Introduction
7]' 1his pamphlet contains the texts of a collection of over 400 printed funeral
invitations from Lexington, Kentucky, dating from 1802 to 1846. They
were assembled by Gen. John Moore M’Calla, one Of the grandees of early '
Lexington. General M’Calla was a scholar of Transylvania University (AB. 1810, _
A.M. 1822), a Lexington attorney, owner for a period of The Kentucky Gazette, a
director Of the Transylvania Botanic Garden, and a trustee of the town.1 His
residence, by ”the college lawn” now known as Gratz Park, is the house called
Mt. Hope, or the Gratz House (he sold it to Benjamin Gratz in 1824), situated at
the southwest corner of Mill and New Streets.2 During the War of 1812, M’Calla
was Captain of the Lexington Light Infantry. He was one of the two marshals '
commanding an escort of troops for the visit of Pres. James Monroe and Gen. ' ‘
Andrew Jackson in 1819; he was also a marshal for Jackson’s second visit, as ‘
president, in 1832.3 In 1825, when the Marquis de Lafayette visited Lexington, .
M'Calla was Marshal of the Day and conducted a military review; he was also
Master of the Lexington Masonic Lodge, which tendered a ball to the French
nobleman.4 A Jacksonian Democrat, M’Calla was appointed U.S. Marshal of the ‘
. District Of Kentucky in 1830; in 1844 he was an attorney for abolitionists Calvin
' Fairbank and Delia Webster; in 1846 he departed Lexington to become an
1 auditor of the US. Treasury in Washington, DC.5 '
, Not only was General M’Calla a votary of Mars, he was a votary of Clio,
as well, and his liking for the stuff of history brought to the shelves of his library
books, newspapers, and pamphlets by the thousand. At his death in 1873, he '
was thought to have one of the finest collections documenting the history of
early Kentucky.6 However, because he died in Washington, his enviable mass of
choice publications was dispersed far from the fabled Bluegrass that had
conferred fame upon him. The only item which is presently known to have been
in his collection is a scrapbook which he labeled A Mortuary of Lexington,
Kentucky. This necrology of Lexington, in addition to the printed funeral
invitations which supply the text of the present publication, also preserves
numerous clipped death notices and obituary articles, including newspaper
pages which enumerate the casualties of Lexington from the cholera plague of
1833. llNever in the course of life, have I spent such a week as the past," wrote
the general to a friend on 10 June of that year. ”I would incomparably prefer a .
seven months campaign in a furious war, than to undergo another seven days
such as these/’7
The M’Calla collection of funeral notices, as its compiler no doubt
intended, offers the reader from another era an informative glimpse into the
Lexington of the early nineteenth century. Unless M'Calla fell heir to another’s