Eugenia Dunlap Potts

“ The proud city of Lancaster,
Still perpetuate her warriors,
Still preserve her men of valor.
They are resting on their laurels,
In an everlasting quiet;
They have passed the rolling river,
To the arméd hosts of heaven;
They have joined another Captain,
While we linger in the rearguard. ”

“ Who was light and lithe of person,
Who was full of life and vigor,
Who had visited the city,
The good city of Lancaster;
Who had joined her sports and pastimes,
Eager for the hour’s amusement,
Ever foremost in adventure ”

“ O’er the city of Lancaster;
Still the ever-moving cycle
Bears her swiftly on its pinions.
’Twas the year of eighteen hundred
One and forty when the Christians
Of the sect called Presbyterian,
Built themselves a house of worship,
Built themselves a sanctuary,
On the street that leads to southward,
From the entrance to the city. ”

“ And the voters of Lancaster,
All the voters of the county,
Met together in the masses,
Met to celebrate the contest;
Barbecues and basket dinners,
Gathered orators and hearers,
Gathered women, men, and children,
All together in the masses. ”

“ Finds the city of Lancaster,
In praiseworthy competition
With the spirit of the present.
Still the waxing, waning moonlight,
Sees her changing with the cycle.
Now the light’ning wires unite her
With the world in speedy transit ”

“ And the city of Lancaster,
Ever foremost in her duty,
Gave her mite of men and warriors
To the ranks and to the hardships,
Gave her fighting men to suffer
[90] In the civil war that deluged
All this mighty West Republic
In eighteen hundred one and sixty. ”

“ Many days and nights he wandered
O’er the turf of good old Garrard,
Now in sight, perchance in hearing,
Of the birds and beasts and reptiles,
[7] Roaming wild and roaming lonely,
In the groves of fair Lancaster. ”

“ In the annals of Lancaster.
Peace and quiet leave no footprints
On the true historian’s pages,
’Tis in action we remember
The career of our forefathers.
In the chapters now unfolded,
Rare memorials await us;
Of the principal achievements,
And the men who made them famous,
Some have floated down unto us,
Some shall live forever with us. ”

“ In the navy as the army,
Have her offspring been promoted;
Every path may claim her children,
Every sphere in life, a foll’wer,
Every scroll of fame, a column.
Cicero Price became a seaman,
[51] Went to cruise upon the waters,
Rose to Commodore in service,
And sustained his proud position,
Through the shifts of fickle fortune.
Let each heart enshrine a volume
Of our honest, upright brothers;
Let the story of Lancaster,
Brush aside the dust and ashes,
Clear away the clogs and brake-wheels,
Come forth as the sun at noonday,
With her hearts and hands unsullied,
With her banner folds untarnished. ”

“ Could but soothe the dying victim.
Mournful sights were his to witness
In the lone, deserted village;
Painful scenes he long remembered,
In the still, plague-stricken city.
From the news sheets of the era,
The “Kentuckian” or the “Journal,”
(Early chronicles established
In the city of Lancaster) ,
We may glean the sad statistics,
Glean the names of some who suffered,
Suffered death from the invader,
From the cholera Asiatic. ”

“ He laid down his useful manhood,
In the dust of lasting greatness,
At his home in Boyle county.
Long his psalm of life be chanted,
Long his earnest work remembered,
Long the sand retain his footprints,
Dust of dust, to earth returning.
R. P. Letcher was a lawyer,
In his native county, Garrard,
In the city of Lancaster,
Till the year of eighteen forty,
When he rose up by election
To the Governor’s high office. ”

“ And the white man’s deadly peril,
I should answer, I should tell you,
’Tis the city of Lancaster,
In the county we call Garrard,
In the State of old Kentucky,
In America, the nation
On the continent Northwestern,
Found by Christopher Columbus. ”

“ Officers from brave Lancaster,
In the army of the Union.
Other men perchance from Garrard,
From the inland hillside city,
Took up arms to save the Union,
Fought the desperate seceders.
Far and near the slogan sounded,
Long and loud the fatal summons,
Till around each fireside lonely,
Soon a “vacant chair” was standing;
[97] Till the only free retainers
Were the women and the children;
Till the crippled and the aged
Were the guardians of the homesteads. ”

“ Other leading men among us,
Have been tendered foreign duty,
Have declined the proffered honors,
Have been popular home magnates.
These celebrities we number
With the country’s highest talent;
They, with lesser lights, illumined
Our ambition’s broad horizon;
These and they, our master spirits,
Our auspicious hillside leaders,
Offspring of the young Lancaster,
Hers by birth or by adoption. ”

“ Now we come to architecture,
In the annals of the city;
Now the spirit of improvement
Makes a giant-stride among us,
Opens wide her money-coffers,
In the growing, hillside city.
On the westward street, called Danville,
Rose an institute of learning,
Rose the Franklin Female College,
Soon the pride of all the region. ”

“ Of victorious Lancaster,
When the tramp of full two hundred
[68] Broke upon the early watches;
When two hundred men, exultant,
Started forth in marching columns,
With the drum and fife resounding,
Started forth to meet the victors. ”

“ In the history of Lancaster.
Of the offices and store-rooms,
Of the dwellings and the households,
Of affairs of public moment,
Of the hidden and domestic,
[107] Of the groups of Mystic Brothers,
Of the Masons and Odd-Fellows,
Of ye ancient Sons of Temperance,
All the secrets of the bygone,
Speaking from the smoking ruins.
So there rose another structure,
Phœnix-like, upon the ashes.
Where the merchants and the tradesmen,
Can pursue their avocations. ”

“ Is George Robertson, Chief Justice
Of the high court of Kentucky.
Born ’mid pioneer hardships,
Reared in schools of self-denial,
All his native force and vigor,
All his diplomatic talent,
From his youth to failing manhood,
Grew to giant strength and prowess,
[29] Till he ably represented
Every gift the people tendered,
Till the honors of his era
Crowded thick and fast upon him. ”

“ Hung about the rude log court-house.
’Twas the first judicial movement
In the city of Lancaster,
’Twas an impetus that prompted
The erecting many houses,
’Twas the gath’ring of a people,
A community of workers. ”

“ Springs a shoot of vital growing,
Flows a blessed balm of healing.
Thus may North and South uniting,
Soothe the pangs of heartstrings broken,
Leave the fierce and naming fires,
In the crucible to smoulder.
Let the ashes crumble, crumble,
To the dust of buried vengeance.
Let no moon wax o’er Lancaster,
But may shed her beams in gladness;
Let no moon wane o’er the city,
But illumes with love and pardon.
[5] Stephen Hedger, while Postmaster at Lancaster in 1874, was shot and killed by Ebenezer Best.
[6] Dead.
[7] Deceased. ”

“ To Lancaster on the hillside.
But the scattered Guards, returning
Through the river-bridge at midnight,
Scared and startled Dunlap’s posse,
At the moment of their vict’ry,
Scared and startled Stein’s besiegers,
[67] Till they fled across the fences,
Till they dared not bear their captive
O’er the dangerous moonlit highway.
On and on the captors wandered,
Wandered over brush and briers,
Stumbling on through creeks and by-ways,
Climbing hills and wading gullies,
Sometimes running, sometimes halting,
Till the men were all exhausted,
All but Dunlap and his captive. ”

“ The writer of the following little history has presumed to borrow the peculiar style of versification from Longfellow’s celebrated Song of Hiawatha.
She has carefully examined the records within reach for the facts of her story. Should important omissions occur, it will be due to the meagerness of existing evidence.
May events so dear to hearts now at rest forever, be perpetuated in the memory of the present generation.
EUGENIA D. POTTS.
Lancaster, May, 1874. ”

“ Call a smile to faces modern;
“Come and join a square cotillon
At the hour of four precisely,”—
Was the custom of the city,
Of the sensible young city.
Sights and sounds all strange and novel,
Filled the wood with unknown echoes;
Man, the civilized, wrought changes,
And the olden landmarks vanished.
[12] CANTO III.
1796-1812.
ANCIENT BUILDINGS.
More than threescore years are buried
With the ages long departed,
In the annals of Lancaster,
Of the city I am singing,
Since the place of law and justice,
Since the venerable forum,
The first court-house was erected. ”

“ Natives of remote Lancaster,
Skillful surgeons by profession,
Cast their fortunes in the balance,
In the trembling Southern balance.
One survived the toil and peril,
One was sacrificed to rapine.
On the scattered army records
Of the “Dixie Boys” of Garrard,
Captain H. Clay Myers is written,
And Captain Jack W. Adams:
Also S. F. McKee, another
[101] Scion of a race of soldiers,
Claims a place within my canto,
In the “grey” and “faded” columns.
Major Baxter Smith was foremost,
In events of risk and danger,
Was a son of brave Lancaster,
Served the South in many battles. ”

“ May he fall asleep in Jesus,
With the Father’s welcome plaudit,
“Thou hast been a faithful servant,
Enter into joys of heaven.” [1]
On the soil of Garrard county,
Lived another famous jurist,
Lived John Boyle, another member
Of the Lancaster triumvir,
Of the Letcher, Boyle, and Owsley—
[32] Triune band of legal heroes. ”

“ Gather ever o’er the ruins.
[9] A brick engine-house was erected on the square in 1875, to shelter the new Champion Fire Extinguisher, called the “Undine.”
[10] One year later a Hook and Ladder company was organized, with George W. Dunlap Jr., as Captain, and W. H. Wherritt and Theodore Currey as Lieutenants.
[11] A new Deposit Bank building was erected during the summer of 1874. ”

“ The publication of the Song of Lancaster has been delayed eighteen months in order to obtain the names of the Garrard County Confederate soldiers. The author advertised extensively with this view, and one hundred and twenty-seven names have been procured. She hopes the list is complete. ”

“ Judge Robertson died at his residence in Lexington in July, 1874.
[40] SUPPLEMENT TO CANTO V. 1875.
MISCELLANEOUS DATES.
From stray fragments and traditions,
From authenticated pages,
From all evidence existing,
We transcribe the names of brothers
Who have served our state and county
In divergent fields of labor;
Who have lent their minds and bodies
To the profit of their fellows. ”

“ Let her children cling unto her,
’Mid the wreck of mind and matter:
Be her sons’ and daughters’ motto,
Stand, united; fall, divided.
God protect thee, fair Lancaster—
Cherished city, pax vobiscum.
FINIS.
[125] APPENDIX.
[127] APPENDIX. WAR OF 1812. LIST OF PRIVATES IN CAPTAIN JOHN FAULKNER’S COMMAND OF MOUNTED VOLUNTEER MILITIA, IN AUGUST, 1813. (See page 23.) ”

“ Here the “Blue” and “Grey” are resting,
’Neath “the laurel” and “the lily,”
“Love and tears” the one, adorning,
“Tears and love” the other, mourning.
Captain Alexander Logan,
Lives to chronicle his story.
First Lieutenant T. A. Elkin,
On the staff of Colonel Landram,
Drilled a band of Zouave urchins,
In the lance munition tactics,
Ere he joined the army proper,
Ready for its earnest duties.
By promotion he was Captain
Of the Cavalry—the horsemen,
And survived a soldier’s perils,
Made a creditable record.
[92] Stephen Hedger, [5] First Lieutenant,
Was advanced from rank of Second. ”

“ Her Deposit-Bank and cash-box,
Her commercial business houses;
Spreads abroad her lawful limits,
Widens out her corporation,
Swells the list of tax and tariff,
By her handsome architecture.
And the energetic people
Cling to rustic ways no longer,
[84] Learn conventional exactions,
Tread the labyrinths of fashion,
Con the magazines and modistes. ”

“ It was Stein disarming Paddy,
Irish Paddy of the Guardsmen;
Stein disarming Surgeon Buford,
Of the Lancaster Battalion.
Lucky moment for the Guardsmen,
All their men were lost but fourteen,
Fourteen men of twenty-seven ”

“ All the city’s daily doings.
And the moons were waxing, waning,
As the cycle brought its changes.
[4] George W. Dunlap, Jr., purchased this Institute in 1874, and established a graded school for young ladies. ”

“ Went from Lancaster, Kentucky.
Captain Faulkner led to battle
Men and arms from Garrard county:
And the muster-roll is headed,
“Mounted Volunteer Militia,
Rendezvoused at Newport Barracks,
August, eighteen hundred thirteen.”
Men who number nine and sixty,
In the stained and dusty archives,
Men who travelled near one hundred
Five and twenty miles to Newport. ”