The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1914-08-13
GARRARD COUNTY.
Its Peculiar Position, Its General Features
And Some Of The Problems Of Its
Early Settlers.

state, the center being only two and
one-half miles west of Lancaster. 1t
is bounded by seven counties and has
only eight or ten miles Surveyors line.
1t lies in between the KY and Dix
rivers and their tributaries. 1t an ir-
regular ridge, ten to fifteen miles in
width and thirty to thirty five in length.
This ridge is from ten to twelve hun
dred feet above sea leavel. Lancaster
stands one thousand and twenty five
feet as marked by the Geological Sur
veY. The streams on north of the
ridge empty into Ky river, those on the
south into Dix river.
The cour ty was once covered with
magnificent forest of Poplar, Walnut,
Oak, Ash, Cherry. Hickory, Locust,
Sugar, Maple, Beach. Elm, Linn, and
blackberry, with very large Sycamore
and Ceders along the water courses,
which furnished water power for Grist
Mills, during the winter and spring
months, during the summer and fall
<
drawn by horse power. The Mills con-
sisted of large house on high posts in
the center on a post of wood, or iron
was large upright post with long
arms poking through the top and eX-
tending to near the outer edge of the
building. or the outer ends a large
wheel with wooden caps in the rim
which revolved the mill stones, long
strong beam was poked through NOR
tue in the large center post TO the ends
of which the horses were attached and
driven round in a circle thus revolving
the large wheel overhead and gave a
rapid motion to the mill stones. The
people at that time used corn bread
almost exclusively. Very small areas
were sown TO wheat owing to difficulty
of harvesting and threshing, which was
done with a hand reap hook. and thresh
ed by riding horses around on the wheat
placed in large circle on the ground
and sererated from the chaff by two
men with heavy cloth between them
as another poured the wheat and chaff
before them as high as he could hold
the grain thus you see the reason for
corn being largely used.
The streams abounded with delight
full fish almost to their source while
great numbers of cartridges inhabited
the fields and canebreaks. The wild
pigeons by the millions fed upon the
oak and beach most as they fiocked
| South in the fall to their winter quar-
tiers. They are now extinct. Ducks,
geese and coOns paid semi-annual visits
as they passed north and south in the
Spring and Fall. The crows and black
birds invaded the corn fields and gave
the farmers much trouble. The gray
squirrel was great pest and had to be
trapped and hunted with the rifle to
save the corn fields. The raccoon and
opossum afford sport for the white and
colored boys at night. The mink and
weasel visited the chicken coop at
night and the hawks by day, so YOU see
it took vigilance to raise crops or fowls.
The early settlers on account of the
difficulty of clearing the heavy forests
were compelled to cultivate their lands
in order to raise grain for their families
and stock i'll consequence. The early
settlers wore out their small farms and
added to this they raised tobacco that
helped further to impoverish their lands
as it does today. The early settlers
planted large orchards of apple and
peach trees and reveled in fruit and
cider. Great quantities of fruit was
distilled into Brandy and corn into
Whlskey and shipped to New Orleans
with tobacco and bacon from the mouth
of Sugar Greek in fiat boats. The cat
tie were driven on foot to New York
and Charleston at the age of 3 or
| years. The horses were fattened and
driven through Cumberland Gap to
Charleston and Savannah Ca There
were few mules raised, as all the barn
hauling was done by oxen. Horses were
used for work on the farm or horse
back riding, few were used for haul
ing merchandise from Lexington and
for the stage coach. Large numbers
of hogs were raised on the mast and
fattened at Is months and collected in
droves OF five to six hundred and driven
through tine Gap to South Carolina
and Ga and sold to the planters. The
drivers started about the 10th of Oct.
The money was paid in gold or New
York exchange and sold to the mer-
chants who thus paid for their goods in
New York and Philadelphia. The wool
was spun and carded and woven into
jeans and linsev for the family.
Flax and hemp was grown and man
ufactured into cloth for the family, and
the hemp was spun by hand and made
into ropes for farm use. There were
no turnpikes until after 1858, conse-
quently there were no buggies and all
travel was on horseback. Almost all
the labor saving machinery for farm
and household have been introduced
since 1910.
In my next will attempt to describe
the social conditions of the county.
-SineX.