USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 48
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Washington-Lee University-Lexington, Va.); and eight daughters-Elizabeth (wife of Raw- leigh Colston), Mary Ann or Polly (blind a con- siderable portion of her life, wife of Humphrey Marshall, United States senator from Kentucky, 1795-1801, and historian of Kentucky, 1812 and 1824), Judith (wife of George Brooke), Lucy (wife of Col. John Ambler), Susannah (wife of Judge William McClung), Charlotte (wife of Dr. Basil Duke), Jane (wife of George Keith Taylor), and Nancy (wife of Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daviess). John, and several brothers and sisters, remained in Virginia. The father died at his home in Woodford County, Kentucky, July, 1803.
G EN. CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY, son of General Green Clay, was born in Madison County, Kentucky, October 19, 1810; a graduate of Yale College, and a lawyer by profes- sion; elected to the Kentucky Legislature from his native county, in 1835, and again in 1837; removed to Fayette County, which he represented in the Legislature in 1840, but was defeated at the next election on account of his anti-slavery views. In 1844 he canvassed the Northern States and denounced the annexation of Texas as a scheme for the extension of slavery.
In 1845 he established at Lexington a paper, the True American, in the interest of the abolition or anti-slavery party.
L EWIS COLLINS, third son of Richard Col- lins, a soldier of the Virginia army of the Revolutionary war, was born on Christmas day, 1797, near Grant's Station, several miles north- east of Bryan's Station, in Fayette County, Ken- tucky. Left an orphan when quite a youth, he took his first lessons at practical printing under Joel R. Lyle, of the Paris Citizen, during the year 1813; and in 1814 accompanied his old friend and teacher, David V. Rannells, to Washington, in Mason County, and assisted him first in the pub- lication, and afterward in the editorial manage- ment of the Washington Union, until the fall of 1820.
On the Ist of November of that year he be- came proprietor and editor of the Maysville Eagle, a newspaper founded in 1814 by Richard and Joab
SIMON KENTON.
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Corwine, who sold it in 1817 to Aaron Crook- shanks, from whom Mr. Collins purchased in 1820. During the succeeding twenty-seven years, to No- vember 1, 1847, he remained the owner and editor of that paper-conducting it, in conjunc- tion with the book business, with much tact, ability, energy, and judgment. It was not only a financial success, but the Eagle exerted a wide influence for good over the whole community. It was a pure, truthful, elevated paper, conserva- tive in its political views, and filled with sound and valuable instruction, adapted to the intellectual, material, and moral wants of the people.
On the Ist of April, 1823, he was married to Mary Eleanor Peers, daughter of Major Valen- tine Peers (an officer of the Virginia army of the Revolution, who was with General Washington at Valley Forge) and sister of Rev. Benjamin O. Peers. She became a true helpmate, a devoted, tender wife and mother, and still survives him (1877), an example and blessing to all around her, one of the noblest of her sex, a true "mother in Israel."
In the same year he retired from the Eagle, he edited and published "Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky"-a work of rare research, and a most authentic and comprehensive history of Ken- tucky. He died at Lexington, Kentucky, on the 29th of January, 1870, aged seventy-two years.
C OLONEL JOHN SPEED SMITH, for forty years one of the leading lawyers and most prominent public men in Eastern Kentucky, was a native of Jessamine County, Kentucky; set- tled in Richmond when its bar was one of the ablest in the country, with Martin D. Hardin at its head, and rapidly rose to prominence; rep- resented Madison County in the Kentucky House of Representatives 1819, '27, '30, '39, '41 and '45, and in the Senate 1846-50; was speaker of the former body, 1827; a representative in Congress during Monroe's administration, 1821-23; ap- pointed by President J. Q. Adams secretary of legation to the United States Mission, sent to the South American Congress which was to assemble at Tacubaya; appointed by President Jackson United States attorney for the District of Ken- tucky; appointed by the Kentucky Legislature
January 5, 1839, as joint commissioner with ex- Governor James T. Morehead to visit the Ohio Legislature and solicit the passage of laws to pre- vent evil-disposed persons in that state from en- ticing away or assisting in the escape of slaves from Kentucky, and to provide more efficient means for recapturing fugitive slaves by their mas- ters or agents-which mission was entirely and handsomely successful. In the campaign of 1813, in the war with England and her Indian allies, he served as aide-de-camp to General Harrison, and proved himself a brave and vigilant officer.
G ENERAL SIMON KENTON was born of I obscure parents in Fauquier County, Vir- ginia, April 13, 1755. His father was an Irish- man; his mother of Scotch descent. The poverty of his parents caused his education to be neglected, most unfortunately for his future prosperity. His life, until he was sixteen years of age, appears to have run smoothly enough, distinguished by no uncommon events from that of the neighboring boys. About that age, however, a calamity befell him, which, apart from its irreparable nature, in the opinion of all young gentlemen of sixteen, gave a direction to his whole future life. He lost his sweetheart; not by death, or anything of that kind-for that could have been endured-but by means of a more favored rival. The successful lover's name was William Veach. Kenton, in utter despair and recklessness, having gone unin- vited to the wedding, and thrust himself between the happy pair (whom he found seated cosily on a bed), was pounced upon by Veach and his broth- ers, who gave him, in the language of such affairs, "what he wanted." They, however, had mistaken his wants, for, meeting William Veach a short time afterward in a retired place, he informed him that he was not satisfied. A severe fight ensued which, after varied success, terminated in the complete discomfiture of Veach. In the course of the con- test Kenton succeeded in entangling his antagon- ist's long hair in a bush, which put him entirely in his power. The desperate young man beat his rival with a severity altogether foreign to his sub- sequent amiable character. His violence appeared to be fatal; the unhappy man, bleeding at mouth and nose, attempted to rise, and fell back insensi-
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ble. Kenton was alarmed; he raised him up, spoke kindly to him, and receiving no answer, be- lieved him dead. He dropped his lifeless body and fled to the woods. Now, indeed, he thought himself ruined beyond redemption. He had lost the girl he loved, and had killed his former friend and companion, and therefore the society of civ- ilized man must be not only repulsive, but danger- ous. The Alleghanies and the wilderness of the unexplored west offered him a secure asylum, and he plunged at once into the woods. Travel- ing by night and lying concealed by day, after many sufferings, he arrived at Ise's ford, on Cheat River, some time in April, 1771. Here he changed his name to "Simon Butler." Thus, at the age of sixteen, this man, who, in the hands of the Al- mighty, was so instrumental in redeeming the great west from the savage, and opening the way for the stream of civilization which has since poured over its fertile plains, desolate in heart, and burdened with crime, was thrown upon his own resources, to struggle with the dangers and privations of the wilderness.
Kenton spent the winters of 1773-4 on the Big Sandy with a hunting party, and in the spring, when the war broke out with the Indians, he re- treated into Fort Pitt with the other settlers. When Lord Dunmore raised an army to punish the Indians Kenton volunteered, and was actively employed as a spy, both under the expedition of Dunmore and that of Colonel Lewis. In the fall he was discharged from the army, and returned, with Thomas Williams, to his old hunting grounds on Big Sandy River, where they passed the winter. In the spring of 1775, having disposed of their peltries to a French trader, whom they met on the Ohio, for such necessaries as their mode of life required, they descended the Ohio in search once more of the "cane land." Al- though Yeager was now dead, the impressions left upon the mind of Kenton by his glowing descriptions of Kain-tuck-ee, which Yeager had visited with the Indians when a boy and a prison- er, were still fresh and strong; and he determined to make another effort to find the country. For this purpose he and Williams were now descend- ing the Ohio. Accident at last favored them. While gliding along down "la belle riviere" (as
the French had christened it), night overtook the young adventurers, and they were compelled to land. They put in with their canoe at the mouth of Cabin Creek, situated in the present County of Mason, and about six miles above Maysville. Next morning, while hunting some miles back in the country, the ardently sought "cane" burst upon Kenton's view, covering land richer than any he had ever seen before. Overjoyed at this piece of good fortune he returned in haste to com- municate the joyful intelligence to Williams. Sink- ing their canoe, the pioneers, par excellence, of North Kentucky, struck into their new domain. In the month of May, 1775, within a mile of the present town of Washington, in Mason County, having built their camp and finished a small clear- ing, they planted about an acre of land with the remains of the corn bought from the French trader. The spot chosen by them for their agri- cultural attempt was one of the most beautiful and fertile in the State of Kentucky. Here, in due season, they ate the first roasting ears that ever grew by the care of a white man on the north side of the Kentucky River.
Kenton continued to range the country as a spy until June, 1778, when Major Clark came down the Ohio from Virginia with a small force, and landed at the Falls. Clark was organizing an ex- pedition against Okaw or Kaskaskia, and invited as many of the settlers at Boonesborough and Harrodsburg as desired to join him. The times were so dangerous that the women, especially in the stations, objected to the men going on such a distant expedition. Consequently, to the great mortification of Clark, only Kenton and Haggin left the stations to accompany him on this expedi- tion, so honorable to the enterprise of Virginia and the great captain and soldiers composing it, and so successful and happy in its results. After the fall of Kaskaskia, Kenton returned to Har- rodsburg by way of Vincennes, an accurate de- scription of which, obtained by three days' secret observation, he sent to Clark, who subsequently took that post.
Kenton, finding Boone about to undertake an expedition against a small town on Paint Creek, readily joined him. Inaction was irksome to the hardy youth in such stirring times; besides he
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had some melancholy reflections that he could only escape from in the excitement of danger and adventure.
The party, consisting of nineteen men, and commanded by Boone, arrived in the neighbor- hood of the Indian village. Kenton, who, as usual, was in advance, was startled by hearing loud peals of laughter from a cane brake just be- fore him. He scarcely had time to tree before two Indians, mounted upon a small pony, one facing the animal's tail and the other his head, totally unsuspicious of danger and in excellent spirits, made their appearance. He pulled trigger, and both Indians fell, one killed and the other severe- ly wounded. He hastened up to scalp his adver- saries, and was immediately surrounded by about forty Indians. His situation, dodging from tree to tree, was uncomfortable enough, until Boone and his party coming up, furiously attacked and defeated the savages. Boone immediately re- turned to the succor of his fort, having ascer- tained that a large war party had gone against it. Kenton and Montgomery, however, resolved to proceed to the village to get "a shot" and steal horses. They lay within good rifle distance of the village for two days and a night without seeing a single warrior; on the second night they each mounted a fine horse and put off to Kentucky, and the day after the Indians raised the siege of Boonesborough they cantered into the fort on their stolen property.
The winter of 1779-80 was a peaceful one to the Kentuckians, but in the spring the Indians and British invaded the country, having with them two pieces of cannon, by means of which two sta- tions, Martin's and Ruddle's, fell into their hands; whereupon the allied savages immediately re- treated.
When General Clark heard of the disaster he hastened from Vincennes to concert measures for present retaliation and the future safety of the set- tlements. Clark was no doubt one of the greatest men ever furnished by the west, of no ordinary military capacity. He believed the best way to prevent the depredations of the Indians was to carry the war into their own country, burning down their villages and destroying their corn, and thus give them sufficient employment to pre-
vent their incursions among the settlements o1 the south side of the river. Accordingly an expe- dition consisting of 1,100 of the hardiest and most courageous men that the most adventurous age of our history could furnish, inured to hardships and accustomed to the Indian mode of fighting, assembled at the mouth of the Licking. Kenton commanded a company of volunteers from Har- rod's Station, and shared in all the dangers and success of this little army. Commanded by Clark and piloted by one of the most expert woodsmen and the greatest spy of the west, Simon Kenton, the Kentuckians assailed the savages in their dens with complete success.
General Kenton lived in his quiet and obscure home to the age of eighty-one, beloved and re- spected by all who knew him; 29th of April, 1836, in sight of the place where the Indians, fifty-eight years before, proposed to torture him to death, he breathed his last, surrounded by his family and neighbors and supported by the consolation of the gospel.
JAMES GUTHRIE, LL.D., was born near Bardstown, Kentucky, December 5, 1792, and died in Louisville, March 13, 1869, aged seventy- six. Failing health, during several years, had compelled him, in February, 1868, to resign his seat in the United States senate, he being the oldest of the members of that body. He was educated at Bardstown Academy, and before he was grown became a flat-boat or produce mer- chant to New Orleans; afterwards studied law in the office of Judge John Rowan, and practiced in Nelson County; was made commonwealth's attorney in 1820; soon after, removed to Louis- ville, and obtained a lucrative practice; was a representative from Jefferson County in 1827, '28, '29, and from the city of Louisville in 1830, and senator from 1831-40; early in his political career was shot by an opponent, the wound confining him for three years to his bed; was a member of the convention which formed the present con- stitution of Kentucky, 1849, and its presiding of- ficer; secretary of the treasury in President Pierce's cabinet, 1853-57; a candidate before the Charleston Democratic Convention for the presi- dency, 1860, and a delegate to the Democratic
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National Convention in Chicago, 1864; elected by the Kentucky legislature a delegate to the Peace Convention which assembled at Washing- ton City just before the outbreak of the Civil war, 1861, and afterwards was a delegate to the Border State Convention at Frankfort, 1861; United States senator from Kentucky, 1865-71, but resigned 1868, as above; was an earnest and consistent Union man during the war, and a mem- ber of the Union National Convention at Phila- delphia, 1866.
H UMPHREY MARSHALL, the United States senator, was born in Virginia, the son of John Marshall and Jane Quisenberry, who were humble in fortune, and raised a large fam- ily. He had three children: John J., Thomas A., and a daughter who was killed by lightning in infancy, in Woodford County. The two broth- ers were well known to the people of Kentucky as men of ability, chiefly signalized by their judi- cial and political labors; for both were judges for many years, and both were repeatedly elected by the people to political stations. They were men of high mental culture, genial disposition and great amiability of character. They had early advantages of education, John having taken the first honors at Princeton College, New Jersey, while Thomas graduated with distinction at Yale. They entered life, each with a fortune which was colossal at the time, and each ran a career of great distinction. John represented Franklin County in the lower house of the legislature in 1815 and 1833, and in the senate, 1820-24; and was a judge of the Louisville Circuit Court for many years. John J. Marshall in 1809 married Anna Reed Birney, daughter of James Birney of Danville, niece of Thomas B. Reed, United States senator from Mississippi, 1826-27, '29, and sister of James G. Birney, who was for several times the "Liberty" candidate for President of the United States.
T THOMAS A. MARSHALL was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, January 15, 1794, and died in Louisville, April 16, 1871, aged seventy-seven. When a boy, he spent some time in Washington City, while his father was United
States senator. One day, dressed in homespun, he climbed up one of the huge posts in the vesti- bule of the old capitol and wrote his name. Some one inquired what he was doing. "I am writing my name," he replied, "and I want to see if it will be here when I come to Congress." He was but seven years old. In 1831-35 he came to Congress, from the Paris and Maysville District, but the name written in infancy had been painted out. He had previously, 1827, '28, represented Bour- bon County in the Kentucky house of repre- sentatives, as he did the City of Louisville, 1863-65. From April, 1835, to August, 1856, and for a short period in 1866, he was upon the Court of Appeals bench, and from 1847-51, 1854-56, and in 1866 was chief justice. His claim to great- ness and renown will be found in the twenty-four volumes of Kentucky Reports from 3d Dana to 17th Ben Monroe. From 1836, when he removed to Lexington, to 1849, he was a professor in Transylvania Law School. In November, 1816, he married Miss Price of Lexington, a niece of Mrs. Henry Clay. Several of their sons have attained distinction, Colonel Thomas A. Marshall of Charleston, Illinois, and Judge Charles Mar- shall of Paducah, Kentucky.
G ENERAL HUMPHREY MARSHALL was educated at West Point Military Acad- emy, New York, graduating in June, 1832, and promoted, upon his graduation, to the rank of second lieutenant in the army. His brief service in the army enabled him to make his mark, as will appear by the records of the War Depart- mental correspondence, for General Cass, then secretary of war, expressed officially the desire of the Government to retain him in the army, and offered to place him in any of the branches of the service he would prefer. Lieutenant Marshall had been mentioned honorably in the dispatches of Major General Winfield Scott, then in campaign against Black Hawk and the Sac Indians of the Northwest. But the country being in a state of profound peace, Mr. Marshall preferred to try his fortune in civic life. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1833. He settled at Louisville, in November, 1834. In 1836, he was elected by the people of his ward to the city coun-
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cil, and was then elected to a captaincy of volun- teers, called out by President Jackson to march to the Sabine to defend the frontiers of Louisiana against the approaching army of Santa Anna. He quit his profession and municipal honors to ac- cept this new military position; but the battle of San Jacinto settled the fate of Texas, and ren- dered the march of these volunteers unnecessary.
In 1837, he became a candidate for the Ken- tucky legislature, and was defeated by Hon. S. S. Nicholas, who had just retired from the bench of the Court of Appeals, and whose services were demanded by the banks to insure the renewal of their charters, which they had forfeited by sus- pending specie payments in May, 1837. The can- vass was quite animated. It was with difficulty, and only after a considerable expenditure of means, the defeat of Mr. Marshall was secured. It was the commencement of his political life; it was the beginning and end of that of his com- petitor.
Captain Marshall now, for the first time, sedu- lously addressed himself to his profession, and his increase of practice was the token of success. The Louisville bar was very strong-embracing such men as Guthrie, Thruston, Duncan, Benham, Loughborough, Pirtle, Field, Thomas Q. Wilson, Wat Wilson, and others, all in active practice; it was with difficulty younger lawyers struggled to the surface. The opening of the Mexican war in 1846 again drew Marshall away from his pro- fession, to accept the command of the Kentucky cavalry regiment, which was mustered into the United States service at Louisville, June 9, 1846. Colonel Marshall embarked for Memphis early in July with his regiment, and marched thence, over- land, to Mexico, arriving on the Rio Grande in November. At the memorable battle of Buena Vista the tide of adverse fortune was checked by the charge of the Kentucky cavalry.
On being mustered out of service, June 9, 1847, Colonel Marshall returned to Louisville. He was nominated for the state senate in September, 1847, but declined; and removed to Henry County, to try his fortune as a farmer. He was nominated as the Whig candidate for Congress from the Louisville district, in 1849, and elected, after a violent contest, by sixty-five votes, over Dr. New-
ton Lane, the Democratic candidate. He was re-elected, in 1851, over Governor David Merri- wether, by a handsome majority-though Hon. Archie Dixon, the Whig candidate for Gov- ernor, failed to carry the district by more than two hundred votes. The death of General Taylor and accession of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency opened a schism in the Whig party upon the sec- tional questions which afterward led to the Civil war under Lincoln's administration. Colonel Marshall took an active part in favor of "The Compromise Measures of 1850," and his course was enthusiastically sustained by his constituency.
In June, 1852, a vacancy occurred on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States by the death of Hon. John McKinley, to which the Lou- isville bar, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and the Kentucky delegation in Congress, of both parties, recommended Colonel Marshall. Several delegations from the western and southern states added their recommendations. President Fill- more was anxious to make the appointment, but was prevented from so doing by an adminis- trative rule adopted by him at the time of Judge Woodbury's death, which limited the successor of a justice to the district to which the deceased had been assigned. This rule had been applied in the case of Postmaster General Hall, and now ex- cluded Colonel Marshall. Mr. Fillmore tendered him the appointment of minister to the five states of Central America, which was declined. In August, 1852, he appointed him commissioner to China, with powers plenipotentiary, and Congress passed an act highly complimentary which raised the mission to the first class, after Colonel Mar- shall's appointment was confirmed by the senate. He left on the 2d of October, 1852, for England, and made his way to China, taking France and Italy in his journey, touching at Malta, and tra- versing the Egyptian desert between Cairo and Suez-an excellent opportunity of seeing what was notable in the Old World. He arrived at Canton, in China, about the first of April, 1853, and at once steamed on to Shanghai, where he resided as minister until 1854.
In 1855 he was returned by his old constituency to Congress, by a majority of more than 2,500, over Colonel William Preston, who had been
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elected during Colonel Marshall's absence from the country. This canvass was peculiarly ani- mated, for the competitors were men of acknowl- edged talents, and the subject matter of discussion -Knownothingism-was new to the disputes of the political arena. Colonel Marshall was re- elected to Congress by some 1,800 majority, in 1857, over Mr. Holt; but the canvass was one of mere form-the result not doubtful from the be- ginning of it. In 1859 he was nominated by accla- mation for re-election, but, not relishing the plat- form upon which the party convention placed him, he declined.
Colonel Marshall formed a partnership with ex- United States Senator James Cooper, of Penn- sylvania, for the purpose of taking cases before the Supreme Court, before the Court of Claims, and the Departments of Washington City, until 1860.
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