In the spring of 1778, while Gen. George Rogers Clark was floating down the Ohio with his boats loaded with soldiers for the conquest of the Illinois country, he felt the necessity of some safe place in which he could discipline his raw recruits. When he reached an island in the midst of the Falls, afterward known as Corn Island, and saw the rapid waters dashing around it, he concluded that was the place he wanted, and that no deserter could make his escape 'from this island. Hence he landed on this island, on 27 May 1778, and immediately went to work to erect cabins for some 20 fam ilies of emigrants who came on his boats, and a blockhouse for his soldiers and supplies. He was opposed to these families coming on his boats, hut was glad they had come, as he could leave the supplies he could not take with him in their care on the island and thus take with him every soldier. At the end of a month he thought his raw troops had been disciplined enough to make them reliable soldiers and moved off with them down the river to Fort Massac, leaving the emigrants on the island, while the sun was in a full eclipse. The fam ilies thus left on the island became the founders of Louisville. So far as has been ascertained, there were about 50 in number, consisting of men, women and children and one negro. They remained on the island until the news came that General Clark had conquered Kaskaskia, Vincennes, etc., and put an end to the Indian raids that came from the British posts there to prey upon the helpless families of the Vir ginia border. Then, by order of General Clark, they built a fort on the main shore and moved into it in time to celebrate their first Christ mas in the wilderness with a dinner and a dance.
The interest attached to the subject among the descendants of these founders of Louis ville, who are numerous, will justify the record of their names here for the oreservation of their memories. So far as has been ascer tained they were the following: James Patton, his wife, Mary, and their three daughters. Martha, Pegaw and Mary.
Richard Chenowith. his wife, Margaret, and their four children, Mildred. James, Jane and Thomas.
John McManess, his wife, Mary, and their three children, John, George and James.
John Tewell, his wife, Mary, and their three children, Ann, Minnie and Jessie.
William Faith, his wife, Elizabeth, and their son, John. Jacob Reager. his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children, Sar_ ,h Mariah and Henry.
Edward Worthington, his wife, Mary, his son, Charles, and his two sisters, Mary (Mrs. James Graham) and Elizabeth (Mm. Jacob Reager).
James Graham, his wife, Mary.
John Doune, his wife. Martha, their son, John, and their colored man, Cato Watts.
Isaac Rimbky, and his wife, Mary.
oseph Hunt er and his chil dren, Joseph, David, James Martha (Mrs. John Donne) and Ann.
Neal Dougherty, Samuel Perkins, John Sinclair and Robert Tevis.
The above-named persons who came to the Falls with General Clark and those who joined them as immigrants in the following spring held a public meeting 10 April 1779 and ap pointed William Harrod, Richard Chenowith, Edward Bulger, James Patton, Henry French, Marsham Brashears and Samuel Moore trus tees to lay out a town. These trustees met
on 17 April 1779, and, having agreed upon a plan of the town, named it Louisville and employed John Corbly, a su:veyor, to lay it out and make a map of it. lie plan of the town, as mapped out by Corbly, consisted of nothing but one street running along the bank of the river and 12 cross-streets cutting in at right angles.
On 1 May 1780, the legislature of Vir ginia, in response to a petition of those who had laid out the town, confirmed their act and appropriated 1,000 acres of the land which had been forfeited from Connolly, for the benefit of the town. The same act of the legis lature appointed nine trustees to manage the affairs of the town.
The city continued under the government of trustees, either appointed by the legislature of Virginia or Kentucky or elected by the people, from 1780 to 1828.
By the charter of 1828 Louisville passed from the government of trustees t o that of a mayor and 10 councilmen. The first election under the charter occurred 4 May 1828, when John C. Bucklin was elected mayor.
The city has greatly prospered since the adoption of this charter, although the charter itself was not of long duration. It was super seded by the charter of 1851, which added to the governing power a board of 12 instead of 10 aldermen, and increased the number of councilmen to 24. It also established the school board, the waterworks, the board of health, the hoard of police, the board of fire and the sinking fund. A third charter superseded the second in 1870, but the charter which added most to all departments of the city government was that of 1892. Under this charter a score of new departments or bureaus of the city were established. All of them report to the mayor and council, hut it takes them all to conduct the affairs of the city.
Population.— In the spring of 1779, joined by other immigrants, the 20 families of immi grants who had come with General Clark laid out a town on the mainland and named it Louis ville, in honor of Louis XVI, king of France, who was then helping the colonists in their rebellion again Great Britain. By 1 May 1780 these emigrants had increased possibly to 100, and were at work building log cabins so as to free themselves from the confine ment of the fort. By 1790 they had prob ably increased to 350, and in 1800, when the United States census for the first time recorded the population, but did not give it accurately, they had increased to 600. The population at present is estimated at 235,114.
Consult Casseday, B., of Louis ville, from its Settlement till the Year 1852' (Louisville 1852) ; Allison, Y. E., 'City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky' (ib. 1887) ; Powell, L. P., Towns of the Southern States' (New York 1900) • The Book of Louisville and Kentucky' (1915).