The picture above is a organic gemstone formed from the remains of ancient ammonite creatures. Below is a picture of a Placenticeras meeki (Böhm, 1898) ammonite fossil found in the Bearpaw Shale Formation of the Lethbridge District, Alberta, Canada. The fossil dates to the Cretaceous Period. Specimens were on display at the Natural History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) on August 2024.
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| Photo by Laura Dykstra. (c) Field Museum of Natural History . CC BY-NC 4.0 https://fm-digital-assets.fieldmuseum.org/1163/578/P21403_fossil.jpg . (accessed on 2024-12-07) |
While reading the Index Fossils of North America by Hervey W. Shimer & Robert R. Shrock from 1944, I found an interesting reference to Astraeospongia meniscus (Roemer, 1860) porifera fossil. It is listed as being found in Louisville, Kentucky and Brownsport, Tennessee. The creatures lived in the Silurian Period. This entry made me curious as I don't recalling find this fossil in the Louisville area but I have number of these fossils from Tennessee.
The picture above is from Chicago, Illinois, USA Field Museum of Natural History and was once part of the Borden Collection. It is great that the Field Museum is putting pictures of their fossils on-line. This fossil was from the defunct museum of William Borden (1823-1906) of Indiana. The fossil might have been collected by George Greene (1833-1917) who William Borden got a lot of local fossils from.
This fossil was named by Dr. Carl Fredrick von Roemer (1818-1891) who is famous for his research of fossils found in Texas that he collected during his 1845-1847 visit there.
In his 1860 book, Die silurische Fauna des westlichen Tennessee / Eine palaeontologische Monographie, he talks about Dr. Gerard Troost (1776-1850) whom he visited in 1847 in Nashville, Tennessee. Below is the translation [German to English] of his Preface.
"When I returned from Texas in the summer of 1847 to Nashville, the capital of the state of Tennessee, and found a very friendly welcome and valuable instruction on the geological conditions of the country from Dr. G. Troost, who has made a great contribution to the natural history of the western states, my attention was particularly drawn to the beautifully preserved Silurian fossils in the excellent man's rich paleontological collection, the location of which was indicated as the Perry district (Perry County) in the western part of the state. In addition to the largely known forms of corals and brachiopods, there was a particularly large number of beautifully preserved crinoids, almost all of which were new in terms of species and mostly also in terms of gender, and many remarkable specimens from other animal classes.
I immediately decided to visit the deposit of this remarkable fossil fauna myself and to gain a better knowledge of it by collecting it myself. Three weeks were spent on this trip, which was not without its difficulties and exertions, given the wild and sparsely cultivated nature of the area in question, but it also yielded a richer yield than I could have hoped for. The area over which the fossils in question are mainly found lies on both sides of the Tennessee River and includes the two districts (counties) Decatur on the left bank and Perry on the right bank'). Although I also visited some sites on the right bank, I collected mainly on the left bank.
From a point about 5 English miles north of Brownsport, where I was hospitable in the house of Colonel Wallis Dixon, I roamed the entire area between Brownsport and Perryville at leisure and collected all the numerous "glades" hidden in the surrounding primeval forest, i.e. the small hills bare of tree growth and only covered at the top with low bushes of red cedar (Juniperus Virginiana L.), which form the actual sites of our fauna. This is how the collection was created which provided the material for the current work and which, although not necessarily complete, certainly contains the great majority of the species that make up the fauna in general and allows an almost correct picture of the latter to be given. If the publication of the paper dealing with this material has only now taken place, this is only partly due to the obstruction caused by other scientific works, but mainly due to the fact that it was necessary to wait to see whether the description of the organic inclusions in the corresponding layers of the state of New York by James Hall would not make a special description of the fauna of Tennessee unnecessary.
However, since the publication of the second volume of the "Palaeontology of New York" containing the fossils of the "Niagara Group" has shown that the similarity between this fauna of the state of New York and that of Tennessee is sufficiently great to prove with certainty that the layers containing both faunas were deposited at the same time, but by no means so complete as to exclude the uniqueness of a significant number of species in each of the two faunas, this concern was removed and a description of the fauna appeared desirable.
What was known about it from other sources was limited to a few incomplete and, given the state of paleontology at the time, unreliable lists of fossils given by Troost in his geological reports on the state of Tennessee, to the mention of a small number of the species that make up the fauna by E. de Verneuil in his valuable essay on the parallelism of the Polaeozoic layers in North America and Europe, and 1) Perry County also used to extend over the area on the left bank of the river, which has since become an independent district under the name Decatur County. In this older, broader sense, Perry County was designated by Troost and after him by other authors as the site where the Silurian fauna in question was found. In fact, the localities that Troost primarily exploited, and in particular the town of Perryville, are located on the left bank of the river in the Decatur district."
On page 2 he talks about the area that Dr. Troost discovered where he found Silurian fossils. Translated from German to English.
"The thickness of the entire sequence of layers cannot be determined in the region in which I have only become acquainted with it through my own observation, in the counties of Decatur and Perry on the Tennessee River, since the underlying layer is nowhere exposed here. Safford, who describes the sequence of layers as "the dyestone and gray limestone group," estimates it to be several hundred feet in the western part of the state, while it is said to be much smaller further east. The outcrop points where Troost first discovered the sequence of layers with its rich fauna and where I also collected the material on which the present work is based are small hills, 50 to 60 paces wide and usually only 10 to 25 feet high, without any trees or only covered with stunted and sparse tree growth on the top, the so-called "Glades," i.e. forest clearings, which are scattered in the primeval forest in the area between Brownsport and Perryville in significant numbers. On the bare slopes of these "glades," the layers, whose largely siliceous nature seems to be hostile to plant growth, come to light and which have been formed from the rock by weathering. dissolved, largely silicified fossils lie freely on the surface. If one is as lucky as I have been several times to find a virgin hill of this type in the dense forest, i.e. one that has not yet been trodden by a paleontological predecessor, then the yield is particularly rich, as the entire result of weathering over thousands of years then falls to the discoverer. "
On page 31, he talks about the unpublished crinoid fossils that Troost had found but laments now that Troost died in 1850 and the Troost names are meaningless. Roemer does realize that James Hall has the Troost manuscript describing them but has not published it. It would not be until 1909 when Columbia University graduate student Elvira Wood (1865-1928) publishes the Troost work after both men are long dead. Translated from German to English.
"Dr. G. Troost in Nashville, who had assembled a rich collection of organic inclusions from the Silurian layers and the carbonate limestone in the state of Tennessee and had devoted particular attention to the numerous crinoids in these older layers, sent the American Association for the Advancement of Science a list of all the crinoids he had known about from the older rocks of the state of Tennessee shortly before his death. This list was first printed in the Proceedings of the American Association. 1849 p. 60, Second Meeting held at Cambridge. Boston 1850. p. 62 and was subsequently included in Silliman's Journal of Sc. and Arts 1849, VIII, p. 419-420, and subsequently in Leonhard and Brown's Jahrbuch für Mineralogie etc. Jahrg. 1850 p. 376-377. It lists 88 species of crinoids and a few asterids and echinids, and gives a significant number of new generic names.
Unfortunately, any description or diagnosis of the genera and species is missing, and even an indication of the localities and strata to which the individual species belong is missing. It is therefore impossible to determine from this list which species are meant by the various names. Even if, like me, one knows the Troost collection well from one's own examination and, on the other hand, owns specimens of most of the species contained in it, one is unable to determine the meaning of the names contained in that list. For example, I have no idea what generic forms are meant by the names Cabacocrinites, Balanocrinites, Agariocrinites, etc., although I very probably have the same forms in my collections made in the state of Tennessee. In the present text, therefore, the names of that list had to be completely disregarded when naming the species of crinoids to be described. Should it subsequently be possible to determine, for example with the help of Troost’s handwritten notes, that a greater or lesser number of the species to be described here are identical with species on that list, this would not affect the priority of the names I have chosen, because according to generally applicable nomenclatural principles, the publication of mere names of species without diagnosis or description does not justify a right of priority for such names. I am compelled to make this remark in order to avoid any confusion of names, especially because American authors have adopted individual names from Troost's list and given them preference over names of the same species by other authors who were the first to distinguish these species as new in a generally recognizable manner through description and illustration.
Thus, my esteemed friend J. Hall, in the Report on the geological Survey of the State of Iowa by James Hall and I. D. Whitney Vol. I, Part II, Palaeontology. 1858, which contains a valuable extension of our knowledge of crinoids through the description and excellent illustration of a large number of crinoids from the Carboniferous Limestone and other older layers of the western states, has named a species of the genus Pentatrematites under the name Pentremites cherokeeus p. 691 and listed the literature references under this name as follows: “Pentremites cherokeeus: Troost, Ms. of Monograph; Catalogue, 1849, Proc. Am. Assoc. for the advancement of Science p. 60. Pentremites sulcatus: Roemer: Monogr. of Blastoideae 1852, p. 354, t. 6, f. 10a, b, c.” Based on a manuscript supposedly written earlier but never published and a list of names published in 1849, my name P. sulcatus, which I assigned in 1852 to a species that was in good faith believed to be new, is here removed. It is obvious that if such a failure to observe the recognized nomenclatural rules were to become more widespread, the security of the entire palaeontological nomenclature would be called into question."
On page 33, Roemer writes about the cystoid Caryocrinus ornatus (Say) and lists that the species Troost named of this genus are just varieties of this species. He also refers to as a crinoid when it is now known as a cystoid. Translated from German to English.
"This beautiful crinoid, whose structure was fully described by Leop. von Buch and James Hall based on specimens from Lockport in the state of New York, is the most common crinoid in our fauna. I have collected several hundred examples of the calyx in various glades. The dimensions of the largest of these are significantly larger than those observed by J. Hall at Lockport. The largest calyx I have is 65 millimeters. long and 50 millimeters wide, and individual loose tablets allow the conclusion that the cups were even larger. The usual size of the cups, as in Lockport, is about 30 millimeters long and 12 millimeters wide. Many examples therefore have a habitus somewhat different from that of the usual specimens from Lockport, in that the calyx narrows more towards the top towards the flat apex surface and the apex surface itself is smaller. The very large specimens in particular show this deviation. In some cases the apex surface also appears only smaller because the Lockport specimens usually preserved the pieces forming the arm bases have mostly fallen out in the specimens from Tennessee. Regarding the type of preservation, the calyxes are either silicified and then externally usually yellowish in color, or transformed into calcite and then white.
Say's Caryocrinites loricatus is a mere variety of the main form. Troost lists five other species of Caryocrinus (C. meconideus, C. hexagonus, C. granulatus, C. insculptus and C. globosus) in the already mentioned list of crinoids of the state of Tennessee, but not C. ornatus. After a personal, detailed examination of Troost's collection, I can confirm that all five alleged species are varieties of C. ornatus that are only distinguished by minor characteristics of the cup shape and the sculpture. The genus is currently only known in this single species and is an exclusively American genus. Apart from the western part of the state of New York, where the cups were found in bushels near Lockport during the digging of the Erie Canal, and in the county of Decatur in Tennessee, the species also occurs at the already mentioned locality of Beargrass Creek not far from Louisville in the state of Kentucky. In all three regions the species belongs to exactly the same level of Upper Silurian strata, as the accompanying fossils show. "
On page 34, he talks about a Troost specimen he studied called Apiocystites sp. Translated from German to English.
"APIOCYSTITES sp.
Dr. Troost's collection in Nashville contained a small cystidea that probably belongs to the genus Apiocystites from the layers of our fauna in Decatur County. According to the rough sketch that I made of it and which I have in my possession, the species closely matches Hall's Apiocystites elegans and could possibly be identical with it. On the upper half of the elongated subcylindrical calyx, a round opening and two rhombus fields (“pectinated rhombs” by Forbes) were clearly visible. It would be desirable if a more precise identification of the species could be made based on the specimens from the Troost collection that remained in Nashville. I suspect that the name Echinocrinites fenestratus listed in Troost's crinoid list mentioned above refers to the species in question here."
On page 50, he remarks that Troost named 10 species of Eucalyptocrinus which are not valid. Translated from German to English.
" Incidentally, all Silurian Eucalyptocrinus species found so far belong to exactly the same geognostic level and also to the same Nordic facies of the Silurian group. In Europe, species of the genus are known from the island of Gotland, from Norway and from the English Wenlock limestone. In Norway, Kierulf found a beautiful, complete specimen of Eucalyptocrinus decorus in the uppermost limestone layers of the island of Malmö near Christiania. Troost lists 10 species of the genus Eucalyptocrinus in the above-mentioned list of Tennessee crinoids. Without being able to determine the meaning of these names in detail, I can assure you, based on Troost's collection, that most of these supposed species are to be regarded only as varieties."
Plate II has images of the Astraeospongia meniscus which should be the holotype since he is credited with naming it.
Lastly, I found what Dr. Roemer wrote on page 89 to be of interest, he mentions Louisville, Kentucky at least 4 times in his book and writes that he collected at Beargrass Creek near the city. He was led there by Dr. Lunsford Yandell (1805-1878) and Dr. Benjamin Franklin Shumard (1820-1869). Translated from German to English.
"It is especially the spongia, the crinoids and some brachiopods that
establish the local independence of the fauna of Tennessee compared to that of New York. Among these, special emphasis should be placed on such species as Astraeospongia meniscus, Palaeomanon cratera, Astylospongia stellatim-sulcata, Plasmopora follis, Cyathophyllum Shumardi, Platycrinus Tennesseensis, Lampterocrinus Tennesseensis, Pentatrematites Reinwardtii and Calceola Tennesseensis, because, with their considerable size and striking form, they could not easily have been overlooked if they were present at all in the strata of western New York, while for such smaller species as Poteriocrinus pisiformis, Coccocrinus bacca, etc., it is quite possible that they have only accidentally escaped the attention of the New York paleontologists. On the other hand, the fauna of the Niagara group also has a number of distinguished forms which are lacking in the fauna of Tennessee. These include in particular some crinoids and trilobites such as Ichthyocrinus laevis, Lecanocrinus macropetalus, Stephanocrinus angulatus, Callocystites Jewettii and Lichas Boltoni. On the whole, the numerical ratio of the forms peculiar to each of the two faunas to those common to both is such as can be expected as a result of local influences given the considerable spatial distance between the deposits containing the two faunas and does not give any reason to question the previously assumed complete simultaneity of the deposits. The distribution area of the fauna of Tennessee lies about 9 degrees of longitude further west than that of the corresponding layers of the state of New York and at the same time it is more than 7 degrees of latitude further south. In the entire wide space between Lockport and Perryville, layers of the same age have, to my knowledge, only been found at one point, namely at Bear Grass Creek, not far from Louisville in the state of Kentucky. On the slopes of a wooded gorge, gray limestone layers are exposed here in horizontal or slightly inclined layers, which contain the same fossil fauna as the layers of Perryville and Brownsport. I myself have collected specimens of Caryocrinus ornatus and Cytocrinus laevis at this locality, to which I was led by Mr. Yandell and Mr. Shumard. The exposure of the layers is, however, only imperfect and the preservation of the organic inclusions is less favorable than in the main distribution area of the fauna in Tennessee. From the areas of North America further west, beyond the Mississippi, no layers with a fauna more closely comparable to ours have been known to date."
Note: Their label does not appear to be correct. It listed the fossil as "Hoareicardia cunea" being a "schnabelschaler" of the "Karbon". If it was found in Louisville then it was not in the Carboniferous Period.
A fossil like this can be found in the Louisville, Kentucky USA area as well. Here is one on display at a Paris museum. https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2022/11/halysites-catenularia-chain-coral-fossil.html
The brachiopod fossil in boxes 110 & 117, 76-77, and another in 109 appear to be a Strophondonta crassa (Imbrie,
1959).
Rectangles 107, 108, and 115 appear to be Aulopora coral fossils with some that had grown on a branching bryozoan.
Cornulites appear to be in boxes 60 and 61.
A blastoid in cells 62, 63 & 66 could be Heteroschisma subtruncatum.
Cell 22 is a fish tooth fossil.
Fossil in rectangle 69 is some sort of bone fossil.
This picture is of an Aulopora (Goldfuss, 1829) horn coral fossil. It existed during the Devonian period. The fossil was found in Caledonia, New York, USA. Fossil was on display at the Natural History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) on August 2024.
This picture is of horn coral fossils. It existed during the Silurian period. The fossil was found in Gotland Sweden. Fossil was on display at the Natural History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) on August 2024.
Learn more: https://fossiilid.info/7897?mode=in_baltoscandia
Learn more: https://fossiilid.info/11660?mode=in_baltoscandia
Learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaulactis
Learn more here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924018399224&seq=21&q1=Isophlebia+aspasia
Here is a picture of several specimens of Nummulites praelaeigatus foraminifera fossil found in Mattsee, Salzburg Austria. The fossil dates to the Eocene Epoch.
Fossil was on display at the Natural
History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) on August 2024.
This coral fossil was once part of the collection of southern Indiana paleontologist George K. Greene (1835-1917). It appeared that all of Greene's fossil collection was sold to American Museum of Natural History in New York City after his death but as it turns out there was one cabinet not sold and was past down to his descendants.
This fossil is now on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center till at least September 2024 after that it should be transferred to the Indiana State Museum. George Greene's great-great-grandson William "Bill" Bishop passed away on November 29, 2023 and his wish that fossils be donated.
This coral fossil was once part of the collection of southern Indiana paleontologist George K. Greene (1835-1917). It appeared that all of Greene's fossil collection was sold to American Museum of Natural History in New York City after his death but as it turns out there was one cabinet not sold and was past down to his descendants.
This fossil is now on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center till at least September 2024 after that it should be transferred to the Indiana State Museum. George Greene's great-great-grandson William "Bill" Bishop passed away on November 29, 2023 and his wish that fossils be donated.
This picture is of an Arachnophyllum striatum (d'Orbigny, 1850) coral fossil. It was found in Beargrass Creek, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky USA. It dates to the Silurian Period.
This coral fossil was once part of the collection of southern Indiana paleontologist George K. Greene (1835-1917). It appeared that all of Greene's fossil collection was sold to American Museum of Natural History in New York City after his death but as it turns out there was one cabinet not sold and was past down to his descendants.
This fossil is now on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center till at least September 2024 after that it should be transferred to the Indiana State Museum. George Greene's great-great-grandson William "Bill" Bishop passed away on November 29, 2023 and his wish that fossils be donated.
Christopher Columbus Graham was born at Fort Worthington, Kentucky (near Danville) on October 10, 1784. His father James Graham was pioneer and long rifle hunter who settled in Kentucky in 1778. He fought in the last conflict of the American Revolutionary war on August 18, 1782 known as the Battle of Blue Licks (Kentucky). The American force was defeated and James was captured and taken to Canada. After the war, he returned to serve as private under General George Rogers Clark.
Young Christopher was mostly self educated and trained as a silversmith. Like his father he was considered a good marksman. He guided about 20 flatboats down the Mississippi and was on the river near New Madrid, Missouri during the massive earthquake of December 1811.
During the War of 1812 he served in the infantry where he was wounded in battle and captured. After being released in a prisoner exchange he was captured again at Fort Malden in Canada but escaped. He discharged in 1814. After the war he became a teacher in New Orleans but left the city after a malaria outbreak. He was also a soldier in the Black Hawk war where he served with Jefferson Davis (later president of the Confederacy) and the Texan war for independence.
He attended Transylvania University in Lexington Kentucky and studied medicine under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley (1785-1870).
After graduating from Transylvania University, he practiced medicine for 5 years in Harrodsburg, Kentucky with Dr. Henry Miller. He left the practice of medicine and made his fortune in creating resorts around natural springs around Kentucky.
He married Theresa Sutton (1804-1859) on October 8, 1820 and they had four children: James Sutton Graham (1824-1862), Sarah Graham Akin (1825-1890), Mary E. Graham Bramlette (1832-1886), and Terese Graham Blackburn (1839-1899).
In 1832-1833 C.C. Graham had an ownership stake in Galena lead mines.
What might be most fascinating fact about Dr. Graham is his connections to Abraham Lincoln's family. In the book, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln by Ida M. Tarbell and published in 1896, which contains an appendix with Christopher Columbus Graham's reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln's parents in the excerpt below. Note: infare is a a wedding reception for a newly married couple.
"The marriage took place at the home of Richard Berry,
near Beechland in Washington County, Kentucky. It was
celebrated in the boisterous style of one hundred years ago,
and was followed by an infare , given by the bride's guardian.
To this celebration came all the neighbors, and, according
to an entertaining Kentucky centenarian, Dr. Christopher
Columbus Graham, even those who happened in the neigh
borhood were made welcome. He tells how he heard of the
wedding while " out hunting for roots, " and went “ just to
get a good supper. I saw Nancy Hanks Lincoln at her wed
ding," continues Mr. Graham, " a fresh looking girl, I should
say over twenty. I was at the infare, too, given by John H.
Parrott, her guardian-and only girls with money had
guardians appointed by the court. We had bear meat ;
venison ; wild turkey and ducks ; eggs, wild and tame, so
common that you could buy them at two bits a bushel ; maple
sugar, swung on a string, to bite off for coffee or whiskey ;
syrup in big gourds ; peach-and- honey ; a sheep that the two
families barbecued whole over coals of wood burned in a
pit, and covered with green boughs to keep the juice in ; and
a race for the whiskey bottle. "
In April 1933, The Filson Club History Quarterly published and article about Dr. C.C. Graham's life entitled "C.C. Graham, M.D., 1784-1885 Historian, Antiquarian, Rifle Expert, Centenarian" by Brent Altsheler. On pages 84-85 Dr. William Thornwall Davis (1877-1944) of Washington, D.C. wrote this reminiscence of his great-grandfather on May 1932 while visiting Louisville:
"He was very fond of the boy Lincoln and in Grandfather's younger days, equipped with his hammer and specimen sack, he took Abe with him over the Lincoln farm, searching for interesting geological and ethnological specimens and in this way the young Lincoln mind was turned away from lowly home influence into the realms of history, natural and political."
Below is an image of a historical limestone panel carved by E.H. Daniels (in the early 1940s?) located at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. It portrays Abraham Lincoln's childhood in Kentucky. The people shown from left to right are: Jesse Lafollet [Lafollette], Thomas Lincoln, Christopher C. Graham, Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Lincoln, Sarah Lincoln, and Caleb Hazel. It was described in February 7, 1943 article as "dated about 1816 when Lincoln was but seven years old, Sculptor Daniels said. The site is that of Knob Creek cabin, about eight miles from Hodgenville, Ky., on the main route between Louisville and Nashville. Lincoln, the boy, is of course the central figure. He leans on a hoe as he listens to a story by Christopher Columbus Graham, a traveling philosopher. It's Lincoln's first contact with the outside world."
It would be amazing if Graham and Lincoln collected fossils and minerals together but I cannot find any references of President Lincoln mentioning that he spent time with Christopher C. Graham.
He founded a resort called Graham Springs in Harrodsburg, Kentucky and was known in ante-bellum times as the "Saratoga of the South" (referencing famous springs in New York state). Before Dr. Graham purchased the property it was known as Greenville Springs which a property record from 1807 shows a 227 acre tract selling from $2,500. A later record on June 4, 1827 shows Christopher C. Graham purchasing 207 acres embracing the Greenville spring. Two springs existed and one he acquired when he married Theresa Sutton which her family owned. He opened the "Harrodsburg Springs" after his marriage in a partnership with is father-in-law.
Graham relied on slaves to build the grounds and serve the guests. The 1830 and 1840 census shows he owed 26 slaves and by 1850 53 slaves. Three slave musicians named George, Reuben, and Henry escaped by steamboat Pike from Louisville to Cincinnati then on to Canada. Graham sued the steamboat company in Strader v. Graham in 1851 and won $3,000 for aiding in their escape. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court and the judgement was upheld citing the Ordinance of 1787. The following from the case record:
It appeared in evidence that the negroes were the slaves of Graham, and that they were musicians; that for their improvement in music two of them were placed under the care of one Williams, who was a skillful performer and leader of a band, and were permitted to go with him to Louisville and other places and play with him at public entertainments. The following permit was filed as an exhibit, and proved.Learn more about this at Explore Kentucky History web site.
"Harrodsburg, August 30, 1837"
"This is to give liberty to my boys, Henry and Reuben, to go to Louisville, with Williams and to play with him till I may wish to call them home. Should Williams find it his interest to take them to Cincinnati, New Albany, or any part of the South, even so far as New Orleans, he is at liberty to do so. I receive no compensation for their services except that he is to board and clothe them."
"My object is to have them well trained in music. They are young, one 17 and the other 19 years of age. They are both of good disposition and strictly honest, and such is my confidence in them that I have no fear that they will ever [act] knowingly wrong, or put me to trouble. They are slaves for life, and I paid for them an unusual sum; they have been faithful, hard-working servants, and I have no fear but that they will always be true to their duty, no matter in what situation they may be placed."
"C. GRAHAM, M.D."
"P.S. Should they not attend properly to their music, or disobey Williams, he is not only at liberty, but requested, to bring them directly home."
"C. GRAHAM"
Under this permission, Williams, in the year 1837, made several excursions with his band, including the slaves Reuben and Henry, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Albany and Madison, Indiana, for the purpose of playing at balls or public entertainments, after which he returned to Louisville, his place of residence, said slaves returning with him, from which time to the time of their escape in 1841 they had remained within the State of Kentucky.
The resort remained in operation for 33 years until 1853 when it was sold U.S. government for $100,000 to used as a military asylum for aged and invalid soldiers. The facility was closed in 1858 after the large hotel building burned down and the operation was moved to Washington, D.C. The grounds then became pastures for milk cows. The cottages and ballroom building would later be used during the American Civil War in October 1862 to care for the wounded from the Battle of Perryville. The ballroom burned in 1864 and the remaining cottages burned down by the early 1880s.
The University of Cambridge's Darwin Correspondence Project has three letters C.C. Graham sent to Charles Darwin in its system. The first is dated January 30, 1877. In this letter Graham was wanting a letter from Darwin about his scientific theories to counter religious fundamentalism. Part of letter he writes, "Should you write, and I hope you may, let it be on one side only, of about the size of the smaller sheet, here enclosed, so that it can be framed. I have one of the finest collections in the United States, the product of seventy years search throughout America, north and south, mostly fossils to which we have added the great Troost Cabinet of minerals, (at the cost of twenty five thousand dollars) said to be superior to Humboldts in Germany." He writes that once he has the Darwin letter, he will put it "in a large splendid frame, for our Museum and cabinet of Natural History, where I hope it may remain for centuries to come, by which time science will have gained the victory over ignorance and superstition."
The Gerard Troost (1776-1850) mineral collection that $25,000 was paid for as of 2024 has been shipped to the Indiana State Museum from the Kentucky Science Center except for the meteorite collection which was sent to Harvard University museum after Dr. John Lawrence Smith (1818-1883) died. The letters Graham talks about appear to have been lost along with his collection of curios that were in the the museum.
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Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10821,” accessed on 30 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10821.xmlImages of original letters from the Cambridge University Library collections are courtesy of Cambridge University Digital Library (cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk). |
The second is from March 28, 1880 which Graham has his grand-daughter to write as the shaking in his hands make his writing less legible. He confirms receiving Darwin's letter and it will be framed and hung in the Kentucky State House. In a follow up letter on April 17, 1880 he tells Darwin the letter will be placed in a fireproof area. In 2024, it appears Darwin's letter has been lost.
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Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12581,” accessed on 29 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12581.xml Images of original letters from the Cambridge University Library collections are courtesy of Cambridge University Digital Library (cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk). |
Late in life, a 93 year old Dr. Graham embarked on a fossil dig project at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky. He organized a dig with 10 local area men to dig fossils. They were paid a dollar a day for their work. Graham published a report in the newspaper The Louisville Journal in 1877 at the request of Professor Fredric Ward Putnam (1839-1915) of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem, Massachusetts. Here is an excerpt:
I dug upon these grounds for thirty days, with ten men, and brought off seven barrels of bones, a number of buffalo heads, and both mammoth and mastodon molars, but found no very large bones or tusks (but had nine feet of a fourteen-foot tusk given me by Mr. McLaughlin, proprietor), and left upon the ground a cart load of bones of various animals. The bone-bed is from ten to twelve feet beneath the present surface of the ground. I say present, because the valley, having recently sunk, is annually inundated, till there is a deposit of several feet over the original earth. In sinking one of our pits, we came to a regularly built furnace, six feet under ground, and took up the pipes, partly decayed, that conducted the water from the main spring to the furnace, where salt was made nearly a hundred years ago. I will say of those who may wish to search for those ancient remains that, when they come to a head, rib, or any other bone of an animal, they cannot expect to find, as I did, to find the entire skeleton; and my reason for the fact is that the wolves, bears and wild-cats (the remains of which I found) dragged the dislocated parts about, and that the deposits, as above named, covered them where they lay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bone_Lick_State_Park
It is assumed the material collected was deposited in the Free Museum of Kentucky housed in Louisville. Where the fossils are today is unknown to the author.
The newspaper Interior Journal of Stanford, Kentucky wrote on February 6, 1885 in his obituary "In his latter years he made almost a hobby of his favorite pastime, "specimen" hunting, and there is scarcely a house in this county that he has not visited in search of curious geological formations, Indian relics of every variety, which he deposited in his Louisville museum."
Louisville, KY., Oct. 1, 1884 - Dear Sir: At a meeting of citizens convened for the purpose of considering some becoming way of recognizing the centennial anniversary of the venerable Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, whose one hundredth birthday occurs o the 10th of this month, it was agreed to tender him a complimentary dinner in commemoration of the event. It was deemed appropriate that 100 guests, one for each year of his long and exemplary life, should dine with him on this occasion You are invited to make one of this number, and it is hoped that you can be present; but if not an answer to that effect will open the way to filling your seat with another, as it is not desirable to have a vacant chair at the table. The dinner, more of a pioneer repast of 100 years ago that a banquet of modern times, will be given at the Louisville Hotel., in this city, Friday, October 10, 1884 at 5 o'clock P.M. James Trabue, Richard H. Collins, R. A. Robinson, Wm. F. Bullock, Geo. W. Morris, T.S. Bell, Jas. S. Lithgow, D. W. Yandell, James Bridgeford, R. T. Durrett
The Courier-Journal on Saturday, October 11, 1884 published an article describing the event that more than a full page of the newspaper. They wrote, "The centennial celebration of the birth of Christopher Columbus Graham, M. D., was one of the most remarkable events in the history of Louisville. Not only the exceeding rarity of the event made it remarkable, but the company that gathered to celebrate it was the most noteworthy that ever assembled in Kentucky."
The menu of the dinner was also published:
YE OLDE FOLKS DINNER
Chicken soup with rice; baked Ohio-river salmon; bacon, cabbage & beans; barbecued lamb; roast duck in apple sauce; roast turkey with cranberry sauce; roast beef; broiled squirrel; leg of bear; baked opossum with sweet potatoes; roasting ears; hominy; boiled potatoes; baked sweet potatoes; stewed tomatoes; hoe cake; corn dodgers; buttermilk; plum pudding with rum sauce; pumpkin pie; log cabin pie; sliced apple pie, old style; assorted cakes; fruits; vanilla ice-cream; coffee
LET US SMILE: cider; tansy bitters; apple jack; peach and honey; old bourbon
WE SMILE AGAIN: claret; port wine; sherry; champagne
Dr. Graham died on February 3, 1885 and is buried at Bellevue Cemetery in Danville, Boyle County Kentucky USA. A simple limestone marker with initials on it mark is burial spot and is accompanied by larger stone. His first wife Theresa Sutton (1804-1859) and two of their daughters are buried near him Sarah Graham Akin (1825-1890) and Mary E. Graham Bramlette (1832-1886) [she was married to the 23rd Governor of Kentucky Thomas Elliott Bramlette (1817-1875)].
In the 1872 book A History of Kentucky by William B. Allen, the author dedicated his book:
ΤΟ DR. CHRISTOPHER GRAHAM, M. D. ,
WHO WAS BORN IN THE WILDWOODS OF KENTUCKY FIVE YEARS BEFORE IT BECAME A STATE; WHO IS HIMSELF A LIVING HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, AND ONE OF THE FEW LINKS NOW LEFT IN THE LONG CHAIN THAT BINDS THE PRESENT GENERATION TO THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE "DARK AND BLOODY GROUND"; "WHO IS THE BEST RIFLE SHOT IN AMERICA, AND UNEQUALED AS A TARGET-SHOOTER; AND WHILE ALREADY NUMBERED AMONG THE MOST MUNIFICENT BENEFACTORS OF THE STATE HAS ONCE MORE EVINCED HIS LIBERALITY BY THE CONTRIBUTION OF HIS EXTENSIVE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF KENTUCKY, ESTIMATED TO BE WORTH $25,000-TO THIS MAN SO WORTHY OF OUR HIGHEST ESTEEM IS THIS BOOK DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
On August 10, 1919, The Lexington Herald newspaper published and article "Noted Scientist Among Distinguished Summer Visitors at Crab Orchard" about his son Dr. John Bufard Graham of Atlanta Georgia. In the article, John Graham recounts the story of how he and Peter Dodge saved 21 sailors from the wrecked ship Mary E. Chapman of Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia using a row boat in a 75 mph winds during a gale. They were awarded medals from the United States and Canada for this heroic action.
The author as notes another story John Graham told her of a ring he received from his grandfather. He "showed her a thumb ring which is father had unearthed in Egypt, and which he had taken off of the finger of one of the Pharoahs whom historians think lived 5,000 years before Christ. The ring is made of four kinds of mined gold which shade from bright yellow to dull red. The signs of the Zodiac are exquisitely carved in the ring. It is one of two in the world, the other being in the north corridor of the room of Egyptology in the British Museum in London."
It would be interesting if that ring could be found today.
William B. Allen, A History of Kentucky, 1872, [NOTE: Graham birth date is listed in error as 1787 instead of 1784].
Brent Altsheler, C.C. Graham, M.D., 1784-1885 Historian, Antiquarian, Rifle Expert, Centenarian, The Filson Club History Quarterly, April 1933, pp.67-87.
James Duvall, Christopher Columbus Graham: Kentucky Man of Science, Journal of Kentucky Academy of Science, 2004, 65(2):pp.140-153.
"Our Oldest Citizen", The Courier-Journal: Louisville, Saturday Morning, October 11, 1884, pp. 6-7
Richard H. Collins, "America and England Dr. Christopher C. Graham and Sir Moses Montefiore", The Courier-Journal: Louisville, Wednesday Morning, October 8, 1884, p. 8.
W. O. McIntyre, "Memories of Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham" (letter to editor), The Courier-Journal: Louisville, 1931, p.
Martha Stephenson, "Old Graham Springs", Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 12, No. 34 (JANUARY, 1914), pp. 25, 27-35
Brian M. Trump, “Marker #551 "Harrodsburg Springs" and #1297 "Graham Springs",” ExploreKYHistory, accessed May 4, 2024, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/990.
Christopher Columbus Graham, "The Mammoth's Graveyard", LINK
Ida M. Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln, New York, S.S. McClure, Limited, 1896
