p. 35 Note - Up until the Civil War many old residents dated all happenings from "the night the stars fell." The meteoric shower which so startled all the people of this section and the State at large and so terrorized not alone the superstitious and uninformed, occurred in 1831. [November 12-13, 1833]. The old fashion blacks left over from the Civil War, when in care of the juvenile whites wound up their grave yard stories around the kitchen fireplace in the late evenings with tales of the "night the stars fell." Mr. L.C. Willis, the veteran lawyer, during the famous campaign of 1896 when all the "fixed" stars of deocracy seemed "slipping used to refer to the Carlisle's, Lindsays's, et al, as the "Pleiades," and then tell the story of the mountaineer, who on the "night the stars fell,' rushed out in his night clothes, found his wife on her knees in front of their little cabin, and after viewing the awful phenomenon called to her, "Pray Ol' WOman, pray hard. I'll step around back, and if the seven stars has slipped, we're gone to hell, shore." That the phenomenon was general throughout the State is further evidenced by a stroy that Judge Lawrence Anderson, of Graves County, quotes his grandfather, a county physician as elling. The latter said he was returning from a night sick call, when the rain of meteors began, and the skies literally snowed stars. He says his faithful riding horse instantly fell upon his knees. The old doctor used to go on to say, "I concluded that the horse had more sense than I did, and I, too, got off, and down on my knees." The horse was quaking with fright, and the docgtor says he never knew how he got him home and into the stall, where he left him shaking as with a chill.
p 38 - But as an aftermath of the [Civil] war and for other reasons, came the dark days of [18]73, the financial disaster, the panic of that year, and the period of low prices, of failing banks, and bankrupt farms. These hard times or money panics, under our early imperfect financial system, seem to have come like the locust at fixed periods, though not so regularly. One happened again in 1893 and one in 1907, and it is believed would have ended there, with a more perfect financial system, had not the great World War come and agains so sadly affected the agricultural industry, and lands of counties like Shelby.
p. 55 - The lot just west of the court house corner of the one acre on which are now located four business houses was sold to John Felty for fifteen pounds. Forty fine two-story hewn log houses were put up under an ordinance or requirement hat no other kind could be erected on the city lots and all forty of these buildings were said to have been "among the finest of their kind in the world." Every log was nicely hewn and fitted with the finest workmanship, and was of blue ash timber. Some of those first settlers, who are said to have built some of these first houses between 1794 and 1797, and on up to 1802, were Mrs. Carson, joseph Glenn, William Glenn, J. McGauhey, and Moses Hall. Others were Steele, Bradshaw, Butler, Felty, A. Owen, B. Perry, Geo. Hanbrough, G. Cardwell, T. Redding, S. WIlson, H. McClelland, A Bruner, James White, John Shannon, John McCochran, Stout, Lock and Denny. It should have been stated in the foregoing that the acre for public buildings is that which has the four "parks,' one of which has long been occupied by the court house and the other three of which are now public parks.
p. 60 - Simpsonville, long a small settlement, was laid out in 1816, and incorporated January 14, 1832. It was named for Capt. John Simpson, prominent lawyer of Shelbyville, sketch of whom is to be found in Part III. Simpsonville while a tavern town and a stage coach station, never grew to beyond a few hundred inhabitants, though surrounded by some of the first families and, like Shelbyville, always a school and church center.
p. 68 - Buck Creek Church [Baptist] - The church of his name, still a historic spot and burial ground in the southwest section of the County, was organized in 1799, but for the first three years was called Plum Creek Church, when it became "Plum and Buck Creek Church" which name was four years later, or in 1807, contracted to simply "Buck Creek."
William Edmund Waller, the distinguished Virginian, who had already been a resident of Shelby for some ten years seems to have been the moving spirit in the organization of the church of which there were only eight charter members: John Patterson, Geo. Davis, Sarah Patterson, Johnston Patterson, Theodore Davis, Priscella May, Elizabeth Breedon and William Mocensen. Rev. Waller was pastor for four years when upon the death of his wife he returned to his home in Spottsylvania, Virginia, where a few years later, he, too died. . . .
The church was a plain substantial brick about a mile from the present town of Finchville until 1891, when it was razed and its material used in the erection of a handsome edifice which now stands near the center of the village itself.
p. 72 - "Pin Hook" or Chestnut Grove Church [Baptist] - The Pin Hook Church, about eight miles north of Shelbyville, at the intersecton of the Christianburg-Ballardsville Road with the Smithfield Road, was organized about 1846, and held its meetings in a store room previously occupied by [p. 73] Thomas Denney, who sold general merchandise. This store was a hundred yards or more west of the church building in a small grove of chestnut trees.
p. 79 - Clear Creek Church [Christian] - Two other churches of this denomination were organized in Shelby County, only a few years after the church in Shelbyville had been built. These were Clear Creek Church, in 1835, and Antioch, in 1839. Many left Fox Run Baptist Church and joined these congregations. Among them were Jeptha and Emma Bright, James H. and Nancy Drane, Oswald and Mary Thomas, and these, with John Preston, Lindsay and WIlson Thomas, WIlliam Crawford, Pauline Crawford (nee Thomas), and John Donaldson and wife, joined the Clear Creek Church. For a time the members met at the house of Harvey Stone, one of the progenitors of the Helm, Maddox and Bright families. Clear Crrek Church was built on a lot donated by Lindsay Thomas, near the headwaters of Clear Creek. Two of the first preachers of Clear Creek were "Billy" Crawford and Robert Rice. On May 5, 1844, a church was organized on emile east of Eminence, in Henry [p.80] County, called "Congregation of Christ at Macedonia," twenty-five members of Clear Creek joining that church. Among those who changed their membership, at that time, were the Brights, Dranes, Hopkins, McCarms, Donaldsons, Yates, Allisons, Fords, Joneses and Sadlers. Other members of Clear Creek changed their membership to Cropper or Shelbyville, and services were discontinued at Clear Creek.
Antioch Church [Christian] - In 1839, Gilbert Jarvis donated a small tract of land two miles north of Simpsonville, on which to build a church which was called Antioch. That piece of land is on the corner of a farm later owned by Miller Wilhoit and his successors. The charter members of Antioch, were thirteen in number. Robert Long and his wife, James Young and wife, John Crosby and wife, Robert Elkin and wife, Nancy Brown, Frances Whitington, Margaret Long, and Mr. and Mrs. James L. Long. Shortly after the organization of the church, J.S. WIllis, a young minister from Madison County, married Mary J. Long, a youthful member of Antioch and came to the County to live. When the log church was remodeled in 1848, he became the pastor and remained such for many years. He preached the dedicatory sermon, and the last services in th echurch on January 21, 1883, were his funeral services. He, several of his family, a few strangers, and a host of the Long, Jarvis, Campbell, Crosby, and other families and relatives of the first members are buried there in the neatly kept little cemetery that overruns the site of where the old church stood. The church was torn away shortly after Edler Willis' death. A cemetery company was formed, money from the sale of the [p.81] church and from several small bequests was constituted into a fund, the interest of which is used in keeping up the burial grounds, the land of which may never be sold.
"Flat Rock,' on the edge of the County, near both Oldham and Jefferson, one of the pioneer churches in which Elder Willis and a long line of successors preached is still standing, though abandoned; and the Masonic Lodge at Simpsonville, where the congreagation of that name early worshipped, remains a land-mark of that section. Reverend Willis and other pioneers of this church supported by the Bairds, Beards, et al., on the edge of Spencer County, until the building was moved to the town of Waterford, whree it became a dwelling, after being superseded by a larger building.
p. 104 - St. James College, opened in 1842, with Rev. R.B. Drane as president and Joseph Sweet and W.F. Roe, teachers. This college was really the successor of Shelbyville Academy and Shelbyville College and built the splendid building located on the block [p.105] between Eighth and Ninth Streets north of College and occupied it until 1871. The cupola upon th etop of what was then one of the finest buildings in Central Kentucky, was ereced and the telescope (through which distinguished astronomers viewed the eclipse of 1869; and other astronomical phenomenons), was brought from a distance by the early officers of St. James College.
p. 109 - A school that flourished and is yet of historic interest in the western portion of the County was Woodland Seminary, founded in 1847, near Simpsonville, at the homestead of Leonidus Webb, and his ancestors.
The first teachers were, in turn: Miss Selia A Bell, who later became Mrs. John Scott and was succeeded by Mrs. Mary L. Ferris, Miss Rucker, Miss Ewing, Miss Lizzie McCormick, V.A. Dale, and G.A. Webb. Among the roster of pupils for the first four or five years is to be found the names of nearly every family that lived in that part of the County during the Nineteenth century, including Allen, Cowherd, Dedman, [p. 110] Finley, Newland, Pemberton, Waller, Webb, Wilson, Stout, Young, Hope, Shouse, Melone, Collins, Kirk, Dugan, Botts, Fisher and Pearce.
p. 202 - C.J. Hinkle, the County Attorney was a cripple, not fit for a soldier, but his handsome and dashing young brother, only a few months before the end of the war, gave his life for the South.
p. 209 - Shelby County Tax List 1792-1795
- Butler, William, 500 on Benson, 333 on Bullskin, 50 Brennon Lick
- Butler, Philip
- p.211 - Harbart, Josiah 111 Gist
- Harbert Thomas
- Johnson, Lanty
- Johnson, Edw.
- Johnson, David
- Johnson, John
- Long, Samuel
- p. 212 - Lowry, Robert
- Meeks, (Muks), Priddy 50 a. Beech
- Meeks, Jesse
- McDowell, Chas.
- p. 213 - Spears, Joshua
- Shephard, John, 100 a. on Buck Creek
- p. 214 - Spears, Paul
- Spencer, Spear, 100 a. on Brashers
- p. 215 - Young, John, 225 a. Clear Creek, 225 in Hardin County
- Young, Edw.
p. 229 - Shelby County Marriages 1792-1800
- p. 230 - Breeden, Paul - Elizabeth Stanley, Aug. 17, 1799
- p. 231 - Colglazure, Daniel - Mary Galbraith, Jan. 15, 1798
- p. 232 Edwards, David - Sussana Meeks, Aug. 12, 1799
- Fitzgarrold, Joseph - Caty Parkers, June 18, 1799
- Fleming, Enoch - Ann Cornwell, April 30, 1799
- Garrt, Isaac - Elizabeth McDowell, Dec. 8, 1794
- p. 233 - Hawkins, Claiborne - Mary McDowell, Dec. 17, 1798
- Irvin, Robert - Temperance Meek, Jan. 8, 1795
- p. 234 - Kulbrath, Samuel - Polly Colglazier, March 29, 1799
- p. 235 - McDowell, Daniel - Rhoda Stark, July 7, 1794
- Meek, Jeremiah - Mary Cromwell, March 19, 1795
- Meeks, John - Mary Hartman, July 7, 1800
- p. 236 - Norris, John - Nelly McDowell, Feb. 11, 1799
- Pearce, David - Frances Pearce, March 19, 1795
- p. 238 - Stout, James - Margaret Edwards, Aug. 22, 1799
- p. 239 - Warson, Alexander - Jane McDowell, Oct. 14, 1797
- Williams, Jacob - Jane Galbrath, Dec. 16, 1795
- p. 240 - Young, Edward - Susanna McCartney, April 15, 1794
- Young, James - Nancy Booker, Aug. 5, 1800
- Young, Joseph - Polly Drakes, April 4, 1798
- Young, Saml. - Sophira Rollings, Aug. 3, 1798
p. 241 - Index First Will Book Shelby County, Kentucky
- Breeding, Richard
- Butlor, Eliza
- Johnson, Philip
- Meeks, Jesse
- p. 242 - Stout, James
- Wilson, Samuel
- Young, Nelson
p. 243 - Revolutionary Soldiers (Pensioned Under the Act of March 18, 1818)
- Johnson, 1st, James, Private, Virginia Line; January 6, 1819; May 20, 1818; $96, age 80
- Johnson, 2nd, James, Private, Virginia LIne; Oct. 18, 1821; January 13, 1820; $96. Age 77
p. 244 - Pensioners Under the Act of June 7, 1832 (Began March 4, 1831)
- p. 245 - Johnson, Archibald, Private, Virginia Militia; $20. Age 83
- p. 246 - Stout, Reuben, Private, Virginia Line; March 18, 1833; $60, Age 73
p. 250 - Cabinet Makers - I. Stout, 1800
p. 251 - Merchants - Butler, 1799
Chair Makers - James Denny, 1800
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