By Dr. Thomas D. Clark
On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay asked his son Thomas to come and sit by his bedside. Just before the hour of noon, “The Great Compromiser” drew his last breath. At that point his life became a completed major chapter in the...
Famous Lexingtonians
Laura Clay was born February 9, 1849, at White Hall estate near Richmond Kentucky, the daughter of emancipationist Cassius Marcellus Clay and Mary Jane Warfield Clay. She attended Foxtown Academy in her early years. Spent several months in Russia, when her father was...
Mrs. Clay was the daughter of Col. William H. and Zaenett Russell. She was the only girl out of seven children. She traveled often with her father as a child. She kept an album for signatures of the great people she met on these trips. He book featured the signatures of...
1773 - 1849
Merchant, Manufacturer and Financier.
John W. Hunt was born in Trenton, Delaware in August 1773. Mr. Hunt began his business career during 1792 in a dry goods store in Richmond, Virginia. After settling in Lexington during 1795, he again entered the dry goods business. His business expanded from the westward trade and by 1810, he was one of the wealthiest individuals in Lexington. ...
At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, roughly a hundred years ago, James Ben Ali Haggin of Elmendorf, was famous as one of the era’s robber barons - a wealthy mining operator and turfman.
A letter addressed to J. B. Haggin, America, provided sufficient information to be delivered immediately to his New York office. However, today his name is forgotten, except for parts of Kentucky, California, South...
Les was born in Lexington Kentucky on September 23, 1935. In his youth he worked at the Lyric Theatre taking tickets, cleaning, up, seating people and more. According to the Herald Leader on Oct 17, 2013, Les said of his time at the Lyric “That’s when I...
Man O War was a Chestnut Colt born in 1917, in Lexington at Nursery Stud. He as sired by Fair Play; out of Mahubah, the daughter of Rock Sand (winner of the British version of the Triple Crown). He was named by Mrs. Belmont “My Man O’ War”, in honor of her...
John Hunt Morgan was known as the ‘Thunderbolt of the Confederacy’ and remembered as the ideal of the romantic Southern cavalryman -- was born June 1, 1825 in Huntsville, Alabama, but is thoroughly identified with his mother’s home state of Kentucky. Morgan moved...
Adolph Rupp
University of Kentucky Head Coach
1930- 1972
He was born September 2, 1901 in Halstead Kansas. He grew up on his immigrant parent’s farm. His father died when he was just nine years old. He was instilled at an early age the value of hard...
Simon Kenton
(1755- 1836)
Simon was born on April 3, 1755 in Fauquier County Virginia. He was the seventh of nine children, who preferred helping his father on the family farm to school. When he was 15 years old he fell in love with Ellen...
William “King” Solomon is counted among the town’s earliest characters. Reputedly the son of a wealthy Virginia family, he migrated to Lexington and took up residence – as the town drunk. He had grown up in Virginia, not far from where Henry Clay was born. Solomon...
