Lexington, Kentucky

“ The South.
Dedication Of Chandler Normal Institute.
By District Secretary C.W. Hiatt.
The tenth of February was a great day in Lexington, Kentucky. It marked two special events, the dedication of Chandler Normal Institute, and the opening of a great "Hoss sale." Anybody who knows the "Blue-grass region" will understand what the latter means. The world flocks to Lexington on such occasions in quest of thoroughbreds, and the country rids itself in consequence, at fabulous prices, of droves of genuine Kentucky plugs. Buyers go home wiser, sellers richer. ”

“ Fast came the changes in Kentucky. The prophecy which John Gray had made to his school-children passed to its realization and reality went far beyond it. In waves of migration, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of settlers of the Anglo-Saxon race hurried into the wilderness and there jostled and shouldered each other in the race passion of soil-owning and home-building; or always farther westward they rushed, pushing the Indian back. Lexington became the chief manufacturing town of the new civilization, thronged by merchants and fur-clad traders ”

“ The locality which Clay selected was Lexington in Kentucky,--then a small village in the midst of beautiful groves without underbrush, where the soil was of virgin richness, and the landscape painted with almost perpetual verdure; one of the most attractive spots by nature on the face of the earth,--a great contrast to the flat prairies of Illinois, or the tangled forests of Michigan, or the alluvial deposits of the Mississippi. ”

“ Lexington is one of the oldest towns of Kentucky and has a population of 16,500, of which one half is colored. Although Kentucky did [73] not take a very active part in the late war, yet at its close the provisions for the education of the colored people were as meagre as in other States.
Last June the Association decided to re-open the school, and accordingly the building was repaired. The cut given herewith represents the house in its present shape. On the first floor there are two large school-rooms capable of seating fifty pupils each, two large entries and two coat rooms. ”

“ John T. Ford of Dallas wrote the compiler on October 3, 1927, that Lewisville was named for David R. Lewis, a pioneer of 1845. The community is on the Lewis donation land claim. David R. Lewis certificate was numbered 2995.
LEXINGTON, Morrow County. The town of Lexington was named by William Penland, a prominent and successful pioneer resident of that part of Morrow County. He was a native of Lexington, Kentucky, and when he founded the new town he called it for his birthplace. Lexington post office was established November 11, 1885, with Nathaniel A. Yeats first postmaster. ”

“ One is prone to recur time and again to this period, when the ideals of Kentucky life were still wavering or unformed, and when there was the greatest receptivity to outside impressions. Thinking of social life as it was developed, say in and around Lexington—of artists coming and going, of the statesmen, the lecturers, the lawyers, of the dignity and the energy of character, of the intellectual dinners—one is inclined to liken the local civilization to a truncated cone, to a thing that should have towered to a symmetric apex, but somehow has never risen very high above a sturdy base. ”

“ Before I visited Lexington, my cousin, Little Emily, duly wrote me that on no account, when I was in Kentucky, must I offer any criticisms on the character of Henry Clay; for if I grew reckless and compared him with another to his slightest disadvantage, I should have to fight.
That he was absolutely the greatest statesman America has produced is, to all Kentuckians, a fact so sure that they doubt the honesty or the sanity of any one who hints otherwise. ”

“ Arrived at Cincinnati on the 11th May, by the course of the river estimated to be 310 miles from Marietta. "Meeting here with General Dayton and several old army acquaintance, remained the whole day." In the evening started "for Louisville, which is at the rapids or falls of the Ohio. There it is proposed to take land, to ride through part of Kentucky, visit Lexington and Frankfort, and meet the ark again at the mouth of the Cumberland, which empties into the Ohio about fifty miles before its junction with the Mississippi."
TO THEODOSIA. Lexington (Kentucky) , May 23, 1805. ”

“ After another few years to Lexington, Kentucky. While there, Daniel Boone was a frequent visitor and greeted him as "Cousin". About 1798, he decided to remove to near Chillicothe, Ohio, lived in either Ross County or Franklin County until about 1816, when he followed his two sons, John, (15) , and E. D., (16) , to Shelby County, where he lived with them on their farm near Hardin. His grand-children remember his old Revolutionary Army great coat and his stories of Revolutionary times. His love for the chase never forsook him. He attributes his longevity to his outdoor life. ”

“ Settlement of Kentucky In 1775, Richard Henderson of North Carolina purchased from the Cherokees the tract between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers, and at the same time Boonesborough and Harrodsburg were founded by Daniel Boone and James Harrod. As a party of these bold backwoodsmen were encamping near the sources of the southern fork of the Licking, they heard the news of the victory which ushered in the War of Independence, and forthwith gave the name of Lexington to the place of their encampment, on which a thriving city now stands. ”

“ In 1838 her parents removed to Kentucky and settled in Lexington, that they might superintend her education. She received a thorough education in a seminary in that town, and became a polished scholar and an intelligent student of history and literature. In 1845 she became the wife of Claude M. Johnson, a wealthy citizen of Lexington. Mrs. Johnson at once became a leader in society, not only in Lexington, but in Washington and other cities. ”

“ Jefferson was the only man in America, whose talents he highly respected.
HENRY CLAY
Henry Clay, the most famous Kentuckian ever born, first saw the light in the "Slashes," Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. When twenty years of age, he settled in Lexington, Kentucky, as a lawyer; and Lexington was his home henceforth. In 1803 Henry Clay was elected to the State legislature; and before he was [Pg 40] thirty years old he was filling an unexpired term in the United States Senate. In 1811 he was sent to the National House of Representatives from the old Lexington district. ”

“ Two years later he moved "West," (he was enterprising) , settling at Lexington, Kentucky, where he entered upon the practice of law.
Here he became an active politician as well as a popular lawyer. He was an intelligent young man, and early cultivated a genial disposition which was a leading feature of his splendid success in life. In 1799 Kentucky called a convention for the purpose of revising the constitution of the State. During this campaign young Clay labored earnestly to elect delegates to that convention favorable to the extinction of slavery. ”

“ Well, I never did suppose that he ever dreamed of entering into Kentucky, to make War upon her institutions, nor will any Abolitionist ever enter into Kentucky to wage such War. Their mode of making War is not to enter into those States where Slavery exists, and there interfere, and render themselves responsible for the consequences. Oh, no! They stand on this side of the Ohio River and shoot across. They stand in Bloomington and shake their fists at the people of Lexington; they threaten South Carolina from Chicago. ”

“ Every Kentucky woman loves a horse, and when Lexington was entered in the great State stake in 1854 a crowd of the crême de la crême of the Blue Grass country clamored to be present at the race. The St. Charles Hotel, then in the hands of those genial hosts, Messrs. Hall and Hildreth, was crowded for the event, beyond its capacity, for when that Kentucky contingent of women, unheralded and unexpected, swarmed into its broad parlor and halls, even the servants’ quarters, so near the roof that the only light admitted was skylight, were put into requisition. ”

“ Ethelbert Dudley Warfield, historical writer, was born at Lexington, Kentucky, March 16, 1861, the brother of Dr. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, the distinguished professor in Princeton Theological Seminary. President Warfield was graduated from Princeton, continued his studies at the University of Oxford, and was graduated in law from Columbia University, in 1885. He practiced law at Lexington, Kentucky, for two years, when he abandoned the profession for the presidency of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. ”

“ ALLEN, JAMES LANE (1850– ) , American novelist, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, on the 21st of December 1850. He graduated at Kentucky University, Lexington, in 1872, taught at Fort Spring, Kentucky, at Richmond and at Lexington, Missouri, and from 1877 to 1879 at the academy of Kentucky University, where he was principal and taught modern languages; in 1880 he was professor of Latin and English at Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia; and then became head of a private school at Lexington, Kentucky. ”

“ But of all the scenes that might have been observed in Lexington on that day, the most remarkable occurred in front of the old court-house at the hour of high noon. On the mellow stroke of the clock in the steeple above the sheriff stepped briskly forth, closely followed by a man of powerful frame, whom he commanded to station himself on the pavement several feet off. A crowd of men and boys had already collected in anticipation, and others came quickly up as the clear voice of the sheriff was heard across the open public square and old market-place. ”

“ The town is situated on the Kentucky river, the most beautiful, perhaps, in America. In crossing the long bridge, we had a fine view down its steep banks, with the lights of the town close on its margin. The state Capitol which we passed, is close to the railway, and is a marble building, with a handsome portico. We were very sorry not to have stopped to pass to-morrow, Sunday, at this place, but we were anxious to reach Lexington, in order to get our letters. We have no great prospects here, as the hotel, excepting the one [Pg 250] at Jefferson City, is the worst we have found in America. ”

“ A population of some two millions with only one interior town that contains over five thousand white inhabitants. Hence Kentucky makes no impression abroad by reason of its urban population. Lexington, Bowling Green, Harrodsburg, Winchester, Richmond, Frankfort, Mount Sterling, and all the others, where do they stand in the scale of American cities? Hence, too, the disparaging contrast liable to be drawn between Kentucky and the gigantic young States of the West. Where is the magnitude of the commonwealth, where the ground of the sense of importance in the people? ”

“ At Lexington he achieved his first distinction in a similar society. He soon won a lucrative practice as an attorney, being especially successful in criminal cases and in suits growing out of the land laws. His captivating manners and his striking eloquence made him a general favorite. His political career began almost immediately after his arrival at Lexington. A convention was to be elected to revise the constitution of Kentucky, and in the canvass preceding the election Clay strongly advocated a constitutional provision for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in the state ”

“ I am delighted that you are coming at last to Kentucky, and I consider that it is high time you paid Fairfield, which has been the cradle of your stock for many generations, the compliment of looking at it. We closed our house in Lexington three weeks ago, and are settled out here now for the summer, and find it lovelier than ever. My family consists only of myself and Shelby, my one child, who is now twenty-two years of age. We are both ready to give you an old-time Kentucky welcome, and Westerly is ready to receive you at any moment you wish to come. ”

“ First, that slavery, as a system, reacted upon the loftiest natures, distorting and injuring them. Witness the Kentucky gentleman, Mr. Shelby. His wife was a patrician, the very embodiment of courtesy and good-will, affection and sympathy. Her husband was a man of honour, a representative of the bluest blood of the old Lexington families, with a heart so gentle that the sight of a young bird that had fallen out of the nest in the tree moved him to tears ”

“ It has a college of Liberal Arts, a College of Law, a Preparatory School, a Junior College for Women, and Hamilton College for women (founded in 1869 as Hocker Female College) , over which the university assumed control in 1903, and a College of the Bible, organized in 1865 as one of the colleges of the university, but now under independent control. In 1907–1908 Transylvania University, including the College of the Bible, had 1129 students. At Lexington are the State University, two colleges for girls—the Campbell-Hagerman College and Sayre College—and St Catherine’s Academy (Roman Catholic) . ”

“ The Kentuckians are a fine tall race of men; but, tall as they are in general, the landlord, Mr. Jim Porter, surpassed them all in height, standing 7 feet 9 inches without his shoes. This is the same individual of whom Dickens gave an amusing account in his American notes fifteen years ago.
We left Louisville at two o'clock, and came on to Lexington this afternoon. The country is much more like England than anything we have yet seen, being chiefly pasture land. The grass is that known here, and very celebrated as the "blue grass" of Kentucky ”