Garrard, Kentucky

Members of the Garrard family born at the salt works include Eliza Ann Garrard (1809, daughter of Daniel),[3] James H. Garrard,[4] Theophilus T. Garrard,[5] Edward Pendleton Garrard (1814),[6] Maria Pacheco Padilla Garrard (1815),[6] Margaret Garrard (1818, daughter of Daniel),[7][8] William Mountjoy Garrard (1822), Catherine Francis Garrard (1825),[9] Lucinda C. Garrard (1827),[9] Sophia Garrard (1830),[10] and Pauline Mountjoy Garrard (1833).[10]

The salt works were deliberately destroyed by the Union army in the United States Civil War, as a preventative measure after the Confederate side had boasted of their value as a military objective with respect to anything else in the entire state of Kentucky.[11] Confederate forces had captured Manchester in the summer of 1862 and had taken between 3,500 to 4,000 US bushels (120,000 to 140,000 L) of salt from the Garrard salt works and the works of their competitors the White family.[12] A report of the commander of the brigade who re-took Manchester, Charles Craft, explained the need to destroy the works, saying that "every circumstance led to the belief that the quantity [of salt] on hand would have been shortly taken" when his brigade left to fight elsewhere that it was needed, and that "as a matter of economy; the destruction of the works seemed to be a wise movement".[12]

It took 500 soldiers 36 hours, overseen by three colonels of the regiment.[11][12] They disabled or destroyed all of the furnaces, pumps, and wells; and 30,000 US bushels (1,100,000 L) of salt found on the site.[11] Cannon balls were forced into pipes; pumps removed, broken, and then pushed back into wells; and the salt dumped into rivers.[12] A few "loyal citizens around and in the neighbourhood", as described in reports, were permitted to take some salt so that they had a supply for themselves.[12] Theophilus T. Garrard requested compensation after the war from the federal government, but this was denied.[11] Although rebuilt post-war, the salt works were not the major industry in the region that they had been pre-war, as competition from other saltworks elsewhere and improved transport drive down prices.[11]

The salt industry had been in decline even before the war.[13] Although the Goose Creek Salt Works produced the same US$5,000 worth of salt in 1850 and 1860, the Garrards had had to diversity into increased farmland holdings, up from 260 acres (110 ha) cultivated land and 300 acres (120 ha) uncultivated in 1850 to 480 acres (190 ha) cultivated and 1,180 acres (480 ha), although the valuation of these holdings had gone down from US$32,000 to US$28,000.[13] In 1850 they had 11 employees at the salt works and owned 37 slaves; but in 1860 owned 21 slaves.[13]

A continual pre-war problem for salt making at the Salt Works had been that Goose Creek river was only navigable at certain times of year for commercial shipping.[14] Several largely ineffective steps were taken to improve navigability, with Daniel Garrard along with two others appointed river commissioners in 1810 with powers to unblock the river, and a subscription raising measure approved by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1813.[15] The most effective measure was Daniel Garrard using 32 of his "hands" (i.e. slaves) to clear the South Fork of the Kentucky River of obstacles in 1818.[15]

Several calls were made by Garrard and others to further improve matters, to legislators that did not heed them, in part because of national economic depression that began in 1838.[16] A 1835 report by the Kentucky Board of Internal Improvements stated for example:[16]

One of the proprietors of the Goose Creek salt works, the most extensive establishment of the kind west of the mountains […] informed me that, in case a certain navigation was provided, they were ready to furnish at once 500,000 bushels per annum, and could enlarge their establishment as to meet the demand […][15]

By the middle 20th century, Garrard railroad stop included a water supply tank, owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.[17] It was 100 feet (30 m) west of the post office, and held 63,000 US gallons (240,000 L), supplying 12,000 US gallons (45,000 L) per day to steam locomotives.[17]