HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinances and Municipal Laws, Condensed Tabular History of Paducah, KYF
CONDENSED, TABULAR HISTORY
--Of The—
CITY OF PADUCAH
Contahifnir the Nanus of the Officers of the Town Paducah
of In the
Year 1831, When Said Town Was Laid Off,,
and Otho Statistics.
Paducah was laid out by General William -Clark, of St. Louis, Mo.,
in the year 1827, he being the .original proprietor of all the land whereon
the now City of Paducah has been built. The Old Town of Paducah was
incorporated in 1830, which then comprised only the territory between the
river and Fourth 'Street and from Jefferson streetup to Clark street,
which was afterwards known and called "Old Town," Afterward, about
the year x833, there was added, by an amendatory act of the Legislature,
....the
territory from Fourth Street back to Ninth Street, and extending
from Jefferson Street up to Clark Street, and -this -was known. and called
"First Addition to Paducah," Afterwards about the year 1836, by a third
amendatory act, the territory above, from Clark Street to Tennessee Street
and from the river back to Ninth Street was added to Paducah and the
V,
same was afterward known as and called "Upper Town." And about tlw-
same time the Legislature passed another amendatory act to the charter,
annexing to Paducah all that territory below from -Jefferson Street down
to Hospital, now
P Clay Street, and from the river back to Ninth Streetand
,
this territory was called "Lower Town." By these re
tions lots were described in'deeds for a great many yearsspective designs -
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.
In 1856 a large surrounding territory was annexed to the Town of P.;
ducah, in which act' a
ald of the same was incorporated b
in the corporate name of "The -City Of Paducah." y the Legislature
After the old town of Paducah was first incorporated, on May 2, 1831,
the first election for Trustees was held at -the house of George Dunn, and
the fo*'Iowing named persons were elected, viz: F. A. Harrison, Chair-
man; George Dunn, Dr. Robert Fletcher, Robert ]Enders and Thomas
Flournoy, Trustees; who were known as "The Chairman and Board of
Trustees of Paducah." After meeting and organizing the following officers
were appointed by said "Board" viz; Re'
James C. Calhoun, Collect , and Valentine
Laughlin, Clerk and Assessor,-
Collector,
tine . Owens. Overseer of Streets .
]Extracts from the minutes of the
meeting Ma
"Firsty 5, 1831, read thus:
—That all persons be required to move their fences and houses
Out of the streets and that alil keel -boats be Prohibited from
front of the town." Ian -ding in
"General Clark having given thetaxataxation."town several lo's was exempted fro
M
"Valve of taxable property, real and
personal,
the year 1831, $29,2 including slaves, f( -,r
the $too.00. 70-0q, and taxes levied for all purp ses 18 3-4 cents oil
Poll tax 50 cents. The Assessor was allowed Clerk and Assessor for the year 1831, $2- I -owed for services as
I vices, $3.80. SO. The CoIllector for his ser -
i rTotal expense for. Assessor, Clerk and Collector
$6. 0. Total
tax, $45 50. 3
A Public well was the principal subject of
and it was eventually located on the corner of and for several years
Alley. The value Of lots at this time
corn Broadway and Maiden
was very
laas sho
transfers . The lot on which the Richmond House nwn by deeds and
Op stands was sold for
$40-00.1 The one on the southeast side Of BroadwJy Opposite the Richmond brought $24.00.
We Will now Pass over It part of
nothing Of. importance done until PatItIcallos early history, as there was
between 1843 -when a contract was entered into
the agents of the T
-,011111S, -'.Nfo.
I own of Paducah and Elijah Murray of St.
'for the Purchase of the right to use said Murray's Patent
Marine Railway, and for the construction to". of said Marine
Town of Paducah. The consideration for the Railway in the
ate was
$SOO-60 for su'Oerintending, the buildin p $000-00 and
The total valut Of Property 0 9 of said Railway.
$1
Uall kinds as re
POrted by the Assessor
0
Silt,
s1l;1
reit'
c f
No
13 ort -
mitt
Sim!
With
Sim
ca h.
at tl-
of M
Maj(,
to%VlI
Hanc,
A
all.,
pr
tilt
ye;!
.l
hal
0
Silt,
s1l;1
reit'
c f
No
13 ort -
mitt
Sim!
With
Sim
ca h.
at tl-
of M
Maj(,
to%VlI
Hanc,
A
I
'� .,5 ,. t of ,'il+�� (,,,i `9 C,:t ,�t� •. .fI.,.a '
for the year 1843 was$3 5 8' . o00 00 show in
. I
$355,730.00. -9 an,' increase' in twelve years of
' We wile now pass to the year 13ere
ance
3untilt
- wasnothing- ofimport-
enacted by the Board of Trustees
March 53, when the fol, • •
16wing ordin'anee was passed by the Board
/
of Trustees, of P
towit: aducah, K y.
'Be it enacted and ordained b y the Chairman and Board of Trustees
the Town of Paducah:
of
That stock to an amount not exceeding two hun-
dred thousand dollars shall be subscribed
r
.
for in the nam ,for the
Town of Paducah, in the New Orleans and Ohio 'Railroad
Comp
pany, or so
much as necessary there o'f to aid in the construction
of said 'branch ex-
tension road to the Town of Paducah
and said stock so subscribed.
be paid by 'bonds payable at thirtya �bed� for shall
York or other eastern city and bearing aanerindterestate l t he per el New
'
City
at six
annum,. payable half -yearly in New York
P �t per
providedor an
provided by act of the Legislature Y other Eastern city as
g of Kentucky,
F `ti
and the approved 'Januar Y 7, 1852'
purpose of providing for the due
and
the interest on -said bonds until the said
tits of
stock so ownedbythe T
Paducah shall earn the interest Y off n of
,
a tax shaid be levied and -collected in each
year on the property in said town, liable
to State tax, the sum
half of one per cent on all said and
of one
Pr°petty '
collected and n said town and said •tax shall be
paid 'over as
`Mobile
^+y,
and said bonds when is
stied shall be made payable to the
and Ot'
shall -be delivered to said any and
�wi Railroad
company in conformity
referred ;o between. e contract before
James Campbell
of Paducah and
_ of the illobiie and Ohio Railroad Com, John Childs, agent
Company, -and
dated at Nashville, Tenn:
Nov. 2, 1852, which contract having been approved
Board of Trustees and by the Chairman and
published in
a paper of the town is hereby sub
mitted for acceptance and ratification by the voters of the
town.
And it is further enacted and ordained that
;*
before any of said bonds
shall issue or any subscription be made under this
ordinance, this ordinance
with the preamble, setting forth the terms
of the subscription of stock,
shall be submitted to a vote of the
r qualified
voters of the Town of Padu-
cah, qualified to vote for members of the
:General Assembly of Kentucky,
�
at the Court House in the Town of Paducah
,
of March, 18 on
�3rd day
53, and if on such submission to the Vvotderssdof
said to
majority shall be cast for it, the Chairman
and Board Of Trustees own
town shall make said subscription on f said
P the
•`
; terms a, set forth in this ordi- '
Hance and preamble.
f
y
And it is ordered that this ordinance shall be�f
published
twenty days
S 1 I `•
- J..r7..rw�..+�y.+-�Sl:i-:1�+uCKa♦.. i..i.J.�Ww+r�r.a� - / 1 \,. A'� ,
-fore:'the 23rd day of March, 1853, in at least one of the newspaperspr,nted in Paducah.;WM. NOLEN Chairman.W'XI GRIEF. Clerk.On the 25th day of March, 1853 at a meeting of the Chairman andBoard of Trustees., the poll books were presented, showing a large majorityvote in favor of the ordinance for subscription of stpck in the New Or-
leans and Ohio Railroad to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars.It was then ordered that the Chairman subscribe -in behalf of the Townof Paducah the above amount of stock, and on the 2nd day of December 185at a called meeting of the, Board of Trustees it was ordered that JamesCampbell a'nd'L. S. Trimbe be instructed to deliver to the Mobile andOhio Railroad Company the two hundred thousand doblars of the bondsOf the Town of Paducah and take the receipt of said Company thereforand. return it to the board. The date of bonds to be July i'1854. The falwing personswere chosen directors, v;z: Alfred Boyd, Rodney Case,DaVA Wat's.. A. Rankin, Wilson Thompson, 'James' Campbell, L. M.Flournoy, H. Enders; R. S. Ratcliffe, G. H. Morrow, L. S. Trimble andT!ie levy of taxes for this year was, for all purposes, 34 cents on the
s1100,000 and the total amount collected fromjrall sources was $5,025.82.Taxes lev;.ed for this year to pay interest on bonds to railroad were $1.40on the. $joo. For revenue purposes 25 cents on the $joo. Poll Tax $i.5o.Tax levied for railroad purposes $i.3o on the $ioo. For revenu,! 3oValue of real and per' nal property as shown by the assessor's booksofor this year was $714.3oo. Tax levied for railroad $i.00. Por corpora-
tion �purposes 30 cents on the $ino. Poll tax $i -so. Total levy $i.4o. Total-m-o-unt received -from all sources for the year 1856$10,000.00. Totalamount disbursed for same year, $1j,,984-70, liaving a balance in the treas-
-ection to adopt the new charter making Paducah a city was held
25, 1855. For 206 votes, against, 35.
`The City of Paducah was incorporated on March i9t the �first new charter J. H. Gariner electedMayor and the following persons were elected - Councilmen , viz: First.,Ward -A. G. Lec',and D. A. Given. Second -Word—George A. Allen and J.C. Waldrit. Third Ward—Gabriel Kay and Wm.,Enders. Fourth Ward—.G. Bu'litt and Dattiel Fourshee.- Fifth Ward-�T. j- Atkins -and J.X Leeman.Sixth Ward --George Langstaff, N. H. Slack. George
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Police judge;, W.' L. Gregory,, Assistant judge- John W. Sauner.,,-
Marshall; W. L. Fuqua, Deputy Marshald; Q. Q. Quigley, Attorney; Chat.
H• Bonnitt, Clerk; Win, F. Swift, Assessor; W, M. Cole, Treasurer -A.'
,;D,
_41_j -Maxwell, Physician.
The -first meeting of the Council was held May i ir, 1857, at tardnees,.,
Hall. After organizing the Council proceeded to elect the following offi
cera, viz: -Henry Lewis, Railroad Tax Co!lector; J. W, Sauner, City Tax
Collector; Gerge Dunn, Market Master; Henry Adams, Wharf Master;
-S. Long, Sexton..
Value of real and personal property as.sessed for the year i8s 7, $1,
$23,240. Tax, levied for railroad purposes-, 7L cents on the $Ioo. For re-
venue ptuposes, 45 cents On the $ioo. Poll tax $1.50. Total levy $i.11.
Total tax $21,149 54.
The amount of taxable property in Paducah for the' year 1893, owned
by whites, $5:493,595; the amount owned by colored $129,775 total $5,623,.
J,, 370. White pods, 1893, 2,898; colored,, 1,333, total, 4,231. Number of chili..
dren of school age, white, 3,449; colored, 1,859, total, 5,308.
BOUNDARY OF THF CITY OF PADUCAH.,
The present boundary of the City of Paducah as given in Section i, of
an act enitiled, "An act Revising the Charter of the City of Paducah, Ky."
Approved on the lith day of February, 1871, is as follows:
Be it enacted by the .General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Ken-
tucky.
Section t. That the boundaries of the City of Paducah,, Kentucky,
shall be as follows: Beginning at a point known as the Northwest corner
of lot number fifteen of the division Of the estate of William Clarke, on
the South side of the Ohio River, one hundred and seventy-four poles
below the North side of Clay street; thence South, forty-three degrees;
West, three hundred and forty-rwo polts, to the corner of the Paducah
4,
Cemetery; thence South fifteen degrees, sixteen minutes East with the
Inie between said Cemetery and the addition of Flo'
urnoy, Harris, Trimble
and Norton; seventy-three and one-half poics to an iron monument in the
centre of Clay Street; thence South thirty-four degrees East with the line
betw Len King and Bradshaw, ninety poles to a stake; thence North fifty-
six degrees East, fifteen poles to an iron monument; thence South, thirty-
Iline degrees East with the line dividing lot No. 13 from lots. Nos. 5, 43
and 2 Of the division of the estate of William Clarke, three hundred and
twenty-nine poles to a mulberry in, the base line marked one and two;
thence South sixty-seven degrees East with said base line to the centre
of Island Creek, and with the 'me
4 messee River anders thereof to its mouth on the Ten -
thence with -a course North fifty-six degrees East to'the low
-water line thereof on Tennessee Island;
thence down the Tennessee
River with the low water line thereof binding on Tennessee Island to ther.
lower end of said Island; thence North fifty-six degrees East across th
River to the low water line of the same on the Illinois shore; thence edol'itoown
the Ohio River with the low water line thereof binding on the Illinois
chore to a Point where a line from the beginning point of this boundary
Above described with a course North forty-three degrees East will -inter-
'eat said low water line; thence South 'forty-three degrees West across
(lie Ohio River, to the beginning* And the territory embraced within' this
'boundary is hereby declared tobe a city, and the inhabitants thereof
.are created a body politic forever with perpetual succession by the name
of tllq City of Paducah and by that name retaining and possessing the
Power to sue and be sued, plead and be inlip'leaded, contract and be con-
tracted with, to have and use a common ' seal and the same to alter,
Change and renew at pleasure, and to hold, enjoy, lease or sell or dispose
Of any property now vested in the City of Paducah', or any person or cot-
poration for said
City, or which may be hereafter acquired to the intent
and Purpose for which the same is, was or may be granted, notwithst
I it and -
S ,its locality, and ift all suits against the city service of process shall be
•upon the htayar, and in his absence upon the, Clerk and ,Marshal of said
'This city shall have Police jurisdiction in Kentucky.
I
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to 1877; Meyer Weil from 1877 to 1881, serving two terms; Chas. Reed
from 1881 to 1889, serving four terms• J. H. Johnson' from 1889 to 1891;
D. A. Yeiser from x8gr to 1897; J. M. Lang from 1897 to 1 got. The
,
original charter making Paducah a City was granted by the Legislature in
1856. There have been several Acts of the Legisuature passed for the
benefit of the City, the most important one 'being an Act of February
,i..
-
11th, 1871, which fixed the • boundaries of the City and continued in force
ADDENDA ,
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Cities in the State. The different Acts relative to Paducah were codified
HISTORY OF PADUCAH, KFTTUCKY,
by an. act of the Legislature in 1884, which amended and re -enact, -d the
s
The City of Paducah has had but eight Mayors since its incorpora-
tion in 1856. They were: Jesse H. Gardner J. W. Sauner, G.
`. ► J.
Meyer Weil, 'Charles Reed, J. H. Johnson, D. A. Yeiser, J. M.
Fisher,
Lang. "', "I
y The terms of the mayors were as follows: J. H. Gardner from c857 to
1859; J. W. Sauner from 1859 to 1853, serving two terms; J. G.
Fishet
from 1863 to 1867, serving two terms; J. W Sauner from 1867 to 1871; 'U :
M
eyer well from 1871 to 1875, serving two terms; J. G. Fisher from 18 73
to 1877; Meyer Weil from 1877 to 1881, serving two terms; Chas. Reed
from 1881 to 1889, serving four terms• J. H. Johnson' from 1889 to 1891;
D. A. Yeiser from x8gr to 1897; J. M. Lang from 1897 to 1 got. The
,
original charter making Paducah a City was granted by the Legislature in
1856. There have been several Acts of the Legisuature passed for the
benefit of the City, the most important one 'being an Act of February
,i..
-
11th, 1871, which fixed the • boundaries of the City and continued in force
_
until repealed by Act of June 14th, x893, which classified all third class
'A
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Cities in the State. The different Acts relative to Paducah were codified
by an. act of the Legislature in 1884, which amended and re -enact, -d the
s
City Charter and under that Act Paducah was governed from 1884 until
classified under the new constitution in. 1893• In March 1902 the Legis
s
lature by an Act took Paducah from the third class Cities and assigned
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y,1
it into the second class Cities. Paducah has grown in population very'
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remarkably since 1880 for a decade f rom t88o to 18go beingV
57
Per cent.
and from 1890 to 1 goo being 52 per , cent. The population in t88o
1
as
given by the federal census was 8,036 and in
1900 was 19,876 and atr,r
der the census taken by the City Authorities in June, 190t,
_
prior to be.
irg admitted to the list of second class Cities was 2t,.{;7; t!tu�
,,
,
hhowing a most stead and rapid
Y p growth. At this present time PaducaQ
t..
`c r
has a good system of Sanitary -Sewerage embracing all of the business
portion of the City and a part of the residence section. Five blocks of
vitrified brick street were laid in. igo0 and the experiment -has proven-
such
roven-such a success that great improvement in this line will soon be made, r
There are- now finished in the City about 45 miles of graded and gravel
ed streets made with the celebrated Paducah Gravtl. - There are also
seventeen males WE Electric Street railway in the City. The value of
assessed property in the City for the year' t9o4 about $9,000,000, the tan
Y rate was fixed at ' $i.3o, for general purposes and -35c: _for schook Tht
bonded indebtedness of the City is almost entirely for purpose of aid-
ing railroads and is as follows:
4
New Orleans & Ohio railroad bonds, issued in 18,54 -
- $1 t 1,000-00
+ :
C. O. & S. W. railroad Shop bonds,
issued in
1893 -
- 20,000.00 - P
'
P. T. & A. railroad bonds, issued in
1889
100,000.00
C. St. L. & P. railroad bonds, issued
in 1889
- _
100,000.0Q ,
-
McCracken county Road bonds,
j : -
-'
4,000•00
Street Improvement bonds. 1903
-
- .-
150,000.00
r
" .
Market House bonds zgo3 - -
-
- -
25,000.00 _
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City Hospital bonds . i9o3
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. 25,�•�
.. , . Total
1 .
$535,000.00
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y
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