“Annals of Kentucky “
Boone County
1773
July 4 and 5—The companies visit Big Bone lick, in what is now Boone county— making seats and tent-poles of the enormous backbones and ribs of the mastodon found there in large quantities. [p. 16]
1774
Simon Kenton visits Big Bone lick. [p. 17]
1818
Jan. 26—Forty-six independent banks chartered, located, and with capital as follows: $1,000,000—at Lexington and Louisville; $500,000—at Frankfort; $300,000—at Bowling Green, Georgetown, Maysville, and Paris; $200,000—at Bardstown, Glasgow, Hopkinsville, Newport, Russellville, Richmond, Shelbyville, Versailles, and Winchester; $150,000—at Danville, Flemingsburg, Harrodsburg, Henderson, Springfield, and Stanford; $120,000—at Cynthiana; and $100,000—at Augusta, Barbourville, Burksville, Burlington, Carlisle, Columbia, Elizabeth town, Greensburg, Greenville, Hardinsburg, Lancaster, Lebanon, Millersburg, Monticello, Morgantown, Mount Sterling, New Castle, Nicholasville, Owingsville, Petersburg, Port William, Shepherdsville, and Somerset. Aggregate capital $8,720,000. [p. 28]
1846
May 26— [War with Mexico] The first regiment of cavalry, Col. Humphrey Marshall, of Louisville, Lieut. Col. Ezekiel H. Field, of Woodford county, Maj. John P. Gaines, of Boone county, embraces the following companies:
1st, Jefferson county, Capt. W. J. Heady,
2nd, “ “ Capt. A. Pennington,
3rd, Fayette “ Capt. Cassius M. Clay,
4th, Woodford " Capt. Thos. F. Marshall,
5th, Madison “ Capt. J. C. Stone,
6th, Garrard “ Capt. J. Price.
7th, Fayette " Capt. G. L. Postlethwaite.
8th, Gallatin " Capt. J. S. Lillard.
9th, Harrison " Capt. John Shawhan
10th, Franklin " Capt. B. C. Milam. [p. 53]
1847
Jan. 20—Maj. John P. Gaines [Boone county] and Capt. Cassius M. Clay, with 30 Ky. cavalry, and Maj. Borland and 50 Arkansas cavalry, are surrounded at Encarnacion by an overwhelming force of Mexican cavalry, and compelled to surrender, taken to the city of Mexico, and imprisoned. [p. 54]
June 8—Maj. John P. Gaines, while still a prisoner of war in Mexico, is nominated for congress by a whig convention at Covington; and, Aug. 4, elected by 124 majority over Gen. Lucius B. Desha, the democratic nominee. [p. 55]
1850
June 14—John Norris, of Boone county, Ky., recovers a judgment in the U. S. circuit court at Indianapolis, of $2,800 and costs (about $2,000) against Newlan, Crocker, and others, for runaway slaves of Norris which he had recaptured at South Bend, Indiana, and which they then took from him by force. [p. 60]
1852
Sept. 27—Stampede of slaves across the Ohio river, 32 from Mason and Bracken, 9 from Campbell, and 14 from Boone counties. [p. 66]
1855
Sept. 1—Apples grown in Boone and Kenton counties: Mammoth pippins weighing 19 and 22 ounces, queens weighing 1 ¾ pounds, 16¼ inches in circumference, and 2¼ pounds, 18 inches around, and Holland pippins weighing 1½ pounds and measuring 14½ inches. [p.75]
1857
The corn crop of 1857 the largest ever grown in Ky. The corn was very wet and immature at the time of an unusually hard freeze in November, which was followed by warm wet weather, causing fermentation, and greatly injuring if not destroying the germinating principle of the corn. To save as much as possible, it was fed to stock, or distilled. Sound dry corn, for seeding, was imported from Tennessee, and from Henderson, Boone, and several other counties in Ky. which escaped the freezing.
1862
Feb. 20—From a report of Grant Green, state auditor, called out by a resolution of the senate, it appears that only 10 counties—Bourbon, Bath, Greenup, Hardin, Jessamine, Mason, Mercer, Owen, Russell, and Woodford—had paid into the treasury their revenue in full for 1861; that 6 others—Boone, Boyle, Bracken, Breckinridge, Bullitt, and Fayette—had paid up within less than $280 each; and that of the total revenue due for 1861, $994,014, there was yet due and unpaid $433,320, or over 43½ per cent. Total decrease of taxable property for 1861 as compared with that of 1860, $52,294,131—being in real estate over 7 1/8 % per cent, in personal estate nearly 10, and in the value of slaves 18 ½ % per cent. [p. 79]
1862
Sept. 12—Gen. Heth commences his deliberate retreat from back of Covington. Federal troops cautiously pursue so far as Florence, 9 miles. [p. 111]
Sept. 15—Confederate forces again advance towards Covington, as far as Florence, 9 miles off, and engage in a skirmish in which they suffer slightly. [p. 112]
1863
Nov. 28—Gen. John H. Morgan, and 6 of his captains, Thos. H. Hines, Jacob C. Bennett, Ralph Sheldon, Jas. D. Hookersmith, Gustavus S. McGee, and Sam. B. Taylor, make their escape from the Ohio penitentiary at Columbus, before 1 A.M.
Too polite to part from his host without a farewell word, Hines leaves a letter for the Warden, addressed to "Hon. (!!) N. Merion," "The Faithful," "The Vigilant," and enclosing the tally of time and labor:
"castle Memos, Cell No. 20, Nov. 27.
Commencement, … November 4, 1863
Conclusion, … November 20, 1863
No. of hours for labor, per day,… Three.
Tools, …Two small knives.
La patience est amere, maie son fruit est doux.
By order of my six honorable Confederates,
THOS. H. HINES, Captain C. S. A."
Four days after, Taylor and Sheldon are captured 6 miles back of Louisville, and returned to the penitentiary.
The ingenuity and coolness of Hines, who had planned the mode of escape, and the methodical boldness and nonchalance of Morgan, carry the two safely by railroad via Dayton to Cincinnati, where they cross the Ohio at 7 A. M., in a skiff, to Ludlow, just below Covington; breakfast at the residence of an enthusiastic lady friend; are furnished with horses, and that day ride 28 miles to Union, Boone Co.; thence, by easy stages, with volunteer guides when needed, through Gallatin, Owen, Henry, Shelby, Spencer, Nelson, Green, and Cumberland counties ; reach Overton Co., Tenn., Dec. 8. Hines, although by quick wit he again saves Morgan, is captured Dec. 13; but in five days is free again. Morgan escapes by way of Athens, Tenn., across the mountains of North Carolina, to Columbia, S. C, and thence to Richmond, Va. (The governor of Ohio offers $5,000 reward for his re-capture.) [p. 129]
1864
July 28 to Aug. 11—"Under Gen. Sherman's instructions to Gen. Burbridge, and partly upon Gen. Carrington's information to Gov. O. P. Morton, of Indiana," Gen. Burbridge orders the arrest of citizens, many of them leading and prominent, in many counties—among them the following:
Boone co.—Dr. John Dulaney, Spencer Fish, Henry Terrell, Warren Rogers, Edmund Grant, and Jas. T. Grant. [p. 137]
1865
March 6—Mason, Boone, Nicholas, Campbell, Greenup, Gallatin, Bracken, Grant, Kenton, Butler, Carroll, Livingston, Lyon, Caldwell, Fleming, Oldham, and Jefferson counties, and the city of Louisville, each authorized [sic] by special legislation to raise a bounty fund to aid enlistments and provide substitutes. [p. 157]
May 6—The tax assessor of Boone reported on his list 1,281 negroes, but placed "no value" on them; his assessment was approved. [p. 159]
1867 Jan. 24—The legislature, on Feb. 17, I860,.directed the governor to procure four gold medals—one each for Jas. Artus, Dr. Wm. T. Taliaferro, Jno. Tucker, and Jno. Norris, all in 1813 residents of Mason Co., but Norris now a resident of Boone co., and Dr. Taliaferro of Cincinnati, Ohio— "as survivors of the Ky. volunteers who— at the request of Commodore Perry—with such ready alacrity and heroism, repaired on board his fleet and assisted in achieving the glorious victory of Sept. 10, 1813, over the British fleet on Lake Erie." [The medals were promptly procured, but, in the excitement of the intervening times, overlooked, and are only now delivered.] [p. 176]
1868
Aug. 1 — At Big Bone Springs, Boone co., in digging to improve the facilities for barreling the water for sale, a wagon load of bones of the mammoth was discovered within a space of 15 feet—Among them a task 10 inches thick and 12 feet long, a backbone of about equal dimensions and a tooth 15 inches long, six inches thick, weighing 20 pounds. [pp. 191-2]
From: Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky: History of Kentucky, Volume 1.