Fast Horses, Guns, and Bourbon

A friend of mine jokes that I have the ability to find all the bootleggers and horse traders in your ancestry.  Well, I’m not sure about that, but you have to admit that they might be some of the more interesting characters that sit on the branches of our family trees.  

I do have some horse traders and perhaps you might think of them as the used car salesmen of another era.  But, I’ll start today with a gunsmith, an essential occupation on the frontier.  

The “Kentucky Rifle”, was actually developed and initially made by German gunsmiths in Pennsylvania.  They are the ones who modified the old German “jager” rifle to make it lighter and more usable on the American frontier.  These were the weapons of the Kentucky long hunters like Daniel Boone, who ventured into the Kentucky wilderness on long treks to hunt and bring back fur and skins.  The gunsmith was also skilled as a woodworker and silversmith, creating beautifully carved stocks with silver inlays.  By 1785 European made barrels and mass-produced locks could be imported, but the gunsmith was still needed to rifle the barrel, carve the stock, and fit the lock.  Of course repairs were also a source of income.

In 1784 my 5 G grandfather, Lynn West came to Georgetown Kentucky from Virginia with his uncle Edward West.  He was only about 9 years old at the time and probably an orphan.  Edward West opened a gunsmith business, in Georgetown, just after the town had become incorporated by the Virginia legislature.  At this time Kentucky was still part of Virginia.  Georgetown is located in the bluegrass region of Kentucky, not far from Lexington.

Lynn West learned the trade of a gunsmith as he worked the shop with his uncle.  At the age of 22 he went back to Virginia for a time, marrying while he was there.  He and his wife, Susan Jackson, returned to Georgetown and he resumed his work in the gunsmith shop.  They expanded the business to include the manufacture of other implements such as pewter plates and basins.  Lynn also became a breeder of thoroughbred horses and had a racetrack just north of the town.  In 1836 Lynn died and the gunsmith business seems to have been taken over by his eldest son Lewis, who did well and employed several hands that barely kept up with the demand.

I am a descendant of Lynn’s second son, Preston, who followed his father’s interest in horse breeding.  What I know about Preston West comes mostly from tracking him in the census pages, but I like to imagine that he might have been a high-energy colorful personality, even though I have no basis for that assessment.  He was married three times, with the first two wives being sisters and he had at least nine children.  Tracking him through the records of history has been difficult.  His first wife, Elizabeth Crawford died in 1835, at the age of 26, leaving behind a son and two daughters.  About a year after Elizabeth’s death Preston married her sister Elvira, but little seems to be known about her except that she appears to have had at least two sons, one of which became a physician and served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army.  I don’t know when Elvira died but by the 1850 census Preston is married to Elizabeth, a native of South Carolina.  She is about 20 years younger than Preston, and they had several children.  At this time (1850) they are living in Charleston, South Carolina, and Preston is listed as a horse dealer.  He must have been fairly successful because he lists his estate value at $5000, which is about $137, 000 in today’s dollars.  A slave owner, he is recorded as having two slaves in 1850, a black 30 year old male and a 36 year old mulatto female.  

My next view of Preston West is in 1860.  He is listed in the Charleston directory as the owner of a livery stable at 56 Queen street, in the heart of downtown old Charleston.  His house is nearby at 97 Queen Street.  The 1860 census lists him (now age 55) with his wife and 4 children.  He’d prospered since 1850 and now listed his real estate holdings at $5000 and his personal estate at $7000, a total value today of over $300,000.  According to the 1860 slave census he owned 11 slaves.  My image of him begins to tarnish at this point.  Did he trade not only horses, but also slaves?  Charleston was a major point of entry for slaves and there was a large slave market there.  In 1860 there were 950 whites, 255 slaves, and 77 “free persons of color” living just on Queen Street.  My current opinion is that I don’t think he was in the business of trading slaves.  I found just a few transactions of Preston’s in which the sale of slaves was involved.  All of those transactions were the sale of slaves owned by deceased persons for whom he was the estate’s executor.  My guess is that the slaves he owned were for labor in his own business and home.  Was that better than being a large slave trader?  I suppose so, but he was a part of this cruel system that viewed humans as something that could be owned.

In April of 1861 Confederate troops fired on Ft. Sumter, marking the start of the Civil War.  And August 22, 1863, was the beginning of a long bombardment of downtown Charleston by Federal troops.  Pictures show a city practically decimated.    Did they stick it out or perhaps return to Kentucky?  What happened to their home and livery stable on Queen Street?   I have very few clues and the trail runs cold.  I haven’t found Preston or his wife Elizabeth in any censuses after 1860.  Their sons Edwin and Emmitt are in the 1870 census (19 and 20 years old) living in Charleston, S.C. and seem to own and run a hat store.  There is a transaction for Preston in Charleston, dated in October of 1869, but it is just a bill of sale for a mule. 

According to The West family register: important lines traced 1326-1928, by Letta Brock Stone (1928), Preston West died in 1894 in Kentucky.  There is a Preston West listed in the Cave Hill Cemetery database (Louisville) with a burial date of November 1, 1894, but whether or not this is my Preston West, I cannot determine.  Perhaps someone there in Louisville will help me by checking out his grave for more information.  The 1887 Louisville directory lists two Preston West’s, one a farmer at 1020 8th street, and the other a laborer at 628 East Street.  In 1890 the Louisville directory has one listing for a Preston West, located at 1223 W. Broadway.  These directory listings are poor evidence because I know that others named Preston West were in the area at that time. 

Mysteries like this keep us going back to our family trees and I’m sure that some day I’ll make it to Charleston and discover some additional piece of the puzzle of Preston West, the horse trader, and his family. 

By the way--- I have yet to find a bourbon maker or a moonshiner in my family tree.

-Mary

Update 10/2010:  I found this short death notice in the Weekly Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) dated Dec. 24, 1888:

WEST- On Sunday morning at 8 o’clock, Mrs. Elizabeth M. West, wife of Preston West, Sr., in the 67th year of her age.

My Connection:

Lynn West—Preston West--- Mary Elizabeth West---Gustavus Hardin---Nanine Hardin---Emma Fairleigh—Elizabeth Fairleigh--me

SEE UPDATES TO THIS STORY IN COMMENTS BELOW.  MORE INFORMATION CONTINUES TO BE UNCOVERED.