University of Virginia Library

JAMES McDOWELL.

The honored names of McDowell and Preston, so closely interlinked,
were both represented in the memorable siege of Londonderry, in 1688.
The founder of the distinguished McDowell family of Virginia and
Kentucky. Ephraim McDowell, there battled for the Protestant cause,
with an elder brother, who sealed his devotion with his life. Ephraim
McDowell, who was, it is said, a relative and near neighbor of John
Lewis, the founder of the famous Lewis family of Virginia, emigrated
from Ireland and settled in the province of Pennsylvania some time
prior to the year 1735; but, after a brief residence there, migrated to
Virginia, to the home of his relative John Lewis. His son John
McDowell and wife, who was Magdalene Woods, and whom he married
in Pennsylvania, accompanied him. Father and son settled on the
noted grant of Benjamin Burden, John McDowell becoming the surveyor
of Burden, and securing from him a tract of one thousand acres of land
in what is now Rockbridge County, and upon which he settled, calling
his home "Cherry Grove." He was killed by the Indians, with eight
companions, near Balcony Falls, December 25, 1742. He left issue:

• i. Samuel; Judge; father of the celebrated surgeon Ephraim McDowell,
  M. D., born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, November 11,
  1771; completed his medical studies at Edinburgh, Scotland, settled
  in practice at Danville, Kentucky, in 1795, and for years was
  the leading practitioner in the West; married, in 1802, a daughter
  of General Evan Shelby; successfully performed, in 1809,
  the operation for the extirpation of the ovary—the first on record—and
  acquired a world-wide celebrity; died at Danville, June
  25, 1830. He was recently honored with a statue at Frankfort,
  Kentucky. The descendants of Samuel McDowell are represented
  in the worthy names of Reid, Moore, and others.

• ii. James, married Elizabeth McClung, and, dying in 1770, a posthumous
  son was born the same year—James, Colonel and the
  commandant of a brigade in the war of 1812; married Sarah,
  daughter of William Preston (and granddaughter of the founder
  of the Preston family, John Preston). Their issue was: i. Susan
  S., married William Taylor, of Alexandria, lawyer, and member
  of Congress, and had issue; ii. Elizabeth, married Hon. Thomas
  H. Benton, of Missouri, and had, with other issue, Jessie, married
  General John C. Fremont; iii. James, the subject of this sketch.

• iii. Sarah, married Colonel George Moffett, of Augusta County, distinguished
  in Indian warfare, and in the Revolution, in which he
  fought from the beginning to the close. Their descendants are represented
  in the names of McDowell, Bell, McCue, Hedges, Carson,
  Cochran, Crawford, Kirk, Miller, and others equally estimable.

SCENE IN VIRGINIA.

James McDowell, the subject of this sketch, was born at the family
seat, "Cherry Grove," Rockbridge County, October 11, 1795. He received
elementary tuition successively from the Rev. Wm. McPheeters,
D. D., and Rev. Samuel Brown. The wife of the latter, who was Mary
Moore, was the heroine of a thrilling story of Indian captivity, which
is presented in a little book entitled The Captives of Abb's Valley. James
McDowell later entered Washington College, then attended Yale College
for a year, and completed his education at Princeton College, New
Jersey, from which he was graduated Master of Arts in 1816. He
spoke the Latin salutatory oration on the occasion of his graduation.
Of the class of 1816, Mrs. Miller, the daughter of Governor McDowell,
narrates that the Rev. John Maclean, D. D., so long the able and honored
President of the College, thus pleasantly collocated some of its
members: "There were three Macs in that class, and I tell you, madam,
they were not the meanest fellows in it either. They were McIlvaine
[the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio], McDowell, and [with a significant
smile] Johnny Maclean."

So pleased was Colonel McDowell with the success of his son James
at college that upon his return home he presented him with a valuable
tract of land, some 2,500 acres, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Young
McDowell now commenced the study of law in the office of the eminent
Chapman Johnson, at Staunton, Virginia, but after having so perfected
his knowledge therein as to be awarded a license to practice, suddenly
relinquished the profession through peculiar conscientious scruples, which
he thus enunciated: "Others may be, but I don't know how I can be
an honest man and a lawyer." In September, 1818, he married his
cousin Susan, daughter of General Francis and Sarah B. (daughter of
General William Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, who married
the sister of Patrick Henry the orator) Preston. James McDowell now
removed to his plantation in Kentucky, but, after a residence there of
a year or two, returned to Virginia to overlook the interests of his
father, who had been stricken with paralysis, and near whom he took
a farm, in the neighborhood of Lexington. This he made his permanent
home, and here he raised his large family of children. He first
entered public life in 1831, as a member of the House of Delegates
from Rockbridge County.

The summer of that year is memorable in the annals of Virginia as
the period of the negro insurrection in Southampton County, which has
been circumstantially detailed in the preceding sketch of Governor John
Floyd. This tragic outbreak created a panic which pervaded the State
even to its borders. The utmost terror prevailed, and so supplanted
reason that people stood in dread suspense, awaiting supernatural visitations
and terrible calamities. They watched the sun, and from the
spots upon it drew portents of evil; and when night came the darkness

was full of spectres. Labor was interrupted and all occupation disordered
by the measures for safety adopted, which called men from every
occupation by day and night for weeks as patrols. The wide-spread
consternation gradually settled into a belief in the necessity of legislation
regarding the slave population of the State. This subject largely
occupied the deliberations of the session of the Legislature of 1832-3,
and engaged the ablest minds in the body. Mr. McDowell, who had
been again returned to the House of Delegates from Rockbridge County,
took a deep interest in the prolonged discussion, and, in common with
a number of leading Virginians, advocated progressive emancipation.
From this time onward Mr. McDowell was continuously in public life,
in the service of his State and in the National Council. An exalted
patriotism governed all of his actions, for though decided and conscientious
in his party sentiments and adherences, he had no sympathy with
the popular catch-word "Our party, right or wrong." Our country, not
our party, was the paramount consideration with him. He belonged to
the Democratic school of politics—an affiliation which, it appears, some
of his compatriots of the period could not appreciate. One of them, the
late Henry A. Wise, then an uncompromising Whig, expressed his "wonder
that such a gentleman as Mr. McDowell should be a Democrat." Yet
Mr. Wise soon solved the paradox satisfactorily to himself, it may be inferred,
since his asseverations as a Democrat, a few years later, were as
enthusiastic as they had been as a Whig.

In 1838 Mr. McDowell delivered before the Alumni Association of
Princeton College an earnest and eloquent address which for years was
spoken of in the strongest terms of admiration. So enduring was the
impression made by this address that the committee of trustees of the
College having in charge the arrangements for the one hundredth anniversary
of the foundation of the College—celebrated in June, 1847—
selected James McDowell for the orator on that occasion. But his engagements,
public and private, debarred his acceptance of the invitation.

In December, 1842, Mr. McDowell was elected, by the Legislature,
Governor of Virginia, and on the 1st of January following entered upon
the duties of the office, succeeding Acting Governor John Munford Gregory.
Governor McDowell was an earnest Christian and a consistent
member of the Presbyterian Church. He was also a steadfast advocate
of the cause of temperance, and, in accordance with his convictions of
duty, excluded both wine and dancing from his private and official entertainments.
Old School Presbyterianism and total abstinence held
sway at the gubernatorial mansion during his term. An expressive bon-mot
of the late and lamented Colonel Thomas P. August, a prominent
lawyer of Richmond, of infinite wit, who attended one of the entertainments
of Governor McDowell, has been treasured by his friends. Taking
a glass of lemonade, Colonel August, with a significant application of
his hand to his chest, offered as a toast: "Governor McDowell's two

Aids—lemon-ade and promen-ade." Before the close of his term of
three years as the Executive of Virginia, Governor McDowell was
elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives, made
vacant by the death of his brother-in-law, William Taylor. He served
in Congress with conspicuous ability until 1851, and would doubtless
have been returned again but that death intervened before the day
of election. He died at Lexington, August 24, 1851, in the fifty-sixth
year of his age. His wife had preceded him to the grave. They left
issue nine children—two sons and seven daughters—as follows:

• i. James, a physician, married Miss Elizabeth Brant, of St. Louis,
  Missouri, and has issue.

• ii. Sally C. P., married, first, Hon. Francis Thomas, Governor of
  Maryland, and secondly, Rev. John Miller, now of Princeton,
  New Jersey. She has issue by the second marriage.

• iii. Mary B., married Rev. Mr. Ross, of Bladensburg, Maryland.

• iv. Frances Elizabeth, died unmarried.

• v. Sophonisba, married Professor James W. Massie, of the Virginia
  Military Institute, late Colonel Confederate States Army (now
  deceased), and has issue.

• vi. Susan P., married Major Charles S. Carrington, a prominent
  lawyer of Richmond, Virginia.

• vii. Margaret Canty, married Professor Charles S. Venable, LL.D.,
  of Virginia, and late Colonel Confederate States Army, on the
  staff of General R. E. Lee. Has issue.

• viii. Thomas L., married Miss Constance Warwick, of Powhatan
  County, Virginia. He died in the Confederate States Army
  service, leaving issue one child.

• ix. Eliza, married Bernard L. Wolfe, Major Confederate States
  Army, and has issue.

As a speaker, Governor McDowell was eloquent and effective. In
Congress he acquired influence and reputation by the gravity of his
demeanor and the moderation of his course, and particularly by his wise
and cordial support of all measures tending to strengthen the bonds of
National Union. His most memorable effort in Congress was his speech
on the admission of California as one of the United States, which is said
to have produced an impression equal to any other ever delivered in that
body.