Some Kentucky Lawyers of the Past and Present.
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SOME KENTUCKY LAWYERS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT. III. BY SALUE E. MARSHALL HARDY. DANVILLE.
JUDGE SAMUEL McDOWELL was a judge of the district court which was opened at Harrodsburg in 1783, but re moved to Danville the same year. Judge McDowell was an eminent Virginian, who, coming to Kentucky, became a leader of acknowledged ability. He was six feet, four inches tall, and very powerful. When his sons had grown to manhood, he would fre quently challenge them in athletics. He could kneel on one knee and throw a heavy sledge hammer to a greater distance than any of them. He was a devoted Presbyterian, and when eighty years old rode on his favorite horse " Fox," from Danville to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend a meeting of Synod, and back again. Judge McDowell was an ardent Federalist, and his son-in-law, General Andrew Reid, was a de voted follower of Jefferson. In the posses sion of a member of the family is a letter from the old Judge to General Reid, ex pressing his political opinions in strong terms. On the back of it General Reid has endorsed : " Vicious, ought to be burned." Judge McDowell was a man of noble char acter, and it is not strange his descendants are proud of him. The Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Cynthiana, Kentucky, was named in his honor by the Regent, his great-grand daughter, Mrs. Mollie Casey Reynolds, .and Mrs. Hervey McDowell and others, his des cendants, are among the prominent mem bers. It has been said : " He was an ideal man for the times, and Kentucky owes much to his courage, his conscience and his com mon sense." Thomas Todd, chief justice of the court
of appeals in 1806, and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, until his death in 1826. He was an able law yer and judge. Many of his descendants are among the most influential and prominent citizens of Kentucky to-day. At the meet ing of the bar of the Supreme Court to ex press regret at his death, William Wirt, the then attorney general of the United States, presided, and Daniel Webster presented the resolutions. Judge William McClung was a very able man. He wasappointed, by President Adams, one of the sixteen circuit judges he made at the close of his administration. It was the commissions of these judges that tradition says Chief-Justice Marshall was hurriedly signing, as secretary of state, when he was informed it was twelve o'clock and Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States. Congress repealed the act which allowed these judges, but Governor Greenup of Ken tucky made Judge McClung a judge. His son, John McClung, was a brilliant lawyer, but studied for the ministry and became one of the most eloquent preachers in Kentucky. James and John Overton were distin guished lawyers. John went to Tennessee where he was eminent as a lawyer and judge. He was a devoted friend of President Jack son, and his last words were : " Write to the General and tell him I died as a hero should die." Judge John Green studied law with Henry Clay and became distinguished in his pro fession. Aaron Harding was a prominent lawyer and man of fine character. The following is told of him : " When he was eighteen he had an attack of white swelling and not thinking the treatment of his physician,
