The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852

by Ben Casseday

The friends of the city were at this time urging the propriety of establishing manufactures here, a want not felt less at that time than now. In an article upon this subject in one of the daily papers, the following statistics of the sale of cotton goods were elicited, in which reference is had to the year 1841. “At this time there were sold, brown cottons to the value of $276,095; prints amounting to $249,824; cotton yarns to $224,819; bleached cottons $89,589, and checks and tickings $68,180, making a total of $908,772 taken from the city, which, it was urged, could have been easily and profitably furnished on the spot.” It was then said and may be now repeated that too little attention is paid to the vast advantages to be derived from the establishment of manufactures, especially at this point where the necessary power could and can be so easily and so cheaply attained. It is somewhat remarkable that this population has depended and still depends so entirely upon commerce as a means of gain. No other city perhaps in the world has so large a commercial business in proportion to its population. This is probably accounted for in the fact that the increase of commerce has been so rapid and the difficulty of overdoing the business so apparently impossible that every temptation has been offered to the capitalist to prefer this mode of investment. The time, however, cannot be far distant when the advantages offered to the manufacturer will be acknowledged and embraced. Indeed the commencement of what must before long become a very large branch of prosperity here was already established, but it has not grown with a rapidity commensurate with the increase of other departments of trade. A few foundries and manufactories of bagging and rope were established about this period. These, with the addition of a lard oil factory, begun by C. C. P. Crosby, in 1842, may be said to embrace the whole manufacturing business of the city in that year. Future statistics will show how it has increased, and will demonstrate the value of this addition to the trade; and to these we will now turn.

The Louisville Directory for 1844-1845, compiled by N. Peabody Poor, and the best directory ever published here, gives a very complete and interesting view of the city for that year. As no events in any degree connected with the public interests, or of any especial political value, are referable to the period between this year and 1840, it will be as well to pass on at once to a notice of the results of these five years of steady progress. Beginning then with the population, which, it will be remembered, amounted in 1840 to 21,210, we find that in September, 1845, an actual census shows it to have reached 37,218 souls. Of these 32,602 were whites, 560 free blacks, and 4,056 slaves. The increase of five years is thus shown to amount to 16,008. Nor was it alone in the matter of population that such rapid progress had been made. The number of houses engaged in the wholesale and retail trade had increased from 270 to upwards of 500, and in addition to these purely commercial houses, there were then “12 large foundries for the construction of steam machinery; 1 large rolling and slitting mill; 2 extensive steam bagging factories, capable of producing about 2,000,000 of yards annually; 6 cordage and rope factories, some of which produced 900,000 pounds of bale rope annually, beside which there were several smaller rope walks for the making of sash cord, twine, &c.; 1 cotton factory; 1 woolen factory; 4 flouring mills, producing about 400 barrels daily; 4 lard oil factories; 1 white lead factory; 3 potteries; 6 extensive tobacco stemmeries, employing a large capital, where the leaf is stripped from the stem and re-packed for the English market; several tobacco manufactories; 2 glass cutting establishments; a large oil cloth factory; 2 surgical instrument makers; 2 lithographic presses; 1 paper mill; 1 star candle factory; 4 pork houses, which will slaughter and pack about 70,000 hogs annually; 3 piano forte manufactories; 3 breweries; 8 brick yards; 1 ivory black maker; 6 tanneries; 2 tallow rendering houses, rendering about 1,000,000 pounds annually; 8 soap and candle factories; 3 planing machines; 2 scale factories; 2 glue factories; 3 large ship yards, at which have been built some of the fastest running boats on the river; besides several factories of less note.”[16] The simple statement of these facts furnishes a more convincing demonstration of the rapid and healthy progress of the city, than whole volumes of argument could afford.

Another event bearing directly upon the prosperity of the city during the rest of this decade was the opening of the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad. The subject of this road had for a long time agitated the city; many surveys had been made, and indeed the work had at one time progressed to the actual digging and embankment of several miles of the track. The opening of the road was finally effected by the subscription of one million of dollars by the city herself, which was paid by a tax of one per cent, for four years on all real estate within her limits, and this tax was re-paid to the owners in shares of stock. Although sanctioned by the vote of a very large majority of the citizens, this measure was for a while a very unpopular one; but the malcontents have lately found that the present loss was to them in the end a gain, and they are ready once more to submit to similar taxation, if by so doing other roads can be constructed. Indeed the subject of railroads was now eagerly taken up, and a just and most effective feeling in their favor was taking the place of the former apathy and indifference. The Louisville and Lexington Railroad had opened so many new sources of wealth and developed such advantages before unthought of, that the policy of stretching out iron arms to embrace in their circle all possible resources was no longer doubted. Acting upon this feeling, the people of Louisville united with those of Jeffersonville in building a road from that point to Columbus, and with those of New Albany in uniting that growing city with Salem. The purpose had in view in the construction of these roads is the ultimate and not very distant connection of Louisville, Jeffersonville and New Albany with Lake Erie, St. Louis and Lake Michigan. The entire line of the first of these roads is now in progress of construction, and the greater part of the other is under contract. Beside these, a railroad hence to Nashville, Tenn., is now being surveyed, which will unite with roads already partly under operation leading to some point on the Atlantic coast, near Charleston, S. C. The Louisville and Nashville end of this route will be put under contract as soon as proper surveys can be established. Other roads are had in contemplation, but nothing has yet been done toward their construction. The effect of these improvements will be the subject of notice in another chapter.

With the opening of the year 1850, was commenced the first of a series of movements which led to the formation of a new charter for the city. This document makes all city officers elective by the people, and places the government in the hands of a Mayor, a Board of Common Council, and a Board of Aldermen. Many of the provisions of this charter are found healthful and wise in their operation, while many others are incomprehensible or impracticable. The first Mayor under this new charter felt himself obliged to resign his office, on the plea of incompetence to perform the duties assigned to him by the instrument. The Council, however, unwilling to dispense with so efficient an officer as he had proved himself, continued him in place as “Mayor pro tem.,” until the end of his term. Experience and the necessities of the city government will doubtless, as time progresses, so modify this instrument as to make its provisions work well and harmoniously.

The annals of the city up to the year 1852 having now been presented to the reader, it only remains to offer a view of its present state in regard to population, commerce, manufactures and social position; which, together with a chapter on its future destiny, will conclude this history. It is not the intention of this work purposely to mislead any, as to the actual position of the city, and therefore, instead of embracing with the statistics of Louisville those of all the suburban villages and cities in the vicinity, as has universally been done by other western places, we purpose to give such statistics as belong exclusively to this city. If, however, it is ever honest for a city to aggrandize to itself all the prosperity of its suburban neighbors, it is eminently so with Louisville. The towns immediately around the falls are as ready to concede, as Louisville is to claim a perfect identity of interests. The pre-eminence which it has already gained over the neighboring towns forbids all hope of rivalry on their part, and compels them to unite their interests with those of Louisville as a means of their own prosperity. In certain branches of trade, New Albany or Jeffersonville may and do successfully compete with this city, but it is idle to imagine that this partial success can benefit them in such a way as to afford them any superiority in point of fact. On the contrary, this very success is owing entirely to their proximity to Louisville. Those branches of manufacture or of trade in which they excel find encouragement just so far as they are part and parcel of the manufactures or commerce of Louisville; and they would find no market for such wares, and no sale for such manufactures, did they depend only on their own resources of trade. It is the immediate contiguity of the large city which is their stimulus to exertion, and their means of preservation or of prosperity. They cannot but be considered as identical in interest with their elder sister. Nor, on the other hand, can it be denied that these places are of immense advantage to Louisville. Firstly, because they are situated in a free state, and hence can offer freedom from the disadvantages of slavery; secondly, because, as smaller towns, they are cheaper residences for those whose means require attention to careful economy; thirdly, because they claim for Louisville the sympathy and encouragement of the State in which they are situated; and finally, because they extend the area of the trade and manufactures of the city. It is probable that if the same advantages which have made Louisville great had been offered to New Albany or to Jeffersonville, either of those places might have exceeded their more fortunate compeer. But now the supremacy once gained, cannot but be maintained; and the growth and prosperity, or the decay and adversity of Louisville, must either make or mar the fortunes of her sister towns.

Before entering upon the commercial statistics of Louisville, it may be well to consider its social position, and to endeavor to convey some idea of the advantages offered by this city as a place of residence, aside from its character as a commercial emporium. It is believed that there are few commercial cities on this continent which possess the same characteristics as this. The restlessness, the turmoil and the eagerness in the pursuit of wealth which is ever the characteristic of large commercial cities, has generally produced a littleness of feeling, and a selfishness of manner which does not at all tend to elevate the social position of those places, but rather causes them to lack that feature which in other countries is known and valued by the name “tone.” In Louisville, this does not appear. Indeed it is difficult to reconcile the manner of pursuing traffic here with its results. As will be seen hereafter, the business of the city is of great extent, and yet the stranger in its midst would perceive nothing to indicate such prosperity. Business is pursued quietly and without ostentation; no efforts are made by any to convince others of their successes; no factitious means are employed to display the results of labor, no hurry or restlessness or confusion attends even the largest and most prosperous houses. Trade is pursued as a means of gain, but is not allowed to blind its votaries to every other pursuit of life: business closes with the close of the day, and is forgotten in other things, until it is revived on the morrow. While pursued, it is pursued with all the avidity that is consistent with the dignity of manhood; but it is never allowed to obtrude where it does not belong, nor is it permitted to make any forget that there are other duties than those of the merchant, and other pleasures than that of adding dollar to dollar. Yet it is believed that there is no city in the Union where the aggregate amount of sales in any one department of business, divided by the number of houses engaged in that business, will show so large a result. Doubtless this state of things is in a great measure caused by the peculiarities of character which belong to the Kentuckian, and which are so essential an element in the society of this city, which society comes now to be considered in its proper form.

There are certain traits in the Kentucky character which are everywhere spoken of with approbation. A manly independence, a generous frankness, and a careless but attractive freedom of manner, united with unbounded hospitality, and that true politeness and deference, which proceeds rather from natural instinct than from a knowledge of the rules of etiquette, are perhaps the chief of these characteristics. All these, and much more which will elude description, and which can be appreciated only by acquaintance, go to make up that praiseworthy trait of character which has always and everywhere distinguished the Kentuckian, as fully as the most elaborate description could do, we mean his chivalry.

Despising alike the narrow prejudices, the suspicious reserve, the silly dignity, the proud self-gratulation of the Yankee; and the pride of birth and of purse, the ostentation of manner and the foppish pretension of the Southerner, he takes from the first his respect for talent, his patriotism and his spirit of enterprise, and from the last his genial warmth of heart, his worship of the beautiful, his deference for the other sex, and his manly independence of heart. Add to these a bold and reckless frankness, an easy confidence, a love of adventure, a scorn of oppression, a noble intolerance of even seeming insult, and an almost criminal indifference of life when duty or honor seems to call it into peril, and you have a fair picture of the true Kentuckian, of the character which forms the basis of the society now under consideration. Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of this society is the readiness with which it receives and swallows up all those sectional differences which in other cities remain intact. Society here is generalized; the spirit of cliqueism does not prevail, social distinctions are marked in broad, plain lines, but the highest class is open to all who merit a place. The test of position is neither wealth, birth, nor pretension; respectability as readily enters the higher circles, and receives as ready encouragement as either of these. In other cities, society divides into numerous little circles, each claiming superior position to the other, each ridiculing the pretension and refusing the association of the other. Here, all are honored in their respective spheres, and few claim a position to which they are not entitled.

Society here has also the power of generalization to the extent that sectional differences are lost by its members, and the Northern, Eastern or Southern man, as well as the native of another country, seems to lose all identity of manner, and becomes only an integral part of one great circle. The fashionable world acts as if with one common impulse, while the other, the larger and better class of respectable people, who do not aspire to this title, but who could claim it by the mere exercise of their will, are neither led by the beau monde, on the one hand, nor, on the other, do they make a virtue of opposing this class. Society is correct in its outline and harmonious in detail. Distinctions of class, though plainly marked, are never offensively shown.

Perhaps the worst feature of society is its lack of a proper reverence for the intellectual, its tendency to frivolity. The amusements most prized by all classes are of a frivolous character. The song, the play or the dance, are valued far above the lecture or the conversation. The pleasures of the intellect are considered dull and tame, when compared with those which excite but for a moment, and are then forgotten. That the power of the intellectual man is acknowledged is true, but the acknowledgment is not practical, it is merely theoretical. While a high respect is had for the man of letters, he does not command that sympathy which should be accorded him. The great singer or actor receives far more at the hands of society than the profound philosopher or the elegant essayist. People of all ranks are bent upon attaining pleasure with the least possible intellectual exertion. Libraries are little patronized; public amusements of all sorts meet with unbounded success.