Generously transcribed &
submitted by Nancy Bray.
Thanks so much Nancy!
Nancy's Note:
Our ancestors were not so much
different than we are today. They had some of the same problems that we
have, and managed to have a sense of humor also. The sense of fashion
was a bit different, and in the following installments I am going to
try and convey some of these things. There will be a mixture of things,
and dates, and helpful hints, so hope all will enjoy. I hope that you
will get a little better idea of things that went on in Pendleton Co.
and surrounding areas over 100 years ago. The news papers weren't
that much different either, over half of each issue was advertisements!
Covington Journal
March 23, 1872
(Correspondence of Covington Journal)
GRANT COUNTY
Williamstown as it is--Craddockized.
Auctioneers.--D. B. Price and James W. Tucker, both glib-tounged
gentlemen, sell on court days and other public occasions a great amount
of stock in Williamstown and Grant county.
Blacksmiths.--W. P. Savage, Charles O'Harn, and Thomas Wolf, all busy
almost constantly.
Brickmasons.--David Boys, Jeremiah Rudicill, and William Creighton. The
first wrought in Willamstown, Ky., and in Greensburg, Ind., last year;
the two last, in Cynthiana and Paris.
Butter.--Little is brought to town. Stock feed very scarce in
consequence of the protracted winter. Butter is worth 20 cents a pound,
a price readily paid, when it can be purchased.
Carpenters.--William H. Conner, his two sons, James Lemmon; James Zin,
and Lawrence Cavanaugh, generally busy in town or county. All good
architects.
Clerks.--Theodore O"Hara, Circuit Court; James T. Taylor, County
Court--both well qualified and fine penmen. It would not be displeasing
to have Taylor record a deed for a thousand acre tract, if I were the
grantee. 'Twould look so well in the big book.
Constable.--Wm. H. Childers is constantly on the look-out for some man
who owes some other man.
Candidates.--James P.Webb, present Deputy Sheriff, has been, after
proper incubation, hatched out nominee for the principal position over
J. T. McClure, present Sheriff. Another candidate for the office is
said to be in the embryo. McClure and Webb are both clever men and
popular officers. James Willis is the nominee for the Circuit Clerkship
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of R. M. Lowe.
Covington Journal is more eagerly sought and read than any other paper
that comes to Williamstown. Corn sells her for $1.75 per barrel.
Doctors.--Three in town, with "powders and pills to cure our ills,"
besides Drs. Johnson and O'Hara, otherwise employed.
Eggs, worth fifteen cents per dozen.
Exchanges.--Francis M. Sechrest, (Knuck"), has exchanged his position
as landlord of the Seymore House for a farmer's guietude. Those
acquainted with the efficient and amiable hostess will long remember
her skillful preparation of eatables that appeared on the table. Geo.
J. Burgess succeeds to the abandoned position.
Fiction suits the majority of readers. Facts scientific and useful not
in great demand.
Good Templars have a prosperous and influential. Lodge in town, several
in the county; all gaining in anti-whisky, reformatory power.
Hotels.--Johnson House, Simpson House and Seymour House. Perhaps one or
two would be enough for the interests of patrons and proprietors.
Idlers.--Too many. Don't need any. Judge Police Court, A. G.
Dejarnatte, a promising young lawyer, well-informed, industrious, and
exemplary.
Kindness.--Demand greater than the supply. Large per cent, upon
investments expected in reciprocal transactions.
Lawyers.--Too many for the county's peace; four in town; two in the
vicinity; and one now making more law;--who require big fees for
telling what little they know about law and equity.
Matrimony.--is now understood to be a "matter of money." "What a pity
she is a poor man's daughter," said a fool the other day.
Molasses (tree) is, or has been lately, made in more than usual quality
by sensible people residing in the upper part of Grant. Two dollars per
gallon. Did you ever taste "tree molasses"? It and buckwheat cakes!
Ugh! The nectar and ambrosia of Juniper are more sorghum syrup and
corn-dodger bread compared to them. Any man who cuts down a sugar-tree
in Grant or any other county should be compelled to live on- on- on, as
long as he can, on sour slop and unsifted cornmeal bread, "without
benefit of clergy"!
Newspapers.--None published in Williamstown but the Gas Gazette, whose
daily gabble is the intellectual food of gapers and gossips. The paper
that was to be, is not, and (reluctant admission!), perhaps never will
be.
Omnibus.--owner and mail contractor, O. P. Hogan...Communication
between Walton and Williamstown by onmibus, down and up daily.
Preachers.--Revs. Overstreet, Methodist, South; Yancy, Reformer;
Piersal, Metho-North--all young men; the venerable Wm. Conrad, in his
seventy-fifth year, Calvinistic Baptist.
Painter.--Ferdinand Burch, master of colors.
Quackery.--All kinds; quantum sufficity, can't particularize.
Removals.--R. M. Lowe has moved out on the farm he purchased of John
Newman. Joshua Pack lost his farm and moved to Mrs. Lawless'. Joseph E.
Boswell occupies the barn vacated by Pack.
Storekeepers.--Dry goods, Zinn & Zinn; Postmaster Porter; J. H.
Webb, Lucas & Coombs; groceries, by J. J. Carder and R. A, Collins;
druggists, Dr. R.H. O'Harn and John T. McGinnis; shoe and boot-maker,
Williams; saddler, John Buskirk; tailor, Henry Hall; also Justice of
the Peace; tin shop and stove store, by J. W. Mount.
Useless Citizens.--A few who won't work.
Vain Persons.--A few afflicted with exceedingly great emptiness of head
internally--the real "swelled."
Wood.--Scarce and high-priced. No coal by Southern railroad yet. Must
wait till the Owingsville, Cynthiana, Williamstown, and Louisville
railway is constructed.
X, Y, and Z stand for unknown quantities. But apples in Grant, cabbage,
potatoes, and turnips, have stood the winter well. Very little plowing
done yet, and that sod. No oats sown. Small grain has a poor
appearance. Mud road deep, almost impassable.
B. N. Carter Williamstown, Ky. March 19, 1872
The Journal
Covington, Ky.
Saturday Morning August 23, 1851
Dreadful Mortality
We learn that a locality on Grassy Creek, in Pendleton County, has been
severely afflicted. About two weeks ago the cholera and flux broke out
simultaneously in a malignant form. In a short time from forty to fifty
deaths, or about 1/3 of the entire population of the neighborhood, had
died at one time or the other of these diseases. At last accounts the
sickness still prevailed, but with some abatement of its virulence.
Bastard--A law of the last Connecticut Legislature provides that all
children born out of wedlock should be the legal heirs of the mother,
as much so as if they were born in marriage. Hartford Republican thinks
it would be well to make them heirs, also, of the father, as that kind
of children generally have fathers. The idea is a good one.
What the Scotch Lady Wanted--A Scotch lady entered a store in Boston,
and inquired for a tablecloth of dambroud pattern. 'We have some pretty
broad' was the reply of the astonished salesman, 'but none quite so
broad as that.' The lady explained that dambroud was the Scotch term
for checquered pattern.
The Daily Commonwealth
Saturday December 9, 1882
Remains of Mastodon Found in Pendleton Co.
Editor Commonwealth-Knoxville December 5, 1882
While Mr. F. P. Webb was engaged in digging a cellar on his new farm
near here, he, much to his astonishment, unearthed what appeared both
in form and size to be the molar of a mastodon or some other large
animal not now known to the inhabitants of this country. It was about
twenty inches in length, and measured seven inches by eight at the
large end, and tapered to about three by four inches at the smaller
end. It was corrugated on the sides of the end on which mastication
seemed to be done, the center of the same seeming to be decayed to such
an extent as to cause the margin to present quite an indented
appearance. It ought to be sent, together with the affidavit of the
finder, to some collection of fossil remains for preservation.
The Daily Commonwealth
Wednesday March 28, 1883
FASHION NOTES.
From the New York Tribune
Embroideries on light wool fabrics are done in the cross stitches of
old-fashioned samplers.
Violet, lilac, pansy, heliotrope, dahlia and many other tints of purple
are fashionable for silk and wool costumes.
Opal tinted shot silks and the aurora colors of pink with gray, or pink
with orange, are among the spring novelties.
Scotch plaid glace silks of very dark colors are used in combination
with Surah and cashmere for semi-dress costumes.
The small capote entirely covered with violets, and the brim and
strings of Valenciennes lace is a charming bonnet for blondes.
Young ladies nun's veiling dresses have guimps of velvet set in with a
point back and front, and a high puff of velvet on each shoulder.
The Fedora bonnet has a pointed brim and puffed crown, and is made up
in the yellow silks and laces that Sarah Bernhardt brought into
fashion. Pretty bonnets for spring and summer have the entire brim
covered with loops of narrow ribbon turned toward the front; the crown
may be straw or beaded lace.
Black Spanish lace costumes are imported with red or yellow satin
linings. The bright strawberry red shades are used for these and
repeated in the bonnet, parasol and fan.
Many new bodices have a puff of velvet resting against the skin around
the neck without white lace inside; this is a test for the complexion,
as is only becoming to a lily white skin.
Gowns of crimson, ruby and bright shades of red are made of camel's
hair and satin, for the house in the afternoon in town, and for general
wear in the country. Embroideries, lace and velvet are their garniture.
Daily Commonwealth
Tuesday April 24, 1883
Insecticide-The Journal of Chemistry says that hot alum water is the
best insect destroyer known. Put the alum into hot water and let it
boil till all the alum is dissolved, then apply it hot with a brush to
all cracks, closets, bedsteads, and other places where any insects are
to be found. Ants, bed bugs, cockroaches and creeping things are killed
by it; while it has no danger of poisoning the family or injuring
property.
The Ticket
Monday April 30, 1877
The residence of Mr. Isaac Middleton, near Knoxville, in Pendleton
County, was destroyed by fire yesterday. It was a two-story frame
house, and valued at two thousand dollars. It was supposed to be the
work of an incendiary.
Daily Commonwealth
Covington, Ky.
Thursday July 14, 1881
A telegram from Shawneetown, Ill., July 13, says: Wm. H. Moore,
book-keeper for the Bowlesville Mining Company, committed suicide by
cutting his throat from ear to ear with a razor, nearly severing his
head. His health has been poor for some months, and arrangements have
been made for him to start his way home to Covington, Ky., tomorrow. He
left instructions as to the manner of his burial, wishing as little
expense as possible and requesting that money left be sent to his
mother, Mrs. Harriet Moore.
We hear so much about botox and
face lifts these days, and sometimes wonder what these women are
thinking--well, here again, things have not changed that much. nb
Covington Journal
March 23, 1872
WHAT IS PAID FOR FASHION
Enameling the Face and the Result
High Price and Long Suffering for the Folly.
(From the Louisville Ledger)
A lady in Louisville paid seventy-five dollars, we are told, for having
her face enameled for the night of the ball given at the Galt House, to
the Grand Duke Alexis. The enamel was warranted to last three days, and
so it did. The lady was taken ill upon her return home from the ball,
her face became greatly swollen, the most acute pain succeeded, and it
was only by the employment of the best medical skill that her life was
saved. This statement we have from an undoubted source.
But the case of this lady is not so bad as that of another Louisville
lady who became strangely enamored of the odious fashion of enameling
the face. She visited another city, far to the eastward, some five
months ago, for the sole purpose of having her face enameled according
to the latest Parisian mode. She had heard that a noted Parisian was
engaged in the enameling business at the city in question, and to him
she went upon her arrival. For the sum of five hundred dollars he
agreed to enamel her face so scientifically that the enamel would
remain undamaged for three years, and a year or two longer, if extra
care were taken in washing the face according to his prescribed method.
The devotee of fashion concluded the bargain, and paid three hundred
dollars of the sum named, the balance to be paid in yearly
installments, divided into three years.
The lady received the enamel and returned to her home in this city.
Since her return, she has disappeared from society. There was so much
poison in the enamel that its effects were almost immediately developed
in the almost total paralysis of the facial nerves, and what was once a
truly beautiful face, is to-day a distorted, disfigured, and ulcerous
one.
The lady's beauty has disappeared forever, and if her physicians
succeed in saving her life, they will have accomplished more than they
had a right to hope for. Her eyes are terribly inflamed and disfigured,
and the sight of them fast failing.
Fashion is an inexorable master, demanding woeful sacrifices from her
slaves, but we do not remember to have every heard of a case in which
she demanded such a terrible expiation of folly as in the last of the
two mentioned above.
_____
Done Enough For His Country--A Revolutionary soldier was running for
Congress, and his opponent was a young man who had "never been to the
wars," and it was the custom of the old soldier to tell of the
hardships he had endured. Said he:
"Fellow citizens, I have fought and bled for my country. I have helped
to whip the British and the Indians. I have slept on the field of
battle with no other covering than the canopy of Heaven. I have walked
over the frozen ground till every footstep was marked with blood."
Just about this time, one of the "sovereigns," who had become greatly
interested in his tale of sufferings, walked up in front of the
speaker, wiped the tears from his eyes with the extremity of his coat
tail, and interrupted him with-----
"Did you say you had fought the British and Ingins?"
"Yes , sir."
"Did you say you had slept on the ground while serving your country
without any kiver?"
"I did."
"Did you say your feet covered the ground you walked over with blood?"
"Yes," replied the speaker exultingly?"
"Well, then, " said the tearful citizen, as he gave a sigh of pent-up
emotion, "I guess I'll vote for th'er man, for I'll be darned if you
han't done enough for your country."
Licking Valley Register
Saturday January 18, 1845
Bustles
We laugh when we look at the belles of ancient days, and as we gaze
upon the hend-dress (?) running up steeple high, like a sun-flower gone
to seed, or at the enormous hoop that renders them unapproachable, we
are disposed to say, how ridiculous!-- What fools they must have been!
But stop a bit, just direct your eyes from these pictures of ages gone
by, and take a squint at a modern fashionable dressed lady...See the
variegated colors, which chameleon-like change and glitter at every
step; the waist rivaling a wasp in dimensions, and a look at which
makes you breathe with difficulty. The ______, rolling walk, and
shuffle consequent upon tight lacing; the little sun shade which puts
you in mind of a six penny bit hammered out, and stuck on the end of a
rye straw, or a cookee (?) on the end of a fork, which is used to keep
the light of heaven out of her pretty face; and at last though not
least, the modern Bustles, the invention of the nineteenth century, the
acme of fashion, the artificial protuberance that makes Camels,
Dromodaries, and hump-backs of forms cast in the moulds of human
perfection, and puts one in mind of a bean-pole with a papoose, or
indeed anything also unnatural in shape or disgusting to the sight, and
then laugh at follies of by gone days if you can. This saddle, on which
the Goddess of fashion rides triumphant is now considered the
perfection of grace; fullness of form and beauty of dress. Can anything
be more ridiculous? How true is it that:
"New customs,
Though they be ever so ridiculous,
Nay, unwomanly, yet are followed."
The bustle reigns now supreme. What will next spring up and _____ its
place, no tongue can tell, tough we defy it to be more unsightly; or
more outrageous, come it in what questionable shape it may.
_________
Tobacco Candy.--This article, said to be so vastly superior to the most
celebrated of the day, is now made in North Carolina. It is made from
the boiled extract of tobacco stems. It is very dark in color of course
of a bitter sweet taste, inferior in point of pleasantness of
horehound. We were not before aware that tobacco, had so much
saccharine about it; this candy however, exhibits in a very high
degree. Tobacco possesses many valuable and medicinal qualities, and
this method of preparing it, may render it a very efficient and
agreeable remedial agent.
To be continued...
Covington Journal
Saturday, August 21, 1869
GRANT COUNTY
Williamstown, Ky., August 17, 1869
Simon Kenton and His Children--It affords me peculiar pleasure to
record the names of our "pioneer fathers," or of those of any of their
children or grand-children.--Having almost accidentally come in
possession of the following facts, I give them to the public with as
much real pleasure as was ever enjoyed by him who makes the Herd Book
and the genealogy of four-footed creatures his Bible:
Mrs. Martha Marksbury, of Grant county, the widow of Arasha Marksbury,
daughter of Mrs. Nancy McCarty, and grand-daughter of Simon Kenton,
has, at my request, given me the following information:
1st. That her grandmother, Simon Kenton's first wife, and Mrs.
Marksbury's mother's mother, was Patsy Dowden, a daughter of Mr. John
Dowden, who resided in the State of Ohio, on the bank of the Ohio
River, opposite Maysville, Kentucky, where he (John Dowden) died, and
where his son John Ashford Dowden lived and died.
2nd. That the names of Simon Kenton's children by his first wife are:
Mrs. Sarah McCord, who died in Urbana, Ohio in 1858; Mrs. Nancy
McCarty, who resided in Harrison county, Kentucky, on the bank of South
Licking, immediately opposite Claysville, where she died in 1817;
Simon, who died in White county, Indiana, date unknown; and John, who,
after being many years unheard of, it has been ascertained, was killed
by the Indians.
3rd. That the names of his children, by his second wife, whose name I
did not learn, are: Mrs. Matilda Parker, who died in White county,
Indiana; Mrs. Mary Murray, still living in White county, Indiana;
William Miller Kenton, residing in White county Indiana; Mrs. Eliza
Tarr, residing in the same county and State; and Mrs. Ruth Jane Brown,
who died in White county, Indiana.
4th. That Mrs. Catherine Allen, who resides at Florence, Kentucky, is a
daughter of Mrs. Patsy Wood, who was a daughter of John Ashford Dowden,
brother to Simon Kenton's first wife.
5th. That Simon Kenton's dust is now entombed at Urbana, Ohio.
A curious fact in connection with the history of the pioneer Simon
Kenton and his children and grand-children, is, that neither he nor
they ever owned much of the soil that his bravery enabled the less
courageous to occupy in peace; and upon which great wealth
distinguishes many who voted to keep many of Simon Kenton's descendants
from the enjoyment of the benefits of a common school education! How
strange is it, that Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone and their fearless
companions should put their lives in peril, in rescuing from the
dominion of savages, the most beautiful and fertile portion of the
globe, and in making way for feebler souls to come and own it, and grow
rich, and that the descendants of these men, (Kenton and Boone),
should, in 1869, be denied by the descendants of the wealthy, the means
of obtaining a common English education! It does look strange indeed!
Bold and brave and fearless and poor, these pioneers came, climbing
mountains, swimming rivers, wading through deep snows, using their
rifles as means of obtaining food and of defending their lives, driving
out the red man, who often shared his sugar and bear's oil, (the best
he had) with the white face who aimed to dispossess him of his "hunting
grounds" and for the purpose, (as events have proven) of placing their
poor posterity among the descendants of these very "pale faces," that
grew paler still in time of danger, and whose narrow, avaricious hearts
would deny to Kenton's and Boone's grandchildren or great great
grand-children, the privilege of attending "free Schools" in
Kentucky--the dark and bloody ground! Ye lords of the manor, and
monarchs of the money chest, let me give you a piece of information you
long have needed, and remind you, that if your grand-fathers, (Kentucky
pioneers,) could have been collected, in their day, at one and the same
place, to vote directly or indirectly against the best interests of one
of their poorest companions, in time of daring and danger and death,
and had one of those pioneers intimidated that "poverty and ignorance,"
or "wealth and intelligence" were inseparable connected, and that the
latter combination should mould and direct the former, and own and
govern it, such a creature would soon have been on his way to Virginia
or North Carolina, and would not have returned until the bravery,
fearlessness, daring and death of the pioneers had been forgotten. Many
little men, with little hearts, are like the little man I once knew,
who "pioneered" in nothing, but placed himself at the head of "the
party" as soon as its column was formed and out of danger! Such men,
descendants of "those who did not come at first" to "the dark and
bloody ground," are now foaming and frothing and fuming about "our
tax," "our rights" and "our burdens." Poor fellows, if it had not been
for the Kentons and the Boones, not many of your fathers would ever
have left you any taxes to pay, rights to quarrel about, or burdens to
bear in Kentucky. Chew that quid. How does it taste? Many of our
fathers and mothers, but for such men as Kenton and Boone, would never
have been born in the dark and bloody ground. Read that with all the
"ologies" annexed, with a picture of the red man before you, and repent
for having done what you could to deprive the third and fourth
generations of "the brave" from sharing the blessings of understanding
their mother tongue.
To be continued...
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