Flatboat Travel

In 1976, the late historian, Bob Wheeler, wrote about the flatboat travel in the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers that border the North West and South sides of Crittenden County.

Flat-boating down the Ohio River could not have been the prevalent mode of arrival of pioneer families intent on settling in this area.

It would have been extremely difficult to land and dock these flatboats, which contained fragile household and farming equipment of the early years, without expert piloting.

The Cumberland River access to what became Crittenden County was even more foreboding for the settler flatboats than the shores of the Ohio to the north.

Before the day of the navigational dam at original Eddyville there was a whirl-pool-eddy of sufficient size and force to prevent current driven flatboats from finding a free passage down river.

it was just on the southern edge of a sharp twisting S curve around old Kuttawa before resuming its north northwesterly course to the Ohio River.

The Indian name of the Cumberland River was Suwanee which translated "beautiful or placid stream."  It is quite traveled as far as the present site of Barkley Dam.

The current switching in the S curve just above the dam site cut into the banks often and thus keep the naturally eddy-filled stretch of river full of fallen trees and other drift. These floating logs and entwining roots were called "deadheads" and "sawyers" by the early river travelers.

When they became hung in the mud of the shallow bottoms near the edge of the river and pushed upright by the onward flow of the stream until their tops were just submerged, they could not be very easily seen by the unwary amateur river pilots who poled their way upriver in the shallows near the banks to avoid pushing against the swift current.  This was undoubtedly a very slow process for a powerless pioneer flatboat.

The "deadheads" would smash into the hull of the flatboat, puncturing a gaping underwater hole which caused immediate sinking of the boat.

Thus until the dawn of steam on the rivers had broken into full day on the lower Ohio and Cumberland in the 1820's, there was little commercial through traffic to the Mississippi and New Orleans.

The supplying of the settlers who had pioneered what was to be Crittenden County was done overland, and soon became a profitable market to many advanced-type commercial flatboats, so enterprising pioneers like Robert Kirk (Tolu area) and George Flynn (Weston) took advantage of ownership of natural harbors to provide docks for this trade. 

Salt Peter Cave, and the meaning of it's name.

Salt Peter cave is truly one of the wonders of Crittenden County. But today things aren't like they once were, where one could visit and enjoy these sights, most of these wonders are now hidden from us and we are not allowed to visit them. Due to destruction and vandalism of careless sightseers the location of these sights are now heavily posted, and some not even owned by Crittenden County residents.

As far back as 1880, this cave was considered a wonder. This is a description of the cave that was printed in The Crittenden Press, March 10, 1880.

There is a remarkable cave in the eastern part of this county, by those who live within its vicinity it is commonly called the "Peter or Salt Peter Cave. 

The cave is about nine miles east of Marion. It is located upon the farm of Messrs. Cam and Eph Hill.(in 2006 this land is owned by some people from Madisonville.)

Our way to the cave led us through several fields and cedar thickets up a gentle slope. This slope terminated at the base of an abrupt elevation which forms an apex of a considerable hill. On the side opposite the one we ascended and immediately under the hill, the cave is located. 

Standing upon the brink of the precipice, formed by the almost perpendicular declivity of the hillside, a grand sight presents itself to view. Grim, gray cliffs crowned with mournful pines and gloomy cedars and decked here and there with patches of moss and rock ivy, form a romantic amphitheater of semicircular form about the mouth of the cave. 

There is something amazing about these cliffs; for they are not only very high, but their stupendousness consists in being with but a few exceptions, formed by one solid stone. Some of them forming grand towering walls to the height of 300 feet.

Five hundred feet below through the intervening timber, old Piney Creek could be indistinctly seen, "moving its slow length along" like some huge silver serpent. 

There are two ways by which to gain access to the cave. One is by descending crawfish fashion down a fallen cedar thence over protruding crags until you reach a bench of rocks then turning to the right a few steps brings you to the cave. 

The cave is accessible the other way by going around the base of the hill. We preferred the former way on account of being the nearest, but on our descent we privately wished we had taken the latter. We reached the cave safely however, plus a few scratches.

The scene near the mouth of the cavern is somewhat impressive. The grim over hanging crags with their time stained fronts; throwing their lengthened shadows across the tall leafless oaks far over the immediate vicinity of the cave, lend to the scene a melancholy influence. The solitude was intense. 

On entering the cave we discovered a number of rudely constructed hoppers filled with a grayish brown dust.  This dust subsists in great quantities in the cave, and contains a large percent of niter. The dust is thrown into the hoppers, water is then poured upon it till saturated, this produces a kind of lye. The lye is put into large kettles, boiled down and then run into troughs to crystallize. This is the operation employed by the farmers in the neighborhood, in making salt peter for domestic use.

This is how the cave came by it's name of Salt Peter Cave.

 Another interesting sight at the cave are the initials J. L. B. and the year 1793 carved in the sandstone.

Could this be an earlier pioneer that was making salt at the cave,  or perhaps a traveler exploring the cave?

Mormon Missionaries Visit Crittenden County

From the Crittenden Press archives, comes this interesting article of long ago about a visit from the Mormon Missionaries.

They must have traveled to Crittenden by way of the Flynn's Ferry Road, as the little Oakland school house/church was located on that road. (It was located near the corner of S. R. 654 S and the Cave Spring Church Rd. )

Oct. 6, 1891 - Mormon Missionaries

Last week the Press learned that a meeting of Morman preachers was to be held at Oakland, and a reporter was dispatched to that place to learn something of these wanderers and of their work.

Oakland is a neat little frame church house about seven miles east of Marion. It was built by the Universalists some sixteen years ago, after a time the builders became somewhat disorganized and now the doors are open to whatsoever sect that chooses to use it properly for the the worship of God. 

This fact probably drew the Mormon preachers to friendly portals for the purpose of talking over the effect of their law in Kentucky and Tennessee. The business meeting Saturday was attended by seven of these missionaries and as they evidently preferred to be alone on that occasion, they were not intruded upon.

They were all from Utah and have been traveling and preaching over Kentucky and Tennessee. Wherever they find the people friendly enough to listen, they preach, and whenever they find that a community prefers “their room to their company” they “fold their tent like Arabs and as quietly steal away.” 

It soon became known abroad in the neighborhood that these itinerants would preach on Sunday, accordingly a large number gathered to hear them. 

Three discourses were made by as many discoursers, each more or less along the same line, and permit the writer to say, that they said some mighty good things. 

They took no text from the Bible, but their discourses were not wild nor scattering, but were confined mainly to three things, namely Faith, Repentance and Baptism.

The congregation listened to these things patiently and not with disapproval, but wanted to here about some other doctrines of the “Latter day Saints, that of a plurality of wives, for instance. 

   One of the preachers, who appeared to be higher in ecclesiastical authority than the others, seemed to anticipate our wants, and he took the stand and said that they used to teach polygamy, allowing a man to have more than one wife, if he was able to support more than one, but now as the laws of the country forbid it, they no longer taught nor practiced it, as they believed in being subservient to the laws of the country in which they lived.

They thanked the congregation for its attention and, leaving a sharp sprinkle of their literature behind, they departed for other fields.

James Armstrong, first actual settler in the territory of what is now Crittenden County.

James Armstrong, a native of South Carolina, was the first actual settler in the territory of what is now Crittenden County.  

Coming to Russellville in 1785, he found the best land already claimed.  He then moved on into Western Kentucky.  

In 1786 he built a log cabin near the water of Livingston Creek.  This twelve-foot log cabin was the first home ever built in Crittenden County by a white man.  It had no door and its only window was so high that it was reached by a ladder.  The ladder could be pulled inside the cabin for protection from Indians and wild animals.

In 1791 James returned to South Carolina and bought his family back with him.  By this time other settlers were entering the area.

As other settlers came into the area a settlement grew up nearby.  By about 1787 sixty families were living in the area.  The newly formed town was called Centerville.

In 1799 Centerville was established as the county seat of the newly formed county of Livingston.  From this date until 1809 Centerville was the seat of government for the area from Christian County to the Mississippi River, and from Webster County to Tennessee.

Because Centerville was the center of the settled territory it grew rapidly.  Its buildings included a court house, a jail, a land office, dry good stores, a blacksmith shop, and academy or school, a Presbyterian church, and a loom building.

The jail had a reputation for a place one wouldn't want to be placed. 

 It was constructed in the ground, being 12 by 14 feet in size and about 8 feet deep.  The top was covered with heavy timbers, with an opening in the center covered with a large flat rock which could be removed when prisoners were placed inside.  w

When the prisoners were put in they would sometimes try to hold to the sides of the opening to keep from dropping to the floor of the jail.  

The officers would keep a short ladder handy, and when they wished to let a prisoner out, they could remove the stone top, and place the ladder down so he could climb out.  It is said that the top of the prison resembled the top of a large jug, and that the saying "Putting prisoners in the Jug" probably originated here.

In 1809, Caldwell County was formed from Livingston, and Centerville was no longer the most convenient settlement in Livingston County.  The county seat was moved to Salem and Centerville quickly declined.

Today nothing remains and even the once visible rock cornerstones of some of the buildings have been removed by the clearing of the land for farming purposes.

The Kentucky Highway Historical Marker marks the location of the once important town of Centerville.  I hope some people will take the time to stop and read the important  highway maker that was placed there to try and help preserve the history of the area. (Centerville was located near the Crittenden/Caldwell County line on S. R. 641.  This is where the Highway Marker is located.)