History of Versailles, (Woodford County) Kentucky United States of America

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Biographies:

Abraham Buford, soldier, was born in Kentucky about 1820. He was graduated at West Point in 1841. He served as lieutenant of 1st dragoons on frontier duty in Kansas and Iowa, and was engaged in the war with Mexico, winning at Buena Vista the brevet rank of captain. From 1848 to 1851 he was stationed in New Mexico, and in 1852 and 1853 was on duty at the cavalry school for practice in Carlisle, Pa. In 1853 and 1854 he served at the Harrodsburg branch military asylum, Kentucky, and on Oct. 22, 1854, resigned from the army, and retired to his farm near Versailles, Woodford county, Ky. At the outbreak of the civil war he joined the Confederate army and became a brigadier-general. He died by his own hand, June 9, 1864.

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

John Jordan Crittenden, statesman, was born near Versailles, Woodford county, Ky., Sept. 10, 1787; son of Maj. John. Crittenden, and a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. His father, an officer in the Continental army, removed from Virginia to Kentucky about 1784, became a successful planter and died in 1809. The son was graduated at William and Mary college, Williamsburg, Va., in 1806, studied law under the Hon. George M. Bibb and was licensed to practise. He was attorney-general of the territory of Illinois, 1809-10, and served in the war of 1819-13. He was married in 1811 to Sallie O., daughter of Maj. John Lee of Woodford county, Ky. He located at Russellville, Ky., where he practised law and represented Logan county in the state legislature, 1811-17, serving during the last term as speaker. In 1817 he was elected to the U.S. senate and served through the 15th congress, 1817-19, then resigned and was succeeded by Richard M. Johnson. In 1819 he removed to Frankfort in order to practise in the higher courts. He afterward represented Franklin county in the state legislature for several years during the time of the court controversy, and championed the old court. In 1827 he was U.S. district attorney, and in 1829 was removed by President Jackson. He was again elected to the U.S. senate in 1835, and was reflected in 1841, but resigned when he was appointed by President Harrison attorney-general in his cabinet, March 4, 1841. He resigned from the attorney-generalship upon the death of the President, and on March 31, 1842, upon the resignation of Henry Clay as U.S. senator, he became his successor by appointment of Governor Letcher, and in 1843 was elected for a full term. He resigned from the senate in 1848 upon being elected governor of Kentucky, and resigned the governorship in 1850 to accept the position of attorney-general in the cabinet of President Fillmore. As attorney-general he wrote an opinion on the constitutionality of the fugitive slave law. At the close of the administration the legislature of Kentucky again returned him to the U.S. senate and he served, 1855-61. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, took issue with the policy of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, and in 1860 favored the election of Bell and Everett. He was then elected a representative from Kentucky to the 37th congress. He was opposed to the secession of the southern states and made strenuous efforts to effect a compromise that would avert civil war. In the 37th congress, July, 1861, he offered a resolution that was adopted with but two dissenting votes: declaring the war to be waged only to defend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution and preserve the Union and that when this was accomplished the war should cease. He opposed the admission of West Virginia as a separate state and the employment of colored men as soldiers. His last speech in congress was delivered when he was seventy-six years old. The state of Kentucky erected a monument to his memory. He received the degree of LL.D. from Centre college, Ky., in 1860. See his Life by Mrs. Chapman Coleman. He died near Frankfort, Ky., July 23, 1863.

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

Randall Lee Gibson, senator, was born near Versailles, Woodford county, Ky., Sept. 10, 1832; son of Tobias and ???(Preston) Gibson, and grandson of Randall and Harriet (McKinley) Gibson. Randall Gibson was an American soldier in the war of the Revolution, who settled after the war at Oakley, Warren county, Miss., and built the first church and founded Jefferson college, the first college in the Mississippi valley. Randall Lee was prepared for college at Lexington, Ky., and at Terre Bonne, La., where his father had a sugar plantation, and he was graduated at Yale in 1853, valedictorian of his class. He was graduated LL.B. at the University of Louisiana in 1855; travelled in Europe, and while there declined the secretaryship of the Spanish legation; and in 1860 was an aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Moore of Louisiana, in which state he had settled as a planter. From the governor's staff he passed to the Confederate army, serving in the army of the Tennessee under Generals Hood, S. D. Lee, Breckinridge, Johnston, Hardee and Dick Taylor, as colonel of the 13th Louisiana, brigadier-general in command of Adams's brigade, and major-general. He led his brigade in a charge at Shiloh, won promotion at Perryville, and fought gallantly at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Nashville and in defence of Spanish Fort, Mobile, Ala. At the close of the war he practised law in New Orleans, and was elected to the 45th congress, but was not allowed to take his seat. He represented the first district of Louisiana in the 44th-47th congresses, 1875-83, and was a senator in congress from Louisiana, 1863-92. In the senate he was chairman of the committee on manufactures and a member of the committees on agriculture and forestry, commerce, interstate commerce, naval affairs, fisheries, District of Columbia, transportation routes to the seaboard and the select committees to establish the University of the United States and of the Quadro-Centennial. He was elected president of the board of administration of the Tulane university of Louisiana, founded by a gift of $1,500,000 from Paul Tulane; an administrator of the Howard memorial library of New Orleans, trustee of the Peabody education fund and regent of the Smithsonian institution. He was married to Mary, daughter of R. W. Montgomery of New Orleans. La. Senator Gibson was obliged in 1892 to seek relief from continued ill health and he died at Hot Springs. Ark., Dec. 15, 1892.

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