Chapter V: Part 5

Kentucky is the principal hemp-growing state of the Union; the crop of
1899, which was grown on 14,107 acres and amounted to 10,303,560 lb.,
valued at $468,454, was 87.7% of the hemp crop of the whole country.
But the competition of cheaper labour in other countries reduced the
profits on this plant and the product of 1899 was a decrease from
78,818,000 lb. in 1859. Hay and forage, the fourth in value of the
state's crops in 1899, were grown on 683,139 acres and amounted to
776,534 tons, valued at $6,100,647; in 1909 the acreage of hay was
480,000 and the crop of 653,000 tons was valued at $7,771,000. In 1899
the total value of fruit grown in Kentucky was $2,491,457 (making the
state rank thirteenth among the states of the Union in the value of
this product), of which $1,943,645 was the value of orchard fruits and
$435,462 that of small fruits. Among fruits, apples are produced in
greatest abundance, 6,053,717 bu. in 1899, an amount exceeded in only
nine states; in 1889 the crop had been 10,679,389 bu. and was exceeded
only by the crop of Ohio and by that of Michigan. Kentucky also grows
considerable quantities of cherries, pears, plums and peaches, and,
for its size, ranks high in its crops of strawberries, blackberries
and raspberries. Indian corn is grown in all parts of the state but
most largely in the western portion. Wheat is grown both in the Blue
Grass Region and farther west; and the best country for fruit is along
the Ohio river between Cincinnati and Louisville and in the hilly land
surrounding the Blue Grass Region. In the eastern part of the state
where crops are generally light, Indian corn, oats and potatoes are
the principal products, but tobacco, flax and cotton are grown. The
thoroughbred Kentucky horse has long had a world-wide reputation for
speed; and the Blue Grass Region, especially Fayette, Bourbon and
Woodford counties, is probably the finest horse-breeding region in
America and has large breeding farms. In Fayette county, in 1900, the
average value of colts between the ages of one and two years was
$377.78. In the Blue Grass Region many thoroughbred shorthorn cattle
and fine mules are raised. The numbers of horses, mules, cattle and
sheep increased quite steadily from 1850 to 1900, but the number of
swine in 1880 and in 1900 was nearly one-third less than in 1850. In
1900 the state had 497,245 horses, 198,110 mules, 364,025 dairy cows,
755,714 other neat cattle, 1,300,832 sheep and 2,008,989 swine; in
1910 there were in Kentucky 407,000 horses, 207,000 mules, 394,000
milch cows, 665,000 other neat cattle, 1,060,000 sheep and 989,000
swine. The principal sheep-raising counties in 1905 were Bourbon,
Scott and Harrison, and the principal hog-raising counties were
Graves, Hardin, Ohio, Union and Hickman.

_Forests and Timber._--More than one-half of the state (about 22,200
sq. m.) was in 1900 still wooded. In 1900 of the total cut of 777,218
M. ft., B.M., 392,804 were white oak and 279,740 M. ft. were
tulip-tree. Logging is the principal industry of several localities,
especially in the east, and the lumber product of the state increased
in value from $1,502,434 in 1850 to $4,064,361 in 1880, and to
$13,774,911 in 1900. The factory product in 1900 was valued at
$13,338,533 and in 1905 at $14,539,000. In 1905 of a total of 586,371
M. ft., B.M., of sawed lumber, 295,776 M. ft. were oak and 153,057 M.
ft. were "poplar."

The planing mill industry is increasing rapidly, as it is found
cheaper to erect mills near the forests; between 1900 and 1905 the
capital of planing mills in the state increased 117.2% and the value
of products increased 142.8%.

_Manufactures._--Kentucky's manufactures are principally those for
which the products of her farms and forests furnish the raw material.
The most distinctive of these is probably distilled liquors, the
state's whisky being famous. A colony of Roman Catholic immigrants
from Maryland settled in 1787 along the Salt river about 50 m. S.S.E.
of Louisville and with the surplus of their Indian corn crop made
whisky, a part of which they sold at settlements on the Ohio and the
Mississippi. The industry was rapidly developed by distillers, who
immediately after the suppression of the Whisky Insurrection, in 1794,
removed from Pennsylvania and settled in what is now Mason county and
was then a part of Bourbon county--the product is still known as
"Bourbon" whisky. During the first half of the 19th century the
industry became of considerable local importance in all parts of the
state, but since the Civil War the heavy tax imposed has caused its
concentration in large establishments. In 1900 nearly 40% and in 1905
more than one-third of the state's product was distilled in
Louisville. Good whisky is made in Maryland and in parts of
Pennsylvania from rye, but all efforts in other states to produce from
Indian corn a whisky equal to the Bourbon have failed, and it is
probable that the quality of the Bourbon is largely due to the
character of the Kentucky lime water and the Kentucky yeast germs. The
average annual product of the state from 1880 to 1900 was about
20,000,000 gallons; in 1900 the product was valued at $9,786,527; in
1905 at $11,204,649. In 1900 and in 1905 Kentucky ranked fourth among
the states in the value of distilled liquors.

The total value of all manufactured products of the state increased
from $126,719,857 in 1890 to $154,166,365 in 1900, or 21.7%, and from
1900 to 1905 the value of factory-made products alone increased from
$126,508,660 to $159,753,968, or 26.3%.[2] Measured by the value of
the product, flour and grist mill products rose from third in rank in
1900 to first in rank in 1905, from $13,017,043 to $18,007,786, or
38.3%; and chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff fell during the same
period from first to third in rank, from $14,948,192 to $13,117,000,
or 12.3%; in 1900 Kentucky was second, in 1905 third, among the states
in the value of this product. Lumber and timber products held second
rank both in 1900 ($13,338,533) and in 1905 ($14,539,000). Distilled
liquors were fourth in rank in 1900 and in 1905. Men's clothing rose
from tenth in rank in 1900 to fifth in rank in 1905, from $3,420,365
to $6,279,078, or 83.6%. Other important manufactures, with their
product values in 1900 and in 1905, are iron and steel ($5,004,572 in
1900; $6,167,542 in 1905); railway cars ($4,248,029 in 1900;
$5,739,071 in 1905); packed meats ($5,177,167 in 1900; $5,693,731 in
1905); foundry and machine shop products ($4,434,610 in 1900;
$4,699,559 in 1905); planing mill products, including sash, doors and
blinds ($1,891,517 in 1900; $4,593,251 in 1905--an increase already
remarked); carriages and wagons ($2,849,713 in 1900; $4,059,438 in
1905); tanned and curried leather ($3,757,016 in 1900; $3,952,277 in
1905); and malt liquors ($3,186,627 in 1900; $3,673,678 in 1905).
Other important manufactures (each with a product value in 1905 of
more than one million dollars) were cotton-seed oil and cake (in 1900
Kentucky was fifth and in 1905 sixth among the states in the value of
cotton-seed oil and cake), cooperage, agricultural implements, boots
and shoes, cigars and cigarettes, saddlery and harness, patent
medicines and compounds, cotton goods, furniture, confectionery,
carriage and wagon materials, wooden packing boxes, woollen goods,
pottery and terra cotta ware, structural iron-work, and turned and
carved wood. Louisville is the great manufacturing centre, the value
of its products amounting in 1905 to $83,204,125, 52.1% of the product
of the entire state, and showing an increase of 25.9% over the value
of the city's factory products in 1900. Ashland is the principal
centre of the iron industry.

_Minerals._--The mineral resources of Kentucky are important and
valuable, though very little developed. The value of all manufactures
in 1900 was $154,166,365, and the value of manufactures based upon
products of mines or quarries in the same year was $25,204,788; the
total value of mineral products was $19,294,341 in 1907. Bituminous
coal is the principal mineral, and in 1907 Kentucky ranked eighth
among the coal-producing states of the Union; the output in 1907
amounted to 10,753,124 short tons, and in 1902 to 6,766,984 short tons
as compared with 2,399,755 tons produced in 1889. In 1902 the amount
was about equally divided between the eastern coalfield, which is for
the most part in Greenup, Boyd, Carter, Lawrence, Johnson, Lee,
Breathitt, Rockcastle, Pulaski, Laurel, Knox, Bell and Whitley
counties, and has an area of about 11,180 sq. m., and the western
coalfield, which is in Henderson, Union, Webster, Daviess, Hancock,
McLean, Ohio, Hopkins, Butler, Muhlenberg and Christian counties, and
has an area of 5800 sq. m. In 1907 the output of the western district
was 6,295,397 tons; that of the eastern, 4,457,727. The largest
coal-producing counties in 1907 were Hopkins (2,064,154 short tons)
and Muhlenberg (1,882,913 short tons) in the western coalfield, and
Bell (1,437,886 short tons) and Whitley (762,923 short tons) in the
south-western part of the eastern coalfield. All Kentucky coal is
either bituminous or semi-bituminous, but of several varieties. Of
cannel coal Kentucky is the largest producer in the Union, its output
for 1902 being 65,317 short tons, and, according to state reports, for
1903, 72,856 tons (of which 46,314 tons were from Morgan county), and
for 1904, 68,400 tons (of which 52,492 tons were from Morgan county);
according to the _Mineral Resources of the United States_ for 1907
(published by the United States Geological Survey) the production of
Kentucky in 1907 of cannel coal (including 4650 tons of semi-cannel
coal) was 77,733 tons, and exclusive of semi-cannel coal the output of
Kentucky was much larger than that of any other state. Some of the
coal mined in eastern Kentucky is an excellent steam producer,
especially the Jellico coal of Whitley county, Kentucky, and of
Campbell county, Tennessee. But with the exception of that mined in
Hopkins and Bell counties, very little is fit for making coke; in 1880
the product was 4250 tons of coke (value $12,250), in 1890, 12,343
tons ($22,191); in 1900, 95,532 tons ($235,505); in 1902, 126,879 tons
($317,875), the maximum product up to 1906; and in 1907, 67,068 tons
($157,288). Coal was first mined in Kentucky in Laurel or Pulaski
county in 1827; between 1829 and 1835 the annual output was from 2000
to 6000 tons; in 1840 it was 23,527 tons and in 1860 it was 285,760
tons.

Petroleum was discovered on Little Rennick's Creek, near Burkesville,
in Cumberland county, in 1829, when a flowing oil well (the "American
well," whose product was sold as "American oil" to heal rheumatism,
burns, &c.) was struck by men boring for a "salt well," and after a
second discovery in the 'sixties at the mouth of Crocus Creek a small
but steady amount of oil was got each year. Great pipe lines from
Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Somerset, Pulaski county, and with
branches to the Ragland, Barbourville and Prestonburg fields, had in
1902 a mileage of 275 m. The principal fields are in the "southern
tier," from Wayne to Allen county, including Barren county; farther
east, Knox county, and Floyd and Knott counties; to the north-east the
Ragland field in Bath and Rowan counties on the Licking river. In 1902
the petroleum produced in the state amounted to 248,950 barrels,
valued at $172,837, a gain in quantity of 81.4% over 1901. Kentucky is
the S.W. extreme of the natural gas region of the west flank of the
Appalachian system; the greatest amount is found in Martin county in
the east, and Breckinridge county in the north-west. The value of the
state's natural gas output increased from $38,993 in 1891 to $99,000
in 1896, $286,243 in 1900, $365,611 in 1902, and $380,176 in 1907.

Iron ore has been found in several counties, and an iron furnace was
built in Bath county, in the N. E. part of the state, as early as
1791, but since 1860 this mineral has received little attention. In
1902 it was mined only in Bath, Lyon and Trigg counties, of which the
total product was 71,006 long tons, valued at only $86,169; in 1904
only 35,000 tons were mined, valued at the mines at $35,000.

In 1898 there began an increased activity in the mining of fluorspar,
and Crittenden, Fayette and Livingston counties produced in 1902,
29,030 tons (valued at $143,410) of this mineral, in 1903 30,835 tons
(valued at $153,960) and in 1904 19,096 tons (valued at $111,499),
amounts (and values) exceeding those produced in any other state for
these years; but in 1907 the quantity (21,058 tons) was less than the
output of Illinois. Lead and zinc are mined in small quantities near
Marion in Crittenden county and elsewhere in connexion with mining for
fluorspar; in 1907 the output was 75 tons of lead valued at $7950 and
358 tons of zinc valued at $42,244. Jefferson, Jessamine, Warren,
Grayson and Caldwell counties have valuable quarries of an excellent
light-coloured öolitic limestone, resembling the Bedford limestone of
Indiana, and best known under the name of the finest variety, the
"Bowling Green stone" of Warren county; and sandstones good for
structural purposes are found in both coal regions, and especially in
Rowan county. In 1907 the total value of limestone quarried in the
state was $891,500, and of all stone, $1,002,450. Fire and pottery
clay and cement rock also abound within the state. The value of clay
products was $2,406,350 in 1905 (when Kentucky was tenth among the
states) and was $2,611,364 in 1907 (when Kentucky was eleventh among
the states). The manufacture of cement was begun in 1829 at
Shippingport, a suburb of Louisville, whence the natural cement of
Kentucky and Indiana, produced within a radius of 15 m. from
Louisville, is called "Louisville cement." In 1905 the value of
natural cement manufactured in the state (according to the United
States Geological Survey) was only $83,000. The manufacture of
Portland cement is of greater importance.

There are mineral springs, especially salt springs, in various parts
of the state, particularly in the Blue Grass Region; these are now of
comparatively little economic importance; no salt was reported among
the state's manufactures for 1905, and in 1907 only 736,920 gallons of
mineral waters were bottled for sale. Historically and geologically,
however, these springs are of considerable interest. According to
Professor N. S. Shaler, state geologist in 1873-1880, "When the rocks
whence they flow were formed on the Silurian sea-floors, a good deal
of the sea-water was imprisoned in the strata, between the grains of
sand or mud and in the cavities of the shells that make up a large
part of these rocks. This confined sea-water is gradually being
displaced by the downward sinking of the rain-water through the rifts
of the strata, and thus finds its way to the surface: so that these
springs offer to us a share of the ancient seas, in which perhaps a
hundred million of years ago the rocks of Kentucky were laid down." To
these springs in prehistoric and historic times came annually great
numbers of animals for salt, and in the marshes and swamps around some
of them, especially Big Bone Lick (in Boone county, about 20 m. S.W.
of Cincinnati) have been found many bones of extinct mammals, such as
the mastodon and the long-legged bison.[3] The early settlers and the
Indians came to the springs to shoot large game for food, and by
boiling the waters the settlers obtained valuable supplies of salt.
Several of the Kentucky springs have been somewhat frequented as
summer resorts; among these are the Blue Lick in Nicholas county
(about 48 m. N.E. of Lexington), Harrodsburg, Crab Orchard in Lincoln
county (about 115 m. S.E. of Louisville), Rock Castle springs in
Pulaski county (about 23 m. E. of Somerset) and Paroquet Springs (near
Shepherdsville, Bullitt county), which was a well-known resort before
the Civil War, and near which, at Bullitt Lick, the first salt works
in Kentucky are said to have been erected.

Pearls are found in the state, especially in the Cumberland River, and
it is supposed that there are diamonds in the kimberlite deposits in
Elliott county.

_Transportation._--Kentucky in 1909 had 3,503.98 m. of railway.
Railway building was begun in the state in 1830, and in 1835 the first
train drawn by a steam locomotive ran from Lexington to Franklin, a
distance of 27 m. Not until 1851 was the line completed to Louisville.
Kentucky's trade during the greater part of the 19th century was very
largely with the South, and with the facilities which river navigation
afforded for this the development of a railway system was retarded. Up
to 1880 the railway mileage had increased to only 1,530; but during
the next ten years it increased to 2,942, and railways were in
considerable measure substituted for water craft. The principal lines
are the Louisville & Nashville, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Illinois
Central, and the Cincinnati Southern (Queen & Crescent route). Most of
the lines run south or south-west from Cincinnati and Louisville, and
the east border of the state still has a small railway mileage and
practically no wagon roads, most of the travel being on horseback. The
wagon roads of the Blue Grass Region are excellent, because of the
plentiful and cheap supply of stone for road building. The assessment
of railway property, and in some measure the regulation of railway
rates, are entrusted to a state railway commission.

_Population._--The population of Kentucky in 1880[4] was 1,648,690; in 1890, 1,858,635, an increase within the decade of 12.7 %; in 1900 it was 2,147,174; and in 1910 it had reached 2,289,905. Of the total population of 1900, 284,865 were coloured and 50,249 were foreign-born; of the coloured, 284,706 were negroes, 102 were Indians, and 57 were Chinese; of the foreign-born, 27,555 were natives of Germany, 9874 were natives of Ireland, and 3256 were natives of England. Of the foreign-born, 21,427, or 42.6 %, were inhabitants of the city of Louisville, leaving a population outside of this city of which 98.4 % were native born. The rugged east section of the state, a part of Appalachian America, is inhabited by a people of marked characteristics, portrayed in the fiction of Miss Murfree ("Charles Egbert Craddock") and John Fox, Jr. They are nearly all of British--English and Scotch-Irish--descent, with a trace of Huguenot. They have good native ability, but through lack of communication with the outside world their progress has been retarded. Before the Civil War they were owners of land, but for the most part not owners of slaves, so that a social and political barrier, as well as the barriers of nature, separated them from the other inhabitants of the state. In their speech several hundred words persist which elsewhere have been obsolete for three centuries or occur only in dialects in England. Their life is still in many respects very primitive; their houses are generally built of logs, their clothes are often of homespun, Indian corn and ham form a large part of their diet, and their means of transportation are the saddle-horse and sleds and wheeled carts drawn by oxen or mules. In instincts and in character, also, the typical "mountaineers" are to a marked degree primitive; they are, for the most part, very ignorant; they are primitively hospitable and are warm-hearted to friends and strangers, but are implacable in their enmities and are prone to vendettas and family feuds, which often result in the killing in open fight or from ambush of members of one faction by members of another; and their relative seclusion and isolation has brought them, especially in some districts, to a disregard for law, or to a belief that they must execute justice with their own hands. This appears particularly in their attitude toward revenue officers sent to discover and close illicit stills for the distilling from Indian corn of so-called "moon-shine" whisky (consisting largely of pure alcohol). The taking of life and "moon-shining," however, have become less and less frequent among them, and Berea College, at Berea, the Lincoln Memorial University, and other schools in Kentucky and adjoining states have done much to educate them and bring them more in harmony with the outside community.

The population of Kentucky is largely rural. However, in the decade
between 1890 and 1900 the percentage of urban population (i.e.
population of places of 4000 inhabitants or more) to the total
population increased from 17.5 to 19.7 and the percentage of
semi-urban (i.e. population of incorporated places with a population
of less than 4000) to the total increased from 8.86 to 9.86 %; but
48.3 % of the urban population of 1900 was in the city of Louisville.
In 1910 the following cities each had a population of more than 5000.
Louisville (223,928), Covington (53,270), Lexington (35,099), Newport
(30,309), Paducah (22,760), Owensboro (16,011), Henderson (11,452),
Frankfort, the capital (10,465), Hopkinsville (9419), Bowling Green
(9173), Ashland (8688), Middlesboro (7305), Winchester (7156), Dayton
(6979), Bellevue (6683), Maysville (6141), Mayfield (5916), Paris
(5859), Danville (5420), Richmond (5340). Of historical interest are
Harrodsburg (q.v.), the first permanent settlement in the state, and
Bardstown (pop. in 1900, 1711), the county-seat of Nelson county.
Bardstown was settled about 1775, largely by Roman Catholics from
Maryland. It was the see of a Roman Catholic bishop from 1810 to 1841,
and the seat of St Joseph's College (Roman Catholic) from 1824 to
1890; and was for some time the home of John Fitch (1743-1798), the
inventor, who built his first boat here. The Nazareth Literary and
Benevolent Institution, at Nazareth (2 m. N. of Bardstown), was
founded in 1829 and is a well-known Roman Catholic school for girls.
Boonesborough, founded by Daniel Boone in 1775, in what is now Madison
county, long ago ceased to exist, though a railway station named
Boone, on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, is near the site of the
old settlement.

In 1906 there were 858,324 communicants of different religious
denominations in the state, including 311,583 Baptists, 165,908 Roman
Catholics, 156,007 Methodists, 136,110 Disciples of Christ, 47,822
Presbyterians and 8091 Protestant Episcopalians.

_Administration._--Kentucky is governed under a constitution adopted in 1891.[5] A convention to revise the constitution or to draft a new one meets on the call of two successive legislatures, ratified by a majority of the popular vote, provided that majority be at least one-fourth of the total number of votes cast at the preceding general election. Ordinary amendments are proposed by a three-fifths majority in each house, and are also subject to popular approval. With the usual exceptions of criminals, idiots and insane persons, all male citizens of the United States, who are at least 21 years of age, and have lived in the state one year, in the county six months, and in the voting precinct sixty days next preceding the election, are entitled to vote. The legislature provides by law for registration in cities of the first, second, third and fourth classes--the minimum population for a city of the fourth class being 3000. Corporations are forbidden to contribute money for campaign purposes on penalty of forfeiting their charters, or, if not chartered in the state, their right to carry on business in the state. The executive is composed of a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a treasurer, an auditor of public accounts, a register of the land office, a commissioner of agriculture, labour, and statistics, a secretary of state, an attorney-general and a superintendent of public instruction. All are chosen by popular vote for four years and are ineligible for immediate re-election, and each must be at least 30 years of age and must have been a resident citizen of the state for two years next preceding his election. If a vacancy occurs in the office of governor during the first two years a new election is held; if it occurs during the last two years the lieutenant-governor serves out the term. Lieutenant-governor Beckham, elected in 1900 to fill out the unexpired term of Governor Goebel (assassinated in 1900), was re-elected in 1903, the leading lawyers of the state holding that the constitutional inhibition on successive terms did not apply in such a case.

The governor is commander-in-chief of the militia when it is not
called into the service of the United States; he may remit fines and
forfeitures, commute sentences, and grant reprieves and pardons,
except in cases of impeachment; and he calls extraordinary sessions of
the legislature. His control of patronage, however, is not extensive
and his veto power is very weak. He may veto any measure, including
items in appropriation bills, but the legislature can repass such a
measure by a simple majority of the total membership in each house.
Among the various state administrative boards are the board of
equalization of five members, the board of health of nine members, a
board of control of state institutions with four members (bipartisan),
and the railroad commission, the prison commission, the state election
commission and the sinking fund commission of three members each.
Legislative power is vested in a General Assembly, which consists of a
Senate and a House of Representatives. Senators are elected for four
years, one-half retiring every two years; representatives are elected
for two years. The minimum age for a representative is 24 years, for a
senator 30 years. There are thirty-eight senators and one hundred
representatives. The Senate sits as a court for the trial of
impeachment cases. A majority of either house constitutes a quorum,
but as regards ordinary bills, on the third reading, not only must
they receive a majority of the quorum, but that majority must be at
least two-fifths of the total membership of the house. For the
enactment of appropriation bills and bills creating a debt a majority
of the total membership in each house is required. All revenue
measures must originate in the House of Representatives, but the
Senate may introduce amendments. There are many detailed restrictions
on local and special legislation. The constitution provides for local
option elections on the liquor question in counties, cities, towns and
precincts; in 1907, out of 119 counties 87 had voted for prohibition.

The judiciary consists of a court of appeals, circuit courts,
quarterly courts, county courts, justice of the peace courts, police
courts and fiscal courts. The court of appeals is composed of from
five to seven judges (seven in 1909), elected, one from each appellate
district, for a term of eight years. The senior judge presides as
chief justice and in case two or more have served the same length of
time one of them is chosen by lot. The governor may for any reasonable
cause remove judges on the address of two-thirds of each house of the
legislature. The counties are grouped into judicial circuits, those
containing a population of more than 150,000 constituting separate
districts; each district has a judge and a commonwealth's attorney.
The county officials are the judge, clerk, attorney, sheriff, jailor,
coroner, surveyor and assessor, elected for four years. Each county
contains from three to eight justice of the peace districts. The
financial board of the county is composed of the county judge and the
justices of the peace, or of the county judge and three commissioners
elected on a general ticket.

The municipalities are divided into six classes according to
population, a classification which permits considerable special local
legislation in spite of the constitutional inhibition. Marriages
between whites and persons of negro descent are prohibited by law, and
a marriage of insane persons is legally void. Among causes for
absolute divorce are adultery, desertion for one year, habitual
drunkenness for one year, cruelty, ungovernable temper, physical
incapacity at time of marriage, and the joining by either party of any
religious sect which regards marriage as unlawful. A homestead law
declares exempt from execution an unmortgaged dwelling-house (with
appurtenances) not to exceed $1000 in value, and certain property,
such as tools of one's trade, libraries (to the value of $500) of
ministers and lawyers, and provisions for one year for each member of
a family. Child labour is regulated by an act passed by the General
Assembly in 1908; this act prohibits the employment of children less
than 14 years of age in any gainful occupation during the session of
school or in stores, factories, mines, offices, hotels or messenger
service during vacations, and prohibits the employment of children
between 14 and 16 unless they have employment certificates issued by a
superintendent of schools or some other properly authorized person,
showing the child's ability to read and write English, giving
information as to the child's age (based upon a birth certificate if
possible), and identifying the child by giving height and weight and
colour of eyes and hair. These certificates must be kept on file and
lists of children employed must be posted by employers; labour
inspectors receive monthly lists from local school boards of children
receiving certificates; and children under 16 are not to work more
than 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week, or between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

_Charitable and Penal Institutions._--The charitable and penal
institutions are managed by separate boards of trustees appointed by
the governor. There are a deaf and dumb institution at Danville
(1823), an institution for the blind at Louisville (1842), and an
institution for the education of feeble-minded children at Frankfort
(1860). The Eastern Lunatic Asylum at Lexington, established in 1815
as a private institution, came under the control of the state in 1824.
The Central Lunatic Asylum at Anchorage, founded in 1869 as a house of
refuge for young criminals, became an asylum in 1873. The Western
Lunatic Asylum at Hopkinsville was founded in 1848. The main
penitentiary at Frankfort was completed in 1799 and a branch was
established at Eddyville in 1891. Under an act of 1898 two houses of
reform for juvenile offenders, one for boys, the other for girls, were
established near Lexington.

_Education._--The early history of the schools of Kentucky shows that
the rural school conditions have been very unsatisfactory. A system of
five trustees, with a sixty-day term of school, was replaced by a
three trustee system, first with a one-hundred-day term of school, and
subsequently with a one-hundred-and-twenty-day term of school
annually. The state fund has not been supplemented locally for the
payment of teachers, who have consequently been underpaid. The rural
teachers, however, have been paid from the state fund, so that the
poorer districts receive aid from the richer districts of the
commonwealth. The rural schools are supervised by a superintendent in
each county. Throughout the state white and negro children are taught
in separate schools. The state makes provision for revenue for school
purposes as follows: (1) the interest on the Bond of the Commonwealth
for $1,327,000.00; (2) dividends on 798 shares of the capital stock of
the Bank of Kentucky--representing a par value of $79,800.00; (3) the
interest at 6 % on the Bond of the Commonwealth for $381,986.08, which
is a perpetual obligation in favour of the several counties; (4) the
interest at 6 % on $606,641.03, which was received from the United
States; (5) the annual tax of 26½ cents on each $100 of value of all
real and personal estate and corporate franchises directed to be
assessed for taxation; (6) a certain portion of fines, forfeitures and
licences realized by the state; and (7) a portion of the dog taxes of
each county. The present school system of Kentucky may be summarized
under three heads: the rural schools, the graded schools, and the high
schools (which are further classified as city and county high
schools). The 1908 session of the General Assembly passed an act
providing: that each county of the state be the unit for taxation;
that the county tax be mandatory; that there be a local subdistrict
tax; and that each county be divided into four, six or eight
educational divisions, that one trustee be elected for each
subdistrict, that the trustees of the subdistricts form division
Boards of Education, and that the chairmen of these various division
boards form a County Board of Education together with the county
superintendent, who is _ex officio_ chairman. This system of taxation
and supervision is a great advance in the administration of public
schools. Any subdistrict, town or city of the fifth or sixth class may
provide for a graded school by voting for an _ad valorem_ and poll tax
which is limited as to amount. There were in 1909 135 districts which
had complied with this act, and were known as Graded Common School
districts. By special charters the General Assembly has also
established 25 special graded schools. Statutes provide that all
children between the ages of 7 and 14 years living in such districts
must attend school annually for at least eight consecutive weeks. In
each city of the first, second and third class there must be, and of
the fourth class there may be, maintained under control of a city
Board of Education a system of public schools, in which all children
between the ages of 6 and 20 residing in the city may be taught at
public expense. There were in 1909 62 city public high schools whose
graduates are admitted to the State University without examination. A
truancy act (1908) provides that every child between the ages of 7 and
14 years living in a city of the first, second, third or fourth class
must attend school regularly for the full term of said school. It was
provided by statute that before June 1910, there should have been
established in each county of the state at least one County High
School to which all common school graduates of the county should be
admitted without charge. Separate institutes for white and coloured
teachers are conducted annually in each county. These institutes are
held for a five or ten day session and attendance is required of every
teacher. The state provides for the issuance of three kinds of
certificates. A state diploma issued by the State Board of Examiners
is good for life. A state certificate issued by the State Board of
Examiners is good for eight years with one renewal. County
certificates issued by the County Board of Examiners are of three
classes, valid for one, two and four years respectively.

According to a school census there was in 1908-1909 a school
population of 739,352, of which 587,051 were reported from the rural
districts. In the school year 1907-1908 the school population was
734,617, the actual enrolment in public schools was 441,377, the
average attendance was 260,843; there were approximately 3392 male and
5257 female white teachers and 1274 negro teachers; and the total
revenue for school purposes was $3,805,997, of which sum $2,437,942.56
came from the state treasury.

What was formerly the State Agricultural and Mechanical College at
Lexington became the State University by legislative enactment (1908);
there is no tuition fee except in the School of Law. The State
University has a Department of Education. The state maintains for the
whites two State Normal Schools, which were established in 1906--one,
for the eastern district, at Richmond, and the other, for the western
district, at Bowling Green. Under the law establishing State Normal
Schools, each county is entitled to one or more appointments of
scholarships, one annually for every 500 white school children listed
in the last school census. A Kentucky Normal and Industrial School
(1886) for negroes is maintained at Frankfort. Among the private and
denominational colleges in Kentucky are Central University
(Presbyterian), at Danville; Transylvania University, at Lexington;
Georgetown College (Baptist) at Georgetown; Kentucky Wesleyan College
(M.E. South), at Winchester; and Berea College (non-sectarian) at
Berea.

_Finance._--Kentucky, in common with other states in this part of the
country, suffered from over-speculation in land and railways during
1830-1850. The funded debt of the state amounted to four and one-half
millions of dollars in 1850, when the hew constitution limited the
power of the legislature to contract further obligations or to
decrease or misapply the sinking funds. From 1850 to 1880 there was a
gradual reduction except during the years of the war. The system of
classifying the revenue into separate funds has frequently produced
annual deficits, which are, as a rule only nominal, since the total
receipts exceed the total expenditures. In 1902 the net bonded debt,
exclusive of about two millions of dollars held for educational
purposes, was $1,171,394, but this debt was paid in full in the years
immediately following. The sinking fund commission is composed of the
governor, attorney-general, secretary of state, auditor and treasurer.
The first banking currency in Kentucky was issued in 1802 by a
co-operative insurance company established by Mississippi Valley
traders. The Bank of Kentucky, established at Frankfort in 1806, had a
monopoly for several years. In 1818-1819 the legislature chartered 46
banks, nearly all of which went into liquidation during the panic of
1819. The Bank of the Commonwealth was chartered in 1820 as a state
institution and the charter of the Bank of Kentucky was revoked in
1822. A court decision denying the legal tender quality of the notes
issued by the Bank of the Commonwealth gave rise to a bitter
controversy which had considerable influence upon the political
history of the state. This bank failed in 1829. In 1834 the
legislature chartered the Bank of Kentucky, the Bank of Louisville and
the Northern Bank of Kentucky. These institutions survived the panic
of 1837 and soon came to be recognized as among the most prosperous
and the most conservative banks west of the Alleghanies. The state
banking laws are stringent and most of the business is still
controlled by banks operating under state charters.

_History._--The settlement and the development of that part of the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains has probably been the most notable feature of American history since the close of the Seven Years' War (1763). Kentucky was the first settlement in this movement, the first state west of the Alleghany Mountains admitted into the Union. In 1763 the Kentucky country was claimed by the Cherokees as a part of their hunting grounds, by the Six Nations (Iroquois) as a part of their western conquests, and by Virginia as a part of the territory granted to her by her charter of 1609, although it was actually inhabited only by a few Chickasaws near the Mississippi river and by a small tribe of Shawnees in the north, opposite what is now Portsmouth, Ohio. The early settlers were often attacked by Indian raiders from what is now Tennessee or from the country north of the Ohio, but the work of colonization would have been far more difficult if those Indians had lived in the Kentucky region itself. Dr Thomas Walker (1715-1794), as an agent and surveyor of the Loyal Land Company, made an exploration in 1750 into the present state from the Cumberland Gap, in search of a suitable place for settlement but did not get beyond the mountain region. In the next year Christopher Gist, while on a similar mission for the Ohio Company, explored the country westward from the mouth of the Scioto river. In 1752 John Finley, an Indian trader, descended the Ohio river in a canoe to the site of Louisville. It was Finley's descriptions that attracted Daniel Boone, and soon after Boone's first visit, in 1767, travellers through the Kentucky region became numerous. The first permanent English settlement was established at Harrodsburg in 1774 by James Harrod, and in October of the same year the Ohio Indians, having been defeated by Virginia troops in the battle of Point Pleasant (in what is now West Virginia), signed a treaty by which they surrendered their claims south of the Ohio river. In March 1775 Richard Henderson and some North Carolina land speculators met about 1200 Cherokee Indians in council on the Watauga river and concluded a treaty with them for the purchase of all the territory south of the Ohio river and between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. The purchase was named Transylvania, and within less than a month after the treaty was signed, Boone, under its auspices, founded a settlement at Boonesborough which became the headquarters of the colony. The title was declared void by the Virginia government in 1778, but Henderson and his associates received 200,000 acres in compensation, and all sales made to actual settlers were confirmed. During the War of Independence the colonists were almost entirely neglected by Virginia and were compelled to defend themselves against the Indians who were often under British leadership. Boonesborough was attacked in April and in July 1777 and in August 1778. Bryant's (or Bryan's) Station, near Lexington, was besieged in August 1782 by about 600 Indians under the notorious Simon Girty, who after raising the siege drew the defenders, numbering fewer than 200, into an ambush and in the battle of Blue Licks which ensued the Kentuckians lost about 67 killed and 7 prisoners. Kentucky county, practically coterminous with the present state of Kentucky and embracing all the territory claimed by Virginia south of the Ohio river and west of Big Sandy Creek and the ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, was one of three counties which was formed out of Fincastle county in 1776. Four years later, this in turn was divided into three counties, Jefferson, Lincoln and Fayette, but the name Kentucky was revived in 1782 and was given to the judicial district which was then organized for these three counties. The War of Independence was followed by an extensive immigration from Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina[6] of a population of which fully 95%, excluding negro slaves, were of pure English, Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent. The manners, customs and institutions of Virginia were transplanted beyond the mountains. There was the same political rivalry between the slave-holding farmers of the Blue Grass Region and the "poor whites" of the mountain districts that there was in Virginia between the tide-water planters and the mountaineers. Between these extremes were the small farmers of the "Barrens"[7] in Kentucky and of the Piedmont Region in Virginia. The aristocratic influences in both states have always been on the Southern and Democratic side, but while they were strong enough in Virginia to lead the state into secession they were unable to do so in Kentucky.

At the close of the War of Independence the Kentuckians complained because the mother state did not protect them against their enemies and did not give them an adequate system of local government. Nine conventions were held at Danville from 1784 to 1790 to demand separation from Virginia. The Virginia authorities expressed a willingness to grant the demand provided Congress would admit the new district into the Union as a state. The delay, together with the proposal of John Jay, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs and commissioner to negotiate a commercial treaty with the Spanish envoy, to surrender navigation rights on the lower Mississippi for twenty-five years in order to remove the one obstacle to the negotiations, aroused so much feeling that General James Wilkinson and a few other leaders began to intrigue not only for a separation from Virginia, but also from the United States, and for the formation of a close alliance with the Spanish at New Orleans. Although most of the settlers were too loyal to be led into any such plot they generally agreed that it might have a good effect by bringing pressure to bear upon the Federal government. Congress passed a preliminary act in February 1791, and the state was formally admitted into the Union on the 1st of June 1792. In the Act of 1776 for dividing Fincastle county, Virginia, the ridge of the Cumberland Mountains was named as a part of the east boundary of Kentucky; and now that this ridge had become a part of the boundary between the states of Virginia and Kentucky they, in 1799, appointed a joint commission to run the boundary line on this ridge. A dispute with Tennessee over the southern boundary was settled in a similar manner in 1820.[8] The constitution of 1792 provided for manhood suffrage and for the election of the governor and of senators by an electoral college. General Isaac Shelby was the first governor. The people still continued to have troubles with the Indians and with the Spanish at New Orleans. The Federal government was slow to act, but its action when taken was effective. The power of the Indians was overthrown by General Anthony Wayne's victory in the battle of Fallen Timbers, fought the 20th of August 1794 near the rapids of the Maumee river a few miles above the site of Toledo, Ohio; and the Mississippi question was settled temporarily by the treaty of 1795 and permanently by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803. In 1798-1799 the legislature passed the famous Kentucky Resolutions in protest against the alien and sedition acts.

For several years the Anti-Federalists or Republicans had contended that the administration at Washington had been exercising powers not warranted by the constitution, and when Congress had passed the alien and sedition laws the leaders of that party seized upon the event as a proper occasion for a spirited public protest which took shape principally in resolutions passed by the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia. The original draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 was prepared by Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, although the fact that he was the author of them was kept from the public until he acknowledged it in 1821. They were introduced in the House of Representatives by John Breckinridge on the 8th of November, were passed by that body with some amendments but with only one dissenting vote on the 10th, were unanimously concurred in by the Senate on the 13th, and were approved by Governor James Garrard on the 16th. The first resolution was a statement of the ultra states'-rights view of the relation of the states to the Federal government[9] and subsequent resolutions declare the alien and sedition laws unconstitutional and therefore "void and of no force," principally on the ground that they provided for an exercise of powers which were reserved to the state. The resolutions further declare that "this Commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-states are, tamely to submit to undelegated and therefore unlimited powers in no man or body of men on earth," and that "these and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these states into revolution and blood." Copies of the resolutions were sent to the governors of the various states, to be laid before the different state legislatures, and replies were received from Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia, but all except that from Virginia were unfavourable. Nevertheless the Kentucky legislature on the 22nd of November 1799 reaffirmed in a new resolution the principles it had laid down in the first series, asserting in this new resolution that the state "does now unequivocally declare its attachment to the Union, and to that compact [the Constitution], agreeably to its obvious and real intention, and will be among the last to seek its dissolution," but that "the principle and construction contended for by sundry of the state legislatures, that the General Government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing [short] of _despotism_--since the discretion of those who administer the government, and not the _Constitution_, would be the measure of their powers," "that the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the infraction," and "that a _nullification by those sovereignties of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument is the rightful remedy_." These measures show that the state was Democratic-Republican in its politics and pro-French in its sympathies, and that it was inclined to follow the leadership of that state from which most of its people had come.

The constitution of 1799 adopted the system of choosing the governor and senators by popular vote and deprived the supreme court of its original jurisdiction in land cases. The Burr conspiracy (1804-1806) aroused some excitement in the state. Many would have followed Burr in a filibustering attack upon the Spanish in the South-West, but scarcely any would have approved of a separation of Kentucky from the Federal Union. No battles were fought in Kentucky during the War of 1812, but her troops constituted the greater part of the forces under General William Henry Harrison. They took part in the operations at Fort Wayne, Fort Meigs, the river Raisin and the Thames.

The Democratic-Republicans controlled the politics of the state without any serious opposition until the conflict in 1820-1826, arising from the demands for a more adequate system of currency and other measures for the relief of delinquent debtors divided the state into what were known as the relief and anti-relief parties. After nearly all the forty-six banks chartered by the legislature in 1818 had been wrecked in the financial panic of 1819, the legislature in 1820 passed a series of laws designed for the benefit of the debtor class, among them one making state bank notes a legal tender for all debts. A decision of the Clark county district court declaring this measure unconstitutional was affirmed by the court of appeals. The legislature in 1824 repealed all of the laws creating the existing court of appeals and then established a new one. This precipitated a bitter campaign between the anti-relief or "old court" party and the relief or "new court" party, in which the former was successful. The old court party followed the lead of Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams in national politics, and became National Republicans and later Whigs. The new court party followed Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren and became Democrats. The electoral vote of the state was cast for Jackson in 1828 and for Clay in 1832. During the next thirty years Clay's conservative influence dominated the politics of the state.[10] Kentucky voted the Whig ticket in every presidential election from 1832 until the party made its last campaign in 1852. When the Whigs were destroyed by the slavery issue some of them immediately became Democrats, but the majority became Americans, or Know-Nothings. They elected the governor in 1855 and almost succeeded in carrying the state for their presidential ticket in 1856. In 1860 the people of Kentucky were drawn toward the South by their interest in slavery and by their social relations, and toward the North by business ties and by a national sentiment which was fostered by the Clay traditions. They naturally assumed the leadership in the Constitutional Union movement of 1860, casting the vote of the state for Bell and Everett. After the election of President Lincoln they also led in the movement to secure the adoption of the Crittenden Compromise or some other peaceful solution of the difficulties between the North and the South.