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March – 1857
Washington, DC. John Cabell Breckinridge, thirty-six years old, becomes the youngest vice-president in United States history. [KE, p. 117]
1 March –
1797 – Kentucky. Christian County organized, having been formed from a portion of Logan County in 1796. [KE, p. 187-8]
1836 – Danville, KY. Town incorporated. [KE, p. 252]
1848 – Kentucky. Taylor County created from the northeast part of Green County. It is named in honor of Zachary Taylor. Seat is Campbellsville. [KE, p. 870-1]
1860 – Providence, KY. Settled around 1820, the city is incorporated. [KE, p. 744]
1890 – Louisville, KY. Susan Howes (Look) Avery gathers thirty-nine women in her parlor and begins the Woman’s Club of Louisville. [EL, p. 56] A jail library, a children’s room at the public library, neighborhood playgrounds, and the Louisville Deaf Oral School will be fostered by the Woman’s Club. [EL, p. 948-9]
1912 – Gethsemani, KY. Gethsemani College burns. Founded in 1851 by the Trappist monks, the school does not re-open. [KE, p. 373]
1931 – Pineville, KY. Responding to another round of wage cuts, over 2,000 coal miners attend a United Mine Workers rally. They are promptly fired and evicted from company housing. They flee to the noncompany town of Evarts. The Battle of Evarts is brewing. (See 5 May 1931 entry.) [KE, p. 301]
Births –
1960 – Covington, KY. Stephen Mark Cauthen born. He will earn his jockey license when only 16 years old, and will become the first jockey in the world to win $6 million in purses. [KE, p. 173-4]
Deaths –
1822 – Bath County, KY. John Jouett dies. (See 7 December 1754.) [KE, p. 480-1]
1890 – Louisville, KY. Delos Thurman “Yankee” Bligh dies. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. [EL, p. 95]
1941 – Madisonville, KY. Former governor Ruby Laffoon dies. (See 15 January 1869.) [KE, p. 529-30]
1980 – near Lexington, KY. John Jacob Niles dies. (See 28 April 1892.) [KE, p. 683]
2 March –
1824 – Tuesday, “Gibbons vs. Ogden.” The United States Supreme Court holds that regulation of navigation by steamboat operators or others falls under the concept of interstate commerce and is therefore a power reserved to and exercised by the Congress. This opinion invalidates many state-granted monopolies to operate steamboats on the inland waterways. “Foreign,” i.e.: out-of-state, boat owners were subject to hefty fees to cross into another states. Justice John Marshall developed a clear definition of the word commerce, as well as defining “among the several states” in the Commerce Clause. (The Oyez Project, Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824) available at (http://oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1824/1824_0.) Interstate commerce was now set to boom, and technological innovations in steamboats and other types of craft found an eager market.
1860 – Cynthiana, KY. Town incorporated. [KE, p. 249-50]
Births –
1896 – Louisville, KY. Robert Henry Gast born. He will train as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps in Canada in 1917 and serve in World War I. In 1919 he will be instrumental in establishing Bowman Field, possibly selecting the site. (See 10 April 1934.) [EL, p. 331-2]
1937 – San Fernando, CA. Denzel Edwin Crum born. Becoming head basketball coach at the University of Louisville, 1971, he took the team to numerous national titles. [KE, p. 244]
Deaths –
1877 – Florence, Italy. Poet and sculptor Joel Tanner Hart dies. (See 10 February 1810.) [KE, p. 415]
3 March –
1783 – Harrodsburg, KY. The supreme court of the District of Kentucky meets for the first time. The District was created to avoid the necessity of taking all land disputes, criminal cases and appeals to the courts at Richmond, VA. [KE, p. 267]
1789 – Louisville, KY. Frederick Augustus Sr. and Mary Dorothy Kaye, lately of Pennsylvania, purchase a half-acre of land from Jacob Bucher. Later this year, they will build what is thought to be the first brick house in the city, located on Market Street, between Fifth and Sixth. (See 21 April 1796; 29 April 1866.) [EL, p. 456-7]
1828 – Louisville, KY. John Carpenter Bucklin becomes Louisville’s first mayor. (See 5 March 1844 and 10 February 1832 entries.) [EL, p. 139-40]
1837 – Washington City. United States Congress authorizes marine hospitals to be built on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and on the Great Lakes. Louisville will build one of the first and the only one still standing. [KE, p. 911]
1856 – Frankfort, KY. Legislature appropriates $5,000 per year to aid the Kentucky Colonization Society. [KE, p. 493-4]
Deaths –
1947 – Louisville, KY. Charles Alexander Wilson dies. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. He was Jefferson County judge 1 January 1906 – 29 June 1907. [EL, p. 946]
4 March –
1784 – near Danville, KY. The board of Transylvania Seminary resolves to raise through subscription 21 pounds 13 shillings necessary to bring a donated collection of books across the Allegheny Mountains. This is the beginning of the first major library in Kentucky. [KE, p. 553-4]
1786 – Low Dutch Colony, KY. Members of the Low Dutch Company signed the articles of agreement governing the Low Dutch Colony. This is to be a communal home for the Low Dutch Reformed Church Society. (See 9 March 1831.) [KE, p. 584-5]
1843 – Hodgenville, KY. Town becomes seat of Hardin County. [KE, p. 435]
1843 – Kentucky. Larue County created from part of Hardin County. [KE, p. 536]
1854 – Louisville, KY. Methodist Cemetery incorporated. Burials at least as early as 1844; presently known as Eastern Cemetery. [EL, p. 169-71]
1861 – Washington, DC. Abraham Lincoln inaugurated president. [KE, p. 555-6]
1861 – Washington, DC. John Cabell Breckinridge takes his seat as a United States Senator. [KE, p. 118]
1861 – Montgomery, AL. Confederate flag hoisted for the first time, over (Confederate) Capitol. (See 16 March; 24 February 1917.) [EL, p. 590]
1892 – Louisville, KY. The Jefferson County Medical Society (JCMS) established. [EL, p. 440]
1911 – Kentucky. Caleb Powers, jailed for eight years battling to clear himself of involvement in the Goebel assassination, now begins what will be eight years in the United States Congress. (See 1 February 1868; 30 January 1900; 25 July 1932.) [KE, p. 733]
1938 – Louisville, KY. Last issue of a weekly rotogravure magazine Deutsch Amerika, the 1933 successor after the 1933 bankruptcy of the Louisville Anzeiger. (See 28 February 1949; 11 October 1940.) [EL, p. 531-2]
Births –
1877 – Paris, KY. Garrett Augustus Morgan born. In 1914 this African American inventor will patent a “breathing device” – the gas mask used during World War I. (See 20 November 1923; 27 July 1963.) [KE, p. 650]
1910 – Louisville, KY. William Thomas “Cactus” Brooks born. He will become a fixture of WHAS radio and television. [EL, p. 131]
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]
1798 – Ohio County, KY. Settlers from Fort Hartford (now Hartford) and the surrounding area establish the Beaver Creek Baptist Church. This is the beginning of the town of Beaver Creek. [KE, p. 64]
1850 – Frankfort, KY. General Assembly allows funds to be raised to start a school to improve female education in Jessamine County. In 1854, Jessamine Female Institute opens in Nicholasville. It will continue until 1909 or 1910. [KE, p. 469-70]
1856 – Millersburg, KY. Millersburg Male and Female Collegiate Institute receives charter for general assembly. (See 20 February 1860; 9 October 1907.) [KE, p. 638]
1999 – Louisville, KY. The Home of the Innocents purchases the 20.5 acre site of the Bourbon Stockyards, the oldest stockyard in the United States, originating 1834. (See 23 April 1880; 17 November 1998.) [EL, p. 106]
Deaths –
1844 – Louisville, KY. John Carpenter Bucklin dies. He was first mayor of Louisville, and dealt with flood, construction of three miles of wagon road connecting Louisville and Portland; and draining the city’s innumerable ponds, which harbored enough diseases to ensure periodic epidemics; and established the first public school in Kentucky. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. (See 3 March 1828; 10 February 1832 entries.) [EL, p. 139-40]
6 March –
1750 – Charlottesville, VA. Dr. Thomas Walker sets out with a party of explorers in the employ of the Loyal Land Company. Organized in 1749, the company was granted 800,000 acres in southwest Virginia and what is now southeast Kentucky. [KE, p. 585]
1798 – Bowling Green, KY. Town incorporated. [KE, p. 106]
1822 – Trigg County, KY. Cadiz chosen county seat in a general election. Other contenders were Canton, Warrington and Center. [KE, p. 149]
1836 – San Antonio, TX. The Alamo falls to the forces of Mexican general Santa Anna. James Bowie is killed on his cot. He was born in 1796, reputedly on Terrapin Creek, Logan (now Simpson) County, KY. [KE, p. 106]
1866 – Berea, KY. Berea College, opened earlier this year as an elementary school, becomes integrated with the enrollment of three African-American girls. [KE, p. 71]
1951 – Fort Wright, KY. The Lookout House, a gambling casino, raided by state police. However, it will remain in business another twenty years. (See 14 August 1973 entry.) [KE, p. 347-8]
1956 – Radcliff, KY. Founded in 1919, the city is incorporated. [KE, p. 752[
1964 – Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammad Ali. [EL,p.22]
2000 – Louisville, KY. No 152 is designated the official steam locomotive of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Volunteers spent thousands of hours from 1978 to 1985 restoring No. 152. Put in service at the Kentucky Railway Museum (KRM) in 1985, it has pulled thousands of visitors on steam train excursions. [EL, p. 478]
Deaths –
1851 – Missouri. Henry M. Shreve dies. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis. (See 21 October 1785.) [EL, p. 819-20]
7 March –
1777 – Fort Harrod, KY. The first Indian attack on the fort. [KE, p. 344]
1789 – Lexington, KY. The Kentucke Gazettebecomes the Kentucky Gazette. (See 16 June 1749; 11 August 1787; and 20 March 1830 entries.) [KE, p. 111-112]
1862 – Pea Ridge, AK. Captain William P. Black, of Woodford County, KY, earns the Congressional Medal of Honor. [KE, p. 222-224]
1882 – Harlan County, KY. Wix Howard kills Bob Turner, beginning the Howard-Turner Feud, which will bring the county the unwelcome soubriquet “Bloody Harlan.” [KE, p. 444]
1889 – Louisville actress Mary Anderson collapses on stage. She will retire the next year, not yet thirty years old. She will donate property in Floyds Knobs, IN, for the Mount St. Francis Seminary (now the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts. (See also 28 July 1859, 27 November 1875, and 30 May 1940 entries.)EL, p. 36]
Births –
1893 – Hollins, AL. Omer Carmichael born. In 1956, as superintendent of Louisville Public Schools, he will accomplish their peaceful desegregation. [EL, p. 160]
1908 – Louisville, KY. Bertram Calvin Van Arsdale born. He will be Jefferson County judge 1937 – 1942. (See 22 January 1979.) [EL, p. 909]
Deaths –
1865 – Hancock County, KY. Guerrilla leader William H. Davison dies. He is secretly buried in the woods, later reburied in Hawesville. [KE, p. 257]
2000 – Louisville, KY. Pee Wee King dies. He is buried in Louisville Memorial Gardens East. (See 18 February 1914.)
8 March –
1843 – Smithland, KY. Town reincorporated. It is the seat of Livingston County. [KE, p. 832]
1922 – Murray, KY. Murray State University authorized as a teacher training institution when Governor Edwin P. Morris signs legislation to establish a normal school in the eastern part of the state and in the western part. (See 17 September 1822; 24 September 1923; 26 February 1966.) [KE, p. 664-5]
1971 – Muhammad Ali fights Joe Frazier to regain his usurped title, but loses in a fifteen-round decision. It is Ali’s first defeat as a professional boxer. [EL, p. 23]
Births –
1800 – near Lexington, KY. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge born. He will be called the father of the public school system in Kentucky. [KE, p. 120]
1819 – Wayne (now Clinton) County, KY. Preston Hopkins Leslie born. He will be governor 1871-75. (See 13 February 1871; 7 February 1907.) [KE, p. 544-5]
1924 – Park, KY. Louie Broady Nunn born. He will be governor 1967-71. A Republican, he will restore solvency, eliminate the sales tax on prescription drugs, get most of his legislation through the Democratic legislature, continue support for Kentucky Educational Television (KET), the state park system, see the University of Louisville come into the state system, and avoid scandal. [KE, p. 685-6]
Deaths –
1780 – Boonesborough, KY. Indians kill and scalp Pemberton Rawlings and Richard Callaway, and capture two enslaved African American men. The four were building a ferry boat. The previous October, Callaway had been granted a license to operate a ferry across the Kentucky River. Calloway County, though spelt differently, is named in honor of Richard Callaway. [KE, p. 152]
1975 – Louisville, KY. Bowman L. Shamburger dies. He is entombed in Resthaven Memorial Park. (See 15 June 1906.) [EL, p. 806]
1977 – Cornwall, England. Henry Watterson Hull dies. (See 3 October 1890.) [EL, p. 408-9]
9 March –
1831 – Low Dutch Colony, KY. The Low Dutch Company meets for the last time – to dissolve. (See 4 March 1786.) [KE, p. 584-5]
1854 – Stanton, KY. Once called Beaver Pond, renamed in honor of Richard M. Stanton, a United States congressman from Maysville, KY, designated seat of brand-new Powell County in 1852, only just now incorporated. [KE, p. 848]
1864 – Louisville, KY. Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman meet at the Galt House to plan the final campaigns of the Civil War. [EL, p. 193-5]
Deaths –
1863 – Louisville, KY. Charles Wilkins Short dies. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. (See 6 October 1793.) [KE, p. 819-20]
10 March –
1775 – Yadkin Valley, NC. Daniel Boone, with others, sets out to cut a trail to what he hopes will be the capitol of Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Company’s land in Kentucky. It will be called Boonesborough. [KE, p. 100]
Births –
1780 – Fauquier County, Va. Thomas Metcalfe born. He will be governor of Kentucky 1828-32. (See 18 August 1855.) [KE, p. 629-30]
Deaths –
1940 – Paducah, KY. Humorist Irvin S. Cobb dies. [KE, p. 211-2]
1960 – Bowling Green, KY. Rodes Kirby Myers dies. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery. (See 29 June 1900.) [KE, p. 668] 1940 – Paducah, KY. Humorist Irvin S. Cobb dies. [KE, p. 211-2]
1960 – Bowling Green, KY. Rodes Kirby Myers dies. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery. (See 29 June 1900.) [KE, p. 668]
11 March –
Births –
1812 – Farmington, near Louisville, KY. James Speed born. He will be attorney general of the United States during the administration of his good friend of Abraham Lincoln. (See 25 June 1887.) [KE, p. 840-1]
Deaths –
1907 – Louisville, KY. Lewis Naphtali Dembitz dies. As an attorney in the latter half of the 19thcentury, he was involved in important land disputes in Kentucky and Indiana. He also drafted the legislation, passed by the states in 1888, making use of the Australian ballot (secret ballot) mandatory in Louisville elections. It was the first such law in the United States. He was an uncle of Louis D. Brandeis, who changed his middle name from David to Dembitz, in honor of his uncle. [KE, p. 259]
1920 – State Penitentiary. Will Lockett is electrocuted. (See 4 February 1920; 9 February 1920.) [KE, p. 566]
12 March –
1865 – near Webster, Meade County, KY. Marcellus Jerome Clarke captured. [KE, p. 198-9]
1867 – Dayton, KY. Town incorporated. [KE, p. 259]
1920 – Frankfort, KY. The Bryson-Perry bill (Sen. William Perry, Louisville, Rep. Rodney Bryson, Covington) legalizes twelve-round boxing matches in the Commonwealth. [EL, p. 109]
Births –
1847 – Gaumback, Germany. J. Henry Doerr born. He will become a noted photographer and Civil War recorder. In 1895, he will be authorized to make the first set of photographs of Cave Hill Cemetery. [EL, p. 250]
1864 – near Mayslick, KY. Charles Young is born into slavery. In 1889 he will become the third African American to graduate from West Point and the last until 1941. After a distinguished career, he was relieved of command at the start of World War I. Perhaps the army was not ready for the thought of an African American commanding white subordinates. (See 12 January 1922.) [KE, p. 972-3]
Deaths –
1985 – Morganfield, KY. Former governor Earle Chester Clements dies. [KE, p. 206]
13 March –
1798 – Logan Court House, KY. Town’s name changed to Russellville, honoring Revolutionary War General William Russell, whose 2,000 acre military grant included the site. [KE, p. 790]
1865 – New Mexico. Kit Carson promoted to general. [KE, p. 166]
1865 – Louisville, KY. Marcellus Jerome Clarke, alias “Sue Mundy,” hanged. [KE, p. 198-9]
1878 – Frankfort, KY. The Kentucky General Assembly severs its connection with Kentucky University. The university has been founded by the Christian Church. The assembly is hoping to save the Agricultural and Mechanical College, which is part of the university. (See also 22 February 1865, and 1 October 1866 entries.) [KE, p. 6]
1904 – The Philippines. Battleship U.S.S. Kentuckybecomes part of the North Atlantic Fleet operations. She will be part of the “Great White Fleet” (December 1907-February 1909) circumnavigating the world. [KE, p. 489]
1943 – Fort Campbell, KY. The 20thArmored Division is activated. They will depart December 1944 for Europe. [KE, p. 343]
1945 – Haguenau, France. Sergeant Morris Eugene Crain, of Bandana, KY, earns the Congressional Medal of Honor. [KE, p. 222-224]
1966 – Louisville, KY. Courier-Journalcarries a story about what is now the Kaden Tower, 6100 Dutchman’s Lane. Built for the Lincoln Income Life Insurance Company, the 15-story tower is designed by William Wesley Peters, a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, then working at Wright’s firm Taliesin Associated Architects. Instead of traditionally resting on the perimeter of the foundation, the cantilevered building is suspended from the top floor balanced on the interior service shaft. [EL, p. 456]
Births –
1875 – Bardstown Junction, KY. Abram Hite Bowman born. He will become an adventurer, as well as a business man, with a keen interest in aviation. After recovering from tuberculosis, he also advocates modern treatment for this disease and will be key in establishing Waverly Hills Sanatorium. He will lease land along Louisville’s Taylorsville Road to begin an airfield, which will be named in his honor. (See also 19 July 1943 entry.) [EL, p. 107]
Deaths –
1869 – Louisville, KY. James Guthrie dies. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. (See 5 December 1792.) [KE, p. 396]
1903 – Kentucky. Thomas Benton Ford dies. He is buried in Frankfort Cemetery. (See 11 February 1841 entry.) [KE, p. 341-2]
14 March –
1888 – Frankfort, KY. State treasurer “Honest Dick” Tate disappears – along with two sacks of gold and silver coin and a 4 inch roll of bills. He has embezzled $247,128.50. He is never found, but his malfeasance only two years before the drafting of the present constitution goes far to limit state office holders to one term. (See 2 January 1831.) [KE, p. 867-8]
Births –
1851 – Louisville, KY. Charles Parsons Weaver born. He will be mayor 16 November 1897 – 19 November 1901. (See 21 November 1932.) [EL, p. 930]
1864 – Cayce, KY. John Luther “Casey” Jones born. (See 29 April 1900; 30 April 1900.) [KE, p. 479-80]
1876 – Lexington, KY. Daisy May Kenney, mentally challenged daughter of Belle Brezing Kenney, born. In three years, Belle will be working as a prostitute. Eventually, she will have the most elegant brothel in the city. She is said to be the inspiration for Belle Watling, in GONE WITH THE WIND. (See 16 June 1860; 15 September 1875; 11 August 1940 entries.) [KE, p. 123]
Deaths –
1949 – Louisville, KY. Joseph Seamon Cotter dies. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. In 1956, the Cotter Homes housing project and Jospeh S. Cotter Elementary School will be named in his honor. (See 2 February 1861 entry.) [EL, p. 224]
1975 – Las Vegas, NV. James Haven Lamont Gillespie dies. He is buried in Las Vegas. (See 6 February 1888.) [KE, p. 374-5]
15 March –
1837 – Louisville, KY. Mayor William A. Cocke leaves office. (See 9 May 1844 and 21 March 1836 entries.) [El, p. 209]
1851 – Lee County, KY. Beattyville established. Named in honor of Samuel Beatty, who had owned part of the land. [KE, p. 62]
1870 – Campbell County, KY. Bellevue incorporated as a city. [KE, p. 70]
1892 – Frankfort, KY. General Assembly enacts the Separate Coach Law, which requires all passenger trains operating in the commonwealth to provide separate coaches clearly labeled “white” and “colored.” Despite challenges, it will stand until circumvented by the 1955 Interstate Commerce Commission ban on racial discrimination in interstate railroad passenger service. [KE, p. 809-10]
1894 – Frankfort, KY. Governor John Young Brown signs the Married Women’s Property Act. Josephine K. Henry and Lara Clay have led the fight for this statute which supersedes English common law of coverture, under which married women had no legal rights, their rights being suspended during marriage and incorporated into the rights of their husbands. This act, however, gives married women the right to make wills and hold and dispose of certain real estate. However, women could not sell, convey, or mortgage property without the husband’s signature until 1942. Still other limitations remained in effect until the 1970s. [KE, p. 940-1]
Deaths –
1865 – Louisville, KY. Confederate guerrilla Marcellus Jerome Clarke, alias “Sue Mundy,” hanged at the old fairgrounds, Broadway near Eighteenth Street. The drop was not more than three feet and did not snap his neck. He struggled so violently, it was thought he might break his ropes. His body was returned to Simpson County for burial. [EL, p. 203-4]
1902 – near Manchester, KY. Theophilus Toulmin Garrard dies in the house in which he had been born. He is buried in Garrard, KY. (See 7 Jun 1812; 21 October 1861.) [KE, p. 364]
1959 – Bowling Green, KY. Duncan Hines dies. [KE, p. 433-4]
16 March –
1799 – Danville, KY. Harpes escape jail, leaving their three wives, each with an infant born in jail. Account book records 12 shillings to mend the wall of the jail. (See 14 December 1798; 5 January 1799; 20 January 1799; 13 February 1799; 27 February 1799; 15 April 1799; 22 April 1799; 20 August 1799; 4 September 1799; 13 January 1804; 4 February 1804 [8 February 1804?].) [McQueen; More offbeat…; p. 20-8]
1862 – Pound Gap, Letcher County, KY. Brigadier General James A. Garfield and 700 Union troops defeat 500 Confederates under General Humphrey Marshall. [KE, p. 546-7]
1864 – Confederate Secretary of War James A. Sedon, appoints Captain Thomas Henry Hines, in John Hunt Morgan’s command, director of the Northwest conspiracy. (See 9 October 1838; 7 November 1864; 23 January 1898.) [KE, p. 434]
1870 – Morganfield, KY. Town incorporated. [KE, p. 653]
Births –
1829 – Rhenish, Prussia. Nicola Marschall born. He will become an artist and design the Stars and Bars flag of the Confederate States of America. He will also design a Confederate uniform. (See 4 March 1861; 24 February 1917.) [EL, p. 590]
1934 – St. Meinrad, IN. Howard Leslie Schnellenberger born. The family will move to Louisville in 1936. Schnellenberger will become a football coach. [KE, p. 799]
Deaths –
1881 – Frankfort, KY. Albert Gallatin Hodges dies. (See 8 October 1802 entry.) [KE, p. 435-6]
1969 – New York, NY. John Mason Brown dies. (See 3 July 1900 entry.) [EL, p. 132-3]
17 March –
1775 – Watauga River, NC; now east Tennessee. The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals. In return for the equivalent of about 10,000 pounds sterling, the Cherokee grant an enormous tract of Kentucky land to Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Company. [KE, p. 97] (See 20 April 1735; 27 August 1774; 6 January 1775; 10 February 1775; 21 March 1775; 23 March 1775; 25 September 1775; 4 November 1775; 28 December 1763; 30 January 1785.) [KE, p. 422-3]
1902 – Frankfort, KY. Kentucky legislature approves establishment of the Kentucky Confederate Home for the care of infirm veterans. [KE, p. 222]
1934 – Pewee Valley, KY. Legislature approves sale of Kentucky Confederate Home. The Daughters of the Confederacy had successfully fought this move several times before, but now an annual allowance of $800 was allotted to each veteran. They were relocated to the Pewee Valley Sanitarium. [KE, p. 222]
1954 – Louisville, KY. Courier-Journalreports move of Heigold House façade to Thruston Park. Christian Heigold, a German stonecutter came to Louisville, established his business and built his home at 264 Marion Street, at the height of the city’s xenophobia. Irish and German immigrants were suspect and often attacked. Heigold carved inscriptions and busts of American leaders into the front of his house. Located on “the Point,” the house survived until the city dump expansion of 1953. Mayor Charles Farnsley had the front wall of the home moved to the park. [EL, p. 379] The wallpaper from the old interior adhered for many years.
Births –
1917 – Pilot, KY. Lily May Ledford born. She will become famous first in the family band the Red River Ramblers, then on the “National Barn Dance,” with her own band called the Coon Creek Girls. (See 14 July 1985.) [KE, p. 540]
18 March –
1871 – Menifee County, KY. Frenchburg, county seat, is incorporated. [KE, p. 358]
1882 – Hyden, KY. Established in 1878, the town is incorporated. [KE, p. 449]
1884 – Frankfort, KY. Claybrook v. Owensboro, the General Assembly repeals act establishing separate funding system for white and black schools. All Tax money will now go to public school board. This is an important milestone on the road to racial equality in education. [KE, p. 203]
1925 – Louisville, KY. Part of storms all across the Midwest states, a tornado hits Jefferson County and goes on through Oldham County. Four people die. [EL, p. 889]
Births –
1847 – Garrard County, KY. William O’Connell Bradley born. He will be the commonwealth’s first Republican governor (1895-99). [KE, p. 112]
1905 – Altus, Arkansas. Janice Holt Giles born. As a resident of Louisville she will become one of Kentucky’s most famous and most prolific novelists. (See 1 June 1979.) [EL, p. 340] [Kentucky Encyclopedia 28 March as birthdate.]
1914 – Louisville, KY. Dinwiddie Lampton Jr. born. President and CEO of American Life and Accident Insurance Company, Lampton also hosted the Bolla Hardscuffle Steeple Chase from 1974 to 1996. He donated the proceeds to help support the Kentucky Opera. [EL, p. 29]
1923 – Corydon, IN. William Brown Stansbury born. He will be mayor of Louisville 1977-81. His administration will be sufficiently scandalous to prompt impeachment proceedings. (See 4 April 1985.) [EL, p. 848-9]
Deaths –
1813 – Defiance, MO. Rebecca (Mrs. Daniel) Boone dies. [KE, p. 98]
19 March –
1751 – Kentucky. Christopher Gist, surveyor for the Ohio Company, follows a buffalo trace to its junction with the Kentucky River and becomes the first English explorer at what will be Frankfort, KY. [KE, p. 352-4]
1782 – Boonesborough area, KY. Colonel Benjamin Logan sends messengers to Captain James Estill, as Wyandot warriors have been seen in the area. [KE, p. 298-9]
1922 – Louisville, KY. The Louisville Sanitary Market opens at 425 South 5th Street (between Liberty and Walnut Streets). (See 11 July 1922.) [Potter]
1972 – Louisville, KY. Several barges break loose from their tow and head straight for Louisville Gas & Electric’s Ohio Falls Station. One snuggles against the station’s headworks; the other hangs up in the tainter gates of the dam. It is loaded with four tanks of liquid chlorine. (See 16 April 1972.) [El, p. 513-6]
Births –
1823 – Franklin, NY. Delos Thurman “Yankee” Bligh born. He will be a noteworthy lawman in Louisville, KY. [EL, p. 95]
Deaths –
1687 – near the Brazos River, TX. Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle dies. (See 22 November 1643.) [EL, p. 500]
1954 – Eastwood, KY. Jefferson County judge George S. Wetherby dies in a traffic accident on Shelbyville Road. (See 5 September 1905.) [EL, p. 933]
20 March –
1775 – Yadkin Valley, NC. Richard Henderson, with settlers and supplies, sets out following Daniel Boone to what will become Boonesborough, KY. [KE, p. 100]
1782 – Estill’s settlement, KY. Wyandot Indians attack, kill fourteen-year-old Jennie Gass, and capture Monk Estill, enslaved servant of James Estill. Monk Estill persuades the Wyandots to leave the area, thereby saving the settlement. [KE, p. 297-8]
1902 – Washington, D.C. Nathan Stubblefield demonstrates his transmitter-receiver to congressmen and other officials. He will refuse large sums of money for rights to his discovery. (See 27 December 1860; 1 January 1902; 22 May 1902; 28 March 1928.) [KE, p. 859]
1933 – Louisville, KY. First edition of the Louisville Defender, oldest still published African American newspaper in Kentucky. [EL, p. 543-4]
Births –
1812 – Russellville, KY. George Bibb Crittenden born. [KE, p. 240]
Deaths –
1830 –Lexington, KY. John Bradford dies. (See 16 June 1749; 11 August 1787; and 7 March 1789 entries.) [KE, p. 111-112]
1858 – Louisville, KY. Catherine Spalding, Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth dies. She is buried at the Motherhouse. Throughout the commonwealth, 145 SCNs are in 13 schools, two orphanages and St. Joseph Infirmary, Louisville. [KE, p. 824] [KE, p. 837]
21 March –
1782 – Estill’s settlement, KY. James Estill sends five men back from Boonesborough, when he learns of the attack on this settlement. [KE, p. 298-9]
1836 – Louisville, KY. William A. Cocke elected mayor, third mayor of Louisville; first elected by the City Council. Formerly, governor and state Senate elected Louisville’s mayor. (See 9 May 1844 and 15 March 1837 entries.) [El, p. 209]
1864 – Morehead, KY. Confederate guerillas burn the Rowan County courthouse. [KE, p. 648-9]
Deaths –
1821 – Harrods Creek, KY. Ferry operator Hiram Cole drowns when his overloaded boat tips in Ohio River. He had a reputation for outrageous stories told to and about his passengers. [EL, p. 209]
1945 – The Pacific Theatre. Franklin Runyon Sousley killed in action. He is buried in Elizaville Cemetery near Hilltop, KY. (See 19 September 1925; 23 February 1945.) [KE, p. 833]
22 March –
1782 – near present Mt. Sterling, KY. James Estill and his party encounter Indians at Little Mountain. The battle will be called Estill’s Defeat, and claims Estill’s life. [KE, p. 297-8]
1833 – Kentucky. The Kentucky Colonization Society sends approximately 100 freedmen to New Orleans, where they sail for Liberia on 20 April. They are the first of perhaps 658, before the Society ceases to exist in 1859. [KE, p. 493-4]
23 March –
1775 – Boonesborough, KY. Richard Henderson opens first general assembly of the proprietary colony of the Transylvania Company. (See 20 April 1735; 27 August 1774; 6 January 1775; 10 February 1775; 17 March 1775; 23 March 1775; 25 September 1775; 4 November 1775; 28 December 1763; 30 January 1785.) [KE, p. 422-3]
1864 – Benton, KY. Confederate Cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest meets a Union force. It is an accidental meeting, but seven men are killed. [KE, p. 70]
1865 – Drennon Springs, KY. The main hotel and outlying cottages burn. [KE, p. 271]
1925 – Louisville, KY. The first Kosair Shrine Circus opens. [EL, p. 489]
Births –
1865 – Louisville, KY. Madison Julius Cawein born to an herbalist father and a clairvoyant mother. He will become an influence in early modern poetry. [EL, p. 167]
1865 – Table Rock Farm, Madison County, KY. Paul Sawyier born. He will become a well-known painter, living and working on a houseboat on the Kentucky River for a time. (See 5 November 1917.) [KE, p. 798-9]
Deaths –
1868 – Fort Lyon, CO. Kit Carson dies. He is buried in Taos, NM. [KE, p. 166]
24 March –
1851 – Frankfort, KY. Legislature passes an act requiring all emancipated slaves to leave the state and prohibiting freedmen from other states from moving to Kentucky. The act is an attempt to make all freed persons remove to Liberia. [KE, p. 493-4]
1851 – Louisville, KY. General Assembly enacts a new city charter, basing representation not on land ownership, but on population of free white males. [EL, p. 186-8]
1908 – Frankfort, KY. The law entitled Government and Regulation of the Common Schools of the State, commonly called the Sullivan law, enacted. It does away with one-room schools held hostage by three-trustees; it organizes counties into school districts, outlines uniform organization and paves the way for a modern school system. [KE, p. 860]
Births –
1782 – Virginia. William Owsley born. He will be governor of Kentucky 1844-48. (See 9 December 1862.) [KE, p. 702-3]
Deaths –
1994 – Kentucky. Lawrence Wetherby dies. He is buried in Frankfort Cemetery. (See 2 January 1908.)
25 March –
1792 – America. John B.M. David arrives from France. He will assist in founding the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. [KE, p. 824]
1825 – Shelbyville, KY. Science Hill Female Academy opens. It provides for both day and boarding students and will continue until June 1939. [KE, p. 803]
1864 – Paducah, KY. Battle of Paducah. General Nathan Bedford Forrest intends to disrupt Union supply lines, to secure supplies and mounts for his own troops, and to discourage enlistment of African Americans in the Union army. General Abraham Buford’s Kentuckians are first of 1,800 Confederate troops to invade town. Union Colonel Stephen Hicks commands Fort Anderson on the Ohio River, with the 122d Illinois Infantry, 16thKentucky Cavalry 1stKentucky Artillery and 8thU.S. Heavy Artillery (Colored). Hicks flatly refuses demand for unconditional surrender. Confederates destroy much of Paducah while rounding up some 200 head of horses and mules. After ten hours, Forrest withdraws to Mayfield for the night. Union casualties: 14 killed; 46 wounded; 40 captured. Estimated Confederate casualties: 300. Forest moved on to take Fort Pillow, TN. (See 12 April 1864.) [KE, p. 706]
1886 – Paris, France. Frank Duveneck and Elizabeth Otis Lyman Boott marry. She is said to be the model for women in Henry James’s novels. (See 9 October 1848 and 3 January 1919 entries.) [KE, p. 276]
1920 – Pewee Valley, KY. Most of the Kentucky Confederate Home burns. [KE, p. 222]
1954 – Louisville, KY. Robert T. Burke Jr. appointed Jefferson County judge after death of incumbent. He will serve until 7 June 1954. [EL, p. 146]
Births –
1860 – Louisville, KY. Jennie Carter Benedict is born. She will become a caterer and restaurateur, giving her name to one of her signature specialties – Benedictine. Louisvillians to this day are non-plussed when traveling to find that in other cities people have never tasted the delectable concoction of cream cheese, cucumbers, onion and a drop of green food coloring. [EL, p. 85]
1863 – Louisville, KY. Simon Flexner born. Elder brother of Abraham Flexner (see 13 November 1866 and 21 September 1959 entries), he will develop a serum against meningitis. (See 19 August 1911 entry.) [KE, p. 326-7]
Deaths –
1818 – Cumberland Island, GA. “Light-Horse Harry” Lee dies. He is buried on the island, but in 1913 his body is returned to Virginia, to be buried in the crypt of the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA. He rests with his son, Robert E. Lee. (See 29 January 1756.) [KE, p. 540]
26 March –
1866 – Scott-Fayette county line, near Donerail, KY. Alexander Kimbrough and Joseph Desha duel. This is one of the last of the infamous encounters choreographed by the equally infamous code duello. Both participants flee to Canada to evade prosecution. They are pardoned by Governor James McCreary, in 1875. (See 22 August 1921 and 8 May 1902 entries.) [KE, p. 265]
1879 – Frankfort, KY. John Milton Elliott, judge of the court of appeals for the 1stAppellate District, assassinated by Thomas Buford, a litigant. Kentucky makes national headlines as one of few places in the civilized world where such a shocking event could happen. [KE, p. 291-2]
1918 – Frankfort, KY. General Assembly authorizes the Kentucky state flag. It is navy blue silk or bunting, with the seal of the commonwealth encircled by a wreath of goldenrod embroidered, printed, or stamped on the center. [KE, p. 323]
Births –
1880 – Bowling Green, KY. Duncan Hines born. [KE, p. 433-4]
27 March –
1885 – Grayson, KY. William Neal is hanged. This is the last event in the Ashland Tragedy. . (See also 23 December 1881; 16 January 1882; 30 May 1882; 1 November 1882; and 12 October 1883 entries.) [KE, p. 38]
1890 – Louisville, KY. The most deadly tornado in the city’s history. It smashes through Parkland and into the business district; jump the river to Jeffersonville, IN, recrosses the Ohio River to destroy the Water Tower. Almost 100 people die; 600 buildings are destroyed and damage estimates reach $2 million. [EL, p. 889]
1950 – Louisville, KY. The television program T-Bar-V Ranchpremieres. Hosted by Randy Atcher and “Cactus” Tom Brooks, the show features children on their birthdays. It will continue until June 1971. [EL, p. 377]
Births –
1868 – Anchorage, KY. Patty Smith Hill born. She will be a leader in the kindergarten movement, but her most lasting legacy, will be writing the lyrics to Good Morning to You(1893). The melody is now “Happy Birthday.” (See 27 Jun 1859; 5 June 1916; 25 May 1946.) [KE, p. 431]
1908 – Louisville, KY. Charles P. Farnsley is born in the home of his grandfather, Charles Rowland Peaslee, a paint manufacturer who lived at 1235 South 3rdStreet. Farnsley will be mayor 1948 – 1953. [Potter]
Deaths –
1977 – Washington, DC. Neville Miller dies. He is buried in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery. (See 17 February 1894.) [EL, p. 621-2]
1994 – Frankfort, KY. Lawrence Winchester Wetherby dies. He is buried in Frankfort Cemetery. (See 8 January 1908.) [EL, p. 933-4]
28 March –
1864 – New Liberty, KY. Fire destroys $120,000 worth of property. [KE, p. 700]
1872 – Beattyville, KY. Lee County seat moved here from Proctor. [KE, p. 62]
1872 – Brandenburg, KY. Already half a century old, town is incorporated and named in honor of Solomon Brandenburg, who purchased the land in 1804 and operated a tavern which was the nucleus of the community. [KE, p. 113]
1905 – Marion, KY. A disastrous fire destroys at least 40 buildings, including the Crittenden County courthouse. [KE, p. 608]
Births –
1905 – Altus, AK. Janice Holt Giles born. She will move to Kentucky in 1941, and become a prolific and popular novelist. [KE, p. 374]
1907 – Louisville, KY. Charles P. Farnsley born. He will be mayor 1948-53. He will realize that the life of the community draws business to the community. (See 19 June 1990 entry.) [KE, p. 309]
Deaths –
1928 – Murray, KY. Nathan Stubblefield dies. He is buried in Bowman Cemetery, near Murray. (See 27 December 1860; 1 January 1902; 20 March 1902; 22 May 1902.) [KE, p. 859]
29 March –
1878 – Kentucky. Leslie County created from parts of Clay, Harlan, and Perry counties. It is named in honor of Preston H. Leslie, governor 1871-75.
1917 – Louisville, KY. Louisville Chapter American Red Cross organized. [EL; 30]
1969 – Covington, KY. Turfway Park offers night racing. [KE, p. 903-4]
1989 – Edmondson County, KY. The body of Floyd Collins is buried in the Mammoth Cave Baptist Church cemetery. [KE, p. 215-6]
1999 – Louisville, KY. Last auction at the Bourbon Stockyards, oldest stockyards in the United States, established 1834. [EL, p. 106]
Births –
1917 – Nursery Stud, near Lexington, KY. Man O’ War foaled. Owner and breeder is New York horseman August Belmont II, president of the American Jockey Club. His wife bestows the name in honor of her husband’s World War I European efforts. His nickname is Big Red. (See 19 June 1919; 13 August 1919; 12 October 1920; 1 November 1947.) [KE, p. 607-8]
1970 – Doswell, VA. Secretariat foaled at the Meadow Stud. Sharing with Man O’ War a birthday, a nickname and the designation Super Horse, he will set records for the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. (See 4 October 1989.) [KE, p. 807]
Deaths –
1923 – Pleasant Hill, KY. Mary Carmichael Settles dies in the Center Family House, her home since 31 January 1859. She was the last surviving Shaker of Pleasant Hill. (See 31 October 1835; 31 January 1859; 18 September 1910.) [KE, p. 810]
30 March –
1870 – Washington, DC. Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gives African Americans the right to vote. [EL, p. 186-8]
Births –
1917 – Lexington, KY. Clay Lancaster born. He will become one of the nation’s foremost architectural historians. He will receive Guggenheim Fellowships in 1954-5, and in 1963-4, and will be an early and forceful voice in historic preservation. (See 25 December 2000.) [KE, p. 533]
Deaths –
1842 – near Graysville, IN. Jane Todd Crawford dies, thirty-two years after Ephraim McDowell removed a cyst from her ovary. [KE, p. 239]
1885 – Hot Springs, AR. John George Baxter Jr, former mayor of Louisville, dies. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. (See also 12 December 1826 entry.) [EL, p. 76]
1969 – Louisville, KY. Entrepreneur, real estate developer and philanthropist James Graham Brown dies. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. [KE, p. 128]
31 March –
1788 – Louisville, KY. Frederick Edwards buys 50 acres (of 2000 acre Christian grant) from Alexander Scott Bullitt, Ann Hite Corn, Maurice Henchey. [Renau, p. 32]
1967 – Louisville, KY. The Kentucky Colonels, a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), enters the league. (See 15 September 1976.) [KE, p. 493]
Births –
1861 – County Galway, Ireland. Annie Casey Glover born. As Louisville’s Madame Glover she will be a renowned modiste. (See 20 April 1947.) [EL, p. 343]
1888 – Branchville, IN. Hiram Milo Frakes born. He will become a Methodist clergyman, and in 1925, he will establish the Henderson Settlement School, Bell County, KY. [KE, p. 352]
Deaths –
1788 – Tyler Station, Tick Creek, Shelby County, KY. Some fifteen to twenty Amerindians kill Bland Ballard’s father, stepmother, two brothers, and a half-sister. He will later be quoted as claiming to have killed thirty to forty Indians to avenge the deaths of his relatives. [KE, p. 44]
1906 – Brent Woods dies. He is buried without notice in the black section of the First Baptist Church Cemetery. (See 19 August 1881; 21 July 1894; 20 June 1984; 28 October 1984.) [KE, p. 222-224] [KE, p. 967]
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