The Dark and Bloody 1800s of Kentucky

1800s. Conflict erupts between settlers and Native Indians including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Mosopelea, Shawnee and Yuchi tribes throughout the 1800's. The Native Indians are gradually forced to cede their lands.

1813. Kentucky's first Capitol Building is burnt to the ground. The cost to build this capitol was $40,000.00; it was 120 feet by 80 feet. The same architectural design was used for this building as for the first capitol.

1813-1814. The Creek Indian War.

1813. At Mammoth Cave, a dead woman's remains is found with red hair.

1813. Tecumseh is killed by Kentucky native Robert Benton Johnson at the Battle of Thames during the stupidly named “War of 1812”.

1817. 3,635 Chickasaws exist. The French departure in 1763 provided the Chickasaw with much-needed relief, and an American census in 1817 counted 3,625.

1818. At 77 years of age, Simon Girty was increasingly infirm with arthritis and had failing eyesight. Simon Girty returned to his farm after the war, and died in 1818, completely blind, in Canada.

1818. “In Paducah, Chickasaw settlements existed.”(Nance 3). The Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky was signed in 1818 (with Andrew “Trail of Tears” Jackson and Isaac Shelby, Kentucky's first Governor, in attendance), and the Chickasaw who lived there postponed moving until later. There were also reports of the Chickasaw fighting in the Civil War, to defend their right to have African-American slaves. We know that the Chickasaw were in Kentucky before the white man.“In Paducah, Chickasaw settlements existed.”(Nance 3).

1826. Black Hoof's band of 200 left Ohio for a two year trip to Kansas, which was pure horror.

1824. The 2nd Capitol Building of Kentucky burns down to the ground. 1824.

1830. Shawnee Black Bob led his dispossessed “Absentee band” in a final hegira to the far western wilds of Kansas.

1832-1839. Removal of Seminole, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek Indians.. the 5 “civilized tribes”.

1836-1837. The Second Creek War (Seminole War). Creek warriors were defeated at Hobdy's Bridge South Alabama.

1837. The French departure in 1763 provided the Chickasaw with much-needed relief, and an American census in 1817 counted 3,625. By the time of their removal in 1837, the Chickasaw numbered 4,914 plus 1,156 black slaves.

1838. Harlan, Kentucky. A mound with dead bodies is found; some small, some very large, burried in a sitting posture.

1848. “The Great Slave Escape of 1848 Ended in Bracken County” This article, by John E. Leming, Jr., describes this escape attempt as “the largest single slave uprising in Kentucky history.” Patrick Doyle, a white, was the suspected leader of the slave revolt; he was to take the 75 slaves to Ohio, where they would be free. The armed contingent of slaves made its way from Fayette County, KY, to Bracken County, KY, where it was confronted by a group of about 100 white men led by General Lucius Desha of Harrison County, KY. During an exchange of gunfire some of the more than 40 slaves escaped into the woods, but most were captured and jailed, along with Patrick Doyle. Doyle was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in the state penitentiary, and the slaves were returned to their owners. For more see Leming's article in The Kentucky Explorer, June 2000, pp. 25-29; and American Negro Slave Revolts, by H. Aptheker. Subjects: Freedom, Rioting, Insurrections, Panics, Protests in Kentucky. Geographic Region: Fayette County, Harrison County, & Bracken County, Kentucky.

1855. Know-Nothing Riots happen in Cincinnati and Louisville, around election day. Over 100 Germans, Irish, and Catholics were reported by Bishop Spalding in Louisville as being killed.

1867 – 1881. The 1^st Ku Klux Klan (Nathan Bedford Forrest's original; Forrest's best friend: Watterson) active in Kentucky; many incidents of shooting, lynching, whipping of Blacks.

1872. Christian Kentucky numerous mounds with skeletons of extraordinary size were found. The skull would pass over the head of the large man, and rest upon his shoulders.

1874. Richmond, Kentucky. A race of giants on five high points on Caldwell Campbell's farm, and Samual and Walker Madison. Skeletons of giants - the femur, tivia, skull, and inferior maxillary bones so large: seven to eight feet high. John Campbell slipped the inferior jaw of one entirely over his own flesh and all.

1874. September 1. Willis Russell, Deputy United States Marshall. Owen County, Kentucky single-handedly stopped the KKK uprising of Northern Kentucky white supremacists, under Smoot.

1876. Columbia, Kentucky. The remains of three skeletons measure eight feet seven and a half inches, eight feet five inches, and eight feet four and three quarters inches in length.

1881. Clark, Ohio. Half a mile North of this fort is a huge mound, the base of which covers about one acre. From this mound bones have been exhumed, of a race of beings differing greatly from the present, and having no similarity to the Red Man. A mile west of the fort above mentioned on the farm of William Allen is an ancient burying ground of an extinct race. The bones taken from this place are much larger than those of Americans. Protruding brow ridge and sloping forehead was noted as not being similar to modern skulls is evidence that these were nephillim skulls.

1891. Present Kentucky State Constitution adopted.

1892. Kentuckian Nathan Stubblefield invented Radio.