degree of Bachelor of Arts. Marshall said that Menefee did receive the baccalaureate degree, but Judge Kinkead is nearer the truth when he said, "He went through the junior year at the University with the highest honor." If Menefee had returned to Transylvania in the fall of 1828 he would have graduated in August, 1829, but the only bachelor's degree conferred in that year was upon George W. Johnson, who was afterward a classmate of Menefee's in the Transylvania Law School.

At the end of his junior year he returned to Mt. Sterling and, in the fall of 1828, if our conclusions are correct, taught a school there for two years. One of his pupils was a young girl, about fifteen years of age, whose name was Sarah Bell Jouett. At the same time that he was teaching her the common school subjects, he was also learning to love her. The affection was mutual, and about three years later she became his life companion.

At the time that he was teaching this school there lived in Montgomery County a ScotchIrishman, Josiah Davis. Every Friday afternoon, when the week's work was done, Menefee walked out to the Davis farm, which was located five miles from Mt. Sterling, and stayed with him until Monday morning in order to get the benefits of his library, which was one of the best in Kentucky at that time.' It contained copies of Shakespeare and Burns. Scotchmen have always worshiped at the shrine of Burns and Davis was no exception. Here Menefee revelled in the mighty dramas

'Mr. Davis Reid, grandson of Davis, is my authority for this incident.

of the king of all literature, and read of the many sweethearts and love lyrics of Scotland's greatest bard.

In 1829 the commissioners of Menefee's father's estate divided and sold the slaves that Richard Menefee had left to his five sons.1 Four of the boys, Richard H., Alfred, Alvin and John, each received two hundred and fifty-three dollars and sixty-six cents, while Allen, the cripple son, according to his father's will, was to receive twice as much as any of the others, and he therefore received five hundred and seven dollars and thirty-two cents. That Richard Menefee's sons received only two hundred and fifty dollars each from an estate which, at one time, comprised one-half of the land upon which Owingsville was built, simply shows that mismanagement was at work. Some one was responsible for the fact that Richard H. Menefee received only a few hundred dollars from this vast estate. We now come to a very important step in Menefee's

career.

1 Will Book B, in Bath County Clerk's Office.

CHAPTER III

THE YOUNG LAWYER-POLITICIAN

Menefee's second year as teacher of this little Mt. Sterling school was over in the early summer of 1830, and, after having finally decided to become a lawyer, he began the study of law under Judge James Trimble, one of the early judges of Montgomery County, who at this time was the Commonwealth's Attorney for the eleventh judicial district.

Trimble lives in Kentucky history, however, as the law preceptor of Richard H. Menefee. Menefee spent the summer of 1830 study-. ing Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England," Kent's and Story's Commentaries, and the other law books that Trimble may have had in his library.

Late in 1830 Menefee's friend, Edward Stockton, died, and if Marshall is correct he obtained a license to practice law and undertook, as his first law case, to settle up Stockton's estate, which was in a bad condition. He then began to practice regularly at the Montgomery bar, and during the spring and summer of 1831 he took many cases before that

court.

That Menefee realized the need of having more systematic training in law than Trimble had been able to give him is certain, as he left Mt. Sterling and came to Lexington in October, 1831, and entered the Transylvania Law School. This law school had been established

when Transylvania University was founded, in 1799, and George Nicholas, author of the First Kentucky Constitution, was the first dean. It is the fourth oldest law school in the United States.1 The Litchfield Law School of Connecticut, founded in 1784, is the oldest, with Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania following. Henry Clay was dean of the school in 1805. The school had been discontinued for a short time before Menefee entered it, but now, under the leadership of Judge Daniel Mayes, it was as good as the Litchfield School, which was discontinued in 1833. The school began on the first Monday in November, and commencement was held on the first of the following March. The fees were $35 per session, with $5 extra for use of text-books and law library. Moot courts were held on Saturday. The course covered two years, but Menefee was given credit for the work he had done under Judge Trimble and permitted to enter the second year. The school began on Monday, November 7, 1831, and closed on Saturday, March 3, 1832.

On November 15, 1831, Governor Thomas Metcalfe, the eleventh Governor of Kentucky, nominated to the Kentucky Senate, for their advice and consent, the name of Richard H. Menefee, to succeed Judge Trimble, who resigned as Commonwealth's Attorney for his district. The Senate confirmed Governor Metcalfe's selection and Menefee was therefore elected as the fourth Commonwealth's Attorney of the eleventh judicial district. Menefee had been appointed since the adjournment of

1

1 Dexter's History of Education in United States.

the legislature in January, 1831, and had therefore been acting as the attorney for the Comwealth for some months before he came to Lexington to enter the Law School. Trimble probably looked after his duties when Menefee left them to make a more thorough study of law.

As all of the Kentucky historians have recorded Judge Mayes's life with many inaccuracies, I wrote to his son, Judge Edward Mayes, of Mississippi, the biographer of Lamar, asking him to prepare a sketch of his distinguished father, especially for this book, and the following sketch is based on the information that he sent me.

Daniel Mayes was Mayes was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, on February 12, 1792. His father, Robert C. Mayes, married Agnes T. Locke, a descendant of a brother of John Locke, author of the "Essay on the Human Understanding." Robert C. Mayes removed from Dinwiddie County when Daniel was two years of age, to Lexington, Kentucky, but after a short stay then settled permanently in Christian County, Kentucky.

Daniel Mayes was reared and educated in Christian County and began the practice of law there. Toward the close of the war of 1812 he enlisted in the Kentucky troops but saw no active service. In 1817 he married Cynthia Bowmar, daughter of Herman Bowmar, of Versailles, Kentucky. The following year he was the editor of the Hopkinsville Western Hemisphere. He was the only editor in Kentucky who opposed the organization of State banks. In 1825 he represented Christian