1. The Outbreak of Asiatic Cholera (June 1833)
The cholera pandemic arrived via riverboat traffic along the Ohio River from Cincinnati and Maysville. On June 1, 1833, the first deaths were recorded along Town Branch. Within seventy-two hours, the disease swept through Gratz Park and Cheapside. Businesses shuttered, court proceedings ceased, and an estimated 2,000 residents fled the city in terror.
2. William “King” Solomon: The Town Drunk Turned Guardian
Born in Virginia in 1775, William Solomon was an eccentric cellar digger and fixture of downtown taverns. In early 1833, under Kentucky’s vagrancy laws, Solomon was auctioned off to the highest bidder on Cheapside, purchased for a few dollars by Aunt Charlotte, an enslaved Black woman who took pity on him. When cholera struck and even professional gravediggers abandoned the Baptist and Episcopal burying grounds, Solomon picked up his spade. Working day and night without contracting the disease, Solomon buried hundreds of victims, earning the eternal reverence of the community.
3. Immortalization by James Lane Allen & Lexington Cemetery
Solomon survived the epidemic and lived until 1854. In 1891, famed Kentucky author James Lane Allen published “King Solomon of Kentucky” in Flute and Violin, enshrining Solomon in American literature. In 1908, the citizens of Lexington erected a monument over his grave in the Lexington Cemetery, where the former town vagrant lies honored among Kentucky governors, generals, and statesmen.
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The foundational master chronicle spanning 250 years of Bluegrass history from pioneer settlement to global equine leadership.
Confederate occupations by John Hunt Morgan, Union martial law, divided families, and strategic border-state turmoil.
Lincoln’s extended visits to Main Street, witnessing slavery at Cheapside, and the Todd family’s tragic Civil War divide.
How pioneer Lexington established the first university west of the Alleghenies, training America’s early statesmen and doctors.
The Great Compromiser’s life at his beloved Ashland estate, the American System economic plan, and the preservation of the Union.
The grim reality of the South’s largest slave market at Cheapside and the heroic sanctuary of USCT soldiers at Camp Nelson.
How Ordovician limestone water and elite breeding created the epic multi-billion dollar equine empire of Central Kentucky.
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