Source: H. E. Everman's The History of Bourbon County, Kentucky, 1785-1865. (Bourbon Press, 1977)

The Bourbon Wilderness of the eighteenth century was a frontier barrier protecting Virginia civilization from hostile Indians. By the close of the 1790s it became an outpost for American civilization. For centuries, hooved animals, especially buffalo, marked paths crisscrossing hilltops, fording small creeks, and connecting the sparse clearings throughout the wilderness. Archeologists uncovered ancient Indian mounds, along the Hinkston and Stoner forks of the Licking River. These mounds indicated an ancient culture of hunters who used beacon fires and telegraphic signals for communication, made pottery, and hunted with stone hatchets, spears and arrows. They collected bear tusks and claws, as well as animal bones. Apparently, a hostile invader liquidated the ancient tribe one tragic moment about a century before the white man appeared.[1]

The Bourbon woods teemed with wild animals. Here the buffalo, deer, elk, rabbit, wolf, fox, squirrel, ground hog, even the bear and wildcat found salt licks, sulphur springs, cane, wild rye, clover, peavine, wild herbage, flowers, and buffalo grass for pasturage. The dense woods and tall cane protected wild turkeys, pheasants, partridges, and owls.[2] Little wonder that Indians followed the 'migratory animals along the Bourbon traces or that John Finley and Daniel Boone labeled the area a hunter's paradise in 1769.

Like many another wilderness, the Bourbon Canaan first beckoned the hunter, then the pastoralist, and finally the farmer. It provided hunters with meat, furs, hides, and fat for tallow. At times its naturally undulating landscape and many streams abetted travel. Moreover, the water sources and lush grass sustained a variety of animals, especially that most important target of early woodsmen: the buffalo.

Pastoralists soon learned that buffalo and cattle fattened on the native Bourbon cane.[3] Sporadic patches of wild rye, clover and buffalo grass augmented the diet further.[4] The tangled wilderness, however, was no pastoral dream. Cane was thick and the undergrowth obstructed all but the packhorse.[5] At times even the packhorse foundered along the rough journey into Canaan.[6]

In the final analysis, it was the land, that rich fertile Bourbon soil with its black vegetable mold, its loose, deep, fine loam, and potash, that drew farmers westward from Virginia, Carolina, and Pennsylvania.[7] A temperate climate shortened hard winters to Christmas through March. The Licking River and its adjoining streams watered and drained the gently undulating land, characteristic of all but the Flat Rock area to the northeast. Hinkston, Stoner and Houston Creeks were the largest but smaller ones such as Cooper's Run, Strode's, Harrod's, Kennedy's, and Miller's Runs interlaced the county with ample waterage.[8] Catfish, mullett, and rock perch abounded in the streams.[9]

In the 1770s cane, dense forests, and undergrowth of all kinds covered the farmland. Clearings were scattered like popcorn along the streams. Cane, with its leaves resembling the willot, was three to twelve feet high. Thickets were deep and hot with growth overhead and little air down under.[10] Blue and black ash, honey locusts, walnuts, wild cherry, buckeye, burr oaks, maple, laurel, hickory and bettywood trees choked the landscape.[11] The bettywood tree, a sappy, resinous wood useful for kindling fires quickly also served as a survey marker in Virginia and Kentucky.[12]

Trees provided the early farmer-settler with more than shelter. Honey locusts had large thorny spikes but bore pea-like pods that tasted sweet and made excellent beer.[13] Clean hickory ashes served as a salt substitute at times and sassafras from the laurel tree made tea the common beverage. Finally, the maple supplied molasses and sugar.[14] Orchards were rare but Indians had often rested along the traces in the Flat Rock Region and thrown out seed that developed into a plum grove prior to settlement.[15]

John Finley, Daniel Boone, and four other adventurers hunted in the Bluegrass wilderness in 1769.[16] For several years, Kentucky remained a hunter's frontier because of the abundant game and the Indian danger. However, by the mid-1770s, land specualtors (sic) sent surveyors into the wilderness. The Virginia governemnt (sic), aware of a new Indian uprising, sent Boone and Michael Stoner westward to sound the alarm.[17]

Michael Stoner proved to be one of Bourbon county's most illustrous hunters, surveyors, and settlers. He accompanied John Gass on a hunting expedition in 1775 and helped with the first survey in the area.. That same year John Cooper cleared a few acres, erected a cabin, and planted the first corn crop near Hinkston Creek. The following spring he supplied corn seed to migrating settlers until Indians murdered him.[19] Meanwhile, Stoner and Thomas Kennedy cleared about eight acres of land, and planted corn in Stoner's field. Kennedy, a skilled carpenter and mason, helped Stoner erect a cabin along Stoner's Fork of the Licking River.[20]

Despite Indian uprisings, 1776** was a boom year. Along the Hinkston Creak to the north, John Miller and his brothers erected a cabin along Miller's Run.[21] Slightly southwest of the Miller operation, John Martin erected a cabin and fortified it, hence Martin's Station. At the same time, Captain John Hinkston erected a cabin near a tributary of the Licking River. The rolling land along Hinkston Creek contained some of the richest soil in the area. Although Indians drove out the Hinkston settlers, Isaac Ruddle led a resettlement of the am in 1779, clearing land and building a cabin near a water spring. Huddle planted orchards of apples, pears, and peaches and raised corn and other vegetables. By the following year Ruddle's Fort was one of the most populated areas on Hinkston Creek.[22] Settlers liked the nearby fortification as well as the lush grass on which cattle fattened.[23]

The other great migration of that year occurred in the eastern end of the county. There, Thomas Kennedy brought out his entire family. He procured a settlement and preemption for himself on Strode's Creek and for his brothers on Kennedy's Creek. As a carpenter he helped construct Strode's Station near the present Clark county line,[24] Isaac Clinkenbeard helped caulk cabins at the station and noted how small an area was actually cleared.[25] Meanwhile the Millers fortified their blockhouses along the Hinkston which supplied the Bourbon frontier with a chain of small forts from Strode's to Miller's to Martin's to Ruddle's.[26]

Despite the settler's preparation, 1780 made or broke their dreams of a happy life in the Canaan of the West. The Indian menace peaked along the frontier. On June 22, 1780,*** Colonel Henry Byrd led 600 to 1000 British Regulars, Canadian volunteers and rampaging Indians across the open traces. The relatively level Bourbon terrain facilitated the movement of such a large force with cannon and munitions.[27]

Captain Isaac Ruddle commanded the small Hinkston fortress. When he saw the superiority of the British force Ruddle agreed to surrender provided the British be in charge of the prisoners. Colonel Byrd could not control his Indian allies who zealously seized prisoners and tomahawked a few while separating families for the return march northward. Aware of Martin's Fort another five miles to the east, the invaders proceeded toward Stoner Creek. This time Colonel Byrd overruled allies and the Martin residents surrendered to the British while the Indians seize horses and other booty. After destroying the fort, the Indians departed with the Ruddle Fort victims, while the British returned to Canada with a few hundred prisoners from the other battles.[28] These two disasters evoked General George Rogers Clark's retaliatory expedition into the northwest.

The Indians forced their Ruddle's prisoners to keep pace in a steady march northward. They killed several straggling women and children in the retreat a fed the captives poor rations, abused them, and often forced even the girls to run the gauntlet. They intimidated resisters with sporadic scalping and attempted to "Indianize children."[29]

At least in one case, that of the Ruddle family, the Blackfish Indians raised Abraham and Stephen Ruddle. The two boys learned the language, wore Indian clothes and stole horses. Both married Indian women and adopted the red man culture. Stephen served as an interpreter for the Shawnee whenever they clashed with frontiersmen. Years later both young men returned to Bourbon county with Abraham running a log mill on Hinkston Creek and Stephen serving as missionary to the Indians and finally, in 1810, becoming a minister of the Cooper Run Meeting House.[30]

The Ruddle's and Martin's Fort disasters were not the end of the Indian menace. Indians shot Edward Boone, Daniel's brother, in October, 1780, while he was hunting in the flat Rock area on the Plum Lick.[31] At the same time, near Strode' Station, Indians tomahawked a Negro man and kidnapped his wife. During a attack on that outpost the following year, Indians took another Negro woman.[32] During the numerous incidents of the 1780s, the Indians normally stole horses or killed solitary individuals.[33]

The Shanks Massacre on Coopers Run in 1788 was the bloodiest incident on the Bourbon frontier. A small band of Indians attacked the frontier house, and set it aflame to force out the victims, mainly the widow Shanks and her children. They terrorized the family, killing five, and kidnapping a girl whom they later scalped. The Indians stole some of the horses and retreated. Neighbors pursued them and "Killed two of the redskins".[34]

Although the Indian menace abated, many settlers remained cautious and with good reason. The following year, incoming settlers sighted Indians along the banks of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. Indians continued to steal horses along the overland routes.[35] Even in the 1790s, easterners continued leasing their Kentucky lands from fear of the Indian.[36] Yet, settlers continued to pour into the West.

Many took boats down the Ohio, landing at "The Point" or Limestone, as some called it (now Maysville). They took wagons, horses, or walked to Ready Money Jack's near Millersburgh. The Negro tavern keeper always had "ready money" as well as hot food and adequate lodging. His confidence and manner gave his guests added security.[37] Weary travelers could reach the Stoner-Houston area the following day.

Many settlers walked the greater distance due to hardship, the density of the undergrowth, the Indian menace, or the loss of animals enroute. Even the packhorses died during the journey.[38] Horses were scarce on the frontier and most transportation was by foot.[39]

With the closing of the American Revolution, settlers recognized the removal of political and Indian checks on their expansion. Almost immediately, the Millers reoccupied Miller's Run; Captain Ruddle returned to Hinkston Creek, cleared more land and planted additional orchards, and operated a mill for some thirty years;[40] the Kennedys and others reoccupied Kennedy's Creek and Strode's Station.[41] Men cleared the woods along the Harrod's Lick or Creek.[42] Clusters of cabins appeared at Irish Station two miles north of Millersburgh, at Wilmot's Station south of Paris, and at Houston Station (later Paris).[43]

By the close of the 1780s, settlers were transforming the wilderness. "Buffalo bones covered all the grounds along the Stoner as hunters killed for sport and left the dead carcasses lying where shot".[44] Many must soon have rued this wanton waste, as the severe winters of 1790 through 1793 decimated the animal paradise, killing wildlife and all kinds of vegetation including the formerly prolific cane.[45] Wolves approached the licks, springs, and cabins in those years. Turkey pot pie became a standard fare and one settler "never wanted to eat any more as long as he lived".[46]

Despite the severity of the winters, the former Indian menaces and other traditional hardships of frontier life, the pioneers raised their crude rough cabins. The simple structures tacked chimneys, even fireplaces, and rarely had plank floors. There was no glass for the window but a muslin or paper covering was oiled for some translucence. There was chinking between the logs.[47] The diet was slightly better than the housing situation. Corncakes, or buckwheat cakes were available at every crossroads. Maple molasses, mush, turkey pot pie, and sassafras tea were common. Hunters provided venison or bear meat in place of pork. At least until the 1790s, buffalo meat was abundant.[48]

Frontier clothing, simple at best, included hunter shirts and buckskin pants, coarse home-made fabrics, and buckskin moccasins replacing leather shoes, although children rarely wore shoes until they were old enough to work outside.[49] Lacking mills on the frontier, men used hand mills and graters in the fall of the year to grind soft green corn into meal.[50]

With such conditions facing them why did men leave settled areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Carolina? Land was the motive.[51] The hunter and pastoralist oversold the "Canaan of the West". Timber, soil, game, pasturage, numerous springs and streams beckoned one and all. Too, revolutionary soldiers received land for serving in the great war.

The Virginia government initiated surveys of the Kentucky land while it was part of Fincastle County. The King's Proclamation of 1763 awarded land to veterans of the French-Indian War. James Sandusky, Thomas Gist, and John Floyd surveyed land along the Licking River and its adjoining streams.[52] These pre-revolutionary grants, at best, were archaic, lax, and generally confusing. Militia veterans were to receive 100-acre grants of "unappropriated land" and 200-acre allotments for service in the West.[53] From 1782 through 1788 Augustin Eastin of Cooper's Run, Thomas McClanahan of Houston's Fork, and James Garrard and Samuel Grant of Stoner Fork surveyed some fifteen tracts on these military warrants. [54]

Military warrants were not the only kinds of titles for Kentucky land. The Virginia government recognized settlement and pre-emption rights as the most common type of grant. Prior to 1790 settlers had to occupy the land, reside there for a year and raise a crop of corn. This entitled them to a 400-acre claim and the preemption of 1000 adjoining acres. By improving the land and building a cabin, they could claim an additional 1000 acres.[55] When confusion followed, the Virginia legislature, in an act of 1779, established a land court with four judges to hear Kentucky claims and witnesses. The Court met for eight months with an additional four to complete its transactions. Applicants were allowed to purchase an adjoining 1000 acres at the "state price" or ten shillings for a 100 acres. Clerks received a ten shilling fee for issuing a "pre-emption right." By April, 1781, the Court disbanded, although revolutionary soldiers had not been able to present their cases.[56]

After 1780, Virginia issued treasury warrants and allowed possession if we settler located vacant lands, had them surveyed, and then entered such plots at the land office. The Court Land Entry Books reflected the popularity of treasury warrants, the most common land claim of the 17808.[57]

Settlers followed a long drawn-out process of filing a survey certification with the Virginia land office, a return filing in Kentucky, a six-month waiting period for possible claims, counter-claims, and protests, and an additional time lapse for finalization. [58] Most surveys depended on markings and initialing of trees, some of which did not escape nature's changes. Inevitably, this led to overlapping claims.[59] Too, the primitive surveying instruments, the rough topography, the forests, and the dense underbrush added to the probability of inaccurate surveys in the Bourbon wilderness as well as Kentucky at large.

Many early settlers squatted on land "not knowing or caring whose land they were on"[60] the failure of the Virginia government to survey the land properly led to "an endless travail of land litigation".[61] Court action concerning these early surveys continued for decades afterward.[62]

By the 1780s it was obvious to all that the Bourbon frontier was no longer a wilderness with limitless land. The termination of the Indian menace had unleased a steady stream of settlers and land-hungry farmers into the West. Men could not always work out their disagreements individually or even in groups. They needed representation in the capital, at Richmond, but also coveted decision-making powers at home. A new day was dawning.

*Elder Samuel Rogers applied this descriptive phrase to the Bourbon wilderness he entered as a boy in the 1790s. Samuel Rogers, Autobiography of Elder Samuel Rogers: Toils and Struggles of the Olden Times (Cincinnati., 1880), 2.
**Everman must mean 1775 rather than 1776. Miller, Martin, and Hinkson established their settlements in the spring and summer of 1775.--REF
***Other sources place the date of Byrd's capture of Ruddell's and Martin's forts as June 24 and June 26, 1780. Refer to my Ruddell's Fort web page (http://www.shawhan.com/ruddlesfort.html) for a thorough treatment of this subject.--REF
[1] William B. Allen, A History of Kentucky (Louisville: 1872), 114-115. William H. Perrin,(edt) History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties (Chicago: 1882),28-31. Richard H. Collins, History of Kentucky (Louisville: 1874), 68-70.
[2] Rogers, Autobiography, 1-4. John Filson, Kentucke (Wilmington: 1784), 16-27.
[3] Jessee Kennedy Journal (Paris, Kentucky: 1850), 7-8.
[4] Filson: Kentucke, 23-27.
[5] Rogers, Autobiography, 1.
[6] Kennedy, Journal, 7-8.
[7] Filson, Kentucke, 16-23. Kennedy, Journal, 7-8. Perrin, County History, 21-27.
[8] Filson, Kentucke, 16-23. Perrin, County History, 21-27,83, 121, 131, 134.
[9] Filson, Kentucke, 23-27.
[10] Ibid.. Rogers, Autobiography, 1-4. Draper MSS, 14cc, 4.
[11] Filson, Kentucke, 16-27. Draper MSS, 14cc, 4. Perrin, County History, 21-27, 83,121, 131-134. See the Bourbon Survey Books.
[12] Edna T. Whitley, "What was Bettywood?" Kentucky Folklore Record, IV (December, 1958), No. 4, 175-176.
[13] Filson, Kentucke, 20-23.
[14] Rogers, Autobiography, 1-4.
[15] Whitley anecdote.
[16] Thomas D. Clark, A History of Kentucky (Lexington: 1960), 30-32.
[17] Ibid., 38.
[18] John Gass. Draper MSS, llcc, 11-13.
[19] Perrin, County History, 36-37. Kentucky Citizen. Historical Edition, July 7, 1928, 31.
[20] Kennedy Disposition, Order Book C, Bourbon Court. 350-352. Kennedy, Journal, 6. Order Book B, 455-456. 549.
[21] Order Book D, Deposition of John Miller, 323. John Gass, Draper MSS, 11cc, 11-13.
[22] George Huddle interview, Draper MSS 20 J 24; Draper MSS, 12cc 246A. Perrin, County History, 146-149 is not always accurate. Maude Ward Lafferty, "Destruction of Ruddle's and Martin's Forts In the Revolutionary War", The Register, LIV (October, 1956), 297-303, 319. {NOTE: Refer to my Ruddell's and Martin's Fort page listed above for this complete manuscript--REF}
[23] Ibid., 297-303.
[24] Kennedy, Journal. 6-8. Order Book C, 350-352.
[25] Isaac Clinkenbeard, Draper MSS, 11cc, 1-4.
[26] Perrin, County history, 122. Filson, Kentucke, map, 38.
[27] Ibid.. 71-72. Lafferty article, 297-319.
[28] John Breckinridge, Draper MSS, 11cc, 12; Isaac Clinkenbeard, Draper MSS, 11cc, 1; Draper MSS, 20 J24, 12cc, 246A. Lafferty article, 297-319. Perrin, County History, 34-35. T.S. Arthur and W.H. Carpenter, The History of Kentucky (Philadelphia, 1852), 68-72.
[29] John Breckinridge, Draper MSS, 11cc, No. 12; Draper MSS, 20J24; 12cc, 246A. Lafferty article, 297-319.
[30] Draper MSS, 20J24; Draper, 12cc, 216A. Lafferty article. 309-319. Court Order Book D, 215 contains Stephen Ruddle's license to marry in the Baptist Church. Order Book D, 468, announced the probating of Isaac Ruddle's will in 1812 and restores Stephen to the family by naming him executor. Draper MSS, 12cc includes an interview with David Strahan, a neighbor, who remembered the Indian wives of both Abraham and Stephen.
[31] Clinkenbeard, Draper MSS, 11cc, No. 1, 14.
[32] Ibid.; Kennedy, Draper MSS, 11cc, 7-8.
[33] Draper MSS, 13cc, 7-8.
[34] Hardesty, Draper MSS, llcc, 169-171.
[35] Hinds, Draper MSS, llcc, 33.
[36] Hedges, Draper MSSc llcc, 19-23.
[37] Luckey, Draper MSS, llcc, 17-18, Hedges, Draper MSS, llcc, 117-120.
[38] Kennedy, Journal, 6-8.
[39] Hedges, Draper MSS, llcc 298, No. 9, 47-49. Rogers, Autobiography, 1-4.
[40] Draper MSS, 20J24; 12cc, 246A. Perrin, County History, 122, 146-149.
[41] Kennedy, Journal, 7-8. Kennedy Deposition, Order Book C, 350-352.
[42] Luckey, Draper MSS, llcc, 17-18.
[43] Hedges, Draper MSS, llcc, 298, No. 9, 47-49, 19-23; Pierce. Draper MSS, 13cc, 7-8.
[44] Hedges, Draper MSS, lice, 298, No. 9, 47.
[45] Ibid., 49. Rogers, Autobiography, 1-4.
[46] Hedges, Draper MSS, llcc, 298, No. 9, 49. Rogers, Autobiography, 14, also recalls abundant wild turkeys in the early 1790s.
[47] Ibid.. 1-6.
[48] Hedges, Draper MSS, 11cc, 296, No. 9, 47-49. also see 11cc, 19-23, 1-6.
[49] Rogers, Autobiography, 5-6.
[50] Ibid..
[51] Hedges, Draper MSS, 11cc, 19-23. See 11cc, 298, No. 9, 4749.
[52] Edna T. Whitley, Footnote no. 16, June 14, 1957.
[53] Willard Rouse Jillson, Old Kentucky Entries and Deeds (Louisville, 1926), 5-7.
[54] Whitley. Footnote No. 16.
[55] Jillson, Old Kentucky Entrees and Deeds, 5-7. Whitley. Footnote No. 16.
[56] Whitley, footnote No. 16.
[57] Bourbon Land Entry Books, 1-97, includes examples of all three kinds of grants: military, pre-emption, and treasury warrants.
[58] Filson, Kentucke, 36-38.
[59] Whitley, Footnote No. 16.
[60] Hedges, Draper MSS, 11cc 298, No. 9, 47.
[61] Willard Rouse Jillson, The Kentucky Land Grants, (Louisville: Standard Printing Co., 1925) 3-4.
[62] Ibid.. Bourbon court Order Books A-B.

Virginia organized Bourbon County in 1785. James Garrard, one of Kentucky's representatives in the Virginia Assembly, authored and introduced the bill establishing the county. Garrard, being of French ancestry, appreciated the royal family's support of the American Revolution, and promoted the Bourbon name for his county. The legislative act called for the organization of the new county at Garrard's home.[1]

James Garrard, 1749-1822, had a diverse background. He served as colonel in the state militia and constantly supported additional security measures on the frontier. He believed it a "duty to expel the murderous savages from the new country."[2] He championed universal religious liberty in the Virginia legislature and served as an ordained minister for the Cooper's Run Baptist Church after moving to Stoner Creek in 1783. He built Mount Lebanon, his home, three years later. While participating in the constitutional convention, he urged the exclusion of slavery from the new commonwealth by constitutional enactment. [3]

Inevitably, "his excellency, the Governor of Virginia" desiginated Garrard as Justice of the Peace. The Bourbon leader took the oath of office on May 16, 1786 "in the tenth year of the Commonwealth."[4] Garrard and his associate justices appointed John Edwards as Clerk of the Court and commenced business. At that first historic session, the Court recognized John Allen, esquire, as an attorney at law, administered the oath, and authorized his practice. That same day the Justices recommended James Garrard 'to his excellency the Governor as a proper person to act as Surveyor of this County."[5] For the next twenty years James Garrard would serve his county and state, Virginia, and then Kentucky, in the highest positions of influence.

The Court continued to meet in Garrard's home on May 17, and Benjamin Harrison, the newly commissioned Sheriff, protested that he would "not be answerable for the escape of any prisoner for want of a gaol." The justices sidestepped the jail issue but ordered an investigation of "the best way for a road from the mouth of Limestone to the top of the Hill" (later Paris). Finally, at Garrard's prodding the Court turned to security questions and discussed the organization of a militia. The men drew up a list of potential captains and lieutenants and recommended them to the Virginia Governor for appointment.[6]

From 1786 through 1789 there were two full columns of appointments. The military district served as an early precinct and in 1787 the tax list was made out according to membership in militia companies. Colonel John Edwards led thirty men in pursuit of the Indians who murdered the Shanks family in 1788. The militia was responsible for defending frontier stations. By 1790 the county had enough militia to form a new battalion with its own colonel. The Bourbon County Militia remained intact when Kentucky became a state seven years later and militia service was compulsory until the 1849-1850 Constitutional Act. Dress form was nixed, as hunting shirts, pantaloons, epaulettes, gaithers, and plumed officer hats created a colorful stylistic contrast. Muster days generally served the entire family as holidays with picnics and trips to the county seat.[7]

The early Court met in homes of prominent citizens. During the summer it met at John Kiser's house on the Cooper's Run; in the fall, at Fairfield; and several winter (1787) sessions convened at James Hutchinson's home. The August Court of 1787 even met outdoors at the forks of Stoner and Houston Creeks.[8] The justices heartily agreed on the need of a permanent meeting place.

The Court investigated and discussed the opening of new roads. It recognized that the main roads should capitalize on the existing buffalo traces and wagon roads. Frequently it named or appointed supervisors "to regulate the hands and assist in opening and repairing routes." Whereas the first Court had noted the need for a Limestone to Paris (top of the Hill) road, the June Court under John Kizer's leadership planned a Cooper's Run to Flat Lick route. It named Kizer overseer.[9]

Soon, the court ordered a road from Strode's station to the Fayette line, and from the mouth of Houston Creek to Ruddle's Mill and finally in 1787, Stoner Creek through Swinneytown and onto the Blue Licks.[10] While still a part of Virginia, the Bourbon Court authorized roads from Paris to Strode's Station, Miller's Mill to Blue Licks. Flat Rock to Blue Licks, Paris to Hornback's Mill, and Ruddle's Mill to Scott's Station.[11] Thus Bourbon's major road network developed during the Virginia apprenticeship.

Bourbon's internal improvements resulted from the demands of an expanding populace for connections between the burgeoning mill sites and marketplaces. Much like modern-day business competition, one settler would erect a water or grist mill and his neighbor would follow suit. The 1780s and 1790s represented the heyday of mill construction in Bourbon County.

Early settlers had to petition the County Court for permission to erect a dam and construct a mill. A jury held hearings on possible damage claims by neighbors and often awarded compensation to property owners near a mill site.[12] The Court prohibited any "damage to houses, orchards, or fields," and would not tolerate "any stagnation of water" or "prevention of the passage of fish."[13]

Actually, according to the Minutes of the Virginia Land Court, 1779-1780, John Hinkston[14] erected the first mill of the county on the creek that bears his name. Hinkston had led fifteen men down the Ohio River and up the Licking in canoes in search of land in 1775. Hinkston joined the Millers and followed the buffalo trace into the Ruddle's Mill area. He raised two crops of corn and helped erect Ruddle's Fort in 1779.* Although taken prisoner by the Indians the following year, he escaped and resettled at Ruddle's Mill. He served as a militia leader until his death in 1790.[15]

The 1787 Court received several petitions to erect mills along the Licking River and at Houston Fork.[16] By 1778, some citizens sued Samuel Hornback and John Reed for flood damage to property adjoining Hornback's Mill. The Court ordered appropriate adjustments and compensation to Hornback's neighbors.[17] That summer, some of Bourbon's most illustrious settlers petitioned for mill rights. William Miller of Houston's Fork, James Hutchinson of Cooper's Run, Isaac Ruddle[18] of Hinkston's Fork, Alvin Mountjoy, an original justice of the peace and homeowner on Stoner Creek, Colonel John Edwards of Cooper's Run, Laban Shipp of Stoner's Fork, and James Garrard of Stoner's Fork petitioned and soon gained the right to erect water and grist mills.[19] The fact that so many early political an social leaders recognized an economic opportunity says much for their business acumen and the expansion of the Bourbon population.

In all these cases, relatives and neighbors appeared before the court to give consent and-or receive compensation for damages caused by the erection of dam and mills. These men established their industries along waterways or near existing traces or roads. All sites for dams had to be approved. Abutment descriptions involved trees. Compensation for damages to orchards exceeded those for open fields or farmland.[29]

The mill mania of the 1780s continued into the next decade. Thomas Kenny and Edward Wilson of Strode's Creek, Benjamin Harrison, Bourbon's first sheriff, William Rogers of Grassy Lick, and John Turner of Stoner's Fork appealed to the Court for mill rights. Justice Laban Shipp even applied for a second mill permit on Stoner Creek.[21] Early millers kept one-eighth of the corn ground as a toll and ground only one-sixteenth into malt. They had to pack and level all grain and use acceptable measuring containers. There were ample fines for violators.[22] Although Kentucky had only three flour inspection sites in 1796, Paris and Ruddle's Mill each boasted one.[23]

Settlers, however, did not simply erect mills and sit back and reap profits. Although the Bourbon wilderness abounded in suitable timber for mill construction and limestone ledges provided stone for foundations, millers had to haul large millstones great distances. They brought mill irons as well as stones in by water, and finally by wagon. Once they left the Licking River, they had to follow the buffalo traces toward Paris or Ruddle's Mill onto Stoner and Hinkston creeks.[24] Even after they completed mill construction they were responsible for any damage, however accidental, and had to repair any problems within one month.[25] That profits far exceeded problems is evidenced by the numerous mill constructions throughout the county in the late eighteenth century.

At an early stage the people of the county, lacking city entertainment, used the mills as social centers. As farmers traveled to nearby mills for grinding their corn they found themselves waiting turns. These waits became outings in which they exchanged gossip and shared agricultural ideas or innovations. At least one congregation, the Cooper's Run Church, complained and condemned the mill as a "place of rendezvous for card players".[26] Judging from newspaper advertisements of a later period, mill behavior was anything but model.

The mills, however, could not meet all the social needs of an expanding populace. Nor could the private homes indefinitely serve as political centers. Thus founders of the first session planned and discussed the construction of a courthouse as well as a new settlement: "a city on the Hill". At its first November session, the Bourbon Court decided to construct a courthouse "at the confluence of Stoner and Houston forks"... and insisted on "a frame building thirty-two by twenty feet with a shingle roof and furnished in the necessary manner." This building as well as a jail would utilize the two acres provided.[27]

The new courthouse opened in October, 1767.[28] It served the community for a decade. The Hill, as it was called, was a logical choice for the new community because of the large spring of fine water near the mouth of Houston Creek. The old buffalo trace or wagon road provided a natural, easy way across Stoner and up the Houston cliffs. By using rough and marshy land they avoided sacrificing agricultural farmland. Too, wagoners had long camped here enroute to Lexington or the Blue Licks.

As early as 1764, John Reed of Maryland pre-empted land in the Hill area. Shortly thereafter, Lawrence Protzman bought part of the pre-emption. The Virginia Legislature, in 1769, at Protzman's request, ordered that "two-hundred and fifty acres of land, at the courthouse in Bourbon County, be laid off into town lots and streets by Lawrence Protzman, the proprietor thereof.. and a town by the name of Hopeweil be established." It also designated town trustees and required that purchasers of lots build a "sixteen square foot house with brick or stone chimney."[29]

The following year the Virginia Legislature amended the act preventing further sale of Protzman's lots and empowered trustees, after proper advertising in the Kentucky Gazette, to handle the lot sales at public auctions. The Court, then, recorded sales and deeded lots to purchasers. It conveyed fee simple for the original purchaser as well any unimproved lots to Protzman. This led to many lawsuits later on. The Legislators, under Garrard's prodding, changed the name of the town to Paris.[30] Although there are many theories as to why the founding fathers changed the name one must remember that Protzman was involved in several lawsuits and disgraced himself by his public swearing thus invoking the discipline of the Court. More importantly, Garrard was the dominant figure of the community and openly worked for the renaming of Bourbon's main settlement.

Anticipating changes in community life, the founding fathers fixed the rate of liquors, diet, and provender at their second historic session. The highest rates affected rum and wine, but distinguished between continental beverages and home brew, between warm and cold meals, between meals and provisions for animals. Too, they insisted all sleeping quarters use clean sheets.[31] The following table was typical of the Virginia apprenticeship and was adopted by the Bourbon Trustees in 1786.

West India Rum24 shillings per gallon
Continental Rum ... 15 shillings per gallon
Whiskey ... 10 shillings per gallon
Wine ... 24 shillings per gallon
Warm Dinner ... 1 shilling, 6 pence
Cold Dinner ... 1 shilling
Breakfast with beverage (tea, coffee, chocolate)1 shilling, 3 pence
Breakfast without beverage ... 1 shilling
Corn per gallon ... 6 pence
Pasturage per 24 Hours ... 6 pence
Stable and Hay ... 1 shilling
Lodging with Clean sheets ... 6 pence

Social change and growth in Paris can be seen in the development of public houses or taverns. Thomas West owned one of the log houses near the Courthouse. Later he covered it with red clapboard and the populace labeled it "West's Red Tavern." However, in 1788 he retailed spiritous liquors and obtained an "ordinary license" from the Bourbon Court. Immediately, the Court set higher rates on liquors. Notably, for the first time "malt beer" was available.[32] A year later, West appeared before the Court, charged with allowing "gaming in his house." Although the Court dismissed this West case as it had an earlier charge of retailing without a license, in 1790 it found the proprietor guilty of "exceeding the table of rates limited by law for taverns" and fined him. Ironically, on the same day the Court commissioned his as captain of the Militia.[33]

The success of Thomas West spurred imitation. James Halleck retailed "liquors without a license" [34] while three other Bourbonites applied for ordinary licenses in 1790 when West renewed his original one.[35] The list expanded in the following years and the rates rose steadily for the remainder of the century. Tavern keepers added brandy and cider to their liquor list in 1791.[36]

The expanding population meant additional problems for the Court. It handled a variety of and increasingly larger number of cases during the Virginia apprenticeship. The Court had many duties too. It inventoried and appraised all estates of the area. It recorded all preemption claims, improvements, and house raisings. It appointed commissioners of the tax and worked toward equalization of land taxes. It determined, opened and maintained all roads. It heard petitions for and claims against mills.[37] It exempted older citizens from paying levies due to "age and infirmity."[38]

The Bourbon Court granted all ordinary licenses and set rates on liquors. It certified all ministers "to perform the rites of holy matrimony and to conduct regular communion."[39] The Court settled all claims against the county. It recorded all "ear marks" for livestock ownership. It certified all banisters, sheriffs, and justices of the peace and surveyors, and it commissioned all officers of the militia, and maintained the public "gaol". Finally, it even attempted to make provision for the poor. In 1791, the Court divided the county into four districts and appointed four citizens as overseers of the poor. Then and for years afterward, the Court paid Isaac Ruddle, William Griffith, Jacob Spears, and other responsible individuals money for boarding, clothing, or providing medical care for the indigent.[40]

The justices of the Bourbon Court heard an infinite variety of cases during the Virginia years. With the growth of material culture, felony charges involving the theft of "sundry goods" surfaced. The Court always charged suspects with "feloniously" taking goods, wares, or money.[41] Justice was unequal. In July, 1792, the Court found Peter Carrot, a white man, guilty of felony and ordered the following punishment: "twenty-five lashes on his bare back, well laid on at the whipping post." The Court found Basil, a negro man, equally guilty and ordered his hanging "by the neck until he is dead and the Lord have mercy on his soul."[42]

Defendants often attended court in the early days and agreed "to satisfy and pay the condemnation of the Court or render-their-body to prison or execution for the same."[43] In June, 1789, the Bourbon Court recognized and certified two lawyers in addition to its original attorney, John Allen.[44] Although the lawyers gave much of their attention to liquor abuses and felonies, they also handled such diverse problems as wife beating, "profain swearing" (by Lawrence Protzman: the founder of Paris), and buggering.[45] The Court Minutes included a most vivid account of the latter crime, and such a descriptive, detailed version would be censored by modern-day standards.

Due to the shortage of hard cash on the frontier, Court witnesses received pay in the form of tobacco. The standard price was twenty-five pounds a day. Simon Kenton paid this amount in 1787 and at the close of the Virginia period the same fee remained intact.[46] Public officials received salaries in tobacco too. John Edwards, the first colonel of the militia and the first Court clerk received 1248 pounds of tobacco for his services in 1787. His friend Benjamin Harrison, high Sheriff, received the same salary, and John Allen, the attorney, earned 1500 pounds for his work at court.[47] On occasions, corn, rather than tobacco, was used as a currency in court actions.[48]

Bourbon Court leaders ruled in the Virginia tradition. A natural aristocracy seemingly surfaced. The same families provided early leadership. James Garrard was a justice of the peace and surveyor. His son William followed in his footsteps as Court clerk, head of the militia and as representative in the state legislature. John Edwards was Colonel of the militia and Court clerk, and he chose his son Haden as deputy-clerk. Alvin Mountjoy, an original justice of the peace and then high sheriff, appointed Edmond Mountjoy to draw up a list of taxables for part of the county. John Gregg, a justice, tax collector, and high sheriff appointed George Mountjoy as a deputy sheriff. Garrard, Edwards, Alvin Mountjoy, and Gregg rotated offices and all four erected grist mills during the economic expansion of the l790s. Along with William Griffith, a long-time justice and tax collector, they formed the "power elite" of the Virginia County.[49]

In 1790, James Garrard, the most prominent of the Bourbon Elite, resigned as Surveyor of the County. He had achieved several of his initial objectives. At that August Court session, the militia expanded to two battalions. The court recommended Horatio Hall as colonel of the "new Battalion" to "his excellency the Governor of Virginia.[50] Garrard, undoubtedly, took pride in the new security of the community. Never again would Indians inflict a massacre, never again would they invade the Canaan of the West.

Garrard surveyed thousands of acres of old Bourbon county, all the way up to the Ohio River and east to the Big Sandy. He constructed a beautiful home, Mount Lebanon; served in numerous political offices for his community; managed a growing farm and mill; and acted as minister at Cooper's Run Baptist Church. In 1792 he served at the state constitutional convention, little aware that his greatest political task, eight years as governor, lay ahead.[51]

For Garrard and his Bourbon colleagues, the Virginia years had been an apprenticeship, a time of testing. The wilderness became farmland, farming areas became townships, buffalo traces became highways for commerce, the mill, then the tavern became social centers, and finally, a group of far-seeing men selected two acres on the Hill as a site for the Courthouse, and that Courthouse served Bourbon County. Virginia, and then, in 1792, Bourbon County, Kentucky.[52]

Bourbonites, like all other Kentuckians, rejoiced over their independent status. For years settlers had quarreled with the "Old Dominion" government. Distance worked hardships. Local interests varied considerably from Virginia concerns. Kentuckians, in the American tradition, felt under represented, overtaxed, and used by Virginia politicos. Land controversies and legal appeals were impossible for any but the weathy to take back to Virginia. Because of its population, location and leadership. Bourbon county exercised significant influence in early Kentucky government.

*This is incorrect. Hinkson was in Pennsylvania in 1779.--REF
[1] Bourbon County, 175th Birthday Celebration, (Paris; 1961), II, 7.
[2] Anna Russell DesCognets, Governor Garrard of Kentucky (Lexington: 1898), 7-11.
[3] Ibid.. Western Citizen, January 24, 1862.
[4] Order Book A, Bourbon County Court, 1.
[5] Ibid., 1-2.
[6] Ibid., 3-4.
[7] Whitley, Footnote No. 50. February 28. 1958. Order Book a, 338
[8] Ibid., 1-62.
[9] Ibid., 3-7.
[10] Order Book A, 10-15, 64, 86.
[11] Ibid., 181, 198, 236-237. 506.
[12] Ibid., 36 et seq.
[13] Ibid., 56 as one of many examples.
[14] Hinkston was not always spelled with a "t" in the early accounts but for consistency I shall use the "t".
[15] Whitley, Footnote No. 45, January 10, 1958.
[16] Order Book A, 36, 49, 56.
[17] Ibid., 148.
[18] Ruddle was the spelling of this name in almost all the early court records although later accounts spell it Ruddell. I shall use the original.
[19] Order Book A, 306, 387, 409, 513, 561, 562.
[20] Court Order Book A, 162-164. Hutchinson paid 15 shillings per acre damaged whereas John Nichols paid 23 shillings per orchard damage.
[21] Order Book A, 306, 387, 409, 513, 561, 562.
[22] Whitley, Footnote No. 46, January 24, 1958.
[23] Ibid., Footnote No. 49, February, 1958.
[24] Whitley, Footnote No. 47, January 31, 1958.
[25] Ibid., Footnote No. 46, January 24, 1958.
[26] Ibid. Footnote No. 48, February 7, 1958.
[27] Order Book A, 27.
[28] Order Book A, 82.
[29] G.R. Keller and J.M. McCann, Sketches of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky (Paris: 1876), 4-5. The town was probably named after Hopewell, Maryland.
[30] Keller and McCann, Sketches of Paris, 5-6.
[31] Order Book A, 8.
[32] Order Book A, 114, 123, 127.
[33] Ibid., 239, 310, 308.
[34] Ibid., 239.
[35] Ibid., 258-261.
[36] Ibid., 402.
[37] See the Bourbon County Court Order Books.
[38] Order Book A, 50. John Scott and William Griffith.
[39] Richard Derret, a Methodist minister received the first Bourbon certification in August, 1787. Order Book A, 65.
[40] Ibid., 443-447, 466-468.
[41] Order Book A, 492-558.
[42] Ibid., 543-545, 555-558.
[43] Ibid., 77.
[44] Ibid., 253.
[45] Ibid., 237, 245, 286-288, 491 a second charge of buggering. In both cases it was carnal knowledge of a mare.
[46] Order Book A. 37-38, 89, 180, 207, 361, 372, 571.
[47] Ibid., 105-107.
[48] Ibid., 348.
[49] Order Book a, 1-4, 8, 29, 105, 182, 213, 234, 252, 255, 268, 359, 373, 410, 481. William Griffith also served as secretary for a majority of the eighteenth century Court sessions.
[50] Order Book A, 338.
[51] Whitley, Footnote No. 13, May 10, 1957.
[52] Order Book A, 555.

Bourbon leadership and influence in the state peaked in the 1790s. The county sent a most prestigious group of men to the Kentucky state convention of 1792. The delegation included Colonel John Edwards, an experienced Virginia Convention delegate who voted for the ratification of the federal constitution; Sheriff Benjamin Harrison, a dutiful servant of the Bourbon Court; John "Wildcat" McKinney, the famous Bluegrass teacher; James Smith, a political novice: and Bourbon's most dynamic political leader: James Garrard. These men played an active role in drawing up the state constitution.[1]

Due to their recent frontier experience and concern for security, the men championed a strong defense system. Significantly, the newly adopted constitution stated "Freemen of this Commonwealth shall be armed and disciplined for its defense". Moreover an assembly act of June 24, 1792, divided the state into sections, with brigades and regiments in each. By December, the assembly made "all free males between eighteen and forty-five years liable for military duty" with the exceptions of officials, professors, ministers, jailers, and "persons concerned at iron or lead works". The act empowered the Governor to appoint "all officers with the advice and consent of the Senate".[2]

For many years, Bourbon County, because of its size, boasted two regiments. In 1811, they added another one. Attorney John Allen was the early paymaster. James Duncan, William Arnold, Jacob Spears, John and Thomas Jones were prominent officers in these early years.[3]

Following the constitutional convention, Bourbon leadership soared when the legislature chose Colonel John Edwards as one of Kentucky's first U.S. Senators in 1792. Four years later, James Garrard, by far the most popular of all Bourbon politicians, became Governor, holding that office for eight years. As governor, Garrard supported passage of a bill to grant actual occupants title to the land they possessed and improved. He denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts and praised the reopening of navigation on the Mississippi river as a limitless opportunity for Kentuckians.[4]

As chief executive, he remained on the sidelines during the 1799 Constitutional convention, but discreetly urged Bourbon delegates to support the termination of slavery. The Second Constitution limited a governor to one term, hence Garrard was the only Kentucky Governor to succeed himself.[5] Garrard undoubtedly was pleased that the new document retained the governor's power to appoint the judiciary.

To this second constitutional convention, Bourbon County sent some experienced politicians but James Duncan, William Griffith, Nathaniel Rogers and John Allen were men of local repute and their interests and persuasion remained localized.[6] By this time, however, citizens no longer worried over the Indian menace, political order, or the survival of the state. Consequently, the 1799 delegates reflected more immediate Bourbon interests: clearing forests, destroying undergrowth, building roads, establishing townships, and expanding farmlands.

Land surveyors, as late as the turn of the century, noted the survival of small clumps of cane as well as virtual forests of white, black, and blue ash, hickory, hackberry, wild cherry, beech, buckeye, elm, and sugar trees. The plum orchard seeded by Indian hunters passing through the Cane Ridge area decades earlier had become a local landmark.[7]

Undoubtedly, early pioneers wasted timber because of its abundance. Farmers disliked hackherry trees and simply burned them to rid the landscape of their presence. They used ash for agricultural implements, harness work, carriage shafts, boat oar, and for flooring in carriages and the finer homes. Several families of the Cane Ridge area possessed blue ash floors. Pioneers used beech trees for furniture, especially chairs, and the cherry wood for cabinets and woodwork.[8]

Throughout the 1790s, wolves often traveled the Bourbon area in ferocious packs. Under Virginia law and later Kentucky law, citizens turned in scalps of wolves which they had killed and the county paid a bounty of 100 pounds of tobacco for a full grown animal and half that amount for smaller ones. Magistrates confiscated the scalps. Numerous Bourbonites took advantage of this proposition. Samuel Blackburn, in 1787, turned in seventeen scalps which forever remained the oneyear record.[9]

At the close of the century, livestock grazed in the disappearing woods or ran loose. Enclosures were illegal. Consequently, Bourbonites turned to the traditional ear-marking for identification of their cattle, hogs, and sheep. Owners registered ear marks at the Courthouse. The swallow fork, underkeel, rounding crop, and a hole were popular marks.[10] From 1788 onward, farmers recorded their markings. Jacob Spears used a swallow fork in each ear. This mark, perhaps the easiest and simplest, was a cut like the deeply forked tail of a swallow.[11]

The number of livestock increased as seen in the Court's erection of stray pens or pounds near the Courthouse. Citizens turned in loose stock. The Court took ads in newspapers and allowed a waiting period for counterclaims. Then for a maintenance fee, it turned unclaimed animals over to the finders and sold some strays at public auction.[12]

In 1801, the Kentucky Legislature provided a penalty and-or imprisonment for "fraudently altering or defacing the marks or brands on any horse creature, meat cattle, sheep, hog or goat".[13] Early farmers needed to move their livestock and farm produce to market, hence they promoted road construction as well as water (ravel. The Bourbon Court investigated, reported and recommended roads from Harrods Lick to the Lexington highway, Miller's Mill to Blue Licks, Strode's Station and Ruddle's Mill to Cvnthiana,[14] North Middletown to Millersburgh, Paris to Mount Sterling, the Cynthiana Road. and Swinneytown to Blue Licks.[15]

Not content to simply widen the old buffalo traces. Bourbonites developed a series of internal improvements during this expansionist era. Two men petitioned the Court for the right to erect a ferry across the Licking River. The Court set rates on all ferrys of the county. Wagon teams and four-wheeled carriages paid four shillings, men on horseback paid eight pence, footmen or lone horses paid four pence, cattle four pence, and two-wheeled carriages paid two shillings.[16]

The Court spent a great deal of time ordering, planning, and maintaining bridges. It ordered the first permanent bridge over Stoner Creek in 1796. The justices detailed their restrictions to the number of pillars, kinds of timber, size, footage, locks, width, and length and set a maximum cost. After letting bids, they hired James McLaughlin as builder and required him to pledge improvements and maintenance for a period of years.[17]

The construction of Stoner Bridge spurred activity and political pressure in other quarters. Shortly, the Court discussed bridge projects at Hinkston Creek and Ruddle's Mill. It placed the same restrictions on the Hinkston bridge. Although it allowed 160 pounds for the Stoner bridge and 180 pounds for the Hinkston project, the Court concluded that it could not actually afford to pay such high prices.[18] Notwithstanding, it completed both projects by 1790.

By 1800, the Court noted that Stoner Bridge needed repairs and that James McLaughlin, the contractor, had broken bond, hence it ceased payments.[19] Soon, whole planking, two of the sleepers and all the railings were missing. This time the Court brought suit against McLaughlin for failing to keep the bridge operable. It ordered reconstruction of Stoner Bridge,[20] and a review of Hinkston Bridge and its necessary repairs.[21]

As Bourbonites cleared land, and established routes for commerce, they constructed stronger and more elaborate homes. Clarke's Run, near Paris, was a log house with portholes and served as place for refuge from Indians as early as 1784. Clay Fort, a stone dwelling, near Escondida Road, was the home of Dr. Henry Clay. Kiser House, another stone edifice, on Peacock Road, served as the headquarters of the Bourbon Court in 1786.[22] Thomas Kennedy helped construct Strode's Fort in the 1780s and then built "Auvergne" with its two-foot-thick walls.[23]

Henry Ewalt, in 1788, purchased 200 acres of land on Cynthiana Pike and built a two-story frame house with a stone chimney and an ash and walnut interior. This Revolutionary War veteran possessed one of the most elegant homes with paneled walls and molded ceilings, and decorated with exquisite hand carvings.[24] Georgetown Pike, during the stagecoach days, boasted Johnson's Inn, an eleven-room brick house with brick partitions between rooms. Solid walnut doors and woodwork, and a brick Dutch Oven and six bar-room presses made the Inn a favorite stopping place for travelers. Each room possessed a fireplace and many important social functions convened here.[35]

John Metcalfe, the county's most famous builder, and the older half-brother of Kentucky's future governor, possessed a distinctive style for dressing stone and hand carving wood trim. He may have reached his peak in the 1780s when he built John Miller's stone house in Millersburgh, Governor Garrard's famed Mount Lebanon (1786) on Cooper's Run, an L-shaped house with S-shaped braces reinforcing the walls and famed for its ash woodwork, and the eventual home of Abram Spears, "Harkaway" (1787) on Ruddle's Mill road with its two-foot-thick walls and wooden pegs to hold beams together. The courthouse contractor also worked on Old Vimont House in Millersburgh in 1791 with its beautiful stone and landscaped French garden.[26]

Captain James Wright erected a log house on Houston Creek in 1788 and later made brick for the expansion of his home: Roccliggan.[27] By the turn of the century Bourbonites seemed to associate brick with affluence. Paris as well as the county at large boasted fine homes.

Platt Bayless, a Main Street hatter, and Thomas Arnold, the county clerk, who resided on Pleasant Street, constructed brick houses. Pleasant Street's Lyle Seminary was an imposing brick edifice and High, Main, and Pleasant Streets boasted several brick homes in the early 1800s.

The county kept pace in the new construction with William Garth's Cave Spring on the Georgetown Road, "Woodlawn" on Peacock. Road, Walnut Lea on Georgetown Road, the Grange on Maysville Road, James Rice's Glen Oak on Thatcher's Mill, Eden on Harrod's Creek Road, "Greenwood" on Cane Ridge Road, and William T. Buckner's Xalapa on North Middletown Road. By the 1830s the Shropshires constructed Valley Forge on the Gano Road, the Kennedys built Runnymede" on Cynthiana Pike and Garrett Davis was contracting "the Larches" in Paris.[29]

Although many of the homes of the 1820s were of Georgian style, the Grange, with its beautiful tetrastyle portico was the prize example. By the following decade and for the remainder of the ante-bellum period architects focused on Greek Revival homes with Hellenized doors, windows and porticos. Two-storied galleries at the rear of the homes were less delicate in style.[30]

While Bourbon County enjoyed more than its share of elegant houses, many early settlers lived in simple log huts. Builders filled the chinks with mud or stone, plastered mud on the outside, included a few windows, an occasional log floor, and constructed chimneys of logs plastered with mud and topped by clapboard roofs. Latch-string door holes were common.

All this house construction spawned other projects. In an attempt to keep pace with changing times, the Bourbon Court, in 1797, ordered construction of a new brick courthouse on the public grounds. William Griffith, long-time justice, and initiator of the original courthouse, presided over the session. The justices agreed that the new courthouse should be luxurious by contemporary standards. The Court ordered advertisements in the Kentucky Herald and the letting of construction to the lowest bidder at public auction. It provided 500 pounds for the initial work and promised "the balance should be laid in as a claim against the county at the next county levy." Directions included hewn logs in the Swedish style, skilled carpentry and joining, and a Court representative overseeing the brickwork.[31]

The justices furnished the Court with an attorney's bar, judicial benches, clerk's tables, and jury rooms. John Metcalfe, "Old Stonehammer", one of Bourbon's finest builders, laid the stone for the new Courthouse.[32] 'The future of Paris seemed assured.

Elsewhere, James Swinney, in 1797, established a mill between Paris and Mount Sterling. One of his neighbors, Thomas Hutchcraft, followed suit and then applied for an ordinary license. Swinney, obviously facing competition, established an ordinary house, or tavern, himself. Probably due to his earlier settling of the area, the name of the new village became Swinneytown. Roads into the hamlet bore the Swinneytown label.[33] Only later, because of its location, would it become Middletown, and then, after the Civil War, to avoid confusion with the Jefferson County post office, North Middletown.

In 1798, John Miller established a town on 100 acres of land along Hinkston's Fork. William Griffith and William McClelland were among the town's first trustees. They named it Millersburgh.[34] The Court soon divided the county into election districts and Millersburg was Number Eight.[35] Following Griffith's death and the resignation of another original founder, John Miller secured the appointment of his brother Robert and a close friend, James McClelland as new trustees.[36] The Millers and McClellands maintained a voice in Millersburgh political life for years. They secured the Hinkston Bridge as well as numerous roads to other parts of the county. By 1802, the Court, recognizing Millersburgh's growth, appointed three patrollers to protect the town.[37]

The French influence was felt in Millersburgh when John Savary, a businessman, merchant, and glass manufacturer, moved to the area in 1796, and opened a store which shipped goods to New Orleans. He served as first postmaster of the town. His assistant, a young Corsican, Louis Vimont, lived with Savary and clerked until 1810 when he established his own business. Doctor Duhamel, a physician, practiced physics and medicine in the community from 1797 onward.[38] Meanwhile, the Cane Ridge area, although it lacked any towns, flourished. It 'included several mills, a church, and a seminary. In the early period Cane Ridgers earned a reputation for political and religious liberalism. Colonel Edmund Lyne a former Virginian, expressed anti-slavery attitudes during his years as a Jeffersonian Land Court Judge. His final ten years of Bourbon residence hardened his views, and his will liberated all his slaves and provided for their "future maintenance".[39]

In 1798, the Reverend Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian, minister, appeared before the Bourbon Court and took the oath permitting him" to solemnize marriages, agreeable to the rites and ceremonies of the Presbyterian church", and to conduct testimonials and other religious rituals.[40] Once exposed to Cane Ridge ideology, Stone adopted the community's anti-slavery ideas. Stone barely began preaching before Andrew Rogers, a prominent farmer, manumitted five of his Negro slaves.[41] Within a few years. Rogers freed a total of nine. Probably stirred by Roger's action, Mr. Stone traveled to Court and freed his two Negroes "Ned and Lucy", condemning slavery as being "inconsistent with the principles of Christianity as well as civil liberty".[42]

That same year, 1801, James Purviance, Sr., "set at liberty" nine slaves and his son James, Jr., freed his Negro girl. The anti-slavery attitude seemed to be spreading.[43] In all Bourbonites freed over three hundred slaves by 1815. Religious fervor at Cane Ridge complemented the political ideas. David Purviance, moved by his father's high morality, became a Presbyterian minister and the Bourbon Court registered his credentials in 1804.[44] It seems certain that the Purviances, however, encountered some opposition to their anti-slavery views. Notwithstanding, young David fell under Stone's influence. The great minister immersed Purviance in Stoner Creek. Both men signed the "Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery" on June 28, 1804, affirming their religious freedom and changing their denomination's name to Christian Church.[45] The Purviances led four other Bourbon families into Ohio in 1807. They founded a settlement and called it New Paris. Under their leadership it became a staunch anti-slavery community.[46]

The church made Cane Ridge a community. It stimulated social consciousness and activity by the citizenry. Robert W. Finley bought a sizeable portion of that "unbroken canebrake". It was so thick and tall that it was impassable.[47] Gilbert Imlay, a Revolutionary War veteran and surveyor cut cane fifteen to sixteen feet high and two inches thick. However, livestock fattened on the lush cane.[48] The new residents, however, decided to clear the area and build a church. Peter Houston, one of the builders, recalled that "men directing the hauling of the logs to the site had to climb trees in order to instruct the drivers which way to turn".[49]

The Reverend Mr. Finley and others cleared the gigantic canebrake. They cut out a seven-mile stretch of ash, walnut, locust, oak, and cane. On the newly cleared landscape they erected a log-cabin seminary and at a distance from it, a church. The meeting house, as they called it, had a "roof of clapboard, a puncheon floor, cracks or large vacancies between the logs... a pulpit o clapboard, no glass in the windows... seats of rough-hewed puncheon, no fireplace".[50]

Ridgers hardly completed clearing enough land for a church before the area became known for its religious fervor. The most famous camp meeting was "the great revival of 1800". Seventeen Presbyterian ministers and an unknown quantity of Methodist and Baptist preachers assembled at the meeting house. As many as seven at a time took the stump, wagon bottoms, or tree limbs and shouted at crowds gathered around carriages, horses, or on foot. Perhaps 20,000 settlers, in over one-hundred wagons sang, prayed, screamed, jerked, danced, and fainted.[51]

In this "great revival", the frontier ministers converted hundreds, some proved sincere, others acted on emotions of the moment. The gospel they spoke of emphasized love, harmony, union. Recognizing the guilt feelings of many, some speakers appealed to the emotions. Many revivalists later freed their slaves, thus not all was sham.[52]

The educational standards of the frontiersmen were not high. Religion had to appeal to the emotions but some historians have misrepresented the "great revival", for it had its idealists, moralists, and intellectuals. The Reverend Mr. Finley, founder of the Cane Ridge Meeting House and Log Cabin Seminary was a Princeton scholar, a linguist, a great mind. Barton W. Stone had studied theology at a North Carolina academy, and he preached of a God of love, a gospel for all, a restoration of the true church of Christ, and a return to the Bible; afterwards he regretted some of the fanaticism expressed by his associates at the 1800 meeting. More than any other man, he raised the level of doctrinal debate, and established the ideas which distinguished and separated the Disciples movement from other Protestant sects.[53]

Stone had attended revivals throughout the frontier and noted strange exercises including jerking, barking, and dancing, but he was more interested in ideas. In Bourbon County he preached the universality of the gospel, the quest of all men for salvation, and the assurance that all men, through faith, could obtain eternity. He departed from his Calvinist background by rejecting predestination. He emphasized baptism by immersion, and insisted on congregational government, regular communion, and the divinity of Christ. He concluded that the Bible was the only creed necessary for faith and Christian practice.[54] Notwithstanding, the physical appeal of the new frontier religion probably spurred its early growth more than ideology.

Cane Ridgers were not alone in their religious zeal. Many early settlers devoted great attention to building churches in the community and saw them as a significant sign of civilization. Many congregations met in private homes until they could construct a separate building.

Between 1790 and 1816, over a dozen builders took on apprentices, advertised in local newspapers, and made major contributions to the construction of permanent homes, businesses, and churches in Bourbon County.[55] Stone masons, carpenters and joiners cooperated in building a community. Joiners finished interiors of the stone houses and also made furniture and decorative woodwork which necessitated great skill and artistry. Much of their work has survived to the present and can be seen in the older homes of the area.

Although the Cane Ridge Church was the most famous on the frontier, Cooper's Run joined the Elkhorn Association and sent delegates to its sessions. James Garrard preached there until his inauguration as governor. Stephen Ruddle represented it as a missionary to the Indians, and the young, long-haired, earringed missionary and his Indian wife undoubtedly were not strangers to the Baptist community.[56]

Negroes and Whites attended the church, and all were allowed "to exercise their gift" by speaking to the congregation. The economy prevented hiring a regular minister, or adequately paying him, so elders generally presided. The early Bourbon Baptists, emphasized family prayer, footwashing, confession, reading the Bible, and the wrongs of slavery. When the church expressed its denial of the Trinity, the Elkhorn Association expelled it. The Cooper's Run people preferred the New Testament and gravitated toward unitarianism. They expressed liberal views on church government and the creed. After the revival at Cane Ridge, a great number moved toward the Christian Church.[57]

The Cooper's Run Church record book related habits, customs, manners and morals of its people. Sin was a serious offense. The church disciplined its members, punished, and even expelled a few. Serious offenses included: poor attendance, excessive drinking, swearing, lying, fiddling at dances, dancing, gambling, horse racing, adultery, and misconduct. The Church particularly frowned on women for tattling, quarreling, or "vamping". (Unfortunately the church record does not explain this last term). The church disciplined Negroes, too, for these same sins.[58]

While Baptists were organizing Cooper's Run, the Presbyterians formed congregations at Hinkston Creek, Stoner Mouth, Sinking Spring, and Hopewell (still standing on the Lexington Pike) during the 1780s. Methodists assembled at Mount Gilead a few years later. At the turn of the century, Baptists founded the Elizabeth Baptist and Silas Baptist Churches as well as Stony Point Meeting House. By the 1820s, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists were organizing in Millersburgh and Paris.[59] While many of these churches had regular ministers they failed to pay them adequately, and consequently several opened schools in order to support themselves and their families.

Ministers often referred to their schools as seminaries, thus explaining the great number of seminaries found in Bourbon County in the early days. Many teachers included religious training as part of the educational pattern. Almost all promulgated ideas of temperance, moderation, morality, and correct living. The Bible, or at least the New Testament, was an important literary source or textbook in the early schools.[69]

The Reverend Robert Finley, a North Carolinian, settled at Cane Ridge in the 1780s, and opened a log cabin seminary about a half mile from the historic meeting house. This Presbyterian clergyman emphasized a classical training and his students received the equivalent of a high school education upon the completion of their studies. His anti-slavery attitudes were advanced for his time.[61]

John "Wildcat" McKinney, one of Kentucky's most colorful teachers, famed for his epic struggle with and strangulation of a wildcat in his Lexington schoolhouse, settled at Greenbriar Creek {now Clintonville) in the 1780s. He tutored children at his home and often depicted Kentucky as a land of peace and plenty. By the 1790s, the Cane Ridge and Cooper's Run communities boasted schoolhouses. However, Paris, the largest settlement, lacked a formal school.[62]

For almost thirty years, Bourbonites relied upon private schools for the education of their children. Aside from Bourbon Academy and a few private schools in the city, Bourbonites had the Log Cabin Seminary at Cane Ridge, Clay Seminary in North Middletown, and John A. William's Female Seminary in North Middletown. Too, private tutors offered instruction in music, painting, drawing, sewing, penmanship, and oratorical training at public houses or in the homes.[63]

By 1831, the newspaper and public speakers focused attention on the growing need for public education. Although the fight for free education raged for over a decade, it became obvious to many citizens that education, as it existed, was inequitable and too expensive, and that change, in the near future, was inevitable.[64]

In the typical frontier community, the newspaper, following its establishment, was the most informative educational source. It disseminated local, national, and international news. However, it resembled the modern magazine as it included a variety of professional information. The newspaper also circulated the latest innovations in agricultural tools and techniques. It was a farm journal, a legal periodical, a literary guide, and a cookbook. In Bourbon county, a number of local newspapers and periodicals came into existence.

The famous Western Citizen of Paris, founded in 1807, remained the most important newspaper for Bourbonites throughout the ante-bellum, period. Millersburgh. however, boasted two newspapers during the 1820s: the Kentucky lntelligencer and the Kentucky Democrat. The county supported several periodical efforts, including The Instructor, 1818; The Literary Pamphleteer, 1823; the Western Observer, 1826; The Register, 1877, and the Paris Weekly Advertiser, 1827.[65] All were short lived.

Professional organizations dispersed an infinite variety of knowledge to the general public. The Bourbon Agricultural Society, formed in 1821, was one of the most important disseminators of agricultural, hence practical, ideas and techniques. It promoted the breeding of superior strains of cattle, sheep, and horses. It aided agricultural productivity and promoted surpluses which contributed greatly to Bourbon prosperity.[66] As evidenced by the coverage of its meetings in the Western Citizen, the Society was one of the most active and informative mediums in the community, truly a progressive educational channel. And, after all, it was agriculture that made Bourbon County prosperous.

As Bourbon agriculture and business accelerated; its citizenry became more materialistic. This new attitude surfaced in the newspaper advertisements and in church meetings which denounced the acquisitive spirit. The Court, too, noted the increasing materialism and secularism of its people. Estates included livestock, furniture, spinning wheels, chests, silverware, candles, looms, buckets, iron pots, kettles, pans, dishes, flour barrels, coffee mills, hemp, bookcases, candlesticks, churns, dutch ovens, flax, grindstones, axes, hoes, garden tools, desks, bells, and slaves. [67]

The crime rate rose with the expansion of material wealth in the county. In order to protect citizens' livestock that roamed the open countryside, the Court ordered construction of a new stray pound to replace the existing one which had poor stone, and a low, weak wall of logs.[68] By 1800, the Court laid off an area for another jail and a walled exercise ground near the Hill. It ordered erection of a stone wall around the new grounds. The wall of the jail building was forty-four feet high and two feet thick. It was built of limestone.[69] Even with these improvements, the sheriff often came to court and protested against the "insufficient jail".[7O] By 1806, the Court had to provide new door frames, sheet iron for lining, fasteners, ladders, and walls for the jail.[71]

John Walls, the jailer. appeared before the Court to answer charges of "misbehavior and neglect of duty". The Court dismissed him and ordered him to deliver over the jail keys.[72 ] It also decided to construct a new building, as a result of the numerous complaints concerning security.

Sheriff Laban Shipp, an influential justice of the peace, promoted a "new jail" in 1810 as the Court ordered a forty-by-twenty-two foot building, two stories, two rooms, a strong room for the most dangerous criminals, a staircase or ladder to the second floor, and a strong door lined with sheet iron. The new building must be built of ash, walnut, and cherry timber. It was located seventy feet from the Courthouse for safety from fire and accident. The jail faced High street. Properly built, it was to alleviate the need for extra guards. The Court estimated a cost of $1000, a truly great expense for the time but perhaps a necessary one.[73]

Bourbonites, like other slave societies, worried about the idle Negro, even the free Negro. The fact that several slaves burglarized shops and restored to violence on occasion acerbated the fear. Consequently, patrols or military officials challenged any Negro who seemed to be out of line. The Court, in 1801, released Lewis, a slave jailed for "going out at large and hiring himself out" when it learned he had his owner's permission.[74] Practically every court session apprenticed free Negro boys or girls to tradesmen if their parents seemed to lack proper means of support, especially if they lacked a father.[75]

The Court not only worried about the Negro, it also feared the indigent White. Determined not to bear the expense of the fatherless infant, the Court charged numerous men with "fathering bastard children" and ordered the guilty to financially support their offspring for several years. The county refused to accept such an onerous and expensive role.[76]

Both races committed unpardonable crimes. Alexander Millwright "feloniously, willfully, and corruptly forged and counterfeited a certain bill of exchange" and defrauded merchants Hugh Brent, Jacob Spears, and William Kelly.[77] However, the public best remembered the crimes of free Negroes or slaves.

Even by 1810, the Western Citizen carried ads for runaway slaves in almost every publication.[78] The Court heard numerous cases concerning Negro crimes: murder, rape, burglary. Daniel, a slave, "seduced by the Devil... forcibly and with arms entered the room of Delphia, a Negro slavewoman, crushed her head with an iron and steel-edged ax ...and cut a mortal wound to three inches and a depth of four inches". The Court ordered him "hanged by the neck until dead".[79] On August 24, 1808, Brice, a man of color, assaulted Polly Eastin "menacing her with danger of her life ...and forcibly feloniously and against her consent" attempted "To ravish and carnally know her".[80]

In the most publicized case, Nat, a mulatto, burglarized McKee's store in Millersburgh and took cloth, handkerchieves, penknives, an umbrella, and over thirty-six dollars worth of merchandise.[81] Reuben, a negro slave, entered the same store and took moroccan slippers, a hat, an umbrella, and other merchandise. The Court found both men guilty and ordered them 'by the neck until dead".[82] Perhaps because of his vested interest, the Court named James McKee Captain of the Millersburgh Patrol.[83]

Miller a Negro slave, committed murder; Joe, a Negro slave, attempted to rape a white woman; other Negro men burglarized Bourbon property; and all found guilty were sentenced to death by hanging.[84] A Negro woman, Care, although charged with murder, was acquitted and the case dismissed.[85] Thus not all cases were determined by rule of color.

Despite all prosecutions and precautions, Millersburgh experienced the most brutal murder of the era when a slave of James McClelland's took an ax and attacked, assaulted, and broke the skull of Kissiah Simpson. Another hanging did not alleviate public fear.[86] Consequently, Millersburgh became the antithesis of Cane Ridge on the slavery issue. Politically the two areas remained at odds for decades with Burghers defending slavery and the precautions used to extend it while Ridgers condemned it. Despite the early slavery controversy, Census reports underlined the expansion of Bourbon slavery. The number doubled in 1800 to over 2000 slaves, by 1810 there were over 4000 slaves, and by 1830 there were 6800 slaves out of a population of 18,000.[87] The Bourbon communities, Black and White, continued to thrive.

[1] George L. Willis, Sr., "History of Kentucky Constitutians and Constitutional Conventions", FCHQ, XXVIII (October, 1930), 305-325. Mann Butler, A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (Louisville: 1834), 166, 212, 241.
[2] G. Glen Clift, The Cornstalk Militia of Kentucky, 1792-1811 (Frankfort: 1957), iii-iv. Acts passed at the First Session of the General assembly, (Lexington: 1792), 37-38.
[3] Clift, Cornstalk Militia, viii-xvi, 28.
[4] Butler, History of Commonwealth, 262-263, 241. Western Citizen January 24, 1862.
[5] Ibid..
[6] Willis, "Kentucky Constitutions", FCHQ, XXVIII, 313-316.
[7] Bourbon County Land Entry Books, 1786-1791.
[8] Whitley, Footnote No. 36, November 1, 1957.
[9] Ibid., No. 38, November 15, 1957. Order Book A. B, C.
[10] Whitley, Footnote No. 52, March 14, 1958.
[11] Order Book A, 123, 294, 311.
[12] Whitley, Footnote No. 52, March 14, 1958.
[13] Ibid..
[14] Order Book B, 8, 31, 209, 337, 478-479, etc..
[15] Order Book C, 10, 34, 51, 150, 257, 271, 410.
[16] Order Book B, 75, 87, 410.
[17] Order Book B, 269-272.
[18] Order Book B, 4, 34.
[19] Ibid., 82.
[20] Ibid., 368.
[21] Ibid., 380, 564, 668.
[22] Kentucky Heritage Commission, Survey of Historical Sites in Kentucky (Lexington: 1971), IV, 8-12, III, 134.
[23] Whitley, Footnote No. 60.
[24] Kentucky Citizen, July 7, 1928, 53; Survey of Historic Sites. III. 137.
[25] Ibid., III, 138. Kentucky Citizen, July 7, 1928, 47. Elizabeth P. Thomas, Old Kentucky Homes, 68.
[26] Thomas, Old Kentucky Homes, 9-10,67-68. Whitley, Footnote No. 60.
[27] Thomas, Old Kentucky Homes, 73-74.
[28] Survey of Historical Sites, III, 135, 138-139.
[29] Ibid., 133-143. Thomas, Old Kentucky Homes, 69-70, 73-77.
[30] "The Architecture of Old Kentucky", FCHQ, XXXI (July, 1933), 189-195.
[31] Order Book B, 441. Minute Book, 1794-1797, 193-194. Whitley, Footnote No. 60, May 16, 1958.
[32] Court Order Book B, 470, 640. Whitley Footnote No. 60, May 16, 1958. McCann, Sketches of Paris, 8.
[33] Court Order Book B, 468-469, 475, 525, 533.
[34] Court Order Book B, 642, 643.
[35] Court Order Book B, 664-665.
[36] Court Order Book C, 126, 144.
[37] Order Book C, 270.
[38] Huntley Dupre, "The French in Early Kentucky". FCHQ, XV (1941), No. 2, 78-104. Draper MSS, 16cc, 51-52.
[39] Whitley, Footnote No. 17, June 21, 1957.
[40] Order Book B, 641.
[41] Order Book C, 29.
[42] Order Book C. 175-176.
[43] Ibid.. 218-219.
[44] Ibid., 401.
[45] Whitley, Footnote No. 25, August 16. 1957.
[46] Ibid..
[47] Ibid., Footnote No. 35, October 23, 1957.
[48] Bourbon County Survey Book, 6.
[49] Whitley, Footnote No. 35, quote from Memoirs of Frank Houston of North Middletown.
[50] Whitley, Footnote No. 110, June, 1965.
[51] Z.F. Smith, "The Great Revival of 1800", Register, VII (September, 1909), 21-35. Marian S. Houchens, "The Great Revival of 1800", Register, LXIX, 216-234. Wayne Shaw, "The Historians' Treatment of the Cane Ridge Revival", Register, XXXVII (July, 1963), 249-251.
[52] Ibid., 250-252.
[53] Ibid., 252-257. Smith, "The Great Revival", 35.
[54] Ibid.
[55] Whitley, Footnote No. 60-61, May, 1958. Mrs. Whitley complied the most extensive list of early builders of the county and included the names and numerous apprentices who served under them.
[56] Edna T. Whitley, "Cooper's Run Baptist Church, Bourbon County," Register, XXII (September, 1924), No. 86, 252-260.
[57] Ibid..
[58] Whitley, "Cooper's Run Baptist Church", 252.
[59] Edna P. Whitley, "Early Bourbon County Churches", an unpublished article in her private collection. It contains specific dates and names of churches.
[60] McCann, Sketches of Paris, 28 et seq.. Sanders, Presbyterians, 3-5.
[61] Whitley, Footnote No. 110B, July1, 1965; Footnote No. 35, October 23, 1957; Footnote No. 78, November, 1958. Western Citizen, July 13, 1860.
[62] Julia S. Ardery and Harry V. McChesney (eds) Kentucky in Retrospect, 1792-1842 (Frankfort: 1942), 146-147. Otto A. Rothert. "John D. Shane's Interview with Mrs. John McKinney and Her Son Harvey, Bourbon County", FCHQ, V (July, 1939), 157-162. Sylvia Petit Welch, "Six Letters By Pioneer John McKinney" FCHQ, XIV (April, 1940), 103-116. Draper MSS, 11cc, 25-27. McCann, Sketches of Paris, 12.
[63] See Western Citizen advertisements, 1810-1830.
[64] Ibid., October 8, 1831, contained one of the first letters to the public urging educational change.
[65] Kenneth W. Rawlings. "Trial List of Titles of Kentucky Newspapers and Periodicals Before 1860", Register, XXXVI (July, 1938), 279-281.
[66] Western Citizen, February 13, 1821; 1821-1830. Whitley, Footnote, No. 33, 1958.
[67] Court Order Book C, Estate of Daniel Matheny, 426-427, and Estate Of Edward Fugate. 700-701.
[68] Order Book C, 486.
[69] Ibid., 142, 218, 232.
[70] Ibid., 287, 402, 349.
[71] Ibid., 666, 684.
[72] Minute Book, Bourbon County. 1810-1814, 29.
[73] Court Order Book D, 294-298.
[74] Order Book C, 204.
[75] Order Book D, 103, for example: "Charlotte, a free woman of color brought her son Sam, age 15, and the Court bound him out to learn the art, trade and mystery of a spinner and weaver". Order Book D, 89, contained three additional cases of Negro women bringing their children to court.
[76] Order Book C, 506-507, 126-127, 576.
[77] Ibid., 712-713.
[78] Western Citizen, April 21, 1810 et seq..
[79] Bourbon Court Order Book F, 155-156.
[80] Minute book, 1806-1810, 179.
[81] Ibid., 293-295. Order Book D, 172-178.
[82] Minute Book, 1806-1810, 296-297. Order Book D, 172-178.
[83] Ibid., 178
[84] Ibid., 83-87. Minute Book, 1806-1810, 218-223; Minute Book 1810-1814, 23-24, 160-161; Minute Book, 1816-1819, 19.
[85] Minute Book, 1810-1814, 311-312.
[86] Order Book D, 280-281.
[870 Second Census, Third Census, Fifth Census of the United States, Kentucky, Bourbon County.