The climax. [volume] (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1887-1897, 1889-12-04

grandmother OF the editor returned on
horseback, for a visit, after a residence
Of many years near Foxtown. Her
way was through Cumberland Gap,
aud by Richmond, Washington and
Baltimore. She was accompanied by
her brother who came out TO Kentucky
on visit. and Of C urse horseback. Al
ter years visit che returned to Fox
town. Women must have been made
Of more enduring material then than
now. "H0w did she get to Kentucky
in the first placer" Why, in a wagon
to Pitisburg, down the Ohio in a fiat
boat To Maysville, and thence by the
same wagon, across the country. There
are yet fair forms. but not fragile ones,
about the old home that would render
wager against a repetition of an
equestrienne journey to Kentucky an
unsafe thing.
On the old farm stands cherry tree
that is as old as il is large. Nearly ten
feet around, it was a grown tree during
the war of 1872, and at its root a col
Onist named Green buried his money
when a squadron of the British fleet
approached the town.
HISTORIC NAMES.
Hard by resides Col. Rodgers, a son
Of Commodore Rodgers Of the U. S.
Navy, and son-in-law of the disIin-
guished Commodore Perry, whose sig
nal victory Oh Lake Erie, during the
war Of 1872, was announced TO Gen.
Harrison in these memorable words
I'VE have met the enemy and they are
ours" Commodore Rodgers was the
first man 10 fire an American gun in
the war of 1912. He was cruising along
the coast Of Virginia, even before war
was declared, and spying boat in the
dim twilight, signaled her. The reply
was solid shot which was received Nv Nv
his main-masi. lie returned the CON-
pliment with a broadside. Next day
he discovered his antagonist was a
British Man-Of- war.
The COmmodOreis son, Admiral John
Rodgers, brother Of the Colonel, COM
manded the Weehawken in the second
Siege at Fort Sumter, aud jammed the
PROV of his b Oat almost against the
walls of the fort, that he might be a
little deeper m the fight than anybody
else. Off the c0ast of Georgia,
during the late war, the Weehawken,
after a short but fierce and destructive
canDOnading, captured the Confederate
cruiser Atlanta, and among the prison.
ers was Capt. J. A. G. Williamson,
now of Richmond. When the Admiral
read the list Of prisoners, he thought OF
an old naval cadet and midshipman
friend named Williamson, so he sent
for the Captain and asked him if he
knew G. q. Williamson, who died in
the United States Navy? "He was my
father" replied the Captain. That was
sufficient, and the Admiral saw that he
was treated better than anybody else
while on board the Weehawken.
By the way, Captain Williamson has
the parchment commission of his father
as Past Midshlpnan, dated 1881, and
signed by Andrew Jackson, President.
Also his log book of the U. S. Cruiser
North Carolina" i'm two years cruise
in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.
The senior Williamson constructed a
model for an irOn-clad boat, but he died
soon thereafter, 1856, and the model re-
malned at the navy-yard near Nor
folk. 1t was this model that was used
by the Confederates in the construction
Of their famous boat, the "Merrimac,"
that more than held its own in the his
tOric encounter with the monitor" in
Hampton Roads. Referring again to
Col. Rodgers, he and his wife in the
declining years Of their lives live hap
ply at their superb home where they
are visited 10y many distinguished peo-
Dle.