There are mineral springs, especially salt springs, in various parts of the state, particularly in the Blue Grass Region; these are now of comparatively little economic importance; no salt was reported among the state’s manufactures for 1905, and in 1907 only 736,920 gallons of mineral waters were bottled for sale. Historically and geologically, however, these springs are of considerable interest. According to Professor N. S. Shaler, state geologist in 1873-1880, “When the rocks whence they flow were formed on the Silurian sea-floors, a good deal of the sea-water was imprisoned in the strata, between the grains of sand or mud and in the cavities of the shells that make up a large part of these rocks. This confined sea-water is gradually being displaced by the downward sinking of the rain-water through the rifts of the strata, and thus finds its way to the surface: so that these springs offer to us a share of the ancient seas, in which perhaps a hundred million of years ago the rocks of Kentucky were laid down.” To these springs in prehistoric and historic times came annually great numbers of animals for salt, and in the marshes and swamps around some of them, especially Big Bone Lick (in Boone county, about 20 m. S.W. of Cincinnati) have been found many bones of extinct mammals, such as the mastodon and the long-legged bison.[3] The early settlers and the Indians came to the springs to shoot large game for food, and by boiling the waters the settlers obtained valuable supplies of salt. Several of the Kentucky springs have been somewhat frequented as summer resorts; among these are the Blue Lick in Nicholas county (about 48 m. N.E. of Lexington), Harrodsburg, Crab Orchard in Lincoln county (about 115 m. S.E. of Louisville), Rock Castle springs in Pulaski county (about 23 m. E. of Somerset) and Paroquet Springs (near Shepherdsville, Bullitt county), which was a well-known resort before the Civil War, and near which, at Bullitt Lick, the first salt works in Kentucky are said to have been erected.
Pearls are found in the state, especially in the Cumberland River, and it is supposed that there are diamonds in the kimberlite deposits in Elliott county.
Transportation.—Kentucky in 1909 had 3,503.98 m. of railway. Railway building was begun in the state in 1830, and in 1835 the first train drawn by a steam locomotive ran from Lexington to Franklin, a distance of 27 m. Not until 1851 was the line completed to Louisville. Kentucky’s trade during the greater part of the 19th century was very largely with the South, and with the facilities which river navigation afforded for this the development of a railway system was retarded. Up to 1880 the railway mileage had increased to only 1,530; but during the next ten years it increased to 2,942, and railways were in considerable measure substituted for water craft. The principal lines are the Louisville & Nashville, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Illinois Central, and the Cincinnati Southern (Queen & Crescent route). Most of the lines run south or south-west from Cincinnati and Louisville, and the east border of the state still has a small railway mileage and practically no wagon roads, most of the travel being on horseback. The wagon roads of the Blue Grass Region are excellent, because of the plentiful and cheap supply of stone for road building. The assessment of railway property, and in some measure the regulation of railway rates, are entrusted to a state railway commission.
Population.—The population of Kentucky in 1880[4] was 1,648,690; in 1890, 1,858,635, an increase within the decade of 12.7 %; in 1900 it was 2,147,174; and in 1910 it had reached 2,289,905. Of the total population of 1900, 284,865 were coloured and 50,249 were foreign-born; of the coloured, 284,706 were negroes, 102 were Indians, and 57 were Chinese; of the foreign-born, 27,555 were natives of Germany, 9874 were natives of Ireland, and 3256 were natives of England. Of the foreign-born, 21,427, or 42.6 %, were inhabitants of the city of Louisville, leaving a population outside of this city of which 98.4 % were native born. The rugged east section of the state, a part of Appalachian America, is inhabited by a people of marked characteristics, portrayed in the fiction of Miss Murfree (“Charles Egbert Craddock”) and John Fox, Jr. They are nearly all of British—English and Scotch-Irish—descent, with a trace of Huguenot. They have good native ability, but through lack of communication with the outside world their progress has been retarded. Before the Civil War they were owners of land, but for the most part not owners of slaves, so that a social and political barrier, as well as the barriers of nature, separated them from the other inhabitants of the state. In their speech several hundred words persist which elsewhere have been obsolete for three centuries or occur only in dialects in England. Their life is still in many respects very primitive; their houses are generally built of logs, their clothes are often of homespun, Indian corn and ham form a large part of their diet, and their means of transportation are the saddle-horse and sleds and wheeled carts drawn by oxen or mules. In instincts and in character, also, the typical “mountaineers” are to a marked degree primitive; they are, for the most part, very ignorant; they are primitively hospitable and are warm-hearted to friends and strangers, but are implacable in their enmities and are prone to vendettas and family feuds, which often result in the killing in open fight or from ambush of members of one faction by members of another; and their relative seclusion and isolation has brought them, especially in some districts, to a disregard for law, or to a belief that they must execute justice with their own hands. This appears particularly in their attitude toward revenue officers sent to discover and close illicit stills for the distilling from Indian corn of so-called “moon-shine” whisky (consisting largely of pure alcohol). The taking of life and “moon-shining,” however, have become less and less frequent among them, and Berea College, at Berea, the Lincoln Memorial University, and other schools in Kentucky and adjoining states have done much to educate them and bring them more in harmony with the outside community.
The population of Kentucky is largely rural. However, in the decade between 1890 and 1900 the percentage of urban population (i.e. population of places of 4000 inhabitants or more) to the total population increased from 17.5 to 19.7 and the percentage of semi-urban (i.e. population of incorporated places with a population of less than 4000) to the total increased from 8.86 to 9.86 %; but 48.3 % of the urban population of 1900 was in the city of Louisville. In 1910 the following cities each had a population of more than 5000. Louisville (223,928), Covington (53,270), Lexington (35,099), Newport (30,309), Paducah (22,760), Owensboro (16,011), Henderson (11,452), Frankfort, the capital (10,465), Hopkinsville (9419), Bowling Green (9173), Ashland (8688), Middlesboro (7305), Winchester (7156), Dayton (6979), Bellevue (6683), Maysville (6141), Mayfield (5916), Paris (5859), Danville (5420), Richmond (5340). Of historical interest are Harrodsburg (q.v.), the first permanent settlement in the state, and Bardstown (pop. in 1900, 1711), the county-seat of Nelson county. Bardstown was settled about 1775, largely by Roman Catholics from Maryland. It was the see of a Roman Catholic bishop from 1810 to 1841, and the seat of St Joseph’s College (Roman Catholic) from 1824 to 1890; and was for some time the home of John Fitch (1743-1798), the inventor, who built his first boat here. The Nazareth Literary and Benevolent Institution, at Nazareth (2 m. N. of Bardstown), was founded in 1829 and is a well-known Roman Catholic school for girls. Boonesborough, founded by Daniel Boone in 1775, in what is now Madison county, long ago ceased to exist, though a railway station named Boone, on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, is near the site of the old settlement.
In 1906 there were 858,324 communicants of different religious denominations in the state, including 311,583 Baptists, 165,908 Roman Catholics, 156,007 Methodists, 136,110 Disciples of Christ, 47,822 Presbyterians and 8091 Protestant Episcopalians.
Administration.—Kentucky is governed under a constitution adopted in 1891.[5] A convention to revise the constitution or to draft a new one meets on the call of two successive legislatures, ratified by a majority of the popular vote, provided that majority be at least one-fourth of the total number of votes cast at the preceding general election. Ordinary amendments are proposed by a three-fifths majority in each house, and are also subject to popular approval. With the usual exceptions of criminals, idiots and insane persons, all male citizens of the United States, who are at least 21 years of age, and have lived in the state one year, in the county six months, and in the voting precinct sixty days next preceding the election, are entitled to vote. The legislature provides by law for registration in cities of the first, second, third and fourth classes—the minimum population for a city of the fourth class being 3000. Corporations are forbidden to contribute money for campaign purposes on penalty of forfeiting their charters, or, if not chartered in the state, their right to carry on business in the state. The executive is composed of a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a treasurer, an auditor of public accounts, a register of the land office, a commissioner of agriculture, labour, and statistics, a secretary of state, an attorney-general and a superintendent of public instruction. All are chosen by popular vote for four years and are ineligible for immediate re-election, and each must be at least 30 years of age and must have been a resident citizen of the state for two years next preceding his election. If a vacancy occurs in the office of governor during the first two years a new election is held; if it occurs during the last two years the lieutenant-governor serves out the term. Lieutenant-governor Beckham, elected in 1900 to fill out the unexpired term of Governor Goebel (assassinated in 1900), was re-elected in 1903, the leading lawyers of the state holding that the constitutional inhibition on successive terms did not apply in such a case.
The governor is commander-in-chief of the militia when it is not called into the service of the United States; he may remit fines and forfeitures, commute sentences, and grant reprieves and pardons, except in cases of impeachment; and he calls extraordinary sessions of the legislature. His control of patronage, however, is not extensive and his veto power is very weak. He may veto any measure, including items in appropriation bills, but the legislature can repass such a measure by a simple majority of the total membership in each house. Among the various state administrative boards are the board of equalization of five members, the board of health of nine members, a board of control of state institutions with four members (bipartisan), and the railroad commission, the prison commission, the state election commission and the sinking fund commission of three members each. Legislative power is vested in a General Assembly, which consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Senators are elected for four years, one-half retiring every two years; representatives are elected for two years. The minimum age for a representative is 24 years, for a senator 30 years. There are thirty-eight senators and one hundred representatives. The Senate sits as a court for the trial of impeachment cases. A majority of either house constitutes a quorum, but as regards ordinary bills, on the third reading, not only must they receive a majority of the quorum, but that majority must be at least two-fifths of the total membership of the house. For the enactment of appropriation bills and bills creating a debt a majority of the total membership in each house is required. All revenue measures must originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may introduce amendments. There are many detailed restrictions on local and special legislation. The constitution provides for local option elections on the liquor question in counties, cities, towns and precincts; in 1907, out of 119 counties 87 had voted for prohibition.
The judiciary consists of a court of appeals, circuit courts, quarterly courts, county courts, justice of the peace courts, police courts and fiscal courts. The court of appeals is composed of from five to seven judges (seven in 1909), elected, one from each appellate district, for a term of eight years. The senior judge presides as chief justice and in case two or more have served the same length of time one of them is chosen by lot. The governor may for any reasonable cause remove judges on the address of two-thirds of each house of the legislature. The counties are grouped into judicial circuits, those containing a population of more than 150,000 constituting separate districts; each district has a judge and a commonwealth’s attorney. The county officials are the judge, clerk, attorney, sheriff, jailor, coroner, surveyor and assessor, elected for four years. Each county contains from three to eight justice of the peace districts. The financial board of the county is composed of the county judge and the justices of the peace, or of the county judge and three commissioners elected on a general ticket.
The municipalities are divided into six classes according to population, a classification which permits considerable special local legislation in spite of the constitutional inhibition. Marriages between whites and persons of negro descent are prohibited by law, and a marriage of insane persons is legally void. Among causes for absolute divorce are adultery, desertion for one year, habitual drunkenness for one year, cruelty, ungovernable temper, physical incapacity at time of marriage, and the joining by either party of any religious sect which regards marriage as unlawful. A homestead law declares exempt from execution an unmortgaged dwelling-house (with appurtenances) not to exceed $1000 in value, and certain property, such as tools of one’s trade, libraries (to the value of $500) of ministers and lawyers, and provisions for one year for each member of a family. Child labour is regulated by an act passed by the General Assembly in 1908; this act prohibits the employment of children less than 14 years of age in any gainful occupation during the session of school or in stores, factories, mines, offices, hotels or messenger service during vacations, and prohibits the employment of children between 14 and 16 unless they have employment certificates issued by a superintendent of schools or some other properly authorized person, showing the child’s ability to read and write English, giving information as to the child’s age (based upon a birth certificate if possible), and identifying the child by giving height and weight and colour of eyes and hair. These certificates must be kept on file and lists of children employed must be posted by employers; labour inspectors receive monthly lists from local school boards of children receiving certificates; and children under 16 are not to work more than 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week, or between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.