A FACE OF THE COUNTRY

Among the traditions of the country we are told that many years anterior to the advent of the surveyors employed by Richard HENDERSON & Co., and even until the cessation of the annual fires, which used to sweep the earth fore and aft, this country, from the beginning of the low lands which encircle the city, was a vast prairie or barren, extending as far as the eye could reach. Indeed, many settlers now living, who came to this county long since the advent of the present century, remember when the greater part of the county was a barren territory. There was no timber only along the creeks, water courses and marshy places. This continued for many years until a swamp of scrubby oak took possession of the land, and from this beginning a magnificent growth of timber, including the hickory, ash, gum, elm, maple, poplar, sugar, sugar maple, oak, catalpa, walnut and sycamore grew up luxuriantly over the entire country. During these early times the whole face of the country was covered with hazelnut bushes, pea-vines, wild strawberries, blackberries, and a variety of other kinds of wild fruits. Above and below the then village of Henderson, the country was one dense cane-brake, affording an abundance of the best food for cattle, which were driven on in large numbers. There were no Indians to be seen except a few friendly ones passing through.

History of Henderson County, Kentucky by E. L. Starling, Pages 27 - 28