Mann's Lick

Mann's Lick was a salt lick just north of the present-day Fairdale neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. It was named for John Mann, who belonged to a surveying party of Captain Thomas Bullitt in 1773.

The land was given to Colonel John Todd in 1780. When Todd died at the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, the land went to his daughter Mary O. Todd. Joseph Brooks leased the land from Mary Todd in 1787, starting the saltworks immediately.

Brooks had originally been from Pennsylvania. He and his wife Nancy had left their home in 1779, traveling down the Ohio River to Maysville, Kentucky, and then walking the rest of the way to the Louisville area. He started working at Thomas Bullitt's Bullitt's Lick salt works, near Shepherdsville, Kentucky in 1784. After acquiring the Mann's Lick salt lick, he decided to build a salt furnace. He started by constructing a hollow-log pipe to pump water to his salt furnace; remains of these hollow logs were still available to be seen in the 1940s. Due to fear of Indian attack, fortifications were built to protect the site in 1788.

Due to salt being a necessary item in human life, hundreds of workers were used to obtain the salt, including numerous slaves. Some of these workers began settling on 150 acres (0.61 km²) of James F. Moore's land, causing the charter in 1794 for the new town of Newtown. It was sold under numerous brands, most prominently Little Sandy Salt. The salt was considered excellent quality, prized by merchants, and was sold as far away as Lexington, Kentucky. In 1808 it was sold for $2–2.25 a bushel, although it was often traded for such goods as hemp, linen, and tobacco. At its height the salt works was operated 24 hours a day.

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