The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852Casseday, Ben
History
The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852
Casseday, Ben
Louisville (Ky.) -- Description and travel; Louisville (Ky.) -- History
The Legislature of these years made very considerable additions to the
power of the Trustees; allowing them to borrow money on the credit of the
town, to purchase and hold real estate for erecting market-houses, wharfs,
&c., to levy a tax on exchange brokers, to tax hacks, drays, &c., to
appoint harbor and wharf masters, and make rules governing the lading and
unlading of vessels, to collect wharfage fees, to appoint inspectors of
flour, &c. The first use made of this new power was the purchase of ground
for a wharf. Rowan owned a slip of ground lying north of Water Street,
commencing at Second and terminating at Seventh Street. A similar slip,
lying between Seventh and Eighth streets, was already the property of the
city. This slip the city agreed to add to Rowan's, and also to pave the
whole as a wharf, using the stone in Rowan's quarry, situated on the
premises, and for the wharf so constructed they agreed to give to Rowan
and to his heirs _forever_, in semi-annual payments, one-half the receipts
of this wharf. They also agreed that, if at any time Gray's wharf, lying
east of Second Street, should be bought, both parties might unite in the
purchase and Rowan should receive as before one half the profits of the
entire wharf. This contract; made with but a single dissenting voice on
the part of the Trustees, that of Jeremiah Diller, must have been the
result of either a very low state of finances or of very injudicious
precipitation. Rowan's heirs, it is understood, now get but one fourth of
the wharfage, but even this would have been a sum better gained to the
city than lost by a want of proper judgment or foresight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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