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M-U 


GENEALOGY  COL-LECTIOKf 


ALLEN  COUNTY  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


3  1833  017 


5  2429 


ouisville's 
C  -janiziics 


SARAH  VEECH  GARVIN 

Sketched  from  a  portrait  in  the  home  of  her  granddaughter, 
Mary  Jane  Bell,  on  Fourth  street.  Sarah  Veech  Garvin  was 
the  daughter  of  John  and  Agnes  Weir  Veech  and  the  wife 
of  William  Garvin. 


-L/ouisville  s  r'lrst  Famili 


les 


A  SERIES  OF  GENEALOGICAL  SKETCHES 


BY 


KATHLEEN  JENNINGS 


WITH  DRAWINGS  BY  EUGENIA  JOHNSON 


THE  STANDARD  PRINTING  CO. 

PUBLISHERS         : :        : :         LOUISVILLE,  KY. 


COPYRIGHT    1920    BY 

THE    STANDARD    PRINTING    COMPANY 
INCORPORATED 

ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 

PUBLISHED     MAY     7  S20 


-1_  -Jr.  O  j^  ^y  xy  "'A 


^ 


^r>  Foreword 

\^  Typical   of   the    gentlefolk   who   came   to   the 

I     Kentucky  frontier  in  the  last  thirty  years  of  the 

>.  ^.     Eighteenth  century  are  the  twelve  families  grouped 

in  this  series,  known  as  Louisville's  First  Families. 

An  effort  has  been  made  to  picture  the  early  social 

life    of    Louisville   as   inaugurated   by  the    twelve 

\         families  included  and  by  similar  families  of  culture 

V      and  refinement  that  emigrated  from  Virginia,  Mary- 

'v  -^      land    and    Pennsylvania  to  the   wilderness  in  the 

^        late  seventeen  hundreds. 


^ 


\ 


From  family  records  and  traditions  that  have 
^  come  down,  verbally,  through  the  several  genera- 
js^  tions,  material  was  obtained  with  which  to  illustrate 
>/  the  permanency  of  these  families  in  the  city,  listing 
the  descendants  of  the  pioneers,  to  link  the 
Eighteenth  century  with  the  Twentieth,  and  to  in- 
dicate the  shaping  influence  of  such  people  upon 
the  growth  of  a  community. 


Contents 

Foreword --  ' 

I  ntroduction —  1 3 

I     The  Bullitt  family  (part  I) —  19 

II      The  Bullitt  family  (part  II) 27 

III  The  Prather  family 35 

IV  The  Clark  family 45 

V     The  Churchill  family 59 

VI     The  Pope  family 69 

VII     The  Speed  family 81 

VIII     The  Joyes  family 91 

IX     The  Veech  family 101 

X     The  Thrus  ton  family _  113 

XI     The  Taylor  family 125 

XII     The  Bate  family 141 

XIII  The  Floyd  family  (part  I) „ 153 

XIV  The  Floyd  family  (part  II) 167 


IHustratfons 

Portrait  of  Sarah  Veech  Garvin.     [Frontispiece.] 
Oxmoor,  the  house  built  by  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt. 
The  Jouett  portrait  of  Cuthbert  Bullitt. 
The  Jouett  portrait  of  Thomas  Prather. 
Locust  Grove,  the  home  of  Lucy  Clark  Croughan. 
Spring  Hill,  the  home  of  Samuel  Churchill. 
Portrait  of  Martha  Pope  Humphrey. 
Farmington,  the  Speed  homestead. 
Portrait  of  Thomas  Joyes. 

Portrait  of  Richard  Snowden  Veech. 
Portrait  of  Buckner  Thruston. 
Portrait  of  Zachary  Taylor. 

Portraits  of  Edmund  Berry  Taylor  and  his  wife, 
Susannah  Gibson  Taylor. 

Berry  Hill,  the  house  built  by  James  Smalley  Bate. 

Portrait  of  John.  Floyd. 

Portrait  of  Capt.  Thomas  Floyd  Smith. 


Introduction 

EJISVILLE  society  was  as  delightful  in 
1819  as  in  these  1919  care-free  days 
of  after  the  war,  if  one  may  rely  upon 
the  accuracy  of  Dr.  Henrico  McMurtrie,  who  pub- 
lished his  "Sketches  of  Louisville"  just  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  Surely  his  graceful  tribute  to 
society  will  bear  repetition,  for  while  Louisville, 
the  town  of  4,500  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  has 
lost  its  slender  proportions,  has  changed  in  many 
ways,  even  in  climate,  the  social  life  has  with- 
stood time  to  the  extent  of  proving  quite  as  rare 
and  interesting  and  has  managed  to  hold  within 
the  circle  families  of  the  same  name  as  those  that 
dispensed  hospitality  in  memorable  fashion  in 
his  day. 

Dr.  McMurtrie  observed  that  the  majority  of 
the  inhabitants,  engaged  in  adding  dollar  to  dol- 
lar, devoted  no  time  to  literature  or  "to  the  ac- 
quirement of  those  graceful  nothings,  which,  of 
no  value  in  themselves,  still  constitute  one  great 
charm  of  polished  society.  Such  is  the  charac- 
ter of  the  inhabitants  of  this  place,  in  general, 
"ma  ogni  medaglio  ha  il  suo  reverso."  There  is 
a  circle,  small  'tis  true,  but  within  whose  magic 
round  abounds  every  pleasure  that  wealth,  regu- 
lated by  taste,  can  produce,  or  urbanity  bestow. 


Louisville's    First    Families 

There,  the  "red  heel"  of  Versailles  may  imagine 
himself  in  the  emporium  of  fashion,  and,  whilst 
leading  beauty  through  the  mazes  of  the  dance, 
forget  that  he  is  in  the  wilds  of  America." 

Since  that  time  many  families  have  come  to 
Louisville  to  take  up  their  residence;  aristocratic 
families  of  Virginia,  families  representing  the 
flower  of  the  far  South,  families  of  culture  and 
refinement  from  across  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line, 
those  who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and 
others  on  the  "W.  C.  Hite,"  as  one  society  leader 
cleverly  described  the  arrival  of  her  antecedents 
in  our  midst.  These  good  people  have  made 
their  place  in  the  community,  are  indispensable 
to  the  city's  business,  social,  and  club  life,  but 
in  connecting  what  in  Dr.  McMurtrie's  day  made 
society  a  rare  and  beautiful  phase  of  life  in  a 
bustling  frontier  town,  with  the  Louisville  society 
after  a  hundred  years  have  past,  attention  must 
be  devoted  and  confined  to  the  first  families  from 
an  historian's  viewpoint,  but  first  families  in  the 
other  sense,  too,  for  they  represent  today  what 
they  then  stood  for  in  position,  culture  and  refine- 
ment. 

They  formed  the  nucleus  of  society  in  1819, 
but  they  came  to  the  beautiful  country  of  the 
Beargrass  before    1 800. 

The  population  of  the  town  in  1  780  was  in- 
correctly  rated   by   an   early   historian   as   thirty 


14 


Introduction 

inhabitants,  though  the  figure  was  nearer  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  so  it  should  not  be  difficult  to 
separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats,  although  it 
would  appear  that  there  were  only  sheep  among 
the  early  settlers,  leaving  the  other  class  to  be 
composed  of  marauding  Indians,  who  bitterly 
contested  possession  of  every  clearing  the  original 
group  of  cotillon  leaders  and  future  bank  presi- 
dents made.  Kentucky,  at  that  time  the  Fin- 
castle  county  of  Virginia,  was  known  as  the  land 
of  blood,  but  was  desired  by  Virginia  gentlemen 
for  immigration  purposes,  no  less  heartily  than 
by  the  Indians  of  the  North  and  South  who  had 
marked  it  for  their  own  as  a  hunting  ground. 
The  Indians  bit  the  dust  in  many  of  these  en- 
counters, but  heavy  toll  was  taken  among  the 
pioneers,  whose  families  counted  possession  of 
Kentucky  homes  all  the  more  dear  in  their  tragic 
association. 


15 


-^m^mMi 


Built  in  1787  by  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt. 

A  view  of  the  frame  portion  of  the  present  Oxmoor  house 
occupied  by  William  Marshall  Bullitt.  The  dwelling, 
sketched  above  from  an  illustration  in  Colonel  Thomas  W. 
Bullitt's  "My  Life  at  Oxmoor",  included  four  rooms  and  a 
central  hall,  in  which  there  was  a  stairway  of  walnut,  prettily 
carved,  leading  to  two  attic  rooms  above. 

The  brick  front  was  built  by  William  C.  Bullitt,  early  in 
the  last  century. 


The  Bullitt  Family.    I. 

CAPT.  Thomas  Bullitt,  a  distinguished  sol- 
dier in  the  French  and  Indian  wars, 
headed  a  surveying  party  which  jour- 
neyed from  Virginia  to  the  falls  of  the  Ohio 
in  July,  1 773,  and  in  August  of  that  year 
laid  out  a  town.  Twelve  years  later,  his 
nephew,  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt,  after  a  brief 
residence  in  Shelby  county,  on  Bull  Skin  creek, 
moved  down  to  the  settlement  at  Falls  of  Ohio. 
On  a  farm  of  a  thousand  acres  on  Beargrass 
creek,  nine  miles  from  Louisville,  he  built  his  first 
home,  a  log  cabin.  He  named  the  farm  Oxmoor, 
from  the  celebrated  Oxmoor,  of  Tristam  Shandy, 
and  on  this  farm  lives  his  lineal  descendant, 
William  Marshall  Bullitt,  and  his  family,  the 
property  having  been  in  possession  of  the  Bullitts 
from  that  day  when  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt  and 
his  bride,  Priscilla  Christian,  came  to  make  the 
Kentucky  home  of  this  branch  of  the  Bullitt 
family  that  has  figured  prominently  in  the  social 
and  professional  life  of  Louisville  ever  since. 

Alexander  Scott  Bullitt,  the  son  of  Judge 
Cuthbert  Bullitt,  of  the  General  Court  of  Virginia, 
preferred   coming   to   Kentucky  to   fight   Indians 


19 


Louisville's     First     Families 

to  staying  at  home  and  studying  law.  His  fifteen- 
year-old  bride,  Priscilla,  was  the  daughter  of 
Col.  William  Christian  and  his  wife,  Annie  Henry, 
a  sister  of  Patrick  Henry.  Col.  Christian,  by  a 
patent  of  1  780,  was  granted  2,000  acres  of  the 
Beargrass  land  which  had  been  surveyed  in  1  774, 
and  on  it,  in  1 780,  there  was  a  considerable 
fort,  Sturgis  Station,  occupied  by  from  twenty 
to  forty  families.  Thither  Col.  Christian,  of 
Virginia,  sent  his  slaves  ahead  to  prepare  a 
dwelling,  and  he  with  his  family  arrived  to  settle 
in  August,  1  785.  Col.  Christian  was  killed  by 
Indians  in  1  786.  Two  years  after  building  the 
log  cabin  above  the  spring  of  Oxmoor,  the  Bul- 
litts  erected  a  frame  house  where  their  children, 
Cuthbert,  Helen  Scott,  Anne  and  William  C. 
Bullitt,  were  born. 

Alexander  Scott  Bullitt,  after  the  death  of 
his  wife,  Priscilla,  married  a  widow,  Mrs.  Mary 
Churchill  Prather,  a  sister  of  Col.  Samuel 
Churchill,  Armistead  and  Henry  Churchill, 
prominent  Louisville  men  of  affairs.  The  Bul- 
litts  and  the  Churchills  were  intimate  friends. 
Alexander  Scott  Bullitt  was  one  of  the  eleven 
State  Senators  in  the  first  Kentucky  Legislature, 
June  4,  1  792.  He  was  elected  Speaker  of  the 
Senate  and  re-elected  for  twelve  years.  He  was 
the  first  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Kentucky  in 
May,    1800.      Bullitt  county  was  named  for  him. 


20 


Bullitt 

In  September,  1819,  William  C.  Bullitt 
married  Mildred  Ann  Fry,  a  daughter  of  Col. 
Joshua  Fry  and  his  wife,  Peachy  Walker,  of 
Albemarle  county,  Va.,  who  emigrated  to  Ken- 
tucky, and  have  other  descendants  in  Louisville 
in  the  Speeds.  Col.  Fry  was  commander  of  a 
regiment  in  the  French  and  Indian  war,  1  754, 
in  which  George  Washington  served  as  lieutenant 
colonel. 

William  C.  Bullitt  built  the  brick  front  of 
the  Oxmoor  residence,  completing  the  structure 
as  it  now  stands.  Here  ten  children  were  born 
to  William  C.  Bullitt  and  his  wife,  and  three  of 
these  have  descendants  in  Louisville;  Sue  Bullitt, 
who  married  the  Hon.  Archibald  Dixon,  of  Hen- 
derson, the  mother  of  William  B.  Dixon;  Helen 
Bullitt,  who  married  Henry  Chenoweth,  the 
mother  of  Mrs.  John  Stites,  Miss  Fanny  Cheno- 
weth, Mrs.  Hugh  Barret,  Mr.  Henry  Chenoweth 
and  Dr.  James  Chenoweth;  and  Col.  Thomas 
Walker  Bullitt,  long  prominent  in  Louisville  as 
a  lawyer  and  citizen,  who  married  Priscilla 
Logan.  Col.  Bullitt  was  the  father  of  William 
Marshall  Bullitt,  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt  and 
Keith  Bullitt.  His  other  children  do  not  make 
their  home  in  Louisville. 

The  youngest  member  of  the  family  is  Master 
Benjamin   Logan    Bullitt,    the   infant  son   of   Mr. 


21 


Louisville's     First     Families 

and  Mrs.  Keith  Bullitt,  who  leave  shortly  to  take 
up  their  residence  in  Seattle. 

Cuthbert  Bullitt,  the  brother  of  Willian  C. 
Bullitt,  married  Harriett  Willett  and  had  a  son. 
Dr.  Henry  M.  Bullitt,  the  first  dean  of  the  Ken- 
tucky School  of  Medicine  and  the  city's  first 
health  officer. 

Dr.  Bullitt  married  Julia  Anderson.  They 
had  one  daughter,  Virginia  Bullitt,  who  married 
John  Cood,  the  mother  of  Helen  Cood,  who 
married  Owen  Tyler. 

Dr.  Bullitt  married  a  second  time,  Mrs  Sallie 
Paradise,  and  had  four  daughters,  Elizabeth 
Bullitt,  who  married  Charles  N.  Buck,  former 
Minister  to  Paris;  Mrs.  Julia  Bullitt  Rauterburg; 
Mrs.  Edith  Bullitt  Jacob,  wife  of  Mayor  Charles 
D.  Jacob,  and  Miss  Henrietta  Bullitt.  Priscilla 
Bullitt,  a  daughter  of  Cuthbert  Bullitt,  married 
A.  A.  Gordon,  and  their  daughter,  Harriet, 
married  Logan  C.  Murray. 

The  eldest  child  of  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt, 
Anne  Christian  Bullitt,  was  married  on  February 
4,  1819,  to  John  Howard,  of  Maryland,  a  lineal 
descendant  of  two  acting  governors  of  that  prov- 
ince, namely.  Commander  Robert  Brooke  and 
Colonel  Thomas  Brooke.  She  is  ancestress  of 
the  Courtenays.  Her  daughter,  Annie  Christian 
Howard  married  October  13,  1842,  Robert 
Graham  Courtenay,  of  Crown  Hall,  Ireland,  who 


22 


Bullitt 

located  in  Louisville  in  1882,  subsequently  be- 
coming a  prominent  man  of  affairs,  firm  mem- 
ber of  Thomas  Anderson  and  Company,  director 
in  the  Bank  of  Louisville,  director  of  Louisville 
and  Frankfort  and  Lexington  and  Frankfort 
Railroads,  administrator  of  the  John  L.  Martin 
estate,  and  president  and  engineer  of  the  Lou- 
isville Gas  Company.  Five  of  their  children 
figured  in  Louisville  affairs. 

The  eldest  daughter,  Julia  Christian  Courtenay 
married  Hector  V.  Loving,  and  has  in  Louisville 
the  following  children:  Mrs.  Julia  Loving 
George,  mother  of  Julia  Courtenay  and  Robert 
George;  Laura  Loving,  the  wife  of  D.  C.  Harris, 
and    Emma   Loving. 

Two  other  daughters,  Emma  and  Helen  Martin 
Courtenay,  make  their  home  on  Fourth  street. 

A  son,  Thomas  Anderson  Courtenay,  married 
Jane  Short  Butler,  and  has  the  following  chil- 
dren residing  here:  Thomas  Anderson  Courte- 
nay, Jr.,  William  Howard  Courtenay,  II.,  and 
Jane  Short  Courtenay,  wife  of  Henry  S.   Tyler. 

Another  son  is  William  Howard  Courtenay, 
chief  engineer  of  the  L.  &  N.  Railroad,  whose  wife 
is  Isabel  Stevenson  Clark.  They  have  two  sons, 
Erskine  Howard  Courtenay  and  James  Clark 
Courtenay. 


23 


CUTHBERT  BULLITT 

A  sketch  from  the  Jouett  portrait  owned  by  Hugh  Bullitt, 
the  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  Malcolm  Bullitt,  and  a  great- 
grandson  of  this  pioneer. 


The  Bullitt  Family.    II. 

OVERSHADOWED  by  warehouses  and 
office  buildings,  Bullitt  street  seems  a 
queer  memorial  to  those  Virginia  gentle- 
men, Cuthbert  and  Thomas  Bullitt,  who  played 
important  roles  in  building  up  a  city  at  the  falls 
of  the  Ohio,  and  who  have  left  behind  them, 
besides  testimony  of  their  useful  careers,  a  great 
number  of  descendants  who  are  prominent  today. 
One  wonders  sometinies  how  it  happens  that  this 
is  not  Bullittville.  On  what  is  now  Bullitt  street, 
back  in  those  early  days,  there  stood  two  hos- 
pitable houses,  the  grounds  extending  from 
Fourth  to  Sixth  streets  and  with  a  view  across 
the  river  which  is  now  enjoyed  by  many  business 
men  from  office  windows  high  above  the  levee, 
then  a  part  of  the  Bullitt's  front  lawn,  for  there 
were  the  homes  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cuthbert  Bul- 
litt, and  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Bullitt. 

The  Cuthbert  Bullitts  had  a  farm  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  south  of  their  town  house,  the  coun- 
try home  being  in  what  is  now  Central  Park,  sur- 
rounded by  fields  and  woodland  extending  front! 
Sixth  to  Second  street.  This  farm,  a  part  of 
the  Bullitts'  large  holdings  of  real  estate,  was 
inherited    by    Amanthis    Bullitt,     who     married 


27 


Louisville's     First     Families 

George  Weissinger.  The  land  was  not  desir- 
able then  as  later  when  the  city's  growth  made 
it  necessary  to  drain  the  land,  obliterating  the 
ponds  and  enhancing  the  value  of  property  be- 
yond the  dreams  of  the  Weissingers,  who  had 
disposed  of  the  farm. 

In  a  chapter  devoted  to  these  ponds  which 
intersected  the  area  on  which  the  city  is  built 
and  which,  breeding  disease,  gave  Louisville 
the  name,  "Graveyard  of  the  Ohio,"  Casse- 
day  wrote  in  his  history  of  1852,  "A  map 
of  the  city  as  it  was  sixty  or  even  thirty 
years  ago  would  present  somewhat  the  appear- 
ance of  an  archipelago,  a  sea  full  of  little  islands. 
The  Long  Pond  commenced  at  Sixth  and  Mar- 
ket and  extended  southwest  to  Sixteenth  street. 
Gwathmey's,  or  Grayson's  Pond,  was  on  Center 
street  just  in  the  rear  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
church,  which  stood  on  Green  between  Sixth  and 
Center  and  extended  westwardly  halfway  to 
Seventh  street.  Besides  these  two  principal  lakes 
there  were  innumerable  others,  some  containing 
water  only  after  heavy  rains  and  others  standing 
full  at  all  times.  Market  street  from  the  corner 
of  Third  down  was  the  site  of  one.  Third  be- 
tween Jefferson  and  Green,  Jefferson  near  the 
comer  of  Fourth  and  so  on,  ad  infinitum." 

Major  William  Bullitt  was  a  half-brother  of 
Capt.  Thomas  Bullitt,  who  surveyed  the  town  in 


28 


Bullitt 

1773,  and  of  Judge  Cuthbert  Bullitt,  the  father 
of  Alexander  Scott  Bullitt,  another  distinguished 
early  settler.  Major  William  Bullitt  and  his 
wife,  Mary  Burbridge,  daughter  of  General  Bur- 
bridge,  of  Warfield,  Va.,  were  the  parents  of 
Cuthbert  and  Thomas  Bullitt,  who  came  here  in 

1804,  and  are  described  in  Collins'  History  as 
"two  of  the  first  merchants  of  Louisville  dis- 
tinguished for  their  probity  and  business  qualifi- 
cations, who  amassed  large  estates  for  their 
descendants." 

Cuthbert  Bullitt  married  Anne  Neville,  of 
Virginia,  daughter  of  General  Joseph  Neville,  of 
Revolutionary  fame.  They  journeyed  to  Louis- 
ville to  build  their  home  here  on  the  river  front. 
Thomas  Bullitt  married  Diana  Gwathmey,  of  the 
prominent  pioneer  family,  and  their  son,  Alex- 
ander Bullitt,  owned  the  handsome  home  on  Jef- 
ferson street,  now  the  Holcomb  mission.  Alex- 
ander Bullitt  married  twice,  his  first  wife  being  a 
beautiful  heiress,  Fannie  Smith,  for  whom  two 
steamboats  were  named,  one  the  "Fannie  Smith," 
the  other,  the  "Fannie  Bullitt."  His  second  wife, 
also  fair  and  rich,  was  Irene  Williams,  After  this 
marriage  he  moved  to  New  Orleans,  where  he 
bought  the  New  Orleans  Picayune,  one  of  the 
biggest  newspapers  of  the  South. 

Cuthbert  Bullitt  and  his  wife,  Anne,  were  the 
parents   of   eight   children,    four   of   whom   have 


29 


Louisville's     First     Families 

families  socially  prominent  in  the  city:  Neville 
Bullitt,  who  married  Ann  Amelia  Steele,  the 
father  of  Neville  Bullitt;  William  Bullitt,  who  mar- 
ried Virginia  Anderson,  the  father  of  the  late 
Alexander  Bullitt,  and  of  Malcolm  and  Howard 
Bullitt  (Alexander  and  Malcolm  Bullitt  married 
two  sisters,  Clara  and  Heloise  Kennedy)  ;  Aman- 
this  Bullitt,  who  married  George  Wessinger,  the 
mother  of  George  Weissinger,  who  married 
Amelia  Neville  Pearce;  of  Blanche  Weissinger, 
who  married  Capt.  Thomas  Floyd  Smith;  of 
Harry  Weissinger,  who  married  Isabelle  Muir, 
and  of  Caroline  Bullitt,  who  married  Dr. 
Thomas  Wilson,  the  mother  of  eight  daughters. 
Neville  Bullitt  and  his  wife,  Ann  Amelia  Steele, 
built  a  country  home,  "Riverside,"  in  1830,  just 
above  the  present  site  of  the  Louisville  Country 
Club,  where  Mr.  John  H.  Caperton  has  a  hand- 
some home  now.  "Riverside"  was  the  scene  of 
many  gatherings  of  the  Buliitts  and  their  friends. 
There  w^ere  eight  children  to  grow  up  at  "River- 
side:" Neville  Bullitt,  Jr.,  who  married  Mattie 
D.  Bohannon,  the  father  of  Capt.  Neville  Bullitt, 
Thomas  Bullitt,  of  Anne  Amelia  Bullitt  (Mrs. 
A.  B.  Pinney),  and  the  Bullitt  twins,  Emily  and 
Juliet,  the  latter,  Mrs.  James  B.  Ayers  of 
Virginia;  and  William  Wurts  Bullitt,  who  mar- 
ried   Medora    Gilmore,    the    father    of    Medora, 


30 


Bullitt 

Joseph  Neville,  and  Kirwan  Bullitt,  are  the  only 
two  who  have  families  in  Louisville. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Wilson  had  a  daughter, 
Lucinda,  who  married  Gavin  Cochran.  Mrs. 
Cochran  died  a  short  time  ago,  her  children 
being:  Mrs.  Byron  Baldwin,  John  Cochran,  Mrs. 
Edmund  F.  Trabue  and  Wilson  Cochran. 

Aimira  Wilson  married  Lytleton  Cooke,  their 
daughter,  Alice,  married  David  Kellar;  Caroline 
Wilson  married  Edward  Fulton,  their  children 
being  Mrs.  John  Tevis  and  Dr.  Gavin  Fulton; 
Amelia  Wilson,  who  married  Fred  Anderson; 
Annie  Wilson  and  Henrietta  Wilson. 

The  children  of  Capt.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Floyd 
Smith  are:  Mayor  George  Weissinger  Smith, 
who  married  Nell  Hunt,  a  descendant  of  the 
Prathers,  another  pioneer  family;  Mrs.  Amanthis 
Jungbluth,  Thomas  Floyd  Smith,  who  married 
Mary  Bruce,  and  Nan  Pope  Smith,  who  married 
Frank  Carpenter. 

Harry  Weissinger  and  his  wife,  Isabelle  Muir, 
are  the  parents  of  Margaret,  who  married  Samuel 
T.  Castleman,  and  is  the  mother  of  Harry  and 
Isabelle  Castleman;  and  of  Judge  Muir  Weis- 
singer. Their  other  children  do  not  live  in  Lou- 
isville. 

George  Weissinger,  w^ho  married  Amelia  Nev- 
ille Pearce,  v/as  the  father  of  Amelia  Weissinger, 
who   married    Hoadley  Cochran.      His  home   at 


31 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Pewee  Valley  was  the  setting  for  "The  Little 
Colonel,"  by  Mrs.  Annie  Fellows  Johnston,  the 
Little  Colonel  being  his  granddaughter,  Hattie 
Cochran,  who  is  now  Mrs.  Albert  M.  Dick,  Jr. 

Benjamin  Bullitt,  another  son  of  Major  and 
Mrs.  William  Bullitt,  married  Mary  Ferguson,  in 
1 808.  Their  daughter,  Mary  Bullitt,  married 
Major  Richard  Zantziger.  One  of  their  three 
daughters,  Octavia  Zantziger,  married  Clarence 
Bate,  having  a  son,  John  Throckmorton  Bate. 


32 


TOHMSON 


THOMAS  PRATHER 

This  sketch  is  made  from  Jouett's  likeness  of  this  estimable 
gentleman,  who  is  said  to  have  done  more  for  the  advance- 
ment of  Louisville  than  any  other  one  man.  The  Jouett 
portrait  of  Thomas  Prather  is  owned  by  his  great-great- 
granddaughter,  Mrs.  J.  Barbour  Minnigerode. 


1182954 

The  Prather  Family. 

A  PUBLIC  -  SPIRITED  citizen  identified 
with  the  growth  of  Louisville  no  less 
than  with  the  social  life  of  his  day  was 
Thomas  Prather,  born  in  Maryland  in  1770,  of 
English  extraction.  He  crossed  the  Wilderness 
Trail  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  new  coun- 
try and  was  one  of  the  city's  first  mer- 
chants, having  opened  a  store  here  as  early 
as  1 794.  Success  marked  his  every  venture 
eind  riches  poured  in  upon  him.  He  was  the 
capitalist  of  his  day,  and  famed  for  his  philan- 
thropies. Broadway,  for  many  years  Prather 
street,  was  named  for  him.  Prather  was  presi- 
dent of  the  first  bank  in  Louisville,  the  old  Bank 
of  Kentucky,  which  he  opened  on  January  1, 
1812,  and  which  did  business  on  Main  street 
near  Fifth.  When  the  bank  suspended  specie 
payments  he  resigned  his  office  with  the  remark: 
"I  can  preside  over  no  institution  which  declines 
to  meet  its  engagements  promptly  and  to  the 
letter." 

His  generosity  in  contributing  to  charitable 
and  civic  endeavors  won  for  him  the  title  of 
"Oh,  put  me  down  for  the  balance,"  Prather. 
He  gave  five  acres    and    Cuthbert    Bullitt    gave 


35 


Louisville's     First     Families 

three  to  the  city  for  a  hospital  site  in  1817.  In- 
terested in  the  general  welfare,  Prather  and  Bul- 
litt served  on  many  committees  together.  With 
Peter  F.  Ormsby  they  were  appointed  by  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  in  1820,  to  purchase  suitable 
fire  engines  (two  or  three),  for  the  use  of  the 
city. 

The  property  for  the  hospital  site  was  given 
with  the  proviso  that  it  should  revert  to  the 
Prather  and  Bullitt  heirs  if  used  for  any  other 
purpose.  When  the  new  million  dollar  City 
Hospital  was  planned  a  change  of  site  was  con- 
sidered until  the  deeds  were  looked  up  and  dis- 
closed this  restriction.  One  of  the  numerous 
Prather  heirs  recounting  the  incident  said  "It 
looked  for  a  time  as  if  I  might  have  fifty  dollars 
for  a  new  frock." 

Thomas  Prather  was  married  in  1 800  to 
Matilda  Fontaine,  a  daughter  of  Capt.  Aaron 
Fontaine,  one  of  the  pretty  Miss  Fontaines,  as 
they  were  called,  though  they  were  also  known 
as  the  alphabet  Fontaines  there  were  so  many  of 
them.  Matilda  and  her  eight  sisters  were  all 
famous  for  their  beauty  and  intellectuality,  and 
all  married  distinguished  men.  From  Matilda 
Fontaine  is  supposed  to  come  the  fresh  blonde 
prettiness  of  the  Prather  women. 

The  Prather  residence  stood  in  Prather  square, 
the  block  bounded  by  Third  and  Fourth,  Walnut 


36 


P  r  a  t  h  e  r 

and  Green,  Walnut  street  taking  its  name  from 
the  fine  row  of  walnut  trees  on  the  south  side 
of  the  house.  This  house  was  built  by  Judge 
Fortunatus  Cosby,  who  married  Mrs.  Prather's 
sister,  Mary  Ann  Fontaine. 

It  was  on  the  way  home  from  Philadelphia 
where  he  had  been  on  business  that  Prather  met 
a  young  man,  John  J.  Jacob,  of  Hampshire 
county,  Virginia,  starting  out  to  seek  his  fortune. 
He  urged  Jacob  to  come  to  Louisville,  and  after- 
ward took  the  young  gentleman  into  partnership, 
forming  the  firm  of  Prather  &  Jacob.  John  J. 
Jacob  married  Ann  Overton  Fontaine  and  built  a 
home  across  Walnut  street  from  his  brother-in- 
law  Prather's  home,  where  the  Pendennis  Club  is 
today. 

Thomas  and  Matilda  Prather  had  six  children, 
two  sons  and  four  daughters.  James  Smiley 
Prather  married  Louisa  Martin  and  their  chil- 
dren were:  Mary  (Mrs.  George  Robinson  Hunt) 
and  Blanche  (Mrs.  Edward  Mitchell).  Mrs. 
Hunt,  who  died  not  long  ago,  has  two  daughters 
in  Louisville — Ellen  Pope  Hunt,  the  wife  of 
George  Weissinger  Smith,  and  Kate  Hunt,  who 
married  Samuel  Hutchings. 

The  other  son,  William  Prather,  married  his 
first  cousin,  Penelope  Pope,  the  daughter  of 
Alexander  Pope,  whose  wife  was  Martha  Fon- 
taine.    This  marriage  establishes  a  wide  connec- 


37 


Louisville's     First     Families 

tion  of  families  socially  prominent.  William  and 
Penelope  Prather  had  seven  daughters:  Kate, 
who  married  Orville  Winston;  Sue,  who  is  Mrs. 
John  Zanone;  Matilda,  who  married  Goldsbor- 
ough  Robinson;  Julia  and  Martha,  who  died 
young,  and  the  twins,  Penelope  and  Margaret, 
the  latter,  Mrs.  John  Luce,  and  her  sister,  better 
known  as  Miss  Eppie  Prather,  the  only  descen- 
dant with  the  surname,  Prather.  Mrs.  William 
B.  Hardy  and  Humphrey  Robinson  are  the  chil- 
dren of  Goldsborough  and  Matilda  Robinson, 
who  live  here.  Mrs.  Alex  P.  Witty  and  Prather 
Zanone  are  the  daughter  and  son  of  Mrs.  Za- 
none. The  daughters  of  Kate  and  Orville  Wins- 
ton were  Penelope  (Mrs.  Ernest  Allis),  the 
mother  of  Mrs.  William  B.  Harrison,  and  Kate 
(Mrs.  Frederick  Hussey),  the  mother  of  Mrs. 
Barbour  Minnigerode,  Mrs.  Arthur  H.  Mid- 
dleton,  Mrs.  Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Springfield, 
Mass.,  and  Mabel  Hussey,  of  Paris. 

Thomas  and  Matilda  Prather's  daughters  all 
married  prominent  Kentuckians.  Mary  Jane 
Prather  married  Worden  P.  Churchill,  and 
after  his  death  married  Dr.  Charles  M.  Way. 
Her  sons  were  Worden  P.  Churchill  and  W.  H. 
Way. 

Matilda  Prather  married  Samuel  Smith 
Nicholas,  the  distinguished  lawyer  and  jurist. 
Their  handsome  home  was  on  Fifth  street  be- 


38 


P  r  a  t  h  e  r 

tween  Chestnut  and  Walnut.  Their  daughter, 
Julia,  Mrs.  James  C.  Johnston,  lives  with  her 
daughter.  Miss  Mary  Johnston,  at  Fourth  and 
Broadway.  Their  sons,  George  and  Samuel 
Smith  Nicholas,  have  a  number  of  descendants 
here.  George  Nicholas  married  Emma  Hawes 
and  had  a  daughter,  Tina  Nicholas,  who  mar- 
ried John  Churchill.  The  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
John  Churchill  is  John  Churchill,  who  married 
Lucy  Jones. 

By  a  second  marriage  to  Mary  Anna  Pope, 
George  Nicholas  had  ten  children.  One  son, 
George  Nicholas,  who  married  Evelyn  Thomp- 
son, lives  in  Crescent  Hill,  and  another  son. 
Pope  Nicholas,  lives  in  Shelbjn^ille,  but  is  in 
business  in  Louisville. 

Samuel  Smith  Nicholas,  Jr.,  who  married 
Nannie  Carter,  daughter  of  Capt.  Frank  Carter, 
has  two  daughters  in  Louisville  this  winter, 
Emma  Nicholas  and  Mrs.  Harry  Lee  Williams, 
although  the  latter's  home  is  in  Chicago. 

Maria  Julia  Prather  married  Henry  Clay,  Jr., 
the  son  of  the  Great  Commoner,  and  her 
daughter,  Nannie  Clay,  now  Mrs.  Henry  Mc- 
Dowell, inherited  Ashland,  near  Lexington,  the 
home  of  Henry  Clay. 

Catherine  Cornelia  Prather  married  the  Pres- 
byterian minister,  the  Rev.  Edward  P.  Humphrey, 
their  son  being  the  late  E.   W.   C.   Humphrey* 


39 


Louisville's     First     Families 

father  of  Edward  P.  Humphrey,  Lewis  C. 
Humphrey  and  Dr.  Heman  Humphrey.  Dr. 
Humphrey,  who  was  a  native  of  Connecticut  and 
the  son  of  a  distinguished  minister,  the  president 
of  Amherst  College,  had  as  his  charge  a  church 
in  Jeffersonville  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  to 
Miss  Prather.  Later  he  was  minister  of  the  old 
Second  Presbyterian  church,  and  this  church 
granted  him  a  leave  of  absence  of  eight  months 
to  go  abroad  after  his  wife's  death.  In  1847 
he  was  married  to  Martha  Pope,  a  daughter  of 
Alexander  Pope  and  Martha  Fontaine,  who  was 
the  widow  of  her  cousin,  Charles  Pope.  Dr. 
Humphrey  and  his  wife,  Martha  Pope,  had  one 
son.  Judge  Alexander  Pope  Humphrey. 

Capt.  Basil  Prather,  born  in  1  740  in  Maryland, 
was  an  elder  half-brother  of  Thomas  Prather. 
He  fought  through  the  Revolutionary  war,  de- 
clining any  pay  for  his  services,  and  later  came 
to  Louisville.  He  has  been  described  as  exceed- 
ingly handsome,  six  feet  three  inches  tall  and  of 
cordial  and  engaging  manners.  He  is  numbered 
among  the  commissioners  of  Louisville  in  1  790, 
and  owned  farm  land  near  Louisville  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  State,  bequeathed  to  his  heirs 
on  which  they  settled. 

At  a  ball  given  in  the  fort  built  on  the  site  of 
Jeffersonville  he  met  Fanny  Meriwether,   of  the 


40 


P  r  a  t  h  e  r 

pioneer  family,  and  shortly  afterward  they  were 
married.  His  bride  was  years  younger  than  him- 
self. They  settled  on  a  farm  in  the  Bluegrass 
district,  living  in  opulence.  Their  daughter, 
Martha  Meriwether  Prather,  married  Dr.  War- 
wick Miller,  a  son  of  Judge  Isaac  Miller,  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  was  an  early  settler. 

Capt.  Prather  died  in   1803. 

Richard  Prather,  another  member  of  the 
Maryland  family  to  settle  here,  was  one  of  the 
"City  fathers,"  being  elected  a  trustee  of  the  town 
of  Louisville  in  1797.  His  wife  was  Mary 
Churchill,  a  daughter  of  Armistead  and  Eliza- 
beth Bakewell  Churchill,  of  Virginia,  who  were 
among  the  prominent  pioneers  of  1787.  Eliza 
Prather,  the  daughter  of  Richard  and  Mary 
Prather,  became  the  wife  of  James  Guthrie,  that 
distinguished  citizen,  the  founder  of  the  L.  &  N. 
James  and  Eliza  Guthrie  had  two  daughters,  Ann 
Augusta  and  Mary  Guthrie,  both  of  whom  mar- 
ried and  have  descendants  here. 

Ann  Augusta  Guthrie  married  Dr.  William 
Caldwell,  and  was  the  mother  of  James  Guthrie 
Caldwell,  who  married  Nannie  Standiford;  of 
Junius  Caldwell,  who  married  Ella  Payne,  of 
Georgetown;  and  of  Ann  Eliza  Caldwell,  who 
married  Ernest  Norton,  and  was  the  mother  of 
Caldwell  Norton. 


41 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Mary  Guthrie  married  Richard  Coke,  of  Logan 
county,  and  has  a  grandson.  Dr.  Richard  Coke, 
who  makes  Louisville  his  home. 

Mary  Guthrie  married  a  second  time,  John 
Caperton,  and  was  the  mother  of  John  H.  Caper- 
ton,  who  married  Virginia  Standiford,  and  has  a 
son,  Hugh  John  Caperton,  whose  wife  was 
Dorothy  Bonnie. 

Following  her  first  husband's  death,  Mary 
Churchill  Prather  married  Alexander  Scott  Bul- 
litt, this  being  his  second  marriage  also. 


42 


'LOCUST  GROVE" 


?JWtTIT?'^jr^r^5?«* 


The  home  of  Major  William  Croughan  and  his  wife,  Lucy 
Clark. 

The  house,  still  standing,  is  about  three  fourths  of  a  mile 
south  of  Blankenbaker's  Station  on  the  Prospect  line.  It  was 
here  that  Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark  died  on  February  13, 
1818. 


The  Clark  Family. 

KENTUCKY  is  justly  famed  for  her  hos- 
pitality, but  an  incident  of  inhospitality 
in  a  pioneer  home  on  the  Ohio  river 
near  Carrollton  is  the  basis  of  an  interesting 
anecdote  for  the  descendants  of  John  and 
Anne  Rogers  Clark,  who  emigrated  from  Vir- 
ginia in  1 784  to  take  up  their  residence  at 
the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  where  a  home,  "Mul- 
berry Hill,"  had  been  made  ready  for  them  by 
their  son.  Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Clark,  their  children  and  servants,  escaped 
death  at  the  hands  of  Indians  when  Mrs.  Elliott, 
the  wife  of  a  Capt.  Elliott,  who  had  frequently 
been  a  guest  at  the  Clark  home  in  Caroline 
county,  Va.,  failed  to  extend  the  courtesy  of  her 
house  and  board  to  them  on  March  3,  1 785, 
as  they  voyaged  down  the  Ohio. 

The  Clarks  had  apprised  Capt.  Elliott  of  their 
plans  to  journey  to  the  new  settlement,  and  had 
been  urged  by  him  to  visit  his  home  and  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  his  wife  and  young 
daughter,  of  whom  they  had  so  often  heard  him 
speak.  Although  they  left  Virginia  in  October, 
owing  to  the  bad  condition  of  the  roads,  the  in- 
clemency of  the  weather,  and  the  obstructions  in 


45 


Louisville's     First     Families 

the  Monongahela,  it  was  March  when  the  party 
in  boats  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky. 
John  Clark  and  one  of  his  men  landing,  went 
ahead  to  announce  to  Capt.  Elliott  the  arrival  of 
the  party.  Clark  was  greeted  by  Mrs.  Elliott, 
who  told  of  her  husband's  absence  on  a  hunt- 
ing trip.  Abashed  at  the  coolness  of  his  recep- 
tion Clark  joined  the  travel-worn  party  in  the 
boats  and  proceeded  to  Fort  Nelson,  where  they 
were  welcomed  by  the  settlers. 

Hardly  had  the  Clarks  resumed  their  journey 
before  Indians  on  the  war-path  attacked  the 
Elliott  cabin,  killing  and  scalping  Capt.  Elliott's 
brother,  who,  with  several  of  his  workmen,  ar- 
rived immediately  after  Clark's  departure  to  be 
mortified  that  his  sister-in-law  had  not  dispensed 
hospitality  to  the  travelers.  Mrs.  Elliott  and  her 
daughter  made  a  miraculous  escape  from  the 
cabin  to  the  river  bank,  unseen  by  the  savages. 
They  were  joined  by  Capt.  Elliott,  who,  return- 
ing unexpectedly,  saw  the  warriors'  canoes  on  the 
river  and  his  home  in  flames.  The  Elliotts,  hav- 
ing rescued  the  body  of  their  kinsman  from  the 
ruins,  embarked  to  seek  security  at  Fort  Nelson, 
where  they  were  comforted  and  befriended,  first 
of  all,  by  the  Clarks. 

Mrs.  Elliott  offered  excuses  for  her  inhospitality, 
relating  her  confusion  at  the  thought  of  receiving 
the  Clarks  in  her  crude  frontier  dwelling,  know- 


46 


Clark 

ing  as  she  did  the  style  and  comfort  of  their 
life  in  Virginia,  explaining  that  in  years  she  had 
not  seen  any  white  persons  save  the  members  of 
her  own  family,  that  she  was  overcome  with 
embarrassment  at  the  encounter.  She  assured 
Mrs.  Clark  that  the  latter  owed  her  life  and  that 
of  her  family  to  this  breach  of  courtesy. 

The  pioneers  John  and  Anne  Rogers  Clark 
had  ten  children,  six  sons,  five  of  whom  were  offi- 
cers in  the  Revolutionary  war,  the  sixth  being  too 
young  to  serve;  four  daughters,  two  of  whom 
married  officers,  and  two  soldiers  in  the  Con- 
tinental army. 

Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark,  whose  history- 
making  career  is  too  well  known  to  be  repeated 
here,  had  been  in  Louisville  long  enough  to 
change  his  residence  several  times  before  his  par- 
ents decided  to  join  him,  having  moved  with  the 
first  settler  families  from  Com  Island  in  1779 
to  a  fort  at  the  foot  of  Twelfth  street,  and  in  I  782 
to  Fort  Nelson,  built  by  the  troops  on  the  north 
side  of  Main  street,  between  Sixth  and  Eighth. 

"Mulberry  Hill,"  a  fine  estate  two  miles  east 
of  the  city  limits,  boasted  a  spacious  double-log 
house,  with  a  wide  hall  through  the  center.  There 
were  four  large  square  rooms,  porches  and  store 
rooms,  with  the  kitchen  in  a  separate  building 
some  distance  from  the  house  and  near  the 
spring. 


47 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Gen.  Jonathan  Clark,  who  came  to  Louisville 
years  later  than  the  other  members  of  the  family, 
had  married  Sarah  Hite  in  Virginia.  He  built 
a  home  at  "Trough  Spring,"  east  of  Mulberry 
Hill.  The  Bernheim  place,  Shadyside,  and  the 
old  Richardson  place  are  part  of  his  farm.  A 
French  cabinetmaker  came  from  New  Orleans 
to  make  the  furniture  for  his  use.  His  daughter, 
Anna  Clark,  who  married  James  Anderson 
Pearce,  came  into  possession  of  "Trough  Spring" 
and  used  it  as  a  country  house,  her  home  in  town 
being  on  the  River  front.  When  old  Fort  Nel- 
son was  razed  and  the  property  sold,  Pearce 
bought  the  land  and  erected  a  brick  dwelling  with 
an  iron  veranda,  at  what  is  now  the  comer  of 
Seventh  and  Water.  This  home,  in  which  the 
Pearce  children  were  born,  was  torn  down  when 
the  property  again  changed  hands,  and  the  Burge 
home  was  built  there. 

James  Pearce,  who  was  a  Virginian,  a  man  of 
affairs  and  considerable  means,  presented  the 
river  frontage  before  his  home,  the  two  blocks 
of  Water  street  and  wharf,  to  the  city,  making 
a  proviso  in  the  deed  which  brought  an  interest- 
ing suit  in  1880.  In  that  year  the  C.  &  O.  rail- 
road attempted  to  obtain  a  right  of  way  for  a 
line  along  the  river  front  and  was  bitterly  op- 
posed by  merchants  of  the  city  who  protested  that 
the  business  on  the  wharf  would  be  ruined  by 


48 


Clark 

this  arrangement.    A  number  of  indignation  meet- 
ings were  held,  attended  by  business  men  of  Lou- 
isville.    Temple  Bodley,  a  young  lawyer  in  those 
days,    a    grandson    of   James    Pearce,    was    ap- 
proached by  a  committee  of  merchants  to  ask 
his  mother,  Mrs.  William  S.  Bodley,  to  file  a  suit 
to  prevent  this  use  of  her  father's  gift,  for  they 
had  found  the  old  deed  which  provided  that  if 
the    city    permitted    any    building,    etc.,    to    be 
erected,  obstructing  the  view  of  the  Ohio  river 
from  the  donor's  home,  garden  or  vineyard,  the 
property  should  revert  to  the  heirs.     Mrs.  Bodley 
brought  the  suit  and  an  injunction  was  granted. 
There    are    no    descendants    of    Gen.    George 
Rogers  Clark  in  Louisville,  for  that  distinguished 
member  of  the  Clark  family  was  never  married. 
Gen.  Jonathan  Clark  and  his  wife,  Sarah  Hite, 
had     seven     children,     three     of     whom     have 
descendants  in  the  city.     Their  eldest  daughter, 
Eleanor    El  tinge    Clark,    married    Dr.    Benjamin 
Temple,   the  prominent  Methodist  minister,  and 
their  family  also  was  a  large   one.      Their  son, 
John  B.  Temple,  whose  third  wife  was  Blandina 
Brodhead,      was      a      prominent      banker      and 
man  of  affairs  in  Frankfort  and  later  in  Louis- 
ville, being  president  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company.      His  widow  made  her  home  in  Lou- 
isville with  her  daughters,   Mary  Temple    (Mrs. 
R,  A.  Robinson)   and  Annie  Temple,  her  death 

49 


Louisville's     First     Families 

taking    place    last    year.       Another    daughter    is 
Blandina  (Mrs.  William  Griffiths). 

Ann  Clark,  the  third  daughter  of  Gen.  Jonathan 
Clark,  married  James  Anderson  Pearce,  and  to 
them  eight  children  were  born.  Their  son,  Ed- 
mund Pearce,  who  married  Myra  Steele,  was  the 
father  of  Amelia  Neville  Pearce,  who  became  the 
wife  of  George  Weissinger,  and  of  John  C.  Pearce, 
who  married  Susannah  Steele.  Mrs.  Frank 
Snead,  Mrs.  Nolan  Milton  and  John  Clark  Pearce 
are  the  children  of  John  and  Susannah  Pearce, 
Ellen  Pearce  married  the  lawyer.  Judge  William 
S.  Bodley,  and  was  the  mother  of  eleven  chil- 
dren, of  whom  the  following  survive:  Martha 
and  Ann  Jane  Bodley,  who  live  together  on 
Fourth  street;  William  Stewart  Bodley,  and 
Temple  Bodley,  who  married  Edith  Fosdick. 

Dr.  William  Clark,  the  son  of  Gen  Jonathan 
Clark,  married  Frances  Ann  Tompkins.  He  in- 
herited the  Mulberry  Hill  home  of  John  and  Anne 
Rogers  Clark  from  his  father  and  in  turn  be- 
queathed it  to  his  daughters,  Mary,  who  married 
Dr.  George  E.  Cooke,  and  Eugenia  and  Eliza 
Clark,   who  never  married. 

Dr.  Clark's  daughter  Ellen  married  Newton 
Milton,  of  Memphis,  and  her  death  occurred  not 
long  ago  at  the  home  of  her  grandson,  Karl  Jung- 
bluth,  Jr.,  in  Garvin  Place.     William  Clark  mar- 


50 


Clark 

ried  Annie  Bailey,  and  was  the  father  of  Kate 
Clark,  now  Mrs.  John  C.  Doolan,  and  of  Louise 
Clark,  Mrs.  Harry  Whitaker,  of  Wheeling.  West 
Virginia. 

Ann    Clark,    eldest   daughter   of   John   Clark, 
married  Owen  Gwathmey,   and  was  the  mother 
of  eleven  children.     There  are  a  number  of  her 
descendants   in   Kentucky.      Samuel    Gwathmey, 
who     married  Mary  Booth,  member  of  a  promi- 
nent pioneer  family,  was  the  father  of  Rebecca 
Ann  Gwathmey,  who   married   Henry  S.   Tyler, 
of  the  distinguished  family  of  that  name  and  a 
descendant  of  the  Oldhams.      To   Rebecca  and 
Henry  S.  Tyler  five  children  were  born,   and  a 
number  of  their  grandchildren  are  prominent  here. 
The  oldest  son,  Isaac  Tyler,  who  married  Jennie 
Owen,  of  St.  Louis,  was  the  father  of  Owen  Tyler, 
Rebecca,  Mrs.  Harry  L.  Smyser,  Isaac  Tyler  and 
the  late  Gwathmey  Tyler,  who  married  Edmonia 
Robinson.      Virginia   Tyler   is   Mrs.    William   A. 
Robinson,   who  with  her   daughter,   Mrs.   Spald- 
ing Coleman,  makes  her  home  on  Fourth  street 
near  Kentucky.     Levi  Tyler  married  Maria  Lewis 
and  was  the  father  of  Mrs.  James  Franklin  Fair- 
leigh  and  Henry  S.   Tyler.      Ella  Tyler  married 
Lewis  H.  Bond  and  her  children  who  make  Lou- 
isville their  home  are  Isaac  Tyler  Bond,  Etta,  Mrs. 
Dudley  Winston,  and  Joseph  Bond. 


51 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Diana  Moore  Gwathmey,  a  daughter  of  Ann 
and  Owen  Gwathmey,  was  the  wife  of  Thomas 
Bullitt. 

Catherine  Gwathmey  married  George  Wool- 
folk,  of  the  Virginia  family  which  settled  here. 

Elizabeth  Clark  married  Col.  Richard  Clough 
Anderson,  who  settled  here  in  1  738.  After  his 
marriage  Col.  Anderson  built  a  home  in  1  788, 
which  was  known  as  "Soldiers'  Retreat,"  on  the 
farm  which  is  now  owned  by  A.  T.  Hert.  This 
country  place  appears  on  the  first  maps  of  the 
county. 

Ann  Clark,  who  married  Owen  Gwathmey, 
and  her  sister,  Elizabeth  Clark,  who  married  Col. 
Richard  Clough  Anderson,  are  ancestresses  of 
some  Louisville  families,  for  Anne  Clark 
Gwathmey's  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  her 
cousin,  Richard  Clough  Anderson,  Jr.,  who  was 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  members  of  the 
family. 

Richard  Clough  Anderson,  Jr.,  was  an  eloquent 
orator,  an  able  lawyer  and  his  talents  were  not 
confined  to  Louisville  where  he  practiced  law  at 
Fifth  and  Main.  He  was  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  was  minister  to  Colombia. 
While  the  Andersons  w^ere  in  South  America 
two  daughters  were  born,  Elizabeth  and  Anne. 
The  latter  was  called  Anita  by  her  nurse  in 
Bogota,  and  in  later  life  she  was  always  Anita. 


52 


Clark 

Anita  Anderson  was  a  baby  when  she  came  to 
the  States,  the  mother  having  fallen  a  victim  to 
the  climate,  dying  at  Cartagena,  and  it  is  told 
that  little  Anita  came  across  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  mule  back,  swung  in  a  saddle  bag,  baby 
on  one  side  and  sugar  on  the  other. 

Elizabeth  Anderson  married  Col.  Stephen 
Johnston,  U.  S.  N.,  and  later  L.  M.  Floumoy. 
By  her  first  marriage  there  were  two  daughters, 
one,  Hebe  Johnston,  the  widow  of  Joseph  H. 
Craig,  of  New  York,  is  in  Louisville,  making  her 
home  with  the  Misses  Blain  and  Judge  Randolph 
Blain.  The  other  daughter,  Elizabeth  Johnston, 
married  Col.  Julian  Harrison,  and  one  of  their 
sons,  Peyton  Harrison,  whose  wife  is  Louise 
Wheat,  has  two  children,  Anne  and  Julian  Harri- 
son, and  Louisville  is  their  home. 

Anita  Anderson  married  a  well-known  Lou- 
isville citizen,  John  Thompson  Gray,  and  a  child 
of  this  marriage,  Anita  Gray,  is  the  widow  of  Dr. 
James  Thornley  Berry,  of  Anita  Springs,  who 
makes  her  home  with  her  daughter,  Anita  Berry 
Brooke,  wife  of  Robert  S.  Brooke,  of  fine  Vir- 
ginia lineage,  and  a  descendant  of  Sir  Alexander 
Spottswood.  Anne  Carter,  Anita  Gray,  Eliza- 
beth Washington  Berry,  Margaret  Lyle  and 
Roberta  Spottswood  Brooke  compose  the  family 
of  Robert  S.  and  Anita  Berry  Brooke. 


53 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Not  long  ago,  Robert  S.  Brooke  bought  some 
farm  land  in  Southern  Indiana,  just  below  Fern 
Grove;  in  going  over  the  deed  to  the  property 
he  found  material  for  an  interesting  tradition  for 
his  family.  The  land  is  a  portion  of  a  grant  to 
George  Rogers  Clark,  kinsman  of  Mrs.  Brooke, 
made  in  1  783  by  Edward  Randolph,  Governor 
of  Virginia,  a  kinsman  of  Mr.  Brooke. 

Lucy  Clark,  another  daughter  of  John  and 
Anne  Rogers  Clark,  married  Major  William 
Croughan,  who  had  located  in  Louisville  as  early 
as  1  782.  Their  home  was  "Locust  Grove,"  the 
scene  of  generous  hospitality.  Here  Lucy 
Croughan's  brother.  Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark, 
died  and  was  buried  in  the  old  family  burying 
ground. 

Fanny  Clark,  the  youngest  of  the  four 
sisters,  was  married  three  times.  The  sons  of 
her  first  husband.  Dr.  James  O'Fallon,  removed 
to  St.  Louis.  Her  second  marriage  was  to  Capt. 
Charles  Minn  Thruston,  who  fought  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary war  at  the  age  of  eleven  years,  seven 
months  and  three  days.  He  came  to  Louisville 
about  I  793.  To  Fanny  and  Charles  Thruston 
two  children  were  born,  a  son,  Charles  W.  Thrus- 
ton, and  a  daughter,  Ann  Clark. 

After  Capt.  Thruston's  death,  his  widow  mar- 
ried Judge  Dennis  Fitzhugh.  Their  three  chil- 
dren located  in  Arkansas. 


54 


Clark 

Charles  W.  Thruston  married  Mary  Churchill, 
the  daughter  of  Samuel  Churchill,  and  a  descend- 
ant of  the  Popes  and  the  Oldhams.  Their 
daughter,  Fanny  Thruston,  married  Andrew  Jack- 
son Ballard,  grandson  of  Bland  Ballard,  the  cele- 
brated Indian  fighter.  She  was  the  mother  of 
the  late  Charles  T.  Ballard,  who  married  Mina 
Breaux;  S.  Thruston  Ballard,  who  married  Sun- 
shine Harris,  and  Rogers  Clark  Ballard  Thrus- 
ton. 

Ann  Clark  Thruston,  the  daughter  of  Charles 
Minn  and  Fanny  Thruston,  married  Dr.  Bernard 
G.  Farrar,  of  St.  Louis. 

The  Thruston  home  stood  on  Walnut  street 
near  Floyd,  where  the  Ballard  grandsons  were 
born.  The  house  was  torn  down  in  1866,  and 
on  the  site  a  home  built  by  Andrew  J.  Ballard 
and  his  wife,  was  completed  in  1 868.  The  house, 
now  used  as  the  Detention  Home,  was  for  many 
years  their  hospitable  residence. 

William  Clark,  the  youngest  son,  referred  to 
above  as  too  young  to  fight  in  the  Revolution, 
was  the  explorer  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  ex- 
pedition from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific,  1 804- 
06.     He  was  afterward  Governor  of  Missouri. 

Gov.  William  Clark  married  Julia  Hancock, 
of  Fincastle,  Va.,  and  his  son,  Meriwether  Lewis 
Clark,  married  Abigail  Prather  Churchill,  of  Lou- 
isville.    Meriwether  Lewis  Clark,  Jr.,  who  mar- 


55 


Louisville's     First     Families 

ried  Mary  Martin  Anderson,  spent  a  number  of 
years  in  Louisville.  He  was  one  of  the  incorpo- 
rators and  the  first  president  of  the  Louisville 
Jockey  Club  in  1875  when  the  first  Kentucky 
Derby  was  run,  and  served  as  a  judge  at  the 
track  long  after  the  club  changed  ownership. 


56 


tUCENI/S  JOHMSor< 


"SPRING  GROVE" 


The  home  of  Samuel  Churchill  and  his  wife,  Abigail  Oldham, 
built  prior  to  1 804.  They  first  lived  in  the  little  house  at  the 
left  which  Col.  Churchill  had  built  and  occupied  when  a 
bachelor,  building  on  a  large  two-story  addition  to  accommo- 
date their  family.  The  house  still  stands,  facing  north  on 
the  Preston  street  road,  just  south  of  Elastern  Parkway. 


The  Churchill  Family. 

ARMISTEAD  CHURCHILL.  JR..  born  in 
Middlesex,  Va.,  in  1  733,  was  the  found- 
er of  the  Louisville  family  of  that  name. 
He  was  a  captain  of  the  Farquier  Militia  in 
1 759.  and  served  in  the  Revolution  with  the 
rank  of  colonel.  Col.  Churchill  married 
Elizabeth  Bakewell  in  1761.  They  settled  in 
Farquier  county,  and  to  them  a  number 
of  children  were  born.  In  1787,  when  their 
youngest  son,  Samuel,  was  eight  years  old,  the 
Churchills  started  for  Kentucky  with  their  family 
and  their  slaves. 

Armistead  Churchill  came  through  Cumber- 
land Gap  and  across  the  Wilderness  Trail  on  a 
coach,  driving  four-in-hand.  On  reaching  Lou- 
isville he  was  completely  disgusted  with  the  set- 
tlement, according  to  a  tradition  in  the  family, 
and  would  have  turned  back  the  next  day,  but 
for  three  reasons:  the  badness  of  the  roads  over 
which  he  had  traveled,  the  Indians  that  might  be 
encountered  in  the  forests,  and  the  fact  that  the 
Ohio  river  flowed  down  instead  of  up  toward 
Virginia.  Making  the  best  of  things  he  stayed, 
settling  on  land  nearby  and  southeast  of  the 
city   on   a  plot  of  ground,   which  as   "Churchill 


59 


Louise  i  I  Ic'  s     First     Families 

Park"  was  presented  to  the  city  by  his  great, 
great  grandsons,  Charles  T.  and  S.  Thruston 
Ballard  and  R.  C.  Ballard  Thruston.  Armistead 
Churchill  was  buried  there. 

Churchill  Park  is  now  part  of  the  Remount 
Station  at  Camp  Taylor,  its  present  employment, 
serving  a  wartime  need  of  the  government,  bring- 
ing it  within  the  definition  of  the  city's  use  of  the 
property,  which  was  given  with  the  proviso  that 
it  be  used  for  either  park  or  playground  pur- 
poses. 

It  was  this  Armistead  Churchill,  of  Kentucky, 
who  changed  the  spelling  of  the  family  name 
which  was  originally  Churchhill.  In  the  Churchill 
Bible  brought  from  Virginia,  and  which  was 
destroyed  by  fire  not  many  years  ago,  the  names 
of  his  first  five  children  were  entered  as  Church- 
hill,  while  in  1770  that  of  Ann,  the  sixth  child, 
was  set  down  as  Ann  Churchill,  omitting  an  h. 

William  Churchill,  the  grandfather  of  Armi- 
stead, emigrated  from  England  in  1  664  to  settle 
in  Middlesex  county,  Va.,  and  to  become  one  of 
the  most  extensive  of  the  Virginia  planters  of  his 
time.  His  home,  Bushy  Park,  on  the  bank  of 
the  Rappahannock  river  near  Chesapeake  Bay, 
was  noted  for  princely  hospitality  in  Colonial 
days.  A  descendant,  the  late  Charles  T.  Ballard, 
built  a  handsome  house  at  Glen  view,  "Bushy 
Park,"  preserving  the  name  of  the  Virginia  home 


60 


Churchill 

of  his  ancestor,  now  occupied  by  Mrs.  Ballard 
and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Charles  Homer.  They 
will  move  in  the  spring,  however,  for  Mrs.  Ballard 
recently  sold  Bushy  Park  to  Judge  Robert  W. 
Bingham.  Adjoining  this  estate  is  "Fincastle," 
which  preserves  the  name  of  Fincastle  county, 
Va.,  of  which  the  site  of  Louisville  was  once  a 
part,  the  home  of  another  Churchill,  Mrs. 
Alexander  Pope  Humphrey.  On  the  other  side 
of  Bushy  Park  is  Lansdowne,  the  home  of 
S.  Thruston  Ballard,  with  its  handsome  grounds 
and  residence. 

Of  the  large  family  of  Armistead  and  Eliza- 
beth Churchill,  three  children  are  ancestors  of 
Louisville  folk.  The  fifth  son,  Henry  Churchill, 
married  Penelope  Pope  Oldham;  the  youngest 
son,  Samuel  Churchill,  had  married  Abigail  Old- 
ham, the  daughter  of  Col.  William  Oldham  and 
Penelope  Pope,  and  by  his  brother's  marriage  to 
his  mother-in-law  became  her  brother-in-law. 
To  complicate  the  relationship  of  the  descendants 
Charles  T.  Churchill,  a  son  of  Samuel  and  Abigail, 
married  Sue  Payne,  granddaughter  of  Henry  and 
Penelope  Churchill.  Henry  Churchill  was  justice 
of  the  peace  in  Louisville  in  1793,  but  in  1803 
was  assistant  to  Stephen  Ormsby,  judge  of  the 
first  circuit  court  in  Jefferson  county.  He  was 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Jefferson  Seminary  in 
1  798,  granted  6,000  acres  of  land  by  the  legis- 


61 


Louisville's     First     Families 

lature.  Later  Henry  Churchill  removed  to  Eliza- 
bethtown. 

Samuel  Churchill  was  a  farmer  and  landowner 
who  interested  himself  in  everything  designed  to 
advance  agricultural  pursuits.  He  was  also  a 
member  of  the  Kentucky  Legislature  in  both 
Senate  and  House. 

Henry  and  Penelope  Pope  Oldham  had  a  son, 
Alexander  Pope  Churchill,  who  married  Mary 
McKinley,  the  father  of  Mary  Moss  Churchill, 
who  married  her  cousin,  Judge  Alexander  Pope 
Humphrey;  the  father  of  Eliza  Ann  Churchill,  who 
married  J.  B.  Payne,  of  Elizabethtown,  and  was 
the  mother  of  Sue  Payne,  who  married  her  cousin, 
Charles  T.  Churchill.  Sue  Payne  and  Charles 
Churchill  have  a  son,  Samuel  Churchill,  who 
makes  Louisville  his  home.  Another  descendant 
of  Henry  Churchill  who  came  to  Louisville  from 
Elizabethtown  is  Mrs.  Edmund  S.  Crume  (Eliza- 
beth Grimes),  who  on  her  mother's  side  is  de- 
scended from  the  Churchills  and  the  Paynes, 
and  on  her  father's  side  had  as  a  great-grand- 
mother, Maria  Mervin  Fontaine,  of  Louisville, 
who  married  Sterling  Grimes,  of  Georgia,  and 
who  on  her  wedding  day  rode  away,  never  to 
be  seen  again  by  any  member  of  her  family. 

Mary  Churchill,  who  married  Richard  Prather 
in  1797,  was  a  sister  of  Henry  and  Samuel 
Churchill  and  had  a  daughter,   Eliza,  who  mar- 


62 


Churchill 

ried  James  Guthrie  at  the  home  of  her  uncle, 
Samuel  Churchill.  James  and  Eliza  Guthrie's 
daughter,  Ann  Augusta  Guthrie,  married  Dr. 
William  Caldwell,  the  mother  of  James  Guthrie 
Caldwell,  who  married  Nannie  Standiford;  of 
Junius  Caldwell,  who  married  Ella  Payne,  of 
Georgetown,  and  of  Ann  Eliza  Caldwell,  who 
married  Ernest  Norton,  the  father  of  Caldwell 
Norton. 

Mary  Guthrie  married  Richard  Coke,  of  Logan 
county,  and  her  grandson.  Dr.  Richard  Coke, 
makes  Louisville  his  home.  Later  she  married 
John  Caperton  and  was  the  mother  of  John  H. 
Caperton,  who  married  Virginia  Standiford. 

Mary  Churchill  Prather  married  a  second  time, 
Alexander  Scott  Bullitt,  but  there  were  no  chil- 
dren of  this  marriage. 

Samuel  and  Abigail  Oldham  Churchill  had 
sixteen  children,  and  their  youngest,  Julia,  who 
married  Dr.  Luke  P.  Blackburn  in  1857,  lives  in 
the  city  at  her  home  comer  of  Third  street  and 
Park    avenue. 

Among  their  other  children  are  the  following, 
who  figured  in  Louisville's  society  and  civic  life: 
Mary  Churchill,  who  married  Charles  W.  Thrus- 
ton,  mother  of  Fanny  Thruston,  who  married 
Andrew  Jackson  Ballard.  Fanny  and  Andrew 
Jackson  Ballard  were  the  parents  of  the  Ballard 
men  mentioned  above. 


63 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Samuel  Bullitt  Churchill,  who  married  Amelia 
Walker,  was  a  prominent  man  of  affairs  in  Ken- 
tucky and  in  St.  Louis,  where  he  edited  a  leading 
newspaper.  His  descendants  here  are  the  chil- 
dren of  his  son,  John,  and  his  daughter,  Mary 
Churchill.  John  Churchill  married  Eva  Fergu- 
son and  was  the  father  of  Matilda,  Mrs.  Herman 
Newcomb,  and  of  Eva,  Mrs.  Frederick  Smith. 
Mary  Churchill  married  Dr.  Richard  Cowling, 
professor  of  surgery  at  the  University  of  Louis- 
ville. Their  children  are:  Matilda,  Mrs.  Arthur 
Sager;  Louise,  Mrs.  Arthur  Peter,  and  Amelia, 
Mrs.  Karl  Jungbluth,  Jr. 

William  Henry  Churchill  was  twice  married; 
first  to  Kate  Clark  and  later  to  Clarence  Prentice's 
widow,  Juila  McWilliams  Prentice.  Mrs. 
Churchill  lives  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  J.  H.  Ran- 
lett,  on  Ormsby  avenue. 

Abigail  Prather  Churchill  married  Meriwether 
Lewis  Clark,  but  has  no  descendants  here. 

John  Churchill,  still  another  son  of  Samuel  and 
Abigail,  was  twice  married;  first  to  a  Miss 
Laurence,  and  after  her  death,  at  the  age  of  71, 
to  Tina  Nicholas.  Their  son,  John  Churchill, 
married  Lucy  Jones.  William  Henry  Churchill 
and  John  Churchill  had  a  home  on  Sixth  street 
for  many  years,  and  were  two  of  Louisville's 
most  picturesque  figures,  distinguished-looking 
men,  and  practically  always  together.     From  their 


64 


Churchill 

father  they  inherited  the  land  which  is  now 
Churchill  Downs.  Charles  Thruston  Churchill, 
referred  to  above,  married  Sue  Payne,  and  was 
the  father  of  Samuel  Churchill. 

Emily  Churchill  married  Hampden  Zane,  lived 
in  her  later  life  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Blackburn, 
and  died  here  a  few  years  ago.  Her  descendants 
are  in  Canada. 

When  John  Churchill  married  Tina  Nicholas 
their  honeymoon  was  spent  abroad,  and  it  so 
happened  that  they  were  in  London  at  the  time 
of  Queen  Victoria's  Diamond  Jubilee.  Col.  and 
Mrs.  Churchill  were  given  cards  to  the  ceremony 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  and  upon  their  arrival 
at  the  entrance  were  asked  their  name  by  the 
usher,  one  of  Her  Majesty's  attendants.  Hear- 
ing the  distinguished  looking  gentleman  say  that 
he  was  John  Churchill,  the  usher  walked  back- 
ward up  the  aisle  to  the  very  front  pews  of  the 
chapel  to  seat  whom  he  believed  to  be  a 
Marlborough. 

William  Henry  and  John  Churchill  leased  their 
land,  which  is  now  Churchill  Downs,  to  their 
nephew,  Meriwether  Lewis  Clark,  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  Louisville  Jockey  Club.  Churchill 
Downs  in  1875  was  the  Louisville  Jockey  Club 
Driving  Park,  the  name  being  changed  afterward. 
The  race  tracks  which  antedate  Churchill  Downs 
were    Woodlawn,    on    the    Westport    road,    and 


65 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Oakland,  which  was  at  the  Seventh-street  cross- 
ing. Early  histories  of  Louisville  record  horse 
racing  on  what  is  now  Market  street  as  early  as 
1  783,  and  a  track  at  the  foot  of  Sixteenth  street, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century. 


66 


MARTHA  POPE  HUMPHREY 

Daughter  of  Alexander  Pope  and  Martha  Fontaine, 
sketched  from  a  portrait  which  hangs  in  "Fincastle",  the 
home  of  her  son.  Judge  Alexander  Pope  Humphrey. 

Martha  Pope  married  her  cousin,  Charles  Pope,  son  of 
William  Pope  Jr.,  and  Cjoithia  Sturgess.  After  his  death, 
she  married  the  Rev.  Edward  P.  Humphrey.  Judge  Hum- 
phrey's wife,  who  was  Mary  Moss  Churchill,  is  a  descendant 
of  Alexander  Pope's  sister,  Penelope  Pope,  who,  after  the 
death  of  her  husband.  Col.  William  Oldham,  married  Henry 
Churchill.  Alexander  Pope  Churchill,  son  of  Henry  and 
Penelope  Pope  Churchill,  married  Mary  McKinley,  and  was 
the  father  of  Mary  Moss  Churchill. 


67 


TiOHH^ON 


MARTHA  POPE  HUMPHREY 


The  Pope  Family. 

FROM  Westmoreland  county,  Virginia,  and 
down  the  Ohio  to  the  settlement  at  the 
mouth  of  Beargrass,  three  members  of  the 
Pope  family  journeyed  in  late  1779,  or  in  the 
first  month  of  1  780,  William  Pope  and  Benjamin 
Pope  and  their  sister,  Jane  Pope,  the  wife  of 
Thomas  Helm,  the  founder  of  the  Kentucky 
family  of  that  name.  They  were  three  of 
the  four  children  of  Worden  Pope  and 
Hester  Netherton,  John  Pope,  the  fourth,  re- 
maining in  Virginia.  Worden  Pope  rep- 
resented the  fourth  generation  of  Popes  in 
America,  before  him  being  three  Nathaniel 
Popes.  Nathaniel  Pope,  I.,  of  England,  settled 
in  Maryland  prior  to  1637,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  Maryland  General  Assembly  in  1  648.  He 
moved  to  Virginia  in  1  650,  and  part  of  his  estate 
was  "The  Cliffs,"  which  passed  from  the  Popes 
to  one  Thomas  Ley,  ancestor  of  Robert  E.  Lee, 
the  name  of  the  estate  changing  to  "Stratford." 
The  bricks  of  which  "Stratford"  was  built  are 
said  to  have  been  a  gift  from  Queen  Anne.  Ann 
Pope,  daughter  of  the  first  Nathaniel  Pope,  mar- 
ried John  Washington,  who  emigrated  from  Eng- 
land and  was  the  great-grandmother  of  George 
Washington. 

69 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Of  the  three  Popes  who  came  to  Louisville 
only  one,  William  Pope,  remained.  Benjamin 
Pope  removed  to  Bullitt  county;  Jane  Pope 
Helm  and  her  husband  stayed  only  a  year  and 
then  settled  in  Elizabethtown,  establishing  "Helm 
Place,"  which  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
family  until  a  few  years  ago. 

It  is  recounted  that  in  the  year  which  the 
Helms  spent  in  Louisville,  then  a  most  unhealthy 
place,  they  lost  three  small  children  by  disease. 
William  Pope  had  married  in  Virginia,  Penelope 
Edwards,  a  daughter  of  Hayden  Edwards,  of 
Farquier  county,  who  removed  to  Bourbon 
county,  Ky.,  to  found  a  large  and  wealthy  family. 
William  and  Penelope  Pope  had  eight  children, 
four  sons  and  four  daughters,  and  there  are  a 
number  of  descendants  in  Louisville.  One 
daughter,  Penelope,  was  the  heroine  of  an  inter- 
esting pioneer  romance,  and  she  was  also  one  of 
three  generations  of  Penelopes  who  were  mar- 
ried very  young,  two  at  the  age  of  1 4,  who  were 
mothers  at  15,  and  one  married  at  13,  the 
mother  of  two  children  at  15.  Coming  down  the 
Ohio  river  on  their  way  to  the  falls  of  the  Ohio, 
Col.  William  Pope  and  his  family  encountered 
a  young  soldier  of  the  Revolution,  Lieut.  Col. 
William  Oldham,  and  a  warm  friendship  sprang 
up  between  Col.  Pope  and  Oldham,  who  made 
part   of   the   trip   v/ith   the   Pope   family.      Lieut. 


70 


Pope 

Col.  Oldham  was  much  attracted  to  Penelope, 
the  young  daughter  of  his  friend,  and  announced 
his  intention  of  coming  back  to  claim  her  for 
his  bride,  which  he  did  three  years  later.  Old- 
ham was  killed  by  Indians  at  St.  Clair's  defeat 
in  1791.  The  marriage  of  Penelope  Pope  Old- 
ham, a  widow,  to  Henry  Churchill,  and  of  her 
daughter,  Abigail  Oldham,  to  Samuel  Churchill, 
brother  of  Henry,  was  recounted  in  the  sketch 
of  the  Churchill  family.  The  incident  of  mother 
and  daughter  marrying  brothers  had  occurred  be- 
fore in  the  Pope  family,  for  Hesterton  Netherton 
Pope,  after  the  death  of  Worden  Pope,  married 
Lynaugh  Helm,  a  brother  of  Thomas  Helm,  who 
married  her  daughter,  Jane  Pope. 

William  Pope  was  one  of  the  original  trustees 
appointed  by  the  Virginia  Legislature  to  estab- 
lish the  town  of  Louisville  in  May,  1  780;  he  made 
the  survey  of  the  town  to  carry  out  the  plan 
of  dividing  the  forfeited  Connolly  land  into  lots 
to  be  sold  at  $30  an  acre;  he  was  a  justice  of  the 
peace  in  1  785.  William  Pope  was  a  veteran  of 
the  Revolution,  as  was  his  brother,  Benjamin, 
and  in  1  780  was  made  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the 
Louisville  militia,  to  become  Colonel  of  the  same 
organization  in  April,  I  784.  William  Pope  and 
his  family  settled  on  the  Bardstown  road  not  far 
from  the  city  limits,  the  house  standing  on  what 
is  now  the  country  place  of  Mrs.  Harry  Bishop. 


71 


Louisville's     First     Families 

The  old  Pope  cemetery  was  on  this  farm,  and  a 
handsome  monument  stands  there  to  mark  the 
graves  of  William  Pope,  Jr.,  and  his  wife, 
Cynthia  Sturgess. 

In  the  East  End  there  are  three  parallel  streets, 
William,  H  and  Pope  streets,  which  make  a  last- 
ing tribute  to  the  memory  of  Col.  Pope  as  an 
early  surveyor  of  the  town. 

William  Pope,  Jr.,  and  his  wife,  Cynthia 
Sturgess,  had  a  large  family,  their  sons  and 
daughters  marrying  into  families  of  prominence 
and  social  position,  but  there  are  few  of  their 
descendants  left  in  Louisville.  Henrietta  Pope 
married  Thomas  Prather  Jacob,  and  their  home 
was  for  many  years  on  the  northeast  corner  of 
Fourth  and  Breckinridge.  They  have  two  sons 
living,  Donald  Jacob,  who  married  Hallie  Louise 
Burge,  and  John  I.  Jacob,  of  Louisville  and  Paris. 
Another  son,  the  late  Rev.  Thomas  Prather 
Jacob,  has  two  children,  Etta  Pope  Jacob  cmd 
James  Baird  Jacob,  who  live  with  their  mother, 
who  was  Martha  Baird.  Henry  Pope,  who 
married  Alice  Miller,  has  a  daughter,  Anna,  Mrs. 
E.  C.  Newbold,  who  makes  Louisville  her  home. 

Alexander  Pope  married  Martha  Fontaine  and 
had  five  children,  two  sons,  Henry  and  Fontaine, 
who  were  never  married,  and  both  were  killed 
in  duels;  three  daughters,  Penelope  Pope,  who 
married    her  cousin,    William    Prather;     Martha 


72 


Pope 

Pope,  who  married  her  cousin,  Charles  Pope,  son 
of  WilHam  and  Cynthia  Pope,  and  after  his  death 
married  the  Rev.  Edward  P.  Humphrey  (her 
only  child  was  Judge  Alexander  Pope  Humph- 
rey), and  Maria  Pope,  who  married  Allen  P. 
Elston.  The  Elstons  had  a  daughter,  Fanny,  who 
married  Edward  Payson  Quigley,  the  mother  of 
Eliza  Quigley,  Mrs.  Bethel  B.  Veech,  and  of  three 
other  children  who  do  not  live  in  Louisville. 

The  numerous  descendants  of  Penelope  Pope, 
and  William  Prather  were  mentioned  in  the 
sketch  of  the  Prather  family. 

The  home  of  Alexander  Pope,  member  of  the 
Kentucky  Legislature,  prominent  lawyer  and  man 
of  affairs,  stood  on  the  south  side  of  Jefferson 
street,  between  Sixth  and  Seventh,  with  a  front- 
age of  about  200  feet  and  extending  back  to 
Green  street.  Alexander  Pope  bought  the  prop- 
erty in  1 805,  and  Judge  Alexander  Pope 
Humphrey  inherited  it  from  his  mother,  who  was 
Martha  Pope.  Judge  Humphrey  was  born  in  the 
old  Pope  home  and  still  owns  a  piece  of  prop- 
erty on  the  block,  a  part  of  which  was  the  lawn 
on  the  Sixth-street  side  of  the  house,  retaining 
it  for  its  association,  and  oddly  enough  the  win- 
dows of  his  law  ofHce  in  the  Inter-Southern  over- 
look the  site  of  the  Pope  house,  on  which  is 
now  built  a  row  of  shops. 


73 


Louisville's     First     Families 

The  Pope  men  were  antagonists  of  Henry 
Clay  and  strong  supporters  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
and  a  tradition  of  the  Popes  tells  of  the  caucus 
held  in  Alexander  Pope's  law  office,  which  stood 
in  the  side  yard  of  his  home  on  Jefferson  street, 
at  which  Andrew  Jackson  was  brought  forward 
as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1824.  When 
President  Jackson  visited  Louisville  he  was  de- 
lightfully entertained  by  the  Pope  families. 

Penelope  Pope,  one  of  the  four  daughters  of 
William  and  Penelope  Pope,  is  the  only  one  who 
has  descendants  here.  By  her  first  marriage  to  Col. 
William  Oldham  she  had  three  children.  Judge 
John  Pope  Oldham,  of  the  Louisville  Circuit 
Court,  long  prominent  here;  Major  Richard  Old- 
ham, of  the  United  States  Army,  and  Abigail 
Oldham,  who  married  Samuel  Churchill.  Judge 
John  Pope  Oldham  married  Malinda  Talbot; 
their  daughter,  Susan  Oldham,  married  Horace 
Hill,  and  was  the  mother  of  several  children. 
Lily  Hill  married  William  Paca  Lee  and  was  the 
mother  of  Linda  Lee,  now  Mrs.  Thomas,  and 
of  Jouett  Lee,  Mrs.  William  Wallace,  of  Boston, 
who  so  frequently  visits  here. 

Major  Richard  Oldham  married  Eliza  Martin, 
daughter  of  Major  Thomas  Martin,  U.  S.  A., 
having  a  son,  George  Oldham,  who  married 
Harriet  Josephine  Miller,  daughter  of  John  Adam 
Miller.     Alfred  Violett  Oldham,  for  many  years 


74 


Pope 

Clerk  of  the  City  Court,  is  the  only  descendant 
of  Major  Oldham  in  the  city. 

From  the  marriage  of  Penelope  Pope  Oldham 
to  Henry  Churchill  and  from  the  marriage  of  her 
daughter,  Abigail  Oldham,  to  Samuel  Churchill, 
several  of  Louisville's  most  influential  families 
trace  their  lineage,  the  Ballards,  the  Humphreys, 
the  Churchills,  the  Jungbluths,  the  Peters  and 
others,  all  mentioned  in  the  Churchill  sketch. 

Two  sons  of  William  and  Penelope  Pope, 
prominent  men  of  their  day,  were  John  Pope  and 
Nathaniel  Pope,  but  they  have  no  descendants 
in  Louisville. 

While  Benjamin  Pope  and  his  wife,  Beheath- 
land  Foote,  settled  in  Bullitt  county,  near 
Shepherdsville,  Benjamin  Pope,  a  captain  in  the 
Revolution,  was  active  in  the  shaping  of  the  city's 
history.  He  was  an  ensign  in  Capt.  James  Pat- 
ton's  militia,  and  assisted  in  the  building  of  Fort 
Nelson.  He  was  one  of  Louisville  trustees  in 
1  783.  Among  the  trustees  of  Louisville  elected 
in  1 809  were  Benjamin  Pope's  son,  Worden, 
and  William  Pope's  son,  Alexander  Pope. 

Worden  Pope  was  one  of  three  sons  of 
Benjamin  and  Beheathland  Pope.  George  and 
Benjamin  Pope  continued  their  residence  in 
Bullitt  county,  while  Worden  Pope  became  a 
prominent  citizen  in  Louisville.  He  was  County 
Clerk  for  many  years  and  was  succeeded  by  his 


75 


Louisville's     First     Families 

son,  Edmund  Pendleton  Pope,  and  later  by  his 
son,  Curran  Pope,  the  clerkship  remaining  in  the 
Pope  family  for  over  sixty  years. 

Elizabeth  Taylor  Thruston,  daughter  of  Col. 
John  Thruston,  was  the  wife  of  Worden  Pope, 
and  there  were  thirteen  children  of  this  mar- 
riage. However,  only  three  sons  of  the  family 
are  forefathers  of  Louisville  people:  Patrick 
Henry  Pope,  who  married  Sarah  Lawrence 
Brown;  Edmund  Pendleton  Pope,  who  married 
Nancy  Johnson,  daughter  of  Col.  James  Johnson; 
Col.  Curran  Pope,  of  the  Union  army,  a  West 
Point  graduate,  killed  at  the  Battle  of  Perryville, 
who  married  Matilda  Prather  Jacob,  daughter  of 
John  1.  Jacob  and  Ann  Overton  Fontaine. 

Patrick  Henry  Pope  was  the  father  of 
Edmonia  Pope,  who  married  Dr.  William  H. 
Gait,  the  mother  of  Misses  Urith  and  Ellen  Gait; 
and  of  Ellen  E.  Pope,  who  married  Dr.  John 
Thruston,  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Thruston 
Hughes,  and  of  Mary  Anna  Pope,  who  mar- 
ried George  Nicholas,  whose  offspring  is  set  down 
in  the  sketch  of  the  Prather  family.  There  were 
two  other  children  who  have  no  descendants 
here. 

Edmund  Pendleton  Pope  was  the  father  of 
Judge  Alfred  Thruston  Pope,  legislator  and 
jurist,  who  married  his  cousin,  Mary  Tyler  Pope, 
daughter  of  Col.  Curran  Pope.    Dr.  Curran  Pope 


76 


Pope 

and  Alfred  Thruston  Pope  are  the  only  children 
of  Judge  Alfred  Thruston  and  Mary  Tyler  Pope, 
and  live  in  their  parents'  old  residence  on  Wal- 
nut street.  Another  son  of  Edmund  Pendleton 
Pope  is  Brig.  Gen.  J.  Word  en  Pope,  U.  S.  A., 
retired,  whose  home  is  in  Denver.  Gen.  Pope 
was  at  one  time  quartermaster  general  of  the 
army,  and  was  for  a  time  commandant  of  the 
disciplinary  barracks  at  Ft.  Leavenworth.  His 
son,  Worden  Pope,  spent  the  autumn  in  Louis- 
ville at  Camp  Taylor  in  the  F.  A.  R.  D.,  and 
was  a  candidate  officer  in  the  artillery  school 
when  the  armistice  was  signed. 

Mary  Tyler  Pope,  the  mother  of  Dr.  Curran 
Pope  and  Alfred  Thruston  Pope,  was  the  only 
child  of  Col.  Curran  Pope,  with  descendants 
here. 


77 


"FARMINGTON",  THE  SPEED  HOME 

A  sketch  made  from  a  photograph  used  to  illustrate  Hay 
and  Nickolay's  "Life  of  Lincoln".  Some  years  before  the 
war,  Lincoln  made  an  extended  visit  to  the  Speeds  at  the  old 
home,  "Farmington",  which  was  built  about   1810. 


The  Speed  Family. 

THE  recurrence  of  the  given  names  of  James 
and  John  in  the  Speed  family,  generation 
generation,  is  a  striking  point  in  the  study 
of  the  Speed  genealogy.  It  was  a  John  Speed, 
son  of  James  Speed,  who  founded  the  Louis- 
ville family  just  at  the  beginning  of  the  Nine- 
teenth century,  and  who  built  in  1810  the  historic 
home  of  the  Speeds — "Farmington" — five  miles 
from  the  courthouse,  out  on  the  Bardstown  road. 

Capt.  James  Speed,  son  of  John  Speed  and 
Mary  Taylor,  was  born  in  Mecklenburg  county, 
Va.,  married  Mary  Spencer,  of  Charlotte  county, 
served  in  the  Revolution,  and  In  1  782  came  to 
Kentucky.  In  that  year  his  son,  John  Speed, 
afterward  Judge  Speed,  of  Louisville,  was  ten 
years  old.  Capt.  Speed,  with  his  wife  and  six 
children,  crossed  the  Wilderness  road  and  settled 
near  Danville.  One  son,  Thomas  Speed,  moved 
to  Bardstown,  but  was  in  business  at  Shepherds- 
ville  with  his  brother,  John  Speed,  who,  inherit- 
ing farm  land  from  his  father's  handsome  estate 
in  1  800,  established  himself  in  Jefferson  county. 
John  Speed  served  in  the  United  States  forces  in 
1  79 1   against  the  Indians. 

"Farmington"  in  Judge  John  Speed's  life  was 
the  scene  of  lavish  hospitality  extended  not  only 


81 


Louisville's     First     Families 

to  kinsmen  and  friends,  but  even  to  an  army, 
for,  it  is  said,  that  the  volunteers  for  the  War  of 
1812,  passing  "Farmington,"  were  entertained 
in  entire  companies  and  even  larger  bodies  of 
men. 

Judge  Speed  was  twice  married,  his  first  wife 
being  Abby  LeMaster,  whose  two  daughters 
were  never  married;  his  second  wife  was  Lucy 
Gilmer  Fry,  one  of  the  daughters  of  Joshua  Fry 
and  Peachy  Walker,  a  descendant  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Walker,  the  earliest  explorer  in  Kentucky,  and  a 
sister  of  Mary  Ann  Fry,  who  married  William 
Christian  Bullitt. 

Lucy  Gilmer  Fry  came  to  Kentucky  with  her 
parents,  who  settled  in  Mercer  county,  and  it 
was  an  odd  coincidence  of  her  marriage  that 
like  her  husband  she  was  just  ten  years  old  when 
her  family  immigrated  to  the  new  country.  Her 
middle  name,  Gilmer,  has  proven  a  favorite  with 
the  Speeds,  and  it  occurs  in  several  branches  of 
the  family  today.  To  John  and  Lucy  Speed 
eleven  children  were  born,  and  at  a  gathering  of 
their  offspring  in  1881,  at  a  Fourth  of  July  pic- 
nic, 107  members  of  the  Speed  family  in  Louis- 
ville attended. 

It  was  to  "Farmington"  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
came  before  the  Civil  War  to  visit  his  friend, 
Joshua  F.  Speed,  the  fifth  son  of  Judge  Speed. 
The   friendship,     which     was    one    of    Lincoln's 


82 


speed 

strongest  attachments,  was  the  result  of  a  meet- 
ing in  Springfield,  111.,  where  Joshua  Speed  spent 
seven  years  in  his  early  manhood.  He  became 
one  of  Louisville's  foremost  business  men,  and 
his  wife,  Fanny  Henning,  of  fine  Virginia  stock, 
shared  her  husband's  popularity.  She  was  the 
sister  of  James  W.  Henning,  with  whom  her  hus- 
band was  in  partnership  in  the  real  estate  busi- 
ness.     She  had  no  children. 

The  old  home  of  Joshua  F.  Speed  was  "Cold 
Spring,"  on  the  road  from  the  city  to  "Farming- 
ton."  Remodeled  and  with  numerous  additions 
the  old  house  is  incorporated  in  the  present  home 
of  Mrs.  Samuel  C.  Henning,  near  Cherokee  Park. 
Mrs.  Henning  is  not  a  Speed,  but  her  brother, 
Calvin  Morgan  Duke,  who  lives  in  Ohio,  mar- 
ried Jennie  Speed,  daughter  of  George  Keats 
Speed  and  Jennie  Ewing,  and  granddaughter  of 
Major  Philip  Speed.  The  late  Samuel  C.  Henning 
was  a  nephew  of  Fanny  Henning  Speed. 

Seven  children  of  Judge  John  Speed's  family 
of  eleven  children  have  descendants  here: 
James  Peachy,  William  Pope,  Susan  Fry,  Philip 
J.  Smith  and  Martha  B.  Speed.  James  Speed, 
born  in  1812,  was  Attorney  General  in  Lincoln's 
cabinet,  was  a  widely  known  lawyer,  partner  of 
Chancellor  Henry  Pirtle,  and  was  mustering  of- 
ficer for  the  United  States  army  in  the  Civil  War. 
All    the    Speeds    were    loyal    Unionists.      James 


83 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Speed  married  Jane  Cochran,  daughter  of  John 
Cochran,  and  had  a  hospitable  home  at  Sixth  and 
Walnut.  They  had  a  country  home  on  the  site 
of  "Campo  Bello,"  the  home  of  John  M.  Ather- 
ton,  near  Cherokee  Park. 

James  Speed  served  in  the  Kentucky  Legisla- 
ture and  was  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  law 
department  of  the  University  of  Louisville. 
James  and  Jane  Speed  had  six  sons,  three  of 
whom  live  in  Louisville:  John  Speed,  who  mar- 
ried Aurore  Combs,  father  of  James  Speed,  who 
married  Jane  Barker;  and  Charles  Speed,  who 
married  Eliza  Homire,  and  has  two  daughters 
here,  Bessie  and  Helen  Speed;  and  of  James 
Speed,  who  married  Hattie  Morton,  father  of 
Hallie,  Mrs.  Karl  Harris,  and  of  Nellie,  Mrs. 
Edward  Ream.  In  this  branch  of  the  family,  as 
in  many  of  the  others,'  there  are  children  and 
grandchildren  living,  but  not  in  the  city  of  Lou- 
isville, to  which  these  sketches  are  confined. 

James  Speed,  whose  wife  is  Jane  Barker,  and 
who  is  frequently  called  the  "bird  man,"  com- 
piled the  material  for  the  book,  "James  Speed,  a 
Personality,"  privately  printed  by  Hattie  Bishop 
Speed  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  James 
Breckinridge  Speed,  who  had  collected  a  great 
deal  of  material,  and  a  number  of  papers  and 
letters  with  the  idea  of  publishing  a  life  of  his 
uncle,  James  Speed. 


84 


speed 

Peachy  Speed  named  for  her  ancestress, 
Peachy  Walker,  married  Austin  Peay,  and  her 
daughter,  EHza  Peay,  married  Col.  John  H.  Ward. 
Ossian  Ward,  who  married  Mabel  Prettyman, 
and  John  Hardin  Ward,  who  married  Letty  Lee 
Peter,  are  her  only  grandchildren  in  Louisville. 
Visiting  here  at  present  is  another  granddaughter, 
Frances  Hartwell,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  daughter 
of  Alice  Peay  and  Dr.  Samuel  Hartwell. 

William  Pope  Speed,  named  for  Col.  William 
Pope,  the  pioneer,  married  three  times,  and  by 
his  second  wife,  Mary  Ellen  Shallcross,  had  one 
son,  James  Breckinridge  Speed,  the  successful 
banker  and  capitalist,  who  married  Cora  Coffin, 
of  Cincinnati,  having  two  children,  Olive  Speed, 
who  married  Frederic  M.  Sackett,  and  William 
Shallcross  Speed,  who  married  Virginia  Perrin. 
J.  B.  Speed  married  a  second  time,  his  widow 
being  Hattie  Bishop  Speed. 

Susan  Fry  Speed  married  Benjamin  O.  Davis, 
of  Boston,  who  located  in  Louisville  and  was 
partner  of  William  H.  Pope  in  the  Pope-Davis 
Company.  Their  daughter,  Lucy  Gilmer  Davis, 
married  J.  Edward  Hardy,  and  is  the  mother  of 
Charlotte  Hardy,  Mrs.  Charles  Pettet  Robinson, 
of  Lucy  Hardy,  Mrs.  T.  C.  Hobbs,  of  William  B. 
Hardy,  who  married  Julia  Robinson;  of  the  Rev. 
Frank  Hardy  and  of  Kate  W.  Hardy,  who  mar- 
ried   Gen.    J.    M.    Califf.       Kate    Davis    married 


85 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Dexter  Hewett  and  was  the  mother  of  Leonard 
Hewett,  who  married  Margaret  Fink,  and  of 
Henry   Hewett,   who   married   Bertha  Cooper. 

Jane  Lewis  Davis  married  Dr.  Douglas  Morton 
and  is  the  mother  of  Edward  Davis  Morton,  who 
married  Austine  Barton  (their  children  are 
Henrietta  Barton  Morton  and  Susanne  Speed 
Morton,  the  latter,  aged  five  weeks,  being  the 
youngest  member  of  the  Speed  family)  ;  of  Dr. 
David  Cummins  Morton,  who  married  Mary 
Ballard,  their  children,  Thruston,  Jane  and 
Rogers  Morton,  are  descended  from  the  Clarks, 
Churchills  and  Popes,  as  well  as  the  Speeds)  and 
of  Lewis  D.  Morton,  who  married  Mary  Marple. 

Major  Philip  Speed,  born  in  1819,  served  in 
the  Federal  army  as  paymaster.  His  wife  was 
Emma  Keats,  a  niece  of  John  Keats,  the  poet. 
Their  home  was  on  Walnut  street,  near  Eighth 
street,  and  they  entertained  extensively.  They 
lived  afterwards  on  First  street,  rearing  a  large 
family.  Their  daughter,  Mary  Speed,  married 
Enos  Tuley,  the  mother  of  Philip  Speed 
Tuley,  who  married  Lida  Swope;  of  Dr.  Henry 
Enos  Tuley,  who  married  Ethel  Brown  Engel- 
bach;  of  Thomas  Speed  Tuley,  who  married 
Betty  Watkins. 

Ella  Keats  Speed  married  Thomas  Crutcher, 
and  was  the  mother  of  Emma  Keats  Crutcher, 
who    married    James    Gardner;    of    Thomas    B. 


86 


speed 

Crutcher,  who  married  Pearl  Robb;  of  Mary 
Crutcher,  who  married  Will  Parker;  of  Philip 
Speed  Crutcher,  who  married  Anna  Hall. 

Alice  Speed  married  Harry  P.  McDonald,  and 
has  a  daughter,  Fanny  S.  McDonald. 

Thomas  A.  Speed  married  Amelia  Harrison 
(now  Mrs.  Edgar  J.  Levey) ,  and  was  the  father 
of  Meta  duPont  Speed,  Mrs.  Guy  Warren,  and 
Mary  Tuley  Speed,   Mrs.   Sam  Young  Bingham. 

J.  Smith  Speed  married  Elizabeth  Williamson, 
and  there  were  no  children  of  this  marriage;  later 
he  married  Susan  Philips,  and  their  oldest  child, 
named  Elizabeth  Williamson  Speed,  married 
Richard  Jouett  Menefee,  and  was  the  mother  of 
Margaret,  Mrs.  James  Ross  Todd,  of  Richard  H. 
Menefee,  who  married  Edith  Norton,  and  of 
three  other  sons  who  do  not  make  Louisville  their 
home. 

Joshua  Speed,  who  married  Carrie  Nicholson, 
is  the  only  one  of  J.  Smith  Speed's  four  sons 
located  here.  His  children  are:  Evarts  Speed, 
who  married  Mildred  Vaughan;  Susan  Philips 
Speed  and  Abby  Nones  Speed. 

Martha  B.  Speed,  the  tenth  child  of  John  and 
Lucy  Speed,  married  Thomas  Adams,  and  was 
the  mother  of  Gilmer  Speed  Adams,  who  mar- 
ried Lettie  Robinson. 

Major  Thomas  Speed,  Revolutionary  soldier, 
the  elder  brother  of  Judge  John  Speed,   whose 


87 


Louisville's     First     Families 

home  was  "Cottage  Grove,"  at  Bardstown,  has 
several  descendants  in  the  city.  By  his  second 
marriage  to  a  widow,  Mary  McElroy  Allen,  he 
had  a  son,  Thomas  Spencer  Speed.  Thomas 
Spencer  Speed  married,  first,  Sarah  Whitney 
Sparhaw,  and  their  son  was  Thomas  Speed,  one 
of  Louisville's  finest  citizens.  He  was  a  leading 
lawyer  and  for  years  clerk  of  the  Federal  Court. 
His  wife  was  Lucy  Buckner  Speed,  and  for  years 
their  home  was  on  Fourth  street  opposite  Cen- 
tral Park.  Mary  Whitney  Speed,  a  daughter, 
lives  here.  In  her  possession  is  the  Speed  Bible, 
in  which  eight  generations  have  been  entered. 
Thomas  Speed's  "Records  and  Memorials  of  the 
Speed  Family"  is  a  prized  possession  in  the 
American  homes  of  the  Speeds. 

By  a  second  marriage  to  Margaret  Hawkins, 
Thomas  Spencer  Speed  had  three  children, 
Austin  P.  Speed,  whose  widow,  Georgia  Mc- 
Campbell  Speed,  lives  in  the  city;  Canby  Speed, 
who  married  Emma  Fullinwider,  the  father  of 
Mary  Louise,  Margaret  and  Emily  Speed,  and 
Capt.  William  Speed,  whose  wife  was  Helen  Hart- 
hill;  and  of  Louise  Speed,  who  makes  her  home 
with  her  three  nieces. 

The  Speeds  trace  their  lineage  from  John 
Speed,  the  historian  and  geographer  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan age. 


88 


W»wi>i<nW''l»'t'>'i|il'''"'%l''Oi«^»«*'''0^Xft'i>'f»'l''''*i^'''''l"''''^^^ 


THOMAS  JOYES 


Sketched  from  a  portrait  o^vned  by  this  distinguished 
citizen's  grandson.  Chapman  C.  Joyes. 

Thomas  Joyes  was  the  eldest  son  of  Patrick  Joyes,  founder 
of  the  Louisville  family,  was  a  noted  linguist,  fought  in 
early  wars,  and  was  identified  with  the  social  and  political 
life  of  old  Louisville. 


The  foyes  Family. 

IT  was  after  only  three  years  in  America  that 
Patrick  Joyes,  of  Galway,  Ireland,  cast  his  lot 
with  the  pioneers,  reaching  Louisville  in  the 
year  1  784.  This  Irish  gentleman,  after  complet- 
ing his  education  in  France  and  Spain,  lived  for 
some  time  in  France,  and  with  his  wife,  Anne 
O'Gara,  of  Ireland,  sailed  from  Bordeaux  and 
took  up  his  residence  in  Philadelphia.  Making  a 
business  trip  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  he  decided 
to  settle  here,  and  his  first  home,  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  Sixth  and  Main,  remained  in  the 
possession  of  the  family  for  99  years. 

The  home  of  Anne  and  Patrick  Joyes  was 
famed  for  the  hospitality  of  colonial  days,  so  lit- 
tle understood  by  the  most  genial  host  of  the 
present,  with  parties  of  friends  and  later  of  kins^ 
men,  arriving  on  horseback  and  by  stage  coach 
from  Virginia  and  the  Central  Kentucky  settle- 
ments, assured  of  hearty  welcome.  Those  w^ere 
the  days  of  the  trundle  beds  and  of  huge  bed- 
rooms accommodating  two  or  more  of  the  old 
four  posters,  one  of  which  slightly  crowds  the 
sleeping  apartments  of  today.  The  style  of 
entertaining  continued  in  the  Joyes  family  to 
the  time  when  horseback  rides  were  replaced  by 
journeys  on  steam  cars.      In    1892,   at  the  coun- 


91 


Louisville's     First     Families 

try  home  of  Patrick  Joyes  II,  near  Shelbyville, 
called  "Oxford"  for  his  grandfather's  boyhood 
home  in  Ireland,  lavish  hospitality  was  the  echo 
of  the  century  before.  It  was  at  "Oxford"  that 
the  second  Patrick  Joyes,  with  his  family,  spent 
the  last  twelve  years  of  his  life. 

The  Joyes  family  is  entirely  distinct  from  the 
family  of  Joyce,  whose  name  is  pronounced  the 
same  way,  and,  in  fact,  with  the  exception  of  an 
army  officer,  who  emigrated  from  Galway  much 
later  than  the  Louisville  settler,  there  are  no  other 
Joyeses  in  the  States  beside  the  descendants  of 
Patrick  and  Anne  Joyes,  and  comparatively  few 
of  them. 

Two  sons  and  three  daughters  were  born  to 
the  pioneer  couple  at  the  home  at  Sixth  and 
Main.  All  married  and  lived  in  either  Louis- 
ville or  Jefferson  county.  Thomas  Joyes,  born 
in  1  789,  the  elder  son,  is  said  to  have  been  the 
oldest  male  white  child  born  within  the  city 
limits.  Like  other  patriotic  citizens  of  his  time, 
he  had  ample  opportunity  for  military  service, 
figuring  in  the  Wabash  Campaign  of  1812,  and 
with  the  rank  of  captain  fought  with  the  1 3th 
Kentucky  militia  at  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans. 

He  was  a  surveyor  and  spent  part  of  his  young 
manhood  in  the  office  of  the  county  clerk.  He 
was  sent  to  the  Kentucky  Legislature  several 
times. 


92 


J  o  y  e  s 

He  was  one  of  the  Louisville  citizens  to  be 
pallbearer  at  the  re-interment  of  Daniel  Boone's 
body  at  the  Frankfort  cemetery  in    1845. 

Thomas  Joyes  was  noted  as  a  linguist,  inherit- 
ing the  gift  from  his  father,  who  spoke  French, 
Spanish  and  German  fluently.  To  these  his  son 
added  several  Indian  dialects,,  and  it  was  of  him 
that  Judge  Fortunatus  Cosby  said  he  believed 
if  Tom  Joyes  was  shut  up  over  night  in  the 
room  with  a  Russian  he  would  be  in  full  com- 
mand of  the  language  by  break  of  day.  His 
early  holdings  were  Jacob's  Park,  then  Burnt 
Knob,  a  farm  of  over  300  acres,  and  the  major 
portion  of  Towhead  Island  (the  Guthrie  heirs 
and  the  widow  of  the  Rev.  John  Norton  owned 
a  small  part  of  the  island).  Burnt  Knob  was  sold 
by  Patrick  Joyes  II  to  the  city  for  park  purposes 
when  Mayor  Charles  Jacob  was  in  office. 

Thomas  Joyes  married  Judith  Morton  Ven- 
able,  daughter  of  Judge  Joseph  Venable,  of 
Shelbjrvrille,  and  had  one  child,  Patrick  Joyes, 
born  in  1826,  at  his  grandfather's  home  on  Main 
street.  He  was  educated  at  Centre  College  and 
was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  Law,  was  a  public- 
spirited  citizen  and  one  of  the  first  presidents  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  He  was  also  the  first  president 
of  the  Charity  Organization,  now  the  Associated 
Charities,    served    on    the    board    of    the    Cook 


93 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Benevolent  Fund  Home  for  the  Aged,  and  was 
an  elder  in  the  First  Presbyterian  church. 

Patrick  Joyes  married  Florence  Coleman,  a 
great  beauty  and  a  greatly  beloved  woman, 
daughter  of  Chapman  Coleman  and  his  wife, 
Anna  Mary  Crittenden.  Their  hospitable  home 
was  on  Second  street,  next  door  to  Christ  Church 
Cathedral  House.  They  were  the  parents  of  six 
children.  Their  daughter,  Anna  Mary  Joyes, 
married  Haiden  Trigg  Curd,  the  mother  of  Flor- 
ence Joyes  Curd;  Mrs.  Percy  N.  Booth,  who 
has  two  children,  Florence  Joyes  and  Alexander 
Gait  Booth;  of  Pattie  Curd,  Mrs.  Albert  Hueling 
Davis,  of  Jacksonville,  the  mother  of  Albert 
Hueling  Davis,  Jr. ;  of  Lieut.  Joyes  Curd,  United 
States  Air  Service,  recently  returned  from  France 
and  now  at  a  rest  camp  in  the  Catskills.  Lieut. 
Curd  was  gassed  while  on  duty  over  there. 

Chapman  C.  Joyes  married  Sallie  Swope, 
daughter  of  Ben  L.  Swope,  and  is  the  father  of 
Janet  Staines  Swope  and  of  Thomas  Swope,  who 
has  just  been  released  after  two  years'  military 
service. 

Capt.  Morton  Venable  Joyes,  Judge  Advo- 
cate's Department,  Washington,  married  Caro- 
line Hancock  Barr,  daughter  of  Judge  John  W. 
Barr,  and  is  the  father  of  Lieut.  Watson  Joyes, 
U.  S.  Engineers,  in  France,  of  Preston  Pope 
Joyes,   who  married   Nina  Harlan   Bingham,   the 

94 


J  o  y  e  s 

father  of  Nina  and  Preston  Pope  Joyes,  of 
Florence  Coleman  Joyes,  II,  and  of  Morton  V. 
Joyes,  Jr. 

Florence  Coleman  Joyes  I,  and  Patrick  Joyes, 
Jr.,  make  their  home  with  their  sister,  Mrs.  Curd, 
on  First  street,  and  another  brother.  Dr.  Critten- 
den Joyes,  who  married  first  Lida  Robinson, 
daughter  of  Worthington  Robinson,  and  later 
married  Almeda  Griggs,  of  Texas,  lives  in  Fort 
Worth  and  is  the  father  of  one  child,  Mary  Griggs 
Joyes. 

Catherine  Joyes,  daughter  of  Patrick  and 
Anne  O'Gara,  married  William  McGonigale,  and 
was  the  mother  of  John  McGonigale,  of  the 
old  surveying  and  real  estate  firm  of  Henning, 
McGonigale  &  Hobbs.  He  married  Josephine 
Miller  Oldham,  widow  of  George  Oldham,  and 
his  children  are  William  J.  McGonigale,  Florence 
Joyes  McGonigale  and  Mary  McGonigale. 

Nancy  Joyes  married  Thomas  Johnson,  of 
Jefferson  county,  and  was  the  mother  of  Thomas 
Johnson,  who  married  a  sister  of  E.  D.  Standi- 
ford. 

Thomas  Johnson  III  married  Betty  Brooks, 
the  father  of  Brooks  Johnson,  of  Edward  Led 
Johnson  and  of  Etta  Brooks  Johnson,  Mrs. 
Edward  C.  Tyler. 

Elizabeth  Joyes  married  William  H.  Sale  and 
was  the  mother  of  William  H.   Sale,   who   mar- 


95 


Louisville's     First     Families 

ried  Delia  Nagle,  father  of  Delia  Sale,  Appeline 
Joyes  Sale  and  of  Hewett  Sale,  of  Chattanooga 
and  Louisville.  Another  grandchild  is  Betty  Sale 
Reese,  widow  of  Edward  Reese,  whose  father 
was  Charles  Sale. 

John  Joyes,  the  youngest  child  of  Patrick  and 
Anne  Joyes,  was  born  in  1  799,  was  educated  at 
St.  Mary's  College,  studied  and  practiced  law, 
was  the  second  Mayor  of  Louisville,  and  City 
Judge  from  1835  to  1854.  He  married  Harriet 
Lanier,  daughter  of  Major  Thomas  Martin  Lanier, 
distinguished  soldier  of  the  Revolution.  His 
daughter,  Stella  Joyes,  married  James  A.  Mc- 
Afee, of  pioneer  family,  and  was  the  mother  of 
Annie  McAfee,  who  married  Robert  Dulaney, 
and  has  one  son,  Woodford  Dulaney,  recently  re- 
turned from  service  overseas,  and  of  Leal  Mc- 
Afee. 

Judge  Joyes'  daughter,  Susan  Joyes,  married 
Major  Edward  P.  Byrne,  of  the  Confederate 
Army,  and  her  daughter,  Harriet,  married  Hea- 
ton  Owsley,  and  was  the  mother  of  Edna 
Owsley,  Mrs.  Frederic  Hill,  of  Chicago,  and  of 
John  Owsley,  of  New  Haven,  Conn.,  whose  wife 
was  Helen  Hall. 

A  son,  Clarence  Joyes,  married  Mary  Riddle 
and  has  a  son,  William  Joyes,  who  makes  St. 
Louis  his  home.  Judge  Joyes'  other  sons  were 
gallant  soldiers  in  the  Confederate  army:     Capt. 


96 


J  0  y  e  s 

Erskine  Joyes,  who  was  killed  in  action,  attached 
to  Second  Kentucky  Regiment;  Lieut.  John 
Joyes,  who  served  under  his  brother-in-law. 
Major  Byrne,  who  commanded  a  Kentucky 
Battalion. 


97 


eotEMiA     <roHNSoN 


RICHARD  SNOWDEN  VEECH 

Sketched  from  a  picture  made  on  the  day  of  his  wedding  to 
Mary  Louise  Nichols.  Five  of  his  six  children  make  Louis- 
ville their  home. 


The  Veech  Family. 

JOHN  VEECH,  born  in  Ulster,  Ireland,  in 
I  1747,  emigrated  in  his  early  manhood  to 
^  settle  in  Pennsylvania.  He  was  a  surveyor 
by  profession,  and  colonial  records  show  that  he 
was  making  surveys  in  what  is  now  Jefferson 
county  as  early  as  December  21,1  785,  on  a  per- 
mit from  William  and  Mary  College,  signed  by 
Thomas  Jefferson. 

On  his  arrival  in  the  colonies,  John  Veech 
joined  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  settlement  at  Union- 
town,  Pa.,  and  it  was  there  that  he  married 
Agnes  (Nancy)  Weir.  They  came  to  Kentucky 
shortly  after  the  Revolution,  down  the  Ohio 
river,  it  is  understood,  on  flat  boats  to  Falls  of 
the  Ohio.  Their  first  child,  Alexander  Veech, 
was  born  January  27,  1787,  in  Dutch  Station, 
one  of  the  historic  forts  which  were  refuge  for 
the  pioneers.  The  first  Veech  farm  was  on  the 
Shelbyville  road  about  a  mile  above  St.  Mat- 
thews, and  some  two  miles  from  the  old  station 
and  from  "Indian  Hill,"  which  was  the  home  of 
Alexander  Veech,  and  has  never  passed  out  of 
the  family,  now  being  occupied  by  James  Nichols 
Veech  and  his  family. 

John  Veech  bought  "Indian  Hill"  (of  324 
acres,    the    old    deed    states)    on    December    1 , 


101 


Louisville's     First     Families 

1806,  from  Richard  Taylor.  The  Veech  family 
kept  the  property  until  1814,  when  they  sold 
to  Zachary  Taylor,  son  of  Richard  Taylor, 
founder  of  the  Kentucky  family.  There  is  a 
tradition  that  when  John  Veech  offered  the 
Indian  Hill  farln  to  Alexauider  Veech,  the  son 
refused  it  because  he  said  it  was  too  far  from 
his  parents'  home.  It  seems  that  a  dense  forest 
stood  between  the  two  farms.  However,  in 
1833,  Alexander  Veech  purchased  the  Indian 
Hill  farm  which  was  to  be  his  life-long  home. 

John  and  Agnes  Veech  had  five  children, 
three  of  whom  left  descendants,  but  only  two  had 
families  which  figure  in  Louisville  life — Alex- 
ander Veech  and  his  sister,  Sarah  Veech,  who 
married  William  Garvin.  Agnes  Veech  died  in 
1811,  John  Veech  in  1817. 

Alexander  Veech  was  a  youthful  Kentucky 
volunteer  in  the  War  of  1812,  fighting  in  the 
Battle  of  the  Thames.  From  early  manhood 
he  was  called  Capt.  Veech,  having  commanded 
a  home-guard  which  offered  defense  against 
Indian  raids.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the 
Veech  farm  was  named  Indian  Hill  because  of 
the  marauders'  headquarters  located  there  when 
planning  an  attack  upon  Louisville.  Two  fine 
springs  on  the  place  proved  a  drawing  card 
to  the  Indians  when  selecting  a  point  for  an  en- 
campment. 


102 


y  e  e  c  h 

One  of  these  springs  near  the  Veech  home  has 
furnished  drinking  water  for  the  family  through 
several  generations.  The  Indians  chose  the  hill 
as  a  gathering  point,  and  they  deadened  the 
lumber  on  this  prominence  as  a  forest  signal  to 
the  braves.  "Indian  Hill"  is  on  the  Brownsboro 
road,  and  the  rolling  farm-land  adjoins  the  golf 
links  of  the  Louisville  Country  Club,  which  lies 
between  the  farm  eind  the  river. 

Alexander  Veech  married  Olivia  Winchester, 
daughter  of  Richard  Winchester,  pioneer  from 
Maryland,  in  May,  1821,  at  the  Winchester 
home.  Vale  of  Eden,  near  L3mdon,  afterwards 
buying  out  the  other  heirs  and  making  it  their 
home  until  about  1832,  when  they  took  posses- 
sion of  "Indian  Hill."  The  large  white  brick 
house  on  "Indian  Hill"  in  which  Richard 
Snowden  Veech  was  bom  in  1833  was  added  on 
to  by  this  member  of  the  family  in  1881,  when  a 
wing  was  built  at  the  side  and  the  main 
entrance  changed.  This  house  is  still  occupied 
by  Veeches. 

To  Alexander  and  Olivia  Veech  were  bom 
four  children,  but  Richard  Snowden  Veech  was 
the  eldest  child,  the  only  one  to  leave  descend- 
ants. Bom  at  "Indian  Hill,"  when  he  died  in 
1918  he  had  known  no  other  home.  Like  the 
father  and  grandfather  before  him,  he  loved  the 
land  and  farmed  the  acreage  around  his  home, 


103 


Loui  sc  i  lie'  s     First     Families 

after  being  educated  at  Centre  College.  When 
the  farmers  of  four  counties,  Jefferson,  Oldham, 
Bullitt  and  Shelby,  organized  the  Farmers  and 
Drovers'  Bank,  Richard  Veech  was  made  cashier 
and  was  active  in  its  management  from  1 868 
until  1880,  when  he  became  president  of  the 
New  Albany  and  Monon  Railroad.  While  he 
was  in  business  in  Louisville  for  some  twenty 
years,  he  was  best  known  as  the  distinguished 
horse  breeder,  and  he  built  up  a  reputation  for 
Indian  Hill  Farm  from  coast  to  coast,  as  the 
home  of  fine  trotting  stock. 

He  established  the  Indian  Hill  Farm  in  1872, 
putting  at  the  head  of  the  breeding  farm, 
Princeps,  a  descendant  of  Woodford  Mambrino, 
who  was  the  most  prominent  branch  of  the 
Mambrino  Chief  family,  which  was  at  that  time 
one  of  the  most  prominent  factors  in  the  trotting 
horse  world. 

While  1878  was  the  banner  year  of  the 
famous  stock  farm,  breeding  trotters  was  a  lucra- 
tive business  there  for  twenty  years  and  with 
the  horse  interest  a  picturesque  life  set  in  at 
Indian  Hill.  Because  the  land  was  very  roll- 
ing, a  half  mile  straightway  dash  was  used  for 
training;  there  were  generally  from  fifty  to  sixty 
brood-mares  on  the  farm. 

From  1878  to  1885,  particularly,  and  in  other 
years,    also,    prominent  business  men   and   horse 


104 


V  e  e  c  h 

breeders  of  the  East,  from  New  York,  Boston 
and  Philadelphia,  made  a  practice  of  forming 
private-car  parties  (usually  of  two  cars)  to  visit 
Louisville  before  going  to  the  Lexington  trot 
meeting.  Here  they  would  be  entertained  at 
dinner  by  Richard  Veech  and  by  John  B.  Mc- 
Ferran,  who  at  that  time  owned  fine  trotting 
stock  at  Glenview  Farms.  The  horse-lovers 
would  visit  the  two  farms  and  would  attend  the 
sales  which  Messrs.  Veech  and  McFerran  would 
hold  in  conjunction  at  Indian  Hill  or  Glenview. 
These  sales  were  attended  by  horse-breeders 
from  all  over  the  country. 

Veech  and  McFerran  belonged  to  Kentucky's 
big  six,  which  included,  besides  themselves, 
Henry  Clay  McDowell,  of  Ashland;  A.  J.  Alex- 
ander, of  Woodford;  E.  G.  Stoner,  of  Bourbon, 
and  Lucas  Brodhead,  of  Versailles. 

In  1881  Richard  Veech  acquired  the  Bear- 
grass  farm  of  700  acres,  of  which  he  used  a  por- 
tion for  cultivation,  with  part  in  pasture  and  the 
remainder  set  aside  for  training  purposes.  This 
farm  includes  the  ground  upon  which  Dutch  Sta- 
tion stood,  and  is  now  owned  by  Bethel  B. 
Veech,  who  was  associated  with  his  father  in 
conducting  the  stock  farm  from  1882  to  1897. 
Bethel  Veech  has  a  summer  bungalow  not  far 
from  the  site  of  the  old  fort.  Another  pioneer 
fort.   Cane  Station,   stood  about  midway  the  In- 


105 


Louisville's     First     Families 

dian  Hill  farm,  and  it  is  told  that  in  recent 
years  while  plowing  a  portion  of  the  land  a 
number  of  Indian  arrowheads  were  turned  up. 

An  interesting  and  unusual  incident  of  Richard 
Veech's  career  as  a  horseman  occured  in  1918, 
the  last  year  of  his  life.  While  ill  at  a  hospital 
in  the  city  he  prepared  from  memory  a  pedigree 
list  of  some  fifty  head  of  trotting  stock,  still  at 
Indian  Hill,  furnishing  a  record  of  each  animal 
described  to  him,  and,  before  his  death,  arrang- 
ing a  sale  of  these  horses. 

Richard  Snowden  Veech  married  Mary  Louise 
Nichols,  of  Danville,  Ky.,  whose  parents  were 
of  Puritan  stock  from  Rhode  Island.  The  six 
children  of  this  marriage  are  living,  five  of  them 
in  Louisville,  the  home  of  one  daughter,  Mrs. 
A.  Hunter  Kent,  being  St.  Louis. 

Elizabeth  Veech  is  the  wife  of  Burwell  K. 
Marshall,  and  the  mother  of  Richard  Veech 
Marshall,  of  St.  Louis,  whose  wife  was  Helen 
Chauncey,  of  Olney,  111. ;  of  Elizabeth  and  Louise 
Marshall,  now  in  France  on  Red  Cross  service;  of 
Sallie  Ewing  Marshall,  the  wife  of  Nicholas 
Dosker,  and  of  Burwell  K.  Marshall,  Jr. 

Olivia  Winchester  Veech,  Mrs.  Kent,  has  one 
daughter,  Mary  Kent,  the  wife  of  Major  Manton 
Davis  and  the  mother  of  Olivia  Davis. 

Bethel  B.  Veech  married  Eliza  Quigley  and 
has  one  daughter,  Elston  Veech,  wife  of  William 


106 


y  €  e  c  h 

Mills  Otter,  who  has  two  small  children,  Bethel 
and  Ann  Otter. 

Helen  Lee  Veech  is  the  wife  of  George  Twy- 
man  Wood  and  has  three  sons,  George  Twyman 
Wood,  Jr.,  who  married  Louise  Robertson,  of 
Washington,  and  mEikes  New  York  his  home, 
Richard  Veech  Wood  and  Thomas  J.  Wood,  who 
is  a  student  at  Princeton. 

James  Nichols  Veech  married  Agnes  Ross, 
makes  Indian  Hill  his  home,  and  farms  as  his 
father  and  grandfather  before  him.  He  is  the 
father  of  Agnes  Veech  and  of  John  Alexander 
Veech,  named  for  John  Veech  and  Alexander 
Veech. 

Dr.  Annie  S.  Veech,  who  makes  Louisville 
her  home,  has  been  on  duty  overseas  with  the 
Red  Cross. 

Sarah  Veech,  daughter  of  John  and  Agnes 
Weir  Veech,  bom  in  1 795,  was  the  bride  of 
William  Garvin,  an  Irishman  from  County  Derry, 
born  the  same  year  as  she,  and  emigrating  to 
this  country  to  settle  in  Philadelphia  for  a  brief 
time  before  coming  to  Shelbyville,  Ky.  Sarah 
Veech  and  William  Garvin  were  married  Jan- 
uary 2,  1822,  at  the  home  of  the  bride's  older 
sister,  Mrs.  Francis  Veech  Brookey  in  Shelby- 
ville, and  on  horseback  the  young  couple  left 
for  Glasgow,  their  wedding  journey  to  the  new 


107 


Louisville's     First     Families 

home  being  made  in  the  saddle,  despite  the  bitter 
weather  of  mid-winter. 

Four  children  were  bom  to  the  Garvins  at 
their  Glasgow  home,  which  they  left  in  1827  to 
locate  in  Louisville.  They  bought  a  home  on 
Jefferson  street,  between  Fourth  and  Fifth,  and 
they  became  identified  with  the  social  life  of  the 
city.  William  Garvin  engaged  in  the  wholesale 
dry  goods  business,  and  was  a  successful  mer- 
chant of  Garvin,  Chambers  &  Co.  and  later  of 
Garvin,  Bell  &  Co. 

In  1852,  the  Garvins  moved  further  out  in 
town  to  a  home  on  Chestnut  street,  which  was 
to  be  the  scene  of  elaborate  entertaining  for  four 
generations  of  the  family. 

For  this  home  William  Garvin  found  many 
beautiful  things,  objects  of  art  from  abroad. 
Two  marble  mantels  from  Italy,  exquisitely 
carved  and  intended  for  the  Chestnut  street  house 
were  among  the  handsome  fittings  brought  from 
Philadelphia,  through  the  Erie  Canal  and  over 
the  mountains  in  wagons.  These  mantels  are 
now  in  the  home  of  William  Garvin's  grand- 
daughter, Mrs.  Crittenden  Taylor  Collings,  on 
Spring  Drive. 

Sarah  Veech  and  William  Garvin  had  three 
children,  Jane  Orr  Garvin,  Ann  Eliza  Garvin 
and  Emmet  Garvin.  The  daughters  married 
brothers,  John  and  Robert  Bell,  from  Ireland. 


108 


V 


e  e  c 


Jane  Orr  Garvin  and  John  Bell  purchased  the 
Hunt  house  (now  the  Pendennis  Club)  and  this 
was  their  home  in  the  sixties.  During  the  Civil 
War,  John  Bell  receiving  word  that  his  brother, 
Lieut.  William  Bell,  of  the  Confederate  army, 
had  been  wounded,  left  for  the  South  in 
search  of  him.  John  Bell  was  not  destined  to 
find  his  brother,  and  stricken  ill  on  a  train  in 
Alabama,  died  and  was  buried  in  that  State, 
many  weeks  before  his  family  received  news  of 
his  death.  Lieut.  Bell,  fatally  wounded  at  the 
Battle  of  Shiloh,  was  taken  to  the  home  of  his 
cousin,  Samuel  Gwyn,  at  Memphis,  v»rhere  he 
died. 

William  Garvin  lost  his  life  in  the  steamboat 
disaster  on  the  Ohio  in  1868,  when  the  United 
States  and  the  America  collided.  His  body  was 
washed  ashore,  and  clasped  in  his  hands  was 
found  the  Bible  which  he  had  been  reading.  He 
was  an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  church  with 
which  his  family  and  the  Veech  family  have  been 
identified  in  this  city. 

Ann  Eliza  Garvin,  who  married  Robert  Bell, 
inherited  the  Chestnut  street  house  and  lived 
there  until  her  death  in  1911.  Jane  Garvin  Bell 
with  her  children  returned  to  this  house  after 
the  death  of  her  husband,  but  later  lived  on 
Third  street,  and  at  an  advanced  age  she  died 
there  in    1918. 

109 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Jane  and  John  Bell  were  the  parents  of  Garvin 
Bell,  who  married  Ellen  Robinson,  and  was  the 
father  of  Nelchen  Bell,  Mrs.  Alex  Gait  Barret, 
of  Louise  Bell,  Mrs.  Howard  Lee;  of  Madeline 
Bell,  Mrs.  Robert  F.  Vaughan;  of  Robert  Bell, 
of  Florida,   and  Francis  Bell. 

Jane  and  John  Bell's  daughter,  Mary  Jennie 
Bell,  makes  Louisville  her  home,  eind  with  her, 
a  niece,  Jeannette  Garvin  Payne,  daughter  of 
Elizabeth  Bell  and  Henry  Payne,  of  George- 
town, the  sons  of  this  marriage  being  Thomas 
Henry  Payne,  of  Winnipeg,  who  married  Amelia 
Brown,  a  descendant  of  a  sister  of  William  Gar- 
vin and  John  Payne,  whose  home  is  New  York. 

John  Stuart  Bell  and  Sarah  Francis  Bell,  both 
dead,  were  children  of  Jane  and  John  Bell. 

Ann  Eliza  Garvin  and  Robert  Bell  had  three 
children,  Annie  Garvin  Bell,  the  wife  of 
Crittenden  Taylor  Collings,  and  mother  of  Edith 
Collings  Fisk,  in  France  on  Red  Cross  duty,  of 
Allison  Collings,  and  of  Christine,  Collings,  wife 
of  William  Hall,  and  with  her  husband  and  chil- 
dren, Edith  and  Noel,  makes  her  home  at  Short 
Hills;  Catherine  Gwyn  Bell,  widow  of  Foster 
Thomas,  who  with  her  son,  Garvin  Thomas,  lives 
in  France,  and  Henry  Bell,  deceased. 

Emmet  Garvin  married  Lucy  Tomlinson,  and 
their  daughter,  Sarah  Garvin,  is  the  widow  of 
General  John  F.  Weston,  and  is  in  New  York 
with  her  daughters,  Marie  and  Kathleen  Weston. 

110 


EU&£(HlA« 


JUDGE  BUCKNER  THRUSTON 

Senator  from  Kentucky,  1804-1809,  retired  to  become 
United  States  Judge  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  1809-1845, 
appointed  by  President  Madison.  He  was  succeeded  in  the 
Senate  by  Henry  Clay. 

Judge  Thruston  was  one  of  three  sons  of  the  Rev.  and  Col. 
Charles  Minn  Thruston,  who  came  to  Kentucky,  inheriting 
their  father's  lands  in  this  state. 


The  Thruston  Family. 

THE  English  Thrustons  laid  great  stress  on 
family  records,  and  as  early  as  the  Seven- 
teenth century  kept  a  genealogy  which 
has  been  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  and 
after  remaining  in  Louisville  for  three  generations 
is  now  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Charles  Minn 
Thruston,  of  Waco,  Tex.  Thanks  to  this  old 
record  book  the  genealogy  of  the  family  is  un- 
usually complete,  and  the  Kentucky  family  has 
not  neglected  to  keep  up  the  tradition  chronicling 
the  history  of  fighters  and  lawyers,  men  of  affairs 
and  of  beautiful  w^omen. 

Col.  John  Thruston,  of  the  third  generation  at 
Gloucester  Point,  Va.,  married  Sarah  Minn  and 
had  only  one  son,  Charles  Minn  Thruston,  who 
was  known  as  the  fighting  parson  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, although  he  was  officially  the  Rev.  and  Col. 
Thruston.  He  was  educated  at  William  and 
Mary  College,  and  studying  for  the  ministry, 
went  to  England  to  take  orders.  He  moved 
from  Gloucester  Point  to  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
and  the  old  church  at  Berryville,  where  he 
preached,  is  still  standing.  His  military  career 
started  at  the  age  of  twenty,  when  as  a  lieutenant 
of    Provincials    he    took    part    in    the    campaign 


113 


Louisville's     First    Families 

which  resulted  in  the  evacuation  of  Fort 
Duquesne.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out  he 
exhorted  the  Virginia  youths  to  enlist,  and  at  the 
head  of  a  regiment  joined  Washington  in  New 
Jersey. 

The  Rev.  and  Col.  Thruston  married,  first, 
Mary  Buckner,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons — 
John,  Buckner  and  Charles  Minn  Thruston,  to 
whom  he  left  his  lands  in  Kentucky.  He  miar- 
ried  a  second  time  Ann  Alexander,  and  removed 
to  Tennessee  and  later  to  Louisiana,  where  he 
lived  on  a  plantation  until  his  death,  in  1812. 

John  Thruston  and  Charles  Minn  Thruston 
came  to  Louisville,  while  Buckner  Thruston  set- 
tled in  Lexington.  John  Thruston  came  west  as 
a  lad  of  1  6  to  fight  under  Gen.  George  Rogers 
Clark  in  the  Illinois  regiment.  He  served  in  the 
campaigns  against  Kaskaskia  and  St.  Vincents 
(Vincennes),  with  the  rank  of  cornet.  He  re- 
ceived in  1831  a  grant  of  2,666  acres  of  land  in 
Illinois  under  the  Virginia  act  of  1779,  which 
provided  that  the  volunteers  (officers  and  sol- 
diers), who  served  through  the  campaign  which 
reduced  the  British  forts  in  Illinois,  should  receive 
remuneration  in  land. 

John  Thruston,  who  came  to  Louisville  in 
1 789,  married  his  cousin,  Elizabeth  Thruston 
Whiting,  and  their  home  was  "Sans  Souci," 
which  stood  on  the  site  of  "Hayfield,"  the  home 


114 


Thruston 

of  Mrs.  Robert  Tyler.  They  had  ten  children, 
but  of  these  only  two  are  ancestors  of  Louis- 
ville folk,  Elizabeth  Taylor  Thruston,  who  mar- 
ried Worden  Pope,  of  the  pioneer  family,  and 
Charles  Minn  Thruston,  who  married  Eliza 
Sydnor  Cosby,  daughter  of  Judge  Fortunatus 
Cosby,  and  his  wife,  Mary  Ann  Fontaine. 

After  the  death  of  John  Thruston,  his  widow 
married  Capt.  Aaron  Fontaine,  the  grandfather 
of  her  son's  wife. 

Elizabeth  Taylor  Thruston  and  Worden  Pope 
had  three  sons.  Patrick  Henry  Pope  married 
Sarah  Lawrence  Brown,  and  was  the  father  of 
Edmonia  Pope,  who  married  Dr.  William  Gait, 
their  children  being  Ellen  Gait  and  Urith  Gait; 
of  Ellen  E.  Pope,  who  married  Dr.  John  Thrus- 
ton; of  Mary  Anna  Pope,  who  married  George 
Nicholas,  and  was  the  mother  of  George  Nicholas 
and  Pope  Nicholas. 

Edmund  Pendleton  Pope  married  Nancy  John- 
son, and  was  the  father  of  Judge  Alfred  Thrus- 
ton Pope,  who  married  his  cousin,  Mary  Tyler 
Pope,  their  children  being  Dr.  Curran  Pope  and 
Alfred  Thruston  Pope.  Mary  Tyler  Pope  was 
the  daughter  of  Col.  Curran  Pope  and  Matilda 
Prather  Jacob. 

Charles  Minn  Thruston,  born  in  1  793  at  Sans 
Souci,  was  a  celebrated  criminal  lawyer  in  Lou- 
isville.     He  and  wife,  Eliza  Sydnor  Cosby,  had 


15 


Louisville's     First     Families 

a  large  family,  and  there  are  in  Louisville  descen- 
dants of  three  of  their  children.  Their  daughter, 
Mary  Thruston,  married  Dr.  Lewis  Rogers,  the 
well-known  physician,  and  was  the  mother  of 
six  children.  Jane  Farrar  Rogers  married 
Robert  Atwood,  her  children  being  Lewis  R.  At- 
wood,  Lizzie  Atwood,  Mrs.  Oscar  Beckmann, 
William  Atwood,  who  married  Nellie  Stark.  Her 
daughter,  Mamie  Atwood,  married  Tom  Knott, 
and  was  the  mother  of  Lewis  Atwood  Knott,  of 
New  York. 

Eliza  Thruston  Rogers  married  Dr.  B.  M. 
Messick,  and  their  only  child  in  Louisville  is 
Martha  M.  Messick.  Anne  Thruston  Rogers, 
who  married  Harvey  Yeaman,  wrs  the  mother 
of  Dr.  Rogers  Yeaman.  Harriet  Rogers  is  Mrs. 
George  Gaulbert,  the  mother  of  Carrie  Gaul- 
bert,  Mrs.  Attilla  Cox. 

Dr.  John  Thruston  married  Ellen  Pope  and 
was  the  father  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Thruston  Hughes, 
whose  children  are:  Commander  William  Neal 
Hughes,  U.  S.  N. ;  Major  Thruston  Hughes,  U. 
S.  A. ;  Anabel,  Mrs.  Garnett  Zorn ;  Katherine 
Fontaine,  Mrs.  Walton  Maxey,  of  Beaumont, 
Texas,  and  of  Dr.  Charles  Minn  Thruston,  of 
Waco,   Texas. 

Anne  Blake  Thruston  married  William  J. 
Johnson,  of  the  pioneer  family,  and  was  the 
mother  of  Charles  Thruston  Johnson,  who  mar* 


116 


Thruston 

ried  first  Sally  Ward  Danforth,  and  second.  Miss 
Stuart;  and  of  Lizzie  Johnson,  who  married 
George  Breed,  and  was  the  mother  of  Lilla 
Breed,  of  Louisville,  and  George  and  Edwin 
Breed,   of  Boston. 

John  Thruston,  the  second  son  of  Charles 
Minn  and  Eliza  Thruston  mentioned  above,  was 
a  midshipman  in  the  navy  at  1 6,  but  gave  up 
his  commission,  returning  to  Louisville  on  ac- 
count of  his  father's  illness.  He  became  a  promi- 
nent Louisville  physician,  and  during  the  Civil 
war  was  in  charge  of  the  Military  Hospital  at 
Eighth  and  Green  for  nine  months. 

His  brother,  Charles  Minn  Thruston,  was  a 
deputy  in  the  county  clerk's  office,  then  held 
by  his  cousin.  Col.  Curran  Pope.  Later  he  was 
elected  clerk  of  the  county  court,  filling  the  posi- 
tion for  three  terms.  He  made  his  residence  for 
a  short  time  in  New  York,  and  returned  to  be 
re-elected  to  his  former  office  by  a  great  ma- 
jority. He  was  a  great  political  leader  and  a 
man  of  pleasing  personality  and  wide  popularity. 
His  wife  was  Leonora  Keller.  They  had  no  chil- 
dren. 

Capt.  Charles  Minn  Thruston  fought  in  the 
Revolution,  at  the  age  of  1  1 ,  as  aide  to  his 
father,  the  Rev.  and  Col.  Thruston,  at  the  Battle 
of  Piscataway.  In  1  793  he  married  Gen.  George 
Rogers    Clark's    sister,    Fanny    Clark,    after    the 


117 


Loui  SD  ille'  s     First     Families 

death  of  her  husband,  Dr.  James  O'Fallon. 
Their  home  was  at  Westport.  Capt.  Thruston 
was  killed  in  December,  1800,  by  Luke,  his  body 
servant,  who  feared  that  his  master  would  punish 
him  for  repeated  misdemeanors.  Capt.  Thrus- 
ton refused  to  take  Luke  on  a  trip  back  to  Vir- 
ginia, and  warned  him  that  any  misconduct  dur- 
ing his  absence  would  mean  a  thrashing.  The 
slave  had  not  attended  to  his  duties  during  his 
master's  absence,  and  before  the  return  of  Capt. 
Thruston,  ran  away.  However,  one  night  early 
in  December,  a  servant  reported  to  Capt.  Thrus- 
ton that  Luke  had  been  in  the  kitchen  and  had 
stolen  a  leg  of  lamb.  Capt.  Thruston  and  his 
small  son  went  out  to  look  for  Luke,  tracking 
him  by  footprints  in  the  snow.  When  discovered 
hiding  in  a  com  shock,  Luke  sprang  on  his  mas- 
ter and  stabbed  him  with  a  carving  knife  which 
he  had  stolen  from  the  kitchen.  Luke  was 
caught  and  was  hung  by  verdict  of  the  jury. 
Capt.  Thruston's  widow  married  her  cousin. 
Judge  Dennis  Fitzhugh,  and  her  home  stood  in 
the  square  between  Green  and  Jefferson,  Brook 
and  Floyd. 

Capt.  and  Mrs.  Thruston's  son  was  named 
Charles  Minn  Thruston,  but  owing  to  confusion 
arising  from  the  name  being  borne  by  his  cousin, 
the  son  of  John  Thruston,  was  called  Charles 
W.  Thruston.     He  was  a  successful  manufacturer 


118 


Thruston 

and  merchant,  and  his  wife  was  Mary  Eliza 
Churchill,  daughter  of  Col.  Samuel  Churchill. 
Their  daughter,  Fanny  Thruston,  married 
Andrew  J.  Ballard,  the  lawyer.  Fanny  Thrus- 
ton Ballard  was  a  great  beauty  and  belle,  and 
died  in  Vienna  in  April,  1896,  while  making  a 
European  trip.  On  this  trip  she  visited  the  home 
of  the  early  Thrustons,  seeing  the  old  manor 
house  and  porter's  lodge  at  West  Buckland,  Eng- 
land, and  an  old  church  nearby,  where  her 
ancestors  are  buried  within  the  chancel. 

S.  Thruston    Ballard    and  Rogers  C.     Ballard 
Thruston   are  her  sons,    the  name  of   the   latter 
being  changed   to   preserve  the   family  name  of 
Thruston.      S.    Thruston    Ballard    married    Sun- 
shine    Harris,     and     has    one    daughter,     Mary 
Ballard,  who  married  Dr.  David  Cummins  Mor- 
ton.    The  late  Charles  T.  Ballard,  who  married 
Mina  Breaux,  was  the  father  of  Abigail  Ballard, 
Mrs.  Jefferson  Stewart;  of  Charles  T.  Ballard,  U. 
S.   N.;  of  Fanny  Ballard,   Mrs.  Charles  Homer; 
of  Breaux  Ballard,  whose  wife  was  Jane  Fish,  and 
of  Mina  Ballard,   Mrs.   Warner  L.   Jones.      The 
youngest  member  of  the  family  is  little  Frances 
Homer. 

"Lansdowne,"  the  home  of  Mrs.  and  Mrs.  S. 
Thruston  Ballard,  at  Glenview,  bears  the  name 
of  the  early  Virginia  home  of  the  Thrustons,  at 
Gloucester  Point. 


119 


Louisville's     First    Families 

Buckner  Thruston  settled  in  Lexington  in 
1  788,  practiced  law  and  was  Judge  in  the  State 
courts.  His  wife  was  Janette  January,  of  Mays- 
ville.  He  was  Senator  from  Kentucky  in  1 804, 
and  retired  to  become  United  States  Judge  for 
the  District  of  Columbia,  His  home  from  1  804 
was  at  Cumberland,  Md. 

Gen.  Charles  Lee,  a  great  personal  friend  of 
the  Rev.  and  Col.  Charles  Minn  Thruston,  left 
his  library  to  Buckner  Thruston,  saying  that  he 
was  the  only  man  he  knew  capable  of  appreciat- 
ing it. 

There  are  descendants,  in  Louisville,  of  the 
Rev.  and  Col.  Charles  Minn  Thruston  by  his  sec- 
ond wife,  Ann  Alexander,  their  daughter,  Eloise 
Thruston,  born  1  792,  in  Virginia,  marrying 
Major  Edmund  Taylor,  and  settling  on  Beargrass. 
Sarah  Courtney  Taylor,  one  daughter,  married 
John  De  Colmesnil,  and  their  home  on  Jef- 
ferson street,  between  Eighth  and  Ninth,  was 
long  a  landmark  of  that  old  neighborhood. 
Sarah  and  John  Colmesnil's  daughter,  Courtney 
Colmesnil,  married  John  Murphy,  of  Nelson 
county,  for  years  manager  of  the  Gait  House, 
and  has  a  daughter  in  Louisville,  Mary  May 
Murphy,  widow  of  Joseph  Simmons.  She  is  the 
mother  of  Courtney  Simmons,  Lily  Simmons 
Huber,  Joseph  Simmons  and  Sarah  Thruston 
Simmons. 


120 


Thruston 

Sarah  Thruston  Simmons  was  instrumental  in 
organizing  the  Charles  Minn  Thruston  Chapter, 
Children  of  the  Confederacy  in  Louisville. 


121 


;  • 


ZACHARY  TAYLOR 

Twelfth  President  of  the  United  States  and  a  Major 
General,  U.  S.  Army,  from  an  old  photograph  in  the  possession 
of  Hancock  Taylor. 


The  Taylor  Family. 

AMONG  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
early  settlers  in  Louisville  were  the  Tay- 
lor brothers,  Col.  Richard  Taylor,  the 
father  of  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor,  president  of  the 
United  States,  Hancock  Taylor,  deputy  surveyor 
under  Col.  William  Preston,  and  Capt.  Zachary 
Taylor,  men  of  finest  Virginia  stock,  who  were 
prominent  actors  in  the  romantic  history-making 
days  before  Kentucky  was  a  State. 

"Hare  Forest,"  four  miles  from  Orange  Court 
House,  Va.,  was  the  early  home  of  the  Taylor 
family,  founded  by  James  Taylor  and  his  wife, 
Frances,  who  came  from  Carlisle,  England,  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  James  Taylor  was  a 
man  of  affairs,  interested  in  the  well  being  of 
the  colonies,  and  owning  wide  acres  in  Virginia. 
His  only  son,  James  Taylor,  who  was  one  of 
the  first  surveyor  generals,  was  colonel  of  Orange 
county  militia,  a  Knight  of  the  Golden  Horse 
Shoe,  and  a  burgess  of  King  and  Queen  county, 
1702-1714.  His  wife  was  Martha  Thompson,  a 
daughter  of  Col.  William  Thompson,  of  the 
British  army,  whose  father.  Sir  Roger  Thomp- 
son, served  under  Cromwell.  After  CoL  Tay- 
lor's death,  the  House  of  Burgesses  ordered  Han- 


125 


Louisville's     First     Families 

over,  Spottsylvania,  and  Orange  counties  to  pay 
one  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  to  his  widow 
in  recognition  of  his  services  in  running  the 
boundaries  of  these  counties.  James  and  Martha 
Thompson  were  the  great  grandparents  of  two 
presidents  of  the  United  States — ^James  Madison 
and  Zachary  Taylor.  From  two  sons  of  James 
Taylor  II.,  Col.  George  Taylor  and  his  wife, 
Rachael  Gibson,  and  Zachary  Taylor  and  his 
wife,  Elizabeth  Lee,  of  the  Virginia  Lees,  are 
descended  a  hundred  dozen  Kentuckians,  and 
from  them  come  the  numerous  members  of  the 
Taylor  family  in  Louisville. 

George  Taylor  was  colonel  of  Orange  county 
militia  and  fought  in  Indian  wars;  Burgess  of 
Orange  county,  1748-49,  1752-58;  member  of 
Committee  of  Safety,  1774-75;  member  of  con- 
vention in  1775;  vestryman  of  Episcopal  church 
in  King  George  county;  Clerk  of  Orange  county 
for  many  years.  He  was  the  father  of  ten  sol- 
diers of  the  Revolution,  nine  of  whom  were  of- 
ficers. James  Taylor  was  sergeant  major  of 
militia,  afterward  Clerk  of  Orange  county,  a  posi- 
tion formerly  held  by  his  father.  Lieut. 
Jonathan  Taylor  married  Anne  Berry,  of 
Gloucester,  Va.,  and  settled  in  Clark  county, 
Ky.,  in  1 789,  establishing  their  home,  "Basin 
Springs."  Edmund  Taylor  was  captain,  serv- 
ing on  the  Virginia  State  Line;  he  married  Cath- 


V^6 


Taylor 

erine  Stubbs.  Richard  Taylor  was  commodore 
of  the  navy  and  received  a  thousand  acres  of 
land  in  Kentucky  from  his  country  in  recognition 
of  his  distinguished  services.  Commodore  Tay- 
lor lived  in  Louisville  for  a  number  of  years  be- 
fore his  death  in  1825. 

Francis  Taylor  was  appointed  a  captain,  but 
was  made  colonel  of  regulars  in  1779.  Lieut. 
John  Taylor  was  appointed  a  midshipman  in  the 
navy  and  died  a  British  prisoner  on  the  old  Jer- 
sey prison  ship.  Major  William  Taylor  served 
through  the  war,  married  his  cousin,  Elizabeth 
Taylor,  came  early  to  Kentucky,  and  was  in  Lou- 
isville, where  he  ran  a  hotel  at  Second  and  Main 
in  1812.  He  was  very  popular,  and  it  is  said 
that  at  his  hotel  the  food  was  cooked  and  served 
in  the  best  old  Virginia  style.  Charles  Taylor 
was  sergeant's  mate  of  the  Second  Virginia  army 
and  rose  to  rank  of  sergeant  of  regulars  of  Con- 
vention Guards,  Reuben  Taylor  was  a  minute 
man  for  six  years  and  rose  to  rank  of  captain. 
The  tenth  son,  Benjamin  Taylor,  served  in  the 
navy  during  the  war.  Practically  all  of  these 
men  received  large  grants  of  lands  for  military 
service  in  the  Revolutionary  war. 

There  are  no  more  picturesque  figures  in  the 
winning  of  the  West  than  the  sons  of  Zachary 
Taylor  and  Elizabeth  Lee.  Richard  Taylor  ren- 
dered valuable  service  in  the  Revolution,  and  his 


127 


WILLIAM  BERRY  TAYLOR 


SUSANNAH  GIBSON  TAYLOR 


These  portraits  of  William  Berry  Taylor  and  his  wife, 
Susannah  Grayson  Harrison  Gibson,  are  owned  by  their 
grandchildren,  Betty,  Fanny  and  Robert  Mallory,  of  Crescent 
Hill,  whose  father,  the  Hon.  Robert  Mallory,  was  a  member 
of  Congress  and  prominent  in  the  social  and  political  life 
of  his  day. 

William  Berry  Taylor  was  a  son  of  Lieut.  Jonathan  Taylor, 
Revolutionary  soldier,  and  his  wife,  Anne  Berry.  Their  home 
was  "Spring  Hill"  in  Oldham  county,  and  from  them  are 
descended  many  members  of  the  Taylor  connection  in  Louis- 
ville. 

William  Berry  Taylor  was  a  cousin  and  a  warm  personal 
friend  of  President  Taylor,  who  frequently  visited  his  kins- 
people  at  "Spring  Hill." 

Notably  among  the  decendants  of  William  Berry  Taylor 
are  Admired  Robert  Mallory  Berry,  U.  S.  N.,  a  grandson,  and 
Admiral  Hugh  Rodman,  U.  S.  N.,  K.  C.  B.,  a  great-grandson. 


Taylor 

brother,  Hancock  Taylor,  belonged  to  Washing- 
ton's company  of  Rangers.  Both  men  stood  six 
feet  two  and  weighed  about  230  pounds.  They 
made  the  first  trading  trip  from  Pittsburg  past 
the  Falls  of  Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo  in 
1 769,  and  the  same  year  from  Pittsburg  in  a 
canoe  made  a  trip  to  New  Orleans,  where  they 
embarked  for  Charleston,  S.  C,  walking  thence 
to  the  Taylor  home  at  Orange  Courthouse. 

Hancock  Taylor  was  one  of  the  early  deputy 
surveyors  under  William  Preston  and  headed  a 
party,  including  Willis  Lee  and  Abraham  Hap- 
stonstall,  known  to  have  made  surveys  in  what 
is  now  Jefferson  county,  in  May,  I  774.  The 
following  year  Gov.  Dunmore,  becoming  ap- 
prehensive for  the  safety  of  the  surveyors, 
ordered  their  recall,  and  Hancock  Taylor  re- 
ceived the  summons  while  laying  off  a  tract  near 
the  Kentucky  river  for  Col.  William  Christian. 
He  was,  however,  a  victim  of  the  Indians  and, 
wounded  by  a  shot  from  a  warrior's  rifle,  was 
carried  by  his  companion  Hapstonstall  to  a 
point  near  Richmond,  where  he  died  and  was 
buried  by  Hapstonstall,  who  carved  his  name 
on  the  headstone  with  tomahawk.  Taylor's 
dying  request  was  that  his  papers  be  carried  to 
Preston  in  Virginia. 

Hancock  Taylor's  will  left  two-thirds  of  all 
his  lands  lying  on  Western  waters  to  Hapston- 


129 


Louisville's     First     Families 

stall  and  Willis  Lee,  and  the  remainder  of  his 
vast  estate  to  his  brothers,  Col.  Richard  and 
Capt.  Zachary  Taylor. 

Col.  Richard  Taylor,  whose  wife  was  Sarah 
Dabney  Strother,  came  from  Orange  county,  Va., 
to  settle  at  Falls  of  the  Ohio  in  the  year  of  1  785, 
bringing  with  him  his  family,  including  a  son, 
Zachary,  aged  nine  months.  Some  biographers 
of  this  same  Zachary,  more  interested  in  him, 
however,  as  a  President  of  the  United  States 
than  as  a  youthful  pioneer,  claim  that  Zachary 
was  born  at  "Montebello,"  the  home  of  sonae 
kinsmen  where  the  Taylors  had  been  detained 
by  illness  of  some  member  of  their  party  after 
leaving  "Hare  Forest,"  the  ancestral  home  of 
the  Taylor  family. 

Col.  Richard  Taylor  established  his  family  in 
a  substantial  log  house  on  a  farm  five  miles  east 
of  Louisville,  which  was  known  as  "Springfield." 
Col.  Taylor,  who  had  been  through  the  Revo- 
lution as  a  colonel  in  the  First  Regiment  of  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Continental  Line,  was  soon  a  leader 
in  affairs  in  both  city  and  State.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Convention  in  Kentucky,  1 792-99, 
and  helped  frame  the  first  and  second  consti- 
tutions of  the  State;  he  was  one  of  the  two  men 
selected  to  have  the  first  courthouse  built  in  Lou- 
isville and  served  on  one  of  the  early  boards  of 


130 


Taylor 

trustees.  He  was  evidently  a  man  of  wealth  for 
he  left  his  family  a  handsome  estate. 

Zachary  Taylor  grew  to  manhood  in  the 
stirring  times  of  frontier  clearing  with  Indian 
fighting  as  a  matter  of  every-day  life.  At  eight- 
een he  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  army  and  eight 
years  later  he  served  as  a  major  in  the  War  of 
1812.  The  outbreak  of  the  Mexican  war  found 
him  in  command  of  the  American  forces  in 
Louisana  and  Texas,  the  crowning  battle  of  his 
campaign  being  Buena  Vista  in  1847.  Dissatis- 
fied with  his  treatment  by  the  administration. 
Major  General  Taylor  resigned  and  came  to 
Louisville,  living  on  a  farm  on  the  Brownsboro 
road  in  the  months  between  his  retirement  from 
the  army  and  his  election  as  the  twelfth  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  He  died  in  office  on 
July  9,    1850. 

Zachary  Taylor  was  known  to  the  army  as 
"Old  Rough  and  Ready,"  because  he  was  ready 
for  any  emergency  and  took  the  rough  end  of 
every  encounter,  but  he  was  also  a  man  of  cul- 
ture and  refinement. 

The  accompanying  sketch  of  his  family  places 
him  as  a  man  of  gentle  birth  and  breeding,  and 
his  connections  are  with  the  most  distinguished 
families  of  Virginia.  One  who  knew  him  well 
described  him  as  a  man  of  great  tenderness  of 
heart,  of  gentle  manner,  devoid  of  self-assertion; 


131 


Louisville's     First     Families 

a  silent  man,  but  one  whose  dignity  impressed 
all  who  came  into  his  presence.  Such  was  the 
character  of  this  most  distinguished  of  the  Taylor 
family,  whose  name  has  been  on  every  lip  since 
the  army  cantonment  named  Camp  Zachary  Tay- 
lor to  do  him  honor  was  established  here. 

Zachary  Taylor  married  Margaret  Markall 
Smith,  of  Maryland,  a  daughter  of  Major  Walter 
Smith,  U.  S.  A.  To  them  were  born  four  chil- 
dren: Anne,  who  married  Dr.  Robert  C.  Wood, 
a  surgeon  of  the  United  States  Army;  Sareih 
Knox  married  Lieut.  Jefferson  Davis,  afterward 
President  of  the  Confederacy;  Elizabeth  mar- 
ried Major  William  Bliss,  U.  S.  A.,  and  later 
Philip  Dandridge,  of  Virginia,  and  the  only  son 
was  Gen.  Richard  Taylor,  of  the  Confederate 
army,  who  visited  England  after  the  war  and 
was  given  much  attention.  He  moved  to  New 
Orleans,  married  and  had  three  daughters. 
There  are  in  Louisville  no  descendants  of 
Zachary  Taylor. 

Col.  Richard  Taylor  and  his  wife,  Sarah 
Dabney  Strother,  had  a  large  family. 
Their  son,  Hancock  Taylor,  married  Sophia 
Hoard  and  had  one  son,  William 
Dabney  Strother  Taylor,  who  married  Jane  Pol- 
lock Barbour,  and  whose  son,  Hancock  Taylor, 
a  Confederate  veteran,  lives  in  Louisville.  His 
wife  was  Mary  H.   Wallace,   and   their  children 


132 


Taylor 

are:  Margaret  Barbour,  who  married  Judge 
Arthur  Wallace;  Letty  Hart,  the  wife  of  the  Rev. 
T.  P.  Grafton,  missionary  to  China;  Mary 
Strother  and  William  P.  and  Helen  Wallace,  who 
married  James  Quarles,  missionary  in  Argen- 
tina. 

Hancock  Taylor,  brother  of  the  President, 
married  again,  his  second  wife  being  Annah 
Hornsby  Lewis.  One  daughter  was  Mary  Tay- 
lor Robinson,  who  married  Archibald  Magill 
Robinson.  Their  son,  Richard  Goldsborough 
Robinson,  married  Laura  Pickett  Thomas,  and 
their  children  here  are  Eliza  Lee  Robinson  and 
Judge  Harry  Robinson.  Another  daughter,  Mil- 
dred Taylor,  married  John  McLean,  and  their 
son,  Hancock  McLean,  was  the  father  of  Mrs. 
Louis  D.  Wallace,  of  Crescent  Hill. 

Edmund  Taylor,  the  son  of  Hancock  Taylor, 
married  Lou  Barker  and  was  the  father  of  Lewis 
Taylor,  who  lives  here.  Another  son  was  Major 
Joseph  Walter  Taylor,  who  served  in  the  Con- 
federate Army  on  Gen.  Buckner's  staff. 

He  married  Lucy  Bate  and  was  the  father  of 
J.  B.  Taylor  and  Jennie  Taylor.  His  second  wife 
was  Ellen  Bate,  and  his  three  daughters,  the 
Misses  Taylor,  live  on  the  Brownsboro  road. 
Another  Confederate  soldier  in  the  family  of 
Hancock  Taylor  was  Capt.  Samuel  Burks  Taylor, 
who     was     one     of     the     Confederate     officers 


133 


Louisville's     First     Families 

captured  and  imprisoned  with  Gen.  John  Morgan 
in  the  Columbus,  O.,  penitentiary.  It  was  Capt. 
Taylor  who  scaled  the  walls  and  made  possible 
the  escape  of  the  prisoners.  He  was  never  mar- 
ried. 

Elizabeth  Taylor,  a  sister  of  Gen.  Zachary 
Taylor,  married  her  cousin,  John  Gibson  Taylor, 
and  had  several  children,  only  one  of  whom  is 
known  to  have  a  family  here.  This  daughter, 
Sarah  Taylor,  who  is  buried  in  the  old  family 
burying  ground  at  Springfield,  was  the  wife  of 
Col.  W.  R.  Jouett,  U.  S.  A.,  their  children  being: 
Fred  Jouett  and  Lieut.  Landon  Jouett.  Mar- 
garet Dudley,  who  lives  here,  is  a  granddaughter. 
John  Gibson  Tayor,  Jr.,  was  a  Confederate  sol- 
dier who  was  killed  in  action  in  one  of  the  Ken- 
tucky battles.  Other  sisters  of  Gen.  Taylor 
married  prominent  men  and  moved  away  from 
Louisville.  • 

"Springfield,"  the  Taylor  home  of  1  785,  was 
a  substantial  log  house  to  which  a  brick  addition 
was  built,  and  later  a  brick  house  was  added  to 
the  addition  and  the  log  building  torn  away. 
Hancock  Taylor,  the  elder  brother  of  Gen.  Tay- 
lor, had  a  home  on  the  Eighteenth-street  road, 
but  bought  out  the  other  heirs'  interest  in  the  old 
place  and  moved  to  "Springfield,"  where  he 
died.  Hancock  Taylor  was  in  the  tobacco  busi- 
ness, and  as  a  young  man  was  an  Indian  fighter. 


134 


Taylor 

"Springfield"  is  now  owned  by  Dr.  John  A. 
Brady.  The  monument  erected  by  the  govern- 
ment in  1 89 1 ,  in  memory  of  Gen.  Taylor,  is  at 
"Springfield"  burying  ground. 

Capt.  Zachary  Taylor,  brother  of  Hancock 
Taylor  and  Col.  Richard  Taylor,  married  Alice 
Chew,  of  the  well-known  family  of  that  name, 
and  settled  on  the  forks  of  Hickman  creek,  in 
what  is  now  Jessamine  county.  His  daughter, 
Sarah  Taylor,  married  Richard  Woolfolk,  a  Ken- 
tucky pioneer  identified  with  the  early  history 
of  Jefferson  county.  It  was  he  who  caught  Col. 
William  Christian  in  his  arms  when  that  pioneer 
fell,  a  victim  of  the  Indians.  After  the  death 
of  his  wife  Capt.  Taylor  came  to  the  Woolfolk 
home,  in  Jefferson  county,  eight  miles  from  Lou- 
isville, on  land  between  Harrod's  creek  and  the 
Ohio  river. 

Samuel  Woolfolk,  a  son  of  Richard  and  Sarah 
Woolfolk,  was  a  well-known  lawyer.  His  wife 
was  Carrie  Thornton,  by  whom  he  had  five  sons. 
Richard  Henry  Woolfolk,  one  of  these,  married 
Amanda  Enders,  of  Paducah,  and  their  son, 
Junius  Woolfolk,  lives  in  this  city. 

A  son  of  Lieut.  Jonathan  and  Anne  Berry 
Taylor  was  William  Berry  Taylor,  born  1 768, 
who  married  Susannah  Grayson  Harrison  Gib- 
son, settling  in  Oldham  county,  then  Shelby 
county,  in   1 796,  on  a    thousand    acres    of    land 


135 


Louisville' s     First     Families 

bought  from  his  uncle,  Col.  Francis  Berry.  They 
built  the  home,  "Spring  Hill,"  the  first  brick 
house  in  the  county,  and  the  home  remained  in 
possession  of  the  family  until  last  year.  From 
Spring  Hill,  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor,  with  one  of 
his  daughters  and  with  his  cousin,  Betsy  Taylor, 
who  married  Dr.  William  Willett,  of  the  Bullitt 
family,  rode  on  horseback  to  Frankfort  to  attend 
the  first  assembly  ball,  talking  their  evening 
clothes  in  their  saddle  bags. 

Abraham  Hapstonstall,  the  surveyor,  spent 
the  declining  years  of  his  life  in  the  homes  of 
Hancock  Taylor  and  of  William  Berry  Taylor. 
He  is  buried  in  the  Taylor  family  burying  ground 
at   "Spring  Hill." 

Several  of  the  Revolutionary  brothers,  sons 
of  Col.  George  Taylor,  were  pioneer  settlers  in 
Kentucky,  and  from  time  to  time  their  de- 
scendants  have  drifted  into  Louisville  from  the 
Bluegrass,  from  Eastern  Kentucky  and  from 
the  neighboring  counties.  Among  these  Ken- 
tucky Taylors  now  in  the  city  are  the  following: 

Mrs.  John  W.  Green,  Mrs.  Alexander  Mc- 
Lennan, Mrs,  Jack  Langhome  Brent,  Judge 
George  Brent,  Dr.  E.  R.  Palmer,  Mr.  Edmund 
F.  Trabue,  Miss  Alice  Trabue,  Col.  William  Col- 
ston, Mr.  T.  P.  Taylor,  Mrs.  E.  Polk  Johnson, 
James  Berry,  Mrs.  Robert  Brooke,  Miss  Ruth  Rod- 
man, Mrs.  Sam  Overstreet,  Mrs.  T.  J.  Howe,  Mr. 


136 


Taylor 

Horace  Hurley,  Mr.  Frank  Barbour,  Mrs.  James 
Hegan,  Dr.  John  B.  Richardson,  Mr.  Samuel  B. 
Richardson,  Mrs.  Harrison  Robertson,  Mrs. 
Thos.  Kennedy  Helm,  Miss  Addie  Meriwether, 
Mr.  Edmund  Taylor  Meriwether,  Mrs.  Baylor 
Hickman,  Mrs.  Gilbert  Garrard,  Mrs.  Thomas  R. 
Gordon,  Mrs.  Arthur  Peter,  Mrs.  Karl  Jungbluth, 
Jr.,  Mrs.  J.  K.  Woodward,  Miss  Betty  Mallory, 
Miss  Fanny  Mallory,  Mr.  Robert  Mallory,  Dr. 
R.  A.  Bate,  Mr.  Virginius  Bate,  Mrs.  Cora  Tay- 
lor Russell,  Edward  G.  Isaacs,  Mrs.  Robert  Herr, 
Mrs.  S.  E.  Frazee,  Mrs.  Joseph  Simmons,  Mrs. 
Herman  D.  Newcomb,  Mrs.  Arthur  Peter,  Dar- 
win Ward  Johnson,  Mrs.  Kate  Johnson  Lester, 
Donald  Jacob,  John  I.  Jacob,  Wallace  Taylor 
Hughes,  William  B.  Eagles,  Nannie  Lee  Frayser, 
Mrs.  Barber  Baldwin,  Mrs.  John  Cannon,  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  John  Taylor,  Rebecca  Taylor,  Sallie 
Taylor,  Lucy  Catherine  Taylor,  James  Hughes 
and  Mrs.  George  Grevemeyer.  In  many  in- 
stances the  members  of  the  Taylor  family  are 
descendants  of  tw^o  branches  of  the  family. 


137 


"BERRY  HILL" 

The  Bate  home  at  Glenview,  built  by  James  Smalley  Bate 
shortly  after  1 800.  The  house  is  a  splendid  example  of  farm 
colonial  architecture  and  is  now  owned  and  occupied  by  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  R.  Baylor  Hickman. 


The  Bate  Family. 

BERRY  HILL"  was  the  Virginia  home  of 
James  Smalley  Bate,  and  for  that  reason 
the  Kentucky  pioneer  chose  that  name 
for  his  extensive  acreage  on  the  Ohio  river, 
his  estate  covering  the  land  which  is  now  the 
suburb  of  Glenview,  and  the  Bate  residence  be- 
ing the  Glenview  Farms,  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Baylor  Hickman. 

Dr.  James  Bate,  a  surgeon,  who  emigrated 
from  Yorkshire,  England,  and  settled  in  St. 
Mary's,  Maryland,  was  the  father  of  the  Ken- 
tucky settler. 

Dr.  Bate  married  Susannah  Bond,  the  daughter 
of  James  Bond,  whose  five  sons  fought  in  the 
Delaware  Blues.  The  Bates  removed  to  what 
is  now  Martinsburg,  W.  Va.,  and  it  was  there 
that  on  attaining  his  majority  James  Smalley 
Bate  married  Lucy  Moore  Throckmorton,  grand- 
daughter of  John  Robinson,  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Burgesses,  and  great  granddaughter  of 
Sir  Alexander  Spottswood,  first  Colonial  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia. 

When  James  Smalley  Bate  and  his  family 
came  to  Kentucky  in  1  789,  their  first  location 
was  Harmony  Landing  on  the  river  above  Pros- 


141 


Louisville's     First     Families 

pect.  They  moved  shortly  to  Falls  of  Ohio,  and 
their  first  home  here  was  a  twelve-room  log 
house  on  "Berry  Hill."  The  second  house  was 
of  brick  and  stood  about  five  hundred  yards  from 
the  third  house  on  "Berry  Hill,"  which  was  start- 
ed shortly  after  1 800,  and  is  now  the  Hickman 
home.  The  house  and  grounds  were  planned 
and  laid  out,  a  composite  of  the  old  Bate  places 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia. 

James  Smalley  Bate  was  interested  in  the 
civic  life  of  Louisville,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  Christ  Church  Cathedral,  and  gave 
the  land  on  which  the  church  was  built.  He 
died  in  1834,  leaving  a  large  fortune  to  his 
seven  children,  each  receiving  500  acres  of  the 
estate.  James  Smalley  Bate  is  buried  in  the  old 
Glenview  cemetery  and  here  lies  his  mother, 
Susannah  Bond  Bate,  who  was  born  in  1 740. 
Dr.  James  Bate  died  in  Virginia  during  the  Revo- 
lution. 

The  black  walnut  forest  to  the  side  of  the 
homestead  furnished  the  beautiful  wood  which 
is  found  in  the  mantels,  and  the  woodwork  and 
floors  throughout  the  dwelling.  The  forest  it- 
self was  uprooted  in  the  Louisville  cyclone  and 
the  side  of  the  house  was  badly  damaged  also. 
According  to  a  tradition  in  the  family,  expert 
carvers  were  paid  $  1  50  apiece  for  the  work  on  the 
mantels,  which  are  exquisite  in  design.  The  doors 


142 


Bate 

for  the  house  were  brought  on  packmules  from 
Virginia,  and  as  the  house  was  finished  before 
the  doors  arrived,  it  was  necessary  to  hang 
mattresses  in  the  apertures  whdn  the  family  took 
possession  of  the  house. 

The  Httle  attic  room  in  the  cupola,  high  up 
over  the  front  door,  is  said  to  have  been  the 
household  bank,  and  here  James  Smalley  Bate 
kept  the  treasure  chest  with  its  stock  of  gold 
from  which  the  expenses  of  the  estate  were 
drawn,  and  into  whose  coffers  poured  the  wealth 
of  this  substantial  and  prosperous  landholder, 
who  did  so  much  to  advance  agricultural  pur- 
suits in  Jefferson  county. 

Gerard  Bond  Bate  inherited  the  Bate  home, 
"Berry  Hill,"  and  he  sold  it  in  1869  to  James 
C.  McFerran,  who,  with  his  son,  John  B.  Mc- 
Ferran  established  a  famous  trotting  horse  farm 
on  the  Glenview  Farms.  Later  it  was  the  home 
of  John  E.  Green,  and  for  some  years  has  been 
owned  by  the  Hickmans. 

John  Throckmorton  Bate,  who  was  born  in 
1809  at  Berry  Hill,  and  lived  to  be  eighty-eight 
years  old,  spent  his  life  in  that  vicinity.  In  1834, 
the  year  of  his  marriage,  to  Eleanor  Anne  Locke, 
he  built  "Woodside"  within  a  mile  of  his  father's 
home.  The  house  still  standing  is  a  splendid 
example  of  the  Virginia  farmhouse  colonial  of 
white  brick.      In  this  house  lived  three  genera- 


143 


Louisville's     First     Families 

tions  of  Bates,  the  last  owner  in  the  family  being 
John  Throckmorton  Bate,  son  of  Clarence  Bate 
and  Octavia  Zantziger,  and  grandson  of  John 
Throckmorton  Bate. 

The  name  of  "Woodside"  was  changed  to 
"Arden"  when  the  beautiful  place  was  purchased 
by  Peter  Lee  Atherton,  who  continues  to  make 
it  his  year-around  home.  Many  fine  pieces  of 
mahogany  furniture  bought  for  Berry  Hill  and 
Woodside  are  still  in  possession  of  the  Bate 
family  in  Louisville.  A  quantity  of  the  family 
silver  was  lost  in  a  fire  a  few  years  ago. 

James  Smalley  Bate  and  his  wife,  Lucy  Moore 
Throckmorton,  were  the  parents  of  the  follow- 
ing children:  Catherine,  James  Smalley,  Robert, 
Susan,  Lucy,  Gerard  Bond  and  John  Throck- 
morton Bate. 

Catherine  Bate  married  Henry  Washington,  a 
Virginian  and  close  kinsman  of  George  Wash- 
ington, who  as  a  very  young  man  left  the  Old 
Dominion  for  the  Kentucky  settlements.  No  other 
member  of  his  immediate  family  ventured  this 
way,  and  when  one  of  his  descendants  was  seek- 
ing an  accurate  genealogy  of  the  family  it  was 
necessary  to  make  a  trip  to  Virginia  to  secure 
data  from  the  Washington  Bibles. 

There  are  three  children  of  Catherine  and 
Henry  Washington  living  at  Irvington,  Ky. 
Mary  Washington,  who  married  Theodore  Mun- 


144 


Bate 

ford,  recently  celebrated  her  ninetieth  birthday; 
Georgiana,  who  married  Richard  Hemdon,  the 
naother  of  Jesse  M.  Herndon,  of  Irvington,  and 
Bate  Washington,  whose  wife  was  Mary  Helm. 
Emmaree  Washington,  daughter  of  Bate  and 
Mary  Washington,  is  the  wife  of  B.  Perry 
Weaver,  of  Louisville,  and  the  mother  of  Ben 
Helm  Weaver,  Burton  Perry  Weaver  and  Mary 
Washington    Weaver. 

Glorvine  Eugenia  Washington,  daughter  of 
Henry  and  Catherine,  married  Alfred  Harris,  and 
from  her  is  descended  a  granddaughter,  Cath- 
erine Washington  Harris,  the  wife  of  Dr.  Clint 
W.  Kelly.  She  is  the  mother  of  Dr.  Alfred 
Harris  Kelly,  whose  wife  was  Amy  Gunn 
Snowden  before  her  marriage;  Dr.  Clint  W. 
Kelly,  Jr.,  Wager  Swayne  Kelly  and  Edwin  Par- 
son Kelly.  Susan  Washington,  another  daughter, 
married  Dr.  Joseph  Morrison  Tydings,  the 
Methodist  minister,  and  their  son  Richard  H. 
Tydings  and  his  wife,  Nell  Mansir,  with  their 
four  children:  Joseph  Mansir,  Anna  Ray, 
Richard,  Jr.,  and  Mary  Avery  Tydings,  make 
Louisville  their  home. 

Lucy  Washington  married  Junius  Alexander, 
and  their  son.  Dr.  Junius  B.  Alexander,  lives 
here. 

Lucy  Bate,  who  married  George  Gray,  had  five 
children,  but  left  few  descendants.     A  daughter. 


145 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Lizzie  Gray,  married  Mann  William  Satterwhite, 
and  was  the  mother  of  George  Satterwhite,  who 
married  Laura  Hays,  and  of  Bessie  Satterwhite, 
the  wife  of  Walter  Stouffer,  and  mother  of  Walter 
Stouffer,   Jr. 

Mary  Gray  married  Dr.  Coleman  Rogers,  and 
their  only  living  child  is  Mary  Rogers,  Mrs. 
William  O.  Andrews,  of  St.  Louis,  and  the 
mother  of  four  children.  William  Gray  mar- 
ried Nellie  Snowden,  and  has  living  here  one 
granddaughter,  Eleanor  Gray,  the  wife  of 
Rudolph  C.  Krauss.  Lucy  Gray  was  never  mar- 
ried. Ella  Gray,  one  of  the  four  daughters  of 
Lucy  Bate  and  George  Gray,  is  the  widow  of 
Norboume  G.  Gray,  and  has  one  son,  Coleman 
Gray,  who  makes  his  home  in  New  York. 

Gerard  Bond  Bate,  who  inherited  the  home 
place,  died  a  bachelor.  He  was  a  Harvard 
graduate,  and  a  man  of  great  culture  and  refine- 
ment. 

John  Throckmorton  Bate  married  Eleanor 
Anne  Locke,  and  had  two  sons,  Octavius  Bate, 
who  died  as  the  result  of  an  accident  while  a 
student  at  Centre  College,  and  Clarence  Bate, 
who  was  educated  at  Brown's,  a  classmate  of 
EHhu  Root  and  John  Hay. 

Clarence  Bate  married  Octavia  Zantziger, 
daughter  of  Major  Richard  Zantziger,  and  his 
v/ife,  Mary  Bullitt.     There  were  four  children  of 


146 


Bate 

this  marriage,  three  living,  Octavius  L.  Bate,  a 
bachelor;  John  Throckmorton  Bate,  who  married 
Margaret  Mitchell,  and  Octavia  Zantziger  Bate, 
who  is  the  wife  of  Dr.  Clarence  Graves,  head 
of  the  Baptist  Mission  of  the  South,  at  Nash- 
ville. 

John  Throckmorton  and  Margaret  Bate  have 
two  children,  Margaret,  the  wife  of  Allen  Ford 
Barnes,  of  San  Antonio,  and  the  mother  of  Mar- 
garet Ford  Barnes,  and  John  Throckmorton 
Bate,  Jr.,  a  student  of  medicine  at  University  of 
Virginia. 

Susan  L.  Bond  Bate  married  in  August,  1826, 
Richard  Taylor  Robertson,  the  son  of  Isaac 
Robertson,  who  came  from  Glasgow,  Scotland, 
and  his  wife  Matilda  Taylor,  daughter  of  Com- 
modore Richard  Taylor.  The  Robertsons  left 
Louisville  to  make  Brandenburg  their  home. 
They  had  thirteen  children,  and  from  one  of 
these,  a  daughter,  Susan  Eliza  Robertson,  a  num- 
ber of  Louisville  people  are  descended.  She 
married  her  cousin,  Richard  Alexander  Bate,  a 
son  of  James  Smalley  Bate  II,  and  his  wife,  Vir- 
ginia Alexander. 

Susan  Eliza  and  Richard  Alexander  Bate  have 
a  daughter  and  two  sons  in  the  city,  Fanny  Bar- 
bour Bate  (Mrs.  Theodore  S.  Drane),  Dr. 
Richard  Alexander  Bate,  who  married  Julia 
Hornsby    Calloway,     a     descendant     of     Daniel 


147 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Boone's  companion,  Col.  Calloway,  the  Indian 
fighter,  and  Virginius  A.  Bate,  who  married 
Eliza  Johnson. 

Lucy  Moore  Throckmorton  Bate,  another 
daughter  married  Henry  Watts  Clark,  of  Chi- 
cago, and  James  Smalley  Bate  married  Nell 
Semple,  a  cousin,  and  lives  in  Henry  county. 

James  Smalley  Bate  and  his  wife,  Virginia 
Alexander,  had  a  family  of  eight  children,  and 
their  home  was  a  part  of  the  Glenview  Farms. 
The  couple  lived  there,  died  there,  and  their 
children  are  making  their  home  on  the  land. 
Two  daughters,  Lucy  and  Ellen  Bate,  married 
Major  Walker  Taylor,  Confederate  veteran,  and 
nephew  of  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor.  From  Lucy 
Bate  Taylor,  the  first  wife,  are  descended  James 
Taylor  and  his  sister,  Virginia  Taylor,  who  live 
on  the  Bate  land  on  the  Brownsboro  road. 
Ellen  Bate  Taylor,  the  second  wife,  leaves  three 
daughters,  the  Misses  Taylor,  who  also  live  out 
on  the  Brov/nsboro  road.  Another  daughter  of 
James  Smalley  and  Virginia  Bate  is  Virignia 
Alexander  Bate,  who  lives  on  a  portion  of  the 
old  farm. 

Robert  Bate,  son  of  James  Smalley  Bate  and 
Lucy  Moore  Tlirockmorton,  married  Fannie  Bar- 
bour, and  had  four  sons,  Gerard  Bate,  a  bachelor; 
William  Bate,  who  married  Lucy  Washington; 
Philip  Bate,  whose  wife  was  Helen  Bullitt,   and 


148 


Bate 

Edward  Bate,  who  married  Fannie  Mayo,  eind 
has  two  children,  Rebekkah  Bate  Welch,  of  New 
York,  and  Yandell  Bate,  U.  S.  A. 


149 


COLONEL  JOHN  FLOYD 

Sketched  from  the  photograph  of  an  old  picture  which  hung 
in  Col.  R.  T.  Durrett's  library,  used  to  illustrate  William 
Floyd  Tuley's  "Genealogy  of  the  Tuley  and  Floyd  Families". 

Photographs  of  Colonel  Floyd's  son  and  grandson,  the 
John  Floyds,  who  were  Governors  of  Virginia,  bear  a  striking 
resemblance  to  this  old  likeness  of  the  vigorous  pioneer. 


The  Floyd  Family.    I. 

TETTERS  written  by  Col.  John  Floyd  to  his 
I  chief.  Col.  William  Preston,  county  lieuten- 
ant and  surveyor  of  Fincastle  county,  Va., 
present  an  exceptionally  fine  picture  of  how  Ken- 
tucky was  wrested  from  the  Indians  and  of  the 
early  settling  of  Louisville  and  of  the  Central  Ken- 
tucky towns,  but  are  even  more  interesting  in 
the  light  they  cast  upon  their  author,  John  Floyd, 
pioneer  statesman  and  surveyor,  and  Kentucky's 
hero  of  heroes. 

A  Virginia  gentleman  of  rare  mental  attain- 
ments, brave  as  a  lion,  a  true  friend,  of  the  warm- 
est affections,  Col.  Floyd  reveals  himself  in  his 
letters  to  Col.  Preston  and  to  Gen.  George 
Rogers  Clark,  letters  written  between  1774  and 
1  783,  the  best  years  and  the  last  years  of  his 
life,  for  at  thirty-three  Floyd  was  a  victim  of  the 
Indians.  While  comparatively  little  has  been 
recorded  in  histories,  Floyd's  letters  are  pre- 
served in  the  Virginia  Archives  and  the  Draper 
MSS.,  making  an  authentic  memorial  to  his 
achievements. 

John  Floyd  was  bom  in  1750,  in  Amherst 
county,  Va.,  a  son  of  Col.  William  Floyd  and 
Abigail  (or  Abediah)  Davis  Floyd,  and  one  of  a 


153 


Louisville's     First     Families 

number  of  children  who  later  emigrated  to  Ken- 
tucky to  become  founders  of  Louisville  families. 
Abigail  Davis  was  a  sister  of  Evan  Davis,  grand- 
father of  Jefferson  Davis,  according  to  a  tradi- 
tion in  the  family,  and  like  her  husband  was  de- 
scended from  Welsh  emigrants  to  Virginia.  In 
1772,  John  Floyd  moved  to  Fincastle  county, 
where  he  taught  school,  living  in  the  home  of  Col. 
William  Preston.  Two  years  later  Preston  made 
Floyd  a  deputy  surveyor  and  appointed  him  chief 
of  a  surveying  party  to  Kentucky,  then  known 
as  a  part  of  Fincastle  county.  The  party  set  out 
on  April  7  from  Col.  Preston's  home  at  1  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  in  high  spirits,  escorted  three 
miles  by  the  surveyor,  according  to  Hanson's 
Journal,  kept  by  one  of  Floyd's  party,  Thomas 
Hanson,  a  young  gentleman  who  faithfully  set 
down  the  traveling  experiences  of  the  brave  little 
band.  He  tells  how  they  received  news  of  battles 
with  the  Indians;  of  meeting  up  with  friends  in 
the  forest  and  having  a  feast  of  bear  meat;  of 
overtaking  Hancock  Taylor  at  the  head  of  an- 
other surveying  party,  and  of  the  men  proceed- 
ing together  in  great  harmony;  of  Mr.  Floyd  lay- 
ing off  two  thousand  acres  of  land  on  Cole  river 
for  Col.  George  Washington;  of  lands  surveyed 
in  Kentucky  for  Patrick  Henry  and  other  promi- 
nent men  of  the  time.  Floyd's  special  mission 
on  his  first  trip  was  to  make  survey  of  the  bounty 


154 


Floyd 

lands  offered  to  veterans  of  the  French  and 
Indian  Wars.  In  that  year  the  activities  of  the 
hostile  Indians  led  Dunmore  to  order  the  recall 
of  the  Virginia  surveyors,  and  Daniel  Boone  was 
sent  by  Preston  to  order  Floyd  to  bring  in  his 
men.  On  the  26th  of  August  Floyd  writes  to 
Preston:  "You  will  hear  by  Capt.  Russell  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  Hancock  Taylor  and  one  of  the 
company,  my  poor  brother  sufferers  whose  deaths 
I  hope  to  revenge  yet,"  showing  that  even  this 
early  in  his  work  he  had  cast  his  lot  with  the 
cause  of  Kentucky. 

Floyd  then  joined  the  forces  of  Gen.  Andrew 
Lewis,  but  was  not  in  time  for  the  fighting  at 
Point  Pleasant.  In  January,  1775,  he  was  sent 
back  to  Kentucky  by  his  chief  to  make  a  survey 
on  soldier  claims  and  established  the  station  of 
St.  Asaph.  In  May  he  was  on  Dix  river  with  his 
party  and  met  up  with  Lieut.  John  Henderson, 
of  the  Transylvania  Company,  a  settler  at 
Boonesborough,  who  distrusted  Floyd  because 
he  represented  Col.  Preston,  whose  interests  and 
Henderson's  did  not  coincide.  Regarding  Floyd, 
Henderson  made  the  following  entry  in  his  jour- 
nal on  May  3,    1775: 

"Capt.  John  Floyd  arrived  here  conducted  by 
one  John  Drake,  from  a  camp  on  the  Dix  river, 
where  he  had  left  about  thirty  of  his  company 
from  Virginia.     He  said  he  was  sent  by  them  to 


155 


Louisville's     First     Families 

know  on  what  terms  they  might  settle  on  our 
lands.  This  man  appeared  to  have  a  great  share 
of  modesty,  an  honest,  open  countenance  and  no 
small  share  of  good  sense,  and,  petitioning  in 
behalf  of  himself  and  his  whole  company,  among 
whom  were  one  Mr.  Dandridge  (Alexander  Spotts- 
wood  Dandridge),  and  one  Mr.  Todd,  two  gents 
of  the  law,  in  their  own  right,  and  several  other 
young  gents  of  good  family,  we  thought  it  ad- 
visable to  secure  them  to  our  interest  if  possible, 
and  not  show  the  least  distrust  of  the  intentions 
of  Capt.  Floyd,  on  whom  we  intend  to  keep  a 
strict  watch." 

However,  Floyd  effected  an  understanding 
with  Henderson  and  did  not  participate  in  the 
land  fights  that  ensued. 

In  a  letter  from  Boonesborough  to  Col.  Pres- 
ton, written  July  21,  I  776,  he  describes  the  rescue 
of  the  Calloway  girls  and  Daniel  Boone's 
daughter  from  the  Indians,  after  they  had  been 
taken  captives  from  a  canoe  on  the  river.  He 
cites  this  among  the  Indian  depredations,  and 
concludes:  "If  the  war  becomes  general,  which 
there  now  is  the  greatest  appearance  of,  our 
situation  is  truly  alarming.  I  want  to  return  as 
much  as  any  person  can  do,  but  if  I  leave  the 
country  now,  there  is  scarcely  one  single  man 
hereabouts  but  that  will  follow  my  example. 
When  I  think  of  the  deplorable  conditions  a  few 


156 


Floyd 

helpless  families  are  likely  to  be  in,  I  conclude  to 
sell  my  life  as  dear  as  I  can,  in  their  defense, 
rather  than  to  make  an  ignominious  escape. 

**I  do,  at  the  request  and  in  behalf  of  all  the 
distressed  women  and  children,  and  other  in- 
habitants of  this  place,  implore  the  aid  of  every 
leading  man  who  has  it  in  his  power  to  give  them 
any  relief." 

But  the  war  was  on  in  earnest  and  Capt. 
Floyd  returned  to  Virginia,  where  he  was  given 
charge  of  the  privateer  Phoenix,  sent  out  to  prey 
upon  British  commerce.  He  sailed  to  the  West 
Indies  and  found  rich  soil,  but  was  captured  by 
the  British  off  the  Bahamas  and  taken  to  an  Eng- 
lish prison.  After  a  year  as  prisoner  he  escaped, 
aided  by  the  jailer's  wife,  made  his  way  to 
France,  where  he  secured  aid  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  went  home  to  Virginia. 

In  1779  Floyd  with  his  wife,  Jane  Buchanan, 
a  niece  of  his  friend.  Col.  Preston,  started  for 
Kentucky,  making  their  way  to  the  Falls  of  Ohio, 
accompanied  or  followed  by  several  of  his 
brothers  and  sisters.  He  built  Floyd's  Station, 
which  stood  on  lands  about  a  mile  from  St. 
Matthews.  Unfortunately  for  Floyd  and  his 
family,  their  year  at  the  Falls  was  one  of  pitiless 
cold,  always  spoken  of  in  history  as  the  "hard 
winter." 


157 


Louisville's     First     Families 

In  a  letter  to  Preston,  Floyd  tells  of  the 
weather  being  "violently  hard,"  of  there  being 
no  arrivals  or  news  down  the  river  in  some 
weeks.  He  congratulates  Col.  and  Mrs.  Preston 
on  the  arrival  of  their  sixth  daughter.  (Letitia 
Preston  was  the  bride  of  John  Floyd,  Jr.,  who 
became  Governor  of  Virginia.)  Floyd  con- 
tinues: "I  can't  buy  a  bushel  of  corn  for  $50, 
and  everything  else  seems  nearly  in  proportion. 
Jenny  and  myself  often  lament  the  want  of  our 
fine  crop  of  corn  the  valley  of  Arcadia,  and  we 
both  seem  to  have  a  fondness  yet  for  that  coun- 
try notwithstanding  all  the  advantages  we  expect 
in  future.  We  sometimes  laugh  at  our  misfortune 
with  hopes  of  doing  better  in  a  few  months, 
which  will  soon  pass  away."  In  January,  Floyd 
writes  again  to  Col.  Preston  of  the  extremity  of 
the  settlers  at  the  Falls.  "If  anybody  comes  by 
water  I  wish  we  could  get  a  little  flour  brought 
down  if  it  was  as  dear  as  gold  dust.  Since  I  wrote, 
com  has  been  sold  at  the  Falls  for  $1  65  a  bushel. 
I  have  sent  $600  by  Mr.  Randolph,  a  friend  of 
mine,  which  is  for  my  brother  Charles,  to  pur- 
chase some  cattle  and  drive  out  next  spring.  We 
have  no  prospect  of  getting  any  linen.  Jenny 
sends  her  best  wishes  and  desires  to  know  if  it 
will  be  possible  for  Charles  to  get  anything  to 
clothe  her  and  the  little  boy."  Later,  May  31: 
"Do  order  Charles  to  bring  the  net  profits  of  the 


158 


Floyd 

crop  in  Arcadia  in  clothing  or  we  shall  be  obliged 
to  use  fig  leaves.  The  Indians  plan  to  make  this 
neighborhood  the  seat  of  war  this  season.  Two 
men  bring  accounts  that  six  hundred  English  w^ith 
united  enemy  Indians  are  now  preparing  to  march 
against  the  Falls  with  artillery.  Hardly  one  week 
passes  without  someone  being  scalped  between 
this  and  the  Falls,  and  I  have  almost  got  too 
cowardly  to  travel  about  the  woods  without  com- 
pany." 

In  this  year  of  1  780,  Floyd  was  appointed  one 
of  the  original  trustees  of  the  new  city,  Louis- 
ville, and  it  is  generally  supposed  that  he  was 
also  a  justice  of  the  peace.  His  correspondence 
with  Col.  Preston  during  the  summer  shows  the 
pioneer  life  as  arduous  and  full  of  anxiety.  In 
June  he  writes:  "People  this  year  seem  gen- 
erally to  have  lost  their  health,  but  perhaps  it  is 
owing  to  the  disagreeable  way  in  which  we  are 
obliged  to  live,  crowded  in  forts,  where  the  air 
seems  to  have  lost  all  its  purity  and  sweetness. 
Our  little  boy  has  been  exceedingly  ill."  A  post- 
script to  the  letter:  "Uncle  Davis  and  his  son 
killed  near  Cumberland  Mountains  five  weeks 
ago  going  into  settlement.  There  were  four 
brothers,  all  of  whom  have  been  murdered  in 
seven  or  eight  years.  I  hear  nothing  of  Charles, 
and  fear  if  he  comes  with  a  small  company  he 
will  share  the  fate  his  uncle  and  son  has  done." 


159 


Louisville's     First     Families 

In  the  following  year  Floyd  assumes  heavy 
responsibilities,  for  in  1781  Gen.  Clark  wrote 
Gov.  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  asking  him  to  ap- 
point Col.  John  Floyd  to  the  position  of  county 
lieutenant,  describing  Floyd  as  "a  gentleman  who 
would  do  honor  to  the  position  and  known  to 
be  the  most  capable  in  the  county,  a  soldier,  a 
gentleman,  and  a  scholar,  whom  the  inhabitants, 
for  his  actions,  have  the  greatest  confidence  in." 
Floyd  was  appointed  county  lieutenant  and  his 
letters  from  this  time  until  his  death,  to  Preston 
and  to  Clark,  deal  with  the  defense  of  the  fort 
at  the  foot  of  Twelfth  street,  at  Fort  Nelson,  of 
militia  without  ammunition  and  with  horses  lost, 
of  the  defenseless  position  of  the  stations.  He 
writes  that  the  reason  that  the  country  is  not  de- 
serted is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Ohio  runs  only 
one  way,  and  that  the  miserable  inhabitants  have 
lost  their  horses,  that  the  Indians  are  continually 
pecking  at  the  settlers,  forty-seven  inhabitants 
killed  or  captured  from  January  to  May.  In 
September,  Col.  Floyd  writes  Gen.  Clark  that 
his  company  of  twenty-seven  had  been  dispersed 
and  cut  to  pieces,  only  nine  men  coming  off  the 
field.  "A  party  was  defeated  yesterday  at  the 
same  place  and  many  women  and  children 
wounded.  1  want  satisfaction;  do  send  me  one 
hundred    men,    which   number   with   what    I   can 


160 


Floyd 

raise,  will  do.     Militia  has  no  good  powder,  do 
send  some.     I  can't  write — guess  at  rest." 

Col.  Floyd  appeals  to  Gen.  Clark  in  May, 
1  782,  in  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  Spring  Sta- 
tion, who  had  become  so  alarmed  that  they  fear- 
ed to  plant  their  corn  without  a  small  guard. 
They  offer  their  services  for  work  on  Ft.  Nelson 
in  exchange  for  a  guard  of  Gen.  Clarke's  troops 
for  a  week's  planting.  In  the  same  letter  he  tells 
of  planning  to  search  houses  for  hemp  needed 
in  equipping  boats  on  the  river  to  be  employed 
in  fighting  the  savages,  and  writes  Clark  that  he 
and  his  men  have  been  making  rope  from  "pop- 
paw  bark."  An  earlier  letter  to  Gen.  Clark  told 
of  preparing  canoes  ordered  by  the  government, 
and  stated  that  he,  Floyd,  was  liable  for  the 
price  of  most  of  them,  about  four  thousand 
pounds.  He  writes:  "People  have  been  so  long 
amused  with  promises  of  paying  off  indebtedness 
long  incurred  that  the  credit  of  the  State  is  very 
little  better  here  than  in  Illinois."  It  is  understood 
that  Floyd  and  the  other  pioneers  of  means  were 
never  remunerated  for  many  of  their  expendi- 
tures of  this  nature,  and  practically  ruined  them- 
selves, giving  funds,  service,  their  all,  to  save 
Kentucky. 

A  letter  to  Col.  Preston,  in  March,  1  783,  in- 
forms him  of  the  death  of  Billy  Buchanan,  Mrs. 
Floyd's  brother,  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians.     In 


161 


Louisville's     First     Families 

this  letter  Floyd  observes  that  he  expected  some- 
thing like  this  to  be  his  own  lot.  Within  a  month 
his  apprehension  proved  true,  for  on  April  1 0, 
while  riding  to  the  salt  works  from  his  station 
on  Beargrass,  Col.  Floyd  was  fired  upon  by  In- 
dians and  received  a  mortal  wound.  In  com- 
pany with  him  was  a  brother,  whose  horse  was 
shot  from  under  him,  and  a  third  person,  who 
was  killed  outright.  Col.  Floyd  was  carried  by 
his  brother  to  the  salt  works,  where  he  died  two 
days  later.  On  April  24  a  son  was  born  to  Mrs. 
Floyd,  named  John,  for  his  father.  This  John 
Floyd  went  back  to  Virginia  to  become  Gover- 
nor of  the  State  in  1830,  and  he  was  the  father 
of  John  Buchanan  Floyd,  elected  Governor  of 
Virginia  in  1850,  and  the  Secretary  of  War  in 
185  7  under  President  Buchanan. 

Col.  Floyd  left  two  other  sons  besides  his  post- 
humous child,  William  Preston  Floyd,  who  took 
up  his  residence  in  Virginia,  and  Capt.  George 
Rogers  Clark  Floyd,  who  remained  in  Louisville 
to  become  an  Indian  fighter  like  his  father. 

Floyd  county,  Floyd's  Fork,  Floyd  street,  in 
this  city,  are  all  named  for  the  distinguished 
gentleman,  John  Floyd.  A  drinking  fountain  on 
Main  street  between  Third  and  Fourth  was  pre- 
sented to  the  city,  several  years  ago,  by  Allen  R. 
Carter  through  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  as  a 
marker  for  Floyd's  old  blockhouse,  which  stood 


162 


Floyd 

between  Main  and  the  River  and  Third  and 
Fourth;  a  monument  stands  at  Eastwood,  on  the 
Shelbyville  pike,  erected  a  number  of  years  ago 
to  Col.  Floyd  and  his  men. 

(Copies  of  Col.  John  Floyd's  letter  preserved 
in  the  Draper  manuscripts  and  in  the  Virginia 
archives  are  in  the  library  of  Mr.  Temple 
Bodley.) 


163 


CAPTAIN  THOMAS  FLOYD  SMITH 

From  a  portrait  painted  when  he  was  a  young  man  and  in 
his  uniform  of  Lieutenant,  Eighth  Infantry,  U.  S.  A.,  hanging 
in  the  home  of  his  son,  Thomas  Floyd  Smith,  at  Glenview. 


The  Floyd  Family.    II. 

WHEN  Col.  John  Floyd  came  out  from 
Virginia  in  1779  to  take  up  his  resi- 
dence near  Falls  of  Ohio,  it  is  said  a 
number  of  his  brothers  and  sisters  journeyed  with 
him  or  followed  him.  His  correspondence  with 
Col.  William  Preston,  the  surveyor  of  Fincastle 
county,  his  lifelong  friend  and  an  uncle  of  his 
second  wife,  Jane  Buchanan,  deals  repeatedly 
with  the  coming  of  a  brother,  Charles  Floyd,  who 
was  with  Col.  Floyd  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

The  parents  of  the  pioneers.  Col.  William 
Floyd  and  his  wife,  Abediah  (or  Abigail)  Davis, 
were  of  Welsh  descent,  and  the  family  tradition 
that  there  is  a  strain  of  Indian  blood  in  the 
Davis  family  is  sustained  by  old  photographs  of 
various  descendants,  while  high  cheek  bones  and 
blue  black  hair  are  noticeable  in  some  genera- 
tion of  each  branch  of  the  Floyd  connection. 

Abediah  Davis  Floyd,  through  her  father, 
Robert  Davis,  who  acquired  vast  properties  in 
Amherst  county,  Virginia,  trading  with  the 
Catawba  Indians,  according  to  the  tradition,  was 
a  lineal  descendant  of  Opechancanough,  brother 
of  Powhatan,  Princess  Nicketti,  the  chieftain's 
daughter,    marrying   Nathaniel   Davis,    of  Wales. 


167 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Col.  William  Floyd  had  one  brother,  Charles 
Floyd,  who  settled  in  Georgia,  the  forebear  of 
Major  Gen.  John  Floyd,  of  Georgia,  who  was  the 
grandfather  of  William  McAdoo,  former  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury. 

Col.  John  Floyd  married  in  his  early  manhood 
a  Miss  Burwell,  of  Virginia,  who  had  one 
daughter.  Mourning  Floyd,  and  died  shortly  after 
the  birth  of  her  child.  Mourning  Floyd  mar- 
ried Col.  John  Stewart,  of  Georgia.  Ten  years 
after  the  death  of  his  first  wife  Col.  Floyd  mar- 
ried Jane  Buchanan,  a  kinswoman  of  James 
Patton,  the  Louisville  settler,  according  to  some 
accounts. 

Three  sons  were  born  to  John  and  Jane 
Floyd,  William  Preston  Floyd,  George  Rogers 
Clark  Floyd  and  John  Floyd,  who  was  a 
posthumous  child,  born  twelve  days  after 
his  father's  death.  George  Rogers  Clark 
Floyd,  who  was  the  only  one  of  the  three  to 
remain  in  Louisville,  the  other  brothers  going  to 
Virginia,  was  an  Indian  fighter.  His  rank  in 
the  army  is  sometimes  given  as  captain  and 
sometimes  as  major,  but  it  is  known  that  he 
commanded  a  regiment  at  the  battle  of  Tippe- 
canoe. He  was  twice  married,  his  first  wrife  be- 
ing Maria  Maupin.  Their  only  son,  John  Floyd, 
went  to  Iowa  to  locate. 


168 


Floyd 

Major  Floyd's  home  was  near  Cherokee  Park, 
where  he  died  in  1 82 1 .  His  declining  health 
was  due  to  the  rigors  of  the  campaign  against 
Tecumseh  at  Fort  Harrison. 

Major  Floyd's  second  wife,  to  whom  he  was 
married  in  1810,  was  Sarah  Fontaine,  one  of 
the  nine  daughters  of  Capt.  Aaron  Fontaine. 

They  had  two  daughters,  Jane  and  Evelyn 
Floyd,  and  the  former  has  a  grandson,  living  in 
Louisville.  Clark  Penn,  the  son  of  Col.  George 
Floyd  Penn,  of  New  Albany,  the  only  known  de- 
scendant of  the  illustrious  John  Floyd,  known  to 
make  his  home  here. 

John  Floyd,  who  went  back  to  Virginia,  mar- 
ried his  cousin,  Letitia  Preston.  He  studied 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and 
practiced  his  profession  for  a  time.  Dr.  Floyd 
was  elected  Governor  of  Virginia  in  1828.  His 
son,  John  Buchanan  Floyd,  was  Governor  of 
Virginia  in  1850,  was  Secretary  of  War  under 
Buchanan  in  1857,  and  was  a  General  in  the 
Confederate  Army.  The  first  Gov.  Floyd  had 
a  daughter,  Nicketti,  who  married  John  W. 
Johnston,  United  States  Senator  from  Virginia, 
and  she  was  the  mother  of  Dr.  George  Ben 
Johnston,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  whose  daughters, 
Nicketti  and  Helen  Johnston,  often  visit  here  at 
the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Temple  Bodley. 


169 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Charles  Floyd  married  Mary  Stewart  in  1773 
in  the  Hanover  Parish  church.  Their  children 
were  pioneer  settlers  in  Indiana.  One  son  was 
Judge  Davis  Floyd,  prominent  in  the  territorial 
history  of  Indiana,  while  another  was  Sergt. 
Charles  Floyd,  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedi- 
tion, who  died  on  the  trip  to  the  coast  and  was 
buried  at  Sioux  City,  la.,  where  a  handsome 
marble  shaft  marks  his  grave.  This  monument 
was  erected  by  the  Floyd  Memorial  Association, 
the  government  contributing  $20,000  toward  the 
monument  and  grounds,  known  as  Floyd  Park, 
commemorating  Sergt.  Floyd  and  the  Lewis  and 
Clark  Expedition. 

Isham  Floyd,  another  of  the  brothers,  was 
killed  by  the  Indians  on  the  Ohio  river  in   1  787. 

Nathaniel  Floyd,  the  youngest  brother,  who 
married  Mollie  Thomas  in  Louisville  in  1 793, 
was  a  soldier  in  Thomas  Joyes'  regiment  at  the 
battle  of  New  Orleans.  After  the  war  Floyd, 
v/ith  several  companions,  walked  through  to  their 
homes.  He  had  a  farm  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Anchorage,  but  was  living  in  Louisville  at  the 
time  of  his  death  in  1840.  Two  of  his  daughters 
have  descendants  here.  Abediah  Davis  Floyd 
married  Richard  Meriwether,  and  after  his  death 
Henry  Weaver,  of  Cincinnati,  O.  A  daughter, 
Susan  Floyd  Weaver,  married  Ernest  Gunter, 
the    well-known    musician.       Mrs.     Gunter    was 


170 


Floyd 

much  interested  in  the  Floyd  genealogy  and  was 
a  member  of  the  Floyd  Memorial  Association. 
She  furnished  an  old  letter  used  in  establishing 
Sergt.  Charles  Floyd's  connection  with  the  Lou- 
isville family,  a  letter  written  by  one  of  his 
brothers,  Nathaniel  Floyd,  to  his  sister,  Nancy, 
telling  of  Sergt.  Floyd's  death.  This  Nancy 
Floyd  married  George  Rogers  and  had  a 
daughter,  Nancy,  who  married  Judge  Wesley 
Phelps,  of  Bullitt  county.  It  is  believed  that  the 
remains  of  Col.  John  Floyd  repose  on  the  Phelps 
farm,  on  the  banks  of  Floyd's  Fork,  just  north 
of  the  public  road  leading  from  Shepherdsville 
to  Mt.  Washington,  and  about  one  mile  from 
the  former  place. 

A  daughter  of  Susan  Floyd  Gunter  is  Carrie 
Gunter,  who  lives  in  Ivanhoe  Court.  Ernest 
Gunter,  her  brother,  makes  his  home  in  Kansas 
City,  a  civil  engineer. 

Ann  Eliza  Floyd,  who  married  George  W. 
Bowling,  is  the  ancestress  of  Louisville  people. 
Her  son,  J.  W.  Bowling,  was  the  father  of  Pearl 
Bowling  (Mrs.  Clay  McCandless),  and  of 
Blanche  Bowling.  Mrs.  Emma  Garvin  Harlow, 
whose  mother  was  Mary  Bowling,  is  the  mother 
of  Edna  and  Nora  Harlow  and  Floyd  Preston 
Harlow. 

Elizabeth  Floyd,  an  elder  sister  of  Col,  John 
Flo3''d,   married  in  Virginia,  Charles  Tuley,   of  a 


171 


Louisville's     First     Families 

prominent  family  of  Farquier  county.  The 
Tuleys  decided  to  make  their  way  to  the  new 
settlement  and  arrived  in  Louisville  in  Sep- 
tember, I  783.  The  Tuley  family  found  the  other 
side  of  the  Ohio  to  their  liking,  and  the  family 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential 
in  New  Albany.  The  oldest  son,  William  Floyd 
Tuley,  married  Jane  Bell,  daughter  of  William 
Bell,  of  Louisville,  having  a  son,  John  Wesley 
Tuley,  who  married  Phoebe  Woodruff, 
daughter  of  Judge  Seth  Woodruff,  of  New 
Albany.  Their  son,  Enos  Seth  Tuley,  came  to 
Louisville  to  locate  in  1857,  and  was  postmaster 
of  Louisville.  He  married  Mary  Eliza  Speed,  of 
the  pioneer  Speed  family,  and  their  children  in 
Louisville  are  Philip  Tuley,  Dr.  Henry  Enos  Tuley 
and  Thomas  Speed  Tuley. 

Another  descendant  of  the  Floyds  through 
the  Tuley  line  is  Rose  Tuley,  who  married 
Charles  Earl  Currie,  of  Louisville.  Her  brothers 
are  Lawrence  and  Walter  Tuley  of  New 
Albany. 

One  sister,  Abigail  Davis  Floyd,  married  in 
Fincastle,  Va.,  Thomas  Smith,  a  Virginian,  who 
was  killed  by  the  Indians  in  1  786  at  the  storm- 
ing of  Brashear's  Fort,  near  Beargrass  creek. 
Their  son  was  Major  Thomas  Floyd  Smith,  bom 
in  1  784.  He  was  ensign  of  rifles  in  1813  after 
serving  as  a  second  lieutenant  in    1812,   but  he 


172 


Floyd 

particularly  distinguished  himself  in  the  Indian 
wars.  He  was  adjutant  to  Gen.  E.  P.  Gaines 
and  led  the  stornning  party  in  attack  at  Ft.  Erie. 
He  was  breveted  major  and  retired  from  the 
army  in  1837,  Uving  in  St.  Louis,  where  he  died 
in   1843. 

Major  Smith  married  Emilie  Chouteau,  a 
Creole,  and  one  of  the  daughters  of  Col.  Auguste 
Chouteau,  surveyor  of  Louisiana,  who  as  a  youth 
of  1 4,  landed  at  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
St.  Louis,  in  charge  of  the  first  party  of  colonists. 
Col.  Chouteau,  who  superintended  the  building 
of  the  first  house  in  St.  Louis,  owned  an  enormous 
tract  of  land  in  the  heart  of  the  city  at  his  death, 
part  of  which  was  presented  to  St,  Louis  as  a 
park  by  his  grandson,  Capt.  Thomas  Floyd 
Smith. 

Capt.  Thomas  Floyd  Smith,  born  in  1832  at 
a  Little  Rock  army  post,  was  appointed  a 
lieutenant  in  the  Eighth  Regiment,  United  States 
Infantry,  in  1855,  but  resigned  in  1858.  He 
was  captain  of  Washington  Guards  in  St.  Louis 
and  served  under  Gen.  Frost  in  the  campaign 
against  Kansans  in  1861.  His  home  was  at 
Pewee  Valley,  and  his  wife  was  Blanche 
Weissinger,  a  descendant  of  the  Bullitts,  and  his 
children,  who  live  in  Louisville,  are  Mayor 
George  Weissinger  Smith,  who  married  Nell 
Hunt;    Thomas    Floyd    Smith,    president    of    the 


173 


Louisville's     First     Families 

Board  of  Trade,  whose  wife  was  Mary  Bruce 
before  their  marriage;  Amanthus  Smith  Jung- 
bluth  and  Nannie  Smith,   Mrs.  Frank  Carpenter. 

Capt.  Smith's  brother,  Louis  Chouteau  Smith, 
of  St.  Louis,  married  his  cousin,  Mary  Bullitt, 
daughter  of  Alfred  and  Minerva  Beckwith  Bul- 
litt. Minerva  Beckwith  Bullitt  was  the  daughter 
of  John  W.  Beckwith,  of  Shepherdsville,  and 
Mary  Floyd  Smith,  the  sister  of  Major  Thomas 
Floyd  Smith. 

Capt.  Smith's  sister,  Philomena  Smith,  mar- 
ried Col.  Charles  P.  Larned,  U.  S.  A. 

In  the  possession  of  Thomas  Floyd  Smith  are 
a  number  of  papers  which  belonged  to  his  grand- 
father. Major  Smith.  One  of  these  is  a  letter 
written  October  11,  1839,  by  Gen.  Edward 
Pendleton  Gaines,  to  Major  and  Mrs,  Smith, 
"respectfully  requesting  them  to  accept  a  portrait 
of  Edward  Pendleton  Gaines  as  a  slender  token 
of  friendship  and  in  remembrance  of  unceasing 
admiration,  cherished  for  twenty-five  years,  of 
repeated  acts  of  gallantry  by  which  the  then 
Lieut.  Smith,  of  the  First  Rifle  Regiment,  signal- 
ized himself  and  did  honor  to  his  corps  and  his 
country's  service  in  the  defense  of  Ft.  Erie — 
surpassed  by  none  in  the  heroic  enterprise,  dis- 
playing the  untiring  chivalry  of  a  true-hearted 
patriot." 


174 


Floyd 

Another  letter,  beginning  "Dear  Capt,"  was 
written  by  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor  at  Louisville  on 
January  4,  1824,  to  Major  Smith,  dealing  with 
Indian  wars,  with  the  political  situation  and  of 
Major  Smith  being  detailed  to  command  a  ren- 
dezvous to  be  established  at  St.  Louis  or  Belle 
Fontaine. 

The  Floyd  monument  in  Shelbyville,  which 
is  a  fine  white  marble  shaft,  bears  this  inscrip- 
tion. "Erected  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Ken- 
tucky in  Memory  of  Fourteen  Brave  Soldiers  who 
Fell  Under  Capt.  John  Floyd  in  a  Contest  With 
the  Indians  in   1  783." 

Although  Col.  John  Floyd  was  killed  April  12, 
1 783,  his  will  was  not  probated  until  1 794, 
owing  to  the  delay  in  having  survey  made  of  his 
lands — from  the  Virginia  government.  He  gave 
all  his  lands  on  the  north  side  of  Beargrass  to  his 
wife.  To  his  son,  Willian  Preston  Floyd,  he 
gave  2,000  acres  on  the  south  side  of  the  creek; 
to  his  son,  G.  R.  C.  Floyd,  a  tract  of  4,000 
acres  in  Fayette  county,  and  to  his  unborn  son 
(Gov.  John  Floyd)  he  left  1,400  acres  on 
Harrod's  creek,  ordering  the  property  to  be  held 
until  the  children  were  of  age,  and  a  division  of 
his  slaves  to  be  made. 

To  his  brother,  Isham,  he  left  200  acres  of 
Floyd's  Fork,  and  to  his  brothers,  Charles  and 
Robert,  400  acres  in  any  part  of  his  lands  they 


175 


Louisville's     First     Families 

might  select  on  the  condition  that  they  com- 
plete his  surveys  and  secure  patents  on  all  his 
lands,  and  with  this  an  equitable  division  of 
surveying  fees. 


/-^     _ 


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