FROM A PAINTING QY MATTHEW H. JOUETT. COLONEL JOHN ALLEN. 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 nan happen to a people than to break utterly with its past,—GLADSTOXR. FIRST SERIES. CINCINNATI: EGBERT CLARKE & CO. 1889. S-R 929.2 M148 Green, Thomas Marshal Historic famlTies'of Kentuckv COPYRIGHT, 1889, By THOMAS MARSHALL GREEN. PREFATORY. In his interesting " Sketches of North Carolina," 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 tbe 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 thai 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 nities, or of dissipated wealth; but, in a plain and 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 IV 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 beneficent 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, Cumniings, Dick­ son, Drake, Duke, Fontaine, Frogg, Hall, Harbeson, Hardin, Harvey, Harvie, Hawkins, Helm, Lines, Irvine, Gordon, Jones, Keith, Kirk.iLe Grand, L_ewis, Logan, Luke, Lyle,' Madison, Marshall, MeAlpine, McClure, McClarty, McClung, McDowell, McKnight, McPheeters, Mettealfe, 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. flic fierce and warlike septs that ranged them­ selves beside flic. 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 rcsistr ancc, 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 tliaii' the sons of Dowall. Sprung from Dougall, the son of Ronald, theson of the great and famous Som-, cried, they had, from the misty ages, inarched 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 elan who held lands in Galloway, to which they, the Black Gaels, had given its name. The latter branch became allied bv blood and inter- marriages witli 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 Knox, they found their natural leaders in the house of Argyle. In what degreefiliated to the chiefs of the name was the McDowell who left behind hini the hills of his native Argyllshire, to settle.with others of his name and kindred and religion jnthe North of Ireland, during the Protectorate oif Cromwell, can not be accurately stated; he was, so far as can be gleaned from vague traditions, one of the most reputable of the colonists who there Pounded the race known as the " Scotch-Irish," thp 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 !)th of De­ cember, 1088, and that be 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 memory of which Will 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 app'rentiecK—but Protestants, ./'rcxht/fcrinits—success• fully repelled the assaults of Uoscn, Marinoiit, Persignan and Hamilton—the McDowell was conspicuous for endur­ ance and bravely 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 memberof'an honorable Scotch family who settled in Ireland at the same time as their kinspeople, 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 those who bore it had intermarried with the most prominent families of.the kingdom, breeding races of soldiers, statesmen, orators and divines. EI'IIIIAIM MCDOWELL, who fought, lit JJoyne river, as well as at Londonderry, - was "already ah elderly man, when, with his two sons, John and James, his daughters, Mary.and Margaret, and numemus kinsmen ami co-religionists, he emigrated to America to. build for himself and his a new home. In his interesting "Sketches of Virginia," Eoote states that he The McDowells, 3 t 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 made of her mother, Mr. Foote is probably in error; 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 untilhe 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—giws an account of his voyage from the county of Longforil, 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 Aim" set sail on the.flth of May] 1720. 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 John McDowell, and the sister, brothcrand 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 be and his family, and numerous other McDowells, 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.