Falmouth – 65 years ago

Falmouth at that time was a very small village.  The business was confined to two streets, as I remember, Main and Main-Cross, beginning at the railroad, then known as the K. C. [Kentucky Central] and completed from Covington to Falmouth some time in 1854.  There was on Main-Cross at the railroad the Watson Hotel.  A. Watson, proprietor; next came Allen Young’s saloon, the McCarty Hotel, Reuben McCarty, proprietor; hat shop conducted by Jas. I Hudnell; tailor shop run by John Delany; William Kennett, Henry Newman, N. E. Mains, merchants; Kennett Hotel, James Kennett, proprietor; Lightfoot Hotel, opposite court house and Samuel  T. Houser’s law office; tin shop conducted by C. Reeder; next came John Hoobinger’s Hotel, saloon and ten-pin alley and opposite this place to the east was John Eckert’s Hotel and blacksmith shop.

May 22, 1860 a tornado visited the old town, which I am sure my brother and Ed Wilson will never forget.  The wind unroofed the court house and rafters fell on these two gentlemen.   Mr. Wilson’s left limb was fractured and rendered my brother unconscious.  I see that Mr. Wilson has never fully recovered.

While the first gun of the Civil War was fired April 12, 1861, the first real battle of that war was fought in Falmouth, on the corner of Main and Main-Cross streets, on election day, August, 1861, when Harrison Barnes opened fire on Joe Bishop and Dan Hampton.  Bishop’s son-in-law received the first shot in the small of the back.  Bishop, receiving two shots, fell mortally wounded.  The ball took effect in the right eye, and he died after being carried into James T. Clark’s saddle shop. Barnes beat a hasty retreat for Foster, and crossed the Ohio River, and was never heard of after.

Names of people living in Falmouth, as I remember them sixty-five years ago:
County Officials – Samuel T. Hauser, County Judge; John e. Records, County Attorney; Isaac Yelton, Sheriff; Augustus Rule, Jailer; F. P. Craig, successor to Rule; Matt Mullins, County Clerk; W. W. Woodsworth, Justice of the Peace; Attorney at law: Major Samuel Swoope, Wm. Swoope, Ed Knight, W. W. Ireland, Al Hall, Wm. Hall, A. R. Clark, Charles H. Lee, Sr.; County Surveyor, Reuben McCarty; I. P. Marvin, teacher and Civil Engineer; Charles Duncan and Mink Roberts, Attorney.
Religious workers – Rev. Barbee, Rev. Kavanaugh, Joseph Perrin, Basil Wilson, Kerl Whitson, John Grant, Nim Wheeler, wool carder; George Jameson, Capt. Wm. Fisk. 
John Shackleford, Robert Johnson, and W. H. Lawson, blacksmiths.
Jerod Woodsworth and Jacob Raw, wagon makers.
James T. Murphy, Robert E. Lee, Eafram Owens, Luther James, Geo. Watson and Wm. Watson, carpenters.
John D. Rawlings, Wm. Wiggins, Wm. Kennett, Henry Newman, John Childs, Oldam & McMurchey, John Hubinger, merchants.
Thos. Best and James Larkin, millwrights.
Ralph Tomlinson, railroad agent.
Ed Tomilson, telegraph operator.
Davis Crozier, Sr., distiller, succeeded by Frank Remington and brother;
John Wilson, W. H. Roberts, Nathaniel and J. H. Barber, physicians.
Other men that we remember: Thomas G. Hall, J. M. Wilson, Ed Wilson, L. N. Wilson, C. H. Lee, Jr., George Lightfoot, G. C. Lightfoot, Abdella Watson, Allen Young, Thomas Collopy, Julius Coleman, John Hobday, Geo. W. Edwards, Dr. Tom Edwards, John Tatten, Geo. W. Ross, Elza Hughes, Thomas and Mike Duffey, Dave Hardin and Sons, Pole Aulick, James Chrisman, James Frazier, Caspar Sharp, R. T. Pettit, George, John and Rusty Abernathy, J. T. Applegate, John Applegate, James I Hudnell, Capt. B. T. and Theodore Riggs, S. Robbins, Ben Robbins, Jno. W. and Jason Robbins, Frazier and Henry Robbins, James T. Clark, J. C. and Dr. H. C. Clark.

L. T. Craig, Boston, Ky.

from the Falmouth Outlook, March 23, 1917