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1 March –
1835 – Louisville, KY. George Hancock and Mr. Craddock get possession of Ward’s place. (See 29 September 1834.) [Potts, p. 203, note 85]
2 March –
3 March –
1810 – Clarksville, IN. William Clark appeals to Daniel Fetter, James Hughes, and Solomon Fuller, town trustees, to “prolong the time for his complying with the conditions of a grant made to him” 18 March 1803 (which see). He was granted seven years to improve his slip by construction of a canal and associated commercial ventures. He had not frittered away the time. He had led the Lewis & Clark Expedition. His plan for a canal was not associated with the Indiana Canal Company. [Potts, p. 82]
4 March –
1835 – Louisville, KY. John Croghan writes to Ann Croghan Jesup, on behalf of their mother, Lucy Clark Croghan: She requests me to answer your letter. It is a task for her to write in as much as she is somewhat troubled with the rheumatism in her shoulder and her sight is not as good as it was some 40 or 50 years ago. We regret very much that you have not received the trunk. Ma cannot recollect all the articles which it contained, but the following are some of them.
2 Chally dresses, I know nothing of the language of ladies toilette or the correct mode of spelling the articles of your dresses, therefore, I am not certain of chally should be spelt with a c or s. 1 straw coloured Batists, a thin dress worn to Mrs. Bakewells when you were here, 2 India muslins, a plain thin muslin, a new white cambrick dress & spencer, new cambrick long night gowns, silk crimson velvet dress, 2 new Black silk dresses one of them stripe gauze, a blue and green cambrick wrapper, Blue cloth riding dress, a brown murino cloak, white murino shawl, scarf of different colours, a black & white lace veil, a green & white gauze veil, a purple silk dress, a dress sent from Washington with flowers, calico wrapper, 4 Night caps, corsetes and shifts, black & white silk stockings, shoes, gloves, yellow shawl embroidered with silk, a gold comb and a white and pink coral top, a black and white chorded petticoat, a box filled with various articles, Capes, Lace, black handkerchiefs, linen cambrick purples handkerchiefs, silver set buckles, and dresses and other articles not recollected at present. It was a large square trunk which you recollect sat in the passage upstairs & held the sheets and we covered it with linen & tacked it around. Not more than half the articles sent were enumerated but enough are mentioned to enable anyone to identify the trunk. The trunk was welled packed. Ma requested me to write this letter in her room and I assure you it is no easy matter to write and converse at the same time. She remarked today that she felt better than she has since last October. [Potts, p. 104-5] Albeit that cambric and batiste are thin fabrics, your editor marvels at the capacity of the trunk. Seems it could simply have had wheels and seat installed and been driven as a wagon to Washington City.
5 March –
1781 – Jefferson County, KY. William Linn leaves his station to attend first meeting of county court. Shots are heard and his body is found. He is buried on his property, but the exact site is lost. In 1776, he was in command of the upriver transportation of 3,000 pounds of gunpowder, which had to be portaged around the Falls of the Ohio. A message came downriver in 1778 for George Rogers Clark informing him of the alliance between France and the United States. Clark had departed on 24 June. Realizing the importance of the information, Linn set out alone in a canoe to get the message through to Clark. He stayed on, becoming a major in the Illinois Regiment. In 1779 he built the first of the stockaded stations along the Middle Fork of Beargrass Creek. Even after five more stations were established, Linn’s remained the easternmost and the most likely for attack. [EL, p. 519]
Births –
1796 – Louisville, KY. Catherine Rudy born. [Renau, p. 88]
6 March –
7 March –
1776 – Hanover County, VA. Richard Clough Anderson Sr. enters continental line as captain in the Fifth Virginia Regiment. [EL, p. 37]
1792 – William Clark commissioned second lieutenant in the infantry of the regular army of the United States. [EL, p. 199-200]
8 March –
1848 – Louisville, KY. John Croghan writes to Thomas Sidney Jesup: My impression was that St. George, having obtained a licence to practice law, intended living in Louisville & practice his profession; I never for a moment thought of his wish to become a farmer, especially as he had lived all his life in Cities. [Potts, p. 113]
9 March –
1779 – Vincennes, IN. George Rogers Clark to Patrick Henry: “The finest Stallion by far that is in the country I purchased some time ago and rode him on this Expedition and resolved to make you a compliment of him but to my mortification I find it impossible to get him across the drown’d lands of the Wabash…He came from New Mexico, three hundred leagues west of this.”
10 March –
11 March –
12 March –
1792 – Louisville, KY. Ambrose Madison, Hancock Lee, Abraham Happonstall and Zachary Taylor convey 360 acres to Richard Taylor, for consideration of 10 pounds. The deed is witnessed by William Croghan and verified 7 August 1792, but it will not be acknowledge by the county clerk until 3 May 1814. These records are yet available in the Louisville Metro Archives. [Potts, p. 195, note 9]
13 March –
14 March –
15 March –
1829 – near Burkesville, KY. Well drillers employed by John Croghan strike oil. Unfortunately, they were drilling for salt water. There is no market for the foul smelling sticky gunk. Attempts to bottle it and sell it as medicine are – not successful. In the future, the Kentucky legislature will deem this the first oil well in America; the people of 19th century Cumberland County deem it a disaster, as the Cumberland River is fouled for miles and months.
1834 – Louisville, KY. John Croghan writes to Thomas Sidney Jesup: I am apprehensive I shall be pestored very much for medical advise &c. Last night I was out until a late hour prescribing for some of my neighbors, and this morning, before I was up, I was sent for to see a female who is very ill. I had but just returned when old Criss requested me to see one of the cows that was dangerously ill. [Potts, p. 103]
16 March –
1970 – Louisville, KY. Samuel W. Thomas hears from the Virginia State Library, that they cannot ascertain how George Rogers Clark came to possess treasury warrants for 73,962 acres on the south side of the Ohio River below the mouth of the Tennessee River. The warrants had been issued to Nathaniel Randolph, an assignee of Samuel Beall. George Rogers Clark had entered the tract in 1780 as his own. Three years after the general’s death, suit was brought in Jefferson Circuit Court against his heirs concerning their interests in this vast parcel. (See 11 May 1792; 15 September 1795; 15 August 1796; 5 October 1796; 18 August 1797; 14 December 1797; 28 July 1803; 5 November 1815; 10 July 1826; 4 October 1830; 8 May 1835.) [Potts, p. 93-4]
17 March –
1763 – Pittsburg, PA. (Uncle) George Croghan, wearing a kilt to cover “a pox so bad that he cant live long having a hole at the bottom of his belly that runs constantly” (James Kenny), leads the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations enthusiastically enough to garner an excruciating hangover. [Renau, p. 12]
1768 – Philadelphia, PA. Uncle George Croghan, accompanied by 16 year-old William Croghan, “fires volley after volley,” over the coffee house in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
18 March –
1798 – Louisville, KY. William Croghan purchases Six Mile Island. (See 6 Aug 1799; 13 Apr 1813) [Potts, p. 69]
1803 – Clarksville, IN. William Clark, having recently purchased land receives the following charge from the Clarksville town board of trustees: The Trustees taking into consideration the great advantages that would result to the Trustees of the town of Clarksville and the public in general by opening a Canal around the falls of Ohio, on the Application of George Rogers Clark: It is resolved by the board that the rights privileges and advantages of the Ground between the front lots on the Ohio, and the Ohio from the upper line of the town of Clarksville adjoining Isaac Bowman’s Lott No One in the Illinois grant to the mouth of Mill Creek be exclusively granted to William Clark his heirs or and assigns to be appropriated to the use of opening a Canal through any part of said slip of land on which to erect Mills, Wharfs, Store houses or any kind of water Works that my be of Public utility for the erection of Gates Locks &c for the passage of boats vessels &c, reserving however between the southwardly line of said front lots and the Canal the distance of thirty feet for which privilege the said William Clark his heirs and assigns is to pay to the trustees or their successors, One percent on the production of all Water Works that my be erected on sd Canal and 5/Cent on the toll of all kinds of Crafts that may pass through the said Canal.
Provided however that the said William Clark his heirs do Complete the said Canal for the erection of Water Works within Seven years from this day. [Potts, p. 78-9]
19 March –
20 March –
1979 – Louisville, KY. Robert Waters reminisces: We never thought about selling as long as Mother and Father were living. They sold part of the place. They didn’t have any intention of selling a big amount of it… We were supposed to ge the house and 55 acres for our lifetime, but nothing to live on… [Potts, p. 125]
21 March –
1765 – George Croghan’s plot to corner the fur trade is spoiled by an expose in the Pennsylvania Journal. [Renau, p. 14]
1801 – Louisiana Territory, North America. The colony reverts back to France in accord with Treaty of San Lorenzo. (See 1 October 1800.) [Potts, p. 77]
1883 – Jeffersonville, IN. Lyman C. Draper interviews James Harrison, son of the owner of Chalybeate Springs spa: My impression is that he [Kitt] was never treated as a slave after the death of Gen. Clark. [Potts, p. 93]
22 March –
2005 – Louisville, KY. Samuel W. Thomas interviews Sara Sallenberger Brown who recalls that her interest in preserving Locust Grove became an urgent desire when she learned that a friend of her husband wanted to buy the property, demolish the house and build a nursing home. [Potts, p. 126-7]
23 March –
1813 – Louisville, KY. William Croghan writes a letter to General Thomas H. Cushing, reminding him: When part of the Army was stationed at the Falls of the Ohio I had the pleasure of a Slight Acquaintance with you, and Last Saw you with Elia Williams & Michael Lacassagne at my Cabin a few miles above Louisville on a piece of Land I had Just then purchased in a Cane brake.” Might this cabin in the cane break be on the land he would name Locust Grove? [Potts, p. 64]
1828 – Pittsburgh, PA. William Croghan Jr. writes to Thomas Sidney Jesup that he is informed: the property of my child by the time she is 21, will be worth half a million. [Potts, p. 100]
Mary Croghan would be reported to be the richest lady in the United States.
24 March –
25 March –
1798 – Monticello, VA. Dr. Samuel Brown attempts to coach George Rogers Clark into a statement redounding to the credibility of Thomas Jefferson in blaming Michael Cresap for the slaughter of Mingo chief Logan’s family. Dr. Brown writes to General Clark detailing an account “when at your house:” I think you informed me that you were with Crasap at the time Logan’s family was murdered, that Cresap was not the author of the massacre, that Logan actually delivered the speech as reported in the Notes of Virginia… Mr. Thruston will do me the favor of carrying this letter & I hope you will find leisure to prepare an account of Logans speech before his return. I could wish to transmit it to Phila. Before Congress rises as it is possible the conveyance to Monticello will not be so safe.” [Potts, p. 76]
1805 – Livingston County, KY. Deed Book A p. 181 records that William Croghan conveys six lots to Isaac Bullard. There is a plan to establish Smithland, KY. (See 11 Oct 1784; 1 Nov 1789; 21 Nov 1789; 4 Nov 1805.) [Potts, p. 69]
1809 – Louisville, KY. Richard Ferguson, M.D. amputates right leg of George Rogers Clark. Surgery performed at residence of Clark’s brother-in-law, Dennis Fitzhugh, second floor, southwest corner of Fifth and Main streets.
Jonathan Clark’s diary: Clear at Louisville – brother George had his leg taken off by Doct Ferguson. [Potts, p. 87]
26 March –
1806 – Fort Clatsop, Oregon. Fort abandoned by Corps of Discovery. Rain…Snow in the Bitterroots, however, will make them guests of the Nez Perce for about six weeks. [EL, p. 509-10]
27 March –
1750 – Montgomery County, PA. John Todd born. (See 14 May 17771; 19 August 1782.) [KE, p. 887]
28 March –
1766 – Pittsburgh, PA. Sir William Johnson writes to George Croghan that he is willing to participate in the Illinois Company, and permitting Croghan to return to the Mississippi. [Potts, p. 15]
29 March –
1805 – Lexington, KY. Allan Bowie Magruder writes to George Rogers Clark that he is at the place where: the Events to which your documents & your own information relate, will properly belong. Magruder’s work on history of the American Indians was never published, but the Kentucky information was used by John Bradford in his Notes on Kentucky. [Potts, p. 85]
1813 – Louisville, KY. William Croghan Sr. writes to Archibald Woods that he has been unwell for some years. “I am old and Infirm and cannot pay that attention which is necessary to Disputed titles of Land.” [Potts, p. 99]
30 March –
1778 – Boonesborough, KY. Last entry in diary kept sporadically by George Rogers Clark, since 25 December 1776. [Potts, p. 26]
1809 – Louisville, KY. William Croghan Jr. writes to John O’Fallon: Last saturday uncle G R Clark had his leg cut off by Dr. Ferguson. He is now mending very fast. He never would have gotten well with it on. I am at present reading Horace. [Potts, p. 87]
1817 – Secretary of State Henry Clay writes to Richard Rush: Mr. William Croghan…is desirous of being appointed Secretary of Legation to the first foreign embassy. I have not the pleasure of personal acquaintance with Mr. Croghan, but all the accounts I have received of him concur in the most favorable representations of him. He has had a regular Collegiate course of education, studied for several years under Judge Cooper of Pennsylvania, who has spoken to me in the most flattering terms, and finally he has read law for some time at Litchfield. [Potts, p. 99-100]
1883 – Jeffersonville, IN. James Harrison tells Lyman C. Draper: Kitt…was about five feet eight inches high, robust built, weighing about 160 pounds, dark yellow complexion, good and cheerful temper, and greatly attached to Gen. Clark, & took pleasure in waiting upon him. [Potts, p. 93]
31 March –
1818 – Louisville, KY. To all whom it may concern.
Be it known that Kitt, having served faithfully, and as the body servant of Genl. George R. Clark, deceased, conducted himself for many years with entire approbation, he is hereby liberated from any involuntary servitude to me or my heirs forever.
Given at Louisville State of Ky this 31st day of March 1818. [Potts, p. 94] The authors further state that the document is not signed, but appears to be in the hand of William Clark.
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