The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-31
|sIATE OF KENTUCKY
Or FREDERIC J. HASKlN

some day TO be the State of Indiana
Evan Williams was the first Keutucky :
dlstiIler. lie was also member OF
the first board of trustees of the CITY
OF Louisville, and IL is recorded tha,
when he attended a meeting he ALWAYS
took bottle of his best product. which
was drunk by the trustees as they con.
sidcred the business Of the growing
town in the wilderness. Now ninety.
six OF the l19 counties of Kentucky
prohibit the sale of whisky, but The
State still leads in distilling corn
whisky.
During the same year OF the treaty
of peace with England, which gave
American independence its final guar
sntce, the good people of Harrodsburc.
KY, gathered at ''Haggin Race
Paths to witness the sport of kings.
There was puritanical party which
was opposed TO horse racing, even then,
and in 1888 one Hugh McGary was
| tried, found guilty and pronounced an
/ infamous gambler because he had bet
mare worth El2 sterling on the out
come OF race at Haggin s track. The
! track is gone these hundred wears.
| bat the name Of Haggin is still one of
the greatest on the American turf.
i"e "'",e " hehtucky is divided
into five distinct portions. known by
the local names Of 'Thc Mountains, -
the ''Blue Grass, the Bear Grass, -
the ''PenDyrile and the "Purchase, -
The first takes its name from the geo,
graphical formation, the next three
from the natural product of the soil.
and the last from the political origin
! of its connection with the State. it
comprising that portion west of the
riN-n ,,-hs s,h
Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson from
the Cherokee Indians. The mountains
produce iron and coal and feuds. The
Blue Grass is the home Of the thorough.
bred horse and the politician, the Bear
Grass is the home of whisky and to-
bacco. the Pennyrile combines mining
and agriculture, and the Purchase
makes cotton and sweet 'taters.
A popular error is that the word
Kentucky means ''rhc dark and
bloody ground. y The name is really an
adaptation of the lroquois word 'Fken-
take, which means prairie, or meadow
lands The more sinister definition was
given Il by false or strained construc-
tion Of the speech made by Chief
Dragging Canoe TO Colonel Richard
Henderson at Watauga, Tenn, when a
treaty granting lands north of the Ken
tuchy river was signed, The chief did
not wish Ia give mp the lands south of
the river. and he told Colonel Henderson
that they wcrc ''darlS and bloody and
would be hard 10 settle The prairies
which gave the Indians the word "'ken-
take were called by the early Ken
tucky settlers - the Barrens, and are
SO called until this day. The French
prairie came. into general use much
later.
OF the many famous names in the
roster of the Kcntucky pioneers that
Of Daniel Boone stands forth alone.
even from among the lilUstriGus com
pany Of Simon kenton, Richard Hen
derson, Thomas Walker. James Harrod
into Kentucky in 1869 with John Fin.
ley, and he assumed protccturate over
the whole country until II became so
thiclcly settled that he moved away.
disgusted, 10 the Spanish realms beyond
the Mississippi river, Booncsborough.
the town he founded, was the third
settlement in the State, however, ha
having built it in l155, one year after
Harrodsburg had been started by JamS
Harrod, and two Years after Thomas
Bullitt had founded Louisville. The
first white man S settlement IN the
State was the house built near Barbour.
Vile by DR.. Thomas Walker OF Virginia
in 1850, but that was soon abandoned
Politics have been lively in Ken
tpcky from the beginning. In 1874.
three years before the Constitution of
the United States was adopted, and
when the thirteen States were wrangi-
ing along under fine loose government
Of the Articles of Confo deratiop, the
Keutuckians decided that they must
have State government, They. were
part of Virginia, but The CLIQUE OF
politicians at Williamsburg. orcE tnc
mountains. cared little and knew less
about the pioneers in the West, \ con
stitutional convention was held, but
Virginia would not consent to tde
separation, In eight years the, Ken
tuclians held nine constitutional con
ycntions. aud finally, in 1892. the State
was admitted to the Union and set up
its separate existence.
Isaac Shelby, The hero Of Kings
mountain, was lis first Governor, Just as
his feliow-her1 of the same battle. John
SEWER was to be first governor OF Ten
nessee. The early days Cf The Stare
government were rot p"9cctul, " vas
impossible TO persuade the States east
Of the Appalachians that the Nen-
tuckians and others in the ono yaiiey
had any interests worth looking after,
Spain held the Mississippi river and
occupied New Orleans which was prar,
tically the only market Kentucky coui9
look TO. Then came the spanish IN
trigucs, in which men Of great influence
in kentucky actually conspired 10 set
up Kentucky rs an Independent State,
under the protection Of Spain. This
appears rs arraut treason now. but IN
those DAYS the faith in the stability of
the Federal government was weak, even
in the east. and the unprotected and
neglected pioneers looked upon Spain
as tower of refuge and strength
Kentucky sent Henry Clay to the
United States Senate before he had
reached tho constitutional age of ~
years. and for the next thirty years
he WAS n leader in National thought
Kentucky supported him Loyalty TOR the
most part. although he never reached