The only other event belonging to this year which may be considered worthy of note was the arrival on the 1st of June of the steamboat Enterprize, Captain Shreve, only 25 days from New Orleans! This trip then so astonishingly speedy is made the subject of remark in the newspapers of the day, and Captain Shreve is every where congratulated on “the celerity and safety with which his boat ascends and descends the currents of these mighty waters.” These congratulations or at least a part of them were received just in time, for in about a year afterwards, this same gentleman proved that his navigation was not always alike safe and speedy. On the 3d June, 1816, he was in command of the steamer Washington, bound from Pittsburg for Louisville, when she met with the first serious disaster which had ever occurred in the steamboat navigation of the Ohio. When near Wheeling this boat burst her cylinder-head, killing seven persons and injuring several others, Capt. Shreve among the latter number. This accident elicited a degree of sympathy and occasioned an amount of alarm, which a much more severe steamboat disaster would now fail to produce.
The following announcement from one of the newspapers of the day, gives an account of the launching of the first steamboat ever built at this point; and shows that despite of accident and danger, the citizens had fairly embarked in a business that has since been so productive to the interests of the city. “On Monday the 3d of July, was safely launched from her stocks, at the mouth of Beargrass into her destined element, the elegant new steamboat Gov. Shelby, owned by Messrs. Gray, Gwathmey, Gretsinger and Ruble of this town. The Gov. Shelby is intended as a regular trader between this place and New Orleans, is of 122 tons burden, and is thought by judges to be one of the handsomest models, which does great credit to her constructors, Messrs. Desmarie and McClary.”
It was at this period that the old banking system was in the zenith of its power. The whole country was flooded with paper money of all kinds and of all denominations. Specie currency was almost entirely out of circulation, having been supplanted by private bills, worthless bank notes, and all other kinds of “shin plasters.” This sort of currency was the occasion of innumerable disasters; all confidence was destroyed in the community, and pecuniary transactions were of course limited. The scarcity of silver was the subject of much merriment as well as the cause of grievous distress. At one time a specie Spanish dollar is advertised as a curiosity, and the citizens are invited to witness an exhibition of it; at another, a merchant promises to show, gratis, four silver Spanish coins to all who will call and purchase at his store. The tradesmen generally, however, took a more serious view of the matter; and on the 29th August, 1816, called upon the Merchants and Mechanics of the town “to assemble at the Union Hotel on Saturday afternoon at 6 P. M., to take into consideration the measures necessary to be adopted to check the circulation of private bills, &c.” The result of this meeting, however, never transpired; and as the shin-plaster currency continued its baleful operations for many years afterward, it is to be supposed that the Merchants and Mechanics of Louisville either could not concert, or could not execute the aforesaid “necessary measures.”
Notwithstanding, however, all the disadvantages accruing from this state of disordered currency, the year did not pass by without adding another to the increasing list of manufactories in the town. This other was an immense distillery, organized by a company formed in New England, and incorporated by the legislature of this State. It was called the “Hope Distillery,” and had a capital of $100,000 dollars, with the liberty of increasing it to double that amount. This Company purchased one hundred acres of ground at the lower end of Main street, opposite to the commencement of Portland Avenue, and erected immense buildings thereon, intending to conduct their business on a more extensive scale than any before established in the United States. This enormous establishment however did not realize the expectations of its proprietors, and the project was abandoned. The buildings remained almost tenantless and useless for many years. They were finally burned.
As if to counterbalance the prospective evil likely to be produced by this enormous manufactory of “poison for soul and body,” there was established about the same time the first Presbyterian Church in Louisville. It was organized by exactly sixteen members, but it was not until the next year that a building was erected for them. The acts of the legislature of this year also incorporated a Louisville Library Company.
The account of the year 1816 will be closed with an extract from the travels of Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, the title-page of whose book represents him as deputed by thirty-nine English families to ascertain whether any or what parts of the United States would be agreeable to them as a future residence. His account of the town is of course honest, so far as he is concerned, and unprejudiced, and as such is entitled to its share of consideration. At any rate he treats the subject more in detail than most foreign travelers have done. He says: “Having been twice in Louisville, I boarded at both hotels; Allen’s Washington Hall, and Gwathing’s [Gwathmey’s] Indian Queen. They are similar establishments, and both on a very large scale; the former averages 80 boarders per diem; and the latter 140. The hotels are conducted differently here from those with which you are acquainted. The place for washing is in the open yard, where there is a large cistern, several towels, and a negro in attendance. The sleeping rooms commonly contain from 4 to 8 bedsteads, having matresses upon them, but frequently no feather beds, sheets of calico, two blankets and a quilt, (either a cotton counterpane or a patchwork quilt.) The bedsteads have no curtains, and the rooms are generally unprovided with any conveniences. The public rooms are the news room, boot room, in which the bar is situated, and the dining room. The fires are generally surrounded by parties of six, who get and keep possession of them. The usual custom is to pace up and down the bar room as people walk the deck at sea. Smoking cigars is practised by all without exception, and at every hour of the day. Argument is of rare occurrence, and social intercourse seems still more unusual. Conversation on general topics, or the taking enlarged or enlightened views of things rarely occurs; each man is in pursuit of his own individual interest, and follows it in an individualized manner. But to return to the taverns; at half past seven o’clock the first bell rings for collecting the boarders; at eight the second bell rings, breakfast is then set, the dining room is unlocked, a general rush commences, and some activity as well as dexterity is essentially necessary to obtain a seat at the table. A boy, as clerk, attends to take down the names, in order that when the bills are settled no improper deduction should be made. The breakfast consists of a profuse supply of fish, flesh, and fowl, which is consumed with a rapidity truly extraordinary. Often before I had finished my first cup of tea, the room, before crowded to suffocation, was empty. The dinner which takes place at 2 o’clock, and the supper which is eaten at six is conducted in the same manner as the breakfast. At table there is no conversation and no drinking. The latter is effected by individuals taking their solitary eye-openers, toddy, or phlegm dispersers at the bar, the keeper of which is in full employ from sunrise till bed-time which is always at ten o’clock. Liquor here is never drunk neat or with sugar and warm water.”
Speaking of the society of Louisville, the same Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon takes it upon himself to say: “I do not feel myself competent to confirm or to deny the general claim of the people of this town to generosity and warmth of character. Of their habits I would also wish to speak with equal diffidence, [and here is a proof of it!] but that they drink a great deal, swear a great deal, and gamble a great deal, is very apparent to a very brief resident. There is a great lack of amusement in Louisville; the only one I saw was called ‘Gander Pulling,’ which is thus conducted. Tie a live gander to a tree or pole and grease its neck, then ride past at full gallop, and he who succeeds in pulling off the head of the victim, receives the victory, the reward of which is the body of the gander. I think I have heard of a similar pastime as practiced in Holland. But these,” generously adds Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, “are not to be taken as unmixed characteristics.”
By dint of great exertions on the part of the inhabitants of the town, they at last succeeded in procuring the location of a branch bank of the United States at this point. This bank was opened in 1817 under the auspices of the following gentlemen: Stephen Ormsby, President; Wm. Cochran, Cashier; G. C. Gwathmey, Teller; Alfred Thruston, First Bookkeeper; Thomas Bullitt, D. L. Ward, Richard Furguson, M. D., Norburn, B. Beale, Thomas Prather, John H. Clark, Henry Massie, Charles S. Todd, Wm. S. Vernon, James C. Johnson, M. D., John Gwathmey and James D. Breckinridge, Directors. It was situated at the north-east corner of Fifth and Main Streets. This bank does not however seem to have been more agreeable to the citizens than were its predecessors. “It is very evident,” says the first historian of the city, “that the people of this country are ruining themselves by banking institutions as fast as they cleverly can.” The history of this bank does not present any different features from that of its sister branches.
The next important event in this year was the building of the Presbyterian Church. This edifice was erected on the west side of Fourth Street, between Market and Jefferson, on the north-west corner of the alley. It was a neat, plain, but spacious building. The interior was divided into three rows of pews, and was furnished with galleries on three sides; the exterior was brick, and was adorned with a steeple in which was a belfry and a superb bell. Its first pastor was Rev. D. C. Banks. This church was destroyed by fire in 1836. All who were residents in the city at that time will remember this conflagration. The building took fire in the evening during a meeting of the church. The efforts of the citizens to preserve it from destruction were energetic and continued, but unavailing. When it was found that it was no longer possible to save the building, all efforts were directed toward the preservation of the bell. This splendid instrument, the first large bell ever in the city, was esteemed and venerated to a degree far beyond that which is usually felt for inanimate objects; it had a hold upon the affections of all ages, sexes and classes of people, as well the inhabitants as those who visited the city periodically. It was used to announce all public tidings, whether of meetings, fires, or deaths. Its clear and silvery notes were heard for miles around, and brought joy, or terror, or wo to a thousand hearts; all within the sound of its mighty tongue had learned to know and love its voice; and now, that its destruction was threatened, a thousand hearts thrilled with fear of its loss or throbbed with hope of its salvation. Still the devouring element crept on apace, and still, like the old sacristan of Saint Nicholas, stood the ringer at his post, and still went on the loud clanging alarum of the bell. Soon the pillars which supported the dome of the belfry were wrapt in sheets of flame, but the alarm peal still rang on as if the imprisoned monster was yet undespairing, and cried aloud “to the rescue!” Then the falling timbers and flakes of fire drove the ringer from his post. For a while the bell still pealed on “in a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,” till at last the wheel on which it hung was wrapped in flames. Then came its despair, and as spoke after spoke burnt from the wheel, it slowly tolled—tolled its own death-knell; heedless it was of the brilliant coruscations of flame that fell in showers around it, as the covering of the dome broke from its fastenings and shot upward in the light and then fell, leaving a train of fire to mark its path; heedless of the soaring flames, of the upgazing crowd; thinking only of its approaching dissolution. Slowly and solemnly it tolled the funeral knell, and with the last stroke of its hammer, and the last dazzling off-shoot from the dome, tower, bell, and dome all came down with a tremendous crash. The crowd had ceased to work, had ceased to speak; all eyes were upon the self-ringing bell, and all felt the poetic power and beauty of the incident. And now that it was fallen, no single voice sent up the hurrah, no rude sound desecrated the moment. The engines again began their combat, and all went on as before. The bell was the next day exhumed from its bed and carried away by piecemeal to be kept as relics of the incident of its death-struggle.
The second event of this year was the incorporation of a hospital company which consisted of twelve prominent citizens, who were authorized to obtain a sum not exceeding $50,000, to be applied to this purpose. Mr. Thos. Prather contributed five, and Mr. Cuthbert Bullitt two acres of land as a site for the institution. This establishment was supported by a duty of two per cent, on auction sales in Louisville. Its interests are fully set forth in the wretchedly written preamble of the act incorporating it, which is as follows: