The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1918-07-03

of Jacob w. Rand and William W.
Richeson. But yesterday there was
pointed out to me the building in
which Mr.. Richeson last taught, and,
though Mr.. Haldeman and Gen. Grant
may not have attended school there,
its venerable appearance leads one to
believe that they might well have
done so.
Interesting Old Veteran
Washington, as has been stated, is
four miles from Maysville and one
year older, and it looks it's age hon
estly. 1t is an interesting old veteran
among Kentucky's first villages. Here,
on February 2, 1903, was born Albert
Sidney Johnson, who fell at the head
of the Confederate army at Shiloh
April 6, 1862. There is yet standing
the two-story frame house in which
the great soldier first saw the light
more than a hundred years ago, and
Notwithstanding its great age ii is
still occupied as a residence. With a
few days attention of a carpenter and
liberal application of paint brush
the old building would present very
liveable appearance.
1t was in Washington that Harriet
Beecher Stowe wrote portion of
Uncle Toms Cabin" that mpnu-
mental fiction of all the ages, which
inflamed the Northern mind, brought
John Brown to Harpers Ferry to an
ignorminious death upon the scaffold
and set the armies of the North and
the South in furious battle array
against each other. l have stood in
the room in which she wrote the Ken
lucky chapters and imagined | could
see that misguided, powerful-minded
woman, embittered by half knowl
edge of the subject on which she
wrote, and l wondered if, had she
known that every page of its story
was to be stained with the blood of
gallant young men of the North ard
of the South, she would have stayed
her hand and destroyed all that she
had written. Perhaps not. The New
Englander is thrifty and a gainful
parsonage.
Across the street from the house
where Gen. Johnson was born there
still stands the old courthouse, mark
the county seat Tradition has it that
1t was in front of this old house, now
private residence, that Uncle Tom
was sold and a large rock at the front
OF the door is pointed out as that upon
which he stood when being sold. An
this may be true; certainly there is
no living witness to disprove it, and
why speculate upon 1t.
Kentucky's First Bank
The citizens of Washington will
show you an ancient building in
which it is claimed, Kentucky's first
bank was conducted. Efforts to learn
the name of this bank and the date OF
it's organization proved futile, but the
building in which the bank did bust
ness is still standing and is the prop
erty and residence of couple of the
sort of colored people we used to see
before the war, of whom 80 few re-
main. The ancient owner, with the
courtesy of a gentleman of the olden
days, urged me TO enter the ancient
vault and to examine the heavy iron
door which ertswhile shut away from
those who would break through and
steal the golden treasures of the bank
and its customers. He brought out
the ponderous key which had turned
that it was second only in size to the
key of the Bastile which Lafayette
sent to Gen. Washington and which
hangs on the wall at Mount Vernon
today The aged custodian showed
me the working of the key in the lock
! at the same time informing me tina
while thieves might break lone o
these accommodation locks" no on
, could possibly break his lock after HI
, had twice turned the key therein.
take it that he meant Combination
, locks" On leaving the building
! slipped coin into the hand of tn
"old gentleman in ebony" who at ono
= crossed the room and gave it into tn
custody of his wife, who l very mucl
fear is one of these suffragettes."
In conclusion, it should be state
that Mason county is one of the veal
thiest of the purely farming countie
that lie along the Ohio River and tina
nowhere else in or out of Kentuck
are there a gentler, kindlier or NOR
hospitable people than its good citi
zens.
LOSS OF CRAFT PLACED AT $4,000