Kentucky

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KENTUCKY

British and American surveyors, Thomas Walker and Christopher Gist first explored eastern and central Kentucky in 1751. As part of what was then called "the West," Kentucky held great promises for the use of its fertile land and abundant hunting grounds. Despite a British ban on western migration, settlers gradually began coming to Kentucky. In 1774 Harrodstown (now Harrodsburg) became the first white settlement in the region.

The Transylvania Land Company, assisted by famous frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734–1820), bought up a large tract of land from the Cherokee Nation and founded Fort Boonesborough in 1775. The colony of Virginia claimed Kentucky as part of its territory at this time. During and after the American Revolution (1775–1783) immigrants streamed in to the region, coming down the Ohio River or through the Cumberland Gap, as Kentucky became the principal route for migration into the Mississippi Valley. The settlements grew, and Kentucky strained at its bonds to Virginia. In 1792 Kentucky entered the Union as the fifteenth state.

Agricultural and processing industries enabled Kentucky to prosper over the next few decades. Kentucky was tied to the lower South economically, especially after the construction of a canal around the Ohio River Falls at Louisville in 1829. Kentucky supplied hemp, used to make ropes and bagging for cotton bales, as well as producing hogs, mules, workhorses, corn, flour, salt, and prepared meats. The state also became a large grower of tobacco, which by 1860 accounted for half the agricultural income in the state. Whiskey production began in the 1860s, with the most popular brew taking the name of the county where it was produced: Bourbon. Horse breeding and racing also developed during this period and became the trademark industry in the Bluegrass area near Lexington.

Kentucky was one of the border states with divided loyalties during the American Civil War (1861–65). Although the state ultimately backed the Union, thousands of soldiers from Kentucky also fought on the side of the Confederacy. A period of unrest and chaos followed the war during the Reconstruction (1865–1877) period.

By the 1870s economic health was gradually being restored in Kentucky. Liberal tax laws helped railroad construction to increase dramatically, and eastern Kentucky saw extensive development of timber and coal reserves. Many rural people moved into the cities of Louisville and Lexington as industrial growth flourished. In 1900 Kentucky held first place in per capita income among the southern states.

A bleaker picture, however, faced farmers in the state. The "dark-leaf" tobacco farmers of eastern Kentucky, as well as other farmers, experienced long-term price depression. Good land was also becoming hard to come by, as the size of the average family farm dropped to less than ten acres, and many were forced to become tenant farmers. New social movements aimed at farm unrest, including the Grange, the Farmers' Alliance, and the Populist Party, found many supporters in Kentucky.

Another of Kentucky's most important industries, coal mining, was going through hard times at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the late nineteenth century lower-sulfur coal had been mined out of the Cumberland coal reserves in the Appalachian region. Distant corporations with a highly developed profit motive employed many but did little to improve the ordinary lives of the people they employed. As mechanization of coal mining increased, jobs in the mining areas of the state became increasingly hard to come by. Deep mining began to give way to strip mining during this period.

During the 1920s a great deal of economic change hit Kentucky. The development of modern highways brought the political power center of the state to the Highway Commission. Political patronage under Governor Flem Sampson controlled nearly all the highway jobs until Sampson's ouster in 1931. Meanwhile, in the distillery industry, the enactment of Prohibition in 1918 had put thousands out of work. Coal mining experienced a boom in the early twenties, but declining prices after 1927 put thousands more into unemployment lines. Violent confrontations between mine owners and workers became common during this time. In Harlan and Bell counties hostilities were especially rampant and caused property destruction and many deaths.

During the dark days of the Great Depression (1929–1939) in the 1930s, Governor Albert B. ("Happy") Chandler brought a kind of "conservative progressivism" to the state after years of factional party politics. He used federal dollars from New Deal programs to cancel the state sales tax in favor of a progressive income tax and controversial taxes on cigarettes, whiskey, and beer. An unfortunate consequence of the sales tax loss prompted a downhill slide in funding for education and health care in the state. Adding to the state's woes, there were a number of violent confrontations during the 1930s between the United Mine Workers (UMW) and mine owners in eastern Kentucky. By 1940 Kentucky had acquired a negative image nationwide because of political corruption, poverty, and labor unrest. In that year the state ranked last among 48 states in per capita income.

World War II (1939–45) brought an economic boost to the state's economy by increasing the demand for coal and farm products, and also by stimulating the development of industry. As industries grew over the subsequent decades the percentage of people employed in farming decreased. Between 1945 and 1980 the farm population was reduced by 76 percent. Companies such as General Electric and Ford in Louisville and Rockwell International in Clark County helped bring Kentucky industry into the twentieth century. Lexington in particular changed from a farm and college town into a fast-growing metropolitan era, beginning with the arrival of International Business Machines (IBM) in 1956. A good measure of Kentucky's rise from the economic doldrums came from a steady influx of workers from 1970 on, after years of population loss.

Though still a poor state, economic conditions in Kentucky were greatly improved by the end of the twentieth century. The Bluegrass area and industrial cities were generally the most prosperous parts of the state. Despite federal programs that began in the 1960s to raise incomes in the eastern coal mining regions, income there was still lower and unemployment higher than in other areas of the state. A far higher percentage of the population in the Appalachian counties fell below the federal poverty level than in other counties. Though manufacturing cities, primarily along the Ohio River, provided high levels of employment, the state as a whole ranked only 42nd out of 50 states in per capita income with an average of $19,687 in 1996. Coal was still an important product of Kentucky, with over 114 million tons mined in 1996. A more recently discovered resource was petroleum, extracted mostly in Henderson County.

See also: Daniel Boone, Coal Industry, Farmer's Alliance, International Business Machines, National Grange, United Mine Workers