Processed by: Archives Staff ; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig
Gordon family papers, 1771-1924
1840-1859 (bulk dates)
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
Chronological arrangement.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Gordon family papers, 1771-1924, 1840-1859 (bulk dates), 1M51M40, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
2 cubic ft. (1266 pieces)
John Gordon was a farmer in Georgia. He and his wife, Sarah, had ten children, among them Mary (who married John Goss), Eleanor (who married William A. Lewis), Thomas Boston, and Neal McDougal. Thomas began his legal practice in Owenville, Ky. in 1848. He fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War, and later ran schools in Pinchard Station, in Woodford County. He married Frances "Fannie" Greer, and they had three children, Angus Neal, John Gilbert, and Flora Jane. Neal McDougal Gordon served as pastor of the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church in Nicholasville, Ky. for thirty years. He married, first, Martha Jane Harris, who died in 1845, then Catherine Smith, daughter of James and Elizabeth Black Smith. Their children were "Sis," "Mattie," Eliza, John, and Logan. Neal founded Gordon's School for Boys, which trained young men for the Presbyterian ministry. He was also very interested in the colonization of blacks in Liberia.
This is a collection of the correspondence of John and Sarah Gordon and their descendants. The bulk of the collection consists of letters relating to Neal McDougal Gordon and his interests, in the education of Presbyterian ministers and in the colonization of blacks in Liberia. There are a number of letters written during the Civil War.