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IMAGES From Nostalgiaville
KENTUCKY- HENDERSON, KY- 11/22/03

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PASSING THROUGH...

HENDERSON, KENTUCKY

RED BANKS
In the late 1700's the area that became a Henderson was called Red Banks by the Native Americans because of the red cliffs rising along the Ohio River.  Following a Congressional award of twelve square miles of territory, the Richard Henderson Company commonly known as the Transylvania Company, begin surveying and platting the town in 1797.  To prevent the spread of fire from the wooden structures to be built in the town, all of Henderson's streets were laid out 100 feet wide.  Purchasers of lots in the newly created town were required to build a "framed, hewn of sawed log house, 16 square feet at least, with a good dirt, stone or brick chimney and plank floor."  By 1799 the city of Henderson boasted a population of 166.
HENDERSON'S GOVERNORS
Henderson County has been the home of four men who have distinguished themselves as governor of Kentucky.

LAZARUS POWELL
(1851 - 1854) Powell's opponent in the gubernatorial race was the former law partner and fellow Hendersonian, Archibald Dixon Powell later served in the U S Senate (1859 - 1869)

JOHN YOUNG BROWN
(1891 - 1895) In 1868, Brown was elected to the U S house of Representatives but was denied his seat by Congress because he had served in the Confederate Army.  He was reelected to the House in 1873 and was permitted to take office.

A O STANLEY
(1915 - 1919) With a winning margin of just 471 votes, Stanley's election as governor was one of the closest races in Kentucky History.  Stanley served in the U S Senate from 1919 - 1925 and later served in diplomatic positions under several U S Presidents.

A B "HAPPY" CHANDLER
(1935 - 1939) (1955 - 1958) Near the end of his first term as governor, Chandler was appointed to the U S Senate in 1959, and was later elected to the seat.  He also oversaw the integration of the major leagues when he served as Commissioner of baseball. (1945 - 1951).

WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER (W C) HANDY
The father of the blues lived in Henderson from 1892 to 1903.  Handy recognized as the first person to publish the blues, received his "calling" to create this written record while in Henderson.  "It was there I realized that the experiences I had had, things I had seen and heard could be set down in a kind of music characteristic of my race."  His first tune, originally written for a political campaign, was later charged to "The Memphis Blues."  Handy went on to write 40 blues songs and about twice as many spirituals.
THE 1937 FLOOD
The Ohio River Valley's worst flood occurred in January-February 1937.  Three weeks of continuous rains, sleet and snow dropped 21 inches of precipitation during this period.  The Ohio river reached its crest in Henderson on February 1, 1937, at the level of 53.9 feet.		 hender34.jpg (5919 bytes) hender33.jpg (8975 bytes)

Most communities along the Ohio River suffered major damage and significant loss of life.  While low lying areas surrounding the city were inundated, the city of Henderson was spared because it stood 19 feet above flood level.  It is from this event that Henderson's unofficial motto, "on the Ohio, but never in it," was derived.
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON IN HENDERSON
In 1810, John James Audubon, the famed orinthologist and painter, his wife Lucy and infant son Victor arrived in Henderson after floating on a skiff downriver from Louisville, Kentucky.  Audubon loved the frontier spirit of Henderson in the early 1800's, roaming the woods, observing and painting the many species of birds abundant in the area.  Few of Audubon's paintings from his time in Henderson survive.

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Every year on his birthday he would edit his work and destroy all that were not up to his current standards.  Many of those that he did keep were destroyed when, during a long family absence from Henderson, rodents built a nest in the box where his work was stored.  Audubon later stated this event forced him to replace the works with ones utilizing a much better technique.  Two of Audubon's four children were born there and baby Lucy is buried in Henderson.  The Audubon's left Henderson in 1819 when he began work on his publication of "The Birds of America."
AUDUBON'S MILL
John James Audubon, the famed ornithologist and painter, came to Henderson in 1810 determined to make his fortune.  He tried his hand at a number of businesses, initially meeting with some success.  In 1816 he decided to undertake his most ambitious project, building a steam-powered saw-and-grist mill.  Property at this location was leased from the city, and construction began in early 1816.

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The $15,000 project was ill-fated from the start with construction delays, cost overruns and frequent equipment breakdowns.  The biggest problem however was Audubon's misjudging the market, there simply was not enough lumber to saw or wheat to grind to make the mill profitable.  Audubon later referred to the business as "that infernal mill."  The failure of the mill in 1819 left the family destitute, hastening Audubon's departure from the city.
STEAMBOATS
Steamboats, with their capability to travel against the current, revolutionized river transportation and opened grand economic and social doors for Henderson.  They lowered transportation costs, carried enormous loads of cargo, provided comfortable passage and, by the 1840's, brought regular mail service to Henderson.  Steamboats reached their high-water-mark of luxury in the 1850's.  Sporting fancy parlors, elaborate menus, engraved stationary, and musical entertainment, steamboats symbolized far more than a tide on the river. 

Above all, steamboats allowed goods and people to travel with relative ease to points along the Ohio River, creating an economic catalyst and bringing an element of sophistication to Henderson and other major ports on the river.
GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE
During the 1940's a thriving nightclub and gambling industry developed in Henderson County, patronized not only by local citizens but also by workers from Evansville's war factories and soldiers from nearby Camp Breckinridge.  By 1950 it was said that there were thirty-nine local nightclubs which featured gambling.  

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 By far the largest of these was the Club Trocadero, a plush club that featured nationally known entertainers such as Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie.  The clubs brought with them many problems, including petty crime, prostitution and political corruption.  In the early 1950's local citizens formed a "Good Government League," which led a successful fight to rid the county's clubs of the gambling industry.

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 GENERAL "STOVEPIPE" JOHNSON
General Adam Rankin "Stovepipe" Johnson was born in Henderson on February 8, 1834.  His boyhood home was located at 100 North Main Street.  In 1862, Adam Rankin Johnson was commissioned a Colonel in the 10th Kentucky Cavalry of the Confederate Army.  On June 30, 1862, Colonel Johnson and his two "Breckinridge Guards," Robert Martin and Amplias Owen, attacked a company of Federal soldiers who occupied a tow-story brick structure at 415-425 North Main Street.
Johnson and his Confederate "army" marched back into town two weeks later and seized the courthouse, flying the Confederate flag over Henderson for one day on July 17, 1862.  Shortly thereafter, Johnson successfully raided Newburgh, Indiana, where he threatened to use a "cannon" (actually a stovepipe lying atop wagon wheels) if the community did not surrender.  Adam Rankin Johnson was promoted to brigadier general in 1864.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES
 IN HENDERSON, KENTUCKY

 

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