Kenton County

Kenton county is one of the newest and smallest in the state, the 90th in order of formation; and was organized in 1840, out of the west half of Campbell county, as divided by Licking River. It is only from 6 to 12 miles wide, and 25 miles long; the turnpike to Lexington making it easy of access along its western length, as does the Kentucky Central railroad along its eastern border. The southern border is at Grassy creek, a little north of DeMossville, and only a short distance north of Crittenden, Grant County. It is situated in the extreme northern part of the state, opposite Cincinnati, Ohio; is bounded north by the Ohio River, east by the Licking River which separates it from Campbell County, south by Pendleton and Grant counties, and west by Boone County. The bottom lands are rich and very productive; the uplands undulating or hilly, but grow fine wheat, corn, and tobacco. The county is dotted with fine gardens and has many excellent dairy farms, for the supply of the Covington and Cincinnati markets. The lands along the Lexington turnpike are of very superior quality.

Towns
Independence is the original county seat, 11 miles south of Covington; incorporated in 1842; population in 1870, 134. But the necessities and convenience of the people have gradually invested Covington, also, with nearly all the advantages of the county seat, it being the place of record of all conveyances of property in and near its limits; and the longest terms of all the courts, as well as terms of the U. S. District court for Kentucky, being held here.

Covington is situated on the Ohio River, immediately at and below the mouth of the Licking River (which separates it from Newport), and opposite the great city of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is built upon a beautiful plain, several miles in extent; and the principal streets running from the Ohio River were so laid off as to present the appearance of a prolongation or continuation of those of Cincinnati. Population in 1870, 24,505; in March, 1873, about 27,000. The public buildings are, a large court house and city hall, just rebuilt, greatly enlarged, and beautifully furnished (March, 1873); 24 churches (2 Baptist, 1 Methodist Episcopal South, 3 Methodist Episcopal, 2 Presbyterian, of which one in connection with the Northern General Assembly and the other with the Southern General Assembly, 1 Disciples of Christ, 1 Protestant Episcopal, 1 German Methodist Episcopal, 1 German Lutheran, 2 German Evangelical Reformed, 8 Roman Catholic, and 2 for colored people, 1 Methodist Episcopal, and 1 Baptist); 4 large and substantial (one of them elegant) public school buildings, and a beautiful High School building in course of erection; 8 Roman Catholic school buildings; 1 waterworks and 4 fire company buildings; gas works; 4 banks (Branch of the Northern Bank of Kentucky, 1st National, and Covington City National, each with $500,000, and German National, with $250,000 capital); and Odd-Fellows' Hall. Congress in Feb., 1873, appropriated $130,000 for a post office and IT. S. court building and public offices. There are 28 benevolent institutions (Masonic, Odd-Fellows, Good Templars, Knights of Pythias, Improved Order of Red Men, Ancient Order of Druids, and Ancient Order of Hibernians); 46 lawyers; 31 physicians; 24 dry goods, 49 boot and shoe, 12 drug, 6 book or stationery, 12 furniture, 12 wholesale and 137 retail grocery, 4 hardware, 4 queensware, 23 notion, 12 millinery, 5 saddle and harness, 19 merchant tailor, 10 clothing, 9 tinware, 8 jewelry, 9 sewing machine, and many other stores, besides small shops; 8 tobacco factories; 21 cigar factories; 12 carriage or wagon factories; 8 hotels; 12 confectioneries; 28 meat stores; 89 saloons for retail of beer and liquors; 15 bakeries; 1 rail mill; 1 iron rolling mill; 2 stove foundries; 4 planing mills; 4 flour mills; 10 coal yards; 10 cooper shops; 4 distilleries; 5 breweries; and many other branches of business and manufacturing industry. A wire suspension bridge (the longest single-span and one of the most beautiful in the world) connects Covington with Cincinnati; and a wire suspension bridge, also, with Newport.

West Covington, incorporated in 1858, adjoins Covington on the west (population in 1870, 993).

South Covington is 2 miles distant on the south, with about 200 inhabitants.

Ludlow, on the Ohio River, 1 mile west of Covington, is a growing town; population in 1870, 817.

Bromley, on the Ohio River 1 mile west of Ludlow; population in 1870, 121.

The other villages in the county, all very small, are:
Sandfordtown, 4 miles west of south of Covington,
Benton's Station or Kenton P. O.;
Mullins' Station or Morning View P. O.,
Canton or Visalia (the latter incorporated in 1869, was the old county seat of Campbell County),
Staffordsburg, 1½ miles south west of Canton, and
Fisksburg, 6 miles west of Mullins'.

Members of the Legislature from Kenton County

Senate
John Bennett, 1841-45;
John W. Leathers, 1849-51;
John A. Goodson, 1851-53;
John F. Fisk, 1857-65;
M. M. Benton, 1865-69, seat declared vacant 1866; succeeded by John G. Carlisle, 1866-69, '69-73, but resigned 1871 to run for Lieut. Governor; succeeded by Jas. B. Casey, 1871-73;
Robert Simmons, 1873-77.

House of Representatives
John A. Goodson, 1840;
Robert M. Carlisle, 1841, '47, '51-53, '71-73;
John S. Finley, 1842;
Herman J. Groesbeck, 1843, '44;
John W. Stevenson, 1845, '46, '48;
Daniel Mooar, 1849;
Hiram Klette, 1850;
Samuel M. Moore, 1851-53;
Robert Simmons, Samuel C. Sayers, 1853-55;
John W. Menzies, 1855-57;
Robert Richardson, 1855-59;
John Ellis, 1857-61;
John G. Carlisle, 1859-61;
John W. Finnell, 1861-63;
G. Clay Smith, 1861-63, resigned August 29th, '62, succeeded by J. Crockett Sayers, Jan. 1863-65;
M. M. Benton, 1863-65, resigned and succeeded by Andrew H. Herrod, 1865;
Geo. W. Carlisle and Harvey Myers, 1865-67, the latter resigned and was succeeded by John D. Shutt, Dec. 23, 1865-67;
John W. Leathers, 1867-69;
John Wolf, 1869-71, '73-75.

City of Covington (separate representation)
Robert Simmons, 1867-71;
Geo. G. Perkins, 1867-69;
John N. Furber, 1869-71;
Dr. Chas. D. Foote, 1871-73;
C. Columbus Scales, 1871-75;
Jos. Hermes, 1873-75.

The Ohio River, at Covington, is 1,800 feet, or about one-third of a mile wide, and its mean annual range from low to high water is about 50 feet The extreme range was, in 1832, 12 feet more. In the months of August, September, and October, the lowest stages of water are reached, October, 1838, being the lowest ever known; the greatest rises are usually in December, March, May, and June, that on February 19, 1832, being the highest of which we have definite knowledge.

The Mouth of the Licking River (or Creek, as it was called by some of the earliest visitors) was one of the prominent points in the navigation of the Ohio, and in the Indian incursions into Kentucky; and was the point of rendezvous of Kentucky troops on several expeditions against the Indians on the Miami River in Ohio.

Earliest White Visitors
Christopher Gist, in his tour as agent of the Ohio company, with his small company crossed the Licking River at or near its mouth, in March, 1751, the first white men ever upon its waters of whom we have any knowledge. James McBride and others, in a periogue, passed down the Ohio in 1754; but if they landed where Covington now is, they did not leave any record of it, either upon the trees, as they did at the mouth of the Kentucky, or elsewhere. The first white women ever upon the soil of Kenton County were Mrs. Mary Inglis and her Dutch companion, in 1756, when fleeing from Indian captivity (see detailed account of it under Boone County). May 29, 1765, Col. Geo. Croghan passed the mouth of Licking; and July 19, 1766, Capt. Harry Gordon, chief engineer in the Western Department in North America, probably landed at the point; at any rate, he was making some sort of measurement of distances on the Ohio, and in his report sets down the mouth of Licking creek as 500¼ miles below Pittsburgh, 179¼ below Big Sandy creek (or river), 134¼ below Scioto river, 60 miles above Big Bone creek, 104¼ above Kentucky River, and 181¾ above the Falls. His measurements were not very accurate; the corresponding distances as shown by the official U. S. survey in 1867 and 1868 being 466¼ miles from Pittsburgh, 151¾ from Big Sandy, 112¾ from Scioto River, 46¼ from Big Bone, 74¾ from the Kentucky River, and 132¾ from the Falls at Louisville. (See page 16, Vol. I.)

In 1769, Col. Richard Taylor, Hancock Taylor, and others from Virginia, descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, but did not land at the mouth of Licking. In the fall of 1771, Simon Kenton, John Strader, and George Yeager (who had been raised by the Indians, could talk several of their languages, and when young had hunted with them in the cane lands of Kentucky) passed down the Ohio to the mouth of the Kentucky in search of cane, but found none (because it did not grow within two or three miles of the river). On their return they examined Licking River for a short distance. In 1773, four parties from Virginia, led respectively by Captain Thos. Bullitt, the McAfee brothers, James Douglass, and Capt. James Harrod, passed the mouth of Licking on their way to the falls and points in the interior of Kentucky. The next year. May, 1774, Capt. James Harrod, Abram Hite, Jacob Sandusky, James Sandusky, and 38 others, in descending the Ohio on their way to Harrodsburg, encamped nearly opposite the mouth of Licking, at the mouth of Deer creek, where Cincinnati now is, and upon that ground cut the first tree ever cut by white men. But the first white men known to have navigated the Licking River for any distance were the John Hinkson and the John Miller companies of 14 men each, who passed in canoes up to the Lower Blue Licks on Main Licking, and thence went out into Bourbon and Harrison counties to build cabins and make improvements. (See under Harrison County.) Other companies followed in 1776.

Hydraulic Lime, in thin layers, alternating with slate and granular limestone, was discovered in 1838, by the engineers of the slack water improvement, at the mouth of the Licking River, and in the excavations for the lock-pits of Nos. 1 and 2, and in the banks of Three Mile and Bank Lick creeks. From the first locality, it was tested frequently in Cincinnati, and found to be as good as any ever before in the market.

In 1837-38, $5,383 were expended by the state in excavating a channel across the ledge of rocks at the mouth of the Licking into the Ohio, to the depth of 20 inches at the lowest stage of water over known in the Ohio River

Licking River Navigation
In 1837, under the comprehensive system of slack water navigation and macadamized roads upon which the state of Kentucky had entered, the survey of the Licking River was continued to West Liberty, 231 miles from its mouth, and giving a total ascent to be overcome of 310 feet. The lockage was arranged for 21 locks, the lifts varying from 9 to 18 feet. The following table exhibits the localities, cost, etc., of the locks and dams.

The Oldest Native of what is now Kenton County, still living (February, 1873,) within its borders, and who never lived out of it, is Isaac Martin, born May 4, 1798, on top of one of the hills immediately back of Covington, about a mile west of the railroad tunnel. Zaccheus Kyle, born in what is now Covington, June 13, 1798, is still living, in Clermont County, Ohio.

Among the First Settlers of Kenton County was Edmond Rittenhouse (a relative of the great American mathematician and astronomer, David Rittenhouse, of Pennsylvania) and family, who, in March, 1793, came down the Ohio in a flat-boat to the mouth of Licking, and up that stream to Bank Lick creek, on which he was about to settle, 1¼ miles from Licking; but the hostility of the Indians compelled him to remove immediately to Ruddle's station, between Cynthiana and Paris. He came back in 1795, and located on the west bank of Licking, a quarter of a mile below Three-Mile ripple. A quarter of a mile distant, John Martin settled, with his family, about the same time. He was born on the Atlantic Ocean, in 1723, three days after his parents (who were Quakers or Friends from Ireland) started on their voyage to America. He emigrated from Beesontown (afterwards called Uniontown), Pennsylvania, by water to Limestone (Maysville), in Feb., 1791, and thence proceeded with other families, guarded by a few soldiers, to Ruddle's station, and remained until 1795; then settled on the road from Cincinnati to Lexington, a short distance from the first toll-gate on the present Bank Lick turnpike. These two were the grandfathers of the Isaac Martin mentioned above. His parents, Wm. Martin and Margaret Rittenhouse, were married in 1797 probably the first couple married within the bounds of Kenton county. In the older-settled part, which is still Campbell County, several marriages and births took place earlier. (Major David) Leitch's station was on the opposite or eastern bank of Licking, about 5 miles above its mouth, and near where the above settlers located.

Residents in 1810, within the present corporate limits of Covington: Thos. Kennedy and his three sons, Samuel, Joseph, and Robert; of those, Joseph had three sons, Thos. D., Alfred, and Davis. Robert Kyle and five sons Samuel. John, Thomas, Robert, and Zaccheus (the latter still living in February, 1873). Jas. Riddle and his son John. Jas. Harris and two sons, Nathan and David (the latter still living in 1868). Duncan McVickar and son James. Jacob Fowler and two sons, Benj. and Edward. Jacob Hardin and son John. Samuel Swing and six sons, David, James, Jeremiah, Samuel, Wm., and another. Wm. Martin and nine sons, Isaac, John, Peter, Adam, Wm., Hiram, Enoch, Norton, and another. Joel Craig, Robert Fleming, Neal Johnson, Wm. Cummings, Peter Hardin, Judge Jos. Robertson. John Gamble and four sons, John, James, Andrew, and Joseph. Patrick Leonard and his wife Molly, always known as Capt. Molly, because of her taking the place and fighting bravely as an artilleryman in one of the battles of the Revolution of her first husband, who was killed in the battle.

And in the suburbs or county within a few miles of Covington were: Thos. Sandford and three sons, Alexander, Alfred, and Cassius B. (late mayor, and who died in 1872). Stephen Rich and five sons, Samuel, Stephen, Allen, Joseph, and John. Francis Kreilich and son Jacob. Krout and two sons, Jacob and Henry. Wm. Mackoy and three sons, John, Wm., and Robert John Martin and his sons, Wm. and John. Joseph Martin and seven sons Blakeston, John, Thomas, Wm, Jefferson, General, and Joseph. Enoch Rittenhouse, Eli Freeman Rittenhouse, Humphrey Frier, and son Alex, (drowned in Licking in 1809, and his father and mother drowned in Bank Lick in 1811). John Lucas and son Joel. Abraham Rockenfeld and two sons, John and Pizarro. Wm. Wilson and four sons, Wesley, Thomas, William, and another. Jas. Holman and son Wm. Andrew Wason and son Wm. Capt. Geo. Scott and four sons, Chasteen, Elmore, Wm., and Obadiah. Decourcey and son Joel. John Donovan. John Vanhook. Elliston E. Williams and five sons, Nathan, Isaac, Elliston, John, and Peter.

The Western Baptist Theological Institute was formed November 10, 1834, at Cincinnati, under the patronage of the Western Baptist Education Society. In May, 1835, after fruitless efforts to procure a site at moderate expense, a property was offered immediately south of the city of Covington, Kentucky. In the course of two or three weeks, several purchases were made, comprising about 356 acres of land, lying nearly the whole of it in one body, at an expense of $33,250. Sale was soon after made of a portion for $22,500; and further sales so as to pay for the whole purchase, and leave over 200 acres clear of incumberance for the purposes of the institution. After a prosperous career of over twenty years, the institute was removed to Georgetown, the seat of the Baptist college which has proved the greatest feeder of the theological school The large and substantial building (see engraving), was used as a Federal hospital during the civil war, and afterwards purchased by the Roman Catholics, in whose hands it is an admirably conducted institution, St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

Capt. John Cleves Symmes, a citizen of Newport, in 1824, and for six years previously, was quite persistently endeavoring to make converts to a New Theory of the Earth, called "The Theory of Concentric Spheres." This theory was stated as follows, by a scientific gentleman who lectured in opposition to it: He maintained that the globe which we inhabit is composed of a number of hollow spheres, having spaces between them occupied by atmospheres; that these shells are widely open at both poles, the northern opening of the outer shell being about 4,000 miles diameter, and the southern about 6,000 miles; that the planes of these openings are inclined to that of the ecliptic at an angle of 12° or 15°; that the axis of the earth being perpendicular to the equator, causes the two poles to approach the upper side of the verges of these openings; that the meridians or lines of longitude wind along the edges of either verge, and meet at the highest point of the ridge which he denominates the 90th degree or pole; and finally that the concave surface of the outer shell, and probably of them all, is inhabited by various kinds of inferior animals, and by intelligent beings resembling ourselves.

Reverend Wm. Orr’s Female Academy, Covington, Kentucky 1846
(In 1874 The Residence of Wm. G. Morris)

Baptist Theological Seminary, Covington, Kentucky, 1846
(In 1874 the St. Elizabeth Hospital

Captain Symmes' very amiable private character, his reputation as a brave and active army officer, and the almost exclusive devotion of all his time, talents, and property to the propagation of his new doctrines, excited great attention and sympathy, and on the part of many induced a belief in the truth of his theory. He contemplated publishing a newspaper, in which to detail the principles of his theory, in support of which he is said to have adduced many ingenious and plausible proofs. He traveled and lectured upon the subject. A public meeting at Hamilton, Ohio, resolved that the theory was deserving of serious examination, and worthy the attention of the American people. At Frankfort, Kentucky, at a public meeting, in December 1824, presided over by the lieutenant governor of the state, Colonel Robert B. McAfee, a resolution recommended congress to consider the propriety of fitting out an expedition to explore the northwest coast, the North Pacific ocean to the continent of Asia, and the unknown regions beyond the Arctic Circle, the principal command to be given to Captain Symmes. The Thespian Society of Newport crossed over to Cincinnati, and at the Cincinnati theatre performed the tragedy of The Revenge, to raise funds to enable Captain B. to proceed eastward and endeavor to obtain an outfit for his proposed polar expedition.

Colonel Bowman’s Expedition
In the latter part of April, 1779, Col. John Bowman, county lieutenant of Kentucky county, Va, (which then embraced the entire present state of Kentucky), as a means of repressing the Indian incursions, determined upon an expedition against the Shawnees and the Chillicothe town, on the Little Miami river (not far from Xenia, Ohio). He accordingly notified the people "to plant their corn, and be in readiness to rendezvous in May at the mouth of Licking" where Covington now is. "The men from the Falls (Louisville) were directed to meet us at the mouth of Licking, with boats to enable us to cross." "A certain Wm. Harrod who, this deponent conceives, commanded them at the Falls of the Ohio, harangued the people then there, showing the necessity of the expedition, and that the settlements from the other parts of Kentucky were desirous of having the expedition carried into effect"* Four companies of militia, Captain Benj. Logan's, from Logan's, Whitley's, and Clark's stations, Captain Josiah Harlan's, partly from Harrodsburg, Wilson's, and McAfee's stations, Captain Levi Todd's, from Harrodsburg, Lexington, and Bryan's stations, and Captain John Holder's, from Boonesborough, were joined at the mouth of Licking by about 40 men from Ruddle's and Martin's stations, under Lieutenant John Haggin (also under Captain Harlan), and by Captain Wm. Harrod's company, about 60 strong, from the Falls, with two batteaux. They "chiefly turned out as volunteers," but would have been drafted if necessary to obtain force enough. "We were only entitled to a peck of parched corn apiece," and received some "public beef" at Lexington. "We were all volunteers, and found ourselves.'' From Lexington they kept down the west side of Licking, and ' striking on the headwaters of Bank Lick creek, encamped one night on the same, and went down it to the mouth of Licking." Major Geo. Michael Bedinger was there appointed adjutant. "On the northwest side of the Ohio, the men were formed into three divisions, and placed in marching order, by an adjutant in the presence of Col. Bowman." The only deposition which speaks of the affair at Chillicothe says, "success in the attack was well known." [The depositions were taken in some land suits, to prove the locality of "Bowman's encampment, the second night from Lexington."] They returned down the Little Miami, and at its mouth crossed to a bottom opposite in Kentucky, and " after disposing of the Indian plunder among themselves by way of vendue, the men were discharged and dispersed in different directions, as their courses homeward made it expedient. '

The following brief account of the engagement has been sent us† copied from the papers of the late Samuel Frazee, who settled upon a farm in Mason county, Ky., 1½ miles north east of Germantown, and lived there for more than sixty years before his death, November 12, 1849. It differs materially from the account in McClung's Sketches of Western Adventure (see sketch of General Benj. Logan, under Logan County), and from every other published account. It gives the number of volunteers at 135, whereas the sworn statements of other soldiers make it from 240 to 300 men, and the official roll of Captain John Holder's company (see volume i,) gives 56; and that was but one of five companies. In same volume, are lists of Captain Benj. Logan's (99 men) and Captain Wm. Harrod's (96 men) companies, copied by us from the official rolls among Colonel John Bowman's papers; but it does not appear, as in Captain Holder's case, that these were the rolls of the companies actually in the expedition. The name of Samuel Frazee appears as a private in Captain Wm. Harrod's company. He went from the mouth of Licking to Harrodsburg to give the alarm of Indian depredations and expeditions, returning with the volunteers to that point. He says:

*. Depositions of Benj. Berry, James Guthrie, Col. Wm. Whitley, Col. Robert Patterson, James Sodowsky, Colonel Levi Todd, and 26 other soldiers in the expedition, taken in 1804.
†. By Wm. Doniphan Frazee, of Indianapolis, Ind., grandson of Samuel Frazee

Near what is now Cincinnati "we struck the trail of the red men, and followed it to Old Chillicothe [a Shawnee town, on the Little Miami River, 3 miles north of Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, and 67 miles north of Cincinnati], where we found about 500 Indians encamped. Our forces were divided into three companies. Colonel Bowman, Captain Logan, and myself took command of 45 men each. About midnight, we attempted to move on three sides of the Indian camp, and were to remain stationary within good gunshot of the Indians until daylight, when we were to make a simultaneous attack upon the camp. Just as we had gotten up within short range, an Indian dog gave the alarm. A tall Indian raised up from the center of their camp, and I shot him down, and immediately gave word to my men to fire. The Indians shot from the cracks of their huts, and after we had fired three rounds I gave word to retreat. I saw that we were fighting to a great disadvantage. We got into and behind a few of their poorest huts, while they retained possession of their best houses, from which I saw it was not possible to drive them without a great and reckless loss of life. Bowman has lately been condemned for ordering his men to fire too early and to retreat too soon. Now, if any one was to be censured, it was I, and not Bowman. We lost 8 men, while the Indians lost probably 20 or 30. When we retreated, we took shelter in a pond [or swamp]; the Indians passed on each side of us."

Lieutenant James Patton, of the company from Louisville, said that "in spite of the fairest promises, they only burned the town and captured 163 horses and some other spoil, with a loss of six or seven men."* General James Kay, of one company from Harrodsburg, thought differently from the current account (as to the inefficiency of Colonel Bowman), and believed the attack failed from the vigorous defense by the Indians, which prevented Bowman getting near enough to give Logan the signal agreed upon; he gave full credit to Bowman, on this retreat, as well as on other occasions."†

Another narrative of the expedition, which gives the number of men at 160, and was written when many of them were living, is from John Bradford's "Notes on Kentucky," as follows:
"The party, at the end of the second night from the mouth of Licking, got in sight of the town undiscovered. It was determined to wait until daylight, before they would make the attack; but by the imprudence of some of the men, whose curiosity exceeded their judgment, the party was discovered by the Indians before the officers and men had arrived at the several positions assigned them. As soon as the alarm was given, a fire commenced on both sides, and was kept up; while the women and children were seen running from cabin to cabin, in the greatest confusion, and collecting in the most central and strongest.”

"At clear daylight, it was discovered that Bowman's men were from 70 to 100 yards from the cabins in which the Indians had collected, and which they appeared determined to defend. Having no other arms than tomahawks and rifles, it was thought imprudent to attempt to storm strong cabins, well defended by expert warriors. The warriors having collected in a few cabins contiguous to each other, the remainder of the town was left unprotected; therefore while shooting was kept up at the port-holes, so as to engage the attention of those within, fire was set to 30 or 40 cabins, which consumed them. A considerable quantity of property, in kettles and blankets, was taken from the burning cabins; and in searching the woods near the town, 133 horses were collected.”

*. Butler's Ky., page 109.
†. Same, page 110.

“About 10 o'clock. Bowman and his party commenced their march homeward, after having 9 men killed. The loss of the Indians was never known, except that their principal chief, Blackfish, was wounded through the knee, and died of the wound. He proposed to surrender, hoping to find surgeons among the whites who could cure his wound and save his life.”

“The retreating party had not marched more than 8 or 10 miles, when the Indians began to press hard upon their rear. Colonel Bowman selected his ground, and formed his men in a square; but the Indiana declined a close engagement, and kept up a scattering fire, designing to retard the march until they could procure reinforcements from the neighboring villages. As soon as a strong position was taken by Col. Bowman, the Indians retired; but returned to the attack, whenever he resumed the line of march. He again formed for battle, and again they retired. This scene was acted over several times. At length, John Bulger, James Harrod,* and George Michael Bedinger, with about 100 more on horseback, rushed on the Indian ranks and dispersed them; after which the Indians abandoned the pursuit.”

Earliest Ownership and Surveys of Covington
The first survey of lands on the plat of Covington seems to have been one of 200 acres, in the name of Stephen Trigg, who came to Kentucky in the fall of 1779 as a member of the court of land commissioners, and was killed at the battle of the Blue Licks, Aug. 19, 1782. It embraced the Ohio River front from the mouth of Licking to near the foot of Philadelphia Street. A patent from the state of Virginia, by Beverly Randolph, lieutenant governor, issued for said land, Feb. 14, 1780—in consideration of military warrant No. 367, under the King of Great Britain's proclamation of 1763, to a soldier of His Majesty, George III., in the war with France, named George Muse. Not appreciating his land warrant very highly, like some drunken soldiers of a later date, Muse sold it for a keg of whisky to a man who, putting a like small valuation upon it, traded it to James Taylor, of Virginia, for a few pounds of buffalo beef. He assigned the warrant to Stephen Trigg, who located it at the mouth of Licking as above; then assigned to John Todd, jr., and he again to James Welch, whose patent bears date September 20, 1787.

The next entry south was of 400 acres, made December 12, 1782, in the name of Levi Todd, who assigned to Robert Todd, who, as deputy surveyor of Woodford county, surveyed it, Sept. 16, 1791. Its west line ran, " supposed with the lands of Colonel Peachy," [which covered the hills west of Covington,] S. 19° E., 220 poles, to a buckeye and two small sugar trees, about 40 poles west of the path leading from Elkhorn to the mouth of Licking [near the present turnpike to Lexington].

When Covington was first established it embraced only 150 acres, of which 100 acres were platted at once; now (March, 1873,) it includes over 1,350 acres. Then it was on part of the Welch patent; now, it embraces all of that patent of 200 acres, all of John and of Robert Todd's patents of 90 and 400 acres, and parts of John Todd's patent of 300 acres, Samuel Beall's patent of 1,000 acres, Rawleigh Colston's patent of 5,000 acres, and Prettyman Merry's patent of 2,000 acres.

The Census, in the winter of 1804-05, of that portion of what is now Kenton county, lying east and north of a line from the mouth of Pleasant Run on the Ohio river, southward to the foot of the Dry Ridge on the Independence turnpike, nine miles, thence eastward three miles to the Licking river, was thus singularly obtained: The small-pox was raging in Cincinnati to a fearful extent, crossed the Ohio and was spreading in Kentucky, where there were no physicians. The Cincinnati physicians wisely concluded to inoculate all who had not had the disease, and appointed to the charge a leading citizen, Captain Wm. Martin. For medicine he used pills, made for him by his father, of butternut bark. Within that district, seven persons only were found who had been inoculated or had had the small-pox; and these were required to assist in nursing the 69 patients inoculated by Captain Martin, all of whom recovered. Thus, on about 30 square miles binding on the Ohio and Licking; rivers, south and west, and including Covington, there was a total population, white and black, of 76.

*. Probably Capt. Wm. Harrod; it is not certain that Jas. Harrod was with the party.

Kennedy’s Ferry was the name by which was known, until 1815, the few farms in the locality now embraced in the city plat of Covington. The farm of Thomas Kennedy, sen., included the point. He and his sons, before 1815, and after his death' (in 1821) his son, Samuel, in 1822, purchased, and with his family, carried on the ferry; by skiffs for foot passengers, at 12½ cents each, and by flats (propelled by oars, worked by men) for wagons, horses, and stock, at $1 for a four-horse team, and others in proportion. In 1823, under a renting of the Cincinnati landing, a horse-ferry-boat was introduced by the late Pliny Bliss. From 1833 until the discontinuance of the Vine street ferry in 1868 because of the suspension bridge, steam ferry-boats were used. The Kennedys always claimed and used the ferry, ferry right, and the wharf; except for the seven years. 1815-22, the legal ownership of the right was in the proprietors of the new town. This was the principal crossing for the travel down the ridge-road, from Lexington and the interior of Kentucky westward.

Covington was established by an act of the legislature approved February 8, 1815, on 150 acres of Thomas Kennedy's farm, purchased of him in 1814 by Gen. John S. Gano, Richard M. Gano, and Thomas Davis Carneal, for the round sum of $50,000. By the act, the title was vested in Alfred Sandford John C. Buckner, Uriel Sebree, John Hudson, and Joseph Kennedy, as trustees, who were to make title to purchasers of lots upon the order of the proprietors. The first sale of lots was at public auction, March 20, 1815, at prices exceeding what the same lots sold for ten years afterwards; indeed, in 1828, some of the lots changed hands for less than half what had been paid for them in 1815.

The Plat of the original town of Covington was recorded August 31, 1815. The city was named in honor of General Covington, and the streets in honor of ex-governors Isaac Shelby, James Garrard, Christopher Greenup, and Charles Scott; of Thos. Kennedy, the late owner of the farm; and of Gen. Thomas Sandford, the first representative in congress from this part of the state. The street next west of Scott was left without a name, awaiting the ensuing election for governor, and then named after Gov. George Madison. The plat embraced the ground west only to the east line of what is now Washington street, and south only to the north line of what is now Sixth street. The Kennedy homestead, half-square from Front to Second, east of Garrard, was reserved. The four lots embracing the present court house square were never formally dedicated to the public, but only marked upon the plat "Public." Shelby Street extended along the bank of Licking River to Third only, and was 50 feet wide; most of it has been washed away by the current. Garrard, Greenup, Scott, and Madison streets were laid off 66 feet wide; Kennedy, Sandford, First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth streets only 50 feet wide. "Such part of the town as lies between the lots and the edge of the bank of the Ohio river shall remain for the use and benefit of said town for a common." The market space, from Greenup to Scott, was 100 feet, and the cross space 60 feet wide. The course of the streets running from the Ohio was S. 16½° E.; and of the cross streets at right angles. Onerias K. Powell surveyed the plat. "All the fence rails on the land were reserved." Some 20 acres of the plat were an apple orchard, and some of the trees were preserved for 30 years afterwards.

The City Charter of Covington was granted February 24, 1834, and at the first election thereunder, in April, Mortimer M. Benton was chosen the first mayor. On February 22, 1834, a company was incorporated to construct an "artificial" (turnpike") road from Covington, "opposite Cincinnati," through Williamstown and Georgetown to Lexington. Of the 30 original corporators, all were dead on February 22, 1873, 39 years after, except John B. Casey, of Covington, and town and Georgetown, and ex-Gov. Jas. F. Robinson, of Georgetown.

First Extensive Manufactures
The town of Covington hardly began to grow until 1828; when Robert Buchanan, of Cincinnati, Charles McCallister, jr., and Wm. Yorke, of Philadelphia, and Wm. Whitehead, of Covington, but recently from Philadelphia, began the erection of the Covington cotton factory, on the west half of the square bounded by Front, Second, Scott, and Greenup streets, adjoining on the west the present entrance to the Covington and Cincinnati suspension bridge. It was very successfully managed by Mr. Whitehead (who was killed by being thrown from the inclined railway which connected the factory with the river), and afterwards by his son-in-law, John T. Levis, until the manufacture of cotton became unprofitable. The McNickle rolling mill, on the opposite square, just across Scott street, was established about 1831; followed by other factories, and, of course, by a rapid increase of the population.

The First Bank in Covington was private and temporary, established in 1821, by Benjamin W. Leathers, in connection with his store. It was the reign of fractional currency, nearly fifty years before the exigencies of the civil war invented that handy designation. Instead of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents currency, Mr. Leathers, like many others at the time, and a thousand imitators in 1837, issued his own ''promises to pay," or shin plasters, of the denominations of 6¼, 12½, 25, and 50 cents, and perhaps of $1 and $2. Having served to bridge over the hard times, the day of redemption came around, and Mr. Leathers took them in promptly like a true banker. It is said that a« he redeemed them at his counter, he aimed to clear away the rubbish by consigning them to the devouring flames in the broad fire-place in his store; but, unobserved by him, the powerful draft of the chimney carried many of them into the outer and upper air, and rained them in beautiful profusion upon the ground outside and upon the roof of the store. Before he discovered that he had established such a bank of re-issue, a sort of "fire in the rear "to consume his capital, he had redeemed many handfuls brought in by the growing stream of panic-stricken citizens, young and old. It was a "run" upon his bank not anticipated, and it worried him not a little when he discovered that he had been made the victim of his own want of caution. An old trunk was made the recipient of the after redeemed shin plasters; and the surviving residents of the " Beech Woods farm," four miles out on the old road to Lexington, well remember how patiently the ex-banker watched the actual destruction of his favorite notes as he committed them slowly but surely to the fire. He thus closed the doors of his bank against a second redemption. To redeem once was honorable, but twice was cruel. As long as he lived he was kept in lively remembrance of his balloon currency.

Semi-Centennial Celebration of 1832
The band of intrepid heroes under the command of General George Rogers Clark, stationed at the mouth of Licking (Covington), on the 4th day of November, 1782, resolved that all the survivors should on that day fifty years afterward, meet on the same ground. The 4th of November, 1832, was the day thus set for that half-centennial celebration. The day of meeting was ascertained by reference to an old letter of Maj. John Kenton's; and Simon Kenton, the most prominent of the survivors, at the suggestion of friends, issued from his home at Urbana, Ohio, an " Address to the citizens of the Western Country," inviting all the old soldiers of the Indian wars and of the War of 1812 to join in the celebration, at old Fort Washington, now Cincinnati; proposing "to meet at Covington on the 3rd; on the 4th, being Sabbath, to attend divine service; and on Monday, the 5th, meet our friends on the ground where the old fort stood; and then take a final adieu, to meet no more until we shall all meet in a world of spirits."

It was contemplated to erect, on the site of old Fort Washington, a monument to the settlement and settlers of the West, the corner-stone to be laid by the pioneers at that meeting. But the Asiatic cholera was prevailing with fearful virulence, and the general gloom only made more gloomy the meeting of the few pioneers who ventured to assemble. Simon Kenton was taken sick, at the house of Mr. Doniphan, in Clermont County, Ohio, while on the way to Covington, and prevented from attending. (See further notice of this meeting, in Kenton's biographical sketch under this county, page 449.

The First Newspaper Advertisement from what is now Kenton county we find in the Cincinnati Centinel of the North West, of date December 12, 1793; from a farmer on Bank Lick creek, named Obediah Scott, proposing to "take a number of horses or horned cattle to winter."

A Petrified Buffalo-head, full size, and perfectly natural in appearance, was discovered, in 1858, in the soft mud in the bottom of Licking river, about a hundred yards above Deadman ripple and a quarter of a mile below the long tunnel on the Kentucky Central railroad. The eyes, horns, teeth, mouth, ears, hair, and mane were well developed, only somewhat worn by the slow action of the current and what it carried down. The petrifaction was the wonder of the neighborhood for a few days; then taken to Cincinnati and sold, for the trifle of $1, to Frank's museum.

A Cat-Fish, it is recorded in Niles' Register, was taken on a trout line, in the Ohio River in front of Covington, in July, 1816, which, by actual measurement was 5½ feet in length, 4 feet girth, 12 inches between the eyes, 19 inches across the breast, and weighed 117 pounds. Such was its power, that the men were obliged to shoot it, in order to get it ashore.

The Public Schools of Covington, said to be among the best conducted in the country, embrace a high school and five district schools. During the school year ending July 5, 1872, there were 164 scholars in the former and 2,863 in the latter, under a corps of 47 teachers and a superintendent (since 1867, the venerable Rev. John W. Hall, D. D., for many years president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, but formerly of Tennessee). For the support of these schools, a special school tax of 25 cents on the $100 worth of property is assessed, in addition to the 20 cents collected by the state. The school buildings are the best, or among the best, in the state, if not in the United States. An elegant high school building is in course of erection on the corner of Twelfth and Russell streets.

A Licking River Bridge Company was incorporated February 22, 1834, to build a permanent bridge between Newport and Covington. Just 20 years after, in Jan., 1854, the first (a wire suspension) bridge was completed, but in two weeks after fell with a crash, and was not rebuilt for several months. (See under Campbell County.)

The Great Suspension Bridge between the cities of Covington and Cincinnati was ten years in building; was begun in September, 1856, and so far finished as to be opened to the public December 1, 1866; on that and the succeeding day, over 100,000 people crossed on foot. Vehicles were not allowed to cross until January 1, 1867, when the ferry-boats were laid up because of heavy floating ice. The total cost of the work, real estate, interest, taxes, and construction, was nearly $2,000,000, of which three-fourths properly belonged to the construction account. The towers (see engraving) rest on heavy oak timbers, hewed square, laid crossing each other, bolted together, and made solid by cement; above the surface, they are built of free-stone, from quarries on the Ohio river, opposite Lewis County, Kentucky. The foundations of the anchor piers are nearly 30 feet below the grade of Water Street, Cincinnati, and Front Street, Covington. These piers measure 60 by 90 or 100 feet on the ground. The cast-iron anchor plates underneath them, to which the ends of the cables are attached, are 14½ by 17½ feet in size, and 2 feet thick, and weigh 11 tons each. The piers are 86 by 52 feet at the base, 74 by 40 feet at the top, and 230 feet high, from the foundation to the top of the brick turrets, each of which is surmounted with a cross 12 feet high. The length of the main span of the bridge, from center of towers in a direct line, is 1,057 feet; and, following the curve of the floor, 1,079 feet. The full length overall, from Second street Covington, to Front street, Cincinnati, is 2,225, feet or over two-fifths of a mile (42-100ths). Each of the two cables is 1,400 feet long, 12½ inches diameter, is made of 5,180 wires twisted together, and weighs about 500,000 pounds. The width of the carriage-way is 20 feet, and of each sidewalk, 3½ feet; full width of floor 34 feet 600,000 feet of oak and pine flooring were used. The sustaining power of the bridge is estimated at 16,800 tons, or 33,600,000 pounds. 606 wire ropes, of 49 wires in each, are suspended from the cables, to stiffen the bridge.

Suspension Bridge between Covington and Cincinnati

First District School House, Covington, Kentucky

John Augustus Roebling, the most distinguished if not the first builder of wire suspension bridges in the world, spent several years in Kentucky; in 1851, in superintending the towers and preparing to erect a wire suspension bridge with a span of 1,224 feet over the Kentucky river, for the crossing of the Lexington and Danville railroad (never completed); in 1856-58, and again in 1863-67, in superintending the building of the great bridge between Covington and Cincinnati, whose dimensions are given above. Mr. R. was born in the city of Mulhausen, in Thuringia, Prussia, June 12, 1806, and died in Brooklyn, New York, July 22, 1869, aged 63 years. He received the degree of civil engineer at the Royal Polytechnic School at Berlin, and emigrated to this country in 1831. In 1851 he built the railroad suspension bridge over the Niagara River, 1½ miles below the Falls, and at the time of his death was engaged in the most remarkable engineering feat, in bridge-building, in the world, a wire suspension bridge over the East River, from New York to Brooklyn. While making measurements in connection with this, one of his feet was terribly crushed by a Fulton ferry-boat, inducing lockjaw, which terminated fatally. His son, Colonel Wm. A. Roebling, assisted his father in his public works in Kentucky, and succeeded him as the engineer of the East River Bridge, which is progressing steadily.

The Holly Water Works system was introduced into Covington, 1870-71, and proves the most efficient fire-engine system yet discovered. When the tunnel under the Ohio River for supplying soft water shall be completed, the only serious objection (March, 1873,) to the system will be removed, the water hitherto being hard, and on that account less adapted to some of the ordinary purposes of a water supply. By sinking a well, 18 feet in diameter and 71 feet deep, upon the bank of the Ohio River a permanent supply of water, filtered through the substratum of gravel underlying the river, was expected to be obtained, as in other cities; but the result was not favorable, the water proving hard, and evidently drawn from the springs of this limestone region. After two years constant use the supply began seriously to fail, necessitating a direct resort to the Ohio River. Over 16 miles of iron pipe were laid in the streets, of which one-fifth of a mile of 20-inch main, half a mile of 16-inch main, 1¼ miles of 10 and 12-inch main, 5 miles of 8-inch, 2 of 6-inch, and nearly 8 miles of 4-inch pipe. The total cost of the works, as per report on April 5, 1871, was $366,072, but somewhat increased afterwards, of which for the Holly pumping machinery $68,540, pumping-well $32,210, water works building on level ground $10,250, and foundation on the river bank $68,350, besides $9,000 for the lot, and for the reservoir for extra supply of water in case of too rapid exhaustion by fire $6,900. The funds were realized from the sale of $400,000 of 20-year city bonds, bearing interest at seven and three-tenths per cent, payable semi-annually; to pay which a special tax of 30 cents upon the $100 was authorized, which yielded $29,823 in 1871, and $28,417 in 1872. The river tunnel and connections are not yet completed; the cost is to be added to the above.

First Block-House at Cincinnati
In 1780, when Colonel George Rogers Clark's expedition against the Indian towns on the Little Miami and Mad rivers, rendezvoused opposite the mouth of Licking, it was found necessary to build a block-house on the spot where Cincinnati now is, for the purpose of leaving some stores and some wounded men of Captain Hugh McGary's company, wounded by Indians while venturing too much on the Indian (or Indiana) side of the Ohio river, on their way up from the Falls, now Louisville. The late John McCaddon,* of Newark, Ohio, claims that although he did not cut a tree or lift a log, yet he helped to build the first house ever built on that ground, for he was at his post in guarding the artificers who did the labor of building.

Thomas Vickroy,† a surveyor, and a soldier on the same expedition, says that on the 1st day of August, 1780, General Clark's troops crossed the Ohio River from what is now Covington, and built the two block-houses where Cincinnati now stands. He was at the building of the block-houses; and as commissary of the campaign, in charge of the military stores, was left to maintain that post for fourteen days, until the return of the troops. Captain Johnson, and 20 or 30 men who were sick and wounded, were left with him.

*. Am. Pioneer, i, 377.
†. Western Annals, 3rd edition, 324.

The Second Settlement near Covington was at what is now Cincinnati. Matthias Denman, of Springfield, New Jersey, purchased the fractional section of land on the bank of the Ohio, and also the entire section lying immediately north of it, which, when Judge John Cleves Symmes' purchase between the Miami rivers should be definitely surveyed according to the established government plan, should be found to be immediately opposite the mouth of Licking River; he regarding that river and its branches, which penetrated the richest region of Kentucky, as sure to pour unbounded business and wealth into the lap of a town located at its mouth. The price paid for about 800 acres of land was five shillings per acre (a shilling in New Jersey was 13½ cents, and five shillings 66 2/3 cents,) in continental certificates, which were then worth in specie five shillings on the pound, so that the specie price per acre was fifteen pence, or 16 2/3 cents, and the cost of the 800 acres only $133. 33⅛ (which is now worth, with its buildings and improvements not less than $200,000,000).

Mr. Denman came out to the land of promise in the summer of 1788, down the Ohio to Limestone (Maysville), and thence to Lexington. There he interested with him Colonel Robert Patterson, because of his enterprising spirit and general acquaintance, and John Filson, formerly a school teacher, now a surveyor, and already favorably known in the eastern states and in Europe by the publication, at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1784, and the translation into French and publication at Paris in 1785, of his History of Kentucky and wonderful Autobiography of Daniel Boone (written by Filson at the dictation of the sturdy old pioneer). This production of Filson was singularly well adapted to arouse and fix curiosity and inspire enthusiasm about this terra incognita of which all accounts hitherto were glowing and exciting but not always convincing. Denman saw his double power as a surveyor and writer, and enlisted him. The following advertisement, in the Kentucky Gazette of Sept. 6, 1788, announced the near maturity of the plan:
Notice - The subscribers, being proprietors of a tract of land opposite the mouth of Licking river, on the northwest side of the Ohio, have determined to lay off a town upon that excellent location. The local and natural advantages speak its future prosperity, being equal if not superior to any on the bank of the Ohio between the Miamis. The in-lots to be each half an acre, the out-lots four acres, thirty of each to be given to settlers, upon paying one dollar and fifty cents for the survey and deed of each lot. The 15th day of September is appointed for a large company to meet in Lexington, and mark a road from there to the mouth of Licking, provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is laid off, lots will be given to such as become residents before the first day of April next. Matthias Denman,
Robert Patterson,
John Filson
Lexington, Kentucky,
Sept. 6, 1788

By the contract between the proprietors, besides paying one-third of the purchase-money. Colonel Patterson was to exert his influence in obtaining settlers; while Filson, in the ensuing spring, 1789, was to survey the town, stake off the lots, and superintend the sale, besides "writing up" the remarkable advantages of the site. His fanciful name for the intended town was adopted, Losantiville, which he designed to mean "the village opposite the mouth," Le os ante ville, but which more nearly signifies "the mouth opposite the village." Who or what induced the change from such a pedagogical and un-musical name to the euphonious one of Cincinnati is unknown; but in the name of the millions of people who now live in or in reach of it, or visit it and do business with it, we thank the man and the opportunity. The invention of such a name was positively cruel in Mr. Filson; we hope it had no connection with his early death. Perhaps that is reason enough why no street in Cincinnati should be named after him; but it is no credit to the liberality or gratitude of the authorities and citizens that they should attempt to perpetuate the names of Denman and Patterson by attaching them to little insignificant short streets or pieces of streets, in the northwest part of the city, near the Brighton House. A great avenue around the city should be laid out and called Denman Avenue; and McMillan Street should be extended to East Walnut Hills and known as Patterson Avenue. Cincinnati should perpetuate the names of the founders and of the more recent benefactors of the city, rather than of her small-beer politicians and wire-workers.

Before the close of September, 1788, Messrs. Denman, Patterson, and Fil-Bon left Lexington for Limestone (Maysville); at which point they were joined by John Cleves Symmes, Israel Ludlow (who was expected to be Symmes' surveyor), Capt. Benjamin Stites, and a number of others. They first landed probably just below the mouth of the Little Miami, where Stites soon after made a settlement and station called Columbia; then visited the ground opposite the mouth of the Licking, where Losantiville was to be located, from which point, Patterson and Denman with several others went out exploring northward; while Symmes and the rest, including Filson, went on to what was afterwards called North Bend, and thence up the Great Miami, Filson surveying its meanders. While thus engaged, and several of the party having deserted and gone off, Filson became alarmed about the Indians, and himself started alone across the country to meet his partners at Losantiville. He was doubtless killed on the way by Indians, as no trace of him was ever obtained.* He had already made his plat of the place (which was changed after his death) in which two entire blocks were set aside for the use of the town; and besides there was given up as a common all the ground between Front street and the Ohio river, extending from Eastern Row (Broadway) to Western Row (Central Avenue) which were then the extreme boundaries of the town plat. Front Street was laid down nearer the river than on the present plat of Cincinnati. Several of the names of streets upon his plan were transferred to the second plan. Filson's death before he had stretched a chain upon the ground to survey it, thus preventing his personal services, terminated his connection with the town; he had paid no money on the contract. Mr. Denman having returned to Limestone, entered into another contract with Colonel Patterson and Israel Ludlow by which Ludlow was to perform Filson's part of the contract. On the 24th of December, 1788, a party of 26 persons, viz.: Colonel Robert Patterson and Israel Ludlow, two of the proprietors, and
Wm. McMillan,
Isaac Tuttle,
James Carpenter,
John Porter,
Robert Caldwell,
Captain _____ Henry,
Thomas Gissel,
Joseph Thornton,
Thaddeus Bruen,
Evan Shelby,
Luther Kitchell,
Scott Traverse,
Wm. Cunnell,
Noah Badgley,
Henry Lindsey,
John Vance,
Francis Hardesty,
Samuel Blackburn,
Elijah Martin,
Sylvester White,
Matthew Fowler,
Matthew Campbell,
Samuel Mooney,
Joel Williams,
of whom the larger portion had come with Colonel Patterson from the interior of the Kentucky district of Virginia (Kentucky did not become a state until June, 1792) left Limestone (Maysville) and "formed the settlement of Cincinnati on the 28th day of December, 1788."† December 26th has been commemorated as the day, but owing to the condition of the river, covered with drift ice from shore to shore, the party in their flat-boat proceeded cautiously and slowly, and did not reach there until Sunday, the 28th.

On the 7th of January, 1789, 30 in-lots and 30 out-lots, one of each, were drawn by lottery, at Losantiville, according to the contract with the proprietors, by the last 15 names above and the following 15:
Henry Bechtle,
James Dumont,
David McClever,
Jesse Stewart,
James Campbell,
Isaac Freeman,
James McConnell,
Richard Stewart,
_____ Davidson,
_____ Fulton,
James Monson,
Isaac Vanmetre.
Benjamin Dumont,
Ephraim Kibby,
Daniel Shoemaker.

The town was called Losantiville until January 2, 1790, when the name was changed to Cincinnati.‡ But according to Judge Burnet, the plat of Israel Ludlow was of Cincinnati, and not of Losantiville, the project to call it by the latter name having fallen through.* Judge Burnet was wrong, however, and Dr. Drake right. Judge John Cleves Symmes called it Losantiville as late as June 14, 1789.†


*. Ensign Joseph Buell's journal, kept at Fort Harmar, under date of October 21, 1789, says: 'Four canoes landed from Kentucky, loaded with ginseng; and report that the Indians had attacked a party of men with Judge Symmes, and killed one of his surveyors."
†. Deposition of Wm. McMillan, the first lawyer at Cincinnati, and first delegate in congress from the Territory of the Northwest.
‡. Letter of Dr. Dan'l Drake, Jan. 2, 1841.

The first cabin (three or four were put up as speedily as possible) was erected upon Front street, east of Main. Before the 7th of January, was completed the survey and laying off of the town, including all between the river and Northern Row (now Seventh street), and between Broadway and Central Avenue. The streets were laid out through the dense forest of sycamore and sugar trees on the first or lower table, and of beech and oak upon the second or upper table; the street corners were marked upon the trees. The first family that settled at Losantiville is unknown. Francis Kennedy, with his wife and seven children (one of them, Mrs. Rebecca Reeder, was still living at Pleasant Ridge, in 1859) reached Losantiville on February 8, 1789, and found there three women, Miss Dement, daughter of James Dement, Mrs. Constance Zenes (afterwards married to Wm. McMillan), and Mrs. Pesthal, a German woman, with some small children. There were but three little cabins there, all without floors; in these the surveyors and chain-carriers lived. By the 10th of April, Mr. McHenry had arrived, with two sons and two daughters, all grown; and a Mr. Ross with a small family.

About June 1, 1789, Major Doughty, with 140 U. S. soldiers, arrived at Losantiville from Fort Harmar (now Marietta), and built four block-houses nearly opposite the mouth of Licking. As soon as these were finished, they began the erection of Fort Washington, immediately on the line of Third Street in Cincinnati, about 100 feet east of Broadway.

When Cincinnati was First Settled
On the 26th of December 1833, about 166 persons, many of them invited guests, met and sat down to the table on the river bank, in Cincinnati, near where the first cabin was erected in 1788. Other celebrations, in other years, of that first settlement have taken place, on the 26th December. The inference that settlers who left Maysville on the 24th reached Cincinnati on the 26th, and began the settlement was reasonable, but was not the fact. They proceeded slowly and cautiously, on account of the ice and other difficulties, and did not reach there until Sunday, the 28th. At least, Wm. McMillan, the first lawyer, one of the first three judges of the court of common pleas, and the first delegate in congress, deposed that "he was one of those who formed the settlement of Cincinnati on the 28th day of December, 1788."

The First Settlement near Covington was on November 18, 1788, at Columbia, on the north side of the Ohio, not far below the mouth of the Little Miami River, where Captain Benj. Stites had made a purchase of 10,000 acres of land from John Cleves Symmes. The party left Maysville on November 17th, 26 in number, mostly emigrants who had just reached there from Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela River. They were:
Captain Benj. Stites,
Elijah Stites,
Greenbright Bailey,
Albert Cook, Jacob Mills,
James Bailey,
Capt. James Flinn, and two brothers and their father,
Robert Hamson,
Joseph Cox, and about 18 others, some of whom had families with them.

Several of these were surveyors, sent down by John Cleves Symmes from Limestone (Maysville), where he then was, "to traverse the two Miami rivers as high as they could."‡ Their first act was the erection of a block-house. Shortly after, between the 16th and 20th of December, Mr. Symmes persuaded Captain Kearsey, of the U. S. army, who reached Limestone, December 12th, with 45 rank and file, to send a sergeant with 18 men to Columbia, "to the assistance of Captain Stites and the surveyors, in order to support the station." On the 15th of December, 1788, just 27 days after its first settlement, Captain Hugh Dunn (who, in March, 1793, settled Dunn's station, at the mouth of the Great Miami) and his wife, three brothers, and one sister (who afterwards married Isaac Mills), in their family boat, after being fired into by the Indians, and wrecked in a storm, landed at Columbia. A census taken after the arrival of this little company, and before the arrival of the 19 soldiers, showed a total population of 56, men, women, and children, being all the American white people then known to be in the now state of Ohio, west of Marietta.* The soldiers erected three other block-houses, at the angles of a square with the first one, with stockades between, forming a square stockade fort, which they named Fort Miami; the very site of which was washed away many years ago by the encroachments of the Ohio river.

*. Letter of Oct. 6. 1844.
†. Letter to Capt. Dayton.
‡. Letter to Capt. Dayton, in Cincinnati in 1841, pp. 193-9

Judge Wm. Goforth, the first appointed justice of the peace, one of the first three territorial judges commissioned by President Washington, and one of the first electors for president and vice president of the United States arrived a Miami (as his register or journal calls Columbia) on January 18, 1790. Prior to this, during 1789, the following persons, many of them with their families, settled there (it is probable some of them were original settlers and should be named above, in November, 1788):
Capt. John Stites Gano (one of the founders of Covington, in 1815),
Daniel Bates,
Zephu Ball,
Jonas Bowman,
Edmund Buxton,
Jas. Carpenter,
Benj. Davis,
David Davis and his son Samuel Davis,
Isaac Ferris,
John Ferris,
Gabriel Foster,
Luke Foster,
Daniel Griffin,
Jos. Grose,
John Hardin,
Cornelius Hurley,
David Jennings and his sons Henry Jennings and Levi Jennings,
Luther Kitchell,
Ezekiel Larned,
Ichabod B. Miller,
Elijah Mills,
Jas. Matthews,
John Manning,
John McCulloch,
Aaron Mercer,
Patrick Moore,
Wm. Moore,
John Morris,
____ Newell,
John Phillips,
Jonathan Pitman,
Benj. F. Randolph,
John Reynolds,
Jonathan Ross,
James Seward,
John Webb,
_____ Wickerham, and
_____ Wickerham.

Provisioning Fort Washington
In the fall of 1789, when the 70 soldiers stationed at Fort Washington, in Losantiville or Cincinnati, for the defense of the settlers, were about to abandon their post from a want of supplies, three settlers named John S. Wallace, James Dement, and _____ Drennon, went down in a canoe from six to ten miles into what are now Kenton and Boone counties in Kentucky, secreted their craft in the mouth of a small branch, and by great diligence killed buffalo, deer, and bear enough to provision the soldiers for six weeks, until supplies arrived from Pittsburgh.

Seed Corn and Bread Corn for the first settlers at Losantiville (Cincinnati), in the winter and spring of 1788-89, was brought in canoes down the Licking River, from the Kentucky settlements near Cynthiana and as far out as Lexington. Noah Badgley and three others of the original settlers started by that route for Paris, for corn. When they returned, with their supplies in a canoe. Licking River was high and the weather cold. In one of the rough and crooked chutes, their canoe was violently forced among drift-wood and trees, and upset, the men saving themselves by climbing a tree. One of them swam out and escaped. Badgley followed, but was carried down by the current and drowned. The other two continued on the tree three days and nights, before they were taken off by the people who were following them down the river to Losantiville.

Value of Covington Land
Major John Bush, residing on the Ohio River, opposite North Bend, Ohio, one of the pioneer settlers of Boone County, and who made his mark in the campaigns against the Indians, told Charles Cist that he could have taken up any quantity of farming land in and adjacent to Covington, at an early day, at £5 ($13½) per hundred acres. He was offered 200 acres, including the point at the intersection of the Licking and the Ohio, as an inducement to settle there.†

The First House in the present bounds of Covington was a log cabin, about 20 rods below the point, built in the fall of 1791, by the father of the late Elliston E. Williams.‡

The Oldest House now (March, 1873) standing in Covington, and probably the second ever built within its limits, still stands on the bank of the Licking river, a short distance above the foot of 13th street, and exactly one mile and 52 poles from the mouth of that river as shown by measurement in a law-suit in 1818. It is a log house, was built in 1792 by Pressly Peake, who sold it to West Miller, and he in 1804 to Capt. Wm. Martin.

*. Sketch of Judge Isaac Dunn, in Lawrenceburg (Indiana) Press, July, 1870.
†. Cist's Miscellany, i, 16.
‡. Same ii, 36.

Rendezvous
The mouth of Licking, where Covington now is, was the rendezvous of the Kentucky militia, commanded by Col. Hardin and Maj. Hall, which suffered so terribly in Harmar's defeat, in September, 1790.

Gen. Charles Scott's expedition against the Bel River Indians in 1792, rendezvoused at the mouth of the Kentucky River. The troops returned by way of Covington, and along the Dry Ridge road, to central Kentucky.

The expedition under the same officer, in the fall of 1793, rendezvoused at Newport, which had just been laid out as a town, above the mouth of Licking. After reaching Fort Greenville, Ohio, Gen. Wayne discharged these troops and abandoned the expedition because of the lateness of the season. But in July, 1794, 2,000 mounted Kentuckians under Gen. Scott rendezvoused at Georgetown and Newport, joined Gen. Wayne and participated in the celebrated battle of the Fallen Timbers. When their term expired, they were marched back and read out of service at Cincinnati, on what is now the public landing, but which was then the ferry opposite Licking.

The Price of Farms at an early day was almost as remarkable as that of town lots. Elisha Arnold, father of James Grimsley Arnold (who, in March, 1873. was probably the second oldest person living in Covington), removed in 1796 from Bourbon County to North Bend, in Boone County; in 1797 he sold his farm there, for a Negro woman and her child; and, for a horse, purchased the place now owned by John Tennis' heirs, 6 miles south of Covington, near the Lexington pike.

General Leonard Stephens (born in Orange County, Virginia, March 10, 1791, died in Boone County, Kentucky, March 8, 1873, aged 82,) was for 62 years, from 1807 until a few years before his death, a citizen of what is now Kenton County. He was the senior justice of the peace of Campbell County in 1840-41, at the time Kenton was organized, of which he became the first High Sheriff. He represented Campbell County in the lower house in 1823, '24, '25, and '26, and the two counties of Campbell and Boone in the senate from 1829 to 1833. When he first saw the site of Covington in the fall of 1807, he came from his residence near Bryan's Station, in Fayette County, over the Iron Works road as far as Henry's mill (probably on Elkhorn), then by the mouth of Raven creek in Harrison County, thence past where Arnold kept tavern (now Williamstown, a county seat). There was no town on that route between Bryan's Station and Cincinnati; and on the Dry Ridge route no town between Georgetown and Cincinnati, where now are the business villages of Williamstown, Walton, Crittenden, and Florence. Within the present boundaries of Covington were a few farm houses, the only prominent one of which is still standing, the then elegant stone residence of old Thos. Kennedy, with its paneled room in the style of that day. Besides the stone residence, he had a stone barn (on now the south west corner of Second and Garrard streets), stone ice house, stone smoke house, stone hen house, and stone spring house (the spring of which, in the war of the elements, has been transferred from the top of the river bank to the beach or shore in front.) Thos. Kennedy conducted the ferry on the Kentucky side in 1790-94, and Francis Kennedy on the Cincinnati side, transferring the soldiers of the Indian expeditions during those years.

Emigration of Squirrels
In Sept., 1801, an astonishing emigration of squirrels took place, from Kentucky across the Ohio River. As many as 500 per day were killed as they crossed the river. A mild winter was prophesied, from their moving northward.

A Hail-Storm, unprecedented in violence since the country was settled, occurred on May 27, 1800, extending from Covington to Lexington. Near Lexington, the hail fell the size of goose eggs. Near Covington, alter the heavy rain-storm was over, which had much reduced the size of the hail, many lumps of ice weighed over an ounce each.

The First Work of Art in Covington, on record, was the drawing and painting by Mr. Lucas, in May, 1823, of a View of Cincinnati, from the Covington side, as a drop curtain for the Globe Theatre, Cincinnati. It attracted great attention for its beauty and uniqueness.

No Station or Block-House was ever built in what is now Kenton County. A log cabin, with holes to shoot out of—on the land of John D. Park, 2 miles south of Covington, was called a block-house.

Biographical Sketches