Fayette County KY - A Mississippian ReminiscencesSource: The (Lexington, Kentucky) Transcript, Saturday, October 16, 1886 EARLY LEXINGTON Hazelhurst, Miss., Oct. 13.--I have a very distinct recollection of persons, places and incidents in Lexington, Ky., at least sixty years ago. The recital may interest your readers, as there seems to be a fascination about the past. "Coming events cast their shadows before" is accepted as a truism. I suppose it is equally true that events long past, cast a shadow the other way; so that between memory and hope we may be in shadows all the time. Before I was born my father, Foster Cook, immigrated from Virginia to the Mississippi Territory. When I was a child he made his permanent home near where Vicksburg is now quite a city. The Indians were often with us on very friendly terms. Our near neighbor, W.W. Blanton, had kindred living within a mile or two of Lexington, Col. John L. Martin, who has cotton plantations in the South. My father arranged that his oldest son (this writer) should enter Transylvania University with the promised protection of Col. Martin and his family. The little boy having good eyes and ears with a retentive memory stored away a large supply of new and strange sights and sounds. The gentlemen and ladies were considerate of the little fellow from among the Choctaws, the young ladies no doubt anxious to prevent this embarrassment, made every allowance for his awkwardness. They would have hilarity and laugh when he used Choctaw words as he had been accustomed to do at home. Among them, Charlotte Martin, Sallie Wickliffe, Cleopatra Trotter, Misses Bodley, Warfield, Mason, Coleman, Higgins, Briggs, Norton and several others. General Lafayette had just passed through Lexington when I arrived. Nothing was to be heard in parlor or on the street but the word, "Lafayette is coming," to the tune of "The Camels Are Coming." Fond of music, I was delighted with the continued repetition of the singing which the old General heard when he called upon Henry Clay and the citizens of Lexington a few weeks ago. Transylvania University was then the equal of any in the United States, with Horace Holly as President and professor of renown. The medical department excelled all others, with Dudley, Caldwell, Frake and Richardson in the Faculty. In law not inferior, with W.T. Barry and Jesse Bledsoe to lecture. Joseph Ficklin was Postmaster, David Sayre, banker; Bradford, editor. Weaving bagging and twisting ropes could be seen in many places in and around the town. The manufacture of jeans and linsey was carried on extensively. A substantial white article was very popular in the South for negro clothing, and a fine article of blue jeans for gentlemen's wear. I recollect the young members of the following families: Bodley, Warfield, Coleman, Winter, Higgins, Harrison, Martin, Trotter and others. By a strange coincidence I met many of those in after years in Vicksburg, Miss. Whole families emigrated to this place from Lexington, Versailles and other places in Kentucky, and of these were some of the greatest men of the South, particularly in Vicksburg and from there to New Orleans. Almost the first merchants in Vicksburg were I.C. and N.W. Ford, who were successful. The former died in Louisville lately, perhaps a millionaire. Warfield & McCutcheon were successful, and became cotton planters on a large scale. Pinkard & Payne, the equals of any. I.U. Payne now lives in New Orleans. He and J.P. Harrison were the head of cotton houses when the war broke out. Geo. M. Pinkard, L.R. Coleman, Wm. Pinkard and A.B. Reading were leading men in Vicksburg, and equally so in New Orleans. In the days of banks and credit operations, buying and selling lots, lands and negroes, these and other Kentuckians took the lead. They came financial giants in those days. They cleared lands, built houses, gins, opened streets in town and roads through the country, constructed railroads and bridges; these all remain, when the operators became, many of them, bankrupt. The Bodleys were great men. W.T.B. as lawyer, judge and politician, H.T.B. as M.D. will be remembered because of his killing, when the gamblers were hung in Vicksburg, just fifty years ago, in 1836. Though Vicksburg is the location, I write about natives of Kentucky, many of whom I knew at Transylvania. The principal business was around the courthouse, on the south side, I think. The merchants, many of them, lived over their stores, among them J.W. Hunt, reputed to be the richest. His daughter married Morgan whose son became the famous John Hunt Morgan. Col. Martin lived in the country. One of his daughters married Mr. Duncan, whose son, I suppose, is Blanton Duncan, of some note. I could give the name of students who were Alumni of Transylvania, whom I knew and followed their course with interest as newspapers reported their success. The people were wild about politics then: Clay and Jackson, bargain and intrigue in national politics. But local issues were the absorbing and exciting topics--Relief and Anti Relief. New and old court and Commonwealth paper bank. I read about it, and wrote to my father as young as I was. Kentucky history records all about those contests in bitterness and feuds, and sometimes killing. I saw much, heard more and read still more. I may relate an occurrence which very few will recollect, and a less number witnessed: Robert Wickliffe was elected to Congress after an exciting canvass. The day of his success he provided an entertainment of something to eat and drink, to be given in the lawn in front of his house. All were invited--those opposed as well as those who had voted for him, who he desired to thank for their support. Among the supplies for drinking were barrels of toddy, mint julep, sangaree and other preparations usual at that time. Curiosity, I suppose, prompted several students to go to the speaking at the Wickliffe lawn. We found an immense crowd. Some showed signs of having drunk too much. Their friends were attending them, some of whom were not drinking men, and had drank but once on the ground. There was soon so much seeming drunkenness that the crowd retired at an early hour. On the way to town men could be seen leaning upon anything for support whilst they could throw off the cause of sick stomach. This strange sickness excited surprise, and inquiry led to the discovery that tartar emetic had been put into the open barrels placed in the yard, and when turned over the white ingredient was seen. A druggist was reported having sold the tartar emetic to a man named Knappen, who was put in jail. The order to the druggist was signed by Trotter. When he was sought it was found out he had business in New Orleans. Rivalry in politics was the cause of this attempt at a joke upon Mr. Wickliffe and his party. This feud continued until in after years one of each family met in deadly contact, one of them being killed. E.J.C[ook] |