Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 47

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726

USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 47

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Mr. Russell is a brother of Mrs. Mary B. R. Day, formerly state librarian, whose sketch will be found in this work.

T THE HON. ROBERT TRIMBLE was born in Berkeley County, Virginia, and when three years old, his father emigrated to Ken- tucky. He received but the imperfect rudiments of an education-such only as could be had in a new settlement. He, however, improved himself, by teaching for a few years, and reading carefully the scanty libraries afforded by his neighborhood. After so imperfect a probation, he commenced the study of the law, under George Nicholas. That eminent man dying before he had completed his studies, he continued them under James Brown; and, in 1803, was licensed by the Court of Appeals to practice his profession. He commenced his career in Paris, and in the same year was elected a member of the legislature from the county of Bourbon. But the stormy life of a politician not being congenial to his disposition or taste, he ever afterward refused to be a candidate for political office-even to be nominated, on two occasions, for the United States' senate, when his assent only was necessary to secure his election. He devoted himself exclusively to his profession, and rapidly rose to the first class of jurists. In 1808, he was commissioned second judge of the Court of Ap- peals. He retained this place but a short time, but long enough to greatly distinguish himself in

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it by his rectitude, learning and ability. He was appointed chief justice of Kentucky in 1810, but, in consequence of his limited circumstances, de- clined the first judicial station of the common- wealth. After retiring from the bench, he re- sumed, with great assiduity, the practice of his profession; and, in 1813, was appointed a district attorney for the state. He continued at the bar, with eminent and profitable success, until 1816, when he was appointed by President Madison judge of the Kentucky district. He filled this office until 1826, when he was promoted by John Quincy Adams to the Supreme Court of the United States. He died the 25th day of August, 1828, in the fifty-second year of his age, and in the full vigor of his powers.

M AJ. GEN. JOSEPH WARREN, M. D., was one of the most distinguished patriots of the American Revolutionary war; was born at Roxbury, near Boston, in 1741-the son of a farmer; entered Harvard University, at fourteen, and was there remarkable for his talents, fine ad- dress, and bold and independent spirit; studied medicine, and had rapid and high success in the practice; on two occasions, delivered eloquent orations on March 5, the anniversary of the Bos- ton massacre, and became prominent in politics, as a public speaker and writer; was president of the provincial congress of Massachusetts, in 1775; participated in the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775; June 14, 1775, was appointed major gen- eral of the military force of Massachusetts prov- ince; and at the battle of Bunker Hill, in Boston, on June 17, 1775, when the American troops- after three times repelling the British troops- exhausted their ammunition and were compelled to retire, he was killed by a random shot, among the last to abandon the entrenchments. Congress passed a resolution to erect a monument to his memory, which long occupied the site of the present Bunker Hill monument.

T THOMAS FRANCIS MARSHALL, eldest son of Dr. Louis Marshall, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7, 1801, and was edu- cated chiefly by his parents, both of whom were accomplished scholars. His studies in history, as

the basis of jurisprudence and moral and political philosophy, were completed in Virginia, under the direction of James Marshall, a relative and a man of erudition. On his return to Kentucky, he studied law in the office of Hon. John J. Critten- den. He again made a visit to Virginia, to at- tend a convention called to form a new constitu- tion of that state, that he might improve himself by witnessing the intellectual strife in which were engaged those master minds, Chief Justice Mar- shall, John Randolph, James Madison, James Monroe, and other kindred spirits who were mem- bers of that body. He remained in Richmond five months. Thenceforward his mind took a political direction, he studied the political questions of the day, and entered upon their discussion.

His political career commenced with his elec- tion, in 1832, to the Kentucky legislature, from Woodford County, as a friend of Henry Clay. During that session he signalized himself by a very able report against "nullification," in answer to the communication on that subject addressed by South Carolina to the several states. In 1833, he removed to Louisville to practice his profes- sion, but abandoned it to again enter the field of politics. He was elected to the legislature for two terms. In 1837 he was beaten for Congress by Hon. William J. Graves, and, mortified at the re- sult, he once more returned to Woodford County, which sent him twice to the legislature.

Mr. Marshall was elected to the lower branch of Congress from the "Ashland district," in 1841. He spoke often in that body, but only two of his speeches were reported. Disgusted at the man- ner his speeches had been reported, he unwisely said to the reporters, they "must not pass on the public their infernal gibberish for my English." They took him at his word. Mr. Marshall had been elected as a friend of Mr. Clay, but took issue with that eminent statesman on the United States Bank charter and the Bankrupt bill, as he did subsequently on the question of annexation of Texas. The district he represented was devoted to Mr. Clay, and hence Mr. Marshall declined to offer for Congress for the next term, as his defeat was certain. He, however, "took the stump," and canvassed the state for Mr. Polk, for president. In 1845, he ran for Congress, but was beaten by

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Hon. Garret Davis. He next served one year as captain of a cavalry company in the Mexican war. Some time after his return home, he was beaten for the convention to frame a new constitution for the state. He advocated the election of General Scott for president in 1852, and was elected to the legislature from Woodford County in 1853, which was his last public service.

Mr. Marshall never again aspired to public posi- tion, but devoted his time to the law. Occasion- ally he delivered a political address, but was hard- ly recognized as a politician. He gave a series of "Discourses on History," in various cities, and charmed his hearers by his wit, genius, eloquence, and learning. Civil war ensued. Its events fol- lowed each other in rapid succession, and Mar- shall, like all other civilians, was overshadowed by their tremendous importance. He appeared no more in public excepting in the courts. He died at the home farm near Versailles, Woodford County, Kentucky, on September 22, 1864.

Marshall was brilliant alike at the bar, on the stump, and in the forum. His powers of oratory and eloquence were unrivaled, matchless, and yet he was withal a pre-eminent logician, and was in truth a remarkable man, and such as we may "not look upon his like again."

JUDGE JOHN ROWAN was an able jurist and statesman, and one of the most distin- guished men in the western country. He was a native of Pennsylvania. His father, William Rowan, at the close of the Revolutionary war came to Kentucky, in the hope of repairing the ravages made in his private fortune. Kentucky was then a wilderness, the choice hunting ground of many hostile tribes of savages-the field of hazardous adventure, the scene of savage outrage, the theater of ceaseless war, an arena drenched in blood and reeking with slaughter. In March, 1783, the father of John Rowan settled in Louis- ville, then an insignificant village. In the spring of 1784, when John was eleven years old, his father, with five other families, made a settle- ment at the Long Falls of Green River, then about one hundred miles from any white settlement. This region was resorted to by a band of the Shawnee tribe of Indians, as a hunting ground,

and Mr. Rowan and his neighbors had many en- counters with their savage foes. At the age of seventeen, he entered a classical school kept at Bardstown, by a Dr. Priestly. In this school were educated many of those men who have since figured conspicuously in the history of Kentucky, and on the broader theater of national politics. Here John Rowan was remarkable among his fellows for the facility with which he mastered the most difficult branches. He obtained an accurate and critical knowledge of the classical tongues. Guided by the advice of his friends he went, upon leaving this school, to Lexington, and com- menced the study of the law. In . 1795, he was admitted to the bar, and soon attained a high rank in his profession. Kentucky, even at that day, held many men eminent for talent, learning and eloquence; yet he was considered among the foremost. As an advocate, in criminal cases, he had few equals in the state. The Virginia act of 1779, constituting the basis of the celebrated land laws of Kentucky, though originally drawn and reported to the legislature by George Mason, one of Virginia's most able statesmen, was so amended before its passage, as to destroy all system in the procuring of patents, and the consequence was much litigation in Kentucky, arising out of con- flicting land claims. Many of our most eminent lawyers acquired great wealth by buying up con- tested claims, and from contingent fees. In these things, Mr. Rowan never indulged, conceiving them to be inimical to the high moral tone which should be preserved by the profession, and tempt- ing to oppression of the occupants of lands. At an early age, he was called into public life, and was a member of the convention that formed the present constitution of Kentucky, in 1799. He was appointed secretary of state in 1804, and in 1806 was elected to Congress from a district in which he did not reside. He took his seat in 1807, and served during the eleventh Congress.

He was frequently a member of the state legis- lature, and in 1819 was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeals. While on the bench he deliv- ered a learned and forcible opinion on the power of Congress to charter the Bank of the United States in 1816. Not relishing the close confine- ment of the bench, in 1821 he resigned his seat.

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In 1823, he was appointed by the legislature, in conjunction with Henry Clay, a commissioner to defend what were called the occupying claimant laws of the state, before the Supreme Court of the United States. The uncertainty of land titles un- der the Virginia laws before alluded to, had led to the enactment of laws by the Kentucky legislature more favorable to the occupant than the common law of England. These statutes were attacked before the Supreme Court, upon the ground that they violated the compact between Virginia and Kentucky. The petition of the commissioners was drawn by Judge Rowan, and is deemed the ablest vindication of those laws ever published.

In 1824, he was elected to the senate of the United States, in which body he served for six years. On the 10th of April, 1826, he delivered a speech of great ability, on a bill further to amend the judiciary system of the United States. In 1828, he made a learned and powerful speech on the subject of imprisonment for debt, under process issued from the courts of the United States. It had been abolished in Kentucky in 1821, and yet he had seen it practiced by process from the Federal courts in this state, in defiance of public sentiment.

The last public office Mr. Rowan filled was that of commissioner to adjust the claims of citi- zens of the United States against Mexico, under the convention of Washington of the IIth of April, 1839. Upon the organization of the Ken- tucky Historical Society in 1838, he was elected president of that institution, and held the office until the period of his death. He died, after a short illness, at his residence in Louisville, on the 13th of July, 1843, in the seventieth year of his age.

G EN. MARTIN D. HARDIN, one of the most distinguished citizens of Kentucky, was about six years old when his father, Colonel John Hardin, emigrated in April 1786, with his family, from the Monongahela country to a point on Pleasant Run, a branch of the Beech Fork, Springfield. He studied law with Colonel George Nicholas, and practiced at Richmond and after- ward at Frankfort, with great success; indeed, was the leader of the bar at each place. He was

a man of marked talent and of very decided char- acter. In 1812, he was a major in the rifle regi- ment of Colonel John Allen, in the campaign on the northern border during the war with Great Britain, and approved himself a brave, vigilant, and efficient officer. He was secretary of state of Kentucky under Governor Isaac Shelby, 1812-16; and was appointed by Governor Gabriel Slaughter to fill a vacancy in the United States senate, serv- ing one session, 1816-17. He died at Frankfort, October 8, 1823, aged forty-three. He was the father of the gallant Colonel John J. Hardin, an ex-member of Congress from Illinois, 1843-45, who fell in the battle of Buena Vista in Mexico, February 23, 1847.

W TILLIAM WHITLEY, was one of the most distinguished of the early pioneers, whose adventurous exploits have shed a coloring of romance over the early history of Kentucky. He was born on the 14th of August, 1749, in that part of Virginia then called Augusta, and which after- ward furnished territory for Rockbridge County. Unknown to early fame, he grew to manhood in the laborious occupation of tilling his native soil, in which his corporeal powers were fully devel- oped, with but little mental cultivation. He pos- sessed, however, the spirit of enterprise, and the love of independence. In 1775, having married Esther Fuller, and commenced housekeeping in a small way, with health and labor to season his bread, he said to his wife, he heard a fine report of Kentucky, and he thought they could get their living there with less hard work. "Then, Billy, if I was you I would go and see," was the reply. In two days he was on his way, with axe and plow, and gun and kettle. And she is the woman who afterward collected his warriors to pursue the Indians.

Whitley set out for Kentucky, accompanied by his brother-in-law, George Clark; in the wilder- ness they met with seven others, who joined them.

In the year 1813, being then in the sixty-fifth year of his age, he volunteered with the Kentucky militia, under Governor Shelby, and fell in the decisive and victorious battle of the Thames, on the 5th of October.

Colonel Whitley was a man above the ordinary

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size, of great muscular power, and capable of en- during great fatigue and privation. His courage as a soldier was unquestionable, having been fore- most in seventeen battles with the Indians, and one with a more civilized foe. In the battle of the Thames, he fell at the first fire. His memory is cherished throughout Kentucky with profound respect, as that of one uniting the characters of patriot and hero.

G EN. ORMSBY MACKNIGHT MITCH- J ELL, a distinguished American astrono- mer, was born in Union County, Kentucky, Au- gust 28, 1810, and died of yellow fever at Beau- fort, South Carolina, October 30, 1862, aged fifty- two. He received his early education in Lebanon, Ohio; was appointed to a cadetship at West Point in 1825; graduated in 1829, fifteenth in a class of forty-six-among whom were those distin- guished Confederate chieftains, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston. He filled the position of professor of mathematics in that institution for two years; subsequently studied law and prac- ticed in Cincinnati until 1834; when he was elected professor of mathematics, philosophy, and as- tronomy in the Cincinnati College. In 1845, he succeeded in the establishment of an observatory in Cincinnati, raising the requisite amount of money therefor by his own exertions. In 1859, he was chosen director of the Albany, New York, observatory, and also retained his connection with that in Cincinnati. Among his published works are "Planetary and Stellar Worlds," "Popular Astronomy," and a treatise on algebra. He was commissioned a brigadier general in the Union army, August, 1861, and afterward pro- moted to major general.

EV. JOHN ALEXANDER McCLUNG, D. D., a distinguished scholar, orator, and divine, was born near Washington, in Mason County, Kentucky, September 25, 1804. He was the son of Judge William McClung, and grand- son of Colonel Thomas Marshall; both of whom had emigrated from Virginia at an early day. Left at a tender age, by his father's death, to the care of a gifted and pious mother, he was, a few years after, sent to the academy of her brother,

Dr. Louis Marshall, in Woodford County, Ken- tucky. There he exhibited unusual thirst for knowledge, and made great progress in his studies. In 1820, he became a member of the Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Woodford. In his eighteenth year he was entered as a student in the Theological Seminary at Princeton. In 1825, he married a lady of great piety and refine- ment, Miss Eliza Johnston, sister of Hon. Josiah Stoddard Johnston, and General Albert Sidney Johnston.

He was licensed to preach in 1828, and soon be- came one of the most popular young preachers of the West; but in a brief period, his religious con- victions were disturbed, and he voluntarily with- drew from the ministry.

In 1830, he wrote and published "Camden," a tale of the South during the Revolution, and in 1832, "Sketches of Western Adventure"-both works of decided merit, the former published in Philadelphia, the latter by Judge Lewis Collins.

D R. DANIEL DRAKE, distinguished as phy- sician, professor, and author, was born at Plainfield, New Jersey, October 20, 1785, and died at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 5, 1852, aged sixty-seven years. Brought to Mason County, Kentucky, June 10, 1788, before he was three years old, he grew up with that spirit and self- reliance which marked his whole life, receiving all the education the little village of Mayslick and surroundings could give him, theoretical and practical. In December, 1800, aged fifteen, he went to the village of Cincinnati with its popu- lation of seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, and became its first medical student-so faithful that, in after life, no medical man was more useful or reflected upon that city more varied renown. In May, 1804, aged nineteen, he began the practice of medicine in Cincinnati; spent the winter of 1805-1806 as a student in the Pennsylvania Uni- versity, at Philadelphia, and the succeeding year in practice at his old home in Mayslick. Return- ing to Cincinnati in 1807, he made it his home for life, although much of his time was spent as a professor in Kentucky. In 1817, became profes- sor of materia medica and medical botany in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky;

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November, 1820, founded and established the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, from which, after a bitter controversy, his connection was suddenly sundered, May 1822; resumed his professorship at Lexington, 1823-27; declined the professorship of medicine in the University of Vir- ginia, 1830; was professor in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, November, 1830-31 ; again in the Medical College of Ohio, 1831-32; founded a new medical school, as a department of Cincin- nati College, June, 1835-39; was professor in the Louisville Medical Institute, afterward known as the University of Louisville, 1839-49; when he resigned and accepted a chair in the Medical Col- lege of Ohio, 1849-50. In 1827, he became editor of the Western Medical and Physical Journal, through which he continued to write for many years. His "Notices concerning Cincinnati," pub- lished 1810, enlarged as "The Picture of Cincin- nati," 1815, were remarkable works. The great literary event of his life was his "Treatise on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America," published 1850, an original work, a wonderful monument to American medical science.

C HARLES F. WING was a captain at the battle of the Thames, and saw Tecumseh after he was slain. He was clerk of the Muhlen- berg courts from the organization of the county in 1798 to 1856-fifty-eight years; a longer period than any other man ever held a clerkship in Ken- tucky.

D ON CARLOS BUELL, major general of volunteers, United States army, was born in Ohio, 1818; graduated at West Point Academy, 1841; was appointed second lieutenant in Third Infantry, regular service; promoted first lieuten- ant, June, 1846; brevetted captain for gallantry at the battle of Monterey, September 23, 1846. His regiment subsequently served under General Scott on the southern line of operations in Mex- ico, where Buell distinguished himself at Churu- busco and Controras, and was brevetted major; in the latter battle he was severely wounded. He became assistant adjutant general with the rank of captain, January, 1848; relinquished his rank

in the line, March, 1851, and was employed in the duties of his office until 1861, when he assisted in organizing the army at Washington. He was ap- pointed brigadier general, and assigned to a divi- sion in the army of the Potomac, which soon be- came noted for its thorough discipline. In No- vember, 1861, he superseded General Sherman, then in command of the army of the Cumberland -which he reorganized as that of the Ohio, with headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky.

General Buell assumed command of this army (if army it could be called) at a critical period in Kentucky. Sherman had notified the govern- ment at Washington that two hundred thousand men were necessary for the campaign in the south- west. His opinion was hooted at; he was con- sidered a mad man, and this was the direct cause of his removal. Subsequent events justified his opinion and confirmed his sagacity. The people of Kentucky were divided, but at that period the sentiment for the South was intense and the pre- ponderance was against the North. The army had to be organized. There were few reliable troops, most of the regiments were new, and many of them incomplete. Above all this, it was the policy of the Federal government, then, to con- ciliate the people of Kentucky-not alone to pre- vent an outbreak, but to win them to the Union cause. This seemed at least to be the object of Mr. Lincoln's administration. Its bad faith be- came apparent afterward. General Buell was, therefore, expected to enact the part of the sol- dier and the statesman. He did both well. His moderate course, his kindness and courtesy to- wards the non-combatants who were necessarily sufferers by the armed occupation of the state, won the respect of the Southern sympathizers and commanded the admiration of the best friends of the Union cause. During the winter of 1861-62, he organized his troops for the advance move- ment, which was to drive the Confederates from the state. He submitted his plan for this purpose to General McClellan, then at the head of the army. It secured his approval; and the result was the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, the retreat of the Confederates from Bowling Green, and their subsequent evacuation of Nashville and ul- timate withdrawal south of Tennessee River.

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G EN. HENRY LEE, a native of Virginia, was one of the earliest pioneers who settled in the County of Mason. He was a man of con- siderable intelligence and remarkably strong nat- ural powers of mind. He was a member of the Virginia legislature from the district of Kentucky, and also of the convention which adopted the Federal constitution. He served in the conven- tion at Danville which met in 1787, and was one of the commissioners who located the seat of gov- ernment at Frankfort. He was county lieutenant for all the territory north of Licking River, and was appointed judge of the Quarter Sessions Court, and associate judge of the Circuit Court for Mason County, and was president of the Washington Branch of the old Bank of Ken- tucky. He came to Kentucky originally as a sur- veyor, and acted in that capacity for many years. He was a very sagacious man, of fine business habits, and by his position and great application, amassed a very large fortune. He was tall and powerfully made, very erect, and a man of re- markably fine and imposing personal appearance. He died October 24, 1845, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.

C OLONEL THOMAS MARSHALL, for- merly commander of the Third Virginia Regiment on continental establishment, subse- quently colonel of the regiment of Virginia artil- lery, during the Revolutionary war, was a gal- lant soldier-the friend and neighbor of Wash- ington. Being appointed surveyor-general of the lands in Kentucky appropriated by Virginia to the officers and soldiers of the Virginia state line, he emigrated with his wife, Fanny Keith, and part of his children, to Kentucky in the year 1785, coming down the Ohio river to Limestone (Mays- ville.) They had fifteen children: Seven sons- John (chief justice of the United States), Captain Thomas (first clerk of the Mason County Court, Kentucky, and a member of the convention which formed the second constitution of Kentucky), James M., Charles, William, Alexander Keith (reporter to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1818), and Dr. Louis (of Woodford County, Ken- tucky, father of Thomas F. and Edward. C., and president in 1855 of Washington College-now.

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 47

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726