Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/702

 KENTUCKY

622

KENTUCKY

of children of school age, according to the last school census, was 739,352. The actual number enrolled in the public schools was 441,377, and the average daily attendance 293,691. The total number of teachers was about 9000. In 190S there were 24.G10 Catholic children attending the Catholic schools of the state. There was expended in the last fiscal year by the state and local taxing districts for public school purposes, exclusive of expenditures for the State University, normal schools, schools for the blind, deaf and dumb, etc., $3,891,936.65.

Charities .\nd Correction. — There are three asy- lums for the insane: one situated at Lexington in Fayette County, another at Lakeland in JefTerson County, and the third at Hopkinsville in Christian County. All of these institutions have competent superintendents and physicians in charge. Inmates who are without means are maintained by the state. There is an institution for feeble-minded children at

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Sacred Heart Academy, Louisville Conducted by the Ursuline Sisters

Frankfort, where children between the age of six and eighteen years whose condition of mind is such that they can be taught to read or write, and can be edu- cated to do work, are received, and if unable to pay are maintained by the state. At Danville, in Boyle Coimty, the Kentucky School for the Deaf is estab- lished, and near Louisville, in Jefferson County, there is an institution for the education of the blind. In- digent and afflicted children are received at these in- stitutions and educated at the expense of the state. The Kentucky Confederate Home, for the benefit of Kentucky's indigent and infirm veterans of the Con- federacy, is in JefTorson County, and is maintained by the state. The legislature makes annual appropria- tions for the support of the Kentucky Children's Home Society, a private corporation devoted to the care of homeless and destitute children, and it has also made an appropriation for the assistance of a sanitarium at Louisville for the treatment of persons afflicted with tuberculosis.

There are two state prisons: one at Frankfort, and the other at Eddyville in Lyon County. The manage- ment is by a board of commissioners of three members elected by the Legislature, and the convicts are worked imder the contract sy.stem. The prison commission- ers have the power to parole prisoners, except in cases of rape or incest, or where the prisoner has previously served a term of imprisonineiit or brokcii his parole. Prisoners convicted of murder cannot be paroled until they have served at least five years. The governor has the jiower of granting reprieves or pardons in all eases cxce))! 1 rca.son, in which ca.se the General .\.ssem- bly alone has the power of granting the pardon. Houses of reform for boys and girls are estalilished in Fayette County. Juvenile otTenders under twenty- one years of age arc committed to these institutions.

The courts are authorized to fix an indeterminate sen- tence for such offenders, so as to keep them confined until they have attained the age of twenty-one. The management of these institutions is vested in the prison commissioners, who have power to parole and discharge such inmates whenever their conduct is such as to warrant the belief that they will in future conduct themselves properly.

Gener.\l History. — Kentucky was originally a part of Fincastle County, Virginia. It became a sep- arate county in 1776. Dating as far back as 1543, when De Soto's survivors descended the Mississippi River as far as Kentucky, there are records of numer- ous expeditions into the state. In 1654 Colonel Wood, an Enghshman, is said to have explored as faras wliat is now the western boundary of the state, and in 1673 the renowned Jesuit missionary, Father Jacques Mar- quette, descended the Mississippi as far as the Ohio. From Marquette we have the first authentic account of the Indian tribes inhabiting what is now the western portion of the state. In 1730 Jolm Sailing, while ex- ploring the Roanoke River, was captured by the In- dians and carried through Kentucky to the Tennessee River. He was afterwards captured by the Illinois ' ribe and taken to Kaskaskia, where he was ransomed. A Frenchman named Longueil descended the Ohio in 1739, and discovered Big Bone Lick in what is now Boone County, and in 1747 Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia crossed the Cumberland Mountains and dis- covered the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers. The most extensive explorations, and the most important as bearing upon the actual settlement of Kentucky, were made about the year 1769 by Daniel Boone, Jolin Findlay, and four others from North Carolina. Part of this expedition returned after a short time, but Boone remained in Kentucky for two years and then returned to North Carolina, intending to lead a party into Kentucky for permanent settlement. In 1774 Jolm Harrod conducted a party of forty persons into the territory and settled at Harrodsburg. The year following, Daniel Boone brought his party and erected a fort and established a settlement at Boonesboro.

These were the first settlements in Kentucky. There were no resident Indian tribes in the central and eastern portion of the territory at this time, but numerous bands of .savages traversed it, and the first settlers were constantly harassed, the fort at Boones- boro being attacked throe times in 1777 and 177S. In 1775 Richard Henderson purchased from the Cherokee Indians many thousand square miles of land in Ken- tucky and attempted to organize a separate state under the name of Transylvania. He proceeded to the extent of sending a delegate to Congress, but his representa- tive was not recognized, and Virginia declared his pur- chase from the Indians invalid. In 1778 about twenty families accompanied General George Rogers Clark upon his expedition against the British posts in Illi- nois. They landed on a large island just above the Falls of the Ohio River, directly opposite the present site of Louisville, and immediately erected block- houses and established a settlement. The following year a portion of these settlers moved to the main shore and erecteil a fort at a point which is now the foot of Twelfth Street. On 17 April, 1779, a public meeting was held and the town was definitely estab- lished by tlie election of trustees. There is no record indicating the religious belief of any of these early set- tlers, but from some of the names ajipearing in the records of the town prior to ISOO, it is fair to assume that there were a nimiber of Irish Catholics.

In 1780 ^'irgiIlia, in oriler to afford a better govern- ment, divided Kcnlueky into three counties, but the settlers, who had by this lime become quite numerous, believed that their'iuterest would be better served by se|)aratiii from the jLirent state. Eight separate conventions were held i)ef<ire a satisfactory agreement of separation was arrived at, and it was not until July,