child," she replied, "Henry Clay Menefee." This name young Menefee wore until the return of his father from the Kentucky legislature, in February, 1810.

During the winter of 1809-1810, Richard Menefee served on the Committee of Propositions and Grievances with Richard Hickman, who was the Senator from Clark and Estill Counties. He became very much attached to Hickman and roomed with him during the legislative session. The legislature adjourned on January 31, 1810, and on his return home Richard Menefee changed the name of the son, who up to that time he had never seen, from Henry Clay to Richard Hickman Menefee. American history, so far as I have been able to ascertain, does not afford a parallel case to this incident in Menefee's early life. Gen. U. S. Grant and John Fiske had their Christian names juggled with, but not in the same manner in which Menefee had his changed.

The man for whom he was finally named, Gen. Richard Hickman, was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, on November 5, 1757, and died at his country home, "Cave Land," in Clark County, Kentucky, on July 3, 1832.1 His education was meager, and on his arrival in Kentucky he became a farmer, and a few years later married Lydia Calloway (Irvine). She was a sister of the two Calloway girls who, with Jamina Boone, were captured by the Indians while boating on the Kentucky River.

Hickman was Clark County's first representative in the Kentucky House of Repre'Lewis Family in America.

sentatives, serving from 1793 to 1798. He was one of the Clark County members to the Second Constitutional Convention which met at Frankfort in August, 1799, and which was presided over by Alexander S. Bullitt, member from Jefferson County. Many distinguished men of early Kentucky history were members of this convention. The main objection to the first Kentucky Constitution of 1792 was the mode of choosing United States Senators and Governors. The second Constitution gave the election of United States Senators and Governors to the direct vote of the people, and changed the time of holding elections from May to August. The office of Lieutenant-Governor was created and President Bullitt was the first to fill it. The manner of voting was changed to a viva voce, which was continued for the next ninety years and was only changed by the fourth and present Constitution in 1891. This information in regard to the second Constitution is given here because it was the Constitution under which Menefee's life work was done, and because the knowledge of it will throw a flood of light on conditions as they existed in Kentucky during that period of our history.

In 1812 Hickman was elected LieutenantGovernor with Isaac Shelby, when the first Kentucky Governor was elected as the sixth Governor. During the year 1813 Shelby was compelled to take up his sword and go on the field of battle. During his absence Hickman acted as Governor of the Commonwealth. In 1819 he was returned as a Senator from Clark, and served for the next four years. The last

years of his life were spent on his beautiful "Cave Land," near Winchester, Kentucky. Hickman was an old gentleman of the black stock, and a man whose name Menefee, no doubt, was proud to wear.

When Richard H. Menefee' was about thirteen months of age, or on January 15, 1811, the northeastern part of Montgomery was formed into Bath County-so named because of its medicinal springs. In October of the same year the town of Owingsville, situated on a high tableland, and commanding a splendid view of the surrounding country, was chosen as the county-seat of this new county of Bath. The first circuit court was held at the home of Capt. James Young in May, 1811, and three sessions of the court were held at his house. On the seventh of November, 1811, it was ordered that the next session of the court should be held at the brick residence of Richard Menefee. Accordingly, on May 4, 1812, the court convened in Menefee's house, situated over the spring. This court continued to meet at the Menefee home for the next four years, and was also held there three times after Richard Menefee's death. From the Menefee house it convened in the new Bath County court-house, which had been erected.

Thomas Marshall thought that Menefee became a lawyer because he was inspired by the fact that he had at one time borne the name of Henry Clay. It is my opinion, however, that Menefee got his first law lessons from these crude courts which were held in his father's house, and that he liked the law and coolly and 'Young's History of Bath County.

calmly, with his boyish logic, decided to become a barrister. Another influence that was probably brought to bear on young Menefee's decision to become a lawyer was exercised by Samuel T. Davenport, who was one of the first lawyers to hang out his shingle in Owingsville. Davenport was an educated lawyer for his day and generation and he settled in Owingsville some time in 1811. He boarded with Richard Menefee, and at the building of the Menefee brick house, which was very pretentious for those days, Davenport wrote a poem on it. He was finally captured by the Indians and married a squaw by whom he had several children. That Davenport encouraged young Menefee to study law is almost certain. At any rate, I believe that Davenport and the backwoods court that was held in his father's house had more to do with making Richard H. Menefee decide to become a lawyer, than did the fact that he had, for several weeks, borne the name of Henry Clay. This fact did, no doubt, have some influence with his decision.

In 1812 Richard Menefee's term as Senator from Montgomery and Floyd Counties was over, and he returned to his family. He was a man of action as well as a man of mind, and, after spending some months with his family, he was enlisted in Owingsville, on August 26, 1813, as a soldier in the war of 1812, and rendezvoused at Newport, Kentucky, five days later. He was immediately elected captain of Company A in the regiment known as Col. John Donaldson's Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia. Richard Menefee gallantly led his company at the battle of the Thames, which

was fought on October 5, 1813. After the battle Donaldson's regiment was ordered to return to Kentucky, and Menefee was mustered out at Newport, Kentucky, on November 4, 1813. He returned to his home in Owingsville, and in the following year was elected as Bath County's representative in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

During the year 1814, Louis Philippe, King of France, visited Bath County. He was the guest of Col. Thomas Dye Owings, and spent his time in hunting and fishing. The citizens of Bath called him "King Philip," and during the eighteen months which he spent in Bath, they became very much attached to him. The attachment was mutual as the French Government sent twice for him to return before he did So. He tried to persuade Colonel Owings to return to France with him, but Owings declined to do so. One can easily imagine the "Citizen King" patting young Menefee on the head and bestowing upon him the proverbial, "God bless you, my son."

Richard Menefee died at his home in Owingsville, Kentucky, in August, 1815,' when his son was nearly six, and not "about four years of age," as Marshall said. In his will, which was written on August 18, and recorded in September, 1815, Richard Menefee appointed his wife, with the assistance of two of his friends, Edward and Robert Stockton, as his executors. He requested that his farm and tavern should be rented, but that the brick house over the spring should be kept as the family home. He gave to his wife one-third of his real estate

'Will Book A, in Bath County Clerk's Office.