Lexington’s Golden Age
- The pioneers and their children turned Lexington into the Athens of the West. Manufacturing, commerce, art, law, and politics flourished.
- During the golden age, Lexington laid at the major overland routes of the trans- Appalachian frontier.
- With the introduction of the steamboat in 1812, Lexington entered a long and humiliating decline that eventually culminated in the loss of its medical supremacy to the river cities of Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis.
- Cincinnati and Louisville, both of which were mere villages when Lexington became a budding city, rapidly surpassed Lexington in population.
Mayo, W. Porter, Medicine in the Athens of the West, Princeton, McClanahan Publishing House, 1999, Print, page 23