HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY KENTUCKY
by
charles
m. meacham
1930
CHAPTER FIVE
THE FIRST QUARTER CENTURY
The Homes in the Wilderness; The Game in the Woods; Settlers Who Arrived During the First Quarter Century; The Pioneer Graveyard.
Ready for business by the end of the year 1897, the new county made rapid progress. The next meeting of the legislature made material reductions in its territory. Muhlenberg County took away its Green river section on the east and Henderson and Livingston Counties on the Ohio river took much of the country to the north of what is now Hopkins County. Elizabeth, as the town was then called, was soon the center of a mushroom growth in the wilderness. Its courts had jurisdiction over vast tracts of land grants that were divided into farms as new settlers crowded into the county from the states to the east and from the counties of Kentucky already settled. It has been shown that less than four hundred men were reported by the census taken by the sheriff for 1797. With the area greatly reduced, the number had almost doubled in two years. The pioneers were a hardy race seeking homes in a land of fabulous resources.
The woods to the north were filled with game of every description, deer,
elk, wild turkeys and at certain seasons wild pigeons. Wolves, foxes and
smaller animals were found everywhere. There were swarms of wild bees in
the hollow trees with honey ready to be taken. Many fruits grew wild and
flowers adorned the landscape. The new town was located upon a hill, or
rather a series of hills, rising to an elevation of 541 feet, separating
the hill country from the barrens. These were the vast grazing grounds
of herds of buffaloes, covered with rank grass. There was water, but not
much timber until further west, where the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers
ran northward to the Ohio through wild stretches of primeval forests. The
barrens were close to town and though less desirable than the woods, where
the timber was ready to build houses and furnish firewood, they were soon
taken up and settled. There was some timber along water-courses and soon
there were sawmills to provide lumber for those who needed houses. In this
part of the county there were great fields of wild strawberries in spring
and for many decades the berries were plentiful enough to discolor the
feet and legs of cattle that grazed in the pastures. Dewberries, blackberries,
plums, persimmons and pawpaws were then and still are indigenous to the
soil. Hickory nuts, chestnuts, walnuts and crabapples were everywhere.
It was a land of plenty, a paradise
flowing with milk and honey. The cows brought in by the settlers needed but little feed that nature had not provided and the bees were as busy as the pioneers. At the beginning of the new century a stampede had set in and what became known as South Christian was soon settled by immigrants from Virginia, a different race from the hardy woodsmen from North Carolina who had settled in the north. They came with their families, Sons of Revolutionary soldiers and statesmen of the east, bringing their slaves with them, their herds of cattle, horses, mules and other livestock. In their wake came the preachers and school teachers, and before the county was twenty-five years old its citizens compared favorably with any in the state. South Christian and North Christian met and assimilated in the county seat and pioneer and patrician, the hunter and the scholar, the soldier and the statesman, set about the task of making history in Western Kentucky.
In other chapters I have sought to give as many names as possible from
the old records, the officers, the grand jurors, the attorneys at the bar,
the political leaders of the day, in order to show who the men were who
conquered the wilderness. Lists have been compiled to show all of the officers
of the county in the past. Each decade had its dominant leaders and every
decade brought in new settlers who quickly took their places in the progress
the pioneers had prepared the stage for. Some found homes among their kindred
already here and others bought homes further into the wilderness, where
new counties were to be created a few years later. Many who came to Christian
in this period are now in Todd, Trigg, Hopkins and other counties. This
record therefore must deal with the present boundaries of the county. In
the first twenty years the following names of pioneers and later corners
appear: Allen, Akers, Anderson, Armstrong, Barnes, Beard, Bell, Blue, Boyd,
Bradshaw, Breathitt, Bronaugh, Brown, Buckner, Campbell, Clark, Crabtree,
Croft, Coleman, Cates, Cushman, Cartwright, Daniel, Davis, Davie, Dulin,
Davidge,Edwards, Ellis, Ewing, Ezeil, Faulkner, Finley, Forbes, Gant, Gaibraith,
Garnett, Garrott, Glass, Goode, Gilkey, Grissom, Gray, Green, Hawkins,
Harned, Hardin, Henry, Hopkins, Jesup, Jones, Johnson, Jackson, Knox, Lacy,
Lea-veil, Long, Lackey, Lander, Meacham, Means, Metcalf, Mason, McDaniel,
McFadden, McLaughlan, McGee, McKee, McKenzie, McKnight, Morris, Morehead,
Nance, Overshiner, Owen, Payne, Patton, Padfield, Palmer, Pendleton, Pursley,
Pyle, Radford, Ricketts, Reeves, Robinson, Rumsey, Shelby, Smith, Stites,
Stuart, Starling, Shipp, Sherrill, Shelton, Shackelford, Thompson, Tandy,
Underwood, Vaughan, Wood, Woosley, Warfield, Whitlock, West, Wilson, Williams,
Walker, Wicks, Withers, Webber and Younglove. The descendants of many of
these families are here yet. Others came and took equal prominence with
the pioneers. This list is of course by no means complete, as the records
of the times are meager, imperfect and many of them indistinct.
For practically all of the first twenty-five years, Christian County included Trigg County. The first settlers in that county were Thomas Wadlington, south of Cadiz; the Bakers at Cadiz, which was first called Bakersyule, Robt. Goodwin at Cerulean Springs and the Hopsons at Canton. This fertile county also settled up rapidly with the elimination of danger from Indians, though “between the rivers” remained a wild section for many decades. Some other early families in Trigg were the Dabneys, Burnetts, Majors, Whites, Ladds, Penns, Streets, Roaches, Lindsays, Jeffersons, Grinters, Whartons, Stewarts, Tylers, Andersons, Boyds and Gardners.
PIONEER GRAVEYARD
WHERE WERE BURIED THE EARLY SETTLERS
OF HOPKINSVILLE IN FIRST HALF
OF NINETEENTH CENTURY
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
—Gray.
The Board of Council of the City of Hopkinsville undertook in 1910 to reclaim the old abandoned graveyard at the foot of Thirteenth Street, near the river bank.
This graveyard was the public burying ground from about 1812 until about
1852, though there were a few burials there as late as 1873. About 1865
the place became a wilderness of weeds and so remained until forty years
later, when the council undertook to care for it to some extent, by having
the dead trees and rank weeds cut down. In the spring of 1908, a committee
consisting of the mayor and two councilmen was appointed to take up the
work of improving and beautifying the graveyard. All of the timber, excepting
a few trees left for shade, was cut down, and briars, brambles and bushes
were kept down during the summer, and the old place was put in a better
condition than it had been for fifty years. The solid board fence was taken
down and a wire fence put in its place.
Desiring to make the work of improvement as much a popular movement
as possible, the council committee appointed an auxiliary committee of
ladies, most of whom were descendants of original settlers of Hopkinsvile.
In 1907 Mayor Chas. M. Meacham compiled a list of 165 persons buried
in the old cemetery from 1812 to 1858. Only one body was buried there later
than 1858, that of Dr. A. Webber, who was buried Dec. 23, 1873. In addition
to the compiled list, probably 20 others who were buried in the graveyard
are known, their headstones having been entirely destroyed. All told about
185 names were compiled and there are probably 50 more unmarked graves
of unknown persons.
Very few of the headstones. remain as they were orjginally. Many of them were native limestone slabs. Some had crumbled away, some had been broken, some had fallen flat and some that remained standing had all lettering obliterated by the action of the elements. One headstone was almost surrounded by the trunk of a great elm tree three feet in diameter, that had grown up in the grave.
The committee agreed that the name “Pioneer Graveyard” would be an appropriate
one and it was so named.
It was planned to erect a suitable monument to the pioneers, placing
all known names upon it in enduring form. The cemetery was laid out for
walks, and young trees were planted and were soon growing nicely. The ground
was cleared of broken headstones, only such as remained in good shape having
been left. The plans were never fully carried out. Mayor Meacham retired
from office in 1914 and his successor, Mayor Frank K. Yost, had concrete
walks laid and some other improvements made. A place was marked off, enclosed
by walks, for the proposed monument, to cover the graves of Bartholomew
T. Wood, who gave the ground in 1812, and his wife, Mrs. Martha Wood. He
died in 1827 and she died in 1846. The tombstones were down and broken.
The grounds have since been kept in order, but the monument has never been
erected and it remains for the present generation to complete the work
as outlined 20 years ago. The Council Committee who began the work in 1910
was composed of Chas. M. Meacham, the mayor, and Councilmen John B. Galbreath
and Geo. E. Randle.
The Ladies Auxiliary Committee was composed of Mrs. Alex G. War. field,
Mrs. Henry D. Wallace, Miss Julia Arnold, Miss Ellen Young, Miss Katie
McDaniel, Miss Lucy Whitlock, Mrs. Green Henry Russell, Mrs.
S. A. Edmunds, Mrs. Hampton Fox, Mrs. Mary B. Campbell. Most of them
were still living in 1929.
Mrs. Warfield is a great granddaughter of Bartholomew T. Wood, the
first settler of Hopkinsville. Miss Arnold is a granddaughter of Dr. A.
Webber, whose body was the last buried in the graveyard. All of the ladies
are descendants of early settlers, excepting Mrs. Campbell, who was the
widow of Hon. Jno. P. Campbell, who was congressman from this district
in 1856-7, and a representative of one of the first families.
The following list of adults contains 42 men and 46 women:
ADULTS.
Mrs. Margaret Allen, wife Samuel Allen, 1815-1834.; Mrs. Sarah Allen,
wife Samuel Allen, 1811-1836; Mrs. Elizabeth Allen, wife of Henry Allen,
1782-1836; Mrs. Mary Bell, died 1825; Mrs. Mary Bouldin, died
1818; J. W. Blair, died 1817; Mrs. Selena C. Bailey, 1771-1851; Aaron
Boyd, 1801-1850; Mrs. Louisa C. Curd, died 1839; Mrs. Love D. Campbell,
wife of Alex Campbell, died 1834; Mrs. Eleanor G. Crow, 1812-1829;
P. L. Cathey, 1830-1853; Ephraim Cock, 1753-1839; Wm. W Cullman, 1793-1840;
Francis M. Dallam, 1755-1823; Benjamin Eggleton, died 1819; Mrs. Elizabeth
R. Elgin, wife W. M. Elgin, 1809-1834; Jonathan
English, 1796-1832; Jeremiah Foster, 1791-1823; Samuel Finley, 1795-
1836; Hugh L. Foster, 1819-1848; Mary Gordon, 1761-1831; John Guynn, 1793-1817;
— Gibson, aged 66; John H. Gooch, 1718-1850; Samuel Harrison, 1765-1837;
Mrs. Nancy Harrison, 1768-1833; Miss Ruth Hopkins, 1772-1834; Thomas Hopkins,
1773-1834; Mrs. Jane Hopkins, wife Thomas Hopkins, 1800-1830; Mrs. Mary
Jane Hall, wife A. M. C.
Hall, 1806-1830; Daniel Hogan, died 1850; Catherine Higgins, 1755-
1812; Mrs. Eliza V. Gano Henry, wife Daniel Henry, 1803-1821; Robert Pryor
Henry, IvI. C., 1788-1826; Nevil Hopson, 1783-1835; Mrs. Susan
Hopson, wife Nevil Hopson, 1787 -1850; Mrs. Mary Johnson, 1773-1814;Mrs.
Sarah Jones, 1805-1833; Anna Weir Kelly, daughter R. H. Kelly, died 1832;
Harriet Kelly, 1789-1831; Mrs. Susan Kinkead, 1830-185.S;
Mrs. Virginia Kinkead, 1817-1838; Mrs. Martha Ann Lambert, wife G.
W. Lambert, 1818-1844; David Lotspeich, 1790-1832; Alexander McCulloch,
1777-1829; John McGarvie, 1789-1833; Francis G. Moore, 1813-
1853; Mrs. Jane Moore, wife John Moore, 1767-1825; Andrew Moore, son
of John, 1799-1825; Mrs. Sarah C. McLaughlin, wife Jas. H., 1758-1825;
Mrs. Amanda Leavy Morehead, wife Gov. Chas. S., 1804-1829; Wm.
Nichol, 1769-1829; Benj. W. Patton; Mrs. Margaret St. Patton, wife
Benj. W., died 1823; Mrs. Ann Patton, wife Wm. Patton, 1796-1824; Jas.
M. Pursley, 1813-1849; John Pursley, 1774-1827; Miss Jane W.
Price, 1779-1833; Joseph M. Price, 1800-1839; Mrs. Ann Price, wife
Wm., 1807-1832; John H. Rice, 1808-1835; Melinda M. Rice, 1774-1832; James
M. Rice (son Rev. David), 1768-1832; James S. Steele, 1808-1847; Dr. Moses
Steele, 1778-1817; Mrs. Susan Steele, 1784-1840; Edward R. Slaughter, 1803-1839;
Mrs. Mary Smith, wife Dr. W. T. Smith, 1794-1844; Dr. Samuel Stuart, 1817-1852;
John B. Stuart, 1809-1846; Wm.
R. Tadlock, 1815-1838; Dr. Augustine Webber, 1790-1873; Mrs. Nancy
Webber, wife Dr. A. W., 1794-1840; Mrs. Ann Webber, wife Philip W., died
1822; Mary Wood, 1899-1844; Mrs. Lucinda Wood, wife Jas. S.,
1801-1821; Mrs. Nancy Wood, wife Jno. H., 1791-1798; Mrs. Ann E. Wood,
wife Jno. H., 1801-1838; Bartholomew T. Wood, died 1827; Mrs. Martha Wood,
wife of Bartholomew T. Wood, died 1846; Susannah Wade, 1797-1830; Mrs.
Adah Wilcockson, wife John, 1789-1824; Mrs. Juliet Western, wife of Wm.
W., 1807-1848; Elizabeth Western, 1779-1832; Benjamin York, 1800-1825;
Mrs. Melinda York, wife Benj. York, 1805-1825.
YOUNG BOYS
Wm. M. Clark, 1801-1819; Archibald Gordon, 1804-1820; John Long, 1802-1813;
James T. Moore, 1834-1845; A. G. Overshiner, 1815-1836;James Park, 1803-1822;
Henry M. Wood, 1813-1833; C. M. Wood, 1813-
1823; James Wilson, 1814-1831; Wm. Washington Webster, 1825-1833.
YOUNG GIRLS
Elizabeth Breathitt, 1804-1827; Virginia Harrison, 1807-1825; Frances L. Gibson, 1825-1844; Henrietta McDaniel, 1806-1823; Elizabeth H. Messick, 1835-1852; Loetitia J. Price, 1818-1834.
CHILDREN
Henry Allen; Infant Allen; Peyton Short Breathitt, 1823; Infant Breathitt,
1817; Louisa E. Bradley, 1834-1836; Robert S. Bradley, 1836-1836; Infant
Crow, 1829; Magnus S. Carnahan; Mary Carnahan, 1834-
1838; Mary E. Cock, 1846; George Cock, 1835-1840; Dunavan child, 1847;
Wm. Knox Finley, 1827-1833; Sarah Jane Webber, 1826-1827; Mary Watts, 1819;
Emily Watts, 1825; Maria I. M. G. Wood, 1817-1822;
Alexander H. Wood, 1843; Nancy Wood, 1834; Sarah Wilcockson; Joseph
T. Wilcockson; Albert G. Worsham, 1834-1835; Western, 1830. Three in Blair
lot, three in Lambert lot, two in Foster lot, and one each in the Clark,
Bouldin, Higgins, Moore, Steele, Short, Watts and Wood lots. One footstone
marked only “F. E.”
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