Lithograph of Scenes In And Around Ashland, KY

Here is a greatly reduced version of this lithograph as reproduced on page 10 in the publication “A History of Ashland, Kentucky 1876-1974” This publication was printed to help celebrate Ashland’s Centennial in 1954. Click on this image to get a larger version of this image.

This lithograph is titled simply “Ashland Ky”. It has been a very popular image reproduced in local historic publications and documents. The actual physical lithograph is large at 21 X 26 inches. It was produced by one of the premier lithographers of the day, a Chicago Company called Shober & Carqueville Lithograph Company. The artists were Riley & Ricker.

This type of large lithographic print that highlight prominent features of a city was evidently very popular at one time. I have personally seen other very similar offerings for Newport, KY, Quincy, IN, Grove City, PA, Saint Louis, MO and Philadelphia, PA (among many others).

This Ashland lithograph has 31 images, 30 smaller images surrounding a much larger aerial panoramic view of Ashland, KY. The 30 smaller images are mostly of large residential houses, business storefronts, hotels, churches, factories, railroad stations, banks, and schools – the sort of things that a new city like Ashland would like to promote. But it also includes three images of features miles outside of Ashland. Those three images outside Ashland are the ones important to the William’s Creek Basin.

These three important and interesting images outside Ashland are Princess Furnace, and the two coal mining communities of Coalton, KY and Rush, KY. Princess Furnace was owned by the same Means and Culbertson families that owned significant interests in the coal mining operations at Coalton and Rush, and were also significant personalities in the pervasive iron industry at Ashland. These important business connections in Ashland, with these industrial features miles from Ashland, are why these images are included in a lithograph of Ashland, KY.

This lithograph does not have a date, and I have seen several different estimates on the date in the various publications it appears.

Since the Princess Furnace was sold and shipped to Glen Wilton, VA in late 1883, this leads me to believe this lithograph had to be produced sometime in that approximate time frame say circa 1885. The lithograph company of Shober & Carqueville was also very active in that time period.

This is the only image of the Princess Furnace I have been able to uncover. There is a nice photograph of just the brown sandstone retaining wall that the top loaded furnace was charged from. This photograph was used in a 1908 US Geological Survey publication. This photograph of just the sandstone retaining wall was taken over two decades after the furnace was shipped to Glen Wilton, VA.

The artists depiction in the lithograph shows a retaining wall with angular features when in fact the brown sandstone retaining wall is a smooth, non angular, horseshoe shaped structure. The brown sandstone retaining wall still remains, but is currently mostly hidden by a thick layer of vegetation. Most of this sandstone wall was still visible when I personally lived very near in the 1960’s. Click on this image to get a larger version of this Princess Furnace image.

The image of the mining community in Coalton is also the only image of this community in this time period I have been able to find. It is historically significant since it shows the railroad station, coal mining community, community church, community school, and community graveyard. Click on this image to get a larger version of this Coalton Community image.

Like the Coalton image, the Rush image is also historically important. It shows in detail a large mining operation at Rush, near Kilgore Station, the railroad location, road location, and the row of mining company houses called “Jim Town”. Click on this image to get a larger version of this Rush Community image.

A nice copy of this large lithograph hangs in the Boyd County Public Library at the Central Av Branch, just outside the Minnie Winder Genealogy and Local History Room on the second floor. I know of at least two other privately held copies in the Ashland area, but I strongly suspect there are a few others about.

The images of Princess Furnace, Coalton, and Rush used on this website are from the copy hanging at the Boyd County Public Library.

All the images in this article can also be viewed in a separate gallery of just these images. Just click on the “Galleries” tab and choose the appropriate gallery icon.

A big thanks to Denise Spaulding, Studio 103, Pendleton Art Center (Ashland, KY) for providing these digital reproductions of the individual lithograph images of Princess Furnace, Coalton and Rush from the larger lithograph of scenes in and around Ashland, KY.

Next Article – Remember “The Alamo” On Princess Hill

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References:

Patrick, James W., and Charles M. Patrick, eds. A History of Ashland, Kentucky 1786 to 1954. Ashland Centennial Committee for the Celebration of its Centennial, October 1, 2 and 3, 1954, 1954.

Reps, John William. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada, Notes on the Artists and Publishers, and a Union Catalog of Their Work, 1825-1925. University of Missouri Press, 1984.

Riley, and Ricker. Ashland  Ky  (Lithograph). Printed by Shober & Carqueville Lithography Company, circa 1885.

Rist, Donald E. Iron Furnaces of the Hanging Rock Region. Hanging Rock Press, Ashland, KY, 1974.