Cathedral Heritage Foundation

 

A Concise History of Louisville from "Spirited City: Essays in Louisville History" by Clyde F. Crews I. A Town Revolution - Born And River-Bred: 1778-1825 In the middle of the eighteenth century, America had five major cities, all clinging to the Atlantic seaboard:  Baltimore, Boston, Charleston, New York and Philadelphia.   Early in the nineteenth century, five major towns had begun to emerge across the mountains in America's "Inland Empire" as  well: Cincinnati, Lexington, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Louisville, the city at the Falls of the Ohio. (Photo: Falls of the Ohio, 1796) Although explorers and surveyors had visited the site of Louisville earlier (most notably in 1773), the city began its continuous civic life in May, 1778, for two very specific reasons: The River and the Revolution. The Ohio was (and remains) one of the major rivers of the continent: longer than the Rhine or the Seine. In its entire 981 mile length, it had only one navigational barrier: the Falls, opposite to what is now downtown Louisville. This area is a national ecological treasure whose ancient fossil mysteries, spanning back millions of years, are wonderfully unraveled at the recently opened Falls of the Ohio Park. When the city was young, the Falls represented a major barrier to boats making their way down the Ohio; it was a geographical inevitability that a town of some sort would rise at this point. Here most river traffic needed to stop, deposit its passengers and cargo, skim over the Falls, and collect its burden once again for the trip down river. The second ingredient in Louisville's founding was the Revolution. When the first shots of that epic struggle were fired in 1775, Kentucky (whose settlement by people of European stock had only begun the year before) was part of the colony of Virginia. Kentucky would remain part of the Old Dominion until 1792 when it achieved statehood and became the first western star in the American flag. It was as Governor of Virginia that Thomas Jefferson signed the first town charter of Louisville in 1780. Across the river, the land that is now southern Indiana was technically part of Canada, by action of the British government's Quebec Act of 1774. To these frontier lands, Virginia's Governor Patrick Henry dispatched George Rogers Clark, the "George Washington of the West," to break the back of British resistance in the vast area. (Photo: George Rogers Clark) Clark set up his base of operations near the Falls, on the now submerged Corn Island, close by the foot of Twelfth Street on May 27, 1778. With his hardy band of men, Clark helped to gain the area that was to become the nation's Midwest for the American cause. In quick succession, three forts were constructed here to house Clark's troops and their  families, the last being Fort Nelson in 1781, near today's intersection of Seventh and Main.   With the end of the Revolutionary War, settlers tentatively moved out of the protective stockade, and the rough young town began to rise. (Photo: Fort Nelson) Louisville, which had been named for King Louis XVI of France in gratitude for French aid in the Revolution, grew very slowly at first. It suffered through occasional floods, malarial-type infections, and the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. Not until 1828 (with a population of nearly 10,000) did Louisville get around to its official incorporation as a city. From its inception, the town knew social stratifications: working class and shopkeepers living "downtown," while the more affluent settled along the Beargrass Creek to the east in plantations and estates. To this day, Louisville and Jefferson's County's complex street pattern on the east side gives testimony to the importance of this smaller stream on the city's geography and history. Photo credits: Falls of the Ohio, Views of Louisville since 1766, Samuel W. Thomas: Atlas accompanying Victor Collot, A Journey in North America... Paris, 1826 reprinted Florence Italy, 1924. George Rogers Clark, Views of Louisville since 1766, Samuel W. Thomas: Miniature by George Catlin, dated 1832, is in the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. Fort Nelson, courtesy of Louisville Courier-Journal.

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Back to "A Concise History of Louisville" To Another Article: Growth and Strife: 1826-1870 Victorian City, Southern-Style: 1870-1900 Progress and Adversity: 1900-1945 Modern Mezzotropolis: 1945-1995

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