Kentuckians in the National Portrait Gallery: part two

The 1859 edi­tion of the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans con­tains biogra­phies and like­ness­es of six Kentuckians with ties to Clark County.  Two of these were reviewed in Part 1; the oth­er four are exam­ined here.

Daniel Boone (1734−1820) left his foot­prints all over Clark County.  Our his­tor­i­cal high­way mark­ers alone tell much of his sto­ry here: “Indian Old Fields,” which he viewed from Pilot Knob in June 1769.  “Lulbegrud Creek,” where he camped with five oth­er hunters in 1770 and named the creek for a town in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. “Daniel Boone’s Settlement,” 1,400 acres near Schollsville, which he was award­ed for grow­ing corn in Kentucky in 1775 and 1776.  “Salt Spring Trace,” a trail he fol­lowed from Boonesborough to Lower Blue Licks to hunt buf­fa­lo and make salt.  “Boone-Callaway Girls Kidnapping” in July 1776, which result­ed two days lat­er with Boone’s res­cue par­ty free­ing the girls from their Shawnee cap­tors.  And “Daniel Boone, Surveyor,” mark­ing the area where he con­duct­ed the first eleven sur­veys of his career for Capt. Billy Bush in 1783.

The engrav­ing of Boone was made from an orig­i­nal oil paint­ing by Chester Harding.  Harding made his por­trait in 1820 only a few months before Boone died—the only por­trait made of Boone paint­ed from life—and it now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Simon Kenton (1755−1836) could have been as famous as Boone had he had a good biog­ra­ph­er.  This not­ed fron­tiers­man went west as a youth using the assumed name of Simon Butler after mis­tak­en­ly believ­ing he killed a man.  He sol­diered dur­ing the Revolutionary War, the Indian Wars, and the War of 1812.  As a cap­tive of the Shawnee, he sur­vived rit­u­al tor­ture and run­ning the gaunt­let sev­er­al times and was sub­se­quent­ly adopt­ed by the tribe.  After being impris­oned for debt in Kentucky, he moved to Ohio. 

Kenton was a Clark County landown­er, hav­ing pur­chased Ebenezer Corn’s pre­emp­tion from spec­u­la­tors.  The land strad­dled US 60 near the present Montgomery County line. 

The engrav­ing of Kenton was made from a por­trait by Louis Morgan, com­mis­sioned by J. B. Longacre in 1834.  Morgan found Kenton liv­ing in obscu­ri­ty in a small cab­in in Zanesville, Ohio.  The paint­ing is now owned by the Filson Historical Society.

Gen. George Rogers Clark (1752−1818), the not­ed sol­dier from Virginia, com­mand­ed the Kentucky mili­tia through­out most of the Revolutionary War.  He is best known for his cel­e­brat­ed cap­tures of Kaskaskia (1778) and Vincennes (1779) dur­ing the Illinois Campaign, which helped secure the Northwest Territory for the new nation. The British ced­ed the entire Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.  Clark is often referred to as the “Conqueror of the Old Northwest.”  He died at his home, Locust Grove, in Louisville.

The twen­ty-two-year-old Clark came out from Virginia in 1775 as a deputy sur­vey­or for the Ohio Company.  Clark joined a group on their way to Boonesborough.  From there, he crossed the Kentucky River and pro­ceed­ed to east­ern Clark County.  There, he made a pri­vate sur­vey of 15,000 acres for him­self that was nev­er patent­ed.  Clark County was named in his hon­or when it was estab­lished in 1792. 

The engrav­ing of Clark was made from an orig­i­nal paint­ing by John W. Jarvis.  According to Estill Curtis Pennington’s Lessons in Likeness, Jarvis made his paint­ing from a life por­trait of Clark at Locust Grove.

Gen. Zachary Taylor (1784−1850) served as the twelfth pres­i­dent of the United States.  Since he died after only six­teen months in office, his admin­is­tra­tion is lit­tle remem­bered today.  Taylor estab­lished his rep­u­ta­tion as a sol­dier.  “Old Rough and Ready” served as an offi­cer in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Seminole War, and the Mexican-American War.  He is buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville.

Taylor’s ten­u­ous con­nec­tion to Clark County is through his numer­ous pio­neer Taylor cousins from Virginia, who locat­ed here.  These include Hubbard Taylor of Spring Hill, Jonathan Gibson Taylor of Basin Springs and many others.

Taylor’s engrav­ing was made from a daguerreo­type by the ear­ly American pho­tog­ra­ph­er James Maguire, cap­tured in New Orleans in 1847 on Taylor’s tri­umphant return from the Mexican War.