[217] _Ornithological Biography_ (Bibl. No. 2), vol. i, p. 81. In his biographical sketch of 1835 Audubon said that this occurred on his first return from Ste. Geneviève to Henderson (in 1811), a contradiction characteristic of his manner of dealing with biographical and historical details. For an account of this "Episode," see Chapter XVIII. [218] For early references to Henderson I am indebted mainly to Edmund L. Starling, _History of Henderson County, Kentucky_ (Bibl. No. 186), who had access to all the town and county records. [219] In 1819, the year of Audubon's departure, 129 town lots had been sold, while 29 had been given to privileged persons or to prospective settlers. [220] According to the town records, as quoted by Starling, on December 22, 1813, Audubon purchased lots numbers 95 and 96, which were one-half of the square lying on the west side of Third Street and between Green and Elm Streets, from General Samuel Hopkins, agent of the Messrs. Richard Henderson & Company; on September 3, 1814, he bought lots numbers 91 and 92, or one-half of the square on the west side of Second Street, between Green and Elm. The mill site on the Ohio River was a part of the land given to Henderson by the Transylvania Company, the original owners of a large part of Kentucky; this site was leased for 99 years to J. J. Audubon, was sold and resold, but reverted to the city of Henderson in 1915. In the latter year the project was broached of obtaining the original mill site, together with adjoining property along the river, and converting the whole into a public park dedicated to Audubon. [221] At a somewhat later time the naturalist occupied a one-story frame house, built in 1814, which stood at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets; see Starling, _op. cit._ [222] See Note 15, Vol. I, p. 124. [223] A Henderson correspondent of Joseph M. Wade, under the signature of "W. S. J.," August 8, 1883, gave the following account of the structure. The original mill covered forty-five by sixty-five feet, and consisted of four stories and basement; the basement walls of stone stood four feet thick, while at the third story the thickness was three feet; the three upper stories were in frame. The studding measured three by six, and the rafters four by eight, inches. Many of the large timbers that could then be seen were sound and apparently good for a century or more. Parts of the old machinery that had been used in the grist mill were lying about under the eaves; the building was then used as a tobacco stemmery. See Joseph M. Wade (Bibl. No. 182), _Ornithologist and Oölogist_, vol. viii, p. 79 (1883).