Do you remember Parakeet Lick? Following the death of John McGee, the Parakeet Lick tract was sold to John McDowell.
John McDowell, Sr. had three sons and three daughters. It was his desire to give each of them a farm. The Parakeet Lick tract was the land he selected for his daughter Artemesia. When she married R. D. N. Morgan, a Shepherdsville lawyer, McDowell settled the couple on it, but he kept the title to the land in his name.
Morgan built a house just a little east of the present Interstate 65 interchange at Highway 44. Highway 44 was the dividing line between John McDowell, Sr.'s property and that of his son-in-law's.
The old salt wells at Parakeet Lick had a high mineral content and its black sulphur water was considered very healthy by the people in the neighborhood. They came from all around to drink it, taking bottles of it home with them. The well wasn't far from Shepherdsville and the people there made frequent use of its waters.
Morgan didn't live on the Parakeet Lick land very long. He moved to Meade County about 1833. John McDowell was growing old and he decided to sell the place and invest the money for the use of his daughter, Mrs. Morgan.
Word of the so-called healthy properties of the water had gradually spread abroad. In 1836, John D. Colmisneal decided to buy it as a retreat for his wife while he was away on a business trip.