xt7zw37kqk1f https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zw37kqk1f/data/mets.xml Trabue, Alice Elizabeth, 1876- 1923  books b92-71-27213650 English Geo. G. Fetter Co., : Louisville : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frankfort (Ky.) Biography. Corner in celebrities  / by Alice Elizabeth Trabue. text Corner in celebrities  / by Alice Elizabeth Trabue. 1923 2002 true xt7zw37kqk1f section xt7zw37kqk1f 


A Corner in Celebrities



Alice Elizabeth Trabue


 
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A     Corner

       in

Celebrities



By Alice Elizabeth Trabue















       SECOND EDITION, 1923

          Published by
       GmO. G. FETTER COMPANY,
           Louisville.


 














































      CCpYright, 192
By ALICE ELIZABRTh TRAetJv,
      Louisville, Ky.




   Second Edition 1.S9


 
























      DEDICA4TION
  To my father, Stephen Fitz-
James Trabue and motherAlice
Elizabeth (Berry) Trabue, de-
scendants  of  early pioneer
settlers of Kentucky and long
residents of Franklin County.




 





























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                    Authorities Consulted


   "Kentucky A Pioneer in the Commonwealth," by N. S. Shaler.
   "Kentucky in the Nation's History," by Robert McNutt McElroy.
   "History of the Supreme Court of the United States," by Hampton
Carson.
   "History of Franklin County, Kentucky," by L. F. Johnson, B. A. M.
A.
   "Centennial Commemoration of the Town of Frankfort, i886," by
John Mason Brown.
   "History of Kentucky," by Campbell.
   "History of Kentucky and Kentuckians," by E. Polk Johnson.
   "Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky."
   "National Encyclopaedia of American Biography."
   "Transylvania University," by Dr. Robert Peter and Johanna Peter.
   "The Wilkinson-Burr Conspiracy," by Judge Shackleford Miller.




 













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        A Corner in Celebrities

             "Renowned Rome," fortunate in her progeny of heroes.

IN PICTURESQUE Frankfort Kentucky there is a quaint corner of the
   town from which have sprung, probably, more distinguished men than
   from any like area in the United States. Covering about four acres,
bounded by four streets bearing the historic names of Washington, Wilkin-
son, Montgomery and Wapping, is the central group of some noble old
houses which sheltered sires and sons whose deeds brought fame and ever
lasting glory to Kentucky. Here dwelt two Supreme Court Justices, two
Cabinet officers, nine United States Senators, eight Governors, six Congress-
men, seven representatives to foreign posts, and it is here that three Admi-
rals of the Navy first saw the light of day. Can any other town in so small
a space, even in Puritan New England, Knickerbocker New York or the
Cavalier South, boast so brilliant an array of Governors of the States and
men of national and international iniportanee
   Within this small zone ror at least one period of their lives, there lived
the following brilliant galaxy
Supreme Court Jusilces
   THOMAS TODD and JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN.
Cabinet Officers
   GEORGE MORTIER BIBB and JOHN JORDAN CRITTEN-
DEN.
United States Senators
   JOHN BROWN, first United States Senator after Kentucky was ad-
mitted into the Union. He served three terms and was President pro-
tem 1803-04.
   JAMES BROWN, first United States Senator from Louisiana after it
was admitted into the Union. By his hands the Monroe Doctrine was
transmitted to France, in which country he remained as Minister for
six years.
   GEORGE MORTIER BIBB, twice United States Senator from Ken-
tucky; appointed Secretary of the Treasury of the United States by
President John Tyler.
   JOHN JORDAN CRITTENDEN, five times United States Senator,
   "'lla incluta Roma .  f....felix prola -virum.-Firgil's leneid Bk. FI-781-784.



5


 
Governor of Kentucky, member of Congress and twice Attorney General
of the United States-appointments by Presidents William Henry Harri-
son and Millard Filmore.
   THOMAS METCALFE, United States Senator, member of Congress
and Governor of Kentucky.
   WILLIAM LINDSAY, United States Senator.
   GEORGE GRAHAM VEST and BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN,
both of whom served in the United States Senate from Missouri, the lattpr
was also Governor of that state, and was candidate for the Vice Presidency
with Horace Greely.
United States Representatives
   ROBERT PERKINS LETCHER, served twelve years; was Governor
of Kentucky and Minister to Mexico.
   JAMES HARLAN, served several terms.
   CHARLES SLAUGHTER MOREHEAD, member of Congress and
Governor of Kentucky.
   WILLIAM OWSLEY, Governor of Kentucky.
Foreign Representatives
   CHARLES S. TODD, Minister to Columbia and to Russia.
   THOMAS LEONIDAS CRITTENDEN, Consul at Liverpool.
   CHAPMAN COLEMAN, forr twenty years' First Secretary of the
American Legation at Berlin, later Coinml at Roubaix, France and seven
years Consul at Rome.
   CAPTAIN     THOMAS C_ J`ONES, Coliul tor eighteen years to
Funchall, Madeira Islands.
   JOHN GLOVER SOUTf1, M. D., Minister to Panama-appoint-
ed by President Warren G. Harding.
Major Generals
   JAMES WILKINSON, GEORGE BIBB CRITTENDEN and
THOMAS LEONIDAS CRITTENDEN.
Within this historic spot were born three Admirals of the Navy-
   JOHN CRITTENDEN WATSON, CHAPMAN COLEMAN
TODD and HUGH RODMAN.
   The old citizens of Frankfort like to tell of the youthful pranks of
these embryo Admirals, whose sports on the Kentucky River, foreshadow-
ed their future careers. A fourth Naval officer who was reared from
infancy in this neighborhood and rose to the rank of a Commodore was
ROBERT     PHYTHIAN.        The home of his youth was the quaint old
gable-roofed house on the northeast corner of Main and Wilkinson
streets. He was Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis and of the Naval Observatory at Washington. Served in the
Navy during the War between the States, rendering creditable service. He
married Cordelia Brodhead, of Frankfort.
                             6




 


   It is interesting to note how many of these distinguished men, honored
by both State and Nation, were allied by the ties of marriage or blood, and
yet who during the War between the States were completely divided by
their separate sympathies. Almost without an exception, they were of Vir-
ginia ancestry. Some were sturdy pioneers of Revolutionary service, who
though reared amid luxuries rarely excelled in the homes of any other state,
had despite the constant conflicts with Indians, fought their way through the



                                            Courtesy of the Kentucky Historica! Society.
           Centennial Celebration i886 of the Incorporation of the town of
                                 Frankfort, Ky.
wilderness of forest and cane-brake to take up land grants and surveys in
"That newly discovered, wonderful country, Kentucky."
   The earliest settlements were of necessity around the forts at Harrods-
burgh, Logan's Fort, Boonsboro and Danville, until land grants and early
surveys rapidly created settlements further down the river.
   In I 786, an act was passed to establish the town of Frankfort on one
 From the Diary of Colonel Daniel Trabue, a Revolutionary officer.
                                     7


 


hundred acres of land belonging to James Wilkinson, who was at the time
Commander-in-chief of the Western Division of the United States Army.
Wilkinson not only had the town established, but with characteristic energy
utilized his soldiers to dig great drains that dried the swampy low grounds
in the eastern end and by his generosity and tact, attracted a most
desirable population. The first streets laid off by him were nearly all
named for generals in the Revolutionary War, with the exception of Ann
Street, which was named for his wife, a woman said to have possessed rare
charm and popularity, and Miro Street, named for the Spanish Governor
of the Province of Orleans. It is claimed that the name Wapping was
suggested by Mr. Instone, an Englishman, whose cottage was the first home
completed on this street.
    This historic square is just one twenty-fifth part of the original town,
to which another hundred or more acres have long since been added on
the South side. It is located in a triangle or corner of the town. Wap-
ping Street, beginning at St. Clair follows the river west but two and a
half blocks, when the river bends at almost right angles north. Follow
Wapping two short blocks, and here Wilkinson Street begins and follows the
bend. The name Wapping is derived from "Wapping Old Stair," the
King's wharf in London, and it is believed that there is no other residence
street bearing this name, as letters addressed "Wapping Street" without
city or state address, have found their destination from far distant points.
Parallel with Wapping, is Montgomery (now Main) named for General
Richard Montgomery, a British Officer, who resigned his commission in
1773 to come to America, and was in I775 appointed Brigadier-General by
the Continental Congress. It was under him that Wilkinson had marched
against Quebec. St. Clair Street was named in honor of General Arthur
St. Clair of the Revolution, Wilkinson's own Division Commander. Be-
tween St. Clair and Wilkinson, lies Washington Street.
   Christened at its birth with history making names, is it surprising that
the power of suggestion ever recurs inspiring men to fame-but a word
for the "lay of the land" and the setting for its illustrious sons:
   Frankfort is the most romantic of spots-a constant inspiration where
artists never tire of painting and poets sing their songs-Theodore O'Hara
in his immortal "Bivouac of the Dead," Henry T. Stanton, Robert Burns
Wilson, Mrs. Jennie Chinn Morton and others.
   It lies in a valley, surrounded by towering hills spread like tapestried
screens with their never ending changes of color from the masses of Red-
bud, White Dog-wood and the delicate greens of the early spring, deepen-
ing in tone as the summer wanes, to the blaze of red and gold of October.
From an unpublished document in the Kentucky State Historical Society.
                                   8




 
Winding half way around the town, dividing in it two, is the incomparable
Kentucky River, wooded down to its water's edge, whence in many in-
stances, garden walks lead back through rows of lovely flowers to fine old
square brick homes which have stood for many decades, and in a number of
instances have been occupied through four or five generations by a single
family to the present day.
   We see the picturesqueness of her situation, her lovely gardens and
spacious homes, her peaceful, nay even drowsy aspect. The casual tourists



Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society.



The Arsenal



motoring from Louisville, viewing from the winding pike the splendid new
Capitol buildings cameoed against the green hill beyond, often feel that
after a brief inspection of these buildings all worth while has been seen,
so crossing the bridge to the North side, they drive a few squares through
the business section, until they mount the hill top, past the gray and vener-
able arsenal and historic cemetery-and on to the Bluegrass region
beyond. How few of these know or realize that had they but turned to
the left after crossing the St. Clair Street bridge, and driven those two
                                    9


 


short squares down Wapping near the river's bend, then over to Main
Street, encircling the square, they might have seen on either side of the
street and in close proximity, the most historic small neighborhood to be
found in America. How often they would pause to ask who built these
homes-what spirit of enterprise, culture and statesmanship was housed
within their walls in bygone days! And were the travelers more favored,
and could they enter the great wide halls, they would be greeted by what
is even rarer in our fast changing American life-an almost unchanged ap-
pearance within, where fine old mahogonies and rare silver services have
stood the test of time; and where from lofty walls hang portraits by Gilbert
Stuart, Sharpless, Jouett, Moise and Fowler, John Neagle, Chester Har-
ding, Joseph Bush, Marshall, Robert Burns Wilson, Paul Sawyer, Charles
Snead Williams and other artists contemporaneous with the generations
as they came.
    And the women of these homes! A volume might be written of their
charm and culture; their devoted loyalty to the past and to each other.
With them the vicisitudes of fortune have counted little; through pros-
perity and adversity they have kept faith with bygone days with a grace
rarely to be seen in any community.
   Throughout the whole boundary of North and South Frankfort and
extending into its country side, men of distinction lived and left their stamp
indelibly upon the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Their names are legion
and would compel an endless task to enumerate, but it is to this one small
corner of the town that I must restrict my boundary, convinced that no other
locality of so small a radius has harbored so many men of distinction. It
is of these men only, and where they dwelt that it iS my purpose to write,
regretting that I must pass, unmentioned, homes of citizens worthy of note,
who with their families have occupied homesteads for four generations,
and confine my account to Governors of the states and men of National and
inter-national importance.
   General Wilkinson was a native of Benedict, Maryland, and had just
completed his education for the medical profession when the news of
Bunker Hill caused him to join the troops in front of Boston. He soon
became a staff officer under General Gates and rose to the rank of Colonel
at Saratoga, and by the close of the war was recommended by Gates to
the rank of Brigadier General. Though having for a time resigned his
commission and become a private citizen, in I79i he re-entered the army
and in 1796 was Commander-in-chief of the United States Army. He had
engaging manners, was an eloquent public speaker, a clear thinker and
writer, and a man of more than ordinary attainments. He was a member
of the Second Assembly, and as much as any man identified with Ken-
                                  10


 
tucky's early struggles for independence. He prepared the memorial in
which "the people of the Western country set forth their grievancies and
besought equality of consideration." Washington is quoted by Jefferson
as having said of him "brave, enterprising to an excess, but with many
unapprovable points in his character." Indeed, old diaries in Kentucky
record the fact that his autocratic tendencies were manifested by an order
commanding the officers under him to cut off their queues, the result
having been many resignations.
   At this time the gulf states were under the control and belonged to
the Spanish Government. Miro was in charge and granted some privi-
leges of trade and the free use of the Mississippi river for the transpor-
tation of freight, besides an offer of nearly five times as much for tobacco
as the Kentuckians were receiving. Wilkinson was under suspicion of
having betrayed the district of Kentucky to Miro and the Spanish Govern-
ment. In i 805 he held a high military position in the Territory of
Louisiana; in  8 i i he was courtmartialed and charged with treason in
connection with Aaron Burr, but was acquitted. Later evidence was
brought to light through letters of his own in the Spanish Archives, that
for several years prior to I 800, he was a pensioner of the Spanish Govern-
ment. He resigned from the United States Army and about I 8 I3 went to
Mexico, where he died twelve years later, said to have been possessed of
Jarge investments.
   Wilkinson reserved for his own use the wharfage space along the
Kentucky River from St. Clair Street to the river's bend, where, at the
cross section of Wilkinson and Wapping Streets, on the southwest corner,
he built a large dwelling, in proportion far excelling any house in town--
a ferry landing at the bank. It was the proffered use of this house to the
state free of charge for seven years that helped to decide the location of
the Capitol six years later. Here November I793, the Second Session of
the Legislature was held, for although Danville had been the cradle of
Kentucky political activities for nine years, the Capitol was first established
in Lexington June 1 792. There was thus transferred to Frankfort the politi-
cal importance which Danville had enjoyed. Andrew Holmes was at the
time the temporary occupant of this house but it was subsequently for seven-
ty-five or more years better known as "The Old Love House," it having be-
come the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Love, one of Kentucky's strong women
of pioneer days, noted for her social, intellectual and christian virtues.
Her husband, Major Thomas Love, had served under General Anthony
Wayne. in his Western Campaigns, at the end of which he had retired and
located permanently in Frankfort where for a number of years he and his
wife were proprietors of a large tavern known as "The Love House." It is
                                  11


 
here that Aaron Burr consulted with his lawyers and where he and many
noted men of their day were guests upon their visits to this locality, and
where the exiled French Prince Louis Philippe found for a period a home,
and here it was at a ball given in his honor, that the young Prince met a
surprise in the refusal of Mrs. Love to accept him as a partner in the
Minuet, explaining that she had previously refused an humbler admirer
whom she would justly offend. Many years later when the change of
fortune had established him in the Tuileries, it was in conversation with a
distinguished American, that the Prince recalled the incident and praised
the kind heart of the young woman.'
    Burr had with humiliation seen his rival Jefferson, chosen by an almost
unanimous vote for a second term. Jefferson would not appoint him to a
foreign mission, and he had lost influence after slaying Hamilton. He
was first in Frankfort in i 805. It was in Frankfort in i 8o6 that a local
newspaper, "The Western World," unearthed the alleged conspiracy of
Burr with Blennerhassett and others against the United States. On
November the fifth, the United States District Attorney, Joseph Hamilton
Daviess   instituted   proceedings   in   the    United    States  District
Court, demanding that Burr be made to answer a charge of High mis-
demeanor in organizing a military expedition against a friendly power.
Burr, who was at Lexington at the time, came to Frankfort with his young
attorneys Henry Clay2 and John Allen,3 and finding a delay impending,
insisted upon an immediate trial. After several suggested postponements
by the District Attorney, conditioned by his failure to procure several im-
portant witnesses, it was not until December 3 that the climax came. The
town and country side were crazed with excitement and the Court House
crowded to its capacity. The final failure of the grand jury to return an
indictment was regarded by Burr's friends as a complete vindication and
celebrated that evening by a ball at the Philip Bush Tavern.4 Conspicuous
among those present were officers of both State and Nation. The fact that
Joseph Hamilton Daviess was a strong Federalist and political opponent
of the Jefferson and Burr administration, and had a controlling influence
with the "'Western World," induced much sympathy for Burr's cause.
'From the writings of Mr. John Mason Brown, Sr.
2Bcfore Burr received Clay's consent to take charge of his case, he received Burr's pledge
of honor that he was in no way engaged in such project as the enemy charged.-Shaler p. 153.
-Col. John Allen, born Rockbridge Co., Va., Dec. 30, 177I, removed to Kentucky with
parents and attained eminence at the bar, and was Colonel of the First Kentucky Riflemen.
He was killed at the battle of the River Raisin, January 22, 1813.
4Philip Bush, was born in Winchester, Va., where he became a noted Tavern keeper. George
Washington and many distinguished men were his guests. He was an early pioneer to Frank-
fort, and was the father of the talented portrait painter, Joseph Bush, who was born in
Frankfort 1794, died in Lexington, January xi, i865. He was a pupil of Thomas Sully of
Philadelphia.
                                    12


 
  Below is a copy of a letter from Mrs. Parmelia Sawyer, a girl of but
sixteen years old at the time of the ball:
    "A ball was given at the Philip Bush Tavern at the corner of Main
and Lewis Streets, where I danced in the same set with Colonel Burr. My
vis-a-vis, his partner, wasMrs. Thornton, the daughter of our neighbor
judge Harry Innes. He was handsome, with marked eye-brows, small in
stature, but dignified in mien. In manner polite and refined and quite a
hero in my young eyes. On this occasion he wore small clothes, gold knee
buckles and immense rosettes on his pumps; a queue tied with black ribbon,
and powdered wig. His eyes were bright and piercing."
   When Mrs. Love's only son joined the troops of i8i2, she with her
own hands made the uniform which he wore and was the "God Mother"
of many another soldier of that period, knitting socks and supplying carr-
forts in every available way. In fact, so varied were her interests and so in-
terwoven was her life with all the historic events during her fifty or more
years of residence here,' that no account of Frankfort could be complete
without her. The old house has long since been supplanted by a modern
structure.2
lMrs. Love died January 19, 1845, having survived her husband many years. Her's was the
first burial in the new state cemetery.
2The old house was replaced in 1870.



13




 










































































                                       Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society.
State Monument, also showing tomb of Theodore O'Hara.




 




















Painted by Matthew H. Jouett
                             Hon. John Brown

  A MONG the most prominent in the stormy events of nine years dur-
J  L  ation leading to the separation of Kentucky from Virginia on June 1I
       1792 (it being the first state which made application to be admitted
after the original thirteen) and in securing to the West the full benefits of
an unobstructed Navigation of the Mississippi River, was the HON. JOHN
BROWN, born in Staunton, Virginia, September I 2, I757. He was the
son of John Brown a distinguished Presbyterian minister who had charge
of a church in Rockbridge Co., Virginia for over fifty years and who, having
been a student of one of the first classes of Princeton College under the
Presidency of the father of Aaron Burr, and a graduate himself, sent his
son to that institute of learning until it was broken up by the Revolutionary
War.
   JOHN BROWN, JR. joined the troops under Washington and par-
ticipated in the spectacular crossing of the Delaware River, later serving
as Aid to LaFayette. He graduated at William and Mary College, and
after reading law with Thomas Jefferson, removed to Danville Kentucky
in 1782, but shortly afterwards settled in Frankfort three years prior to the
incorporation of that town.
   He was a member of the Virginia Legislature from Kentucky; member
of the conventions of I788; and first and only member sent to the Old
Rev. John Brown married Margaret Preston.



15




 


Congress by the people of Kentucky, I789-9i. After Kentucky was ad-
mitted into the Union, he was one of the two' first United States Senators,
being three consecutive times elected to that body, and its President pro-
tem I 803-04. He projected several expeditions against the Indians;
was an intimate friend of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and urged by
Jefferson and Monroe to accept Diplomnatic office, but declined. He was a
classical scholar, fine lawyer and ranked among the foremost men of his
day.
    When the second State House was destroyed by fire, 1824, John Brown,
Peter Dudley, John Harvie and James Shannon were empowered in I 8272
to employ an architect to build the third permanent State Capitol. The
design was considered at the time second only in beauty to the Nation's





















           "Liberty Hall," erected 1796 by Hon. John Brown as a home for his
           parents. It -was also the home of Hon. James Brown and Gov-
              ernor Benjamin Gratz Brown. Today occupied by the fifth
                generation, Mary Mason Scott and John Matthew Scott.

Capitol and stands today a credit to the classic tastes of that period, it being
admirably suited to the Kentucky State Historical Society and the housing
of fine old portraits, to which purpose it was dedicated in I920.
-John Edwards was the other U. S. Senator.
2Collins History of Kentucky.
-aThe architect of the building and designer of the famous stairway was Gideon Shryock.
He was born in Lexington, Ky., November I5, 1802, and was a pupil of William Strickland of
Philadelphia. He submitted competitive plans, and his Ionic Temple design was accepted.
It was taken from the temple of Minerva Polias at Priene in Ionia. The columns are of marble.
A unique feature of the interior is the winding stairway of marble enclosed by a circular wall.
Engaged with him as sculptors were: Joel T. Hart, David Nevin, John Holburn and Joseph
Smith. Thb- Constitutional Conventions of x850 and i890 met here. Shryock is also the
architect of the Court House, and resided in Frankfort during the erection of these buildings.



16




 
    He died August 28, I837 at "Liberty Hall," his spacious brick resi-
dence, named for his ancestral home at 'Washington-Lee University, Lex-
ington, Virginia. This was erected I 796 as a home for his parents-three
years prior to his own marriage-on the southwest corner of Wilkinson and
Montgomery Streets. The lot occupied the entire block. The house is
a beautiful example of Georgian architecture, designed by Thomas Jef-
ferson, the glass having been brought out through the Virginia mountains
on muleback, and the brick was burned on his estate. The fine old garden is
still to be seen extending back to the river's edge, and is today the most
extensive and beautiful of the many charming gardens to be found in
Frankfort.
















                    Margaretta (Mason) Brown-from a miniature,

    It is here in i8i9, that his wife Margaretta, nee Mason, assisted by
Mrs. Love founded the first Sunday School (Presbyterian) west of the
Alleghanies; the initial meeting having been under a large apple tree on
the lawn, where the services were continuously held thereafter when the
weather permitted, otherwise adjourned to the commodious drawing room
of her residence. In June a large bunch of Multaflora roses from her
garden was awarded the best attendant of the past winter. It is a fact
worthy of note that in the year ending September 30, i822, among many
who distinguished themselves, the two highest marks were attained by Ann
Mary Crittenden who memorized 2,85i Bible verses in twelve months,
while her younger sister, Cornelia Crittenden, aged six years memorized
2 I 77.

My authorities are the statements of several of Mrs. Brown's grandchildren and great-
grandchildren.



17


 
    When we pause to consider that Kentucky was so many hundred
 miles from the seat of Government, beyond the Virginia mountains, and
 with no railroad until I 833, it presents a unique situation that among
 the distinguished men to have visited this home, were LaFayette, Jefferson,
 Madison, Monroe, General Wilkinson, Aaron Burr, Zachary Taylor,
 Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt-three of them having been
 present at one visit.
    It was during the ball given in his honor, which Mrs. Brown through
religious piety had failed to attend, that LaFayette, with the simplicity
and informality of the really great, slipped quietly away to this house to
pay his respects to the wife of John Brown, his early Aid, and the daughter
of Reverend John Mason, his Chaplain in the Revolution.
    His children were Mason and Orlando. Mason was on the Circuit
Court Bench for ten years, resigning to become Secretary of State of Ken-
tucky under Governor Charles S. Morehead, with whom he had written
a Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky.
    With the characteristic taste and public interest manifested by Judge
Mason Brown when be became one of the ruling influences in having the
second State Cemetery established in the United States,' and in selecting
its rare situation, he went even further and imported from New York City,
the celebrated young Russian Sculptor, Robert E. Launitz. To him he
offered the hospitality of a home during the long delay while awaiting the
arrival of the great marble shaft that had been shipped from Italy for the
beautiful State Monument. This was to be erected to Kentucky's Military
and Civil illustrious dead. It came by way of the Mississippi River di-
rectly from New Orleans, where a barge had been sent to receive it.
Launitz' rare art is met on every hand throughout the entire cemetery.
    Mason's only child by his first marriage2 was BENJAMIN GRATZ
BROWN, a graduate of Transylvania and Yale Colleges, who removed to
Missouri, serving in the United States Senate i860-67; and was Governor
of that state I870-74; was also candidate for the Vice-Presidency on the
ticket with Horace Greely. He attained great prominence throughout
the country, having been a most able, eloquent speaker, an inherited quality
partly attributable to his maternal grand-father, the celebrated Jesse
Bledsoe.

lThe first state cemetery was at Mount Auburn, Massachusetts.
2judge Mason Brown married first, Judith A. Bledsoe of Lexington, Ky.; he married
second, Mary Yoder, also of Kentucky.



18




 
























Painted by Moise and Fowler



Benjamin Gratz Brown.



    He married Mary Gunn of Missouri and left many decendants.'
    Judge Brown having inherited the homestead, it has remained in an
unbroken line of inheritance through five generations to the present day,
it now being the home of Mary Mason, and John Matthew Scott. Here
resided for the greater part of their lives, Mason's three daughters-
Margaretta, Mrs. William F. Barret,2 Kentucky's late Regent to the Mount
Vernon Association; Mary Yoder, Mrs. William T. Scott; and Eliza Eloise,
wife of Joseph C. Baily, a Surgeon U. S. A., three of Kentucky's most
prominent women, who each after but ten years of married life, returned
widowed to the homestead, which had early become the property of Mrs.
Scott and where Mrs. Baily still resides.'

'Children of Benjamin Gratz Brown were: i. Lillian Mason; 2. Gratz K.; 3. Mary Gratz
married Carr Lane; 4. Violet; 5. Margaretta Mason; 6. Elsie; 7. Judith Bledsoe, married
Leslie Dana; 8. Robert Bruce.
2Her children were: I. Mason Brown Barret, married Rosa Robinson; 2. William Francis
Barret, married Ella Johnson.
besides Judge Mason Brown's three daughters, by Mary Yoder, his three sons were:
I. John Mason Brown, the eldest of the family, late a prominent lawyer of Louisville, Ky.
He married Mary Owen Preston of Lexington, Ky., daughter of General William Preston,
C. S. A., who served as Minister to Spain. Had-
   i. Preston, who was several times decorated for bravery in France during the World's
      War, Pershing having cabled from the field recommending his promotion to Major
      General; he married Susan Dorrance; 2. John Mason, Jr., deceased; married first,
      Carrie Ferguson; and second, Grace Duderaugh, of Maryland; 3. Mary Mason, wife
      of Henry M. Waite, a grandson of Morris R. Waite, Chief Justice of the United States;
      4. Margaret.
 II. Yoder Brown, died; unmarried.
 III. Knox Brown, married Adeline Watson, had-
 I. Pauline; 2. Yoder; 3. John Watson; 4. Barret; 5. Joseph Baily; 6. Rhodes; 7. Knox, Jr.

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                                                         W. B. Oelza, Photographer
             Erected 1835 by Hon. John Broqvn, for his son, Orlando.
                  Today occupied by his great grand children.

   The old pioneer desiring that his two children might share equally in
his estate, erected in i835 for his son Orlando, on the South corner of his
lot, another beautiful and spaci