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Both
the History of Ghent and Documentation of the
Ferryboats were collected by Mr. Ken Massey and Mr.
Bill Davis.
Ghent’s
Encounter with the Civil War
was submitted by Mr. Bill Davis
History
Ghent
was being settled as early as 1794, when Benjamin Craig
purchased a thousand-acre tract from Neil McCoull of
Fredericksburg, Virginia. The
tract had been granted to heirs of McCoull’s brother-in-law,
Theodosius McDonald, who had been killed in the French and
Indian War.
Like
a number of early settlers, Benjamin Craig had come to Kentucky
in 1781 with “The Traveling Church,” a Baptist caravan led
by Craig’s brother Rev. Lewis Craig.
He sold the McCool tract in parcels mostly to relatives
who had come with him: his brother, Jeremiah Craig, his
son-in-law, Isaac Bledsoe, and his nephews John and Samuel
Sanders. The
settlement was known as “McCool’s Creek” until Samuel
Sanders laid out a town in 1816, naming it Ghent after the
Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812.
Legend has it that Henry Clay, a signer of the treaty,
had suggested the name.
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Ghent
was known for its wide streets and fine old houses.
Among its early residents were the families of Bledsoe,
Craig, Ellis, Gatewood, Keene, McCann, Sanders, Tandy, Scott,
and Smith. Many of
their descendants still live in the Ghent area. |
In
1843 a political meeting held at Ghent by George N. Sanders
called upon potential presidential candidates to state a
position on the annexation of Texas.
A favorable response by James K. Polk brought national
attention to the virtually unknown candidate on the issue that
would gain him the White House and lead to the Mexican War.
It also launched a stormy political career for Sanders,
who would be a leader of the “Young America” movement and
who later had to flee the country as an accused suspect in the
conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
At
the close of the War Between the States, Ghent College was built
by local subscription, and for the next twenty-two years was
noted throughout Kentucky and Indiana for the excellence of its
music department and its high standard of leadership.
Among
notable natives were James Tandy Ellis, Russell O. DuFour and
Dr. Sam Brown. Ellis
was a Kentucky poet and humorist, whose column, “the Tang of
the South”, was a popular feature in newspapers throughout
this part of the country. He
served as adjutant general under Kentucky Governors James B.
McCreary, A. Owsley Stanley and James D. Black.
DuFour was a musician, composer, teacher, poet and a
contributor to newspapers.
Dr. Brown received the 1948 distinguished-service medal
from the Kentucky Medical Association for his outstanding 50
years of service to the Ghent community.
In
its early years Ghent was a stopping place for riverboats
traveling the Ohio River. Later
a ferryboat linked businesses between Vevay, Ghent and the
railroad at Sanders. In
the early part of the twentieth century Ghent benefited from the
traffic on U.S. Highway 42, the main artery between Louisville
and Cincinnati. With
the completion of Interstate 71 Ghent began to change.
Today, Highway 42 is used mainly for local traffic and
trucks carrying materials to and from chemical and steel plants. The Ohio River is used by barges transporting materials to
various destinations up and down the river.
The ferry ceased to operate when the bridge was built
across Markland Dam in 1977.
The
plentiful aquifer under Ghent and the Ohio River Valley, the
availability of river barge transportation and the proximity of
the Interstate network has attracted industry and provided
employment to the area around Ghent.
The old agricultural economy began change to include
industry.
Ghent
is now located among steel and chemical plants and has proven to
be a profitable place in which to live. Many farms still exist throughout the area and much income is
provided through the growing of tobacco and other produce.
Many opportunities for employment are available to its
citizens. Excellent
transportation enables citizens to avail themselves to the
advantages of the metropolitan areas of Louisville and Cincinnati.
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The
first ferryboat between Vevay and Ghent was established in 1807 by
Jean Francois Dufour, one of Vevay’s founding fathers. Indications are that the first boat, “Canary I” was hand
powered by oars and was large enough to hold two wagons and their
teams.
In
1820 the second Ferryboat, “Canary II” was launched.
It was powered by horse tread wheel power using a blind
horse. The horse was
blind because normal horses were confused by the motion of the
tread wheel.
In
1853 the franchise was transferred into the name of Polly Dufour,
wife of John Francis. Polly
was the niece of Mrs. Thomas Jefferson.
In this same year a new steam ferryboat was introduced, the
“Eva-Everett”.
At
one time (c.1889-1900) the ferryboat was owned jointly by the
Tysons and the Grahams.
The
“Robert T. Graham”, a steam powered stern-wheeler succeeded
the “Eva-Everett” around 1907.
In
1942 Charles Tyson built the side-wheeler “Martha A. Graham”.
It was made from half of a barge that was wrecked in the
1937 flood. It had
seven separate water and airtight hull compartments and was
operated by diesel power.
The
last owner was Clayton Arney of Ghent.
His pilots were James A. Bond and Hubert Mefford.
The
Ghent-Vevay Ferry ceased operation in the summer of 1977, the very
day the new Markland Dam Bridge opened.
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Ghent’s
Encounter with the Civil War
In
August of 1864, the 117th U.S. Colored Regiment was
being organized in Covington, and had come to Ghent to recruit
local Blacks to fill its ranks.
While in Ghent they had arrested a Confederate sympathizer,
James Southard, and marched out of town towards Covington.
Reaching the Gallatin County line along the Ohio River, the
white Lieutenant. Stopped at three farms and asked the women there
to feed his recruits as they rested.
In
the meantime, Southard’s brother had gotten in touch with
Confederate Guerrillas led by Colonel George Jessee of Henry
County, they caught up with the recruits and ambushed them at the
house of Lucien C. Gex, attaching as the recruits scattered across
the county line to the other two farms, those of Albert G. Craig
and John A. Gex.
Southard
was rescued at the John A. Gex house, which still stands on the
grounds of Gallatin Steel. Prisoners
were taken and several Black casualties were buried on the Craig
and Gex farms. Contemporary
Union correspondence reported that Jessee had murdered some of his
black prisoners. The
locations of the graves are unknown today, but in the early
1900’s a “cyclone” reportedly exposed some of them.
Lucien Gex’s son A.L. Gex recalled he could see foot
bones in perfectly preserved shoes.
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