, i
   c 6 HISTORICAL sKETcH.  
Q _ 1782, and was for several years the seat of Government for thc  
  l State.  
{ The first improvement consisted of three rows of cabins, the  
two outer serving as a part of the walls of the fortification,
which extended from White`s corner to about where Gilbert`s tin _
l ware an·l stove store now stands, on Main street. The buildings
  were first erected on this spot, principally for convenience to
I water, the public spring, a splendid gushing stream, debouehing
from the earth about midway of the block of buildings
T now occupied by J. A. Harper, W. J. & J. Clark, J. J. llunt & ·
l Co., and Jno. T. Miller. .
,° The first plat of the city calls for Walnut, Mulberry, ['pper,
_ Middle (now Mill), Main Cross (now Broadway), Spring,
~ Lower, and Jefferson streets, from east to west, and Iligh, Wa-
V ter, Main, Short, Church, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth
and Seventh streets, from north to south.
On the 11th day of August, 1787, the first number of the
_ Kentucky Gazette was published by John & Fielding Bradford,
E l this was the first newspaper published in Kentucky, and the
j · second in age west of the mountains, a Pittsburg paper being the
; oldest.
V t For many years Lexington was the commercial metropolis of
5 the Ohio valley, merchants from other towns and cities purchas- 4
{ ing their supplies of dry goods, groceries, iron, nails, salt, etc., at
’ wholesale from the Lexington merchant and manufacturer.
In 1794, Mr. West, a gunsmith, constructed a steamboat on a
· small scale, which, in the presence of a large concourse of citi-
zens, he tried on the Town fork of Elkhorn, previously damfued ;
up for the purpose, and it is said it moved through the water
. with great velocity. This city being at that time the point at
E which all the nails used in the valley were manufactured, Mr. J
  West also invented the machine now used for cutting nails.
{   The subject of education occupied the attention of the settlers
‘ T of Lexington at a very early date—two schools had been estab- T
lished—one called the Transylvania Seminary, and the other the l
I Kentucky Academy ; in 1798 the Legislature consolidated these l
• · . . .