Frankfort, Kentucky

“ Boone continued a resident of Kentucky, until he fancied it too populous for his comfort; when he removed with his family to Missouri; where he spent much of his time in fishing and hunting, and where he finally died at an advanced age. From thence his remains were conveyed to Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, where they now repose; and where a rough slab, with a few half intelligible characters thereon, points out to the curious stranger the last earthly resting place of the noblest, the most daring, and famous hunter and pioneer the world has ever produced. ”

“ Humphrey Marshall, by A. C. Quisenberry (Winchester, Kentucky, 1892) .
PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY
[From The History of Kentucky (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824, v. i) ]
The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be re-visited, and better known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the attention, and impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North Carolina, may be selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the great abundance of wild game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are assured that the effect lost nothing of the cause. ”

“ Like a blessing falls.
THOMAS F. MARSHALL
Thomas Francis Marshall, the famous Kentucky orator and advocate, was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7, 1801. He was the son of Dr. Louis Marshall, a brother of the great chief justice, and sometime president of Washington College (Washington and Lee University) . "Tom" Marshall, to give him the name by which he was known throughout the South and West, was educated by private tutors, studied law under John J. Crittenden, and began the practice at Versailles, Kentucky. ”

“ A population of some two millions with only one interior town that contains over five thousand white inhabitants. Hence Kentucky makes no impression abroad by reason of its urban population. Lexington, Bowling Green, Harrodsburg, Winchester, Richmond, Frankfort, Mount Sterling, and all the others, where do they stand in the scale of American cities? Hence, too, the disparaging contrast liable to be drawn between Kentucky and the gigantic young States of the West. Where is the magnitude of the commonwealth, where the ground of the sense of importance in the people? ”

“ While traveling in the heart of the slave section of the State between Frankfort and Louisville he saw many instances of black and white laborers, slave and free, working side by side in the same field. [385] [Pg 297]
The relation between the owner and the household type of slave was of a more intimate nature and the master was careful to pick only the best of the Negroes. In such an environment we see the picture of the Kentucky gentleman of song and story, and the Negro in all the best that tradition has related of him. ”

“ Now, you have come here to Frankfort to pull Kentucky out of the Union, and I've come to pull so hard against you that you can't. You know it and I know it. All's square and above board, but why do you bring here that South Carolina Frenchman to meddle in the affairs of the good old state of Kentucky? Is it any business of his or of the other people down there? Can't we decide it ourselves? We're a big family here in Kentucky, and we oughtn't to bring strangers into the family council, even if we do have a disagreement. ”

“ There is an infinite difference between floating down to New Orleans in your delightful barge, and jogging homeward a thousand miles on horseback. That interminable stretch of dreary wilderness from Natchez to Nashville, along the Indian trail, over sandy wastes, through pine woods, was intolerable. I was glad enough to reach Tennessee and old Kentucky. The people of Frankfort treated [Pg 125] me very handsomely, as did those of Lexington. I paid my respects to the local idol, the young Virginia orator and rising lawyer, Henry Clay. That man is a prodigy—he will make his mark. ”

“ A fine road, through a more level country than we had came through last evening, brought us in two hours, eleven miles, to the hill above Frankfort, which from thence was seen to advantage, with Kentucky river flowing past it, through a deep and narrow valley, confined by steep and rather stony hills, which afford a variety, after the fine plains, luxuriant forests and rich farms, within twenty miles in every direction of Lexington. ”

“ They next resided in Baltimore, where they formed the acquaintance of Rev. John Carroll, afterwards the first bishop of America, between whom a strong friendship took root. Remembering the lines of Berkeley, “Westward the star of Empire takes its way,” our citizen of the 205world turned towards Kentucky, where he established his home in 1798. While here his home in Frankfort became the stopping place of the early Catholic Missionary, and the temporary chapel of the scattered children of the Church. ”

“ Kentucky is an old State, with an old civilization. It was the pioneer in the great western movement of population after the Revolution. Although it was first explored in 1770, and the Boone trail through the wilderness of Cumberland Gap was not marked till 1775, a settlement had been made in Frankfort in 1774, and in 1790 the Territory had a population of 79,077. This was a marvellous growth, considering the isolation by hundreds of miles of wilderness from Eastern communities, and the savage opposition of the Indians, who selw fifteen hundred whilc settlers from 1783 to 1790. ”

“ Then a few years ago in Frankfort twenty thousand people followed to
the grave the bodies of the men who had fallen in Mexico. The State
has raised a monument to them, to the soldiers of 1812, to those who
fought at the river Raisin. The Legislature has ordered a medal to be
struck in honor of a boy who had defended his ensign. No man can make
a public speech in Kentucky without mention of Encancion and Monterey,
or of the long line of battles in which every generation of our people
has fought. This is the other proof that in times of peace we do not
forget. ”

“ The excitement then prevalent in the United States on account of the misunderstanding with England, was much greater in the western provinces than on the seaboard, and the feeling of irritation in the former was very considerable. Passing through Frankfort on my way to Louisville, I learned that the Kentucky State Legislature was just then sitting, and I determined to witness its proceedings, in order to compare it with the Territorial Legislature of Louisiana, which was composed of the strangest mixture of born Americans, and of French and Spanish creoles. ”

“ He died near Guerrytown, Alabama, June 6, 1867. Seven years later his dust was returned to Kentucky, and re-interred in the State cemetery at Frankfort. If collected Colonel O'Hara's poems, addresses, political and literary essays, and editorials would make an imposing volume. His real fame rests upon his famous martial elegy, The Bivouac of the Dead, which he wrote at Frankfort in the summer of 1847, to remember young Henry Clay, Colonel McKee, Captain Willis, and the other brave fellows who fell in the war with Mexico. ”

“ The court stated that the judgment of the Franklin circuit court rested on a former decision of the court of appeals of Kentucky, holding the revenue act of 1892 void as an impairment of the state's contract with the banks, and that, after the decree of the United States circuit court, the court of appeals of Kentucky overruled its former decision; and the United States court of appeals then held that the consequent reversal of the Franklin circuit judgment furnished no adequate ground for the revision of the decree of the United States circuit court. ”

“ Other early Kentucky papers were The Rights of Man, or The Kentucky Mercury, first published in May, 1797, at Paris, by Darius Moffett; The Mirror, August, 1797, at Washington, by Hunter & Beaumont; The Guardian of Freedom, by John Bradford & Son (this paper was really a branch of The Kentucky Gazette published at Frankfort in order to advocate Bradford as State Printer) ; The Palladium, August, 1798, at Frankfort, by Hunter (after The Mirror at Washington was discontinued, the earlier part of that year) ”

“ Horace J. McFarlan, Robert Lee Page and Lawrence S. Leopold were elected Great Representatives for two great suns each, the other candidates in nomination being G. A. Ellerkamp, of No. 8; Ben H. Shrader, of No. 5; John D. Walker, and Willie Walker, of No. 1.
At the request of Acting Great Incohonee Thos. J. Smith, State Exemplifier, Frank L. Smith, the recognized custodian of the work in Kentucky exemplified the unwritten work of the Order.
Frankfort was unanimously accepted as the hunting grounds in which the next Great Sun Council fire should be kindled. ”

“ Paul would have called her "The elect lady," "Thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Heaven only can tell the story of her usefulness. What days and nights they were at the Governor's Mansion. No one will ever understand the heartiness and generosity and warmth of Kentucky hospitality until he experiences it.
President Arthur was coming through Lexington on his way to open an Exposition at Louisville. Governor Blackburn was to go to Lexington to receive him and make a speech. The Governor read me the speech in the State House before leaving Frankfort, and asked for my criticism. ”

“ Thomas Marshall Green, journalist and historian, was born near Danville, Kentucky, November 23, 1836, the son of Judge John Green, an early Kentucky jurist of repute, who died when his son was but two years old. Green was graduated from Centre College, Danville, in what is now known as the famous class of '55, which included several men afterwards distinguished. In 1856 Green joined the staff of the Frankfort Commonwealth, then a political journal of wide influence ”

“ When you reach Frankfort, go straight to the governor's office and tell him what you are there for, if I don't get there first."
Then this rugged mountaineer, this unlettered, unpolished son of the hills, with honor as his watchword, dressed in the primitive style of the time and place, with his trusty rifle, started over the hills, through vales, and across streams to meet the sheriff at Frankfort, [147] one hundred and fifty miles away, where he would hear the lock snap as it closed the door that would shut him in from freedom and friends. ”

“ He strenuously sought to keep Kentucky in the Union, but was unwilling that slaves should be used as soldiers. He remained in public life to the close of his career, being in the midst of a campaign for re-election to Congress when he died near Frankfort, Ky., July 26, 1863. ”

“ Taking advantage of this confessed neutrality, large numbers of the young men of Kentucky were enticed into Buckner’s camp; while bodies of men from Tennessee were thrown into several localities in the southern and western portions of the State, and boldly avowed their determination to march on Frankfort, the capital, and revolutionize the State. Home Guards were organized by the loyal men, and it became apparent, that if the tide were not resisted by active measures, there was no security for Kentucky. ”

“ Some years later he taught in Maysville and Frankfort, and was then called to a professorship in Transylvania University, Lexington, where he remained for several years. In 1831 Butler removed to Louisville, where he was engaged in teaching for fifteen years. His History of Kentucky (Louisville, 1834; Cincinnati, 1836) was, after Filson's florid sentences, Rafinesque's imagination, and Marshall's prejudices and castigations, most welcome and timely. He was microscopic in finding facts, fair, having no enemies to punish, an excellent chronicler, in short, and doing a work that was much needed. ”

“ He was re-elected to the sixty-third congress from the fourth district of Michigan for the terms of 1913-15, and resides in Niles.
Hamilton, Elwood, lawyer and legislator, of Frankfort, Ky., was born Feb. 22, 1883, in Franklin County, Ky. He is secretary and a member of the Kentucky State Tax Commission; is a successful lawyer and has filled several positions of trust and honor. He served one term as a representative in the Kentucky state legislature from Franklin County.
Hamilton, Isaac Miller, life insurance president ”

“ Fouquet, Nicolas Fouquier-Tinville, Antoine Quentin Fourierism Fowl Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft Fox Fox, Charles James Fox, George Fox, John Foxglove Fox hound Frackville Fraction Fracture Fra Diavolo Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole Fragonard, Jean Honoré ... Frankau, Gilbert Frankenthal Frankfort (Indiana) Frankfort (Kentucky) Frankfort-on-the-Main Frankfort-on-the-Oder Frankincense ... Franks Franz, Robert Fraser, Mary Crawford Fraternal Societies Fraternities Fratricelli Fraud Frazier, James B. Frederic, Harold Frederick Frederick I. Frederick II. ... ”

“ The dedicatory lines to the memory of his mother were lovely; and there are many more poems to be found in the volume that are very fine. Chant of a Woodland Spirit (New York, 1894) , a long poem of more than fifty pages, portions of which had originally appeared in Harper's and The Century, was dedicated to John Fox, Jr., with whom Mr. Wilson was friendly, and who spent a great deal of his time at the poet's home in Frankfort. His second and most recent collection of lyrics, The Shadows of the Trees (New York, 1898) , was widely read and warmly received by all true lovers of genuine poesy. ”

“ He was chief justice of Kentucky for fourteen years, when he resigned to return to the active practice of law. From 1834 to 1857 Judge Robertson was professor of law in Transylvania University at Lexington. He died at Lexington, May 16, 1874, generally regarded as the ablest jurist Kentucky has produced. He was also the author of four books: Introductory Lecture to the Transylvania Law Class (Lexington) ; Biographical Sketch of John Boyle (Frankfort, 1838) ; Scrap-Book on Law and Politics, Men and Times (Lexington, 1855) , his best known book ”