Cherry
Grove
Within this history, the Cherry Grove Community is being defined as that area along the dry ridge south of the City of Williamstown, north of the community of Mason, west of the community of Oak Ridge and east of the community of Heekin, even though none of the names, except The Dry Ridge, were in existence when the 18th century Cherry Grove was founded by the Clark Tavern and the Littell Tavern. The first reference, in 1798, to this site calls it Thomas Clark's. Later it became known as Hardscrabble, then Hilltop, and finally as Cherry Grove, because of the many cherry trees in local yards. When experienced Bourbon County land surveyor and Pennsylvania native Thomas Clark Sr. scouted in the wilderness of newly established Campbell County in 1794 for a fresh location where his family could settle on virgin land and could profit from their well-developed pioneer skills, he chose a hilltop spot (953' above sea level, one of the highest spots on The Dry Ridge), above the headwaters of four streams.
Shortly after the February 1795 birth of Clark's 6th child in Bourbon County, Thomas Clark brought his wife Sarah Bryan, to whom he was married in Bourbon County in 1785, and his children, Elizabeth, Daniel, Hannah, John N., Sarah, and Thomas II, to this desirable location, where they built a sturdy log house and began to welcome travelers. For neighbors, they had only the recently moved Littell's Station, traditionally established "by 1792", "near Williamstown", "on the Dry Ridge Trace", "on the branch of Fork Lick before Callensville" by James Littell, an Irish emigrant to Virginia, who had married Milcah Standiford, whose mother was also a Clark, in Bourbon County in 1786. With them they had at least one child, William, who was to make a name for himself as the Pendleton County legislator who persuaded the Kentucky Assembly to approve the creation of a new county, Grant County, in 1820.
In 1796 the Clarks' home was designated as a tavern, with a Campbell County tavern license costing three pounds sterling, the monetary unit of the time. The cost of this license was higher than any other tax assessment, even that on land or livestock. By 1797, both Clark and Littell had tavern licenses, and each of them owned five horses, an unusually large number for the time and place. A community gradually grew up around these two taverns. An 18th century tavern owner has been described as an "influential and respected member of the community. His access to ready money made him a kind of banker, with numerous outstanding loans. Circuit judges held court sessions in the tavern's public rooms. On election days the tavern was the polling place, and it was the place for mail distributions. A well-located tavern could clear considerably more money in a year than the average lawyer, doctor, or clergyman could".
When Pendleton County was formed in 1799, its tax list showed tavern-keeper Clark with 1728 acres, and tavern-keeper Littell with 2100 acres. Some of this acreage could have been land grant papers, which could be freely sold or traded without any deed book recordings. Littell was particularly active in this county court's affairs, ben chosen in 1802 to fill the office of county sheriff, to which he received his appointment from the governor in 1803.
Another future tavern-keeper, William Arnold, founder of the future Williamstown, arrived in the county in 1799, probably settling then on another high spot on the Dry Ridge, just 2.3 miles north of Clark's tavern. The first evidence of trustful friendship between Arnold and Clark was Clark's willingness to serve as security for Arnold in 1802. This family would continue through many years of court records in which William Arnold and Thoms Clark II served as commissioners together, culminating when THomas Clark (II) served as executor for William Arnold's will in 1836.
After being here for only eight years, tavern-keeper Thomas Clark Sr. died in 1803, leaving his widow Sarah and six children aged, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, to carry on with the tavern-keeping. Practical and capable Sarah Clark immediately obtained court permission for a tavern license in her own name (unusual for women of that era), and bought an 18-year-old slave boy as a helper. As administratrix of the estate, she conscientiously helped to list their many possessions. Since these items may have been typical furnishings for a Grant County tavern of the 18th and early 19th century, they are listed here, in categories as she may have used them.
For running the tavern, she listed 1 oven with hooks, 1 small, 1 tea, and 1 big "kittell", 1 frying pan, 1 coffee mill, 1 wash tub with a brass kittell, 2 tables, 12 "chears", and 5 beds with bedclothes. For providing for the drinking supplies of the tavern, she had 1 copper still and worm with stand, 1 brass still and worm with stand, 8 still tubs, 1 pair of stillyard, 1 still Tap, 2 barrels and 2 kegs. For food supplies for her family and guests, she had 22 hogs, 17 cows and/or calves, and 12 sheep (which provided the wool for her 2 paris of woolcards). For figuring customers' payments, she had one case of gold scales with weights (with which she could assess the value of various pieces-of-eight or other bits of gold currency. Although her husband and sons undoubtedly had hunted for some of the 2-1/2 pattons of deer skins, 79 pounds of dry hides, and 1 green hide which she had, some of these must have also come as customer payments.
Other customers had accounts due, running back to 1799. These friends and neighbors were Aaron Adams, William Arnold, W. Benton, Mosis Chery, Henry Claud, Arthur Cooley, Mrs. Dickinson, William Green, Joseph Henderson, Joseph Holliday, Edward Johnson, James Johnson, Robert Lindsay, James McCanless, John Massey, Daniel Robertson, Nathan Robinson, Thomas Rooks, William Springer, Mosis Tibbs, Augustus Vital, Richard Workman and John Zinn. Since Thomas Clark Sr. probably also served as a banker, extending loans to trusted neighbors, some of these accounts due were from loans rather than tavern purchases.
Although Sarah Clark, in 1804, asked for an estate settlement, the court acknowledged the difficulties by deciding that a settlement could be made on only parts of the property, leaving out "uncertain" portions such as 108 pounds sterling of unsettled debts and all the land. The land disagreement was with follow-tavern-keeper James Littell, who was busy having disagreements and court cases with others over land ownership in these years.
"In 1807 James Littell proceeded to settle legal action against one of the commissioners with his gun. His brother-in-law Judge Nathan Standiford provided bail of "3000". Shortly after August 1807, when Sarah, her two oldest daughters and their husbands, and four others, including family friends William Arnold and James Theobald, were court-paid for "witnessing in a felony case against James Littell", Littell and most of his family moved to Missouri. "In 1808 the Kentucky Legislature adopted Chapter DXVI - an Act for the relief of James Littell, claiming unusual prejudices, party spirit and animosities existing there, permitting a change of venue to Clark County". James Littell did return to Kentucky later along with his Missouri-born son, James Moffitt, who later married Sara Sipple, and raised a family near Mason, to help celebrate the success of his son William in achieving the 1820 formation of the new Grant County. The Clark-Littell family friendship was later cemented with the marriages of two pairs of grandchildren.
From 1804 to 1806, Sarah Clark's taxable land reports decreased from 1425 acres to 200 acres, and family tavern help decreased from six to three children, as daughters Betsy and Hannah married neighbors, James Howe and Andrew Myers, and son Daniel left home to go northward into Campbell County and on to Illinois. Although an 1806 marriage to Bryan family friend Andrew HAMPTON (who died in 1808) brought him and his 8 slaves to help her for two years, her tavern was once more given the designation of "Mrs. Clark's" in a drawing of the building on an 1811 map in court records.
Another tavern owner was James Gouge, whose place was first mentioned in 1814, when Sarah Clark's second son, John N. Clark, was named surveyor of the road from "Sarah Hampton's to James Gouge's", which was near the present location of Mason. James Gouge, from Virginia via Bourbon County, was married to Ella Jane Jewett from Maryland. Perhaps the family friendship with the Gouges started at this time with four Clarks later marrying four Gouges, and three of these couples being buried in the Clark Burying Grounds, which eventually became representative of the early community. The Gouges and the Littells a also had an affinity, as shown by the marriages of four pairs of their grandchildren.
Although tavern owner William Arnold had, in 1811, been able to acquire, with a loan, 1137 acres, through assignee Aquilla Standiford heirs who acquired it from Locator Masterson of the Cavens and Craig Land Grant, tavern owner Sarah Hampton did not buy, until 1814, some additional acres "along Craig's east line", and until 1818, 160 acres from James Craig "on the waters of Eagle Creek", on the western side of the pike. Arnold used part of his 1137 acres for his upcoming town of Williamstown, and Sarah Hampton kept her smaller number of acres for her children's inheritance.
In 1818, it must have been a blow to Sarah when her second son John N., who had married Catherine New, daughter of Revolutionary veteran Jacob New, in 1812, died at the early age of about 26 years, leaving young children. Her third daughter Sarah had also left home to marry Joseph Jump. However, her third son, Thomas Clark II stayed with her, even after his 1815 marriage to neighbor Barbara Jump (daughter of Revolutionary veteran John Jump) and continued to live on the property and run the tavern. When Sarah Clark Hampton died in 1823, he acquired the tavern and his children and grandchildren learned how to run this kind of business. He live on the property for the rest of his life (1795-1868) and was buried in Clark Burying Ground with a Masonic emblem on his tombstone. On his death, his home passed to his third son, William W. Clark. His first son, Bryan Patterson, had already established his own tavern business in Williamstown.
History
of Grant County, John B. Conrad,
Editor
Published by the
Grant County Historical
Society
Williamstown,
Kentucky
Article by Betty
Barnes and Hazel L. Ogden, 1992.
The Clark/Sheriff/Gouge/Eibeck Burying Ground
The Clark/Sheriff/Gouge/Eibeck Burying Ground became the Cherry Grove Cemetery 1991. Although the Clark Burying Ground had served the community since 1803, it had passed on as part of the Clark's land, ending in the inheritance of Thomas Clark II's fourth daughter Eliza Clark Gouge (1830-1912). Since she wanted to make it available as a perpetual cemetery, she deeded it in 1893 to three trustees, who were to care for it and to allow the burial of any relative of anyone already buried there. The original trustees were William Sheriff Jr., James Gouge, and Thomas C. Clark (also sometimes called Thomas Clark Jr.). In 1894, according to an article in The Williamstown Courier Courier, Hardscrabble citizens cleaned off "the old Clark Burying Ground, which is one of the oldest graveyards in the county, with more than 200 people having been buried there". Although these trustees and their excellent successors, including Wilbur Sheriff and members of the Henry Eibeck family, took good care of the cemetery for the next 95 years, by 1990, with descendants scattered nationwide, there was a need for all descendants to be able to contribute to a perpetual maintenance system. The first trust fund, left in the name of the "Eibeck Cemetery' by the will of Sadie Eibeck in 1961, and its proceeds have been, and will be, used for the care of The Cherry Grove Cemetery, along with a new fund.
The earliest burial here to be marked with a tombstone was a Sheriff child in 1838, closely followed by that of Samuel Sheriff (1772-1842), a close relative of the Irish immigrants Andrew and John Sheriff for whom Thomas Clark II had vouched when they applied for citizenship in 1842. Although the Sheriff family first started the custom here of using professionally marked tombstones, with five of them 1838-1879, the Clark family soon adopted the custom with seven of them 1868-1927. The Gouge family had the most marked burials with thirteen, 1873-1910. The Eibecks, descendants of J. H. Gouge, have appreciated this cemetery the most recently, with four burials 1914-1961, and there was one Eibeck burial in 1998.
To the forty-three persons inventoried by writer Virgil Chandler Sr. in 1981, two more have been added in 1991 by a memorial stone which states "In Memory of Thomas Clark Sr. 1752-1803 and Sarah Bryan Clark Hampton 1768-1823 who settled here in 1795". They, with their slaves, are believed to be the first ones buried here, under some of the early fieldstone markers.
The History
of Grant County, Kentucky
John B.
Conrad, Editor
Aritcle
written by Betty M. Barnes
Chairman
of the Book Publication Project
Grant County
Historical Society, Inc.
Williamstown,
Kentucky