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Caseyville, Ky. Page 2

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up-dated 10 / 03 / 00

I will on this page try to give some info. on some of the people that lived in Caseyville , Ky. in the early 1800's. I have not at this time been able to find any photos of Caseyville , Ky. on the WWW. I will put some photos of Caseyville , Ky and this area on this or the next page as soon as I get them. If anyone has any photos of Caseyville , Ky. and want them on this page PLEASE email them to me with info. about the photo and I'll be happy to put them on the page along with the names of who sent them if they want their name on with it.( if not please say so with the photo ) Email photo to jwj55@hotmail.com

Steam Boats of Caseyville,Ky.

George Carvill

Moved to Caseyville, Ky. sometime around 1847. He was in the coal mine business and owned 2 Steam Boats at Caseyville , Ky.

(See text below )

George Carvill

Entered the English Navy as a Midshipman.

When a second Lieutenant, George Carvill came to America to visit his uncles in New York. Among other places, he visited South Carolina, and in Charleston, he met Caroline Bennett. Her father was a banker in Charleston. It was a love match. George Carvill sold his commission in the Navy and engaged in gold mines with his uncle in North Carolina. He and Mary Caroline Bennett were married Dec 21, 1835. (Carvill(2)) The London boyhood home of George Carvill was at 6 Amwell Terrace, Clerkenwell, London. Through the influence of his uncle, Vice Admiral Rowley Bulteel (who was in charge of Queen Victoria's Atlantic Fleet), George Carvill went to sea as a midshipman at the age of 14. He was commissioned at age 18. He met Caroline Bennett at the Governor's home in Charleston. (Carvill(1), p. 2). George was interested in America because his grandfather, William Carvill, after the Revolution, had come to New York to salvage a publishing investment. He three uncles were there - George, Charles, and Henry, in the publishing firm. He tried publishing in Baltimore, the gold mining in North Carolina, and then took land in Alabama, at a town called Carlowville, across the reiver from the Alabama Capitol - Cahaba. The Capitol moved to Montgomery and they moved to Louisville, in 1847. The country was moving - rivers were the main souce of transportation and settlement. George Carvill invested in coal mining, and ship the coal by river - thereby discovering Helena, the "halfway point" for refueling of riverboats. He opened a refueling stop there and prospered. He moved to a town called Caseyville, Kentucky, near the Union County mines, where he invested heavily. The Civil War ruined him. His two steamboats (the Ilhytte and the Tradewater Belle) were taken by the Union Army and never returned; all of the livestock, mules, horses, wagons, and other equipment were taken - with no reparation. He moved with his family to London, Ontario, Canada, briefly, in order to sue through international law for restoration of his property. It did not work for the political climate was against him - and all with "Southern Sympathies". Geroge Carvill received no consideration for repayments of his losses in the war. The Congress passed a law that only the Congress itself, by enactment of legislation, could repay anyone for losses in the Civil war. The claim, for $180,000 was still extant in the 1930's until the death of Senator Carraway of Arkansas. (Carvil(1), pp. 2-3) William Carvill, the eldest son, went to England to raise capital to begin anew, following the Civil War. He sought to raise $1.2 million. His attempt failed due to the fact that the economic emphasis, since the war, had shifed to northern control with Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other interests becoming dominant in the fiel and shipping industries, along with manufacturing -- even cotton manufacturing. And so, the family begananew to build on their own, with a capital net worth of $52,000, by selling coal at Caseyfille to steamboats - and by setting up their own distribution system along the rivers. William Carvill remained in Kentucky- his brother George Carvill poineered a coal stop for steamboats at a place called Sterling at the mouth of the St. Francis River, north of Helena. He lived at Phillips Bayou. Soon his younger brother, Herman Carvill (named for a "Dutch" friend of his father) joined him. Edward J. Carvill became a steamboat Captain during those days. William Carvill, the eldest brother died, followed a few years later by his father, George. Both are buried at Caseyville, Kentucky. The son George moved into Helena, and Herman remained at Phillips Bayou a few more years, both in the coal business. When George died, he was buried in Helena, and his widow and familiy returned to Kentucky.

Sheriff Cartmell

1859 & 1862

John Van Cartmell

In 1849 John Van Cartmell, then a young man under twenty, came to Louisville, but subsequently moved to Caseyville, Kentucky, where he resided for a period of ten years, moving then out into Union county, Kentucky, where for many years he was a prominent man, serving two terms as deputy sheriff and one full term as sheriff of that county. He became a capitalist, and returning to Louisville in the spring of 1883, engaged in the wholesale tobacco business and so continued for a number of years, but retired from active business before his death, which occurred in Louisville July 31, 1889, his widow surviving him until June 11, 1899.

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