Browse Items (24 total)
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Elizabeth Logan Hardin
Elizabeth Logan Hardin (1786-1853) was born on the Kentucky frontier at Logan's Station (also known as St. Asaph's; present Stanford). She was one of nine children of Ann Montgomery and Benjamin Logan, one of Kentucky's early military and political leaders. who fought in the Indian wars of the 1770s and 1780s in the struggle to wrest control of Kentucky from the Native Americans. Elizabeth married Martin D. Hardin on 20 January 1809. At age thirty-nine, Elizabeth became a pregnant widow with three children between the ages of five and thirteen, and a failing farm (near Frankfort) that was $50,000 in debt. Elizabeth ran the farm as a single woman for seven years before she married Porter Clay in 1816. They sold the farm and moved to Illinois, but their strained marriage ended in separation. She returned to Kentucky and died in Shelby County where she is buried. -
Letter from Amos Kendall to F. G. Flugel, 10 March 1815
In this letter, Kendall discusses social customs, quoting "Are you rich? You are courted and carressed. Are you poor? You are despised or neglected." He mentions a man murdering his wife. Included is another poem, this one dscussing the bright future of Germany and Flugel's family. -
Letter from Annie Christian To Patrick Henry, no date
Letter to Patrick Henry requesting he post an announcement of William Christian's death in Virginia papers and send three mourning rings for her daughters from Annie Christian. -
Letter from James Anderson Pearce to Jonathan Clark, 30 March 1811
Letter from James Anderson Pearce to his father-in-law, General Jonathan Clark, mentions that his enslaved people are laboring more efficiently than he could have hoped and he thinks he will produce much more corn because of it. Also catches him up on family issues. -
Letter from James Anderson Pearce to Thomas Bodley, 19 November 1811
Letter from James Anderson Pearce to Thomas Bodley updating him on his wife's condition after pregnancy and the doctor's recommendation for helping her troubles with her breast. He also updates on the family's health, as well as the health of their enslaved people. -
Letter from James Anderson Pearce to Thomas Bodley, 6 September 1811
Letter from James Anderson Pearce to Thomas Bodley discusses his wife, Ann Clark Pearce, recently giving birth and having troubles with breastfeeding. -
Letter from John Corlis and Nancy Corlis to Mary Ann Corlis and Joseph Corlis, 23 March 1816
Contains an exchange of family pleasantries, mentions of religion, and a set of house plans. -
Letter from Mary Adair to her sister, 16 March 1797
Letter from Mary Adair to her sister, Mary McCalla, mentioning her son, Alexander. -
Letter from Mary Beatty to her son, 7 May 1803.
Letter from Mary Beatty to her son in which she updates him on the family and selling the house. Included in the letter was a lock of her hair for him. -
Letter from Mary Guthrey Pearce to her children, 10 September 1814
Mary Guthrey Pearce writes from Cumberland County, Kentucky, to her children trying to convince them to turn to religion "not only for your eternal interests but for your personal peace." -
Letter from William Clark to Jonathan Clark, 17 August 1811
Clark writes his brother Jonathan from St. Louis complaining that they don't hear very often from their Kentucky family and fears they are being forgotten. He mentions how scattered the family is at this time and wishes they all were together. American-Native affairs have been active east of the Mississippi, but they are tranquil west of the river. He mentions Indigenous delegations that have recently visited. He fears that The Prophet and his followers are stirring up trouble and need to be dispersed. -
Letter from William Fleming to his wife, Nancy, 25 September 1779
Letter from William Fleming to his wife, Nancy Fleming, describing his journey through Kentucky. Writes of a great amount of people "going out" and several small parties coming in, all "without molestation." -
Letter from William Fry to Ann M. Fry, 29 January 1817
This letter discusses how their cousin Susan had consumed too much paregoric for her cough and it "disordered her system." Also updates on the wedding of Jane Rochester. -
Mary Adair letter, 23 November 1799
Letter from Mary Adair to her sister, updating her on her family and wishing she has enjoyed "all of the happyness of a wife and mother in the midst of an agreeable family." She worries of her father dying soon because without him she will be "destitute of any other home." -
Miniature portrait of Ann Booth Gwathmey
Women experienced death and loss regularly on the frontier. Ann Booth Gwathmey (1782-1862) was no exception. The daughter of William A. and Rebecca Hite Booth, she migrated to Jefferson County, KY, with her family as a child. She married John Gwathmey in 1800 when she was eighteen years old, and he was twenty-six. She was nineteen years old when she gave birth to their first daughter, who died less than six weeks later. During the next twenty-five years, Ann lost both of her parents, two more pre-school aged children, and her husband. In her senior years, two of her adult children preceded her in death. See also the mourning necklace that belonged to her. -
Miniature portrait of Ann Rogers Clark Gwathmey
In the era before photography, miniature portraits were popular mementos of loved ones that could be easily carried across long physical distances. The watercolor on ivory portraits were desired for the way artists could accurately capture a subject, working in such small dimensions. Ann Rogers Clark Gwathmey (1755-1822) was the sister of George Rogers Clark and William Clark. She was married to Owen Gwathmey. She and her husband moved to Louisville with at least five of their twelve children in 1797. They purchased 335 acres and built a home near Harrod's Creek, east of Louisville not very far from her sister Lucy Croghan's home at Locust Grove. The proximity to her sister and other family members ensured that Ann had a strong social network to rely on. The Gwathmeys enslaved twenty individuals on their estate, whose labor created economic advantage and comfort for the family. -
Miniature portrait of John Gwathmey
John Gwathmey (1774-1824) migrated to Jefferson County, KY, as a child with his parents Owen and Ann Clark Gwathmey. He married Ann Booth Gwathmey in 1800. He bought five acres near 6th and Cedar streets in Louisville, where he built a two-story brick house later known as the Grayson House. He operated the Indian Queen, a hotel at 6th and Main Streets, and an important social and civic hub in the city. In 1816, he sold his home and moved his family to New Orleans where he operated the Merchants Coffee House, the oldest coffee house in the city. In the era before photography, miniature portraits were popular mementos of loved ones that could be easily carried across long physical distances. The watercolor on ivory portraits were desired for the way artists could accurately capture a subject, working in such small dimensions. -
Portrait of "Fanny" Frances Latham Slaughter
"Fanny" Frances Latham Slaughter was a wife and a mother who had strong ties with her family as seen through letters sent to her daughter and other relatives. "Time passes away tedious and heavy" writes Frances Latham Slaughter to her daughter (who left home) on 12 October 1816. Women who were separated from family and friends often experienced loneliness on the frontier. -
Portrait of Abigail Oldham Churchill
Abigail Oldham Churchill came from a lineage of wealthy and prominent early Louisvillian settlers. She was just two years old when her father, Colonel William Oldham, died in the Battle of Wabash. Her mother, Penelope Pope, a twenty-two-year-old widow with four children, remarried into the Churchill family. In 1802, two weeks after her fourteenth birthday, Abigail married Samuel Churchill, her step-father's twenty-four-year-old brother. She gave birth to their first child when she was fifteen and had a child almost every other year over a span of thirty years. She had her last of fifteen children when she was forty-four years of age. -
Portrait of Elizabeth Wood Bayless
Elizabeth Wood Bayless was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She migrated to Mason County, Kentucky, with her family sometime within the first decade of Kentucky's statehood. Her father, George Wood, was a Revolutionary War Veteran who was one of the first Baptist preachers to settle in the region. Elizabeth married Benjamin Bayless in 1798 in Mason County, Kentucky.