Morrison Cabin

As Third Street House Grew, So Did Legends

By Bettye Lee Mastin

From: Lexington Herald-Leader, November 28, 1981, p. B1, Col. 1-4. Lexington, Kentucky

A brave man and a ghost who makes beds are two of the legends of a part-log, part-frame, part-brick house at 318 West Third Street that will be open to the public Dec 6 as part of Christmas in Gratz Park.

The brave man, John Morrison, was described as one of four most "pushing" (hard-working) men in early Lexington.

As for the ghost who makes beds - who knows? She may be a previous owner, according to one of the present tenants, Mary Louise Hymel.

"We feel she's the little old lady who died in the house and gave it to the couple who took care of her."

That was in 1886, 99 years after a one-room log cabin (the nucleus of the present house) is believed to have been built here by Morrison.

The cabin now is the living room and front hall of a house that has grown through the years. The additions wrap above and behind it so as almost to enclose the original cabin.

The cabin section was built by about 1787 - relative late by pioneer standards - and was not Morrison's first or even second cabin.

His first cabin was built soon after Lexington's 1779 blockhouse was completed near the southwest corner of Main and Mill streets. In his first cabin, which was near the center of the old Purcell building, 320-330 West Main Street, Mrs. Morrison became the first women to settle in Lexington. And, in that first cabin, she stayed alone while her husband went on Bowman's 1779 campaign against the Shawnees, north of the Ohio River. Twelve men who stayed behind were in the blockhouse; Mrs. Morrison had in her cabin only her child, born before she arrived in Lexington. (Contrary to some sources, Mrs. Morrison did not have the first child born in Lexington.)

Morrison was described as "among four of the most pushing men" in 1781 when he and the other three were placed in charge of construction of Lexington's second fort. A militia major, he was a "brave man" according to a pioneer who said Morrison loaded and fired 13 times in the Piqua battle [Revolutionary War].

In 1783, Morison became the first to move out of the fort when he settled on the waters of West Hickman Creek, five miles southeast of Lexington between Richmond and Tates Creek Road, where he died in 1814.

But his third Street cabin seems to be one of a number of buildings mentioned when Morrison sold the property. The document listing Morrison's "residence," his "houses, improvements" and "appurtenances" transferred his outlot here to Peter and Thomas January. The five-acre tract stretched from Second to Third streets and from Broadway almost (or all the way) to Mill Street... (The article continues with more recent history)

--Transcribed by Carl Crabtree, September 20, 2004. Thanks to The

Lexington Public Library, Kentucky Room and the interlibrary loan system through Trails Regional Library, Odessa, Missouri who helped obtain this article