An excellent criterion to judge of the commerce of a place and to show the increase of its business, is its exchange operations. The following statement of Domestic Bills of Exchange, derived from the official documents of the bank of the U. S., being the amount on hand and unpaid on the 1st January of each year, will give some idea of the amount and increase of the business of Louisville:
| Jan. 1, | 1826—Bills of Exchange on hand | $46,392 | |
| " | 1827,""" | 108,287 | |
| " | 1828,""" | 184,144 | |
| " | 1829,""" | 350,354 |
The aggregate of business, as ascertained by a personal application and inspection of the books of the principal houses, was ascertained to be about $13,000,000.
On the 17th of September, in this year, the branch of the Commonwealth’s Bank was robbed of $25,000 in its own notes. The robbery took place before 9 o’clock in the evening. The door communicating with an entry was opened by a false key, the iron chest quietly unlocked, the notes taken, and the front door opened without any alarm being given. A reward of one thousand dollars in specie was offered for the apprehension of the robber and also a similar reward of $1500 for the recovery of the money. These rewards did not, however, produce the desired result and neither the money nor the robber was ever discovered.
During this year there was a secession of about fifty members from the Methodist Episcopal church here, who formed and established the first Methodist Reformed church. They constructed an edifice at the corner of Green and Fourth Streets, of which Mr. N. Snethen was the pastor. This church was afterwards used by the congregation of the First Presbyterian church, was then sold to the negroes, and finally torn down to make room for the immense Masonic Hall now being built on that spot.
The last event of this year which will be noticed here is the erection of the first city school house. This building, still standing at the south-west corner of Walnut and Fifth Streets, was then an extremely creditable ornament to the city. It is capable of containing seven or eight hundred pupils and is divided into a male and female department, which are entirely distinct from each other. It was superintended by the Mayor and six Trustees, annually chosen by the Council. The first board of Trustees was composed of the following gentlemen: Jas. Guthrie, Jas. H. Overstreet, Wm. Sale, Samuel Dickinson, F. Cosby and Dr. J. P. Harrison. The standard of education pursued was as high as that of any private school and the terms were only from one dollar to one dollar and a half per quarter. The annual expense of this school to the city was $5,682. Several equally large schools have been since erected and the system of free-schools somewhat changed. These will be noticed at greater length in another part of this history.
CHAPTER VII.
The opening of the next year—1830—found the young city in a highly prosperous and thriving position. The security and permanence given to enterprise by the charter had its effect on all departments of business. Arrangements were made at the beginning of the season for the erection of not less than five hundred substantial brick houses, and, according to the report of a prominent resident of a sister city, there was not another place in the United States which was improving and increasing in population more rapidly than this. The number of inhabitants, as ascertained by census, had reached 10,336, and was still rapidly increasing. The friends of Louisville had every reason to congratulate themselves upon her position. The pecuniary troubles which soon after involved the place were not foreseen, and, with buoyant hopes and high expectations, the citizens looked forward to a continuance of their unexampled prosperity. How these hopes were wrecked and these expectations reduced, the history of the next decade will show.