Kentucky’s Growth.

The inrush being so great Kentucky grew apace.  In 1785 the population was estimated at from twenty [Footnote:  “Journey in the West in 1785,” by Lewis Brantz.] to thirty thousand; and the leading towns, Louisville, Lexington, Harrodsburg, Booneboro, St. Asaph’s, were thriving little hamlets, with stores and horse grist-mills, and no longer mere clusters of stockaded cabins.  At Louisville, for instance, there were already a number of two-story frame houses, neatly painted, with verandahs running the full length of each house, and fenced vegetable gardens alongside [Footnote:  “Lettres d’un cultivateur american,” St. John de Creve Coeur.  Summer of 1784.]; while at the same time Nashville was a town of logs, with but two houses that deserved the name, the others being mere huts. [Footnote:  Brantz.] The population of Louisville amounted to about 300 souls, of whom 116 were fighting men [Footnote:  State Department MSS.  Papers Continental Congress, No. 150, vol. ii., p. 21.  Letter from Major W. North, August 23, 1786.]; between it and Lexington the whole country was well settled; but fear of the Indians kept settlers back from the Ohio.

The new-comers were mainly Americans from all the States of the Union; but there were also a few people from nearly every country in Europe, and even from Asia. [Footnote:  Letter in Massachusetts Gazette, above quoted.] The industrious and the adventurous, the homestead winners and the land speculators, the criminal fleeing from justice, and the honest man seeking a livelihood or a fortune, all alike prized the wild freedom and absence of restraint so essentially characteristic of their new life; a life in many ways very pleasant, but one which on the border of the Indian country sank into mere savagery.

Kentucky was “a good poor man’s country” [Footnote:  State Department MSS.  Madison Papers.  Caleb Wallace to Madison, July 12, 1785.] provided the poor man was hardy and vigorous.  The settlers were no longer in danger of starvation, for they already raised more flour than they could consume.  Neither was there as yet anything approaching to luxury.  But between these two extremes there was almost every grade of misery and well-being, according to the varying capacity shown by the different settlers in grappling with the conditions of their new life.  Among the foreign-born immigrants success depended in part upon race; a contemporary Kentucky observer estimated that, of twelve families of each nationality, nine German, seven Scotch, and four Irish prospered, while the others failed. [Footnote:  “Description of Kentucky,” 1792, by Harry Toulmin, Secretary of State.] The German women worked just as hard as the men, even in the fields, and both sexes were equally saving.  Naturally such thrifty immigrants did well materially; but they never took any position of leadership or influence in the community until they had assimilated themselves in speech and customs to