of Kentucky in 1832, served only one session, and receiving the appointment of Circuit Judge in 1833, which office he held with great credit to himself, and satisfactory to the community. In 1847, to the regret of his friends, he resigned that office and retired to private life.

During the time he was Judge of Hardin Circuit Court, I was clerk of the same court, and during those fourteen years I had a fair opportunity of witnessing the impartial hand with which he dealt out justice. Regardless of the state or standing of parties, he struck for law and justice. He is a man fond of the comforts of home, and the family circle, and has been married four times. He is not only a moral, but a religious man and devotes much of his time to the interest of the Episcopal Church, to which he belongs, and of which in a certain sense he is the sum and substance, as far as it concerns that body in Elizabethtown.

than Dr. Lambuth. He was born near Gallatin, Tennessee, on the 9th day of February, 1832. His parents immigrated to Kentucky in 1847. Being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he having been set apart to the ministry, joined the Louisville Annual Conference, at Greenville, Ky., in 1855, and traveled as an itinerant preacher until 1861. He was married to Miss Myra E. Matthis, in this town in 1858, and finding responsibilities resting upon him, he located, in 186 1, and in the fall of 1862 commenced merchandising with his father-in-law, Mr. David Matthis, of this place, and continued two years, when he commenced studying medicine, which course he completed in 1866, and was graduated in both the Kentucky School of Medicine and the University of Louisville; since which time he has regularly practiced his profession, but has never given up preaching. He has also for some years been keeping a drugstore in company with Judge Cofer, The Doctor was without patrimony, and had to struggle for the means of sustenance. His time in study and the expense of attending two courses of medical lectures, were severe upon him ; and yet the full trial of his faith had not come - but it did come. His aged father and mother were residing in Arkansas during the late war - the horrors of which will be long remembered. These good old people were burned out of house and home, turned out of doors, with two daughters, upon the cold charity of the world, and such was the desolation around that there were none to help but God, and they devoutly looked to Him for help, and help did come. The news of their calamity reached the ears of their son, the Doctor of whom I now write. The Doctor and his good lady thought themselves pressed hard enough already, but upon the news of their parents' disaster reaching them their hearts were enlarged, and the Doctor sped his way to the bereaved ones, and he brought the father and mother and two young sisters to his Kentucky home, and there in the bosom of his little family, they have shared together the proceeds of their joint labor to this day - except the father, who passed away in April last.

During the war the churches were all closed one winter, being occupied by soldiers, as I have heretofore remarked. It was a solemn time, no thrilling sound of the church bell was heard, to gladden the Christian's heart.

For some months Dr. Lambuth with Rev. Samuel Williams, at my wife's special request, kept up a regular prayer meeting at my house every Thursday night. However boisterous or unpleasant the night, those two men of God were certain to be on hand. These exercises were the more pleasant because of the surrounding gloom. Long will they be remembered by the family. He now speaks of joining the Conference again in the traveling connection as an itinerant preacher.

Rev. William C. Jones

Rev. William C. Jones, a Baptist minister, was born in Spencer county, Kentucky, in the year 1831. Educated at Georgetown College, where he graduated in 1858, he came to Elizabethtown in December, 1859, and connected himself with the Baptist Church and was ordained to the ministry in January, i860, by a Presbytery composed of Dr. William Vaughan and Elders W. L. Morris and J. Toll Miller, and served the church at Elizabethtown four years, when he resigned the charge. He left Elizabethtown in 1864 and has for some time resided at LaGrange, Oldham county, Kentucky. He is now doing the work of an evangelist. Elder Jones has become an able preacher, stands high in his denomination and has scores of friends in this town.

Col. Charles D. Poston was born in Hardin county on the 20th day of April, 1825, and remained on a farm until at the age of seven years, when his father removed to Elizabethtown and conducted a newspaper, The Western Sentinel.

The young lad was printer's devil and news carrier in his father's office for several years, during which time he attended the school of Robert Hewitt and obtained the meagre rudiments of an English education.

In January, 1837, he entered the office of the writer and served as deputy clerk for six years. By application he soon became an expert penman and an excellent clerk. At the expiration of his term (in 1843) he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and was employed as a deputy clerk in the office of the Supreme Court. In September, 1848, Mr. Poston was married to Margaret J. Haycraft, third daughter of the writer, in whose family he had been partly raised.

For some years he was engaged in commercial enterprises with his brother, Sanford J. Poston, in EHzabethtown. These enterprises having proved unfortunate, he emigrated to California in 1850 and was employed as chief clerk in the Custpm House at San Francisco for three years.

The adventurous spirit engendered by a residence on the Pacific coast, and the pressure of unliquidated debts at home, induced Mr. Poston to undertake a daring expedition into the silver mining region of Northern Mexico about the time of Gadsden's purchase, which consumed the year of 1854. The year 1855 was passed in the seclusion of his early home with his family.

In the year 1856 he started to explore the mineral regions of Arizona in the interest of the Southern Pacific Railroad, passing through the country of the Lipans, Comanches and Apaches, the most fierce and powerful Indian tribes upon the continent.

It would be difficult to find in the brilliant history of our frontier experience a more daring enterprise than this. The mining business had scarcely been inaugurated when the late war commenced. By an order from the Government the forts w^ere burned and food of the enemy taken between California and Texas, following which the troops abandoned the country. The Mexicans and Indians caught the infection of carnage and the mining establishments were broken up amid scenes of indescribable horror. The young brother of Mr. Poston, a noble young man just arrived at manhood, was foully murdered, and nearly all the companions and employes of Mr. Poston were killed in a shocking manner. Indeed, Professor Punpelly was the only surviving companion he had left, and with him was undertaken an escape from the scenes they passed through, and the hairbreadth escapes they made in their long wilderness travel is almost incredible to relate, but by dint of cool courage and skillful maneuvering, and enduring fatigue and toil and nearly driven to starvation, they reached San Francisco in the autumn of 1861. A year or two afterward upon, the organization of civil government in the territory which he had pioneered, President Lincoln appointed Colonel Poston superintendent of Indian aflfairs. At the termination of this service he was elected first delegate to Congress from Arizona and served in the Thirty-eighth Congress.

In the summer of 1867, Mr. Poston made the tour of Europe. In December of the same year, at the residence of the writer, to a company of select ladies and gentlemen, his old friends and relations, he read a lecture, describing his tour and the nations he visited, in which he displayed fine descriptive powers, and at the conclusion the thanks of the company was returned through the Rev. Samuel Williams and a printed copy of the lecture was ordered. The consequence was a neat and interesting little volume was issued, entitled "Europe in the Summer Time," by C. D. Poston.

Upon the arrival of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Colonel Poston took a lively interest in the increasing relations with that country and was appointed by the Government as special commissioner to the different countries of Asia. In this mission he was accompanied by his old friend, Ross Brown, then Minister to China.

After leaving China, where he was treated with distinguished honors by the Government, as commissioner he visited the Indian Archipelago and thence went to British India, where he was treated with distinguished consideration and furnished with every facility for traveling through that interesting country.

In the spring of 1869 Colonel Poston found himself steaming up the Red Sea under the shadow of Mount Sini and anchored over the spot where Moses led the children of Israel over the Red Sea. He remained a short time in Eg\'pt, examining the modern wonder, the Suez Canal, and the ancient wonders, the pyramids of Egypt. He spent the summer in Europe. After having circumnavigated the globe and visited the principal capitals of Asia, he returned to New York, his temporary home, in October, 1869.

Taking a short retrospect of the life of Colonel Poston, having crossed the plains to California on two occasions and once by water, thence his escape from Arizona, after which his travels around the world and among strange nations, some of which were hardly civilized, and the number of his companions in Arizona who were murdered, we are compelled to come to the conclusion that he wore a charmed life.

its people and one of those who stands out most distinctly was Mrs. William D. Vertress, or "Miss Eliza" as she was known to all of the children and most of the adults. Her maiden name was Eliza Ann Haynes. Her father was Dr. John Haynes, of Virginia, who was a graduate of medicine of either Harvard or Yale Medical School, and her mother was Martha Ann Campbell, of Massachusetts. They were married in Virginia and came across the mountains to Kentucky and settled at Big Spring. Eliza Haynes was born at Big Spring, October 3, 1824. In November, 1854, she married William D. Vertress, a Mexican War veteran and later county judge of Hardin county. She was the first graduate of Bethlehem Academy. Mrs. Vertress was an active, highly intelligent, educated woman, a skillful musician, and unusually well read in the best literature. She was a Christian woman who was interested in everything for the good of the town and its people. Because of her unusual mental and personal qualities she was one of the town's most beloved characters. Nearly all persons in Elizabethtown, in middle life or beyond, who know anything of music got their grounding under "Miss Eliza" and have her among their fond recollections.

Mr. and Mrs. Vertress had four children - Haynes, Martha, Charles and Catherine. Mrs. Vertress survived her husband and three of her children, and died at the home of her daughter, Catherine V. Young, at Oakmont, Pennsylvania, on January 30, 191 1.

Chapter Xlhi

It has been suggested by some, that I have failed in my history to point out the bad characters who have figured upon the stage of action in and around Elizabethtown, and have mostly confined myself to men of good character. That to a certain extent is true. There were bad men, and some of them who sufifered capital punishment have been spoken of, and there might have been named also Simon Lundry, who killed his wife in a drunken fit, and was hung for it. He resided about ten miles from town and when sober was a kind husband. Also John Coyle, who passed for an Irishman, but was really a Swiss. He was a Greek scholar, but the roughest man of education I ever knew. He was suspected of killing his wife, and was hung for killing Stephens.

He professed to be a Catholic, and availed himself of the services of more than one priest. On one occasion he was visited by a citizen to whom Coyle remarked, "On this day week (being the time fixed for his execution) I will be in Abraham's bosom, and then hope to see all my enemies brought up before God and punished." His visitor said, "Mr. Coyle, if you indulge in malice in your heart, can you expect to see God in peace? You must forgive your enemies." Coyle reflected a moment and then remarked, "Well, I forgive them for they are a damn trifling pack, and not worth hating." Notwithstanding the absolution he received, he died a perfect heathen.

After the verdict was found against him, and sentence was about being pronounced the Judge asked him if he had anything further to say, why sentence of death should not be pronounced. Coyle arose, pulled ofif his coat and vest and rolled up his sleeves and took off his shoes. The Judge remarked, "You need not strip." Coyle said he was warm. All this time he kept his eye on a large iron poker that was leaning against the stove. I saw that it was evidently his intention to seize the poker and fight his way out. I removed the poker. Coyle then commenced a speech, in which he reflected upon the Judge and Mr. Hardin, who prosecuted, then upon all the witnesses, denouncing them as liars, that he was only guilty of manslaughter and not murder. He warned the Judge that he would visit him in his bed-chamber, and-that as soon as his spirit was released from his body, he would choke Mr. Hardin to death and that each of the jurymen should receive a visit. The sheriff, standing by, requested that he might have a call, and Coyle promised to accommodate him.

So might also be mentioned Spencer, who was hung for killing his step-son, and two negroes for committing outrages upon females, and another negro for chopping off his mistress's head with an axe while she lay asleep ; Wm. Hardin, who was sent to the penitentiary for killing Matthias Brandenburg; another for stealing sugar, and various other kinds of lighter crimes, and some lashed at the whipping-post. But be it remembered that none of those offenders were actually residents of Elizabethtown.

Candor also compels me to acknowledge that many of these persons of whom I have highly spoken, had some private foibles such as are common to the natural depraved nature of the human family, and against which men and women of the highest culture, the brightest intellects and purest in morals, have had to contend and to grapple as with a giant. But time, long time, has woven itself into a mantle of charity and their good deeds are only remembered. I do not feel willing to adopt the sentiment of Mark Antony in his speech over Caesar's body that, "The evil that men do, lives after them, the good is often buried with their bones," but would rather adopt the language of the poet, who sang:

I discovered that I omitted to mention Doctor James Middleton, from Scotland, his native home, where he graduated, and settled in this town many years since, date not now remembered. He was a skillful physician and enjoyed a good practice. He married a Miss Briscoe, built a house and was a citizen with us for several years. The remains of the Doctor and his wife now rest in our town cemetery, but without a stone to mark the spot, and it is more than likely that no man beside myself could point out their graves.

Preachers Again

A number of years since George Rogers, who was a wheelwright and chair maker, settled in Elizabethtown, owned property and carried on his trade. He was a worthy member of the Methodist church and became a minister in that denomination. I do not remember that he ever joined the traveling connection of that church. But after removal the Rev. Benjamin Ogden w^as nearly alone in the town as a cross bearer of his church and had much to contend with almost single handed. But notwithstanding the odds against which he had to contend he maintained his integrity so as to cause even his enemy to respect and like him, an instance of which I have heretofore given in speaking of the late John Morris who, in his young days, although not on speaking terms with Rogers, thrashed a man severely for cursing the preacher in the street.

Jacob Eliot, Esq

He was born on the second day of September, 1803, in Otsego county. New York, where he received his early education, which was but limited as his father died when he was very young. He came to Kentucky in the year 1818 and in 1828 settled in Elizabethtown and published a newspaper called the "Kentucky Statesman." He resided in Elizabethtown nine years - was part of the time jailer of Hardin county.

Some political c|uestion got him into a street difficulty with Mr. George Roberts, an attorney, on which occasion he shot Roberts in the back with a pistol for which he was tried but triumphantly acquitted. During his stay he was an active, useful citizen and became a useful member of the Baptist church. His house was a preacher's home and he was otherwise a liberal entertainer. In the year 1837 he removed to Louisville and became a partner of the late Shadrack Penn in publishing the "Louisville Advertiser," a Democratic paper that for many years measured arms with the late George D. Prentice of the "Louisville Journal."

In the year 1842 he was employed by a company largely interested in Texas lands to go to that state and attend to their interests in perfecting their title and ascertaining its value. Mr. Eliot was admirably qualified for his business, having a clear head and discriminating mind and withal a man of unflinching courage, and that last qualification was necessary on account of the dangers from Indians and other enemies incident to a new country far from the center of civilization. He went as high as the Cross Timbers in Peter's Colony, now Dallas county. Here he dug out a kind of boat and descended the Trinity river to Buffalo Bayou and perhaps was the first white man that explored that river. He afterward made out a report of the river and the country through which it ran and published it in a London paper.

He became largely interested in these lands and in the year 1849 removed to Texas and settled in Corsicana, Navarro county, no inconsider2ble place, where he yet resides. He was mainly active and instru- mental in settling that portion of the state, has undoubted influence and is now United States commissioner by appointment. His life has been an eventful one and much checkered, and this short sketch gives but a very imperfect account as his long residence in Texas, and for many years almost inaccessible, forbids the idea of giving a correct account of him, such as might perhaps fill a volume.

Chapter Xliv Jacob Eliot Again

My attention has been drawn to my version of Eliot shooting George Roberts. It was stated in a careless manner and in such a way as to compromise the living and the dead. I simply said that Eliot shot Roberts in the back. On that occasion both individuals displayed true courage. Roberts attacked Eliot with a club or heavy walking stick, striking him across the bridge of his nose, knocking it quite flat. In the meantime Roberts lost his cane and ran to pick up a rock to throw at Eliot. Several persons were attempting to hold Eliot, who had drawn his pistol. Eliot, by extra exertion, threw off those who were attempting to hold him and fired at Roberts, who was some twenty-five or thirty feet off, in a stooping position picking up a rock. The ball struck Roberts on the side, ranging on the back. Then they were separated, both showing good pluck.

at this time all cannot be named. One-eyed Jake Blink was a gunsmith and blacksmith in the early history of the town. John Ferguson was also a blacksmith - cut no considerable figure except that he was the grandfather of Usher F. Linder, Esq., at this time in Chicago. Linder became a lawyer of considerable eminence, was an able debater and sometimes eloquent. He practiced law in Hardin for several years and then left for Charleston, 111., in which State he served in the Legislature and was elected Attorney General of the State.

this town. He was an industrious, hard working man and made things . move. In winter his hammers rang until 9 o'clock at night and at 5 o'clock in the morning the well-known ring of his hammers awakened the sleepy neighbors. His wife was made of the same industrious stamp and the breakfasts were eaten by candlelight. When clerk of two courts I boarded at his house one year with my deputy, Wm. Fairley, Esq., and that year seemed to fix my early habits of risiirig'. The result was Williams, by honest industry, accumulated enough to buy an excellent farm on Middle Creek, where, as a prosperous farmer, he lived in high style, exercising the rights of hospitality as true Kentuckians in his day were famous for. But some few years ago he died, leaving a comfortable estate.

James Cook

an Englishman, was an excellent blacksmith, and carried on his trade extensively for several years, say from about 18 15 to about 1825, when he died in the prime of life.

James Hagen Joseph Sweets

might be said to come next. A good, smooth and an accommodating, honest man ; still continues the business, tie is very fond of turkey hunting and as evidences of his trophies in that way he has nailed up to a joist a row of turkey legs more than any other man in town can boast of. Joe has had so much turkey that it is a wonder he has not grown fat, but he still continues in the race horse order. He is a quiet, worthy citizen.

Lewis Helm

his father moved to Sugar Tree Run, in Breckinridge county, about the year 1819, where Lewis spent the first few years of his hfe. After his brother, the Hon. John B. Helm, got estabhshed in business, Lewis entered his store and afterward became a partner and continued business with various partners till shortly before his death in 1828. He was a fine specimen of a Kentuckian, tall and of large frame, of commanding appearance ; in fact, one of the finest looking men in Kentucky, and was universally popular. But notwithstanding his manly form and in early life his excellent health promising long life, he was taken ofif in the prime of life, leaving a handsome estate.

Col. O. C. Shanks

now of Hartford, Ohio County, a son of James Shanks, once surveyor of Bullitt county, was not actually a resident of Elizabethtown but was a freciuent visitor.

He raised the Twelfth Kentucky regiment of cavalry and was attached to the brigade of Gen. Harlan. He was in the flight with Gen. Morgan at the Rolling Fork in January, 1863. He had in his possession the compass and chain used in laying out the city of Louisville. They were formerly owned by Wm. Peyton, who presented them to him in memory of his father, who was his old companion and acted together in surveying in early and dangerous times.

I have now gone further in particularizing individual citizens than I originally proposed to do and my limits will necessarily compel me to leave out the names of many worthy men who in their day walked in our midst and filled up a space which without them would have been void, or I might have mentioned the names of John Park, David Weller and Joseph J. Hastings, who for many years were good citizens and active members of the Presbyterian church, who have gone to their reward.

Also Samuel L. Hodgen, a zealous and godly man of the Christian church (better known as the Campbellite church), and his wife, Ann E. Hodgen, ]\Irs. Poston and Eliza \"ertrees, members of the same church, all now living except the first named, S. L. Hodgen, who was called home to his reward some years since.

I would with much pleasure have given the dates of the formation of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic churches, but have not been able to obtain the information, although I have frequently applied to the officials of these churches, and if at a future period, before I close this history, I am furnished the data I will give it publicity.

I shall, in my succeeding numbers, turn my attention to the bar, or the attorneys who, in early years, practiced law in the courts of Elizabethtown.

Chapter Xlv Hezekiah Smallwood

was a worthy citizen whose name should not be forgotten - in fact, his monument stands in nearly one-half of the brick houses of Elizabethtown, for he made the brick of which at least one-half of the houses were composed, up to August 7, 1869. I have not been able to learn to a certainty the place of his birth, but the early part of his days were spent about Alexandria, Virginia, near the District of Columbia. But as the people of the United States are noted for their roving or adventurous disposition and very few men, like myself, live all their lives where they were born, but generally seek some other place to live than the place of their birth, that is not at all surprising when we remember what a vast country we have - yes, room for all, and thousands of thousands, if not millions, more, and multipHed millions upon that, and heretofore the free laws and institutions of our country permitted the inhabitants to migrate from place to place until the spot was hit upon to suit the fancy of the individual seeking a home for life. Indeed, it was not uncommon for a man to settle down, open a farm and raise a large family, and then seek some place where he could have more room for expansion. In old England, where the population is dense and the habits of an old settled country established, it is common for generation after generation to occupy the same place and follow the same pursuits, descending from father to son and from son to grandson, down, down, down for hundreds of years, but not so in our land of such extensive range.

in the year 1802, but he must have been about for some time before, for in the ardor of his youth he had wooed and won the hand of a Miss Frankie Owens. Her parents, fearing to trust their daughter to the hands of a stranger, objected. But bolts and bars are not so constructed as to keep lovers apart. She went with him in open daylight from the paternal roof and, although a policy not always safe, she fell into the arms of one of the most affectionate husbands that ever lived. While living on Buffalo Creek he made a small kiln of brick for my father, and at the age of ten years I had the honor to break ofif the brick from the moulder's table, assisted by a younger brother. This was the second attempt to make brick in this town. It was looked upon as a great curiosity. One single mould was used, and twenty-five hundred brick a day, besides edging up and breaking, was considered a splendid day's work.

Rev. Ben Ogden, a Methodist preacher, had about twenty-five hundred brick made to burn in the same kiln. I was employed to bear off, and received for it fifty cents in silver, the first money I ever owned. A double-bladed knife was a thing I had long coveted, and without suffering the money to burn my pocket, I hastened to Major Crutcher's store and spent my half-dollar, got the double-bladed knife and then ran home in a rapture of bliss and soon had the privilege of hearing myself called a calf.

]\Ir. Small wood moved to Elizabethtown in 1806, opened a brick yard at the end of Main street and there moulded and burned brick for many years - in fact, until he had used all the dirt on his lot that was fit for brick. He then moved across the creek, built a better house and continued at his trade until death overtook him. Mr. Smallwood was strictly an honest man, and his heart was as deeply imbued with the milk of human kindness as ever throbbed in the breast of man. But at first he was a bad calculator and became involved in debt, and was actually committed to the county jail for nonpayment, that remnant of barbarous ages, imprisonment, yet resting on our books, but some friend bailed him out and, having learned from experience, he was more fortunate, paid his debts and lived comfortably the balance of his days.

On perusing an old record of the Baptist Church, I find that in July, 1802, he was appointed by the church to cite a disorderly member to appear and answer. Of course he must have belonged to the church for some time before, but the old record has a httle touch of fire, and the date and manner of his reception in the church cannot be found. He died in the year 1838, having Hved a consistent member of the church. His descendants are partly among us to this day (1870). His son, James S. Smallwood, a worthy man, met his death a few years since on the railroad. He left a genteel, deserving family. One of his daughters was lately married to the Rev. J. S. Gatton, the present popular pastor of the Baptist Church in this town. A grandson, John H. Stewart, Esq., is United States assessor for this county, a faithful and efficient officer. Some think he is so straight up that he leans a little back in his zeal to serve the Government in good faith.

Our old friend had another son, who now lives in Kansas, Henderson Smallwood, Esq., and report says his son, Hillary Smallwood, is elected secretary of state of Kansas, having previously served in the Senate of that State.

Hon. Stephen Elliot was born in Otsego county. New York, in February, 1806. After receiving a common school education he served an appr-snticeship in the printing business at the then country town about five miles east of where the city of Syracuse now stands. This town was then composed of one frame house. It would take a detective with a search warrant to find the place now, as it is swallowed up by the city. He came to Kentucky in 1823 and spent some time in that part of Breckinridge county called QuaHty Corner, so called on account of the settlement of a number of Virginia gentlemen, high-toned, wealthy and rather aristocratic, such as the Alexanders, Andersons, Washingtons, Browns, Fishers, Murrays, etc. They occupied a beautiful valley of rich land, where was kept up for years old Virginia in miniatuie, with all its proverbial hospitality, social visits and good cheer, and the usual round of Virginia sports and pastimes, and lucky was the man of leisure and decent apparel that got into their society on a favorable footing, for he was carried round from house to house and feasted at tables that literally groaned under the most precious viands of the land, including game, fowl, fish and generous wines, such as would make an epicure lick his lips and congratulate himself on his comfortable quarters.

Stephen roamed about a little, found out the names of really every man and woman on Sugar-tree run, spent a while at Natchez, Mississippi, then at Hardinsburg, Breckinridge county, and was employed in a printing office soon after he came to Elizabethtown in April, 1826.

Here he engaged in the first printing office ever established in Elizabethtown, publishing a paper called the Western Intelligencer, edited by John E. Hardin and published by Milton Gregg. He was afterward engaged with his brother, Jacob Elliot, in publishing the Kentucky Statesman. He opened a new office in the spring of 1834 and published a paper called the Kentucky Register, and in connection with various partners continued its publication for many years, after which he retired from the printing business and engaged in other pursuits. He is perhaps the oldest practical printer in the State. He has preserved several mementoes of the art, one of them a composing stick, which from its appearance is at least one hundred years old. It is made of brass and is worn almost as thin as paper. Another is an ancient printing press stowed away in an upper room over one of his store houses. It is part wood and part iron, called Stansberry's patent. This press was once owned by the Hon. Thomas Chilton, who published a paper on it in this town. It was then considered a great improvement on all printing presses then known.

Now Look At It

Judge Elliot was for many years a justice of the Hardin County Court and also filled the office of city judge. He is yet an active business man of the first order of business qualities, and has lately shown good taste in the opened fronts and other improvements on his store houses on Main street, which has greatly improved the appearance of things in that quarter.

Chapter Xlvi

In taking up my recollections of the bar or attorneys that practiced at the bar in Elizabethtown, as an impartial historian it will involve some labor and delicacy.

That history commenced in my infancy and some of it before I was born. Of course I have drawn to a certain extent upon tradition.- It is not my intention to go into the history of the young fry of lawyers in January, 1793, of whom I have heretofore spoken. He came to my father's house, then in a wilderness, and being out of money, proposed to work his way and assisted in providing wood, etc., during the coming sugar-making season, which opened in February, and aided my mother and the children in making "home-made sugar." There was quite a camp on the old farm of tall, beautiful sugar trees standing thick on the ground. The undergrowth was chiefly pawpaw and spicewood.

Did any of my readers ever visit an old-fashioned sugar camp? Imagine for a furnace a trench three feet wide on a hillside, of sufficient depth for staving in wood, and a row of kettles set on the furnace and fastened around with spauls of stone and clay with a chimeny three feet high in the rear, then a half faced camp built around three sides covered with boards, with a large trough on each side to hold sugar water and sometimes a few still tubs.

Then the trees v\'ere tapped by cutting a notch in each tree capable of holding a gill, then a gimlet hole at the corner into which a small elder stalk was inserted - that was called the spile - a wooden trough under each spile of about the capacity of two gallons, which on good sugar days from a full grown tree was filled with sap about twice a day, then a gentle horse was hitched to a wood sled holding a barrel and a funnel in it made out of a gourd, and you have all the machinery used in sugar making.

Now, if none of you have ever broiled a piece of middling on a stick over the chimney of a sugar furnace, then had a tincup full of spicewood tea made of boiling sugar water, with a cold corn johnny cake or corn dodger and luxuriated upon it, you know nothing about the real luxury of life.

Sally Lunn, pound cake, rusk, even Hallent russ as the Irish cook would call it, roast beef, plum pudding and all such nicknacks eaten in houses on tables will not compare to it. Then the molasses and tacky-

Well, in due time the 26th of February rolled around. The first court that ever sat in Hardin county took place at the house of Isaac Hynes in Severn's Valley. A quarter session court opened in due form of law, and then the announcement was made, "O-yes, O-yes, O-yes, silence is now commanded under the pain of fine and imprisonment while the justice of the Hardin Quarter Session Court is now in sitting. All who have suits to prosecute please enter or motions to make come forward and you will be heard. God save the Commonwealth."

Then James Dohertie left the camp, washed his face and hands, gathered a paper out of his knapsack and wended his way to this new court, showed his law license and was sworn in as an attorney-at-law, and the occurrence astonished all the men and women in the Valley. I never saw Dohertie, for it was two years and a half before I saw the light, and then he had departed to parts unknown.

The Hon. Stephen Ormsbv

was admitted to the bar on the 24th day of September, 1793. He was a sturdy Irishman from the old sod. Some years afterward he was appointed circuit judge and presided in Hardin several years. He lived in Louisville, and 1 think he died there.

William M. Long, Esq

on the same day was appointed by the court as attorney for the Commonwealth. Each county then appointed their own prosecuting attorney and the governor did not commission them. Tradition says he was a profound lawyer and an able jurist. He also left before I was born.

James Nourse, Esq

was admitted to the bar at the June term, 1794. He was said to be a good lawyer and a first-rate surveyor, and wrote a hand of surprising beauty. He was a business man and highly esteemed by a large circle of acquaintances, but in consequence of some aberration of mind he died by his own hand, leaving a family of the highest respectability, and was unusually regretted. Indeed, it was a shock upon the community in which he lived. Bardstown was his home.

Allen Milton Wakefield

was admitted to the bar in December, 1795, and must have been considered an able lawyer, as he was appointed with the judges after the formation of the Circuit Court system.

Hon. John Pope

was admitted to the bar on the 2nd day of February, 1796. He was born in Prince William county, Virginia, in 1770. Having when quite young lost his right arm by accident, he determined to study law and attained the very highest eminence at the bar. He removed to Kentucky and served a number of years in the Lgislature. He was a senator in Congress from Kentucky from 1807 to 1812, and after acting a part of the time as president pro tem. of that body, in 1829 he was appointed governor of Arkansas. He served as a representative in Congress from 1836 to 1843. He resided many years in the city of Lexington, but in the latter part of his life removed to Springfield, in Washington county. He was a handsome man of large stature and pleasing address, and stood as high as any man of his day as an eloquent pleader. He died July 12, 1845.

Hon. Felix Grundy

first came to Elizabethtown at September term, 1797. He was born in Virginia, September 11, 1770, removed with his father to Kentucky, and was educated at Bardstown Academy. He studied law and soon became distinguished at the bar. He commenced his public career at the age of twenty-two as a member of the Legislature of the State of Kentucky. In 1806 he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Kentucky and soon after chief justice. In the year 1807 he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and became eminent as a lawyer. From 1811 to 1814 he was a representative in Congress from Tennessee, and during several years he was a representative in the Legislature of that State. From 1829 to 1838 he was United States senator, and fn later years was appointed by President Van Buren attorney general of the United States. In 1840 he resigned that position and was again elected senator in Congress. He died in Nashville on December 12, 1840. If all the public acts of this extraordinary man could be collected it would make a volume.

Chapter Xlmi

And having in that number arrived at a point where I needed the knowledge of some facts I found I had omitted some professional men. For instance : came to Elizabethtown about the year 1830 and remained here the balance of his life. As a physician he was a very popular man, had an extensive practice and accumulated a handsome estate. He built the Shower's house and resided in it until his death, which occurred in the year 186 - . The Doctor had many warm friends, who deeply regretted his death.

Hezekiah Smallwood Again

It has been suggested to me that I should not have spoken of his imprisonment for debt. But I contend that it was proper to name it, for that made a turning point in the management of his temporal concerns. He was not imprisoned for crime or disorderly conduct, for he was well known by all as a strictly honest man and an orderly walking Christian man. But it was for debt, and how did he become indebted? It grew out of the goodness and kindness of his heart in employing more hands than was necessary to carry on his business in order that their labor might be lighter, and his generosity in giving those hands too high wages and then, through mistaken policy, feasted them too high. All these things closed in on him stealthily but steadily and caught him unawares in debt, and some Shylock must needs have his pound of flesh, availed himself of a law then in existence, a relic of barbarism and a disgrace to our statute books, and cast him into prison. Some generous friend assisted him, and having discovered the leak which sunk his ship he adopted a new policy, paid all his debts and lived in comfort the balance of his days. To say that he lived comfortably does not express the true status of his family, for if there ever was a family in which true kindness and love toward each other existed in an eminent degree it was to be found under the happy roof of Hezekiah Smallwood.

There all the generous feelings and affections existing in the family circle, embracing the connubial, parental, paternal relations were cultivated, not as a cold science, but were the spontaneous outgushings of the deeply seated and over-flowing fountains of generous souls and loving hearts.

In the number heretofore published in speaking of the descendants of the old patriarch I made an allusion to his grandson, John H. Stewart, Esq., the typesetter omitted the word ALMOST, which left some little doubt about the proper construction of the passage. I meant to convey the idea that he was a faithful and honest officer, striving to secure to the Government all that was right under the law and no more, and my remark that he was so straight up as (almost) to lean back was merely intended to give my idea of an honest officer.

One of Hezekiah Smallwood's daughters married a gentleman named William Deckar. One of his sons, Henry Deckar, lives in Owensboro, Ky., a respectable young man, a strong advocate of temperance, and belongs to the Good Templars. But the paper of that city has rather pitched into him, charging him with having taken two horns and that it was a matter of record. This was rather calculated to shake the confidence of his friends in his sobriety until it was explained. He had been twice married and each time to a lady named Horn.

I have been particular in giving the descendants of my old friend, having previously spoken of Hillary Smallwood, a grandson, who was a Senator in Kansas and now elected Secretary of State, in order to show the progressive nature of our institutions and how from small beginnings and humble pretentions, where honesty and correct morals are taught and better feelings of the heart cultivated, there is, comparatively speaking, no bounds set to the attainments and prosperity of the descendants down the stream of time, flowing from such a fountain.

Newspapers Again

In 1857 J. T. Phillips bought out the Elizabethtown Intelligencer, a "know nothing" paper which was previously published by C. G. Smith and George Parker with decided ability. When Smith and Parker sold out they went to Glasgow, where they published a paper for some time. Geo. W. Parker, Esq., on quitting that paper, removed

Phillips then commenced the publication of the Elizabethtown Democrat, the first Democratic paper ever published in the county except a paper previously published by Chas. Hutchings many years before. In i860 Phillips sold out his paper to Colonel, now Judge M. H. Cofer, who continued the paper until shortly before he went to the Southern Confederacy in the late war.

T. J. Phillips is now jailor of Hardin county, serving his second term, to which office he was elected by the people. In addition to which he is now foreman in the printing office of Matthis & Bell.

R. B. B. Wood, Esq

In 1862 he edited a small paper called the Democrat. In 1865 he was junior editor of the Elizabethtown Banner at its commencement, and became editor of that paper on the retirement of Captain Frank D. Moffit. Some of his articles were extensively copied, especially one on General Burbridge, w^hich was copied all over the country. He was, for a short time, local editor of the Kentucky Telegraph and became one of its editors. This paper was started by Mr. Barbour and for a short time was published daily.

He retired from that paper for the purpose of accepting the position of city attorney for Elizabethtown and to resume the practice of law. He has been an occasional correspondent for many papers, among which were the Louisville Journal, Louisville Courier and Louisville Democrat, the Nashville Gazette and the New York Daily Netvs. .

He has written some very passable poetry and continues to write occasionally for the press. He has never served a regular apprenticeship in a printing office or been printer's devil, but has been about and connected with printing offices so long that he is a tolerably fair printer. At the last election he was elected justice of the peace in the town district, and has lately been appointed by Judge Cofer as examiner for Hardin County.

Chapter Xlviii

In my fifty-third number I was taking up my recollections of the bar, remarking on each in the order in which they came to the bar. When I came to Henry P. Brodnax I made a short notice in these words : was a Virginian by birth, was admitted to the bar in Elizabethtown in April, 1796. On being appointed circuit judge he removed from Bardstown to Russellville, in Logan county.

Then followed the words : "David Donan was also admitted to the bar in April, 1796." I never knew Tiim, nor do I know of any man who did know him, and can only say that he was a lawyer at the bar 74 years ago.

Our clever typo, Mr. Yeager, was setting up the number, and after the words, "Brodnax was admitted to the bar in April, 1796," he cast his eyes to the street, perhaps to see a dog fight, and on turning his face to the case caught the same April, 1796, under the name of Donan, and followed him out, which made me cut the acquaintance of my old friend the Judge, under whose eyes I had drawn hundreds of pages of record.

This omission attracted the attention of my old friend, Mark Hardin, of Shelbyville, Ky. He is a fast man, and popped into this world 14 years before I did, is as sound as a rock, writes without spectacles, and has a memory like a book, and he began to take notice of things 14 years before I did and for my tardiness in coming to taw he has once or twice given me a raking down. But seeing that the printer had made me say that I never knew Brodnax and that I had never seen anybody that did know him, he came to my rescue in the following letter: