The Washington herald., 1920-06-06


trict, has introduced in Congress a bill
appropriating $1,000, 900 for the purchase
by the national government of Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky. The plan is to turn the
cave into a national park
Mammoth Cave seems to have been dis
covered in 1893, being one of two saltpeter
caves found by surveyors. One of these
caverns was called Dixon" the other
Mammoth" cave. In 1912 it was disposed
of to Hyman Graft, Philadelphia mer-
chant. The heirs of Hyman Gratz sold the
property in 1887 to Franklin Gorin, Of
Kentucky. 1t is now owned by trustees
named under the will of DR.. John Croghan.
II the government should purchase the
property, provision is made that about
5000 acres shall be added to the cave
property.
Tradition says a man named Houchins
was guided into the great cave in 1909 by
a wounded bear which he was chasing.
Houchins and the bear long ago disappeared
from the scene, but "Houchins Narrows,'
in the cave. and many Houchinses in the
neighborhood still perpetuate his name ana
fame. There is also a tale, substantiated by
men still living, that the late Senator
Joseph R. Underwood, who began the prac-
t;ce of law here in 1918, and was one of the
three executors Of Doctor Croghan's will
bv the way, he was Oscar Underwood's
grapdfather-in an abstract of the title Of
the Mammoth Cave property, found that
cave designated in a 1877 survey as a cor
ner of a certain tract of land. but other
lawyers engaged in litigation over the cave
possessions and the county clerks in custody
of such documents have been unable to dis
cover the paper.
A negro slave and famous guide, Stephen
Bishop, whose memory is perpetuated in a
marble slab marking his grave on a ridge
overlooking the mouth of the cave, is credited
with being the greatest explorer of those
dark, deep and hitherto unseen halls. pits
and domes. Stephen was evidently blessed
or afflicted with what might be described
as an incurable case of cavernitis.
In 1911 a man named Mclean bought
from somebody the cave and 200 acres of
land for $40. He sold it to a man named
Gatewood, who in turn sold it to Gratz and
Wilkins, of Philadelphia, who put in, just
100 years ago, the $ats and pipes, still well
preserved, which furnished saltpeter for the
powder "Old Hickory used on the British
at New Orleans. James Moore, Philadel-
phia merchant, took it over in 1916, but
got tangled up with the Burr Wilkinson
conspiracy and had to give it up. In 1887
Frank Gorin, of Glasgow, became the owner,
and two years later a wealthy Louisville
physician, DR.. John Croghan, first became
impressed by an account of the Kentucky
wonder while travelling in Europe, and
Fastening home bought the cave from CORN
for $40, 1000, added some 1900 acres to the
grounds and personally conducted the sub
terranean show until his death ten years
later. From him the present owners in
herited Mammoth Cave in 1S49.
DR.. John Croghan-pronounced Crawn-
was cultured, wealthy and eccentric
bachelor member of a family notable
for its prowess in trade and war. Three
of them were gallant officers in the
revolutionary war, but even before that one
Of them, Colonel George, appears in the
very dawn of Kentucky history as discoverer
of the site of Louisville, May 80, 1765; he
didn't stop because he didn't observe any
thing worth stopping for. He was Indian
agent for the British Government and
fur trader en- route from Pittsburgh to
Kaskaskia, thence to Vincennes and Detroit.
But he probably saw something at the falls
worth returning for, as one of the prom
inent figures in the early municipal affairs
of Louisville was Major William Croghan.
presumably son of Colonel George. That
brings us back to Mammoth Cave.
Major William Croghan became founder,
lord and master of Locust Grove" built
on that baronial estate, five miles northeast
of louisville and a short distance from the
o-esent country club. He married a sister
Of General George Rogers Clark, "the
Hannibal of the West" and reared there
bur children. John, was the first born,
md it would appear from his subjoined last
will and testament that under. the then law
of primogeniture he came into ownership
of all the family estate.
Realizing that death was at hand and that
here were no heirs to his body, on January
10, 1S49, DIR. John Croghan drew his will
A singular coincidence is the fact that the
hrofher Georpe 'the hero OF