Jessamine County KyArchives History - Books .....Miscellaneous Facts 1898 File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 6, 2007, 12:55 am Book Title: A History Of Jessamine County, Kentucky Scenery. Jessamine county has some remarkable natural scenery. The Hudson and the Rhine have nothing so beautiful, majestic or grand as the cliffs along the Kentucky and Dix rivers. If they had been open so as to have been accessible, they would have made Jessamine county famous; but for many years they could not be reached by railroad and only a part of them were within the limits of navigation on the Kentucky river, and the small boats and the slow time rendered the journey unattractive to the traveling public. With swift boats operated upon the river now that it is locked and dammed to the extreme limits of Jessamine county, a great tide of visitors will flow in to see these wonderful natural curiosities. The first complete American geography, written by Jedediah Morse and published in 1789 at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, gave a description of the scenery. It says: "The banks or rather the precipices of the Kentucky and Dix rivers are to be reckoned among the natural curiosities of this county. Here the astonished eye beholds three or four hundred feet of solid perpendicular rocks, in some parts of the limestone kind and in others of fine white marble curiously checked with strata of astonishing regularity. These rivers have the appearance of deep, artificial canals. Their high, rocky'-banks are covered with red cedar groves. The accounts of the fertility of the soil have in some instances exceeded belief and probably been exaggerated. The high grounds of Kentucky are remarkably good. The lands of the first rate are top rich for wheat, but will produce fifty to sixty, and in some instances one hundred, bushels and even more of good corn an acre. In common the land will produce thirty bushels of wheat or rye to the acre. Barley, oats, cotton, hemp, flax, and vegetables of all kinds common in this climate yield abundantly. The old Virginia planters say, if the climate does not prove too moist, few soils known will yield more or better tobacco." Dr. Christopher Graham prepared for Collins' History a description of some of these curiosities in Jessamine county, and described them in a most effective and attractive way. He says: "After much vexation and annoyance, occasioned by the difficulties of the road, we arrived near the object of our visit, and quitting our horses, proceeded on foot. Upon approaching the break of the precipice, under the direction of our guide, we suddenly found ourselves standing on the verge of a yawning chasm, and immediately beyond, bottomed in darkness, the Devil's Pulpit was seen rearing its black, gigantic form, from amid the obscurity of the deep and silent valley. The background to this gloomy object presented a scene of unrelieved desolation. Cliff rose on cliff and crag surmounted crag, sweeping off on either hand in huge semicircles, until the wearied eye became unable to follow the countless and billowy-like mazes of that strange and awful scene. The prevailing character of the whole was that of savage grandeur and gloom. A profound silence broods over the place, broken only by the muffled rushing of the stream far down in its narrow passage, cleaving its way to its home in the ocean. Descending by a zigzag path to the shore of the river, while our companions-were making preparations to cross, I strayed through the valley. The air was cool, refreshing and fragrant, and vocal with the voices of many birds. The bending trees, the winding stream with its clear and crystal waters, the flowering shrubs, and clustering vines walled in by these adamantine ramparts-which seem to tower to the skies-make this a place of rare and picturesque beauty. The dew drops still hung glittering on the leaves, the whispering winds played with soft music through the rustling foliage, and the sunbeams struggling through the overhanging forest kissed the opening flowers, and all combined made up a scene of rural loveliness and romance, which excited emotions of unmingled delight. The boat having arrived, the river was crossed without difficulty, and we commenced the ascent, and after measuring up two hundred and seventy feet, arrived at the base of the 'Pulpit.' Fifty paces from this point, and parallel with it, in the solid ledge of the cliff, is a cave of considerable extent. At its termination there passes out like the neck of a funnel, an opening, not larger than a hogshead. Upon pitching rocks into this cave, a rumbling was heard at an immense distance below the earth. Some are of the opinion that this cave contains a bottomless pit. We now ascended the cliffs some fifty feet further, clambering up through a fissure in the rocks, having the Pulpit on our right, and a range of cliffs on our left. To look up here makes the head dizzy. Huge and dark masses roll up above you, upon whose giddy heights vast crags jut out and overhang the valley, threatening destruction to all below. The floating clouds give these crags the appearance of swimming in mid air. The ascent of these rocks, though somewhat laborious, is perfectly safe, being protected by natural walls on either side, and forming a perfect stairway, with steps from eight to ten feet thick. At the head of this passage, there is a hole through the river sidle of the wall, large enough to admit the body, and through which one may crawl, and look down upon the rushing stream below. At the foot of the stairway stands the Pulpit, rising from the very brink of the main ledge, at more than two hundred feet of an elevation above the river, but separated from the portion which towers up to the extreme heights. The space is twelve feet at bottom, and as the cliff retreats slightly at this point, the gap is perhaps thirty feet at the top. The best idea that can be formed of this rock is? to suppose it to be a single column, standing in front of the continuous wall of some vast building, or ruin, the shaft standing as colonnades are frequently built upon an elevated platform. From the platform to the capital of the shaft is not less than one hundred feet, making the whole elevation of the 'Devil's Pulpit' three hundred feet It is called by some the inverted candlestick, to which it has a striking resemblance. There are two swells, which form the base moulding and occupy about forty feet of the shaft. It then narrows to an oblong of about three feet by six, at which point there are fifteen distinct projections. This narrow neck continues with some irregularity for eight or ten feet, winding off at an angle of more than one degree from the line of gravity. Then commences the increased swell, and craggy offsets, first overhanging one side, and then the other, till they reach the top or cap rock, which is not so wide as the one below it, but is still fifteen feet across." Miss Jessamine Woodson, a descendant of distinguished Jessamine ancestors, and who was named for the county, prepared for the Acme Club a history of the county, and some of her descriptions are so vivid and so exquisitely penned that they deserve preservation, in more permanent form than newspaper columns; and the author can not refrain from inserting two paragraphs: Beautiful and highly favored for situation, and beautiful and symmetrical in form, bounded on three sides by the Kentucky river, making a horseshoe, which is for luck as well as beauty, we behold beautiful and highly improved farms, well watered and drained by three pretty creeks and intersected by 130 miles of smooth, well-kept turnpikes made of the blue limestone, which can not be found of the same hard quality anywhere else in the world, and these roads, with the thorough bred horses, the product of the bluegrass and limestone water, is the most attractive feature of this region. Jessamine is better supplied with these roads than her neighbors. We also see her important railways crossing each other in the center of the county and diverging to the four points of the compass, fifteen or more churches and schools, sixteen postoffices and country stores, seven railway stations, three or four villages, besides the county seat, and many a neat, comfortable farm house, and a number of large and elegant country seats, some of tnem dating back to ante-bellum days. We see waving fields of grain, hemp and tobacco and woodland pastures, carpeted with green, velvety grass, and trees that are tall and straight and of great variety and of wondrous beauty, and under these and in the meadows are groups of fat sheep. Jerseys and Shorthorns, thoroughbred horses, Berkshire pigs and Southdown sheep. Thrifty fruit orchards we see, too, and green hedges of osage orange, and stone fences and barn-yards with all sorts of pretty domestic fowls. Our bluegrass pasture lands are our special pride. Grass as soft as velvet, and with blades often a yard long, and as fine as a siken cord, without a weed, growing close to the very trunks of the tall, wide-spreading elms, walnut, oak and maple trees. Here is the home of the dryads and wood nymphs, and here the poet must have been inspired to write, "The Groves were God's First Temples," and these actually were to the noble army of pioneers who first set up "The Banner of the Cross" while building their log cabins with rifles in their hands. The country is gently undulating, with hill and dale, meadow and wood, giving variety and sparing the eye from monotony until you approach the river, when it becomes more rugged, but always grander and more wonderful in beauty and sublimity. It is well and beautifully watered, everywhere unfailing springs of clear, cool water, gushing out from rocky ledges or bubbling out of a mysterious cave, overtopped with waving elm., beach or sugar maple trees. A most welcome sight these were to the pioneers who knew nothing of cisterns and microbes, and they invariably decided the site of the homestead. Near many of these are still to be seen the old, moss-covered spring-house, so suggestive of cool, rich cream and firm, golden butter, and of primitive arcadian life. Such a spring is Jessamine, the source of the creek of the same name, and of Hickman and Sinking creek, which Mr. Collins tells us is a remarkable natural curiosity. It rises near the Fayette line, about a mile north of Providence church, runs west through the beautiful Lafon, Blackford and Sandusky farms, and unites with a smaller, Sinking creek, from the north in Woodford, forming Clear creek. It sinks four times, running under ground from one quarter to a mile each time. At times in the winter and spring, when the water can not sink as fast as it falls, it is fifty feet deep and a mile wide. There are many wonders and curiosities under ground besides these streams. Jessamine Creek. Jessamine creek rises in the northern part of Jessamine county and flows in a southern direction emptying into the Kentucky river a few miles above High Bridge. It rises about two and a half miles above Keene, on the farm now belonging to Mr. Pleasant Cook, which was early settled by the Singletons and Chownings. There arc two large springs from which the water comes up, but both of these have been very much changed in later years. One of the recent owners of the land on which is the creek head, finding the sources of the stream practically bottomless, and that his stock would-sometimes fall in between the ledges, which created a sort of chasm from which the water rose, hauled four or five hundred loads of loose stones and threw them into this opening, thus endeavoring to make it safe, so that stock might walk over it. The result has been that when heavy rains fall, the water boils up on both sides within twenty or thirty feet of the spring itself. It has never been known to go dry. It comes out of the side of the hill, the rocks of which overhang the spring about ten feet high. Two large oak trees grow immediately over the spring, and rise out of the cliff overhanging it. While the stream has never gone dry within the memory of the young men, the current of water has very much decreased in the last fifty years. The headwaters of Jessamine creek are in the midst of one of the most fertile portions of Jessamine county. The Singletons, the Cokers, the Sanduskys, the Chownings, and the Barclays settled in this neighborhood. Jeremiah Singleton, one of the earliest settlers on Jessamine creek, built a mill about half a mile below the mouth of the creek. It was used both as a saw and a grist milk The dam was built first of stone, and afterwards lined with brick laid in cement. The mill itself was built of stone. Steam with its accommodating powers, which could be located on roads or in cities, superseded these old mills, and, about fifteen years ago, the mill was torn down and the bricks in the dam removed and used for other purposes. Beginning at its very mouth,-the creek passes through some of the finest land in Kentucky, which is admirable adapted for corn, but principally for hemp. Beautiful farms with elegant and tasteful residences are seen on every side, and the great fall which it is necessary for the stream to make in order to reach down to the bottom of the tremendous cliffs on the Kentucky river, furnishes magnificent mill sites, and there were no less than six mills along this stream. That part of the stream called the "Narrows," near Glass' mill, has some most beautiful and picturesque scenery. The creek makes a horseshoe bend, the points of the shoe being very close together. Between these the earth rises several hundred feet high, and, standing on either side, you can look far down below upon the stream winding its way in silence and grandeur to its resting place in the bosom of the Kentucky River. High up on the cliffs on the west side of the stream near the "Narrows" is the famous Chrisman Cave. This cave extends a great distance back from the entrance, running in a northwestern course, and it is a neighborhood wonder and attracts many visitors from all parts of the country. A short distance below Spark's Ford is a natural curiosity, known as the "Little Mountain." It is a mound standing out separate and single and having no connection with the cliffs. There by the action of the water, or by some upheaval of nature, it has cut loose from all surroundings, and stands out alone and independent. The creek was given its name prior to 1774, and prior to that time it had been mentioned at Harrodsburg. There are two branches of the creek known as "Main Jessamine" and "East Jessamine." The East Jessamine rises about three-fourths of a mile above Nicholasville, between the Cincinnati Southern and the R, N. I. & B. R. R., on what is known as the Horine Place. It passes through the town of Nicholasville, and, keeping to the east of the Danville Turnpike, enters the main branch about three miles below Nicholasville. The stone mill, known now as "Glass' Mill," three miles from the Kentucky river, is certainly over one hundred and ten (110) years old. It is supposed to have been laid out as a mill-site as early as 1782. It was subsequently turned into a paper mill which was operated as late as 1849. The rag-house and office still stand in a perfect state of preservation. Subsequently it was turned into a distillery, run by a gentleman named Bryan, and is now owned by Mr. Henry Glass. It has water power sufficient to operate the mill seven months in the year, and yields 72-horse power. It is a most admirable site, and is as picturesque and beautiful as it is useful. Jessamine creek is about thirty miles in length. Hickman Creek, Hickman creek rises in Fayette county not far from Lexington, and after running through Fayette and the eastern half of Jessamine county, empties into the Kentucky river near what is known as "Boone's Knob." It is a larger stream than Jessamine creek, and was named for Rev. John Hickman, a pioneer Baptist preacher. It has an east and-west branch, and each of these has numerous tributaries, which pass through high cliffs and ridges, rivaling at times the cliffs on the Kentucky river itself. The country between the two branches of Hickman creek is one of the most fertile in Jessamine county. The section drained by Hickman creek is well timbered, and has still a superb growth of oak, hackberry, ash, and hickory, with a sprinkling of maple. Along this creek the earliest settlements of Jessamine county were made, and some of the best citizens who ever came to Jessamine, made their homes in this locality. Mr. Philip Swigert who was born September 27, 1798, came from this neighborhood. When quite a young man he became a deputy in the Woodford Circuit Court Clerk's office, under John McKinney, who formerly resided in Jessamine. He afterwards removed to Frankfort and died in 1871, in the 74th year of his age. He was one of the most distinguished Masons in the state, a self-made man, and by his native force, great good sense, and indomitable perseverance, acquired a large fortune and also secured a high standing with the best men of the state. He was born on the old farm near Marble Creek schoolhouse, once the property of A. P. Davis. Jas. Rutherford, Sr., was another of the early settlers. He was a man of native force, strong friendships, great will, and a large number of his descendants still live in that portion of the county. Abram Vince, who was born in Pennsylvania, in 1784, and died January 17, 1874, was also one of the settlers in this district. He came to Jessamine in 1803; he was a descendant of the Swiss emigrants who settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, the first half of the eighteenth century. He was a man of high character, great industry, and has left for himself and those who bore his name a goodly heritage. Harrison Daniel also owned property in this section, and long bore honorable and honored part in the government of Jessamine county. He was sheriff of Jessamine county under the Constitution of 1799, as also a Justice of the Peace. He was a man of good education and strong mind. He was a member of the legislature in 1836 and '37. The Bridge at the Mouth of Hickman. The bridge at the mouth of Hickman was long considered one of the engineering wonders of Kentucky. It was part of the structure of the turnpike between Lexington, Nicholasville and Lancaster. It was projected when the state was interested in internal improvements, and was lending its credit ambits money to the construction of railroads, canals and turnpikes. It cost $30,000. The length of a span was 270 feet, which was unusual for a wooden bridge. Garrard county paid a part of the cost of the structure. It required six months to build it, and about eighteen workmen were employed upon it-a large proportion of these were unskilled and received a dollar a day. It was erected in 1838 by Lewis B. Wernwag, a native of Pennsylvania; he died in Lexington, Mo., in 1874, aged seventy-six years. For the time and with the materials at hand, it is a wonderful structure. It has now remained intact for more than sixty years; it has carried all the traffic required on a great thoroughfare, and during the war it was considered so important that a regiment was stationed on either side to protect it from destruction. It is not only a unique piece of engineering, but, in view of the advances in engineering since that time, was a signal triumph; and, while it has long been one of the curiosities of Jessamine, it also stands as a monument to the engineering skill, enterprise and courage of its constructors. It was built some distance above the site and floated down the river on rafts in sections, and when put together in position it was so accurately constructed that not even a hammer was required to adjust its parts. High Bridge. One of the most noted of the engineering feats in the past thirty years, is the celebrated High Bridge, across the Kentucky river, at the mouth of Dick's river. It was built in 1876. The railway approaches the span from either direction along a ledge of rocks several hundred feet above the river, and the perpendicular cliffs run from the track to the waters edge for a mile on either side. Where the bridge crosses the Kentucky river it has an elevation of 276 feet above the river bed. At one time it was the highest bridge on the continent, and at the period of its construction was a marvel of ingenuity. A great many distinguished engineers of the country pronounced the work an impossibility. It was necessary to build the structure without trestling, and for that reason the cantilever principle was introduced. By this principle one span is erected, and from the end of this span is built out into space part of another span. The length to which such spans may be extended out into the air without support is fixed by the weight of the span from which it is built, and these spans from which the cantilevers are extended are generally weighted so that they carry tremendous burdens. Many distinguished engineers of America pronounced the plan of C. Shaler Smith, who constructed this bridge, visionary, and decided that it was not feasible in this way to construct a bridge at this point; but Mr. Smith was a skilled, learned and practical bridge engineer. At this point the Kentucky river with its channel had cut down through the stone cliffs to a depth of about 290 feet. It was necessary to construct the bridge without trestles, and this Mr. Smith undertook to do. He assumed the responsibility of the construction personally, and in the end his designs and his calculations were found to be correct. The great cantilever anus stretched out from the piers on either side, reaching the middle of the channel, and when the last bolt, which was to hold them in place, was driven, it was said that they did not vary 1-100 of an inch from the calculations which this man had made one day in his office in T3altimore. He immediately sprang into prominence as one of the great bridge engineers of the world, and since then others have followed his ideas and adopted his plans. The bridge known as Young's High Bridge, named in honor of Col. Bennett H. Young, over the Kentucky river at Tyrone, has a span 200 feet longer than the one constructed at the mouth of Dick's river. It is built upon the same principle, and thus over the Kentucky river are two of the great cantilever bridges of America. At the time the Lexington & Danville Railroad was to be built, a suspension bridge was designed to cross this chasm, but the railway company failed after the piers had been erected, and these towers stand as a monument to the genius of John A. Roebling, who had the contract from the president of the Lexington & Danville Railroad, Gen. Leslie Combs, to build a suspension bridge, and about $100,000 were spent in the erection of the towers and anchorage for the construction of the suspension bridge which it became necessary to abandon because of the lack of financial support. On one of the towers is this inscription: "Gen. Leslie Combs, born in Clark county, Kentucky, November 28, 1793." The old Cincinnati Railroad from Cincinnati to the South, was at first proposed as an outlet from the Ohio Valley to the southeastern seaboard. The enormous cost of constructing the railroad through the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, deterred private means from undertaking such a task, and the city of Cincinnati, after full investigation, in the summer of 1869, undertook to build a trunk line of railroad from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, in order to give Cincinnati proper connections with all the southern railway systems which centered at Chattanooga, and also to open up to the Cincinnati markets portions of Tennessee and Kentucky. This line passes through Jessamine county for 17 miles, and is now one of the great American railway thoroughfares. To build it, Cincinnati paid out $20,000,000, but it has proven a good investment, and though it will pass from under the control of the city which built it the cost has been amply returned in the benefits it has bestowed. Kentucky River Improvements. The Kentucky river flows through Jessamine county for nearly twenty-five miles. It bounds the county on almost one half of its border lines. The state undertook to improve the Kentucky river, but it abandoned the work, and the locks never reached farther than Frankfort. In 1865 the Kentucky River Navigation Company was incorporated by the Legislature, for the purpose of building new locks and dams, and extending the navigation of the river through Jessamine county. At the September term of the Jessamine County Court, in 1865, John S. Bronaugh was appointed a commission to subscribe for $35,000 of stock in the Kentucky River Navigation Company, and in November, 1867, he was further directed to subscribe for $65,000 additional stock in the company. The company failed and its creditors attached these subscriptions. Their validity was attacked. The courts relieved Mercer and Garrard counties of their subscriptions, but Jessamine county was held for a large proportion of hers and compelled to pay it. The river has been ceded to the United States .The old locks have been enlarged and repaired and new ones built. Navigation is now assured to the mouth of Hickman all the year round. Another lock in process of construction will give navigation throughout the entire river border of the county and in a few years the system of locks will reach the coal fields on the North Fork of the Kentucky and secure to Jessamine county the advantage of river transit for the entire year from the coal fields to the mouth of the river at Carrollton. Turnpikes. Few counties in the state are better supplied with turnpikes than Jessamine. They are built partly by private subscriptions and partly by county aid. There are about 175 miles of turnpike in the county, and when it is remembered that it only has 158 square miles, it will be seen that the county is most thoroughly supplied with first-class roadways. At this time there are not ten miles of leading roads in the county that are not macadamized. The county has bought the turnpikes and hereafter they will be free. Ferries. Two of the earliest ferries established in Kentucky were within the limits of Jessamine county. The first ferry in Kentucky was across the Kentucky river at Boonesboro, authorized in October, 1779, by the Legislature of Virginia, on the farm of Col. Richard Calloway; while the second ferry established by legislative authority in Kentucky was at the mouth of Hickman creek in 1785. The act was as follows: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that public ferries shall be constantly kept at the following places and the rates for passing the same be as followeth, that is to say: from the land of James Hogan in the county of Lincoln across the Kentucky river at the mouth of Hickman's creek to his land on the opposite shore in the county of Fayette, for a man four pence, and for a horse the same." Up to 1786, only five ferries had been established in Kentucky; two across the Ohio river and three across the Kentucky river. In 1786, two more were established, one of which was the ferry at the mouth of Dick's river, the legislative act for which was as follows: "Section I. Whereas, it has been represented to this present General Assembly that it would be of public utility to establish a warehouse for the reception and inspection of tobacco on the land of John Curd in the county of Mercer; "Sec. II. Be it therefore enacted that an inspection of tobacco shall be and same' is hereby established on the land of John Curd lying at the mouth of Dick's river in the county of Mercer, to be called and known by the name of Curd's warehouse. "Sec. V. Be it further enacted that a public ferry shall be constantly kept at the following places and the rates for passing: the same as followeth, that is to say: Upon the land of the said John Curd in the county of Mercer across the Kentucky river to the opposite shore, for a man four pence, and for a horse the same, and for the transportation of wheeled carriages, tobacco, cattle and other beasts at the place aforesaid, the ferry keeper may demand and take the same rates as are by law allowed at other ferries. If the ferry keeper shall demand or keep from any person or persons whatsoever any greater rates than are hereby allowed; he shall for every offense forfeit and pay to the party aggrieved the ferriage demanded or received and ten shillings, to be awarded with costs before the justice of the peace of the county where the offense shall be committed." The Largest Corn Crop. Jessamine county, it is claimed, has produced the largest yield of corn ever known. In 1840, Gen. James Shelby, of Fayette county, received from the Agricultural Society a premium for the most productive five acres of corn. The five acres yielded 550 bushels, or 110 bushels per acre; but in the same year Walter C. Young, of Jessamine county, who then lived in the eastern part of it, gathered, by disinterested parties, from two acres of a field of corn, the enormous yield of 195 and 198 1-2 bushels, respectively, which stands, so far as known, as the largest yield ever obtained from a similar area. Hemp Manufacture, The manufacture of hemp begun in Kentucky as early as 1796, and was introduced by Nathan Burrows, of Lexington, who afterwards produced Burrows' mustard, which received the premium for excellence at the World's Fair in England in 1851. The growth of hemp commenced with the earliest days of the settlement of Kentucky. It came with the corn and flax, among the first products of the state. The soil of Jessamine county has always been extremely favorable to the production of this plant. The black loam, so general throughout many parts of the county, produces hemp of very heavy and excellent fibre, and Jessamine county stands among the greatest hemp-producing counties of Kentucky. Per acre, no county in the state produces a larger yield. Melanchthon Young, who resides about a mile from Nicholasville, on the Harrodsburg pike, has been one of the great hemp growers of the county and in the last quarter of a century has rarely failed to secure fine crops. The introduction of Chinese hemp seed thirty years ago stimulated hemp product. As showing the extreme fertility of Jessamine county soil, the land upon which Mr. Young has been growing his hemp, a portion of it at least, has been in cultivation for more than one hundred years, and the yield, after a century of use, of the ground is greater than when the crop was first planted in the virgin soil. Jessamine county has always been one of the great hemp counties of the state. Clark; Fayette, Scott, Bourbon, Woodford and Jessamine; grow the bulk of the hemp crop raised in' Kentucky, and in the earlier period of manufacture in the state this staple produced great profits and brought large gains to those who were engaged in it. Among the pioneer manufacturers of bagging and rope were George I. Brown, Moreau Brown, George Brown, Henry Metcalf, William Scott and Col. Oliver Anderson. Mr. Cleveland, in Keene, also manufactured rope and bagging. Most of the people engaged in this business amassed large for* tunes. The bagging was used at that time in baling cotton throughout the Southern States, and there was no other substitute, prior to the fifties, for the Kentucky bagging. This bagging was generally carried to the Kentucky river and shipped by steamboat to Louisville, and thence distributed throughput the South. Very few white men were ever employed in this manufacture. Most of those who operated the factories, owned in large part the negroes necessary to carry on the business, and where they did not have sufficient hands, they hired them from the surrounding farmers, by the year. The hacking of the hemp was done in open sheds, and the dust, which has, in close factories, been so detrimental to health, was not considered injurious by those engaged in the manufacture in Jessamine county. The hemp crop in Jessamine was not sufficient to supply all the factories operated, and much of the staple was purchased and bought in parts of Garrard, Mercer and Woodford and hauled to Nicholasville and there manufactured. Geo. I. Brown was probably the pioneer of hemp manufacture in Jessamine. He was a man of fine personality and a strong intellect He represented Jessamine county in the Senate in 1829 and 1834, and in the House of Representatives in 1829 and 1832. Robert Crockett, a son of Col. Joseph Crockett, built what is now known as the Union Mills, five miles northeast from Nicholasville on Hickman creek. The buildings were constructed about 1803, and comprised a grist mill, a saw mill and a powder mill. This mill has continued in operation down to the present day. The old stone house near it, which was erected at the same time, is still one of the most substantial houses in the county. Additional Comments: Extracted from: A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY, FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898. By BENNETT H. YOUNG, PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC. S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR. Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot be measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care. LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898. 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