Henderson County KyArchives History - Books .....Chapter XII Tobacco As A Currency 1887
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Book Title: History Of Henderson County, KY

CHAPTER XII.

TOBACCO AS A CURRENCY-TOBACCO INSPECTION-RISE OF THE TOBACCO INTEREST-PRIMITIVE
COURTS-INDICTMENTS, MARRIAGES,
BRIDGES,   ETC.

THIS decade opened with all of the machinery of government running more smoothly
and a greater disposition on the part of the people to improve the country, as
they had their morals. The laws by which they were to be governed had become
pretty generally understood, and a determination to obey and enforce obedience,
if necessary, was a settled conviction of a large majority of the settlers.
Larger crops ware grown, and the system of cultivating, tobacco particularly,
had been adopted.

    No body of land offered superior quality of soil for the production of
cerials and tobacco. In fact the low lands, as well as a greater part of the
hill lands, were found to be superb in producing capacity.

TOBACCO AS A CURRENCY.

   Tobacco, as far back as 1792, was the equal of money in every respect. All
officers' fees at that time, fixed by law, were chargeable and receivable in
tobacco. By an act of the Assembly, approved June 28 of that year, this law was
repealed and all fees made chargeable and receivable in the currency of the
State. This act went further, to wit: "And for every pound of tobacco allowed by
any existing laws, to any officer, witness, or other person as a compensation
for any service, they shall in lieu thereof be entitled to receive one penny
current money of Kentucky. That for all forfeitures and fines, in tobacco, in
force in this State, suits may be instituted and recovered in money at the same
rate."

    An act approved December 21, 1792, revived the English law of 1745, so far
as the same related to sheriffs, and gave them their fees payable in tobacco at
one penny, half penny per pound. December 22, 1792, the old act was revived as
to coroners, they to be paid their fees in specie, or transfer tobacco, at the
rate of one penny, half penny per pound, at the option of the party charged
therewith. Even up to 1813 and 1815 the penalty attaching to constables' bonds
was made payable in tobacco.

TOBACCO INSPECTION.

    Inspection warehouses having been established in many of the counties of the
State, on the tenth day of February a general law was passed, regulating the
handling of tobacco.

    Henderson being the largest tobacco growing county in the State at that
time, those interested in the growth of the weed will doubtless be gratified to
know something of this law and how it affected their ancestors and predecessors
in selling and shipping.

    Such parts of the law as are deemed material for this purpose are here
incorporated:

    " It was enacted, etc., That no person shall put on board or receive in any
boat or vessel in order to be exported therein, any tobacco not packed in
hogsheads or casks, to be in that or any other boat or vessel, exported out of
this State, before the same shall have been inspected and reviewed, but that all
tobacco whatsoever, to be received or taken on board of any boat for
exportation, shall be received and taken on board at the several warehouses, or
some one of them, and no other place whatsoever."

    Masters of boats were prohibited from carrying unstamped tobacco under a
penalty of a fine of fifty pounds, while the servants had the following law to
guide them:

    "And if any servant, or other person, employed in navigating any such boat
or other vessel, shall connive at, or conceal the taking or receiving on board,
any tobacco in bulk or parcel, he shall pay the sum of five pounds, and if such
servant or other person shall be unable to pay the said sum, he or they, and
every slave so employed, shall by order of a magistrate receive on his bareback,
thirty-nine lashes, well laid on."

  The owners of tobacco were authorized to break any hogshead for the purpose of
repacking or prizing for the convenience of storage, provided the original
package had been stamped, and that the change was made at the warehouse where
the same was inspected, weighed, marked and stamped.

    Owners of tobacco were allowed to carry the same in bulk or parcels on board
of any boat to a licensed warehouse, or from one plantation to another for
better handling or managing thereof, or they were allowed to bring their tobacco
by boat to a warehouse to be repacked, sorted, stemmed or prized, provided it
was packed in hogsheads or casks. The warehouse keeper was allowed as rent three
shillings for each hogshead of tobacco received, inspected and delivered but of
his house. In addition he was allowed on all tobacco remaining in the warehouse
over twelve months three pence per month, to be paid by the owner.

    Inspectors were allowed four shillings and sixpence on each hogshead. This
was their full fee and no salary or other fee was allowed. All tobacco that was
brought to a warehouse was required to be inspected by two licensed inspectors,
who were required to reject all tobacco that was not sound, well conditioned
merchantable and free from trash. In case any tobacco was refused by the
inspectors, the owner was at liberty to separate the good from the bad, but in
case he refused or failed for one month to do this, the inspectors were to
employ one of the pickers attending the warehouse to pick and separate the same,
for which they were paid one-fifth part of the tobacco saved, and the tobacco
adjudged unfit to save was placed in a "funnel" erected by law and burned.

    If any tobacco packed in any hogshead or cask by any overseer, or the hands
under his care, was burned by the inspectors, by reason of its being bad,
unsound or in bad condition, the overseer who had the care of making and packing
the same, suffered the loss of the tobacco so burned. All tobacco brought to the
warehouse for exportation by the owner was required to be examined and weighed,
and if found good to be stamped and the owner given a receipt, stating whether
the tobacco so received was sweet scented or Oronocko, stemmed or leaf, and
whether tied up in bundles or not. For every hogshead exported by land or water
the owner was required to pay seven shillings and six pence and find the nails
for securing the same, or pay eight pence per hogshead for each hogshead so
secured by the inspectors.

    On the twenty-first day of December, 1825, the following act was approved:
"That from and after the passage of this act all purchasers of tobacco within
this Commonwealth shall be at liberty to export the same without having the same
inspected."

    Tobacco inspection warehouses were established by Jaw in Henderson, and from
1801 up to the passage of the act, December 21, 1825, all tobacco was handled by
and passed through some legally authorized warehouse. In those days every
planter packed his tobacco into hogsheads and boxes, and such a thing as
bringing a crop to market loose was unknown. Subsequent to December, 1825,
stem-meries were erected, and the business of inspecting and handling tobacco
gradually grew less, until the warehouses were finally exterminated. They
continued to do business, however, until 1835. After the establishment of
stemmeries, planters ceased, to a very great extent, to pack in hogsheads, but
begun the system of delivery of loose tobacco by wagons.

RISE OF THE TOBACCO INTEREST.

    Henderson soon became the first strip market of the country, and those who
engaged early in stemming made large fortunes. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers
furnished an outlet for all the produce of the country. Flat boats and barges
being used before the introduction of steam machinery, many of the earlier
citizens of Henderson engaged in floating merchandise to New Orleans where they,
after disposing of their produce, would either sell their boats or else cordelle
them back up the river. It was indeed a very common custom to float down the
rivers and return overland on foot.

    General Samuel Hopkins having resigned his commission as Chief Justice of
the Court of Quarter Sessions, Jacob Barnett was appointed by the Governor in
his stead, and at the March term, 1801, took his seat upon the bench.

    Mr. Barnett served but a short time when he died. Abraham Landers resigned
and the two vacancies were filled by the appointment of Dr. Adam Rankin and John
Holloway in 1802. That court at this time was composed of Hugh Knox, Dr. Rankin
and John Holloway.

A PRIMITIVE COURT.

    This primitive court, as is the case with all such, was a sort of free and
easy. The ordinary hanger-on considered himself the equal of the Judge, in point
of legal intelligence, and reserved to himself the right to perpetrate jokes,
prop his feet upon the window sill, and even at times to elevate them along side
of the Judge on his puncheon bench, just as the humor moved him.

    Judge Knox, the Chief Justice, after the death of General Hopkins, was a man
of many good points, an old bachelor, and one given to bachanalian frolics,
sometimes social looseness, for which he was frequently indicted by the grand
jury. Whenever an indictment was found against him he plead guilty, and was
fined without a murmur, and then with commendable promptness would pay his fine.
He was never known to ask mercy or favor, but having settled his own little
difficulties, would return to the bench and administer similar justice to others
who had violated the written law.

    The two assistant Justices, Dr. Rankin and John Holloway, were men quite
unlike the Chief Justice; they were thorough business men, of settled habits and
fine intelligence. They believed in upholding society and bringing it under the
highest standard of morals, virtue and religious training.

    If one is to be justified in what he may read in the early records, it is
safe to infer that society in the early days of the county was rather below par.

    It was a very common occurrence for men to sue for debt and fail
ingloriously to make out a case, from the fact the debt had been previously
paid, and the defendant fortunately for himself, held a receipt. In this case
the order of the court would conclude: "It is therefore ordered that the
plaintiff take nothing by his bill, but that he be in mercy of the court for his
false clamor, etc."

    A peculiar, and perhaps unheard of proceeding, was had in one of the early
courts A grand jury was empanneled composed of the required number of
veniremen,, who returned to the court several indictments, found upon the
evidence of members of the jury. The next day when the indictments were called
for trial, there were not a sufficient number of legally qualified males in the
house, or around the village from which to secure a petit jury, so a part of the
jury was made up of the grand jury, who had found the indictments. It is perhaps
the only case known where the same man served as grand juror in finding an
indictment and petit juror in trying the same.

    At this term, to wit: May, 1801, Wm. B. Blackburn, who had made an efficient
Commonwealth attorney for the county, resigned his office, and James Bell, Esq.,
was appointed to fill the vacancy.

A DRUNK JURY.

    At the same time there was another rather strange procedure, at least it
would be so regarded at this time. In the suit of William Dunn vs. John
Lankford, after the jury had been sworn, and the evidence heard, and the case
argued, it appeared as well to the court as the parties interested, that Thomas
Houseley, one of the jurors, was very drunk, so much so as to be incapacitated
to render any verdict; By consent of the parties and their attorneys and at the
command of the court, Houseley was withdrawn and Jonathan Anthony, a bystander,
who had heard the evidence, and the arguments of the attorneys of both parties,
was called and his name affixed to the panel. He was examined, elected, and then
sworn to try the issue. After awhile it was discovered that another juryman was
too far gone, as to know whether he was sitting in a jury box or in a variety
theatre. By this time the court became disgusted and ordered the case to be
continued to the next court, not, however, without first placing the two jurymen
under a two dollar obligation each, which they were ordered to make good else be
locked in the dungeon.

FIRST LIQUOR DEALER INDICTED.

    Mr. Hugh McGary, who figures in several parts of the early history of this
work, was indicted for selling liquor without license, and was the first person
found guilty of such an offense in the county.

SQUIRE M'BEE AND MARRIAGE.

    In 1802, there being so few ministers, old Squire Silas McBee was authorized
by the County Court to solemnize the rites of marriage, and from what can be
learned from him, he was rather given to humor, and indulged the propensity
frequently.

    Ministers were licensed to solemnize marital rites, according to the rules
of the church to which they belonged, and required to return the license to the
clerk of the County Court with his indorsement thereon. Many of these old-time
returns are amusing, as much perhaps for their illiterate entierty as their
originality. .The license sometimes directed the parties to be married according
to the rules and rites of some certain church. Esquire McBee happened to be
called in on one occasion and was given a license intended to be solemnized by a
Cumberland Presbyterian. He, in his hurried way, joined the parties in marriage,
and returned the license with the following indorsement: "I fined them according
to the rites and ceremonies of the Cumberland Church, to which church, I say
now, I don't belong." The old Squire was honest to say the least of it.

FIRST MOB.

    Amos Kuykendall, of bare-back notoriety; Abner Kuykendall, and James Walton,
concluded to take the village, and were arrested by the Sheriff. A short time
afterwards, a mob (the first one ever organized), composed of Robert McGary,
William McGary, Hugh McGary, Jr., Andrew Bratton, Thomas Fletcher and Solomon
Nesler appeared in the presence of the Sheriff and demanded the surrender of the
prisoners. Being overpowered, he had but one alternative left him, and that he
exercised. The prisoners were given up. For this, at the May term of the Court
of Quarter Sessions, each member of the mob was indicted, for rescuing with
force and arms, said prisoners from the custody of the Sheriff, in the Town of
Henderson, on the first day of August.

BRIDGES.

    The County Court, during this year, turned its attention to the propriety of
building bridges over several creeks at important fords, but nothing was done in
the way of building until the year following, 1803. In this year, Edmund Hopkins
and Dr. Adam Rankin were appointed commissioners, with power to bridge Canoe
Creek, at the crossings on the Owensboro Road, Madisonville Road, and
Morganfield Road, as now. This they did, paying for the bridges the sum of
ninety dollars each. No spike nails were to be had at that time, so the poles
were pinned down at each end with wooden pins. These were cheap structures, of
course, and lasted but a short time; however, were far better than nothing, and
correspondingly appreciated by the people.

FIRST FELONY ON DOCKET.

    On the twenty-first day of April, 1803, the little village was completely
upset by the arrest of Hugh McGary, charged feloniously stealing and carrying
away nineteen English guineas, two half-eagles, thirty dollars in silver and six
hundred dollars in bank notes, the property of Samuel Baker, a guest of McGary's
Tavern and whisky shop. This was, perhaps, a greater bulk of metalic and paper
values than McGary had ever seen before, and the temptation to grow rich, even
at so great a risk, was more than he could withstand. The District Court met at
that time at, Russellville, and what became of the prisoner the writer is unable
to say.

CHEAP SERVICE.

    As an evidence of cheap travel and cheap service, the April court, 1804,
received and certified to the Auditor of Public Accounts, the account of John
Bilbo, acting Sheriff, for the sum of seventeen dollars, for traveling three
hundred and sixty miles on horseback, and attending to compare the polls of the
election of a Senator of the State Assembly, and for a Representative in Congress.

    At this court the first indictments were returned against overseers of
roads, but subsequent to this time it was a common custom to present at each
court a majority, if not everyone of those unfortunate office holders.

A TOWN ON PAPER.

    At the May County Court this year, John Gray and Willis Morgan executed bond
to the County Court, in the penalty of one thousand pounds, for an order granted
them for the establishing of a town on their lands purchased of Thomas B Evans.
Where this town was to be located, the writer has been unable to learn from any
source, only that it was to be on the Ohio River and in Henderson County.

LOCATION OF COLLEGE LANDS.

    February 10 and December 22, 1798, the Legislature created a number of
academies, and for the purpose of encouraging education, authorized and
empowered the Board of Trustees, or their agents, to cause to be surveyed, on
any vacant or unappropriated land to be found on the south side of Green River,
six thousand acres each. Under the authority thus given, Bethel Academy, July
20, 1800, by Daniel Ashby, agent, located twenty-nine hundred and fifty acres,
on Clear Creek Fork, and three thousand and fifty acres on Caney Fork of
Tradewater.

    Livingston County, on December 20, 1802, by Justinian Cartwright, agent,
located five thousand two hundred and fifty acres on Tradewater River.

    Pendleton County, on December 22, 1802, by Justinian Cartwright, located one
hundred and ten acres between Pond River and Tradewater.

  Livingston Academy, April 10 and July 15, 1802, by Cartwright, agent, located
three hundred and fifty and two hundred and fifty acres the North and Clear
Creek Forks of Tradewater.

    Harrodsburgh Seminary, on July 2, 1804, by Peter Casey, agent, located three
thousand acres on the North Fork of Tradewater River. This made a total of
fifteen thousand seven hundred and sixty acres of Henderson County lands, given
by the State, to counties and academies in other parts of the State.

    In October, 1804, the last Court of Quarter Sessions was held, the same
having been abolished, and a Circuit Court substituted in its stead.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
BY
EDMUND L. STARLING,

COMPRISING HISTORY OF COUNTY AND CITY, PRECINCTS, EDUCATION, CHURCHES, SECRET
SOCIETIES, LEADING ENTERPRISES, SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS, AND BIOGRAPHIES OF
THE LIVING AND DEAD.

ILLUSTRATED.

HENDERSON, KY, 1887.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/henderson/history/1887/historyo/chapterx320gms.txt

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