xt7g1j97701z https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7g1j97701z/data/mets.xml Durrett, Reuben T. (Reuben Thomas), 1824-1913. 1889  books b92-54-27062243 English J.P. Morton, : Louisville : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. St. Paul's Church (Louisville, Ky.). Historical sketch of St. Paul's Church, Louisville, Ky.  : prepared for the semi-centennial celebration, October 6, 1889 / by Reuben T. Durrett ; published under the auspices of the Filson Club. text Historical sketch of St. Paul's Church, Louisville, Ky.  : prepared for the semi-centennial celebration, October 6, 1889 / by Reuben T. Durrett ; published under the auspices of the Filson Club. 1889 2002 true xt7g1j97701z section xt7g1j97701z 









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     As gritt built m 1839

 




AN



    . HISTORICAL SKETCH


                      OF




ST. PAUL'S CHURCH,



         LOUISVILLE, KY.




Prepared for the Semi-Centennial Celebration,
             Oetober 6, 1889,



                   BY

     - REUBEN T. DURRETT,
            Prrsident of the Filsan Club.



PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE FILSON CLUB.




              LOUISVILLE:
         JOHN P. MORTON AND COMPANY,
      PIRI7TERS TO ThE FI8LSOh CLUB
               1 889

 











































   COPYRIGHTED
       BY

REUBEN T. DURRETT
       I889

 

























             GEOpound;SPI.PION





   TO THE MEMORY OF ELIZABETH BATES DURRETT AND


HER DAUGHTERS, LILY BATES AND FLORENCE MONTGOMERY

DURRETT, THIS HISTORIC SKETCH OF THE CHURCH, WITH

WHICH THEIR LIVES AND THEIR DEATHS WERE CONNECTED,

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY A HUSBAND AND FATHER.

 













   At the request of Dr. Perkins, the Rector of St. Paul's
Church, the following Historic Sketch was prepared for the
Semi-Centennial Celebration of that church, October 6, i889.
It was not intended that it should be read as part of the pro-
ceedings of 'the celebration, it being too long for such a pur-
pose, but that it might be printed for the benefit of those
who might want copies. It is now published for this pur-
pose, accompanied by an introduction giving an account of
what was done at the celebration. The sketch and the pro-
ceedings taken together complete the story of St. Paul's for
the first fifty years of its existence. Though not written
directly for the Filson Club, this sketch has been deemed
worthy of preservation among its archives, and is therefore
printed as Filson Club Publication No. 5.

 









            INTRODUCTION.



      Proeeedings of the Semi-Centennial
                    Celebration.

  On Sunday, the 6th of October, 1839, St. Paul's Church,
in Louisville, Ky., was consecrated, and it was intended by
the rector and vestry to have an appropriate celebration of
the fiftieth anniversary of this event on Sunday, the 6th of
October, i889. It happened, however, that the Bishop of
the Diocese and the rector of St. Paul's were both in New
York attending the Triennial Episcopal Convention, and
that Bishop Dudley, whose presence was deemed essential
to the commemorative ceremonies, could not be in Louisville
at that date. It was therefore determined to have the cele-
bration on Sunday, the 3d of November, 1889.


                The Congregation.

  On that day, Sunday, November 3d, beginning at half
past seven in the evening, the semi-centennial of St. Paul's
was celebrated with becoming ceremonies in the church.
building, on the northwest corner of Walnut and Sixth streets.
Every seat in the house and all the available standing-room

 



INiR ODT UCTION.



were occupied by an immense congregation. The house
was literally crowded to its utmost capacity, and never in so
large an assemblage were there more order and decorum.
All came, remained through the ceremonies, and retired with
an apparent full sense of the dignity and solemnity of the
occasion.

           Suttrvivots of f4alf a Century.

   During the semi-centennial exercises the interior of the
church presented a picture worthy of the artist's skill. In
the sea of faces that spread from wall to wall and from chan-
cel to tower, there were five with venerable lineaments dis-
tinguished from all others. Miss Mary F. G. Brown, Mrs.
Daniel B. Leight, Mrs. Dr. William Donne, and Mr. Richard
A. Robinson were there, as they had been fifty years ago at
the first celebration of the Lord's Supper. Mr. Redick D.
Anderson was also there, as he had been at the consecration
of the church fifty years before. These well-worn links in
the golden chain that united celebrations in the same church
separated by half a century were the observed of all ob-
servers.

                Clergymen Present.

   In the chancel, at the western end of the building, clad
in their clerical robes, were twelve Episcopal ministers-an
accidental coincidence in number with the twelve promoters
of the church who assembled at the Louisville Hotel five
and fifty years before. They were Rt. Rev. T. U. Dudley,



vi

 



INTRODUCTION.



Bishop of Kentucky; Rt. Rev. C. C. Penick, rector of St.,
Andrews; Rev. C. E. Craik, rector of Christ, and Rev. Roger
H. Peters, assistant; Rev. S. E. Barnwell, rector of St. John's;
Rev. J. G. Minnigerode, rector of Calvary; Rev. G. C. Betts,
rector of Grace; Rev. M. M. Benton, rector of Advent; Rev.
G. C. Waller, rector of Zion; Rev. Anselm Buchannan; Dr.
E. T. Perkins, rector of St. Paul's, and Rev. Percy Gordon,
assistant.

            The Choir and Assistants.

   At the keys of the great organ in the northern transept
sat John M. Semple, the organist, with the choir of St. Paul's
and a corps of amateur assistants around him. There ap-
peared as sopranos, Mrs. John M. Byers, Mrs. William H.
Dillingham, Mrs. Sarah E. Board, Mrs. Geo. W. Andersen,
Miss Mary Griffith, and Miss Amelia Leonhardt; as altos,
Mrs. Dorothea Berthel, Mrs. Lewis A. Williams, Miss Mar.
garet Byers, and Miss Lily Parsons; as tenores, Mr. E. N.
Morrison, Mr. Robert Fryer, Mr. John H. Vanarsdale, Mr.
Charles R. Kiger, and Mr. William H. Dillingham; as bassos,
Mr. Lewis A. Williams, Mr. Charles P. Fink, Mr. Percy Par-
sons, Mr. John M. Byers, and Mr. William H. Byers.
   The full choir in front of the huge organ and the robed
clergymen in the chancel behind the corrugated pillars of
the chancel arch presented a picturesque as well as impos-
ing appearance from different parts of the building. Singers
had been chosen, not for numbers only, but for a volume of
music suited to the occasion, which was successfully done.



vii

 



INTRODUCTION.



                 Order of the Exetreises.

   A printed programme, giving the order of exercises, was
distributed in the congregation. The following is a copy:

                             Anthem.
            Except the Lord build the house,
            They labor in vain that build it:
            How amiable are thy dwellings,
            0 Lord of Hosts!
            My soul longeth for God;
            Yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:
            My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
            Yea, the sparrow hath found her a house,
            And the swallow a nest for herself.
            Even thine Altars, 0 Lord of Hosts.
EVENING PRAYER (Proper Psalms, 1I22, 132, 143).
FIRST LESSON. iSt Kings, ix: I-9.

                           Tassnifiest.
   My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Saviour.
   For he hath regarded the lowliness of his hand-maiden:
   For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
   For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is his name.
   And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations.
   He bath showed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts.
   He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the
humble and meek.
   He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent
empty away.
   He, remembering his mercy, hath holpen his servant Israel, as he prom-
ised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, forever.
SECOND LEssoN. Matthew xxii: 1-14.

 




INTROD UCTION.



                         TRune Dirmittis.

   Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy
word:
   For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
   Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
   To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of ihy people
Israel.
                          T'ieene Creed.

   I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
And of all things visible and invisible:
   And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten
of his Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of
very God, Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the Father, By
whom all things were made; Who, for us men, and for our salvation, came
down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin
Mary,.And was made man, And was crucified also for us under Pontius
Pilate. He suffered, and was buried; And the third day he rose again, ac-
cording to the Scriptures; And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the
right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both
the quick and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.
   And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son
together is worshiped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets. And I
believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism
for the remission of sins; And I look for the Resurrection of the dead.
And the Life of the world to come. Amen.
PRAYER.
                           ymn 202.
                   THE Church's one foundation
                     Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
                   She is his new creation
                     By water and the word:
                   From heaven he came and sought her
                     To be his holy bride;
                   With his own blood he bought her,
                     And for her life he died.
                                  ia



1X

 



INTROD UCTION.



                   Elect from every nation,
                     Yet one o'er all the earth,
                   Her charter of salvation
                     One Lord, oue faith, one birth;
                   One holy name she blesses,
                     Partakes one holy food,
                   And to one hope she presses,
                     With every grace endued.

                   Though with a scornful wonder,
                     Men see her sore opprest,
                   By schisms rent asunder,
                     By heresies distrest;
                   Yet saints their watch are keeping,
                     Their cry goes up, "How long "
                   And soon the night of weeping
                     Shall be the morn of song.

                   'Mid toil and tribulation,
                     And tumult of her war,
                   She waits the consummation
                     Of peace for evermore;
                   Till with the vision glorious
                     Her longing eyes are blest,
                   And the great Church victorious
                   Shall be the Church at rest.

                   Yet she on earth hath union
                     With God the Three in One
                  And mystic sweet communion
                    With those whose rest is won:
                  O happy ones and holy!
                    Lord, give us grace that we
                  Like them, the meek and lowly,
                    On high may dwell with thee.

HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY THE RECTOR.

 



INTRODUCTION.



                            14ymn 190.
                 Glorious things of thee are spoken,
                   Zion, city of our God:
                 He, whose word can not be broken,
                   Form'd thee for his own abode;
                 On the Rock of Ages founded,
                   What can shake thy sure repose
                 With salvation's walls surrounded,
                   Thou may'st smile at all thy foes.

                 See, the streams of living waters,
                   Springing from eternal love,
                 Well supply thy sons and daughters,
                   And all fear of want remove;
                 Who can faint while such a river
                   Ever flows their thirst t' assuage
                 Grace, which like the Lord, the giver,
                   Never fails from age to age.

                 Round each habitation hovering,
                   See the cloud and fire appear,
                For a glory and a covering,
                  Showing that the Lord is near.
                Blest inhabitants of Zion,
                   Wash'd in the Redeemer's blood!
                Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
                Makes them kings and priests to God.
SERMON BY RT. REV. T. U. DUDLEY.
OFFERTORY.
                            Anthem.
   Hope in the Lord, Be of good courage, And hope in him, And he shall
strengthen your heart, All ye that hope in the Lord.

             "Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
             Praise Him all creatures here below;
             Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
             Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
PRAYER.-BENEDICTION.



Xi

 


xii                 INT'ROD UCT1ON.


              The Musie as Rendetred.

   The opening Anthem, one of the gems of Gilchrist, was
rendered by the choir in superb style. The Glorias arranged
from Mendelssohn's Scotch Symphony were also finely ren-
dered. The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in F, by Garrett,
were given in a style worthy of these grand compositions.
Hymn 202 to the charming music of Wesley, and i90 to the
Austrian National Air, by Haydn, when swelled by a multi-
tude of voices in the congregation, filled the nave and tran-
septs of St. Paul's from the floor to the ceiling with a volume
of melody worthy of the occasion. The Offertory, the cele-
brated largo of Handel, was first rendered as a solo by Mr.
Williams, and then as a unison chorus by the choir. To
say that this glorious composition was faultlessly rendered,
both as a solo and as a chorus, is to award it but little of the
praise it deserves. It may be doubted whether such excel-
lent music was ever heard before in St. Paul's as was enjoyed
on this occasion, distinguished as its choir has ever been for
the character of its music.


              Reading of the Serviee.

   In the dilided work of the numerous ministers in the
chancel, the reading of the Service to the Creed was assigned
to Rev. C. E. Craik, the Lessons to Rt Rev. C. C. Penick,
the Prayers to Rev. Anselm Buchannan, and the Hymns to
Rev. Percy Gordon.

 


                    INTRODUCTION.                    xiii


               The jeetots's Address.

   The historic address by Dr. Perkins covered the existence
of the church from its inception on the 28th of Septem-
ber, i834, to .the present time. All the essential facts were
succinctly given, as well as the names of the promoters and
many of those most concerned in the inauguration and prog-
ress of the church. It was a skillful condensation into a
lecture of thirty minutes of the leading events in the life of
the church during a period of fifty years. Each rector, from
Rev. William Jackson to himself, was mentioned, and the
leading acts of his administration set forth.


               The Bishop's Sermon.

   The sermon by Bishop Dudley, from the text, "For with
my staff have I passed over this Jordan," also dealt largely
with the history of the church. He alluded to the men and
women who, with the spiritual staff of the church, had passed
the obstacles of life's Jordan, as the patriarch of old had
crossed the river of Canaan with his physical support-
who had made- St. Paul's great for good during half a cen-
tury, and then gone to their long rest wrapped in the
mantle of its religious fame. St. Paul's did not remain a
single church for fifty years, but sent out colonies for the
founding of other parishes, whose combined work, parent
and children together, had accomplished wonders for human
souls. This, however, was the past; and what of the future

 



xiv                 INTRODUCTION.

Was St. Paul's to end with the good work already done, or,
gathering strength from the impetus which fifty years had
given, press onward to the accomplishment of nobler ends
And in thus looking to the future the Bishop, with masterly
eloquence, asked for St. Paul's the benison of continuing a
temple for the worship of the living God, instead of being
turned to unhallowed uses-of remaining a church edifice,
filled with the harmony of prayers and anthems, instead of
a workshop, with the jargon of worldly pursuits. It would
not be keeping religious faith with the founders of St. Paul's
to permit the building which they had left in sacred trust to
pass to sacrilegious uses at the bidding of fickle fashion or
the demand of changeful convenience. Even if the require-
ments of the future should demand a fairer edifice in a more
congenial locality, there should be thrown over the old build-
ing, around which cluster so many holy memories of the
past, the aegis of an endowment broad enough to protect it
from decay and to keep it fit for worship. St. Paul's thus
continued would go on and on with its good work into the
generations to come a power of the past made mightier by its
strength of years. The modern fashion of getting rid of old
church edifices and taking up with new ones has its evils
mingled with whatever good may come of it. Ground once
consecrated by the presence of the church should never pass
to secular uses when it can reasonably be avoided. St. Paul's,
like the mound on which it was reared, would better stand
until time's erosion should level it with the ground than to
fall at the hands of its beneficiaries or their descendants.

 


                    INTR OD UCTION.                  xv


         A Distant Chutreh Pattieipates.

   While the offertory anthem was being sung a collection
was taken up, which was devoted to the Beattyville Episcopal
Church. Beattyville is situated at the Three Forks of the
Kentucky River, one hundred and fifty miles from Louisville.
And thus these distant dwellers amid the mineral mountains
of Lee County were made participants in the semi-centennial
of St. Paul's.

 This page in the original text is blank.


 








           HISTORICAL SKETCH

                          OF


ST. PAULS CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.



        Roman and Hlebrew      celebrations.
   It was the beautiful custom of the ancient Romans to
celebrate, with imposing ceremonies, every one hundred
and tenth year of the existence of their government. Why
they should have fixed upon the one hundred and tenth,
instead of the one hundreth year, for their State festival
we know not; but the custom has found such a response
in human nature, everywhere and at all times, that with
the variance of time only, by leaving off the surplus ten
years, we now have the centennial celebration almost uni-
versally popular.
  The ancient Hebrews, wiser perhaps than the Romans,
had their national jubilee every fifty years. On these oc-
casions the lands were returned to those who had alienated
them, the slaves were set free, and the obligations of debt-
ors canceled. Whether such a custom was politically wise
or could have been made practicable in later times, it was
                          2

 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF



full of the poetry and sentiment which finds congeniality
in almost every human heart.   The Babylonian captives
returned to their native land, and celebrating their fiftieth
year with harps that had hung upon foreign willows is a
jubilee full of human sympathy, to say nothing of religious
zeal.

        What St. Paul's 14as to Celebrate.

   Fifty years ago to-day St. Paul's Church, in Louisville,
was consecrated, and its first jubilee has now arrived. The
church has no lands to give back to original owners, no
slaves to give their freedom, no debtors to give their debts,
but it has a history made venerable by the fifty years through
which it has run-a history full of the memories of loved
ones at its baptismal font, before its bridal altar, and beneath
its funeral pall; a history hallowed by the recollections of
mothers and fathers, and sons and daughters, and brothers
and sisters, and husbands and wives who sat in its conse-
crated pews and heard the words of eternal life from its
sacred desk; a history made up of the joys and sorrows
which have been a part of our religious being for half a
century-a history which may not prove less acceptable at
this time than were the jubilee gifts to the ancient Israel-
ites. I propose therefore, on this occasion, in compliance
with the request of its rector, to present an historic sketch
of St. Paul's Church, from its beginning to the present
time, as a fitting contribution to its semi-centennial cele-
bration.



2

 



ST. PAUL'S CHURCU, LOUISVILLE.



3



            The Conseetration Sermon.

   On Sunday, the 6th of October, I839, St. Paul's was con-
secrated to divine worship in the presence of the largest
congregation that had ever assembled in any church in
Louisville. The consecration sermon was preached by Rev.
John P. K. Henshaw, then rector of St. Peter's, Baltimore,
who, four years afterward, became Bishop of Rhode Island.
He was an intimate friend and instructor of the first rector
of St. Paul's, and made the long journey from Baltimore to
this city before the day of railroads, as we now have them,
to preach the consecration sermon.  His address, full of
beauty and eloquence, was worthy of the occasion and was
heard with delight, not only by members of this church
but by citizens of other creeds who were present to do
honor to the event.


      St. Paul's and Othetr Churehes Fifty
                     Years Ago.

   St. Paul's, then fresh from the builder's hands, was the
largest and handsomest church in Louisville. It presented
a front of eighty feet on Sixth Street, and extended west-
wardly a depth of one hundred feet. In the auditorium and
gallery were one hundred and fifty pews, capable of seating
about goo persons. John Stirewalt, the architect, aban-
doned the flat wall and square interior and massive pulpit,
which likened our early churches to unsightly barns, and

 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF



4



designed St. Paul's with pilastered walls and a groined ceil-
ing, above which rose a medieval spire, all in the Gothic style.
There were then thirteen other churches in Louisville:
Christ Church, Episcopal, on Second Street, between Green
and Walnut; the First Presbyterian, on Third Street, between
Green and Walnut; the Second Presbyterian, on Green
Street, between Center and Sixth; the Third Presbyterian,
on Hancock, between Main and Market; the Fourth Pres-
byterian, on Market, between Eighth and Ninth; the Meth-
odist Episcopal, on Fourth, between Jefferson and Market;
the Methodist Protestant, corner of Fourth and Green; the
Baptist, corner of Fifth and Green; the Unitarian, corner of
Fifth and Walnut; the Catholic Chapel, on Main, near
Tenth; and the Catholic Church, on Fifth, between Green
and Walnut; the Colored Baptist, on Market, between Seventh
and Eighth; and the African, on Center, between Green and
Walnut; but none of them equaled St. Paul's in beauty of
architecture and in seating capacity. A new style of archi-
tecture had been successfully introduced, and the result was
pleasing not only to the -members of the church but to
the citizens at large.


            oiriginal Cost of St. Paul's.

   Such a church, at that early day, could not have been
erected in Louisville without overcoming serious obstacles.
Nobler edifices have since arisen in our city and over-
shadowed St. Paul's both in architecture and dimensions,

 


ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.



5



but St. Paul's was built fifty years ago, when the population
and wealth and taste of Louisville were not what they now
are. Our entire population did not then exceed twenty
thousand, and not one twentieth of them were Episcopa-
lians. And yet fully fifty thousand dollars were raised at
that early day for the purchase of the lot and the building
of the church.

           Sketeh of the St. Paul's hot.

  The lot on which St. Paul's was erected had never been
occupied by a previous building within the historic period.
When the foundations of the church building were dug the
spade passed through virgin soil, and a sketch of this lot pre-
vious to its occupancy by the church can not fail to be enter-
taining.

        The   Yound-Builders' Oeeupaney.

   That mysterious people we call Mound-builders had oc-
cupied the site of St. Paul's for a burying-ground in ages so
far back that neither history nor tradition has handed down
any account of them. As evidence of this occupancy, a
mound stood on the site of St. Paul's, and was there as late
as i821, when Frederick W. Grayson dug it down to fill up
the pond on whose margin it stood. Out of this mound
relics of the people who reared it were dug, such as human
bones almost crumbled to dust, flint arrow-heads, stone axes,
etc. Even as recently as the last year, J. C. Baumberger, who
now owns the house next to the church on the north, dug up

 



6HISTORICAL SKETCH OF



from the ground near the line between his lot and the church
one of the largest and best specimens of the stone ax ever
found.

             The Peed Indian's Claimn.

   The red Indian succeeded the Mound-builder in the oc-
cupancy of this region, if, indeed, he can be said to have
occupied any part of Kentucky, which he kept for a hunting-
ground. That he hunted here, and even saw himself imaged
in the beautiful lake at the foot of his predecessor's mound,
is probable; but he never desecrated his favorite hunting-
ground with the smoke of his wigwam. The church lot re-
mained under the Indian as the Mound-builder had left it
until the Kentucky pioneers came to turn it to the uses of
Christianity and civilization.


            Ore. Connolly's Ownership.

   In 1773 Dr. John Connolly, of Pennsylvania, who had ex-
plored this region in previous years, and had been charmed
with the beauty of the Falls of the Ohio, determined to make
the Falls the headquarters of a colony he had projected that
was to extend to the mountains on the east, the Tennessee
River on the south, and the Mississippi and Ohio on the
west. As a surgeon's mate in the Colonial wars against the
French and Indians, he was entitled to 2,000 acres of land,
and he employed Capt. Thomas Bullitt, a surveyor of Vir-
ginia, to locate this 2,000 acres at the Falls of the Ohio. In



6

 


ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.



7



the summer of 1773 Capt. Bullitt was here with his corps of
assistants, and ran the lines of the Connolly tract from near
the mouth of Beargrass Creek, then emptying into the Ohio
between the present Third and Fourth streets, along the me-
anders of the river to the lower side of the present town of
Shippingsport; thence southwestwardly to the intersection of
the present Broadway and Nineteenth streets; thence east-
wardly to the intersection of the present Shelby and Broad-
way streets, and thence northwestwardly to the beginning.
On this land Capt. Bullitt laid off a town on the high bank
of the river just below the present Twelfth Street, and
returned his plat and notes to Col. William Preston, the
surveyor of Fincastle County, in which the land was then
located. Col. Preston, because Capt. Bullitt had made the
survey under authority from William and Mary's College and
not as one of his deputies, refused the patent to Connolly.
Lord L)unmere, however, was the friend of Connolly, and,
disregarding the technical objections of Col. Preston, on the
ioth of December, 1773, issued the patent, which was the
first ever granted in Kentucky.
   Before any thing more than securing the patent and laying
out the town on paper could be done on the Connolly tract,
Connolly himself got into trouble with the Indians and the
traders at Fort Pitt, of which he was commandant, and open
hostilities ensued. The battle of Point Pleasant was fought
with the Indians in the autumn of I774, and soon thereafter
the guns of the Revolutionary War were heard from Mdas-
sachusetts to Georgia, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the

 


8HISTORICAL SKEZCH OF



Alleghany Mountains. Connolly took sides with the mother
country, and being detected in a scheme to unite the Indians
and Tories against the Colonies, he was arrested and thrown
into a prison from which he did not emerge until near the
close of the Revolution. While Connolly was in prison all
his schemes for the great western colony vanished, and his
projected town at the Falls of the Ohio languished. It
required other men to make a permanent settlement at the
Falls of the Ohio, but the Revolution soon raised them to
the front as it had sunk Connolly-to the rear.


             Gonnolly's Title Forfeited.

   Connolly, having taken the British side in the Revolution,
his lands at the Falls of the Ohio were confiscated. They
were taken from him by the act of the Virginia Legislature
establishing the town of Louisville at the Falls in 1780, and
also by the verdict of an escheating jury, which was impan-
eled the same year by George May, the surveyor. This act
of the Virginia Legislature and this verdict of the escheat-
ing jury were strangely coincident, happening as they did
five hundred miles apart, and with no actor in one of the
scenes cognizant of what was going on in the other. The
act of the Virginia Legislature, although it took effect as of
the Ist of May by a parliamentary rule which made all acts
passed at a session bear date as of the first day of the term,
did not really receive the official signatures until the ist of
July, 1780; and on this very Ist of July, 1780, the escheat-



8

 


ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.



9



ing jury sat in Fayette County, with Daniel Boone as one
of the panel, and by their verdict made a double confiscation
of the Connolly lands.


         First Settlement on Corn Island.

   On the 27th of May, 1778, Gen. George Rogers Clark,
on his way to the conquest of the Illinois country, landed his
volunteers on Corn Island, then a considerable body of land
in the Ohio River, in front of the present city of Louisville.
Some emigrant families accompanied the troops from Pitts-
burgh, and these being also landed on the island, became
the founders of Louisville. The site of Louisville was con-
tinuously occupied by our forefathers after the landing on
Corn Island, May 27, I778. It had thus taken the Virgin-
ians about one hundred and seventy years from their first
settlement at Jamestown to carry civilization beyond the
Alleghanies and plant it upon the shores of the Ohio.


              The Town of Louisville.

  Only the upper half of the Connolly two thousand acres was
appropriated to the town of Louisville by the Virginia act ot
I 780. The outlines of this one thousand acres began near
the old mouth of Beargrass Creek, then between the present
Third and Fourth streets, on the Ohio River, and followed
the meanders of the river to the foot of the present Twelfth
Street; thence took a southwestwardly course to the intersec-
                           3

 


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF



tion of the present Broadway and Nineteenth streets; thence
eastwardly to the intersection of the present Broadway and
Shelby streets, and thence northwestwardly to the begin-
ning. The trustees of Louisville now having become the
proprietors of this one thousand acres, embracing the site of
St. Paul's, the next thing to do was to lay it off for a town
and people it. The first attempts at a plan and map of the
town were crude. John Corbly tried it in the spring of 1779,
and so did William Bard, but their plans only extended to
one street, straggling along the river front from the present
First to Twelfth Street. When Gen. Clark returned from
the Illinois conquest in the autumn of I779 he made a plan
and map of the town, which were the best ever designed.
All the land between the present Main Street and the river,
the whole length of the city, was to be a public park, and
another strip, one square in width, was to extend