Say what you will about John Speed, he was a great entrepreneur! By 1809 he and his young family had taken possession of and moved onto the property that they would call Farmington. Judge Speed, as he became known in the community, was very good at generating prosperity. Using the advantage of family wealth to begin his ventures, Speed had already shown his instinctive ability to produce profits with his Mann’s Lick salt mine. Upon purchasing Farmington he proved again that he could generate wealth.
Farmington was a sprawling 550 acre plantation six miles outside of Louisville situated along the Bardstown Pike. That was a road, by the way, that Speed was given the authority to maintain and for which he was allowed to collect tolls.
On the plantation Speed grew a variety of crops that included corn, apples, wheat, flax, and sometimes tobacco. In addition, Farmington had a thriving dairy business that sold items to people in Louisville. Sheep were a feature of the livestock with production of lamb and mutton as part of the diversified activity of the plantation.
While all of those products would certainly have marked Farmington as a thriving endeavor, the most profitable activity on the plantation was the production of hemp. People today know that hemp fibers were used to make rope. The strength and durability of those fibers made rope that was highly valued by naval and manufacturers. But in the U.S., hemp production of the early 1800s was actually more strongly connected to the cotton industry in the deep South. The hemp fibers could be used to create a bagging material that became the packaging for large cotton bales.
John Speed had about 80 acres of hemp growing on his plantation. In addition, he maintained a Rope Walk where the fibers were twisted into rope and a Weaving House where the production of the hemp bagging took place. Hemp production was the most important activity at Farmington. In fact, in the years leading to the Civil War, hemp was Kentucky’s primary product.
I have always loved learning about history. I was one of those nerdy kids in school that soaked up everything I could in my history classes and actually read the textbook. One thing I was often told in my formative years was that cotton wouldn’t grow well in Kentucky and so, for the most part, Kentucky settlers were small farmers just trying to produce the things they needed for their own families. Now, that is true for a majority of Kentuckians in the first half of the 19th Century. But, many of the leading families in the state became hemp producers. They were plantation owners. They were part of the growing capitalistic system in the United States.
From Lexington to Louisville, hemp production drove the region’s economy. Henry Clay, Kentucky’s foremost statesman of the era, produced hemp. Up and down the Bardstown Pike you would have seen fields where the unmistakable signs of raising hemp were evident. Oxmoor, one of Louisville’s most valuable commercial areas today, was originally a hemp plantation. One of John Speed’s most successful endeavors was the production of hemp.
It should not go without saying here that the plantations raising hemp used the labor of enslaved humans. Like his fellow Kentuckians, John Speed held a considerable number of people in bondage. An 1840 inventory of Speed’s “property” included the names of 57 enslaved laborers. Most of these were male which means that the majority of enslaved were involved in the production of hemp. Forced labor aided Speed in making hemp production profitable.
There is one story about Judge Speed that provides an apt example of his wealth. At the beginning of the War of 1812 the Judge wanted to be supportive of U.S. efforts to fight against the British and their Native American allies. Speed, due to health issues, was unable to volunteer himself. But as Kentucky volunteers began to gather in Louisville to advance into Indiana Territory, John Speed decided to host a barbecue for the entire force. Using his own resources Speed fed all of the soldiers and sent them off with extra provisions. Then, when it was determined that the soldiers needed blankets, a wagon, horses with harness, and other support, Speed and two of his neighbors outfitted the army with all it needed. He even took the blankets from his own family to give to the soldiers. No doubt his efforts were appreciated by the men who soon fought at the desperate Battle of Tippecanoe near present-day West Lafayette, Indiana.
In the next posting we will talk more about Judge Speed. Until then, my best to you and all of yours.
David