LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 611 458 1 Conservation Resource!) f ia-Croo® Tvno I 451 S54 opv 1 ^FECIAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME OF THE Prrarutattuu nf u Portrait lust OF AS KENTUCKY S GIFT TO ii^m0rtal Qlnutiu^ntal ^all AT THE QluienttPtli Ol^ntittrntal (Eottgreaa OF THE Nattnital ^ortrtg OF THE iaugtjt^rB of % Amrrtrau H^unluttnu April 17 to 22, 1911 Washington, D. C. Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, Prcsideiit-General, N. S., 1). A. K. OFFICERS, 1910-1911, OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. Mrs. Annie K. Johnson Bardstovvn Vice-Regent, Mrs. Jean Daveiss Warren Danville St'C7-elary, Mrs. May R. Thompson Lexington Treasitrer, Mrs. Annie C. Escott Shelby ville His/orian, Mrs. Louise Ryland Coodkr Cincinnati, O. Honorary State R cedent, Mrs. Julia Churchill Blackburn Louisville Note. —This programme is presented with the compliments of the Lexington Chapter, D, A. R. By this, the parent Chapter of the Kentucky Daughters, the movement for the Isaac Shelby bust was originated, and two of its members. Misses Lizzie A. Lyle and Julia P. H. Spurr, have been the committee in active charge of the work. \Tt^. ^."rru.'^ASUjicn^— s ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^m ' '"^ 'J^^^^l ^^^^1 H i ^^H I >l^m 1 tt "flJP^^^^^^^H BUST OF GOVERNOR ISAAC SHELBY. Bronze Replica of Marble Bust, by Piccirilii Brothers. Presented by the LexinKnon Chapter, D. A. R., to the State Historical Society of Kentucky, at Frankfort, Ky., June 22, 1910. THE ADDRESS at the unveiling and presentation to Memorial Continental Hall of the marble bust of Governor Isaac Shelby, will be made on Tues- day, April 18, 1911, on behalf of the D. A. R. of Ken- tucky, by Mrs. Mary Shelby Wilson, of Lexington, Ky. Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Lexington Chapter, and a great-grand-daughter of Governor Shelby. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ISAAC SHELBY. Born December 11, 1750, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the North Mountain and in the vicinity of Hagerstown. Employed until twenty-one years of age in farming and herding cattle for his father, Captain Evan Shelby. In 1771, removed with other members of the Shelby family to the Holston Region in Southwest \'irginia. Shared the customary experiences and adventures of a pioneer and frontiersman. Served as Lieutenant in company of F^incastle troops, of which his father, Evan Shelby, was Captain, in Dunmore's War, fighting valiantly at Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. Of tWe affair at Point Pleasant, which has often been called "the first battle of the American Revolution," Lieutenant Shelby, in a letter to his uncle John Shelby, written a few days after the battle, has left us the best first-hand account. He remained as second in command of a garrison at the mouth of the Great Kanawha until July, 1775. For nearly a year following he explored, located and surveyed lands in Kentucky. In July, 1776, while in Kentucky, he was appointed Cap- tain of a Minute Company by the Committee of Safety in Virginia. In 1777 he was appointed by Governor Patrick Henry, of Virginia, a Commissary of Supplies for an extensive body ol militia guarding the frontier posts. In 1778 he was engaged in the commissary department, providing supjilies for the Continental Army and for an expedition, by way of Pittsburg, against the Northwestern Indians. He rendered similar service in 1779. In the spring of that year he was elected a member of the A'irginia Legislature from Wasliington County, and in the fall of the same year was commissioned a Major by Governor Thomas Jefferson, in the escort of guards to the Com- missioners for establishing the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. By the extension ol this line, his residence was found to be in North Carolina; and, shortly afterwards, he was appointed by Gov. Caswell a Colonel of the new County of Sullivan. On the 30th of July, 17S0, he captured a formidable Tory stronghold on the Pacolet River. He was largely responsible for the victory in the battle of Musgrove's Mill, August 18, 1780; was one of those in chief command in the battle of King's Mountain, October 7, 1780, and contributed most largely to the success there achieved. A few months later, in command of a troop, he joined General Francis Marion and served under him until near the end of the war. In 1781 he was elected a member of the North Carolina Legisla- ture; in 1783, moved to Kentucky; member of three of the Kentucky conventions held in 1787, 1788 and 1789, preparatory to applying for stateliood; in January, 1791, appointed with General Charles Scott, Benjamin Logan and two others, a member of the local Board of War, created by Congress for the District of Kentucky, with full dis- cretionary power to provide for the defense of the frontier settle- ments and the prosecution of the war with the Indians. High Sheriff of Lincoln County, Ky., until his election as Governor in May, 1792; member of convention which framed first Constitution of Kentucky in April, 1792. One of the first Trustees of Transylvania Seminary (afterwards Transylvania University), appointed in 1783; also a mem- ber and chairman of tlie first Board of Trustees of Centre College, founded in 1819. First Governor of Kentucky, 4th of June, 1792- 1796; again elected Governor, 1812-1816; and led 4,000 Kentucky volunteers to join General Harrison in the Northwest for the invasion of Canada, where the British were defeated at the Battle of the Thames, 5th of October, 1813. For his heroic services in this cam- paign and battle he was awarded a gold medal by Congress on the 4th of April, 1818. In 1817, selected by President Monroe as Secre- tary of War, but declined office on score of age. Was one of the Presidential Electors for Kentucky in 1797, in 1801, and in 1805. In 1818, was commissioned with General Andrew Jackson to hold treaty with Chickasaw tribe of Indians for purchase of lands west of Tennessee River, which service he performed with entire satisfaction to all parties concerned. Died 18th of July, 1826, at his historic home, "Traveller's Rest," Lincoln County, Ky., in 1783. Counties in nine States have been named Shelby in his honor. Mar- ried at Boonesboro, Ky., in 1783, Susannah Hart, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Hart, one of the proprietors of the Transylvania Company. H lir^iajSJjS. ^Sk- mRM^^^^^^^^^^^^^i - * h^ "^ll^^l I.. ■ ^ ■ O^'^^J:^:^^ Born in Maryland, December 11, 175U. Died in Kentucky, July 18, 1826. A cunspicuous actor in three wars, and twice Governor of Kentucky. MRS. WILSON'S ADDRESS. Madame PresidentGeneral, Daughters of the Avierican Revolution, Ladies and Gentlemen : By the gracious favor of my good friends, the Daughters of Ken- tucky, it has happily fallen to my lot to present to our National Society, as an appropriate gift for this most exquisite Memorial Hall, a handsome portrait-bust of Governor Isaac Shelby, justly celebrated in American history as a brave and magnanimous soldier, a sagacious statesman, and a patriot who counted no cost in his devoted service to the land which gave him birth. To the Daughters of Kentucky, for their generous act in choos- ing me as their representative on this interesting occasion, I am most sincerely grateful. For this new proof of the enduring affection and admiration cherished by Kentucky women for one whom, with par- donable pride, it is my privilege to claim as a revered Revolutionary ancestor, I beg leave to express my warmest gratitude. Within less than eighty miles of this beautiful edifice, in the vicinity of the modern Hagerstown, and in Lord Baltimore's Province of Maryland, on the eleventh of December, 1750, Isaac Shelby was born. Drawing his life-blood from the sturdiest of Welsh and Eng- lish ancestors ; early disciplined in the woodcraft of the frontier, with his mind stored and teeming from childhood with the thrilling tales of border warfare, in which his father, Captain Evan Shelby, had been long and arduously engaged, it is not surprising that, on reaching man's estate, Isaac Shelby should have displayed a natural aptitude for war and an exceptional capacity for leadership. Indeed, it has been truly said of him that he was a born soldier and a soldier born to command. The family having- moved from Maryland to Southwest Virginia, at the first call to arms in Lord Dunmore's War, he was thoiif^Mit worthy to receive a Lieutenant's commission in a company of the Fincastle troops, of which Evan Shelby, his father, was Captain. At the mouth of the Great Kanawlia, in the fierce, all-day, liand-to-hand battle of Point Pleasant, which occurred on October 10, 1774, both Lieutenant Shelby and ills more experienced father gained imperisli- abie renown. Six years sped by, and the crisis of the Revolution is reached. General Gates, at Camden, crushed by disaster, falters in despair, flushed with victory, Cornwallis and his relentless invaders grow ever more insolent and aggressive, and threaten death and extermi- nation to all who do not instantly submit to the royal authority. In such an emergency we find Isaac Shelby gloriously fulfilling the expectations which liis higli character and soldierly qualities had year by year increasingly inspired. Acting promptly and resolutely, he lost no time in planning, maturing and putting into effect the movement of the allied patriot forces by which Major Patrick Fergu- son and his redoubtable army were triumphantly overthrown on the rocky heights of King's Mountain. Ranked as one of the decisive battles, and, in the South at least, as the real turning-point of the Revolution, tlie officers in command of the American forces were thenceforth inevitably assured of a per-, manent place among the heroes of the great War for Independence. To Isaac Shelby belongs exclusive credit for the bold conception, and to him unstinted praise must be awarded for the determined energy and vigor with which he brought Colonels Sevier and Camp- bell and McDowell and Cleveland and their intrepid associates to join in the daring expedition. Omitting the mention of other useful and extraordinary services, rendered by Colonel Isaac Slielby during the Revolutionary War, it is enough to say that he came out of that war a marked man, univer- sally respected and honored. The Revolution over, at the age of thirty-three he took up his abode permanently amid the virgin forests of the Blue Grass region of Kentucky. Nine years later he assisted in framing the first Con- V stitution of this pioneer Commonwealth, and was elected, almost without opposition, as the first Governor of the new State. In 1812, when war with Great Britain was again declared, lie was^ promptly summoned by his fellow-citizens to serve as Governor of Kentucky once more. In this, our Second War of Independence, Governor Shelby, now a Major-General of Militia, and commander- in-chief, under General Harrison, of an army of four thousand Ken- tucky volunteers, demonstrated the vitality of his rugged manhood and the unfailing strength of his patriotism by winning, in the fore- front of battle, at the head of his courageous comrades-in-arms, fresh laurels both for himself and his beloved Kentucky in the notable Battle of the Thames. For his services in this battle, fought on the 5th of October, 1813, on Canadian soil, and fast upon the heels of Perry's famous naval victory on Lake Erie, Governor Shelby, a few years later, received a handsome gold medal and the unanimous thanks of Congress. The grateful Commonwealth whose destinies were entrusted to his guidance during this trying period, promptly recorded its appreciation and its gratitude in resolutions which declare "the high estimation in which they hold the conduct of their venerable chief magistrate, Isaac Shelby, in leading the Kentucky militia into Upper Canada, to victory and to glory. The plans and execution of them were not the depictions of patriotism, with which others amuse the admiring multitude; they were splendid realities, which exact our gratitude and that of his country, and justly entitle him to the applause of posterity." When not serving his country as a soldier in the field or as a civil ofificer in legislative halls or in the executive chair, it was Governor Shelby's delight to occupy himself with the ordinary pursuits of peace and his chief inteiest lay in the simple joys of home and country life. His old Kentucky home, "Traveller's Rest," was, until the end of his long life, an unrivaled seat and centre of truly genuine and dignified hospitality. And the traditions of that earlier day, when every weary, way-worn traveller was welcome, have been handed down by successive owners of the estate, members all of them of the Shelby family, even to our own time. Thus in brief, Madame President-General and you, honored Daughters of the American Revolution, I have endeavored faintly to picture the career of one we are assembled to honor and concerning wliom we this day bear witness that he deserved well of his country. The events here narrated furnish some of the reasons wliy Governor Shelby should have been Kentucky's choice for a place of honor in this national shrine. Dying in his seventy-sixth year, he bequeathed, like the patriarchs of old, to his children and his fellow-countrymen to the remotest generation a heritage which shall outlast all the vicis- situdes of time. So now, in loving memory of his name and fame, and on liehalf of tlie many fair Daughters of Kentucky, who with one accord have sought thus signally to honor him as one of Kentucky's favorite sons, I commit to your safe-keeping and i)resent to you as Kentucky's gift, this life-like sculptured portrait of Governor Isaac Shelby. I beg you to receive and treasure it as a just and fitting memorial to this illustrious soldier, statesman and hero of the American I^evolution, of whom it has been truly said by a distinguished contemporary, adapting tlie words applied to his great compatriot, the immortal Washington, that he was "great in war, great in peace, and lives for- ever in the hearts of his countrymen." LIEUTENANT ISAAC SHELBY AT POINT PLEASANT, OCTOBER 10, 1774. "One of Christian's captains was a stout old Marylander, of Welsh blood, named Evan Slieiby; and Shelby's son Isaac, a stal- wart, stern-visaged young man, who afterwards played a very promi- nent part on the border, was a subaltern in his company, in which Robertson likewise served as a sergeant. Although without experi- ence of drill, it may be doubted if a braver or physically finer set of men were ever got together on this continent. * * * ^n ^i^g after-time leaders of the west were engaged in some way in Lord Dunmore's war. Their fates were various. * * * Shelby won laurels at King's Mountain, became the first governor of Kentucky, and when an old man revived the memories of his youth by again leading the western men in battle against the British and Indians." — Winning of the IVesl, Roosevelt. "All day the battle raged, at times like the howling of a tempest; and all day the victory wavered — now to this side, and now to that — ■ till the dead were piled in heaps, and more than one-fifth of both armies had fallen. But, still the voice of Cornstalk was heard above the din, bidding his warriors 'Be strong! Press forward!' Colonel Lewis had fallen early in the fight, leaving his regiment to the com- mand of Evan Shelby; and now, just as darkness is coming on, with the battle yet undecided, Isaac Shelby, who is left in charge of the Watauga company, sees that, by creeping along the bank of the Kanawha, he can, in the shelter of the underbrush, gain the rear of the enemy. Takin'gtwo other companies with him, he does this, and and then pours a sudden and destructive volley upon the savages. Taken thus between two fires, the Indians are panic-stricken and flee in all directions. In vain Cornstalk and Logan attempt to rally them. They scatter, like October leaves before the wind, to their far homes on the Scioto." —Rear Guard of the Revolution, Gilmore. COLONEL ISAAC SHELBY AT KING'S MOUNTAIN, OCTOBER 7, 1780. "Although Shelby was not in name the chief in this action, there is no reason to doubt that the conception of the campaign and the vigor of its execution were his alone. His also was the scheme of attack wliich led to the battle of Cowpens." — Ketitucky, A Pioneer Co?/n//on-