Finchtown
Condensed from an article By Jim Reis
in Pieces of the Past Volume 3 pages 175-178 and reprinted here with his
permission.
Today it is hard to visualize the location of the former community of Finchtown. Even the street that was the center of the community, Finch Street, no longer exists.
Finchtown was located along Licking Pike and it included a four to five block area from the bridge where Licking Pike crosses the railroad tracks to the borders of the city of Wilder. The building that once housed the impressive facilities of the G W Robson Jr. and Co. distillery is all that remains. A newspaper account in 1875 noted a distillery was under construction in 1875 in Finchtown. The men behind the distillery project were identified as George W Robson Jr. and J H Stegeman. Robson lived in what was called the Highlands and Stegeman lived at 132 Tibbatts in Newport.
Their distillery was in operation by 1876 because the company appears that year on a tax list of Northern Kentucky distilleries. A city directory in 1875 did not have a separate listing for Finchtown, but several businesses and individuals connected to Finchtown appear under Newport listings. Among those listed were William H Huber, who lived and ran a saloon on Licking Pike in Finchtown; John J Ware, who operated the toll gate on Licking Pike; Gordon and McClure, coal dealers who operated along the Licking River near the railroad tracks; and the Kentucky Coal Elevator Co. which also operated on the Licking River at the railroad tracks.
On February 5, 1878 the Newport Local said the community was named after Chris Finch and "Mayor Enslin of Finchtown was recently presented by his wife with his 12th volume of natural history. The mother and author are doing fine." The account was in jest as there is no record of Finchtown ever being incorporated or having elected a mayor. No "Chris Finch" appears in local census records from that period, but court records do include the will of a John C Finch who died in 1880. There are mentions in property records of a Finch's Subdivision in the area which became known as Finchtown.
There was also a well known Northern Kentucky businessman named Marcus A Finch who died in 1879 in Sour Lake, Texas. As account of Marcus Finch's death carried in the May 15, 1879 Newport Local newspaper noted that he was the brother-in-law of Covington business man George Howell. The Finch-Howell relationship is interesting because two streets in Finchtown that ran off Licking Pike were Finch and Howell.
In a letter published March 26, 1878 in the
Newport Local by H. J. P., it described Finchtown as a beautiful
little community about three miles from the mouth of the Licking River.
"We have a first class hotel under the management of William Huber and no man
understands how to please or make comfortable his guests better than he.
We also have several slaughterhouses, the large and extensive distillery of G W
Robson Jr. and Co. And in the months of July and August we are forcibly
reminded of Si Keek's soap factory or stink factory. John Ware, a toll
gate operator is a good man and never a man, woman or child does he allow to
pass without collecting a toll. Finchtown has an extensive coal elevator,
where large quantities of coal are loaded upon the cars of the Short Line and
sent all through the state. This is under the management of Captain F F
McClure and Co. and the captain tells some good jokes."
On September 4, 1888 at 10 pm, residents in Finchtown and surrounding areas were rocked by an explosion at Robson's distillery. Night watchman George Ulrich was making his rounds and had just entered the condensing room in the distillery's third floor when the explosion occurred. The force of the blast blew out part of the building's south wall, which collapsed on a boiler shed, smashing its roof and breaking off the buildings main steam pipe. Ulrich was badly burned on the face and neck, but survived.
George Robson Sr., president of the distillery died early in 1906 and in his will he left 700 shares of stock in "Old 76" as the distillery was known then, to his wife Clara. Fire struck the distillery again on January 24, 1907. Night watchman Henry Hampton discovered the fire about 9 pm. Flames spread to William Mittemiller's saloon on the west side of Licking, and to Nestler's Drug Store. Both were destroyed. Matters were made worse for these two businesses when people claimed to be there to help carry out furniture and other valuables and just kept walking.
28,000 barrels of whiskey, valued at $9 each were stored at the distillery and exploded like skyrockets. The one death attributed to the fire was a Newport teenager, Louis Buerger who had heart problems. He collapsed and died while running from his house at 10th and Columbia in Newport to the fire scene.
Less than two weeks later on February 5, 1907, the Campbell Creek Coal Co. caught fire. The building and its contents, machinery, coal hoppers and 500 tons of coal were destroyed.
In the 1890s and 1900s, Finchtown appeared in city directories but was listed under Newport. The name stopped appearing in the 1920s and Finchtown stopped existing as a community on April 16, 1938 when it was annexed into Newport.