OVERSHADOWED by warehouses and office buildings, Bullitt street
seems a queer memorial to those Virginia gentlemen, Cuthbert and Thomas
Bullitt, who played important roles in building up a city at the falls
of the Ohio, and who have left behind them, besides testimony of their
useful careers, a great number of descendants who are prominent today.
One wonders sometimes how it happens that this is not Bullittville. On
what is now Bullitt street, back in those early days, there stood two hospitable
houses, the grounds extending from Fourth to Sixth streets and with a view
across the river which is now enjoyed by many business men from office
windows high above the levee, then a part of the Bullitt's front lawn,
for there were the homes of Mr. and Mrs. Cuthbert Bullitt, and of Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas Bullitt.
The Cuthbert Bullitts had a farm about a mile and a half
south of their town house, the country home being in what is now Central
Park, surrounded by fields and woodland extending from Sixth to Second
street. This farm, a part of the Bullitts' large holdings of real estate,
was inherited by Amanthis Bullitt, who married
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George Weissinger. The land was not desirable then as later when the
city's growth made it necessary to drain the land, obliterating the ponds
and enhancing the value of property beyond the dreams of the Weissingers,
who had disposed of the farm.
In a chapter devoted to these ponds which intersected
the area on which the city is built and which, breeding disease, gave Louisville
the name, "Graveyard of the Ohio," Casseday wrote in his history of 1852,
A map of the city as it was sixty or even thirty years ago would present
somewhat the appearance of an archipelago, a sea full of little islands.
The Long Pond commenced at Sixth and Market and extended southwest to Sixteenth
street. Gwathmey's, or Grayson's Pond, was on Center street just in the
rear of the First Presbyterian church, which stood on Green between Sixth
and Center and extended westwardly halfway to Seventh street. Besides these
two principal lakes there were innumerable others, some containing water
only after heavy rains and others standing full at all times. Market street
from the corner of Third down was the site of one, Third between Jefferson
and Green, Jefferson near the corner of Fourth and so on, ad infinitum."
Major William Bullitt was a half-brother of Capt. Thomas
Bullitt, who surveyed the town in
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1773, and of Judge Cuthbert Bullitt, the father of Alexander Scott Bullitt,
another distinguished early settler. Major William Bullitt and his wife,
Mary Burbridge, daughter of General Burbridge, of Warfield, Va., were the
parents of Cuthbert and Thomas Bullitt, who came here in 1804, and are
described in Collins' History as "two of the first merchants of Louisville
distinguished for their probity and business qualifications, who amassed
large estates for their descendants."
Cuthbert Bullitt married Anne Neville, of Virginia. daughter
of General Joseph Neville, of Revolutionary fame. They journeyed to Louisville
to build their home here on the river front. Thomas Bullitt married Diana
Gwathmey, of the prominent pioneer family, and their son, Alexander Bullitt,
owned the handsome home on Jefferson street, now the Holcomb mission. Alexander
Bullitt married twice, his first wife being a beautiful heiress, Fannie
Smith, for whom two steamboats were named, one the "Fannie Smith," the
other, the "Fannie Bullitt." His second wife, also fair and rich, was Irene
Williams. After this marriage he moved to New Orleans, where he bought
the New Orleans Picayune, one of the biggest newspapers of the South.
Cuthbert Bullitt and his wife, Anne, were the parents
of eight children, four of whom have
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families socially prominent in the city: Neville Bullitt, who married
Ann Amelia Steele, the father of Neville Bullitt; William Bullitt, who
married Virginia Anderson, the father of the late Alexander Bullitt, and
of Malcolm and Howard Bullitt (Alexander and Malcolm Bullitt married two
sisters, Clara and Heloise Kennedy); Amanthis Bullitt, who married George
Weissinger, the mother of George Weissinger, who married Amelia Neville
Pearce; of Blanche Weissinger, who married Capt. Thomas Floyd Smith; of
Harry Weissinger, who married Isabelle Muir, and of Caroline Bullitt, who
married Dr. Thomas Wilson, the mother of eight daughters.
Neville Bullitt and his wife, Ann Amelia Steele, built
a country home, "Riverside," in 1830, just above the present site of the
Louisville Country Club, where Mr. John H. Caperton has a handsome home
now. "Riverside" was the scene of many gatherings of the Bullitts and their
friends. There were eight children to grow up at "Riverside:" Neville Bullitt,
Jr., who married Mattie D. Bohannon, the father of Capt. Neville Bullitt,
Thomas Bullitt, of Anne Amelia Bullitt (Mrs. A. B. Pinney), and the Bullitt
twins, Emily and Juliet, the latter, Mrs. James B. Ayers of Virginia; and
William Wurts Bullitt, who married Medora Gilmore, the father of Medora,
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Joseph Neville, and Kirwan Bullitt, are the only two who have families
in Louisville.
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Wilson had a daughter, Lucinda,
who married Gavin Cochran. Mrs. Cochran died a short time ago, her children
being: Mrs. Byron Baldwin, John Cochran, Mrs. Edmund F. Trabue and Wilson
Cochran.
Almira Wilson married Lytleton Cooke, their daughter,
Alice, married David Kellar; Caroline Wilson married Edward Fulton, their
children being Mrs. John Tevis and Dr. Gavin Fulton; Amelia Wilson, who
married Fred Anderson; Annie Wilson and Henrietta Wilson.
The children of Capt. and Mrs. Thomas Floyd Smith are:
Mayor George Weissinger Smith, who married Nell Hunt, a descendant of the
Prathers, another pioneer family; Mrs. Amanthis Jungbluth, Thomas Floyd
Smith, who married Mary Bruce, and Nan Pope Smith, who married Frank Carpenter.
Harry Weissinger and his wife, Isabelle Muir, are the
parents of Margaret, who married Samuel T. Castleman, and is the mother
of Harry and Isabelle Castleman; and of Judge Muir Weissinger. Their other
children do not live in Louisville.
George Weissinger, who married Amelia Neville Pearce,
was the father of Amelia Weissinger, who married Hoadley Cochran. His home
at
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Pewee Valley was the setting for "The Little Colonel," by Mrs. Annie
Fellows Johnston, the Little Colonel being his granddaughter, Hattie Cochran,
who is now Mrs. Albert M. Dick, Jr. Benjamin Bullitt, another son of Major
and Mrs. William Bullitt, married Mary Ferguson, in 1808. Their daughter,
Mary Bullitt, married Major Richard Zantziger. One of their three daughters,
Octavia Zantziger, married Clarence Bate, having a son, John Throckmorton
Bate.
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