History of Kentucky United States of America

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Local History Notes:

KENTUCKY, one of the Western states, and the second admitted into the confederacy after the Revolution, is bounded on the N. W. and N. by Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, (from which it is separated by the Ohio river,) E. by the Big Sandy river and Cumberland mountains, which divide it from Virginia; S. by Tennessee, and W. by the Mississippi river, which runs between it and Missouri. Kentucky lies between 36° 30' and 39° 10' N. lat., and between 81° 50' and 89° 26' W. lon., being about 300 miles in length, from E. to W., about 180 in its greatest, and 150 in average width, and including an area of nearly 37,680 square miles, or 24,115,200 acres, of which 11,368,270 were improved in 1850.

Population: The population of Kentucky was originally derived from Virginia and North Carolina, and has always been noted for its stalwart forms, frank and manly bearing, for gallantry in the field, and fondness for humor. The number of inhabitants in 1790 was 73,077; 220,955 in 1800; 406,511 in 1810; 564,317 in 1820; 687,917 in 1830; 779,828 in 1840; and 982,405 in 1850-of whom 392,810 were white males, 368,607 white females, 4863 free colored males, 5144 free colored females; 105,044 male, and 105,937 female slaves. This population is divided among 132,920 families, occupying 130,769 dwellings. Representative population, 898,012. Of the free population, 601,764 were born in the state; 130,117 in other states of the Union, 2805 in England, 9466 in Ireland, 854 in Scotland and Wales, 275 in British America, 13,607 in England, 1116 in France, 1066 in other countries, and 1354 whose places of birth were unknown, making about 4 per cent of the free population of foreign birth. In the year ending June 1, 1850, there occurred 15,206 deaths, or about 12 persons in every 1000; and in the same period, 1126 paupers received aid, of whom 155 were foreigners, at an expense of about $51 to the individual. There were 539 deaf and dumb, of whom 4 were free colored, and 50 slaves; 530 blind, of whom 19 were free colored, and 90 slaves; 507 insane, of whom 3 were free colored, and 16 slaves; and 849 idiotic, of whom 20 were free colored, and 80 slaves.

Counties: Kentucky is divided into 100 counties, viz. Adair, Allen, Anderson, Ballard, Barren, Bath, Boone, Bourbon, Boyle, Breathitt, Bracken, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Butler, Caldwell, Callaway, Campbell, Carroll, Carter, Casey, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crittendon, Cumberland, Davies, Edmonson, Estill, Fayette, Fleming, Floyd, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Garrard, Grant, Graves, Grayson, Greene, Greenup, Hancock, Hardin, Harlan, Harrison, Hart, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Hopkins, Jefferson, Jessamine, Kenton, Knox, Laurel, La Rue, Lawrence, Letcher, Lewis, Lincoln, Livingston, Logan, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McCracken, Meade, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Muhlenburg, Nelson, Nicholas, Ohio, Oldham, Owen, Owsley, Pendleton, Perry, Pike, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Russell, Scott, Shelby, Simpson, Spencer, Taylor, Todd, Trigg, Trimble, Union, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Whitley, Woodford. Capital, Frankfort.

Cities and Towns: Louisville is the largest and most commercial town, population in 1850, 43,194; (in 1853, 51,726;) the other most populous towns are Lexington, population, about 12,000; Copington, 9408; Newport, 5895; Maysville, 3840; Frankfort, (in 1853,) 5000, and Paducah, population, 2428.

Face of the Country: The Cumberland mountains form the S. E. boundary of the state, and several outlying ridges traverse the south-eastern counties, but none of them are of great elevation, being probably under 2000 feet. Passing westward, the central and northern counties are hilly, or undulating, but those west of the Cumberland river are mostly level. A range of hills runs nearly parallel with the Ohio river, with intervals of bottom land between it and the river, sometimes having a breadth of 10 or even 20 miles.

Geology: This state partakes of the carboniferous rocks characteristic of the Mississippi valley. The strata, which are composed of sedimentary rocks, lie all nearly horizontal, or with very little dip, verging from Cincinnati as a centre. The blue limestone is the lowest rock in Kentucky exposed to the surface, mostly mixed with clay and magnesia, the latter is found sometimes in large quantities. It forms the surface rock in a large part of Kentucky adjacent to the state of Ohio, extending S. E. from Dayton to Danville, and E. from Madison to Maysville. Those strata extend to a probable depth of 1000 feet, and, where the rivers have cut down through them, present perpendicular cliffs, which, in the Kentucky river near Frankfort, are nearly 500 feet high. These yield an inferior marble, suitable for building; but, though capable of a high polish, it is liable to fracture. The cliff limestone overlies the blue limestone in a belt of about 20 or 30 miles in width, between Louisville (where it forms the rapids in the Ohio) and Madison, extending N. E. by N. to Niagara Falls, and N. W. into Illinois and Iowa. The slate rests upon the cliff limestone, and passes, in a semicircular direction, (as a surface rock,) in a belt of only about 20 miles in width, just outside the cliff limestone above described, forming part of a large curve extending from the N. E. of Illinois to the centre of New York; and abounding in pyrites, iron ores, and mineral springs. Overlying the slate, but outside of the belt mentioned, is the sand or freestone, which forms a line of hills from Louisville round by Danville and back to the Ohio, near Portsmouth, where it is about 350 feet thick. One striking feature of this state is its limestone caverns, of which the celebrated Mammoth cave is an example; but besides which there are numberless smaller ones. This formation, occupying about a fourth of the state, is located south-west from the centre and thence to the southern border between Monroe county and Cumberland river, and is bounded on the N. E. by the Rolling Fork of Salt river. This limestone furnishes a valuable building material, which is sent down the Mississippi in considerable quantities. Throughout this region occur "sinks," where the streams sink below the surface, and run, for great distances, in subterraneous channels. In parts of this limestone region there is a scarcity of spring-water, resulting from the cavernous nature of the ground. Resting on the cavernous limestone is the conglomerate, or pudding stone, which underlies the coal series, and occupies two regions in Kentucky, the one in the E. and S. E. of the state, and the other on the Green river counties, extending to the Ohio and beyond the mouth of the Green river. Both districts may cover 10,000 or 12,000 square miles. Great quantities of organic remains are found in all the strata of Kentucky.

Minerals: Kentucky abounds in bituminous coal, which, though not yet extensively mined, crops out of the river banks and hillsides, indicating its localities, when the scarcity of wood or the increase of manufactures may call for its use. The amount of iron manufactured in 1850 was about 33,000 tons, a small quantity in proportion to the abundance of the raw material which exists in the state. Lead, iron pyrites, marble, (on the cliffs of the Kentucky river,) freestone, gypsum, conglomerate, and cliff limestone are the other minerals. Salt and medicinal springs are particularly numerous in this state. The salt licks, so famous in the hunter's vocabulary, are names given to the vicinity of the salt springs, where the buffalo and other wild animals have licked the ground, and almost eaten it, so as to present a bare space for some distance around: See Objects of Interest to Tourists. Salt is extensively manufactured from these springs, and large quantities of saltpetre were procured from the Mammoth cave during the war of 1812.

Rivers: Kentucky is washed along the entire extent of her northern boundary by the Ohio river, which gives her a steamboat navigation of more than 600 miles, and opens to her the inland commerce of the Ohio valley. The great Mississippi in like manner coasts her western limits, and gives Kentucky access to the trade of the immense valley which bears its name. The Cumberland river rises in the S. E. part of the state, makes a bend into Tennessee, and returning, crosses the western part of Kentucky, and flows into the Ohio. It is about 600 miles long, and is navigable for steamboats to Nashville, and sometimes to Carthage, while keel-boats ascend still higher. The Tennessee has its mouth and about 70 miles of its course in that part of the state west of the Cumberland river. It is navigable for steamboats far beyond the limits of Kentucky. The other rivers, commencing at the east, are the Licking, Kentucky, Salt, and Green. These have N. W. courses, varying from 100 to 350 miles, of which, in the order they are named, except the Licking, there are severally navigable for steamboats 62, 35, and 150 miles, while keel-boats may ascend them to a still greater distance. The Big Sandy, a tributary of the Ohio, (as are all the important streams of Kentucky,) forms the eastern boundary for about 100 miles, of which 50 are navigable.

Objects of Interest to Tourists: No Western State probably presents so great a variety of objects to interest the lover of nature, as Kentucky; whether we regard mere picturesqueness, or the wild and more striking deviations from the ordinary course of creation. Prominent among these, and perhaps first among the subterranean caverns of the globe, stands the Mammoth cave, in Edmondson county, S. of the middle of the state. In the extent and number of its chambers, in the length of its galleries, and its variety of interesting objects, such as streams, mounds, stalactites, stalagmites, &c., it has no equal. It is said to have been explored for ten miles (part of that distance in a boat, on a deep river, inhabited by white, eyeless fish) without giving any indications of coming to a termination. If its lateral branches are included, you have an extent of probably 40 miles of cavernous windings. Stalactites of ponderous size hang from the vaults, formed by the droppings from the limestone roofs and gigantic stalagmites bristle the floors of these immense chambers; one of which called the Temple, is stated to occupy an area of two acres, and to be covered by a single dome of solid rock, 120 feet high. Consumptive patients sometimes resort hither and reside in the cave for weeks together, to be improved by its equable temperature. Human bones are found, indicating its having been a place of sepulture to former races inhabiting the country. There are a number of other caves, that would attract attention in any other vicinity, viz. in Allen, Barren, Bourbon, Breckinridge, Christian, Hart, Knox, Meade, Jessamine, Rockcastle, Union, Warren, Wayne, and Whitley counties, These caves occur in the limestone formations, in a rough but not mountainous district. Goodrich thus describes the sinks: "In this state are also many singular cavities or depressions in the surface of the ground, called sinkholes. They are commonly in the shape of inverted cones, 60 or 70 feet in depth, and from 60 to 300 feet in circuit at the top. Their sides and bottoms are generally covered with willows and aquatic productions. The ear can often distinguish the sound of waters flowing under them, and it is believed that there are perforations in the bed of limestone below the soil, which have caused the earth above to sink. Sometimes the ground has been opened, and disclosed a subterraneous stream of water. Considerable streams disappear in several places, and afterwards rise again to the surface, at some distance below." The most remarkable of these is Sinking creek, in Breckinridge county, where a stream, a few miles from its source, sinks beneath the earth, and does not reappear for 5 or 6 miles. We condense from Collins' Kentucky, the following descriptions: Near Munfordville, in Hart county, is a remarkable spring, which is connected with a millpond, the waters of which, at about 12 o'clock each day, rise 12 or 15 inches, overflow the dam, and recede to their ordinary level, with all the regularity of the tides. Six miles E. of the same village is a hole, shaped like an inverted cone, 70 feet in diameter at the top, but diminished to 10 or 12 at the depth of 25 or 30 feet. A stone thrown into this ambles down the sides without returning any sound indicating its having touched the bottom. In the same vicinity, near the top of an elevation called Frenchman's Knob, commences a hole or sink, which has been descended 275 feet by means of a rope, without finding bottom. The Devil's Pulpit, in Jessamine county, on the Kentucky river, is a rocky eminence, 300 feet high. The last 100 feet of this rock is an oblong shaft, resembling an inverted candlestick, the top of which forms the pulpit, and is 15 feet across. A natural bridge, 30 feet high, and 60 feet in span, in Christian county, is located in the midst of romantic scenery. Dismal rock, in Edmonson county, on Dismal creek, has a perpendicular elevation of 163 feet. Cumberland gap, in Knox county, is the passage of the river of that name, between cliffs of 1300 feet elevation, through the Cumberland mountains. There are also in Kentucky a variety of mineral and medicinal springs. Of the latter, Harrodsburg Springs, in Mercer county, 35 miles S. of Frankfort, is the most fashionable watering-place in the West. Sulphates and carbonates of magnesia, sulphates of soda and lime, carbonate of lime, sulphuretted hydrogen, and iron are yielded by an analysis of its waters. The Blue Lick springs, scarcely inferior to these in reputation, are situated in Nicholas county, 70 miles N. E. from the capital. The waters are very extensively exported to different parts of the United States. In Clinton county, on the top of Poplar mountain, whose elevation is from 1000 to 1500 feet above the valleys, are three chalybeate springs. This spot unites to healing waters the invigorating air of the mountains, and the charm of beautiful scenery, to invite the invalid to its locality. A fine waterfall, of 90 feet perpendicular pitch, on Indian creek, is in this neighbourhood. Our limits will permit us merely to name the falls of Kentick's creek, and Rock House, in Cumberland county; Pilot Rock, in Christian county; Indian Rock, in Edmonson county; Flat Rock and Anvil Rock, in Union county; and the cliffs of the Kentucky and Dick rivers, in Mercer county. Both the antiquarian and geologist may gratify their taste within the domains of Kentucky. For the former are numerous mounds and fortifications, erected, it is supposed, at a period antecedent to the race who possessed the country before the Europeans arrived. The most remarkable of these is a fortification in Allen county, 17 miles from Bowling Green, where a wall of solid limestone, 200 yards in length, 40 feet high, 30 feet thick at the base, and 6 feet wide at the top, crosses a neck formed by a bend in Drake's creek, and encloses a peninsula of 200 acres, elevated 100 feet above the river. On the top of this natural mound is an area of 3 acres, enclosed by a wall and a ditch, forming one of the strongest fortresses in the world. Similar works, with mounds of different sizes within and around them, which entomb human bones, beads, trinkets, and copper implements and ornaments, are found in Barren, Bourbon, La Rue, Montgomery, Spencer, Boone, and Warren counties. For the geologist, besides the examinations of its different strata of rocks, there are at Bigbone Licks, in Boone county, deposits of immense bones of extinct mastodons, which had no doubt been drawn hither by the saline waters, and perhaps perished in fierce combats with each other at the springs, leaving their skeletons to form a page in the book of the geologist. Some of these bones have found their way into the cabinets of the savans of this country and Europe. Other fossil remains are found in Bourbon county; and in Union county are impressions of the feet of human beings and dogs, imbedded in a rock near Morganfield. Human bones have been found in caves in many parts of the state.

Climate: Kentucky enjoys in her climate a happy medium between the severity of the Northern states and the enervating heats of the South, having but two or three months' winter, with mild springs and autumns. It is milder than the same latitude on the Atlantic side of the Alleghanies, but subject to sudden changes.

Soil and Productions: In the fertility of its soil, Kentucky rivals the most favored parts of the great Mississippi valley. Perhaps no district in the United States surpasses that around Lexington, both for the richness of the soil and the picturesqueness of "its lay," if we may be allowed the use of the term. "View the country," says Tilson, "round from the heads of the Licking, the Ohio, the Kentucky, Dick's, and down the Green river, and you have 100 miles square of the most extraordinary country on which the sun has ever shone." The soil is mostly a black mould, without sand, and often two or three feet deep. Kentucky is generally well timbered, and in parts the cane grows to a height of 12 feet, forming extensive canebrakes, so dense that it is often difficult to pass through them. In short, there is but little of this state that is not capable of cultivation. The Barrens, so called, in the S. part of the state, and about the head-waters of the Green river, are very unjustly named, as, with the exception of a few sterile elevations, they are, when in a state of nature covered with pasture. But for an injudicious system of culture, Kentucky must have been, in proportion to its area, one of the leading agricultural states of the Union. Its staple products are Indian corn, tobacco, flax, and hemp, besides which large quantities of wheat, rye, oats, wool, peas, beans, Irish and sweet potatoes, barley, fruits, market products, butter, cheese, hey, grass-seeds, maple sugar, beeswax, and honey, and some buckwheat, rice, wine, hops, cotton, silk, and sugar-cane are produced. Of these articles, Kentucky raises more flax and hemp than any other state; is second only to Virginia in the amount of tobacco produced; and, if we regard population and area relatively, greater even than that state. It is also the second in the yield of Indian corn, Ohio being the first. In 1850 there were in this state 74,777 farms, occupying 11,368,270 acres of improved land, less than half the area of the state, and giving about 150 acres to each farm. There were produced 2,140,822 bushels of wheat; 415,073 of rye; 58,675,591 of Indian corn; 8,201,311 of oats; 202,574 of peas and beans; 1,492,487 of Irish potatoes; 998,184 of sweet potatoes; 95,343 of barley; 16,097 of buckwheat; 75,579 of flaxseed; 24,681 of grass-seed; 55,501,196 pounds of tobacco; 303,200 of cotton; 2,297,403 of wool; 9,877,868 of butter; 213,784 of cheese; 7,793,123 of flax; 437,345 of maple sugar; 284,000 of cane sugar; 1,156,939 of beeswax and honey; 113,655 tons hay; 55,692 of hemp; live stock valued at $29,591,387; orchard products at $106,160; market products at $293,120, and slaughtered animals at $6,469,318.

Forest Trees: Kentucky, at its first settlement, was one of the best wooded of the Western states. The natural growth of the state includes the black walnut, oak, chestnut, buckeye, sugar-tree, elm, papaw, honey-locust, mulberry, ash, yellow poplar, coffee-tree, cottonwood, and whitethorn. The fruit-trees are the apple, pear, plum, and peach. White grapes are abundant.

Manufactures: Kentucky is not yet largely engaged in manufactures, though the amount of capital invested in this branch of industry is considerable. In 1850 there were in the state 3471 establishments, each producing $500 and upwards annually, and homemade manufactures were fabricated of the value of $2,487,493. Large quantities of coarse bagging are made from hemp, and sent South for packing cotton. Of the manufacturing establishments named above, 8 were cotton factories, employing $239,000 capital, and 181 male and 221 female hands, consuming raw material worth $180,907, and producing 1,003,000 yards of stuffs, and 433,000 pounds of yarn, valued at $394,700; 25 woollen factories, employing $249,820 capital, and 256 male and 62 female hands, consuming raw material worth $205,287, and producing 878,034 yards of stuffs, valued at $318,819; 45 forges, furnaces, &c., employing $1,602,900 capital, and 2586 male hands, consuming raw material worth $736,485, and producing 33,203 tons of cast, wrought, and pig iron; 275 tanneries, employing $763,455 capital, consuming raw material worth $537,147, and producing leather valued at $985,267; and $168,895 capital employed in the manufacture of malt and spirituous liquors, consuming 65,650 bushels of barley, 551,350 of Indian corn, 30,520 of rye, 5000 of apples, and 18 tons of hops, producing 19,500 barrels of ale, &c., and 1,491,745 gallons of whiskey, wine, &c.

Internal Improvements: Although Kentucky has not kept pace with her sister states N. of the Ohio river in constructing works of inter-communication, yet she has not been inattentive to the importance of cheap and expeditious means of transport for her valuable products. In January, 1853, there were 94 miles of railroad in operation, and 661 in course of construction. Those completed connect the capital with her commercial metropolis, Louisville, and with Lexington. Those projected are to connect Louisville with the Chattanooga, Danville, and Jeffersonville, Covington with Lexington, and Maysville with Big Sandy river and Danville. There were recently in Kentucky, (according to De Bow's "Internal Resources of the South and West,") 400 miles of turnpike, and 290 of slackwater navigation. The United States government has constructed a canal round the rapids of the Ohio at Louisville, through which small steamboats pass at low water. Though only 1½ miles long, its construction cost $750,000. It is 200 feet wide at the top, 50 at the bottom, and has 22 feet of lockage. Plank-roads are beginning to claim attention in this state, as elsewhere in the United States: See Table of Railroads, APPENDIX.

Commerce: Kentucky carries on an active trade with New Orleans and other towns on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Most of her rivers are navigable to a considerable distance for steamboats, and still farther for flatboats. The exports are hemp, salt beef, pork, bacon, butter, cheese, hogs, horses, and mules. Large numbers of the last two are annually driven east to the Atlantic States for sale. Cotton bagging and hemp cordage are also extensive articles of export. In 1852 there were built in Kentucky 27 steamboats, with an aggregate tonnage of 7312 7/9 7/5. The tonnage owned in the state the same year was 11,818 8/9 0/5, and the foreign exports $185,559. In 1853, Louisville owned a steam marine of 26 vessels, and a tonnage of 14,529, all high-pressure.

Education: There is a state school fund, which amounted in December, 1851, to $1,400,270, and which yields an income of about $75,000. The number of children reported for 1851, was 186,111; but the average attendance at school was only 74,343. Children in the state, between 5 and 16, 205,557. Total raised for schools by tax and state appropriations, $111,666.60. There were 8 colleges in 1852, with an aggregate of 656 students, and 37,700 volumes in their libraries; 1 theological school, with 18; 2 law schools, with 125; and 2 medical schools, with 590 students; showing a larger number of law and medical students (in colleges) than in any other state South or West: See Table of Colleges, APPENDIX.

Religious Denominations: Of the 1818 churches in Kentucky in 1850, 789 were owned by different sects of Baptists; 112 by the Christians; 117 by the Episcopalians; 32 by the Free Church; 522 by the Methodists; 222 by the Presbyterians; 15 by the Protestant Church; 48 by the Roman Catholics; and 31 by the Union Church. The rest were owned by the African Church, German Protestant, Jews, Lutherans, Republicans, Shakers, Tunkers, Unitarians, and Universalists; giving 1 church to every 540 persons. Value of church property, $2,260,098: See Table of Religions, APPENDIX.

Public Institutions: Kentucky has not been unmindful of her unfortunate children, for 249 of whom a state lunatic asylum at Lexington afforded shelter and medical aid in 1852; a deaf and dumb asylum at Danville instructed 67 mute and deaf, and a blind school at Louisville, 35 sightless pupils. A second lunatic asylum is nearly finished at Hopkinsville, at a cost of $180,000. The state penitentiary at Frankfort confined 166 prisoners in the same year. This is conducted on a plan somewhat peculiar, being farmed out to keepers, who pay to the state two-thirds of the profits, guaranteeing that they shall not fall short of $5000 annually. Each prisoner is furnished with a suit of clothes and $5 at his dismissal.

Government, Finances, &c: The governor of Kentucky is elected by the people for four years, and receives $2500 per annum. The senate consists of 38 members, elected for 4, and the house of representatives of 100 members, elected for 2 years. The judiciary consists: 1. Of a court of appeals, composed of one chief and 4 associate judges. 2. Of a court of chancery, presided over by a single chancellor; and, 3. Of 12 circuit courts. The judges of the court of appeals and the chancellor each receive $1500 per annum, and the circuit judges $1400. All these officers are elective. Kentucky is entitled to 10 members in the national house of representatives, and to 12 electoral votes for president of the United States. The assessed value of property, real and personal, in this state in 1851, was $317,082,604; the public debt in 1852, $5,726,038; productive property, $6,000,000, and ordinary expenses, exclusive of debt and schools $250,000. The receipts for the fiscal year ending October 1851 were $738,245.52, and expenditures $733,653.40. The receipts of the sinking fund for the payment of the public debt for the same time, were $531,044.54. The banking capital of Kentucky, in January, 1853, was $7,656,700, a circulation of 88,889,101, and $3,634,043 in coin.

History: The name of Kentucky (the dark and bloody ground) is an epitome of her early history, of her dark and bloody conflicts with a wily and savage foe. This state was formerly included in the territory of Virginia, to which it belonged till 1792. It was originally explored by, and the theatre of many of the daring exploits of the far-famed Daniel Boone and his compeers, about the year 1769, at or near which date Boonsborough was settled. Harrodsburg was founded in 1774, and Lexington a year or two after, probably while the news of the battle of that name was fresh in the minds and hearts of its founders. The first court was held at Harrodsburg in 1777. The first settlers were much annoyed By incursions and attacks of the Indians. The state owes: its name not merely to the Indian forays upon the whites, but to its being the grand battle-ground between the northern and southern Indians. There was a period of discontent subsequent to the Revolution, and previous to the admission of Kentucky into the federal union in 1792, caused partly by the inefficiency of the protection afforded by Virginia and the old federal Congress against the inroads of the savages, and partly by a distrust lest the central government should surrender the right to navigate the Mississippi to its mouth. The most important battle ever fought on the soil of Kentucky since it has been in the possession of the white race was that fought between the Indians and the Kentuckians, on the 19th of August, 1782, near the Blue Lick Springs. The celebrated Colonel Boone bore a prominent part in this engagement, in which he lost a son. The whites numbered only 182, while the savages were twice or thrice that number. The combat resulted in the rout of the Kentuckians, and a loss of 60 killed and wounded. Thus ended the most disastrous conflict in which the whites had been engaged with the aborigines since the defeat of Braddock. Kentucky was the central scene of the imputed intrigues of Aaron Burr and his coadjutors to form a western republic. The Kentuckians, however, frank and brave in character, were not the material from which to manufacture rebels-nor the state that gave Henry Clay to the national councils, one to foster disunionists. Kentucky has been largely and effectively represented in the war with Great Britain in 1812, and in the more recent conflicts with Mexico in 1846 and 1847.

Biographies:

Preston Hopkins Leslie, governor of Kentucky, was born in Clinton county, Ky., March 2, 1819; son of Vachael H. and Sallie (Hopkins) Leslie, and grandson of Vachael Leslie, and of Dennis Hopkins, soldiers in the American Revolution. He was educated in the old-field schools and the academy at Columbia, Ky., and worked as a common laborer until 1835 when he became a clerk first in a store and then in the county clerk's of rice. He studied law under Rice Maxey and practised in Monroe county, Ky., 1840-42, and in Jackson county, 1842-58. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1844-46; state senator, 1851-55, and from Barren county, 1867-71, serving as speaker of the senate, 1869-71. On the rseignation of Governor Stevenson, Feb. 13, 1871, to take his seat in the U.S. senate, Speaker Leslie became ex officio governor of Kentucky and was inaugurated for the balance of Senator Stevensoh's term. He was elected governor as his own successor Aug. 7, 1871, his term expiring September, 1875. He practised law in Glasgow, Barren county, 1875-81; was judge of the circuit court, 1881-87; governor of Montana Territory, 1887-89, and U.S. attorney for the district of Montana, 1894-98. In 1898 he resumed the practice of law in Helena, Mont.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Martin D. Hardin, senator, was born on Monongahela river, Pa., June 21, 1780; son of Lieut. John Hardin. He was educated at Transylvania seminary and practised law in Franklin county, Ky., where he represented his county in the state legislature for several terms and in 1812 was secretary of the state. He was major of a Kentucky regiment in Gen. W. H. Harrison's army, 1813. He served as U.S. senator, as successor to William T. Barry, resigned, in the 14th congress, 1816-17. He published Report of Cases in the Kentucky Court of Appeals (1810). He died in Frankfort, Ky,, Oct. 8, 1823.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Owsley, governor of Kentucky, was born in Virginia in 1782; son of William and Catharine (Bolin) Owsley; grandson of Thomas and Mary (Middleton) Owsley, and a descendant of the Rev. John and Dorothea (Poyntz) Owsley. He removed to Lincoln in 1783 with his parents; taught school and served as deputy sheriff, his father being sheriff of Lincoln county; studied law under John Boyle, and established a successful practice in Lancaster, Garrard county. He served in both branches of the state legislature several terms, and was a judge of the state supreme court, 1812-28. He maintained the principle of anti-repudiation advocated by Henry Clay in 1824, and remained firm when the majority in the state legislature tried to abolish the supreme bench, which act was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. supreme court. In 1828 he resumed the practice of law, again represented Garrard county in the state legislature and served on the bench of the court of appeals. Retiring from the practise of law in 1843, he lived on a farm near Danville, Ky., and in 1844 was elected by the Whig party governor of Kentucky, defeating Col. William O. Butler, Democrat, and re-elected in 1846, serving, 1844-48. Owsley county, Ky. was named in his honor. Centre college conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1843. He died in Danville, Ky., Dec. 9, 1862.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James Clarke, governor of Kentucky, was born in Bedford county, Va., in 1779; son of Robert and Susan Clarke. His father migrated from Virginia to Kentucky at an early period and settled in Clark county, near the Kentucky river. James received the principal part of his education under Doctor Blythe, afterward a professor in Transylvania university, and studied law with his brother, Christian Clarke. He began practice at Winchester, Ky., in 1797, and became a prominent lawyer. He was several times elected to he state legislature; was a judge of the court of appeals, 1810-12; and in 1812 was elected as a Clay Democrat a representative in the 13th congress. He was re-elected to the 14th congress and resigned in 1816. He was judge of the ciruit court, 1817-24, and in 1825 was elected a representative in the 19th congress to fill the vacancy occasioned by Henry Clay's appointment as secretary of state. He was re-elected to the 20th and 21st congresses. In 1832 be was elected to the Kentucky senate, and was chosen speaker of that body. He was elected governor of Kentucky in August, 1836, and served until his death in Frankfort, Ky., Aug. 27, 1839.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

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