Famous Kentucky Figures
John Cabell Breckinridge
John Cabell Breckinridge was born on January 16, 1821. He was the only son among the six children of Joseph Cabell and Mary Clay Smith Breckinridge. When he was two years old, his father died; and his mother moved to her mother-in-law's farm near Lexington. His father had served as Speaker of the House in the Kentucky State Legislature and Secretary of State.
John graduated from Centre College. He also attended the College of New Jersey. He studied law under Governor William Owsley. He began his law practice in Burlington, Iowa. He returned to Kentucky and later married Mary Cyrene Burch. He served in the House of Representatives of Kentucky, and ran successfully as a Democrat and was elected to the United States House of Representatives.
After serving for two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, the party nominated him as Vice-President to run on the James Buchanan ticket. At the age of thirty-six, he became the youngest Vice-President in the nation's history. On March 4, 1861, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. His loyalty toward the South, he joined the Confederacy. As a Major General, he led troops at Shiloh and Chattanooga.
He fled to Florida and later to Cuba. For four years, Breckinridge remained in exile. He returned to Lexington to head an insurance company. He died on May 17, 1875 and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery.
Source: The Breckinridges of Kentucky, 1760-1981, James F. Klotter.
By: Dr. Jack J. Early
John Filson: Kentucky's First Historian
According to undocumented family tradition, John Filson was born on 10 December 1753 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, son of Davison Filson and his first wife, Eleanor Clarke. He may have been the same as the John Filson, ensign, who was taken prisoner at Fort Washington on 16 November 1776 during the struggle for New York. After working as a surveyor and school teacher in Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1783 he arrived in Kentucky, where he acquired over 13,000 acres. He settled in Lexington, engaging in those same occupations.
After interviewing many settlers and frontiersmen, in 1784 he published The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke, along with a map of the state, at Wilmington, Delaware. This was the first map to focus strictly on Kentucky. The book and map could be bought separately or as a set for $1.50. There was an appendix, "The Adventures of Colonial Daniel Boone," which assured Boone's place in Kentucky and American history and legend. This work was immensely popular, with a French (1785) and German (1790) translation appearing quickly. Lord Byron made reference to the Boone story in Don Juan.
Filson later made two trips to Vincennes, where he also acquired property, and evidently intended to write an account of the history of the Illinois country. As was true with almost all early settlers in Kentucky, Filson became embroiled in lawsuits over his properties, leading to financial difficulties. He surveyed a road from Lexington to the mouth of the Licking River, and acquired land opposite the mouth of that river on the north bank of the Ohio, where the present city of Cincinnati stands. While surveying in the area near the Great Miami River, on 1 October 1788 Filson disappeared. He is believed to have been a victim of a Shawnee Indian raid.
Col. Reuben T. Durrett published in 1884 the Life and Writings of John Filson, and in that same year was one of the founders of the Filson Club, the first historical society devoted to Kentucky's past. The Filson Club, located in Louisville, now called the Filson Historical Society, has an outstanding collection on the pioneer, antebellum, and Civil War periods of Kentucky History.
William C. Schrader
Thomas D. Clark: Kentucky's Beloved Historian
Thomas Dionysius Clark was born on 14 July 1903 in Louisville, Mississippi, son of a cotton farmer and a school teacher. After difficult beginnings, he attended the University of Mississippi, where he knew William Faulkner, and where he first acquired his love of history. Attending a meeting of the American Historical Association in Indianapolis in December, 1928, decided him on the profession of historian. With a scholarship, he attended the University of Kentucky, where he took his master's degree in 1929, and then went on to do his doctoral work at Duke, receiving the Ph.D. in 1932. There he was greatly influenced by William K. Boyd to respect the documents upon which sound history must be based.
Even before completing his doctorate, Clark began teaching in 1930, moving to the University of Kentucky in 1931. At that time, UK was lacking in every resource characteristic of a major history department. It would be Clark's work to transform it into one of the premier centers for the study of the history of the South, of Kentucky, and of the nineteenth century American experience. In 1942 Clark became chairman of the History Department, a position he retained until 1965, during which period he made the transformation from insignificant to major center of study, attracting first rate historians as his colleagues. In 1968 Thomas Clark retired from UK, although he continued to teach on an adjunct basis at many other institutions, and, in a way, he never really retired.
The list of publications authored or edited by Thomas D. Clark is extensive. Among the best known are his A History of Kentucky (1937), which is still a standard reference on the history of our Commonwealth. Pills, Petticoats, and Plows: the Southern Country Store (1944) portrays the country store as a mirror of the South. All told, Clark wrote two dozen works, including ten on specifically Kentucky themes. He also edited six collections, and served as editor of the Journal of Southern History for four years. His publications continued until the year 2002, when he was ninety-nine years old.
Perhaps even more significant than his writings was Clark's work in preserving the documents on which Kentucky's history must be based. Learning that military records of the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War were being used as sleeping cots and to light pipes in Frankfort, he appealed to newly elected governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler to intervene, beginning a preservation program which continues to this day. In 1957, Clark became the first chairman of the Kentucky Archives Commission, and in 1982 he was instrumental in obtaining the establishment of the Department for Libraries and Archives. He saw the dedication of the new Kentucky History Center in Frankfort in 1999, which was named in his honor in 2005.
Tom Clark was also a gifted teacher and speaker. Both in the classroom and in less formal settings, he took history to the people, promoting the public an awareness of their past, and its importance for the understanding of today. In an interview for KET, aired only a month prior to his death, Clark said, "A community without a sense of history is not a community at all." Thomas D. Clark died on 28 June 2005 at the age of 101.
William C. Schrader
Daniel Boone, born 1734 Pa., died 1820 Missouri
Explorer, Long Hunter, military Scout and Militia Commander, leader of Kentucky Settlers, Adopted son of Shawnee Chief Blackfish, defender of Fort Boonesborough, self defender of his own court marshal case (acquitted), founder of Boone’s Station, Indian fighter and survivor of the Bluelicks battle, Legislator and Representative of the early Kentucky territory of Fincastle Co., Va., owner of many thousands disputed acres of Kentucky land, who lost it all, and finally left his Kentucky dreamplace at Spain’s invitation (primarily to recruit settlers) to become a judge and magistrate in the Missouri territory with 800 acres of his own, later to be under France and finally the United States.
At one time or the other, Boone ran a tavern, a trading store and traded skins, horses, even slaves, and land. Boone’s leadership and understanding of the Indian culture held their respect and his passion for the Kentucky flora and fauna recruited many Virginia and North Carolina families to settle in Kentucky. He was the greatest early mover responsible for opening up Kentucky to the American Colonies. John Filson made Daniel Boone famous in America and Europe. He married Rebecca Bryan.
Isaac Shelby. born 1750 Hagerstown, Md., died 1826 Lincoln Co. Kentucky
Soldier, farmer, political and military leader, Isaac Shelby surveyed and settled land in Kentucky in 1777. Virginia Gov. Patrick Henry appointed Shelby to provide army provisions from the western frontier during the American Revolutionary War and he was elected to the Virginia legislature in 1780. Shelby, James Williams, and Elijah Clark led the Overmountain Men of Fort Watuga to a major victory over superior British and Tory forces in the Battle of Margrove Mills, Aug., 1780, and in Sept., 1780, Cols. Isaac Shelby and John Sevier led the Overmountain Men under commander General William Campbell in defeating the British at Kings Mountain, the turning point of the Revolution.
Shelby then settled in North Carolina and was twice elected to the N.C. Legislature. He returned to Kentucky in 1783, married Susannah Hart (daughter of Nathaniel Hart of the Henderson Company fame) and then became the founder of Frankfort, Ky., and also, a trustee of Center College in Danville, Ky.
Isaac Shelby led the American Colonies in responding to the 1812 British attack
as the Commanding General in the Battle of Thiems, becoming the first and only Governor to lead his State Militia in a war, and who also negotiated the peace of 1815 following British defeat in New Orleans. Kentucky suffered the most casualties of that war. Shelby was a major figure in obtaining Federal aid to defend the frontier and also obtaining free navigation of the Mississippi, a crucial trading factor for Kentucky economic growth.