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Danville, Kentucky

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A city and the county-seat of Boyle county, Kentucky, U.S.A., 113 m. S. by W. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1890) 3766; (1900) 4285, of whom 1913 were negroes. The city is served by the Southern and the Cincinnati Southern railways, the latter connecting at Junction city (4 m. S.) with the Louisville & Nashville railway. Danville is an attractive city, situated in the S.E. part of the fertile "Blue Grass region" of Kentucky. In McDowell Park there is a monument to the memory of Dr Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830), who after 1795 lived in Danville, and is famous for having performed in 1809 the first entirely successful operation for the removal of an ovarian tumour. Danville is the seat of several educational institutions, the most important of which is the Central University of Kentucky (Presbyterian), founded in 1901 by the consolidation of Centre College (opened at Danville in 1823), and the Central University (opened at Richmond, Ky., in 1874). The law school also is in Danville. The classical, scientific and literary department of the present university is still known as Centre College; the medical and dental departments are in Louisville, and the university maintains a preparatory school, the Centre College academy, at Danville. In 1908 the university had 87 instructors and 696 students. Other institutions at Danville are Caldwell College for women (1860; Presbyterian), and the Kentucky state institution for deaf mutes (1823). The Transylvania seminary was opened here in 1785, but four years later was removed to Lexington, and a Presbyterian theological seminary was founded here in 1853, but was merged with the Louisville theological seminary (known after 1902 as the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Kentucky) in 1901. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and power plant. From its first settlement in 1781 until the admission of Kentucky into the Union in 1792 Danville was an important political centre. There was an influential political club here from 1786 to 1790, and here, too, sat the several conventions - nine in all - which asked for a separation from Virginia, discussed the proposed conditions of separation from that commonwealth, framed the first state constitution, and chose Frankfort as the capital. Danville was incorporated in 1789. It was the birthplace of James G. Birney and of Theodore O'Hara.