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Portraits at Morgan Row

Daniel Boone

Portrait of Daniel Boone

One of the most famous pioneers who explored and opened the West, Daniel Boone was born near Reading, Pennsylvania on Oct. 22 (new style Nov. 2), 1734 to the Quaker family of Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone. He married Rebecca Bryan in North Carolina on Aug. 14, 1756. In March 1975, as advance agent for the Transylvania Company, he blazed the Wilderness Road and founded Boonesborough on the Kentucky River. In later years, the Boones moved to Missouri, where Rebecca died in 1813. Daniel died seven years later in St. Charles County, Missouri, Sept. 26, 1820.

The portrait in the HHS collection was acquired through the Margaret Voorhies and James Haggin estate. It was painted by Chester Harding, signed by the artist, and dated 1819. Harding (1792-1866) spent his early years in New England following various trades, eventually becoming an itinerant portrait painter. He settled for a while in Paris, Kentucky, where he was a successful painter. Harding later studied his craft further in Philadelphia and London, and lived in various cities, where he painted many prominent Europeans and Americans. He sought out Daniel Boone in his Missouri home and painted a portrait that is believed to be the only one taken from life.

(Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

"Soon after, I returned home to my family with a determination to bring them as soon as possible to live in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise, at the risk of my life and fortune." - Daniel Boone

Arabella Anne Dodge Williams

Arabella Anne Dodge was born Sept. 19, 1806, the daughter of David and Dorcas Mills Dodge. She was married to Charles Edwin Williams (see below). They were the parents of Mary Dorcas Williams (married John B. Bowman), Arabella Ann Williams (married Robert Buckner), and John Augustus Williams. They were the great-great-grandparents of Andrew D. Williams of Harrodsburg. (Text by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)


Portraits at Morgan Row

Charles Edwin Williams

Charles Edwin Williams

Charles Edwin Williams was born July 1, 1800, the son of Raleigh and Rebecca Luttrell Williams of Virginia. He was a physician. He died on August 9, 1881.

The artist of the Williams portraits is unknown. By the will of Bess D. Williams, the portraits were to come to the Harrodsburg Historical Society on the death of her son, Andrew D. Williams, but he donated them to the Society in 1976.

(Text by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Portraits at Morgan Row

Joseph Morgan

Joseph Morgan

One of Mercer County's outstanding early 19th-century developers, Joseph Morgan lived from 1772-1860. He was married in 1798 to Ann Bryan , daughter of William and Elizabeth Bryan, in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Joseph used the profits from a warehouse at Warwick to finance and build the four brick units that make up Morgan Row, current home of the Harrodsburg Historical Society. The building contained residences, housing, and a tavern from 1807 to 1830. Stories of its grog shop, barbershop, gambling room, gala balls, political meetings, and horse races as late as the Civil War speak to a colorful history of both the tavern and the town. Morgan's daughter Elizabeth married John Chiles in 1823. Chiles ran the Morgan Row tavern, stagecoach, and U.S. Mail lines that connected much of Central Kentucky from this site.

Morgan's house, Round Ridge, is off Moberly Road north of Harrodsburg. One of the McAfee brothers built the first part, a small limestone dwelling, between 1780 and 1790. The young man died in a fight with Native Americans, and his widow sold the property to Joseph Morgan, who built a brick house beside the stone structure, ca. 1817. A kitchen was added in the early 2oth century. The house was added to the U.S. National Historic Register in 1990.

(Text by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Portraits at Morgan Row

Anne Shannon Williams

Anne Shannon McClellan Williams

Anne McClellan Williams lived from February 19, 1928 to January 1, 2015. Her parents were John Willis and Anne Elizabeth Rives McClellan; she had two brothers, John and Joseph. Graduating from Harrodsburg High School in 1946, Mrs. Williams went on to graduate from Nazarene Junior College in 1948, and St. Joseph School of Medical Technology in 1949. She was a registered medical technician with the American Society of Clinical Pathology and worked at the biochemistry labs of Gorgas Hospital, Panama, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and St. Mary's in Kansas City.

Her husband was Andrew Devine Williams. Upon his retirement from the U.S. Air Force, they moved back to Harrodsburg, where Anne was active in St. Andrew Catholic Church, community service, and the Harrodsburg Historical Society, where she served as librarian for 30 years. See her obituary at tributes.com/obituary/show/anne-shannon-williams-102029568

(Text by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Portraits at Morgan Row

John Garland Chiles

John Garland Chiles

John Garland Chiles was born Jan. 27, 1794 in Virginia. He came to Kentucky early in the 19th century and settled first near Lexington, then moved near to Harrodsburg. He kept a tavern in Harrodsburg until 1845, when he returned to Lexington and bought the Phoenix Hotel, which he ran until 1859, then moved to Danville, where he died March 4, 1862. At the time, he owned several stage lines in Kentucky and operated them for many years. Lines were from Lexington to Nicholasville, Harrodsburg, Frankfort, Perryville, Cumberland Gap, Dean's Station, and Glasgow - a total of over 300 miles.

This portrait was owned at one time by Miss Ophelia Chiles. It was given to the Harrodsburg Historical Society in 1965 by Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Wright of Lexington, Kentucky. The painter was Patrick Henry Davenport. See Davenport's biography in the section above, with the companion portrait of Chiles' wife Betsy.

(Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)


Portraits at Morgan Row

Betsy Morgan Chiles

Elizabeth (Betsy) Morgan Chiles

Elizabeth (Betsy) Morgan was born in Kentucky in 1805, the daughter of Ann Bryan and Joseph Morgan, the builder of Morgan Row, present home of the Harrodsburg Historical Society. She married John Chiles in 1823. Their children included Hamlet, Winn, Ophelia, Othello, Marcellus, Desdemona, Almansa, Las Caser, and Eileen.

This portrait came to the HHS as a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Wright of Lexington, Kentucky in 1965 along with the portrait of John Chiles. It was painted by Patrick Henry Davenport in 1828. Davenport was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1803 at the Indian Queen Tavern, which was owned and operated by his parents, Richard and Elizabeth Tadlock Davenport. The Davenports were substantial people, able to provide their children with comfortable childhoods and better than average education. Henry is said to have begun painting at the age of 15, and a photograph of a portrait of Mrs. Robert Rodes (Eliza Delany) by him in 1818 bears this out. It's in the book Kentucky Ante-Bellum Portraitures by Mrs. Edna Talbott Whitley.

Davenport married Eliza Ann Bohannon at Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1827 and they had eight children. He assisted Oliver Frazer in painting the full-length portrait of George Washington at the Old Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky. Davenport died at Sumner, Illinois in 1890, where he made his home after 1840 except for the time he spent managing the resort at Crab Orchard Springs in 1851. His signatures on his paintings vary from Henry Davenport, P. Henry Davenport, and occasionally P.H. Davenport. His father owned the lots in Harrodsburg on which now stand the United Methodist Church and nearby buildings. Thus, the artist lived next door to, or at least near, the Chiles family when the portraits were painted.

(Information from The Advocate-Messenger, Danville, Kentucky [9 Oct. 1994, p. 26]) Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Portraits at Morgan Row

James L. Isenberg

James L. Isenberg

James Lewis Isenberg was born in Louisville, Kentucky Dec. 17, 1881, one of six children of Solomon and Adeline Abraham Isenberg. When his father and uncle established a dry-goods store in Harrodsburg, James entered the family business. Besides being a leading businessman, he took a deep interest in the civic life of the town and for many years played an important part in it. Among other things, Mr. Isenberg was head of the Mercer County chapter of the American Red Cross, and for many years served on the Harrodsburg School Board. One of his significant achievements for Harrodsburg was his leadership in creating the Kentucky Pioneer Memorial Association, which was responsible for erecting a reproduction of Fort Harrod. He died Oct. 31, 1938.

The portrait of Isenberg bears the signature of artist M. P. Hardin. The minutes of the January 1941 meeting of the Harrodsburg Historical Society note it was agreed to acquire the painting of Mr. James Isenberg from Mr. Joe McClelland and hung at the Mansion Museum at Fort Harrod. In February, the committee reported that it had been hung. In March 1941, the minutes say, "Mrs. Wood stated that the picture of Mr. Isenberg is very fine and that it was painted by Mrs. E. M. Hardin. Mrs. Hardin stated that she had been asked to paint it and that it was done for the I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Hall." When the Odd Fellows folded, they offered their portraits to the families or friends of the subjects, so we assume that the portrait of Mr. Isenberg came to the Society through Mr. McClelland, his close associate of many years.

(Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Benjamin Moore

Colonel Benjamin F. Moore was married to Sarah Emily Taylor, the daughter of Major James Taylor. Irene Moore, granddaughter of James Taylor, lived in the house which is now the Mansion Museum at Old Fort Harrod. (Text by Ann Howells, 1978)

Jane Magoffin

Jane McAfee was the eldest daughter of Hannah McCormick and Samuel McAfee, one of the pioneer McAfee brothers. She married Beriah Magoffin, who built Clay Hill, an historic house in Harrodsburg. She was the mother of the Hon. Beriah Magoffin, Jr., Civil War Governor of Kentucky. She was also the mother of Hannah Magoffin (Mrs. William Jenkins) Moberly, whose portrait is below.

This portrait and the two of Hannah Moberly were given to the Harrodsburg Historical Society by Mr. Cullen Napier of Washington, D.C., a descendant of the Moberly family. The artist is unknown.

Jane and Beriah Magoffin were also the parents of James Wiley Magoffin, who moved to Mexico and established successful trading ventures between Chihuahua, Santa Fe, and Missouri. James brought his brother Samuel to work with him. He later moved to the El Paso area and established Magoffinsville, which is now the site of Fort Bliss. James's son Joseph was born in Chihuahua, educated in Kentucky and Missouri, and became a successful businessman in El Paso. He was a prominent civic leader and several times mayor of El Paso. For more on this branch of the Magoffin family, visit thc.texas.gov/historic-sites/magoffin-home/history

(Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)


Mrs. William Jenkins Moberly

Mrs. Moberly was born Hannah Magoffin, the youngest daughter of Jane McAfee and Beriah Magoffin, Sr. She was married in her 20th year to Charles Cunningham, and after his death to William Jenkins Moberly of Harrodsburg. She died on Dec. 24, 1892 at the age of 84 and is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Harrodsburg. She is the great-grandmother of Mrs. Phoebe Soaper Caffery and Mr. Morgan Soaper of Harrodsburg.

See another portrait of Hannah Moberly as a mature woman in the section below.

The artist of this portrait is unknown. It was donated the Harrodsburg Historical Society by Mr. Cullen Napier of Washington, D.C., a descendant of the Moberly family.

(Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Hannah Moberly

This portrait in the Harrodsburg Historical Society shows Hannah (Mrs. William Jenkins) Moberly in her mature years. The artist is unknown. It was a gift to the Society by Mr. Cullen Napier of Washington, D.C., a descendant of the Moberly family.

Benjamin Mills

Benjamin Mills, famous gunsmith and maker of fine target rifles, was born in 1810 in Palmyra, New York. He married Jane O'Connor of Ireland and they lived in Harrodsburg. It's possible that he set up his first gun shop in Mason County, Kentucky around 1830, moved to Stanford in 1841, then to Harrodsburg in 1842. By this time, his reputation as a gun maker had been established. He was an assistant armorer at Harper's Ferry (1859) when John Brown captured it.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was offered the post of Head Armorer at Springfield, Massachusetts, but chose to cast his lot with the Confederacy and accepted the position of Head Armorer at Palmetto Arsenal in Columbia, S.C. After the war, he returned to Harrodsburg and opened a shop off Main Street, on Mooreland Avenue, where a state historical marker now stands. Mills' main claim to fame as a gunsmith was the invention of the dual trigger system for muzzle-loading rifles. It is said that in 1842 his reputation was such that Kit Carson and two friends came to Kentucky to buy Mills' rifles.

These were reputed to be the same rifles that were used on the Fremont expeditions (1842-1848) and at the Alamo (1847). [This is unconfirmed. Carson took part in the Fremont expeditions and lived mostly in the West. In the late 1840s he travelled from California to Washington, D.C. three times as a courier.] Mills' gun shop was the location of the Boone Shooting Club, of which the renowned sharpshooter Dr. Christopher Graham and Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin were members. Shooting matches were held behind the shop. Mills died in Harrodsburg in 1888.

This portrait appears to be a tinted photograph or perhaps a chromo. Mills' grandchildren Robert VanArsdall and Katie V. Bailey of Harrodsburg presented it to the Harrodsburg Historical Society on August 1, 1955.

(Compiled by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Caroline, Consort of George IV

This portrait and the one of the Marquis de Lafayette (below) are reverse paintings: applied in reverse on the back of a piece of glass. Harrodsburg Historical Society minutes show that in October 1938 these portraits of Queen Caroline of England and General Lafayette were willed to the Society by Miss Margaret Scott Polk, a former resident of Harrodsburg. A small sign that had been on display with them states that they are over 150 years old. The sign was not dated, so the actual age of the portraits is unknown.

There were two Queen Carolines of England, but as the later one was a contemporary of the Marquis de Lafayette, she is perhaps most likely the subject of this portrait. Caroline of Ansbach, queen consort of George II, was born in 1683 and died in 1737. Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick was born May 17, 1768. She married her cousin, the Prince of Wales, later King George IV, on April 8, 1795, but soon after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte on January 7, 1796, they separated. Excluded from court after her husband became regent (1811), she went abroad in August 1814. She was accused of adulterous living many times through the years, but was popular with the people of Britain, who felt her loose-living husband was in the wrong. On her husband's accession to the throne in 1829, she returned to England to claim her rights as queen, but the king and government denied her any rights. She was refused admittance to Westminster Abbey at the coronation, became ill a few days later, and died August 7, 1821.

(Text by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)

Marie-Joseph P. Y. R. Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette

This famous Frenchman was a soldier, statesman, and hero of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. He was born in Auvergne on September 6, 1757 of an ancient and noble family. Losing his parents early, he was a wealthy man when, at 16, he married and joined a circle of young court gentlemen at Versailles. Finding court life uncongenial, he purchased a captain's commission in the dragoons, hoping to win distinction as a soldier.

In December 1776 he secured from Silas Deane, the American agent in Paris, a commission as Major General in the Continental Army. Aided by influential persons, despite the disapproval of his father-in-law and King Louis XVI, he departed for Philadelphia and arrived on July 27, 1777. He played a vital part in the American Revolution. His triumphant tour, on his second visit to the United States in 1824, has passed into legend. And speaking of legend, it is said that Lafayette played a game of billiards with Dickie Figg - and lost - at the Wingfield Tavern, which is where the Mercer County Bank stood.

Were these portraits painted as a pair, as they seem to be? Why Lafayette and Queen Caroline? Did they know each other, or did someone just decide they'd be two interesting subjects? We can only speculate since so little information was left to us.

(Text by Ann Howells, 1978; edited by Linda Freeman & Nancy Hill, 2020)