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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 08181917 3 Historic Families of Kentucky. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO STOCKS IMMEDIATELY DERIVED FROM THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA; TRACING IN DETAIL THEIR VARIOUS GENEALOGICAL CONNEX- IONS AND ILLUSTRATING FROM HISTORIC SOURCES THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF KENTUCKY AND THE STATES OF THE SOUTH AND WEST. BY THOMAS MARSHALL GREEN. No greater calamity can happen to a people than to break utterly with its past. —Gladstone. FIRST SERIES. ' > , , j , CINCINNATI: ROBERT CLARKE & CO 1889. May 1913 G. brown-coue collection. Copyright, 1889, Bv Thomas Marshall Green. • • * C .,.„„..• . * ' • ; '. * • . " 4 • I • # • « PREFATORY. In his interesting "Sketches of North Cai-olina," it is stated by Rev. W. H. Foote, that the political principle asserted by the Scotch-Irish settlers in that State, in what is known as the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," of the right to choose their own civil rulers, was the legitimate outgrowth of the religious principle for which their ancestors had fought in both Ireland and Scotland—that of their right to choose their own re- ligious teachers. After affirming that "The famous book, Lex Rex, by Rev. Samuel Rutherford, was full of principles that lead to Republican action," and that the Protestant emigrants to America from the North of Ireland had learned the rudiments of republicanism in the latter country, the same author empha- sizes the assertion that "these great principles they brought with them to America." In writing these pages the object has been, not to tickle vanity by reviving recollections of empty titles, or imaginary dig- or of wealth in a and nities, dissipated ; but, plain simple manner, to trace from their origin in this country a number of Kentucky families of Scottish extraction, whose ancestors, after having been seated in Ireland for several generations, emigrated to America early in the eighteenth century and became the pioneers of the Valley of Virginia, to the communities settled in which they gave their own distinguishing characteristics. A later generation of these same families of the Valley were also among the early pioneers of Kentucky, and here, too, impressed the qualities trans- mitted to them upon the people of the Commonwealth they helped i v Prefatory. to found. Connected with them in the process of intermarriage are many families of a different origin and from other parts of Virginia. Apart from the bare genealogical details of dates and intermarriages, the writer has derived a personal gratification in relating the public services of many of the persons mentioned in all the struggles of the country for independence and existence; and in dwelling upon the marked and heneficent influence they have exerted, individually and as families, .upon the material progress, the educational and religious advancement, and the political action of the Commonwealth, as well as upon the martial spirit exhibited by them and their descendants upon the battle- fields of the country. Among the families, some account of whom is attempted briefly to be given, are those of: Alexander, Allen, Anderson, Andrews, Ball, Barbour, Bell, Benton, Birney, Blair, Bowman, Brashear, Breckinridge, Brown, Buford, Bullitt, Burden, Butler, Campbell, Carlisle, Carrington, Carson, Caruthers, Carthrae, Chrisman, Christian, Clarke, Clay, Crittenden, Cummings, Dick- sou, Drake, Duke, Fontaine, Frogg, Hall, Harbeson, Hardin, Harvey, Harvie, Hawkins, Helm, Innes, Irvine, Gordon, Jones, Keith, Kirk, Le Grand, Lewis, Logan, Luke, Lyle, Madison, Marshall, McAlpine, McClure, McClarty, McClung, McDowell, McKnight, McPheeters, Metcalfe, Miller, Moffett, Monroe, Mont- gomery, Moore, Murray, Neil, Newton, Patton, Parker, Paxton, Pepper, Pickett, Preston, Price, Randolph, Reade, Reed, Reid, Smith, Starling, Stuart, Strother, Taylor, Thornton, Todd, Venable, Warner, Washington, Woodson, Wallace. Besides these the names of many other families omitted in this list occur in the narrative. Maysville, Ky., December, 1888. HISTORIC FAMILIES OF KENTUCKY. the McDowells. Of all the fierce and warlike septs that ranged them- selves beside the Campbells, under the leadership of the chiefs of that name, in the struggles so replete with deeds of crime and heroism, of oppression and stubborn resist- ance, which had their fruit in the overthrow of the right line of the Stuarts, there was none more respectable, nor one which more perfectly illustrated the best qualities of their race than the sons of Dowall. Sprung from Dougall, the son of Ronald, the son of the great and famous Som- erled, they had, from the misty ages, marched and fought under the cloudberry bush, as the badge of their clan, and had marshaled under the banner of the ancient Lords of Lorn, the chiefs of their race. The form of McDowell was adopted by those of the McDougal clan who held lands in Galloway, to which they, the Black Gaels, had given its name. The latter branch became allied by blood and inter- marriages with the Campbells. Presbyterians of the strict- est sect, and deeply imbued with that love of civil and re- ligious freedom which has ever characterized the followers of John Ivnox, they found their natural leaders in the house of Argyle. In what degree related to the chiefs of the name was the McDowell who left behind him the hills of his native Argyleshire, to settle with others of his name and kindred and religion in the North of Ireland, during the Protectorate of can not be stated Cromwell, accurately ; he was, so far as can be gleaned from vague traditions, one of the most reputable of the colonists who there " founded the race known as the Scotch-Irish," the char- acteristics of which have since been so splendidly attested 1 (1) 2 Historic Families of Kentucky. by its heroes, scholars, orators, theologians and statesmen all over the world. This Scotch colonist, McDowell, had, among other children, a son named Ephraim, which, of itself, indicates that he was a child of the Covenant. It was fitting that Ephraim McDowell should become, at the early age of sixteen years, one of the Scotch-Irish Presby- terians who flew to the defense of heroic Londonderry, on the approach of McDonnell of Antrim, on the 9th of De- cember, 1688, and that he should be one of the band who closed the gates against the native Irishry, intent on blood and rapine. During the long siege that followed, the of will memory which ever bid defiance to the effacing hand of- time, and in which the devoted preacher, George Walker, and the brave Murray, at the head of their undis- ciplined fellow-citizens—farmers, shopkeepers, mechanics and apprentices—but Protestants, Presbyterians—success- fully repelled the assaults of Rosen, Marmont, Persignan and Hamilton —the McDowell was conspicuous for endur- ance and bravery in a band where all were brave as the most heroic Greek who fell at Thermopylae. The maiden name of the woman who became the worthy helpmeet of the Londonderry soldier boy was Margaret Irvine, his own full first cousin. She was a member of an honorable Scotch family who settled in Ireland at the same time as their kinspeoplc, the McDowells. The names of Irvin, Irvine, Irving, Irwin and Erwin are identical—those bearing the name thus variously spelled being branches from the same tree. The name was and is one of note in Scot- land, where (hose who bore it had intermarried with the most prominent families of the kingdom, breeding races of soldiers, statesmen, orators and divines. Ephraim McDowell, who fought at Boyne river, as well as at Londonderry, was already an elderly man, when, with his two sons, John and dames, his daughters, Mary and Margaret, and numerous kinsmen and co-religionists, he emigrated to America to build for himself and his a new home. In his interesting "Sketches of Virginia," Foote states that he The McDowells. 3 was accompanied to Virginia by his wife, and that his son John was a widower when he left Ireland; but, as in the deposition of Mrs. Mary E. Greenlee, the daughter of Ephraim, her father, her brother John, her husband, and herself, are designated as composing the party emigrating to Virginia from Pennsylvania, and no mention is any- where of her Mr. Foote is in error made mother, probably ; and the uniform tradition of the family is more likely to be correct—that the wife of Ephraim McDowell died in Ireland, and that John McDowell had never been married until he came to America. The exact date of his arrival in Pennsylvania is not known. The journal of Charles Clinton—the founder of the historic family of that name in New York—gives an account of his voyage from the " county of Longford, in the good ship George and Ann," in company with the "John of Dublin," having many Mc- " Dowells aboard as his fellow passengers. The George and Ann" set sail on the 9th of May, 1729. On the 8th of June, a child of James McDowell died, and was thrown overboard ; several other children of the same afterward died also a the brother ; John McDowell, and sister, and wife of Andrew McDowell. The ship reached land, on the coast of Pennsylvania, on the 4th day of September, 1729. Whether or not the conjecture that Ephraim McDowell was a passenger with his kindred on board this ship at that time is correct, it is certain that about the same time he and his family, and numerous other Mel )owells, Irvines, Campbells, McElroys, and Mitchells, came over together, and settled in the same Pennsylvania county. In Pennsylvania, Ephraim McDowell remained several years. There his son, John, was married to Magdalena Wood, whose mother was a Campbell, and, as tradition has it, of the noble family of Argyle. There Samuel, the eldest son of John and Magdalena McDowell, was born, in 1735.

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